IN the Beginning of this Chapter we find St. Paul brought to his Tryal before Felix the Roman Governour , wherein ( if we only except the unfitness of the Judge ) all other things concurred , which could make such an action considerable , viz. the greatness of the cause , the quality of the persons , and the skill which was shewed in the management of it . The cause was not common and ordinary , such as were wont to be tryed before the Governours of Provinces , but of an unusual and publick nature ; Act 18.15 . not a question of words and names , as Gallio thought it , but a matter of the highest importance to the World : which being managed by St. Paul , with that zeal and industry , which was agreeable to it , gave occasion to his malicious Countreymen to accuse him before the Roman Governour , as one guilty of Faction and Sedition . Under this colour , they hoped easily to gain the Governour's good will to their design ; being a person that more regarded the quiet of his Province , than all the concernments of Truth and Religion . But that this design might be carried on with the greater pomp and shew of Justice and Piety , they do not commit the care of it to the rage of the People , or some furious Zealots ; but the High Priest and some members of the Sanhedrin go down on purpose from Hierusalem to Caesarea , Ver. 1. and carry with them one of their most eloquent Advocates called Tertullus to manage the Accusation against Paul. Who was no sooner called forth , but the Orator begins to shew his art , by a flattering insinuation , which is most apt to prevail with men of mean and corrupt minds ; Seeing that by thee , saith he , Ver. 2 , 3. we enjoy great quietness , and that very worthy deeds are done unto this Nation by thy providence ; we accept it always and in all places , most noble Felix , with all thankfulness : Having thus prepared his Judge , he presently falls upon the matter , Ver. 5 , 6. and charges St. Paul with being a pestilent and seditious person , a disturber of his Nation in all parts , a prophaner of the Temple ; but the main point of all , and in which the rest were comprehended , was , that he was a ring-leader of the Sect of the Nazarenes . ( So the Christians were then called among the Jews , from our Saviour's abode in the Town of Nazareth . ) But although the Writer of this History gives us only the short heads of his accusation ; yet we may easily suppose by St. Paul's answer , that he insisted more largely on this , than on any of the rest : representing to Felix , That when the Jewish Church had been at first established by God himself under Laws of his own making , when he had so settled the several orders and degrees of men among them , M●l 2.7 . that the Priests lips were to preserve knowledge , and the Law to be sought at their mouths ; when under this Government , their Religion had been preserved for many hundreds of years , and after many Revolutions they enjoyed one common and publick Worship among them , though there were several distinct Orders of Religious men ( such as the Pharisees and Essenes ) yet all agreed in the same Divine Worship ; but now at last , to their great regret and horror , appears one Jesus of Nazareth , a person of obscure Parentage and mean Education , who pretended to discover many corruptions in the Doctrine and Practices of our best men ; and without any Authority from the High Priest or Sanhedrin he gathered Disciples , and drew multitudes of people after him ; till at last the wisdom of our Governours thought it sit to take him off , and make him an example for Reformers ; notwithstanding this , his bold and forward Disciples after his death carried on the same design , pretending that the time of Reformation was come ; Heb. 9 10. and accordingly have formed themselves into a Sect , v●gorous and active , of high pretences , and dangerous designs , which if it continues and increases , can end in nothing short of the ruine of our ancient Jewish Catholick Church : which hath had so constant and visible a Succession in all Ages ; that hath had so many Martyrs and Confessors in it ▪ so many Devout and Religious Persons as the Pharisees are ; so excellent an Order and Government , so much unity and peace before this new Sect of Nazarenes arose in opposition to that Authority with which God had invested the High Priest and Rulers of the People . And among all the promoters of this new Sect , there is none more factious and busie than this Paul whom we here accuse ; and whom some of our Nation found in the Temple prophaning of it , and there we would presently , out of meer zeal to our Religion , have taken and destroyed ; but he was violently rescued out of our hands , and sent hither to be tryed ; and these things , which I have spoken , is the sense of all those who are come down as witnesses ; for so we read , v. 9. And the Jews also assented , and said , that these things were so . St. Paul being thus accused , and having leave given him to answer for himself , was so far from being daunted by the greatness of his enemies , Ver. 10. or the vehemency of their accusation , that he tells the Governour , that he did with all chearfulness undertake his defence : and there being two parts of his accusation , 1. His tumultuous and profane carriage in the Temple ; this he utterly denies , v. 11 , 12 , 1● . and plainly tells them , they can never prove it against him . 2. But as to the other and main part of the Charge , his being a ringleader of the Sect of the Nazarenes ; although he would not , out of his great modesty , take upon himself to be one of the Heads or Chiefs among them , yet as to the owning of that way , notwithstanding all the imputations they had cast upon it , he doth it with the greatest freedom and courage in the presence of his Judge and Accusers ; and not only so , but defends himself therein , that he had done nothing contrary to the Laws of God , or the most ancient Religion of his Countrey : all which particulars are contained in the words of the Text ; But this I confess unto thee , that after the way which they call heresie , so worship I the God of my Fathers , believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets .

