or false But whether side is the more probable or plausible purely in relation to Scripture Clearely he who in any point will proceede according to conscience and prudence in this way of arguing is obliged to consider all that is contained in the whole Scripture concerning that point Weighing what he putteth in each side of the ballance with the best judgement God affordeth him that so he may judiciously pronounce sentence For the doing of which he ought to consider not onely the number of places that concerne his purpose but their qualities also and be able to compare those one with an other Now this is so hard a taske that the learnedst and ablest man a live may despaire of ever being able to effect it For how can he or any Man with reason persuade himselfe that either he or any other hath ever produced or ever can produce out of Scripture all that may from thence be alledged for any point in controversy since our Saviour himself hath given us a cleare example that arguments may be drawne and those efficacious ones from Texts where we least dreame of any such sense As when disputing against the Sadduces he made this argument God is God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob But he is not God of nothing Therefore Abraham Isaac and Jacob shall rise againe or do remaine in soule hoping for their body and resurrection who can be confident of saying or knowing all that is in Scripture concerning any point when the proofes of truths may lye in such unlikely places Surely it must be either a great ignorance or a great temerity to undertake it And therefore we may conclude that it is impossible we should ever arrive so farre in this way of search as to know really what is more or lesse probable out of Scripture But all that we may hope to attaine unto is onely to be able to judge what is more or lesse probable out of those places which well our selves do know or att most out of those places which the Authors we have seene do bring And so it is evident that they who relye on Scripture or rather that professe to do so do not in truth relye upon it but upon their owne or their Teachers diligence whom they suppose to know the whole latitude of Scripture-proofe Which is not onely false but impossible for any man to do The fourteenth REFLEXION On the Arguments drawne out of the Fathers THe second nest of Authority out of which Arguments take wing Is the copious library of Fathers Wherein it is to be considered that whether Catholike or Protestant be to argue the Text he alledgeth hath a double remove from the conclusion he would prove For whereas in allegations of Scripture both sides agree that what it sayth is certainly true and so all the difficulty consisteth in knowing what is true meaning of the place alledged it is otherwise allegations of Fathers For in them there arise two questions The one whether that which the argugent pretendeth be the Fathers opinion the other whether that which the Father sayth be true after it is agreed to be his opinion For neither Catholike nor Protestant doth agree to all things that one or two Fathers may hold But indeed Protestants do defie them all And Catholikes require an universality in them to make them infallible So that if either Catholike or Protestant be the Arguer he ought to settle before-hand with his adversary that such a Father or Fathers as he intendeth to produce be of unquestionable authority between them Or else not to meddle with them for it were but labour lost and breath cast away The Protestants use to make two comparisons in Fathers The one in Age or Antiquity the other in learning or reputation As for the former they insist much upon the three first Ages supposing them to be purer then the rest In doing of which it is evident that their ayme is to reject all For when they list and that it concerneth them they will tell you that the impurity of doctrin began as soon as the Apostles were dead Now if by this Impurity they meane damnable errors then by saying so they evacuate all the authority of Fathers For they allow it no further then as it pleaseth every disputant or Minister to declare the point controverted to bee or not to bee a damnable error And thus even the three first Ages are blowne away with the rest But if the point in Controversy be no damnable error then the Fathers authority importeth litle erring being but of small consequence in such Matters as do not concerne salvation and there being no obligation upon a Christian to know unnecessary truths In a word If the Church can erre and hath erred these thousand yeares it is but courtesy to say she did not so in the former six hundred And so in truth the Fathers have no authority att all But if it can not erre nor hath erred Then the Fathers of the latter Ages own as good wittnesses as those of the former so they be induced with Universality The other comparison or distinction that Protestants use to make of the Fathers concerning their learning and reputation is as little to the purpose as that of their Antiquity For we do not cite Fathers as Doctors whose opinion is no better then the reason they bring for it but as wittnesses whose authority consisteth in a grave and moderate knowledge of what is believed and practised by the Church in the ages respectively wherein they lived And out of this it followeth that for wittnessing of Christian faith no one Father is to be preferred before an other It is true in some sense the testimony of a more antient Father may be sayd to be preferred before a more moderne one because the formall witnessing of it is of more neerenesse to Christ and of longer durance towards us But in regard of learning No Father hath more authority nor is more to be valued then an other for what concerneth faith though in other respects it be very considerable For a lesse learned Father is as credible a wittnesse as the learnedst of what is the present practise and beliefe of Christians so he have learning sufficient to warrant his understanding and knowing so much And in reality any Father whose authority carrieth us beyond the apparent memory of mankind att present living is as good as the best for declaring the faith of the Church in the time he lived in Which because it received its doctrine by entaile from age to age every Fathers testimony in such Matters of faith is firme and irrefragable To conclude therefore The Catholike maketh no difference of the quality of Fathers nor much of their Antiquity but admitteth all so they come with universality The Protestant though he will a little simper att it yet in Conclusion he rejecteth all setting his owne judgement which he calleth Scripture for high Umpire of what in them is right what wrong Therefore
