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BR 1610 .T3 1836
Taylor, Jeremy
A discourse of the liberty
of prophesying
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A DISCOURSE
LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
THE UNREASONABLENESS OF PRESCRIBING
TO OTHER MENS FAITH ;
AND
THE INIQUITY OF PERSECUTING DIFFERING OPINIONS.
BY
JEREMY TAYLOR, D.D.
CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO KING CHARLES THE FIRST, AND SOME TIME
LORD niSHOP OF DOWN AND CONNOR.
WITH
AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY,
DY THE
REV. R. CATTERMOLE, B.D.
LONDON:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHBD BY
JOSEPH RICKERBY, SHERBOURN LANE,
(KING WILLIAM STREET.)
1836.
INTROD
THBOLOGlCii
:0R¥^SSA5^^.r .
The measure of freedom enjoyed in a country will
always be in proportion to the diffusion of know-
ledge and virtue among the people. In the latter
ages, therefore, of the degenerate Roman empire,
over which the mists of ignorance were settling
with increasing density, and from which public
virtue had fled, all remains of liberty became ex-
tinct. It was only by the disruption and removal
of that gigantic despotism, and by the intro-
duction of governments, in its place, with institu-
tions which, though yet in all the rudeness of
infancy, were in their nature more favourable to
the development of the intellectual, and, in a still
higher degree, of the moral powers of man, that a
way could be prepared for the future admission of
every free agent to the full exercise of his natural
rights. To the gradual establishment of a national
choi'ch, and to the existence of a feudal nobility, in
each of the kingdoms formed by the Gothic and Cel-
tic races, we owe our present enjoyment of what we
Justly deem the birth-right of moral and civilized
human beings. Those ennobling sentiments which
.*;;^i,v.^-*
.^03
X INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
were cultivated by that order of the community,
with whom alone the light of learning and science
remained, found their way by little and little into
the bosoms of a bolder and more active and power-
ful class. The improvement of the vassal popula-
tion, resulting from the humanizing influence of
the clergy and the nobles, was assisted by many
concurrent circumstances, such as the increase of
commerce, the rise of independent republics, and
the foundation of the great schools and universities.
As the number of those increased who rose to the
mental and moral dignity of free men, so did the
number of those who sought and acquired a share
of the rights of free men. These might be but ill
understood, and find as yet no clear expounders,
but they began at least to be practically vindicated.
The strong holds of arbitrary power were by de-
grees undermined, and limits to irresponsible au-
thority rose up in all directions; until, at length,
the grand and animating spectacle presented itself,
of a free and enlightened people, enjoying the
bounties of Providence, and cultivating the best
faculties of their being. Finally, law placed its
sanction upon what intelligence and virtue had
achieved ; and that freedom in which the existing
generation rejoiced, was secured by solemn enact-
ments to posterity.
Such was the progress of civil freedom, nor was
the growth of religious liberty the result of other
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XI
causes. In a country, where religion is purely a
political engine, as was the case in pagan Rome, tole-
ration is impossible, because under such circum-
stances treason and nonconformity are identical.
Notwithstanding the boasted indulgence of the em-
pire, in this respect, towards conquered nations, and
the ease with which the popular superstition sat upon
the powerful and intelligent classes, how far the
Romans were from allowing liberty of conscience,
sufficiently appears in the numerous and terrible
persecutions by which they strove to exterminate
the professors of that religion which even their
great men have branded as " a new and mischiev-
ous superstition."
As long as the Christian church continued un-
corrupted, the utmost forbearance and mildness
towards the professors of heretical opinions, con-
sistent with public order, appear to have prevailed.
With corruption came in persecution. The first
example of intolerance, on the part of Christians
towards each other, appeared in the distractions
occasioned by the followers of Arius, and by the
other powerful sects which rose about the same
time, or not long afterwards. But whatever seve-
rities were recommended and put in practice by
these schismatics, by the Iconoclasts, at a later
period, or by the church, in its angry endeavours
to crush the swarms of heresies by which its peace
was assailed, the rage of persecution among Chris-
Xll INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
tians, in those early times, always stopped short of
the punishment of death.
That during the long interval from the seventh to
the thirteenth century, while, in the eastern empire,
religious disputes were carried on with the utmost
fierceness and cruelty, we find comparatively few
instances of extreme intolerance diplayed by the
church of Rome, may be accounted for without
supposing the prevalence of a spirit of Christian
forbearance, which is not to be met with even in
the history of far more enlightened periods. Such
were the power of the popedom and the feebleness
and infrequency of resistance to its dictates, that
we need not wonder if the successors of St. Peter
were not often to be roused from the slumbers of
sensual enjoyment, or withdrawn from the pursuits
of ambition, and the contest with kings and em-
perors for temporal dominion, by controversies
about doctrines, with obscure and unheeded specu-
latists. It was not till more decided indications of
returning intellectual light presaged danger to the
existence of that usurped ecclesiastical tyranny, that
it thought proper to put forth its energies for the
destruction of those whom it regarded as heretics.
Scotus Erigena in the ninth century, and Berenga-
rius in the eleventh, if not suffered to escape un-
injured, were at least permitted to live, though
chargeable with as bold invasions of the domains
of established corruption, as those which, at a later
day, were the excuse for deluging the valleys of the
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Xlll
Alps with the blood of the Vaudois, and crowding
the statute-books of England with cruel and san-
guinary laws, — which filled our dungeons with the
persecuted followers of WiclifFe, and strewed Smith-
field with the ashes of the martyrs.
It is a favourite but iniquitous proceeding of
party writers, when it is their object to blacken the
memory of those who maintained opinions adverse
to their own, to charge upon individuals the
faults and failings which they partook, and could
not but partake, in common with their age. True
it is, that it never occurred to the first reformers to
generalize upon the subject of a free choice in reli-
gion ; most surprising would the fact have been if
it had. This was left for a subsequent generation ;
it could not have been expected of them, nor was
it consistent with the part assigned them. While
we duly reverence those venerable men, we deem
it no disparagement to them, as partakers of the
imperfections of humanity, to say, that had they
had leisure to do so — had they contended ex-
pressly for a general principle, rather than for a
direct personal claim, their efforts would in all
probability have proved far less vigorous and
effectual. But, in truth, the general principle was
implied in the fact of the deliverance of themselves
and their country, on the ground of right, from the
oppressive tyranny of Rome. The stride that was
made towards universal freedom of conscience by
XIV TMRODUCTORY ESSAY.
Cranmer, and the great and good men who were
associated with him, was actually larger than the
state of knowledge and morality among the people
could bear. If they are not to be compared for
a wise liberality, on this point, with the authors
and legislators of the eighteenth century, yet in
how brilliant relief do their sentiments as well as
their conduct stand out, in the light of humanity
and tolerance, when we compare them with their op-
ponents, even of the same period — when we place
Kidley, Cranmer, and Hooper by the side, not of
the bitter persecutors Gardiner and Bonner, but of
the learned Warham, the accomplished Tonstal, and
the gifted Sir Thomas More. Public opinion after-
wards followed, longo sed intervaUo. Little would
the people have prized or understood an enlarged
sytem of toleration, who, still stumbling in all the
blindness of inveterate popery, flung back with
brutal contempt in the faces of the reformers, the
inestimable boon they had secured for them, and
more than once rushed into rebellion in favour of
an unmitigated return to the oppressions and the
mummeries that had beguiled their forefathers — to
masses, pilgrimages, prayers in an unknown tongue,
and the use of images. Hence the majority hailed
with delight the national relapse into all the mise-
ries of the worst times of popery, in Mary's reign.
The lapse of a century of strife between the church
of England and the parties who now — whether in
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XV
consequence of men's natural unreasonableness and
discontent with the good they possess, or of the im-
perfect state in which the work of reformation had
been left, — rose into opposition to her doctrines, dis-
cipline, and immunities, was necessary to prepare
the national mind for the effectual agitation of this
great question. If the church, in the prosperous days
of Elizabeth and James, maintained her prerogatives
against the Puritans with the severity of a parent
assailed by the unreasonable clamours of rebellious
children, these latter, however bitterly they com-
plained of the hardship of their own position, never
denied, upon general principles, the right of the
former to persecute ; ' their ardour for toleration
was nothing more than impatience of individual
suffering.' In the multiplication of sects that took
place during the latter part of that period, and in
the reign of the unhappy Charles, the animosity of
each towards every other, equalled that which all
in common bore towards the establishment. Each
strove for the supremacy of its own opinions —
none for an equal charitable tolerance of all specu-
lative tenets alike ; and when the most numerous
and powerful of the religious factions opposed to
the Church of England, at last obtained the ascen-
dancy, its members proved too clearly by their
arrogance and persecuting spirit how little effect
calamity, which softens and corrects the passions of
indiyiduals, has in diminishing the hatreds and
XVI INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
smoothing the asperities of sects and parties. Still
the anarchy of the latter years of King Charles,
was the chaos in which the light of religious liberty
was engendered. Here and there a calmer and
wiser spirit began to perceive, that the only pros-
pect of peace lay in the possibility of persuading
each to relincjuish some portion of its individual
claims, in favour of the \^hole. Several smaller
publications, setting forth the justice and advan-
tages of this scheme, had already emanated from
different quarters, (and especially from among the
followers of Robert Brown,) when the church, now
the victim of those severities which in her hour
of prosperity she, it must be confessed, had not
scrupled to exercise, and more susceptible, as it
seems, of the lessons of adversity, than some of
those communities who had felt it longer, raised a
decisive and majestic voice in the great cause of
religious toleration.
The celebrated treatise on the Liberty of
Prophesying, is scarcely more valuable for the
consummate ability w^th which it handles this im-
portant subject, than it is interesting for the imme-
diate circumstances under which it w^as produced,
and striking as the production of the friend of Laud,
and the favourite chaplain of the unfortunate
Charles. The learning and genius of Taylor ob-
tained for him, about the year 1633, soon after he
had taken his degree of M. A. at Cambridge, the
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XVU
favourable notice of that primate, to whom the
bitterest enemies of his person and his memory
could never refuse the praise of an accurate dis-
cerner of merit, and a munificent patron of learn-
ing. Discovering- in the youthful divine talents
capable of raising him above the sphere of a mere
preacher, however popular or useful Laud > re-
moved him to Oxford, and placed him in Univer-
sity College, in order that he might carry on and
complete his studies without interruption. Of this
society he became a fellow, in the year 1636. In
the great national struggle which followed, Taylor
attached himself devotedly, from taste and princi-
ple as well as gratitude and regard, to the cause of
the monarchy and the hierarchy. He was among
the first to join the king at Oxford; he aftervrards
attended the royal army in his capacity as chap-
lain ; and on the final ruin of the king's cause, he
shared in the calamities which now fell upon the
loyal part of the nation.
Deprived of his preferment, he retired into
Wales, and having no other resource, engaged, for
the support of his family, in the irksome labours
of a school, at a place called Newton Hall, in
Carmarthenshire. The remoteness of his retreat,
however, did not screen him from molestation : he
was several times imprisoned, and only released
through the generous exertions of his friends, and
by the connivance of some persons of influence
XVlll INTRODUCTORY ESSAY,
among' the ruling party. "But that he" (writes
the eloquent divine, in the Epistle Dedicatory,
originally prefixed to the present Treatise*) '' who
stilleth the raging of the sea, and the noise of his
waves, and the madness of his people, had pro-
vided a plank for me, I had been lost to all the
opportunities of content or study. But I know not
whether I have been more preserved by the courte-
sies of my friends, or the gentleness and mercies of
a noble enemy." Who the noble enemy alluded
to was, is not known ; but the friends who chiefly
consoled the period of his adversity — and he had
domestic sorrows to distress him, besides the loss
of property and preferment — were the Earl of
Carbery and his lady, whose residence was at
Golden Grove, in Taylor's neighbourhood. In the
bosom of this family he continued for many years
to enjoy the delights of friendship, and the com-
fort of administering the rites of religion, according
to the proscribed forms of the national church ; it
was here also that many of his most admirable
works were composed, particularly the Life of
Christ, the most popular, and, in many respects,
* As this Dedication is very long, and consists chiefly of a
recapitulation of the arguments brought forward in the Treatise
itself, it has been deemed consistent with the design of the pre-
sent publication to omit it. Some of the facts adduced in it,
however, have been transferred to the present essay, and several
of the most interesting passages preserved to the reader in the
quotations.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XIX
the noblest of his writings, the Holy Living and
Dying, and the greater part of his Sermons. It
was, however, in all the freshness of recent afflic-
tion, while poverty and apprehension reigned
within his household, and the crash of the falling
throne and broken altar was loud without, deprived
of books and leisure, that the work was written,
of the design of which it now remains to give
some account — a work truly wonderful, as having
received its birth under such untoward circum-
stances, and which demonstrates how little was
required by its accomplished author for the pro-
duction of the noblest results of literary exertion,
besides his own powerful intellect, and the un-
rivalled stores of secular and ecclesiastical learn-
ing with which his memory was furnished.
The general principle advanced in the Liberty
OF Prophesying, is this : that as truth on all
minor dogmas of religion is uncertain, and of
small moment in its bearings upon the conduct of
men, while peace and charity are things of un-
doubted certainty and importance, our desire to
obtain the former ought to yield to the necessity of
securing the latter; and every one, for the good of
the community at large, ought to tolerate the dif-
ferences of all others, while in turn he receives
toleration for his own. But as it is indispensable
somewhere to draw the line — as some standard of
truth must be acknowledged, unless men were to
XX INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
rush into boundless anarchy, or sink into mere
indifference, of opinion, he proposes the confession
of the apostles' creed, as the test of orthodoxy,
and condition of union and communion among
Christians.
A test so liberal and comjorehensive, though we
might not jDerhaps have expected to meet with its
advocate in one conversant in that sphere of arbi-
trary prerogative, to which the author had so long
been attached, was worthy of the pure and bene-
volent nature of Jeremy Taylor, and naturally
enough suggested by the peculiar circumstances
under which this splendid treatise was composed :
that Taylor's mind was utterly averse from all
harshness in the exercise of authority — that his
temper was not only tolerant but tender towards
all men, is sufficiently apparent to all who are in
any degree acquainted with his moral and prac-
tical writings ; yet, had he still continued the ad-
mired orator of an arbitrary court, and the caressed
favourite of a prelate, whom the coarse irritations
of factious religionists, as much as his own disposi-
tion and principles, hurried into harsh and cruel
measures, it is little likely the world had ever
beheld the Liberty of Prophesying. From the
melancholy experience of the past, the present
miserable wreck of all which he regarded as most
dear and venerable, and the gloomy uncertainty
which overhung the future, he sought refuge in the
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXI
depths of his own generous pity for the weaknesses,
and errors, and in his respect for the rights, of his
fellow-citizens. "I was determined," he says, '^by
the consideration of the present distemperatures
and necessities, by my own thoughts, by the c[ues-
tions and scruples, the sects and names, the inter-
ests and animosities which at this day, and for
some years past, have exercised and disquieted
Christendom ; — being very much displeased that so
many opinions and new doctrines are commenced
among us, but more troubled that every man that
hath an opinion, thinks his own and other men's sal-
vation is concerned in its maintenance, but most of
all that men should be persecuted and afflicted for
disagreeing in such opinions which they cannot
with sufficient grounds obtrude upon others neces-
sarily, because they cannot propound them infal-
libly, and have no warrant of Scripture to do so.''
The person of the king had now been transferred
from the custody of the parliamentary commis-
sioners to that of Cromwell and the army — from
the hands, that is to say, of the most, to those of
the least intolerant, of the great sectarian jjarties ;
and he was accordingly treated with more indul-
gence and respect. The author of the Liberty
OF Prophesying, therefore, may have cherished a
hope of promoting an accommodation between
the captive sovereign and his victorious subjects,
which, however slender, sufficed to rouse the zeal
of a mind equally imbued with loyalty to his king
c
XXll INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
and regard for the happiness of his fellow-subjects.
Taylor's experience of the temper of the parties
must indeed have forbidden the indulgence of any
very sanguine expectation, as to the effect of his
arguments in softening their mutual animosities
and dislikes. On the part of the king, scarcely
any thing remained to be conceded ; while, had
further concession been in his power, such a rooted
opinion prevailed of Charles's insincerity in his
engagements, as must have rendered a cordial
reconciliation impossible. On the other hand, the
arrogance of the Presbyterians, and the extent of
their demands, had increased in proportion to their
success ; nor did the indignation with which they
reo^arded the host of wild sects, which, encourao^ed
by their example, had now grown to be thorns in
their sides, divert any portion of their settled hatred
from the royalists and episcopalians. The fluc-
tuations of Taylor's own mind, between his earnest
desire to do something towards promoting the
peace of the king and the safety of the country,
and the fears he could not conceal, lest the mild
arguments of enlightened moderation should be
utterly thrown away amid the raging factions of
the time, are thus powerfully expressed in the
Dedication already quoted : " However," says he,
" there are some exterminating spirits who think
God to delight in human sacrifices, — yet if they
were capable of cool and tame homilies, or would
hear men of other opinions give a quiet account
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXUl
without invincible resolutions never to alter their
persuasions, I am very much persuaded it would
not be very hard to dispute such men into mercies,
and compliances, and tolerations mutual ; such, I
say, who are zealous for Jesus Christ ; than whose
doctrine never was any thing more merciful and
humane, whose lessons were softer than nard, or
the juice of theCandian olive. Upon the first appre-
hension, I designed a discourse to this purpose,
with as much greediness as if I had thought it pos-
sible with my arguments to have persuaded the
rough and hard-handed soldiers to have disbanded
presently ; for I had often thought of the prophecy,
that, in the Gospel, Our swords shall he turned into
ploughshares, and our spears into pruning-hooks ; I
knew that no tittle spoken by God's Spirit could re-
turn unperformed and ineffectual, and I was cer-
tain, that such was the excellency of Christ's doc-
trine, that if men would obey it Christians should
never war one against another. In the mean time,
I considered not, that it was predictio concilii, non
eventus, till T saw what men were now doing, and
ever had done, since the heats and primitive fer-
vours did cool, and the love of interests swelled
higher than the love of Christianity ; but then on
the other side, I began to fear that whatever I could
say would be as ineffectual as it would be unrea-
sonable ; for if those excellent words which our
blessed Master spake, could not charm the tumult
of our spirits, I had little reason to hope that one
c 2
XXIV INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
of the meanest and most ignorant of bis servants
could advance the end of that which he calls his
great, and his old, and his new commandment,
so well as the excellency of his own Spirit and dis-
courses could. And yet since He who knew every
event of things, and the success and efficacy of
every doctrine, and that very much of it to most
men and all of it to some men w ould be ineffec-
tual, yet was pleased to consign our duty that it
might be a direction to them that would, and a con-
viction and testimony against them that w^ould not
obey, I thought it might not misbecome my duty
and endeavours, to plead for peace, and charity,
and forgiveness, and permissions mutual, although
I had reason to believe that such is the iniquity of
men, and they so indisposed to receive such im-
presses, that T had as good plough the sands or till
the air, as persuade such doctrines, which destroy
men's interests, and serve no end but the great end
of a happy eternity and w hat is in order to it. But
because the events of things are in God's disposi-
tion, and I knew them not; and because, if I had
known my good purposes would be totally ineffec-
tual as to others, yet my own designation and pur-
poses would be of advantage to myself, w^ho might
from God's mercy expect the retribution which he is
pleased to promise to all pious intendments ; I re-
solved to encounter with all objections."
To us it appears from the general tone of this
great work, that although its gifted author was will-
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXV
ing to take advantage of the least chance that re-
mained of bringing back the minds of the leading
persons, on all sides, to a friendly and charitable
temper, yet his real hope of a termination to the suf-
ferings and distractions which the nation laboured
under, rather reposed upon the good sense and right
feeling of the people, generally; and that to them
it is therefore to be regarded as mainly addressed.
Those religious disputes, which had nearly brought
the country to the brink of ruin, had no reference to
matters essential to salvation, but were confined to
points indifferent or of secondary moment. " For
my own particular," he exclaims, " I cannot but
expect, that God in his justice should enlarge the
bounds of the Turkish empire, or some other way
punish Christians, by reason of their pertinacious
disputing about things unnecessary, undetermin-
able, and unprofitable, and for their hating and
persecuting their brethren, which should be as dear
to them as their own lives, for not consenting to one
another's follies and senseless vanities. And in these
trifles and impertinences men are curiously busy,
while they neglect those glorious precepts of Chris-
tianity and holy life, which are the glories of our
religion, and would enable us to a happy eternity."
The impropriety of such disputes therefore, and
the necessity of mutual forbearance in regard to
the points in question, it is his object to make appa-
rent, not only by proving their general uncertainty,
as compared with those essential articles of the faith
XXVi INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
in which all Christians are agreed, but further by
showing at length the utter fallibility and incom-
petence of the means by which men arrive at their
so confident conclusions, and the authorities to
which they ajDpeal with so much boldness. He
alleges the difficulty of expounding Scripture in
regard to speculative points, — the uncertainty of
traditions, — the fallibility of popes, councils, fathers,
and even of the church in its diffusive capacity, as
being all liable to those innumerable causes of error
and mistake, to which the human mind is ever
exposed, — the innocency of theoretical error and
invincible ignorance, — the force of inveterate pre-
judice, and the almost equal liability of all men
alike, not excepting the wisest and the best, to be
mistaken, — as grounds and incentives to general
charity towards others, and motives to humility in
each man's estimate of his own opinions; while
yet the work cannot in general be fairly charged
with any tendency to extenuate the criminality or
danger of such dogmas, justly branded with the
mark of heresy, as are subversive of morality in in-
dividuals, and of the good order of society.
Though accomplished, even beyond his contem-
poraries, in an age abounding in learned theolo-
gians, in the use of every weapon of polemical
warfare, the mind of Jeremy Taylor w as not formed
for controversy ; and when he engaged in it, it was
never for the triumph of an opinion, but for the
extension of truth and the promotion of godliness.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXVll
Nevertheless, ennobled as every subject was to his
conception by the grand general views which his
heavenward eye, even in the midst of discussions
on inferior questions, ceased not to rest upon, he
is seen to most advantage in those works where the
wealth of his most affectionate heart, and the im-
passioned sublimity of his imagination, could be
fully displayed. The reader who would become
acquainted with what this celebrated writer truly
was, as well as he who would seek from his works
the highest profit which can he derived from the
study of the uninspired labours of the human
mind, must pass unread the Ductor Dubitantium, —
though the favourite of its author himself, — and
hasten through the pages even of the Liberty
OF Prophesying, in order to luxuriate amid the
holy thoughts and glowing imagery, which abound
in his devotional and moral writings — in the Great
Exemplar, or Life of Christ — the Holy Living
and Dying, and his truly wonderful Sermons.
As far, however, as the nature of the following work
admitted the peculiar endowments of the author
to appear, they will in every page be recognised.
Its various and minute learning, its logical pre-
cision, the majestic march of its eloquent lan-
guage, but especially its unequalled tone of mode-
ration and candour, present a combination, which,
together with the ever fresh interest of the subject,
enables it to maintain its place, notwithstanding
the celebrity of some others, and especially of that
XXVIU INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
of Locke, as the most distinguished treatise on Re-
ligious Liberty in our language.
While, however, we glory in the perfect can-
dour and Christian mildness which appear in
the following pages, as being truly in the spirit
of the best times of that church of which its author
is so remarkable an ornament, we feel that it would
scarcely become us, on presenting our countrymen
with an edition intended for the widest and most
general circulation, to forbear pointing out one or
two instances in which the singular goodness of
his heart and his extreme desire of peace are
thought to have carried him somewhat too far. In
his observations, here and elsewhere, on the peculiar
tenets of the church of Rome, there is nothing to dis-
approve : they exhibit the principles of our reform-
ers, softened and mellowed by time and those reviv-
ing charities which would naturally reappear, when
all occasions for irritating collision between the two
churches were removed. That he was less judi-
cious in his laboured apology for the principles
then professed by the Anabaptists, we have his own
acknowledgement, in the fact that he afterwards
wrote a tract to explain himself more at large
on this head, in consequence of the offence taken
at the laxity of his language. This was added
to the subsequent editions of the work;^- it was
* This addition is not reprinted in the present volume, from
a wish to avoid exhausting the attention of the general reader,
by unnecessarily confining it, through so many pages, to the
minute details of a question of no great interest m our times.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXIX
followed likewise by a treatise in favour of in-
fant baptism, a further qualification of the cele-
brated nineteenth section, afterwards incorporated
into the Great Exemplar, of which beautiful work
it forms the sixth discourse. Perhaps we may also
venture to add, that less indulgence would have been
shown towards those opinions, the origin of which
may be traced to the heresy of Arius, had the ex-
cellent writer lived to see the period when the doc-
trines to which we allude, at that time scarcely
acknowledged by a small and obscure party, came
to be received with favour in the high places of the
church.
It has been brought as a charge against Taylor,
in relation to the argument of this work, that he
bases his scheme of toleration on the weaknesses of
mankind, which present a moral claim to tender-
ness and indulgence, rather than on the indefea-
sible right of every human being to the free exercise
of his own thoughts and opinions. The diflference
results more from different views of men's capa-
cities to enjoy freedom, the consequence perhaps of
more or less experience of human life, than from
any want of sympathy with their just claims, on
the part of those who adopt the former method.
That the soul of Taylor took a generous interest in
every noble struggle of humanity, and responded
to every sentiment inspired by the love of justice,
will scarcely be called in question by any one fami-
liar with his various writings of an ethical and
XXX INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
practical character. But there was, in his days,
no need of the voice of such an advocate to swell
the clamorous cry for immunities, which every man
eagerly demanded for himself, and as eagerly de-
nied to his neighbour. He had had a long and
painful experience, how little individual impa-
tience of restraint tended to secure equal tolera-
tion for all ; and it was natural that in seeking that
object he should follow an opposite course. Be-
sides, the extent of natural right must ever be
matter of debate and uncertainty, and its asser-
tion liable to dangerous abuse, whereas it is evident
to all that the limits of charity towards our bre-
thren cannot be pushed too far, and that the freest
use of it is consistent with the safety of all parties.
Again, the claim of right can be a ground, at
best, only for negative toleration ; it vindicates the
liberty of the individual, but provides him with no
sphere for its exercise ; the toleration, on the con-
trary, contemplated in the subjoined treatise, is
positive and active. Its author recommends some-
thing more than a strenuous assertion of our own
freedom, with merely a cold acquiescence in that
of others : he proposes the practice of the greater,
as best securing the less — that opposing parties
should not only refrain from interfering with each
other, but should mutually hold forth the right
hand of fellowship, and, though differing invin-
cibly on speculative articles, should communicate
in the profession of the same essentials, and in
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXXI
the reciprocation of all the brotherly and becoming
charities of life.
In his seclusion at Golden Grove, or in its neigh-
bourhood, Taylor continued to reside until the
year 1658, when, at the earnest instance of his
friends, he removed to Lisburn, near Portmore,
the seat of the Earl of Conway, in the north of
Ireland, where he accepted a lectureship under the
patronage of that nobleman. At the period of the
Restoration, he chanced to be in London ; and
thus, as one of the tried and valuable friends of
monarchical and episcopal government, he imme-
diately fell under the favourable notice of the King,
and was shortly after nominated to the bishopric of
Down and Connor, to which the small adjacent
see of Dromore was subsequently added. It was
fortunate for Bishop Taylor's peace, though not for
the church's advantage, that the remoteness of his
dioceses placed him far from the sphere of the
profligate court of the second Charles, and se-
cured him from any share in the public measures
of his reign. This was one of the few periods —
and the last — over which the filial admirers of the
Church of England may desire to draw a veil. The
age of the cruel persecutions in Scotland, and
of the perfidious severities practised towards the
nonconformists at home, — when the Church of
England stooped to copy, against the Presbyterians,
the worst parts of their own intolerant conduct,
when the door of reconciliation was closed in the
XXXll IxNTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
wantonness of power, and the foundations of mo-
dern dissent laid upon an ever-widening basis, —
presents a spectacle, to which we still revert with
sorrow not unmixed with shame. What, then,
must have been the pain with which it was con-
templated, at the time, by the zealous advocate
of fraternal and enlightened toleration ? He found
his consolation, we may hope, in the careful
discbarge of his episcopal functions, in occasion-
ally adding to the list of his invaluable writings,
in the employments of a devotion as impassioned
and seraphic, as is consistent with the salutary
equilibrium of the faculties of the human mind,
and, doubtless, in the reflection, which must ever
attend the authors of those distinguished works of
genius, whose object is the promotion of God's
glory and the honour and welfare of his creatures,
that though the work through which, in the prime
of his mature faculties, he had endeavoured to
instil into his divided country the wisdom of for-
bearance and Christian love, had as yet produced
no visible fruits, it had not been " cast upon the
waters" in vain; but would in due time be found,
though *' after many days," to have been concur-
ring with other causes to secure for posterity the
permanent blessings of religious peace.
We have alluded with all plainness to the errors
of the governors of our church, in periods when
exemption from such errors was not the rule, even
among Protestants, but the singular exception ;
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XXXlll
and thus, as her fearless and affectionate children,
we feel we maybe allowed to speak. For, (to adopt
the language of a contemporary writer,) ''why
should a clergyman of the present day feel inte-
rested in their defence ? Surely it is sufficient for
the warmest partisan of our establishment, that he
can assert with truth, — when our church persecuted,
it was on mistaken principles held in common by
all Christendom. We can say, that our church,
apostolical in its faith, primitive in its ceremonies,
unequalled in its liturgical forms ; that our church,
which has kindled and displayed more bright and
burning lights of genius and learning, than all other
Protestant churches since the Reformation, w^as
least intolerant, when all Christians unhappily
deemed a species of intolerance their religious
duty; that bishops of our church were among the
first that contended against this error; and finally,
that since the Revolution, when tolerance became
general, the Church of England in a tolerating age,
has shown herself eminently tolerant."
It is not long since we witnessed the erasure from
our statute-books of the only remaining acts of the
legislature which could be regarded as restraints
upon the most perfect liberty of conscience; and cor-
dially shall we, for our part, rejoice in their removal,
should the event prove, that sufficient care has been
taken for the preservation of that venerable estab-
lishment, in which the deeply reflective writer just
cited, " sees," he tells us, " the greatest, if not the
XXXIV INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
sole safe bulwark of toleration," We cannot, how-
ever, shut our eyes to the fact of danger to be
apprehended from the existence, in our times, —
not indeed of a sect or party, but — of a multitude
of persons, whose declared opinions place them
beyond the pale of all parties and sects alike, who
wilfully mistake for toleration, a licence to overleap
and lay waste all the defences of the public faith. Yet
even here we are willing rather to hail a motive to
exertion, than to acknowledge a ground of dis-
couragement ; inasmuch as out of even this perni-
cious error we look to find the beneficent hand of the
Supreme Ruler of events extracting good : for his
Providence has supplied the means of cure in the
very excess of the evil, which in hurting some,
oflfending and rousing many, and endangering the
comfort of all, will be the means of bringing men
back to reflection, and thence to a peaceable sub-
mission to such sober and reasonable regulations
for securing the full efl'ect of Christianity upon this
great nation, as will be found equally conducive to
the welfare of the individual, and to the progres-
sive improvement of the human race.
R. C.
London, December, 1833.
A DISCOURSE
LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
INTRODUCTION.— Page 1.
SECTION I.— Page?.
Nature of Faith.
SECTION II.- Page 25.
Of Heresy and the nature of it, and that it is to be accounted
according to the strict capacity of Christian faith, and not in
opinions speculative ; nor ever to pious persons.
SECTION III.— Page 81.
Of the difficulty and uncertainty of arguments from Scrip-
ture, in questions not simply necessary, not literally determined.
SECTION IV.— Page 101.
Of the difficulty of expounding Scripture.
SECTION v.— Page 115.
Of the insufficiency and uncertainty of Tradition to expound
Scripture, or detennine Questions.
SECTION VI.— Page 141.
Of the uncertainty and insufficiency of Councils Ecclesiastical
to the same purpose.
XXXVIU CONTENTS.
SECTION VII.— Page 175.
Of the fallibility of the Pope, and the uncertainty of his ex-
pounding Scripture, and resolving Questions.
SECTION VIII.— Page 213.
Of the disability of Fathers or "Writers Ecclesiastical, to
determine our Questions with certainty and truth.
SECTION IX.~Page229.
Of the incompetency of the Church in its diffusive capacity
to be judge of Controversies, and the impertinency of that pre-
tence of the Spirit.
SECTION X.— Page 234.
Of the authority of Reason, and that it proceeding upon best
grounds is the best judge.
SECTION XL— Page 243.
Of some causes of error in the exercise of Reason which are
exculpate in themselves.
SECTION XIL— Page 262.
Of the irmocency of error in opinion, in a pious Person.
SECTION XIII.— Page 270.
Of the deportment to be used towards Persons disagreeing,
and the reasons why they are not to be punished with
death, &c.
SECTION XIV.— Page 289.
Of the practice of Christian Churches towards persons dis-
agreeing, and when Persecution first came in.
CONTENTS. XXXix
SECTION XV.— Page 300.
How far the Church or Governors may act to the restraimng
false or differing opinions.
SECTION XVI.— Page 304.
Whether it be lawful for a Prince to give Toleration to several
Religions.
SECTION XVII.— Page 310.
Of Compliance with disagreeing Persons, or weak consciences
in general.
SECTION XVIII.— Page 316.
A particular consideration of the opinions of the Anabaptists.
SECTION XIX.— Page 349.
That there may be no Toleration of Doctrines inconsistent
with Piety or the public good.
SECTION XX.— Page 353.
How far the Religion of the Church of Rome is tolerable.
SECTION XXL— Page 370.
Of the Duty of particular Churches in allowing Communion.
SECTION XXII.— Page 373.
That particular men may communicate with Churches of
different persuasions, and how far they may do it.
d2
THE
LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
INTRODUCTION.
The infinite variety of opinions in matters of reli-
gion, as they have troubled Christendom with inte-
rests, factions, and partialities, so have they caused
great divisions of the heart, and variety of thoughts
and designs amongst pious and prudent men. For
they all, seeing the inconveniences which the dis-
union of persuasions and opinions have produced
directly or accidentally, have thought themselves
obliged to stop this inundation of mischiefs, and
have made attempts accordingly. But it hath hap-
pened to most of them as to a mistaken physician,
who gives excellent physic but misapplies it, and
so misses of his cure. So have these men : their at-
tempts have there fore, been ineffectual; for they
put their help to a wrong part, or they have endea-
voured to cure the symptoms, and have let the dis-
ease alone till it seemed incurable. Some have
endeavoured to reunite these fractions, by pro-
pounding such a guide which they were all bound
B
2 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
to follow ; hoping that the unity of a guide would
have persuaded unity of minds ; but who this guide
should be, at last became such a question, that it
was made part of the fire that was to be quenched,
so far was it from extinquishing any part of the
flame. Others thought of a rule, and this must be
the means of union, or nothing could do it. But
supposing all the world had been agreed of this
rule, yet the interpretation of it was so full of va-
riety that this also became part of the disease for
which the cure was pretended. All men resolved
upon this, that though they yet had not hit upon
the right, yet some way must be thought upon to
reconcile differences in opinion ; thinking, so long
as this variety should last, Christ's kingdom was not
advanced, and the work of the gospel went on but
slowly. Few men in the mean time considered, that
so long as men had such variety of principles, such
several constitutions, educations, tempers, and dis-
tempers, hopes, interests, and weaknesses, degrees
of light, and degrees of understanding, it was im-
possible all should be of one mind. And what is
impossible to be done is not necessary it should
be done ; and therefore, although variety of opi-
nions was impossible to be cured, (and they who
attempted it did like him who claps his shoulder
to the ground to stop an earthcjuake,) yet the in-
conveniences arising from it might possibly be
cured, not by uniting their beliefs, — that was to be
desjDaired of, — but by curing that which caused
these mischiefs, and accidental inconveniences of
their disagreeings. For although these inconve-
niences, which every man sees and feels, were con-
sequent to this diversity of persuasions, yet it was
but accidentally and by chance; inasmuch as we
INTRODUCTION. 3
see that in many things, and they of great concern-
ment, men allow to themselves and to each other a
liberty of disagreeing", and no hurt neither. And
certainly if diversity of opinions were of itself
the cause of mischiefs, it would be so ever, that is,
regularly and universally, (but that we see it is
not:) for there are disputes in Christendom con-
cerning matters of greater concernment than most
of those opinions that distinguish sects and make
factions; and yet because men are permitted to
differ in those great matters, such evils are not
consequent to such differences as are to the un-
charitable managing of smaller and more inconsi-
derable questions. It is of greater consequence to
believe right in the question of the validity or in-
validity of a death-bed repentance, than to believe
aright in the question of purgatory ; and the con-
sequences of the doctrine of predetermination, are
of deeper and more material consideration thun the
products of the belief of the lawfulness or unlaw-
fulness of private masses ; and yet thc^e great con-
cernments, where a liberty of prophesying in these
questions hath been permitted, hath made 120 dis-
tinct communion, no sects of Christians, and the
others have, and so have these too in those places
where they have peremptorily been determined on
either side. Since then if men are quiet and cha-
ritable in some disagreeings, that then and there
the inconvenience ceases, if they were so in all
others where lawfully they might, (and they may
in most,) Christendom should be no longer rent in
pieces, but would be redintegrated in a new Pente-
cost ; and although the Spirit of God did rest upon
us in divided tongues, yet so long as those tongues
were of fire not to kindle strife, but to warm our
B 2
4 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
affections and inflame our chanties, we should
find that this variety of opinions in several persons
would be looked upon as an argument only of di-
versity of operations, while the Spirit is the same;
and that another man believes not so well as I, is
only an argument that I have a better and a clearer
illumination than he, that I have a better gift than
he, received a special grace and favour, and excel
him in this, and am perhaps excelled by him in
many more. And if we all impartially endeavour
to find a truth, since this endeavour and search
only is in our power, (that we shall find it, being ab
extra, a gift and an assistance extrinsical,) I can
see no reason why this pious endeavour to find out
truth shall not be of more force to unite us in the
bonds of charity, than his misery in missing it
shall be to disunite us. So that since a union of
persuasion is impossible to be attained, if we would
attempt the cure by such remedies as are apt to
enkindle and increase charity, T am confident we
might see a blessed peace would be the reward and
crown of such endeavours.
But men are now-a-days, and indeed always have
been, since the expiration of the first blessed ages of
Christianity, so in love with their own fancies and
opinions, as to think faith and all Christendom is
concerned in their support and maintenance ; and
whoever is not so fond and does not dandle them
like themselv^es, it grows up to a quarrel, which be-
cause it is in materia theologi^ is made a quarrel in
religion, and God is entitled to it ; and then if you
are once thought an enemy to God, it is our duty
to persecute you even to death, we do God good
service in it; when, if we should examine the matter
rightly, the question is either in materia non reve-
INTRODUCTION. 5
lata, or minus eviclenti, or non necessarid, either it is
not revealed, or not so clearly, but that wise and
honest men may be of different minds, or else it is
not of the foundation of faith, but a remote super-
structure, or else of mere speculation, or perhaps,
when all comes to all, it is a false opinion, or a mat-
ter of human interest, that we have so zealously
contended for ; for to one of these heads most of the
disputes of Christendom may be reduced; so that
I believe the present fractions (or the most) are
from the same cause which St. Paul observed in
the Corinthian schism, ' When there are divisions
among you, are ye not carnal ?' It is not the dif-
fering opinions that is the cause of the present rup-
tures, but want of charity; it is not the variety of
understandings, but the disunion of wills and af-
fections; it is not the several principles, but the
several ends that cause our miseries : our opinions
commence and are upheld according as our turns
are served and our interests are preserved, and
there is no cure for us but piety and charity. A
holy life will make our belief holy, if we consult
not humanity and its imperfections in the choice of
our religion, but search for truth without designs,
save only of acquiring heaven, and then be as care-
ful to preserve charity, as we were to get a point of
faith : I am much persuaded we should find out
more truths by this means; or however (which is
the main of all) we shall be secured though we miss
them ; and then we are well enough.
For if it be evinced that one heaven shall hold
men of several opinions, if the unity of faith be not
destroyed by that which men call differing religions,
and if an unity of charity be the duty of us all even
towards persons that are not persuaded of every
6 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
proposition we believe, then I would fain know to
what purpose are all those stirs, and great noises
in Christendom ; those names of faction, the several
names of churches not distinguished by the division
of kingdoms, the church obeying the government,*
which was the primitive rule and canon, but dis-
tinguished by names of sects and men. These are
all become instruments of hatred; thence come
schisms and parting of communions, and then per-
secutions, and then wars and rebellion, and then the
dissolutions of all friendships and societies. All
these mischiefs proceed not from this, that all men
are not of one mind, for that is neither necessary
nor possible, but that every opinion is made an ar-
ticle of faith, every article is a ground of a quarrel,
every quarrel makes a faction, every faction is zeal-
ous, and all zeal pretends for God, and whatsoever
is for God cannot be too much. We by this time
are come to that pass, we think we love not God
except we hate our brother ; and we have not the
virtue of religion, unless we persecute all religions
but our own : for lukewarmness is so odious to
God and man, that we, proceeding furiously upon
these mistakes, by supposing we preserve the body,
we destroy the soul of religion ; or by being zealous
for faith, or which is all one, for that which we mis-
take for faith, we are cold in charity, and so lose the
reward of both.
All these errors and mischiefs must be disco-
vered and cured, and that is the purpose of this
discourse.
* Ut ecclesia sequatur imperium. — Optat. B. iii.
SECTION I.
Nature of Faith.
First, then, it is of great concernment to know the
nature and integrity of Faith : for there begins our
first and great mistake. For faith, although it be of
great excellency, yet when it is taken for a habit
intellectual, it hath so little room and so narrow a
capacity, that it cannot lodge thousands of those
opinions which pretend to be of her family.
For although it be necessary for us to believe
whatsoever we know to be revealed of God, — and so
every man does, that believes there is a God, — yet
it is not necessary, concerning many things, to
know that God hath revealed them; that is, we
may be ignorant of, or doubt concerning the pro-
positions, and indifferently maintain either part,
when the question is not concerning God's veracity,
but whether God hath said so, or no : that which
is of the foundation of faith, that only is necessary ;
and the knowing or not knowing of that, the be-
lieving or disbelieving it, is that only which, as to
the nature of the thing to be believed, is in imme
diate and necessary order to salvation or damna-
tion.
Now, all the reason and demonstration of the
world convinces us, that this foundation of faith, or
the great adequate object of the faith that saves us,
is that great mysteriousness of Christianity which
Christ taught with so much diligence ; for the cre-
dibility of which he wrought so many miracles ; for
8 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
the testimony of which the apostles endured per-
secutions ; that which was a folly to the Gentiles,
and a scandal to the Jews, this is that which is the
object of a Christian's faith : all other things are
implicitly in the belief of the articles of God's ve-
racity, and are not necessary in respect of the con-
stitution of faith to be drawn out, but may there
lie in the bowels of the great articles, without dan-
ger to any thing or any person, unless some other
accident or circumstance makes them necessary.
Now the great object which I speak of, is Jesus
Christ crucified. ' I have determined to know no-
thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him cru-
cified ;' so said St. Paul to the church of Corinth.
This is the article upon tlie confession of which
Christ built his church, viz. only upon St. Peters
creed, which was no more but this simple enun-
ciation, * We believe and are sure that thou art
Christ, the Son of the living God :'* and to this
salvation particularly is promised, as in the case of
]\Iartha's creed, Jolm, xi. 27. To this the Scripture
gives the greatest testimony, and to all them that
confess it; 'For every spirit that confesseth that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God :' and,
' Whosoever confesseth that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God I'f the
believing this article is the end of writing the four
Gospels : ' These things are written, that ye might
believe, that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God :' %
and then that this is sufficient follows : ' and that be-
lieving,'Viz. this article (for this was only instanced
in) 'ye might have life through his name! This is that
great article which, as to the nature of the things
* IMatt. xvi. 19. + ] John, iv. 2, 15. % John, xx. 31.
NATURE OF FAITH. 9
to be believed, is sufficient disposition to prepare a
catechumen to baptism, as appears in the case of
the Ethiopian eunuch, whose creed was only this,
* I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,' and
upon this confession (saith the story) they both
went into the water, and the Ethiop was washed,
and became as white as snow.
In these particular instances, there is no variety
of articles, save only that in the annexes of the se-
veral expressions, such things are expressed, as
besides that Christ is come, they tell from whence,
and to what purpose : and whatsoever is expressed,
or is to these purposes implied, is made articulate
and explicate, in the short and admirable myste-
rious creed of St. Paul, Rom. x. 8. 'This is the
word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved.' This is the
great and entire complexion of a Christian's faith ;
and since salvation is promised to the belief of this
creed, either a snare is laid for us, with a purpose
to deceive us, or else nothing is of prime and ori-
ginal necessity to be believed, but this, Jesus Christ
our Redeemer; and all that which is the necessary
parts, means, or main actions of working this re-
demption for us, and the honour for him is in the
bowels and fold of the great article, and claims an
explicit belief by the same reason that binds us to
the belief of its first complexion, without which nei-
ther the thing could be acted, nor the proposition
understood.
For the act of believing propositions is not for
itself, but in order to certain ends ; as sermons are
to good life and obedience ; for (excepting that it
10 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
acknowledges God's veracity, and so is a direct act
of religion) believing a revealed proposition hath
no excellency in itself, but in order to that end for
which we are instructed in such revelations. Now
God's great purpose being to bring us to him by
Jesus Christ, Christ is our medium to God, obedi-
ence is the medium to Christ, and faith the medium
to obedience, and therefore is to have its estimate
in proportion to its proper end, and those things
are necessary which necessarily promote the end,
without which obedience cannot be encouraged or
prudently enjoined : so that those articles are ne-
cessary, that is, those are fundamental points, upon
which we build our obedience ; and as the influence
of the article is to the persuasion or engagement of
obedience, so they have their degrees of necessity.
Now all that Christ, when he preached, taught us
to believe, and all that the apostles in their sermons
propound, all aim at this, that we should acknow-
ledge Christ for our Lawgiver and our Saviour; so
that nothing can be necessary by a prime necessity
to be believed explicitly, but such things which are
therefore parts of the great article, because they
either encourage our services or oblige them, such
as declare Christ's greatness in himself, or his good-
ness to us. So that although we must neither deny
nor doubt of any thing, which we know our great
Master hath taught us ; yet salvation is in special,
and by name, annexed to the belief of those articles
only, which have in them the endearments of our
services, or the support of our confidence, or the
satisfaction of our hopes, such as are — Jesus Christ
the Son of the living God, the crucifixion and re-
surrection of Jesus, forgiveness of sins by his blood,
resurrection of the dead, and life eternal ; because
NATURE OF FAITH. 11
these propositions qualify Christ for our Saviour
and our Lawgiver, the one to engage our services,
the other to endear them ; for so much is necessary
as will make us to be his servants, and his disciples ;
and what can be required more ? This only : sal-
vation is promised to the explicit belief of those
articles, and therefore those only are necessary, and
those are sufficient; but thus, to us in the formality
of Christians, which is a formality superadded to
a former capacity, we, before we are Christians, are
reasonable creatures, and capable of a blessed eter-
nity ; and there is a creed which is the Gentiles'
creed, which is so supposed in the Christian creed,
as it is supposed in a Christian to be a man, and
that is, " he that cometh to God must believe that he
is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him.''
If any man will urge farther, that whatsoever is
deducible from these articles by necessary conse-
quence, is necessary to be believed explicitly, I
answer : It is true, if he sees the deduction and
coherence of the parts ; but it is not certain that
every man shall be able to deduce whatsoever is
either immediately, or certainly deducible from
these premises ; and then, since salvation is pro-
mised to the explicit belief of these, I see not how
any man can justify the making the way to heaven
narrower than Jesus Christ hath made it, it being
already so narrow, that there are few that find it.
In the pursuance of this great truth, the apostles,
or the holy men their contemporaries and dis-
ciples, composed a creed to be a rule of faith to
all Christians, as appears in Irenaeus, Tertullian,*
* Apol. Contr. Gent. c. 47. De Veland. Virg. c. 1.
12 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
St. Cyprian,* St. Austin,f Ruffinus^ and clivers
others ;§ which creed, unless it had contained all
the entire object of faith, and the foundation of
religion, it cannot be imagined to what purpose it
should serve ; and that it was so esteemed by the
whole church of God in all ages, appears in this, that
since faith is a necessary predisposition to baptism
in all persons capable of the use of reason, all cate-
chumens in the Latin church, coming to baptism,
were interrogated concerning their faith, and gave
satisfaction in the recitation of this creed. And
in the east they professed exactly the same faith,
somethinsr differing- in words, but of the same mat-
ter, reason, design, and consequence ; and so they
did at Jerusalem, so at Aquileia. This was that
"correct and blameless faith, proclaimed by the holy
catholic and apostolic church, without any mixture
of novelty or innovation. "j| These articles were *' the
instructions delivered by the holy apostles and
tJieir fellow-labourers, to the holy churches of God. "^
Now, since the apostles and apostolical men and
churches in these their symbols, did recite parti-
cular articles to a considerable number, and were
so minute in their recitation, as to descend to cir-
cumstances, it is more than probable that they
omitted nothing of necessity ; and that these arti-
* In Exposit. Symbol. + Serm. v. de Tempore, c. 2.
i In Symbol apud Cyprian.
§ All the orthodox fathers maintain that the creed is of
apostolic origin — Sext. Senensis. lib. ii. Bibl. vide Genebr. lib.
iii. de Trin.
II "OpeSrii K, aixMjxrjTOQ ttitic, yvirep KrjpvTTei v ayia tov
9fov KCL^^oXiKr) K) aTTOToXt/c?) tKKXrjcria kut' ovdeva rpoTTov
Kaivi(T[xbv ce^afikvt].
% Ta TU)v ayiojv o.tto'^oXojv icf rcjv fitT fKtiviov Siarpvipdv-
T(t)v Iv rcug ayiaig Qtoii i.icK\7](riaig diSdyiiara. — Lib. v. Cod.
de St. Trin. et. Fid. Cath. cum. recta.
NATURE OF FAITH. 13
cles are not general principles, in the bosom of
which many more articles equally necessary to be
believed explicitly and more particular, are infold-
ed ; but that it is as minute an explication of those
fundamental principles of belief I before reckoned,
as is necessary to salvation.
And therefore Tertullian calls the creed, "the
rule of faith, by vi^hose guidance, whatever appears
ambiguous or obscure in Scripture may be inves-
tigated and explained."* "The seal of the heart, and
the oath of our warfare,"f St. Ambrose calls it: " the
comprehension and jDerfection of our faith," j as it is
called by St. Austin, Serm. 115: "the confession,
declaration, and rule of faith," § generally, by the an-
cients. The profession of this creed v/as the exposi-
tion of that saying of St. Peter, 'the answer of a good
conscience towards God :' for of the recitation and
profession of this creed, in baptism, it is that Ter-
tullian says, *' the soul is not consecrated by the
water, but by the truth professed."|| And of this
was the prayer of Hilary, " Regard this expression
of my conscience, that I may always hold fast
the profession which I made by baptism, in the
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
in token of my regeneration." 5[ And according to
* " Regulam fidei, qua salva et forma ejus manente in suo
ordine, possit in Scrip tura tractari et inquiri si quid videtur vel
ambiguitate pendere vel obscuritate obumbrari."
f " Cordis signaculum et nostras militige sacramentum." — Lib.
iii. De Velandis Virgin.
X " Comprehensio fidei nostras atque perfectio."
§ " Confessio, expositio, regula fidei."
11 " Anima non lotione, sed responsione sancitur." — De Resur.
Carnis.
^ '' Conserva hanc conscientise nieae vocem, ut quod in regene-
rationis meas symbolo baptizatus in Patre, Filio, Spir. S. pro-
fessus sum semper obtineam." — Lib. xii. de Trinit.
14 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
the rule and reason of this discourse, (that it may
appear that the creed hath in it all articles primo et
per se, primely and universally necessary,) the
creed is just such an explication of that faith which
the apostles preached, viz. the creed which St. Paul
recites, as contains in it all those things which en-
title Christ to us in the capacities of our Lawgiver
and our Saviour, such as enable him to the great
work of redemption, according to the predictions
concerning him, and such as engage and encourage
our services. For, taking out the article of Christ's
descent into hell, (which was not in the old creed,
as appears in some of the copies I before referred
to, in Tertullian, Ruffinus, and Irenseus; and
indeed, was omitted in all the confessions of the
eastern churches, in the church of Rome, and in
the Nicene creed, which by adoption came to be
the creed of the catholic church,) all other articles
are such as directly constitute the parts and work
of our redemption, such as clearly derive the
honour to Christ, and enable him with the capa-
cities of our Saviour and Lord. The rest engage
our services by proposition of such articles, which
are rather promises than propositions ; and the
whole creed, take it in any of the old forms, is but
an analysis of that which St. Paul calls the word
of salvation, whereby we shall be saved ; viz. that
w^e confess Jesus to be Lord, and that God raised
him from the dead ; by the first whereof he became
our Lawgiver and our Guardian ; by the second he
was our Saviour : the other things are but parts
and main actions of those two. Now, what reason
there is in the world that can enwrap any thing
else within the foundation ; that is, in the whole
body of articles simply and inseparably necessary.
NATURE OF FAITH. 15
or in the prime original necessity of faith, I can-
not possibly imagine. These do the work, and
therefore nothing can, upon the true grounds of
reason, enlarge the necessity to the inclosure of
other articles.
Now, if more were necessary than the articles of
the creed, I demand, why was it made the charac-
teristic note of a Christian from a heretic, or a
Jew, or an infidel ? Or to what purpose was it com-
posed ?* Or if this was intended as sufficient, did
the apostles, or those churches which they founded,
know any thing else to be necessary ? If they did
not, then either nothing more is necessary, (I speak
of matters of mere belief,) or they did not know
all the will of the Lord, and so were unfit dispensers
of the mysteries of the kingdom; or if they did
know more was necessary, and yet would not insert
it, they did an act of public notice, and consigned
it to all ages of the church, to no purpose, unless to
beguile credulous people by making them believe
their faith was sufficient, having tried it by that touch-
stone apostolical, when there was no such matter.
But if this was sufficient to bring men to heaven
then, why not now ? If the apostles admitted all
to their communion that believed this creed, why
shall we exclude any that preserve the same entire ?
Why is not our faith of these articles of as much
efficacy for bringing us to heaven, as it was in the
churches apostolical ? — who had guides more in-
fallible, that might without error have taught them
superstructures enough, if they had been necessary.
And so they did : but that they did not insert
rv * Vide Isidor de Eccles. Offic. lib. i. cap. 20. Suidam,
Tumcbum, lib. ii. c. 30. advers. Venant. For. in Exeg. Symb.
Feuardent. in Iren. lib. i. c. 2.
16 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
them into the creed, when they might have done
it with as much certainty as these articles, makes
it clear to my understanding-, that other things
were not necessary, but these were ; that whatever
profit and advantages might come from other ar-
ticles, yet these were sufficient; and however cer-
tain jDersons might accidentally be obliged to be-
lieve much more, yet this was the one and only
foundation of faith upon which all persons were
to build their hopes of heaven ; this was therefore
necessary to be taught to all, because of necessity
to be believed by all. So that although other per-
sons might commit a delinquency in a moral prin-
ciple, if they did not know, or did not believe,
much more because they were obliged to further
disquisitions in order to other ends, yet none of
these who held the creed entire could perish for
want of necessary faith, though possibly he might
for supine negligence or affected ignorance, or some
other fault which had influence upon his opinions
and his understanding, he having a new super-
vening obligation from accidental circumstances,
to know and believe more.
Neither are we obliged to make these articles
more particular and minute than the creed. For
since the apostles, and indeed our blessed Lord
himself, promised heaven to them who believed him
to be the Christ that was to come into the world,
and that he who believes in him should be partaker
of the resurrection and life eternal, he will be as
good as his word ; yet because this article was very
general, and a complexion rather than a single pro-
position, the apostles and others our fathers in
Christ did make it more explicit ; and though they
have said no more than what lay entire and ready
NATURE OF FAITH. 17
formed in the bosom of the great article, yet they
made their extracts to great purpose and absolute
sufficiency, and therefore there needs no more de-
ductions or remoter consequences from the first
great article, than the creed of the apostles. For
although whatsoever is certainly deduced from any
of these articles made already so explicit, is as cer-
tainly true, and as much to be believed as the arti-
cle itself, because nothing but what is true can
flow from truth,* yet because it is not certain that
our deductions from them are certain, and what
one calls evident, is so obscure to another, that he
believes it false ; it is the best and only safe course
to rest in that explication the apostles have made ;
because, if any of these apostolical deductions were
not demonstrable evidently to follow from that
great article to which salvation is promised, yet the
authority of them who compiled the symbol, the
plain description of the articles from the words of
Scripture, the evidence of reason demonstrating
these to be the whole foundation, are sufficient
upon great grounds of reason to ascertain us; but
if we go farther, besides the easiness of being de-
ceived, we relying upon our own discourses, (which
though they may be true, and then bind us to fol-
low them, but yet no more than when they only
seem truest,) yet they cannot make the thing certain
to another, much less necessary in itself. And
since God would not bind us upon pain of sin and
punishment, to make deductions ourselves, much
less would he bind us to follow another man's
logic as an article of our faith ; I say much less
another man's, for our own integrity (for we will
* " Ex veris possunt nil nisi vera sequi."
c
18 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
certainly be true to ourselves, and do our own busi-
ness heartily) is as fit and proper to be employed
as another man's ability. He cannot secure me
that his ability is absolute and the greatest, but I
can be more certain that my own purposes and
fidelity to myself is such. And since it is neces-
sary to rest somewhere, lest we should run to an
infinity, it is best to rest there where the apostles
and the churches apostolical rested ; when not
only they who are able to judge, but others who
are not, are equally ascertained of the certainty and
of the sufficiency of that explication.
This I say, not that I believe it unlawful or un-
safe for the church or any of the ecclesiastical
rulers, or any wise man to extend his own creed to
any thing which may certainly follow from any
one of the articles ; but I say, that no such deduc-
tion is fit to be pressed on others as an article of
faith; and that every deduction which is so made,
unless it be such a thing as is at first evident to
all, is but sufficient to make a human faith, nor
can it amount to a divine, much less can be obliga-
tory to bind a person of a differing persuasion to
subscribe under pain of losing his faith, or being a
heretic. For it is a demonstration, that nothing
can be necessary to be believed under pain of
damnation, but such propositions of which it is
certain that God hath spoken and taught them to
us, and of which it is certain that this is their sense
and purpose : for if the sense be uncertain, we can
no more be obliged to believe it in a certain sense,
than we are to believe it at all, if it were not cer-
tain that God delivered it. But if it be only certain
that God spake it, and not certain to what sense,
our faith of it is to be as indeterminate as its sense ;
NATURE OF FAITH. 19
and it can be no other in the nature of the thing,
nor is it consonant to God's justice to believe of
him that he can or will require more. And this
is of the nature of those propositions, which Aris-
totle calls Oeaeig, to which, without any further pro-
bation, all wise men will give assent at its first
publication. And therefore deductions inevident,
from the evident and plain letter of faith, are as
great recessions from the obligation, as they are
from the simplicity and certainty of the article.
And this I also affirm, although the church of any
one denomination, or represented in a council, shall
make the deduction or declaration. For unless
Christ had promised his Spirit to protect every par-
ticular church from all errors less material ; unless
he had promised an absolute, universal infallibility
even in the most trifling matters ; unless superstruc-
tures be of the same necessity with the foundation,
and that God's Spirit doth not only preserve his
church in the being of a church, but in a certainty
of not saying any thing that is less certain ; (and
that whether they will or no too ;) we may be bound
to peace and obedience, to silence and to charity,
but have not a new article of faith made : and a
new proposition, though consequent (as it is said)
from an article of faith, becomes not therefore a
part of the faith, nor of absolute necessity. " What
did the church ever aim at doing by the decrees of
her councils, but to make what was believed before,
believed afterwards more firmly ?"* said Vicentius
Lirinensis : whatsoever was of necessary belief before
is so still, and hath a new degree added, by reason
* " Quid unquam aliud ecclesia conciliorum decretis enisa
est, nisi ut quod antea simpliciter credebatur, hoc idem postea
diligentius crederetur ?" — Contra HEeres. cap. 32.
c 2
20 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
of a new light or a clear explication ; but no pro-
positions can be adopted into the foundation. The
church hath power to intend our faith, but not to
extend it; to make our belief more evident, but
not more large and comprehensive. For Christ
and his apostles concealed nothing" that was neces-
sary to the integrity of Christian faith, or salvation
of our souls : Christ declared all the will of his
Father, and the apostles were stewards and dispen-
sers of the same mysteries, and were faithful in all
the house, and therefore concealed nothing, but
taught the whole doctrine of Christ ; so they said
themselves. And, indeed, if they did not teach all
the doctrine of faith, an angel or a man might
have taught us other things than what they taught,
without deserving an anathema, but not without
deserving a blessing for making up that faith entire,
which the apostles left imperfect. Now, if they
taught all the whole body of faith, either the church
in the following ages lost part of the faith, (and
then where was their infallibility, and the effect of
those glorious promises, to which she pretends, and
hath certain title ? — for she may as well introduce
a falsehood as lose a truth, it being as much pro-
mised to her, that the Holy Ghost shall lead her
into all truth, as that she shall be preserved from
all errors, as appears, John, xvi. 13,) or if she re-
tained all the faith which Christ and his apostles
consigned and taught, then no age can, by declaring
any point, make that to be an article of faith, which
was not so in all ages of Christianity before such
declaration. And, indeed, if the church,* by de-
* Vide Jacob Almain. in 3. Sent. d. 25. Q. Unic. Dub. 3.
" Patet ergo, quod nulla Veritas est catbolica ex approbatione
ecclesiae vel Papa;.'" — Gabr. Biei. in 3. Sent. Dist. 25. q. Unic.
art. 3. Dub. 3. ad finem.
NATURE OF FAITH. 21
daring an article, can make that to be necessary
which before was not necessary, I do not see how
it can stand with the charity of the church so to
do, (especially after so long experience she hath
had, that all men will not believe every such deci-
sion or explication,) for by so doing, she makes the
narrow way to heaven narrower, and chalks out
one path more to the devil than he had before, and
yet the way was broad enough when it was at the
narrowest. For before, differing persons might be
saved in diversity of persuasions ; and now, after
this declaration, if they cannot, there is no other
alteration made, but that some shall be damned,
who before, even in the same dispositions and
belief, should have been beatified persons. For,
therefore, it is well for the fathers of the primitive
church, that their errors were not discovered ; for if
they had been contested, (for that would have been
called discovery enough,) either they must have
relinquished their errors, or been expelled from the
church.* But it is better as it was; they went to
heaven by that good fortune, whereas, otherwise
they might have gone to the devil. And yet there
were some errors, particularly that of St. Cyprian,
that was discovered, and he went to heaven, it is
thought; possibly they might so too for all this
pretence. But suppose it true, yet whether that
declaration of an article of which with safety we
either might have doubted or been ignorant, do
more good than the damning of those many souls
occasionally, but yet certainly and foreknowingly,
does hurt, I leave it to all wise and good men to
determine. And yet, besides this, it cannot enter
• " Vel errores emendassent, vel ab ecclesia ejecti fuissent." —
Bellar. de Laicis, lib. ill. c. 20. § Ad primam Confirmationem.
22 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
into my thoughts, that it can possibly consist with
God's goodness, to put it into the power of man so
palpably and openly to alter the paths and inlets
to heaven, and to straiten his mercies, unless he
had furnished these men with an infallible judg-
ment, and an infallible prudence, and a never-failing
charity ; that they should never do it but with great
necessity, and with great truth, and without ends
and human designs, of which I think no arguments
can make us certain what the primitive church hath
done in this case : I shall afterwards consider and
give an account of it, but for the present, there is
no insecurity in ending there where the apostles
ended, in building where they built, in resting
where they left us, unless the same infallibility
which they had, had still continued, which I think
I shall hereafter make evident it did not. And
therefore those extensions of creed which were
made in the first ages of the church, although for
the matter they were most true, yet, because it was
not certain that they should be so, and they might
have been otherwise, therefore they could not be
in the same order of faith, nor in the same degrees
of necessity to be believed with the articles apos-
tolical ; and therefore whether they did well or no
in laying the same weight upon them, or whether
they did lay the same weight or no, we will after-
wards consider.
But to return. I consider that a foundation of
faith cannot alter ; unless a new building be to be
made, the foundation is the same still : and this
foundation is no other but that which Christ and
his apostles laid — which doctrine is like himself,
yesterday, and to-day, and the same for ever : so
that the articles of necessary belief to all, (which
NATURE OF FAITH. 23
are the only foundation,) they cannot be several in
several ages, and to several persons. Nay, the sen-
tence and declaration of the church cannot lay this
foundation, or make any thing of the foundation,
because the church cannot lay her own foundation :
we must suppose her to be a building, and that sho
relies upon the foundation, which is therefore sup-
posed to be laid before, because she is built upon
it; or (to make it more explicate) because a cloud
may arise from the allegory of building and foun-
dation, it is plainly thus : the church being a com-
pany of men obliged to the duties of faith and
obedience, the duty and obligation being of the
faculties of will and understanding, to adhere to
such an object, must presuppose the object made
ready for them ; for as the object is before the act
in order of nature, and therefore not to be pro-
duced or increased by the faculty, (which is recep-
tive, and cannot be active upon its proper object,)
so the object of the church's faith is in order of
nature before the church, or before the act and
habit of faith, and therefore cannot be enlarged by
the church, any more than the act of the visive
faculty can add visibility to the object. So that if
we have found out what foundation Christ and his
apostles did lay — that is, what body and system of
articles, simply necessary, they taught and required
of us to believe — we need not, we cannot go any
further for foundation, we cannot enlarge that
system or collection. Now, then, although all that
they said is true, and nothing of it to be doubted
or disbelieved, yet as all that they said is neither
written nor delivered, (because all was not neces-
sary,) so we know that of those things which are
written some things are as far off from the founda-
tion as those things which were omitted, and there
24 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
fore, although now accidentally they must be be-
lieved by all that know them, yet it is not neces-
sary all should know them ; and that all should
know them in the same sense and interpretation,
is neither probable nor obligatory : but, therefore,
since these things are to be distinguished by some
differences of necessary and not necessary, whether
or no is not the declaration of Christ and his apos-
tles, affixing salvation to the belief of some great
comprehensive articles, and the act of the apostles,
rendering them as explicit as they thought conveni-
ent, and consigning that creed made so explicit, as a
tessera of a Christian, as a comprehension of the arti-
cles of his belief, as a sufficient disposition, and an
express of the faith of a catechumen, in order to bap-
tism,— whether or no, I say, all this be not sufficient
probation that these only are of absolute necessity,
that this is sufficient for mere belief in order to
heaven, and that therefore whosoever believes these
articles heartily and explicitly, as St. John's expres-
sion is, ' God dwelleth in him,' I leave it to be
considered and judged of from the premises : only
this, if the old doctors had been made judges in
these questions, they would have passed their affir-
mative ; for to instance in one for all, of this it
was said by Tertullian : " This symbol is the one
sufficient, immovable, unalterable, and unchange-
able rule of faith, that admits no increment or de-
crement; but if the integrity and unity of this be pre-
served, in all other things men may take a liberty of
enlarging their knowledges and prophesy in gs, ac-
cording as they are assisted by the grace of God."*
* *' Regula quidem fidei una omnino est sola immobilis et irre-
formabilis, &c. Hac lege fidei manente caetera jam discipline
et conversationis admittunt novitatem correctionis, operante scil.
et proficiente usque in finem gratia Dei." — Lib. de Veland. Virg.
25
SECTION II.
Of Heresy and the nature of it, and that it is to
be accounted according to the strict capacity of
Christiayi faith, and not in opinions speculative ;
nor ever to pious persons.
And thus I have represented a short draught of the
object of faith, and its foundation ; the next consi-
deration, in order to our main design, is to consider
what was and what ought to be the judgment of
the apostles concerning heresy ; for although there
are more kinds of vices than there are of virtues,
yet the number of them is to be taken by account-
ing the transgressions of their virtues, and by the
limits of faith ; we may also reckon the analogy and
proportions of heresy, that as we have seen who
was called faithful by the apostolical men, we may
also perceive who were listed by them in the cata-
logue of heretics, that we in our judgments may
proceed accordingly.
And first, the word Heresy is used in Scripture
indifferently — in a good sense for a sect or division
of opinion, and men following it ; or sometimes in a
bad sense, for a false opinion signally condemned.
But these kind of people were then called anti-
christs and false prophets more frequently than
heretics, and then there were many of them in the
world. But it is observable that no heresies are
noted with distinct particularity in Scripture, but
such as are great errors practical — such whose doc-
trines taught impiety, or such who denied the com-
26 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
ing of Christ directly or by consequence, not remote
or wiredrawn, but prime and immediate : and there-
fore, in the code De S. Trinitate et Fide Catholica,
heresy is called " a wicked opinion and an ungodly
doctrine."*
The first false doctrine we find condemned by
the apostles, was the opinion of Simon Magus, who
thought the Holy Ghost was to be bought with mo-
ney. He thought very dishonourably to the blessed
Spirit; but yet his followers are rather noted of a
vice, neither resting in the understanding, nor de-
rived from it, but wholly practical. It is simony,
not heresy, though in Simon it was a false opinion,
proceeding from a low account of God, and pro-
moted by his own ends of pride and covetousness :
tlie great heresy that troubled them was the doc-
trine of the necessity of keeping the law of Moses,
the necessity of circumcision ; against which doc-
trine they were therefore zealous, because it was a
direct overthrow to the very end and excellency of
Christ's coming. And this was an opinion most
pertinaciously and obstinately maintained by the
Jews, and had made a sect among the Galatians,
and this was indeed wholly in opinion; and against
it the apostles opposed two articles of the creed,
which served at several times, according as the Jews
changed their opinion, and left some degrees of
their error : ' I believe in Jesus Christ, and I be-
lieve the holy catholic church;' for they therefore
pressed the necessity of Moses's law, because they
were unw illing to forego the glorious appellative of
being God's own peculiar people; and that salva-
tion was of the Jews, and that the rest of the world
* 'Aai^TjQ So^a, 19 dOkfiirog didafficaXia.
OF HERESY. 27
were capable of that grace no otherwise but by-
adoption into their religion, and becoming prose-
lytes. But this was so ill a doctrine, as that it
overthrew the great benefits of Christ's coming; for
'if they were circumcised, Christ profited them
nothing ;' meaning this, that Christ will not be a
Saviour to them who do not acknowledge him for
their Lawgiver ; and they neither confess him their
Lawgiver nor their Saviour, that look to be justified
by the law of Moses, and observation of legal rites ;
so that this doctrine was a direct enemy to the foun-
dation, and therefore the- apostles were so zealous
against it. Now, then, that other opinion, which
the apostles met at Jerusalem to resolve, was but a
piece of that opinion ; for the Jews and proselytes
were drawn off from their lees and sediment by-
degrees, step by step. At first, they would not en-
dure any should be saved but themselves and their
proselytes. Being wrought off from this height by
miracles, and preaching of the apostles, they ad-
mitted the Gentiles to a possibility of salvation, but
yet so as to hope for it by Moses's law. From which
foolery when they were with much ado dissuaded,
and told that salvation was by faith in Christ, not
by works of the law, yet they resolved to plough
with an ox and an ass still, and join Moses with
Christ; not as shadow and substance, but in an
equal confederation; Christ should save the Gen-
tiles if he was helped by Moses, but alone Christi-
anity could not do it. Against this the apostles
assembled at Jerusalem, and made a decision of the
question, tying some of the Gentiles (such only
who were blended by the Jews as fellow-country-
men) to observation of such rites which the Jews
had derived bv tradition from Noah, intending by
28 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
this to satisfy the Jews, as far as might be, with a
reasonable compliance and condescension ; the
other Gentiles, who were unmixed, in the mean-
while remaining free, as appears in the liberty St.