Wherein we have these three things considerable .

1. The Imputation which Christianity suffered under in its first appearance : After the way , which they call heresie .

2. The Way taken by St. Paul to remove this false Imputation ; viz. by appeal to Scripture and Antiquity ; So worship I the God of my Fathers , believing all things that are written in the Law and the Prophets .

3. The Courage of St. Paul in so freely owning his Religion in the presence of his greatest enemies , and when they were in hopes to destroy him for it : This I confess unto thee , that after the way , &c.

1. I begin with the false Imputation which Christianity suffered under at its first appearance ; After the way , which is called heresie ; the same Word which is translated Sect , v. 5. and although the Word be indifferent in it self , yet where it is taken for a combination of men together against an established Religion and lawful Authority ( as it was by the Jews when they charged the Christians under this name ) then it implies in it a twofold accusation : 1. Of Novelty and Singularity . 2. Of Faction and Sedition .

1. Of Novelty . A Sect or Heresie in this sence implies in it , mens setting up with a new Doctrine which was not heard of before ; and making that the Foundation of a new Society separate and distinct from the established Church , and consequently they must charge the Church they are divided from with errors and corruptions , or they make themselves guilty of Schism , i. e. unnecessary separation . Now upon these two grounds the Jews laid the imputation of a New Sect upon the Nazarenes or Christians , 1. Because they could not shew a visible succession in all Ages : 2. Because they could not prove the Jewish Church to be guilty of such errors and corruptions as to need a Reformation .

1. They could not shew a Succession in all Ages of such persons who agreed in all things with them . For where ( say they ) were the men to be found in former Ages , that taxed the Jewish Church with such errors and corruptions as Jesus of Nazareth did ? that bid men beware of the leven of the Scribes and Pharisees , i. e. of the most learned and holy men ? Had not God always a Visible Church among them ? they could produce the names of their High Priests in every Age , and shew them all the marks of a Visible Church ? For in Judah was God known , Psal. 76.1 . Deut. 12 11. and his Name was great in Israel . Hath not God said , that in his House at Hierusalem he would put his Name for ever ; 2 Kings 21.7 . 2 Chron. 7.16 . and his eyes and his heart should be there perpetually ? How is it then possible but there must be a constant and visible Succession in all Ages ? since God would always have a people to dwell among ; and that might be known to be his people by the outward marks and signs of a true Church . But if the Christians pretences held good , God must for several Ages have wanted a Church amongst them . For none of those things which they charged the Jews with , were newly crept in among them , but had been delivered down to them by the Tradition of their Fore-fathers , in an uninterrupted manner , as they thought , from the very time of Moses . This was their Rule whereby they guided themselves in their actions of Religion , and in the sense of obscure places of the Law and the Prophets ; and in that time after the cessation of Prophecy , when the Christians supposed these corruptions to have come in among them , they could draw down a constant Succession from the men of the great Synagogue , of persons eminent for Learning and Piety that never charged them with any such corruptions as Jesus of Nazareth and his Disciples did . Would God ever suffer such dangerous errors , hypocrisie , and superstitions to prevail in his own Church , and raise up no Persons to discover these things , till these new Teachers and Reformers arose ? Were not Hillel and Shammai that so accurately discussed all the niceties of the Law , able to find out such gross and open corruptions , if any such had been among us ? Might not we say , that not only the Teachers , V. Bell. de not . Eccles. l. 4. c. 5. §. praeterea . but God himself had slept all that time , if he raised up no one Person to discover the coming in of such errors and corruptions ? Where had God then any true Church in the world , if not among his people of the Jews ? And would he suffer that to be overspread with such a Leprosie , and send none of his Priests to discover it ? And even by the confession of the Christians themselves , they were once the beloved and chosen people of God , how or when was it that they ceased to be so ? Do not themselves acknowledge , that they receive the Law and the Prophets from our hands ? Rom. 3.2 . And that to us were committed the Oracles of God , and to us pertained the adoption , 9.4 , 5. and the glory , and the Covenants , and the giving of the Law , and the service of God and the promises , and that ours are the Fathers ? How is it then possible after all these privileges , to suppose this Church to fall into such a degeneracy , as at last to be cast off by God , and a new Church to arise out of the ashes of it ? Thus we may reasonably suppose the Jews to have argued for themselves ; and on the other side , they trampled upon and despised this new Sect of the Nazarenes , That had nothing of the Pomp and Splendour of their Church : they had only a company of mean and illiterate persons at first to joyn with them ; the Disciples of their Master were a sort of poor Fishermen and inconsiderable persons , men of no Authority , or reputation for extraordinary Sanctity or Learning : even their Master himself was one of no great severity of life , that did not retire from the world , and lead an abstracted life , but conversed with Publicans and Sinners , and put not his Disciples upon Fasting and long Prayers ; whereas the Pharisees were men of great austerity and mortification , much exercised in devotion , making frequent and long prayers , at certain hours ; and in whatever place those hours took them . Now how is it possible to believe , that such devout persons as these are mistaken , and the Sect of the Nazarenes only in the right ? But besides all this , Where was their Church before Jesus of Nazareth ? We offer to produce a personal succession on our side , that joyned in constant communion with us at the Temple at Hierusalem ; let the Christians shew any number of men before themselves , that joyned with them in believing what they do , and rejecting the abuses which they tax among us . If they cannot do this , let them then suffer under the just imputation of Novelty .

