God, and protesting both against the faith and practice of the papists, and all others whatsoever, so far only as they are either repugnant to the holy scripture in any thing, or ungrounded on the same in things pretended by them necessary to salvation. Such protestants do we of the church of England profess ourselves to be, as is apparent unto all, from the sixth of our Thirty-nine Articles, affirming, "That the scriptures contain all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of faith, or to be thought requisite or necessary to salvation."

This is our very first principle, as we are called protestants, and such an one I do heartily profess myself; neither see I yet the least cause to doubt of my salvation, whilst by the grace of God I live answerably to this profession. For that the protestant religion, built upon this principle, is a safe religion, is, I think, altogether as plain, as that Christianity itself, pure and unmixed, is the way to salvation; because it is plain, that this religion we profess, holding to this principle, can be nothing else but pure and unmixed Christianity, being that, and no other, which is contained in the holy scripture.

Is then the holy scripture the word of God, or not? Was it given unto us of God to be the rule of our religion, that is, of our faith, worship, and holy conversation, or was it not? If Bellarmine a may be credited, this is the declaration of the catholic church, both in the third council of Carthage, and also in that of Trent. The books of the prophets and apostles are the true word of God, and the sure and stable rule of life: and, as he shortly after adds, the most sure and safest rule. Now, whether it be the complete, perfect, and adequate rule, as we constantly affirm, or only a partial rule, or but some part of it, as the papists contend, itself, when diligently consulted, will be best able to inform us. For it is on all hands granted to be the word of God, which cannot lie; and therefore unquestionably true in all things whatsoever it teacheth us; and of those many excellent things which it very plainly teacheth, its own perfection and sufficiency is one, and for my present satisfaction very considerable.

a De Verb. Dei, l. 1. c. 1.

I find, in the first place, that God himself writ the Ten Commandments, the complete rule of piety and justice, with his own finger, Exod. xxxi. 1, 18. Deut. ix. 10. and x. 2, 4; that he commanded them to be written on the posts and gates, Deut. vi. 9. and xi. 20; that Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, Exod. xxiv. 4, and delivered the writings to the priests to be read unto the people, Deut. xxxi. 9; and that the king was to have by him a copy of it for his direction, Deut. xvii. 18. I find many curses denounced against the breakers of it, Deut. xxviii. 58, and blessings promised to them that keep it, Deut. xxx. 10. I find it was expressly forbidden to add unto it, or to diminish from it, Deut. iv. 2, 12, 32; to turn from it to the right hand or to the left, Josh. i. 7; and that the good kings were careful to order all things according to it, and to reform what has been amiss by it, 1 Chron. xvi. 40. 2 Kings xxii. 13. And therefore I do not wonder to hear the Psalmist saying, The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul, Psal. xix. 7; nor to find Isaiah sending men to the law, and to the testimony, saying, If any speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them, Isa. viii. 20.

Again, I find our blessed Saviour himself, and his apostles after him, very frequently appealing and referring their hearers to that which had been written in the books of Moses, in the Psalms, and in the Prophets: They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them, saith Abraham in the parable, Luke xvi. 29. Search the scriptures, saith Christ, John v. 39, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. I find that St. Luke, writing his Gospel, gives his Theophilus this good reason for it; That thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed, Luke i. 4: the things which are most surely believed among us, v. 1: all things of which himself had perfect understanding from the very first, v. 3. I find St. John, who wrote last of all the apostles, affirming, that though Jesus did many other signs which are not written in that book of his, yet these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name, John xx. 30, 31. And, finally, I find St. Paul asserting the perfection of the holy scripture as fully and plainly as any man can speak, 2 Tim. iii. 15-17, saying, that

the holy scripture is able to make a man wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus; that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. Now what more can we desire than to be made wise unto salvation? And we are here plainly told, that the holy scripture is able to make us so. What more can be needful to direct us in the way to salvation, than what we may learn from the scripture? It is profitable for our information and establishment in the truth, for the confutation of error and heresy, for the correction of vice and wickedness, for our instruction in righteousness. It is so profitable for all these purposes, that thereby the man of God, the pastor and teacher, may be made complete, and well furnished for all the branches of his office, all the works of his holy calling. In short, it is able to bring us to faith in Christ Jesus; and whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life, John

iii. 16.