Paul gave the church of Corinth, of eating idol sa-
crifices, (expressly against the decree at Jerusalem,)
so it were without scandal. And yet for all this
care and curious discretion, a little of the leaven
still remained : all this they thought did so concern
the Gentiles, that it was totally impertinent to the
Jews; still they had a distinction to satisfy the
letter of the apostle's decree, and yet to persist in
their old opinion; and this so continued, that fif-
teen Christian bishops, in succession, w ere circum-
cised, even until the destruction of Jerusalem, un-
der Adrian, as Eusebius reports.-^
First, by the way, let me observe, that never any
matter of question in the Christian church was de-
termined with greater solemnity, or more full au-
thority of the church, than this question concerning
circumcision : no less than the whole college of the
apostles and elders at Jerusalem, and that with a
decree of the highest sanction : * It seemed good to
the Holy Ghost and to us.' Secondly, either the
case of the Hebrews in particular was omitted, and
no determination concerning them, whether it were
necessary or lawful for them to be circumcised, or
else it was involved in the decree, and intended to
oblige the Jews. If it w^as omitted, since the ques-
tion was concerning what was essential, (for 'I
Paul say unto you, if ye be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing,') it is very remarkable
how the apostles, to gain the Jews, and to comply
• Euseb. lib. iv. Eccles. Hist. c. 5.
OF HERESY. 29
with their violent prejudice in behalf of Moses's
law, did for a time tolerate their dissent even in
what was otherwise essential, which I doubt not
but was intended as a precedent for the church to
imitate for ever after: but if it was not omitted,
either all the multitude of the Jews, (which St.
James, then their bishop, expressed by " many my-
riads:"* *Thou seest how many myriads of Jews
that believe, and yet are zealots for the law;' and
Eusebius, speaking of Justus, says, he was one " of
the infinite multitude of the circumcision, who be-
lieved in Jesus, )"f I say all these did perish, and
their believing in Christ served them to no other
ends, but in the infinity of their torments to up-
braid them with hypocrisy and heresy ; or, if they
were saved, it is apparent how merciful God was,
and pitiful to human infirmities, that in a point of
so great concernment did pity their weakness, and
pardon their errors, and love their good mind, since
their prejudice was little less than insuperable, and
had fair probabilities, at least it was such as might
abuse a wise and good man (and so it did many)
they did err with a good intention. And, if I mis-
take not, this consideration St. Fault urged as a
reason why God forgave him who was a persecutor
of the saints, because he did it ignorantly in unbe-
lief; that is, he was not convinced in his understand-
ing, of the truth of the way which he persecuted ;
he in the meanwhile remaining in that incredulity,
not out of malice or ill ends, but the mistakes of
humanity and a pious zeal, therefore ' God had
* Acts xxi. 20.
■f- " Ex infinita multitudine eonim qui ex circumcisione in
Jesum credebant." — Lib. iii. 32. Eccles. Hist,
i 1 Tim. i.
30 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
mercy on him/ And so it was in this great question
of circumcision ; here only was the difference, the
invincibility of St. Paul's error, and the honesty of
his heart caused God so to pardon him as to bring
him to the knowledge of Christ, which God there-
fore did because it was necessary, as an interme-
diate step. No salvation was consistent with the
actual remanency of that error ; but in the question
of circumcision, although they, by consequence, did
overthrow the end of Christ^s coming, yet because
it was such a consequence, which they, being hin-
dered by a prejudice not impious, did not perceive,
God tolerated them in their error, till time and
a continual dropping of the lessons and dictates
apostolical did wear it out. And then the doctrine
put on its apparel, and became clothed with ne-
cessity ; they in the mean time so kept to the foun-
dation, that is, Jesus Christ ciucified and risen
again, that although this did make a violent con-
cussion of it, yet they held fast with their heart what
they ignorantly destroyed with their tongue, (which
Saul before his conversion did not,) that God, upon
other titles than an actual dereliction of their error,
did bring them to salvation.
And in the descent of so many years, I find not
any one anathema passed by the apostles or their
successors, upon any of the bishops of Jerusalem,
or the believers of the circumcision ; and yet it was a
point as clearly determined, and of as great neces-
sity, as any of those questions that at this day vex
and crucify Christendom.
Besides this question, and that of the resurrec-
tion, commenced in the church of Corinth, and pro-
moted, with some variety of sense, by Hymenaeus
and Philetus in Asia, who said that the resurrection
OF HERESY. 31
was past already, I do not remember any other
heresy named in Scripture, but such as were errors
of impiety in moral practice ; such as was, particu-
larly, forbidding to marry, and the heresy of the
Nicolaitans, a doctrine that taught the necessity of
lust and frequent fornication.
But in all the animadversions against errors made
by the apostles in the New Testament, no pious
person was condemned, no man that did invincibly
err, or with a good intention; but something that
was amiss in the principle of action, was that which
the apostles did redargue. And it is very consi-
derable, that even they of the circumcision, who in
so great numbers did heartily believe in Christ, and
yet most violently retain circumcision, and without
question went to heaven in great numbers, yet of
the number of these very men, they came deeply
under censure, when to their error they added im-
piety : so long as it stood with charity and without
human ends and secular interests, so long it was
either innocent or connived at ; but when they
grew covetous, and for filthy lucre's sake taught the
same doctrine which others did in the simplicity of
their hearts, then they turned heretics, then they
were termed seducers ; and Titus was commanded
to look to them, and to silence them : * For there
are many that are intractable and vain babblers,
seducers of minds, especially they of the circum-
cision, who seduce whole houses, teaching things
that they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.' These
indeed were not to be endured, but to be silenced,
by the conviction of sound doctrine, and to be re-
buked sharply, and avoided.
For heresy is not an error of the understanding,
but an error of the will. And this is clearly in-
32 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
sinuated in Scripture, in the style whereof faith
and a good life are made one duty, and vice is called
opposite to faith, and heresy opposed to holiness
and sanctity. So in St. Paul : * For (saith he) the
end of the commandment is charity out of a pure
heart and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned;'*
a quibus quod aherrarunt quidam, from which
charity, and purity, and goodness, and sincerity,
because some have wandered, they have turned
aside unto vain jangling. And immediately after,
he reckons the oppositions to faith and sound doc-
trine, and instances only in vices that stain the lives
of Christians, ' the unjust, the unclean, the uncha-
ritable, the liar, the perjured person ;' these are the
enemies of the true doctrine. And therefore St.
Peter, having given in charge, to add to our virtue
patience, temperance, charity, and the like, gives
this for a reason : * for if these things be in you and
abound, ye shall be fruitful in the knowledge of our
Lord Jesus Christ' So that knowledge and faith is
part of a good life.f And St. Paul calls faith, or
the form of sound words, * the doctrine that is ac-
cording to godliness,' 1 Tim. vi. 3. And to be-
lieve in the truth, and to have pleasure in unright-
eousness,J are by the same apostle opposed, and
intimate, that piety and faith is all one thing : faith
* 1 Tim. i.
t " Quid igitur credulitas vel fides ? Opinor fideliter homi-
nem Christo credere ; id est, fidelem Deo esse : hoc est, fideJiter
Dei man data servare."
" "What then is belief or faith ? It is, in my opinion, faith-
fully to believe in Christ ; that is, to be faithful to God : in other
words, faithfully to keep his commandments." — So Salvian.
X Ev(jti3))c tS)v ^^'ptTiai/wi/ S-pz/crKt/a; that is, "our re-
ligion, or faith; the whole manner of serving God. — C de sum-
via Trinlt. et Fide Cathol.
OF HERESY. 33
must be entire and holy too, or it is not right. It
was the heresy of the Gnosticks, that it was no mat-
ter how men lived, so they did but believe aright :
which wicked doctrine Tatianus, a learned Chris-
tian, did so detest, that he fell into a cjuite contrary:
" It is of no consequence what a man believes, but
only what he does."* And thence came the sect of
the Encratites. Both these heresies sprang from the
too nice distinguishing the faith from the piety and
good life of a Christian : they are both but one
duty. However they may be distinguished, if we
speak like philosophers; they cannot be distin-
guished, when we speak like Christians. For to
believe what God hath commanded, is in order to
a good life ; and to live well is the product of that
believing, and as proper emanations from it, as
from its proper principle, and as heat is from the
fire. And therefore, in Scripture, tiiey are used
promiscuously in sense, and in expression, as not
only being subjected in the same person, but also
in the same faculty; faith is as truly seated in the
will as in the understanding, and a good life as
merely derives from the understanding as the will.
Both of them are matters of choice and of election,
neither of them an effect natural and invincible or
necessary antecedently. f And, indeed, if we re-
member that St. Paul reckons heresy amongst the
works of the flesh, and ranks it with all manner of
practical impieties, we shall easily perceive, that if
a man mingles not a vice with his opinion, if he be
innocent in his life, though deceived in his doctrine,
his error is his misery, not his crime ; it makes him
* '' Non est curandum quid quisque credat, id tantum curan-
dum est quod quisque faciat."
-|- " I^^ecessaria ut fiant, non necessaria facta."
D
34 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
an argument of weakness and an object of pity, but
not a person sealed up to ruin and reprobation. >
For as the nature of faith is, so is the nature of
heresy, contraries having the same proportion and
commensuration. Now faith, if it be taken for an
act of the understanding merely, is so far from be-
ing that excellent grace that justifies us, that it is
not good at all, in any kind but naturally, and
makes the understanding better in itself^ or pleas-
ing to God, just as strength doth the arm, or beauty
the face, or health the body; these are natural per-
fections indeed, and so knowledge and a true belief
is to the understanding. But this makes us not at
all more acceptable to God ; for then the unlearned
were certainly in a damnable condition, and all
good scholars should be saved, (whereas I am afraid
too much of the contrary is true.) But unless faith
be made moral by the mixtures of choice and cha-
rity, it is nothing but a natural perfection, not a
grace or a virtue; and this is demonstrably proved
in this, that by the confession of all men, of all inte-
rests and persuasions in matters of mere belief, in-
vincible ignorance is our excuse if we be deceived,
which could not be, but that neither to believe
aright is commendable, nor to believe amiss is re-
provable ; but where both one and the other is vo-
luntary and chosen antecedently or consequently,
by prime election or ex post facto, and so comes to
be considered in morality, and is part of a good life
or a bad life respectively. Just so it is in heresy ; if
it be a design of ambition and making of a sect, (so
Erasmus expounds St. Paul, aiperiKov dj/^pw7rov;)*
if it be for filthy lucre's sake, as it was in some that
* " Alieni sunt a veritate qui se obarmant multitudine." — Chryst.
OF HERESY. 35
were of the circumcision; if it be of pride and love
of pre-eminence, as it was in Dioirephes ; or out of
peevishness and indocibleness of disposition, or of
a contentious spirit ; that is, that their feet are not
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace ;
in all these cases the error is just so damnable as
is its principle, but therefore damnable not of itself,
but by reason of its adherency. And if any shall
say any otherwise, it is to say that some men shall
be damned when they cannot help it, perish without
their own fault, and be miserable for ever, because
of their unhappiness to be deceived through their
own simplicity and natural or accidental, but in-
culpable infirmity.
For it cannot stand with the goodness of God, who
does so know our infirmities, that he pardons many
things in which our wills indeed have the least share,
(but some they have,) but are overborne with the
violence of an impetuous temptation ; I say, it is in-
consistent with his goodness to condemn those who
err where the error hath nothing of the will in it, who
therefore cannot repent of their error, because they
believe it true, who therefore cannot make compen-
sation, because they know not that they are tied to
dereliction of it. And although all heretics are in
this condition, that is, they believe their errors to be
true; yet there is a vast diflference between them
who believe so out of simplicity, and them who are
given over to believe a lie, as a punishment or an
effect of some other wickedness or impiety. For
all have a concomitant assent to the truth of what
they believe; and no man can at the same time
believe what he does not believe, but this assent of
the understanding in heretics is caused not by force
of argument, but the argument is made forcible by
d2
36 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING,
something that is amiss in his will ; and although a
heretic may peradventure have a stronger argu-
ment for his error than some true believer for his
right persuasion, yet it is not considerable how-
strong his argument is; (because in a weak under-
standing, a small motive will produce a great per-
suasion, like gentle physic in a weak body;) but that
which here is considerable, is, what it is that made
his argument forcible. If his invincible and harm-
less prejudice, if his weakness, if his education, if
his mistaking piety, if any thing that hath no
venom, nor a sting in it, there the heartiness of his
persuasion is no sin, but his misery and his excuse ;
but if any thing that is evil in the principle of his
conduct did incline his understanding, if his opi-
nion did commence upon pride, or is nourished by
covetousness, or continues through stupid care-
lessness, or increases by pertinacity, or is con-
firmed by obstinacy, then the innocency of the
error is disbanded, his misery is changed into a
crime and begins its own punishment. But, by the
way, I must observe, that when I reckoned obsd-
nacy amongst those things which make a false opi-
nion criminal, it is to be understood with some dis-
cretion and distinction. For there is an obstinacy
of will which is indeed highly guilty of misde-
meanor ; and when the school makes pertinacity or
obstinacy to be the formality of heresy, they say
not true at all, unless it be meant the obstinacy of
the will and choice ; and if they do, they speak
imperfectly and inartificially, this being but one of
the causes that make error become heresy. The
adequate and perfect formality of heresy is what-
soever makes the error voluntary and vicious, as is
clear in Scripture, reckoning covetousness, and
OF HERESY. 37
pride, and lust, and whatsoever is vicious, to be its
causes; (and in habits or moral changes and pro-
ductions, whatever alters the essence of a habit, or
gives it a new formality, is not to be reckoned the
efficient but the form ;) but there is also an obstinacy,
(you may call it,) but, indeed, is nothing but a reso-
lution and confirmation of understanding, which is
not in a man's power honestly to alter ; and it is not
all the commands of humanity that can be argument
sufficient to make a man leave believing that for
which he thinks he hath reason, and for which he
hath such arguments as heartily convince him. Now,
the persisting in an opinion finally, and against all
the confidence and imperiousness of human com-
mands, that makes not this criminal obstinacy, if
the erring person have so much humility of will as
to submit to whatever God says, and that no vice
in his will hinders him from believing it. So that
we must carefully distinguish continuance in opi-
nion from obstinacy, confidence of understanding
from peevishness of aflfection, a not being convinced
from a resolution never to be convinced upon hu-
man ends and vicious principles. "We are ac-
quainted with some jDersons who are unwilling to
relincjuish what they have once believed ; nor can
they be easily convinced, but still persist in retain-
ing the notions they have once adopted, though in
the spirit of peace and charity ; in which case we
neither use compulsion nor authority," saith St. Cy-
prian.* And he himself was such a one ; for he
* '' Scimus quosdam quod semel imbiberint nolle deponere, nee
propositum suum facile mutare, sed salvo inter collegas pacis et
concordice vinculo quasdam propria quae apud se semel sint usur-
pata retinere ; qua in re nee nos vim cuiquam facimiis, aut legem
damus." — Lib. ii. Ep. I.
38 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
persisted in his opinion of rebaptisation until death,
and yet his obstinacy was not called criminal, or
his error turned to heresy. But to return.
In this sense it is that a heretic is avTOKardicpiToc,
self-condemned, not by an immediate express sen-
tence of understanding, but by his own act or fault
brought into condemnation. As it is in the canon
law, Js^otoi'iiis fercussor clerici is ipso jure excoin-
inunicaie, not per se7itentiam latam ab homine, but d
jure. " A man who strikes a clergyman, is excom-
municated by his own conscience, not so much by a
public verdict as by right." No man hath passed
sentence from a judgment-seat, but law hath de-
creed it by express enactment : so it is in the case
of a heretic. The understanding, which is judge,
condemns him not by an express sentence ; for he
errs with as much simplicity in the result, as he
had malice in the principle : but there is sententia
lata a jure, his will which is his law, that hath con-
demned him. And this is gathered from that saying
of St. Paul, 2 Tim. iii. 13. ' But evil men and se-
ducers sliall wax worse and worse, deceiving and
being deceived.' First they are evil men ; malice
and peevishness is in their wills : then they turn
heretics and seduce others, and while they grow
worse and worse, the error is master of their under-
standing; they are deceived themselves, 'given over
to believe a lie,' saith the apostle. They first play
the knave, and then play the fool ; they first sell
themselves to the purchase of vain glory or ill ends,
and then they become possessed with a lying spirit,
and believe those things heartily, which if they
were honest they should, with God's grace, discover
and disclaim. So that now we see that a hearty
persuasion in a false article does not always make
OF HERESY. 39
the error to be esteemed involuntary ; but then
only when it is as innocent in the principle as it is
confident in the present persuasion. And such per-
sons who by their ill lives and vicious actions, or
manifest designs (for by their fruits ye shall know
them) give testimony of such criminal indisposi-
tions, so as competent judges by human and pru-
dent estimate may so judge them, then they are to
be declared heretics, and avoided. And if this
were not true, it were vain that the apostle com-
mands us to avoid an heretic : for no external act
can pass upon a man for a crime that is not cog-
nizable.
Now every man that errs, though in a matter of
consequence, so long as the foundation is entire,
cannot be suspected justly guilty of a crime to give
his error a formality of heresy ; for we see many a
good man miserably deceived ; (as we shall make it
appear afterwards;) and he that is the best amongst
men, certainly hath so much humility to think he
may be easily deceived ; and twenty to one but he
is, in something or other ; yet, if his error be not
voluntary, and part of an ill life, then because he
lives a good life, he is a good man, and therefore
no heretic : no man is an heretic against his will.
And if it be pretended that every man that is de-
ceived, is therefore proud, because he does not sub-
mit his understanding to the authority of God or
man respectively, and so his error becomes a he-
resy; to this I answer, that there is no Christian
man but will submit his understanding to God, and
believe whatsoever he hath said ; but always pro-
vided he knows that God hath said so, else he must
do his duty by a readiness to obey when he shall
know it. But for obedience or humility of the un-
40 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
derstanding towards men, that is a thing of another
consideration, and it must first be made evident
that his understanding must be submitted to men ;
and who those men are, must also be certain, before
it will be adjudged a sin not to submit. But if I
mistake not, Christ's saying, ' Call no man master
upon earth/ is so great a prejudice against this
pretence, as I doubt it will go near wholly to make
it invalid. So that as the worshipping of angels is
a humility indeed, but it is voluntary and a will-
worship to an ill sense, not to be excused by the
excellency of humility, nor the virtue of religion ;
so is the relying upon the judgment of man an hu-
mility too, but such as comes not under that obe-
dience of faith which is the duty of every Christian,
but intrenches upon that duty which we owe to
Christ as an acknowledgment that he is our great
Master, and the Prince of the catholic church. But
whether it be or be not, if that be the question,
whether the disagreeing person be to be determined
by the dictates of men, I am sure the dictates of
men must not determine him in that cjuestion, but
it must be settled by some higher principle : so
that if of that question the disagreeing person does
opine, or believe, or err bond fide, he is not there-
fore to be judged a heretic, because he submits not
his understanding ; because, till it be sufficiently
made certain to him that he is bound to submit, he
may innocently and piously disagree ; and this not
submitting is therefore not a crime, (and so cannot
make a heresy,) because without a crime he may
lawfully doubt whether he be bound to submit or
no, for that is the question. And if in such cjues-
tions which have influence upon a whole system of
theology, a man may doubt lawfully if he doubts
OF HERESY. 41
heartily, because the authority of men being the
thing- in question, cannot be the judge of this c^ues-
tion, and therefore being rejected, or (which is all
one) being questioned, that is, not believed, cannot
render the doubting person guilty of pride, and by
consequence not of heresy, much more may parti-
cular cj[uestions be doubted of, and the authority of
men examined, and yet the doubting person be
humble enough, and therefore no heretic for all this
pretence. And it would be considered that hu-
mility is a duty in great ones as well as in idiots.*
And as inferiors must not disagree without reason,
so neither must superiors prescribe to others with-
out sufficient authority, evidence, and necessity
too ; and if rebellion be pride, so is tyranny ; both
may be guilty of pride of understanding, sometimes
the one in imposing, sometimes the other in a cause-
less disagreeing ; but in the inferiors it is then only
the want of humility, when the guides impose or
prescribe what God hath also taught, and then it
is the disobeying God's dictates, not man's, that
makes the sin. But then this consideration will
also intervene, that as no dictate of God obliges
me to believe it, unless I know it to be such ; so
neither will any of the dictates of my superiors
engage my faith, unless I also know, or have no
reason to disbelieve, but that they are warranted to
teach them to me, therefore, because God hath
taught the same to them ; which if I once know, or
have no reason to think the contrary, if I disagree,
my sin is not in resisting human authority, but
divine. And, therefore, the whole business of sub-
mitting our understanding to human authority
* Mean, or illiterate persons.
42 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
comes to nothing; for either it resolves into the
direct duty of submitting to God, or, if it be spoken
of abstractedly, it is no duty at all.
But this pretence of a necessity of humbling the
understanding, is none of the meanest arts whereby
some persons have invaded and usurped a power
over men's faith and consciences; and therefore we
shall examine the pretence afterwards, and try if
God hath invested any man, or company of men,
with such a power. In the mean time, he that
submits his understanding to all that he knows God
hath said, and is ready to submit to all that he
hath said if he but know it, denying his own affec-
tions, and ends, and interests, and human persua-
sions, laying them all down at the foot of his great
master, Jesus Christ, that man hath brought his
understanding into subjection, and every proud
thought unto the obedience of Christ ; and this is
the obedience of faith, which is the duty of a Chris-
tian.
But to proceed. Besides these heresies noted in
Scripture, the age of the apostles, and that which
followed, was infested with other heresies; but such
as had the same formality and malignity with the
precedent, all of them either such as taught prac-
tical impieties, or denied an article of the creed.
Egesippus, in Eusebius, reckons seven only prime
heresies, that sought to deflower the purity of the
church : that of Simon, that of Thebutes, of Cleo-
bius, of Dositheus, of Gortheus, of jNIasbotheus.
I suppose Cerinthus to have been the seventh man,
though he express him not : but of these, except
the last, we know no particulars, but that Ege-
sippus says, they were false Christs, and that their
doctrine was directly against God and his blessed
OF HERESY. 43
Son. Menander, also, was the first of a sect; but he
bewitched the people with his sorceries. Cerin-
thus's doctrine pretended enthusiasm, or a new reve-
lation, and ended in lust and impious theorems in
matter of uncleanness. The Ebionites* denied
Christ to be the Son of God, and affirmed him
mere man, begot by natural generation, (by occa-
sion of which and the importunity of the Asian
bishops, St. John wrote his Gospel,) and taught the
observation of Moses's law. Basilides taught it
lawful to renounce the faith, and take false oaths in
time of persecution. Carpocrates was a very bed-
lam, half-witch, and quite mad-man, and practised
lust, which he called the secret operations to over-
come the potentates of the world. Some more
there were, but of the same nature and pest ; not
of a nicety in dispute, not a question of secret phi-
losophy, not of atoms, and undiscernible proposi-
tions, but open defiances of all faith, of all so-
briety, and of all sanctity ; excepting only the doc-
trine of the Millennaries, which in the best ages was
esteemed no heresy, but true catholic doctrine,
though since it hath justice done to it, and hath
suffered a just condemnation.
Hitherto, and in these instances, the church did
esteem and judge of heresies, in proportion to the
rules and characters of faith. For faith being a
doctrine of piety as well as truth, that which was
either destructive of fundamental verity, or of
Christian sanctity was against faith, and if it be
made a sect, was heresy ; if not, it ended in per-
sonal impiety and went no farther. But those who,
as St. Paul says, not only did such things, but had
• Vide Hilar, lib. i. De Trin.
44 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
pleasure in them that do them, and therefore
taught others to do what they impiously did dog-
matize, they were heretics both in matter and form,
in doctrine and deportment, towards God, and to-
wards man, and judicable in both tribunals.
But the Scripture and apostolical sermons, hav-
ing expressed most high indignation against these
masters of impious sects, leaving them under pro-
digious characters, and horrid rep resentments, as
calling them men of corrupt minds, reprobates
concerning the faith, given over to strong delusions,
to the belief of a lie, false apostles, false prophets,
men already condemned, and that by themselves,
anti-Christs, enemies of God ; and heresy itself, a
work of the flesh, excluding from the kingdom of
heaven; left such impressions in the minds of all
their successors, and so much zeal against such
sects, that if any ojDinion commenced in the church
not heard of before, it oftentimes had this ill luck
to run the same fortune with an old heresy. For
because the heretics did bring in new opinions in
matters of great concernment, every opinion de
novo brought in was liable to the same exception ;
and because the degree of malignity in every error
was oftentimes undiscernible, and most commonly
indemonstrable, their zeal was alike against all;
and those ages bemg full of piety, were fitted to be
abused with an over-active zeal, as wise persons and
learned are with a too much indifferency.
But it came to pass, that the further the succes-
sion went from the apostles, the more forward men
were in numbering heresies, and that upon slighter
and more uncertain grounds. Some footsteps of
this we shall find, if we consider the sects that are
said to have sprung in the first three hundred years,
OF HERESY. 45
and they were quick in their springs and falls;
fourscore and seven of them are reckoned. They
were indeed reckoned afterward, and though when
they were alive, they were not condemned with as
much forwardness, as after they were dead; yet
even then, confidence began to mingle with opinions
less necessary, and mistakes in judgment were
oftener and more public than they should have
been. But if they were forward in their censures,
(as sometimes some of them were,) it is no great
wonder they were deceived. For what principle or
criterion had they then to judge of heresies, or con-
demn them, besides the single dictates or decretals of
private bishops ? for Scripture was indifferently
pretended by all ; and concerning the meaning of it,
was the question. Now there was no general coun-
cil all that while, no opportunity for the church to
convene; and if we search the communicatory
letters of the bishops and martyrs in those days,
we shall find but few sentences decretory concern-
ing any question of faith, or new-sprung opinion.
And in those that did, for aught appears, the per-
sons were misreported, or their opinions mistaken,
or at most, the sentence of condemnation was no
more but this : such a bishop who hath had the
good fortune by posterity to be reputed a catholic,
did condemn such a man of such an opinion, and
yet himself erred in as considerable matters, but
meeting with better neighbours in his life-time, and
a more charitable posterity, hath his memory pre-
served in honour. It appears plain enough in the
case of Nicholas, the deacon of Antioch, upon a mis-
take of his words whereby he taught to abuse the
flesh, viz. by acts of austerity and self-denial, and
mortification; some wicked people, that were glad
46 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
to be mistaken and abused into a pleasing crime,
pretended that he taught them to abuse the flesh
by filthy commixtures and pollutions : this mis-
take was transmitted to posterity with a full cry,
and acts afterwards found out to justify an ill opi-
nion of him. For by St. Jerome's time it grew
out of Cjuestion, but that he was the vilest of men,
and the worst of heretics :* accusations that, while
the good man lived, were never thought of, for his
daughters were virgins, and his sons lived in holy
celibacy all their lives, and himself lived in chaste
wedlock ; and yet his memory had rotted in perpetual
infamy, had not God (in whose sight the memory
of the saints is precious) preserved it by the testi-
mony of Clemens Alexandrinus, f and from him of
Eusebius and Nicephorus.t But in the catalogue
of heretics made by Philastrius, he stands marked
with a black character, as guilty of many heresies ;
by which one testimony we may guess what trust is
to be given to those catalogues. Well, this good
man had ill luck to fall into unskilful hands at
first; but Irenasus, Justin Martyr, Lactantius, (to
name no more,) had better fortune; for it being still
extant in their writings that they were of the mil-
lennary opinion, Papias before, and Nepos after,
were censured hardly, and the opinion put into the
catalogue of heresies ; and yet these men never
suspected as guilty, but, like the children of the
captivity, walked in the midst of the flame, and
not so much as the smell of fire passed on them.
• "Nicolaus Antiochenus, omnium immunditiarum condi-
tor, chores duxit fcemineos." — Ad Ctesiph. And again : " Iste
Nicolaus Diaconus ita immundus extitit ut etiam in prassepi
Domini nefas perpetrilrit." — Epist. de Fabiano lapso.
f Lib. iii. Stromal. :;: Lib. iii. c. 26, Hist.
OF HERESY. 47
But the uncertainty of these things is very memo-
rable in the story of Eustathius, bishop of Antioch,
contesting- with Eusebius Pamphilus: Eustathius
accused Eusebius for going about to corrupt the
Nicene creed, of which slander he then acquitted
himself (saith Socrates);* and yet he is not cleared
by posterity, for still he is suspected, and his fame
not clear. However, Eusebius then escaped well;
but, to be quit with his adversary, he recriminates,
and accuses him to be a favourer of Sabellius, rather
than of the Nicene canons : an imperfect accusa-
tion, God knows, when the crime was a suspicion,
proveable only by actions capable of divers con-
structions, and at the most made but some degrees
of probability, and the fact itself did not consist in
any particular, and therefore was to stand or fall,
to be improved or lessened, according to the will of
the judges, whom in this case Eustathius, by his ill
fortune and a potent adversary, found harsh to-
wards him, insomuch that he was for heresy de-
posed in the synod of Antioch. And though this
was laid open in the eye of the world, as being most
ready at hand, with the greatest ease charged upon
every man, and with greatest difficulty acquitted
by any man, yet there weve other suspicions raised
upon him privately, or at least talked of afterwards,
and pretended as causes of his deprivation, lest the
sentence should seem too hard for the first offence.
And yet, what they were no man could tell, saith
the story. But it is observable what Socrates
saith, as in excuse of such proceedings :f * It is the
* Lib. i. c. 23.
i* Tovro de Itti TravTiov eiojSracri tu)v Karaipovf.iei'UJV ttouTu
ct iTrirXKOTTOi, Karrjyopovpreg fxkv Kai dcrelSii XeyovTsgj tclq de
alriag rijQ wejSeiag ov \kyovai. — Lib. i. c 24.
48 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
manner among the bishops, ivhen they accuse them
that ure deposed, they call them ivicked, but they
publish not the actions of their impiety.' It might
possibly be that the bishops did it in tenderness of
their reputation : but yet hardly ; for to punish a
person publicly and highly is a certain declaring
the person punished guilty of a high crime ; and
then to conceal the fault, upon pretence to preserve
his reputation, leaves every man at liberty to con-
jecture what he pleaseth, who possibly will believe
it worse than it is, inasmuch as they think his
judges so charitable as therefore to conceal the
fault, lest the publishing of it should be his greatest
punishment, and the scandal greater than his de-
privation.* However, this course, if it were just
in any, was unsafe in all, for it might undo more
than it could preserve, and therefore is of more
danger than it can be of charity. It is therefore
too probable that the matter was not very fair, for
in public sentence the acts ought to be public ; but
that they rather pretend heresy to bring their ends
about, shows how easy it is to impute that crime,
and how forward they were to do it. And that they
might and did then as easily call heretic as after-
ward, when Vigilius was condemned of heresy, for
sayinc;^ there were antipodes; or as the friars of
late did, who suspected Greek and Hebrew of he-
resy, and called their professors heretics, and had
like to have put Terence and Demosthenes into the
Index Expurgatorius. Sure enough they railed at
them pro condone ; therefore, because they under-
stood them not, and had reason to believe they
* " Simpliciter pateat vitium fortasse pusillum,
Quod tegitur, majus creditur esse malum," — Martial,
OF HERESY. 49
would accidentally be enemies to their reputation
among- the people.
By this instance, which was a while after the
Nicene council, where the acts of the church were
regular, judicial, and orderly, we may guess at
the sentences passed upon heresy, at such times
and in such cases, when their process was more
private and their acts more tumultuary, their infor-
mation less certain, and therefore their mistakes
more easy and frequent. And it is remarkable in
the case of the heresy of Montanus, the scene of
whose heresy lay within the first three hundred
years, though it was represented in the catalogues
afterwards; and possibly the mistake concerning-
it is to be put upon the score of Epiphanius, by
whom Montanus and his followers were put into
the catalogue of heretics, for commanding absti-
nence from meats, as if they were unclean and of
themselves unlawful. Now the truth was, Mon-
tanus said no such thing-; but commanded frecjuent
abstinence, enjoined dry diet and an ascetic table,
not for conscience' sake, but for discipline ; and yet,
because he did this with too muoh rigour and
strictness of mandate, the primitive church mis-
liked it in him, as being- too near their error, who,
by a Judaical superstition, abstained from meats
as from uncleanness. This, by the way, will much
concern them who place too much sanctity in such
rites and acts of discipline ; for it is an eternal rule,
and of never-failing truth, that such abstinences,
if they be obtruded as acts of original immediate
duty and sanctity, are unlawful and superstitious.
If they be for discipline, they may be good, but of
no very great profit : it is that bodily exercise which
St. Paul says profiteth but little; and just in the
E
50 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
same degree the primitive church esteemed them,
for they therefore reprehended Montanus for urg-
ing such abstinences with too much earnestness,
though but in the way of discipline ; for that it was
no more, Tertullian, who v.as himself a Montanist,
and knew best the opinions of his own sect, testifies :
and yet Epiphanius, reporting the errors of Mon-
tanus, commends that which Montanus truly and
really taught, and which the primitive church con-
demned in him, and therefore represents that he-
resy to another sense, and affixes that to Montanus
which Epiphanius believed a heresy, and yet which
Montanus did not teach. And this also, among
many other things, lessens my opinion very much
of the integrity or discretion of the old catalogues
of heretics, and much abates my confidence to-
wards them.
And now that I have mentioned them casually
in passing by, I shall give a short account of them;
for men are much mistaken : some in their opinions
concerning the truth of them, as believing them to
be all true; some concerning their purpose, as
thinking them sufficient not only to condemn all
those opinions there called heretical, but to be a
precedent to all ages of the church to be free
and forward in calling heretic. But he that con-
siders the catalogues themselves, as they are col-
lected by Epiphanius, Philastrius, and St. Austin,
shall find that many are reckoned for heretics for
opinions in matters disputable and undetermined,
and of no consequence ; and that, in these cata-
logues of heretics, there are men numbered for he-
retics which by every side respectively are acquitted;
so that there is no company of men in the world
that admit these catalogues as good records or suf-
OF HERESY. 51
ficient sentences of condemnation. For the churches
of the reformation, I am certain they acquit Aerius
for denying prayer for the dead, and the Eusta-
thians for denying invocation of saints. And I
am partly of opinion, that the church of Rome is
not willing to call the Collyridians heretics for of-
fering a cake to the Virgin Mary, unless she also
will run the hazard of the same sentence for offer-
ing candles to her ; and that they will be glad with
St. Austin (l.vi.DeHffires. c.86) to excuse theTer-
tullianists* for picturing God in a visible, corporal
representment. And yet these sects are put in the
black book by Epiphanius, and St. Austin, and
Isidore respectively. I remember also that the
Osseni are called heretics, because they refused to
worship toward the east ; and yet in that dissent I
find not the malignity of a heresy, nor any thing
against an article of faith or good manners ; and it
being only in circumstance, it were hard, if they
were otherwise pious men and true believers, to
send them to hell for such a trifle. The Parerme-
neutae refused to follow men's dictates like sheep,
but would expound Scripture according to the best
evidence themselves could find, and yet were called
heretics, whether they expounded true or no. The
Pauliciani,f for being offended at crosses; the Pro-
clians, for saying, in a regenerate man all his sins
w^ere not quite dead, but only curbed and assuaged,
were called heretics, and so condemned; for aught I
know, for affirming that which all pious men feel in
themselves to be too true. And he that will consider
how numerous the catalogues are, and to what a vo-
lume they are come in their last collections, to no less
* D. Thorn, i. Contr. Gent. c. 21.
-|- Euthym. part i. tit. 21. Epiphan. Hjeres. 64.
E 2
52 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
than five hundred and twenty, (for so many heresies
and heretics are reckoned by Prateolus,) may think
that if a retrenchment were justly made of truths,
and all impertinences, and all opinions, either still
disputable or less considerable, the number would
much decrease ; and therefore that the catalogues
are much amiss, and the name heretic is made a
bugbear to affright people from their belief, or to
discountenance the persons of men, and disrepute
them, that their schools may be empty and their
disciples few.
So that I shall not need to instance how that
some men were called heretics by Philastrius, for
rejecting the translation of the Seventy, and follow-
ing the Bible of Aquila, wherein the great faults
mentioned by Philastrius are, that he translates
Xpi'^ov Qeov not Christum, but tnictum Dei, the
Anointed of God ; and instead of Emanuel, writes
Deus nobiscum, God with us. But this most con-
cerns them of the primitive church, with whom the
translation of Aquila was in great reputation : it
was supposed he was a greater clerk, and under-
stood more than ordinary. It may be, so he did :
but whether yea or no, yet since the other trans-
lators, by the confession of Philastrius, when com-
pelled by urgent necessity, did pass by some things,
if some wise men, or unwise, did follow^ a translator
who understood the original well, (for so Aquila had
learnt amongst the Jews,) it was hard to call men
heretics for following his translation, especially
since the other Bibles (which were thought to have
in them contradictories, and, it was confessed, had
omitted some things) were excused by necessity ;
and the others' necessity of following Aquila, when
they had no better^ was not at all considered, nor a
OF HERESY. 53
less ci'ime than heresy laid upon their score. Such
another was the heresy of the Quartodecimani ; for
the Easterling-s were all proclaimed heretics, for
keeping Easter after the manner of the east ; and
as Socrates and Nicephorus report, the bishop of
Rome was very forward to excommunicate all the
bishops of the lesser Asia, for observing- the feast
according to the tradition of their ancestors, though
they did it modestly, quietly, and without faction ;
and although they pretended, and were as well
able to prove their tradition from St. John, of so
observing it, as the western church could prove
their tradition derivative from St. Peter and St
Paul. If such things as these make up the cata-
logues of heretics, (as we see they did,) their ac-
counts differ from the precedents they ought to
have followed ; that is, the censures apostolical; and
therefore are unsafe precedents for us; and unless
they took the liberty of using the word heresy in a
lower sense than the world now doth, since the
councils have been forward in pronouncing ana-
thema, and took it only for a distinct sense, and a
differing persuasion in matters of opinion and
minute articles, we cannot excuse the persons of
the men : but if they intended the crime of heresy
against those opinions, as they laid them down in
their catalogues, that crime (T say) which is a work
of the flesh, which excludes from the kingdom of
heaven, all that I shall say against them is, that
the causeless curse shall return empty, and no man
is damned the sooner because his enemy cries ' Oh,
accursed !' and they that were the judges and ac-
cusers might err as well as the persons accused, and
might need as charitable construction of their opi-
nions and practices as the other. And of this we
54 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
are sure, they had no warrant from any rule of
Scripture, or practice apostolical, for driving so
furiously and hastily in such decretory sentences.
But I am willing rather to believe their sense of the
word heresy was more gentle than with us it is, and
for that they might have warrant from Scripture.
But, by the way, I observe that although these
catalogues are a great instance to show that they
whose age and spirits were far distant from the
apostles, had also other judgments concerning faith
and heresy than the apostles had, and the ages
apostolical; yet these catalogues, although they
are reports of heresies in the second and third ages,
are not to be put upon the account of those ages,
nor to be reckoned as an instance of their judg-
ment; which, although it was in some degrees more
culpable than that of their predecessors, yet in re-
spect of the following ages it was innocent and mo-
dest. But these catalogues I speak of were set
down according to the sense of the then present
ages, in which as they in all probability did differ
from the apprehensions of the former centuries, so
it is certain there were differing learnings, other
fancies, divers rep resentments and judgments of
men, depending upon circumstances, which the first
ages knew and the following ages did not; and
therefore the catalogues were drawn with some
truth, but less certainty, as appears in their differ-
ing about the authors of some heresies; several
opinions imputed to the same, and some put in the
roll of heretics by one, which the other left out ;
which to me is an argument that the collectors were
determined, not by the sense and sentences of the
three first ages, but by themselves, and some cir-
cumstances about them, which to reckon for here-
OF HERESY. 65
tics, which not. And that they themselves were
the prime judges, or perhaps some in their own age
together with them ; but there was not any suffi-
cient external judicatory, competent to declare he-
resy, that by any public or sufficient sentence or
acts of court had furnished them with warrant for
their catalogues. And therefore they are no argu-
ment sufficient that the first ages of the church,
which certainly were the best, did much recede
from that which I showed to be the sense of the
Scripture and the practice of the apostles ; they all
contented themselves with the apostles' creed as
the rule of the faith, and therefore were not forward
to judge of heresy but by analogy to their rule of
faith ; and those catalogues made after these ages
are not sufficient arguments that they did other-
wise, but rather of the weakness of some persons,
or of the spirit and genius of the age in which the
compilers lived, in which the device of calling all
differing opinions by the name of heresies, might
grow to be a design to serve ends, and to promote
interests, as often as an act of zeal and just indig-
nation against evil persons, destroyers of the faith,
and corrupters of manners.
For whatever private men's opinions were, yet,
till the Nicene council, the rule of faith was entire
in the apostles' creed; and provided they retained
that, easily they broke not the unity of faith, how-
ever differing opinions might possibly commence
in such things in which a liberty were better suf-
fered than prohibited with a breach of charity.
And this appears exactly in the question between
St Cyprian, of Carthage, and Stephen, bishop of
Rome, in which one instance it is easy to see what
was lawful and safe for a wise and good man, and
56 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
yet how others began, even then, to be abused by
that temptation, which since hath invaded all Chris-
tendom. St. Cyprian rebaptized heretics, and
thought he was bound so to do ; calls a synod in
Africa, as being metropolitan, and confirms his
opinion, by the consent of his suffragans and bre-
thren, but still with so much modesty, that if any
man was of another opinion, he judged him not,
but gave him that liberty that he desired himself:
Stephen, bishop of Rome, grows angry, excommu-
nicates the bishops of Asia and Africa, that in
divers synods had consented to rebaptization, and,
without peace and without charity, condemns them
for heretics. Indeed, here was the rarest mixture
and conjunction of unlikelihoods that I have ob-
served. Here was error of opinion with much mo-
desty and sweetness of temper on one side ; and on
the other, an over-active and impetuous zeal to
attest a truth. It uses not to be so, for error usu-
ally is supported with confidence, and truth sup-
pressed and discountenanced by indifferency. But
that it might appear that the error was not the sin
but the uncharitableness, Stephen was accounted
a zealous and furious person, and St. Cyprian,*
though deceived, yet a very good man, and of great
sanctity. For although every error is to be opposed,
yet, according to the variety of errors so is there
variety of proceedings. If it be against faith, that
is, a destruction of any part of the foundation, it is
with zeal to be resisted; and we have for it an apos-
tolical warrant, ' Contend earnestly for the faith : '
but then, as these things recede farther from the
foundation, our certainty is the less, and their ne-
* Vid. St. Aug. lib. ii. c. 6. De Baptis. contra Donat.
OF HERESY. 57
cessity not so much ; and therefore it were very fit
that our confidence should be according to our evi-
dence, and our zeal according- to our confidence,
and our confidence should then be the rule of our
communion ; and the lightness of an article should
be considered with the weight of a precept of cha-
rity. And therefore, there are some errors to be
reproved, rather by a private friend than a public
censure, and the persons of the men not avoided,
but admonished, and their doctrine rejected, not
their communion : few opinions are of that malig-
nity which are to be rejected with the same exter-
minating spirit, and confidence of aversation, with
which the first teachers of Christianity condemned
Ebion, Manes, and Cerinthus : and in the condem-
nation of heretics, the personal iniquity is more
considerable than the obliquity of the doctrine, not
for the rejection of the article, but for censuring the
persons ; and therefore it is the piety of the man
that excused St. Cyprian, which is a certain argu-
ment that it is not the opinion, but the impiety that
condemns and makes the heretic. And this was it
which Vincentius I^irinensis said, in this very case
of St. Cyprian : '' Strange as it may appear, we
judge the catholic authors and the heretics that fol-
lowed, to be of one and the same opinion. We excuse
the teachers, and condemn the scholars. They who
wrote the books are the inheritors of heaven, while
the defenders of these very books are thrust down
to hell."* Which saying, if we confront against the
* '• Unius et ejusdem opinionis (mirum videri potest) judi-
camus authores catholicos, et sequaces haereticos. Excusamus
magistros, et condemnamus scholasticos. Qui scripserunt libros
sunt hjeredes coeli, quorum librorum defensores detruduntur ad
jnfernum." — Adv. Hares, c ii.
•58 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
saying of Salvian, condemning the first authors of
the Arian sect, and acquitting the followers, we
are taught by these two wise men, that an error is
not it that sends a man to hell, but he that begins
tlie heresy, and is the author of the sect, is the man
marked out to ruin ; and his followers escaped,
when the heresiarch commenced the error upon
pride and ambition, and his followers went after
him in simplicity of their heart ; and so it was
most commonly: hut on the contrary, when the
first man in the opinion was honestly and invincibly
deceived, as St. Cyprian was, and that his scholars,
to maintain their credit, or their ends, maintained
the opinion, not for the excellency of the reason
persuading, but for the benefit and accruments, or
peevishness, as did the Donatists, who, as St. Austin
said of them, indulged themselves in their lusts,
upon the supposed authority of Cyprian ; then the
scholars are the heretics, and the master is a ca-
tholic. For his error is not the heresy formally,
and an erring person may be a catholic. A wicked
person in his error becomes heretic, when the good
man in the same error shall have all the rewards of
faith. For whatever an ill man believes, if he
therefore believe it because it serves his own ends,
be his belief true or false, the man hath an heretical
mind ; for to serve his own ends, his mind is pre-
pared to believe a lie. But a good man, that be-
lieves what according to his light, and upon the use
of his moral industry he thinks true, whether he
hits upon the right or no, because he hath a mind
desirous of truth, and prepared to believe every
truth, is therefore acceptable to God ; because no-
thing hindered him from it but what he could not
help, his misery and his weakness, which being im-
OF HERESY. 59
perfections merely natural, which God never pu-
nishes, he stands fair for a blessing of his morality,
which God always accepts. So that now, if Stephen
had followed the example of God Almighty, or
retained but the same peaceable spirit which his
brother of Carthage did, he might, with more advan-
tage to truth, and reputation both of wisdom and
piety, have done his duty in attesting what he be-
lieved to be true ; for we are as much bound to be
zealous pursuers of peace, as earnest contenders for
the faith. I am sure, more earnest we ought to be
for the peace of the church, than for an article
which is not of the faith, as this question of rebap-
tization was not; for St. Cyprian died in belief
against it, and yet was a catholic, and a martyr for
the Christian faith.
The sum is this, St. Cyprian did right in a
wrong cause; (as it hath been since judged ;) and
Stephen did ill in a good cause. As far, then, as
piety and charity is to be preferred before a true
opinion, so far is St. Cyprian's practice a better
precedent for us, and an example of primitive
sanctity, than the zeal and indiscretion of Stephen :
St. Cyprian had not learned to forbid to any one a
liberty of prophesying or interpretation, if he trans-
gressed not the foundation of faith and the creed
of the apostles.
Well, thus it was, and thus it ought to be, in the
first ages, the faith of Christendom rested still upon
the same foundation, and the judgments of heresies
were accordingly, or were amiss; but the first great
violation of this truth was, when general councils
came in, and the symbols were enlarged, and new
ailicles were made as much of necessity to be be-
lieved as the creed of the apostles, and damnation
60 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
threatened to them that did dissent ; and at last the
creeds multiplied in number, and in articles, and
the liberty of jirophesying began to be something
restrained.
And this was of so much the more force and
efficacy, because it began upon great reason, and
in the first instance, with success good enough.
For I am much pleased with the enlarging of the
creed, which the council of Nice made, because
they enlarged it to my sense ; but I am not sure
that others are satisfied with it ; while we look upon
the article they did determine, we see all things well
enough ; but there are some wise personages con-
sider it in all circumstances, and think the church
had been more happy if she had not been in some
sense constrained to alter the simjilicity of her faith,
and make it more curious and articulate, so much
that he had need be a subtle man to understand
the very words of the new determinations.
For the first Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, in
the presence of his clergy, entreats somewhat more
curiously of the secret of the mysterious Trinity
and Unity ; so curiously, that Arius* (who was
a sophister too subtle as it afterward appeared)
misunderstood him ; and thought he intended
to bring in the heresy of Sabellius. For while
he taught the unity of the Trinity, either he did
it so inartificially or so intricately, that Arius
thought he did not distinguish the persons, when
the bishop intended only the unity of nature.
Against this Arius furiously drives; and to confute
Sabellius, and in him (as he thought) the bishop,
distinguishes the natures too, and so to secure the
* Socra. lib. i. c. 8.
OF HERESY. 61
article of the Trinity, destroys the Unity. It was
the first time the question was disputed in the world ;
and in such mysterious niceties, possibly every
wise man may understand something, but few can
understand all, and therefore suspect what they
understand not, and are furiously zealous for that
part of it which they do perceive. Well, it hap-
pened in these as always in such cases, in things
men understand not they are most impetuous ; and
because suspicion is a thing- infinite in degrees, for
it hath nothing to determine it, a suspicious person
is ever most violent ; for his fears are worse than
the thing feared, because the thing is limited, but
his fears are not ; so that upon this grew conten-
tions on both sides, and tumults, railing and revil-
ing each other;* and then the laity were drawn
into parts, and the Meletians abetted the wrong
part, and the right part, fearing to be overborne, did
any thing that was next at hand to secure itself.
Now, then, they that lived in that age, that under-
stood the men, that saw how quiet the church was
before this stir, how miserably rent now, what little
benefit from the question, what schism about it, gave
other censures of the business than we since have
done, who only look upon the article determined
with truth and approbation of the church generally
since that time. But the epistle of Constantine to
Alexander and Arius,f tells the truth, and chides
them both for commencing the c^uestion; Alexander
for broaching it, Arius for taking it up : and
although this be true, that it had been better for
the church it never had begun, yet, being begun,
w^hat is to be done in it P Of this, also, in that admi-
* Id. lib. i. c. G. t Cap 7-
62 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
rable epistle, we have the emjDeror's judgment; (I
suppose not without the advice and privity of Hosius,
bishop of Corduba, whom the emperor loved and
trusted much, and employed in the delivery of the
letters;) for first he calls it, *' a certain vain piece
of a question, ill begun and more unadvisedly pub-
lished ; a question which no law or ecclesiastical
canon defineth ; a fruitless contention, the product
of idle brains; a matter so nice, so obscure, so intri-
cate, that it was neither to be explicated by the
clergy, nor understood by the people ; a dispute of
words; a doctrine inexplicable, but most dangerous
when taught, lest it introduce discord or blas-
phemy ; and therefore, the objector was rash, and
the answerer unadvised ; for it concerned not the
substance of faith, or the worship of God, nor any
chief commandment of Scripture, and therefore,
why should it be the matter of discord ? For
though the matter be grave; yet, because neither'
necessary nor explicable, the contention is trifling
and toyish. And therefore, as the philosophers
of the same sect, though differing in explica-
tion of an opinion, yet more love for the unity of
their profession, than disagree for the difference of
opinion ; so should Christians, believing in the
same God, retaining the same faith, having the
same hopes, opposed by the same enemies, not fall
at variance upon such disputes, considering our
understandings are not all alike, and therefore,
neither can our opinions in such mysterious arti-
cles : so that the matter being of no great import-
ance, but vain, and a toy, in respect of the excellent
blessings of peace and charity, it were good that
Alexander and Arius should leave contending, keep
their opinions to themselves, ask each other forgive-
OF HERESY. 63
ness, and give mutual toleration." This is the sub-
stance of Constantine's letter, and it contains in it
much reason, if he did not undervalue the ques-
tion ; but it seems it was not then thought a ques-
tion of faith, but of nicety of dispute ; they both did
believe one God, and the Holy Trinity. Now, then,
that he afterward called the Nicene council, it was
upon occasion of the vileness of the men of the
Arian part, their eternal discord and pertinacious
wrangling-, and to bring peace into the church ;
that w as the necessity ; and in order to it was the
determination of the article. But for the article
itself, the letter declares what opinion he had of
that, and this letter was by Socrates called " a won-
derful exhortation, full of grace and sober counsels;"
and such as Hosius himself, who was the messen-
ger, pressed with all earnestness, with all the skill
and authority he had.
I know the opinion the world had of the ar-
ticle afterwards, is quite differing from this cen-
sure given of it before ; and therefore they have
put it into the creed (I suppose) to bring the
world to unity, and to prevent sedition in this
question, and the accidental blasphemies, which
were occasioned by their curious talkings of such
secret mysteries, and by their illiterate resolutions.
But although the article was determined with an
excellent spirit, and we all, with much reason, pro-
fess to believe it ; yet it is another consideration,
whether or no, it might not have been better deter-
mined, if with more simplicity ; and another yet,
whether or no, since many of the bishops who did
believe this thing yet did not like the nicety and
curiosity of expressing it, it had not been more
agreeable to the practice of the apostles, to have
64 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
made a determination of the article by way of ex-
position of the apostles' creed, and to have left this
in a rescript, for record to all posterity, and not to
have enlarged the creed with it ; for since it was an
explication of an article of the creed of the apos-
tles, as sermons are of places of Scripture, it was
thought by some, that Scripture might, with good
profit and great truth, be expounded, and yet the
expositions not put into the canon, or go for Scrip-
ture, but that left still in the naked original sim-
plicity ; and so much the rather, since that explica-
tion was further from the foundation, and though
most certainly true, yet not penned by so infallible
a spirit, as was that of the apostles, and therefore
not with so much evidence as certainty. And if
they had pleased, they might have made use of an
admirable precedent to this and many other great
and good purposes ; no less than of the blessed
apostles, whose symbol they might have imitated,
with as much simplicity as they did the expressions
of Scripture, when they first composed it. For it
is most considerable, that although, in reason, every
clause in the creed should be clear, and so inop-
portune and unapt to variety of interpretation, that
there might be no place left for several senses or
variety of expositions; yet, when they thought fit
to insert some mysteries into the creed, which in
Scripture were expressed in so mysterious words,
that the last and most explicit sense would still
be latent, yet they who (if ever any did) understood
all the senses and secrets of it, thought it not fit to
use any words but the words of Scripture, particu-
larly in the articles of Christ's descending into hell,
and sitting at the right hand of God, to show us,
that those creeds are best which keep the very
OF HERESY. QQ
vv ords of Scripture ; and that faith is best which
hath greatest simplicity ; and that it is better,
in all cases, humbly to submit, than curiously
to inquire and pry into the mystery under the
cloud, and to hazard our faith by improving our
knowledge : if the Nicene fathers had done
so too, possibly the church never would have
repented it.
And indeed the experience the church had after-
wards, showed that the bishops and priests were
not satisfied in all circumstances, nor the schism
appeased, nor the persons agreed, nor the canons
accepted, nor the article understood, nor any
thing right, but when they were overborne with
authority, which authority, when the scales turned,
did the same service and promotion to the contrary.
But it is considerable, that it was not the article
or the thing itself that troubled the disagreeing
persons, but the manner of representing it: for
the five dissenters, Eusebius of Nicomedia, Theog-
nis. Maris, Theonas, and Secundus, believed Christ
to be very God of very God ; but the clause of
ofiooixjiog they derided, as being persuaded by their
logic, that he was neither of the substance of the
Father, by division, as a piece of a lump, nor deri-
vation, as children from their parents, nor by pro-
duction, as buds from trees ; and nobody could tell
them any other way at that time, and that made the
fire to burn still. A.nd that was it I said ; if the ar-
ticle had been with more simplicity, and less nicety
determined, charity would have gained more, and
faith would have lost nothing. And we shall find
the wisest of them all, for so Eusebius Pamphilus^
18.
66 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
was esteemed, published a creed or confession
in the synod; and though he and all the rest
believed that great mystery of godliness, ' God
manifested in the flesh/ yet he was not fully satis-
fied ; nor so soon of the clause of * one substance/
till he had done a little violence to his own under-
standing ; for even when he had subscribed to the
clause of ' one substance/ he does it with a protes-
tation, that "heretofore he never had been ac-
quainted, nor accustomed himself to such speeches/'
And the sense of the word was either so ambiguous,
or their meaning so uncertain, that Andreas Fri-
cius* does, with some jDrobability, dispute, that the
Nicene fathers, by oixoovcriog, did mean likeness to
the Father, not unity of essence.f Sylva, iv. c. 1.
And it vras so well understood by personages dis-
interested, that when Arius and Euzoius had con-
fessed Christ to be Deus verhum, without inserting
the clause of ' one substance,' the emperor, by his
letter, approved of his faith, and restored him to
his country and office, and the communion of the
church. And a long time after, although the ar-
ticle was believed with nicety enough,! yet when
they added more words still to the mystery, and
brought in the word viroaraaig, (hypostasis,) saying
there were three hypostases in the Holy Trinity, it
was so long before it could be understood, that it
was believed therefore, because they would not
oppose their superiors, or disturb the peace of the
* Socrat. lib. i. capo 2G.
-j- " Patris similitudinem, non essentiEe unitatem."
J '" It was no injudicious application that some one made of
the saying of Ariston, the philosopher, to the nice exposition of
this mystery : ' Black hellebore cleanses and heals, if it be
taken in a state of consistence ; but when bruised and broken
small, it suffocates.' "
OF HERESY. 67
church, in things which they thought could not
be understood: insomuch that St. Jerome writ to
Damasus : " Pray determine, for I shall not hesi-
tate to speak of three hypostases, if you com-
mand me:" and again: ''I implore thee, by the
Saviour of the world and the United Trinity,
that thou wouldst authorize me, by thy letters,
either to speak or to be silent on the subject of the
hypostases."*
But, without all question, the fathers determined
the question with much truth; though I cannot
say the arguments upon which they built their de-
crees were so good as the conclusion itself was
certain ; but that which in this case is considerable,
is, whether or no they did well in putting a curse
to the foot of their decree, and the decree itself into
the symbol, as if it had been of the same necessity.
For the curse, Eusebius Pamphilus could hardly
find in his heart to subscribe : at last he did ; but
with this clause, that he subscribed it because the
form of curse did only ''forbid men to acquaint
themselves with foreign speeches and unwritten
languages," whereby confusion and discord is
brought into the church. So that it was not so
much a magisterial high assertion of the article, as
an endeavour to secure the peace of the church.
And to the same purpose, for aught I Imow, the
fathers composed a form of confession, not as a
prescript rule of faith, to build the hopes of our
salvation on, but as a tessera (mark) of that com-
munion, which by public authority was therefore
* " Discerne, si placet, obsecro ; non timebo tres hypostases
dicere si jubetis. — Obtestor beatitudinem tuam per crucifixum
mundi Salutem, per bnoovniov Trinitatem, ut niihi epistolis tuis,
sive tacendarum sive dicendarum hypostaseon detur authoritas."
f2
68 THE LIBERTY Of PROPHESYING.
established upon those articles, because the articles
were true, though not of prime necessity, and
because that unity of confession was judged, as
things then stood, the best preserver of the unity
of minds.
But I shall observe this, that although the Nicene
fathers, in that case, at that time, and in that con-
juncture of circumstances, did well, (and yet their
aj^probation is made by after ages ex post facto,)
yet, if this precedent had been followed by all
councils, (and certainly they had equal power,, if
they had thought it equally reasonable,) and that
they had put all their decrees into the creed, as
some have done since, to what a volume had the
creed by this time swelled ! and all the house had
run into foundation, nothing left for superstruc-
tures. But that they did not, it appears, first, that
since they thought all their decrees true, yet they
did not think them all necessary, at least not in
that degree ; and that they published such decrees,
they did it declaratively, not imperatively ; as doc-
tors in their chairs, not masters of other men's faith
and consciences. Secondly, and yet there is some
more modesty or wariness, or necessity, (what
shall I call it?) than this comes to; for why are
not all controversies determined ? but even when
general assemblies of prelates have been, some con-
troversies that have been very vexatious, have been
pretermitted, and others of less consequence have
been determined. Why did never any general
council condemn, in express sentence, the Pelagian
heresy, that great pest, that subtle infection of
Christendom ? and yet divers general councils
did assemble while the heresy was in the world.
Both these cases, in several degrees, leave men
OF HERESY. 69
in their liberty of believing- and prophesying.
The latter proclaims, that all controversies cannot
be determined to sufficient purposes; and the first
declares, that those that are, are not all of them
matters of faith, and themselves are not so secure
but they may be deceived : and therefore, possibly,
it were better it were let alone ; for if the latter
leaves them divided in their opinions, yet their
communions, and therefore probably their charities,
are not divided ; but the former divides their com-
munions, and hinders their interest; and yet for
aught is certain, the accused person is the better
catholic. And yet, after all this, it is not safety
enough to say, let the council or prelates determine
articles warily, seldom, with great caution, and
with much sweetness and modesty : for though this
be better than to do it rashly, frequently, and fu-
riously, yet if we once transgress the bounds set us
by the apostles in their creed, and not only preach
other truths, but determine them magisterially as
well as exegetically, although there be no error in
the subject-matter, (as in Nice there was none,) yet
if the next ages say they will determine another
article, with as much care and caution, and pretend
as great a necessity, there is no hindering them
but by giving reasons against it : and so, like
enough, they might have done against the decreeing
tlie article at Nice ; yet that is not sufficient ; for
since the authority of the Nicene council hath
grown to the height of a mountainous prejudice
against him that should say it was ill done, the
same reason and the same necessity may be pre-
tended by any age and in any council, and they
think themselves warranted, by the great precedent
at Nice, to proceed as peremptorily as they did : but
70 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
then, if any other assembly of learned men may
possibly be deceived, were it not better they should
spare the labour, than that they should, with so great
pomp and solemnities, engage men's persuasions,
and determine an article which after ages must
rescind ? For, therefore, most certainly in their
own age, the point, with safety of faith and salva-
tion, might have been disputed and disbelieved :
and that many men's ftiiths have been tied up by
acts and decrees of councils, for those articles in
which the next age did see a liberty had better
been preserved, because an error was determined,
we shall afterward receive a more certain account.
And therefore the council of Nice did well, and
Constantinople did well; so did Ephesus and
Chalcedon; but it is because the articles were truly
determined (for that is part of my belief) : but
who is sure it should be so beforehand, and whether
the points there determined were necessary or no
to be believed or to be determined ? If peace
had been concerned in it, through the faction and
division of the parties, I sujjpose the judgment
of Constantine, the emperor, and the famous
Hosius of Corduba, is sufficient to instruct us;
whose authority I rather urge than reasons, be-
cause it is a prejudice and not a reason I am to
contend against.
So that such determinations and publishing of
confessions, with authority of prince and bishop, are
sometimes of very good use for the peace of the
church ; and they are good also to determine the
judgment of indifferent persons, whose reasons of
either side are not too great to weigh down the pro-
bability of that authority: but for persons of con-
fident and imperious understandings, they on whose
OF HERESY. 71
side the determination is, are armed with a preju-
dice against the other, and with a weapon to affront
them, but with no more to convince them; and
they against whom the decision is, do the more
readily betake themselves to the defensive, and are
engaged upon contestation and public enmities, for
such articles which either might safely have been
unknown, or with much charity disputed. There-
fore the Nicene council, although it have the advan-
tage of an acquired and prescribing authority, yet
it must not become a precedent to others, lest the
inconveniences of multiplying more articles, upon
as great pretence of reason as then, make the act of
the Nicene fathers, in straitening prophesying,
and enlarging the creed, become accidentally an
inconvenience. The first restraint, although, if it
had been complained of, might possibly have been
better considered of; yet the inconvenience is not
visible, till it comes by way of precedent to usher in
more. It is like an arbitrary power, which, al-
though by the same reason it take sixpence from
the subject it may take a hundred pounds, and then
a thousand, and then all, yet so long as it is within
the first bounds, the inconvenience is not so great ;
but when it comes to be a precedent or argument
for more, then the first may justly be complained
of, as having in it that reason in the principle
which brought the inconvenience in the sequel;
and we have seen very ill consequents from inno-
cent beginnings.
And the inconveniences which might possibly
arise from this precedent, those wise personages also
did foresee; and therefore, although they took
liberty in Nice to add some articles, or at least more
explicitly to declare the first creed, yet they then
72 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
would have all the world to rest upon that, and go
no farther, as believing that to be sufficient, St.
Athanasius declares their opinion :* " That faith,
which those fathers there confessed, was sufficient
for the refutation of all impiety, and the establish-
ment of all faith in Christ and true religion." And
therefore there was a famous epistle written by
Zeno the emperor, called the 'Ev(OTiK6v,-\- or the
Epistle of Reconciliation, in which all disagreeing
interests are entreated to agree in the Nicene sym-
bol ; and a promise made, upon that condition, to
communicate with all other sects ; adding, withal,
that the church should never receive any other
symbol than that which was composed by the Nicene
fathers. And however IJonorius was condemned
for a Monothelite, yet, in one of the epistles which
the sixth synod alleged against him, (viz. the se-
cond,) he gave them counsel that would have done
the church as much service as the determination of
the article did ; for he advised them not to be curious
in their disputings, nor dogmatical in their deter-
minations about that question; and because the
church was not used to dispute in that question, it
were better to preserve the simplicity of faith, than
to ensnare men's consciences by a new article. And
when the emperor Constantius was, by his faction,
engaged in a contrary practice, the inconvenience
and unreasonableness was so great, that a prudent
heathen observed and noted it in this character of
Constantius, " That he mixed the Christian reli-
gion, pure and simple in itself, with a weak and
* "H yap sv civrij Trapa tmv Trarepiov Kara tclq Bfiag
ypatpaq OjjLoXoyrjBeiaa TTtVic, dvTapKr]Q £Ti TrpoQ civaTpOTrrjv
fiev 7rd(Tt]Q d(7e(3eiag, av^cKXiv de Tijg evrre^eiac Iv X|0i<7<^
TTi^-fwc. — Epist. ad Epict.
f Evag. lib. iii. c. 14.
OF HERESY. 73
foolish superstition, perplexing to examine, but
useless to contrive ; and excited dissensions which
were widely diffused, and which were maintained
with a war of words, while he endeavoured to regu-
late every sacred rite by his own will." *
And yet men are more led by example than
either by reason or by precept ; for in the council of
Constantino j)le one article, wholly new, was added ;
viz. " I believe one baptism for the remission of
sins :" and then, again, they were so confident that
that confession of faith was so absolutely entire,
and that no man ever after should need to add any
thing to the integrity of faith, that the fathers of
the council of Ephesus pronounced anathema to
all those that should add any thing to the creed of
Constantinople. And yet, for all this, the church of
Rome, in a synod at Gentilly, added the clause of
" Filioque" to the article of the procession of the
Holy Ghost; and what they have done since all the
world knows. All men were persuaded that it was
most reasonable the limits of faith should be no more
enlarged ; but yet they enlarged it themselves, and
bound others from doing it ; like an intemperate
father, who, because he knows he does ill himself,
enjoins temperance to his son, but continues to be
intemperate himself.
But now, if I should be questioned concerning
the symbol of Athanasius, (for we see the Nicene
symbol was the father of many more, some twelve
or thirteen symbols in the space of a hundred
* " Christianam religionem absolutam et simplicem anili
superstitione confudit. In qua scrutanda perplexius quani in
componenda gratius, excitavit dissidia quae progressa fusius
aluit concertatione verborum, dum ritum omuem ad suum tra-
here conatur arbitrium."
^4 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
years,) I confess I cannot see that moderate sen-
tence and gentleness of charity in his jDreface and
conclusion, as there was in the Nicene creed. No-
thing there but damnation and perishing everlast-
ingly, unless the article of the Trinity be believed,
as it is there, with curiosity and minute particu-
larities, explained. Indeed, Athanasius had been
soundly vexed on one side, and much cried up on
the other ; and therefore it is not so much wonder
for him to be so decretory and severe in his cen-
sure; for nothing could more ascertain his friends to
him, and disrepute his enemies, than the belief of
that damnatory appendix ; but that does not jus-
tify the thing. For the articles themselves, I am
most heartily persuaded of the truth of them, and
yet I dare not say, all that are not so are irrevocably
damned, because m ithout this symbol the faith of
the ajDOstles' creed is entire, and he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved ; that is, he that be-
lieveth such a belief as is sufficient disposition to
l>e baptized, that faith with the sacrament is suffi-
cient for heaven. Now the apostles' creed does
one ; why, therefore, doth not both entitle us to the
promise ? Besides, if it were considered concerning
Athanasius's creed, how many people understand
it not, how contrary to natural reason it seems, how
little the Scripture* says of those curiosities of ex-
plication, and how tradition was not clear on his
side for the article itself, much less for those forms
and minutes; how himself is put to make an an-
swer, and excuse, for the fathersf speaking in favour
* Vide Hosium de Author. S. Scrip, lib. iii. p. 53, et Gor-
don. Huntlaeum. torn. i. controv. i. de Yerbo Dei, cap. 19.
+ Vide Gretser. et Tanner, in colloq. Ratisbon. F.usebium
fuisse Arianum ait Perron, lib. iii. cap. 2, contra Jacobum
OF HERESY. 75
of the Arians, at least so seemingly that the Arians
appealed to them for trial, and the offer was de-
clined ; and after all this, that the Nicene creed
itself ^vent not so far, neither in article, nor ana-
thema, nor explication ; it had not been amiss if
the final judgment had been left to Jesus Christ, for
he is appointed Judge of all the world, and he shall
judge the people righteously, for he knows every
truth, the degree of every necessity, and all excuses
that do lessen or take away the nature or malice of
a crime; all which I think Athanasius, though a
very good man, did not know so well as to warrant
such a sentence. And put case, the heresy there
condemned be damnable, (as it is damnable
enough,) yet a man may maintain an opinion that
is in itself damnable, and yet he, not knowing it so,
and being invincibly led into it, may go to heaven;
his opinion shall burn, and himself be saved. But,
however, I find no opinions in Scripture called
damnable but what are impious in their effect upon
the life, or directly destructive of the faith or the
body of Christianity; such of which St. Peter
speaks ;* ' bringing in damnable heresies, even
denying the Lord that bought them : these are the
false prophets, who out of covetousness make mer-
chandize of you through cozening words.' Such
as these are truly heresies, and such as these are
certainly damnable. But because there are no de-
grees either of truth or falsehood, every true pro-
Regem. Idem ait Orighiem negasse Divinitateni Filii et
Spir. S. lib. ii. c. 7? de Euchar. contra Duplessis. Idem, cap. 5,
observ. 4, ait, Irensemn talia dixisse quae qui hodie diceret, pro
Ariano reputaretur. Vide etiam Fisher, in resp, ad 9 Quaest.
Jacobi Reg. et Epiphan. in Haeres. 65.
* 2 Pet. ii. 1.
76 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
position being alike true, that an error is more or
less damnable, is not told us in Scripture, but is
determined by the man and his manners, by cir-
cumstance and accidents ; and therefore the cen-
sure in the preface and end are arguments of his
zeal and strength of his persuasion ; but they are
extrinsical and accidental to the articles, and might
as well have been spared. And, indeed, to me it
seems very hard to put uncharitableness into the
creed, and so to make it become as an article of
faith, though perhaps this very thing was no faith
of Athanasius,* who, if we may believe Aquinas,
made this manifestation of faith, non per modum
symhoU, secI per modum doctrines; that is, if I un-
derstood him right, not with a purpose to impose
it upon others, but with confidence to declare his
own belief; and that it was prescribed to others as
a creed, v* as the act of the bishops of Rome ; so he
said ; nay, possibly it was none of his. So said the
patriarch of Constantinople, IMeletius, about one
hundred and thirty years since, in his epistle to
John Douza : " We do not scruple plainly to pro-
test that the creed is falsely ascribed to Athanasius,
which was corrupted by the Roman pontiffs."f And
it is more than probable that he said true, because
this creed was written originally in Latin, which in
all reason Athanasius did not, and it was translated
into Greek; it being apparent that the Latin copy is
but one, but the Greek is various, there being three
editions, or translations rather, expressed by Gene-
brard, lib. iii. de Trinit. But, in this particular,
who list may better satisfy himself in a dis^jutation
* D. Tho. 22as. q. i. artic. 1 . ad 3.
i" " Athanasio falso aclscriptum symbolum cum pontificum
Rom. appendice ilH adulteratum, luce lucidius contestamur."
OF HERESY. 77
De Symholo Athanasii, printed at Wertzburg, 1590,
supposed to be written by Serrarius or Clencherus.
