that are guilty of Schism for the Ceremonies which he must acknowledge to be no way Unlawful But his next Figure is a rare one Surely a very uncharitable mind that would not leave ninety and nine unnecessary Ceremonies to bring one sinful stray'd Sheep into the Congregation An admirable Metamorphosis Ninety Sheep in the Text turn'd into Ceremonies by this Commentator And would the Author of Naked Truth have all these poor Innocent Lambs otherwise call'd Ceremonies to be left naked and shivering in the Wilderness But as one reply'd upon the like Exposition of another Text Nonne sunt decem Mundi English'd by one Are there not ten Worlds Sed ubi sunt Novem Where are the Nine much less Ninety nine Ceremonies Sure he must take in all the Ceremonies at Court and the Inns of Court the Serjeants Coifes and their Mens party-colour'd Coats and all our University Ceremonies for we shall see anon he is no great admirer of Universities all these put together will hardly make up Ninety nine Ceremonies though we take in the Batchelor's Hoods and Lambskins and why must these be exposed to be devoured by Wolves And yet we will go as far as he to bring one sinful stray'd Sheep into the Congregation and convert him from the error of his Non-conforming waies and therefore he does ill to reflect upon us thus Yet these men will most passionately and pardon me if I say most uncharitably and irreligiously cry Away with these Idiot-Sectaries and Phanaticks let them wander and perish in their own wild Imagination We will not leave one Ceremony nor any one line of our Common prayer-book to gain Thousands of them No if you alter that we will rather leave the Church and go the Papists Mass Whose words are these but his own Which of us ever said so therefore to retort him part of his own Censure this is said Passionately I will not say as he speaks Uncharitably and Irreligiously After he has Complemented both Parties calling us too zealous Ceremonists Them blind and wilful Separatists He takes his leave assuring us that after our charitable Condescention their Populous I suppose he means Popular pretences will be so confuted their mouths so stopt or open'd to ask the more but that 's all one as for mere Shame if not for Reason or Religion they must come into the Church and their Pastors coming in the Sheep will follow Alas it is rather the custom of these Shepherds to follow the Sheep whatever Toy they take So the Shop-prating Weavers will soon be deserted seeing their own Naked Folly somewhat akin to this Author 's NAKED TRUTH Animadversions upon his Chapters concerning Preaching Confirmation and Church-Government I Knew a Scholar a man of Wit but no very hard Student that quickly after the Church was restor'd would needs become an Author upon this Subject How necessary all the parts of University Learning are for a Divine One of his Books he presented to an Eminent Person who told him pleasantly that he was extreme happy in the choice of his Subject for he could not fail to demonstrate effectually whether he writ upon it Learnedly or Unlearnedly what need a Divine had of University Learning Our Author in his Chapter upon Preaching has very sufficiently prov'd the same thing even where he makes it his business to prove the contrary Little did we think at this time of day to hear of a Second part of Mr. Dell against Universities The two Authors have many Expressions in them so exactly parallel if it were worth our while to set them in two Columns over-right one another one would suspect the Junior of the two for a Plagiary Yet have I no quarrel to him for his blaming that way of Preaching upon this or that nice Speculation or that way of keeping alwaies in Universals and never coming to Particulars the Duty between Man and Wife Parents and Children c. or that way of Dividing and Subdividing into Generals and Particulars the Quid the Quale the Quantum though he will find if he looks abroad that this is at a very low ebb and the Tide runs now another and a better way We care as little as he for a witty Rhetorical Harangue or a cunning Syllogistical discourse in the Pulpit and 't is almost as ill a Character as can be given of a Sermon or a Catechizing to be ridiculously Learned yet to talk as this Author does as if University-Learning were unnecessary to a Preacher is to be ridiculously Ignorant of the use or rather the necessity of it as matters stand He beseeches us to tell him Did not Christ and his Apostles preach the best way and are not we to follow their example And I beseech him to tell me Do not many good Divines preach the same way as far as it ought to be followed by those that only sit at the Apostles feet that is Do they not with all plainness prove from Scripture all that they deliver as God's Word This is our Unapostolick way of Preaching as he calls it the vain unedisying practice we now are in Indeed we have no Miracles at command to prove what we say as the Apostles had and therefore