CONTROVERSY LOGICKE Or The Methode to come to truth in debates of Religion Written by THOMAS WHITE GENTLEMAN ANNO 1659. THE INTRODUCTION MR. John Biddle who is represented to me as one of the most learned and most rationall among the enemies of the Roman Church wrote a booke wherein he declared what opinion he had framed to himselfe out of Scripture concerning the blessed Trinity And that not out of Scripture alone but also out of the Fathers of the first three Centuries smoothly skipping ouer according to the vsuall actiuity of a Protestant Doctor aboue a thousand yeares att a leaue By which proceeding he pretendeth that neither the Caluinist nor any other who sticketh to pure Scripture nay not the Protestant himselfe who extendeth his authority to the Fathers of the first three hundred yeares and no further haue any law or right to censure him seeing he maintaineth all the Principles of both these sortes of persons and offereth to justify out of them by disputation whatsoever he hath written Excepting which two pretended authorities namely of Scripture and of the Fathers of the first three Centuries both of them privately interpreted there is nothing but meere willfulnesse to move any of the fore-mentioned persons to believe firmely any conclusion of faith and Religion or to censure rationally any who hold the contrary opinions This man not withstanding his so conformable plea and the maine position of liberty of Prophecying which is the Basis of all those who refuse the judgment of a speaking Church wee see detained prisoner by publike authority and his booke burned by the hand of the publike Executioner This begott in me as I conceive it did the like in sundry others a desire and curiosity of speaking with him Which not being able to compasse by my slender power My next worke was to reade his booke After which I must not deny him this commendation that supposing the principle of every mans choosing his Religion out of Scripture Grammatically intrepreted at is the manner of all those who recede from the authority of tradition he proceedeth very rationally and consequently Neither do I imagine that any of his persecutors is able to give a satisfactory answere to what he hath written And this hath bin confirmed in me since I have vnderstood that some have sett out workes against him which haue not afforded the discreeter part even of their owne followers the content they expected from them And that others have attempted to do the like but have bin soo discreete as to suppresse their endeavours vpon their finding the successe did not correspond to their wishes This hath made the booke be esteemed exceeding dangerous to Christian Religion by those who thought they have no rule to know what is solide and what is not in Matters of Religion yet are by the force of custome and consent of the greatest part of the Christian name detained from renouncing the God-head of the whole Trynity as esteeming it the maine foundation for a materiall point of Christian beliefe and that which hath brought forth during to many ages those heroyke actions and noble effects wherewith the Christian world is enriched aboue the neglected times of Paganisme Now this consideration or rather experiment as it conuinced clearly that disputations betweene all such as adhere solely to Scripture are for the most part meerely vaine and fruitlesse for witty men will neuer commit too great a folly as to maintaine by Scripture what is palpably and vngloseably against it so it made me reflect that euen the disputations which we Catholikes do vse against Protestants are seldome and onely by accident profitable And by farther rumination my thoughts sprunge out the ensuing treabise I may not conclude this preamble without reflecting vpon Mr. Biddles appeale to the Fathers of the first three Ages which exclusion of those of the following Ages Not because it is his but because it is common to him and to the Protestants and euer to the learnedest Caluinists as may be seene in the workes of Chamier and Daille Truly to my thinking it is a most ridiculous and vnreasonable proposition For I would faine know how it can fall into the braines of any indifferently discoursine man to doubt whiter the Fathers of the fourth Age did not know what the Fathers of the former Ages held better then we can discouer it out of their writings that remaine to vs Then more of them were extant Neither was there any cauils or att least very few which of them were trew which suppositions The stile the phrase the circumstances the practises of the times wherein those Fathers wrote were then better vnderstood And which is the chiefe ô fall there were yet wittnesses aliue who either had knowne them or att least knew others that had knowne them and had conuersed with them so that by being acquainted with the opinions of the men they could not doubt of the sense and interpretation of such hard passages as by inaduertence naturall euen to the most diligent and most wary writers could not chose but sometimes fall from their pennes These were the aduantages of the 4.th Age ouer this wherein we now liue And consequently if we can aske the 4.th Age what it was that these fathers held and may haue