And yet I must observe, that this symbol of Atha-
nasius, and that other of Nice, offer not at any new
articles ; they only pretend to a further explication
of the articles apostolical ; which is a certain confir-
mation that they did not believe more articles to be
of belief necessary to salvation : if they intended
these further explications to be as necessary as the
dogmatical articles of the apostles' creed, I know
not how to answer all that may be objected against
that; but the advantage that T shall gather from
their not proceeding to new matters, is laid out
ready for me in the words of Athanasius, saying of
this creed, "This is the catholic faith;" and if his
authority be good, or his saying true, or he the au-
thor, then no man can say of any other article, that
it is a part of the catholic faith, or that the catholic
faith can be enlarged beyond the contents of that
symbol ; and therefore it is a strange boldness in
the church of Rome,* first to add twelve new arti-
cles, and then to add the appendix of Athanasius to
the end of them, "This is the catholic faith, without
which no man can be saved."
But so great an example of so excellent a man
hath been either mistaken or followed with too much
greediness; for we see all the world in factions, all
damning one another; each party damned by all the
rest ; and there is no disagreeing in opinion from any
man that is in love with his own opinion, but dam-
nation presently to all that disagree. A ceremony
and a rite hath caused several churches to excom-
* Bulla Pii quart! supra fomia juramenti proress"cnis fideij
in fin. Cone. Trident.
78 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
municate each other ; as in the matter of the Satur-
day fast and keeping Easter. But what the spirits
of men are when they are exasperated in a ques-
tion and difference of religion, as they call it,
though the thing itself may be most inconsiderable,
is very evident in that rec^uest of Pope Innocent
the Third, desiring of the Greeks, (but reasonably
a man would think,) that they would not so much
hate the Roman manner of consecrating in unlea-
vened bread, as to wash and scrape, and pare the
altars, after a Roman priest had consecrated. No-
thing more furious than a mistaken zeal, and the
actions of a scrupulous and abused conscience.
When men think every thing to be their faith and
their religion, commonly they are so busy in trifles
and such impertinences in which the scene of their
mistake lies, that they neglect the greater things of
the law, charity, and compliances, and the gentle-
ness of Christian communion ; for this is the great
principle of mischief, and yet is not more perni-
cious than unreasonable.
For, I demand, can any man say and justify that
the apostles did deny communion to any man that
believed the apostles' creed, and lived a good life ?
And dare any man tax that proceeding of remiss-
ness, and indiiferency in religion ? And since our
blessed Saviour promised salvation to him that be-
lieveth, (and the apostles, when they gave this
word the greatest extent, enlarged it not beyond the
borders of the creed,) how can any man warrant
the condemning of any man to the flames of hell,
that is ready to die in attestation of this faith, so
expounded and made explicit by the apostles, and
lives accordingly ? And to this purpose it w^as ex-
cellently said, by a wise and a pious prelate, St.
OF HERESY. 79
Hilary,* " It is not tliroiigli thorny questions that
God invites us to heaven : our way to eternal life is
clear and easy: — to believe that Jesus was raised
from the dead by the power of God, to confess him
to be the Lord," &c. These are the articles which
we must believe, which are the sufficient and ade-
quate object of that faith which is required of us
in order to salvation. And therefore it was, that
when the bishops of Istria deserted the communion
of Pope Pelagius, in causa frium capitulorum,\ he
gives them an account of his faith by recitation of
the creed, and by attesting the four general coun-
cils, and is confident upon this that no question or
suspicion can arise respecting the validity of his
faith : let the apostles' creed, especially so expli-
cated, be but secured, and all faith is secured ; and
yet that explication too, was less necessary than the
articles themselves; for the explication was but ac-
cidental, but the articles, even before the explication,
were accounted a sufficient inlet to the kino-dom of
heaven.
And that there was security enough, in the simple
believing the first articles, is very certain amongst
them, and by their principles who allow of an im-
plicit faith to serve most persons to the greatest
purposes; for if the creed did contain in it the
whole faith, and that other articles were in it impli-
citly, (for such is the doctrine of the school, and
particularly of Aquinas,) then he that explicitly
believes all the creed, does implicitly believe all the
articles contained in it ; and then it is better the
* " Non per difficiles nos Deus ad beatam vitam qusstiones
vocat, &c. In absoluto nobis et facili est seternitas ; Jesum
suscitatum a mortuis per Deum credere, et ipsum esse Dominum
confiteri, &c." — Lib. x. De Trin. ad finem.
-j- Concil. torn. iv. edit. Paris, p. 473.
80 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
implication should still continue, than that, by any
explication, (which is simply unnecessary,) the
church should be troubled with questions, and un-
certain determinations, and factions enkindled, and
animosities set on foot, and men's souls endangered,
who before were secured by the explicit belief of
all that the apostles required as necessary ; which
belief also did secure them for all the rest, because
it implied the belief of whatsoever was virtually
in the first articles, if such belief should by chance
be necessary.
The sum of this discourse is this : if we take an
estimate of the nature of faith from the dictates and
promises evangelical, and from the practice aposto-
lical, the nature of faith and its integrity consists
in such propositions which make the foundation of
hope and charity, that which is sufficient to make
us to do honour to Christ and to obey him, and to
encourage us in both ; and this is completed in the
apostles' creed. And since contraries are of the
same extent, heresy is to be judged by its proportion
and analogy to faith, and that is heresy only which
is against faith. Now, because faith is not only a
precept of doctrines, but of manners and holy life,
whatsoever is either opposite to an article of creed,
or teaches ill life, that is heresy ; but all those pro-
positions which are extrinsical to these two consider-
ations, be they true or be they false, make not
heresy, nor the man a heretic ; and therefore, how-
ever he may be an erring person, yet he is to be
used accordingly, pitied and instructed, not con-
demned or excommunicated : and this is the result
of the first ground, the consideration of the nature
of faith and heresy.
81
SECTION III.
Of the difficulty and uncertainty of Arguments from
Scripture, in Questions not simply necessary, not
literally determined.
God, who disposes of all things sweetly, and ac-
cording to the nature and capacity of things and
persons, had made those only necessary which he
had taken care should be sufficiently propounded
to all persons of whom he required the explicit
belief. And therefore all the articles of faith are
clearly and plainly set down in Scripture, and the
Gospel is not hid, excepting to them that are lost,
saith St. Paul ; " for there we find the encourage-
ment to every virtue, and the warning against every
vice," saith Damascen;* and that so manifestly, that
no man can be ignorant of the foundation of faith
without his own apparent fault. And this is ac-
knowledged by all wise and good men ; and is evi-
dent, besides the reasonableness of the thing, in the
testimonies of Saints Austin,f Jerome,! Chrysos-
tom,§ Fulgentius,|l Hugo de Sancto Victore,5[ Theo-
doret,* Lactantius,f Theophilus Antiochenus,t
Aquinas, § and the latter schoolmen. And God
* Ii.d(jr]C, ytip apsTrjQ irapaKkriaiv, Kai KaKiag cnrdffrjg
rpoTTijv ev TcivraiQ kvpiuKoiifv. — Orthod. Fidei. lib. iv. c. 18.
t Super. Psal. 88, et de Util. Cred. c. 6.
X Super Isa. c. 19, and in Psal. 86.
§ Homil. 3, in Thess. Ep. ii. |1 Serm. de Confess.
k\ Miscel. ii. lib. i. tit. 46.
* In Gen. ap Struch. p. 87- f Cap. 6.
+ Ad Antioch. lib. ii. p. 918. ^ Par. i. q. i. art. 9.
G
82 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
hath done more ; for many thmgs which are only-
profitable, are also set down so plainly, that, as
St. Austin says, " every one may partake, if he
come in a devout and pious spirit :"* but of such
things there is no question commenced in Christen-
dom; and if there were, it cannot but be a crime
and human interest that are the authors of such
disjDutes; and therefore these cannot be simple
errors, but always heresies, because the principle of
them is a personal sin.
But besides these things, which are so plainly
set down, some lor doctrine, as St. Paul says, that
is, for articles and foundation of faith, some for in-
struction, some for reproof, some for comfort, that
is, in matters practical and speculative of several
tempers and constitutions, there are innumerable
places, containing in them great mysteries, but yet
either so enwrapped with a cloud, or so darkened
with lunbrages, or heightened with expressions, or
so covered with allegories and garments of rhetoric,
so profound in the matter, or so altered or made
intricate in the manner, in the clothing, and in the
dressing, that God may seem to have left them as
trials of our industry, and arguments of our im-
perfections, and incentives to the longings after
heaven, and the clearest revelations of eternity, and
as occasions and opportunities of our mutual cha-
rity and toleration to each other, and humility in
ourselves, rather than the repositories of faith and
furniture of creeds, and articles of belief
For wherever the word of God is kept, whether
in Scripture alone, or also in tradition, he that con-
siders that the meaning of the one, and the truth
* " Nemo inde haurire non possit, si modb ad hauriendum
devote ac pie accedat." — Ubi supra de Util. Cred. c. 6.
OF ARGUMENTS FROM SCRIPTURE. 83
or certainty of the other, are things of great ques-
tion, will see a necessity in these things, (which are
the subject matter of most of the questions in
Christendom,) that men should hope to be ex-
cused by an implicit faith in God Almighty. For
when there are, in the explications of Scripture, so
many commentaries, so many senses and interpre-
tations, so many volumes in all ages, and all, like
men's faces, exactly none like another, either this
difference and inconvenience is absolutely no fault
at all, or, if it be, it is excusable, by a mind pre-
pared to consent in tltat truth which God intended.
And this I call an implicit faith in God, which is
certainly of as great excellency as an implicit faith
in any man or company of men. Because they
who do require an implicit faith in the church for
articles less necessary, and excuse the want of ex-
IDlicit faith by the implicit, do require an implicit
faith in the church, because they believe that God
hath required of them to have a mind prepared to
believe whatever the church says ; which, because
it is a proposition of no absolute certainty, whoso-
ever does, in readiness of mind, believe all that
God spake, does also believe that sufficiently, if it
be fitting to be believed ; that is, if it be true, and
if God hath said so ; for he hath the same obedi-
ence of understanding in this as in the other. But,
because it is not so certain God hath tied him in all
things to believe that which is called the church,
and that it is certain we must believe God in all
things, and yet neither know all that either God
hath revealed or the church taught, it is better to
take the certain than the uncertain, to believe God
rather than men ; especially since, if God hath
bound us to believe men, our absolute submission
G 2
84 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
to God does involve that, and there is no inconve-
nience in the world this way, but that we impli-
citly believe one article more, viz. the church's au-
thority or infallibility, which may well be pardoned,
because it secures our belief of all the rest, and we
are sure if we believe all that God said expli-
citly or implicitly, we also believe the church impli-
citly, in case we are bound to it; but we are not
certain, that if we believe any company of men,
whom we call the church, that we therefore obey
God, and believe what he hath said. But, how-
ever, if this will not help vis, there is no help for
us, but good fortune or absolute predestination ;
for by choice and industry no man can secure him-
self, that in all the mysteries of relio-ion taus^ht in
Scripture he shall certainly understand and expli-
citly believe that sense that God intended. For to
this purpose there are many considerations.
I. There are so many thousands of copies that
were writ by persons of several interests and per-
suasions, such different understandings and tem-
pers, such distinct abilities and weaknesses, that it
is no wonder there is so great variety of readings
both in the Old Testament and in the New. In
the Old Testament, the Jews pretend that the
Christians have corrupted many places, on purpose
to make symphony between both the Testaments.
On the other side, the Christians have had so much
reason to suspect the Jews, that when Aquila had
translated the Bible in their schools, and had been
taught by them, they rejected the edition, many of
them, and some of them called it heresy to follow
it. And Justin Martyr justified it to Tryphon,
that the Jews had defalked many sayings from the
books of the old prophets, and amongst the rest he
OF ARGUMENTS FROM SCRIPTURE. 85
instances in that of the Psalm, Dicite in natlonihus
quia Dominus regnavit a ligno. The last words
they have cut off, and prevailed so far in it, that to
this day none of our Bibles have it ; but if they
ought not to have it, then Justin Martyr's Bible
had more in it than it should have, for there it was ;
so that a fault there was, either under or over. But,
however, there are infinite readings in the New
Testament; (for in that I will instance;) some whole
verses in one that are not in another; and there was,
in some copies of St. Mark's Gospel, in the last
chapter, a whole verse, a chapter it was anciently
called, that is not found in our Bibles, as St. Jerome
ad Hedibiam, q. 3. notes. The vv^ords he repeats.
Lib. ii. Contra Polygamos : " They confessed, saying,
that it is the essence of iniquity and unbelief, which
does not allow the true power of God to be appre-
hended by unclean spirits ; therefore now display
thy righteousness."* These words are thought by
some to savour of Manicheism ; and, for ought I can
find, were therefore rejected out of many Greek
copies, and at last out of the Latin. Now, suppose
that a Manichee in disputation should urge this
place, having found it in his Bible, if a catholic
should answer him by saying, it is apocryphal, and
not found in divers Greek copies, might not the
Manichee ask, how it came in, if it was not the
word of God, and if it was, how came it out ? and
at last take the same liberty of rejecting any other
authority which shall be alleged against him, if he
can find any copy that may favour him, however
* " Et illi satis faciebant dicentes, seeculum istad iniquitatis
et incredulitatis substantia est, quae non sinit per immvmdos
spiritus veram Dei apprehendi virtutem, idcirco jam nunc
revela justitiam tuam."
^
86 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
that favour be procured ? And did not the Ebio-
nites reject all the epistles of St. Paul, upon pre-
tence he was an enemy to the law of INIoses ? In-
deed, it was boldly and most unreasonably done ;
but if one title or one chajDter of St. Mark be called
apochryphal, for being suspected of Manicheism, it
is a plea that will too much justify others in their
taking and choosing what they list. But I will not
urge it so far ; but is not there as much reason for
the fierce Lutherans to reject the epistle of St.
James, for favouring justification by works, or the
epistle to the Hebrews, upon pretence that the
sixth and tenth chapters do favour Novatianism ;
especially, since it was by some famous churches
at first not accepted; even by the church of Rome
herself ? The parable of the woman taken in adul-
tery, which is now in John viii. Eusebius says, was
not in any gospel, but the Gospel according to the
Hebrews; and St. Jerome makes it doubtful, and so
does St. Chrysostom and Euthimius, the first not
vouchsafing to explicate it in his homilies upon St.
John, the other affirming it not to be found in the
exacter copies. I shall not need to urge, that there
are some v.ords so near in sound, that the scribes
might easily mistake. There is one famous one of
serving the Lord* which yet some copies read
serving the time ;f the sense is very unlike, though
the words be near, and there needs some little
luxation to strain this latter reading to a good
sense. That famous precept of St. Paul, that the
women must pray with a covering on their head,
cia TovQ rtyyeX^C} 'because of the angels,' hath brought
into the church an opinion that angels are present
* Kvpi(^ dsXevovTsg. -f Kaipip dnX(V0VT€g.
OF ARGUMENTS FROM SCRIPTURE. 87
in churches, and are spectators of our devotion and
deportment. Such an opinion, if it should meet
with peevish opposites on one side, and confident
hyperaspists on the other, might possibly make a
sect : and here were a clear ground for the affirma-
tive ; and yet, who knows but that it might have
been a mistake of the transcribers to double the y ?
for if we read, did rove dyeXsQ, that the sense be,
' Women in public assemblies must wear a veil, by
reason of companies of the young men there pre-
sent," it would be no ill exchange, for the loss of a
letter, to make so probable, so clear a sense of the
place. But the instances in this kind are too
many, as appears in the variety of readings in
several copies, proceeding from the negligence or
ignorance of the transcribers, or the malicious en-
deavour of heretics,* or the inserting marginal
notes into the text, or the nearness of several words.
Indeed there is so much evidence of this particular,
that it hath encouraged the servants of the vulgar
translation (for so some are now-a-days) to prefer
that translation before the original; for although
they have attempted that proposition with very ill
success, yet that they could think it possible to be
proved, is an argument there is much variety and
alterations in divers texts ; for if they were not,
it were impudence to pretend a translation, and
that none of the best, should be better than the
original. But so it is, that this variety of reading
is not of slight consideration ; for although it be
demonstrably true, that all things necessary to faith
* Graeci corruperunt Novum Testamentum ut testantur
Tertul. lib. v. adv. Marcion. Euseb. lib. v. Hist. c. ult. Irenge.
lib. i. c. 29. Allu. Heeres. Basil, lib. ii. contr. Eunomium.
88 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
and good manners are preserved from alteration
and corruption, because they are of things neces-
sary ; and they could not be necessary, unless they
were delivered to us, God in his goodness and his
justice having obliged himself to preserve that
which he hath bound us to observe and keep ; yet,
in other things, which God hath not obliged him-
self so punctually to preserve, — in these things, since
variety of reading is crept in, every reading takes
away a degree of certainty from any proposition
derivative from those places so read : and if some
copies (especially if they be public and notable)
omit a verse or title, every argument from such a
title or verse loses mucli of its strength and repu-
tation ; and we find it in a great instance. For
when in probation of the mystery of the glorious
Unity in Trinity, we allege that saying of St. John,
' There are three which bear witness in heaven, the
Father, the Word, and the Spirit, and these three
are one ;' the anti-trinitarians think they have an-
swered the argument, by saying, the Syrian transla-
tion and divers Greek copies have not that verse
in them, and therefore, being of doubtful authority,
cannot conclude with certainty in a question of
faith. And there is an instance on the catholic
part : for when the Arians urge the saying of our
Saviour, ' No man knows that day and hour, (viz.
of judgment,) no not the Son, but the Father only,'
to prove that the Son knows not all things, and
therefore cannot be God, in the proper sense ; St.
Ambrose thinks he hath answered the argument
by saying those words, ' no not the Son,* were
thrust into the text by the fraud of the Arians. So
that here we have one objection, which must first
be cleared and made infallible, before we can be
OF ARGUMENTS FROM SCRIPTURE. 89
ascertained in any such question as to call them
heretics that dissent.
.11. I consider that there are very many senses
and designs of expounding Scripture, and when
the grammatical sense is found out, we are many
times never the nearer ; it is not that which was
intended; for there is, in very many Scriptures, a
double sense, a literal and a spiritual; (for the
Scripture is a book written within and without,
Apoc. V.) and both these senses are subdivided.
For the literal sense is either natural or figurative ;
and the spiritual is sometimes allegorical, some-
times anagogical ; nay, sometimes there are divers
literal senses in the same sentence, as St. Austin
excellently proves in divers places ;* and it appears
in divers quotations in the New Testament, where
the apostles and divine writers bring the same tes-
timony to divers purposes ; and particularly St.
Paul's making that saying of the Psalm, ' Thou art
my Son, this day have I begotten thee,' to be an
argument of Christ's resurrection, and a designa-
tion or ordination to his pontificate, is an instance
very famous in his first and fifth chapter to the He-
brews. But now, there being such variety of senses
in Scripture, and but few places so marked out, as
not to be capable of divers senses, if men will
write commentaries as Herod made orations, Kara
TToWrig (pavracriag, with a mind inflated with vanity,
what infallible criterion will be left, whereby
to judge of the certain dogmatical resolute sense of
such places which have been the matter of ques-
tion ? For put case, a question were commenced
* Lib. xii. Confess, cap. 2G. Lib. ii. de Civit. Dei. cap. 9.
Lib. iii. de Doctrina Christ, cap. 2(?,
90 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
concerning the degrees of glory in heaven, as
there is in the schools a noted one. To show an
inequality of reward, Christ's parable is brought, of
the reward of ten cities, and of five, according to
the divers improvement of the talents ; this sense
is mystical, and yet very probable, and understood
by men, for aught I know, to this very sense. x\nd
the result of the argument is made good by St.
Paul : ' As one star difFereth from another in glory,
so shall it be in the resurrection of the dead.' Now,
suppose another should take the same liberty of
expounding another parable to a mystical sense
and interpretation, as all parables must be ex-
pounded ; then the parable of the labourers in the
vineyard, and though differing in labour, yet
having an equal reward, to any man's understand-
ing, may seem very strongly to prove the contrary;
and as if it were of purpose, and that it were the
main design of the parable, the lord of the vine-
yard determined the point resolutely, upon the
mutiny and repining of them that had borne the
burthen and heat of the day, ' I will give unto this
last even as to thee ;' which, to my sense, seems
to determine the question of degrees ; they that
work but little, and they that work long, shall not
be distinguished in the reward, though accidentally
they were in the work ; and if this opinion could
but answer St. Paul's words, it stands as fair, and
perhaps fairer than the other. Now, if we look
well ujDon the words of St. Paul, we shall find he
speaks nothing at all of diversity of degrees of
glory in beatified bodies, but the differences of glory
in bodies heavenly and earthly : ' There are,' says
he, ' bodies earthly, and there are heavenly bo-
dies : and one is the glory of the earthly, another
OF ARGUMENTS FROM SCRIPTURE. 91
the glory of the heavenly ; one gloiy of the sun,
another of the moon, &c. So shall it be in the
resurrection ; for it is sown in corruption, it is
raised in incorruption.' Plainly thus, our bodies
in the resurrection shall difter as much from our
bodies here, in the state of corruption, as one star
does from another. And now, suppose a sect
should be commenced upon this question, (upon
lighter and vainer many have been,) either side
must resolve to answer the other's arguments, whe-
ther they can or no, and to deny to each other a
liberty of expounding the parable to such a sense,
and yet themselves must use it or want an argu-
ment. But men use to be unjust in their own
cases; and were it not better to leave each other
to their liberty, and seek to preserve their own
charity ? For when the words are capable of a
mystical or a diverse sense, I know not why men's
fancies or understandings should be more bound
to be like one another than their faces : and either,
in all such places of Scripture, a liberty must be
indulged to every honest and peaceable wise man,
or else all argument from such places must be
wholly declined. Now, although I instanced in a
question, which by good fortune never came to
open defiance, yet there have been sects framed
upon lighter grounds, more inconsiderable cjues-
tions, which have been disputed on either side with
arguments less material and less pertinent. St.
Austin laughed at the Donatists, for bringing that
saying of the spouse in the Canticles, to prove
their schism, ' Tell me where thou feedest, where
thou makest thy flock to rest at noon.' For from
thence they concluded, the residence of the church
was only in the south part of the world, only in
92 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
Africa.* It was but a weak way of argument ; yet
the fathers were free enough to use such mediums,
to prove mysteries of great concernment ; but yet
again, when they speak either against an adversary,
or with consideration, they deny that such mystical
senses can sufficiently confirm a question of faith.
But I shall instance, in the great Cjuestion of rebap-
tization of heretics, which many saints, and mar-
tyrs, and confessors, and divers councils, and al-
most all Asia and Africa did once believe and
practise. Their grounds for the invalidity of the
baptism by a heretic, were such mystical words
as these : ' Thou hast covered my head in the day
of battle,' Ps. cxl. ; and, ' He that washeth him-
self, after the touching a dead body, if he touch it
again, what availeth his washing "^^ Ecclus. xxxiv. ;
and, ' Drink waters out of thine own cistern,'
Prov. V. ; and, ' We know that God heareth not
sinners,' John ix. ; and, ' He that is not with me
is against me,' Luke xi. I am not sure the other
part had arguments so good ; for the great one of
' one faith, one baptism,' did not conclude it to
their understandings who were of the other opinion,
and men famous in their generations ; for it was
no argument that they who had been baptized by
John's baptism should not be baptized in the name
of Jesus, because ' one God, one baptism ;' and as it
is still one faith which a man confesseth several
times, and one sacrament of the eucharist, though
a man often communicates; so it might be one
baptism, though often ministered. And the unity
of baptism might not be derived from the unity of
the ministration, but from the unity of the religion
* Jerome, in Matth. xi.
OF ARGUMENTS FROM SCRIPTURE. 93
into which they are bajDtized : though baptized a
thousand times, yet, because it was still in the
name of the holy Trinity, still into the death of
Christ, it might be ' one baptism.' Whether St.
Cyprian, Firmilian, and their colleagues, had this
discourse or no, (I know not,) I am sure they might
have had much better to have evacuated the force
of that argument, although I believe they had the
wrong- cause in hand. But this is it that I say,
that when a question is so undetermined in Scrip-
ture, that the arguments rely only upon such mys-
tical places whence the best fancies can draw the
greatest variety, and such which perhaps were
never intended by the Holy Ghost, it were good
the rivers did not swell higher than the fountain,
and the confidence higher than the argument and
evidence : for, in this case, there could not any thing
be so certainly proved, as that the disagreeing
party should deserve to be condemned, by a sen-
tence of excommunication, for disbelieving it ; and
yet they were ; which I wonder at so much the
more, because they who (as it was since judged)
had the right cause, had not any sufficient argu-
ment from Scripture, not so much as such mystical
arguments, but did fly to the tradition of the
church ; in which also I shall afterwards show, they
had nothing that was absolutely certain.
III. I consider that there are divers places of
Scripture, containing in them mysteries and ques-
tions of great concernment ; and yet the fiibric and
constitution is such, that there is no certain mark
to determine M^hether the sense of them should be
literal or figurative : 1 speak not here concerning
extrinsical means of determination, as traditive in-
terpretation, councils, fathers, popes, and the like j I
94 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
shall consider them afterward, in their several places ;
but here the subject-matter being concerning' Scrip-
ture in its own capacity, I say there is nothing in
the nature of the thing to determine the sense and
meaning, but it must be gotten out as it can ; and
that therefore it is unreasonable, that what of itself
is ambiguous should be understood in its own
prime sense and intention, under the pain of either
a sin or an anathema : I instance, in that famous
place from whence hath sprung that question of
transubstantiation, ' This is my body.' The words
are plain and clear, apt to be understood in the
literal sense ; and yet this sense is so hard as it does
violence to reason ; and therefore it is the question,
whether or no it be not a figurative speech. But
here, what shall we have to determine it ? What
mean soever we take, and to what sense soever you
will expound it, you shall be put to give an ac-
count why you expound other places of Scripture,
in the same case, to quite contrary senses. For if
you expound it literally, then, besides that it seems
to intrench upon the words of our blessed Saviour,
' The words that I speak, they are spirit, and they
are life/ that is, to be spiritually understood ; (and
it is a miserable thing to see what wretched shifts
are used to reconcile the literal sense to these
words, and yet to distinguish it from the Caper-
naitical fancy ;) but besides this, why are not those
other sayings of Christ expounded literally, *I am
a vine, I am the door, I am a rock ? ' Why do we
fly to a figure in those parallel words, * This is the
covenant which I make between me and you ? ' and
yet that covenant was but the sign of the covenant;
and why do we fly to a figure in a precept, as well
as in mystery and a proposition ? 'If thy right hand
OF ARGUMENTS FROM SCRIPTURE. 95
offend thee, cut it off:' and yet we have figures
enough to save a limb'. Tf it be said, because rea-
son tells us these are not to be expounded accord-
ing to the letter; this will be no plea for them who
retain the literal exposition of the other instance,
against all reason, against all philosophy, against
all sense, and against two or three sciences. But
if you expound these words figuratively, besides
that you are to contest against a world of preju-
dices, you give yourself the liberty, which if others
will use when either they have a reason or a neces-
sity so to do, they may perhaps turn all into alle-
gory, and so may evacuate any precept, and elude
any argument. Well, so it is that very wise men
have expounded things allegorically, when they
should have expounded them literally.* So did
the famous Origen, who, as St. Jerome reports
of him, turned paradise so into an allegory, that he
took away quite the truth of the story, and not
only Adam was turned out of the garden, but the
gi^rden itself out of paradise. Others expound
things literally, when they should understand them
in allegory ; so did the ancient Papias understand
Christ's millenary reign upon earth {Apocal. xx.;)
and so depressed the hopes of Christianity, and
their desires to the longing and expectation of
temporal pleasures and satisfactions; and he was
followed by Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian,
Lactantius, and indeed the whole church generally.
* Sic St. Hierom. " In adolescentia provocatus ardore et
studio Scripturarum allegorice interpretatus sum Abdiam pro-
phetam, cujus historiam nesciebam." De Sensu Allegorico S.
Script, dixit Basilius, 'Qq KeKoi.i-iptVf.di'ov j^iev rov \6yov
aTTooe^^OjUtS'a, dXij^r] ^£ elvai ov ircivv otocrojixev. — Lib. xxii.
de Civit. Dei. c. 7. Praefat. lib. xix. in Isai. et in c. 36. Ezek. -
96 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
till St. Austin and St. Jerome's time; who, first of
any whose v/orks are exant, did reprov^e the error.
If such great spirits be deceived, in finding out
what kind of senses be to be given to Scriptures, it
may well be endured that we, who sit at their feet,
may also tread in the steps of them whose feet
could not always tread aright.
IV. I consider that there are some places of
Scripture that have the self-same expressions, the
same preceptive words, the same reason and ac-
count, in all appearance, and yet either must be
expounded to quite different senses, or else we
must renounce the communion, and the charities
of a great part of Christendom. And yet there is
absolutely nothing in the thing, or in its circum-
stances, or in its adjuncts that can determine it to
different purposes. I instance in those great ex-
clusive negatives for the necessity of both sacraments :
' Except a man be born of water,' &c. ' Except ye
eat the flesh of the Son of Man, ye cannot enter into
the kingdom of heaven.* Now, then, the first is
urged for the absolute, indispensible necessity of bap-
tism, even in infants ; insomuch that infants go to
part of hell if (inculpably both on their own and
their parents' part) they miss of baptism ; for that is
the doctrine of the church of Rome, which they learnt
from St. Austin : and others also do, from hence,
baptize infants, though wdth a less opinion of its
absolute necessity. And yet the same manner of
precept, in the same form of w ords, in the same
manner of threatening, by an exclusive negative,
shall not enjoin us to communicate infants, though
damnation (at least in form of words) be ex-
actly, and in every particular, alike appendant to
the neglect of holy baptism and the venerable eu-
OF ARGUMENTS FROM SCRIPTURE. 97
cliarist. If ' except ye be born again/ shall con-
clude against the anabaptist for necessity of bap-
tizing infants, (as sure enough we say it does,) why
shall not an equal, ' except ye eat,' bring infants to
the holy communion ? The primitive church, for
some two whole ages, did follow their own princi-
ples, wherever they led them ; and seeing that
upon the same ground equal results must follow,
they did communicate infants as soon as they had
baptized them. And why the church of Rome
should not do so too, being she expounds, ' except
ye eat,' of oral manducation, I cannot yet learn a
reason. And, for others that expound it of a spi-
ritual manducation, why they shall not allow the
disagreeing part the same liberty of expounding
' except a man be born again,' too, I by no means
can understand. And in these cases no external
determiner can be pretended in answer : for what-
soever is extrinsical to the words, as councils, tra-
dition, church authority, and fathers, either have
said nothing at all, or have concluded, by their
practice, contrary to the present opinion ; as is plain
in their communicating infants by virtue of ' except
ye eat.'
5. I shall not need to urge the mysteriousness
of some points in Scripture, which, from the nature
of the subject, are hard to be understood, though
very plainly represented : for there are some mys-
teries in divinity,* which are only to be understood
by persons very holy and spiritual, which are rather
to be felt than discoursed of; and therefore, if per-
adventure they be offered to public consideration,
they will therefore be opposed, because they run
* Secreta Theologise.
98 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
the same fortune with many other questions; that
is, not to be understood ; and so much the rather,
because their understanding, that is, the feeling
such secrets of the kingdom, are not the results of
logic and philosophy, or yet of public revelation,
but of the public spirit privately working, and in no
man is a duty, but in all that have it, is a reward ;
and is not necessary for all, but given to some; pro-
ducing its operations, not regularly, but upon occa-
sions, personal necessities, and new emergencies.
Of this nature are the spirit of obsignation, belief
of particular salvation, special influences and com-
forts coming from a sense of the spirit of adoption,
actual fervours and great conplacencies in devo-
tion, spiritual joys, which are little drawings aside
of the curtains of peace and eternity, and antepasts
of immortality. But the not understanding the
perfect constitution and temperof these mysteries,
(and it is hard for any man so to understand as to
make others do so too that feel them not,) is cause
that in many questions of secret theology, by being
very apt and easy to be mistaken, there is a ne-
cessity in forbearing one another; and this con-
sideration would have been of good use in the
question between Soto and Catharinus, both for
the preservation of their charity and explication of
the mystery.
6. But here it will not be unseasonable to con-
sider, that all systems and principles of science are
expressed so, that either by reason of the univer-
sality of the terms and subject-matter, or the infi-
nite variety of human understandings, and these
perad venture swayed by interest, or determined by
things accidental and extrinsical, they seem to di-
vers men, nay to the same men upon divers occa-
OF ARGUMENTS FROM SCRIPTURE. 99
sions, to speak things extremely disparate, and some-
times contrary, but very often of great variety. And
this very thing happens also in Scripture, that if it
were not in a sacred subject, it were excellent sport
to observe, how the same place of Scripture serves
several turns upon occasion, and they at that time
believe the words sound nothing else; whereas, in
the liberty of their judgment and abstracting from
that occasion, their commentaries understand them
wholly to a differing sense. It is a wonder of what
excellent use to the church of Rome, is tibi dabo
claves, ' I will give thee the keys.' It was spoken
to Peter and none else, (sometimes,) and there-
fore it concerns him and his successors only ; the
rest are to derive from him. And yet, if you ques-
tion them for their sacrament of penance, and
priestly absolution, then * I will give thee the
keys' comes in, and that was spoken to St. Peter,
and in him to the whole college of the apostles, and
in them to the whole hierarchy. If you question
why the pope pretends to free souls from purga-
tory, * I will give thee the keys,' is his warrant ;
but if you tell him, the keys are only for binding
and loosing on earth directly, and in heaven conse-
quently ; and that purgatory is a part of hell, or
rather neither earth nor heaven nor hell, and so the
keys seem to have nothing to do with it, then his
commission is to be enlarged by a suppletory of
reason and consequences, and his keys shall unlock
this difficulty; for it is the key of knowledge, as well
as of authority. And these keys shall enable him
to expound Scriptures infallibly, to determine ques-
tions, to preside in councils, to dictate to all the
world magisterially, to rule the church, to dispense
with oaths, to abrogate laws: and if his key of
h2
100 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
knowledge will not, the key of authority shall,
and 'I will give thee the keys' shall answer for
all. We have an instance in the single fancy of
one man, what rare variety of matter is afforded
from those plain words, ' I have prayed for thee,
Peter,' Luke, xxii. ; for that place, says Bellarmine,*
is otherwise to be understood of Peter, otherwise of
the popes, and otherwise of the church of Rome :
and ' for thee' signifies, that Christ prayed that
Peter might neither err personally nor judicially;
and that Peter's successors, if they did err person-
ally, might not err judicially; and that the Roman
church might not err personally. All this variety
of senses is pretended, by the fancy of one man, to
be in a few words which are as plain and simple as
are any words in Scripture. And what then in
those thousands that are intricate ? So is done
with *Feed my sheep,' which a man would think
were a commission as innocent and guiltless of de-
signs, as the sheep in the folds are. But if it be
asked, why the bishop of Rome calls himself univer-
sal bishop, 'Feed my sheep' is his warrant. Why
he pretends to a power of deposing princes, ' Feed
my sheep,' said Christ to Peter, the second time. If
it be demanded, why also he pretends to a power of
authorising his subjects to kill him, ' Feed my
lambs,' said Christ, the third time: and 'feed'
(pasce) is teach, and ' feed' is command, and * feed '
is kill. Now if others should take the same (unrea-
sonableness I will not say, but the same) liberty in
expounding Scripture, or if it be not licence taken,
but that the Scripture itself is so full and redun-
dant in senses quite contrary, what man soever, or
* Bellar. lib. iv. de Pontif. c. 3. § Respondeo primo.
DIFFICULTY OF EXPOUNDING SCRIPTURE. 101
what company of men soever shall use this prin-
ciple, will certainly find such rare productions from
several places, that either the unreasonableness of
the thing will discover the error of the proceeding-,
or else there will be a necessity of permitting a great
liberty of judgment, where is so infinite variety
without limit or mark of necessary determination.
If the first, then, because an error is so obvious and
ready to ourselves, it will be great imprudence or
tyranny to be hasty in judging others; but if the
latter, it is it that I contend for : for it is most un-
reasonable, when either the thing itself ministers
variety, or that we take licence to ourselves in va-
riety of interpretations, or proclaim to all the world
our great weakness, by our actually being deceived,
that we should either prescribe to others magiste-
rially, when we are in error, or limit thsir under-
standings, when the thing itself affords liberty and
variety.
SECTION IV.
Of the Difficulty of Expounding Scripture.
These considerations are taken from the nature of
Scripture itself ; but then, if we consider that we
have no certain ways of determining places of
difficulty and question, infallibly and certainly;
but that we must hope to be saved in the belief of
things plain, necessary, and fundamental, and our
pious endeavour to find out God's meaning in such
102 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
places, which he hath left under a cloud, for other
great ends reserved to his own knowledge, we shall
see a very great necessity in allowing a liberty in
prophesying, without prescribing authoritatively to
other men's consciences, and becoming lords and
masters of their faith. Now the means of ex-
pounding Scripture are either external, or internal.
For the external, as church-authority, tradition,
lathers, councils, and decrees of bishops, they are
of a distinct consideration, and follow after in their
order. But here we will first consider the inva-
lidity and uncertainty of all those means of ex-
pounding Scripture, which are more proper and
internal to the nature of the thing. The great
masters of commentaries, some whereof have un-
dertaken to know all mysteries, have propounded
many ways to expound Scripture ; which indeed
are excellent helps, but not infallible assistances,
both because themselves are but moral instruments,
which force not truth from concealment, as also
because they are not infallibly used and applied.
1. Sometime the sense is drawn forth by the con-
text and connexion of parts : it is well when it
can be so. But when there is two or three ante-
cedents, and subjects spoken of, what man or what
rule shall ascertain me, that I make my reference
true, by drawing the relation to such an antecedent,
to which I have a mind to apply it, another hath
not ? For in a contexture where one part does not
always depend upon another, where things of dif-
fering natures intervene and interrupt the first in-
tentions, there it is not always very probable to
expound Scripture, to take its meaning by its pro-
portion to the neighbouring words. But who de-
sires satisfaction in this, may read the observation
DIFFICULTY OF EXPOUNDING SCRIPTURE. 103
verified in S. Gregoi-y's Morals upon Job, lib. v.
c. 29. and the instances he there bring-s are ex-
cellent proof, that this way of interpretation does
not warrant any man to impose his expositions
upon the belief and understanding of other men
too confidently and magisterially.
2. Another great pretence of medium is the
conference of places, which Illyricus calls *' a mighty
remedy, and a very happy exposition of holy Scrip-
ture ;"* and indeed so it is, if well and temperately
used ; but then we are beholding to them that do
so, for there is no rule that can constrain them to
it; for comparing of places is of so indefinite ca-
pacity, that if there be ambiguity of words, variety
of sense, alteration of circumstances, or diflference
of style amongst divine writers, then there is nothing
that may be more abused by wilful people, or may
more easily deceive the unwary, or that may amuse
the most intelligent observer. The anabaptists
take advantage enough in this proceeding, (and
indeed so may any one that list,) and when we
pretend against them the necessity of baptizing
all, by authority of * unless a man be born of
water and of the Spirit,' they have a parallel for
it, and tell us, that Christ will ' baptize us with the
Holy Ghost and with fire,' and that one place ex-
pounds the other; and because by fire is not meant
an element, or any thing that is natural, but an
allegory and figurative expression of the same
thing, so also by water may be meant the figure
signifying the efl^ect or manner of operation of the
Holy Spirit. Fire in one place, and water in the
* " Ingens remedium et fcelicisbimam expositionem sanctae
Scripture."
104 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
other, do bat represent to us, that Christ's baptism
is nothing else but the cleansing and purifying us
by the H(^ly Ghost. But that which I here note
as of greatest concernment, and which, in all reason,
ought to be an utter overthrow to this topic, is an
universal abase of it among those that use it
most ; and when two places seem to have the same
expression, or if a word have a double significa-
tion, because in this place it may have such a
sense, therefore it must ; because in one of the
places the sense is to their purpose, they conclude
that therefore it must be so in the other too. An
instance I give in the great question between the
Socinians and the Catholics. If any place be urged,
in which our blessed Saviour is called God, they
show you two or three where the word God is
taken in a depressed sense, for one like God ; as
when God said to. Moses, 'I have made thee a
god to Pharaoh ;' and hence they argue, because I
can show the word is used for a false god, therefore
no argument is sufficient to prove Christ to be
true God, from the appellative of God. And
might not another argue to the exact contrary, and
as well urge that Moses is the true God ; because
in some places the word God is used for the eter-
nal God ? Both ways the argument concludes
impiously and unreasonably. It is a fallacy to
conclude affirmatively from a possibility to a re-
ality; because breaking of bread is sometimes
used for an eucharistical manducation in Scripture,
therefore I shall not, from any testimony of Scrip-
ture affirming the first Christians to have broken
bread together, conclude that they lived hospitably
and in common society. Because it may possibly
be eluded, therefore it does not signify any thing.
DIFFICULTY OF EXPOUNDING SCRIPTURE. 105
And this is the great way of answering all the ar-
guments that can be brought against any thing that
any man hath a mind to defend ; and any man
that reads any controversies of any side, shall find
as many instances of this vanity, almost, as he
finds arguments from Scripture : this fault was of
old noted by St. Austin, for then they had g-ot the
trick, and he is angry at it : * " We ought not,"
says he, " to take it for granted, that because, in a
particular place, a thing has a certain signification,
it always signifies the same.^*
3. Oftentimes Scriptures are pretended to be ex-
pounded by a proportion and analogy of reason ;
and this is as the other, if it be well it is well. But
unless there were some universal intellect, fur-
nished with infallible propositions, by referring to
which every man might argue infallibly, this logic
may deceive as well as any of the rest. For it is
with reason as with men's tastes; although there
are some general principles which are reasonable
to all men, yet every man is not able to draw out all
its consequences, nor to understand them when
they are drawn forth, nor to believe when he does
understand them. There is a precept of St. Paul,
directed to the Thessalonians, before they were ga-
thered into a body of a church, 2 Thes. iii. 6, *To
withdraw from every brother that walketh disor-
derly :' but if this precept were now observed,
I would fain know whether we should not fall into
that inconvenience which St. Paul sought to avoid,
in giving the same commandment to the church of
* " Neque enim putare debemus esse praescriptum, ut quod
in aliquo loco res aliqua per similitudinem significaverit, hoc
etiam semper significare credamus." — De Doctri. Christian,
lib. iii.
106 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
Corinth, 1 Cor. v. 9 : 'I wrote to you, that j e
should not company with fornicators ;' and, ' yet not
altogether with the fornicators of this world, for
then ye must go out of the world :' and therefore
he restrains it to a C|uitting the society of Chris-
tians living ill lives. But now that all the world
hath been Christians, if we should sin in keeping-
company with vicious Christians, must we not also
go out of this world ? Is not the precept made
null, because the reason is altered, and things are
come about, and that the ' many,' 6i ttoXXoi, are the
brethren, aceX<poi 6vofiaZ,6n(voi, 'called brethren,' as St.
Paul's phrase is? And yet either this never was
considered, or not yet believed ; for it is generally
taken to be obligatory, though (I think) seldom
practised. But when we come to expound Scrip-
tures to a certain sense, by arguments drawn from
prudential motives, then we are in a vast plain
without any sufficient guide, and we shall have so
many senses as there are human prudences. But
that which goes further than this is a parity of rea-
son, from a plain place of Scripture to an obscure,
from that which is plainly set dow n in a text to
another that is more remote from it. And thus is
that place in St. INIatthew^ forced : * If thy brother
refuse to be amended, tell it to the church.'
Hence some of the Roman doctors argue, if Christ
commands to tell the church, in case of adultery or
private injury, then much more in case of heresy.
Well, suppose this to be a good interpretation,
why must I stay here ? Why may not I also add,
by a parity of reason, if the church must be told
of heresy, much more of treason : and why may
not I reduce all sins to the cognizance of a church
tribunal, as some men do indirectly. ar»d Soecanus
DIFFICULTY OF EXPOUNDING SCRIPTURE. 107
does heartily and plainly ? If a man's principles
be good, and his deductions certain, he need not
care whither they carry him. But when an autho-
rity is entrusted to a person, and the extent of his
power expressed in his commission, it will not be
safety to meddle beyond his commission upon con-
fidence of a parity of reason. To instance once
more : when Christ, in ' feed my sheep,' and
* thou art Peter,' gave power to the pope to govern
the church, (for to that sense the church of Rome
expounds those authorities,) by a certain conse-
quence of reason, say they, he gave all things ne-
cessary for exercise of this jurisdiction ; and there-
fore, in ' feed my sheep,' he gave him an indirect
power over temporals, for that is necessary that he
may do his duty. Well, having gone thus far, we
will go further upon the parity of reason; there-
fore he hath given the pope the gift of tongues, and
he hath given him power to give it; for how else
shall Xavier convert the Indians ? He hath given
him also power to command the seas and the
winds, that they should obey him, for this also is
very necessary in some cases : — and so * fieed my
sheep' is, ' receive the gift of tongues, command
the seas and the winds, dispose of the diadems of
princes, and the possessions of the people, and the
influences of heaven too,' and whatsoever the pa-
rity of reason will judge equally necessary in order
to feed ChrisVs sheep. When a man does speak
reason, it is but reason he should be heard ; but
though he may have the good fortune, or the great
abilities to do it, yet he hath not a certainty, no
regular infallible assistance, no inspiration of argu-
ments and deductions ; and if he had, yet because
it must be reason that must judge of reason, unless
108 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
other men's understandings were of the same area,
the same constitution and ability, they cannot be
prescribed unto by another man's reason; especially
because such reasonings as usually are in explica-
tion of particular places of Scripture depend upon
minute circumstances and particularities, in which
it is so easy to be deceived, and so hard to speak
reason regularly and always, that it is the greater
wonder if we be not deceived.
4. Others pretend to expound Scripture by the
analogy of faith, and that is the most sure and in-
fallible way, (as it is thought :) but upon stricter
surv^ey, it is but a chimera, a thing in nubibiis, in
the clouds, which varies like the right hand and
left hand of a pillar ; and, at the best, is but like the
coast of a country to a traveller out of his way; it
may bring him to his journey's end, though twenty
miles about; it may keep him from running into
the sea, and from mistaking a river for dry land ;
but whether this little path or the other be the
light way, it tells not. So is the analogy of faith ;
that is, if I understand it right, the rule of faith ;
that is, the creed. Now, were it not a fine device
to go to expound all the Scripture by the creed,
there being in it so many thousand places which
have no more relation to any article in the creed
than they have to Virgil's Eclogues ? Indeed, if a
man resolves to keep the analogy of faith, that is,
to expound Scripture so as not to do any violence
to any fundamental article, he shall be sure, how-
ever he errs, yet not to destroy faith, he shall not
perish in his exposition. And that was the precept
given by St. Paul, that all prophesyings should be
estimated according to the analogy of faith.
Rom. xii. 6. And to this very purpose St. Austin,
DIFFICULTY OF EXPOUNDING SCRIPTURE. 109
in his Exposition of Genesis, by way of preface,
sets down the articles of faith, with this design and
protestation of it, that if he says nothing against
those articles, though he miss the particular sense
of the place, there is no danger or sin in his expo-
sition : but how that analogy of faith should have
any other influence in expounding such places in
which those articles of faith are neither expressed
nor involved, I understand not. But then, if you
extend the analogy of faith further than that which
is proper to the rule or symbol of faith, then every
man expounds Scripture according to the analogy
of faith : but what ? his own faith : which faith, if
it be questioned, I am no more bound to expound
according to the analogy of another man's faith,
than he to expound according to the analogy of
mine. And this is it that is complained on of all
sides that overvalue their own opinions. Scrip-
ture seems so clearly to speak what they believe,
that they wonder all the world does not see it
as clear as they do ; but they satisfy themselves
with saying, that it is because they come with
prejudice; whereas, if they had the true belief,
that is, theii's, they would easily see what they
see. And this is very true ; for if they did believe
as others believe, they would expound Scriptures
to their sense ; but if this be expounding accord-
ing to the analogy of faith, it signifies no more
than this : be you of my mind, and then my ar-
guments will seem concluding, and my authorities
and allegations pressing and pertinent : and this
will serve on all sides, and therefore will do but
little service to the determination of questions, or
prescribing to other men's consciences, on any
side.
110 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
Lastly: Consulting the originals is thought a
great matter to interpretation of Scriptures. But
this is to small purpose : for indeed it will expound
the Hebrew and the Greek, and rectify translations:
but I know no man that says that the Scriptures
in Hebrew and Greek are easy and certain to be
understood, and that they are hard in Latin and
English : the difficulty is in the thing, however it
be expressed, the least is in the language. If the
original languages were our mother tongue. Scrip-
ture is not much the easier to us; and a natural
Greek or a Jew can, with no more reason, nor au-
thority, obtrude his interpretation upon other
men's consciences, than a man of another nation.
Add to this, that the inspection of the original is
no more certain way of interpretation of Scripture
now, than it was to the fathers and primitive ages
of the church ; and yet he that observes m hat infi-
nite variety of translations of the Bible were in the
first ages of the church, (as St. Jerome observes,)
and never a one like another, will think that we
shall differ as much in our interpretations as they
did, and that the medium is as uncertain to us as it
was to them : and so it is ; witness the great num-
ber of late translations, and the infinite number of
commentaries, which are too pregnant an argu-
ment, that we neither agree in the understanding of
the words, nor of the sense.
The truth is, all these ways of interpreting of
Scripture, which of themselves are good helps, are
made, either by design or by our infirmities, ways
of intricating and involving Scriptures in greater
difficulty; because men do not learn their doctrines
from Scripture, but come to the understanding of
Scripture with preconceptions and ideas of doc-
DIFFICULTY OF EXPOUNDING SCRIPTURE. 11 1
trines of their own ; and then no wonder that Scrip-
tures look like pictures, wherein every man in the
room believes they look on him only, and that
wheresoever he stands, or how often soever he
changes his station. So that now what was in-
tended for a remedy becomes the promoter of our
disease, and our meat becomes the matter of sick-
nesses : and the mischief is, the wit of man cannot
find a remedy for it, for there is no rule, no limit,
no certain principle, by which all men may be
guided to a certain and so infallible an interpreta-
tion, that he can, with any equity, prescribe to others
to believe his interpretations in places of contro-
versy or ambiguity. A man would think that the
memorable prophecy of Jacob, that the sceptre
should not depart from Judah till Shiloh come,
should have been so clear a determination of the
time of the Messias, that a Jew should never have
doubted it to have been verified in Jesus of Naza-
reth ; and yet, for this so clear vaticination, they
have no less than twenty-six answers. St. Paul
and St. James seem to speak a little diversely con-
cerning justification by faith and works, and yet to
my understanding it is very easy to reconcile them ;
but all men are not of my mind, for Osiander, in
his confutation of the book which Melancthon
wrote against him, observes, tliat there are twenty
several opinions concerning justification, all drawn
from the Scriptures, by the men only of the Au-
gustan confession. There are sixteen several opi-
nions concerning original sin ; and as many defini-
tions of the sacraments as there are sects of men
that disagree about them.
And now what help is there for us in the midst
of these uncertainties ? If we follow any one
112 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
translation, or any one man's commentary, what
rule shall we have to choose the right by ? Or
is there any one man that hath translated per-
fectly, or expounded infallibly ? No translation
challenges such a prerogative as to be authentic,
but the vulgar Latin : and yet see with v/hat
good success ; for when it was declared authen-
tic by the council of Trent, Sixtus put forth a
copy much mended of what it was, and tied all
men to follow that ; but that did not satisfy, for
Pope Clement reviews and corrects it in many
places, and still the decree remains in a changed
subject. And, secondly, that translation will be
very unapt to satisfy, in which one of their own
men, Isidore Clarius, a monk of Brescia, found and
mended eight thousand faults, besides innumerable
others, which he says he pretermitted. And then,
thirdly, to show how little themselves were satisfied
with it, divers learned men amongst them did new
translate the Bible, and thought they did God and
the church good service in it. So that, if you take
this for your precedent, you are sure to be mis-
taken infinitely ; if you take any other, the authors
themselves do not promise you any security. If
you resolve to follow any one as far only as you
see cause, then you only do wrong or right by
chance ; for you have certainty just proportionable
to your own skill, to your own infalliljility. If
you resolve to follow any one, whithersoever he
leads, we shall oftentimes come thither, where we
shall see ourselves become ridiculous, as it hap-
pened in the case of Spiridion, bishop of Cyprus,
who so resolved to follow his old book, that when
an eloquent bishop, who was desired to preach,
read his text, ' Take up thy bed and walk,' Spiri-
DIFFICULTY OF EXPOUNDING SCRIPTURE. 113
dion was very angry with him, because in his book
it was ' take up thy couch,' and thought it arro-
gance in the preacher to speak better Latin than
his translator had done : and if it be thus in trans-
lations, it is far worse in expositions, " because, in
truth, all do not receive the Holy Scriptures, on
account of their profundity, in the same sense, for
there are as many expositors as there are sentences
in it,"* said Vincent Lirinensis ; in which every man
knows what innumerable ways there are of being
mistaken, God having, in things not simply neces-
sary, left such a difficulty upon those parts of
Scripture which are the subject matters of contro-
versy, (as St. Austin gives a reason,f ) that all that
err honestly are therefore to be pitied and tolerated ;
because it may be the condition of every man, at
one time or other.
The sum is this : Since Holy Scripture is the re-
pository of divine truths, and the great rule of faith,
to which all sects of Christians do appeal for pro-
bation of their several opinions ; and since all agree
in the articles of the creed, as things clearly and
plainly set down, and as containing all that which
is of simple and prime necessity ; and since, on the
other side, there are in Scripture many other mys-
teries, and matters of cjuestion upon which there is
a veil ; since there are so many copies, with infinite
varieties of reading ; since a various interpunction,
a parenthesis, a letter, an accent, may much alter
the sense; since some places have divers literal
* '^ Quia scil. Scripturam Sacram pro ipsa sui altitudine non
uno eodemque sensu omnes accipiunt, ut pene quot homines tot
illic sententiae erui posse videantur." — In Commonit.
-|- " Ad edomandum labore superbiam, et intellectum a fas-
tidio revocandum." — Lib. ii. De Doctr. Christian, c. 6.
114 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
senses, many have spiritual, mystical, and allego-
rical meanings; since there are so many tropes,
metonymies, ironies, hyperboles, proprieties, and
improprieties of language, whose understanding
depends upon such circumstances that it is almost
impossible to know its proper interpretation, now
that the knowledge of such circumstances and par-
ticular stories is irrevocably lost ; since there are
some mysteries which, at the best advantage of ex-
pression, are not easy to be apprehended, and
whose explication, by reason of our imperfections,
must needs be dark, sometimes weak, sometimes
unintelligible; and lastly, since those ordinary
means of expounding Scripture, as searching the
originals, conference of places, parity of reason,
and analogy of faith, are all dubious, uncertain,
and very fallible, — he that is the wisest, and by con-
sequence the likeliest to expound truest in all pro-
bability of reason, will be very far from confidence ;
because every one of these, and many more, are
like so many degrees of improbability and uncer-
tainty, all depressing our certainty of finding out
truth in such mysteries, and amidst so many diffi-
culties. And, therefore, a wise man that considers
this, would not willingly be prescribed to by others;
and, therefore, if he also be a just man, he will not
impose upon others ; for it is best every man should
be left in that liberty from which no man can justly
take him, unless he could secure him from error :
so that here also there is a necessity to conserve the
liberty of prophesying and interpreting Scripture ;
a necessity derived from the consideration of the
difficulty of Scripture in questions controverted,
and the uncertainty of any internal medium of
interpretation.
115
SECTION V.
Of the insufficiency and uncertainty of Tradition to
expound Scripture, or determine Questions.
In the next place, we must consider those extrin-
sical means of interpreting Scripture, and deter-
mining- c|uestions, which they most of all confide
in, that restrain prophesying with the greatest
tyranny. The first and principal is Tradition,
which is pretended not only to expound Scrip-
ture, " for it is recjuisite, on account of the various
turns and windings of error, that the drift of pro-
phetic and apostolic interpretation be regulated
according to the concurrent opinion of the uni-
versal church;"* but also to propound articles upon
a distinct stock, such articles whereof there is no
mention and proposition in Scripture. And in
this topic, not only the distinct articles are clear
and plain, like as the fundamentals of faith ex-
pressed in Scripture, but also it pretends to ex-
pound Scripture, and to determine questions with
so much clarity and certainty, as there shall nei-
ther be error nor doubt remaining ; and therefore no
disagreeing is here to be endured. And indeed it
is most true, if tradition can perform these preten-
sions, and teach us plainly, and assure us infallibly
* " Necesse enim est propter tantos tarn varii erroris anfrac-
tus, ut propheticse et apostolicee interpretationis linea secundum
ecclesiastic! et catholici sensus normam dirigatur." — Vincent.
Lirinens. in Commonitor.
I 2
116 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
of all truths which they require us to believe, we
can, in this case, have no reason to disbelieve them,
and therefore are certainly heretics if we do ; be-
cause, without a crime, without some human inte-
rest or collateral design, we cannot disbelieve tra-
ditive doctrine or traditive interpretation, if it be
infallibly proved to us that tradition is an infallible
guide.
But here I first consider that tradition is no repo-
sitory of articles of faith, and therefore the not
following it is no argument of heresy ; for, besides
that I have showed Scripture in its plain expresses
to be an abundant rule of faith and manners, tra-
dition is a topic as fallible as any other ; so fallible,
that it cannot be sufficient evidence to any man in
a matter of faith or question of heresy.
For, first, I find that the fathers were infinitely
deceived in their account and enumeration of tra-
ditions; sometimes they did call some traditions
such, not which they knew to be so, but by argu-
ments and presumptions they concluded them so.
Such as was that of St. Austin : " What is held by
the universal church, and not known to have been
decreed by councils, is to be considered as derived
from apostolical tradition."* Now, suppose this rule
probable, that is the most, yet it is not certain ; it
might come by custom, whose original was not
known, but yet could not derive from an apostolical
principle. Now, when they conclude of particular
traditions by a general rule, and that general rule
not certain, but at the most probable in any thing,
and certainly false in some things, it is no wonder
* " Ea quae universalis tenet ecclesia nee a conciliis instituta
reperiuntur, credibile est ab apostolorum traditione descendisse."
— Epist. cxviii. ad Sunar. de Bapt. Contr. Donat. lib. iv. c. 24.
UNCERTAINTY OF TRADITION. 117
if the productions, that is, their judgments and
pretence fail so often. And if I should but in-
stance in all the particulars, in which tradition was
pretended, falsely or uncertainly, in the first ages,
I should multiply them to a troublesome variety ;
for it was then accounted so glorious a thing to
have spoken with the persons of the apostles, that
if any man could, with any colour, pretend to it,
he might abuse the whole church, and obtrude what
he listed, under the specious title of apostolical tra-
dition ; and it is very notorious to every man that
will but read and observe the recognitions or Stro-
mata of Clemens Alexandrinus, where there is
enough of such false wares showed in every book,
and pretended to be no less than from the apostles.
In the first age after the apostles, Papias pretended
he received a tradition from the apostles, that Christ,
before the day of judgment, should reign a thou-
sand years upon earth, and his saints with him, in
temjDoral felicities ; and this thing, proceeding from
so great an authority as the testimony of Papias,
drew after it all, or most, of the Christians in the
first three hundred years. For, besides that the
millenary opinion is expressly taught by Papias,
Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Origen, Lactantius, Seve-
rus, Victorinus, Apollinaris, Nepos, and divers
others, famous in their time, Justin Martyr, in his
dialogue against Tryphon, says, it was the belief of
all Christians exactly orthodox ; and yet there was
no such tradition, but a mistake in Papias ; but I
find it nowhere spoke against, till Dionysius of
Alexandria, confuted Nepos's book, and converted
Coracion, the Egyptain, from the opinion. Now, if
a tradition, whose beginning of being called so
began with a scholar of the apostles, (for so was
118 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
Papias,) and then continued, for some ages, upon
the mere authority of so famous a man, did yet de-
ceive the church, much more fallible is the pre-
tence, when, two or three hundred years after, it but
commences, and then, by some learned man, is first
called a tradition apostolical. And so it happened
in the case of the Arian heresy, which the Nicene
fathers did confute by objecting a contrary tradi-
tion apostolical, as Theodoret reports ;* and yet if
they had not had better arguments from Scrip-
ture than from tradition, they would have failed
much in so good a cause ; for this very pretence
the Arians themselves made, and desired to be
tried by the fathers of the first three hundred
years ;f which was a confutation sufficient to them
who pretended a clear tradition, because it was
unimaginable that the tradition should leap so as
not to come from the first to the last by the middle.
But that this trial was sometime declined by that
excellent man St. Athanasius, although at other
times confidently and truly pretended, it was an
argument the tradition was not so clear, but both
sides might with some fairness pretend to it. And,
therefore, one of the prime founders of their heresy,
the heretic, Artemon,§ having observed the ad-
vantage might be taken by any sect that would
pretend tradition, because the medium was plausi-
ble, and consisting of so many particulars that it
was hard to be redargued, pretended a tradition
from the apostles, that Christ was a mere man, and
that the tradition did descend by a constant suc-
cession, in the church of Rome, to pope Victor's
* Lib. i. Hist. c. 8.
+ Vide Petav. in Epiph. Haer. 69.
± Euseb. lib. v. c. ult.
UNCERTAINTY OF TRADITION. 119
time inclusively, and till Zepherinus had inter-
rupted the series, and corrupted the doctrine ;
which pretence, if it had not had some appearance
of truth, so as possibly to abuse the church, had
not been worthy of confutation, which yet was with
care undertaken by an old writer, out of whom
Eusebius transcribes a large passage, to reprove the
vanity of the pretender. But I observe from hence,
that it was usual to pretend to tradition, and that
it was easier pretended than confuted ; and I doubt
not but oftener done than discovered. A great
question arose in Africa, concerning the baptism of
heretics, whether it were valid or no. St. Cyprian
and his party appealed to Scripture ; Stephen,
bishop of Rome, and his party, would be judged
by custom, and tradition ecclesiastical. See how
much the nearer the question was to a determina-
tion : either that probation was not accounted by
St. Cyprian, and the bishops, both of Asia and
Africk, to be a good argument, and sufficient to
determine them, or there was no certain tradition
against them; for, unless one of these two do it,
nothing could excuse them from opposing a known
truth ; unless, peradventure, St. Cyprian, Firmilian,
the bishops of Galatia, Cappadocia, and almost two
parts of the world, were ignorant of such a tradi-
tion, for they knew of none such, and some of them
expressly denied it. And the sixth general synod
approves of the canon made in the council of Car-
thage, under Cyprian, upon this very ground, be-
cause " the tradition was preserved only in the
dioceses of those bishops, and accordingto a custom
handed down among them,"* They had a parti-
* " In prffidictorum prsesulum locis, et solum secundum tra-
ditam eis consuetudinem, servatus est."
120 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
cular tradition for rebaptization ; and therefore,
there could be no tradition universal against it,
or, if there were, they knew not of it, but much
for the contrary; and then, it would be remem-
bered, that a concealed tradition was like a silent
thunder, or a law not promulgated ; it neither
was known, nor was obligatory. And I shall ob-
serve this too, that this very tradition was so ob-
scure, and was so obscurely delivered, so silently
proclaimed, that St. Austin,+ who disputed against
the Donatists upon this very question, was not able
to 23 rove it, but by a consequence which he thought
probable and credible, as appears in his discourse
against the Donatists. '' The apostles,^* saith St.
Austin, " prescribed nothing in this particular :
but this custom, which is contrary to Cyprian,
ought to be believed to have come from their tra-
dition, as many other things which the catholic
church observes." That is all the ground and all
the reason ; nay, the church did waver concerning
that question, and before the decision of a council,
Cyprian t and others might dissent without breach
of charity. It was plain, then, there was no clear
tradition in the question ; possibly there might be
a custom in some churches postnate to the times of
the apostles, but nothing that was obligatory, no
tradition apostolical. But this was a suppletory
device, ready at hand whenever they needed it ;
and St. Austin§ confuted the Pelagians, in the
question of original sin, by the custom of exorcism
and insufflation, which, St. Austin said, came from
the apostles by tradition, which yet Avas then, and
* Lib. V. De Baptism. Contr. Donat. c. 23.
i" Lib. i. De Baptism, c. 18.
J De Peccat. Original, lib. ii. c. 40. contra. Pelag. et Cselest.
UNCERTAINTY OF TRADITION. 121
is now, so impossible to be proved, that he that
shall affirm it, shall gain only the reputation of a
bold man and a confident.
2. I consider, if the report of traditions in the
primitive times, so near the ages apostolical, was
so uncertain, that they were fain to aim at them
by conjectures, and grope as in the dark, the un-
certainty is much increased since; because there are
many famous writers whose works are lost, which
yet, if they had continued, they might have been
good records to us, as Clemens Rom anus, Ege-
sippus, NejDos, Coracion, Dionysius Areopagite, of
Alexandria, of Corinth, Firmilian, and many more :
and since we see pretences have been made, without
reason, in those ages where they might better have
been confuted than now they can, it is greater pru-
dence to suspect any later pretences, since so many
sects have been, so many wars, so many corruptions
in authors, so many authors lost, so much ignorance
hath intervened, and so many interests have been
served, that now the rule is to be altered : and
whereas it was of old time credible, that that was
apostolical whose beginning they knew not ; now,
quite contrary, we cannot safely believe them to
be apostolical, unless we do know their beginning
to have been from the apostles. For this consist-
ing of probabilities and particulars, which, put to-
gether, make up a moral demonstration, the argu-
ment which 1 now urge hath been growing these
fifteen hundred years ; and if anciently there was
so much as to evacuate the authoi-ity of tradition,
much more is there now absolutely to destroy it,
when all the particulars, which time and infinite
variety of human accidents have been amassing
together, are now concentered, and are united by
122 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
way of constipation. Because every age, and
every great change, and every heresy, and every
interest, hath increased the difficulty of finding
out true traditions.
3. There are very many traditions which are
lost ; and yet they are concerning matters of as
great consequence as most of those questions, for
the determination whereof traditions are pre-
tended : it is more than probable, that as in bap-
tism and the eucharist the very forms of ministra-
tion are transmitted to us, so also in confirmation
and ordination, and that there were sj^ecial direc-
tions for visitation of the sick, and explicit inter-
pretations of those difficult jjlaces of St. Paul,
which St. Peter affirmed to be so difficult, that the
ignorant do wrest them to their own damnation ;
and yet no church hath conserved these, or those
many more which St. Basil affirms to be so many,
that the day would fail him in the very simple
enumeration of all traditions ecclesiastical.* And if
the church hath failed in keeping the great variety
of traditions, it will hardly be thought a fault in a
private person to neglect tradition, which either
the whole church hath very much neglected incul-
pably, or else the whole church is very much to
blame. And who can ascertain us that she hath
not entertained some which are no traditions, as
well as lost thousands that are ? That she did en-
tertain some false traditions, I have already proved ;
but it is also as probable that some of those which
these ages did propound for traditions are not so,
as it is certain that some, which the first ages called
traditions, were nothing less.
* 'EiriXei-ipr] i^^kpa tcl aypacpa rijg eicKXrjciag f.iv'^rjpia
hiriyovfitvov. — Cap. 29. De Spir. Sancto.
UNCERTAINTY OF TRADITION. 123
4. There are some opinions, which when they
began to be publicly received, began to be ac-
counted prime traditions ; and so became such, not
by a native title, but by adoption ; and nothing is
more usual than for the fathers to colour their po-
pular opinion with so great an appellative. St.
Austin called the communicating of infants an
apostolical tradition; and yet we do not practise it,
because we disbelieve the allegation. And that
every custom, which at first introduction was but a
private fancy or singular practice, grew afterwards
into a public rite, and went for a tradition after a
while continuance, appears by Tertullian, who
seems to justify it : " You do not think it lawful
for any Christian to appoint, for discipline and sal-
vation, whatever he may deem well-pleasing to
God." And again, " Whoever tradition be intro-
duced by, you should regard, not the author, but
the authority."* And St. Jerome most plainly :
" The decisions of the fathers are to be esteemed by
all as apostolical traditions.^^f And when Irenaeus
had observed that great variety in the keeping of
Lent, which yet to be a forty days' fast is pretended
to descend from tradition apostolical, some fasting
but one day before Easter, some two, some forty,
and this even long before Irenseus's time, he gives
this reason : " That variety of fasting originated
with our fathers, who did not carefully observe
their custom, who either from simplicity or per-
* " Non enim existimas tu licitum esse cuicunque fideli
constituere quod Deo placere illi visum fuerit, ad disciplinam
et salutem." — Contra Marcion. " A quocunque traditore cen-
setur, nee authorem respicias sed authoritatem." — De Coron. mi-
lit, c. 3 et 4.
•j- " PrEecepta majorum apostolicas traditiones quisque
existimat." — Apud Euseb. lib. v. c. 24.
124 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
sonal authority, were for ordaining- rites for their
posterity."" And there are yet some points of
good concernment, which if any man should ques-
tion in a high manner, they would prove indeter-
minable by Scripture, or sufficient reason ; and yet
I doubt not their confident defenders would say,
they are opinions of the church, and quickly pre-
tend a tradition from the very apostles, and believe
themselves so secure, that they could not be disco-
vered ; because the c|uestion never having been
disputed, gives them occasion to say, that which
had no beginning known was certainly from the
apostles. For why should not divines do in the
question of reconfirmation as in that of rebaptiza-
tion ? Are not the grounds equal from an indelible
character in one as in the other ? And if it happen
such a question as this, after contestation, should
be determined, not by any positive decree, but by
the cession of one part, and the authority and repu-
tation of the other, does not the next age stand fair
to be abused with a pretence of tradition in the
matter of reconfirmation, which never yet came to
a serious question ? for so it was in the Cjuestion of
rebaj^tization ; for which there was then no more
evident tradition than there is now in the question
of reconfirmation, as I proved formerly, but yet it
was carried upon that title.
5. There is great variety in the probation of tra-
dition ; so that whatever is proved to be tradition,
is not equally and alike credible ; for nothing but
universal tradition is of itself credible ; other tra-
* " Varietas ilia jejuni! coepit apud majores nostros, qui
non accurate consuetudinem eorum qui vel simplicitate qua-
dam vel privata authoritate in posterum aliquid statuissent,
observarant." — Ex translatione Christophersoni.
UNCERTAINTY OF TRADITION. 125
ditions in their just proportion, as they partake of
the degrees of universality. Now, that a tradition
be universal, or, which is all one, that it be a cre-
dible testimony, St. lren£eus-^ requires that tradi-
tion should derive from all the churches apostolical ;
and, therefore, according to this rule, there was no
sufficient medium to determine the question about
Easter, because the eastern and western churches
had several traditions respectively, and both pre-
tended from the apostles. Clemens Alexandrinusf
says, it was a secret tradition from the apostles,
that Christ preached but one year : but IrenaeusX
says, it did derive from heretics; and says, that he,
by tradition, first from St. John, and then from his
disciples, received another tradition, that Christ
was almost fifty years old when he died ; and so,
by consequence, preached almost twenty years :
both of them were deceived, and so had all that
had believed the report of either, 'pretending tradi-
tion apostolical. Thus, the custom in the Latin
church of fasting on Saturday, was against that
tradition which the Greeks had from the apostles ;
and therefore, by this division, and want of consent,
which was the true tradition was so absolutely in-
determinable, that both must needs lose much of
their reputation. But how then, when not only
particular churches, but single persons, are all the
proof we have for a tradition ? and this often hap-
pened : I think St. Austin is the chief argument
and authority we have for the assumption of the
Virgin Mary ; the baptism of infants is called a
tradition by Origen alone, at first, and from him by
others. The procession of the Holy Ghost from the
Son, which is an article the Greek church disavows,
* Lib. iii. c. 4. -f- Lib. i. Stromat. ^ Lib. ii. c. 39.
