believing Ancestours That they who do not so stand upon a precipice seeking what 's beyond their power that is to hammer a certain Faith out of Scripture's Letter by their private Wit Which reflected on a little reason enlightned by so plain and manifold Experiences will easily tell them that 't is the shallowness of their Grounds unable to satisfy Rational Nature which makes so many of theirs take upon them to seek for Faith and so leave them and the solid secureness connaturalness and satisfactoriness of ours which makes few or none leave us and those who do 't is easie to discover the motives of their revolting 11. Yet one more from this Illustrious Father as one whom by reason of his Famous Contrasts with the impious Arians it concern'd to be more express in inculcating and sticking to the true Rule of Faith He writing to Epictetus Bishop of Corinth 'T is to be answer'd saith he to those things which alone of it self suffices that those are uot of the Orthodox Church and that our Ancestours never held so So that the living Voice of the Church Tradition or belief of Ancestours is held by him a sole-sufficient Rule of Faith and the onely Answer to be given why we reject points from Faith or admit them into It that is an Evident Reason for such a carriage for otherwise another Answer would be requisit 12. We will be shorter in the rest Clemens Alexandrinus Stromatôn 7o. As if one of a man becomes a beast like those infected by Circes poyson so he hath forfeited his being a man-of-God and Faithful to our Lord who spurns against the Churches Tradition and leaps into Opinions of human Elections Basil against Eunomius Wouldst thou have us all perswaded by thee prefer your Conceits before the Tradition of Faith which perpetually hath conquer'd under so many holy men And speaking against two other Hereticks Sabellius and Arius Let TRADITION bridle thee Our Lord taught thus the Apostles preach't it the Fathers conserv'd it our Ancestours confirm'd it be content to say as thou art taught We have it clear then that the Renouncer of Tradition is none of the Faithful that is cut off from the Root of Faith see Corol. 4. that all is men's Conceits and Arbitrary Opinions which the word Heresie imports that is opposit to Tradition We have lastly the whole course of our Faith's descent from Christ to us yet not a word of descending by Scripture or Letters in Books but by the way of Preaching and Teaching that is Oral delivery and Sence writ in men's hearts 13. I omit many other Fathers but I must not S. Austin Ea potius credam c. I will rather believe saith he contra Epistolam Fundamenti those things which are celebrated now by the consent of learned and unlearned and are confirmed throughout all Nations by most grave Authority And again 'T is manifest that the Authority of the Catholick Church is of force to cause Faith and Assurance Which Authority from the best establisht Seats of the Apostles even to this very day is strengthened by the Series of Bishops succeeding them and by the Assertion of so many Nations In both places he he makes the consent of Learned and Vnlearned Bishops and conspiring people continu'd down to these dayes that is the living voice of the Church Essential or Tradition the most grave Authority apt to ascertain us and cause Faith that is he makes Tradition the Rule of Faith and builds its strength as we also do on the multitude and consent of the Asserters or Testifiers of its descent Also in his 58. Epistle The Faithful saith he do possess perseveringly a RVLE OF FAITH common to little and great in the Church Where every word is Emphatical That the Churches voice is the Rule of Faith That this Rule is common to Learued and Vnlearned that is able to satisfie the acutest Discoursers and yet understandable by the rudest vulgar Lastly that they hold it and that perseveringly or unshakenly which shews it self-evident else both the unlearned at least might come to doubt of it See Disc. 5. § 8 9 10 11. 14. Thus much for the credit of Tradition it s being the Rule of Faith Certain and Uninterrupted But how shall we know who enjoyes this Tradition or what points have been handed down by it from the beginning Must we not run to Private Expositions of Scripture to be assur'd of this or at least to Libraries of Books writ in all former Ages to see if perhaps their Authours mightâ—have dream'd of our now difficulties and then prophesi'd us a satisfaction so express and ample that no cavil can avoid it No we have manifest Certainty of it other wayes if we may trust the Fathers We will onely alledge two both very Antient and great Masters of Controversy against the Hereticks of their times S. Ireneus lib. 1. cap. 3. All those who will hear Truth may at present perfectly discern adest perspicere in the Church the Tradition of the Apostles manifest in the whole World That is the Doctrin of the present Church proceeding upon or adhering to Tradition is a manifest Argument that what it teaches now was delivered by the Apostles And Tertullian contra Marcionem That is manifestly True which is First that First which is from the beginning that from the beginning which is from the Apostles In like manner that will manifestly appear to have been delivered by the Apostles which shall be establisht as Sacred in the Churches of the Apostles Where first he ascends and confounds Novelty or Heresie by shewing that the Priority of what they left argues it to have been ever or from the Apostles and so True and then proves and manifestly too that that was delivered from the Apostles which is found establisht that is held to be receiv'd as all his former Doctrine runs as sacred in the Churches at present which were founded by the Apostles But he is yet more express in his first Book against the same Heretick nothing is to be acknowledg'd a Tradition of the Apostles but what is at this present day profest for such in their Churches So that he sends us not to Volumes of Histories and other Writers which if Tradition can'fail are of no Authority to find what was the Antient or Primitive Traditions or what the Apostles taught or delivered but onely to the living Voice of the present Churches which had been but a weak procedure in case their holding now a thing deliver'd were not argumentative that it was deliver'd ever which is the substance of my proof a posteriori for the Indefectiveness of Tradition And least it should be imagin'd that this Argument loses its force by tract of time or the long-continuance of the Church Peter Chrysologus in his 85. Sermon secures us from that danger A Christian mind knows not how to bring into dispute those things which are strengthen'd by Tradition of the Fathers and even ipsis temporibus by Time