their assured answere to our question There can be no comparison betweene that euidence and what we can guesse att out of those scrappes and remnants of darke expressions which in many cases must be the subject of our enquiry if we examine their writinges I will giue you for an example this booke of Maister Biddle that hath occasioned the following discourse Reade the testimomyes he alleageth they will seeme to you the very contexture of the treatises out of which he hath drawne them so large in some places so continuedly page after page whereas generally our Protestant citations are bur of a line or two spoken vpon the by whiles the Authors discourse concerneth an other businesse And yet neuer the lesse nothing can be more manifest then that the doctrine he pretendeth to abett by those testimonies was not the opinion of the fathers he alleageth for it The councill of Nice called the Great that is the Vniuersall Christian world with open mouth and one consent condemning the Arrians of nouelty And St. Athanasius so many times vpbraiding them to their faces that their progenitors were onely Caïphas and Artemas and such like and that their Clergy men were faine to learne how to professe their faith and how to speake a certaine token of their hauing bin formerly taught the contrary The like in effect is in all other controuersies betweene Protestants and vs for in any of them the 4.th Age doth testify that the doctrine it holdeth is descended from their fore-Fathers and is in quiet possession of beliefe in the Church and that the opiniō they dispute against is a nouuelty they do thereby declare the doctrine of the precedent age more efficaciously then any testimonies
and serious apprehension of the future life and of the goods of it But that sense prevayleth in him above reason Now that the Catholike faith hath all the advantages upon which wise men do use to adventure their lives estates and honors wil easily and clearly appeare if the right way be taken to shew it the authority of the Church being so farre beyond all wittnesses used in judgments and all probabilities men use to rely upon in warre and in marchandising that there is no comparison betweene them And the objections which Heretikes use to bring to hinder their clients from embracing the Catholike faith are for the most part but authorities of the nature of those we have discoursed of before Which in such abundance of writings as are in Scripture and in the Fathers cannot faile of being easily mett with by those who purposely seeke them there being in them so many sayings delivered upon the by whiles the Author is attentive to some other question or in circumstances not well knowne to us In fine such difficulties as is impossible to be avoided in much speaking and that neither convince the Authors minde nor much lesse the verity of the question debated The Arguments which are drawne from reason for the proofe or disproofe of particular points are chiefly about Mysteries difficult in nature against which Heretikes use to frame the ordinary obvious objections As against the blessed Trinity how the same thing can be one and three against the Incarnation how the same person can be God and Man and against the Holy Eucharist how can Christes body be divided like a homogeneall body or be at the same time in different places such kind of arguments Universally are hard to be answered because neither the propounder nor the auditory have usually Philosophy enough to understand the solution and sometimes the answerer himselfe falleth short For not every Catholike nor yet every Catholike disputant is necessarily a great Philosopher At the least if the Catholike disputant suspecteth his adversaries subtility in questions of this nature he ought either to bee provided for him or abstaine from disputing or professe himselfe no Master in such speculations and so rather wave them with his owne disparagement then attempt them with the dishonour of the cause In other points the objections against Catholike Truths are generally very triviall ones As against the Popes authority that there cannot be more heads or foundations then one and that Christ is that one Against satisfaction for sinnes that Christ satisfyed sufficiently for all mankinde Against praying to Saints that there is but one Mediatour or that Saints have no eares and therefore can not heare And the like which are pittifull pulpit-bables to fill the mouths of weake persons as soone as with one of these they have troubled some simple persō that themselves are fitt to dispute with the Pope of Rome Such toyes are obvious against any thing And an exercised disputant can not be ignorant of the answeres to them though he may soone be weary of the employement in answering them and ashamed of having suffered himselfe to be drawne unto it As for arguments from reason to proove Catholike Truths They may have as much strength as the disputant is capable of For no argument is so strong but that if it be shott from a weake hand it may prove wholly blunt and impenetrant And therefore I leave the Catholike disputant to his owne discretion in this part Which will tell him that he ought not to engage himselfe in it unlesse he be assured both that his dart is a good one and that he hath the dexterity to ayme it right and the strength to throw it home Out of this short survey of the nature of arguments a good Logician will easily discerne that it is meere losse of time to fall on disputing with one who is not able or will not so much as professe to bring a demonstration for what he intendeth to prove It being indeed to no more purpose then the tossing of balls in a tennis court So that the reason why wee answer or att least ought to answere Hereticks arguments is because they thinke them demonstrative which are not for want of sufficiency in Logick and wee make oppositions which are not demonstrative because they are not able to judge what a demonstration is for to please them