232 , RATIONAL DEFENCE OF THE GOSPEL. and reason is a poor dark bewildered thing, if it hath no com., merce, nor communication with persons who have been favoured with divine revelation. It is only the scripture that has estab- lished and ascertained the doctrines of natural religion : And it fs to the scripture that the deists of our age are obliged for their greateracquaintance with natural religion than ever their fore- fathers, the heathenphilosophers, arrived at, though they are to proud to acknowledge it. If they agree better, and are more uniformin their principles now than the old epicureans, the stoics, and the platenists were, it is all owing toa more intimate acquain- tance with the writings of Moses and the prophets, the evange- lists, and theapostles ; so that it is with a very ill grace that our present infidels can object to christians their difference of (pini- ons, and pretend that this is a ground of shame to the gospel of- Christ, and á reasonwhy theydo not believe or profess it. But I Come now to give some account of the true reasons of such divisions of sect andpartyamong ohristians. There are two great causes of these divisions, and the charge is not to be laid upon the gospel of Christ,nor upon thebooks that contain it. I. Thefirst cause is, that thepapist doesnotpretend toderive his religion merely fromthe bible ; but he brings in the Jewish apocryphal writers of ancient ages, and lays them also for a found- ation of his faith ; and he makes the traditions of the christian church, whichhe pretends tohave been delivered downfrom age to age, of almost the'same authority as the scripture itself : And some of their authors have raised these traditions to equal dignity with the scripture, as being built upon the same foundation, viz. the authorityof the church. As they have many things in their religionwhich they cannot find in the word of God ; so they think it is sufficient if they can support them by these, pretended traditions of the church. Whereas the protestant takes nothing for the ground of his faith but the books of the Old and New Testament ; and what he cannot find written there, nor derived thence by most obvious and evident consequences, 'he does not profess it as any necessary part of his ehristianity. The religion of the protestant therefore isabundantly more conformable to the gospel of Christ, both in the doctrines and the worship of it, because it derives the whole from the word of God : But it is no wonder at all that there should be such a difference between them and the papists, when they lay such different foundations for theirs faith andpractice. 2. Another reason why the protestant and papist differ so much is, because the papist ,pretends that,there is an infallible judgeamong them to determine all controversies ; and that their:, popes, andtheir councils, which they call the church, have au- thority to appoint what shall be esteemed the true articles of faith,
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