126 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
derives from the tradition apostolical, as it is pre-
tended; and yet, before St. Austin, we hear nothing
of it very clearly or certainly, forasmuch as that
whole mystery, concerning the blessed Spirit, was
so little explicated in Scripture, and so little de-
rived to them by tradition, that, till the council of
Nice, you shall hardly find any form of worship, or
personal address of devotion to the Holy Spirit, as
Erasmus observes; and I think the contrary will
very hardly be verified. And for this particular,
in which I instance, whatsoever is in Scripture con-
cerning it, is against that which the church of Rome
calls tradition ; which makes the Greeks so confi-
dent as they are of the point, and is an argument
of the vanity of some things which for no greater
reason are called traditions, but because one man
hath said so, and that they can be proved by no
better argument to be true. Now, in this case,
wherein tradition descends upon us with unequal
certainty, it would be very unequal to require of
us an absolute belief of every thing not written, for
fear we be accounted to slight tradition apostolical.
And since nothing can require our supreme assent,
but that which is truly catholic and apostolic, and
to such a tradition is required, as Irena^us says, the
consent of all those churches which the apostles
planted, and where they did preside, this topic will
be of so little use in judging heresies, that (besides
what is deposited in Scripture) it cannot be proved
in any thing but in the canon of Scripture itself;
and, as it is now received, even in that there is
some variety.
And therefore there is wholly a mistake in this
business ; for when the fathers appeal to tradition,
and with much earnestness and some clamour they
UNCERTAINTY OF TRADITION. 127
call upon heretics to conform to, or to be tried by tra-
dition, it is such a tradition as delivers the fundamen-
tal points of Christianity, which were also recorded
in Scripture. But because the canon was not yet
perfectly consigned, they called to that testimony
they had, which was the testimony of the churches
apostolical, whose bishops and priests, being the
chief authorities in religion, did believe and preach
Christian religion, and conserve all its great myste-
ries according as they had been taught. Irenasus
calls this a tradition apostolical, " that Christ took
the cup, and said it was his own blood, and taught
the new oblation of the New Testament, which
the church, receiving from the apostles, presents
throughout the whole world."* And the fathers in
these ages confute heretics by ecclesiastical tra-
dition; that is, they confront against their impious
and blasphemous doctrines that religion which the
apostles having taught to the churches wherenhey
did preside, their successors did still preach ; and
for a long while together suffered not the enemy
to sow tares amongst their wheat. And yet these
doctrines, which they called traditions, were nothing
but such fundamental truths which were in Scrip-
ture, all coincident with holy w^rit, as Irenseusf in
Eusebius observes, in the instance of Polycarpus ;
and it is manifest, by considering what heresies they
fought against, the heresies of Ebion, Cerinthus,
Nicolaitans, Valentinians, Carpocratians,t persons
that denied the Son of God, the unity of the God-
head, that preached impurity, that practised sorcery
* " Christum accepisse calicem, et dixisse sanguinem suum
esse, et docuisse novam oblationem Novi Testamenti, quam
ecclesia per apostolos accipiens offert per totum mundum."
f Lib. V. cap. 20. $ Vide Irenae. lib. iii. et iv. Cont. Heres.
128 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
and witchcraft. And now, that they did rather urge
tradition against them than Scripture, was, because
the public doctrine of all the apostolical churches
was at first more known and famous than many
parts of Scripture; and because some heretics de-
nied St. Luke's Gospel, some received none but St.
Matthew's, some rejected all St. Paul's Epistles;
and it was a long time before the whole canon was
consigned by universal testimony ; some churches
having one part, some another : Rome herself had
not all : so that, in this case, the argument from
tradition was the most famous, the most certain,
and the most prudent. And now, according to this
rule, they had more traditions than we have; and
traditions did by degrees lessen as they came to be
written, and their necessity was less as the knowledge
of them was ascertained to us by a better keeper
of divine truths. All that great mysteriousness of
Christ's priesthood, the unity of his sacrifice, Christ's
advocation and intercession for us in heaven, and
many other excellent doctrines, might very well be
accounted traditions, before St. Paul's Epistle to the
Hebrews was published to all the world ; but now
they are written truths; and if they had not, possi-
bly we might either have lost them quite, or doubted
of them, as we do of many other traditions, by rea-
son of the insufficiency of the propounder. And
therefore it was that St. Peter* took order that the
Gospel should be writ; for he had promised that he
would do something which, after his decease, should
have these things in remembrance. He knew it
was not safe trusting the report of men, where the
fountain miglit quickly run dry, or be corrupted so
* 2 Pet. i. 13.
UNCERTAINTY OF TRADITION. 129
insensibly that no cure could be found for it, nor
any just notice taken of it till it were incurable.
And, indeed, there is scarce any thing but what is
written in Scripture, that can, with any confidence
of argument, pretend to derive from the apostles,
except rituals and manners of ministration ; but no
doctrines or speculative mysteries are so trans-
mitted to us by so clear a current, that we may see
a visible channel, and trace it to the primitive foun-
tains. It is said to be a tradition apostolical, that
no priest should baptize without chrism and the
command of the bishop ; suppose it were, yet we
cannot be obliged to believe it with much confidence,
because we have but little proof for it, scarce any
thing but the single testimony of St. Jerome.* And
yet, if it were, this is but a ritual, of which, in pass-
ing by, I shall give that account, that, suppose
this and many more rituals did derive clearly from
tradition apostolical, (which yet but very few do,)
yet it is hard that any church should be charged
with a crime for not observing such rituals, because
we see some of them, which certainly did derive
from the apostles, are expired and gone out in a
desuetude; such as are abstinence from blood and
from things strangled, the ccenobitic life of secular
persons, the college of widows, to worship standing
upon the Lord's- day, to give milk and honey to the
newly baptized, and many more of the like nature.
Now, there having been no mark to distinguish the
necessity of one from the indifferency of the other,
they are all alike necessary, or alike indiflferent; if
the former, why does no church observe them ? if
the latter, why does the church of Rome charge
upon others the shame of novelty, for leaving of
* Dialog, adv. Lucifer.
K
130 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
some rites and ceremonies which, by her own prac-
tice, we are taught to have no obligation in them,
but to be adiaphorous ? St. Paul gave order, that
a bishop should be the husband of one wife ; the
church of Rome will not allow so much ; other
churches allow more : the apostles commanded
Christians to fast on Wednesday and Friday, as
appears in their canons ; the church of Rome fasts
Friday and Saturday, and not on Wednesday :
the apostles had their agapae or love-feasts ; we
should believe them scandalous : they used a kiss
of charity in ordinary addresses; the church of
Rome keeps it only in their mass, other churches
quite omit it : the apostles permitted priests and
deacons to live in conjugal society, as appears in
the fifth canon of the apostles, (which to them is
an argument who believe them such;) and yet the
church of Rome by no means will endure it : nay
more, INlichael Medina* gives testimony, that of
eighty-four canons apostolical which Clemens col-
lected, scarce six or eight are observed by the Latin
church ; and Peresius gives this account of it :
" Among these there are many which, owing to
the corruption of the times, are not fully observed ;
others are rejected, on account either of the times
or the nature of them, or by the authority of the
church. "t Now it were good that they which take
a liberty themselves, should also allow the same to
others. So that, for one thing or other, all traditions,
excepting those very few that are absolutely uni-
* De Sacr. Horn. Continent, lib. v. cap. 105.
■f " In illis contineri multa qu?e temporum corruptione non
plene observantur, aliis pro temporis et materiee qualitate aut
obliteratis, aut totius ecclesias magisterio abrogatis." — De Tra-
■dit. part iii c, De Author. Can. Apost.
UNCERTAINTY OF TRADITION. 131
versal, will lose all their obligation, and become no
competent medium to confine men's practices, or
limit their faiths, or determine their persuasions.
Either for the difficulty of their being proved, the
incompetency of the testimony that transmits them,
or the indifferency of the thing transmitted, all
traditions, both ritual and doctrinal, are disabled
from determining our consciences either to a neces-
sary believing or obeying.
6. To which I add, by way of confirmation, that
there are some things called traditions, and are
oftered to be proved to us by a testimony, which is
either false or not extant. Clemens of Alexandria
pretended it a tradition, that the apostles preached
to them that died in infidelity, even after their death,
and then raised them to life; but he proved it only
by the testimony of the book of Hermes. He
affirmed it to be a tradition apostolical, that the
Greeks were saved by their philosophy; but he had
no other authority for it but the apocryphal books of
Peter and Paul. Tertullian and St. Basil pretend
it an apostolical tradition, to sign in the air with
the sign of the cross ; but this was only consigned
to them in the Gospel of Nicodemus. But to
instance once for all, in the epistle of Marcellus to
the bishop of Antioch, where he affirms that it is
the canon of the apostles, " that councils cannot
be held without the consent of the Roman pontiff:"
and yet there is no such canon extant, nor ever
was, for aught appears in any record we have ;
and yet the collection of the canons is so entire,
that though it hath something more than what was
apostolical, yet it hath nothing less. And now
that I am casually fallen upon an instance from
the canons of the apostles, I consider that there
K 2
132 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
cannot, in the world, a greater instance be given
how easy it is to be abused in the believing of tra-
ditions : for first, to the first fifty, which many
did admit for apostolical, thirty-five more were
added, which most men now count spurious, all
men call dubious, and some of them universally
condemned by peremptory sentence, even by them
who are greatest admirers of that collection ; as
the sixty-fifth, sixty-seventh, and eighty-fourth and
eighty-fifth canons. For the first fifty, it is evident
that there are some things so mixed with them,
and no mark of difference left, that the credit of
all is much impaired, insomuch that Isidore of
Seville* says, "they were apocryphal, made by here-
tics, and published under the title apostolical ; but
neither the fathers nor the church of Rome did
give assent to them." And yet they have prevailed
so far amongst some, that Damascenf is of opinion
they should be received equally with the canonical
writings of the apostles. One thing only I ob-
serve, (and we shall find it true in most writings
whose authority is urged in questions of theology,)
that the authority of the tradition is not it which
moves the assent, but the nature of the thing ; and
because such a canon is delivered, they do not
therefore believe the sanction or proposition so de-
livered, but disbelieve the tradition, if they do not
like the matter; and so do not judge of the matter
by the tradition, but of the tradition by the matter.
And thus the church of Rome rejects the eighty-
fourth or eighty-fifth canon of the apostles, not
because it is delivered with less authority than the
last thirty-five are, but because it reckons the canon
* Apud Gratian. Dist. xvi. c. Canones.
t Lib. i. c. 18, De Orthod. Fide.
UNCERTAINTY OF TRADITION. 133
of Scripture otherwise than it is at Rome. Thus
also the fifth canon amongst the first fifty, because
it approves the marriage of priests and deacons,
does not persuade them to approve of it too, but
itself becomes suspected for approving it : so that
either they accuse themselves of palpable con-
tempt of the apostolical authority, or else that the
reputation of such traditions is kept up to serve
their own ends ; and therefore, when they encounter
them, they are more to be upheld ; which what
else is it, but to teach all the world to contemn
such pretences, and undervalue traditions, and to
supply to others a reason why they should do that
which, to them that give the occasion, is most un-
reasonable ?
7. The testimony of the ancient church being the
only means of proving tradition, and sometimes
their dictates and doctrine being the tradition pre-
tended of necessity to be imitated, it is consider-
able that men, in their estimate of it, take their rise
from several ages and differing testimonies, and
are not agreed about the competency of their testi-
mony : and the reasons that on each side make
them differ, are such as make the authority itself
the less authentic, and more repudiable. Some
will allow only of the three first ages, as being
most pure, most persecuted, and therefore most
holy ; least interested, serving fewer designs, having
fewest factions, and therefore more likely to speak the
truth for God's sake and its own, as best complying
with their great end of acquiring heaven in recom-
pense of losing their lives : others say, that those
ages being persecuted, minded the present doc-
trines proportionable to their purposes and consti-
tution of the ages, and make little or nothing of
134 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
those questions which at this day vex Christendom.*
And both speak true: the first ag-es speak greatest
truth, but least pertinently. The next ages, the
ages of the four general councils, spake some things
not much more pertinently to the present questions,
but were not so likely to speak true, by reason of
their dispositions, contrary to the capacity and cir-
cumstance of the first ages ; and if they speak
wisely as doctors, yet not certainly as witnesses of
such propositions, which the first ages noted not ;
and yet, unless they had noted, could not possibly
be traditions. And therefore either of them will
be less useful as to our present affairs. For, indeed,
the Cjuestions which now are the public trouble,
were not considered or thought upon for many
hundred years; and, therefore, prime tradition there
is none as to our purpose; and it will be an insuffi-
cient medium to be used or pretended in the de-
termination : and to dispute concerning the truth
or necessity of traditions, in the c[uestions of our
times, is as if historians, disputing about a question
in the English story, should fall on wrangling
whether Livy or Plutarch were the best writers :
and the earnest disputes about traditions are to no
better purpose. For no church, at this day, admits
the one half of those things, which certainly by
the fathers were called traditions apostolical ; and
no testimony of ancient writers does consign the
one half of the present questions, to be or not to
be traditions. So that they who admit only the
doctrine and testimony of the first ages, cannot be
determined in most of their doubts which now
trouble us, because their writings are of matters
* Vid. Card. Perron, Letre au Sieur Casaubon.
UNCERTAINTY OF TRADITION. 135
wholly differing from the present disputes ; and
they which would bring in after ages to the autho-
rity of a competent judge or witness, say the same
thing; for they plainly confess, that the first ages
spake little or nothing to the present question, or
at least nothing to their sense of them : for there-
fore they call in aid from the following ages, and
make them suppletory and auxiliary to their de-
signs ; and therefore there are no traditions to our
purposes. And they who would willingly have it
otherwise, yet have taken no course it should be
otherwise ; for they, when they had opportunity,
in the councils of the last ages, to determine what
they had a mind to, yet they never named the
number, nor expressed the particular traditions
which they would fain have the world believe to
be apostolical ; but they have kept the bridle in
their own hands, and made a reserve of their own
power, that if need be, they may make new pre-
tensions, or not be put to it to justify the old, by
the engagement of a conciliary declaration.
Lastly : We are acquitted, by the testimony of
the primitive fathers, from any other necessity of
believing, than of such articles as are recorded in
Scripture : and this is done by them whose autho-
rity is pretended the greatest argument for tradi-
tion, as appears largely in Trenseus,* w ho disputes
professedly for the sufficiency of Scripture against
ceitain heretics, who affirm some necessary truths
not to be written. It was an excellent saying of
St. Basil, and will never be wiped out with all the
eloquence of Perron, in his sermon de Fide : " It is
a manifest departure from the faith, and mere su-
Lib. ill. ca. 2. Contr. Hgeres»
136 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
perciliousness, either to reject what is taught in
Scripture, or to introduce any thing that is not
written."* And it is but a poor device to say, that
every particular tradition is consigned in Scripture,
by those places which give authority to tradition;
and so the introducing of tradition is not a super-
inducing any thing over or besides Scripture, be-
cause tradition is like a messenger, and the
Scripture is like his letters of credence, and there-
fore authorises whatsoever tradition speaketh. For
supposing Scripture does consign the authority of
tradition, (which it might do before all the whole
instrument of Scripture itself was consigned, and
then afterwards there might be no need of tradi-
tion,) yet supposing it, it will follow that all those
traditions which are truly prime and apostolical,
are to be entertained according to the intention of
the deliverers; which, indeed, is so reasonable of
itself, that we need not Scripture to persuade
us to it : itself is authentic as Scripture is, if
it derives from the same fountain ; and the word
is never the more the Word of God for being
written ; nor the less for not being written : but
it will not follow that whatsoever is pretended
to be tradition, is so ; neither in the credit of the
particular instances consigned in Scripture, et
dolosus versatur in geiieralibus ;\ but that this craft
is too palpable. And if a general and indefinite
consignation of tradition be sufficient to warrant
every particular that pretends to be tradition, then
St. Basil had spoken to no purpose, by saying it
• " Manifestus est fidei lapsus, et liquidum superbiae vitium,
vel respuere aliquid eorum quae Scriptura habet, vel inducere
quicquam quod Scriptum non est."
f " He who wishes to deceive, occupies himself in generalities."
UNCERTAINTY OF TRADITION. 137
is pride and apostacy from the faith, to bring in
what is not written : for if either any man brings
in what is written, or what he says is delivered,
then the first being express Scripture, and the se-
cond being consigned in Scripture, no man can be
charged with superinducing what is not written;
he hath his answer ready; and then these are
zealous words absolutely to no purpose; but if
such general consignation does not warrant every
thing that pretends to tradition, but only such as
are truly proved to be apostolical, then Scripture
is useless as to this particular ; for such tradition
gives testimony to Scripture, and therefore is of
itself first, and more credible, for it is credible of
itself; and therefore, unless St. Basil thought that
all the will of God in matters of faith and doctrine
were written, I see not what end nor what sense he
could have in these words : for no man in the
world, except enthusiasts and madmen, ever ob-
truded a doctrine upon the church but he pre-
tended Scripture for it, or tradition ; and therefore
no man could be pressed by these words, no man
confuted, no man instructed, no not enthusiasts
or Montanists. For suppose either of them should
say, that since in Scripture the Holy Ghost is
promised to abide with the church for ever, to
teach whatever they pretend the Spirit in any
age hath taught them is not to superinduce any
thing beyond what is written, because the truth
of the Spirit, his veracity, and his perpetual teach-
ing being promised and attested in Scripture,
Scripture hath just so consigned all such revela-
tions, as Perron saith it hath all such traditions.
But I will trouble myself no more with arguments
from any human authorities : but he that is sur-
138 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
prised with the belief of such authorities, and will
but consider the very many testimonies of antiquity
to this purpose, as of Constantine,* St. Jerome,f
St. Austin,: St. Athanasius,§ St. Hilary;] St.
Epiphanius,5[ ^^^ divers others, all speaking words
to the same sense with that saying of St. Paul,*
' Let no man be wise above what is written,' will
see that there is reason, that since no man is mate-
rially a heretic, but he that errs in a point of faith,
and all faith is sufficiently recorded in Scripture,
tlie judgment of faith and heresy is to be derived
from thence, and no man is to be condemned for
dissenting in an article for whose probation tradi-
tion only is pretended ; only, according to the de-
gree of its evidence, let every one determine himself:
but of this evidence we must not judge for othei's;
for unless it be in things of faith, and absolute
certainties, evidence is a word of relation, and so
supposes two terms, the object and the faculty ; and
it is an imperfect speech, to say a thing is evident
in itself, (unless we speak of first principles, or
dearest revelations,) for that may be evident to one
that is not so to another, by reason of the preg-
nancy of some apprehensions, and the im.maturity
of others.
This discourse hath its intention in traditions,
doctrinal and ritual; that is, such traditions which
propose articles essentially new ; but, now, if Scrip-
ture be the repository of all divine truths sufficient
for us, tradition must be considered as its instru-
* Orat. ad Nicen. PP. apud. Theodor. lib. i. c. 7-
t In 3Iatth. lib. iv. c. 23, et in Aggseum.
J De Bono Viduil. c. i. § Orat. contr. Gent.
II In Psal. cxxxii.
% Lib. ii. Contra Haeres. torn. i. Haer. Gl. * 1. Cor. 4.
UNCERTAINTY OF TRADITION. 139
ment, to convey its great mysteriousness to our
understandings. It is said, there are traditive inter-
pretations, as well as traditive propositions; but
tliese have not much distinct consideration in
them, both because their uncertainty is as great as
the other, upon the former considerations ; as also,
because, in very deed, there are no such things as
traditive interpretations universal : for as for parti-
culars, they signify no more but that they are not
sufficient determinations of questions theological ;
therefore, because they are particular, contingent,
and of infinite variety, and they are no more argu-
ment than the particular authority of those men
whose commentaries they are, and, therefore, must
be considered with them.
The sum is this : since the fathers, who are the
best witnesses of traditions, yet were infinitely de-
ceived in their account ; since sometimes they
guessed at them, and conjectured, by way of rule
and discourse, and not of their knowledge, not by
evidence of the thing ; since many are called tra-
ditions which were not so, many are uncertain
whether they were or no, yet confidently pretended ;
and this uncertainty, which at first was great
enough, is increased by infinite causes and acci-
dents, in the succession of sixteen hundred yeare ;
since the church hath been either so careless or so
abused, that she could not, or would not, preserve
traditions with carefulness and truth ; since it was
ordinary for the old writers to set out their own
fancies, and the rites of their church, which had
been ancient, under the specious title of apostolical
traditions; since some traditions rely but upon
single testimony at first, and yet descending upon
others, come to be attested by many, whose testi-
140 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
mony, though conjunct, yet in value is but single,
because it relies upon the first single relater, and
so can have no greater authority, or certainty, than
they derive from the single person ; since the first
ages, who were most competent to consign tradi-
tion, yet did consign such traditions as be of a na-
ture wholly discrepant from the present questions,
and speak nothing at all, or very imperfectly, to
our purposes, and the following ages are no fit
witnesses of that which was not transmitted to them,
because they could not know it at all, but by such
transmission and prior consignation ; since what at
first was a tradition, came afterwards to be written,
and so ceased its being a tradition, yet the credit of
traditions commenced upon the certainty and repu-
ta4:ion of those truths first delivered by word, after-
ward consigned by writing ; since, what was cer-
tainly tradition apostolical, as many rituals were, is
rejected by the church, in several ages, and is gone
out into a desuetude ; and lastly, since, beside the
no necessity of traditions, there being abundantly
enough in Scripture, there are many things called tra-
ditions by the fathers, which they themselves either
proved by no authors, or by apocryphal and spu-
rious, and heretical, — ^the matter of tradition will, in
very much, be so uncertain, so false, so suspicious,
so contradictory, so improbable, so unproved, that
if a question be contested, and be oflTered to be
proved only by tradition, it will be very hard to
impose such a proposition to the belief of all men,
with any imperiousness or resolved determination ;
but it will be necessary men should preserve the
liberty of believing and prophesying, and not part
with it, upon a worse merchandize and exchange
than Esau made for his birth-right.
141
SECTION VI.
Of the uncertainty and insuffimency of Councils
Ecclesiastical to the same purpose.
But since we are all this while in uncertainty, it is
necessary that we should address ourselves some-
where, where we may rest the sole of our foot : and
nature. Scripture, and experience, teach the world,
in matters of question, to submit to some final sen-
tence. For it is not reason, that controversies
should continue till the erring person shall be
willing to condemn himself; and the Spirit of God
hath directed us, by that great precedent at Jeru-
salem, to address ourselves to the church, that in
a plenary council and assembly she may synodi-
cally determine controversies. So that, if a general
council have determined a question, or expounded
Scripture, we may no more disbelieve the decree
than the Spirit of God himself who speaks in them.
And, indeed, if all assemblies of bishops were like
that first, and all bishops were of the same spirit of
which the apostles were, I should obey their decree
with the same religion as I do them whose preface
was, '' Tt seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to
us :" and I doubt not but our blessed Saviour in-
tended that the assemblies of the church should be
judges of controversies, and guides of our persua-
sions, in matters of difficulty. But he also intended
they should proceed according to his will, which
he had revealed, and those precedents which he
142 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
had made authentic by the immediate assistance
of the Holy Spirit : he hath done his part, but we
do not do ours ; and if any private person, in the
simplicity and purity of his soul, desires to find
out a truth, of which he is in search and inquisi-
tion, if he prays for wisdom, we have a promise he
shall be heard and answered liberally ; and there-
fore much more when the representatives of the
catholic church do meet, because every person there
hatli, as an individual, a title to the promise, and
another title, as he is a governor and a guide
of souls, and all of them together have another
title in their united capacity, especially, if in that
union they pray, and proceed with simplicity and
purity. So that there is no disputing against the
pretence, and promises, and authority of general
councils : for if any one man can hope to be
guided by God's Spirit in the search, the pious,
and impartial, and unprejudicate search of truth,
then much more may a general council. If no
private man can hope for it, then truth is not ne-
cessary to be found, nor we are not obliged to
search for it, or else we are saved by chance ; but
if j^rivate men can, by virtue of a promise, upon
certain conditions, be assured of finding out suffi-
cient truth, much more shall a general council.
So that I consider thus : — there are many jDromises
pretended to belong to general assemblies in the
church ; but I know not any ground, nor any pre-
tence, that they shall be absolutely assisted, with-
out any condition on their own parts, and whether
they will or no : faith is a virtue as well as charity,
and therefore consists in liberty and choice, and
hath nothing in it of necessity. There is no question
but that they are obliged to proceed according to
UNCERTAINTY OF COUNCILS. 143
some rule ; for they expect no assistance, by way
of enthusiasm : if they should, I know no warrant
for that; neither did any general council ever offer
a decree which they did not think sufficiently
proved by Scripture, reason, or tradition, as ap-
pears in the acts of the councils. Now, then, if
they be tied to conditions, it is their duty to observe
tliem ; but whether it be certain that they will
observe them, that they will do all their duty, that
they will not sin, even in this particular, in the
neglect of their duty, that is the consideration. So
that if any man questions the title and authority of
general councils, and whether or no great promises
appertain to them, I suppose him to be much mis-
taken ; but he also that thinks all of them have
proceeded according to rule and reason, and that
none of them were deceived, because, possibly, they
might have been truly directed, is a stranger to the
history of the church, and to the perpetual in-
stances and experiments of the faults and failings
of humanity. It is a famous saying of St. Gregory,
that he had the four first councils in esteem and
veneration, next to the four evangelists : I suppose
it was because he did believe them to have pro-
ceeded according to rule, and to have judged
righteous judgment ; but why had not he the same
opinion of other councils too, which were cele-
brated before his death, for he lived after the fifth
general ? not because they had not the same au-
thority ; for that which is warrant for one is war-
rant for all ; but because he was not so confident
that they did their duty, nor proceeded so without
interest, as the first four had done ; and the follow-
ing councils did never get that reputation which all
the catholic church acknowledged clue to the first
144 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
four. And in the next order were the three follow-
ing generals ; for the Greeks and Latins did never
jointly acknowledge but seven generals to have
been authentic in any sense, because they were in
no sense agreed that any more than seven had pro-
ceeded regularly and done their duty : so that now,
the question is not whether general councils have a
promise that the Holy Ghost will assist them ; for
every private man hath that promise, that if he
does his duty, he shall be assisted sufficiently, in
order to that end to which he needs assistance ;
and, therefore, much more shall general councils,
in order to that end for which they convene, and to
which they need assistance ; that is, in order to the
conservation of the faith, for the doctrinal rules of
good life, and all that concerns the essential duty
of a Christian, but not in deciding questions to
satisfy contentious, or curious, or presumptuous
spirits. But, now, can the bishops so convened be
factious, can they be abused with prejudice, or
transported with interests, can they resist the Holy
Ghost, can they extinguish the Spirit, can they
stop their ears, and serve themselves upon the holy
Spirit and the pretence of his assistances, and cease
to serve him upon themselves, by captivating their
understandings to his dictates, and their wills to
his precepts ? Is it necessary they should perfoim
any condition P Is there any one duty Tor them to
perform in these assemblies, a duty which they
have power to do or not do ? If so, then they may
fail of it, and not do their duty. And if the assist-
ance of the Holy Spirit be conditional, then we
have no more assurance that they are assisted, than
that they do their duty and do not sin.
Now, let us suppose what this duty is. Cer-
UNCERTAINTY OF COUNCILS. 145
tainly, if the Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that
are lost ; and all that come to the knowledge of the
truth, must come to it by such means which are
spiritual and holy dispositions, in order to a holy
and spiritual end. They must be shod with the
preparation of the Gospel of peace ; that is, they
must have peaceable and docible dispositions, no-
thing with them that is violent, and resolute to
encounter those gentle and sweet assistances. And
the rule they are to follow, is the rule which the
Holy Spirit hath consigned to the catholic church ;
that is, the Holy Scripture, either entirely, or, at
least, for the greater part of the rule :* so that, now,
if the bishops be factious and prepossessed with per-
suasions depending upon interest, it is certain they
may judge amiss ; and if they recede from the rule,
it is certain they do judge amiss. And this T say
upon their grounds who most advance the authority
of general councils ; for if a general council may
err, if a pope confirm it not, then, most certainly,
if in any thing it recede from Scripture, it does
also err ; because, that they are to expect the
pope's confirmation they offer to prove from
Scripture. Now, if the pope's confirmation be re-
quired by authority of Scripture, and that there-
fore the defailance of it does evacuate the authority
of the council, then also are the council's decree
invalid, if they recede from any other part of Scrip-
ture : so that Scripture is the rule they are to
follow ; and a man would have thought it had been
needless to have proved it, but that w^e are fallen
into ages in which no truth is certain, no reason
concluding, nor is there any thing that can convince
* Vid. Optat. JMiie'/. lib. v. adv. Parm. Baldvin in eundem.
et St. August, in Ps. xxi. Expos. 2.
L
146 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
some men. For Stapleton,^ with extreme bold-
ness, against the piety of Christendom, against the
public sense of the ancient church, and the practice
of all pious assemblies of bishops, affirms the de-
crees of a council to be binding, " though not yet
confirmed by the probable testimony of the Scrip-
tures;"-}- nay, though it be quite unauthorized by
the Scriptures; but all wise and good men have
ever said that sense which St. Hilary expressed in
these words : " 1 will never defend what is not in
the Gospel." t This was it which the good em-
peror Constantine propounded to the fathers met at
Nice : " The Gospels, the writings of the apostles
and ancient prophets, plainly teach us what we
ought to believe in religion." § And this is con-
fessed by a sober man of the Roman church itself,
the cardinal of Cusa: " Whatever we are bound to
follow, ought to be found in the authorized books
of Scripture." II Now, then, all the advantage 1
shall take from hence, is this, that if the apostles
commended them who examined their sermons by
their conformity to the law and the prophets, and
the men of Berea were accounted noble for search-
ing the Scriptures whether those things which they
taught were so or no, I suppose it will not be de-
nied, but the council's decrees may also be tried
* Relect. Controv. iv. q. 1. a. 3.
•j- " Etiamsi non confirmetur ne probabili testimonio Scrip-
turarum."
X " Quae extra evangelium sunt non defendam." — Lib. ii.
ad Constant.
§ " Libri evangelici, oracula apostorum, et veterum prophet-
arum clare nos instruunt quid sentiendum in divinis." — Apud
Theodor. lib. i. c. 7-
II " Oportet quod omnia talia quae legere debent, contine-
antur in authoritatibus sacrarum Scripturarum." — Concord. Ca-
thol. lib. ii. c. 10.
UNCERTAINTY OF COUNCILS. 147
whether they be conform to Scripture, yea or no ;
and although no man can take cognizance and judge
the decrees of a council, as by public authority,
(pro authoritate publicd,) yet, for private and indi-
vidual information, (pro informat'ione privatd,) they
may ; the authority of a council is not greater than
the authority of the apostles, nor their dictates
more sacred or authentic. Now, then, j3ut case, a
council should recede from Scripture ; whether or
no, were we bound to believe its decrees ? I only
ask the question ; for it were hard to be bound to
believe what to our understandings seems contrary
to that which we know to be the Word of God ;
but if we may lawfully recede from the council's
decrees, in case they be contrariant to Scripture, it
is all that I require in this question : for if they
be tied to a rule ; then they are to be examined and
understood according to the rule, and then we are
to give ourselves that liberty of judgment which is
requisite to distinguish us from beasts, and to put
us into a capacity of reasonable people, following-
reasonable guides. But, however, if it be certain
that the councils are to follow Scripture, then, if it
be notorious that they do recede from Scrijoture,
we are sure we must obey God rather than men ;
and then we are well enough. For, unless we are
bound to shut our eyes, and not to look upon the
sun, if we may give ourselves liberty to believe what
seems most plain, and unless the authority of a
council be so great a prejudice as to make us to do
violence to our understanding, so as not to disbe-
lieve the decree because it seems contrary to
Scripture, but to believe it agrees with Scripture,
though we know not how, therefore, because the
council hath decreed it, — unless, I say, we be bound
L 2
148 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
in duty to be so obediently blind and sottish, we
are sure that there are some councils which are pre-
tended general, that have retired from the public
notorious words and sense of Scripture. For what
wit of man can reconcile the decree of the thir-
teenth session of the council of Constance with
Scripture, in which session the half-communion
was decreed, in defiance of Scripture, and with a
non obstante, (notwithstanding,) to Christ's institu-
tion ? It is certain, Christ's institution, and the
council's sanction are as contrary as light and
darkness. Is it possible for any man to contrive a
way to make the decree of the council of Trent,
comm.anding the public offices of the church to be
in Latin, friends with the fourteenth chapter of the
Corinthians ? It is not amiss to observe how the
hyperaspists of that council sweat to ansv/er the
allegations of St. Paul, and the wisest of them do
it so extremely poor, that it proclaims to all the
world, that the strongest man that is cannot eat
iron, or swallow a rock. Now, then, would it not
be an unspeakable tyranny to all wise persons,
(who as much hate to have their souls enslaved as
their bodies imprisoned,) to command them to be-
lieve that these decrees are agreeable to the Word
of God ? Upon whose understanding soever these
are imposed, they may, at the next session, recon-
cile them to a crime, and make any sin sacred, or
persuade him to believe propositions contradictory
to a mathematical demonstration. All the argu-
ments in the world, that can be brought to prove
the infallibility of councils, cannot make it so cer-
tain that they are infallible, as these two instances
do prove infallibly that these were deceived ; and
if ever we may safely make use of our reason, and
UNCERTAINTY OF COUNCILS. 149
consider whether councils have erred or no, v/e
cannot by any reason be more assured, that they
have or have not, than we have in these particulars :
so that, either our reason is of no manner of use in
the discussion of this question, and the thing itself
is not at all to be disputed, or if it be, we are cer-
tain that these actually were deceived, and we
must never hope for a clearer evidence in any dis-
pute. And if these be, others might have been, if
they did as these did ; that is, depart from their
rule. And it was wisely said of Cusanus, ''The
experience of it is notorious, that councils may
err : "* and all the arguments against experience
are but plain sophistry.
And, therefore, I make no scruple to slight the
decrees of such councils, wherein the proceedings
were as prejudicate and unreasonable as in the
council wherein Abailardus was condemned, where
the presidents having pronounced Damnamus,
they at the lower end, being awaked at the
noise, heard the latter part of it, and concurred as
far as mnamus went; and that was as good as
damnamus ; for if they had been awake at the
pronouncing the whole word, they would have
given sentence accordingly. But, by this means,
St. Bernard numbered the major part of voices
against his adversary, Abailardus :f and as far as
these men did do their duty, the duty of priests
and judges, and wise men, so we may presume
them to be assisted, but no further. But I am
content this (because but a private assembly) shall
pass for no instance. But what shall we say of all
* '' Notandum est experimento rerum universale concilium
posse deficere." — Lib. ii. c. 14, Concord. Cathol.
+ Epist. Abailardi ad Heliss. Conjugem.
150 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
the Arian councils, celebrated with so great fanc}%
and such numerous assemblies ? We all say that
they erred. And it will not be sufficient to say
they were not lawful councils ; for they were con-
vened by that authority which all the world knows
did, at that time, convocate councils, and by which
(as it is confessed and is notorious*) the first eight
generals did meet ; that is, by the authority of the
emperor, all were called, and as many and more did
come to them, than came to the most famous council
of Nice : so that the councils were lawful, and if
they did not proceed lawfully, and therefore did err,
this is to say, that councils are then not deceived,
when they do their duty, when they judge impar-
tially, when they decline interest, when they follow
their rule ; but this says, also, that it is not infallibly
certain that they will do so ; for these did not, and
therefore the others maybe deceived as well as these
were. But another thing is in the wind ; for coun-
cils not confirmed by the pope, have no warrant
that they shall not err ; and they, not being con-
firmed, therefore failed. But whether is the pope's
confirmation after the decree, or before ? It cannot
be supposed before ; for there is nothing to be con-
firmed till the decree be made, and the article
composed. But if it be after, then, possibly, the
pope's decree may be requisite, in solemnity of law,
and to make the authority popular, public, and hu-
man; but the decree is true or false before the
pope's confirmation, and is not at all altered by the
supervening decree, which being postnate to the
decree, alters not what went before. " Our opinion
of a previous as fact is not to be determined by a
* Cusanus, lib. ii. cap. 25, Concord.
UNCERTAINTY OF COUNCILS. 151
subsequent decree,"* is the voice both of law and
reason. So that it cannot make it divine, and ne-
cessary to be heartily believed. It may make it
lawful, not make it true : that is, it may possibly
by such means become a law, but not a truth. I
speak now upon supposition the pope's confirma-
tion were necessary, and required to the making of
conciliary and necessary sanctions. But if it were,
the case were very hard : for suppose a heresy
should invade, and possess the chair of Rome,
what remedy can the church have in that case, if a
general council be of no authority without the
pope confirm it ? Will the pope confirm a council
against himself ? Will he condemn his own heresy ?
That the pope may be a heretic appears in the
canon law,f which says he may, for heresy, be de-
posed ; and therefore, by a council, which, in this
case, hath plenary authority without the pope.
And, therefore, in the synod at Rome, held un-
der po[)e Adrian II. the censure of the sixth sy-
nod against Honorius, who was convict of heresy,
is approved, with this appendix, that in this case,
the case of heresy, " inferiors may judge of their
superiors," (minores possint de majoribus judicare :)
and, therefore, if a pope were above a council, yet
when the question is concerning heresy, the case is
altered; the pope may be judged by his inferiors,
who, in this case, which is the main case of all, be-
come his superiors. And it is little better than
impudence to pretend that all councils were con-
firmed by the pope, or that there is a necessity in
respect of divine obligation, that any should be
* " Nunqiiam enim crescit ex post facto preeteriti sestimatio."
•\ Dist. xl. Can. si Papa.
152 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
confirmed by him, more than by another of the
patriarchs. For the council of Chalcedon itself,
one of those four which St. Gregory did revere
next to the four Evans^elists, is rejected by pope
Leo, who, in his fifty-third epistle to Anatolius, and
in his fifty-fourth to Martian, and in his fifty-fifth
to Pulcheria, accuses it of ambition and inconsi-
derate temerity ; and, therefore, no fit assembly for
the habitation of the Holy Spirit. And Gelasius, in
his tome, De Vinculo Anathematis, affirms, that the
council is in part to be received, in part to be
rejected; and compares it to heretical books of a
mixed matter, and proves his assertion by the place
of St. Paul : ' Prove all things : hold fast that
which is good ;'* and Bellarmine says the same :
" In the council of Chalcedon some things are good,
some bad ; some are to be received, and some re-
jected; as is the case in regard to the books of
heretics ;"t and if any thing be false, then all is
questionable, and judicable, and discernable, and
not infallible antecedently. And however that
council hath, ex post facto, and by the voluntary
consenting of after ages, obtained great reputation ;
yet they that lived immediately after it, that observed
all the circumstances of the thing, and the disabili-
ties of the 23ersons, and the uncertainty of the truth
of its decrees, by reason of the unconcludingness
of the arguments brought to attest it, were of ano-
ther mind. ''As to the council of Chalcedon, it
\A as neither openly acknowledged by the churches,
nor rejected by all ; for the authorities, in every
* De Laicis, lib. iii. c. 20. § ad. hoc ult.
•f " In concilio Chalcedonensi queedam sunt bona, quaedam
mala, quaedam recipienda, quasdam rejicienda ; ita et in libris
haereticorum."
UNCERTAINTY OF COUNCILS. 153
church, were guided by their own judgment;"*
and so did all men in the world, that were not
mastered with prejudices, and undone in their
understanding- with accidental impertinences ; they
judged upon those grounds which they had and
saw, and suffered not themselves to be bound to
the imperious dictates of other men, who are as
uncertain in their determinations as others in their
questions. And it is an evidence that there is
some deception and notable error, either in the
thing or in the manner of their proceeding, when
the decrees of a council shall have no authority
from the compilers, nor no strength from the rea-
sonableness of the decision, but from the accidental
approbation of joosterity : and if posterity had
pleased, Origen had believed well, and been an
orthodox person. And it was pretty sport to see
that Papias was right for two ages together, and
wrong ever since : and just so it was in councils,
particularly in this of Chalcedon, that had a fate
alterable according to the age, and according
to the climate : which, to my understanding, is
nothing else but an argument that the business of
infallibility is a later device, and commenced to
serve such ends as cannot be justified by true
and substantial grounds; and that the pope should
confirm it as of necessity, is a fit cover for the same
dish.
In the sixth general council, Honorius, pope of
Rome, was condemned ; did that council stay for
• " Quod autem ad concilium Chalcedonense attinet, illud id
temporis (viz. Anastasii Imp.) neque palam in ecclesiis sanctis-
simis prffidicatum fuit, neque ab omnibus rej ectum, nam singuli
ecclesiarum pragsides pro suo arbitratu in ea re egerunt." — Evag.
lib. iii. c. 30.
154 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
the pope's confirmation, before they set forth their
decree ? Certainly they did not think it so needful,
as that they would have suspended or cassated the
decree, in case the pope had then disavowed it : for
besidesthe condemnation of popeHonorius for here-
sy, the thirteenth and fifty-fifth canons of that coun-
cil are expressly as^ainst the custom of the church of
Rome. But this particular is involved in that new
question, whether the pope be above a council.
Now, since the contestation of this question, there
was never any free or lawful council that deter-
mined for the pope; it is not likely any should;
and is it likely that any pope will confirm a coun-
cil that does not ? For the council of Basil is
therefore condemned by the last Lateran,* which
was an assembly in the pope's own palace ; and the
council of Constance is of no value in this question,
and slighted in a just proportion, as that article is
disbelieved. But I will not much trouble the
question with a long- consideration of this particu-
lar ; the pretence is senseless and illiterate, against
reason and experience, and already determined by
St. Austin sufficiently, as to this particular: " We
may be allowed to think the bishops, who gave their
judgment at Rome, were not good judges: there
still remained the full council of the whole church,
where the cause might yet be discussed with those
judges themselves, and their decree annulled, if
they were convicted of pronouncing a wrong judg-
ment."! For since popes may be parties, may be
* Vid. postea de Concil. Sinuessiano. § 6. N. 9.
•|- " Ecce putemus illos episcopos qui Romae judicaverunt, non
bonos judices fuisse : restabat adhuc plenarium ecclesiae uni-
versae concilium, ubi etiam cum ipsis judicibus causa possit agi-
tari, ut si male judicasse convicti essent eorum sententiae solve-
rentur." — Epist. xvi. ad Glorium.
UNCERTAINTY OF COUNCILS. 155
Simoniacs, schismatics, heretics, it is against rea-
son that in their own causes they should be judges,
or that in any causes they should be superior to
their judges. And as it is against reason, so is it
against all experience too ; for the council Sinuessa-
num (as it said) was convened to take cognizance
of pope Marcellinus ; and divers councils were held
at Rome to give judgment in the causes of Damasus,
Sixtus III. Symmachus, and lico III. and IV. ; as
is to be seen in Platina, and the tomes of the coun-
cils. And it is no answer to this and the like alle-
gations, to say, in matters of fact and human con-
stitution the pope may be judged by a council,
but in matters of faith all the world must stand to
the pope's determination and authoritative de-
cision; for if the pope can, by any colour, pre-
tend to any thing, it is to a supreme judicature in
matters ecclesiastical, positive and of fact; and
if he fails in this pretence, he will hardly hold up
his head for any thing else; for the ancient bishops
derived their faith from the fountain, and held that
in the highest tenure, even from Christ their head ;
but, by reason of the imperial city,* it became the
principal seat ; and he surprised the highest judi-
cature, partly by the concession of others, partly
by his own accidental advantages; and yet, even in
these things, although he was major singulis^ ''su-
perior to each singly,'^ yet he was minor universis,
" inferior to all of them together.'^* And this is no
more than what was decreed of the eighth general
synod ; which, if it be sense, is pertinent to this
question ; for general councils are appointed to
take cognizance of questions and differences about
* Vide Concil. Chalced. act. 15. -|- Act. ult. Can. xxi.
156 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
the bishop of Rome; ''not, however, to give sen-
tence against hini audaciously." * By audaciously,
as is supposed, is meant hastily and unreasonably :
but, if to give sentence against him be wholly for-
bidden, it is nonsense; for to what purpose is an
authority of taking cognizance, if they have no
power of giving sentence, unless it w^ere to defer it
to a superior judge, which in this case cannot be
supposed ? for either the pope himself is to judge
his own cause after their examination of him, or
the general council is to judge him: so that, al-
though the council is, by that decree, enjoined to
proceed modestly and warily, yet they may proceed
to sentence, or else the decree is ridiculous and im-
pertinent.
But, to clear all, I will instance in matters of
question and opinion : for not only some councils
have made their decrees without or against the
pope, but some councils have had the pope's con-
firmation, and yet have not been the more legi-
timate or obligatory, but are known to be heretical.
For the canons of the sixth synod, although some
of them were made against the popes and the cus-
tom of the church of Rome, a pope, awhile after,
did confirm the council ; and yet the canons are
impious and heretical, and so esteemed by the
church of Rome herself. I instance in the second
canon, which approves of that synod of Carthage,
under Cyprian, for rebaptization of heretics; and
the seventy-second canon, that dissolves marriage
between persons of differing persuasion in matters
of Christian religion ; and yet these canons were
approved by pope Adrian I. who, in his epistle to
* " Non tamen audacter in eum ferre sententiam."
UNCERTAINTY OF COUNCILS. 157
Tharasiiis, wliicli is in the second act of the seventh
synod, calls them canones divine et legaliter prcedi-
cafos, " canons divinely and legally ordained."
And these canons were used by pope Nicholas I.
in his epistle ad Michaelem, and by Innocent III.
So that now (that we may apply this) there are
seven general councils which by the church of
Rome are condemned of error: — the council of
Antioch,* A. D. 345, in which St. Athanasius was
condemned ; the council of Millain, A. D. 354, of
above three hundred bishops; the council of Ari-
minum, consisting of six hundred bishops; the
second council of Ephesus, A. D. 449, in which
the Eutychian heresy v/as confirmed, and the pa-
triarch Flavianus killed by the faction of Dioscorus;
the council of Constantinople under Leo Isaurus,
A. D. 730; another at Constantinople, thirty-five
years after; and lastly, the council at Pisa, one
hundred and thirty-four years since.f Now that
these general councils are condemned, is a suf-
ficent argument that councils may err; and it is no
answer to say, they were not confirmed by the pope ;
for the pope's confirmation I have shov/n not to be
necessary ; or if it were, yet even that also is an argu-
ment that general councils may become invalid,
either by their own fault, or by some extrinsical
supervening accident, either of which evacuates
their authority ; and whether all that is required to
the legitimation of a council, was actually observed.
in any council, is so hard to determine, that no man
* Vid. Socra. lib. ii. c. 5, et Sozonien. lib. iii. c 5.
•f- Gregor. in Regist. lib. iii. caus. ^. ait, Concilium Numi-
dise errasse. Concilium Aquisgrani erravit. De raptore et
rapta dist. xx. can. de Libellis. in glossa.
158 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
can be infallibly sure that such a council is authen-
tic and sufficient probation.
2, And that is the second thing- 1 shall observe :
There are so many c|uestions concerning the ef-
ficient, the form, the matter of general councils,
and their manner of proceeding, and their final
sanction, that after a question is determined by a
conciliary assembly, there are, perhaps, twenty
more c^uestions to be disputed, before we can, with
confidence, either believe the council upon its mere
authority, or obtrude it upon others. And upon
this ground, how easy it is to elude the pressure
of an argument drawn from the authority of a ge-
neral council, is very remarkable in the question
about the pope's or the council's superiority,
which question, although it be defined for the coun-
cil against the pope by five general councils, the
council of Florence, of Constance, of Basil, of Pisa,
and one of the Laterans, yet the Jesuits, to this
day, account this question undetermined, and have
rare pretences for their escape. As, first; it is true
a council is above a pope, in case there be no pope,
or he uncertain; which is Bellarmine's answer,
never considering whether he spake sense or no, nor
yet remembering that the council of Basil deposed
Eugenius, who was a true pope, and so acknow-
ledged. Secondly, sometimes the pope did not
confirm these councils ; that is their answer : and
although it was an exception that the fathers never
thought of, when they were pressed with the au-
thority of the council of Ariminum, or Syrmium, or
any other Arian convention; yet the council of
Basil was convened by pope Martin Y. then, in its
sixteenth session, declared by Eugenius IV. to be
lawfully continued, and confirmed expressly in
UNCERTAINTY OF COUNCILS. 159
some of its decrees by pope Nicholas, and so stood
till it V, as at last rejected by Leo X. very many
years after. But that came too late, and with too
visible an interest; and this council did decree,
" that a council is to be considered as superior to a
pope."* But if one pope confirms it and another
rejects it, as it happened in this case, and in many
more, does it not destroy the competency of the
authority ? And we see it by this instance, that
it so serves the turns of men, that it is good in
some cases ; that is, when it makes for them, and
invalid when it makes against them. Thirdly;
but it is a little more ridiculous in the case of the
council of Constance, whose decrees were confirmed
by Martin V. But that this may be no argument
ag-ainst them, Bellarmine tells you, he only con-
firmed those things qu(e facta Juerant conciliariter,
re diligenter examinatd, "which were done with his
concurrence, after his diligent examination;" of
which there being no mark, nor any certain rule
to judge it, it is a device that may evacuate any
thing we have a mind to ; it was not done concili-
ariter, that is, not according to our mind; for
conciliariter is a fine new nothing, that may signify
what you please. Fourthly : but other devices yet
more pretty they have ; as whether the council of
Lateran was a general council or no, they know
not, (no, nor will not know) ; which is a wise and
plain reservation of their own advantages, to make
it general or not general, as shall serve their turns.
Fifthly : as for the council of Florence, they are
not sure whether it hath defined the question
" openly enough," satis aperte ; aperie they will
* " Fide Catholica tenendum concilium esse supree papam."
ICO THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
^rant, if you will allow them not satis aperte.
Sixthly and lastly : the council of Pisa is " neither
ap))roved nor disallowed ;"* which is the greatest
folly of all, and most prodigious vanity ; so that,
by something or other, eitlier they were not con-
vened lawfully, or they did not proceed concili-
ariter, or it is not certain that the council was ge-
neral or no, or whether the council were approba-
tuni, or reprohatnm ; or else it i^partim coiifirmatum,
pai'tim reprohatinn ;\ or else it is neque approbatum,
neque reprobatum ;% by one of these ways, or a
device like to these, all councils and all decrees
shall be made to signify nothing, and to have no
authority.
8. There is no general council that hath deter-
mined that a general council is infallible : no
Scripture hath recorded it ; no tradition universal
hath transmitted to us any such proposition ; so
that we must receive the authority at a lower rate,
and upon a less probability than the things con-
signed by that authority. And it is strange that
the decrees of councils should be esteemed au-
thentic and infallible, and yet it is not infallibly
certain, that the councils themselves are infallible,
because the belief of the councils' infallibility is
not proved to us by any medium but such as may
deceive us.
4. But the best instance that councils are some,
and may all be deceived, is the contradiction of
one council to another ; for in that case both
cannot be true, and which of them is true, must
* " Neque approbatum neque reprobatum." — Bellar. De Cone,
lib. i. c. 8.
+ " Partly confirmed and partly disallowed."
X " Neither approved nor yet disallowed."
UNCERTAINTY OF COUNCILS. 1(11
belong- to another judi^ment, wliicli is less tlian the
solemnity of a general comuil ; and tlie determin-
ation of this matter can be of no greater certain! y
after it is conclnded than when it was proponnck'd
as a question ; being it is to be determined by tlie
same authority, or by a less than itself. ]]ut for
this allegation we cannot want instances: the
council of Trent* allows picturing of (iod the
Father; the council of Nice altogether disallows
it: the same Nicene council,f which was the
seventh general, allows of picturing Christ in the
form of a lamb ; but the sixth synod by no means
will endure it, as Caranza aftirms. The council
of Neoca'sarea,! confirmed by Leo TV., dist. xx.
de Lihcllis, and approved by the first Nicene coun-
cil, as it is said in the seventh session of the council
of Florence, forbids second marriages, and im-
poses penances on them that are married the
second time, forbidding priests to be present at
such marriage feasts; besides that this is exj)ressly
against tlie doctrine of St. Paul, it is also against
the doctrine of the council of La()dicea,§ which
took off' such penances, and pronounced second
marriages to be free and lawful. Nothing is more
discre})ant than the third council of Carthage and
the council of liaodicea, about assignation of the
canon of Scri})ture; and yet the sixth general synod
approves both : and I would fain know, if all ge-
neral councils are of the same mind with the
fathers of the council of Carthage, who reckon
into the canon five books of Solomon. I am sure
St. Austin 1 1 reckoned but three, and I think all
* Scss. XXV. ■\ Act. ii. X f'l'i- Ixxxii.
S Cap. 1. II Lib. xvii. Dc Cul. Dei. c. 20.
162 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
Christendom beside are of the same opinion. And
if we look into the title of the law de conciliisy
called Concordantia discordantiarum, we shall find
instances enough to confirm, that the decrees of
some councils are contradictory to others, and that
no wit can reconcile them : and whether they did
or no, that they might disagree, and former coun-
cils be corrected by later, was the belief of the
doctors in those ages in which the best and most
famous councils were convened ; as appears in that
famous saying of St. Austin, speaking concerning
the rebaptizing of heretics ; and how much the Afri-
cans were deceived in that question, he answers the
allegation of the bishops' letters, and those national
councils which confirmed St. Cyprian's opinion,
by saying, that they were no final determination.
Not only the occasion of the question, being a matter
not of fact but of faith, as being instanced in the
question of rebaptization,but also the very fabric and
economy of the words, put by all the answers of those
men who think themselves pressed with the autho-
rity of St. Austin. " For, as national councils may
correct the bishops* letters, and general councils
may correct national, so the later general may cor-
rect the former ;"'* that is, have contrary and better
decrees of manners, and better determinations in
matters of faith. And from hence hath risen a
question, whether is to be received the former or
the later councils, in case they contradict each
other. The former are nearer the fountains apos-
tolical, the later are of greater consideration; the
first have more authority, the later more reason;
* " Episcoporum literae emendari possunt a conciliis nation-
alibus, concilia nationalia a plenariis, ipsaque plenaria priora a
posterioribus emendari." — Lib. ii. De Bapt. Donat. c. 3.
UNCERTAINTY OF COUNCILS. 163
the first are more venerable, the later more inquisi-
tive and seeing". And, now, what rule shall we have
to determine our beliefs, whether to authority or
reason ; the reason and the authority both of them
not being the highest in their kind, both of them
being repudiable, and at most but probable ? And
here it is that this great uncertainty is such as not
to determine any body, but fit to serve every body :
and it is sport to see that Belhirmine* will, by all
means, have the council of Carthage preferred be-
fore the council of Laodicea, because it is later; and
yet he prefers the second Nicene council f before
the council of Frankfort, because it is elder. St.
Austin would have the former generals to be mended
by the later ; but Isidore, in Gratian, says, " When
councils do diflfer, the elder must carry it : "t and
indeed these probables are buskins to serve every
foot ; and they are like magnum et parvum, they have
nothing of their own, all that they have is in com-
parison of others: so these topics have nothing of
resolute and dogmatical truth, but in relation to
such ends as an interested person hath a mind to
serve upon them.
5. There are many councils corrupted, and many
pretended and alleged, when there were no such
tilings ; both which make the topic of the authority
of councils to be little and inconsiderable. There is
a council brought to light, in the edition of Councils,
by Binius, viz. Sinuessanum, pretended to be kept
in the year 303 ; but it was so private till then, that
we find no mention of it in any ancient record ;
* Lib. ii. De Cone. c. 8, § Respondeo in primis.
f Ibid. § De Concilio autem.
J Dist. XX. Can. Domino Sancto.
M 2
164 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
neither Eusebius, nor Ruffinus, St. Jerome, nor
Socrates, Sozomen, nor Theodoret, nor Eutropius,
nor Bede, knew any thing of it ; and the eldest alle-
gation of it is by pope Nicholas I. in the ninth cen-
tury. And he that shall consider, that three hundred
bishops, in the midst of horrid persecutions, (for so
then they were,) are pretended to have convened,
will need no greater argument to suspect the im-
posture : besides, he that was the framer of the en-
gine did not lay his ends together handsomely ; for
it is said, that the deposition of Marcellinus, by the
synod, was told to Diocletian when he was in the
Persian war ; w hereas it is known, before that time
he had returned to Rome, and triumphed for his
Persian conquest, as Eusebius in his chronicle re-
ports : and this is so plain that Binius and Baronius
pretend the text to be corrupted, and so go to mend
it by such an emendation as is a plain contradiction
to the sense, and that so unclerklike, viz. by putting
in two words and leaving out one ;* which, whether it
may be allowed them by any licence less than poeti-
cal, let critics judge. St. Gregory saith,f that the
Constantinopolitans had corrupted the synod of
Chalcedon, and that he suspected the same concern-
ing the Ephesine council : and, in the fifth synod,
there was a notorious prevarication, for there were
false epistles of pope Yigilius and Menna, the pa-
triarch of Constantinople, inserted ; and so they
passed for authentic till they were discovered in
the sixth general sjaiod. Actions xii. and xiv. And
* Pro, Cum esset in bello Persanim, legi volunt, Cum rever-
sus esset a bello Persarum. — Euseb. Chronicon. vide Binium in
Notis ad Concil. Sinuessanum. torn. i. Concil. et Baron. An-
nal. torn. iii. A. D. 303. num. 107.
-j- Lib. V. Ep. 14, ad Narsera.
UNCERTAINTY OF COUNCILS. 165
not only false decrees and actions may creep into the
codes of councils, but sometimes the authority of a
learned man may abuse the church with pretended
decrees, of which there is no copy or shadow in the
code itself : and thus Thomas Aquinas says,* that
the Epistle to the Hebrews was reckoned in the canon
by the Nicene council ; no shadow of which appears
in those copies we now have of it ; and this pretence
and the reputation of the man prevailed so far with
Melchior Canus, the learned bishop of the Canaries,
that he believed it upon this ground, " that so holy
a man would not have asserted such a thing, if he
had not been fully assured of it :"f and there are
many things which have prevailed upon less reason
and a more slight authority. And that very coun-
cil of Nice hath not only been pretended by Aqui-
nas, but very much abused by others; and its autho-
rity and great reputation hath made it more liable to
the fraud and pretences of idle people : for whereas the
Nicene fathers made but twenty canons, for so many
and no more were received by Ceciliant of Carthage,
that was at Nice in the council ; by St. Austin, § and
two hundred African bishops with him ; by St. Cyril ||
of Alexandria: ^ by Atticus of Constantinople;* by
Ruffinus, Isidore, and Theodoret, as Baroniusf
witnesses ; yet there are fourscore lately found out,
in an Arabian manuscript, and published in Latin
by Turrian and Alfonsus of Pisa, Jesuits surely,
• C!omment in Hebr.
■j- " Vir sanctus rem adeo gravem non astrueret, nisi comper-
tum habuisset "
X Con. Carthag. vi. c. 9. § Con. African.
11 Ibid. c. 102, etc. 133. % Lib. i. Eccl. Hist. c. 6.
• In Princ. Con. de Synod. Princ
t Baronius, torn. iii. A.D. 325. n. 156. torn. iii. ad A.D. 325.
n. 62, 63.
166 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
and like to be masters of the mint. And not only
the canons, but the very acts of the Nicene council
are false and spurious, and are so confessed by Ba-
ronius; though how he andLindanus* will be re-
conciled upon the point, I neither know well nor
much care. Now, if one council be corrupted, we
see, by the instance of St. Gregory, that another may
be suspected, and so all : because he found the coun-
cil of Chalcedon corrupted, he suspected also the
Ephesine ; and another might have suspected more,
for the Nicene was tampered foully with ; and so
three of the four generals were sullied and made
suspicious, and therefore we could not be secure of
any. If false acts be inserted in one council, who
can trust the actions of any, unless he had the keep-
ing the records himself, or durst swear for the regis-
ter ? And if a very learned man ( as Thomas Aquinas
was) did either wilfully deceive us, or was himself
ignorantly abused, in allegation of a canon which
was not, it is but a very fallible topic at the best, and
the most holy man that is may be abused himself,
and the wisest may deceive others.
6. And, lastly: To all this and to the former in-
stances, by way of corollary, I add some more par-
ticulars, in which it is notorious that councils general
and national, that is, such as were either general
by original, or by adoption into the canon of the
catholic church, did err, and were actually deceived.
The first council of Toledo admits to the commu-
nion him that hath a concubine, so he have no wife
besides ; and this council is approved by jDope Leo,
in the ninety-second epistle to Rusticus, bishop of
Narbona : Gratian says, f that the council means
* PampL lib. ii. c. 6. f Dist. xxxiv. Can. omnibus.
UNCERTAINTY OF COUNCILS. 167
by a concubine, a wife married " without a portion
and due solemnity," sine dote et solennitate: but this
is daubing with untempered mortar. For, though
it was a custom amongst the Jews to distinguish
wives from their concubines by dowry and legal so-
lemnities, yet the Christian distinguished them no
otherwise than as lawful and unlawful, than as
chastity and fornication. And, besides, if by a con-
cubine is meant a lawful wife without a dowry, to
what purpose should the council make a law that
such a one might be admitted to the communion ?
for I suppose it was never thought to be a law of
Christianity, that a man should have a portion with
his wife, nor he that married a poor virgin should
deserve to be excommunicate. So that Gratian and
his followers are pressed so with this canon, that, to
avoid the impiety of it, they expound it to a signi-
fication without sense or purpose. But the business
then was, that adultery was so public and notorious
a practice, that the^council did choose rather to en-
dure simple fornication, that by such permission of
a less, they might slacken the public custom of a
greater ; just as at Rome they permit stews, to pre-
vent unnatural sins : but that, by a public sanction,
fornicators, habitually and notoriously such, should
be admitted to the holy communion, was an act of
priests so unfit for priests that no excuse can make
it white or clean. The council ofWormes* does
autliorise a superstitious custom, at that time too
much used, of discovering stolen goods by the holy
sacrament, which Aquinas f justly condemns for
superstition. The sixth synod % separates persons
lawfully married, upon an accusation and crime of
* Cap. 3. t Part iii. q. 80, a. 6, ad 3 m. % Can. Ixxii.
168 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
heresy. The Roman council, under Pope Nicho-
las II. * defined, that not only the sacrament of
Christ's body, but the very body itself of our blessed
Saviour is handled and broke by the hands of the
priest, and chewed by the teeth of the communi-
cants ; which is a manifest error, derogatory from the
truth of Christ's beatifical resurrection, and glorifi-
cation in the heavens, and disavowed by the church
of Rome itself : but Bellarmine, f that answers all
the arguments in the world, whether it be possible
or not possible, would fain make the matter fair,
and the decree tolerable; for, says he, the decree
means, that the body is broken not in itself but in
sign ; and yet the decree says, that not only the sa-
crament (which, if any thing be, is certainly the
sign) but the very body itself is broken and champed,
with hands and teeth respectively ; which indeed
was nothing but a plain overacting the article, in
contradiction to Berengarius. And the answer of
Bellarmine is not sense, for he denies that the body
itself is broken in itself, (that was the error we
charged upon the Roman synod,) and the sign ab-
stracting from the body is not broken, (for that was
the opinion that council condemned in Berengarius,)
but, says Bellarmine, the body in the sign : What is
that ? for neither the sign, nor the body, nor both
together are broken : for, if either of them distinctly,
they either rush ujDon the error which the Roman
synod condemned in Berengarius, or upon that
which they would fain excuse in pope Nicholas.
But if both are broken, then it is true to affirm it of
either ; and then the council is blasphemous in say-
ing, that Christ's glorified body is passible and
* Can. ego Berengar. de Consecrat. dist. ii.
+ Lib. ii. c. 8, De Concil.
UNCERTAINTY OF COUNCILS. 169
frangible by natural manducation : so that it is
and it is not; it is not this way, and yet it is no
way else : but it is some way, and they know not
how; and the council spoke blasphemy, but it must
be made innocent, and therefore it was requisite a
cloud of a distinction should be raised, that the un-
wary reader might be amused, and the decree scape
untouched : but the truth is, they that undertake to
justify all that other men say, must be more subtle
than they that said it, and must use such distinc-
tions which possibly the first authors did not under-
stand. But I will multiply no more instances ; for
what instance soever I shall bring, some or other
will be answering it; which thing is so far from satis-
fying me in the particulars, that it increases the
difficulty in the general, and satisfies me in my first
belief: for, if no decrees of councils can make
against them,* though they seem never so plain
against them, then let others be allowed the same
liberty, (and there is all the reason in the world
they should,) and no decree shall conclude against
any doctrine, that they have already entertained^
and by this means the church is no fitter instrument
to decree controversies than the Scripture itself,
there being as much obscurity and disputing in the
sense, and the manner, and the degree, and the
competency, and the obligation of the decree of a
council, as of a place of Scripture. And what are
we the nearer for a decree, if any sophister shall
think his illusion enough to contest against the au-
thority of a council ? Yet this they do that pre-
* Ilia demum eis videntur edicta et concilia quze in rem suam
faciunt ; reliqua non pluris aestimant quam conventum muliercula-
rum in textrina vel thermis.— Lud. Vives in Scholiis, lib. xx.
Aug. de Civit. Dei. c. 26.
170 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
tend highest for their authority ; which considera-
Uon, or some like it, might possibly make Gratian*
prefer St. Jerome's single testimony before a whole
council, because he had Scripture of his side; which
says, that the authority of councils is not avroTrirog,
(deserving of credit and confidence on its own ac-
count,) and that councils may possibly recede from
their rule, from Scripture ; and, in that case, a single
person, proceeding according to rule, is a better ar-
gument; which indeed was the saying of Panormi-
taii : " In matters of faith, the oj^inion of a single
individual is preferable to the dictate of a pope,
or of a whole council, if he be guided in his de-
cision by better arguments.' 'f
I end this discourse with representing the words
of Gregory Nazianz en, in his epistle to Procopius :
'' To say the truth, such is my feeling, that I
would shun all the episcopal councils, for I have
never known one of them come to any good and
pi'osperous issue, or which did not tend rather to
tlie growth than the diminution of evils."t But
I will not be so severe and dogmatical against
them: for I believe many councils to have been
called with sufficient authority, to have been ma-
naged with singular piety and prudence, and to
* 36. q. 2. c. placuit.
•f* "■ In concernentibus fidem etiam dictvim unius privati esset
dicto papae aut totius concilii prsferendum, si ille moveretur
melioribus argumentis." — Part I. De Election, et Elect, potest.
cap. significasti.
X " Ego si vera scribere oportet ita animo afFectus sum, ut
onmia episcoporum concilia fugiani, quoniam nullius concilii
finem laetum faustumque vidi, nee quod depulsionem malorum
potius quam accessionem et incrementum habuerit.'" — Athanas.
lib. De Synod. Frustra igitur circumcursitantes praetexunt ob
fidem se Synodos postulare, cum sit Divina Scriptura omnibus
potentior.
UNCERTAINTY OF COUNCILS. 171
have been finished with admirable success and
truth; and where we find such councils, he that
will not, with all veneration, believe their decrees,
and receive their sanctions, understands not that
great duty he owes to them who have the care of
our souls, whose ' faith we are bound to follow,'
saith St. PauL;* that is, so long as they follow
Christ, and certainly many councils have done so :
but this w^as then, when the public interest of Chris-
tendom was better conserved in determining a true
article than in finding a discreet temper, or a wise
expedient, to satisfy disagreeing persons ; (as the
fathers at Trent did, and the Lutherans and Cal-
vinists did at Sendomir, in Polonia; and the Sub-
lapsarians and Supralapsarians did at Dort.) It
was in ages when the sum of religion did not consist
in maintaining the dignity of the papacy ; where
thei'e was no order of men, with a fourth vow upon
them, to advance St. Peter's chair ; when there
was no man, or any company of men, that esteemed
themselves infallible ; and, therefore, they searched
for truth as if they meant to find it, and would
believe it if they could see it proved ; not resolved
to prove it, because they had, upon chance or in-
terest, believed it ; then they had rather have
sjjoken a truth than upheld their reputation, but
only in order to truth. This was done sometimes,
and when it was done, God's Spirit never failed
them, but gave them such assistances as were suffi-
cient to that good end for which they were assem-
bled, and did implore his aid : and therefore it is,
that the four general councils, so called by way of
eminency, have gained so great a reputation above
* Heb. xiii. 7-
172 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
all others ; not because they had a better promise,
or more special assistances, but because they pro-
ceeded better, according to the rule, with less faction,
without ambition and temporal ends.
And yet those very assemblies of bishops had no
authority, by their decrees, to make a divine faith,
or to constitute new objects of necessary credence ;
they made nothing true that was not so before ; and,
therefore, they are to be apprehended in the nature
of excellent guides, and whose decrees are most
certainly to determine all those who have no argu-
ment to the contrary, of greater force and efficacy
than the authority or reasons of the council. And
there is a duty owing to every parish priest, and to
every diocesan bishop ; these are appointed over
us, and to answer for our souls, and are, therefore,
morally to guide us, as reasonable creatures are to
be guided ; that is, by reason and discourse : for
in things of judgment and understanding, they are
but in form next above beasts, that are to be ruled
by the imperiousness and absoluteness of authority,
unless the authority be divine; that is, infallible.
Now, then, in a juster height, but still in its true
proportion, assemblies of bishops are to guide us
with a higher authority ; because, in reason, it is
supposed they will do it better, with more argu-
ment and certainty, and w ith decrees, which have
the advantage, by being the results of many dis-
courses of very w ise and good men : but that the
authority of general councils was never esteemed
absolute, infallible, and unlimited, appears in this,
that before they were obliging, it was necessary
that each particular church, respectively, should
accept them : concurrente universali totius ecclesice
consensu, ^c. in declaratione veritatum quce credenda;
UNCERTAINTY OF COUNCILS. 173
sunfi ^c* That is the way of making the decrees
of councils become authentic, and be turned into a
law, as Gerson observes ; and till they did, their
decrees were but a dead letter ; (and therefore it is,
that these later j:)opes have so laboured that the
council of Trent should be received in France:
and Carolus Molineus, a great lawyer, and of the
Roman communion, disputed against the recep-
tion ;f) and this is a known condition in the canon
law ; but it proves plainly that the decrees of
councils have their authority from the voluntary
submission of the particular churches, not from the
prime sanction and constitution of the council.
And there is great reason it should ; for as the re-
presentative body of the church derives all power
from the diffusive body which is represented, so it
resolves into it; and though it may have all the
legal power, yet it hath not all the natural ; for
more able men may be unsent than sent ; and they
who are sent may be wrought upon by stratagem,
which cannot hapjDen to the whole diffusive church :
it is, therefore, most fit, that since the legal power,
that is, the external, was passed over to the body
representative, yet the efficacy of it, and the in-
ternal, should so still remain in the diffusive, as to
have power to consider whether their representa-
tives did their duty, yea or no ; and so to proceed
accordingly, for, unless it be in matters of justice,
in which the interest of a third person is concerned,
no man will or can be supposed to pass away all
power from himself, of doing himself right in mat-
* Vid. St. August, lib. i. c. 1 8, de Bapt. Contr. Donat.
+ So did the third estate of France, in the convention
of the three estates, under Lewis XIII., earnestly contend
against it.
174 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
ters personal, i^roper, and of so high concernment :
it is most unnatural and unreasonable. But, be-
sides that they are excellent instruments of peace,
the best human judicatories in the world, rare ser-
mons for the determining a point in controversy,
and the greatest probability from human authority ;
besides these advantages, I say, T know nothing
greater that general councils can pretend to, with
reason and argument, sufficient to satisfy any wise
man : and as there was never any council so ge-
neral but it might have been more general ; for, in
respect of the whole church, even Nice itself was
but a small assembly ; so there is no decree so well
constituted but it may be proved by an argument
higher than the authority of the council. And,
therefore, general councils, and national, and pro-
vincial, and diocesan, in their several decrees, are
excellent guides for the prophets, and directions
and instructions for their prophesyings ; but not of
weight and authority to restrain their liberty so
wholly but that they may dissent, when they see a
reason strong enough so to persuade them as to be
willing, upon the confidence of that reason, and
their own sincerity, to answer to God for such their
modesty, and peaceable, but (as they believe) their
necessary disagreeing.
175
SECTION VII.