with apples whose stomachs loaht strong food The sixteenth REFLEXION On the Qualities requisite in the Auditory that is present att the Disputation HAving said thus much of the disputants It is reasonable to say a word or two of the Auditory Those then before whom you are to dispute are either favorable to you or cōtrary or indifferent And because these qualities arise either out of the understanding or out of the will we will take a survey of these two faculties To begin with the understanding It is cleare that in order to that nothing rendereth a man unfitt to be at such a disputation but incapacity And this is either naturall or for want of study and art or by custome The incapacity of nature is helped by much explication and so is that which proceedeth from want of study with this difference that natural incapacity is taken away by explicating the particular Matter in hand which is tolerable because it doth not draw the disputation out of its owne boundes But when the incapacity is through want of study It is because the disputation supposeth some principles whereof the Auditory is ignorant And these are of two kindes The one Logicall the other Theological The first happeneth chiefely in the use of disputation As if the Auditory be ignorant of the forme that ought to be used in disputing and so wil have the disputant play the defendants part or contrariwise the defendant act the disputants part or desireth that instead of rigorous forme they fall on discoursing or preaching at large Likewise if he be ignorant of the right use of distinction And so either hindereth the defendant from distinguishing when it is necessary he should or permitteth it him when there are not truly two senses in the wordes the disputant speaketh But the defendant by adding some wordes of his owne seemeth to finde two senses where indeed there is but one As for example If the disputant should assume that it is the nature of a man to have two legges And the answerer should distinguish allowing it to be the nature of white men but not of blacke men or the nature of Europeans but not Africans Now if this be allowed the disputant is wronged For taking his rise from this that to have two legges is the nature of a Man hee might prove that Africans have two legs because they are men So for want of Logcik in the respondent and in the Auditory the defendant is not allowed to take the nature of Man in common but is confined to the nature of an European and so is putt beside his argument The second
Religionâ— those who are gone astray from it be so important and perpetuall as it is What shall we determine to be the best course to deale with erring people to reduce them into the path of Salvation The answer is not hard for either their wil or their understanding is faulty If the will you are to consider what be the particular obstructions of it whether some love of temporall thinges or meerly tepidity Of the former the common remedy is to inculcate the vanities of this world and to represent what will become of us in the next Tepidity proceedeth from not being sufficiently acquainted as I may say with the affaires of Religion and the next life or out of a dullnesse of nature The first is to becured by engaging the party in familiar conversation with good compaÌ„y where he may heare such spirituall Matters often handled and discussed whether it be by sermons or by discourses or by colloquies and conferences whereby in prâ—cesse of time the fire may kindle of it selfe and breake out into a quicke flame But the second is to be wrought upon with feares as by frequent commemoratioÌ„ and of hell-fire For by any other course nothing will be gained of such a temper especially if the dullnesse be of that nature that allurements have little force upon it If the fault be in the understanding It is because the true motives of Christianity do not sinke deepely into his soule Now seeing that both experience and reason do teach us how the soule judgeth best When it is most at rest and in quiet you are to draw your patient what you can into a kind of solitude That is to chuse the seasons when least turmoyle either of businesse or of pleasures doth infest him procuring also that there be no adversary at that time to hinder your reasons from taking root in him For it is cerraine that he who will heare nothing but in opposition and under contestation shall never or but very slowly come to understand truth his soule being like a Cistrne into which the water runneth by a spoute at one end and emptieth it self as fast by a hole at the other end For if as soone as one maketh a proposition or short discourse to enlighten the hearers understanding that hee may see the truth of what is layed before him an other att his elbow presently crosseth it saying it is false or raysing difficulties before it be rightly apprehended such a man shal never come to understand what is said to him Not but that happily he may gett some glimpse of it But it will be like a flying vision which permitteth not the judgement to worke upon it Let him therefore weigh deliberatly with himselfe how Religion is the seriousest the severest and the most important affaire we have or can have in our whole lives That it containeth many propositions or parts that every one of them requireth a quiet and a settled judgement to determine it That this judgment can not be made by him but in a calme serene and quiet position and state of his braine And after all this he will clearly see that it is impossible he should be able to performe that duty of Assent which is required in so grave a concernement whiles two adversaries doe disquiet and importune him with their earnestnesse and wrangling in which their sayings doe slide by with great violence and multiply themselves before any one of them can be quietly possessed But what then Must he not heare oppositions and the conflict of both parties Yes by all meanes But in doing so he must be sure first to make