as well as the unwritten, and confequently to expound it when the fenfe is difputed: For to teach the word of God, and expound the true sense of it, is one and the fame act in the teacher, as I noted .above.

EXHORTATION. Is it not then, O Christian a safer way to be guided as God has directed, than to follow guides which are not of his appointment? Is it not fafer to truft to the doctrine and judgment of that Church to which all the

mifes were made, and to which was given the whole authority to teach, than to follow private Teachers in the Interpretation of Scripture, who are not fecured from error by any promife of God.

O my Soul! truft not to fuch, but only to thofe who have received from Chrift the authority to teach, and to be believed, the Apoftles, I mean, and their Succeffors, the Pastors of the Holy Catholick Church. 'Twas by hearing them the world became christian; by hearing them the Orthodox have ever been preserved from all past herefies: To them he faid, Behold I am with you at all times, to the end of the world. This he did not fay to any one particular national or local Church, Meeting, or private Congregation, or the Teachers of them; but to the Univerfal or Catholick Church ever holding One Faith and Communion. Follow thefe whom God has appointed to be your guide; otherwife, 'tis the blind leading the blind, till both fall into the ditch,

CHAP.

CHA P. III.

On Private Judgment, and Private Spirit.

Every Prophecy of Scripture is not of private Interpretation, (2 Pet. i. 20.)

2. WHAT do you mean by private Judgment? A. To be guided by one's own sense, independently of all Church authority for the interpretation of Scripture.

2. Why may not every one be allowed to follow the Scripture, according to the best of his Judgment in matters of Faith?

A. It is a moft pernicious maxim; it deftroys all obedience to the Church, which we are commanded to hear; befides many other evils that have fprung from it.

2. What are those evils?

A. Innumerable fects in Faith and Religion; no Herefy but what took its beginning from it.

2. At least why may not I be allowed to follow my Teacher, or the Congregation, or National Church I belong to ?

A. No National Church, no private Congregation or Teacher, diffenting from the Univerfal or Catholick Church, can be a fafe guide to their followers: All Sectarists and Hereticks follow fuch guides.

2. Why may we not, at leaft, follow the Instinct of the Spirit; the Spirit of God cannot deceive me. A. Very true; the Spirit of God cannot deceive you, nor be deceived: But you may be deceived by those who make you believe, that you follow the Instinct of the Spirit of God when you do not.

INSTRUCTION. Private Judgment, which makes a man his own Judge in controverted points

of

of Faith and religion, never was allowed of in the Church of God, but condemned by all antiquity. All controverfies of Faith from the very beginning of the Church, were decided by the authority of the Church. The first controversy about the neceffity of Circumcifion for the converted Gentiles, was determined in a Council at Jerufalem, not left to the private Judgment of the contending parties: And all the fequent controverfies; as of the time for celebrating Eafter; of the Trinity of Perfons in God; of the Divinity of Christ, and the Holy Ghoft; of the Incarnation; of the Power of the Church to remit fin to those who fall after Baptifm; of Grace; of Original Sin; all these controverfies were determined by Church authority against ancient Hereticks. Luther and Calvin own the condemnation of them to be just, and that those who maintained them are to be accounted as Hereticks. But had private Judgment been the Judge, and all parties been allowed an equal right to expound Scripture for themselves in those controverted points. I apprehend thofe difputes had not been ended to this day: Nor can it be known with certainty, if the infallibility and authority of the Church be fet afide, whether the parties condemned, or those who condemned them, had truth on their fide, Private Judgment has raised many disputes in religion, but never ended one.

The Scripture itself teaches, that the Scripture is not to be interpreted by private Judgment: As it is written in St. Peter, (Ep. 2. c. i. v. 20.) Every Prophecy of Scripture is not of private Interpretation: for not by human will was Prophecy brought at any time; but the Holy Men of God spoke, infpired by the Holy Ghoft. Here the reafon is given why the Scriptures are not to be expounded by every man's

private

private Judgment; becaufe every part of the holy Scripture was delivered by the Holy Ghoft, by whom the facred writers were infpired. By whom then are they to be interpreted when their fenfe is difputed, but by thofe to whom the Holy Ghoft was promised and fent for the teaching them all Truth? the Apostles and their Succeffors the Pastors of the Catholick Church: Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of Truth, fhall come, he will teach you all Truth, (Jo. xvi. v. 13.) A promise not made to every particular perfon that undertakes to expound Scripture by his own private Judgment. Moreover:

As private Judgment deftroys all obedience to the Church, it cannot ground a certain belief, becaufe every man's private Judgment is subject to error. Those therefore who leave the divine unerring authority of the Church Catholick, to follow their own private Interpretations of Scripture, can have no divine Faith of what they believe; because, although the Scripture which they pretend to make the rule of their belief, be infalJible truth, their Interpretation is not but liable to mistake; and thus their private Judgment being ever apt to embrace error as well as truth, when left to itself, whatever belief is built upon it, is no more than Opinion, not Chriftian Faith, which excludes all deliberate doubt and uncertainty: So that this maxim of expounding Scripture by private Judgment deftroys all certainty of the Chriftian Faith, efpecially in points controverted.

Some indeed among those who diffent from the Catholick Church, pretend they do not follow their own private Judgment, but the national Church, or their Teachers, not confidering, that a national Church diffenting from the Catholick or Univerfal Church, does but follow the private Judgment of its first Reformers: As do alfo private meetings and congregations;

gations; and therefore these are no more fufficient to ground divine Faith upon, than was the private Judgment of those that founded them. Befides, those who first model their Faith by their own fenfe of Scripture, (which is a right allowed to every one in all the reformed Churches,) and then approve. of that Church which approves them, do not in effect believe their Church, but themselves.

The fame is to be faid of those who believe by pretended Instincts of the Spirit. For though the teftimony of the Holy Ghost be a fufficient ground of divine Faith; yet there being no fure teftimony produced to fhew who are led by this divine Spirit, and no promife of God for it; nor proof given, whereby we may clearly difcern the motions of the Holy Ghoft from other motions of Fanaticism; there cannot be fuch certainty in these pretended Inftincts of the Spirit, as divine Faith requires; and the belief of those who follow those private Instincts, is not Faith, but only Opinion, or Perfuafion, like theirs who follow their private Judgment, and no better. I may add, that the Sectaries of our times who pretend to be led by the Instincts of the Spirit, arę found to contradict one another moft furiously, at the fame time that all cry, The Spirit of the Lord! The Spirit of the Lord: which plainly fhews by what spirit they are led.

In a word, you would not truft the private Judgment or private Inftinct of another in an affair of this great concern, nor would another truft to yours: You easily discover in others how unqualified is private Judgment and private Spirit to decide matters of controverfy, and how dangerous it is to truft it; and yet while you are fo fenfible of the weakness of it in another, you think yourself and your own Judgment an oracle. But is this being prudent? is this being wife unto falvation?

B

EXHOR