2. But supposing they do not think it necessary to assign a number of men distinct from our Society , but say it is enough that though they joyned with them in the worship of God , yet they did not in their corruptions : yet to vindicate themselves , they must shew how it was possible for such corruptions to come in , and no more notice be taken of them : Such things could not be introduced without some notable alteration ; and in such a one , the author , the time , the place , the manner may be assigned : We can tell , say they , all these circumstances in the Idolatries of Jeroboam , Ahab , and Manasseh ; if so great alterations have happened in the state of our Church , that there is a necessity of reforming it ; name us the persons , the time , the place , the manner how all these corruptions came in . When came men first to forsake the letter of the Scripture , and adhere to Tradition ? Who first brought in the Pharisaical Superstitions ? What was his name , where was his abode , who first opposed and condemned him ? Were all men asleep then to suffer such alterations , and to say nothing at all against them ? What , could one Generation conspire to deceive the next ? and if not , how could such changes happen in matters of Religion , and no one take care to discover it and prevent the infecting of posterity by it ? Had no persons any regard to God and the purity of Religion then ? If they had , would they suffer strange fire to come upon God's Altar , and take no notice at all of it ? Why did not Jesus of Nazareth , when he so frequently and vehemently declaimed against the Pharisaical hypocrisie and superstitions , and false Doctrines , shew to the people , when , and where , and how these things came into the Church of God ? He only condemns them , and speaks sharply against them , but he saith not one word to satisfie the Scientifical men among them , how it was possible for corruptions to come in , and prevail to such a degree , and yet no circumstances of time or place be assignable of it . Thus the Jews still believed themselves to be the only true , ancient , visible , Catholick and infallible Church of God , and despised the poor Christians , as a novel and upstart Sect of Nazarenes ; which is the first imputation the Christians suffered under .

2. They suffered under the imputation of Faction and Sedition ; which is the second thing implyed in the name of Sect or Heresie here mentioned ; and that they charged upon them two ways . 1. For not submitting to the Churches Authority . 2. For disturbing the peace and quiet of the People .