himselfe Master of what one party sayth And when he findeth himselfe able to propose his difficulty to the bottome then in the name of God let them encounter the adverse party For when onely two rationall men discourse of a point it will not be hard for him who seeketh truth to penetrate so farre as to see whether or no the adverse party is able to give satisfaction to the argument proposed If he can salve it then no change ought to be made in the inquirers opinion and judgement seeing both sides are equall But if he can not then it is apparent on which side the truth lyeth as farre as may be discerned out of the learning of these two men So that we may conclude there is no solide way but this of arriving to truth in matters of Religion To converse first with the maintainer of one opinion Afterwardes with the maintainer of the contrary opinion with both of them as much without passion as is possible But never to bring them to conflict together when both animosity and shame of being overcome shall debauch their endeavours and their quicke replyes and many ambayes shall leave the auditour unable to judge solidely of what they say though there were nothing besides to obscure and hinder the cleare sight of Truth The eighteenth REFLEXION On what is learning And how mistaken I finde still remaining a disadvantage to the disputant of either side which I must strive to remove if it be possible It is a certaine pre-possession settled in the beliefe of the Auditory or of him that is to be perswaded of the learning and goodnesse of some private person or Doctour upon whose authority truly dependeth the beliefe of the party though perhaps he pretendeth the authority of Scripture or of Fathers or some other rule for his assent This enforced by custom as impetuous a cause almost as nature it selfe lyeth like a great loade upon the heart of him who hath a long time either by his owne judgment or by the constant cry of his neighbours and of those with whom he converseth fixed and redoubled in himselfe a deepe apprehension of such a persons ability and honesty I shall therefore adde here some few markes or rather distinctions of learning to hinder men from erring in their judgments concerning it And first I must note that there are divers sortes of learning And that it doth not follow that he who is eminent in one sort must therefore of necessity excel in another Geometry Physicke Law Philosophy Metaphysikes and Divinity are all of them different sorts of learning all so independent of one another that he who is excellent in one of them may have but a small share in any of the rest Neverthelesse I often see that if a man hath any of these in such a measure as to deserve reputation for it the common sort of people thinketh he knoweth all things and hath recourse to him for what belongeth to another science As if all learning were but one because the name is but one Nor is this proper to the vulgar alone but even they of better ranke do often mistake the true kind of learning that concerneth their present occasion and purpose expecting to finde it in him who hath somewhat like it as will appeare by further discourse The next observation then which we have to make is
Defendant for his answering And accordingly since it is well knowne that nothing but Demonstration can give security of a disputable truth He who in a Disputation of this nature undertaketh to prove an assertion ought first to engage his credit that in his conscience hee esteemeth the argument hee intendeth to propose to be Demonstrative How ever he may apprehend a failing on his part in pressing it either through want of sufficient skill or through the over proportion of his adversaries abilities or through the difficulty of well opening the Matter and making the truth appeare If hee refuse to do this he is to be protested against for a thiefe and a robber as our Saviour himselfe styleth such who hath a designe to abuse his hearers and to draw their soules for some private interest of his owne into eternall damnation And the Auditory is to be contested that such a disputation as the Arguer intendeth is a meere juggle and imposture a brabbling base counterscuffle not fitt for a grave Man to have a share in but a meere scolding losse of time and vexation both to the hearers and to the actours The Respondents taske is not so rigorous It is enough for him to maintaine that his adversary can not convince his Tenet of falsity Hee being for this passage but a defendant not a prover Thus farre for Opponents and Defendants in common But now to apply this to Catholikes and to those who have parted from them Let us begin with considering how their maine difference consisteth in this that the Catholike holdeth his doctrine because it came to him by his fore-fathers from Christ and relyeth upon his fore-fathers for the truth of this The Adversaries Universally do rely upon either Scripture or reason As for reason it is evident that it can not bee a sufficient ground of a doctrine that is held by authority And as for Scripture the Catholike maintaineth it as strongly as they Neither have they it but upon the credit of Catholikes And therefore all the arguments they can bring out of Scripture against Catholikes do beare in their fore-head a prejudice of being either false or att least uncertaine The tienth REFLEXION Of some particulars belonging to Catholikes Others to their Adversaries OUt of these premisses there follow some very considerable differences betweene Catholikes and Protestants in point of Disputation The first is That a Catholike ought not for his owne satisfaction to admitt of any disputation att all in Matters of Religion For he relyeth upon a better ground then any his Adversary can offer to him Namely an infallible and irrefragable Authority Hee taketh reason for an insufficient Judge in controversies of this Nature And against disputing out of Scripture he hath two prejudices The one that he holdeth his