advantages the Letter gives them as comparing places and such like and availing themselves the best they can by acquir'd skills yet differ in so main points as those of the B. Trinity and Christ's Divinity what Certainty can we undertakingly promise to weaker heads that is to the Generality of Mankind less able to make such fit allusions of places to one another incapable of such means as should help them which the other had and are very pertinent and proper to work upon the Letter And lastly who are for want of those unfurnish't of any steady Principles to settle their Judgements and rationally determin their own Interpretation Certain Scripture's Letter therefore is not Certain in it's self that is has no immovably secure Grounds enabling it to perform the Office of the Rule of Faith or to guide Mankind in their way to Faith with a rational assuredness Our Conclusion then is this that SCRIPTURE'S LETTER WANTS ALL THE FOREMENTIONED PROPERTIES BELONGING TO THE RULE OF FAITH 7. Lest any should misconstrue my former Discourse I declare here once more that in a great part of it I argue ad hominem that is I manifest what must follow out of the Principles of those who hold the Scripture's Letter the Rule of Faith not out of my own or Catholick ones I declare likewise that I with all reverence acknowledge such Excellencies in those Sacred Oracles as would task the tongues both of Men and Angels to lay them forth I onely contest that the Scripture's Letter is most improper and never intended for the Rule of Faith as is easy to be evinc't against an unobstinate Adversary by this that 't is known the Apostles and their Successors went not with Books in their hands to preach and deliver Christ's Doctrin but Words in their mouths and that Primitive Antiquity learn't their Faith by another Method a long time before many of those Books were universally spread amongst the vulgar much less the Catalogue collected and acknowledg'd till the Revolters from that Method and Rule being manifestly convinc't of Novelty by it were forâ—t to invent some other and chose this of the Scripture's Letter for most plausible as being held very Sacred untill by straining it to an undue use and to please the people putting it without any distinction of the person into their hands and leaving it to their Interpretation they have brought it as 't is made use of for a Rule of Faith to the vilest degree of contempt every silly upstart Heresy fathering it self upon It. Of which no Nation in the world is so evident an Instance as our miserable Country distracted into so many Sects all issuing from that Principle so impossible to be brought under Ecclesiastical Government and even with much ado under Temporal that 't is wonderful such proper Effects especially so sensible burthensome so universally spred and so continual should not long ago have abundantly demonstrated their Proper Cause and oblig'd them to renounce that Principle which is the necessary Parent of such ruinous and unredressable disorders FIFTH DISCOURSE Showing the Notion of TRADITION and that all the Properties of the Rule of Faith do clearly agree to It. 1. HAving then quite lost our labour in our last search let us see whether we shall have better success in this second Enquiry which is whether we may hope to find the Properties of the Rule of Faith meet in that which we call or all or Practical Tradition By which we mean a Delivery down from hand to hand by words and a constant course of frequent and visible Actions conformable to those Words of the Sence and Faith of Forefathers 2. But to make a more express conceit of Tradition that so we may more perfectly understand the Nature of that which we treat of let us first soberly reflect on the manner how Children learn their own and others names with whom they live as also of the rooms and thingâ— they converse with afterwards growing up to exercise their trades to write read or use civil or legal carriage to every one in their kindsâ— And looking into the Thing we shall observe that they first glean'd notions of those several Objects either meerly through Impressions on their Senses by the Thing it self alone or by the help of having them pointed at or something practic'â— about them at the same time they were nam'dâ— and afterwards learnt to repeat the same Word after others more and more intelligently by degrees and to practice the same Actions till aâ— length the former Generation of Teachers decaying by the course of Nature a new one iâ— sprung up to Perfection furnish't with all the accomplishments of the former and continuing the same natural and Civil Knowledges Actionâ— and Conveniences to this Age which the formeâ— enjoy'd and so forwards to succeeding Generations by a natural kind of method without needing Books or new Skills meerly to perform this Effect of continuing and preserving the former Age as it were alive in this Add now to this that this Continuation goes not by long leaps from Age to Age or from twenty years to twenty but from year to year nay moneth