1. For not submitting to the Churches Authority : not , that the Disciples of our Lord did out of humour , or fancy , or only to make a party , break with the Jews in matters meerly of order and indifferency : no , on the contrary we find them extreamly cautious of giving any offence in such matters , which temper they learnt of their Lord and Master , who complyed with many things , that others might not take advantage by his omission of them , to slight and contemn them ; Mat. 3.15 . thus when others were baptized of John , he would be so too ; not , that he had any need of washing away of sin : but he would not make use of a particular privilege to bring any discountenance upon a general duty . Thus we see , he went up at the solemn Feasts to Hierusalem as others did ; and not only was present in the Temple , but vindicated by a Miracle the order and decency of i● , by driving out the buyers and sellers from the outward parts of it , although they had a fair pretence of being ready at hand to serve the necessities of such as were to sacrifice to God in the Temple ; Mat. 21.12 . nay , St. Mark tells us , that he would not suffer any vessel to be carried through the Temple : Mar. 11.16 . and this he did not upon any reason peculiar to the Levitical Law , but because it was a House of Prayer . And this example his Apostles followed , who after they had the Holy Ghost poured upon them , yet they attended the Temple at the hours of prayer . Acts 3.1 . But most remarkable to this purpose , is the instance of St. Paul at that very time when he was seized upon , and like to be destroyed by the fury of the Jews . For understanding at Hierusalem from St. James , Acts ●1 . 20 , 21. that there were many thousands of believing Jews that were still zealous of the Law , and were informed that St. Paul among the Gentiles slighted Circumcision and the Levitical Customs ; he , to give them all reasonable satisfaction that he intended to make no unnecessary breach among them about indifferent matters , submits himself to a legal purification in the Temple for seven days together ; Ver. 7 before the end of which , the Jews made a tumult and seized upon him , and so he was brought to answer the accusations against him in this Chapter . Thus carefull St. Paul was to give no ground for suspicion that he delighted in disorders and separations ; this example he did leave to all prudent Christians , rather to submit to things which they have no great value for ( as no doubt at this time St. Paul had very little for the Levitical Customs ) than to hazard the breaking the peace of the Church for such matters . But notwithstanding all this care of the first Christians , they could not avoid the imputation of Faction ; because they would not entirely submit their judgments to the Authority of the Jewish Church . For this was the great pretence they stood upon , that they were the Governours of the Church by God's own institution , that they were to explain and interpret the Law and the Prophets ; and this was expressed in the beginning of their Law , That in all cases of difficulty they were to go up to the place which the Lord their God should chuse ; Deut. 17.8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12. and to go to the Priests , and the Levites , and to the Judge , and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment . And thou shalt do according to the sentence which they of that place ( which the Lord shall chuse ) shall shew thee , and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee ; and the man that will do presumptuously , and will not hearken to the Priest , ( that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God ) or unto the Judge , even that man shall die , and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel . Upon this place , they might certainly much better establish the infallibility of their own Church , than others draw an argument for Infallibility in the Christian Church from it . However , absolute obedience would serve their turn , to charge the Christians with Faction , in not submitting to their Authority . For , was not this a matter of difficulty , whether the Messias were to be a temporal Prince or not ? concerning what time , and place , and person the Prophecies were to be understood ? Who were the competent Judges in this case , but those whom God had established by his Law ? If the Scribes and Pharisees were charged with false glosses , and corrupting the Law by their Traditions , the Christians were not to take upon themselves to judge of them ; but to appeal to the High Priest and the Sanhedrin , who were the only lawfull Judges in these matters : Their duty was submission and patience ; but by no means ought they upon their own Authority to begin a new Church , and to broach new Doctrines directly contrary to the judgment of the High Priest and Sanhedrin ▪ yea , after they had pronounced Sentence against Jesus of Nazareth , and condemned him to death ; and excommunicated his followers , and punished as many as they could get into their power ; what could it ( in their opinion ) be but the Spirit of Faction and Disobedience thus to oppose the Authority of their Church , in believing contrary to its decrees , and reforming without any power derived from it ? We see in our Saviour's time how severely they check'd any of the people who spake favourably of Christ and his Doctrine ; as though the poor ignorant people were fit to judge of these matters ! to understand Prophesies , and to know the true Messias , when he should appear ! And therefore when some of their Officers that had been sent to apprehend him , came back with admiration of him , and said , Never man spake like this man ; they take them up short and tell them , They must believe as the Church believes ; what , they take upon them to judge of such matters ! No , they must submit to their Governours . Joh. 7.46 , 47 , 48 , 49. Have any of the Rulers , or Pharisees believed on him ? but this people which know not the Law are cursed . i. e. When they set up their own judgment in opposition to the Authority of the Church . And after our Saviour's death at a solemn Council at Hierusalem , when Peter and John were summoned before them ; the first Question they ask'd was , By what power , or by what name have ye done this ? Acts 4.7 . They never enquired , whether the Miracle were wrought or no , or whether their Doctrine were true ; all their Question was about their Mission , whether it were ordinary or extraordinary ; or what authority they could pretend to , that were not sent by themselves ; but let the things be never so true , which they said , if they could find any flaw in their Mission according to their own Rules and Laws , this they thought sufficient ground to forbid them to preach any more , and to charge them with Faction if they disobeyed .