faith by the same rule by which hee receiveth the Scripture and therefore if Scripture should proove any thing against his faith which is impossible it would make him believe neither and so would not change him to be of a new Religion but cause him to be of none The other prejudice is That he who argueth out of Scripture proceedeth Texts whose sense is disputable in the words themselves Whereas the Catholike is before-hand assured of the sense as farre as concerneth faith Therefore it were in vaine for him to search in an uncertaine instructer the knowledge of that which he already knoweth certainly Yet further If any Catholike doe admitt Disputation for his owne sake and satisfaction he leaveth being a Catholike For the end of Disputation is to cleare a doubt And therefore where is no doubt there is no neede of disputing Neither can a Catholike have any doubt in any Matter of faith unlesse hee suspecteth his rule Which if he once do he is no longer a Catholike On the other side The Protestant building all his faith upon the ambiguous words of Scripture so loud disputed and eternally disputable must necessarily if he bee a rationall man live in perpetuall doubt For the very oppositiō of so many wise and learned men as affirme that the wordes he alleageth do not signify that which is necessary for his position is sufficient to make any rationall man be in doubt of an exposition of wordes that may beare severall senses which he seeth is so obvious and ordinary a rock of mistaking Therefore a Protestant were not rationall if he should not alwayes demand searching and disputing untill experience shall have taught him there is no End of it or by it Hee must resolve either to be ignorant and to trust or else to dispute without end And in very truth his disputing is to no end For suppose he be the arguent and do convince his adversary yet after all his paines he hath gained no more then onely to perceive that his adversary is a weaker disputant then hee or that peradvēture he was at that time surprised so that when he shall be in his better wittes he may happily be able to salve his arguments And if he be the Defendant and chāce to maintain his positiō yet it followeth not that a better Opponent then he had to deale withall mought not have convinced him So that on neither side there is any security to him because he bringeth no Demonstration but onely the bare appearance of ambiguous wordes There is an other impurity betweene Catholikes and their adversaries in this that if the Catholike be the Opponent he can dispute but of one point namely of the Infalliblity of the Church because his adversary is obliged to no other For take what point you will besides and one may be a perfect Protestant whether he hold it or deny it The authority of Bishops is the maine point of Protestācy by which it is distinguished from all other Sestaries Yet when it is for their turne the French Presbyterians so great enemies to that governmēt of the Church are their deare brethren The Greeks the Lutherans the Socinians the Anabaptistes how many positions do they maintaine different from the Protestants Neverthelesse when it pleaseth a Protestant to make his boasts of the large extent of the Reformed Churches all these are of this communion Nay Nay when he talketh of the Vniversall Church No Arrian Eutychian Nestorian or other Professour of whatsoever damned Heresy that hath a share against Popery is excluded by him from being an Orthodoxe Member of the Catholike Church but all are registred in his Kalendar as Professours of the onely true faith and as witnesses of Christs doctrine So that if a Catholike be to argue he looseth his labour in disputing of any point but of the Infallibility of the Church because he advanceth nothing by having the victory in any other For though he should reduce his adversary to be of his minde in all other articles yet not being so in this too he is as farre as ever from being a Catholike since the not believing of any one article of faith maketh a man no Catholike or which
unprofitable Servants In all which Texts Neyther is that said so much as by the outward wordes which they intend by alledging them nor is there any shew of connexion with what they pretend But rather for the most part such places do favour the adverse party As the first reprehendeth the fastinges of the wicked Jewes because they continued their impieties notwithstanding their afflicting themselves Which signifyeth that the fasts themselves were good but that the Manner and circumstances in which they were done were naught The second clearely concludeth that seeing the disobedience in eating forbidden meates floweth from the heart it is sin not to abstain from them The third supposeth evidently that the commandements may be fullfilled which is denyed by Protestants and implyeth that more may be done and consequently admitteth workes of super errogation I deny not but that both these sorts of arguments are common to both parties Yet it is with this difference that the Catholike relyeth not upon them as being fixed upon his owne firme and solide basis of having received his faith by succession from Christ And therefore in his mouth such are condesciences to the weakenesse of his auditory Whom he hopeth by this milke to make capable of a stronger settlement But among Protestants such arguments and conjecturall inferences are the very foundation of their Religion Unto which sandy ground they strive to bring their auditory hindering them from setling upon the rocke of the Church The thirteenth REFLEXION Of other sorts of Arguments drawne out of Scripture BUt leaving these shuttle-cocke arguments which are easily bandyed from either side Let us looke upon the next kind of argument which maketh use of a heape of Texts to prove the Conclusion intended I do not deny but that this is a strong proceeding If it finde either an able Logician to manage it or an Auditory capable of it both which are very