Furthermore, from the same scripture I also learn, that unwritten or oral tradition hath ever been found too deceitful a thing to be relied on for so great a matter as salvation. I find that before the flood, notwithstanding the long lives of men, the few principles of natural religion, and the easiness of learning and remembering things so agreeable to human nature, yet all flesh had soon corrupted his way upon the earth, Gen. vi. 12. and every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually, ver. 5. And after the flood, the whole world was quickly overrun with idolatry: so ill was the doctrine which had been preached by Noah and his sons preserved by oral tradition. Nay, I find, that after God was pleased to give the Jews his will in writing, their teachers had so corrupted the doctrine of God with their traditions, that it was a great part of our blessed Saviour's business to rescue it from those traditional corruptions. He reproves the Scribes and Pharisees for transgressing the commandments of God by their traditions, Matt. xv. 3, shewing them how they had made it of none effect by the same, ver. 6, and that in vain they worshipped God, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, ver. 9. And St. Paul warns the Colossians to beware of

being deceived through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Col. ii. 6. And the special occasion of writing most of the Epistles, yea, and the Gospels too, seems to be the danger that Christians were in of being seduced by false teachers, from the doctrine of Christ and his apostles, under the pretence of tradition. Such were the wolves in sheep's clothing, Matt. vii. 15; false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ, 2 Cor. xi. 13; pretending to another gospel, Gal. i. 6; men of sleight and cunning craftiness, lying in wait to deceive, Eph. iv. 14.

From what I find in the scripture, I must needs conclude, till I be better informed, that it is a sufficient rule for us to go by; and that, so long as we hold us to it alone, in our faith and practice, there can be no necessity of resorting to the church of Rome, for that unto which our Bibles at home can direct us. The scripture is the word of God, and sure rule of faith, saith the infallible church of Rome, if Bellarmine may be believed. This holy scripture is able to make us wise unto salvation, saith this infallible scripture; and we take no other but this holy and infallible scripture for the rule of our faith and religious practice, say we protestants. What now should hinder me to infer from hence, that if the scripture be the word of God, we protestants are very well as we are; for we have the word of the infallible God, and if it may stand us in any stead, the word of the infallible church (as she will needs be accounted) to assure us, that adhering to the holy scripture, we are in the ready and sure way to salvation.

Further yet, as I am a protestant of the church of England, I do declare, in the words of our eighth article, “That the three creeds, Nice Creed, Athanasius Creed, and that which is commonly called the Apostles' Creed, ought thoroughly to be received and believed, for they may be proved by most certain warrants of holy scripture." Seeing then we receive and thoroughly believe the same creeds, and no other, which the church of Rome herself professeth to believe, and which were thought by the catholic church of Christ, for above four hundred years after the first planting of Christianity, to contain all points of faith necessary for the salvation of Christians, I think I have hence gathered this further confirmation of my as

surance, that we protestants are in the direct way to salvation; that we are of the very same religion, and no other, in all the necessary points of Christian faith, whereof the catholic church evidently was in the first and purest ages of it. In the four first general councils, no other articles of faith were held needful to be believed by Christians but those of these creeds, which we entirely own and believe. Either then it is true that these three creeds contain all necessary points of Christian faith, or it is not. If it be true, we are safe enough, and can with no colour of reason be said to err in faith, or to deserve the name of heretics. If it be not true, then were all those primitive Christians as much heretics as we are, and knew no more than we do, what belonged to the salvation of Christians. And strangely partial is the church of Rome in approving the faith of those councils, which one of their most famous popes and saints is said to have reverenced as the four Gospels, and yet to condemn ours, though in all points the very same: especially when the third of those councils, held at Ephesus, in the time of pope Celestine, did expressly decree, "That it should not be lawful to utter, write, or compose any other faith, besides that which had been defined by the holy fathers congregated in the Holy Ghost in the city of Nice." Ordering that all they should be punished "who tendered any other to such as had a desire to be converted to the knowledge of the truth, whether they were Gentiles, Jews, or of any other heresy.” Whereby it is plain, that the fathers in this third council did conclude that creed to comprehend the entire faith of a Christian. And indeed a man would think that the council of Trent had in the beginning of it been altogether of the same mind, when of the same creed it thus declared itself; "That it is that principle wherein all that profess the faith of Christ do necessarily agree, and the firm and only foundation against which the gates of hell shall not prevail."

I may, I think, upon these considerations, without more ado, be very well satisfied of the safety of the protestant religion. The papists themselves must grant, that whatsoever we believe or practise as of necessity to salvation, really is so; and therefore, that we do not err either in our faith or practice, whilst we live according to our own principles: for if we err in either, so far do they err also; and not they only, but