evangelical, and from the practice apostolical, the nature of faith and its integrity consist 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 propositions, which are extrinsical to these two considerations, be they true or be they false, make not heresy, nor the man an heretic; and, therefore, however he may be an erring person, yet he is to be used accordingly, pitied and instructed, not condemned or excommunicated; and this is the result of the first ground, the consideration of the nature of faith and heresy. SECTION III. Of the Difficulty and Uncertainty of Arguments from Scripture, in Questions not simply necessary, not literally determined. 1. God, who disposes of all things sweetly, and according 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' nisi pereuntibus,' saith St. Paul; Пάons vàg ågetñs παράκλησιν, καὶ κακίας ἁπάσης τροπὴν ἐν ταύταις εὑρίσκομεν, saith Damascena; and that so manifestly that no man can be ignorant of the foundation of faith, without his own apparent fault. And this is acknowledged by all wise and good men, and is evident, besides the reasonableness of the thing, in the testimonies of St. Austin, Jerome, Chrysostom, Ful Orthod. Fidei, lib. iv. c. 18. b Super Psal. 88. et de Util. Cred. c. 6. d Homil. 3. in Thes. ép. 2. gentius, Hugo de Sancto Victore, Theodoret, Lactantius, Theophilus Antiochenus', Aquinas, and the later schoolmen. And God hath done more; for many things, which are only profitable, are also set down so plainly, that, as St. Austin says, "Nemo inde haurire non possit, si modò ad hauriendum devotè ac piè accedat:" but of such things there is no question commenced in Christendom; and if there were, it cannot but be a crime and human interest, that are the authors of such disputes; and, therefore, these cannot be simple errors, but always heresies, because the principle of them is a personal sin. 2. But besides these things, which are so plainly set down, some for doctrine,' as St. Paul says, that is, for articles and foundation of faith; some for instruction, 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 inwrapped with a cloud, or so darkened with umbrages, 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 imperfections, and incentives to the longings after heaven, and the clearest revelations of eternity, and as occasions and opportunities of our mutual charity and toleration to each other, and humility in ourselves, rather than the repositories of faith, and furniture of creeds, and articles of belief. 3. For wherever the word of God is kept, whether in Scripture alone, or also in tradition, he that considers that the meaning of the one, and the truth or certainty of the other, are things of great question, will see a necessity in these things, which are the subject matter of most of the questions of Christendom, that men should hope to be excused by an implicit faith in God Almighty. For when there are, in the explications of Scripture, so many commentaries, so many senses and interpretations, so many volumes in all ages, and Serm. de Confess. In Gen. ap. Struch. p. 87. ↑ Miscel. 2. lib. i. tit. 46. 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 prepared to consent in that 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 explicit 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, whosoever 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 obedience of understanding in this as in the other. But because it is not so certain, that 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 to God does involve that, and there is no inconvenience in the world this way, but that we implicitly believe one article more, viz. the church's authority 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 explicitly, or implicitly, we also believe the church implicitly 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, however, if this will not help us, there is no help for us, but good fortune or absolute predestination; for by choice and industry, no man can secure himself, that, in all the mysteries of religion taught in Scripture, he shall certainly understand, and explicitly believe, that sense that God intended. For to this purpose there are many considerations. 4. First; There are so many thousands of copies, that were written by persons of several interests and persuasions,— such different understandings and tempers,-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 instances in that of the psalm, "Dicite in nationibus, 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 part 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 words he repeats, Contr. Polygamos, lib. ii.' "Et illi satis faciebant dicentes, sæculum istud iniquitatis et incredulitatis substantia est, quæ non sinit per immundos spiritus veram Dei apprehendi virtutem, idcirco, jam nunc revela justitiam tuam."-These words are thought by some to savour of Manichaism; and, for aught 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 that favour be procured; and did not the Ebionites reject all the epistles of St. Paul, upon pretence he was an enemy to the law of Moses? Indeed it was boldly and most unreasonably done; but if one tittle, or one chapter of St. Mark be called apocryphal, for being suspected of Manichaism, 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 adultery, which is now in John, viii., Eusebius says was not in any Gospel, but the Gospel secundum Hebræos;' and St. Jerome makes it doubtful; and so does St. Chrysostom and Euthymius, 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 words so near in sound, that the Scribes might easily mistake: there is one famous one of Κυρίῳ δουλεύοντες, which yet some copies read xalpa douxEUOVTES, the sense is very unlikely, 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' di toùs ȧyyéxous, because of the angels,' hath brought into the church an opinion that angels are present in churches, and are spectators of our devotion and deportment. Such an opinion, if it should meet with peevish opposites on the one side, and confident hyperaspists on the other, might possibly make a sect; and here were a clear ground for the affirmative, and yet who knows but that it might have been a mistake of the transcribers; for if it were read as Gothofrid, and some others, would have it, dìà roùs áyéλous, or rather, dià Tàs ayenas, or, Toùs ayenaíous, that the sense be, "women, in public assemblies, must wear a veil, by reason of the 'companies of young men' there present," it would be no ill exchange for the little change of some letters in a word, 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 |