rare And therefore this course is fitter for writing and for reading with deliberation then for a sudden conflict upon the place There are two wayes of using this weapon The one simply accumulateth many Texts giving every one its force in short and overwhelming the Auditour by their multitude This doth well in an Oration or Sermon and carrieth a great resemblance of strength in it But if the whole discourse cometh to be anatomised by the adversary and the wakenesse of every e text shewed in particular Then the conclusion standeth naked and ashamed and the author Amazed a see his owne opinion so unexpectedly changed And therefore in a Disputation where the adversary hath his law to answere onely one this accumulation of Texts serveth to little purpose more then to spend time The other way of employing a conglobation of Texts is to pretend to bring all the Texts that may be found in Scripture favourable to either side and by comparing them to shew which party standeth with Scripture which against it But first it is evident that this proceeding is not proper for a regular combat For the adversary will have right to clayme the planting of his owne batterye himselfe and may refuse to accept it from his enemy Againe to do this thing well and to make this comparison in due Manner So many things are to be considered that it is rather the subject of a Booke then fitt for the proposall of one party to which the other is to answere immediatly upon the place For the Texts ought to be examined that it may be determined which of them do formally containe the position that is to be proved And which onely some verity connexed to it from whence it may be drawen and the degrees of such connexion Againe what speeches are proper what Metaphoricall and the degrees of translation in them Likewise the occasions of the speaking those wordes and their coherence with actions or wordes precedent and subsequent All which considerations are so manifold and so tedious to be well performed that they can by no meanes be brought into the brevity of a Dialogisticall opposition But will require the making of long speeches like whole sermons on each side Which can not choose but be irkesome and displeasing to the Auditory And in conclusion must necessarily be without effect seeing that it is impossible ordinary memories should beare away such a multitude of notions so perfectly as to be capable of framing an exact judgement of them Besides if any one Text of these were absolutely convincing the rest would be burthensome and but hinder and embroile the evidence of the Conclusion And if none of them do prove it clearely Then all of them together can but make one side more probable then the other Which signifyeth no more then that since the best of them is but probable you can rely on neither of them as true and certaine And consequently all that is said is of no effect towardes the ending of controversies but is purely a superfluous labour and a tryall of wittes not a deciding of questions or a settling of the auditory in the right way to heaven It now remaineth onely in order to Scripture-disputation that we speake of such arguments as are drawne from places of Scripture which do plainely containe such verities as are knowne and agreed upon by both parties without the authority of Scripture to prove them So that the sense and meaning of those places is not att all ambiguous or controverted by either side And out of these you make your way to your conclusion or to other truths that are as yet unknowne to you but that you desire to have certainty of Now cleare it is that it would avail as much to take the naked Truths in themselves without the words of Scripture as to alledge the words in this case For the Truths themselves being acknowledged by both parties it is needelesse to bring any proofe of them And therefore Scripture serveth but for an ornament in this discourse And the whole force of the argument is drawne from the confessed Truths And consequently it is cleare that this is a discourse of reason not of authority however a farre off it may in some sort depend on Scripture Therefore we neede not trouble our selves att present with discussing this sort of arguments but shall remitt it to the examination of reason where on it dependeth I should here end speaking of arguing out of Scripture But because it is that which our adversaries do use most at least the Protestants and Calvinists and the Sects of their growth and because some persons are so maddely carelesse of their owne salvation that they will content themselves with probability for their Religion especially if Scripture be made the pretence of it I am forced to adde yet a few lines in regard of such persons as making Scripture the onely ground of their Religion and judge their Controversies do not so much as ayme att convincing arguments by the allegations that are brought out of Holy Writte Nor whether the point proposed be true
Sanctifications or Initiations to enter us in the other six vertues Baptisme for faith Confirmation for hope Penance to redresse the wrongs we do to God and to our neigh-bour Matrimony and Extreme-Unction to injure us to temperance and to fortify us against the terrours of death Prudence because it eminently belongeth to commanders received its proper initiation in the installing of Spirituall Gouvernours which are Priests and Bishops Who being more eminent in Science and Charity have power to governe the flocke oâ— Christ And to the end that emulation might not breake unity among them Christ by his owne practise and mouth gave the Primacy to Saint Peter to whose see and successour inferiour Bishops were to have recourse in all publike necessities or dissentions of the Church And who att this day is commonly called the Pope It is incredible how great encrease of devotion and Charity accrueth to Christian people by the reverent administration and faithfull reception of these sacraments What respect and awe