must do it by Reason which serves us to prove the Apostles did such Miracles and that again rationally demonstrates the Scriptures to be God's Word and then by the Testimony of the Church in several Ages besides the understanding we must have of all the Internal Arguments for it we must be able to shew that these are the Books of Scripture and after all this the same Reason must be employed to establish the true sense and meaning of them In order to these great Ends Reason must be improved by the studying of Arts Sciences and Languages unless we had all these infus'd as we needed them we must acquire them Therefore his Argument is so far from holding good God thought the gift of Tongues needless after the Gospel was once spread over the World I pray let us be no wiser than God and his Christ that is Let us think the study of the Languages needless for that he means or nothing Yea raâ—her the study of Tongues is therefore necessary because the Gift is ceast and they cannot be had without study For the certainty of the Christian Religion and the verity of the Original Scriptures cannot be defended without a goâ—d measure of skill in the Languages Arts and Sciences which every one that is not unworthy to wear the Name of a Divine should be competently able to do Thus much the Apostle St. Peter 1 Pet. 3. 15. requires even of the Laity in their degree that they be ready alwaies to give an Answer to every man that asketh them a reason of the Hope that is in them Now to sum up the Argument where is it almost possible for these Acquisitions to be made except in Universities Therefore we are still in that vulgar Error which he taxes as the General Opinion p.
industry acquir'd much knowledg in natural Philosophy Antiquity History and subtle Logick or Sophistry were very unwilling to abandon quite these their long studied and dearly beloved Sciences falsly so called and therefore translated them into Christianity applying their School-terms Distinctions Syllogisms c. to Divine matters intending perchance through indiscreet Zeal to illustrate and imbellish Christian knowledg with such Artificial forms and figures but rather defaced and spoiled it Kindly and learnedly spoken of Learning in general and Reverently spoken of the Primitive Doctors and Fathers Why he could hardly have declared himself with greater animosity and severity against Greg. de Valentia or Suarez or some other of the late Popish Schoolmen As for the Fathers that they were no defacers or spoilers of Christianity 't is defence enough for them if I alledge in their behalf the Testimony of One that was none of their greatest Champions even Mr. Dallé himself who in that very book which he was so many years collecting and writing on purpose to expose them for all their little failings yet he confesses and contends that they were guilty of no Errors amounting to Haeresies in their Controversies of Faith And by this Author 's good leave the Fathers were not the men that corrupted our Christianity through Philosophy but if any have done so it is rather that sort of men the Popish Schoolmen who pardon the expression Aristoteliz'd the Fathers As for the elder Schoolmen their design was noble to draw the whole Scheme of Divinity into such order and method that a Divine might sit and see as it were his whole world of Matter before him and to arm him at all points where he might possibly be attaqu'd they set themselves to go into the bowels of all Controversies herein they have often exceeded in beating matters too thin and I say not all their Armour was of Proof but that which is firm and good as a great deal of it is ought not to be thrown away because it is too heavy for some mens shoulders That unlucky Pantaenus sett up Disputing if you 'l take our Author's word for it in a School of Alexandria though others verily believe that one St. Paul before him disputed daily for the space of two years in the School of one Tyrannus And some differ from this Author's Opinion that the damnable Haeresie of the Arrians sprang from the School of Pantaenus they rather think and our Ecclesiastical Historians say that Arrius's spleen had never wrought so furiously against the Church but only for a disappointment he received in his aspiring expectations of some great Bishoprick But we must needs look back to the second and third pages to see how he justifies all this by alledging proving with a great deal ado from Reason and Scripture that No man should be forc't to Believe for No man can be forc'd to Believe As for example says he If you hold a clear printed book with a clear candle to a man of clear eyes and able to read he will certainly read But if the print be not clear or the candle or his sight not clear or he not learned to read Can your force make him read and just so it is with our Understanding which is the eye of our Soul and a Demonstration being as a Candle to give light If then your Demonstration or Deduction or his Understanding