802 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
where we know but in part, we are incapable of it. The church of the elect, and every member of it, shall eventually be preserved by the power of the Holy Ghost from any such error as would utterly destroy their communion with Christ in grace here, or prevent their fruition of him in glory hereafter; or, as the apostle speaks, they shall assuredly be " kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." The general church of visible professors shall be always so far preserved in the world, as that there shall never want some, in some place or other of it, that shall profess all needful saving truths of the gospel, in the belief whereof, and obedience whereunto, a man may be saved; but for particular churches, as such, they have no security but what lies in their diligent attendance unto that infallible rule, which will preserve them from all hurtful errors, if, through their own default, they neglect not to keep close unto it. And your flattering yourselves with an imagination of any other privi- lege is that which hath wrought your ruin. You are deceived if, in this matter, you are of Menander's mind, who said, Airo/xara ra 'xpdyiJbar s'tti rh ffu/J,ipspov psT kuv xaOsudriff'/i, — " All will, of its OWn accord, fall out well with you though you sleep securely." As for all other churches in the world besides your own, we have your con- cession not only that they were and are fallible, but that they have actually erred long since; and the same hath been proved against yours a thousand times; and your best reserve against particular charges of error lies in this impertinent general pretence, that you cannot err. It may be you Avill ask, for you use so to do, and it is the design of your " Fiat" to promote the inquiry, — " If the church be fallible (that is, to propose unto us the things and doctrines that we are to believe), how can we with faith infallible believe her pro- posals?" And I tell you truly, I know not how we can, if we believe them only upon her authority, or she propose them to be believed solely upon that account; but when she proposeth them unto us to be believed on the authority of God speaking in the Scriptures, we both can and do believe what she teacheth and proposeth, and that with faith infallible, resolved into the veracity of God in his word. And we grant every church to be so far infallible as it attends unto the only infallible rule amongst men. When you prove that any one church is, by any promise of Christ, any grant of privilege expressed or inti- mated in the Scripture, placed in an unening condition, any farther than as, in the use of the means appointed, she attends unto the only rule of her preservation; or that any church shall be necessitated to attend unto that rule whether she will or no, whereby she may be preserved ; or can give us an instance of any church, since the foun- dation of the world, that hath been actually preserved, and abso- lutely, from all error (other than that of your own, which you know
nUxXCIPLES OF PAPISTS ON THE UNITY OF FAITH. 503
we cannot admit of), — as you will do /isya x,ai 'TrspiCcriTov spyov, " a great and memorable work," so we sliall grant as much as you can reasonably desire of us, upon the account of the assertion under consideration. But until you do some one or all of these, your crying out, " The church, the church, the church cannot err," makes no other noise in our ears than that of the Jews, " The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the law shall not fail," did in the ears of the prophets of old. Neither do we speak this of the church, or any church, as though we were concerned to question or deny any just privileges belonging unto it, thereby to secure ourselves from any pretensions of yours, but merely for the sake of truth. For we shall manifest anon unto you that you are as little concerned in the privileges of the church, be they what they will, more or less, as any society of the professors of Christianity in the world, if so be that you are concerned in them at all. So that if the truth would permit us to agree with you in all things that you assign unto the church, yet the difference between you and us were never the nearer to an end ; for we should still differ with you about your share and interest therein, and for ever abhor your frowardnesa in appropriating of them all unto yourselves. And herein, as I said, hath lain a great part of your ruin : whilst you have been sweetly dreaming of an infallibility, you have really plunged yourselves into errors innumerable; and when any one hath jogged you to awake you out of your fatal sleep, by minding you of your particular errors, your dream hath left such an impression upon your imagination as that you think them no errors, upon this only ground, because yon cannot err. I am persuaded, had it not been for this one error, you had been freed from many others. But this perfectly disenables you for any candid inquisition after the truth; for why should he once look about him, or, indeed, so much as take care to keep his eyes open, who is sure that he can never be out of his way? Hence you inquire not at all whether what you profess be truth or not; but to learn what your church teacheth, and defend it, is all that you have to do about religion in this world. And whatever absurdities or inconveniencies you find yourselves driven unto in the handling of particular points, all is one ; they must be right, though you cannot defend them, because your church, which cannot err, hath so declared them to be ! And if you should chance to be convinced of any truth in particular that is contrary to the determination of your church, you know not how to embrace it, but must shut your eyes against its light and evidence, and cast it out of your minds, or wander up and down with a various assent between contradictions. Well said he of old, —