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takes, and, indeed, those forgeries and deceits which his infinite wisdom foresaw an oral tradition would always have been liable unto.

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PROOF SUBJOINED. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

8. Q. Can the Holy Scriptures alone make your faith perfect?

A. They can: nor ought I to believe any thing as an article of my faith, which either is not contained in them, or cannot plainly be proved by them.

PROOF SUBJOINED.-2 Tim. iii. 17. That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

9. Q. What do you think of the Church's definitions?

A. That I ought to submit to them in whatsoever they define agreeably to the word of God: but if in any thing they require me to believe what is contrary to the word of God, or cannot be proved thereby, I ought absolutely to reject the one, and am under no obligation to receive the other.

10. Q. But is not this to make yourself wiser than the Church?

A. No, by no means; but only to make the word of God of more authority with me than the word of man: whilst I choose rather to regulate my faith by what God has delivered, than by what man defines.

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11. Q. Are the Holy Scriptures so plain and easy to be understood, that every one may be able to judge for himself what he ought to believe?

A. In matters of necessary belief, they are very plain, even to the most ordinary Christian: yet we do not deny but that every man ought to hear the

Church; and to attend to the instructions of those who are the pastors of it. Only, we say, that neither the Church nor its pastors ought to teach any thing as an article of faith, or require any man's assent to it as such; that cannot be shewn to have been either expressly delivered in the word of God; or by a plain and necessary consequence be proved thereby.

PROOFS SUBJOINED.-Psalm cxix. 105. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. John, v. 39. Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they, which testify of me. xx. 31. These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. Rom. xv. 4. Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

12. Q. But how shall the unlearned be able to know what the Scriptures propose; seeing they are written in a language which such persons do not understand?

A. By reading them in their own vulgar tongue, into which every church has, or ought to have them faithfully translated, for the benefit of those who do not understand the languages in which they were composed.

13. Q. Do you then think that the people ought to be suffered promiscuously to read the Holy Scriptures?

A. Who shall forbid them to read what was purposely designed by God for their instruction? The Scriptures are as much the voice of the Apostles and Evangelists, to us of these times, as their preaching

was to those of the age in which they lived. And it may, with as good reason, be asked, Whether we think the people ought to have been promiscuously suffered heretofore to hear the Apostles preach; as whether they ought to be suffered promiscuously to read their writings now.

PROOFS SUBJOINED.-Matt. xxii. 29. Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. John, v. 39. Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. Acts, xvii. 2, 11. Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word of God with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things

were so.

14. Q. But amidst so many things as the Holy Scriptures deliver, how shall the people be able to judge what is necessary to be believed by them?

A. Let them believe all they meet with there, and then, to be sure, they will believe all that is necessary. But, for the sake of those who either want ability to read, or capacity to judge, what is most necessary (in point of faith) to be known, and professed by them; the Church has, from the beginning, collected it into a short summary; which every person of old was required both to know and assent to, before he was admitted into the communion of it.

PROOFS SUBJOINED.-Acts, viii. 36, 37. Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water; and the Eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hin

der me to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 2 Tim. i. 13. Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.

15. Q. What is that summary of which you speak, and which you account to comprehend all the most necessary articles of our Christian faith?

A. It is commonly called the Apostles' Creed: not that the Apostles themselves composed it; (at least not in the very form in which we now have it ;) but because it seems to come the nearest of any, to the Apostles' times, and does, with the greatest simplicity of expression, comprehend a short summary of the Apostles' doctrines.

16. Q. What mean you by the word creed?

A. It is the same in Latin, as belief in English, and it is so called in both, from the first words of it, I believe, which in sense, though not in expression, run through every article of it.

SECT. VI.

Of the Summary of our Faith-the Apostles' Creed. CATECHIST. Rehearse the articles of your Belief. 2. Q. You said that those words, I believe, were not only the first words of your creed, but the most material, as running in effect through every branch of it. Tell me, therefore, what do you mean when you say, I believe?

A. To believe, in general, is to assent to the truth of any thing, upon the sole authority of the person who delivers it; who, if he be a man only, the assent

which I give to what he says, produces in me a human faith; if, as here, he be God, then the assent, which I give to what is delivered by him, is properly a divine Faith.

3. Q. What is the difference, with respect to us, between these two?

A. It is very great; for because a man, though never so wise and careful himself, may yet not be honest, and so impose upon me; or should he be never so upright, may yet, after all his care, be mistaken himself, and thereby lead me into error; therefore, in assenting to what such a one proposes, I can at the most but give such a belief to it as is suitable to a mere humane testimony. I may believe what he says to be true, but yet so as not to exclude a possibility of its being otherwise. Whereas God, being neither capable of being deceived himself, nor of imposing upon any other; when I give my assent to what he has revealed, I do it, not only with a certain assurance that what I believe is true, but with an absolute security that it cannot possibly be false.

4. Q. But why do you say, I believe, and not, we believe, as when you pray, you say, Our father, &c.?

A. Because, though one man may pray, yet one man cannot believe for another, and however in charity I may suppose every Christian to believe what is here delivered, yet since 'tis certain there are many infidels and hypocrites scattered up and down among the faithful, and I cannot certainly distinguish who are indeed believers, and who not; neither can I with an assurance of faith, say, We believe, because I cannot certainly tell, whether another man does truly believe those articles or no. Besides, that this creed being intended to be the form, upon the

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