be not clear or he not Learned You may with a Club dash out his brains but never clear them It were easie to confound his Similitude by shewing the disproportion between the parts of it For he brings the sense of Seeing which is linkt and ty'd to the dull dimensions of a Body and the studied acquir'd faculty of Reading which is the other term on the one side I say he brings these into comparison with our Understanding which be calls the Eye of our Soul and a Demonstration which he makes the candle to give it light But if it be as he supposes here a demonstration indeed about things absolutely necessary for us to know it must of necessity so irresistibly dart its beams into the mind of any that is not born without any brains to let them in as there shall need no force to clear them But 't is more to my purpose to retort his Similitude thus Suppose you held a clear printed book with a clear candle to a man of clear eyes and suppose the man shuts his eyes and suppose all men that look upon him attentively see that he shuts his eyes as that 's a thing may be seen or which is all one that he stops his ears as some that will not so much as enter our Church-doors refusing to hear the voice of the Charmer charm he never so wisely and suppose this book thus held to him be the Word of God it self Then since the same Word tells us that some may be damn'd for shutting their eyes upon it Certainly the Magistrate may and ought to force him not to wink so hard but to open his eyes and sure all this may be done without dashing out his brains with a Club and then indeed it will follow that he will certainly read but not otherwise The Jews in Rome are constrain'd once a week to hear a Christian Sermon The Pope indeed cannot make the Jews Believe but he can make them hear unless they close up their Ears with wool or purposely send their Wits a wool-gathering as the Country phrase is which would be a fault in their Wills to be punish't if it could be prov'd Whereas this Author would ascribe all to mens want of common Understanding or want of Discerning ability in the matters now in question which are the great matters of Faith But God is wanting to no man in Necessaries and the Reason which helps every man to see these Truths at least when they are shew'd and pointed out to him is a vulgar a popular thing But sure this Author imagines there are a world of Idiots that he may not be forc'd to admit any mans hypocrisie wilfulness to be gross palpable Thus he concludes Our force may make him blinder but never see clearer may make him an hypocrite no true Convert No! by this Author's favour he that shuts his eyes yet pretends to see clearly is an hypocrite already and we that would oblige him to open his eyes whether he will or no do not go the way to make him an Hypocrite but a true Convert from his sinful Hypocrisie But he still eagerly pursues his ill-chosen Principle in mistaken charity If a man do not see a thing clearly contain'd there i. e. in Scripture you cannot force either his Sight or his Faith p. 4. He had said before p. 3 He then that believes the Scripture cannot but believe what you clearly demonstrate from Scripture if he hath clear brains if he have not your force may puzzle and puddle his brains more by the passion of Anger and Hatred c.
and that at Paris and the British Bishops declar'd themselves openly against it And Charles the Great himself wrote against it Whilst this exact Correspondence was among all the Bishops of the Catholique Church and in every Diocese between the Bishop and his Clergy and all his Flock then as one of the Fathers glories If any man askt the way to the Catholique Church no Heretique had the face to shew him the way to his particular Church as if that were the Cotholique And thus although the Body of the Clergy be a thousand times greater as this Author observes then any Council and for this very reason for their unmanageable numbers cannot be convened in one place nor their Suffrages gathered yet 't is observable that the Universality or whole Fraternity of Christians that were in the Apostles Fellowship or Communion had honourable mention made of them and of their concurrence in the Letter of Decision from that first Apostolical Council in the Acts of the Apostles And so the Legates of Princes and several Learned Priests and Deacons have been Assessors to General Councils but no Voters there for that were endless consentiendo subscripsere that is subscribed their assent and consent therefore our Author is not to think it a Monopoly of ours though the word Church be sometimes used and taken for the Clergy only for as I shew'd before there can be no sheep without Shepherds so 't is an equal absurdity to imagine that the Shepherds should be preserved without their sheep But if he will grant any thing at all by way of deference to the Churche's Judgment he must not talk to us of the whole Body nor of his thousands and thousand thousands for fear of