to moneth even less according as the new Off-spring grows up by degrees to a Capacity of understanding and practicing and then reflect on this whole Course and we shall see the true nature of Tradition or immediate Delivery as exercis'd in Civil matters and Human Conveniences 3. We want nothing now but to apply this self-same Method to Spiritual or Ecclesiastical affairs and to reflect how it brings down Faith by Doctrin couch't in Words and exprest in conformable Practices and then we shall have gain'd a compleat and proper notion of Faith-Tradition which is the Tradition we speak of 4. We may observe then that the Children of Christians first hear the Sounds afterwards by degrees get dim notions of God Christ Saviour Heaven Hell Virtue Vice and such like and according as their capacity increases are put on to practice what they have heard and made to do some external Actions by precept and Example which Actions by their more particularizing nature ripen to a more express and familiar conceit those raw Apprehensions or Judgments which while they stood under bare words look't as if they hover'd in the Ayr and afar off They are deterr'd from sins first from lying and disobeying their Parents afterwards others by reproaches and punishments and encourag'd to virtuous actions by rewards such as their Age bears to breed in them a conceit of the badness of sin and goodness of Virtue They are shown how to say Grace say their Prayers and made do it when they are able and to gain them some abstracted conceit of those Actions they are inur'd even while very Infants by certain carriages unusual at other times as holding up their hands or perhaps eyes kneeling keeping silence and other sober postures to look upon such actions as extraordinary ones when as yet they know no more of
but that Christ promist his Church Infallibility is not thus self-evident but needs other Knowledges to evidence it unless we will make all come by Inspiration Besides if God's Providence laid in second Causes for Tradition's Indeficiency be not Certain in its self abstracting from Christ's promise to his Faithful Tradition can never convey certainly that Promise to us It must then be assur'd to us by Scripture's Letter ascertain'd onely by imagin'd diligence from Copy to Copy not by Tradition that is that Letter could not be certain its self and so fit to ascertain others till Tradition's Certainty be establish't antecedently And were it suppos'd a true Letter this Letter Tradition being as yet suppos'd unknown to be able to convey down certainly Christs sence must be interpreted onely by private skills and so all the Churches Veracity that is all Mankinds Salvation must be built on that private Interpretation Private I say for in that supposition till the Scripture's Letter for that point be Interpreted certainly truly the Churches veracity or power to interpret it truly is not yet known which besides the common Rule that no Scripture is of private Interpretation is particularly and highly faulty in this case that it would make our Fundamental of Fundamentals the Certainty of our Rule of Faith rely on such a private Interpretation Moreover to say Tradition of the Church is Certain because Christ promist it puts it to be believ'd not seen and is the same in Controversy as it is in Nature to say in common such an Effect is wrought because 't is God's will which gives no account of that particular Effect but onely sayes something in common Wherefore since the Certainty of the Rule of Faith it being antecedent to Faith must be seen not believ'd a Controversial Divine ought to make it seen that is ought to demonstrate its Certainty and Indeficiency by intrinsecal mediums or dependence on proper Causes It signisies therefore no more in the Science of Controversy to say Christ promist than in Natural Science to answer to every Question in stead of showing a proper Cause that God wills it which is a good saying for a Christian as is also the other but neither of them a competent Principle either for Philosopher or Controvertist Consent Of AUTHORITY To the substance of the foregoing Discourses 1. THus far Reason Let 's see how 't is seconded by Authority And first by the Scriptures 2. For the Self-evidence of the Way to Faith or which is all one The Rule of Faith see the Prophet Isay c. 35. v. 8. This shall be to you a direct way so that Fools cannot err in it That is evident to the rudest Vulgar or self-evident else Fools might possibly err in it in case it needed any Skill of Discourse and were not obvious to Common Sense 3. Now what this Self-evident Rule is is most expressively declar'd by the same Prophet c. 59. v. 21. speaking of God's favour intended to the Gentiles that is of the Law of Grace This is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my Spirit which is in thee and my words which I have put in thy Mouth shall not depart from thy mouth and from the mouth of thy Seed and from the mouth of thy Seed's Seed from henceforth for ever Here we see God's promise to perpetuate Christ's Doctrin and on what manner that is by Oral Tradition or Delivering it from Father to Son by word of Mouth or Teaching not by scanning a Book put in their hands We see it promist also that this Tradition shall be Indefectible or Vninterrupted and Lastly that his Spirit or Sanctity is both in the Church and will continue ever with her which being so she must needs be supernaturally assisted by the Holy Ghost that is incomparably above the power of Nature to this Effect of perpetuating Christ's doctrin by Tradition 4. As pithy and home is that of the Prophet Ieremiah c. 31. I will give my Law in their Bowels and iâ— their Hearts will I write it and still more that of St. Paul contradistinguishing the Law of Grace from Moses his Law by this that the later was writ in Tables of Stone the former in the fleshy Tables of mens Hearts