2. They charged the Christians with Faction in being so active and busie to promote Christianity to the great disturbance of the Jews in all parts . This Tertullus accused St. Paul of , Ver 5. that he was a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world ; and accordingly the Jews at Thessalonica take the Christians by force and carry them to the Rulers of the City , crying , Acts 17.6 . Those that have turned the world upside down are come hither also . This they knew was the most effectual course to render them odious to all Governours , who are apt to suspect all new things as dangerous , and think no truth can compensate the hazard of alterations . Thus it was especially among the Roman Governours , who had learnt from the counsel given to Augustus , to be particularly jealous of all innovations in Religion ; and had much rather the people should continue quiet under an old error , than have the peace disturbed for the greatest Truth . This was really the greatest difficulty in the way of Christianity ; it came no where , but people were possessed before-hand with quite other apprehensions of Religion , than the Christians brought among them . The Jewish and Pagan Religions were in possession in all places , and the people were at ease in the practice of them . What then must the Christians ●o ? Must they let them a●one and not endeavour to convince them of the truth of their own Doctrine ? If so , they are unfaithfull to their trust , betrayers of truth , and false to the Souls of men : if they go about to perswade men out of their Religion , they know , such is the fondness most men have for their own opinions , especially in Religion , that where they might hope to convince one , they might be sure to enrage many ; especially of those whose interest lay in upholding the old Religion . How little doth Reason signifie with most men , where Interest is against it ! Truth and Falshood are odd kind of Metaphysical things to them , which they do not care to trouble their heads with ; but what makes for or against their Interest , is thought easie and substantial . All other matters are , as Gallio said , questions of names and words , which they care not for ; but no men will sooner offer to demonstrate a thing to be false , than they who know it to be against their interest to believe it to be true . This was the case of these great men of the Jews that came down to accuse Paul ; they easily saw whither this new Religion tended , and if it prevailed among their people , farewell then to all the Pomp and Splendor of the High-Priesthood at Hierusalem ; farewell then to the Glory of the Temple and City whither all the Tribes came up to worship thrice a year ; farewell then to all the riches , and ease , and pleasure which they enjoyed : And what was the greatest Truth and best Religion in the World to them , in comparison with these ? These were sufficient reasons to them to accuse Truth it self of deceiving men , and the most peaceable Doctrine of laying the Foundation of Faction and Sedition . Thus we have consider'd the false imputations which were cast upon Christianity at first , implyed in these words , After the way which is called Heresie .

2. I now come to the way taken by St. Paul to remove these false imputations , which he doth ,

1. By an appeal to Scripture , as the ground and rule of his faith , Believing all things which are written in the law and the Prophets .

2. By an appeal to the best and purest Antiquity , as to the object of Worship ; So worship I the God of my Fathers , not bringing in any new Religion , but restoring it to its primitive purity .

1. By an appeal to Scripture as the ground and rule of his faith . The Jews pleaded Possession , Tradition , Authority of the present Church : against all these , St. Paul fixes upon a certain and unmoveable Foundation , the Law and the Prophets . He doth not here insist upon any particular revelation made to himself , but offers the whole matter in dispute to be tryed by a common Rule that was allowed on both sides . And his meaning is , if they could prove that he either asserted , or did any thing contrary to the Law and the Prophets , then they had some reason to accuse him of innovation , or beginning of a new Sect ; but if the foundation of his doctrine and practice lay in what themselves acknowledged to be from God , then they had no cause to charge him with introducing a new Sect among them .

But the great Question here is , What ground St. Paul had to decline the Authority of the present Church ? Since God himself had appointed the Priests to be the Interpreters of the Law ; and therefore in doubtfull cases resort was to be made to them ; and not the judgment left to particular persons about the sense of Scripture : And yet in this case it is apparent St. Paul declined all Authority of the present Church ; for at that very time the High-Priests and Elders came down to accuse him , and he takes not the least notice of their judgment in this matter . I shall therefore now shew that St. Paul had very great reason so to do , and to appeal only to Scripture .

