Baxter - BX5207 B3 A2 1696

PART II. Reverend Mr. RichardBaxter. 225 the Thirty two Novelties mentioned in my Key, pag. x42, T43, r44. you will fee whether Popery be Error. If any other Doetrine contrary to Chrift'sdo in- ' fer an Anathema, then everlaititg Woe to Papilla. And here you mayfee the Safety of the true Catholicks that have rejedted Popery : Our Religion is all con- ' tained in the Holy Scripture ; we profefs to have no otherRule ; and you charge ° us not (that Iknow of) with believing toe much by holding any p:fitive Error, ` but with believing too little, becaufe we believe not your fupernur -;erary Articles: And therefore you cannot fay, that we teach any other DoElrine than Chrifl'rr ' though you fancy that we teach not all, becaufe we teach not your Traditions. ` But on the contrary, we prove that you teach another Dollrine, and many fach, ` which Chrift never delivered to the Church. But yet to abate your tèvere Self- ' condemnation, let me excufe you thus far, as to f.,y, that you do it upon miftake í ` For Gal. 1. faith not, [ Let him be mewled that preacbeth another Dothan,] but [ ána- e ther Gofpel: j While it is the fame Gorfel in the Effentialsthat is preached and be- e lieved, this Anathema belongs not even to you that err, till you come to contra- ' diet the Efnce and make it [ another Geel ] as well as [ another Dotlrine j. ` If you have made it your whole bulinefs tillfevenreen Years of Age to [pray ` to God to Aired you to follow hie Dotlrine ] it's like that I ( and many another ) ' have made it at leali, as much of our Bufinefs till forty fix Years of Age, as ' ever you did, and with better Advantage, and yet are as confident of the Falk- ' nefs of your Do&rine, as we are that theEarth dothbear us ; here therefore you ` are not beforehand with us. But whathave you found that cheated or frighned you into Popery : 1. [ The ' variety ofjudgments r ] But you never found the far greater variety among Pa- ' pills ? You never read the voluminous Difputebetween the Dominicanes an Je- ` fuits ( to overpafs the sell ) ; or perhaps you will (as others do ) expe& that the ' very fame Opinion be a Herefy in a Calvaniltt, and none in a Dominican or Jan- ° fenifl : or a Herefy in a Lutheran and none ina Jefuit : You will runout of Eng- landbecaufe of Mens diverfity of Complexions, and finding a greater Diverfity in ° France, expe& it Ihould be efteemed none. If I prove not before any impartial ` Judge, that thePapifts have far more and greaterDifferences amongfi themfIves than the reformed Churches, called Proteltants (yea, I doubt not, I may add, thanGreeks, Calvinifts, Lutherans, and many more filch fet together ) then let your Imagination go for Truth. Bellarmine himfelf pathenumerated enough. z. You fay, [the Siriptare admits of no private Interpretation]. But I. You ` abufe the Text and your felf with a falte Interpretation of ir, in thefe Words. An interpretation is called private, either as to the Subic& Perron, or as to the In- ' terpreter r You take the Text to fpeak of the latter, when the Context plainly ' fheweth you that it fpeaks of the former: The Apoftle direeting them to under- ' hand the Prophefiesof theOld Teftament, gives them this Caution; That none of thefe Scriptures that are fpokenof Chrift the publick Perfon, muff be inter- ' preted as fpoken of David. or other private Perfons only, of whom they were mentioned but as Types of Chrift : It is fubje&ively a private Interpretation to ' reftrain that Scripture (e. g. theSecond Pfalm) to David or other ordinary Men, ` which the Holy Ghoh intended of the Meffiah. But here's no talk againli Fri- ' ware Interpreters, but only againft a Private Interpretation. 2. But fuppofe it were as you imagin, and the publick Judgment of any Cafe fuppofea Publick Inter- pretty yet every Manmull fee with his own Eyes, and their private Judgment ° of Difcretion mutt be according to their private, that is, perfonal Interpretation: Or elfe your Churches Interpretation muli haveanother publick Interpretation, and that another, and fo endlefly : If we can underhand your Councils (which ` your Do&ors difagree about ) without another publick Interpretation, we may as ' eafily underhand the Scripture, or at leali, much of it : And therefore that can ` benone of the Sence which you imagine [ noScripture, &c. J ;. Yea, fup. pofe all Interpretation muff be publick, and you may not prefume to mifunder- ' hand the Commands of Repentance, Faith or Love, without a publick Corn- ' mentary, do youthink this doth not make againhyou ? Is not the Interpretation ° of the'Papal Seth a more private Interpretation than that of thewhole Church: The ` Greek, Arminians, Abaft-Ines, Proteltants, and fo allthe far greateft part of the ` Church interpret thofe Texts, which you wreftfor thePapal Soveraignty, in a ' quite other Senfe : And is not the Interpretation of your Fourth or Third part of the Church (that's partial in the Caul ) more private than that of all the reft would you have Men care no more for their Souls than to call them away upon ° the Delufion offuch Reafonings as thefe ? G g ;. You

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