Of the fallibility of the Pope, and the uncertainty
of his expounding Scripture, and resolving Ques-
tions.
But since the question between the council and the
pope grew high, they have not wanted abettors so
confident on the pope's behalf, as to believe general
councils to be nothing but pomps and solemnities
of the catholic church, and that all the authority of
determining controversies is formally and effec-
tually in the pope ; and, therefore, to appeal from
the pope to a future council is' a heresy ; yea, and
treason too, said pope Pius II. ;* and, therefore, it
concerns us now to be wise and wary. But before
I proceed, I must needs remember, that pope Pius
II. ,f while he was the wise and learned ^neas
Sylvius, was very confident for the pre-eminence of
a council, and gave a merry reason why more
clerks were for the popes than the council, though
the truth was on the other side ; even because the
pope gives bishoprics and abbeys, but councils
give none ; and yet, as soon as he was made pope,
as if he had been inspired, his eyes were opened to
see the great privileges of St. Peter's chair, which
before he could not see, being amused with the
truth, or else with the reputation of a general
council. But, however, there are many that hope
* Epist. ad Norimberg.
•f- " Patrum et avorum nostrorum tempore pauci audebant
dicere papam esse supra concil." — Lib. i. de Gestis ConciL Basil.
176 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
tx) make it good, that the pope is the universal and
the infallible doctor, that he breathes decrees as
oracles, that to dissent from any of his cathedral
determinations, is absolute heresy, the rule of faith
being nothing else but conformity to the chair
of Peter. So that here we have met a restraint of
projDhesy indeed ; but yet, to make amends, I hope
we shall have an infallible guide ; and when a man
is in heaven, he will never complain that his choice
is taken from him, and he is confined to love and
to admire, since his love and his admiration is fixed
upon that which makes him happy, even upon God
himself. And in the church of Rome, there is, in
a lower degree, but in a true proportion, as little
cause to be troubled, that we are confined to believe
just so, and no choice left us for our understandings
to discover, or our wills to choose ; because, though
we be limited, yet we are pointed out where we
ought to rest ; we are confined to our centre, and
there where our understandings will be satisfied,
and therefore will be quiet, and where, after all our
strivings, studies, and endeavours, we desire to
come ; that is, to truth, for there we are secured to
find it, because we have a guide that is infallible :
if this prove true, we are well enough ; but if it be
false, or uncertain, it were better v/e had still kept
our liberty, than be cozened out of it with gay pre-
tences. This, then, we must consider.
And here we shall be oppressed with a cloud of
witnesses : for what more plain than the commis-
sion given to Peter P ' Thou are Peter, and upon
this rock will I build my church ;' and ' to thee
will I give the keys.' And again : ' For thee have I
prayed, that thy faith fail not ; but thou, when thou
art converted, confirm thy brethren.' And again :
FALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 177
' If thou lovest me, feed my sheep.' Now, nothing
of this being spoken to any of the other apostles,
by one of these places St. Peter must needs be
appointed foundation, or head of the church ; and,
by consequence, he is to rule and govern all. By
some other of these places he is made the supreme
pastor, and he is to teach and determine all, and
enabled, with an infallible power so to do : and, in
a right understanding of these authorities, the fa-
thers spake great things of the chair of Peter ; for
we are as much bound to believe that all this was
spoken to Peter's successors, as to his j^erson ; that
must, by all means, be supposed ; and so did the
old doctors, who had as much certainty of it as we
have, and no more ; but yet let us hear what they
have said : " To this church, by reason of its more
powerful principality, it is necessary all churches
round about should convene."* " In this, tradition
apostolical always was observed; and, therefore, to
communicate with this bishop, with this church,
was to be in communion with the church catholic. "f
*'To this church error or perfidiousness cannot
have access."! '' Against this see gates of hell
cannot prevail. "§ " For we know this church to
be built upon a rock : and whoever eats the lamb,
not within this house, is prophane ; he that is not
in the ark of Noah perishes in the inundation of
waters. He that gathers not with this bishop, he
scatters ; and he that belongeth not to Christ, must
needs belong to antichrist :"|| and that is his final
* Irenge. Contr. Haeres. lib. iii. c. 3.
-f- Ambr. de Obitu Salyri. et lib. i. Ep. iv. ad Imp. Cypr.
Ep. Iii.
X Cypr. Ep. Iv. ad Cornel.
§ St. Austin, in Psal. contra part. Donat.
II Hieron. Ep. Ivii. ad Damasum.
N
178 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
sentence. But if you would have all this proved
by an infallible argument, Optatus,* of Milevis in
Africa, supplies it to us from the very name of Peter:
for therefore Christ gave him the cognomination
of Cephas, d-rrb rrjg KS(pa\i]c, to show that St. Peter
was the visible head of the catholic church. A
cover this, truly v. orthy of the dish ! f This long
harangue must needs be full of tragedy to all them
that take liberty to themselves to follow Scripture
and their best guides, if it happens, in that liberty,
that they depart from the persuasions or the commu-
nion of Rome : but, indeed, if with the peace of the
bishops of Rome I may say it, this scene is the
most unhandsomely laid, and the worst carried of
any of those pretences that have lately abused
Christendom.
1 . Against the allegations of Scripture, I shall lay
no greater prejudice than this, that if a person dis-
interested should see them, and consider what the
products of them might possibly be, the last thing
that he would think of would be, how that any of
these places should serve the ends or pretences of
the church of Rome. For, to instance in one of
the particulars, that' man had need have a strong
fancy, who imagines, that because Christ prayed
for St. Peter, (being he had designed him to be
one of those upon whose preaching and doctrine
he did mean to constitute a church,) ' that his faith
might not fail,' ( for it was necessary that no bitter-
ness, or stopping, should be in one of the first
springs, lest the current be either spoiled or ob-
structed,) that therefore the faith of pope Alex-
* Lib. ii. Contra Parmeiiian.
+ " Dignum patella operculum !"
FALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 179
ander VI., or Gregory, or Clement, fifteen hundred
years after, should be preserved by virtue of that
prayer, which the form of words, the time, the oc-
casion, the manner of the address, the effect itself,
and all the circumstances of the action and person,
did determine to be personal : and when it was
more than personal, St. Peter did not represent his
successors at Rome, but the whole catholic church,
says Aquinas,^ and the divines of the university of
Paris. " They explain the prayer as referring to
the church alone,"f says Bellarmine of them ; and
the gloss upon the canon law plainly denies the
effect of this prayer at all to appertain to the pope :
" The question is, respecting what church we are
to understand it said, that it is infallible : is it of
the pope himself, who is called the church ? But it
is certain that the pope may err. — I answer, the
congregation of the faithful is here called the
church ; and it cannot be otherwise than such, for
our Lord himself prays for the church ; and will
not be disappointed of the request of his lips."j
But there is a little danger in this argument, when
we well consider it ; but it is likely to redound on
the head of those whose turns it should serve : for
it may be remembered, that for all this prayer of
Christ for St. Peter, the good man fell foully, and
denied his master shamefully : and shall Christ's
* 22. se. q. 2. a. 6. ar. 6 ad. 3 m.
•j- " Volunt enim pro solS ecclesia esse oratum." — Lib. iv. de
Rom. Pont. c. 3, §. 1.
Ij: " Quaere de qua ecclesia intelligas quod hoc dicitur, quod
non possit errare, si de ipso papa qui ecclesia dicitur ? sed
certum est, quod papa errare potest. Respondeo ipsa congre-
gatio fidelium hie dicitur ecclesia ; et talis ecclesia non potest non
esse, nam ipse Dominus orat pro ecclesia, et voluntate labiorum
suorum non fraudabitur." — Caus. xxi. cap. a recta, q. 1. xxix.
Dist Anastatius, 60, di. si Papa.
N 2
180 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
prayer be of greater efficacy for bis successors^ for
wbom it was made but indirectly and by conse-
quence, tban himself, for whom it was directly and
in the first intention ? And if not, then, for all this
argument, the popes may deny Christ, as well as their
chief and decessor, Peter. But, it should not be for-
gotten, how the Roman doctors will by no means
allow that St. Peter was then the chief bishop, or pope,
when he denied his master. But, then, much less was
he chosen chief bishop when the prayer was made for
him, because the prayer was made before his fall ;
that is, before that time in which it is confessed he
was not as yet made pope : and how, then, the whole
succession of the papacy should be entitled to it,
passes the length of my hand to span. But, then,
also, if it be supposed and allowed, that these
words shall entail infallibility upon the chair of
Rome, why shall not also all the apostolical sees be
infallible, as well as Rome ? why shall not Constan-
tinople, or Byzantium, where St. Andrew sat ? why
shall notEphesus, where St. John sat; or Jerusalem,
where St. James sat ? for Christ prayed for them
all, ' that the Father should sanctify them by his
truth.' John, xvii.
2. For was it personal or not ? If it were, then
the bishops of Rome have nothing to do with it : if
it were not, then by what argument will it be made
evident that St. Peter, in the promise, represented
only his successors, and not the whole college of
apostles, and the whole hierarchy ? For, if St. Peter
was chief of the apostles and head of the church,
he might, fair enough, be the representative of the
whole college, and receive it in their right as well
as his own ; which also is certain that it was so, for
the same promise of binding and loosing, (which
FALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 181
certainly was all that the keys were given for,) was
made afterward to all the apostles, Matt, xviii ; and
the power of remitting and retaining, which, in rea-
son and according to the style of the church, is the
same thing in other words, was actually given to
all the apostles. And unless that was the perform-
ing the first and second promise, we find it not re-
corded in Scripture how, or when, or whether yet
or no, the promise be performed : that promise, I
say, which did not pertain to Peter principally and
by origination, and to the rest by communication,
society, and adherence ; but that promise which was
made to Peter first, but not for himself, but for all
the college, and for all their successors, and then
made the second time to them all, without repre-
sentation, but in diffusion, and performed to all
alike in presence, except St. Thomas. And if he
went to St. Peter to derive it from him, I know not;
I find no record for that ; but that Christ conveyed
the promise to him by the same commission, the
church yet never doubted, nor had she any reason.
But this matter is too notorious : I say no more to it,
but repeat the words and argument of St. Austin.*
" If the keys were only given and so promised to St.
Peter, that the church hath not the keys, then the
church can neither bind norjloose, remit nor retain;
which God forbid." If any man should endeavour
to answer this argument, I leave him and St. Austin
to contest it.
3. For 'Feed my sheep,' there is little in that
allegation, besides the boldness of the objectors;
for were not all the apostles bound to feed Christ's
* " Si hoc Petro tantum dictum est, non facit hoc ecclesia." —
Tra. 1. in Joann.
182 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
sheep ? Had they not all the commission from
Christ, and Christ's Spirit immediately ? St. Paul
had certainly. Did not St. Peter himself say to all
the bishops of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia,
and Bithinia, that they should feed the flock of
God, and the g-reat Bishop and Shepherd should
give them an immarcescible crown ; plainly imply-
ing, that from whence they derived their authority,
from him they were sure of a reward ? In pursu-
ance of which, St. Cyprian laid his argument upon
this basis.* Did not St. Paul call to the bishops
of Ephesus to feed the flock of God, of which the
Holy Ghost hath made them bishops or overseers ?
And that this very commission was spoken to Peter
not in a personal, but a public capacity, and in
him spoke to all the apostles, we see attested by
St. Austin and St. Ambrose,f and generally by all
antiquity ; and it so concerned even every priest,
that Damasus was willing enough to have St. Je-
rome explicate many questions for him. And Libe-
rius writes an epistle to Athanasius, with much
modesty requiring his advice in a question of faith :
" That T also may be persuaded, without all doubt-
ing, of those things which you shall be pleased to
command me.'t Now, Liberius needed not to have
troubled himself to have writ into the east to Atha-
nasius; for, if he had but seated himself in his chair,
and made the dictate, the result of his pen and ink
would certainly have taught him and all the church ;
* " Nam cum statutum sit omnibus nobis, &c. et singulis pas-
toribus portio gregis, &c." — Lib. i. Ep. 3.
-|- De Agone Christi, c. 30.
4! "Ii>a Kayii) TreTroiSfojg a> ddiaicpircog, Tvepl u)V d^iolg
KfXevsiv fioi. — Epist. ad Athanas. apud Athanas. torn. i.
page 42. Paris.
FALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 183
but that the g-ood pope was ignorant that either
* Feed my sheep' was his own charter and prero-
gative, or that any other words of Scripture had
made him to be infallible; or if he was not ignorant
of it, he did very ill to compliment himself oat of
it. So did all those bishops of Rome that, in that
troublesome and unprofitable question of Easter, be-
ing unsatisfied in the supputation of the Egyptians,
and the definitions of the mathematical bishops of
Alexandria, did yet require and entreat St. Am-
brose'^ to tell them his opinion, as he himself wit-
nesses. If ' Feed my sheep' belongs only to the
pope by primary title, in these cases the sheep came
to feed the shepherd; which, though it was well
enough in the thing, is very ill for the pretensions
of the Roman bishops; and if we consider how
little many of the popes have done toward feeding
the sheep of Christ, we shall hardly determine which
is the greater prevarication, that the pope should
claim the whole commission to be granted to him,
or that the execution of the commission should be
wholly passed over to others : and it may be, there
is a mystery in it, that since St. Peter sent a bishop
with his staff to raise up a disciple of his from the
dead, who was afterwards bishop of Triers, the
popes of Rome never wear a pastoral staflf, except
it be in that diocess, (says Aquinas, )f for great rea-
son, that he who does not do the office should, not
bear the symbol ; but a man would think that the
pope's master of the ceremonies was ill advised, not
to assign a pastoral staflf to him who pretends the
commission of ' Feed my sheep' to belong to him
by prime right and origination. But this is not ^
business to be merry in.
* Lib. X. Ep. 83. + M. iv. Sent. Dist. 24.
184 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
But the great support is expected from, 'Thou
art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church/
&c. Now, there being so great difference in the ex-
position of these words, by persons disinterested,
who, if any, might be allowed to judge in this ques-
tion, it is certain that neither one sense nor other
can be obtruded for an article of faith ; much less
as a catholicon instead of all, by constituting an
authority which should guide us in all faith, and
determine us in all questions ; for if the church was
not built upon the person of Peter, then his succes-
sors can challenge nothing from this instance. Now,
that it was the confession of Peter upon which the
church was to rely for ever, we have witnesses very
credible ; St. Ignatius,* St. Basil,t St. Hilary,: St.
Gregory Nyssen,§ St. Gregory the Great, [| St.
Austin,^[ St. Cyril of Alexandria*, Isidore Pelu-
siot,f and very many more. And, although all these
witnesses concurring cannot make a proposition to
be true, yet they are sufficient witnesses, that it was
not the universal belief of Christendom that the
church was built upon St. Peter's person. Cardinal
Perron hath a fine fancy to elude this variety of
exposition, and the consequents of it; for (saith
he) these expositions are not contrary or exclusive
of each other, but inclusive and consequent to each
other : for the church is founded causally upon the
confession of St. Peter, formally upon the ministry
of his person ; and this was a reward or a conse-
quent of the former. So that these expositions are
both true, but they are conjoined as mediate and
* Ad Phikflelph. f Seleuc. Orat xxv.
J Lib. vi. De Trin. § De Trin. advers. Judaos.
li Lib. iii. Ep. 33. 5[ In 1 Eph. Joann. tr. 10.
* De Trin. Ub, iv. f Lib. i. Ep. 235.
FALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 185
immediate, direct and collateral, literal and moral,
original and perpetual, accessory and temporal ; the
one consigned at the beginning, the other intro-
duced upon occasion : for before the spring of the
Arian heresy, the fathers expounded these words of
the jaerson of Peter ; but after the Arians troubled
them, the fathers, finding great authority and energy
in this confession of Peter, for the establishment of
the natural filiation of the Son of God, to advance
the reputation of these words and the force of the
argument, gave themselves licence to expound these
words to the present advantage, and to make the
confession of Peter to be the foundation of the
church ; that, if the Arians should encounter this
authority, they might, with more prejudice to their
persons, declaim against their cause, by saying they
overthrew the foundation of the church. Besides
that this answer does much dishonour the reputa-
tion of the fathers' integrity, and makes their inter-
pretations less credible, as being made not of know-
ledge or reason, but of necessity and to serve a
present turn, it is also false; for Ignatius* ex-
pounds it in a spiritual sense, which also the liturgy
attributed to St. James calls sttI Trerpav riig TriVtwc*
''upon the rock of the faith:'* and Origen ex-
pounds it mystically to a third purpose, but exclu-
sively to this : and all these were before the Arian
controversy. But if it be lawful to make such un-
proved observations, it would have been to better
purpose, and more reason, to have observed it thus :
the fathers, so long as the bishop of Rome kept him-
self to the limits prescribed him by Christ, and in-
dulged to him by the constitution or concession of
the church, were unwary and apt to expound this
* Epist. ad Philadelph. in c. 16. Mat, Tract. 1.
186 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
place of the person of Peter ; but when the church
began to enlarge her phylacteries, by the favour of
princes and the sunshine of a prosperous fortune,
and the pope, by the advantage of the imperial seat,
and other accidents, began to invade upon the other
bishops and patriarchs, then, that he might have no
colour from Scripture for such new pretensions,
they did, most generally, turn the stream of their
expositions from the person to the confession of
Peter, and declared that to be the foundation of
the church. And thus I have requited fancy with
fancy : but, for the main point, that these two ex-
positions are inclusive of each other, I find no war-
rant; for though they may consist together well
enough, if Christ had so intended them, yet, unless
it could be shown by some circumstance of the
text, or some other extrinsical argument, that they
must be so, and that both senses were actually in-
tended, it is but gratis dictum, and a begging of the
question, to say that they are so ; and the fancy
so new, that when St. Austin had expounded this
place of the person of Peter, he reviews it again,
and, in his retractations, leaves every man to
his liberty which to take ; as having nothing cer-
tain in this article : which had been altogether
needless, if he had believed them to be inclusively
in each other, neither of them had need to have
been retracted ; both were alike true, both of them
might have been believed. But I said the fancy
was new, and I had reason ; for it was so unknown
till yesterday, that even the late writers, of his own
side, expound the words of the confession of St.
Peter, exclusively to his person, or any thing else,
as is to be seen in Marsilius,^ Petrus de Aliaco,\
* Defens. Pads, part. ii. c 28. + Recommend. Sacr. Script.
FALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 187
and the gloss upon Dist. xix. Can. ita Dominus, § 2it
supra, which also was the interpretation of Phavo-
rinus Camers, their own bishop, from whom they
learnt the resemblance of the word ukvpog, (Peter,)
and irkvpa, (a rock,) of which they made so many
gay discourses.
5. But, upon condition I may have leave, at ano-
ther time, to recede from so great and numerous tes-
timony of fathers, T am willing to believe that it
was not the confession of St. Peter, but his person
upon which Christ said he would build his church;
or that these expositions are consistent with and
consequent to each other ; that this confession was
the objective foundation of faith, and Christ and
his apostles the subjective — Christ principally, and
St. Peter instrumentally ; and yet I understand not
any advantage will hence accrue to the see of Rome;
for upon St. Peter it was built, but not alone, for it
" was upon the foundation of the apostles and pro-
phets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-
stone ;" and when St. Paul reckoned the economy
of hierarchy, he reckons not Peter first and then
the apostles, but first apostles, secondarily prophets,
&c. And whatsoever is first, either is before all
things else, or at least nothing is before it : so that,
at least, St. Peter is not before all the rest of the
apostles ; which also St. Paul expressly avers : ' I
am in nothing inferior to the very chiefest of the
apostles;' no, not in the very being a rock and a
foundation : and it was of the church of Ephesus
that St. Paul said, in particular, it was ' the pillar
and ground (or foundation) of the truth;' that
church was, not excludmg others, for they also
were as much as she : for so we keep close and be
united to the corner-stone, although some be master
188 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
builders, yet all may build ; and we have known
whole nations converted by laymen and women,
who have been builders so far as to bring them to
the corner-stone. *
6. But suppose all these things concern St. Peter,
in all the capacities that can be with any colour pre-
tended, yet what have the bishops of Rome to do
with this ? For how will it appear that these pro-
mises and commissions did relate to him as a par-
ticular bishop, and not as a public apostle ? since
this latter is so much the more likely, because the
great pretence of all seems in reason more propor-
tionable to the founding of a church than its con-
tinuance : and, yet, if they did relate to him as a
particular bishop, (which yet is a further degree of
improbability, removed further from certainty,) yet
why shall St. Clement, or Linus, rather succeed in
this great office of headship than St. John, or any
of the apostles that survived Peter ? It is no way
likely a private person should skip over the head of
an apostle. Or why shall his successors at Rome
more enjoy the benefit of it than his successors at
Antioch, since that he was at Antioch and preached
there, we have a divine authority ; but that he did
so at Rome at most we have but a human. And
if it be replied, that because he died at Rome, it
was argument enough that there his successors were
to inherit his privilege, this, besides that at most
it is but one little degree of probability, and so not
of strength sufficient to support an article of faith,
it makes that the great divine right of Rome, and
the apostolical presidency was so contingent and
^ * Vid. Socrat> lib. i. c. 19, 20. Sozom. lib. ii. c. 14. Niceph.
lib. xiv. c. 42.
FALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 189
fallible as to depend upon the decree of Nero ; and
if he had sent him to Antioch, there to have suf-
fered martyrdom, the bishops of that town had been
heads of the catholic church. And this thing pres-
ses the harder, because it is held by no mean per-
sons in the church of Rome, that the bishopric of
Rome and the papacy are things separable ; and the
pope may quit that see and sit in another : which,
to my understanding, is an argument, that he that
succeeded Peter at Antioch, is as much supreme by
divine right, as he that sits at Rome ; * both alike ;
that is, neither by divine ordinance : for, if the Ro-
man bishops, by Christ's intention, were to be head
of the church, then, by the same intention, the suc-
cession must be continued in that see ; and then,
let the pope go whither he will, the bishop of
Rome must be the head ; which they themselves
deny, and the pope himself did not believe, when
in a schism he sat at Avignon ; and that it was to
be continued in the see of Rome, it is but offered
to us upon conjecture, upon an act of providence,
as they fancy it, so ordering it by vision, and this
proved by an author which themselves call fabulous
and apochryphal. f A goodly building which relies
upon an event that was accidental, whose purpose
was but insinuated, the meaning of it but conjec-
tured at, and this conjecture so uncertain, that it
was an imperfect aim at the purpose of an event,
which, whether it was true or no, was so uncertain
that it is ten to one there was no such matter. And
yet, again, another degree of uncertainty is, to whom
* Vid. Cameracens. Qu. vespert.
i* Under the name of Linus, in Biblioth. P. P. de Passione
Petri et Pauli.
190 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
the bishops of Rome do succeed ; for St. Paul was
as much bishop of Rome as St. Peter was : there
he presided, there he preached, and he it was that
was the doctor of the uncircumcision and of the
gentiles ; St. Peter, of the circumcision and of the
Jews only ; and, therefore, the converted Jews at
Rome might, with better reason, claim the privilege
of St. Peter, than the Romans and the churches in
her communion, who do not derive from Jewish
parents.
7. If the words were never so appropriate to
Peter, or also communicated to his successors, yet
of what value will the consequent be ? w^hat pre-
rogative is entailed upon the chair of Rome ? For,
that St. Peter was the ministerial head of the
church is the most that is desired to be proved by
those and all other words brought for the same
purposes and interests of that see. Now let the
ministerial head have w hat dignity can be imagined,
let him be the first; (and in all communities
that are regular and orderly, there must be some-
thing that is first, upon certain occasions where an
equal power cannot be exercised, and made pomp-
ous or ceremonial;) but will this ministerial head-
ship infer an infallibility ? w ill it infer more than
the headship of the Jewish synagogue, where clearly
the high-priest was supreme in many senses, yet in
no sense infallible ? will it infer more to us than
it did amongst the apostles ? amongst whom, if for
order's sake St. Peter was the first, yet he had no
compulsory power over the apostles; there was no
such thing spoke of, nor any such thing put in
practice. And, that the other apostles were, by a
personal privilege, as infallible as himself, is no
reason to liinder the exercise of jurisdiction, or any
FALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 191
compulsory power over them : for, though in faith
they were infallible, yet in manners and matter of
fact as likely to err as St. Peter himself was ; and
certainly there might have something happened in
the whole college that might have been a record of
his authority, by transmitting an example of the
exercise of some judicial power over some one of
them : — if he had but withstood any of them to their
faces, as St. Paul did him, it had been more than
yet is said in his behalf Will the ministerial head-
ship infer any more than, when the church, in a com-
munity or a public capacity, should do any act of
ministry ecclesiastical, he shall be first in order ?
Suppose this to be a dignity to preside in councils,
which yet was not always granted him ; suppose it
to be a power of taking cognizance of the major
causes of bishops, when councils cannot be called ;
suppose it a double voice, or the last decisive, or
the negative in the causes exterior ; suppose it to
be what you will of dignity or external regimen,
which, when all churches were united in commu-
nion, and neither the interest of states, nor the en-
gagement of opinions had made disunion, might
better have been acted than now it can ; yet this
will fall infinitely short of a power to determine
controversies infallibly, and to prescribe to all mens'
faith and consciences. A ministerial headship, or
the prime minister, cannot, in any capacity, become
the foundation of the church to any such purpose.
And, therefore, men are causelessly amused with
such premises, and are afraid of such conclusions
which will never follow from the admission of any
sense of these words that can with any probability
be pretended.
8. I consider that these arguments from Scrip-
192 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
ture are too weak to support such an authority, which
pretends to give oracles, and to answer infallibly in
questions of faith ; because there is greater reason to
believe the popes of Rome have erred, and greater
certainty of demonstration, than these places can
be that they are infallible, as will appear by the in-
stances and perpetual experiment of their being
deceived, of which there is no question, but of the
sense of these places there is : and, indeed, if I had
as clear Scripture for their infallibility as I have
asfainst their half-communion, against their service
in an unknown tongue, worshipping of images,
and divers other articles, I would make no scruple
of believing, but limit and conform my under-
standing to all their dictates, and believe it reason-
able all prophesying should be restrained. But till
then I have leave to discourse, and to use my rea-
son ; and, to my reason, it seems not likely that
neither Christ nor any of his apostles, St. Peter
himself, nor St. Paul, writing to the church of Rome,
should speak the least word, or tittle of the infalli-
bility of their bishops ; for it was certainly as con-
venient to tell us of a remedy, as to foretell, that
certainly there must needs be heresies, and need of
a remedy. And it had been a certain determination
of the question, if when so rare an opportunity was
ministered in the c[uestion about circumcision, that
thej^ should have sent to Peter, who, for his infallibi-
lity in ordinary and his power of headship, would, not
only with reason enough, as being infallibly assisted,
but also for his authority, have best determined the
question, if at least the first Christians had known
so profitable and so excellent a secret; and, al-
though we have but little record, that the first
council at Jerusalem did much observe the solem-
FALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 193
nities of law, and the forms of conciliary pro-
ceedings, and the ceremonials, yet so much of it as
is recorded, is against them ; St. James, and not St.
Peter, gave the final sentence ; and, although St. Peter
determined the question in favour of liberty, yet St.
James made the decree and the assumenlum too,
and gave sentence they should abstain from some
things there mentioned, which by way of temper
he judged most expedient, and so it passed. And
St. Peter showed no sign of a superior authority,
nothing of superior jurisdiction, '' but entreated
him, that every thing might be determined by jDub-
lic decision, and nothing by any person's mere au-
thority a«d command."*
So that ir this question be to be determined by
Scripture, it must either be ended by plain places,
or by obscure : plain places there are none, and
those that are with greatest fancy pretended, are
expounded by antiquity to contrary purposes.
But if obscure places be all the av^ivria, (authority,)
by what means shall we infallibly find the sense of
them ? The pope's interpretation, though in all
other cases it might be pretended, in this cannot ;
for it is the thing in question, and therefore cannot
determine for itself: either, therefore, we have also
another infallible guide besides the pope, and so
we have two foundations and two heads, (for this,
as well as the other, upon the same reason;) or else
(which is indeed the truth) there is no infallible
way to be infallibly assured that the pope is infal-
lible. Now, it being against the common condi-
tion of men, above the pretences of all other gover-
• 'Opa de avTOV fierd KOivrjg ttcivtu ttoiovvtu yviofirjQf
ovSev dv^evTiKug ovd' dpxiKuig. — S. Chrysost. Horn. iii. in
Act. Apost,
O
194 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
nors ecclesiastical, against the analogy of Scrip-
ture, and the deportment of the other apostles,
against the economy of the church, and St. Peter's
own entertainment, the presumption lies against
him; and these places are to be left to their prime
intentions, and not put upon the rack, to force
them to confess what they never thought.
But now, for antiquity, if that be deposed in this
question, there are so many circumstances to be
considered, to reconcile their words and their ac-
tions, that the process is more troublesome than
the argument can be concluding, or the matter
considerable : but I shall a little consider it, so far,
at least, as to show either that antiquity said no
such thing as is pretended, or if they did, it is but
little considerable, because they did not believe
themselves ; their practice was the greatest evi-
dence in the world against the pretence of their
words. But I am much eased of a long disquisi-
tion in this particular, (for I love not to prove a
question by arguments whose authority is in itself
as fallible, and by circumstances made as uncer-
tain as the Cj[uestion,) by the saying of ^Eneas
Sylvius, that before the Nicene council every man
lived to himself, and small respect was had to the
church of Rome; which practice could not well con-
sist with the doctrine of their bishop's infallibility,
and, by consequence, supreme judgment and last
resolution, in matters of faith ; but especially by
the insinuation, and consequent acknowledgment,
of Bellarmine,* that for one thousand years to-
gether, the fathers knew not of the doctrine of the
pope's infallibility; for Nilus, Gerson, Almain, the
• De Rom. Pont. lib. iv. c. 2, § Secunda Sententia.
FALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 195
divines of Paris, Alphonsus de Castro, and pope
Adrian VI„ persons who lived fourteen hundred
years after Christ, affirm that infallibility is not
seated in the pope's person, that he may err, and
sometimes actually hath ; which is a clear demon-
stration that the church knew no such doctrine as
this : there had been no decree, nor tradition, nor
general opinion of the fathers, or of any age before
them ; and therefore this opinion, which Bellar-
mine would fain blast if he could, yet in his con-
clusion he says, it is not properly heretical. A de-
vice and an expression of his own, without sense
or precedent. But if the fathers had spoken of it
and believed it, why may not a disagreeing person
as well reject their authority when it is in behalf
of Rome, as they of Rome, without scruple, cast
them off when they speak against it ? as Bellar-
mine, being pressed with the authority of Nilus,
bishop of Thessalonica, and other fathers, says, that
the pope acknowledges no fathers, but they are all
his children, and, therefore, they cannot depose
against him ; and if that be true, why shall v/e take
their testimonies for him ? for if sons depose in their
father's behalf, it is twenty to one but the adverse
party will be cast ; and therefore, at the best, it is but
suspicious evidence. But, indeed, this discourse
signifies nothing but a perpetual uncertainty in
such topics, and that where a violent prejudice, or
a concerning interest is engaged, men, by not
regarding what any man says, proclaim to all the
world, that nothing is certain but Divine authority.
But T will not take advantage of what Bellarmine
says, nor what Stapleton, or any one of them all
say ; for that will be but to press upon personal
persuasions, or to urge a general c^uestion with a
02
196 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
particular clefailance, and the question is never the
nearer to an end ; for if Bellarmine says any thing
that is not to another man's purpose or persuasion,
that man will be tried by his own argument, not
by another's. And so would every man do that
loves his liberty, as all wise men do, and therefore
retain it by open violence, or private evasions : but
to return.
An authority from Irenaeus in this question,
and on behalf of the pope's infallibility, or the au-
thority of the see of Rome, or of the necessity of
communicating with them, is very fallible; for,
besides that there are almost a dozen answers to
the words of the allegation, as is to be seen in those
that trouble themselves in this question with the
allegation, and answering such authorities, yet, if
they should make for the affirmative of this ques-
tion, it is an affirmation contrary to fact.* For
Irenaeus had no such great opinion of pope Victor's
infallibility, that he believed things in the same
degree of necessity that the pope did ; for there-
fore he chides him for excommunicating the Asian
bishops a^p6h)Q, all at a blow, in the question con-
cerning Easter day ; and in a question of faith, he
expressly disagreed from the doctrine of Rome; for
Irenaeus was of the millenary opinion, and be-
lieved it to be a tradition apostolical : now, if the
church of Rome was of that opinion, then why is
she not now ? where is the succession of her doc-
trine ? But if she was not of that opinion then,
and Irenaeus was, where was his belief of that
church's infallibility ? The same I urge concern-
ing St. Cyprian, who was the head of a sect in
• Protestatio contra factum.
FALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 197
opposition to the church of Rome, in the question
of rebaptization; and he and the abettors, Firmilian,
and the other bishops of Cappadocia, and the vi-
cinage, spoke harsh words of Stephen, and such as
became them not to speak to an infallible doctor,
and the supreme head of the church. I will urge
none of them to the disadvantage of that see, but
only note the satires of Firmilian against him,
because it is of good use to show that it is possible
for them, in their ill carriage, to blast the reputa-
tion and efficacy of a great authority : for he says
that the church did pretend the authority of the
apostles, "when, in many of its religious ordi-
nances, it departed from the apostolic rule, and
from the practice of the church of Jerusalem, and
even defamed Peter and Paul as authorities."*
And a little after, says he, " I disdain the open
and manifest folly of Stephanus, by which the
verity of the Christian rock is annulled."f Which
words say plainly, that for all the goodly pretence
of apostolical authority, the church of Rome did
then, in many things of religion, disagree from
divine institution ; (and from the church of Jeru-
salem, which they had as great esteem of, for reli-
gion sake, as of Rome for its principality ;) and that
still, in pretending to St. Peter and St. Paul, they
dishonoured those blessed apostles, and destroyed
the honour of the pretence, by their untoward pre-
varication ; which words, I confess, pass my skill
to reconcile them to an opinion of infallibility ;
• *' Cum in multis sacramentis divines rei, a principio dis-
crepet, et ab ecclesia Hierosolymitana, et defamet Petrum et
Paulum tanquam authores." — Epist. Firmiliani, contr. Steph.
ad Cyprian. Vid. etiam Ep. Cypriani ad Pompeium.
•f- "Juste dedignor apertam et manifestam stultitiam Stephani,
per quam Veritas Christianae petrae aboletur."
198 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
and although they were spoken by an angry per-
son, yet they declare, that in Africa they were not
then persuaded as now they were at Rome : " For
Peter, who was chosen by the Lord, did not vainly
and proudly arrogate to himself a claim to pre-emi-
nence."* That was their belief then, and how the
contrary hath grown up to that height where now
it is, all the world is witness. And now I shall not
need to note concerning St. Jerome, that he gave a
compliment to Damasus that he would not have
given to Liberius : Qui tecum non colligit spargit ;
*' He who gathereth not with you, scattereth." For
it might be true enough of Damasus, who was a
good bishop, and a right believer ; but if Liberius's
name had been put instead of Damasus, the case
had been altered with the name ; for St. Jerome
did believe, and write it so, that Liberius had sub-
scribed to Arianism.f And if either he, or any of
the rest, had believed the pope could not be a
heretic, nor his faith fail, but be so good and of so
competent authority as to be a rule to Christen-
dom, why did they not appeal to the pope in the
Arian controversy ? Vv hy was the bishop of Rome
made a party and a concurrent, as other good
bishops were, and not a judge and an arbitrator in
the question ? Why did the fathers prescribe so
many rules, and cautions, and provisos, for the
discovery of heresy ? Why were the emperors at
so much charge, and the church at so much trouble,
as to call and convene in councils respectively, to
dispute so frequently, to write so sedulously, to
* " Nam nee Petrus, quern primum Dominus elegit, vendi-
cavit sibi aliquid insolenter, aut arroganter assumpsit, ut diceret
se primatum tenere." — Cyprian. Epist. ad Quintum Fratrem.
•f- De Script. Eccles. iii Fortunatiano.
FALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 199
observe all advantages against their adversaries,
and for the truth, and never offered to call for the
pope to determine the question in his chair ? Cer-
tainly no way could have been so expedite, none
so concluding and peremptory, none could have
convinced so certainly, none could have triumphed
so openly over all discrepants as this, if they had
known of any such thing as his being infallible,
or that he had been appointed by Christ to be the
judge of controversies. And, therefore, I will not
trouble this discourse, to excuse any more words,
either pretended or really said to this purpose of
the pope; for they would but make books swell,
and the cjuestion endless. I shall only to this pur-
pose observe, that the old writers were so far from
believing the infallibility of the Roman church or
bishop, that many bishops, and many churches, did
actually live and continue out of the Roman com-
munion ; particularly St. Austin,* who, with two
hundred and seventeen bishops, and their successors,
for one hundred years together, stood separate from
that church, if we may believe their own records :
so did Ignatius of Constantinople, St. Chrysostom,
St. Cyprian, Firmilian, those bishops of Asia that
separated in the question of Easter, and those of
Africa in the question of rebaptization : but, be-
sides this, most of them had opinions which the
church of Rome disavows now, and, therefore, did
so then, or else she hath innovated in her doctrine ;
which, though it be most true and notorious, I am
• *' Ubi ilia Augustini et reliquorum prudentia ? quis jam ferat
crassissimae ignorantije illam vocem in tot et tantis Patribus ?" —
Alan. Cop. Dialog, p. 76, 77. Vide etiam Bonifac. II. Epist.
ad Eulalium Alexandrinum. Lindanuni Panopl. lib. iv. c. 89.
in fine Salmeron. torn. xii. Tract. 68, § ad Canonem. Sander.
de visibili Monarchia, lib vii. n. 411. Baron, torn. x. a.d. 878.
200 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
sure she will never confess. But no excuse can be
made for St. Austin's disagreeing, and contesting, in
the question of appeals to Rome, the necessity of
communicating infants, the absolute damnation of
infants to the pains of hell, if they die before bap-
tism, and divers other particulars. It was a fa-
mous act of the bishops of Liguria and Istria, who,
seeing the pope of Rome consenting to the fifth
synod, in disparagement of the famous council of
Chalcedon, which, for their own interests, they did
not like of, they renounced subjection to his patri-
archate, and erected a patriarch at Acquileia, who
was afterwards translated to Venice, where his
name remains to this day. It is also notorious,
that most of the fathers were of opinion that the
souls of the faithful did not enjoy the beatific vi-
sion before doomsday : whether Rome was then of
that opinion or no, I know not ; I am sure now
they are not; witness the councils of Florence and
Trent ; but of this I shall give a more full account
afterwards. But if to all this which is already
noted, we add that great variety of opinions amongst
the fathers and councils, in assignation of the
canon, they not consulting with the bishop of Rome,
or any of them thinking themselves bound to follow
his rule in enumeration of the books of Scripture,
I think no more need to be said as to this particular.
8. But now, if after all this, there be some popes
which were notorious heretics, and preachers of
false doctrine, some that made impious decrees,
both in faith and manners ; some that have deter-
mined questions with egregious ignorance and stu-
pidity, some with apparent sophistry, and many to
serve their own ends most openly; I suppose then
the infallibility will disband, and we may do to him
FALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 201
as to other good bishops, believe him when there is
cause; but if there be none, then to use our con-
sciences. " For it cannot be sufficient for a Chris-
tian, that the pope constantly affirms the propriety
of his own command ; he must examine for him-
self, and form his opinion by the Divine law."* I
would not instance and repeat the errors of dead
bishops, if the extreme boldness of the pretence
did not make it necessary: but if we may believe
TertuUian, f pope Zepherinus approved the pro-
phesies of Montanus, and upon that approbation
granted peace to the churches of Asia and Phry-
gia, till Praxeas persuaded him to revoke his act :
but let this rest upon the credit of Tertullian, whe-
ther Zepherinus were aMontanist or no ; some such
thing there was for certain, j Pope Vigilius § denied
two natures in Christ ; and in his epistle to Theo-
dora, the empress, anathematized all them that said
he had two natures in one person: St. Gregory
himself permitted priests to give confirmation;
which is all one as if he should permit deacons to
consecrate, they being, by divine ordinance, an-
nexed to the higher orders; and, upon this very
ground, Adrianus affirms, that the pope may err
in his definition of the articles of faith. || And
that we may not fear we shall want instances, we
may, to secure it, take their own confession : " For
there are many heretical decretals," says Occham,
as he is cited by Almain, " which," says he, for his
* " Non enim salvat Christianum quod pontifex constanter
affirmat prsceptum suum esse justum, sed oportet illud exami-
nari, et se juxta regulam superius datam dirigere." — Tract, de
Interdict. Compos, a Theol. Venet. prop. 13.
■f- Lib. adver. Praxeam.
J Vid. Liberal, in Breviario, c. 22.
§ Durand. iv. dist. 7. q. 4. |1 Quae, de Confirm, art. ult.
202 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
own particular, " I firmly believe ; but we must not
affirm contrary to what is decreed." * So that we
may as well see that it is certain that popes may
be heretics, as that it is dangerous to say so ; and
therefore there are so few that teach it. All the pa-
triarchs, and the bishop of Rome himself, sub-
scribed to Arianism, (as Baronius confesses ;f)
and Gratian affirms that pope Anastasius II. was
stricken of God for communicating with the
heretic Photinus. | I know it will be made light
of, that Gregory VIT. saith, the very exorcists
of the Roman church are superior to princes.
But what shall we think of that decretal of Grego-
ry III. who wrote to Boniface, his legate in Ger-
many, " That they whose wives refused them con-
jugal rights, on account of some bodily infirmity,
might marry others ?"§ Was this a doctrine fit for
the head of the church, and infallible doctor? It
was plainly, if any thing ever was, " the doctrine of
devils," and is noted for such by Gratian, caus. xxxii.
q. 7. can. Quod proposuisti ; where the gloss also
intimates, that the same privilege w as granted to
the Englishmen by Gregory, " on the ground of
their being but newly converted." And sometimes we
had little reason to expect much better ; for, not to
instance in that learned discourse in the canon law,
de majoritate et ohedientid, \\ where the pope's su-
premacy over kings is proved from the first chapter
• " Nam multae sunt decretales haereticee, et firm iter hoc credo ;
sed non licet dogmatizare oppositum, quoniam sunt determi-
natae." — 3 Dist. 24, q. unica.
t A. D. 357. n. 41. :|: Dist. xix. c. 9. lib. iv. Ep. 2.
\ " Quod illi quorum uxores infirmitate aliqua morbidae debi-
turn reddere noluerunt, aliis poterant nubere ?" — Vid. Corranz.
Sum. Concil. fol. 218. Edit. Antwerp.
II Cap. per venerabilem — qui filii sint legitimi.
FALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 203
of Genesis ; and the pope is the sun, and the em-
peror is the moon, for that was the fancy of one
pope perhaps, though made authentic and doc-
trinal by him ; it was (if it be possible) more ridi-
culous, that pope Innocent III. urges, that the
Mosaical law was still to be observed, and that upon
this argument saith he, " That by the very word
Deuteronomy, or second law, it is shewn, that what is
there determined ought to be observed in the New
Testament." * Worse yet ; for when there was a
corruption crept into the decree, called Sancta Ro-
mana, f where, instead of these words, Sedulii opus
heroicis versibus descriptum, "■ The work of Sedu-
lius, written in heroic verses," all the old copies, till
of late, read licereticis versibus descriptum, " written
in heretical verses;" this very mistake made many
wise men, (as Pierius says, t ) yea, pope Adrian
VI., no worse man, believe that all poetry was
heretical, because (forsooth) pope Gelasius, whose
decree that was, although be believed Sedulius
to be a good catholic, yet, as they thought, he
concluded his verses to be heretical. But these
were ignorances ; it hath been worse amongst some
others, whose errors have been more malicious.
Pope Honorius was condemned by the sixth gene-
ral synod, and his epistles burnt; and in the se-
venth action of the eighth synod, the acts of the
Roman council under Adrian IT. are recited, in
which it is said, that Honorius was justly anathe-
matised, because he was convict of heresy. Bel-
larmine says, it is probable that pope Adrian and
* " Sane cum Deuteronomium secunda lex interpretetur, ex
vi vocabuli comprobatur, ut quod ibi decernitur in Testamento
Novo debeat observari."
■f- Dist. XV. apud Gratian. :{: De Sacerd. barb.
204 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
the Roman council were deceived with false copies
of the sixth synod, and that Honorius was no here-
tic. To this I say, that although the Roman synod,
and the eighth general synod, and pope Adrian,
altogether, are better witnesses for the thing than
Bellarmine's conjecture is against it, yet, if we
allow his conjecture, we shall lose nothing in the
whole ; for either the pope is no infallible doctor,
but may be a heretic, as Honorius was ; or else a
council is to us no infallible determiner ; I say, as
to us, for if Adrian, and the whole Roman coun-
cil, and the eighth general, were all cozened with
false copies of the sixth synod, which was so little
a while before them, and whose acts were transacted
and kept in the theatre and records of the catholic
church, he is a bold man that will be confident
that he hath true copies now. So that let which
they please stand or fall, let the pope be a heretic,
or the councils be deceived and palpably abused,
(for the other, we will dispute it upon other in-
stances and arguments, when we shall know which
part they will choose,) in the mean time, we shall
get in the general what we lose in the particular.
This only, this device of saying the copies of the
councils were false, was the stratagem of Albertus
Pighius, * nine hundred years after the thing was
done ; of which invention, Pighius was presently
admonished, blamed, and wished to recant. Pope
Nicholas explicated the mystery of the sacrament
with so much ignorance and zeal, that, in condemn-
ing Berengarius, he taught a worse impiety. But
what need I any more instances ? It is a confessed
• Vid. Diatrib. de act. vi. et vii. Synod. Praefatione ad Lec-
torem et Dominicum Bannes, xxii. q. 1. a. 10. dub. 2.
FALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 205
case by Baronius, by Biel, by Stella, Almain,
Occham, and Canus, and generally by the best
scholars in the church of Rome,* that a pope may
be a heretic, and that some of them actually were
so; and no less than three general councils did
believe the same thing, viz., the sixth, seventh, and
eighth, as Bellarmine is pleased to acknowledge ; f
and the canon si Papa, dist. 40, affirms it in ex-
press terms, that a pope is judicable and pu-
nishable in that case. But there is no wound
but some empiric or other will pretend to cure it ;
and there is a cure for this too. For, though it be
ti'ue that if a pope were a heretic, the church might
depose him ; yet no pope can be a heretic, — not but
that the man may, but the pope cannot, for he
is ipso facto no pope, for he is no Christian : so
Bellarmine :% and so when you think you have him
fast, he is gone, and nothing of the pope left. But,
who sees not the extreme folly of this evasion ?
for, besides that out of fear and caution he grants
more than he needs, more than was sought for in
the question, the pope hath no more privilege than
the abbot of Cluny; for he cannot be a heretic, nor
be deposed by a council ; for, if he be manifestly a
heretic, he is ipso facto no abbot, for he is no Chris-
tian; and, if the pope be a heretic privately and
occultly, for that he may be accused and judged,
said the gloss upon the canon si Papa, dist. 40. And
the abbot of Cluny and one of his meanest monks
can be no more, therefore the case is all one. But
this is fitter to make sport with than to interrupt a
* Picus Mirand. in Exposit. theorem. 4.
+ De Pontifice Romano, lib. iv. c. 11. Resp. ad Arg. 4.
X Lib. 11. c. 30, ubi supra, § est ergo.
206 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
serious discourse.* And, therefore, although the
canon Sancta Romana approves all the decretals of
popes, yet that very decretal hath not decreed it firm
enough, but that they are so warily received by
them, that when they list they are pleased to dis-
sent from them ; and it is evident, in the Extrava-
gant of Sixtus IV. Com. de Reliquiis ;f who ap-
pointed a feast of the immaculate conception, a
special office for the day, and indulgences enough
to the observers of it : and yet the Dominicans
were so far from believing the pope to be infallible
and his decree authentic, that they declaimed against
it in their pulpits so furiously and so long, till
they were prohibited, under pain of excommunica-
tion, to say the Virgin INIary was conceived in
original sin. Now, what solemnity can be more
required for the pope to make a cathedral determi-
nation of an article ? The article was so concluded,
that a feast was instituted for its celebration, and
pain of excommunication threatened to them which
should preach the contrary. Nothing more solemn,
nothing more confident and severe : and yet, after
all this, to show that whatsoever those people would
have us to believe, they will believe what they list
themselves ; this thing was not determined de fide,
saith Victorellus. Nay, the author of the gloss of
the canon law hath these express words : *' With
regard to the feast of the conception, nothing is
said, because it is not kept, as it is in many places,
and especially in England ; and the reason is, that
the Virgin was conceived in sin, as were the other
• Vide Alphons. a Castr. lib. i. adv. Haeres. c. 4.
f Vid. etiam Innocentium, Serm. 2. de Consecrat. Fontif.
act. vii. viii. Synodi. et Concil. 5. sub Symmadio. Collat. viii.
can. 12.
FALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 207
saints. * And the commissaries of Sixtus V. and
Gregory XIII. did not expunge these words, but
left them upon record, not only against a received
and more approved opinion of the Jesuits and
Franciscans, but also in plain defiance of a decree
made by their visible head of the church, who (if
ever any thing was decreed by a pope with an in-
tent to oblige all Christendom) decreed this to
that purpose.!
So that without taking particular notice of it,
that egregious sophistry and flattery of the late
writers of the Roman church is in this instance, be-
sides divers others before mentioned, clearly made
invalid. For, here the bishop of Rome, not as a
private doctor, but as pope, not by declaring his
own opinion, but with an intent to oblige the church,
gave sentence in a question which the Dominicans
still account undetermined. And every decretal
recorded in the canon law, if it be false in the
matter, is just such another instance. And Alphon-
sus a Castro says it to the same purpose, in the
instance of Celestine dissolving marriages for he-
resy : " Neither ought this error of Celestine to be
imputed to negligence alone, so that we may say he
erred as a private individual, and not as a pope ;
because such a decision as this of his is found in
the ancient decretals, in the chapter concerning the
conversion of infidels which I myself have seen
* " De festo Conceptionis nihil dicitur, quia cslebrandum rvon
Kt, sicut in mulds regionibus sit, et maxime in Anglia ; et haec
est ratio, quia in peccatis concepta fuit sicut et cseteri Sancti."—
De Angelo custod. fol. 59. de Consecrat. dist. 3, can. pronunci
and gloss, verb. Nativit.
+ " Hac in perpetuum valituni constitutione statuiraus," &c.
— De Reliquiis, &c. Extrav. Com. Sixt. IV. c. I.
208 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
and read."* And, therefore, it is a most intoler-
able folly to pretend that the pope cannot err in
his chair, though he may err in his closet, and
may maintain a false opinion even to his death ;
for, besides that it is sottish to think that either he
would not have the world of his own opinion, (as all
men naturally would,) or that if he were set in his
chair, he would determine contrary to himself in
his study, (and therefore to represent it as possi-
ble, they are fain to fly to a miracle, for which they
have no colour, neither instructions, nor insinua-
tion, nor warrant, nor promise,) besides that it were
impious and unreasonable to depose him for heresy,
who may so easily, even by setting himself in his
chair, and reviewing his theorems, be cured ; it is
also against a very great experience : for, besides
the former allegations, it is most notorious, that
Pope Alexander III., in a council at Rome of
three hundred archbishops and bishops, A. D. 1179,
condemned Peter Lombard of heresy in a matter
of great concernment, no less than something about
the incarnation ; from which sentence he was, after
thirty-six years abiding it, absolved by Pope In-
nocent III. without repentance or dereliction of the
opinion. Now, if this sentence was not a cathe-
dral dictate, as solemn and great as could be ex-
pected, or as is said to be necessary to oblige all
Christendom, let the great hyperaspists of the
Roman church be judges, who tell us that a par-
* " Neque Caelestini error talis fuit qui soli negligentiae im-
putari deb eat, ita ut ilium errasse dicamus velut privatam per-
sonam et non ut papam, quoniam hujusmodi Cselestini definitio
habetur in antiquis decretalibus, in cap. Laudabilem, titulo de
conversione infidelium ; quam ego ipse vidi et legi." — Lib. i.
adv. Haeres. cap. 4.
FALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 209
ticular council, with the pope's confirmation, is
made oecumenical by adoption, and is infallible,
and obliges all Christendom ;* so Bellarmine ;
and therefore, he says, that it is " rash, erroneous,
and bordering on heresy,"f to deny it : but whether
it be or not it is all one, as to my purpose ; for it is
certain that in a particular council, confirmed by
the pope, if ever, then and there the pope sat him-
self in his chair ; and it is as certain that he sat
besides the cushion, and determined ridiculously
and falsely in this case : but this is a device for
which there is no Scripture, no tradition, no one
dogmatical resolute saying of any father, Greek or
Latin, for above one thousand years after Christ ;
and themselves, when they list, can acknowledge
as much.t And, therefore, Bellarmine's saying, I
perceive, is believed by them to be true, that there
are many things in the decretal epistles which make
not articles to be de fide. And, therefore, " We are
not implicitly to believe whatever the pope de-
crees,"§ says Almain. And this serves their turns
in every thing they do not like; and, therefore, I
am resolved it shall serve my turn also for some-
thing; and that is, that the matter of the pope's in-
fallibility is so ridiculous and improbable, that they
do not believe it themselves. Some of them clearly
practised the contrary ; and although pope Leo X.
hath determined the pope to be above a council,
yet the Sorbonne to this day scorn it at the very
heart. And I might urge upon them that scorn
* Lib. ii. de Concil. cap. 5.
•\ " Temerarium, erroneum, et proximum haeresi."
X De Pontif. Rom. c 14, § Respondeo. In 3 sent. d. 24. q.
in con. 6. dub. 6, in fine.
§ '' Non est necessario credendum determinatis per summum
pontificem."
P
210 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
that Almain truly enough, by way of argument,
alleges.* It is a wonder that they who affirm the
pope cannot err in judgment, do not also affirm
that he cannot sin : they are like enough to say
so, says he, if the vicious lives of the popes did not
make a daily confutation of such flattery. Now,
for my own particular, I am as confident, and think
it as certain, that popes are actually deceived in
matters of Christian doctrine, as that they do pre-
varicate the laws of Christian piety; and, there-
fore, Alphonsus a Castro calls them " impudent
flatterers of the pope,"f that ascribe to him infalli-
bility in judgment, or interpretation of Scripture.
But, if themselves did believe it heartily, what
excuse is there in the world for the strange un-
charita-bleness or supine negligence of the popes,
that they do not set themselves in their chair, and
write infallible commentaries, and determine all
controversies without error, and blast all heresies
with the word of their mouth, declare what is and
what is not de fide, that their disciples and con-
fidents may agree ujjon it ; reconcile the Francis-
cans and Domicans, and expound all mysteries?
For it cannot be imagined, but he that was en-
dued with so supreme power in order to so great
ends, was also fitted with proportionable, that is
extraordinary, personal abilities, succeeding and de-
rived upon the persons of all the popes. And then
the doctors of his church need not trouble them-
selves v\^ith study, nor writing explications of Scrip-
ture, but might wholly attend to practical devotion,
* De Authorit. Eccles. cap. 10, in fine.
-|- " Impudentes papas assentatores." — Lib i. c. 4. ad vers.
Hffires. edit. Paris, 1534. In seqq. non expurgantur ista verba,
at idem seiisus manet.
FALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 211
and leave all tbeir scholastical wranglings, the dis-
tinguishing opinions of their orders ; and they
might have a fine church, something like fairy land,
or Lncian's kingdom in the moon. But, if they say
they cannot do this when they list, but when they
are moved to it by the Spirit, then we are never the
nearer ; for so may the bishop of Angouleme write
infallible commentaries when the Holy Ghost moves
him to it ; for I suppose his motions are not in-
effectual, but he will sufficiently assist us in per-
forming of what he actually moves us to : but,
among so many hundred decrees which the popes
of Rome have made, or confirmed and attested,
(which is all one) I would fain know in how many
of them did the Holy Ghost assist them ? If they
know it, let them declare it, that it may be certain
which of their decretals are de fide; for as yet none
of their own church knows. If they do not know,
then neither can we know it from them, and then
we are uncertain as ever : and, besides, the Holy
Ghost may possibly move him, and he, by his igno-
rance of it, may neglect so profitable a motion; and
then his promise of infallible assistance will be to
very little purpose, because it is with very much
fallibility applicable to practice. And, therefore,
it is absolutely useless to any man or any church ;
because, suppose it settled in Thesi, that the pope
is infallible, yet, whether he will do his duty, and
perform those conditions of being assisted which
are required of him, or whether he be a secret
Simoniac, (for if he be, he is ipno facto no pope,)
or whether he be a bishop, or priest, or a Christian,
being all uncertain ; every one of these depending
upon the intention and power of the baptizer or
ordainer, which also are fallible, because they de-
p2
212 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
pend upon the honesty and power of other men,
we cannot be infallibly certain of any pope that he
is infallible ; and, therefore, when our questions are
determined, we are never the nearer, but may hug
ourselves in an imaginary truth ; the certainty of
finding truth out depending upon so many fallible
and contingent circumstances. And, therefore, the
thing, if it were true, being so to no purpose, it is to
be presumed that God never gave a power so im-
pertinently, and from whence no benefit can accrue
to the Christian church, for whose use and benefit,
if at all, it must needs have been appointed.
But I am too long in this impertinency. If I
were bound to call any man master upon earth,
and to believe him upon his own affirmative and
authority, I would, of all men, least follow him that
pretends he is infallible and cannot prove it. For
that he cannot prove it, makes me as uncertain as
ever; and that he pretends to infallibility makes
him careless of using such means which will morally
secure those wise persons, who, knowing their own
aptness to be deceived, use what endeavours they
can to secure themselves from error, and so become
the better and more probable guides.
Well ! thus far we are come : although we are
secured in fundamental points from involuntary
error, by the plain, express, and dogmatical places
of Scripture, yet, in other things, we are not, but
may be invincibly mistaken, because of the obscu-
rity and difficulty in the controverted parts of
Scripture, by reason of the uncertainty of the means
of its interpretation ; since tradition is of an uncer-
tain reputation, and sometimes evidently false;
councils are contradictory to each other, and there-
fore, certainly, are equally deceived many of them.
INCONSISTENCIES OF THE FATHERS. 213
and therefore all may ; and then the popes of Rome
are very likely to mislead us, but cannot ascertain
us of truth in matter of question ; and in this world
we believe in part, and prophesy in part ; and this
imperfection shall never be done away, till we be
translated to a more glorious state ; either we must
throw our chances, and get truth by accident or
predestination, or else we must lie safe in a mutual
toleration, and private liberty of persuasion, unless
some other anchor can be thought upon, where we
may fasten our floating vessels, and ride safely.
SECTION VIII.
Of the Disability of Fathers or Writers Ecclesiastical,
to determine our Questions, with certainty and
truth.
There are some that think they can determine all
questions in the world by two or three sayings of
the Fathers, or by the consent of so many as they
will please to call a concurrent testimony. But
this consideration will soon be at an end ; for, if
the fathers, when they are witnesses of tradition, do
not always speak truth, as it happened in the case
of Papias and his numerous followers, for almost
three ages together, then is their testimony more
improbable when they dispute or write commenta-
ries.
2. The fathers of the first ages spake unitedly
214 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
concerning divers questions of secret theology, and
yet were afterwards contradicted by one personage
of great reputation, whose credit had so much in-
fluence upon the world, as to make the contrary
opinion become popular : why, then, may not w^e
have the same liberty, when so plain an uncertainty
is in their persuasions, and so great contrariety in
their doctrines ? But this is evident in the case
of absolute predestination, which, till St. Austin's
time, no man preached, but all taught the contrary ;
and yet the reputation of this one excellent man
altered the scene. But, if he might dissent from
so general a doctrine, w hy may not we do so too,
it being pretended that he is so excellent a prece-
dent to be followed, if we have the same reason ?
He had no more authority nor dispensation to dis-
sent, than any bishop hath now\ And therefore
St. Austin hath dealt ingenuously; and as he took
this liberty to himself, so he denies it not to others,
but, indeed, forces them to preserve their own li-
berty. And, therefore, when St. Jerome* had a
great mind to follow the fathers in a point that he
fancied, and the best security he had w as, Patiaris
me cum talibus errare, " You may allow me to err
with such men," St. Austin would not endure it,
but answered his reason, and neglected the autho-
thority. And therefore it had been most unrea-
sonable that we should do that now, though in his
behalf, which he, towards greater personages, (for
so they were then,) at that time judged to be un-
reasonable. It is a plain recession from antiquity,
which w as determined by the council of Florence,
" that the souls of the saints are received imme-
* Sess. ult.
INCONSISTENCIES OF THE FATHERS. 2l0
diately in heaven, and clearly behold God himself,
three in one ;"* as who please to try, may see it dog--
matically resolved to the contrary by Justin Martyr, f
Iraeneus,t byOrigen,§ St.Chrysostom,|| Theodoret,5[
ArethasCaesariensis,* Euthymius,f vvhomay answer
for the Greek church; and it is plain that it was the
opinion of the Greek church, by that great difficulty
the Romans had of bringing' the Greeks to subscribe
to the Florentine council, where the Latins acted
their masterpiece of wit and stratagem, the greatest
that hath been till the famous and superpolitic de-
sign of Trent. And for the Latin church, Tertul-
lian t St. Ambrose,§ St. Austin,|j St. Hilary,f
Prudentius,* Lactantius,f Victorinus Martyr,t and
St. Bernard § are known to be of opinion that the
souls of the saints are in ahditis receptaculis, et ex-
terioribus atriis, " in secret receptacles and outer
courts," where they expect the resurrection of their
bodies, and the glorification of their souls; and
though they all believe them to be happy, yet
they enjoy not the beatific vision before the resur-
rection. Now, there being so full a consent of
Fathers, (for many more may be added,) and the
decree of pope John XXTI. besides, who was so
* " Piorum animas purgatas, &c. mox in coelum recipi, et
intueri clare ipsum Deuin trinum et unum sicuti est."
-j- Q. 60, ad. Christian. J Lib. v. § Horn. vii. in Levit.
II Horn, xxxix. in I Cor. ^ In c. 1 1, ad. Heb.
* In c. 6, ad Apoc. t In 16, c. Luc.
X Lib. iv. adv. Mar. § Lib. ii. de. Cain. c. 2.
11 Ep. iii. ad Fortunatianum. 5[ In Psal. 138.
* De exeq. Defunctor. + Lib. vii. c. 21. :{: In c. G, Apoc.
§ Serm. iii. de Om. Sanctis. Vid. enim St. Aug. in Enchir.
c. 108, et lib. xii. de Civit. Dei. c. 9, et in Ps. 36, et in lib- i.
Retract, c. 14. Vid. insvxper testimonia quae collegit Spala. lib.
V. c. 8- n. 98, de Repub. Eccl. et Sixt. Senen. lib. 6,
Annot. 345.
216 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
confident for his decree, that he commanded the
university of Paris to swear that they would preach
it and no other, and that none should be promoted
to degrees in theology that did not swear the like,
(as Occham,* Gerson,f Marsilius,t and Adrianus §
report.) Since it is esteemed lawful to dissent
from yll these, I hope no man will be so unjust to
press other men to consent to an authority which
he himself judges to be incompetent. These two
great instances are enough ; but if more were ne-
cessary, I could instance, in the opinion of the
Chiliasts, maintained by the second and third cen-
turies, and disavowed ever since; in the doctrine
of communicating infants, taught and practised as
necessary by the fourth and fifth centuries, and
detested by the Latin church in all the following
ages; in the variety of opinions concerning the
very form of baptism; some keeping close to the
institution and the words of its first sanction, others
affirming it to be sufficient, if it be administered
in nomine C/ir?s^/;|| particularly St. Ambrose, pope
Nicholas I. V. Bede^J and St. Bernard,* besides
some writers of after ages, as Hugo de S. Victore,
and the doctors generally, his contemporaries. And
it would not be inconsiderable to observe, that if
any synod, general, national, or provincial, be re-
ceded from by the church of the later age, (as there
have been very many,) then, so many fathers as
were then assembled and united in opinion, are
esteemed no authority to determine our persuasions.
Now, suppose two hundred fathers assembled in
* In Oper. nonag. dierum. + Serm. de Paschat.
X In iv. sent. q. 13. a 3. § In 4, de Sacram. Confirmat.
II De Consecrat. dist. 4, c. a quod in Judeo.
i[ Inc. 10, Act. * Ep. 340.
INCONSISTENCIES OF THE FATHERS. 217
such a council, if all they had writ books and
authorities, two hundred authorities had been al-
leged in confirmation of an opinion, it would have
made a mighty noise, and loaded any man with an
insupportable prejudice that should dissent : and
yet every opinion maintained against the authority
of any one council, though but provincial, is, in its
proportion, such a violent recession and neglect of
the authority and doctrine of so many fathers as
were then assembled, who did as much declare
their opinion in those assemblies, by their suffrages,
as if they had writ it in so many books ; and their
opinion is more considerable in the assembly than
in their writings, because it was more deliberate,
assisted, united, and dogmatical. In pursuance of
this observation, it is to be noted, by way of
instance, that St. Austin, and two hundred and
seventeen bishops, and all their successors,*' for a
whole age together, did consent in denying appeals
to Rome ; and yet the authority of so many fathers
(all true catholics) is of no force now at Rome, in
this question; but if it be in a matter they like, one
of these fathers alone is sufficient. The doctrine of
St. Austin alone brought in the festival and vene-
ration of the assumption of the blessed virgin, and
the hard sentence passed at Rome upon unbaptized
infants, and the Dominican ojjinion concerning
predetermination, derived from him alone, as from
* Vid. Epist. Bonifacii II. apud Nicolinum, torn. ii. Concil.
pag. 544, et exemplar precum Eulalii apud eundem, ibid. p. 525.
Qui anathematizat omnes decessores suos, qui, in ea causa, Roma
se opponendo recta fidei regulam praevaricati sunt ; inter quos
tamen fuit Augustinus, quem pro maledicto Caelestinus tacite
agnoscit, admittendo so. exemplar precum. Vid. Doctor. Marta.
de Jurisdict. part. iv. p. 273, et Erasm. Annot. in Hieron.
praefat. in Daniel.
218 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
their original; so that if a father speaks for them,
it is wonderful to see what tragedies are stirred up
against them that dissent, as is to be seen in that
excellent nothing of Campian's ten reasons. But
if the fathers be against them, then " tlie fathers
have, in some things, mistaken in no slight degree,
and some of them most egregiously,"* says Bel-
larmine; and it is certain, the chiefest of them
have foully erred. Nay, Posa, Salmeron, and
Wadding, in the question of the immaculate con-
ception, make no scruple to dissent from antiquity,
to prefer new doctors before the old; and, to justify
themselves, bring instances in which the church of
Rome had determined ai>-ainst the fathers. And it
is not excuse enough to say that, singly, the fathers
may err ; but if tliey concur they are certain testi-
mony : for there is no question this day disputed,
by persons that are willing to be tried by the
fathers, so generally attested on either side, as some
points are which both sides dislike severally or
conjunctly : and therefore, it is not honest for
either side to press the authority of the fathers,
as a concluding argument in matter of dispute,
unless themselves will be content to submit, in all
things, to the testimony of an equal number of
them ; which I am certain neither side will do.
3. If I should reckon all the particular reasons
against the certainty of this topic, it would be more
than needs as to this question; and therefore I
will abstain from all disparagement of those worthy
personages, who were excellent lights to their
several dioceses and cures. And therefore I will
* " Patres in quibusdam non leviter lapsi sunt ; constat, quos-
dam ex preecipuis." — De '\''erb. Dei, lib. iii. c. 10, § dices.
INCONSISTENCIES OF THE FATHERS. 219
not instance, that Clemens Alexandrinus* taught,
that Christ felt no hunger or thirst, but eat only to
make demonstration of the verity of his human na-
ture ; nor that St. Hilary taught that Christ, in his
sufferings, had no sorrow ; nor that Origen taught
the pains of hell not to have an eternal duration ;
nor that St. Cyprian taught rebaptization ; nor
that Athenagoras condemned second marriages; nor
that St. John Damascen said, Christ only prayed
in appearance, not really and in truth : I ^vill let
them all rest in peace, and their memories in ho-
nour. For if I should inquire into the particular
probations of this article, I must do to them as I
should be forced to do now : if any man should
say that the writings of the schoolmen were excel-
lent argument and authority to determine men's
persuasions, I must consider their writings, and
observe their defailances, their contradictions, the
weakness of their arguments, the mis-allegations of
Scripture, their inconsequent deductions, their false
opinions, and all the weaknesses of humanity, and
the failings of their persons, which no good man is
willing to do, unless he be compelled to it by a
pretence that they are infallible, or that they are
followed by men even into errors or impiety. And,
therefore, since there is enough in the former in-
stances to cure any such mispersuasion and preju-
dice, I will instance, in the innumerable particulari-
ties that might persuade us to keep our liberty en-
tire, or to use it discreetly. For it is not to be denied
but that great advantages are to be made by their
writings, et probahile est quod omnibus, quod pliiribus,
quod sapient ibus videtur ; if one wise man says a
thing, it is an argument to me to believe it in its
* Strom, lib. iii. et vi.
220 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
degree of probation ; that is, proportionable to such
an assent as the authority of a wise man can pro-
duce, and when there is nothing against it that is
greater ; and so in proportion, higher and higher,
as more wise men (such as the old doctors were)
do affirm it. But that which I complain of is, that
we look upon wise men that lived long ago, with
so much veneration and mistake, that we reverence
them, not for having been wise men, but that they
lived long since. But, when the question is con-
cerning authority, there must be something to build
it on ; a Divine commandment, human sanction,
excellency of spirit, and greatness of understand-
ing, on which things all human authority is regu-
larly built. But, now, if we had lived in their
times, (for so we must look upon them now, as they
did who, without prejudice, beheld them,) I sup-
pose we should then have beheld them as we, in
England, look on those prelates who are of great
reputation for learning and sanctity : here only is
the difference ; when persons are living, their au-
thority is depressed by their personal defailances
and the contrary interests of their contemporaries,
which disband, when they are dead, and leave their
credit entire, upon the reputation of those excellent
books and monuments of learning and piety which
are left behind : but beyond this, why the bishop
of Hippo shall have greater authority than the
bishop of the Canaries, ceteris paribus, I under-
stand not. For did they that lived (to instance)
in St. Austin's time, believe all that he wrote P If
they did they were much to blame, or else him-
self was to blame for retracting much of it a
little before his death : and if, while he lived, his
affirmative was no more authority than derives
INCONSISTENCIES OF THE FATHERS. 221
from the credit of one very wise man, against whom,
also, very wise men were opposed, T know not why
his authority should prevail further now ; for there
is nothing- added to the strength of his reason
since that time, but only that he hath been in
great esteem with posterity. And if that be all,
why the opinion of the following ages shall be of
more force than the opinion of the first ages, against
whom St. Austin, in many things, clearly did op-
pose himself, I see no reason ; or whether the first
ages were against him, or no, yet that he is ap-
proved by the following ages is no better argu-
ment ; for it makes his authority not to be innate,
but derived from the opinion of others, and so to be
precarious, and to depend upon others, who, if they
should change their opinions, and such examples
there have been many, then there were nothing left
to urge our consent to him ; which, when it was at
the best, was only this, because he had the good
fortune to be believed by them that came after, he
must be so still ; and because it was no argument
for the old doctors before him, this will not be very
good in his behalf. The same I say of any com-
pany of them ; I say not so of all of them ; it is to
no purpose to say it, for there is no question this
day in contestation, in the explication of which all
the old writers did consent. In the assignation of
the canon of Scripture, they never did consent for
six hundred years together ; and then, by that
time the bishops had agreed indifferently well,
and but indifferently, upon that, they fell out in
twenty more; and except it be in the apostles'
creed, and articles of such nature, there is nothing
which may, with any colour, be called a consent,
much less tradition universal.
222 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
4. But I will rather choose to show the uncer-
tainty of this topic, by such an argument which
was not in the fathers' power to help ; such as makes
no invasion upon their great reputation, which
I desire should be preserved as sacred as it ought.