1. Because the Authority of the present Church was more liable to error and mistake , than the Rule of Scripture was .

2. Because it was liable to more partiality , than that was .

1. Because it was more liable to error and mistake , than the Rule of Scripture was . It was agreed on both sides , that the Law was from God , and that the Prophets spake by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost ; all that was now left was only to find out the true meaning of them , and to compare Prophecies with events . As in the case of the Messias , if the circumstances foretold by the Prophets had their exact accomplishment in Christ , as might appear to those who carefully compared them ; If he were born at Bethlehem , of the Tribe of Judah , when the Scepter was departed from it , and during the second Temple , and all other circumstances agreeing ; then though the ordinary judgment concerning true Prophets belonged to the Sanhedrin , yet it was far more reasonable to believe that they were mistaken , than that all the Prophecies should be accomplished in a person that was not the true Messias . For those Prophecies were not intended only for the Priests and Rulers , but for directions to the People , that they might be able to judge of the accomplishment of them : otherwise when the Authority of the Jewish Church condemned our Saviour , the People could have no reason to believe him to be the Messias ; if they were bound in the sense of Scripture to submit their judgment wholly to the ●hurches Authority . It is plain then , that the sense of Scripture may be so evident to private capacities , that they are not to submit in it to the present Authority of a Church . For notwithstanding all the promises made to the Jewish Church , and the command of submitting to the sentence of their Priests and Rulers , in a matter of the highest concernment , viz. concerning the true Messias , men were bound to believe directly contrary to the present Authority in the Church . For the people were bound to believe Christ to be the true Messias ; although the High Priests and Elders had condemned him for a deceiver and malefactor . But besides this particular case , there may be several others wherein men may lawfully reject the authority of the present Church ; and those are , when that Authority shall go about to overthrow those things which must be supposed antecedent to the belief of any such Authority : as , 1. The common sense of mankind . 2. The force of a divine Law. 3. The liberty of judgment concerning truth and falshood . All these must necessarily be supposed before any Authority of a Church ; but if any Church goes about to overthrow these , it thereby forfeits its own Authority over men .

1. If it requires things contrary to common sense ; as in that instance wherein some of the Jewish Rabbies required submission to their Authority , viz. in believing the right hand to be the left , or the left to be the right , if they determined so ; or supposing the Jews to have required the people to deny that they ever saw any Miracle wrought by Christ ; or in the Miracle of the Loaves , that what they saw and handled , and tasted , to be bread was true bread ; or to say , that the same individual body might be in a thousand places at once , or that things whose nature it is to be in another , can subsist without their proper subject ; what Church soever requires such things as these from its members to be believed , gives them just reason to reject its Authority .

2. If it requires things contrary to the force and reason of a divine Law : as the Jews themselves would have acknowledged , if any Authority among them had gone about either to have left out the second Commandment , or made it lawfull to give Religious worship to Images , under any distinctions whatsoever : or if the Priests had taken away from the people their share in the sacrifices , under pretence of the unsanctified teeth , or the long beards of the Laity , which were not fit to touch what had been offered in sacrifice to God. But we need not put cases among them , for our Saviour therefore bids men have a care of the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees , Matt. 15.6.16.6 . because by their traditions they made the Commandment of God of none effect : as in their Corban , if they made a vow to God they thought themselves excused from relieving their Parents ; and in this way our Saviour generally deals with them , shewing that though they pretended to keep the letter of the Law , yet by their corrupt additions and false glosses they overthrew the scope and design of it : which he thought sufficient reason to reject their Authority ; and therefore when he bids his Disciples , observe and do whatsoever the Scribes and Pharisees bid them ; Mat. 23.3 . it must be supposed to be only while they keep to the letter and reason of the Law ; for if he had intended an absolute obedience , he would never elsewhere have bid his Disciples beware of their Doctrine . Mat. 16.12 .

