SUFFICIENCY OF SCRIPTURE. 249
take direction from them for those ways wherein they may please God, they will not do it, whatsoever they pretend, from any other means which they rather approve of, Luke xvi. 29, 31. Yea, and when the great fundamental of Christian religion, concerning the person of the Messiah, was in question, he sends men for their settle- ment unto the Scriptures, John v. 39. And we suppose that that which is sufficient to settle us in the foundation is so to confirm us also in the whole superstructure ; especially considering that it is able " to make the man of God perfect, and to be thoroughly furnished unto all good works/' 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. What more is required unto the settlement of any one in religion we know not, nor what can rationally stand in competition with the Scripture to this purpose, seeing that is expressly commended unto us for it by the Holy Ghost ; other ways are built on the conjectures of men. Yea, the assurance which we may have hereby is preferred by Peter before that which any may have by an immediate voice from heaven, 2 Pet. i. 19. And is it not an unreasonable thing, now, for yon to come and tell us that the Scripture is not sufficient to give us an unquestionable settle- ment in religion? "Whether it be meet to hearken unto God or men, judge you." For our part, we seek not for the foundation of our settltement in long uncertain discourses, dubious conclusions and inferences, fallible conjectures, sophistical reasonings, such as you would call us unto, but in the express direction and command of God. Him we can follow and trust unto, without the least fear of miscarriage. Whither you would lead us we know not, and are not willing to make desperate experiments in things of so high concern- ment. But since you have been pleased to overlook what hath been discoursed unto this purpose in the "Animadversions," and, with your usual confidence, to affirm "that I nowhere at all speak one word to the case that you proposed," I shall, for your farther satis- faction, give you a little enlargement of my thoughts as to the jjrin- ciples on which Protestants and Romanists proceed in these matters, and compare them together, that it may be seen whether of us builds on the most stable and adequate foundation as to the superstruction aimed at by us both.
Two things you profess, if I mistake not, to aim at in your " Fiat ;" at least you pretend so to do: — 1. Moderation in and about our differences whilst they continue; 2. The reduction of all dissenters unto a uniti/ in faith and profession ; — things, no doubt, great and excellent. He can be no Christian that aims not at them, that doth not earnestly desire them. You profess to make them your design ; Protestants do so also. Now, let us consider whether of the two, you or they, are fitted with principles, according unto the diversity of professions wherein you are engaged, for the regular accomplish-
250 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
rnent and effecting of these ends. And in the consideration of the latter of them, you will find your present case fully and clearly resolved.
1. For the first, — of moderation, — I intend by it, and I think so do you also, the mutual forbearance of one another as to any effects of hatred, enmity, or animosities of any kind, attended with ofiices of love, charity, kindness, and compassion, proceeding from a frame of heart or gracious habit of mind naturally producing such effects, with a quiet, peaceable deportment towards one another, during our pre- sent differences in or about any thing in religion. Certainly, this moderation is a blessed thing; earnestly commended unto us by our Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles ; and as necessary to preserve peace among Christians as the sun in the firmament is to give light unto the world. The very heathen could say, UdvTciv fjArpov apisrov, — "Moderation is the life of all things:" and nothinof is durable but from the influence which it receives from it. Now, in pressing after moderation, Protestants proceed chiefly on two principles, which, being once admitted, make- it a duty indispensable. And I can assure you that no man will long follow after moderation but only he that looks upon it as his duty so to do ; incident provocations will quickly divert them in their course who pursue it for any other ends or on any other accounts.
The first principle of the Protestants disposing them to modera- tion, and indispensably exacting it of them as their duty, is, that amongst all the professors of the name of Christ, who are known by their relation unto any church, or way of note or mark^in the world, not actually condemned in the primitive or apostolical times, there is so much saving truth owned and taught, as, being received with faith and submitted unto with sincere obedience, is sufficient to give them that profess it an interest in Christ and in the covenant of grace and love of God, and to secure their salvation. This principle hath been openly defended by them, and I profess it to be mine. It is true, there are ways whereby the truth mentioned may be ren- dered ineffectual; but that hinders not but that the princijDle is true, and that the truth so received is sufficient for the producing of those effects in its kind and place. And let men pretend what they please, the last day will discover that that faith which " purifieth the heart," and renders the person in whom it is accejDted with God by Jesus Christ, may have its objective truths confined in a very narrow com- pass; yet it must embrace all that is indispensably necessary to salva- tion. And it is an unsufferable tyranny over the souls and consciences of men, to introduce and assert a necessity of believing whatever this or that church, any, or indeed all churches, shall please to proj)ose ; for the proposal of all the churches in the world cannot make any