Precious faith considered in its nature, working, and growth

and in the Nineteenth, it commands Rebaptization of such as were Baptized by Heretics. The Emperor Zeno being expulsed, the Tyrant Basiliscus by the persuasion of Timotheus Aelurus wrote Letter in condemnation of the General Council of Chalcedon; unto which as impious as they were, no less than five hundred Bishops subscribed at the Tyrants Command. And touching the Canon, if the Council of Laodicea be right in it, that of Carthage is not so; and consequently that of Constantinople, which takes in both, must needs be in an Error. These things premised; Can the unvariable and infallible Scripture hang upon a variable and errable Authority such as Mans is? May all the precious Promises of Life and Salvation be precarious and pendent on an Humane Arbitrium? Tertullian in his Apology speaking of that old Decree among the Romans, that no God should be consecrated without the approbation of the Senate, saith, Apud nos de humano arbitratu divinitas pensitatur, nisi homini Deus placuerit, Deus non erit. If the Authority of Scripture depend on the Church, then we may say, Nisi homini Scriptura placuerit, Scriptura non ⟨p. 333⟩erit; and by consequence all the Faith of the Saints must be pendulous and hanging on uncertainties. If the Churches definition be so momentous to Scripture, let us see what the Church hath done in it; Hath it collected the Canonical Books into a body? 'Tis probable Ezra collected the Books of the Old Testament into a body, and so think many of the ancient Fathers. And I suppose St. John collected the Books of the New Testament together; for he lived after all the other Apostles, even unto the time of Trajan; that by his vigilancy the Canon of the New Testament might be kept pure and unadulterate. When after St. Pauls death there was a Book called, Periodus Pauls & Teclae, spread abroad under the Name and Title of Paul; St. John discovered it to be spurious, insomuch that the Author of it confessed that he did it amore Pauli. And I believe what was done in this collection of the Canon was not done by an ordinary Spirit, but by a Prophetical Spirit in Ezra, and an Apostolical one in St. John. In the mean time it appears not to have been done by an act of the Church: but leaving this particular, When and how did the Church define the Canon?

and in the Ninteenth, it commands Rebaptization of such as were Baptized by Hereticks. The Emperour Zeno being expulsed, the Tyrant Basiliscus by the perswasion of Timotheus Aelurus wrote Letter in condemnation of the General Council of Chalcedon; unto which as impious as they were, no less than five hundred Bishops subscribed at the Tyrants Command. And touching the Canon, if the Council of Laodicea be right in it, that of Carthage is not so; and consequently that of Constantinople, which takes in both, must needs be in an Error. These things premised; Can the unvariable and infallible Scripture hang upon a variable and errable Authority such as Mans is? May all the precious Promises of Life and Salvation be precarious and pendent on an Humane Arbitrium? Tertullian in his Apology speaking of that old Decree among the Romans, that no God should be consecrated without the approbation of the Senate, saith, Apud nos de humano arbitratu divinitas pensitatur, nisi homini Deus placuerit, Deus non erit. If the Authority of Scripture depend on the Church, then we may say, Nisi homini Scriptura placuerit, Scriptura non