Both as express as can be imagined to send us for our Faith to living Sence in the hearts of the Faithful not to meer dead Letters in a Book that is recommending to us Tradition which is the perfectest and naturalest way imaginable to write them there as hath been shown Note the word Hearts which in the Metaphorical expression is the Principle of Action not of meeâ— Speculative Knowledge as is the word Brain Which intimates the Practical nature of Tradition and that it imprints Christs Law and conveys it down by Christian Carriage and Action not by Speculative scanning the significativeness of Characters in a Book Note also the word Fleshy which signifies that the manner of writing Christ's Law is through the affecting the Soul by her Inferiour part considering her as she is a virtue of understanding that is by Sensations which make strong and plain Impressions in Mankind according to their material part and so force into them Natural Knowledge Whence things thus imprinted are apt to settle themselves solidly and even sink deeply into the most material gross and vulgar understandings Quite contrary to which in all regards is the way of beginning with reading and labouring to understand certainly Letters in a Book which is a kind of Speculation and so belongs to the Superiour part of the Soul as she is understanding being Artificial both in the very Nature of such Characters the skill in Reading and highest skills requisit to Sence them with Certainty 5. After Scripture-verdict succeed next in order those of Councils I will onely mention three in several Ages leaving multitudes of others The first Synod of Lateran We all confirm unanimously and consequently with one heart and mouth the Tenets and sayings of the Holy Fathers adding nothing subtracting nothing of those things which are DELIVERâ—D VS quae TRADITA sunt nobis by them and we believe so as the Fathers have believed we preach so as they have TAVGHT The Council of Sardica in its Encyclical sent to all Catholick Bishops We have received this Doctrin we have been taught so we hold this Catholick Tradition Faith and Confession And the seventh General Council in its second Act. We imbu'd with the precepts of the Fathers have so confest and do confess In the Third we receive and venerate the Apostolical Traditions of the Church And in the seventh Act giving their final determination they declare the Grounds on which they proceed in these words We walking in the King's-high-way Regiam viam incedentes and relying on the Doctrin of our holy and divine Fathers and observing the TRADITION of the Catholick Church define c. where we see General Councils that is the greatest Authority in the Catholick Church relying on the Teaching of
and my Grounds why I then believ'd rest still unchang'd nay are unchangeable But yet Reason acts much differently now then â—ormerly Before I came at Faith she acted about her own Objects Motives or Maxims by which she scand the Authorities we spoke of But in Acts of Faith she hath nothing to do with the Objects of those Acts or Points of Faith She is like a dimsighted man who us'd his Reason to find a trusty Friend to lead him in the twi-light and then reli'd on his guidance rationally without using his own Reason at all about the Way it self To make this clearer we may distinguish two sences in the word Reason one as 't is taken for that natural Faculty which constitutes Man which Faculty never deserts or ought to desert us in any action that is Manly or virtuous The other as 't is taken for that Power wrought upon by motives under its own ken in the same sence we call it human Reason by which is not meant the natural Power unactuated or abstractedly for then the word human were a Taâ—tology but Reason as conversant with such objects or inform'd by such knowledges as are commonly found within the sphere of our natural condition as Men such as are those which beget Science And this leaves us when we have once found the Authority now spoken of the Objects of Faith formally speaking being out of her reach nor is she thus understood the motive of our Assent to the verity of the Point of Faith but AVTHORITY onely Wherefore into Authority onely Faith as such is resolvd finally though if you go about to resolve the Rationalness of assenting to the Authority it self it will light into those Evident Reasons which your naturall power of reason as yet uninform'd by Faith but by motives or maxims within its own sphere was capable to wield 5. Reason therefore taken for my natural Power is my Eye or interiour sight as inform'd by common Principles or Maxims antecedent to Faith my Guid to bring me to believe Authority and those motives or Maxims are the Rules to my Reason by attending to which she hath virtue or skill to set her own thoughts right that is to guid me in my way to Faith but when I have once come to beleeve Authority that is come to Faith not Reason but Authority is my Guid for I follow Authority and not my Reason in judging what is Faith what not and though the Light of that naturall power never deserts me yet Reason as rul'd by her own natural maxims is useless to me as a Guid or those Maxims as a Rule for I apply neither of these to the mysteries of Faith to scan their verity or falsity by but purely rely upon Authority and beleeve them Authority then is my Guid and in the Infallibility of that Authority consists the power or virtue it has to guide me right that is to regulate or rule me as one of the Faithfull or as one who must have such Certain Grounds of my Assent as I may securely build my Salvation on This Authority then as it is Inâ—allible is also my Rule in my beleeving or the Rule of my Faith This of my Rule of Faith in Common against Adversaries of Faith in common But with Protestants who grant Christ to be God and consequently his words or doctrine true the onely Rule and Guid we need is