For other things, let who please, read Mr. Daille,
" On the true Use of the Fathers ;" but I shall
only consider, that the writings of the fathers
have been so corrupted by the intermixture of
heretics, so many false books put forth in their
names, so many of their writings lost which
would more clearly have explicated their sense ;
and, at last, an open profession made, and a
trade of making the fathers speak, not what them-
selves thought, but what other men pleased ; that
it is a great instance of God's providence, and
care of his church, that we have so much good
preserved in the writings which we receive from
the fathers, and that all truth is not as clear gone
as is the certainty of their great authority and
reputation.
The publishing books with the inscription of
great names, began in St. Paul's time; for some
had troubled the church of Thessalonica with a
false epistle, in St. Paul's name, against the incon-
venience of which he arms them, in 2 Thess. ii. I, :
and this increased daily in the church. The
Arians wrote an epistle to Constantine,* under the
name of Athanasius, and the Eutychians wrote
against Cyril of Alexandria, under the name of
Theodoret; and of the age in which the seventh
synod was kept, Erasmus reports, *' That books,
under the assumed name of illustrious men, were
* Apolog. Athenas. ad. Constant.
INCONSISTENCIES OF THE FATHERS. 223
everywhere to be met with."* It was then a public
business, and a trick not more base than public :
but it was more ancient than so, and it is memora-
ble in the books attributed to St. Basil, containing
thirty chapters " concerning- the Holy Spirit,"
whereof, fifteen were plainly added by another
hand, under the covert of St. Basil, as appears in
the difference of the style, in the impertinent di-
gressions, against the custom of that excellent
man, by some passages contradictory to others of
St. Basil, by citing Meletius as dead before him,
who yet lived, three years after him,t and by the
very frame and manner of the discourse ; and yet
it was so handsomely carried, and so well served
the purposes of men, that it was quoted under the
title of St. Basil by many, but without naming the
number of chapters, and by St. John Damascen, in
these words : " Basil, in a work containing thirty
chapters, to Amphilochius;"| and to the same
purpose, and in the number of twenty-seven and
twenty-nine chapters, he is cited by Photius, § by
Euthymius, by Burchard, by Zonaras, Balsamon,
and Nicephorus; but for this, see more in Eras-
mus's preface upon this book of St. Basil. There
is an epistle goes still under the name of St.
Jerome, to the virgin Demetrias, and is of great
use in the question of predestination, with its ap-
pendices, and yet a very learned man,i| eight hun-
dred years ago, did believe it to be written by a
* " Libris falso celebrium virorum titulo commendatis
scaterc omnia." — Vid. Baron, a.d. 553.
-|- Vid. Baron, in Annal.
J " Basilius in opere triginta capitum de Spiritu S. ad Am-
pliilochium." — Lib. i. de Imagin. Orat. 1.
§ Noraocan. tit. i. cap. 3.
li V. Beda de Gratia Christi. adv. Julianum.
224 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
Pelagian, and undertakes to confute divers parts
of it, as being high and confident Pelagianism,
and written by Julianus Episc. Eclanensis ; ^- but
Grefforius Ariminensis, from St. Austin, affirms it
to have been written by Pelagius himself. I might
instance in too many. There is not any one of the
fathers who is esteemed author of any considerable
number of books, that hath escaped untouched :
but the abuse in this kind hath been so evident,
that now, if any interested person, of any side, be
pressed with an authority very pregnant against
him, he thinks to escape by accusing the edition,
or the author, or the hands it passed through, or, at
last, he therefore suspects it, because it makes
against him : both sides being resolved that they
are in the right, the authorities that they admit
they will believe not to be against them ; and they
which are too plainly against them shall be no
authorities : and, indeed, the whole world hath
been so much abused, that every man thinks he
hath reason to suspect whatsoever is against him,
that is, what he please ; which proceeding only
produces this truth, that there neither is, nor can
be any certainty, nor very much prolmbility, in
such allegations.
But there is a worse mischief than this, besides
those very many which are not yet discovered,
which like the pestilence destroys in the dark, and
grows into inconvenience more insensibly and
more irremediably ; and that is, corruption of par-
ticular jDlaces, by inserting words and altering them
to contrary senses ; a thing which the fathers of the
sixth general synod complained of concerning the
* Greg. Arim. in ii. sent. dist. xxvi. q. 1. a. 3.
OF THE FATHERS. 225
constitutions of St. Clement, " in which certain
corruptions of the true faith are introduced by per-
sons heretically inclined, which have obscured the
beauty of the divine decrees:"* and so also have
his recognitions, so have his epistles been used, if, at
least, they were his at all; particularly the fifth de-
cretal epistle, that goes under the name of St. Cle-
ment, in which community of wives is taught upon
the authority of St. Luke, saying, the first Chris-
tians had all things common ; if all things, then
wives also, says the epistle : a forgery like to have
been done by some Nicolaitan, or other impure
person. There is an epistle of Cyril extant, to Suc-
cessus, bishop of Diocsesarea, in which he relates,
that he was asked by Bud us, bishop of Emessa,
whether he did approve of the epistle of Athanasius
to Epictetus, bishop of Corinth, and that his
answer was : " If the copies you have are not cor-
rupted, for many are found to be so by the enemies
of the church." f And this was done even while
the authors themselves were alive; for so Dionysius
of Corinth complained that his writings were cor-
rupted by heretics, and Pope Leo, that his epistle
to Flavianus was perverted by the Greeks : and in
the synod of Constantinople, t before quoted, (the
sixth synod,) Macarius, and his disciples, were
convicted " of garbling, or corrupting, the writings
* " Quibus jam olim, ab iis qui a fide aliena sentiunt, adul-
terina queedam etiam pietate aliena introducta sunt, quae divino-
rum nobis decretorum elegantem et venustam speciem obscura-
runt." — Can. ii.
•\ " Si haec apud vos scripta non sint adultera ; nam plura ex
his ab hostibus Ecclesias deprehenduntur esse depravata."
Euseb. lib. iv. c. 23.
X Act. viii. vid. etiam Synod, vii. act. 4.
226 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
of the saints." * Thus the third chapter of St. Cy-
prian's book, " On the Unity of the Church," in the
edition of Pamelius, suffered great alteration. These
words, primafus Petro datiir, "the primacy is given
to St. Peter," wholly inserted; and these, super
caihedram Petri fundata est ecclesia, " the church
is founded upon the chair of St. Peter:" and
whereas it was before, super unum mdijicat eccle-
siam Christus, "Christ builds his church upon one ; '
that not being enough, ihey have made it super
ilium unum, ''upon that one." Now, these addi-
tions are against the faith of all old copies before
Minutius and Pamelius, and against Gratian, even
after himself had been chastised by the Roman
correctors, the commissaries of Gregory XIII. ; as
is to be seen where these words are alleged, Decret.
c. 24, q. 1. can. Loquitur Dominus ad Petrum. So
that we may say of Cyprian's works, as Pamelius
himself said concerning his writings, and the writ-
ings of other of the fathers; saith he : "Whence
we gather, that the writings of Cyprian, and others
of the fathers, are in various ways corrupted by the
transcribers." f But Gratian himself could do as
fine a feat when he listed, or else somebody did it
for him ; and it was in this very question, their be-
loved article of the pope's supremacy ; for he
quotes these words out of St. Ambrose : " They do
not hold the inheritance of Peter, who do not pos-
sess the seat of Peter :"j jidem, " faith," not sedem,
* " Quod sanctorum testimonia aut truncarint aut deprava-
rint."
-f- " Cypriani scripta ut et aliorum Veterum a librariis varie
fuisse interpolata." — Annot. Ciprian. super. Concil. Carthag. n.l.
:!: " Non habent Petri heEreditatem, qui non habent Petri
sedem."
OF THE FATHERS. 227
"seat," it is in St. Ambrose; but this error was
made authentic by being inserted into the code of
the law of the catholic church ; and considering
how little notice the clergy had of antiquity, but
what was transmitted to them by Gratian, it will be
no great wonder that all this part of the world
swallowed such a bole, and the opinion that was
wrapped in it. But I need not instance in Gratian
any further, but refer any one that desires to be
satisfied concerning this collection of his, to Au-
gustinus, archbishop of Tarracon, in Emendafione
Graiiani, where he shall find fopperies and cor-
ruptions, good store, noted by that learned man :
but that the Indices Expurgatorii, commanded by
authority, * and practised with public licence, pro-
fess to alter and correct the sayings of the fathers,
and to reconcile them to the catholic sense, by
putting in and leaving out, is so great an imposture,
so unchristian a proceeding, that it hath made the
faith of all books and all authors justly to be sus-
pected. For considering their infinite diligence and
great opportunity, as having had most of the
copies in their own hands, together with an un,
satisfiable desire of prevailing in their right, or
in their wrong, they have made an absolute destruc-
tion of this topic; and when the fathers speak
Latin, f or breathe in a Roman diocess, although
the providence of God does infinitely overrule
them, and that it is next to a miracle, that in the
* Vid. Ind. Expurg. Belg. in Bertram, et Fland. Hispan.
Portugal. Neopolitan. Romanum, Junium in prefat. ad Ind.
Expurg. Belg. Hasenmusserum, p. 275. Withlington, Apo-
log. mim. 449.
t Videat Lector Andream Cristovium, in Bello Jesuitico, et
Joh. Reynolds, in lib. de Idol. Rom.
q2
228 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
monuments of antiquity there is no more found
that can pretend for their advantage than there is,
which, indeed, is infinitely inconsiderable; yet,
our questions and uncertainties are infinitely mul-
tiplied, instead of a probable and reasonable deter-
mination. For since the Latins always complained
of the Greeks, for privately corrupting the ancient
records, both of councils and fathers,* and now
the Latins make open profession, not of corrupt-
ing, but of correcting their writings, (that is the
word,) and at the most it was but a human autho-
rity, and that of persons not always learned, and
very often deceived; the whole matter is so unreason-
able, that it is not worth a further disquisition. But
if any one desires to inquire further, he may be sa-
tisfied in Erasmus; in Henry and Robert Stephens,
in the prefaces before the editions of Fathers, and
their observation upon them; in Bellarmine, de
Script. Eccles. ; in Dr. Reynolds, de Libris Apocry-
phis ; in Scaliger ; and Robert Coke of Leeds, in
Yorkshire, in his book de Censura Patrum.
* Vid. Ep. Nicolai ad jMichael. Imperat.
229
SECTION IX.
Of the incompetency of the Church in its diffusive
capacity to he judge of Controversies, and the im-
pertinency of that pretence of the Spirit.
And now, after all these considerations of the se-
veral topics, tradition, councils, popes, and ancient
doctors of the church, I suppose it will not be ne-
cessary to consider the authority of the church
apart ; for the church either speaks by tradition,
or by a representative body in a council, by popes,
or by the fathers : for the church is not a chimaera,
not a shadow, but a company of men believing in
Jesus Christ, which men either speak by them-
selves immediately, or by their rulers, or by their
proxies and representatives. Now, I have consi-
dered it in all senses but in its diffusive cajjacity ;
in which capacity she cannot be supposed to be a
judge of controversies, both because in that capa-
city she cannot teach us, as also because if by a
judge we mean all the church diffused in all its
parts and members, so there can be no contro-
versy; for if all men be of that opinion, then there
is no question contested : if they be not all of a
mind, how can the whole diffusive catholic church
be pretended in defiance of any one article, where
the diffusive church being divided, part goes this
way and part another ? But if it be said, the
greatest part must carry it; besides that it is im-
230 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
possible for us to know which way the greatest
part goes, in many questions, it is not always true
that the greater part is the best ; sometimes the
contrary is most certain, and it is often very
probable, but it is always possible. And when
paucity of followers was objected to Liberius, he
gave this in answer: " There was a time when but
three children of the captivity resisted the king's
decree."* And Athanasiusf wrote on purpose
against those that did judge of truth by multi-
tudes; and indeed it concerned him so to do, when
he alone stood in the gap against the numerous
armies of the Arians.
But if there could, in this case, be any distinct
consideration of the church, yet to know which is
the true church is so hard to be found out, that the
greatest questions of Christendom are judged be-
fore you can get to your judge, and then there is
no need of him. For those questions which ai^e
concerning the judge of questions, must be deter-
mined before you can submit to his judgment; and
if you can yourselves determine those great c[ues-
tions, which consist much in universalities, then
also you may determine the particulars, as being of
less difficulty. And he that considers how many
notes there are given to know the true church (no
less than fifteen by Bellarmine) and concerning
every one of them, almost, whether it be a ceitain
note or no, there are very many questions and un-
certainties ; and when it is resolved which are the
notes, there is more dispute about the application
of these notes than of the UpioroKpiiwix^vov, (ori-
ginal question,) will quickly be satisfied that he
* Theod. lib. ii. c. \G, Hist, f Tom. la.
OF THE CHURCH. 231
had better sit still than to go round about a difficult
and troublesome passage, and at last get no fur-
ther, but return to the place from whence he first
set out. And there is one note amongst the rest, —
holiness of doctrine ; — that is, so as to have nothing-
false either in faith or morals, (for so Bellarmine
explicates it,) which supposes all your contro-
versies judged before they can be tried by the au-
thority of the church ; and when we have found out
all true doctrine, (for that is necessary to judge of
the church by, that as St Austin's council is, " We
should look for the church in the wordsof Christ;")*
then we are bound to follow because we judge it
true, not because the church hath said it : — and this
is to judge of the church by her doctrine; not of
the doctrine by the church. And, indeed, it is the
best and only way; but then how to judge of that
doctrine will be afterwards inquired into. In the
mean time, the church, that is, the governors of the
churches, are to judge for themselves, and for all
those who cannot judge for themselves. For others,
they must know that their governors judge for
them too, so as to keep them in peace and obedi-
ence, though not for the determination of their pri-
vate persuasions ; for the economy of the church
requires that her authority be received by all her
children. Now this authority is divine in its origi-
nal, for it derives immediately from Christ ; but it
is human in its ministration. We are to be led
like men, not like beasts: a rule is prescribed for
the guides themselves to follow, as we are to follow
the guides; and although, in matters indetermina-
ble or ambiguous, the presumption lies on behalf
* " Ecclesiara in verbis Christi invest! genius."
232 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
of the governors; (for we do nothing for authority,
if we suffer it not to weigh that part down of an
indifferency and a question w^hich she chooses ;) yet
if there be a manifest error, as it often happens, or
if the church governors themselves be rent into in-
numerable sects, as it is this day in Christendom,
then we are to be as wise as we can in choosing our
guides, and then to follow so long as that reason
remains for which we first chose them. And even
in that government which was an immediate sanc-
tion of God, I mean the ecclesiastical government
of the synagogue, where God had consigned the
high priest's authority, with a menace of death to
them that should disobey, that all the world might
know the meaning and extent of such precepts,
and that there is a limit beyond which they cannot
command, and we ought not to obey ; it came
once to pass, that if the priest had been obeyed in
his conciliary degrees, the whole nation had been
bound to believe the condemnation of our blessed
Saviour to have been just ; and, at another time, the
apostles must no more have preached in the name
of Jesus. But here was manifest error; and the
case is the same to every man that invincibly, and
therefore innocently, believes it so. ' Obey God
rather than man,' is our rule in such cases. For
although every man is bound to follow his guide,
unless he believes his guide to mislead him, yet
when he sees reason against his guide, it is best to
follow his reason ; for though in this he may fall
into error, yet he will escape the sin — he may do
violence to truth, but never to his own conscience;
and an honest error is better than an hypocritical
profession of truth, or a violent luxation of the un-
derstanding ; since, if he retains his honesty and
OF THE CHURCH. 233
simplicity, he cannot err in a matter of faith or abso-
lute necessity. God's goodness hath secured all
honest and careful persons from that — for other
things he must follow the best guides he can, and
he cannot be obliged to follow better than God
hath given him.
And there is yet another way pretended, of in-
fallible expositions of Scripture, and that is, by the
Spirit : but of this I shall say no more, but that it
is impertinent to this question. For put case, the
Spirit is given to some men, enabling them to ex-
pound infallibly ; yet because this is but a private
assistance, and cannot be proved to others, this in-
fallible assistance may determine my own assent,
but shall not enable me to prescribe to others ; be-
cause it were unreasonable I should, unless I could
prove to him that I have the Spirit, and so can se-
cure him from being deceived, if he relies upon me.
In this case I may say, as St. Paul, in the case of
praying with the Spirit : ' He verily giveth thanks
well; but the other is not edified.' So that, let
this pretence be as true as it will, it is sufficient
that it cannot be of consideration in this question.
The result of all this — since it is not reasonable
to limit and to prescribe to ail men's understandings,
by any external rule in the interpretation of diffi-
cult places of Scripture, which is our rule ; since
no man, nor company of men, is secure from error,
or can secure us that they are free from malice, in-
terest, and design ; and since all the ways by which
we usually are taught, as tradition, councils, decre-
tals, &c. are very uncertain in the matter, in their
authority, in their being legitimate and natural,
and many of them certainly false, and nothing cer-
tain but the divine authority of Scripture, in which
234 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
all that is necessary is plain, and much of that
that is not necessary, is very obscure, intricate, and
involved ; either we must set up our rest only
upon articles of faith and plain places, and be in-
curious of other obscurer revelations; (which is a
duty for persons of private understandings, and of
no public function;) or, if we will search further,
(to which, in some measure, the guides of others
are obliged,) it remains, we inquire how men may
determine themselves, so as to do their duty to
God and not to disserve the church, that every
such man may do \^'hat he is bound to, in his per-
sonal capacity, and as he relates to the public as a
public minister.
SECTION X.
Of the Authority of Reason, and that it proceeding
upon best grounds is the best judge.
Here then I consider, that although no man may
be trusted to judge for all others, unless this person
were infallible and authorised so to do, which no
man nor no company of men is, yet every man
may be trusted to judge for himself; I say every
man that can judge at all; (as for others, they are
to be saved as it pleaseth God ;) but others that can
judge at all must either choose their guides, who
shall judge for them; (and then they oftentimes do
the wisest, and always save themselves a labour,
but then they choose too;) or if they be persons of
greater understanding, then they are to choose for
THE AUTHORITY OF REASON. 235
themselves in particular what the others do in gene-
ral, and by choosing their guide : and for this any
man may be better trusted for himself than any
man can be for another : for, in this case, his own
interest is most concerned ; and ability is not so
necessary as honesty, which certainly every man
will best preserve in his own case, and to himself;
(and, if he does not, it is he that must smart for it ;)
and it is not required of us not to be in error, but
that we endeavour to avoid it.
2. He that follows his guide so far as his reason
goes along with him ; or which is all one, he that
follows his own reason, (not guided only by natural
arguments, but by divine revelation, and all other
good means,) hath great advantages over him that
gives himself wholly to follow any human guide
whatsoever; because he follows all their reasons and
his own too: he follows them till reason leaves
them, or till it seems so to him, which is all one to
his particular; for, by the confession of all sides, an
eiToneous conscience binds him, when a right guide
does not bind him. But he that gives himself up
wholly to a guide, is oftentimes (I mean, if he be a
discerning person) forced to do violence to his own
understanding, and to lose all the benefit of his own
discretion, that he may reconcile his reason to his
guide. And of this we see infinite inconveniences
in the church of Rome; for we find persons of great
understanding oftentimes so amused with the au-
tliority of their church, that it is pity to see them
sweat in answering some objections, which they
know not how to do, but yet believe they must,
because the church hath said it. So that if they
read, study, pray, search records, and use all the
means of art and industry in the pursuit of truth.
236 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
it is not with a resolution to follow that which shall
seem truth to them, but to confirm what before
they did believe ; and if any argument shall seem
unanswerable ag^ainst any article of their church,
they are to take it for a temptation, not for an illu-
mination, and they are to use it accordingly ; which
makes them make the devil to be the author of
that which God's Spirit hath assisted them to find,
in the use of lawful means, and the search of truth ;
and when the devil of falsehood is like to be cast
out by God's Spirit, they, say that it is through
Belzebub, which was one of the worst things that
ever the Pharisees said or did. And was it not a
plain stifling of the just and reasonable demands
made by the emperor, by the kings of France and
Spain, and by the ablest divines among them,
w hich was used in the council of Trent, when they
demanded the restitution of priests to their liberty
of marriage, the use of the chalice, the service in
the vulgar tongue ; and these things not only in
pursuance of truth, but for other great and good
ends, even to take away an infinite scandal, and a
great schism ? And yet, when they themselves
did profess it, all the world knew these reasonable
demands were denied merely upon a politic consi-
deration ; yet that these things should be framed
into articles and decrees of faith, and they for ever
after bound, not only not to desire the same things,
but to think the contrary to be divine truths, never
was reason made more a slave, or more useless.
Must not all the world say, either they must be
great hypocrites, or do great violence to their un-
derstanding, when they not only cease from their
claim, but must also believe it to be unjust? If
the use of their reason had not been restrained by
THE AUTHORITY OF REASON. 237
the tyranny and imperiousness of their guide, what
the emperor, and the kings, and their theologues
would have done, they can best judge who consi-
der the reasonableness of the demand, and the un-
reasonableness of the denial. But we see many
wise men, who, with their optandum esset ut ecclesia
licentiam daret, ^c, proclaim to all the world, that
in some things they consent and do not consent,
and do not heartily believe what they are bound
publicly to profess; and they themselves would
clearly see a difference, if a contrary decree should
be framed by the church ; they would, with an in-
finite greater confidence, rest themselves in other
propositions than what they must believe as the
case now stands ; and they would find that the
authority of a church is a prejudice as often as a
free and modest use of reason is a temptation.
3. God will have no man pressed with another's
inconveniences in matters sjDiritual and intellectual
— no man's salvation to depend upon another ; and
every tooth that eats sour grapes shall be set on
edge for itself, and for none else; and this is re-
markable in that saying of God by the prophet :
' If the prophet ceases to tell my people of their
sins, and leads them into error, the people shall die
in their sins, and the blood of them I will require
at the hands of that prophet.'f Meaning, that God
hath so set the prophets to guide us ; that we also
?ire to follow them by a voluntary assent, by an act
of choice and election. For, although accidentally
and occasionally the sheep may perish by the
shepherd's fault, yet that which hath the chiefest
influence upon their final condition, is their own
* " It were to be wished, that the church allowed, &c."
+ Ezek. xxxiii.
238 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
act and election; and therefore God hath so ap-
pointed guides to us, that if we perish it may be
accounted upon both our scores, upon our own and
the guides' too; which says plainly, that although
we are intrusted to our guides, yet Vv e are intrusted
to ourselves too. Our guides must direct us ; and
yet, if they fail, God hath not so left us to them,
but he hath given us enough to ourselves to dis-
cover their failings, and our own duties in all things
necessary; and for other things we must do as
well as we can. But it is best to follow our guides,
if we know nothing belter ; but if we do, it is
better to follow the pillar of fire, than a pillar of
cloud, though both possibly may lead to Canaan ;
but then, also, it is possible thrit it may be other-
wise. But I am sure, if I do my own best; then,
if it be best to follow a guide, and if it be also
necessary, I shall be sure, by God's grace and my
own endeavour, to get to it; but if I, without the
particular engagement of my understanding, fol-
low a guide, possibly I may be guilty of extreme
negligence, or I may extinguish God's Spirit, or do
violence to my own reason. And whether intrust-
ing myself wholly with another be not a laying up
my talent in a napkin, I am not so well assured : I am
certain the other is not. And since another man's
answering for me will not hmder, but that I also
shall answer for myself; as it concerns him to see
he does not wilfully misguide me, so it concerns
me to see that he shall not, if I can help it; if I
cannot, it will not be required at my hands : whether
it be his fault or his invincible error, I shall be
charged with neither.
4. This is no other than what is enjoined as a
duty. For since God will be justified with a free
THE AUTHORITY OF REASON. 239
obedience — and there is an obedience of under-
standing- as well as of will and affection — it is of
great concernment, as to be willing- to believe what*
ever God says, so also to inquire diligently whether
the will of God be so as it is pretended. Even our
acts of understanding are acts of choice ; and there-
fore it is commanded, as a duty, to ' search the
Scriptures, to try the spirits, whether they be of
God or no, of ourselves to be able to judge what is
right, to prove all things, and to retain that which is
best.'* For he that resolves not to consider, resolves
not to be careful whether he have truth or no, and
therefore hath an affection indifferent to truth or
falsehood, which is all one as if he did choose
amiss ; and since, when things are truly propounded
and made reasonable and intelligible, we cannot
but assent, and then it is no thanks to us; we have
no way to give our wills to God in matters of be-
lief, but by our industry in searching it, and exa-
mining the grounds upon which the propounders
build their dictates. And the not doing it, is often-
times a cause that God gives a man over eig vovv
dSoKiiJiov, into a reprobate and undiscerning mind
and understanding.
5. And this very thing (though men will not un-
derstand it) is the perjDetual practice of all men in
the world, that can give a reasonable account of
their faith. The very Catholic church itself is ra-
tionahilis et ubiq. diffusa, saith Optatus, 'reasonable,
as well as diffused every where.' For, take the prose-
lytes of the church of Rome — even in their greatest
submission of understanding they seem to them-
* Matt. XV. 10 ; John, v. 40 ; 1 .John, iv. 1 ; Ephes. v. 17 ;
Luke, xxiv. 25 ; Rom. iii. 11, i. 28; Apoc. ii. 2; Acts. xvii.
240 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
selves to follow their reason most of all : for if you
tell them. Scripture and tradition are their rules to
follow, they will believe you when they know a rea-
son for it ; and if they take you upon your word,
they have a reason for that too : either they believe
you a learned man, or a good man, or that you can
have no ends upon them, or something- that is of
an equal height to fit their understandings. If
you tell them they must believe the church, you
must tell them why they are bound to it; and
if you quote Scripture to prove it, you must give
them leave to judge whether the words alleged
S23eak your sense or no, and therefore to dissent if
they say no such thing ; and although all men are
not wise, and proceed discreetly, yet all make their
choice some way or other. He that chooses to
please his fancy, takes his choice as much as he
that chooses prudently. And no man speaks more
unreasonably than he that denies to men the use
of their reason in choice of their religion : for
that T may, by the way, remove the common pre-
judice, reason and authority are not things incom-
petent or repugnant, especially when the autho-
rity is infallible and supreme ; for there is no
greater reason in the world than to believe such
an authority. But then w^e must consider, whether
every authority that pretends to be such, is so
indeed : and therefore, Deus dixit, ergo hoc verum
est, " God hath said it, therefore it is true," is the
greatest demonstration in the world for things of
this nature. But it is not so in human dictates ;
and yet reason and human authority are not ene-
mies: for it is a good argument for us to follow
such an opinion, because it is made sacred by the
authority of councils and ecclesiastical tradition.
THE AUTHORITY OF REASON. 241
and sometimes it is the best reason we have in a
question, and then it is to be strictly followed ; but
there may also be, at other times, a reason greater
than it that speaks against it, and then the autho-
rity must not carry it. But then the difference is
not between reason and authority, but between this
reason and that, which is greater; for authority is
a very good reason, and is to prevail, unless a
stronger comes and disarms it, but then it must
give place. So that in this question, by reason, I
do not mean a distinct topic, but a transcendent
that runs through all topics ; for reason, like logic,
is instrument of all things else ; and when revela-
tion, and philosophy, and public experience, and
all other grounds of probability or demonstration,
have supplied us with matter, then reason does but
make use of them : that is, in plain terms, there
being so many ways of arguing, so many sects,
such differing interests, such variety of authority,
so many pretences, and so many false beliefs, it
concerns every wise man to consider which is the
best argument, which proposition relies uj^on the
truest grounds: and if this were not his only way,
why do men dispute and urge arguments, why clo
they cite councils and fathers, why do they allege
Scripture and tradition, and all this on all sides,
and to contrary purposes ? If we must judge, then
we must use our reason; if we must not judge,
why do they produce evidence ? Let them leave
disputing, and decree propositions magisterially:
but then we may choose whether we will believe
them or no ; or, if they say we must believe them,
they must prove it, and tell us why. And all
these disputes concerning tradition, councils, fa-
thers, &c., are not arguments against or besides
R
242 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
reason, but contestations and pretences to the best
arguments, and the most certain satisfaction of our
reason. But then all these coming into c{uestion,
submit themselves to reason; that is, to be judged
by human understanding, upon the best grounds
and information it can receive. So that Scripture,
tradition, councils, and fathers, are the evidence
in a question, but reason is the judge ; that is, we
being the persons that are to be persuaded, we
must see that we be persuaded reasonably. And
it is unreasonable to assent to a lesser evidence,
when a greater and clearer is propounded : but of
that every man for himself is to take cognizance,
if he be able to judge; if he be not, he is not bound
under the tie of necessity to know any thing of it.
That that is necessary shall be certainly conveyed
to him : God, that best can, will certainly take care
for that ; for if he does not, it becomes to be not
necessary ; or, if it should still remain necessary,
and he damned for not knowing it, and yet to know
it be ncft in his power, then who can help it ? there
can be no further care in this business. In other
things, there being no absolute and prime neces-
sity, we are left to our liberty to judge that way that
makes best demonstration of our piety, and of our
love to God and truth ; not that w ay that is always
the best argument of an excellent understanding,
for this may be a blessing, but the other only is a
duty.
And now that we are pitched upon that v/ay
which is most natural and reasonable in deter-
mination of ourselves, rather than of questions,
which are often indeterminable, since right reason,
proceeding upon the best grounds it can, viz. of
divine revelation and human authority and uroba-
CAUSES OF ERROR IN REASONING. 243
bility, is our guide ; and supposing the assistance
of God's Spirit, (which he never denies them that
fail not of their duty in all such things in which he
requires truth and certainty,) it remains that we
consider how it comes to pass that men are so
much deceived in the use of their reason and
choice of their religion; and that, in this account,
we distinguish those accidents which make error
innocent, from those which make it become a
heresy.
SECTION XL
Of some Causes of Error in the exercise of Reason
ivhich are exculpate in themselves.
1. Then I consider that there are a great many
inculpable causes of error, which are arguments of
human imperfections, not convictions of a sin.
And first, the variety of human understandings
is so great, that what is plain and apparent to
one, is difficult and obscure to another ; one will
observe a consequent from a common principle,
and another from thence will conclude the quite
contrary. When St. Peter saw the vision of the
sheet let down, with all sorts of beasts in it, and a
voice, saying, ' Rise, Peter, kill and eat,* if he had
not, by a particular assistance, been directed to the
meaning of the Holy Ghost, possibly he might
have had other apprehensions of the meaning of
r2
244 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
that vision ; for to myself it seems naturally to
speak nothing but the abolition of the Mosaical
rites, and the restitution of us to that part of Chris-
tian liberty which consists in the promiscuous
eating of meats ; and yet, besides this, there want
not some understandings in the world, to whom
these words seem to give St. Peter a power to kill
heretical princes. Methinks it is a strange under-
standing that makes such extractions, but Bozius
and Baronius did so. But men may understand
what they please, especially when they are to ex-
pound oracles. It was an argument of some wit,
but of singularity of understanding, that haj^pened
in the great contestation between the missals of St.
Ambrose and St. Gregory. The lot was thrown,
and God made to be judge, so as he was tempted
to a miracle, to answer a c^uestion which them-
selves might have ended without much trouble.
The two missals were laid upon the altar, and the
church door shut and sealed. By the morrow
mattins, they found St. Gregory's missal torn in
pieces, (saith the story,) and thrown about the
church, but St. Ambrose's opened and laid upon the
altar in a posture of being read. If I had been to
judge of the meaning of this miracle, I should have
made no scruple to have said, it had been the will of
God that the missal of St. Ambrose, which had been
anciently used, and publicly tried and approved of,
should still be read in the church, and that of Gregory
let alone, it being torn by an angelical hand, as an
argument of its imperfection, or of the inconve-
nience of innovation. But yet they judged it
otherwise ; for by the tearing and scattering about,
they thought it was meant, it should be used over
all the world, and that of St, Ambrose read only
CAUSES OF ERROR IN REASONING. 245
in the church of Millain. I am more satisfied that
the former was the true meaning, than I am of the
truth of the story; but we must suppose that.
And now there might have been eternal disputings
about the meaning of the miracle, and nothing
left to determine, when two fancies are the liti-
gants, and the contestations about probabilities
hinc hide. And I doubt not this was one cause
of so great variety of opinions in the primitive
church, when they proved their several opinions,
which were mysterious questions of Christian theo-
logy, by testimonies out of the obscurer prophets,
out of the Psalms and Canticles, as who please to
observe tlieir arguments of discourse and actions
of council shall perceive they very much used to
do. Now although men's understandings be not
equal, and that it is fit the best understandings
should prevail, yet that will not satisfy the weaker
understandings; because all men will not think
that another understanding is better than his own ;
or, at least, not in such a particular in which, with
fancy, he hath pleased himself. But commonly
they that are least able are most bold, and the more
ignorant are the more confident : therefore it is but
necessary, if he would have another bear with him,
he also should bear with another ; and if he will not
be prescribed to, neither let him prescribe to others.
And there is the more reason in this, because such
modesty is commonly to be desired of the more im-
perfect; for wise men know the ground of their
persuasion, and have their confidence proportion-
able to their evidence ; others have not, but over-
act their trifles : and therefore I said, it is but a
reasonable demand, that they that have the least
reason should not be most imperious; and for
246 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
others, it being reasonable enough, for all then-
great advantages upon other men, they will be
soon persuaded to it ; for although wise men might
be bolder, in respect of the persons of others less
discerning, yet they know there are but few things
so certain as to create much boldness and confi-
dence of assertion. If they do not, they are not
the men I take them for.
2. When an action or opinion is commenced
with zeal and piety, against a known vice, or a
vicious person, commonly all the mistakes of its
proceeding are made sacred by the holiness of the
principle, and so abuses the persuasions of good
people, that they make it as a characteristic note
to distinguish good persons from bad ; and then,
whatever error is consecrated by this means, is
therefore made the more lasting, because it is ac-
counted holy ; and the persons are not easily ac-
counted heretics, because they erred upon a pious
principle. There is a memorable instance in one
of the greatest questions of Christendom, viz. con-
cerning images. For when Philippicus had espied
the images of the six first synods upon the front of
a church, he caused them to be pulled down : now
he did it in hatred of the sixth synod ; for he, being
a Mo noth elite, stood condemned by that synod.
The catholics that were zealous for the sixth
synod, caused the images and representments to be
put up again ; and then sprung the question con-
cerning the lawfulness of images in churches.*
Philippicus and his party strived, by suppressing
images, to do disparagement to the sixth synod ;
the catholics, to preserve the honour of the sixth
* Vid. Paulum Diaconum.
CAUSES OF ERROR IxN REASONING, 247
synod, would uphold images. And then the ques-
tion came to be changed, and they who were easy
enough to be persuaded to pull down images, were
overawed by a prejudice against the Monothelites ;
and the Monothelites strived to maintain the ad-
vantage they had got, by a just and pious pretence
against images. The Monothelites would have se-
cured their error by the advantage and consocia-
tion of a truth ; and the other would rather defend
a dubious and disputable error, than lose and let
go a certain truth. And thus the case stood, and
the successors of both parts were led invincibly :
for when the heresy of the Monothelites disbanded,
(which it did in a while after,) yet the opinion of
the Iconoclasts, and the question of images grew
stronger. Yet, since the Iconoclasts at the first
were heretics, not for their breaking images, but
for denying the two wills of Christ, his divine and
his human ; — that they were called Iconoclasts was
to distinguish their opinion in the question con-
.cerning the images ; — but that then Iconoclasts so
easily had the reputation of heretics, was because
of the other opinion, which was conjunct in their
persons ; which opinion men afterwards did not
easily distinguish in them, but took them for here-
tics in gross, and whatsoever they held to be
heretical. And thus, upon this prejudice, grew
great advantages to the veneration of images; and
the persons at first were much to be excused, be-
cause they were misguided by that which might
have abused the best men. And if Epiphanius,
who was as zealous against images in churches as
Philippicus or Leo Tsaurus, had but begun a public
contestation, and engaged emperors to have made
decrees asrainst them, Christendom would have had
248 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
other apprehensions of it than they had when the
Monothelites began it : for few men will endure
a truth from the mouth of the devil, and if the
person be suspected, so are his ways too. And it
is a great subtlety of the devil so to temper truth
and falsehood in the same person that truth may
lose much of its reputation by its mixture with
error, and the error may become more plausible by
reason of its conjunction with truth. And this we
see by too much experience; for we see many
truths are blasted in their reputation, because per-
sons whom we think v.e hate, upon just grounds of
religion, have taught them. And it was plain
enough in the case of Maldonat,* that said of an
explication of a place of Scripture, that it was most
agreeable to antiquity, but because Calvin had so
expounded it he therefore chose a new one : this
was malice. But when a prejudice works tacitly,
undiscernibly, and irresistibly, of the person so
wrought upon, the man is to be pitied, not con-
demned, though possibly his opinion deserves it
highly. And therefore it hath been usual to dis-
credit doctrines by the personal defailances of them
that preach them, or with the disreputation of that
sect that maintains them, in conjunction with other
perverse doctrines. Faustus,t the Manichee, in St.'
Austin, glories much that in their religion God was
worshipped purely, and without images. St. A ustin
liked it well^ for so it was in his too ; but from hence,
Sanders concludes, that to pull down images in
churches was the heresy of the Manichees. The
Jews endure no iraao^es; therefore Bellarmine makes
* In cap. G, Johan.
t Lib. XX. c. 3, Cont. Faustum Man. Lib. i. c. ult. de Imagin.
CAUSES OF ERROR IN REASONING. 249
it to be a piece of Judaism to oppose them.* He
might as well have concluded against saying our
prayers, and church music, that it is Judaical, be-
cause the Jews used it. And he would be loath to
be served so himself; for he that had a mind to
use such arguments might, with much better
probability, conclude against their sacrament of
extreme unction ; because, when the miraculous
healing was ceased, then they were not catho-
lics but heretics that did transfer it to the use of
dying persons, says Irenoeus ; t for so did the Va-
lentinians : and, indeed, this argument is something
better than I thought for at first, because it was in
Irenseus's time reckoned among the heresies. But
there are a sort of men that are even with them,
and hate some good things which the church of
Rome teaches, because she who teaches so many
errors, hath been the publisher, and is the practiser
of those things. I confess the thing is always un-
reasonable, but sometimes it is invincible and in-
nocent ; and then may serve to abate the fury of
all such decretory sentences as condemn all the
world but their own disciples.
3. There are some opinions that have gone hand
in hand with a blessing, and a prosperous profes-
sion ; and the good success of their defenders hath
amused many good people, because they thought
they heard God's voice where they saw God's hand ;
and therefore have rushed upon such opinions with
great piety, and as great mistaking. For where
they once had entertained a fear of God, and ap-
prehension of his so sensible declaration, such a
fear produces scruple ; and a scrupulous conscience
* De Reliq. SS. lib. ii. c. 6, Sect. Nicolaus.
t Lib. i. c. 8, Adv. liter.
250 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
is always to be pitied, because, though it is seldom
wise, it is always pious. And this very thing hath
prevailed so far upon the understandings even of
wise men, that Bellarmine makes it a note of the true
church : which opinion, when it prevails, is a ready
way to make that, instead of martyrs, all men should
prove heretics or apostates in persecution ; for since
men in misery are very suspicious, out of strong
desires to find out the cause, that by removing it
they may be relieved, they apprehend that to be it
that is first presented to their fears ; and then, if ever
truth be afflicted, she shall also be destroyed. I
will say nothing in defiance of this fancy, although
all the experience in the world says it is false ; and
that, of all men. Christians should least believe
it to be true, to whom a perpetual cross is their
certain expectation ; (and the argument is like the
moon, for which no garment can be fit ; it alters
according to the success of human affairs, and in
one age will serve a papist, and in another a
protestant;) yet, when such an opinion does pre-
vail upon timorous persons, the malignity of their
error (if any be consequent to this fancy, and
taken up upon the reputation of a prosperous
heresy) is not to be considered simply and na-
kedly, but abatement is to be made in a just pro-
portion to that fear, and to that apprehension.
4. Education is so great and so invincible a pre-
judice, that he who masters the inconvenience of it
is more to be commended than he can justly be
blamed that complies with it. For men do not
always call them principles which are the prime
fountains of reason, from whence such consequents
naturally flow, as are to guide the actions and dis-
courses of men ; but they are principles w hich they
CAUSES OF ERROR IN REASONING. 251
are first taught, which they sucked in next to their
milk; and, by a proportion to those first principles,
they usually take their estimate of propositions. For
whatsover is taught to them at first they believe
infinitely, for they know nothing to the contrary :
they have had no other masters whose theorems
might abate the strength of their first persuasions.
And it is a great advantage in those cases to get
possession ; and before their first principles can
be dislodged, they are made habitual and com-
plexional; it is in their nature then to believe
them, and this is helped forward very much by the
advantage of love and veneration which we have to
the first parents of our persuasions; and we see it
in the orders of regulars in the church of Rome.
That opinion which was the opinion of their patron
or founder, or of some eminent personage of the
institute, is enough to engage all the order to be of
that opinion ; and it is strange that all the Domi-
nicans shall be of one opinion in the matter of pre-
determination and immaculate conception, and all
the Franciscans of the quite contrary ; as if their
understandings were formed in a different mould,
and furnished with various principles by their very
rule. Now this prejudice works by many princi-
ples ; but how strongly they do possess the under-
standing, is visible in that great instance of the
affection and perfect persuasion the weaker sort of
people have to that which they call the religion of
their forefathers.* You may as well charm a fever
asleep with the noise of bells, as make any pre-
tence of reason against that religion which old men
* " Optima rati ea quae niagno assensu recepta sunt, quorumq.
exempla multa sunt; nee ad rationem, sed ad similitudinem
viviinus." — Sen. Vid. Minut. Fel. octav.
252 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
have entailed u^^on their heirs male so many gene-
rations till they can prescribe. And the apostles
found this to be most true in the extremest diffi-
culty they met with, to contest against the rites of
Moses, and the long superstition of the Gentiles,
which they therefore thought fit to be retained, be-
cause they had done so formerly ; ' proceeding as
things uere or had been, not as they ought to be,'*
and all the blessings of this life which God gave
them, they had in conjunction with their religion,
and therefore they believed it was for their religion,
and this persuasion was bound fast in them with
ribs of iron ; the ajDostles were forced to unloose
the whole connjuncture of parts and principles in
their understandings, before they could make them
malleable and receptive of any impresses : but the
observation and experience of all wise men can
justify this truth. All that I shall say to the pre-
sent purpose is this, that consideration is to be had
to the weakness of persons when they are prevailed
upon by so innocent a prejudice; and, when there
cannot be arguments strong enough to overmaster
an habitual persuasion, bred with a man, nourished
up with him, that always eat at his table, and lay
in his bosom, he is not easily to be called heretic ;
for, if he keeps the foundation of faith, other articles
are not so clearly demonstrated on either side but
that a man may innocently be abused to the con-
trary. And therefore, in this case, to handle him
charitably, is but to do him justice ; and when an
opinion in minoribus articiilis, " in points of in-
ferior moment," is entertained upon the title and
stock of education, it may be the better permitted
* Pergentes non quo eundum est, sed quo itur.
CAUSES OF ERROR IN REASONING. 253
to him, since upon no better stock nor stronger
arguments, most men entertain their whole religion,
even Christianity itself.
5. There are some persons of a differing persua-
sion, who, therefore, are the rather to be tolerated,
because the indirect practices and impostures of
their adversaries have confirmed them, that those
opinions which they disavow are not from God, as
being upheld by means not of God's appointment,
for it is no unreasonable discourse to say, that God
will not be served with a lie, for he does not need
one, and he hath means enough to suj^port all those
truths which he hath commanded ; and hath sup-
plied every honest cause with enough for its main-
tenance, and to contest against its adversaries. And
(but that they which use indirect arts will not be
willing to lose any of their unjust advantages,
nor yet be charitable to those persons whom either
to gain or to undo they leave nothing unattempted)
the church of Rome hath much reason not to be so
decretory in her sentences against persons of a dif-
fering persuasion ; for if their cause were entirely
the cause of God, they have given wise people
reason to suspect it, because some of them have
gone to the devil to defend it. And if it be re-
membered what tragedies were stirred up against
Luther, for saying the devil had taught him an argu-
ment against the mass, it will be of as great ad-
vantage against them that they go to the devil for
many arguments to support not only the mass, but
the other distinguishing articles of their church ; I
instance in the notorious forging of miracles, and
framing of false and ridiculous legends. For the
former, I need no other instances than what hap-
pened in the great contestation about the immacu-
254 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
late conception, when there were miracles brought
on both sides to prove the contradictory parts;
and though it be more than probable that both sides
played the jugglers, yet the Dominicans had the ill
luck to be discovered, and the actors burned at
Berne. But this discovery happened by Provi-
dence ; for the Dominican opinion hath more de-
grees of probability than the Franciscan, is clearly
more consonant both to Scripture and all antiquity,
and this part of it is acknowledged by the greatest
patrons themselves, as Salmeron, Posa, and Wad-
ding; yet because they played the knaves in a
just question, and used false arts to maintain a
true proposition, God Almighty, to show that he
will not be served by a lie, was pleased rather to dis-
cover the imposture in the right opinion than in the
false; since nothing is more dishonourable to God
than to offer a sin in sacrifice to him, and nothing
more incongruous in the nature of the thing, than
that truth and falsehood should support each other,
or that true doctrine should live at the charges of a
lie. And he that considers the arguments for each
opinion, will easily conclude, that if God would not
have truth confirmed by a lie, much less would he
himself attest a lie with a true miracle. And by
this ground it will easily follow, that the Fran-
ciscan party, although they had better luck than
the Dominicans, yet had not more honesty, because
their cause was worse, and therefore their argu-
ments no whit the better. And although the
argument drawn from miracles is good to attest
a holy doctrine, which by its own worth will sup-
port itself, after way is a little made by miracles ;
yet of itself, and by its own reputation, it will not
support any fabric ; for instead of proving a doc-
CAUSES OF ERROR IN REASONING. 255
trine to be true, it makes that the miracles them-
selves are suspected to be illusions, if they be pre-
tended in behalf of a doctrine which we think we
have reason to account false. And therefore the
Jews did not believe Christ's doctrine for his mira-
cles, but disbelieve the truth of his miracles be-
cause they did not like his doctrine. And if the
holiness of his doctrine, and the Spirit of God by
inspirations and infusions, and by that which St.
Peter calls * a surer word of prophecy,' had not at-
tested the divinity both of his person and his office,
we should have wanted many degrees of confidence
which now we have upon the truth of Christian
religion.* But now, since we are foretold by this
surer word of prophecy, that is, the prediction of
Jesus Christ, that Antichrist should come in all
wonders and signs, and lying miracles; and that
the church saw much of that already verified in
Simon Magus, ApolloniusTyaneeus, and Manetho,
and divers heretics ;f it is now come to that pass,
that the argument, in its best advantage, proves
nothing so much as that the doctrine which it pre-
tends to prove is to be suspected, because it was
foretold that false doctrine should be obtruded
under such pretences. But then, when not only
true miracles are an insufficient argument to prove
a truth, since the establishment of Christianity, but
that the miracles themselves are false and spurious ;
it makes that doctrine in whose defence they come,
justly to be suspected, because they are a demon-
stration that the interested persons use all means,
* Vide Baron. A. D. 68, n. 22, Philostrat. lib, iv. t. 4ao.
Compend. Cedren, p. 202.
t Stapelton, Prompt. JMoral. pars .Estiva, p. 627.
256 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
leave nothing unattempted, to prove their proposi-
tions ; but since they so fail as to bring nothing
from God, but something from the devil for its
justification, it is a great sign that the doctrine is
false, because we know the dev il, unless it be against
his will, does nothing to prove a true proposition
that makes against him. And now, then, those
persons who will endure no man of another opinion,
might do well to remember how, by their exor-
cisms, their devils' tricks at Loudun, and the other
side pretending to cure mad folks and persons be-
witched, and the many discoveries of their juggling,
they have given so much reason to their adver-
saries to suspect their doctrine, that either they
must not be ready to condemn their persons who
are made suspicious by their indirect proceed-
ing, in attestation of that which they value so high
as to call their religion, or else they must con-
demn themselves for making the scandal active and
effectual.
As for false legends, it will be of the same consi-
deration, because they are false testimonies of mi-
racles that were never done; which differs only
from the other, as a lie in words from a lie in action.
But of this we have witness enough in that decree
of pope Leo X., session the eleventh of the last
Lateran council, where he excommunicates all the
forgers and inventors of visions and false miracles,
which is a testimony that it was then a practice so
public as to need a law for its suppression ; and if
any man shall doubt whether it were so or no, let him
see the Centum Gravamina of the princes of Germany,
where it is highly complained of. But the extreme
stupidity and sottishness of the inventors of lying
stories is so great, as to give occasion to some per-
CAUSES OF ERROR IN REASONING. 257
sons to suspect the truth of all church story ;-
witness the Legend of Lombardy, of the author of
which the bishop of the Canaries gives this testi-
mony : " You will oftener read in this book mon-
strous prodigies than real miracles ; he who wrote
it was a shameless and dull fellow, and far enough
from being of a serious and judicious mind."t
But, I need not descend so low; for St. Gregory
and V. Bede themselves reported miracles, for the
authority of which they only had the report of the
common people ;t and it is not certain than St.
Jerome had so much in his stories of St. Paul and
St. Anthony, and the fauns and the satyrs which
appeared to them, and desired their prayers. § But T
shall only, by way of eminency, note what Sir Thomas
More says, in his epistle to Ruthal, the king's secre-
tary, before the dialogue of Lucian (Philopseudes ;)
that, therefore, he undertook the translation of that
dialogue, to free the world from a superstition that
crept in under the face and title of religion. For
such lies, says he, are transmitted to us with such
authority, that a certain impostor had persuaded
St. Austin, that the very fable which Lucian scoffs,
and makes sport withal in that dialogue,|| was a real
story, and acted in his own days. The epistle is
worth the reading to this purpose : but, he says, this
abuse grew to such a height, that scarce any life of
* Ta yap jxi) doi]fxkva eK€ia!!,6[.ievoi, icj rci dtidrojg iipri[uva
VTroTTTevstrOai TrapacrKEvZsrnv. — Isid, Pelus.
•f " In illo enim libro miraculorum monstra ssepius qviam
vera miracula legas. Hanc homo scripsit ferrei oris, plainbei
cordis, aniiTii certe parum severi et prudentis."
+ Vide lib. xi. loc. Theol. cap, 6. § Canus, ibid.
II Viz. De duobus spurinis, altero decedente, altero in vitam
rsdeunte post viginti dies ; quam in aliis nominibus ridet Lu-
cianus. Vide etiam argumentum Gilberti Cognati, in Annotat. in
hunc Dialog.
S
258 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING,
any saint or martyr is truly related, but is full of
lies and lying wonders ; and some persons thought
they served God, if they did honour to God's saints
by inventing some prodigious story or miracle for
their reputation. So that now it is no wonder, if
the most pious men are apt to believe, and the
greatest historians are easy enough to report such
stories, which, serving to a good end, are also con-
signed by the report of persons otherwise pious and
prudent enough. I will not instance in Vincentius
his Speculum, Turonensis, Thomas Cantipratanus,
John Herolt, Vit(B Patrum,* nor the revelations of
St. Bridget, though confirmed by two popes, Martin
V. and Boniface IX. : even the best and most de-
liberate amongst them, Lippoman, Surius, Lipsius,
Bzovius, and Baronius, are so full of fables, that
they cause great disreputation to the other monu-
ments and records of antiquity, and yet do no ad-
vantage to the cause under which they serve and
take pay. They do no good, and much hurt; but
yet, accidentally, they may procure this advan-
tage to charity, since they do none to faith ; that,
since they have so abused the credit of story, that
our confidences want much of that support we
should receive from her records of antiquity, yet
the men that dissent and are scandalized by such
proceedings should be excused, if they should
chance to be afraid of truth that hath put on gar-
ments of imposture ; and, since much violence is
done to the truth and certainty of their judging,
let none be done to their liberty of judging : since
they cannot meet a right guide, let them have a
charitable judge. And, since it is one very great ar-
* Vide Palseot. de Sacra Sindone, part i. Epist. ad Lector.
CAUSES OF ERROR IN REASONING. 259
gument against Simon Magus and against Mahomet,
that we can prove their miracles to be impostures, it
is much to be pitied if timorous and suspicious per-
sons shall invincibly and honestly less apprehend
a truth which they see conveyed by such a testi-
mony, which we all use as an argument to reprove
the Mahometan superstition.
6. Here also comes in all the weaknesses and
trifling prejudices which operate not by their own
strength, but by advantage taken from the weak-
ness of some understandings. Some men, by a
proverb or a common saying, are determined to
the belief of a proposition, for which they have no
argument better than such a proverbial sentence.
And when divers of the common people in Jeru-
salem were ready to yield their understandings to
the belief cf the Messias, they were turned clearly
from their apprehensions by that proverb, " Look
and see, does any good thing come from Galilee ?"
and this : ''When Christ comes, no man knows from
whence he is;" but this man was known of what
parents, of what city. And thus the weakness of
their understanding was abused, and that made the
argument too hard for them. And the whole seventh
chapter of St. John's Gospel is a perpetual instance
of the efficacy of such trifling prejudices, and the
vanity and weakness of popular understandings.
Some whole ages have been abused by a definition,
which, being once received, as most commonly they
are, upon slight grounds, they are taken for cer-
tainties in any science respectively, and for prin-
ciples ; and upon their reputation men use to frame
conclusions, which must be false or uncertain, ac-
cording as the definitions are. And he that hath
observed any thing of the weaknesses of men, and
s 2
260 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
the successions of groundless doctrines from age
to age, and how seldom definitions which are put
into systems, or that derive from the fathers, or ap-
proved among school-men, are examined by per-
sons of the same interests, will bear me witness,
how many great inconveniences press hard upon
the persuasions of men, who are abused, and yet
never consider who hurt them. Others, and they
very many, are led by authority, or examples of
princes, and great personages : ' Have any of the
rulers believed on him ?'* Some, by the reputation
of one learned man, are carried into any persuasion
whatsoever. And, in the middle and latter ages of
the church, this was the more considerable, because
the infinite ignorance of the clerks and the men of
the long robe, gave them over to be led by those
few guides which were marked to them by an emi-
nency, much more than their ordinary; which also
did the more amuse them, because most commonly
they were fit for nothing but to admire what they
understood not; their learning then was in some
skill in the master of the sentences, in Aquinas or
Scotus, whom they admired next to the most intel-
ligent order of angels. Hence came opinions that
made sects and division of names — ^Thomists, Scot-
ists, Albertists, Nominals, Reals, and I know not
what monsters of names ; and whole families of the
same opinion, the whole institute of an order being
engaged to believe according to the opinion of some
leading man of the same order; as if such an opinion
were imposed upon them as a proof of holy obedi-
ence. But this inconvenience is greater when the
principle of the mistake runs higher, when the
* John. vii.
CAUSES OF ERROR IN REASONING. 261-
opinion is derived from a primitive man and a saint ;
for then it often haj^pens, that what at first was
but a plain, innocent seduction, comes to be made
sacred by the veneration which is consequent to the
person, for having lived long agone; and then, be-
cause the person is also since canonized, the error is
almost made eternal, and the cure desperate. These,
and the like prejudices, which are as various as the
miseries of humanity, or the variety of human un-
derstandings, are not absolute excuses, unless to
some persons; but truly, if they be to any, they are
exemptions to all, from being pressed with too per-
emptory a sentence against them ; especially if we
consider what leave is given to all men, by the
church of Rome, to follow any one probable doctor,
in an opinion which is contested against by many
more. And as for the doctors of the other side,
they being destitute of any pretences to an infalli-
ble medium to determine questions, must, of neces-
sity, allow the same liberty to the people, to be as
prudent as they can in the choice of a fallible
guide ; and when they have chosen, if they do fol-
low him into error, the matter is not so inexpiable
for being deceived in using the best guides we had,
which guides, because themselves were abused, did
also, against their wills, deceive me : so that this
prejudice may the easier abuse us, because it is
almost like a duty to follow the dictates of a pro-
bable doctor ; or, if it be over acted, or accidentally
pass into an inconvenience, it is therefore to be ex-
cused, because the principle was not ill, unless we
judge by our event, not by the antecedent probabi-
lity. Of such men as these it was said by St.
Austin, " The common sort of people are safe, in
their not inquiring by their own industry, and, in
262 THE LJBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
the simplicity of their understanding, relying- upon
the best guides they can get."*
But this is of such a nature, in which, as we may
inculpahly be deceived, so we may turn it into a
vice or a design, and then the consecjuent errors
will alter the property, and become heresies. There
are some men that have men's persons in admira-
tion, because of advantage ; and some that have
itching ears, and heap up teachei*s to themselves.
In these and the like cases, the authority of a per-
son, and the prejudices of a great reputation, is not
the excuse but the fault : and a sin is so far from
excusing an error, that error becomes a sin by
reason of its relation to that sin, as to its parent and
principle.
SECTION XII.
Of the innocency of Error in opinion, in a pious
Person.
And, therefore, as there are so many innocent
causes of error as there are weaknesses within, and
harmless and unavoidable prejudices from without,
so, if ever error be procured by a vice, it hath no
excuse, but becomes such a crime, of so much ma-
lignity, as to have influence upon the effect and
consequent, and, by communication, makes it be-
* " Caeteram turbam non intelligendi vivacitas, sed credendi
simplicitas tutissimam facit." — Contr. Fund. cap. 4. And Gre-
gory Nazianzen, 2w,^£t TroXXciKig rbv Xabv to 'ci^aadvi'^ov. —
Orat. xxi.
INNOCENCY OF ERROR IN OPINION. 263
come criminal. The apostles noted two such causes,
covetousness and ambition ; the former in them of
the circumcision, and the latter in Diotrephes and
Simon IMagus ; and there were some that were ' led
away by divers lusts:'* they were of the long- robe
too; but they were the she disciph , upon whose
consciences some false apostles had intluence, by
advantage of their wantonness ; and thus the three
principles of all sin become also the principles of
heresy — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye,
and the pride of life. And in pursuance of these
arts, the devil hath not wanted fuel to set awork in-
cendiaries, in all ages of the church. The bishops
were always honourable, and, most commonly,
had great revenues, and a bishopric would satisfy
the two designs of covetousness and ambition ; and
this hath been the golden apple very often con-
tended for, and very often the cause of great fires
in the church. " Thebulis created great distur-
bances in the church, because he could not obtain
the bishopric of Jerusalem," said Egesippus, in
Eusebius. Tertullian turned Montanist, in discon-
tent for missing the bishopric of Carthage, after
Agrippinus; and so did Montanus himself, for
the same discontent, saith Nicephorus. Novatus
would have been bishop of Rome; Donatus, of
Carthage ; Arius, of Alexandria ; Aerius, of Se-
bastia : but they all missed, and therefore all of
them vexed Christendom. And this was so com-
mon a thing, that oftentimes the threatening the
church with a schism, or a heresy, was a design to
get a bishopric: and Socrates reports of Asterius,
that he did frequent the conventicles of the Arians,
• 2 Tim. ill.
264 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
"for he aimed at some bishopric." And setting
aside the infirmities of men, and their innocent
prejudices, Epiphanius makes pride to be the only
cause of heresies; vQpig kj TrpoKpiaLg, pride and preju-
dice cause them all, the one criminally, the other
innocently. And, indeed, St. Paul does almost
make j^ride the only cause of heresies; his words
cannot be expounded, unless it be at least the
principal : ' If any man teach otherwise and con-
sent not to sound words, and to the doctrine that
is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing
nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of
words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil
surmisings.'*
The sum is this ; if ever an opinion be begun
w ith pride, or managed with impiety, or ends in a
crime, the man turns heretic ; but let the error be
never so great, so it be not against an article of
creed, if it be simple, and hath no confederation
with the personal iniquity of the man, the opi-
nion is as innocent as the person, though, per-
haps, as false as he is ignorant ; and therefore
shall burn, though he himself escape. But in
these cases, and many more, (for the causes of
deception increase by all accidents, and weak-
nesses, and illusions,) no man can give certain
judgment upon the persons of men in particular,
unless the matter of fact and crime be accident and
notorious. The man cannot, by human judgment,
be concluded a heretic, unless his opinion be an
open recession from jjlain, demonstrative, divine
authority, (which must needs be notorious, volun-
tary, vincible, and criminal,) or that there be a
* 1 Tim. vi. 3, 4.
INNOCENCY OF ERROR IN OPINION. 265
palpable serving of an end, accidental and extrin-
sical to the opinion.
But this latter is very hard to be discerned ; be-
cause those accidental and adherent crimes which
make the man a heretic, in questions not simply
fundamental or of necessary practice, are actions
so internal and spiritual, that cognizance can but
seldom be taken of them. And therefore, to instance,
though the opinion of purgatory be false, yet to
believe it cannot be heresy, if a man be abused into
the belief of it invincibly ; because it is not a doc-
trine either fundamentally false or practically im-
pious, it neither proceeds from the will, nor hath
any immediate or direct influence upon choice and
manners. And as for those other ends of uphold-
ing that opinion, which possibly its patrons may
have ; as for the reputation of their church's infal-
libility, for the advantage of dirges, requiems,
masses, monthly minds, anniversaries, and other
offices for the dead, which usually are very profit-
able, rich, and easy, these things may possibly
have sole influences upon their understanding, but
whether they have or no God only knows. If the
proposition and article were true, these ends might
justly be subordinate, and consistent with a true
proposition. And there are some truths that are
also profitable ; as the necessity of maintenance to
the clergy, the doctrine of restitution, giving alms,
lending freely, remitting debts, in cases of great
necessity : and it would be but an ill argument that
the preachers of these doctrines speak false, because,
possibly, in these articles, they may serve their own
ends. For although Demetrius and the craftsmen
were without excuse for resisting the preaching of
St. Paul, because it was notorious they resisted the
266 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
truth upon ground of profit and personal emolu-
ments, and the matter was confessed by them-
selves ; yet, if the clergy should maintain their just
rights and revenues, which by pious dedications
and donatives were long since ascertained upon
them, is it to be presumed, in order of law and
charity, that this end is in the men subordinate to
truth, because it is so in the thing itself, and that
therefore no judgment, in prejudice of these truths,
can be made from that observation ?
But if in any other way we are ascertained of
the truth or falsehood of a proposition respectively,
yet the judgment of the personal ends of the men
cannot ordinarily be certain and judicial, because,
most commonly, the acts are private and the purposes
internal, and temporal ends may sometimes consist
with truth ; and whether the purposes of the men
make these ends principal or subordinate, no man
can judge ; and be they how they will, yet they do
not always prove that when they are conjunct with
error, the error was caused by these purposes and
criminal intentions.
But in c|uestions practical, the doctrine itself,
and the person too, may with more ease be re-
proved, because matter of fact being evident, and
nothing being so certain as the exjjeriments of hu-
man affairs, and these being the immediate conse-
quents of such doctrines, are with some more cer-
tainty of observation redargued, than the specula-
tive; whose judgment is of itself more difficult,
more remote from matter and human observation,
and with less curiosity and explicitness declared in
Scripture, as being of less consequence and con-
cernment, in the order of God's and man's great
end. In other things, which end in notion and
TNNOCENCY OF ERROR IN OPINION. 267
ineffective contemplation, where neither the doc-
trine is malicious, nor the person apparently ci'i-
minal, he is to be left to the judgment of God;
and as there is no certainty of human judicature in
this case, so it is to no purpose it should be judged.
For if the person may be innocent with his error,
and there is no rule whereby he can certainly be
pronounced that he is actually criminal, (as it
happens in matters speculative,) since the end of
the commandment is love out of a ' pure con-
science, and faith unfeigned;' and the command-
ment may obtain its end in a consistence with this
simple speculative error; why should men trouble
themselves with such opinions, so as to disturb the
public charity or the private confidence ? Opi-
nions and persons are just so to be judged as other
matters and persons criminal ; for no man can
judge any thing else : it must be a crime, and it
must be open, so as to take cognizance, and make
true human judgment of it. And this is all I am
to say concerning the causes of heresies, and of the
distinguishing rules for guiding of our judgments
towards others.
As for guiding our judgments, and the use of
our reason in judging for ourselves, all that is to
be said is reducible to this one proposition. Since
errors are then made sins when they are contrary
to charity, or inconsistent with a good life and the
honour of God, that judgment is the truest, or, at
least, that opinion most innocent, that, first, best
promotes the reputation of God's glory, and, se-
condly, is the best instrument of holy life. For in
questions and interpretations of dispute, these two
analogies are the best to make propositions, and
268 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
conjectures, and determinations. Diligence and
care in obtaining the best guides, and the most con-
venient assistances, prayer, and modesty of spirit,
simplicity of purposes and intentions, humility
and aptness to learn, and a peaceable disposition,
are therefore necessary to finding out truths, be-
cause they are parts of good life, ^vithout which
our ti'uths will do us but little advantage, and our
errors can have no excuse; but with these disposi-
tions, as he is sure to find out all that is necessary,
so what truth he inculpably misses of, he is sure is
therefore not necessary, because he could not find
it when he did his best and his most innocent en-
deavours. And this I say to secure the persons,
because no rule can antecedently secure the propo-
sition in matters disputable. For even in the pro-
portions and explications of this rule, there is in-
finite variety of disputes ; and when the dispute is
concerning free will, one party denies it, because he
believes it magnifies the grace of God, that it works
irresistibly ; the other affirms, because he believes
it engages us upon greater care and piety of our
endeavours. The one opinion thinks God reaps
the glory of our good actions, the other thinks it
charges our bad actions upon him. So in the question
of merit, one part chooses his assertion, because he
thinks it encourages us to do good works ; the other
believes it makes us proud, and therefore he rejects
it. The first believes it increases piety, the second
believes it increases spiritual presumption and va-
nity. The first thinks it magnifies God's justice,
the other thinks it derogates from his mercy. Now
then, since neither this, nor any ground can se-
cure a man from possibility of mistaking, we were
INNOCEiNCY OF ERROR IN OPINION. 269
infinitely miserable if it would not secure us from
punishment, so long- as we willingly consent not to
a crime, and do our best endeavour to avoid an
error. Only by the way, let me observe, that since
there are such great differences of apprehension
concerning the consequents of an article, no man
is to be charged with the odious consequences of
his opinion. Indeed, his doctrine is, but the per-
son is not, if he understands not such things to be
consequent to his doctrine; for if he did, and then
avows them, they are his direct opinions, and he
stands as chargeable with them as with his first
propositions ; but if he disavows them, he would
certainly rather quit his own opinion than avow
such errors or impieties, which are pretended to be
consequent to it; because every man knows that
can be no truth, from whence falsehood naturally
and immediately does derive; and he therefore
believes his first propositions, because he believes
it innocent of such errors as are charged upon it,
directly or consequently.
So that now, since no error, neither for itself,
nor its consequents, is to be charged as criminal
upon a pious person, since no simple error is a sin,
nor does condemn us before the throne of God,
since he is so pitiful to our crimes, that he pardons
many de toto et integro, in all makes abatement for
the violence of temptation, and the surprisal and
invasion of our faculties, and, therefore, much less
will demand of us an account for our weaknesses ;
and since the strongest understanding cannot pre-
tend to such an immunity and exemption from the
condition of men, as not to be deceived and con-
fess its weakness ; it remains, we inquire what de-
portment is to be used towards persons of a differ-
270 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
ing' persuasion, when we are (I do not say doubt-
ful of a proposition, but) convinced that he that
differs from us is in error ; for this was the first in-
tention and the last end of this discourse.
SECTION XIII.
Of the Deportment to he used towards Persons dis-
agreeing, and the Reasons why they are not to be
■punished ivith Death, ^c.
For although every man may be deceived, yet
some are right and may know it too, for every man
that may err does not therefore certainly err; and
if he errs because he recedes from his rule, then if
he follows it he maj^ do right ; and if ever any man
upon just grounds did change his opinion, then he
was in the right and was sure of it too ; and, al-
though confidence is mistaken for a just persuasion
many times, yet some men are confident, and have
reason so to be. Now when this happens, the
question is, what deportment they are to use to-
wards persons that disagree from them, and by con-
sequence are in error.
1 . Then no Christian is to be put to death, dis-
membered, or otherwise directly persecuted for his
opinion, which does not teach impiety or blasphemy.
If it plainly and apparently brings in a crime, and
himself does act it or encourage it, then the matter
of fact is punishable according to its proportion or
TREATMENT OF PERSONS IN ERROR. 271
malignity ; as, if he preaches treason or sedition,
his opinion is not his excuse, because it brings in a
crime, and a man is never the less traitor because
he believes it lawful to commit treason ; and a man
is a murderer if he kills his brother unjustly, al-
though he thinks he does God good service in it.
Matters of fact are equally judicable, whether the
principle of them be from within or from without ;
and if a man could pretend to innocence in being
seditious, blasphemous, or perjured, by persuad-
ing himself it is lawful, there were as great a gate
opened to all iniquity as will entertain all the pre-
tences, the designs, the impostures, and disguises
of the world. And therefore God hath taken order,
that all rules concerning matters of fact and good
life shall be so clearly explicated that, without the
crime of the man, he cannot be ignorant of all his
practical duty. And therefore the apostles and
primitive doctors made no scruple of condemning
such persons for heretics that did dogmatise a sin.
He that teacheth others to sin is worse than he
that commits the crime, whether he be tempted by
his own interest, or encouraged by the other's doc-
trine. It was as bad in Basilides to teach it to be
lawful to renounce faith and religion, and take all
manner of oaths and covenants in time of perse-
cution, as if himself had done so ; nay, it is as
much worse, as the mischief is more universal, or
as a fountain is greater than a drop of water taken
from it. He that writes treason in a book, or
preaches sedition in a pulpit, and persuades it to
the people, is the greatest traitor and incendiary,
and his opinion there is the fountain of a sin; and
therefore could not be entertained in his under-
standing upon weakness, or inculpable or innocent
272 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
prejudice : he cannot, from Scripture or divine re-
velation, have any pretence to colour that so fairly
as to seduce either a wise or an honest man. If it
rests there and goes no further, it is not cogniza-
ble, and so scapes that way ; but if it be published,
and comes, a stylo ad machceram, (as Teitullian's
phrase is,) " from the pen to the sword," then it
becomes matter of fact in principle and in persua-
sion, and is just so punishable as is the crime that
it persuades. Such were they of whom St. Paul
complains,* who brought in damnable doctrines and
lusts. St. Paul's, ' I would they were even cut off,'
is just of them; take it in any sense of rigour and
severity, so it be proportionable to the crime, or
criminal doctrine. Such were those of w hom God
spake in Deut. xiii. : ' If any prophet tempts to
idolatry, saying. Let us go after other gods, he
shall be slain.' But these do not come into this
question. But the proposition is to be understood
concerning questions disputable as matter of opi-
nion, w hich also, for all that law of killing, such
false prophets were permitted with impunity in the
synagogue, as appears beyond exception in the
great divisions and disputes betw-een the Pharisees
and the Sadducees. I deny not, but certain and
known idolatry, or any other sort of practical im-
piety, w ith its principiant doctrine may be punished
corporally, because it is no other but matter of fact ;
but no matter of mere opinion, no errors that of
themselves are not sins, are to be persecuted, or
punished by death, or corporal inflictions. This
is now to be proved.
2. All the former discourse is sufficient argu-
* Gal. V.
TREATMENT OF PERSONS IN ERROR. 273
ment how easy it is for us, in such matters, to be
deceived. So long- as Christian religion was a
simple profession of the articles of belief, and a
hearty prosecution of the rules of good life, the
fewness of the articles and the clearness of the
rule was cause of the seldom prevarication. But
when divinity is swelled up to so great a body,
when the several questions, which the peevishness
and wantonness of sixteen ages have commenced,
are concentered into one, and from all these ques-
tions something is drawn into the body of theology
till it hath ascended up to the greatness of a moun-
tain, and the sum of divinity collected by Aquinas
makes a volume as great as was that of Livy,
mocked at in the epigram,
" Quern mea vix totum bibliotheca capit, — " *
it is imjiossible for any industry to consider so
many particulars, in the infinite numbers of ques-
tions as are necessary to be considered before we
can with certainty determine any. And after all
the considerations which we can have in a whole
age, we are not sure not to be deceived. The ob-
scurity of some questions, the nicety of some arti-
cles, the intricacy of some revelations, the variety
of human understandings, the windings of logic,
the tricks of adversaries, the subtlety of sophisters,
the engagement of educations, personal affections,
the portentous number of writers, the infinity of
authorities, the vastness of some arguments, as
consisting in enumeration of many particulars, the
vmcertainty of others, the several degrees of pro-
bability, the difficulties of Scripture, the invalidity
* " A work which shelves like mine can scarce contain."