falling into the new oral-Tradition way that rare invention of learning what is the Faith by sifting and finding out if we can what was held at all times and in all places by all the Midwives and the Dry-Nurses and the Common People I come now to his last pretence against the Churche's Authority in General Councils The Prejudices they that should sit in Council would bring along with them and then who can doubt but they would avow that in the Council which they all taught in their Churches This again is a piece of my Author 's unthought of Popery for the Papists are not able to endure Councils free and truly General which never fail'd to swinge their Popes and their Popery too that is the Quintescence of it the Popes Supremacy as no doubt they would condemn many other of their Doctrines and Practices but that as there have been no such Councils of later Ages so indeed there was no such Church of Rome in former Ages when there were such Councils and the Council of Trent has made their Church so quite another thing that we may well retort them their own Question Where was your Church before Luther Now ask them for any Decree of a General Council for praying to Saints or worshipping Images or the like if we reject the Council of Trent as we would do the Assembly of Divines at Westminster they reply the visibly major part of the Church both East and West have introduced it and as our Author expresses himself in another Instance They all have taught it in their Churches therefore if they met in Council who can doubt but they would avow it I desire to remind these over-hasty Opiniators of that well known and remarkable story concerning Paphnutius at the Sacred Oecumenical Council of Nice when the Question was debated earnestly there Whether married Priests should be separated from their wives or no and when the Major part of Bishops inclin'd to the wrong side even to forbid them cohabiting any longer the great Paphnutius stood up and set them right proving the ancient Tradition or Custom of the Church to the contrary And with one Speech he turn'd the whole Council for it is one thing to strike at random as commonly Polemical Authors do or to oppose those passages in their Adversaries books which are ready to fall of themselves and to pass by those which urge and press them harder and quite another thing to keep one another to a point till it comes to an issue upon the whole affair But this can hardly be when two Controvertists are as far distant from each other in place as they are in opinion But if sober good and learned men were conven'd and met prepared with study not for a vain wrangle or victory but for a mature deliberation to give such an account of their Belief that all might end in some fixt determination after full conviction If Praesidents and Moderators were design'd with one to do the office of a Prolocutor or Speaker to see that all might be done orderly and proceed in strict and punctual form of Argument a Method which this Author so often declares against that he will not be this Prolocutor If the Ratiocinators on both sides might have daies given them to recal any thing that slipt inconsiderately from them that there might be no lying at the catch as they say If such a Conference as this were protracted from time to time till all were ripen'd for an issue If there were ready at hand all books that would be of use Fathers especially and Former Councils and above all the Holy Bible placed upon its Throne as it was the custom to place it in Ancient Councils If I durst hope to see but such â— Council as this then I would hope to see the Church restor'd to all her Ancient splendor and Serene glory For I will but appeal to this Author if we may compare those great things with our lesser affairs if he has ever done any exercise at Divinity-Disputations in an University what a vast difference there is between sitting in ones study and writing such Pamphlets as his and mine and defending in the School a material Question in Theology where one stands a Respondent enclosed within the compass of his Pew as Popilius the Roman Embassador to King Antiochus made a circle with his wand about that Prince and bid him give him a determinate answer before he went out of it Which puts me in mind of a certain Pope's reply and it was a very shrewd one when he was importun'd to call the Council of Trent he put them off a great while with this Answer that he would not fight with a Cat in a Cupbord meaning he was loth to contend with all the Praelacy shut up together for then he knew they would flie in his face and so they did in the faces of his Successors notwithstanding all their Artifices whereas he could deal well enough with them severally and at a distance And it is no wonder at all if the Bishops of the Duffusive Church are fain to suffer and groan under many of the Papal Abuses which they might easily remedy and reform if they were protected as they ought to be by all Christian Kings