towardes to what adhesion their teachers their doctrine what obedience to their directions in fine how great a life to the Church and eminency above such synagogues as are destitute of these holy institutions The Apostles therefore armed with these and the aforesaid powers dispersed themselves into all the quarters of the earth planting this common doctrine and practise through the universe and dying left the inheritance of the same to their successors Who in debates about doctrines and in other dissentions meeting together and finding what the Apostles had left to the Churches they had planted did cast out such as would not conforme themselves to the received Tradition And so Christians were divided The parties cast out being denominated from their Masters or particular doctrines The part adhering to the Apostles Tradition retaining the name of the Apostolike Church Which because it was as it were the whole of Christians was therefore termed Catholike or Universall These Apostles and Disciples left certaine writinges But neither by command nor with designe to deliver in any or all of them a summary of our faith but occasionally teaching what they thought requisite for some certaine place or company which the Holy Ghost intended for the comfort of the Church In which as we professe there is nothing false or uncertaine so we know the unwritten Preaching ought to be the rule of their interpretation att least negatively Neither can we vindicate those bookes from the corruption of transscribers and much lesse of Interpretours whose labours can not pretend to the authority of scripture otherwise then by a knowne conformity to the Originals Tradition therefore became the rule of faith and Councells and Apostolicall Sees became the infallible depositaries of Tradition The other Sees fayling either by the destruction of Christian Religion in those quarters or by a voluntary discession from the rule of faith the Roman See first instructed by the two chiefe Apostles and afterwardes by perpetuall correspondence with all Christian countries and their recourse to it in matters of faith and discipline remained the onely single Church which was able in vertue of perpetuall succession to testify what was the Apostles doctrine Afterwardes Heretikes confounding equivocally the names of Apostolike and Cathlick by an impudence of saying what they list without shew of reason the Catholike party hath been forced for distinction sake to adde to their Church the sirname of Roman Declaring there by that the Roman particular Church is the Head and Mistresse and cause of Vnity to all those Churches that have share in the Catholike By this linke of truth namely of receiving doctrine by succession and by the linke of Vnity in the Roman head of the Church as the Church hath hitherto stood in Persecutions Heresies and Schismes so we are assured it will never faile untill the second coming of Christ but do hope it will encrease into an universall kingdome of his to dure an unknowne extent of Ages designed in the Apocolypse by the number of a thousand yeares in great prosperity and in freedome both from Pagans without and from Heretikes with in and in great aboundance of Charity and good life This being evidently the effect of Christs coming we see that the generall good life of Mankinde which proceedeth from the knowledge of the End to which we are created and from other motives and meanes delivered by Christs doctrine was the great and onely designe for which he tooke flesh that is to be the cause to us of a happy life both in this world and in the next The which having been the main advantage of the State of Paradise or of our nature before corruption It is cleare that Christ hath repaired the fault of Adam by making whole Mankind capable of attaining everlasting blisse unto which before his coming one only family had means to arrive The settling of Mankind in this repaire restored it to such a condition in respect of God that from thenceforth he resolved to bestow his greatest benefits upon it that is eternall felicity Whereas before as long as it was in the state of sinne his decrees were for its Vniversall Damnation By which it is cleare that Christ appeased his Fathers wrath and made him a friend of a foe he had formerly been unto us So that because eternall blisse followeth out of a good life and out of a constant habit or inclination to it as likewise damnation out of the state of a sinnefull inclination formal justification and sanctity do consist in the habit of good life and the state of damnation consisteth in an habituall inclination to sinne Neither the one nor the other in an extrinsecall acceptation or refusall of the Divine Will or its arbitrary Election or dislike which are only the efficient causes from whence proportionably to their natures they depend Further because Man-kinde was not able of it selfe to gett out of the State of sinne and by consequence lay in subjection and slavery to it And seeing that Christ by the explicated meanes and actions did sett it free and gave it power to come out of that subjection and misery he did clearely Redeeme Man-kinde from this servitude of sinne and of sinnes Master the Divell and gave it the liberty wherein it was created att the first And because Christ did this by his death and by the penall actions of his life he is rightly said to have by them payed a ransome for mankind Notwithstanding this generall preparation by which Man-kinde was enabled to well-doing no particular man arriveth to any action of vertue without the speciall providence and benevolence of Almighty God By which by convenient circumstances both externall and internall he prepareth the heart of that man unto whom he is gratious and favourable to receive these common impressions and maketh it good earth fitt for the seede of his eternall cultiuatour who without any respect to former merits planteth faith and charity and all that is good in him meerely of his