T
274 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
of probation of tradition, the opposition of all ex-
terior arguments to each other, and their open
contestation, the public violence done to authors
and records, the private arts and supplantings,
the falsifyings, the indefatigable industry of some
men to abuse all understandings and all persua-
sions into their own opinions, — these, and thou-
sands more, even all the difficulty of things, and
all the weaknesses of man, and all the arts of the
devil, have made it impossible for any man, in so
great variety of matter, not to be deceived. No
man pretends to it but the pope, and no man is
more deceived than he is in that very particular.
3. From hence proceeds a danger which is con-
sequent to this proceeding; for if we, who are so
apt to be deceived and so insecure in our resolu-
tion of questions disputable, should persecute a
disagreeing person, we are not sure we do not fight
against God ; for if his proposition be true and per-
secuted, then, because all truth derives from God,
this proceeding is against God ; and therefore this
is not to be done, upon Gamaliel's ground, lest per-
adventure we be Ibund to fight against God, of
which, because we can have no security (at least)
in this case, we have all the guilt of a doubtful or
an uncertain conscience. For if there be no security
in the thing, as I have largely proved, the con-
science, in such cases, is as uncertain as the ques-
tion is : and if it be not doubtful where it is uncer-
tain, it is because the man is not wise, but as con-
fident as ignorant; the first without reason, and
the second without excuse. And it is very dispro-
portionable for a man to persecute another cer-
tainly, for a proposition that, if he were wise, he
would know is not certain, at least the other per-
TREATMENT OF PERSONS IN ERROR. 275
son may innocently be uncertain of it. If he be
killed he is certainly killed ; but if he be called
heretic it is not so certain that he is an heretic. It
were good, therefore, that proceedings were accord-
ing to evidence, and the rivers not swell over the
banks, nor a certain definitive sentence of death
passed upon such persuasions which cannot cer-
tainly be defined. And this argument is of so
much the more force because we see that the
greatest persecutions that ever have been were
against truth, even against Christianity itself; and
it was a prediction of our blessed Saviour, that
persecution should be the lot of true believers : and
if we compute the experience of suffering Christen-
dom, and the prediction, that truth should suffer,
with those few instances of suffering heretics, it is
odds but persecution is on the wrong side, and that
it is error and heresy that is cruel and tyrannical,
especially since the truth of Jesus Christ, and of
his religion, are so meek, so charitable, and so mer-
ciful. And we may, in this case, exactly use the
words of St. Paul : ' But, as then, he that was born
after the flesh, persecuted him that was born after
the spirit ; even so it is now ;' and so it ever will be
till Christ's second coming.
4. Whoever persecutes a disagreeing person, arms
all the world against himself,* and all pious people
of his own persuasion, when the scales of authority
return to his adversary and attest his contradictory ;
and then what can he urge for mercy for himself,
* " Quo comperto illi in nostram perniciem licentiore audatia
grassabuntur." — St. Aug. Epist. ad Donat. Procons. et Contr. ep
Fund. " Ita nunc debeosustinere et tanta patientia vobiscum agere
quanta mecum egerunt proximi mei cum in vestro dogmate rabi-
osus ac ccecus errarem."
T 2
276 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
or his party, that showeth none to others ? If he
says, that he is to be spared because he believes
true, but the other was justly persecuted because
he was in error, he is ridiculous ; for he is as confi-
dently believed to be a heretic as he believes his
adversary such ; and whether he be or no, being the
thing- in question, of this he is not to be his own
judge ; but he that hath authority on his side will
be sure to judge against him. So that what either
side can indifferently make use of, it is good that
neither would, because neither side can, with reason
sufficient, do it in prejudice of the other. If a man
will say that every man must take his adventure,
and if it happens authority to be with him, he will
persecute his adversaries ; and if it turns against
him he will bear it as well as he can, and hope
for a reward of martyrdom and innocent suffering;
besides that this is so equal to be said of all sides ;
besides that this is a way to make an eternal dis-
union of hearts and charities, and that it will make
Christendom nothing but a shambles, and a per-
petual butchery ; and as fast as men's wits grow
wanton, or confident, or proud, or abused, so often
there w ill be new executions and massacres ; —
besides all this, it is most unreasonable and unjust,
as being contrarient to those laws of justice and
charity, whereby we are bound with greater zeal
to spare and preserve an innocent than to condemn
a guilty person : and there is less malice and in-
iquity in sparing the guilty than in condemning
the good ; because it is in the power of men to re-
mit a guilty person to divine judicature, and for
divers causes not to use severity, but in no case is
it lawful, neither hath God at all given to man a
power to condemn such j^ersons as cannot be
TREATMENT OF PERSONS IN ERROR. 277
proved other than pious and innocent ; and there-
fore it is better, if it should so happen, that we
should spare the innocent person and one that is
actually deceived, than that, upon the turn of the
wheel, the true believers should be destroyed.
And this very reason he that had authority suf-
ficient and absolute to make laws, was pleased to
urge as a reasonable inducement for the establish-
ing of that law which he made for the indemnity of
erring persons. It was in the parable of the tares
mingled with the good seed, in the Lord's field ;
the good seed (Christ himself being the interpreter)
are the children of the kingdom, the tares are the
children of the wicked one ; upon this comes the
precept, * Gather not the tares by themselves, but
let them both grow together till the harvest,' that
is, till the day of judgment. This parable hath
been tortured infinitely to make it confess its mean-
ing, but we shall soon dispatch it. All the diffi-
culty and variety of exposition is reducible to these
two questions : what is meant by gather not, and
what by tares? That is, what kind of sword
is forbidden, and what kind of persons are to be
tolerated ? The former is clear, for the spiritual
sword is not forbidden to be used to any sort of
criminals, for that would destroy the power of
excommunication : the prohibition therefore lies
against the use of the temporal sword in cutting off
some persons ; who they are is the next difficulty.
But by tares, or the children of the wicked one, are
meant, either persons of ill lives, wicked persons
only in re practicd, (in conduct;) or else another
kind of evil persons, men criminal or faulty in re
intellectuali, (in understanding.) One or other of
these two must be meant — a third I know not.
278 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
But the former cannot be meant^, because it would
destroy all bodies politic, which cannot consist
without laws, nor laws without a compulsory and
a power of the sword ; therefore, if criminals were
to be let alone till the day of judgment, bodies
politic must stand or fall ad arhitrium impiorum,
" according to the pleasure of evil men ;" and no-
thing good could be protected, not innocence itself;
nothing could be secured but violence and tyranny.
It follows then, that since a kind of persons which
are indeed faulty are to be tolerated, it must be
meant of persons faulty in another kind, in which
the Gospel had not, in other places, clearly esta-
blished a power externally compulsory ; and there-
fore, since in all actions practically criminal a
power of the sword is permitted, here, where it is
denied, must mean a crime of another kind, and,
by consequence, errors intellectual, commonly cal-
led heresy.
And, after all this, the reason there given con-
firms this interpretation,* for therefore it is forbid-
den to cut off these tares, lest we also pull up the
wheat with them, which is the sum of these two
last arguments. For, because heresy is of so nice
consideration and difficult sentence, in thinking to
root up heresies we may, by our mistakes, f de-
stroy true doctrine ; which, although it be possible
to be done, in all cases of practical question, by
mistake,'yet, because external actions are more dis-
cernible than inward speculations and opinions.
* Vide St. Chrysost. Horn, xlvii. in cap. 13, Matt, et St.
August. Qu^est. in cap. 13, Matt. St. Cyprian. Ep. lib. iii.
Ep. 1. Theophyl. in 13, 3Iatt.
•\ S. Hieron. in cap. 13, IVIatt. ait, " Per hanc parabolam sig-
nificari, ne in rebus dubiis prseceps fiat judicium."
TREATMENT OF PERSONS IN ERROR. 279
innocent persons are not so easily mistaken for the
guilty, in actions criminal as in matters of inward
persuasion. And upon that very reason St. Mar-
tin was zealous to have procured a revocation of a
commission granted to several tribunes, to make
inquiry in Spain for sects and opinions : for under
colour of rooting out the Priscillianists there was
much mischief done, and more likely to happen to
the orthodox : for it happened then, as oftentimes
since, " a heretic was sometimes discovered rather
by his pallid countenance and his dress than by
his creed."* They were no good inquisitors of heret-
ical pravity, so Sulpitius witnesses. But, secondly,
the reason says, that therefore these persons are so
to be permitted as not to be persecuted, lest, when
a revolution of human affairs sets contrary opinions
in the throne or chair, they who were persecuted
before should now themselves become persecutors
of others, and so, at one time or other, before or
after, the wheat be rooted up, and the truth be
persecuted. But as these reasons confirm the law
and this sense of it, so, abstracting from the law, it
is of itself concluding by an argument ab incom-
modo, (from inconvenience,) and that founded
upon the principles of justice and right reason, as I
formerly alleged.
5. We are not only uncertain of finding out
truths, in matters disputable, but we are certain
that the best and ablest doctors of Christendom f
* " Pallore potius et veste quam fide hsereticus dijudicari so-
bat aliquando per tribunes Maximi."
•f- '' lUi in vos saeviant, qui nesciunt cum quo labore verum
inveniatur, et quam difficile caveantur errores. Illi in vos
SEBviant, qui nesciunt quam rarum et arduum sit carnalia phan-
tasmata piae mentis serenitate superare. Illi in vos sgeviant, qui
nesciunt quibus et suspiriis et gemitibus fiat ut ex quantula-
280 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
have been actually deceived in matters of great
concernment ; which thing is evident in all those
instances of persons from whose doctrines all sorts
of Christians, respectively, take liberty to dissent.
The errors of Papias, Irenaeus, Lactantius, Justin
INIartyr, in the millenary opinion ; of St. Cyprian,
Firmilian, the Asian and African fathers, in the
question of rebaptization ; St. Austin, in his decre-
tory and uncharitable sentence against the unbap-
tized children of Christian parents; the Roman or
the Greek doctors, in the question of the proces-
sion of the Holy Ghost, and in the matter of
images, are examples beyond exception. " The
errors that attach to the minds of men are number-
less."* Now, if these great personages had been
persecuted or destroyed for their opinions, who
should have answered the invaluable loss the
church of God should have sustained, in missing
so excellent, so exemplary, and so great lights ?
But, then, if these persons erred, and by conse-
quence might have been destroyed, what should
have become of others whose understanding was
lower, and their security less, their errors more,
and their danger greater ? At this rate all men
should have passed through the fire ; for who can
escape when St. Cyprian and St. Austin cannot ?
Now, to say these persons were not to be perse-
cuted because, although they had errors, yet none
condemned by the church at that time or before,
is to say nothing to the purpose, nor nothing that
cunque parte possit intelligi Deus. Postremo illi in vos sasviant,
qui nullo tali errore decepti sunt, quali vos deceptos vident." —
St. August. Contr. Ep. Fund.
* "AfjKpi c' 'avBptJTTWv (ppeaiv '«ji{7rXoK-i«t 'avapi^fxriToi
Kpsfiavrai.
TREATMENT OF PERSONS IN ERROR. 281
is true. Not true, because St. Cyprian's error was
condemned by pope Stephen, which, in the present
sense of the prevailing party in the church of
Rome, is to be condemned by the church. Not to
the purpose, because it is nothing- else but to say
that the church did tolerate their errors ; for since
those opinions were open and manifest to the world,
that the church did not condemn them, it was either
because those opinions were by the church not
thought to be errors, or if they were, yet she thought
fit to tolerate the error and the erring person.
And if she would do so still it would, in most
cases, be better than now it is. And yet, if the
church had condemned them it had not altered the
case as to this question ; for either the persons, upon
the condemnation of their error, should have been
persecuted, or not. If not, why shall they now,
against the instance and precedent of those ages
who were confessedly wise and pious, and whose
practices are often made to us arguments to follow ?
If yea, and that they had been persecuted, it is
the thing which this argument condemns, and the
loss of the church had been invaluable in the losing
or the provocation and temptation of such rare per-
sonages; and the example and the rule of so ill
consecj[uence, that all persons might, upon the
same ground, have suffered ; and though some had
escaped, yet no man could have any more security
from punishment than from error.
6. Either the disagreeing person is in error or
not, but a true believer ; in either of the cases, to
persecute him is extremely imprudent. For if he
be a true believer, then it is a clear case that we do
open violence to God, and his servants, and his
truth. If he be in error, what greater folly and
282 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
stupidity than to give to error the glory of mar-
tyrdom, and the advantages which are accidentally
consequent to a persecution ? For as it was true
of the martyrs, Quoties morimur toties nascimur ; *
and the increase of their trouble was the increase
of their confidence and the establishment of their
persuasions, so it is in all false opinions ; for that
an opinion is true or false, is extrinsical or acci-
dental to the consequents and advantages it gets
by being afflicted. And there is a popular pity
that follows all persons in misery, and that com-
passion breeds likeness of affections, and that very
often produces likeness of persuasion ; and so much
the rather, because there arises a jealousy and
pregnant suspicion that they who persecute an
opinion are destitute of sufficient arguments to
confute it, and that the hangman is the best dis-
putant. For if those arguments which they have
for their own doctrine were a sufficient ground of
confidence and persuasion, men would be more
willing to use those means which are better com-
pliances with human understanding, which more
naturally do satisfy it, which are more human and
Christian, than that way which satisfies none, which
destroys many, which provokes more, which makes
all men jealous. To which add, that those who die
for their opinion leave in all men great arguments
of the heartiness of their belief, of the confidence of
their persuasion, of the piety and innocency of
their persons, of the purity of their intention and
simplicity of purposes ; that they are persons to-
tally disinterested and sejDarate from design. For
no interest can be so great as to be put in balance
* " As often as we die, so often do we begin to live."
TREATMENT OF PERSONS IN ERROR. 283
against a man's life and his soul, and he does very
imprudently serve his ends who seeingly and fore-
knowingly loses his life in the prosecution of them.
Just as if Titius should offer to die for Sempronius,
upon condition he might receive twenty talents
when he had done his work. It is certainly an ar-
gument of a great love, and a great confidence,
and a great sincerity, and a great hope, when a
man lays down his life in attestation of a proposi-
tion. ' Greater love than this hath no man, than
to lay down his life,' saith our blessed Saviour.
And although laying of a wager is an argument of
confidence more than truth, yet laying such a
wager, staking of a man's soul, and pawning his
life, gives a hearty testimony that the person is
honest, confident, resigned, charitable, and noble.
And I know not whether truth can do a person or
a cause more advantages than these can do to an
error. And therefore, besides the impiety, there
is great imprudence in canonizing a heretic and
consecrating an error by such means, which were
better preserved as encouragements of truth and
comforts to real and true martyrs. And it is not
amiss to observe, that this very advantage was
taken by heretics, who v/ere ready to show and
boast their catalogues of martyrs; in particular,
the Circumcellians did so, and the Donatists ; and
yet the first were heretics, the second schismatics.
And it was remarkable in the scholars of Priscil-
lian, who, as they had their master in the reputa-
tion of a saint while he was living, so when he was
dead they had him in veneration as a martyr ;
they with reverence and devotion carried his, and
the bodies of his slain companions, to an honour-
able sepulchre, and counted it religion to swear by
284 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
the name of Priscillian. So that the extinguishing
of the person gives life and credit to his doctrine,
and when he is dead he yet speaks more effectually.
7. It is unnatural and unreasonable to persecute
disagreeing opinions. Unnatural ; for understand-
ing being a thing wholly spiritual^ cannot be re-
strained, and therefore neither punished by cor-
poral afflictions. It is in aliend republicd, a matter of
another world ; you may as well cure the colic by
brushing a man's clothes, or fill a man's belly with
a syllogism : these things do not communicate in
matter, and therefore neither in action nor passion ;
and since all punishments, in a prudent govern-
ment, punish the offender to prevent a future
crime, and so it proves more medicinal than vin-
dictive, the punitive act being in order to the cure
and prevention ; and since no punishment of the
body can cure a disease in the soul, it is dispropor-
tionable in nature ; and in all civil government, to
punish where the punishment can do no good, it
may be an act of tyranny, but never of justice.
For is an opinion ever the more true or false for
being persecuted ? Some men have believed it the
more, as being provoked into a confidence and
vexed into a resolution ; but the thing itself is not
the truer ; and though the hangman may confute
a man with an inexplicable dilemma, yet not con-
vince his understanding ; for such premises can
infer no conclusion but that of a man's life; and a
wolf may as well give laws to the understanding as
he whose dictates are only propounded in violence
and writ in blood. And a dog is as capable of a
law as a man, if there be no choice in his obedience,
nor discourse in his choice, nor reason to satisfy
his discourse. And as it is unnatural, so it is
TREATMENT OF PERSONS IN ERROR. 285
unreasonable that Sempronius should force Caius
to be of his opinion, because Sempronius is consul
this year and commands the Lictors ; as if he that
can kill a man cannot but be infallible : and if he
be not, why should I do violence to my conscience
because he can do violence to my person ?
8. Force in matters of opinion can do no good,
but is very apt to do hurt ; for no man can change
his opinion when he will, or be satisfied in his rea-
son that his opinion is false because discounte-
nanced. If a man could change his opinion when
he lists, he might cure many inconveniences of his
life : all his fears and his sorrows would soon dis-
band, if he would but alter his opinion, whereby
he is persuaded that such an accident that afflicts
him is an evil, and such an object formidable; let
him but believe himself impregnable, or that he re-
ceives a benefit when he is plundered, disgraced,
imprisoned, condemned, and afflicted, neither his
sleeps need to be disturbed, nor his quietness dis-
composed. But if a man cannot change his opi-
nion when he lists, nor ever does heartily or reso-
lutely but when he cannot do otherwise, then to
use force may make him an hypocrite but never
to be a right believer ; and so, instead of erecting a
trophy to God and true religion, we build a monu-
ment for the devil. Infinite examples are recorded
in church story to this very purpose ; but Socrates
instances in one for all ; for when Eleusius, bishop
of Cyzicum, was threatened by the emperor Valens
with banishment and confiscation if he did not
subscribe to the decree of Ariminum, at last he
yielded to the Arian opinion, and presently fell
into great torment of conscience, openly at Cyzicum
recanted the error, asked God and the church for-
286 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
giveness, and complained of the emperor's injus-
tice, and that was all the good the Arian party got
by offering violence to his conscience. And so
many families in Spain, which are, as they call
them, new Christians, and of a suspected faith, into
which they were forced by the tyranny of the In-
quisition, and yet are secret Moors, is evidence
enough of the inconvenience of preaching a doc-
trine in m ore gladii cmentandi, at the point of the
sword. For it either punishes a man for keeping a
good conscience or forces him into a bad ; it either
punishes sincerity or persuades hypocrisy ; it per-
secutes a truth or drives into error ; and it teaches
a man to dissemble and to be safe, but never to be
honest.
9. It is one of the glories of Christian religion,
that it was so pious, excellent, miraculous, and per-
suasive that it came in upon its own piety and
wisdom, with no other force but a torrent of argu-
ments, and demonstration of the Spirit ; a mighty
rushing wind to beat down all strong holds, and
every high thought and imagination ; but towards
the persons of men it was always full of meekness
and charity, compliance and toleration, condescen-
sion and bearing with one another, " restoring per-
sons overtaken with an error, in the spirit of meek-
ness, considering lest we also be tempted." The
consideration is as prudent and the proposition as
just as the precept is charitable and the precedent
was pious and holy. Now, things are best con-
served with that which gives it the first being, and
which is agreeable to its temper and constitution.
That precept which it chiefly preaches, in order to
all the blessedness in the world, that is, of meek-
ness, mercy, and charity, should also preserve itself.
TREATMENT OF PERSONS IN ERROR. 287
and promote its own interest. For, indeed, nothing
will do it so well ; nothing- doth so excellently insi-
nuate itself into the understandings and affections
of men, as when the actions and persuasions of a
sect, and every part and principle and promotion
are univocal. And it would be a mighty dis-
paragement to so glorious an institution, that in its
principle it should be merciful and humane, and in
the promotion and propagation of it so inhuman ;
and it would be improbable and unreasonable that
the sword should be used in the persuasion of one
proposition, and yet, in the persuasion of the whole
religion, nothing like it. To do so may serve the
end of a temporal prince, but never promote the
honour of Christ's kingdom; it may secure a de-
sign of Spain, but will very much disserve Christen-
dom, to offer to support it by that which good men
believe to be a distinctive cognizance of the Maho-
metan religion from the excellency and piety of
Christianity, whose sense and spirit is described in
those excellent words of St. Paul, 2 Tim. ii. 24 : ' The
servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle
unto all men, in meekness instructino; those that
oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give
them repentance to the acknowledging the truth.'
They that oppose themselves must not be stricken
by any of God's servants ; and, if yet any man will
smite these who are his opposites in opinion, he
will get nothing by that; he must quit the title of
being a servant of God for his pains. And I think
a distinction of persons secular and ecclesiastical
will do no advantage for an escape ; because even
the secular power, if it be Christian and a servant
of God, must not be * a striker ; the servant of the
Lord must not strive.' I mean in those cases where
288 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
meekness of instruction is tbe remedy, or if the case
be irremediable, abscission by censures is the pe-
nalty.
10. And if yet in the nature of the thing it were
neither unjust nor unreasonable, yet there is nothing
under God Almighty that hath power over the soul
of man so as to command a persuasion, or to judge
a disagreeing. Human positive laws direct all
external acts in order to several ends, and the judges
take cognizance accordingly ; but no man can
command the will, or punish him that obeys the
law against his will : for, because its end is served
in external obedience, it neither looks after more,
neither can it be served by more, nor take notice of
any more. And yet, possibly, the understanding
is less subject to human power than the will, for
the human power hath a command over external
acts, which naturally and regularly flow from the
will ; and at most, suppose a direct act of will, but
always either a direct or indirect volition, primary
or accidental ; but the understanding is a natural
faculty, subject to no command but where the com-
mand is itself a reason fit to satisfy and 23ersuade
it. And therefore God commanding us to believe
such revelations, persuades and satisfies the under-
standing by his commanding and revealing ; for
there is no greater probation in the world that a
proposition is true, than because God hath com-
manded us to believe it. But because no man's
command is a satisfaction to the understanding, or
a verification of the proposition, therefore the un-
derstanding is not subject to human authority.
They may persuade, but not enjoin where God
hath not ; and where God hath, if it appears so to
him, he is an infidel if he does not believe it. And,
PRACTICE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 289
if all men have no other efficacy or authority on
the understanding but by persuasion, proposal,
and entreaty, then a man is bound to assent but
according- to the operation of the argument, and
the energy of persuasion ; neither, indeed, can he,
though he would never so fain ; and he that, out
of fear and too much compliance and desire to be
safe, shall desire to bring his understanding with
some luxation to the belief of human dictates and
authorities, may as often miss of the truth as hit it,
but is sure always to lose the comfort of truth, be-
cause he believes it upon indirect, insufficient, and
incompetent arguments ; and as his desire it should
be so is his best argument that it is so, so the
pleasing of men is his best reward, and his not
being condemned and contradicted all the posses-
sion of a truth.
SECTION XIV.
Of the Practice of Christian Churches toivards Per-
sons disagreeing, and when Persecution first came
in.
And thus this truth hath been practised in all
times of Christian religion, when there were no col-
lateral designs on foot, nor interests to be served,
nor passions to be satisfied. In St. Paul's time,
though the censure of heresy were not so loose and
forward as afterwards; and all that were called
heretics were clearly such, and highly criminal ;
yet as their crime was, so was their censure, that
is, spiritual. They were first admonished, once at
u
290 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
least, for so Irenseus,* Tertullian,-]- Cyprian,! Am-
brose,§ and Jerome, || read that place of Titus iii.
But since that time all men, and at that time
some read it, ' after a second admonition' reject a
heretic. Rejection from the communion of saints,
after two warnings, that is the penalty. St. John
expresses it by not eating- with them, not bidding
them God speed ; but the persons against whom
he decrees so severely, are such as denied Christ
to be come in the flesh, direct antichrists; and, let
the sentence be as high as it lists, in this case all
that I observe is, that since in so damnable doctrines
nothing but spiritual censure, separation from the
communion of the faithful, was enjoined and pre-
scribed, we cannot pretend to an apostolical pre-
cedent, if in matters of dispute and innocent ques-
tion, and of great uncertainty and no malignity,
we should proceed to sentence of death.
For it is but an absurd and illiterate aro-uing, to
say that excommunication is a greater j^unish-
ment, and killing a less ; and, therefore, whoever
may be excommunicated may also be put to death;
(which, indeed, is the reasoning that Bellarmine
uses;) for, first, excommunication is not directly
and of itself a greater punishment than corporal
death ; because it is indefinite and incomplete,
and in order to a further punishment, which, if it
happens, then the excommunication was the inlet
to it ; if it does not, the excommunication did not
signify half so much as the loss of a member, much
less death. For it may be totally ineffectual, either
by the iniquity of the proceeding or repentance of
the person ; and, in all times and cases, it is a me-
* Lib. iii. c. 3. + De Prsescript.
t Lib. ad Quirinum. § In hunc locum. || Ibidem.
PRACTICE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 291
dicine if the man please ; if he will not, but perse-
veres in his impiety, then it is himself that brings
the censure to effect, that actuates the judgment,
and gives a sting and an energy upon that which
otherwise would be xfTp uKvpog, " an authority without
force." Secondly, but when it is at worst, it does
not kill the soul, it only consigns it to that death
which it had deserved, and should have received
independently from that sentence of the church.
Thirdly, and yet excommunication is to admirable
purpose; for whether it refers to the person cen-
sured or to others, it is prudential in itself, it is ex-
emplary to others, it is medicinal to all. For the
person censured is by this means threatened into
piety, and the threatening made the more energe-
tical upon him because, by fiction of law, or as it
were, by a sacramental rep resentment, the pains of
hell are made presential to him; and so becomes
an act of prudent judicature and excellent dis-
cipline, and the best instrument of spiritual go-
vernment: because the nearer the threatening is
reduced to matter, and the more present and cir-
cumstantial it is made, the more operative it is
upon our spirits while they are immerged in mat-
ter. And this is the full sense and power of ex-
communication in its direct intention : consequently
and accidentally other evils might follow it, as in
the times of the apostles the censured persons were
buffeted by Satan ; and even at this day there is
less security even to the temporal condition of such
a person whom his spiritual parents have anathe-
matised. But, besides this, I know no warrant to
affirm any thing of excommunication, for the sen-
tence of the church does but declare, not effect the
final sentence of damnation. Whoever deserves
v2
292 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
excommunication deserves damnation ; and he that
repents shall be saved, though he die out of the
church's external communion ; and if he does not
repent he shall be damned, though he was not ex-
communicate.
Bnt suppose it greater than the sentence of cor-
poral death, yet it follows not because heretics
may be excommunicate therefore killed ; for from
a greater to a less, in a several kind of things,
the argument concludes not. It is a greater thing
to make an excellent discourse than to make a
shoe ; yet he that can do the greater cannot do this
less. An angel cannot beget a man, and yet he
can do a greater matter, in that kind of operations
which we term spiritual and angelical. And if this
were concluding, that whoever may be excommu-
nicate may be killed, then, because of excommu-
nications the church is confessed the sole and en-
tire judge, she is also an absolute disposer of
the lives of persons. I believe this will be but
ill doctrine in Spain : for in Bui fa Cannes Domini,
the king of Spain is every year excommunicated on
Maunday Thursday. But if, by the same power,
he might also be put to death, (as upon this ground
he may,) the pope might, with more ease, be in-
vested in that part of St. Peter's patrimony which
that king hath invaded and surprised. But besides
this, it were extreme harsh doctrine in a Roman con-
sistory, from whence excommunications issue for tri-
fles, for fees, for not suffering themselves infinitely to
be oppressed, for any thing : if this be greater than
death, how great a tyranny is that which does more
than kill men for less than trifies; or else how inconse-
quent is that argument which concludes its pur-
pose upon so false pretence and supposition !^
PRACTICE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 293
Well, however zealous the apostles were against
heretics, yet none were by them or their dictates
put to death. The death of Annanias and Sapphira,
and the blindness of Elymas the sorcerer, amount
not to this, for they were miraculous inflictions;
and the first was a punishment to vow-breach and
sacrilege, the second of sorcery and open contest-
ation against the religion of Jesus Christ ; neither
of them concerned the case of this present question.
Or if the case were the same, yet the authority is
not the same ; for he that inflicted these punish-
ments was infallible, and of a power competent;
but no man at this day is so. But, as yet, people
were converted by miracles, and preaching, and dis-
puting ; and heretics, by the same means, were re-
dargued, and all men instructed, none tortured
for their opinion. And this continued till Christian
people were vexed by disagreeing .persons, and
were impatient and peevish, by their own too much
confidence, and the luxuriancy of a prosperous for-
tune ; but then they would not endure persons
that did dogmatize any thing which might intrench
upon their reputation or their interest. And it is
observable, that no man nor no age did ever teach
the lawfulness of putting heretics to death, till they
grew wanton with prosperity. But when the re-
putation of the governors was concerned, when the
interests of men were endangered, when they had
something to lose, when they had built their esti-
mation upon the credit of disputable questions,
when they began to be jealous of other men, when
they overvalued themselves and their own opinions,
when some persons invaded bishoprics upon pre-
tence of new opinions — then they, as they thrived
in the favour of emperors, and in the success of
294 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
their disputes, solicited the temporal power to
banish, to fine, to imprison, and to kill their ad-
versaries.
So that the case stands thus : — In the best times,
amongst the best men, when there were fewer tem-
poral ends to be served, when religion and the
pure and simple designs of Christianity were only
to be promoted ; in those times, and amongst such
men, no persecution was actual, nor persuaded, nor
allowed, towards disagreeing persons. But as
men had ends of their own and not of Christ's, as
they receded from their duty, and religion from
its purity; as Christianity began to be compound-
ed with interests, and blended with temporal de-
signs, so men were persecuted for their opinions.
This is most apparent, if we consider when perse-
cution first came in, and if we observe how it was
checked by the holiest and the wisest persons.
The first great instance I shall note, was in Pris-
cillian and his followers, who were condemned to
death by the tyrant Maximus : which instance,
although St. Jerome observes as a punishment and
judgment for the crime of heresy, yet is of no use
in the present question, because Maximus put some
Christians of all sorts to death promiscuously, ca-
tholic and heretic, without choice ; and therefore
the Priscillianists might as well have called it a
judgment upon the catholics, as the catholics upon
them.
But when Ursaeus and Statins, two bishops, pro-
cured the Priscillianists' death, by the jDOwer they
had at court, St. Martin was so angry at them for
their cruelty, that he excommunicated them both.
And St. Ambrose, upon the same stock, denied his
communion to the Itaciani. And the account that
PRACTICE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 295
Sulpitius gives of the story is this : " The example
was worse than the men. If the men were heretical
the execution of them, however, was unchristian."*
But it was of more authority that the Nicene
fathers supplicated the emperor, and prevailed for
the banishment of Arius ;f of this we can give no
other account, but that, by the history of the time, we
see baseness enough, and personal misdemeanour,
and factiousness of spirit in Arius to have deserved
worse than banishment,! though the obliquity of
his opinion were not put into the balance ; which we
have reason to believe was not so much as consider-
ed, because Constantine gave toleration to differing
ojDinions, and Arius himself was restored upon
such conditions to his country and office, which
would not stand with the ends of the catholics, if
they had been severe exactors of concurrence and
union of persuasions.
I am still within the scene of ecclesiastical per-
sons, and am considering what the opinions of the
learnedest and the holiest prelates were concerning
this great question. If we will believe St. Austin,
(who was a credible person,) no good man did allow
it. '' No good men approve of inflicting death upon
any one, though he be a heretic." § This was St.
Austin's final opinion ; for he had first been of the
mind that it was not honest to do any violence to
* " Hoc modo homines luce indignissimi pessimo exemplo
necati sunt."
t Sozom. lib. i. c. 20.
X Socrat. lib. i. c. 26. cont. Crescon. Grammat. lib. iii. c 50.
Vide etiam Epist. Ixi. ad Dulcilium, et Epist. clviii, et cxcix. et
lib. i.e. 29. cont. tit. Petilian. Vide etiam Socrat. lib. iii. c. 3, et. 29.
§ " NuUis tamen bonis in catholica hoc placet, si usque ad mor-
tem in quenquam, licet haereticum, saeviatur." — Lib. ii. cap. 5.
Retractat. Vide Epist. 48, ad Vincent, script, post Retract, et
Epist. 50, ad Bonifac.
296 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
mispersuaded persons; and when, upon an acci-
dent happening in Hippo, he had altered and re-
tracted that part of the opinion, yet, then also he
excepted death, and would by no means have any
mere opinion made capital. But for aught appears,
St. Austin had greater reason to have retracted
that retraction than his first opinion : for his say-
ing, of nullis bonis placet, " no good men approve
of it,^' was as true as the thing was reasonable it
should be so. Witness those known testimonies of
TertuUian,* Cyprian,t Lactantius,! Jerome,§ Sul-
pitius Severus,|| Minutius,5[ Hilary,* Damascen,f
Chrysostom,t Theophylact,§ and Bernard,|| and
divers others, whom the reader may find cjuoted
by the archbishop of Spalato.^f
Against this concurrent testimony my reading
can furnish me with no adversary nor contrary in-
stances, but in Atticus of Constantinople, Theodo-
sius of Synada, in Statins and Ursaeus, before reck-
oned. Only, indeed, some of the later popes of
Rome began to be busy and unmerciful, but it was
then when themselves were secure, and their in-
terests great, and their temporal concernments
highly considerable.
For it is most true, and not amiss to observe it,
that no man who was under the ferula did ever
think it lawful to have opinions forced, or heretics
put to death; and yet many men, who themselves
have escaped the danger of a pile and a faggot.
* Ad Scapulam. + Lib. iii. Ep. 1. Epist.
X Lib. V. c. 20. § In cap. 13, Matt, et in cap. 2. Hos.
II In Vit St. Martin. ^ Octav. * Cont. Auxent. Arr.
+ 3 Sect. c. 32. + In cap. 13, Matt. Horn. 47.
§ In Evang. Matt. || In verba Apost. fides ex auditu.
% Lib. viii. de Rep. Eccles. cap. 8.
PRACTICE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 297
have chang-ed their opinion just as the case was
altered ; that is, as themselves were unconcerned in
the suffering. Petilian, Parmenian, and Ganden-
tius,* by no means would allow it lawful, for them-
selves were in danger, and were upon that side that
is ill thought of and discountenanced : but Gre-
gory f and Leo, i popes of Rome, upon whose side
the authority and advantages were, thought it lawful
they should be punished and persecuted, for them-
selves were unconcerned in the danger of suffering.
And therefore St. Gregory commends the exarch
of Ravenna, for forcing them who dissented from
those men who called themselves the church. And
there were some divines in the Lower Germany,
who, upon great reasons, spake against the tyranny
of the inquisition, and restraining prophesying,
who yet, when they had shaked off the Spanish
yoke, began to persecute their brethren. It was
unjust in them, in all men unreasonable and un-
charitable, and often increases the error, but never
lessens the danger.
But yet, although the church, I mean in her
dictinct and clerical capacity, was against destroy-
ing or punishing difference in opinion, till the
popes of Rome did super-seminate, and persuade
the contrary, yet the bishops did persuade the em-
perors to make laws against heretics, and to punish
disobedient persons with fines, with imprisonment,
with death and banishment respectively. This,
indeed, calls us to a new account : for the church-
men might not proceed to blood, nor corporal in-
* Apud. Aug. lib. i. c. 7i cont. Epist. Parmenian. et lib. ii.
c. 10, cont. tit. Petilian.
t Epist. i. ad Turbium. $ Lib. i. Ep. 72.
298 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
flictions, but might they not deliver over to the
secular arm, and persuade temporal princes to do
it ? For this I am to say, that since it is notori-
ous that the doctrine of the clergy was against
punishing heretics, the laws which were made by
the emperors against them might be for restraint
of differing religion, in order to the preservation of
the public peace, which is too frequently violated
by the division of opinions. But I am not certain
whether that was always the reason, or whether or
no some bishops of the court did not also serve
their own ends, in giving their princes such un-
toward counsel ; but we find the laws made severally
to several purposes, in divers cases, and with diffe-
rent severity. Constantine the emperor made a
sanction, " that they who erred might enjoy the
blessing of peace and quietness equally with the
faithful." * The emperor Gratian decreed, " that
every one might follow what religious opinion he
chose, and that all might come to the ecclesiastical
conventions without apprehension ;" f but he ex-
cepted the Manichees, the Photinians, and Euno-
mians. Theodosius the elder made a law of
death against the Anabaptists of his time, and ba-
nished Eunomius, and against other erring persons
appointed a pecuniary mulct ; but he did no exe-
cutions so severe as his sanctions, to show they were
made in terrorem only. % So were the laws of
Valentinian and Martian, § decreeing, contra omnes
* " Ut parem cum fidelibus ii qui errant pads et quietis frui-
tionem gaudentes accipiant." — Apud. Euseb. de Vita Constant.
-f- " Ut quam quisque vellet religionem sequeretur ; et con-
ventus Ecclesiasticos semoto metu omnes agerent."
+ Vide Socrat. lib, vii. c. 12.
§ Vid. Cod, de Haeretic. L. INIanidiees. et leg. Arriani, et
1. Quicunque.
PRACTICE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 299
qui prava docere tenent, " who persisted in teaching
heretical opinions," that they should be put to
death; so did Michael* the emperor, but Justi-
nian only decreed banishment.
But whatever whispers some politics might make
to their princes, as the wisest and holiest did
not think it lawful for churchmen alone to do exe-
cutions, so neither did they transmit such persons
to the secular judicature. And therefore, when
the edict of Macedonius, the president, was so am-
biguous, that it seemed to threaten death to here-
tics unless they recanted, St. Austin admonished
him carefully to provide that no heretic should be
put to death ; alleging it, also, not only to be un-
christian, but illegal also, and not warranted by
imperial constitutions ; for before his time no laws
were made for their being put to death; but, how-
ever, he prevailed that Macedonius published ano-
ther edict, more explicit and less seemingly severe.
But in his epistle to Donatus, the African procon-
sul, he is more confident and determinate: " We
are impelled by necessity rather to perish by them,
than to rush upon those who are devoted to de-
struction by your decrees." f
But afterwards, many got a trick of giving them
over to the secular power, which at the best is no
better than hypocrisy, removing envy from them-
selves, and laying it upon others; a refusing to do
that in external act which they do in council and
approbation ; which is a transmitting the act to ano-
ther, and retaining a proportion of guilt unto them-
selves, even their own and the others' too. I end this
* Apud Paulum Diac. lib. xvi. et lib. xxiv.
-|- " Necessitate nobis impactu et indicta, ut potius occidi ab
eis eligamus, quam eo§ ocgidendos vestris judiciis iiigeraraus."
300 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
with the saying of Chiysostom : '' We ought to re-
prove and condemn impieties and heretical doc-
trines, but to spare the 7nen, and to pray for their
salvation."*
SECTION XV.
How far the Church or Governors may act to the
restraining false or differing Opinions.
But although heretical persons are not to be de-
stroyed, yet heresy being a work of the flesh, and
all heretics criminal persons, whose acts and doc-
trine have influence upon communities of men,
whether ecclesiastical or civil, the governors of the
republic, or church, respectively, are to do their
duties in restraining those michiefs which may
liappen to their several charges, for whose indem-
nity they are answerable. And therefore, accord-
ing to the effect or malice of the doctrine or the
person, so the cognizance of them belongs to several
judicatures. If it be false dostrine in any capacity,
and doth mischief in any sense, or teaches ill life
in any instance, or encourages evil in any particu-
lar, ^n liri'rof.iiZeiv, these men must be silenced ; they
must be convinced by sound doctrine, and put to
silence by spiritual evidence, and restrained by
authority ecclesiastical; that is, by spiritual cen-
* " Dogmata impia, et quae ab haereticis profecta sunt ar-
guere et anathematizare oportet, hominibus autem parcendum et
pro salute orum orandum." — Serm. de Anathemate.
DUTY or ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNORS. 301
sures, according' as it seems necessary to him
who is most concerned in the regimen of the
church. For all this we have precept, and precedent
apostolical, and much reason. For by thus doing
the governor of the church uses all that authority that
is competent, and all the means that is reasonable,
and that proceeding which is regular, that he may
discharge his cure and secure his flock. And that
he possibly may be deceived in judging a doctrine
to be heretical, and, by consequence, the person ex-
communicate suffers injury, is no argument against
the reasonableness of the proceeding. For all the
injury that is is visible and in appearance, and so
is his crime. Judges must judge according to
their best reason, guided by the law of God as
their rule, and by evidence and appearance as their
best instrument, and they can judge no belter. If
the judges be good and prudent, the error of pro-
ceeding will not be great nor ordinary ; and there
can be no better establishment of human judica-
ture than is a fallible proceeding upon an infallible
ground : and if the judgment of heresy be made
by estimate and proportion of the opinion to a
good or a bad life respectively, supposing an error
in the deduction, there will be no malice in the
conclusion ; and that he endeavours to secure piety
according to the best of his understanding, and yet
did mistake in his proceeding, is only an argument
that he did his duty after the manner of men, pos-
sibly with the piety of a saint, though not with the
understanding of an angel. And the little incon-
venience that happens to the person injuriously
judged, is abundantly made up in the excellency
of the discipline, the goodness of the example, the
care of the public, and all those great influences
302 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
into the manners of men vvliich derive from such
an act so publicly consigned. But such public
judgment in matters of opinion must be seldom
and curious, and never but to secure piety and a
holy life ; for in matters speculative, as all deter-
minations are fallible, so scarce any of them are to
purpose, nor ever able to make compensation of
either side, either for the public fraction or the
particular injustice, if it should so happen in the
censure.
But then, as the church may proceed thus far,
yet no Christian man, or connnunity of men, may
proceed farther. For if they be deceived in their
judgment and censure, and yet have passed only
spiritual censures, they are totally ineffectual, and
come to nothing ; there is no effect remaining
upon the soul, and such censures are not to meddle
with the body so much as indirectly. But, if any
other judgment pass upon persons erring, such
judgments whose effects remain, if the person be
unjustly censured, nothing will answer and make
compensation for such injuries. If a person be ex-
communicate unjustly, it will do him no hurt; but
if he be killed, or dismembered unjustly, that cen-
sure and infliction is not made ineffectual by his
innocence, he is certainly killed and dismembered.
So that as the church's authority in such cases, so re-
strained and made prudent, cautelous, and orderly,
is just and competent; so the proceeding is reason-
able, it is provident for the public, and the incon-
veniences that may fail upon particulars so little,
as that the public benefit makes ample compen-
sation, so long as the proceeding is but spiritual.
This discourse is in the case of such opinions,
which, by the former rules, are formal heresies, and
DUTY OF ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNORS. 303
upon practical inconveniences. But, for matters
of question which have not in them an enmity to
the public tranquillity, as the republic hath nothing-
to do, upon the ground of all the former discourses,
so, if the church meddles with them where they do
not derive into ill life, either in the person or in the
consequent, or else the destructions of the foundation
of religion, which is all one; for that those funda-
mental articles are of greatest necessity, in order to
a virtuous and godly life, which is wholly built
upon them, (and therefore are principally neces-
sary)— if she meddles further, otherwise than by
preaching, and conferring, and exhortation, she
becomes tyrannical in her government, makes her-
self an immediate judge of consciences and persua-
sions, lords it over their faith, destroys unity and
charity; and, as he that dogmatizes the opinion
becomes criminal, if he troubles the church with an
immodest, peevish, and pertinacious proposal of
his article, not simply necessary; so the church
does not do her duty, if she so condemns it pro
tribunaU, as to enjoin him and all her subjects to
believe the contrary. And as there may be perti-
nacy in doctrine, so there may be pertinacy in judg-
ing, and both are faults. The peace of the church,
and the unity of her doctrine is best conserved
when it is judged by the proportion it hath to that
rule of unity which the apostles gave, that is, the
creed for articles of mere belief, and the precepts of
Jesus Christ, and the practical rules of piety, which
are most plain and easy, and without controversy
set down in the gospels and writings of the apostles.
But to multiply articles, and adopt them into the
family of the faith, and to require assent to such
articles, which (as St, Paul's phrase is) are of
304 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
doubtful disputation, equal to that assent we give
to matters of faith, is to build a tower upon the
top of a bulrush ; and the further the effect of such
proceedings does extend, the worse they are ; the
very making such a law is unreasonable ; the in-
flicting spiritual censures upon them that cannot
do so much violence to their understanding as to
obey it, is un j ust and ineffectual ; but to punish the
person with death, or with corporal infliction, in-
deed it is effectual, but it is therefore tyrannical.
We have seen what the church may do towards re-
straining false or differing opinions; next I shall
consider, by way of corollary, what the prince may
do as for his interest, and only in securing his peo-
ple, and serving the ends of true religion.
SECTION XVI.
Whether it be lawful for a Prince to give Toleration
to several Religions.
For upon these very grounds we may easily give
account of that great question, whether it be lawful
for a prince to give toleration to several religions ?
For, first, it is a great fault that men will call the
several sects of Christians by the names of several
religions. The religion of Jesus Christ is the form
of sound doctrine and wholesome words, which is
set down in Scripture indefinitely, actually con-
veyed to us by plain places, and separated as for
the question of necessary or not necessary by the
DUTY OF PRINCES. 305
symbol of the apostles. Those impertinencies
which the wantonness and vanity of men hath com-
menced, which their interests have promoted, which
serve not truth so much as their own ends, are far
from being distinct religions ; for matters of opinion
are no parts of the worship of God, nor in order to
it, but as they promote obedience to his command-
ments ; and when they contribute towards it, are,
in that proportion as they contribute, parts and
actions, and minute particulars of that religion to
whose end they do, or pretend to serve. And such
are all the sects and all the pretences of Christians,
but pieces and minutes of Christianity, if they do
serve the great end, as every man for his own sect
and interest believes for his share it does.
2. Toleration hath a double sense or purpose:
for sometimes by it men understand a public license
and exercise of a sect ; sometimes it is only an in-
demnity of the persons privately to convene and to
opine as they see cause, and as they mean to an-
swer to God. Both these are very much to the
same purpose, unless some persons whom we are
bound to satisfy be scandalized ; and then the
prince is bound to do as he is bound to satisfy.
To God it is all one. For, abstracting from the
offence of persons, which is to be considered just as
our obligation is to content the persons, it is all
one whether we indulge to them to meet publicly
or privately, to do actions of religion, concerning
which we are not persuaded that they are truly
holy. To God it is just one to be in the dark and
in the light ; the thing is the same, only the circum-
stance of public and private is different, which can-
not be concerned in any thing, nor can it concern
X
306 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
any thing but the matter of scandal and relation to
the minds and fantasies of certain persons.
'3. So that to tolerate is not to persecute. And
the question, whether the prince may tolerate divers
persuasions, is no more than whether he may law-
fully persecute any man for not being of his opi-
nion. Now, in this case, he is just so to tolerate
diversity of persuasions as he is to tolerate public ac-
tions; for no opinion is judicable, nor no person
punishable, but for a sin ; and if his opinion, by
reason of its managing or its effect, be a sin in
itself, or becomes a sin to the person, then, as he
is to do towards other sins, so to that opinion or
man so opining. But to believe so, or not so,
when there is no more but mere believing, is not in
his power to enjoin, therefore not to punish. And
it is not only lawful to tolerate disagreeing persua-
sions, but the authority of God only is competent
to take notice of it, and infallible to determine it,
and fit to judge; and therefore no human autho-
rity is sufficient to do all those things which can
justify the inflicting temporal punishments upon
such as do not conform in their persuasions to a
rule or authority which is not only fallible, but
supposed by the disagreeing person to be actually
deceived.
But I consider, that in the toleration of a differ-
ent opinion, religion is not properly and imme-
diately concerned, so as in any degree to be en-
dangered. For it may be safe in diversity of
persuasions, and it is also a part of Christian reli-
gion,* that the liberty of men's consciences should
* '' Humani juris et naturalis potestatis, unicuiq. quod pu-
taverit, colere. Sed nee religionis est cogere religionem, quae
suscipi sponte debet^ non vi." — Tertul. ad Scapulam.
DUTY OF PRINCES. 307
be preserved in all things, where God hath not set
a limit and made a restraint ; that the soul of man
should be free, and acknowledge no master but
Jesus Christ; that matters spiritual should not be
restrained by punishments corporal ; that the same
meekness and charity should be preserved in the
promotion of Christianity, that gave it founda-
tion, and increment, and firmness in its first pub-
lication; that conclusions should not be more dog-
matical than the virtual resolution and efficacy of
the premises ; and that the persons should not
more certainly be condemned than their opinions
confuted ; and lastly, that the infirmities of men
and difficulties of things should be both put in
balance, to make abatement in the definitive sen-
tence against men's persons. But then, because
toleration of opinions is not properly a question of
religion, it may be a question of policy : and al-
though a man may be a good Christian, though he
believe an error not fundamental, and not directly
or evidently impious, yet his opinion may acci-
dentally disturb the public peace, through the over-
activeness of the person, and the confidence of their
belief, and the opinion of its appendant necessity ;
and therefore toleration of differing persuasions, in
these cases, is to be considered upon political
grounds, and is just so to be admitted or denied as
the opinions or toleration of them may consist with
the public and necessary ends of government. Only
this : as Christian princes must look to the interest
of their government, so especially must they con-
sider the interests of Christianity, and not call
redargution or modest discovery of an established
error, by the name of disturbance of the peace.
For it is very likely that the peevishness and im-
X 2
308 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
patience of contradiction in the governors may
break the peace. Let them remember but the gen-
tleness of Christianity, the liberty of consciences
which ought to be preserved; and let them do
justice to the persons, whoever they are that are
peevish, provided no man's person be overborne with
prejudice. For if it be necessary for all men to
subscribe to the present established religion, by the
same reason, at another time, a man may be bound
to subscribe to the contradictory, and so to all reli-
gions in the world. And they only who by their
too much confidence entitle God to all their fancies,
and make tbem to be cjuestions of religion and evi-
dences for heaven, or consignations to hell, they
only think this doctrine unreasonable; and they
are the men that first disturb the church's peace,
and then think there is no appeasing the tumult
but by getting the victory. But they that consider
things wisely, understand, that since salvation and
damnation depend not upon impertinencies, and
yet that public peace and tranquillity may; the
prince is in this case to seek how to secure govern-
ment, and the issues and intentions of that, while
there is in the cases directly no insecurity to reli-
gion, unless by the accidental uncharitableness of
them that dispute; which uncharitableness is also
much prevented when the public peace is secured,
and no person is on either side engaged upon re-
venge,* or troubled with disgrace, or vexed with
punishments by any decretory sentence against
him. It was the saying of a wise statesman, (I
mean Thuanus:)f "If you persecute heretics or
* " Dextera prsecipue capit indulgentia mentes, asperitas
odium sEBvaque bella parit."
-|- " Pleeretici qui pace data factionibus scinduntur, persecu-
ione uniuntur contra remp."
DUTY OF PRINCES. 309
discrepants, they unite themselves as to a common
defence : if you permit them, they divide them-
selves upon private interest;" and the rather, if
this interest was an ingredient of the opinion.
The sum is this : it concerns the duty of a
prince because it concerns the honour of God, that
all vices and every part of ill life be discounte-
nanced and restrained ; and therefore, in relation
to that, opinions are to be dealt with. For the un-
derstanding- being to direct the will, and opinions
to guide our practices, they are considerable only
as they teach impiety and vice, as they either dis-
honour God or disobey him. Now all such doc-
trines are to be condemned; but for the persons
preaching such doctrines, if they neither justify
nor approve the pretended consec^uences which are
certainly impious, they are to be separated from
that consideration. But if tliey know such conse-
quences and allow them, or if they do not stay till
the doctrines produce impiety, but take sin before-
hand, and manage them impiously in any sense ;
or if either themselves or their doctrine do really
and without colour or feigned pretext disturb the
public peace and just interests, they are not to be
suffered. In all other cases, it is not only lawful to
permit them, but it is also necessary that princes
and all in authority should not persecute discre-
pant opinions And in such cases, wherein per-
sons not otherwise incompetent are bound to re-
prove an error, (as they are in many,) in all these,
if the prince makes restraint he hinders men from
doing their duty, and from obeying the laws of
Jesus Christ.
310
SECTION XVII.
Of Compliance with disagreeing Persons, or weak
Consciences in general.
Upon these grounds it remains that we reduce
this doctrine to practical conclusions, and consider
among the differing sects and opinions which
trouble these parts of Christendom, and come into
our concernment, which sects of Christians are to
be tolerated, and how far ; and which are to be
restrained and punished in their several propor-
tions.
The first consideration is, that since diversity of
opinions does more concern public peace than reli-
gion, what is to be done to persons who disobey a
public sanction, upon a true allegation that they
cannot believe it to be lawful to obey such consti-
tutions, although they disbelieve them upon insuf-
ficient grounds ; that is, whether in constituta lege
disagreeing persons or weak consciences are to be
complied withal, and their disobeying and disa-
greeing tolerated ?
1 . In this cjuestion, there is no distinction can
be made between persons truly weak, and but pre-
tending so. For all that pretend to it are to be
allowed the same liberty, whatsoever it be ; for no
man's spirit is known to any but to God and him-
self; and therefore pretences and realities, in this
case, are both alike, in order to the public tolera-
tion. And this very thing is one argument to per-
OF COMPLIANCE WITH WEAK MINDS. 311
suade a negative. For the chief thing in this case
is the concernment of public government, which is
then most of all violated, when what may pru-
dently be permitted to some purposes may be de-
manded to many more, and the piety of the laws
abused to the impiety of other men's ends. And
if laws be made so malleable, as to comply with
weak consciences, he that hath a mind to disobey
is made impregnable against the coercitive power
of the law by this pretence. For a weak conscience
signifies nothing in this case but a dislike of the
law upon a contrary persuasion. For if some weak
consciences do obey the law, and others do not, it
is not their weakness indefinitely that is the cause
of it, but a definite and particular persuasion to
the contrary. So that if such a pretence be excuse
sufficient from obeying, then the law is a sanction
obliging every one to obey that hath a mind to it,
and he that hath not may choose ; that is, it is no
law at all ; for he that hath a mind to it may do it,
if there be no law, and he that hath no mind to it
need not for all the law.
And therefore the wit of man cannot prudently
frame a law of that temper and expedient, but
either he must lose the formality of a law, and nei-
ther have power coercitive nor obligatory, but by
the will of inferiors, or else it cannot, antecedently
to the particular case, give leave to any sort of
men to disagree or disobey.
2. Suppose that a law be made, with great rea-
son, so as to satisfy divers persons, pious and pru-
dent, that it complies with the necessity of govern-
ment, and promotes the interest of God's service
and public order, it may be easily imagined that
these persons, which are obedient sons of the church.
312 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
may be as zealous for the public order and disci-
pline of the church, as others for their opinion
against it, and may be as much scandalized, if dis-
obedience be tolerated, as others are if the law be
exacted ; and what shall be done in this case ?
Both sorts of men cannot be complied withal,
because, as these pretend to be offended at the
law, and by consequence, (if they understand the
consequents of their own opinion,) at them that
obey the law; so the others are justly offended
at them that unjustly disobey it. If, therefore,
there be any on the right side as confident and
zealous as they who are on the wrong side, then
the disagreeing persons are not to be complied with
to avoid giving oflence; for if they be, offence is
given to better persons, and so the mischief which
such complying seeks to prevent is made greater
and more unjust, obedience is discouraged, and
disobedience is legally canonized for the result of
a holy and a tender conscience.
3. Such complying with the disagreeings of a sort
of men, is the total overthrow of all discipline; and it
is better to make no laws of public worship, than to
rescind them in the very constitution; and there
can be no end in making the sanction but to make
the law ridiculous, and the authority contemptible.
For, to say that complying with weak consciences,
in the very framing of a law of discipline, is the
way to preserve unity, were all one as to say, to
take away all laws is the best way to prevent diso-
bedience. In such matters of indifferency, the
best way of cementing the fraction is to unite the
parts in the authority ; for then the question is but
one, viz. whether the authority must be obeyed or
not ? But if a permission be given of disputing the
OF COMPLIANCE WITH WEAK MINDS. 313
particulars, the questions become next to infinite.
A mirror, when it is broken, represents the object
multiplied and divided ; but if it be entire, and
through one centre transmits the species to the eye,
the vision is one and natural. Laws are the mirror
in which men are to dress and compose their ac-
tions, and therefore must not be broken with such
clauses of exception, which may, without remedy,
be abused, to the prejudice of authority, and peace,
and all human sanctions. And I have known, in
some churches, that this pretence hath been no-
thing but a design to discredit the law, to dis-
mantle the authority that made it, to raise their
own credit, and a trophy of their zeal, to make it a
characteristic note of a sect, and the cognizance of
holy persons; and yet the men that claimed ex-
emption from the laws, upon pretence of having
weak consciences, if in hearty expression you had
told them so to their heads, they would have spit
in your face, and were so far from confessing them-
selves weak, that they thought themselves able to
give laws to Christendom, to instruct the greatest
clerks, and to catechise the church herself. And
which is the worst of all, they who were perpetu-
ally clamorous that the severity of the laws should
slacken as to their particular, and in matter adia-
phorous, (in which, if the church hath any autho-
rity, she hath power to make laws,) to indulge a
leave to them to do as they list, yet were the most
imperious amongst men, most decretory in their
sentences, and most impatient of any disagreeing
from them, though in the least minute and parti-
cular;. whereas, by all the justice of the world,
they who persuade such a compliance in matters of
fact, and of so little question, should not deny to
314 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
tx^lerate persons that differ in questions of great
difficulty and contestation.
4. But yet, since all things almost in the world
have been made matters of dispute, and the will of
some men, and the malice of others, and the infinite
industry and pertinacy of contesting, and resolution
to conquer, hath abused some persons innocently
into a persuasion that even the laws themselves,
though never so prudently constituted, are super-
stitious or impious, such persons who are otherwise
pious, humble, and religious, are not to be destroyed
for such matters, which in themselves are not of
concernment to salvation, and neither are so acci-
dentally to such men and in such cases where
they are innocently abused, and they err without
purpose and design. And therefore, if there be a
public disposition in some persons to dislike laws
of a certain quality, if it be foreseen, it is to be con-
sidered in lege dicendd, (in the framing of a statute ;)
and whatever inconvenience or particular offence
is foreseen, is either to be directly avoided in the
law, or else a compensation in the excellency of
the law, and certain advantages made to outweigh
their pretensions: but in lege jam dicta, (in a sta-
tute already enacted,) because there may be a ne-
cessity some persons should have a liberty in-
dulged them, it is necessary that the governors of
the church should be entrusted with a power to
consider the particular case, and indulge a liberty
to the person, and grant personal dispensations.
This, I say, is to be done at several times, upon
particular instance, upon singular consideration,
and new emergencies. But that a whole kind of
men, such a kind to which all men, without possi-
bility of being confuted may pretend, should at
OF COMPLIANCE WITH WEAK MINDS. 315
once, in the very frame of the law, be permitted to
disobey, is to nullify the law, to destroy discipline,
and to hallow disobedience; it takes away the
obliging part of the law, and makes that the thing
enacted shall not be enjoined, but tolerated only ;
it destroys unity and uniformity, which to preserve
was the very end of such laws of discipline ; it
bends the rule to the thing which is to be ruled, so
that the law obeys the subject, not the subject the
law ; it is to make a law for particulars, not upon
general reason and congruity, against the prudence
and design of all laws in the world, and absolutely
without the example of any church in Christen-
dom; it prevents no scandal, for some will be
scandalized at the authority itself, some at the
complying, and remissness of discipline, and several
men at matters and upon ends contradictory : all
which cannot, some ought not, to be complied
withal.
6. The sum is this : the end of the laws of disci-
pline is in an immediate order to the conservation
and ornament of the public, and therefore the laws
must not so tolerate, as by conserving persons to
destroy themselves and the public benefit ; but if
there be cause for it, they must be cassated ; or if
there be no sufficient cause, the complyings must
be so as may best preserve the particulars, in con-
junction with the public end, which, because it is
primarily intended, is of greatest consideration ;
but the particulars, whether of case or person, are
to be considered occasionally and emergently by
the judges, but cannot antecedently and regularly
be determined by a law.
But this sort of men is of so general pretence,
that all laws and all judges may easily be abused
316 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
by them. Those sects which are signified by a
name, which have a system of articles, a body of
profession, may be more clearly determined in
their question concerning the lawfulness of per-
mitting their professions and assemblies.
I shall instance in two, which are most trouble-
some and most disliked; and by an account made
of these, we may make judgment what may be
done towards others, whose errors are not appre-
hended of so great malignity. The men I mean
are the anabaptists and the papists.
SECTION XVIII.
A parficidar consideration of the Opinions of the
Anabaptists.
In the AnabaptistsI consider only their two capital
opinions, the one against the baptism of infants,
the other against magistracy ; and because they
produce different judgments and various effects, all
their other fancies, which vary as the moon does,
may stand or fall in their proportion and likeness
to these.
And first, I consider their denying baptism to
infants : although it be a doctrine justly condemned
by the most sorts of Christians, upon great grounds
of reason, yet possibly their defence may be so
great as to take off much, and rebate the edge of
their adversaries' assault. It will be neither un-
pleasant nor unprofitable to draw a short scheme
CASE OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 317
of plea for each party, the result of which possibly
may be, that though they be deceived, yet they
have so great excuse on their side that their error
is not impudent or vincible. The baptism of in-
fants rests wholly upon this discourse.
When God made a covenant with Abraham, for
himself and his posterity, into which the gentiles
were reckoned by spiritual adoption, he did, for the
present, consign that covenant with the sacrament
of circumcision. The extent of which rite was to all
his family, from the viajor domo, (the head or pa-
triarch,) to the proselytus domicilio, (the proselyte
amonghis servants,) and to infants of eight days old.
Now the very nature of this covenant being a co-
venant of faith for its formality, and with all faith-
ful people for the object, and circumcision being
a seal of this covenant, if ever any rite do super-
vene to consign the same covenant, that rite must
acknowledge circumcision for its type and prece-
dent. And this the apostle tells us, in express doc-
trine. Now the nature of types is to give some
proportions to its successor, the antitype ; and they
both being seals of the same righteousness of faith,
it will not easily be found where these two seals
have any such distinction in their nature or pur-
poses, as to appertain to persons of differing capa-
city, and not equally concern all ; and this argu-
ment was thought of so much force by some of
those excellent men which were bishops in the
primitive church, that a good bishop writ an epistle
to St. Cyprian, to know of him whether or no it
were lawful to baptize infants before the eighth
day, because the type of baptism was ministered in
that circumcision ; he, in his discourse, supposing
that the first rite was a direction to the second.
318 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
which prevailed with him so far as to believe it to
limit every circumstance.
And not only this type, but the acts of Christ
which were previous to the institution of baptism,
did prepare our understanding by such impresses
as were sufhcient to produce such persuasion in us,
that Christ intended this ministry for the actual
advantage of infants as well as of persons of un-
derstanding. For Christ commanded that chil-
dren should be brought unto him, he took them in
his arms, he imposed hands on them and blessed
them ; and, without question, did, by such acts of
favour, consign his love to them, and them to a
capacity of an eternal participation of it. And
possibly the invitation which Christ made to all to
come to him, all them that are heavy laden, did, in
its proportion, concern infants as much as others,
if they be guilty of original sin, and if that sin be
a burthen, and presses them to spiritual danger or
inconvenience. And it is all the reason of the
world, that since the grace of Christ is as large as
the prevarication of Adam, all they who are made
guilty by the first Adam should be cleansed by the
second. But as they are guilty by another man's
act, so they should be brought to the font to be
purified by others, there being the same propor-
tion of reason, that by others' acts they should be
relieved who were in danger of perishing by the
act of others. And therefore St. Austin argues
excellently to this purpose : " The church fur-
nishes them with the feet of others that they maj'^
come, with the heart of others that they may be-
lieve, with the tongue of others that they may
make confession ; in order that, as they are dis-
eased in consequence of another's sin, so being
CASE OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 319
made whole by another's confession, they may be
saved."* And Justin Martyr: '' The children of
pious parents are accounted worthy of baptism,
through the faith of those who bring them to be
baptized. "f
But whether they have original sin or no, yet
take them in their state as they are by nature, they
cannot go to God, or attain to eternity, to which
they were intended in their first being and creation :
and therefore, much less since their naturals are
impaired by the curse on human nature procured
by Adam's prevarication. And if a natural agent
cannot in its state of nature attain to heaven,
which is a supernatural end, much less when it
is loaden with accidental and grievous impedi-
ments. Now, then, since the only way revealed to
us of acquiring heaven is by Jesus Christ, and the
first inlet into Christianity and access to him is by
baptism, as appears by the perpetual analogy of the
New Testament, either infants are not persons ca-
pable of that end which is the perfection of human
nature, and to which the soul of man, in its being
made immortal, was essentially designed, and so
are miserable and deficient from the end of human-
ity, if they die before the use of reason ; or else
they must be brought to Christ by the church doors,
that is, by the font and waters of baptism.
And, in reason, it seems more pregnant and
plausible, that infants, rather than men of under-
* " Accommodat illis mater ecclesia aliorum pedes, ut veni-
ant ; aliorum cor, ut credant ; aliorum linguam, vit fateantur :
ut quoniam, quod fegri sunt, alio peccante prcegravantur, sic cvim
sani fiantalio confitente salventur."— Serm. x. de Verb. Apost.
f 'A^iovvTciL de tS)v did rov (3a7rTi(TnaTOQ dya^Mv rd
l3pe(pT} ry ttiV^i tG)v 7rpo(r(pep6vT(oi> dvrd toj l3cnrTi<rj.iart. —
Resp. ad Orthodoxos.
320 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
standing, should be baptized. For since the effi-
cacy of the sacraments depends upon divine in-
stitution and immediate benediction, and that they
produce their effects independently upon man, in
them that do not hinder their operation ; since in-
fants cannot by any act of their own promote the
hope of their own salvation, which men of reason and
choice may, by acts of virtue and election ; it is
more agreeable to the goodness of God, the honour
and excellency of the sacrament, and the necessity
of its institution, that it should in infants supply
the want of human acts and free obedience. Which
the very thing itself seems to say it does, because
its effect is from God, and requires nothing on
man's part but that its efficacy be not hindered :
and then in infants the disposition is equal, and
the necessity more; they cannot object to other's
acts, and by the same reason cannot do other's
acts, which, without the sacraments, do advantage
us towards our hopes of heaven; and therefore
have more need to be supplied by an act and an in-
stitution divine and supernatural.
And this is not only necessary in respect of the
condition of infants' incapacity to do acts of grace,
but also in obedience to divine precept. For Christ
made a law, whose sanction is with an exclusive
negative to them that are not baptized : ' Unless a
man be born of water and of the Spirit, he shall
not enter into the kingdom of heaven.' If then in-
fants have a capacity of being co-heirs with Christ,
in the kingdom of his Father, as Christ affirms
they have, by saying, *For of such is the king-
dom of heaven,' then there is a necessity that they
should be brought to baptism, there being an ab-
solute exclusion of all persons unbaptized, and
CASE OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 321
all persons not spiritual, from the kingdom of
heaven.
But, indeed, it is a destruction of all the hopes
and happiness of infants, a denying to them an
exemption from the final condition of beasts and
insects, or else a designing of them to a worse
misery, to say that God hath not appointed some
external or internal means of brins^ing them to an
eternal happiness. Internal they have none ; for
grace being an improvement, and heightening the
faculties of nature, in order to a heigthened and
supernatural end, grace hath no influence or effi-
cacy upon their faculties, who can do no natural
acts of understanding; and if there be no external
means, then they are destitute of all hopes and
possibilities of salvation.
But, thanks be to God, he hath provided better,
and told us accordingly ; for he hath made a pro-
mise of the Holy Ghost to infants as well as to
men. ' The promise is made to you and to your
children,' said St. Peter ; ' the promise of the Fa-
ther,' the promise that he would send the Holy
Ghost. Now, if you ask how this promise shall
be conveyed to our children, we have an ex-
press out of the same sermon of St. Peter : * 'Be
baptized, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost :' so that, because the Holy Ghost is pro-
mised, and baptism is the means of receiving the
promise, therefore baptism pertains to them to
whom the promise, which is the effect of baptism,
does appertain. And that we may not think this ar-
gument is fallible, or of human collection, observe
that it is the argument of the same apostle in express
• Acts, ii. 38, 39.
322 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
terms ; for in the case of Cornelius and his family,
he justified his proceeding by this very medium;
* Shall we deny baptism to them who have received
the gift of the Holy Ghost as well as we ? ' Which
discourse, if it be reduced to form of argument, says
this : they that are capable of the same grace are
receptive of the same sign ; but then (to make the
syllogism up with an assumption proper to our
present purpose) infants are capable of the same
grace, that is, of the Holy Ghost, (for the promise
is made to our children as well as to us, and St.
Paul says, the children of believing parents are
holy, and therefore have the Holy Ghost, who is
the fountain of holiness and sanctifi cation,) there-
fore they are to receive the sign and the seal of it ;,
that is, the sacrament of baptism.
And indeed, since God entered a covenant with
the Jews, which did also actually involve their
children, and gave them a sign to establish the
covenant and its appendant promise, either God
does not so much love the church as he did the
synagogue, and the mercies of the gospel are more
restrained than the mercies of the law, God having
made a covenant with the infants of Israel, and
none with the children of Christian parents ; or if
he hath, yet we want the comfort of its consigna-
tion ; and, unless our children are to be baptized,
and so intitled to the promises of the new covenant,
as the Jewish babes were by circumcision, this
mercy which appertains to infants is so secret, and
undeclared, and unconsigned, that we want much
of that mercy and outward testimony which gave
them comfort and assurance.
And in proportion to these precepts and revela-
tions was the practice apostolical; for they (to
CASE OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 323
whom Christ gave in precept to make disciples all
nations, baptizing- them, and knew that nations
without children never were, and that therefore
they were passively concerned in that commission,)
baptized whole families, particularly that of Ste-
phanus, and divers others, in which it is more than
probable there were some minors, if not sucking
babes. And this practice did descend upon the
church in after ages, by tradition apostolical. Of
this we have sufficient testimony from Origen : " The
church has received it by tradition from the apos-
tles, to admit little children to the rite of bap-
tism:"* and St. Austin : " This practice the church
has received upon the faith of the fathers."f And
generally all writers (as Calvin says) affirm the
same thing, for " there is no writer so ancient as
not to refer its origin to the apostolic age." t From
hence the conclusion is, that infants ought to be
baptized, that it is simply necessary, that they
who deny it are heretics, and such are not to be
endured, because they deny to infants hopes, and
take away the possibility of their salvation, which
is revealed to us on no other condition of which
they are capable, but baptism. For by the insinua-
tion of the type, by the action of Christ, by the
title infants have to heaven, by the precept of the
gospel, by the energy of the promise, by the rea-
sonableness of the thing, by the infinite necessity
* " Pro hoc ecclesia ab apostolis traditionem accepit, etiam
parvulis baptismum dare." — In Rom. vi. torn. ii. p. 643.
f " Hoc ecclesia a majorum fide percepit." — Serm. x. de
Verb. A post. c. 2.
X " Nullus est scriptor tarn vetustus, qui non ejus originem
ad apostolorum saeculum pro certo referat." — 4 Instit. cap. 16,
§S.
y2
324 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
on the infants' part, by the practice apostolical, by
their tradition, and the universal practice of the
church ; by all these, God and good people pro-
claim the lawfulness, the conveniency, and the ne-
cessity of infants' baptism.