to lead us into the Knowledge of what he said and assure it to us We affirm then that the Catholick Church is the Guid we follow and her Infallibility consisting in Tradition our Rule of Faith Hence all Catholicks profess her doctrin uninterruptedly succeeding from the Apostles time and so to continue to the end of the World hence with one voice they lay claim to Christs gracious Assistance to her in defending her from over-growing Errors against Faith or Heresies hence all profess to hear and follow her and pledge undoubtingly even the security of their salvation by relying on the Certainty of her Living Voice for their Tenets and on her Disciplin for the Practice of their Faith And though some Schoolmen make Scripture a partial Rule of Faith yet they can mean onely materially not formally that is that some part of Faith is signifi'd by Scripture's Letter not that Scripture's Letter alone is sufficient securely to signify it to private understandings so as to beget that most strong firm Assent found in Divine Faith as is evident by this that all hold no Scripture is of private Interpretation all hold the living voice of the Church and her constant Practice are the best Interpreters of Scripture Now Faith being Tenets and Sence that must be 〈◊〉 the Rule of Faith which ascertains us of Christs Sence not the materiall Characters which that Certain Interpreter we call the Church works upon and by her Practicall Tradition interprets 6. 'T is high time now to look back upon Dr. Pierce and his party how justly they deal with us and how mistakingly they discourse when they come to the Grounds of their Faith 7. First by the tenour of his discourse he would seem to obtrude upon us a Tenet which none but perfect mad-men could hold namely that we profess we have no reason why we believe the Church which devolves to this that we must profess we have as much reason to believe an old wife's dream as our Faith since there can be no less reason than none at all And hence he will needs assure the Reader that therefore the Enthusiastick Sectaries are in part Romish Proselytes c. And indeed upon so gross a calumny layd down for his principle and a sober Truth what might he not conclude with equal reason he might have inferr'd that all Bedlam were Catholicks and that to turn mad were to turn a Romanist But his carriage to put this upon Mr. S. C. is strangely unjust since he knows and hints it that he writ a Book upon his declaring himself Catholick entitled Motives of his Conversion does he think the word Motives does not signify Reasons or that to write an whole Book of Reasons why he adhea'd to the Catholick Church signifies that he renounc't all reason why he believ'd her 8. Next as for his own tenet he layes this for his Ground that Reason alone is Iudge in all cases I will propose him one case and 't is the Existence of a Trinity To work now with your Reason about this object and see how you evince it I doubt your best reasons will crack ere you make all ends meet But you mean you must have Reason to believe it I conceive speaking properly you should rather say you must have Reason to believe the Authority and Authority to believe It for Belief is as properly relative to Authority as Science is to an Act of true Reason or Evidence Whence 't is as incongruous to say I must have Reason to believe such a Point as to say I know such a point Scientifically by Authority
the most vulgar that every Man has a Principle in him impelling him to Act which we agree to call a Will Such likewise are all Propositions of this Nature which the Church uses upon occasion of some emergent Heresie to explain her self and put the point of Faith out of danger of being equivocated Examples of the later sort are Theological Conclusions in which a Natural Truth is one of the Premises joyning with the Supernatural one to infer them To omit this as little to our purpose at present Of the former sort the Church is necessitated to make use upon occasion that is when any Heretick questions Those and eâdem operâ the whole point of Faith it self of which they were a part Upon occasion I say For what concern'd its the Faithful or who ever heard much noise of this Proposition Christ has two Wills thus singled out and exprest apart till the Monothelite granting him but one forc't the Church that she might preserve the main Tenet of Christ's having two Natures or being God and Man to maintain publish and define that other 6. To apply this then since none can have Obligation to believe what they have not obligation to think of and that in some Age the Generality of the Faithful have no Occasion nor consequently Obligation to minde reflect or think on those Propositions involvd in the main stock of Faith and truly parts of it that is indeed It It follows that a Thing may be de fide or obligatory to be believ'd in one Age and not in another Perhaps Mr. Stillingfleet may ask how the Church can have Power to oblige the Generality to Belief of such a point I answer she obliges them to believe the main Point of Faith by virtue of Tradition's being a Self-evident Rule and these Imply'd Points by virtue of their being self-evidently-connected with those main and perpetually-us'd Points so that the vulgar can be rationally and connaturally made capable of this their Obligation Whence the Government of our Church is still justify'd to be sweet and according to right Nature and yet forcible and Efficacious to hold her Subjects in a strict Union Not to mention how these Points also descended by a kind of Tradition for I doubt not but the Apostles had occasion in explaining Faith to speak of These however the no Necessity brought them not so much into play but left them unreflected on by the Generality 7. But to return to Mr. Stillingfleet who acts here like a Politician and would conquer us by first dividing us and making odious Comparisons