3. If it takes away all liberty of judgment concerning truth and falshood in Religion . For this is a natural right which every man hath to judge for himself : and they that take this away , may as well command all men to put out their eyes , that they may better follow their Guides . But the other is so much worse , because it is an assault upon our understandings , it is a robbing us of the greatest talent God hath committed to our management , it is a rape upon our best faculties , and prostituting them to the lusts of Spiritual Tyrants ; it is not captivating our understandings to the obedience of faith , but enslaving them to the proud and domineering usurpations of men ; wherein they would do by us as the Philistines did by Sampson ; they would put out our eyes , that we might grind in their prison , and make them sport . I would not be mistaken , it is the liberty of judgment I plead for , and not of practice ; that may be justly restrained by the Laws of the Church , where the other is allowed ; because the obligations to peace and unity are different from those to faith and inward assent . And that no absolute submission of judgment could be required by the Law of Moses , notwithstanding the command of outward obedience in the cases mention'd , Deut. 17.8 , 9 , &c. is most evident from hence , because that Law makes provision for a sin-offering in case the whole Congregation of Israel sin through ignorance , Lev. 4 . 1● . and the thing be hid from the eyes of the Assembly , or Supream Council , and they have done something against the commandment of the Lord : which had been a Law made to no purpose , if it had been impossible for their chief Authority to have erred or been mistaken in their judgment . From hence we see St. Paul had great reason to appeal from the High Priest and Elders to the Law and the Prophets , because they were subject to error and mistake , but these are not .

2. Because the Law and the Prophets are less liable to partiality , than a living Judge , or the Authority of the present Church . I have oft-times wondered to hear men speak so advantageously of a living Judge , before an infallible Rule , in order to the end of Controversies . If all they mean be only that an end be put to them no matter how , I confess a living Judge in that case hath much the advantage , but so would any other way that persons would agree upon , as the judgment of the next person we met with , or Lottery , or any such thing ; but if we would have things fairly examined and heard , and a judgment given according to the merits of the cause , the case will be found very different here from what it is in civil causes . For here the Judge must be a party concerned , when his own Authority and Interest is questioned ; and liable to all those passions which men are subject to in their own cases . Which will be notoriously evident in the case before us , between the High Priest and Elders on one side , and St. Paul on the other : They pleaded , that if any difficulty arose about the sense of the Law , it belonged to them to judge of it ; St. Paul declines their judgment , and appeals only to the Law and the Prophets : had it been reasonable in this case for Felix to have referred the judgment to them who were the parties so deeply concerned ? A living Judge may have a great advantage over a bare Rule to put an end to controversies ; but then we must suppose impartiality in him , freedom from prejudice , an excellent judgment , diligence and patience in hearing all the evidence , and at last delivering sentence according to the sense of the Law ; if any of these be wanting , the controversie may soon be ended , but on the wrong side . I suppose none of those who would have controversies in Religion ended by a living Judge , will for shame say , they would have them ended right or wrong ; but if they would have Truth determined , they must give us assurance , that these Judges shall lay aside all partiality to their own interests , all prejudice against their Adversaries , shall diligently search , and examine , and weigh the evidence on both sides , and then shall determine according to the true sense of the Law. How likely this is , will appear by the living Judges in our Saviour's time ; Was there ever greater partiality seen than was in them ▪ or more obstinate prejudice , or more wilfull errors , or a more malicious sentence than came from them in the cause of our Lord and Saviour ? They would not believe his Miracles , though told them by those that saw them ; when they saw them , they would not believe they came from God , but attributed them to the Devil ; they would not so much as enquire the true place of his Nativity , but ran on still with that wilfull mistake , that he was born in Galilee ; and by this they thought to confound Nicodemus presently , Search and look , Joh. 7.52 . for out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet . If they had searched and looked themselves , they would have found , that Christ was born in Bethlehem , and not in Galilee . But where men are strongly prejudiced , any thing serves for evidence and demonstration ; whereas all the arguments on the other side shall be despised and contemned . How captious were they on all occasions towards our Saviour , lying in wait to entrap him with questions , to pervert his words , and draw blasphemy out of the most innocent expressions ? And when none of all these things could do , they use all the ways of fraud , malice , and injustice to destroy the Saviour of the world as a Malefactor and Blasphemer . Was not here now a mighty advantage , which the Authority of the present Church among the Jews of that time had , above the guidance of the Law and the Prophets ? And the knowledge St. Paul had of the same temper being in them still might justly make him decline their judgment , and appeal only to the Law and the Prophets , for the ground and rule of his Faith.