To all this the Anabaptist gives a soft and gen-
tle answer, that it is a goodly harangue, which
upon strict examination will come to nothing ; that
it pretends fairly and signifies little ; that some of
these allegations are false, some impertinent, and
all the rest insufficient.
For the argument from circumcision is invalid
upon infinite considerations : figures and types
prove nothing, unless a commandment go along
with them, or some express to signify such to be
their purpose. For the deluge of waters and th^
ark of Noah were a figure of baptism, said Peter;
and if, therefore, the circumstances of one should
be drawn to the other, we should make baptism a
prodigy rather than a rite. The paschal lamb was
a type of the eucharist, which succeeds the other
as baptism does to circumcision ; but because there
w^as, in the manducation of the paschal lamb, no
prescription of sacramental drink, shall we thence
conclude that the eucharist is to be ministered
but in one kind ? And even in the very instance
of this argument, supposing a correspondence of
analogy between circumcision and baptism, yet
there is no correspondence of identity ; for al-
though it were granted that both of them did con-
sign the covenant of faith, yet there is nothing in
the circumstance of children's being circumcised,
that so concerns that mystery but that it might
very well be given to children, and yet baptism
onlv to men of reason ; because circumcision left a
CASE OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 325
character in the flesh, which being imprinted upon
infants did its work to them when they came to
age; and such a character was necessary, because
there was no word added to the sign ; but baptism
imprints nothing that remains on the body, and if
it leaves a character at all it is upon the soul, to
which also the word is added, which is as much a
part of the sacrament as the sign itself is. For both
which reasons, it is requisite that the persons bap-
tized should be capable of reason, that they may be
capable both of the word of the sacrament and the
impress made upon the spirit. Since, therefore, the
reason of this parity does wholly fail, there is no-
thing left to infer a necessity of complying in this
circumstance of age, any more than in the other
annexes of the type : and the case is clear in the
bishop's question to Cyprian ;* for vVhy shall not
infants be baptized just upon the eighth day, as
well as circumcised ? If the correspondence of the
rites be an argument to infer one circumstance
which is impertinent and accidental to the mys-
teriousness of the rite, why shall it not infer all ?
And then, also, females must not be baptized,
because they were not circumcised. But it were
more proper, if we would understand it right, to
prosecute the analogy from the type to the anti-
type, by way of letter, and spirit, and signification;
and as circumcision figures baptism, so also the
adjuncts of the circumcision shall signify some-
thing spiritual in the adherencies of baptism ; and
therefore, as infants were circumcised, so spiritual
infants shall be baptized, which is spiritual circum-
cision ; for therefore babes had the ministry of the
* Lib. iii. Epist. 8. ad Fidum.
326 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
type, to signify that we must, when we give our
names to Christ, become vi^ttioi Iv Trovijpia, children
in malice ; ' for unless you become like one of these
little ones, you cannot enter into the kingdom of
heaven,' said our blessed Saviour; and then the
type is made complete. And this seems to have
been the sense of the primitive church ; for in the
age next to the apostles they gave to all baptized
persons milk and honey, to represent to them their
duty, that though in age and understanding they
were men, yet they were babes in Christ, and chil-
dren in malice. But to infer the sense of the paedo-
baptists is so weak a manner of arguing, that
Austin, whose device it was, (and men use to be
in love with their own fancies,) at the most pre-
tended it but as probable and a mere conjecture.
And as ill success will they have with the other
arguments as with this ; for, from the action of
Christ's blessing infants, to infer that they are to
be baptized, proves nothing so much as that there
is great want of better arguments. The conclusion
would be with more probability derived thus : Christ
blessed children and so dismissed them, but bap-
tized them not, therefore infants are not to be bap-
tized ; but let this be as weak as its enemy, yet that
Christ did not baptize them is an argument suffi-
cient that Christ hath other ways of bringing
them to heaven than by baptism ; he passed his
act of grace upon them by benediction and impo-
sition of hands.
And therefore, although neither infants nor any
man by nature can attain to a supernatural end
without the jcddition of some instrument or means of
God's appointing, ordinarily and regularly; yet
where God hath not appointed a rule nor an order, as
CASE OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 327
in the case of infants we contend he hath not, the
argument is invalid. And as we are sure that
God hath not commanded infants to he baptized,
so we are sure God will do them no injustice, nor
damn them for what they cannot help.
And therefore let them be pressed with all the
inconveniences that are consequent to original sin,
yet either it will not be laid to the charge of in-
fants, so as to be sufficient to condemn them, or if
it could, yet the mercy and absolute goodness of
God will secure them, if he takes them away before
they can glorify him with a free obedience. " Why
is innocent infancy to be anxious for the remission
of sins ?"* was the question of Tertullian, (lib. de
Bapt.) he knew no such danger from their original
guilt, as to drive them to a laver of which, in that
age of innocence, they had no need, as he con-
ceived. And therefore there is no necessity of
flying to the help of others, for tongue, and heart,
and faith, and predispositions to baptism ; for
what need all this stir ? As infants without their
own account, without any act of their own, and
without any exterior solemnity, contracted the
guilt of Adam's sin, and so are liable to all the
punishment which can with justice descend upon
his posterity, who are personally innocent ; so in-
fants shall be restored without any solemnity or
act of their own, or of any other men for them,
by the second Adam, by the redemption of Jesus
Christ, by his righteousness and mercies, applied
either immediately, or how or when he shall be
pleased to appoint. And so St. Austin's argument
will come to nothing, without any need of god-
* " Quid ergo festinat innocens aetas ad remissionem pecca-
torum."
328 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
fathers, or the faith of any body else. And it is
too narrow a conception of God Almighty, because
he hath tied us to the observation of the ceremo-
nies of his own institution, that therefore he hath
tied himself to it. Many thousand ways there
are by which God can bring- any reasonable soul
to himself; but nothing is more unreasonable,
than because he hath tied all men of years and
discretion to this way, therefore we, of our own
heads, shall carry infants to him that way with-
out his direction : the conceit is poor and low,
and the action consequent to it is too bold and
venturous. " I have nothing to do in religion but
with myself and my household.'^* Let him do
what he please to infants, we must not.
Only this is certain, that God hath as great care
of infants as of others; and because they have no
capacity of doing such acts as may be in order to
acquiring salvation, God will, by his own immedi-
ate mercy, bring them thither where he hath in-
tended them ; but to say that therefore he will do
it by an external act and ministry, and that con-
fined to a particular, viz. this rite and no other,
is no good argument, unless God could not do it
without such means, or that he had said he would
not. And why cannot God as well do his mer-
cies to infants now immediately, as he did before
the institution either of circumcision or baptism ?
However, there is no danger that infants should
perish for want of this external ministry, much
less for prevaricating Christ's precept of ' Except a
man be born again,' &c. For, first, the water and
the Spirit in this j^lace signify the same thing; and
* " Mysterium meum mihi et filiis domus meas."
CASE OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 3'29
by water is meant the effect of the Spirit, cleansing
and purifying the soul, as appears in its parallel
place of Christ baptizing with the Spirit and with
fire. For although this was literally fulfilled in Pen-
tecost, yet morally there is more in it, for it is the
sign of the effect of the Holy Ghost, and his produc-
tions upon the soul ; and it was an excellency of our
blessed Saviour's office, that he baptizes all that
come to him with the Holy Ghost and with fire;
for so St. John, preferring Christ's mission and
office before his own, tells the Jews, not Christ's
disciples, that Christ shall baptize them with fire
and the Holy Spirit; that is, 'all that come to
him,' as John the Baptist did with water, for so
lies the antithesis : and you may as well conclude
that infants must also pass through the fire as
through the water. And that we may not think
this a trick to elude the pressure of this place,
Peter says the same thing; for when he had said
that baptism saves us, he adds, by way of explica-
tion, ' not the washing of the flesh, but the confi-
dence of a good conscience towards God ;' plainly
saying, that it is not water, or the purifying of the
body, but the cleansing of the spirit, that does that
which is supposed to be the effect of baptism ; and
if our Saviour's exclusive negative be expounded
by analogy to this of Peter,, as certainly the other
parallel instance must, and this may, then it will
be so far from proving the necessity of infant's
baptism, that it can con«lude for no man that he
is obliged to the rite ; and the doctrine of the bap-
tism is only to derive from the very words of in-
stitution, and not be forced from words which were
spoken before it was ordained. But to let pass
this advantage, and to suppose it meant of ex-
330 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
ternal baptism, yet this no more infers a necessity
of infants' baptism, than the other words of Christ
infer a necessity to give them the holy communion :
' Except ye eat the flesh of the son of man, and
drink his blood, ye cannot enter into the kingdom
of heaven/ And yet we do not think these words
sufficient argument to communicate them; if men,
therefore, will do us justice, either let them give
both sacraments to infants, as some ages of the
church did, or neither. For the wit of man is not
able to show a disjDarity in the sanction, or in the
energy of its expression. And therefore they were
honest that understood the obligation to be parallel,
and perfonned it accordingly ; and yet because
we say they were deceived in one instance, and
yet the obligation (all the world cannot reason-
ably say but) is the same, they are as honest and
as reasonable that do neither. And since the an-
cient church did with an equal opinion of neces-
sity give them the communion, and yet men now-
a-days do not, why shall men be more burthened
with a prejudice and a name of obloquy for not
giving the infants one sacrament, more than they
are disliked for not affording them the other ? If
Anabaptist shall be a name of disgrace, why shall
not some other name be invented for them that
deny to communicate infants, which shall be
equally disgraceful, or else both the opinions sig-
nified by such names, be accounted no disparage-
ment, but receive their estimate according to their
truth ?
Of which truth, since we are now taking account
from pretences of Scripture, it is considerable that
the discourse of St. Peter, which is pretended for
the entitling infants to the promise of the Holy
CASE OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 331
Ghost, and by consequence to baptism, which is
supposed to be its instrument and conveyance, is
wholly a fancy, and hath in it nothing of certainty
or demonstration, and not much probability. For
besides that the thing itself is unreasonable, and
the Holy Ghost works by the heightening and im-
proving our natural faculties, and therefore is a
promise that so concerns them as they are reason-
able creatures, and may have a title to it in pro-
portion to their nature, but no possession or recep-
tion of it till their faculties come into act ; besides
this, I say, the words mentioned in St. Peter's ser-
mon (which are the only record of the promise)
are interpreted upon a weak mistake. ' The pro-
mise belongs to you and to your children,^ there-
fore infants are actually receptive of it in that
capacity. That is the argument, but the reason of
it is not yet discovered, nor ever will; for 'to you
and your children,' is to you and your posterity,
to you and your children when they are of the
same capacity in which you are effectually re-
ceptive of the promise ; but he that, whenever the
word children is used in Scripture, shall by chil-
dren understand infants, must needs believe that
in all Israel there were no men, but all were in-
fants ; and if that had been true it had been the
greater wonder they should overcome the Anakims,
and beat the king of Moab, and march so far, and
discourse so well, for they were all called the chil-
dren of Israel.
And for the allegation of St. Paul, that infants
are holy if their parents be faithful, it signifies
nothing but that they are holy by designation,
just as Jeremiah and John Baptist were sanctified
in their mother's womb, that is, they were appointed
332 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
and designed for holy ministries, but had not re-
ceived the promise of the Father — the gift of the
Holy Ghost — for all that sanctifi cation ; and just
so the children of Christian parents are sanctified :
that is, designed to the service of Jesus Christ and
the future participation of the promises.
And as the promise appertains not (for aught
appears) to infants in that capacity and con-
sistence, but only by the title of their being rea-
sonable creatures, and when they come to that
act of which by nature they have the faculty,
so if it did, yet baptism is not the means of con-
veying the Holy Ghost. For that which Peter
says, ' Be baptized and ye shall receive the Holy
Ghost,' signifies no more than this : first, be bap-
tized, and then by imposition of the apostles' hands
(which was another mystery and rite) ye shall
receive the promise of the Father. And this is no-
thing but an insinuation of the rite of confirma-
tion, as is to this sense expounded by divers an-
cient authors ; and in ordinary ministry the eflfect
of it is not bestowed upon any unbaptized persons,
for it is in order next after baptism, and upon
this ground Peter's argument in the case of Corne-
lius was concluding enough, a majori ad minus,
(from the greater to the less). Thus the Holy
Ghost was bestowed upon him and his family,
which gift, by ordinary ministry, was consequent
to baptism, (not as the effect is to the cause or to
the proper instrument, but as a consequent is to an
antecedent, in a chain of causes accidentally and
by positive institution depending upon each other.)
God by that miracle did give testimony, that the
persons of the men were in great dispositions to-
w^ards heaven, and therefore were to be admitted
CASE OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 333
to those rites which are the ordinary inlets into
the kingdom of heaven. But then, from hence to
arg-ue that wherever there is a capacity of receiv-
ing the same grace there also the same sign is to
be ministered, and from hence to infer paedo-
baptism, is an argument very fallacious upon seve-
ral grounds. First, because baptism is not the
sign of the Holy Ghost, but by another mystery it
was conveyed ordinarily, and extraordinarily it was
conveyed independently from any mystery; and
so the argument goes upon a wrong supposition.
Secondly, if the supposition were true, the proposi-
tion built upon it is false; for they that are capable of
the same grace are not always capable of the same
sign ; for women, under the law of Moses, although
they were capable of the righteousness of faith, yet
they were not capable of the sign of circumcision.
For God does not always convey his graces in the
same manner, but to some mediately, to others imme-
diately ; and there is no better instance in the world
of it than the gift of the Holy Ghost, (which is the
thing now instanced in this contestation) ; for it is
certain in Scripture, that it was ordinarily given by
imposition of hands, and that after baptism; (and
when this came into an ordinary ministry it was
called by the ancient church chrism, or confirma-
tion); but yet it was given sometimes without im-
position of hands, as at Pentecost and to the family
of Cornelius ; sometimes before baptism, sometimes
after, sometimes in conjunction with it.
And after all this, lest these arguments should
not ascertain their cause, they fall on complaining
against God, and will not be content with God
unless they may baptize their children, but take
exceptions that God did more for the children of
334 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING,
the Jews. But why so ? Because God made a
covenant with their children actually as infants,
and consigned it by circumcision. Well, so he
did with our children too in their joroportion. He
made a covenant of spiritual promises on his part,
and spiritual and real services on ours; and this
pertains to children when they are capable, but
made with them as soon as they are alive, and yet
not so as with the Jews' babes ; for as their rite
consigned them actually, so it was a national and
temporal blessing and covenant, as a separation of
them from the portion of the nations, a marking
them for a peculiar people, (and therefore, while
they were in the wilderness, and separate from the
commixture of all people, they were not all circum-
cised,) but as that rite did seal the righteousness of
faith, so by virtue of its adherency and remanency
in their flesh, it did that work when the children
came to age. But in Christian infants the case is
otherwise ; for the new covenant being established
upon better promises, is not only to better pur-
poses, but also in distinct manner to be under-
stood; when their spirits are as receptive of a
spiritual act or impress as the bodies of Jewish
children were of the sign of circumcision, then it
is to be consigned : but this business is quickly at
an end, by saying that God hath done no less for
ours than for their children ; for he will do the
mercies of a Father and Creator to them, and he
did no more to the other; but he hath done more
to ours, for he hath made a covenant \vith them,
and built it upon promises of the greatest concern-
ment ; he did not so to them. But then, for the
other part, which is the main of the argument, that
unless this mercy be consigned by baptism, as
CASE OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 335
good not at all in respect of us, because we want the
comfort of it; this is the greatest vanity in the
world ; for when God hath made a promise per-
taining also to our children, (for so our adversaries
contend, and we also acknowledge in its true sense,)
shall not this promise, this word of God, be of suf-
ficient truth, certainty, and efficacy to cause com-
fort, unless we tempt God, and require a sign of
him ? May not Christ say to these men as some-
time to the Jews, *a wicked and adulterous gene-
ration seeketh after a sign, but no sign shall be
given unto it?' But the truth is, this argument
is nothing but a direct quarrelling with God Al-
mighty.
Now, since there is no strength in the doctrinal
part, the practice and precedents apostolical and
ecclesiastical will be of less concernment, if they
were true, as is pretended ; because actions aposto-
lical are not always rules for ever. It might be fit
for them to do it pro loco et tempore, (for the place
and time,) as divers others of their institutions, but
yet no engagement passed thence upon following
ages; for it might be convenient at that time, in
the new spring of Christianity, and till they had
engaged a considerable party, by that means to
make them parties against the gentiles' supersti-
tion, and by way of preoccupation to ascertain
them to their own sect when they came to be men; or
for some other reason not transmitted to us, because
the question of fact itself is not sufficiently deter-
mined. For the insinuation of that precept of bap-
tizing all nations, of which children certainly are a
part, does as little advantage as any of the rest, be-
cause other parallel expressions of Scripture do de-
termine and expound themselves to a sense that
336 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
includes not all persons absolutely, but of a capa-
ble condition, as ' Worship him all ye nations,
praise him all ye people of the earth,' &c. and di-
vers more.
As for the conjecture concerning the family of
Stephanus, at the best it is but a conjecture ; and
besides that, it is not proved that there were children
in the family ; yet if that were granted, it follows
not that they were baptized, because by whole fami-
lies, in Scripture, is meant all persons of reason and
age within the family. For it is said of the ruler
at Capernaum, that 'he believed and all his house.'
Now, you may also suppose that in his house were
little babes — that is likely enough — and you may
suppose that they did believe too before they could
understand, but that is not so likely. And then
the argument from baptizing of Stephen's house-
hold may be allowed just as probable: but this is
unmanlike to build upon such slight airy con-
jectures.
But tradition, by all means, must supply the
place of Scripture, and there is pretended a tradi-
tion apostolical that infants were baptized : but at
this we are not much moved; for we, who rely
upon the written word of God as sufficient to
establish all true religion, do not value the allega-
tion of traditions ; and however the world goes,
none of the reformed churches can pretend this ar-
gument against this opinion, because they who
reject tradition when it is against them, must not
pretend it at all for them. But if we should allow
the topic to be good, yet how will it be verified ?
for so far as it can yet appear, it relies wholly
upon the testimony of Origen, for from him Austin
had it Now a tradition apostolical, if it be not
CASE OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 337
consigned with a fuller testimony than of one per-
son, whom all after ages have condemned of many
errors, will obtain so little reputation amongst
those who know that things have upon greater au-
thority pretended to derive from the apostles, and
yet falsely, that it will be a great argument that he
is credulous and weak that shall be determined by
so weak probation in matters of so great concern-
ment. And the truth of the business is, as there
was no command of Scripture to oblige children to
the susception of it, so the necessity of paedobap-
tism was not determined in the church till in the
eighth age after Christ; but in the year 418, in the
Milevitan council, a provincial of Africa, there was
a canon made for psedobaptism : — never till then !
I grant it was practised in Africa before that time,
and they or some of them thought well of it ; and
though that be no argument for us to think so, yet
none of them did ever before pretend it to be ne-
cessary, none to have been a precept of the gospel.
St. Austin was the first that ever preached it to be
absolutely necessary, and it was in his heat and
anger against Pelagius, who had warmed and
chafed him so in that question that it made him
innovate in other doctrines, possibly of more con-
cernment than this. And that although this was
practised anciently in Africa, yet that it was with-
out an opinion of necessity, and not often there,
nor at all in other places, we have the testimony of
a learned paedobaptist, Ludovicus Vives, who in
his annotations upon St. Austin, De Civif. Dei, lib.
i. c. 27, affirms, " that anciently none bat adults
were baptized."*
* " Neminem nisi adultum antiquitus solere baptizari."
z
338 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
But, besides that the tradition cannot be proved
to be apostolical, we have very good evidence from
antiquity, that it was the opinion of the primitive
church that infants ought not to be baptized ;' and
this is clear in the sixth canon of the council of
Neocsesarea. The words are these : " A woman
with child may be baptized when she please; for
her baptism concerns not the child."* The reason
of the connexion of the parts of that canon is in the
following words : "because every one in that confes-
sion is to give a demonstration of his own choice and
election :" meaning plainly, that if the baptism of
the mother did also pass upon the child, it were not
fit for a pregnant woman to receive baptism ; be-
cause in that sacrament there being a confession
of faith, which confession supposes understanding
and free choice, it is not reasonable the child should
be consigned with such a mystery, since it cannot
do any act of choice or understanding. The canon
speaks reason, and it intimates a practice, which
was absolutely universal in the church, of interro-
gating the catechumens concerning the articles of
creed ; which is one argument that either they did
not admit infants to baptism, or that they did pre-
varicate egregiously in asking questions of them, who
themselves knew were not capable of giving answer.
And to supply their incapacity^by the answer of a
godfather, is but the same unreasonableness acted
with a worse circumstance. f And there is no sen-
* Ilepi KVO(popov(r7]Q on del (pMri^efrOctL ottots iSovXeTciif
ovShv yap koivojvh i) TiKTOvaa Ttp TiKTOf.iSifOJ' Sid to eKciTOv
ididv Ti)v irpoalpeaiv ti)v Iv rij o/ioXoyia deiKWcrOai.
•j- " Quid ni necesse est sponsores etiam periculo ingeri, qui
et ipsi per mortalitatem destituere promissiones suas possint, et
proventu malae indolis falli?" — Franc. Junius in notis ad Tertul.
lib. de Baptis. ap. 18.
CASE OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 339
sible account can be given of it ; for that which
some imperfectly murmur concerning stipulations
civil, performed by tutors in the name of their
pupils, is an absolute vanity. For what if by
positive constitution of the Romans such solemni-
ties of law are required in all stipulations, and by
indulgence are permitted in the case of a notable
benefit accruing to minors, must God be tied, and
Christian religion transact her mysteries by propor-
tion and compliance with the law of the Romans ?
I know God might, if he would, have appointed
godfathers to give answer in behalf of the chil-
dren, and to be fidejussors for them; but we can-
not find any authority or ground that he hath, and
if he had, then it is to be supposed he would have
given them commission to have transacted the so-
lemnity with better circumstances, and given an-
swers with more truth. For the question is asked
of believing in the present. And if the godfathers
answer in the name of the child, " I do believe," it
is notorious they speak false and ridiculously ; for
the infant is not capable of believing ; and if he
were he were also capable of dissenting, and how
then do they know his mind? And therefore Ter-
tullian gives advice, that the baptism of infants
should be deferred till they could give an account
of their faith,* and the same also is the counsel of
Gregory,f bishop of Nazianzum, although he
allows them to hasten it in case of necessity; for
though his reason taught him what was fit, yet he
• Lib. de Baptis. prope finem, cap. 18. " Itaque pro persons
cuj usque conditione ac dispositione, etiam agtate, cunctatio
baptism! utilior est, prsecipue tamen circa parvulos.— Fiant
Christiani cum Christum nosse potuerint."
f Orat. xl. qusest. in S. Baptisma.
z2
340 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
was overborne with the practice and opinion of his
age, which began to bear too violently upon him;
and yet, in another place, he makes mention of
some to whom baptism was not administered, did
vrjirioTrira, " by reason of infancy." To which if
we add that the parents of St. Austin, St. Jerome,
and St. Ambrose, although they were Christian,
yet did not baptize their children before they were
thirty years of age, it will be very considerable in
the example, and of great efficacy for destroying
the supposed necessity or derivation from the
apostles.
But, however, it is against the perpetual ana-
logy of Christ's doctrine to baptize infants : for
besides that Christ never gave any precept to bap-
tize them, nor ever himself nor his apostles (that
appears) did baptize any of ihem, all that either
he or his apostles said concerning it, requires such
previous dispositions to baptism of which infants
are not capable, and these are faith and repentance.
And not to instance in those innumerable places
that require faith before this sacrament, there needs
no more but this one saying of our blessed Sa-
viour : ' He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned ; ' *
plainly thus, faith and baptism in conjunction will
bring a man to heaven ; but if he have not faith,
baptism shall do him no good. So that if baptism
be necessary then so is faith, and much more ; for
want of faith damns absolutely — it is not said so
of the want of baptism. Now if this decretory sen-
tence be to be understood of persons of age, and
if children by such an answer (which indeed is
* Mark, xvi.
CASE OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 341
reasonable enough) be excused from the necessity
of faith, the want of which regularly does damn,
then it is sottish to say the same incapacity of reason
and faith shall not excuse from the actual suscep-
tion of baptism, which is less necessary, and to
which faith and many other acts are necessary pre-
dispositions, when it is reasonably and humanly
received. The conclusion is, that baptism is also
to be deferred till the time of faith : and whether
infants have faith or no is a cjuestion to be dis-
puted by persons that care not how much they say,
nor how little they prove.
1. Personal and actual faith they have none;
for they have no acts of understanding ; and be-
sides, how can any man know that they have, since
he never saw any sign of it, neither was he told so
by any one that could tell ? 2. Some say they
have imputative faith ; but then so let the sacra-
ment be too; that is, if they have the parents'
faith or the church's, then so let baptism be im-
puted also by derivation from them, that as in
their mothers' womb and while they hang on their
breasts they live upon their mothers' nourishment,
so they may upon the baptism of their parents or
their mother the church. For since faith is neces-
sary to the susception of baptism, (and they them-
selves confess it by striving to find out new kinds
of faith to daub the matter up,) such as the faith is
such must be the sacrament; for there is no pro-
portion between an actual sacrament and an im-
putative faith, this being in immediate and neces-
sary order to that ; and whatsoever can be said to
take off from the necessity of actual faith, all that
and much more may be said to excuse from the
actual susception of baptism. 3. The first of these
342 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
devices was that of Luther and his scholars, the
second of Calvin and his ; and yet there is a third
device which the church of Rome teaches, and that
is that infants have habitual faith : but who told
them so ? how can they prove it ? what revelation
or reason teaches any such thing ? Are they by
this habit so much as disposed to an actual belief,
without a new master ? Can an infant sent into a
Mahometan province be more confident for Chris-
tianity when he comes to be a man, than if he had
not been baptized ? Are there any acts precedent,
concomitant, or consequent to this pretended habit?
This strange invention is absolutely without art,
without Scripture, reason, or authority: but the
men are to be excused unless there were a better.
But for all these stratagems the argument now
alleged against the bajDtism of infants is demon-
strative and unanswerable.
To which also this consideration may be added,
that if baptism be necessary to the salvation of
infants, upon whom is the imposition laid ? To
whom is the command given ? to the parents or to
the children ? Not to the children, for they are
not capable of a law ; nor to the parents, for then
God hath put the salvation of innocent babes into
the power of others, and infants may be damned
for their fathers' carelessness or malice. It follows,
that it is not necessary at all to be done to them
to whom it cannot be prescribed as a law, and in
whose behalf it cannot be reasonably intrusted to
others with the appendant necessity ; and if it be
not necessary it is certain it is not reasonable ; and
most certain it is no where in terms prescribed, and
therefore it is to be presumed, that it ought to be
understood and administered according as other
CASE OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 343
precepts are, with reference to the capacity of the
subject and the reasonableness of the thing.
For I consider that the baptizing of infants does
rush us upon such inconveniences which in other
questions we avoid like rocks, which will appear if
we discourse thus.
Either baptism produces spiritual effects or it
produces them not : if it produces not any, why is
such contention about it ? what are we the nearer
heaven if we are baptized ? and if it be neglected,
what are we the farther off? But if (as without
all perad venture all the psedobaptists will say)
baptism does do a work upon the soul, producing
spiritual benefits and advantages, these advantages
are produced by the external work of the sacrament
alone, or by that as it is helped by the co-operation
and predispositions of the suscipient.
If by the external work of the sacrament alone,
how does this differ from the opus operatum of the
papists, save that it is worse ? For they say the
sacrament does not produce its effect but in a sus-
cipient, disposed by all requisites and due prepara-
tives of piety, faith, and repentance; though in a
subject so disposed, they say the sacrament by its
own virtue does it, but this opinion says, it does it
of itself without the help or so much as the co-
existence of any condition but the mere recep-
tion.
But if the sacrament does not do its work alone,
but per modum recipientis, (according to the predis-
positions of the suscipient,) then because infants
can neither hinder it nor do any thing to further it,
it does them no benefit at all. And if any man runs
for succour to that exploded refuge, that infants
have faith, or any other inspired habit of I know
344 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
not what or how, we desire no more advantage in
the world than that they are constrained to an
answer without revelation, against reason, com-
mon sense, and all the experience in the world.
The sum of the argument in short is this, though
under another representment : —
Either baptism is a mere ceremony, or it implies
a duty on our part. If it be a ceremony only, how
does it sanctify us, or make the comers thereunto
perfect? If it implies a duty on our part, how
then can children receive it, who cannot do duty
at all ?
And indeed this way of ministration makes bap-
tism to be wholly an outward duty, a w ork of the
law, a carnal ordinance ; it makes us adhere to the
letter without regard of the spirit, to be satisfied
with shadows, to return to bondage, to relinquish
the mysteriousness, the substance, and spirituality
of the gospel. Which argument is of so much the
more consideration because, under the spiritual
covenant, or the gospel of grace, if the mystery
goes not before the symbol, (which it does when
the symbols are seals and consignations of the
grace, as it is said the sacraments are,) yet it al-
ways accompanies it, but never follows in order
of time ; and this is clear in the perpetual analogy
of Holy Scripture.
For baptism is never propounded, mentioned, or
enjoined, as a means of remission of sins, or of
eternal life, but something of duty, choice, and
sanctity is joined with it, in order to production of
the end so mentioned : ' Know^ ye not that as many
as are baptized into Christ Jesus are baptized into
his death ?' * There is the mystery and the symbol
* Rom. vi. 3.
CASE OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 345
together, and declared to be perpetually united,
oaroL l£a7rTi(r9i]ixev, " SO many of us as were baptized."
All of us who were baptized into one were bap-
tized into the other. Not only into the name of
Christ, but into his death also. But the meaning
of this, as it is explained in the following words of
St. Paul, makes much for our purpose ; for to be
baptized into his death, signifies ' to be buried with
him in baptism, that as Christ rose from the dead
we also should walk in newness of life.'* That is
the full mystery of baptism ; for being baptized
into his death, or which is all one in the next words,
kv ofioiMfiari Tov Bavdrov avTov, ' into the likeness of
his death,' cannot go alone; ' if we be so planted
into Christ, we shall be partakers of his resurrec-
tion,'f and that is not here instanced in precise
reward, but in exact duty ; for all this is nothing
but ' crucifixion of the old man, a destroying the
body of sin, that we no longer serve sin.' %
This indeed is truly to be baptized, both in the
symbol and the mystery ; whatsoever is less than
this is but the symbol only, a mere ceremony, an opus
operatum, a dead letter, an empty shadow, an in-
strument without an agent to manage, or force to
actuate it.
Plainer yet : ^Whosoever are baptized into Christ
have put on Christ, have put on the new man :' but
to put on this new man is * to be formed in right-
eousness, and holiness, and truth.' This whole
argument is the very words of St. Paul ; the major
proposition is dogmatically determined. Gal. in. 27;
the minor in Ephes. iv. 24. The conclusion then
is obvious, that they who are not formed new in
* Rom. iv. 4. t Verse 5. X Verse 6.
346 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
righteousness, and holiness, and truth — they who,
remaining in the present incapacities, cannot walk
in newness of life — they have not been baptized
into Christ, and then they have but one member of
tlie distinction used by St. Peter, they have that
baptism * which is a putting away the filth of the
flesh,' but they have not that baptism ' which is
Uie answer of a good conscience towards God,'*
which is the only 'baptism that saves us:' and
this is the case of children ; and then the case is
thus : —
As infants by the force of nature cannot put
themselves into a supernatural condition, (and
therefore, say the paedobaptists, they need bap-
tism to put them into it,) so if they be baptized
before the use of reason, before the works of the
Spirit, before the operations of grace, before they
can throw off ' the works of darkness, and live in
righteousness and newness of life,' they are never
the nearer : from the pains of hell they shall be
saved by the mercies of God and their own inno-
cence, though they die in a state of nature, and
baptism will carry them no further. For that bap-
tism that saves us is not the only washing with
water of which only children are capable, but the
answer of a good conscience towards God ; of which
tliey are not capable till the use of reason, till they
know to choose the good and refuse the evil.
And from thence I consider anew, that all vows
made by persons under others' names, stipulations
made by minors, are not valid till they, by a super-
vening act, after they are of sufficient age, do ratify
them. Why then may not infants as well make
• 1 Peter, iii. 21 .
CASE OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 347
the vow de novo, as de novo ratify that which was
made for them ab antiquo, when they come to years
of choice ? * If the infant vow be invalid till the
manly confirmation, why were it not as good they
staid to make it till that time, before which if they
do make it it is to no purpose ? This would be
considered.
And in conclusion ; our way is the surer way,
for not to baptize children till they can give an ac-
count of their faith is the most proportionable to
an act of reason and humanity ; and it can have no
danger in it; for to say that infants maybe damned
for want of baptism, (a thing which is not in their
power to acquire, they being persons not yet capa-
ble of a law,) is to affirm that of God which we
dare not say of any wise and good man. Certainly
it is much derogatory to God's justice, and a plain
defiance to the infinite reputation of his good-
ness.
And therefore, whoever will pertinaciously per-
sist in this oj^inion of the psedobaptists, and prac-
tise it accordingly, they pollute the blood of the
everlasting testament, they dishonour and make a
pageantry of the sacrament, they ineffectually repre-
sent a sepulchre into the death of Christ, and please
themselves in a sign without effect, making bap-
tism like the fig-tree in the gospel, full of leaves
but no fruit ; and they invocate the Holy Ghost in
vain, doing as if one should call upon him to illu-
minate a stone or a tree.
Thus far the Anabaptists may argue ; and men
have disputed against them with so much weak-
ness and confidence, that they have been encou-
• Vide Erasmum in praefat. ad Annotat. in Matth.
348 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
raged in their error* more by the accidental ad-
vantages we have given them by our weak arguings
than by any truth of their cause, or excellency of
their wit. But the use I make of it as to our pre-
sent c|uestion is this : that since there is no direct
impiety in the opinion, nor any that is apparently
consequent to it, and they with so much probabi-
lity do, or may, pretend to true persuasion, they
are, with all means Christian, fair, and humane, to
be redargued or instructed ; but if they cannot be
persuaded, they must be left to God, who knows
every degree of every man's understanding, all his
weaknesses and strengths, what impress each argu-
ment makes upon his spirit, and how irresistible
every reason is ; and he alone judges his innocency
and sincerity. And for that cjuestion, T think there
is so much to be pretended against that which
I believe to be the truth, that there is much more
ti'uth than evidence on our side; and therefore we
may be confident as for our own particulars, but
not too forward peremptorily to prescribe to others,
much less to damn, or to kill, or to persecute them
that only in this particular disagree.
• Oi^K 8v toIq eavTwv doy^aai tsv taxvv exovTfg^ aXX'
Ev To~ic I'ji^ifTsnwv (TrtS'poTg ravTTjv ^rjpvovTeg, as Xazianzen ob-
serves of the case of the church in his time.
349
SECTION XIX.
That there may be no Toleration of Doctrines incon-
consistent ivith Piety or the public good.
But then for their capital opinion, with all its
branches, that it is not lawful for princes to put
malefactors to death, nor to take up defensive arms,
nor to minister an oath, nor to contend in judg-
ment, it is not to be disputed with such liberty as
the former. For although it be part of that doc-
ti'ine which Clemens Alexandrinus says was deli-
vered by private tradition from the apostles, 'that
it is not allowable for Christians to go to law,
neither before the heathen nor believers ; and that a
righteous man ought not to take an oath ;'* and the
other part seems to be warranted by the eleventh
canon of the Nicene council, which enjoins pe-
nance to them that take arms after their conversion
to Christianity ; yet either these authorities are to
be slighted, or be made receptive of any interpreta-
tion, rather than the commonwealth be disarmed
of its necessary supports, and all laws made inef-
fectual and impertinent : for the interest of the re-
public and the well-being of bodies politic is not
to depend upon the nicety of our imaginations, or
the fancies of any peevish or mistaken priests; and
there is no reason a prince should ask John-a-
Brunck whether his understanding will give him
* " Non licere Christianis contendere in judicio, nee
coram gentibus, nee coram Sanctis, et perfeetum non debere
jurare." — Lib. vii. Stromat.
350 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
leave to reign, and be a king-. Nay, suppose there
were clivers places of Scripture which did seem-
ingly restrain the political use of the sword, yet
since the avoiding a personal inconvenience hath
by all men been accounted sufficient reason to ex-
pound Scripture to any sense rather than the
literal, which infers an unreasonable inconvenience,
(and therefore the pulling out an eye and the
cutting off an hand is expounded by mortifying a
vice, and killing a criminal habit,) much rather
must the allegations against the power of the sword
endure any sense, rather than it should be thought
that Christianity should destroy that which is the
only instrument of justice, the restraint of vice
and support of bodies politic. It is certain that
Christ and his apostles, and Christian religion, did
comply with the most absolute government, and
the most imperial that was then in the world ; and
it could not have been at all endured in the world
if it had not; for, indeed, the world itself could not
last in regular and orderly communities of men,
but be a perpetual confusion, if princes and the
supreme power in bodies politic were not armed
with a coercive power to punish malefactors. The
public necessity and universal experience of all the
world convinces those men of being most unrea-
sonable that make such pretences, which destroy
all laws and all communities, and the bands of
civil societies, and leave it arbitrary to every vain or
vicious person, whether men shall be safe, or laws
be established, or a murderer hanged, or princes
rule. So that, in this case, men are not so much
to dispute with particular arguments as to consider
the interest and concernment of kingdoms and
public societies; for the religion of Jesus Christ is
NO TOLERATION OF IMPIETY. 351
the best establisher of the felicity of private persons
and of public communities ; it is a religion that is
prudent and innocent, humane, and reasonable, and
brought infinite advantages to mankind, but no in-
convenience, nothing that is unnatural, or unsoci-
able, or unjust. And if it be certain that this world
cannot be governed without laws, and laws without
a compulsory signify nothing, then it is certain
that it is no good religion that teaches doctrine
whose consequents will destroy all government;
and therefore it is as much to be rooted out as
any thing that is the greatest pest and nuisance to
the public interest. And that we may guess at
the purjDOses of the men and the inconvenience of
such doctrine, these men that did first intend by
their doctrine to disarm all princes and bodies po-
litic, did themselves take up arms to establish their
wild and impious fancy; and, indeed, that prince
or commonwealth that should be persuaded by
them, would be exposed to all the insolences of
foreigners, and all mutinies of the teachers them-
selves ; and the governors of the people could not
do that duty they owe to their people of protecting
them from the rapine and malice which will be in
the world as long as the world is. And therefore
here they are to be restrained from preaching such
doctrine, if they mean to preserve their govern-
ment; and the necessity of the thing will justify
the lawfulness of the thing. If they think it to
themselves, that it cannot be helped so long as it
is innocent, as much as concerns the public ; but
if they preach it they may be accounted authors of
all the consequent inconveniences, and punished
accordingly. No doctrine that destroys govern-
ment is to be endured ; for although those doctrines
352 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
axe not always good that serve the private ends of
princes or the secret designs of state, which, by
reason of some accidents or imperfections of men,
may be promoted by that which is false and pre-
tending ; yet no doctrine can be good that does
not comply with the formality of government itself,
and the well-being of bodies politic : ' Cato, when
an augnr, ventured to say that the omens were
always in favour of what was for the public good, and
against whatever was the reverse.'* Religion is to
meliorate the condition of a people, not to do it
disadvantage; and therefore those doctrines that
inconvenience the public are no parts of good reli-
gion. The safety of the state is a necessary consi-
deration in the permission of prophesyings ; for
according to the true, solid, and prudent ends of
the republic, so is the doctrine to be permitted or
restrained, and the men that preach it, according
as they are good subjects and right common-
wealth's men ; for religion is a thing superinduced
to temporal government, and the church is an ad-
dition of a capacity to a commonwealth, and there-
fore is in no sense to disserve the necessity and just
interests of that to which it is superadded for its
advantage and conservation.
And thus, by a proportion to the rules of these
instances, all their other doctrines are to have their
judgment, as concerning toleration or restraint ;
for all are either speculative or practical ; they are
consistent with the public ends or inconsistent, they
teach impiety or they are innocent, and they are
to be permitted or rejected accordingly. For in
• " Augur cum esset Cato, dicere ausus est, optimis auspiciis
ea geri quae pro reipublicee salute gererentur; quee contra rem-
publicam fierent, contra auspicia fieri." — Cicero de Senectute.
CASE OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. 353
the question of toleration, the foundation of faith,
good life and government is to be secured : in
all others' cases the former considerations are
effectual.
SECTION XX.
How far the Religion of the Church of Rome is
tolerable.
But now, concerning the religion of the church of
Rome, (which was the other instance I promised to
consider,) we will proceed another way, and not
consider the truth or falsity of the doctrines ; for
that is not the best way to determine this question
concerning permitting their religion or assemblies;
because that a thing is not true, is not argument
sufficient to conclude that he that believes it true is
not to be endured ; but we are to consider what
inducements there are that jjossess the understand-
ing of those men, whether they be reasonable and
innocent, sufficient to abuse or persuade wise and
good men, or whether the doctrines be commenced
upon design, and managed with impiety, and then
have effects not be endured.
And here, first, I consider that those doctrines
that have had long continuance and possession in
the church, cannot easily be supposed in the pre-
sent professors to be a design, since they have re-
ceived it from so many ages ; and it is not likely
that all ages should have the same purposes, or
that the same doctrine should serve the several
A A
354 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
ends of divers ages. But, however, long prescrip-
tion is a prejudice oftentimes so insupportable
that it cannot with many arguments be retrenched,
as relying upon these grounds, that truth is more
certain than falsehood ; that God would not for so
many ages forsake his church, and leave her in
error ; that w hatsoever is new is not only suspi-
cious but false ; which are suppositions pious and
plausible enough. And if the church of Rome had
communicated infants so long as she hath prayed
to saints or baptized infants, the communicating
would have been believed with as much confidence
as the other articles are, and the dissentients with
as much impatience rejected. But this considera-
tion is to be enlarged upon all those particulars,
which as they are apt to abuse the persons of the
men and amuse their understandings, so they are
instruments of their excuse ; and by making their
errors to be invincible, and their opinions, thougli
false, yet not criminal, make it also to be an effect
ef reason and charity to permit the men a liberty
of their conscience, and let them answer to God for
themselves and their ow'n opinions i such as are
the beauty and splendour of their church ; their
pompous service ; the stateliness and solemnity of
the hierarchy ; their name of Catholic, which they
suppose their own due, and to concern no other
sect of Christians ; the antiquity of many of their
doctrines; the continual succession of their bishops;
their immediate derivation from the apostles; their
title to succeed St. Peter; the supjDosal and pre-
tence of his personal prerogatives ; the advantages
which the conjunction of the imperial seat with
their episcopal hath brought to that see ; the flatter-
ing expressions of minor bishops, which by being
CASE OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. 35^
old records, have obtained credibility ; the multi-
tude and variety of people which are of their per-
suasion ; apparent consent with antiquity in many
ceremonials which other churches have rejected;
and a pretended, and sometimes an aj^parent con-
sent with some elder ages in many matters doctrinal;
the advantage which is derived to them by enter-
taining some personal opinions of the fathers, which
they with infinite clamours see to be cried up to be
a doctrine of the church of that time ; the great
consent of one part with another in that which
most of them affirm to be matter of faith ; the great
differences which are commenced amongst their ad-
versaries, abusing the Liberty of Prophesying unto
a very great licentiousness; their happiness of
being instruments in converting divers nations;
the advantages of monarchical government, the
benefit of which as well as the inconveniences
(which though they feel they consider not) they
daily do enjoy ; the piety and the austerity of their
religious orders of men and women ; the single life
of their priests and bishops ; the riches of their
church ; the severity of their fasts and their exte-
rior observances; the great reputation of their first
bishops for faith and sanctity ; the known holiness
of some of those persons whose institutes the reli-
gious persons pretend to imitate; their miracles,
false or true, substantial or imaginary ; the casual-
ties and accidents that have happened to their ad-
versaries, which, being chances of humanity, are
attributed to several causes, according as the fancies
of men and their interests are pleased or satisfied ;
the temporal felicity of their professors; the ob-
lique arts and indirect proceedings of some of those
who departed from them ; andamongst many other
A A 2
356 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
things, the names of heretic and schismatic, which
they with infinite pertinacy fasten upon all that
disagree from them — these things, and divers others,
may very easily persuade persons of much reason
and more piety, to retain that which they know to
have been the religion of their forefathers, which
had actual possession and seizure of men's under-
standings before the opposite professions had a
name; and so much the rather, because religion
hath more advantages upon the fancy and affec-
tions than it hath upon philosophy and severe dis-
courses, and therefore is the more easily persuaded
upon such grounds as these, which are more apt to
amuse than to satisfy the understanding.
Secondly, if we consider the doctrines them-
selves, we shall find them to be superstructures ill
built and worse managed, but yet they keep the
foundation ; they build upon God in Jesus Christ;
they profess the apostles' creed ; they retain faith
and repentance as the supporters of all our hopes
of heaven, and believe many more truths than can
be proved to be of simple and original necessity to
salvation ; and therefore all the wisest personages
of the adverse party allowed to them possibility of
salvation, whilst their errors are not faults of their
will, but weaknesses and deceptions of the under-
standing. So that there is nothing in the foundation
of faith that can reasonably hinder them to be per-
mitted. The foundation of faith stands secure
enough for all their vain and unhandsome super-
structures.
But then, on the other side, if we take account
of their doctrines as they relate to good life, or are
consistent or inconsistent with civil government,
we shall have other considerations.
CASE OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. 357
For, thirdly, I consider that many of their doc-
trines do accidentally teach or lead to ill life ; and
it will appear to any man that considers the result
of these propositions. Attrition (which is a low
and imperfect deg^ree of sorrow for sin, or, as others
say, a sorrow for sin commenced upon any reason
of temporal hope, or fear, or desire, or any thins^
else) is a sufficient disposition for a man in the
sacrament of penance to receive absolution, and be
justified before God, by taking away the guilt of
all his sins and the obligation to eternal pains.
So that already the fear of hell is c^uite removed,
upon conditions so easy that many men take more
pains to get a groat, than by this doctrine we are
obliged to for the curing and acquitting all the
greatest sins of a whole life of the most vicious per-
son in the world ; and but that they affright their
people with a fear of purgatory, or with the severity
of penances, in case they will not venture for pur-
gatory, (for by their doctrine they may choose or
refuse either,) there would be nothing in their
doctrine or discipline to impede and slacken their
proclivity to sin. But then they have as easy a
cure for that too, with a little more charge some-
times, but most commonly with less trouble. For
there are so many confraternities, so many privi-
leged churches, altars, monasteries, coemeteries,
offices, festivals, and so free a concession of indul-
gences appendant to all these, and a thousand fine
devices to take away the fear of purgatory, to com-
mute or expiate penances, that in no sect of men
do they with more ease and cheapness reconcile a
wicked life with the hopes of heaven, than in the
Roman communion.
358 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYI^■G.
And, indeed, if men would consider things upon
their true grounds, the church of Rome should
be more reproved upon doctrines that infer ill
life, than upon such as are contrariant to faith.
For false superstructures do not always destroy
faith; but many of the doctrines they teach, if
they were prosecuted to the utmost issue, would
destroy good life. And therefore my quarrel with
the church of Rome is greater and stronger upon
such points which are not usually considered, than
it is upon the ordinary disputes which have, to no
very great purpose, so much disturbed Christen-
dom ; and I am more scandalized at her for teach-
ing the sufficiency of attrition in the sacrament, for
indulging penances so frequently, for remitting all
discipline, for making so great a part of religion to
consist in externals and ceremonials, for putting
more force and energy, and exacting with more
severity the commandments of men than the pre-
cepts of justice and internal religion; lastly, be-
sides many other things, for promising heaven to
persons after a wicked life, upon their impertinent
cries and ceremonials, transacted by the priest and
the dying person : I confess, I wish the zeal of
Christendom were a little more active against these
and the like doctrines, and that men would vrrite
and live more earnestly against them than as yet
they have done.
But then, what influence this just zeal is to hare
upon the persons of the professors is another con-
sideration ; for as the Pharisees did preach well and
lived ill, and therefore were to be heard, not imi-
tated, so if these men live well though they teach
ill, they are to be imitated, not heard : their doc-
trines by all means. Christian and human, are to
CASE OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. 359
be discountenanced, but their persons tolerated so far
{eatenus) ; their profession and decrees to be re-
jected and condemned, but the persons to be per-
mitted, because by their good lives they confute
their doctrines; that is, they give evidence that
they think no evil to be consequent to such opi-
nions; and if they did, that they live good lives is
argument sufficient that they would themselves
cast the first stone against their own opinions,
if they thought them guilty of such misclemean-
ours.
Fourthly : but if we consider their doctrines in
relation to government and public societies of
men, then, if they prove faulty, they are so much
the more intolerable by how much the consequents
are of greater danger and malice. Such doctrines
as these — the pope may dispense with all oaths
taken to God or man; he may absolve subjects
from their allegiance to their natural prince ; faith
is not to be kept with heretics ; heretical princes
may be slain by their subjects — these propositions
are so depressed, and do so immediately communi-
cate with matter and the interests of men, that they
are of the same consideration with matters of fact,
and are to be handled accordingly. To other doc-
trines ill life may be con^:ec[uent, but the con-
nexion of the antecedent and the consequent is
not (perad venture) perceived or acknowledged by
him that believes the opinion with no greater con-
fidence than he disavows the* effect and issue of
it ; but in these the ill effect is the direct profes-
sion and purpose of the opinion ; and therefore
the man and the man's opinion is to be dealt
withal, just as the matter of fact is to be judged ;
for it is an immediate, a perceived, a direct event.
360 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
and the very purpose of the opinion. Now these
opinions are a direct overthrow to all human so-
ciety and mutual commerce, a destruction of go-
vernment, and of the laws, and duty, and subor-
dination which we owe to princes ; and therefore
those men of the church of Rome that do hold
them, and j^reach them, cannot pretend to the ex-
cuses of innocent opinions and hearty persuasion,
to the weakness of humanity, and the difficulty of
things ; for God hath not left those truths, which
are necessary for conservation of public societies of
men, so intricate and obscure but that every one
that is honest and desirous to understand his duty
will certainly know that no Christian truth destroys
a man's being sociable, and a member of the body
politic, co-operating to the conservation of the whole,
as well as of itself. However, if it might happen that
men should sincerely err in such j^lain mattei-s of
fact, (for there are fools enough in the world,) yet
if he hold his peace, no man is to persecute or
punish him; for then it is mere opinion, which
comes not under political cognizance ; that is, that
cognizance which only can punish corporally. But
if he preaches it he is actually a traitor, or sediti-
ous, or author of perjury, or a destroyer of human
society, respectively to the nature of the doctrine ;
and the preaching such doctrines cannot claim the
privilege and immunity of a mere opinion, be-
cause it is as much matter of fact as any the ac-
tions of his disciples and confidents ; and therefore
in such cases is not to be permitted, but judged
according to the nature of the effect it hath or may
have upon the actions of men.
Fifthly : but lastly, in matters merely specu-
lative, the case is wholly altered, because the body
CASE OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. 361
politic, which only may lawfully use the sword, is
not a competent judge of such matters which have
not direct influence upon the body politic, or upon
the lives and manners of men, as they are parts of
a community, (not but that princes, or judges tem-
poral, may have as much ability as others, but by
reason of the incompetency of the authority;) and
Gallio spoke wisely when he discoursed thus to
the Jews : ' If it were a matter of wrong or wicked
lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should
hear you ; but if it be a question of w^ords and
names, and of your law, look ye to it ; for I will
be no judge of such matters.'* The man spoke ex-
cellent reason, for the cognizance of these things
did appertain to men of the other robe ; but the
ecclesiastical powder, which only is competent to
take notice of such questions, is not of capacity to
use the temporal sword or corporal inflictions.
The mere doctrines and opinions of men are things
spiritual, and therefore not cognizable by a tem-
poral authority ; and the ecclesiastical authority,
which is to take cognizance, is itself so spiritual
that it cannot inflict any punishment corporal.
And it is not enough to say, that when the ma-
gistrate restrains the preaching such opinions, if
any man preaches them he may be punished, (and
then it is not for his opinion but his disobedience
that he is punished ;) for the temporal power ought
not to restrain prophecy ings, where the public
peace and interest is not certainly concerned. And
therefore it is not sufficient to excuse him whose
law, in that case, being by an incompetent power,
made a scruple where there w^as no sin.
* Acts, xviii. 14.
362 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
And under this consideration come very many
articles of the church of Rome, which are wholly
speculative, which do not derive upon practice,
which begin in the understanding and rest there,
and have no influence upon life and government,
but very accidentally and by a great many re-
moves ; and therefore are to be considered only so
far as to guide men in their persuasions, but have
no effect upon the persons of men, their bodies, or
their temporal condition : I instance in two — prayer
for the dead, and the doctrine of transubstanti-
ation ; these two to be instead of all the rest.
For the first, this discourse is to suppose it false,
and we are to direct our proceedings accordingly ;
and therefore I shall not need to urge with how
many fair words and gay pretences this doctrine is
set off, apt either to cozen or instruct the con-
science of the wisest, according as it is true or false
respectively. But we find (says the Romanist) in
the history of the IVIaccabees, that the Jews did
pray and make offerings for the dead, (which also
appears by other testimonies, and by their form of
prayers still extant, which they used in the capti-
vity :) it is very considerable, that since our blessed
Saviour did reprove all the evil doctrines and tra-
ditions of the Scribes and Pharisees, and did argue
concerning the dead and the resurrection against
the Sadduces, yet he spake no word against this
public practice, but left it as he found it, which he
who came to declare to us all the will of his Father
would not have done if it had not been innocent,
pious, and full of charity. To which, by way of
consociation, if we add, that St. Paul did pray for
Onesiphorus, ' That God would show him a mercy
CASE OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. 363
in that day/* that is, according to the style of the
New Testament, the day of judgment, the result
will be, that although it be probable that Onesi-
phorus at that time was dead, (because in his salu-
tations he salutes his household, without naming
him who was the major domo, against his custom
of salutations in other places,) yet, besides this,
the prayer was for such a blessing to him whose de-
monstration and reception could not be but after
death ; which implies clearly, that then there is a
need of mercy ; and by consequence the dead peo-
ple, even to the day of judgment inclusively, are
the subject of a misery, the object of God's mercy,
and therefore fit to be commemorated in the duties
of our piety and charity, and that we are to recom-
mend their condition to God, not only to give them
more glory in the reunion, but to pity them to such
purposes in which they need ; which because they
are not revealed to us in particular, it hinders us
not in recommending the persons in particular to
God's mercy, but should rather excite our charity
and devotion; for it being certain that they have a
need of mercy, and it being uncertain how great
their need is, it may concern the prudence of
charity to be the more earnest, as not knowing the
greatness of their necessity.
And if there should be any uncertainty in these
arguments, yet its having been the universal prac-
tice of the church of God in all places and in all
ages, till within these hundred years, is a very
great inducement for any member of the church to
believe, that in the first traditions of Christianity
and the institutions apostolical, there was nothing
• 2 Tim. i. 18.
364 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
delivered against this practice, but very much to
insinuate or enjoin it ; because the practice of it was
at the first, and was universal. And if any man
shall doubt of this, he shows nothing but that he is
ignorant of the records of the church, it being
plain in Tertullian * and St. Cyprian, f (who were
the eldest writers of the Latin church,) that in their
times it was of old the custom of the church to pray
for the souls of the faithful departed, in the dread-
ful mysteries; and it was an institution apostolical,
(says one of them,) and so transmitted to the fol-
lowing ages of the church ; and when once it began
upon slight and discontent to be contested against
by Aerius, the man was presently condemned for a
heretic, as appears in Epiphanius.
But I am not to consider the arguments for the
doctrine itself, although the probability and fair
pretence of them may help to excuse such persons
who upon these or the like grounds do heartily be-
lieve it. But I am to consider that, whether it be
true or false, there is no manner of malice in it,
and at the worst it is but a wrong error upon the
right side of charity, and concluded against by its
adversaries upon the confidence of such arguments,
which possibly are not so probable as the grounds
pretended for it.
And if the same judgment might be made of any
more of their doctrines, I think it were better men
were not furious in the condemning such cjues-
tions, which either they understood not upon the
grounds of their proper arguments, or at least con-
sider not, as subjected in the persons, and lessened
* De Corona Milit. c. 3. et De ]\fonogam. c. 10.
t Ep. 66.
CASE OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. 365
by circumstances, by the innocency of the event, or
other prudential considerations.
But the other article is harder to be judged of,
and hath made greater stirs in Christendom, and
hath been dashed with more impetuous objections,
and such as do more trouble the question of tolera-
tion. For if the doctrine of transubstantiation be
false, (as upon much evidence we believe it is,)
then it is accused of introducing idolatry, giving
divine worship to a creature, adoring of bread and
wine, and then comes in the precept of God to the
Jews, that those prophets who persuaded to idolatry
should be slain.*
But here we must deliberate, for it is concerning
the lives of men ; and yet a little deliberation may
suffice, for idolatry is a forsaking the true God,
and giving divine worship to a creature or to an
idol ; that is to an imaginary god, who hath no
foundation in essence or existence ; and is that
kind of superstition which by divines is called the
superstition of an undue object. Now it is evident
that the object of their adoration (that which is
represented to them in their minds, their thoughts,
and purposes, and by which God principally, if
not solely, takes estimate of human actions) in the
blessed sacrament, is the only true and eternal
God, hypostatically joined with his holy humanity;
which humanity they believe actually present un-
der the veil of the sacramental signs. And if
they thought him not present, they are so far from
worshipping the bread in this case, that themselves
profess it to be idolatry to do so, which is a demon-
stration that their aovA hath nothing in it that is
* Deut. xiii.
366 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
idololatrical. If their confidence and fanciful opi-
nion hath engaged them upon so great mistake, (as
without doubt it hathj yet the will hath nothing
in it, but what is a great enemy to idolatry ; " and
there is nothing damnable which is independent of
the will."* And although they have done violence
to all philosophy and the reason of man, and un-
done and cancelled the principles of two or three
sciences to bring in this article, yet they have a di-
vine revelxition whose literal and grammatical sense,
if that sense were intended, would warrant them to
do violence to all the sciences in the circle ; and,
indeed, that tvansubstantiation is openly and vio-
lently against natural reason, is an argument to
make them disbelieve, who believe the mystery of
the trinity in all those niceties of explication
which are in the school, (and which now-a-days
pass for the doctrine of the church) with as much
violence to the principles of natural and superna-
tural philosophy as can be imagined to be in the
point of transubstantiation.
1. But for the article itself, we all say that
Christ is there present some way or other extraor-
dinary ; and it will not be amiss to worship him at
that time, when he gives himself to us in so mys-
terious a manner, and with so great advantages ;
especially since the whole oftice is a consociation
of divers actions of religion and divine ^vorship.
Now, in all opinions of those men who think it an
act of religion to communicate and to offer, a di-
vine u'orship is given to Christ, and is transmitted
to him by mediation of that action and that sacra-
ment; and it is no more in the church of Rome,
'■Et nihil ardet in inferno nisi propria voluntas."
CASE OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. 367
but that they differ and mistake infinitely in the
manner of his presence ; which error is wholly
seated in the understanding, and does not commu-
nicate with the will. For all agree that the divi-
nity and the humanity of the Son of God is the
ultimate and adequate object of divine adoration,
and that it is incommunicable to any creature
whatsoever; and before they venture to pass an act
of adoration, they believe the bread to be anni-
hilated or turned into his substance who may law-
fully be w^orshipped ; and they who have these
thoughts are as much enemies of idolatry as they
that understand better how to avoid that inconve-
nience which is supposed to be the crime, which
they formally hate, and we materially avoid : this
consideration was concerning the doctrine itself.
2. And now, for any danger to men's persons for
suffering such a doctrine ; this I shall say, that if
they wdio do it, are not formally guilty of idolatry,
there is no danger that they whom they persuade
to it should be guilty ; and what persons soever
believe it to be idolatry to worship the sacrament,
while that persuasion remains will never be brought
to it, there is no fear of that : and he that persuades
them to do it by altering their persuasions and
beliefs, does no hurt but altering the opinions of
the men, and abusing their understandings ; but
when they believe it to be no idolatry, then their
so believing it is sufficient security from that crime,
which hath so great a tincture and residency in the
will that from thence only it hath its being cri-
minal.
3. How ever, if it were idolatry, I think the pre-
cept of God to the Jews, of killing false and idola-
trous prophets, will be no warrant for Christians so
368 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
to do. For in the case of tlie apostles and the men
of Samaria, when James and John would have
called for fire to destroy them, even as Elias did
under Moses's law, Christ distinguished the spirit
of Elias from his own spirit, and taught them a
lesson of greater sweetness, and consigned this
truth to all ages of the church, that such severity is
not consistent with the meekness which Christ by
his example and sermons hath made a precept
evangelical ; at most it was but a judicial law, and
no more of argument to make it necessary to us
than the Mosaical precepts of putting adulterers to
death, and trying the accused persons by the wa-
ters of jealousy.
And thus, in these two instances, I have given
account what is to be done in toleration of diversity
of opinions ; the result of which is principally this :
let the prince and the secular power have a care
the commonwealth be safe. For whether such and
such a sect of Christians be to be permitted, is a
question rather political than religious ; for as for
the concernments of religion, these instances have
furnished us with sufficient to determine us in our
duties as to that particular, and by one of these all
particulars may be judged.
And now it were a strange inhumanity to permit
Jews in a commonwealth, whose interest is served
by their inhabitation, and yet, upon ec^ual grounds
of state and policy, not to permit differing sects of
Christians ; for although possibly there is more
danger, men's persuasions should be altered in a
commixture of divers sects of Christians, yet there
is not so much danger when they are changed from
Christian to Christian, as if they be turned from
Christian to Jew, as many are daily in Spain and
Portugal.
CASE OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. 369
And this is not to be excused by saying the
church hath no power over them qui /oris sunt,
" who are without," as Jews are. For it is true the
church in the capacity of spiritual regiments hath
nothing to do with them, because they are not her
diocess : yet the prince hath to do with them, when
they are subjects of his regiment; they may not
be excommunicate any more than a stone may be
killed, because they are not of the Christian com-
munion, but they are living j^ersons, parts of the
commonwealth, infinitely deceived in their religion,
and very dangerous if they offer to persuade men to
their opinions, and are the greatest enemies of
Christ, whose honour and the interest of whose
service a Christian prince is bound with all his
power to maintain. And when the question is of
punishing disagreeing persons with death, the
church hath equally nothing to do with them both,
for she hath nothing to do with the temporal sword,
but the prince, whose subjects equally Christians
and Jews are, hath equal power over their 2>ersons ;
for a Christian is no more a subject than a Jew is;
the prince hath upon them both the same power of
life and death, so that the Jew by being no Chris-
tian is not for is, or any more an exempt person for
his body or his life than the Christian is. And
yet in all churches where the secular power hath
temporal reason to tolerate the Jews, they are tole-
rated without any scruple in religion ; which thing
is of more consideration, because the Jews are di-
rect blasphemers of the Son of God, and blasphemy
by their own law, the law of Moses, is made
capital, and might with greater reason be inflicted
upon them who acknowledge its obligation, than
urged upon Christians as an authority, enabling
B B
370 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
princes to put them to death who are accused of
accidental and consequentive blasphemy and ido-
latry respectively, which yet they hate and disavow
with much zeal and heartiness of persuasion. And
I cannot yet learn a reason why we shall not be
more complying with them who are of the house-
hold of faith ; for at least they are children, though
they be but rebellious children; (and if they were
not, what hath the mother to do with them any
more than with the Jews ?) they are in some rela-
tion or habitude of the family, for they are con-
signed with the same baptism, profess the same
faith delivered by the apostles, are erected in the
same hope, and look for the same glory to be
revealed to them, at the coming of their common
Lord and Saviour, to whose service, according to
their understanding, they have vowed themselves :
and if the disagreeing persons be to be esteemed as
heathens and publicans, yet not worse, ' Have no
company with them,' that is the worst that is to
be done to such a man in St. Paul's judgment:
* yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish
him as a brother.'
SECTION XXI.
Of the Duty of particular Churches in allowing
Communion.
From these premises we are easily instructed con-
cerning the lawfulness or duty respectively of
Christian communion, which is differently to be
DUTY OF PARTICULAR CHURCHES. 371
considered in respect of particular churches to each
other, and of particular men to particular churches:
for as for particular churches, they are bound to
allow communion to all those that profess the same
faith upon which the apostles did give communion;
for whatsoever preserves us as members of the
church, gives us title to the communion of saints;
and whatsoever faith or belief that is to which God
hath promised heaven, that faith makes us members
of the Catholic church. Since, therefore, the judicial
acts of the church are then most prudent and reli-
gious when they nearest imitate the example and
piety of God, to make the way to heaven straiter
than God made it, or to deny to communicate with
those whom God will vouchsafe to be united, and
to refuse our charity to those who have the same
faith, because they have not all our opinions, and
believe not every thing necessary which we over-
value, is impious and schismatical ; it infers tyranny
on one part, and persuades and tempts to uncha-
ritableness and animosities on both ; it dissolves
societies, and is an enemy to peace ; it busies men
in impertinent wranglings, and by names of men
and titles of factions it consigns the interested
parties to act their differences to the height, and
makes them neglect those advantages which piety
and a good life bring to the reputation of Christian
religion and societies.
And therefore Vincentius Lirinensis, and indeed
the whole church, accounted the Donatists heretics
upon this very ground, because they did imperi-
ously deny their communion to all that were not of
their persuasion ; whereas the authors of that opi-
nion for which they first did separate and make a
sect, because they did not break the church's
372 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
peace, nor magisterially prescribed to others, were
in that disagreeing and error accounted Catholics.
" Division and disunion makes you heretics, peace
and unity make Catholics,"* said St. Austin ; and
to this sense is that of St. Paul : ' If I had all faith
and not charity I am nothing.' He who upon con-
fidence of his true belief denies a charitable com-
munion to his brother, loses the reward of both.
And if j^ope Victor had been as charitable to the
Asiatics as pope Anicetus and St. Polycarp were to
each other in the same disagreeing concerning Easter,
Victor had not been TrX^/jcn/cwrfpov KaraTi^dimvoCj
so bitterly reproved and condemned as he was for
the uncharitable managing of his disagreeing, by
Polycrates and Tren^us.f True faith, which leads
to charity, leads on to that which unites wills and
affections, not opinions.!
Upon these or the like considerations the emperor
Zeno published his ivwTiKov, in which he made the
Nicene creed to be the medium of Catholic com-
munion ; and although he lived after the council
of Chalcedon, yet he made not the decrees of that
council an instrument of its restraint and limit, as
preferring the peace of Christendom and the union
of charity far before a forced or pretended unity of
persuasion, which never was or ever will be real
and substantial ; and although it v>ere very conve-
nient if it could be had, yet it is therefore not ne-
cessary because it is impossible ; and if men please,
whatever advantages to the public would be conse-
quent to it, may be supplied by a charitable com-
* '■' Divisio enim et disunio facit vos haereticos, pax et unitas
faciunt Catholicos."
+ Euseb. lib. v. c. 25, 26.
X " Concordia enim quee est charitatis effectus est unio vo-
untatum non opinionum." — Aquin. 22 se. q. 37, a. 1.
DUTY OF INDIVIDUALS. 375
But then men would do well to consider whether
or no such proceeding's do not derive the guilt of
schism upon them who least think it; and whether
of the two is the schismatic, he that makes unneces-
sary and (supposing the state of things) inconve-
nient impositions, or he that disobeys them because
he cannot, without doing violence to his conscience,
believe them : he that parts communion because
without sin he could not entertain it, or they that
have made it necessary for him to separate, by re-
quiring such conditions which to man are simply
necessary, and to his particular are either sinful or
impossible.
The sum of all is this : there is no security in any
thing or to any person, but in the pious and hearty
endeavours of a good life; and neither sin nor
error does impede it from producing its propor-
tionate and intended effect ; because it is a direct
deletery to sin, and an excuse to errors, by making
them innocent, and therefore harmless. And, in-
deed, this is the intendment and design of faith ;
for (that we may join both ends of this discourse
together) therefore certain articles are prescribed
to us, and propounded to our understanding, that
so we might be supplied with instructions, with
motives and engagements to incline and determine
our wills to the obedience of Christ. So that obe-
dience is just so consecjuent to faith, as the acts of
will are to the dictates of the understanding. Faith
therefore being in order to obedience, and so far ex-
cellent, as itself is a part of obedience or the pro-
moter of it, or an engagement to it, it is evident
that if obedience and a good life be secured upon
the most reasonable and proper grounds of Chris-
tianity, that is, upon the apostles' creed, then faith
376 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
also is secured. Since whatsoever is beside the
duties, the order of a good life cannot be a part of
faith, because upon faith a good life is built; all
other articles, by not being necessary, are no other-
wise to be required but as they are to be obtained
and found out, that is, morally and fallibly, and
humanly: it is fit all truths be promoted fairly
and properly, and yet but few articles prescribed
magisterially, nor framed into symbols and bodies
of confession ; least of all, after such composures,
should men proceed so furiously as to say all dis-
agreeing, after such declarations, to be damnable
for the future and capital for the present. But
this very thing is reason enough to make men more
limited in their prescriptions, because it is more
charitable in such suppositions to do so.
But in the thing itself, because few kinds of
errors are damnable, it is reasonable as few should
be capital ; and because every thing that is damn-
able in itself, and before God's judgment-seat, is
not discernible before men, (and questions dis-
putable are of this condition,) it is also very rea-
sonable that fewer be capital than what are damn-
able, and that such questions should be permitted
to men to believe, because they must be left to
God to judge. It concerns all persons to see that
they do their best to find out truth, and if they do,
it is certain that let the error be never so damnable,
they shall escape the error or the misery of being
damned for it. And if God will not be angry at men
for being invincibly deceived, why should men be
angry one at another ? For he that is most displeased
at another man's error, may also be tempted in his
own will, and as much deceived in his understanding ;
for if he may fail in what he can choose, he may
DUTY OF INDIVIDUALS. 377
also fail in what he cannot choose ; his understand-
ing is no more secured than his will, nor his faith
more than his obedience. It is his own fault if he
offends God in either ; but whatsoever is not to be
avoided, as errors which are incident oftentimes
even to the best and most inquisitive of men, are
not offences against God, and therefore not to be
punished or restrained by men. But all such opi-
nions in which the public interests of the com-
monwealth, and the foundation of faith, and a good
life are not concerned, are to be permitted freely :
' Let every one be fully persuaded in his own
mind,' was the doctrine of St. Paul, and that is
argument and conclusion too ; and they were ex-
cellent words which St. Ambrose said in attestation
of this great truth : " The civil authority has no
right to interdict the liberty of speaking, nor the
sacerdotal to prevent speaking what you think."*
I end with a story which I find in the Jews'
books : — When Abraham sat at his tent door, ac-
cording to his custom, waiting to entertain strangers,
he espied an old man stooping and leaning on his
staff, weary with age and travel, coming towards
him, who was an hundred years of age ; he received
him kindly, washed his feet, provided supper, and
caused him to sit down ; but observing that the old
man eat and prayed not, nor begged for a blessing
on his meat, asked him, why he did not worship
the God of heaven ? The old man told him that
he worshipped the fire only, and acknowledged
no other God ; at which answer Abraham grew so
zealously angry, that he thrust the old man out of
his tent, and exposed him to all the evils of the
* " Nee imperiale est libertatem dicendi negare^ nee sacer-
dotale quod sentias non dicere.'''
378 THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING.
night and an unguarded condition. When the
old man was gone, God called to Abraham, and
asked him where the stranger was ? he replied, I
thrust him away because he did not worship thee :
God answered him, I have suffered him these hun-
dred years, although he dishonoured me, and
couldst thou not endure him one night, when he
gave thee no trouble ? Upon this, saith the story,
Abraham fetched him back again, and gave him
hospitable entertainment and wise instruction : " Go
thou and do likewise," and thy charity will be
rewarded by the God of Abraham.
THE END.
RicLerby, Printer, Sherboiun Lane.
Princeton Theological Semrnary-Spe
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