between two parties of Divines But he may please to reflect how we all hold firmly the same divinely-constituted Church-Government and the same self-evident Rule of Faith to give our understandings the same principles as Christians and so our wills the same Actions And those are firmly rooted in all our hearts to have been recommended to us by the wisdom of the Eternal Father Whence 't is Impossible for all the Wit of Man or even Malice of Hell to disunite us as we are Faithful As private Discoursers our different Natures and Circumstances must needs distinguish us Every one believes the same but coming to explicate this Belief they vary according to the several degrees of perfection in their understanding Powers And yet M. Stillingfleet is not aware how little we differ even as Divines For though some Speculaters attribute to the Church a power of defining things not held before yet few will say she has New Revelations or New Articles of Faith those only some Lawyers who talk ultra crepidam no Divines that I know of and none that Christ was not a perfect Law-giver which are necessary Consequents or rather in a manner Identical to the other And when it comes to the point those men explain themselves that all was deliver'd Faith either Explicitly or Implicitly which I have shown to bear a very good Sence in my Explication of de fide He tells us Popes and Councils challenge a power to make things de fide in one Age which was not in another he speaks onely in common and proves it not Had he brought Instances it might have been better clear'd In the mean time I have shown him how take them right this is both perfectly innocent and unavoidably necessary to a Church What would avail him is if a Pope and Council should define a new Thing and declare they ground themselves on new Lights as did their first Reformers in England But he will finde no such fopperies in Faith-definitions made by the Catholick Church He tells us that this is the common Doctrin maintain'd By which I perceive he is at an end of his Argument against our Church there being no evidenter signe of it than to leave off assaulting Her confound her with the Schools or some private Opinaters and then carp at these mens Tenets Whereas M. Stillingfleet wants not Wit to know that no sober Catholick holds Human deductions the Rule of our Faith Schoolmen Definers of it nor the Schools the Tribunal whence to propose it authoritatively and obligingly to the Generality of the Faithful much less a few Divines which are far from reaching the Authority of the Schools Yet how much of his Book would need no Answer were this Impertinent Topick laid aside But well Let Schools and Church be all one that is let every master of divinity be a Bishop what means he to conclude from the words common Doctrin Does he make account every School-Doctrin must be equally in vogue or that an Opinion's being Common defines it Faith and condemns the other for Heretical Where 's his Reason The direct contrary follows from its being Common and that 't is not Faith which others though not so many may contradict and he is but meanly vers't in our Schools if he sees not very many publikely maintain that there are no new Revelations without dreading Excommunication or being held Heretical and seditious So they grant the Church power as they ought by new Propositions and new but expressive Words yet both the same in sence and so not new in substance to meet with the new blundering Cavils of Innovators 8. Yet all this while M. Stillingfleet cannot see how to satisfie himself of the Sence of our Church as to this particular Nor ever will while he wilfully looks the wrong way that is towards some particular Schoolmen or Divines not towards the Universality of the Faithful or Church What need he counterfeit this puzzle Did he never hear of such a thing as the Council of Trent Or is it so hard to finde it Again does not he know all the Catholick Church allow more a thousand times to It than to all the Schoolmen in the World Yes very well How comes it then that he runs to some Schoolmen and neglects the Church speaking in her Representative Because he may finde there a clear Solution of his doubt by the constant procedure of that most grave
Synod in its definitions where he will hear of no such Toyes as New Revelations but directly the contrary Every Session where Faith was defin'd professing to build on Tradition Teaching and Preaching that is Oral Tradition ever alwayes from the beginning c. that is not new but the old-and ever-Faith If you would combat our Church here you have her fall to work But you find some Schoolmen opining also Infallibility in some other means besides Tradition and judging this Tenet easilier confuted you level your blowes at it because the other is out of your reach and would make this Tenet the Sence of the Catholick Church and so seem to oppose the Church her self You would disgrace this Way of Tradition as maintain'd but by a few and those blemisht persons How far are you wide of the Truth 'T is the way every Catholick in the whole Church none excepted holds and follows For my part I disavow the maintaining any Point or affecting any way which is not assented to by all and this not as Opinion but deeply rooted in their hearts as Infallibly Certain Schoolmen at Liberty question Personal Infallibility of the Pope some grant it not to him and his Roman Clergy some question that of a Provincial Synod nay some whose Books are extant and yet uncensur'd maintain even a General Council may possibly err but not one I have heard or read of affirms that Tradition or the Living voice of the Church Essential could err For in doing so he call'd all his Faith in question and so ceast to be a Christian. 9. This then being held by all held firmly and that it is absolutely Infallible so that in no case it can err the others only by some faintly in comparison as appears by the Faithful's permitting them â—o be question'd nay not held at all Infallible but upon Supposal of certain Conditions to be observ'd in which also Divines differ Mr. Stillingfleet and other Protestant Writers may see what they have to do if they will candidly impugn the Catholick Church and not trifle away time in wrangling with some private Opinators I have set them a fair mark in my Discourses if they will speak to the Point and the end of my Preface has told them how to do it If they overthrow this all the other Infallibilities now spoken of will fall with It If not not onely This of Universal Tradition will stand but also all the other Infallibilities will in Virtue of it be establisht on a firmer basis than any who begins not with and settles the First Principle in Controversy could ever give them This Foundation then they must either subvert or they may fear the Papists will build such superstructures on it as will reach to Heaven It rises apace and has advanc't many Stories in a small time 10. By this Discourse all Mr. Stillingfleet's If 's which follow have their Answer and he will see the knot easily loos'd in distinguishing the word other by which if he means disparate unconnected or unimply'd Points of Faith No Divines of any number or account hold they can be de novo much less our Church If involv'd or imply'd in the main Point he must show 't is absolutely Another and not rather a piece or part of the Implying one as Homo est Animal is a part of Homo est Animal rationale In the mean time let him consider what Logick tells us that The Conclusion is in the Premises which reflexion will much unblunder his Thoughts and withall that 't is most unreasonable to deny the Church the Liberty to take asunder her own Thoughts and clear them upon occasion by representing their Parts distinctly or in many Propositions which were invol'd before in some one A priviledge Nature grants all Mankind as a necessary Conseqent to their working by abstracted Notions this being no more than to regard or view the same thing`now on one side then on the other 11. His Second Chief Demand is What security is there that in no Age of the Church any Practices should come in which were not in the Precedent I answer Our Practices spring from our Tenets If then he means Ecclesiastical Practices that is such as spring from Ecclesiastical Constitutions there is no security at all for these are to come in anew as oft as the necessity of Disciplin or Government requires it If he mean such Practices as spring from Points of Faith taught by Christ there is the same security no such new Practices can be introduct as there is that no new Christian Tenets can come in Now these later Practices are those we make use of in Tradition as making Faith visible being as it were its Body He must mean then of These Practices to do his Discourse any service and so of these he questions whether the Descendents held themselves bound unalterably to observe what their Forefathers did otherwise to know barely what they did was not enough to make them follow it He argues well To smooth as many rubs as I can that so we may have no difficulty but our main one I would reflect on the signification of the word unalterably For to introduce new Practices consequent to the former is to propagate enlarge extend and so strengthen them not to alter them in the same manner as to discourse consequently to a Principle or Tenet is so far from altering it that by the contexture of other Truths with it it corroborates and establishes it more unalterably its self They must then be Practices not of a subordinate but an opposit Nature to Christian ones which can be fear'd to alter Christian Practices The Question then is whether Children or the Succeeding Age held themselves still bound not to bring in Practices and Tenets contrary to the Doctrin and Practice of the Precedent Age. And the Affirmative is most Evident in case they held those Tenets which Principled those Actions True taught by Christ and commanded by him as the Way to bring them to Heaven and those Practices Consequent If then they held the deliverâ—d Doctrin Christ's they could not but hold themselves oblig'd not to alter it nor consequently its Practices So that our Question is restrain'd to to a narrower compass and the onely Difficulty now is whether they held the Doctrin of Forefathers to be the Doctrin of Christ or no. 12. I am heartily glad so acute an Adversary as Mr. Stillingfleet and one chosen out if I am inform'd right as a person conceiv'd the ablest to write against Catholicks has so candidly confest here p. 629. That the onely thing to be prov'd in this case is That every Age in the Church and all persons in it looked upon themselves as oblig'd not to vary in any thing from the Doctrin and Practice of the Precedent Age. He offers me my choice of three wayes to prove it I accept of the way of Reason He presses for a demonstrative medium to prove it yet seems to dislike our pretence
believe the foregoing Especially in a matter carrying along with it such powerful Recommends and this out of its very Nature as that the preserving and holding to it would bring them Infinit Goods and the altering it Infinit Harms Thus it goes on and while it goes on thus that is while this Rule is follow'd 't is self-evident no Heresie could ever be Disc. 5. § 8. Whence by the way if this be the onely difficulty in Tradition that is in case the next Age were oblig'd to believe the former Tradition would still be follow'd and so it would be self-evident no Heretick could be then it needs no proof they have such an Obligation for 't is questionless there is an Obligation for men not to be Hereticks 23. Well but an acute Wit or great Scholar arises who begins to question this way Let 's see if he have a good reason if not he is still oblig'd Can he bring an ampler or Certainer living Authority for the contrary Where shall he have it For all the Christian world is against him if he be the first and so onely denier of this way of Tradition Will he bring Demonstration against the Point How can he against a Truth for our case puts the point truly deliver'd and onely enquires into the obligation of believing Ancestours in such a Delivery and he must not hope a seeming Demonstration can free him from his Obligation of believing Ancestours For whence hapned it that it seem'd so to him when it was not such From Perfection in Science in that particular No surely for then he had not miscarry'd From the Imperfectness of his Science Then he ought the more to have believ'd From Precipitancy Then he ought not have been passionate But perhaps he will build on Dead Testimony or some Book granted to be Sacred In that case I ask how knows he with such a Certainty as to build Faith and his opposition to the whole Church upon it which ought be no less than a Demonstration that he has the right Letter and Sence of that Book Can he Demonstrate the exact conformity of its Letter from Copy to Copy and Translation to Translation and this up to the very Original He may as well measure the back-side of Heaven Will he recur to Traditions help Tradition could onely perform this either by the way of diligent Examiners continu'd along and securely testifi'd which as was said is impossible to show Or by continu'd Sence in Christian Hearts and then 't is plain if their Sence preserv'd the Letter rightly significative he ought to take the Sence of the Letter from them too as the Fathers use to press upon ancient Hereticks 'T is left then that he must pretend he will demonstrate some former Age has err'd How I wonder We have excluded him Scripture the nature of the Points and Authority of living men It may be he will alledge Testimonies of Historians or Fathers But first Fathers taken as such are not meerly great Scholars but Eminent Parts of Ecclesia docens or Witnessers of the Doctrin deliver'd Take away then the Certainty of Delivery or Tradition there 's no Certainty of Doctrin deliver'd nor consequently of Fathers 2 ly An Historians Testimony signifies but his own private saying unless authoriz'd by Sence writ in mens hearts or Tradition 3 ly Are those Testimonies and the like may be said of Scripture-proofs evidently against the present Church or no If not 't is a madness to talk of seeming Testimonies against so vast and evident a one as that of the whole foregoing Church If Evident 't is inconsistent with mans Nature the Christian Church should recommend down for true Fathers and creditable Historians those Authours which so evidently oppose her Doctrin Or if so great an Authority as the Churches delivers them down for fabulous or spurious how can their Authority ever come to be undoubtable or Certain The last refuge then of a passion-misled Reason is asham'd of her want of Principles and loth to show her head to pretend private Inspirations which therefore is the last non ultra of all Heresies and the flower or most refin'd quitessence of all Faith-Reformation But miracles failing these poor Creatures to shew forth the hidden divinity which they pretend possesses them they quickly fade away or if they make any further progress 't is into phrenzy or perfect Madness as we experience in our most miserably-distracted Country which disposition is therefore the Caput mortuum or Terra damnata of Heresie and the last and most natural effect of relinquishing Tradition 24. By this Discourse is seen that 't is impossible the following Age and every person in it unlearned and learned should not be oblig'd to believe the foregoing delivering to them Christs Doctrin as receiv'd from hand to hand by way of Testifying and that this Universal Obligation springs out of the Nature of that Heavenly Doctrin and the Nature of the Way of conveying it downwards 'T is time now to review Mr Stillingfleets words against the possibility of proving this by Reason and see how lank they look They are these neither more nor fewer It is hard to conceive what Reason should inforce it but such as proves the Impossibility of the contrary And they have Vnderstandings of another mould from others who can conceive it impossible men should not think themselves oblig'd to believe and do all just as their Predecessors did Is this Mr Stillingfleet who in the Appendix to his Irenicum § 6. so rationally characters those for more zealous than Iudicious discoursers who argue not out the very Nature and Constitution of a Thing and here in a discourse concerning the Rational way of looking into a point quite overleaps all that concerns either the Nature or necessary circumstances of that Thing and talks so rawly in common that is not one word to that particular purpose Observe the words Oblig'd to believe and do ALL IVST as their Predecessors have done What means the word ALL Does he mean we hold them oblig'd to cut their Beards or wear such Garters and Hatbands as their Fore-fathers did His raw words reach no farther What means the word JUST Does he think Faith being planted in Human that is Rational Nature will not propagate it self into consequent and subordinate Tenets and Practices All the wonder then of the Impossibility of the no-obligation lies in his crafty and sophistical expressing it which includes a fallacy of non-causa pro causa for not any thing convey'd down on any fashion is held by us thus obliging to believe and act accordingly but such a Doctrin and so convey'd as was before declared Had he put our Position thus as indeed he ought it being the true case Children or Immediate Posterity taught by Fathers or immediate Ancestors relying on the way of Sensation that such a Doctrin was taught or deliverd to be taught by God himself as most Sacred Necessary to be believ'd and practicâ—t by all being the way