not by forcing of Assent destroy the Nature and Virtue of it and he hath declar'd that he will permit Heresies that those who are approved and excellent Christians may be distinguished from those who are not This Expedient of the Romanists is like that of the Atheist Spinoza who has left the following Maxim to the World as his Legacy for Peace viz. That the Object of Faith is not Truth but Obedience and the quiet of human Society And they say in effect Shut all your Eyes and agree in one who shall lead you all and you will all go one way But the difficulty lies in getting them to agree It is not difficult to say a great deal more upon this Subject but in stead of that which might be here offer'd from myself I will refer the Reader to a Book lately publish'd and call'd A Discourse concerning a Iudge in Controversies if he be not satisfi'd with that which Mr. Chillingworth hath said long ago and to which this Author has here said nothing You say again confidently That if this Infallibility be once impeach'd every Man is given over to his own Wit and Discourse By which if you mean Discourse not guiding itself by Scripture but only by Principles of Nature or perhaps by Prejudices and popular Errors and drawing Consequences not by Rule but by Chance is by no means true If you mean by Discourse Right Reason grounded on Divine Revelation and common Notions written by God in the Hearts of all Men and deducing according to the never-failing Rules of Logick consequent Deductions from them If this be it which you mean by Discourse it is very meet and reasonable and necessary that Men as in all their Actions so especially in that of greatest importance the choice of their way to Happiness should be left unto it And he that follows this in all Opinions and Actions and does not only seem to do so follows always God whereas he that followeth a Company of Men may oft-times follow a Company of Beasts And in saying this I say no more than S. Iohn to all Christians in these words Dearly Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God or no And the Rule he gives them to make this tryal by is to consider whether they Confess IESUS to be Christ that is the Guide of their Faith and Lord of their Action not Whether they acknowledge the Pope to be his Vicar I say no more than S. Paul in exhorting all Christians To try all things and hold fast that which is good Than S. Peter in commanding all Christians To be ready to give a reason of the hope that is in them Then our Saviour himself in forewarning all his Followers that if they blindly followed blind Guides both Leaders and Followers should fall into the Ditch And again in saying even to the People Yea and why of your selves judge ye not what is right And though by Passion or Precipitation or Prejudice by want of Reason or not using what they have Men may be and are oftentimes lead into Error and Mischief yet that they cannot be misguided by Discourse truly so called such as I have described you yourself have given them security For what is Discourse but drawing Conclusions out of Premises by good Consequence Now the Principles which we have setled to wit the Scriptures are on all sides agreed to be Infallibly true And you have told us in the Fourth Chapter of this Pamphlet That from Truth no Men can by good Consequence infer Falshood Therefore by Discourse no Man can possibly be led to error but if he erre in his Conclusions he must of Necessity either err in his Principles which here cannot have place or commit some error in his Discourse that is indeed not Discourse but seem to do so 13. You say Thirdly with sufficient confidence That if the true Church may err in defining what Scriptures be Canonical or in delivering the sense thereof then we must follow either the private Spirit or else natural Wit and Iudgment and by them examine what Scriptures contain true or false Doctrine and in that respect ought to be received or rejected All which is apparently untrue neither can any proof of it be pretended For though the present Church may possibly err in her Judgment touching this matter yet have we other directions in it besides the private Spirit and the Examination of the Contents which latter way may conclude the Negative very strongly to wit that such or such a Book cannot come from God because it contains irreconcileable Contradictions but the Affirmative it cannot conclude because the Contents of a Book may be all true and yet the Book not Written by Divine inspiration other direction therefore I say we have besides either of these three and that is the Testimony of the Primitive Christians 14. You say Fourthly with convenient boldness that this Infallible Authority of the Church being denied no Man can be assured that any parcel of the Scripture was Written by Divine Inspiration Which is an untruth for which no proof is pretended and besides void of Modesty and full of Iniquity The First because the Experience of Innumerable Christians is against it who are sufficiently assured that the Scripture is Divinely inspired and yet deny the Infallible Authority of your Church or any other The Second because if I have not ground to be assured of the Divine Authority of Scripture unless I first believe your Church Infallible then can I have no ground at all to believe it Because there is no ground nor can any be pretended why I should believe the Church Infallible unless I first believe the Scripture Divine 15. Fifthly and lastly You say with confidence in abundance that none can deny the Infallible Authority of your Church but he must abandon all infused Faith and True Religion if he do but understand himself Which is to say agreeable to what you had said before and what out of the abundance of the Heart you speak very often that all Christians besides you are open Fools or concealed Atheists All this you say with notable Confidence as the manner of Sophisters is to place their Confidence of Prevailing in their Confident manner of Speaking but then for the Evidence you promis'd to maintain this Confidence that is quite vanished and become invisible Hitherto I have been arguing against our Author but now in the close I cannot but joyn with him in his Protestants Exhortation to Humility It is an Admirable Virtue and may God grant to me and to all Men a greater Measure of it It is a Virtue proper even for Guides in Religion that they may humbly help the Faith of others and not exercise Dominion over it And because a late Writer has been pleas'd to suffer this severe censure to drop from his Pen it is the less to be admir'd that our Author is such a stranger to that Spirit of
but rather have own'd his Church to have been a new one upon the whole Matter and granted a kind of Universal Apostacy the Protestant is brought in as in a manner deriding this Argument in his own Person or at least as contented with it as by a Socinian propos'd So then it seems we need fear no Schism from the Church Catholick till a part can divide from itself which can never be Whereas a Protestant would have first told them that there is just fear of a Schism in the Body of the Church Catholick though not from it And that they had made a Separation from the sound parts of it though not from the whole whilst the Protestants were both Members of the Universal Church and in Communion with all particular Churches so far as they are Christian. He would have added That Mr. Chillingworth's Words were proper in his own Case but not in the Case of a Socinian Church which is taken to be a Member in the Universal Church but unsound and out of its place Fourthly It may be noted that the Author of this Book is not the Inventer but the Borrower of this Argument call'd The Protestants Plea for a Socinian It has been used by Valerianus Magnus by the Author of the Brief Disquisition by Sir Kenelm Digby in his Discourse concerning the Infallibility of Religion if he be the genuine Author by the Iesuite who cavill'd against Dr. Potter's Book call'd Want of Charity Which Argument of the Iesuite was long ago answer'd by Mr. Chillingworth though this Author who was under Obligation by the very Nature of his Undertaking to have Reply'd is pleas'd to pass it over in silence Since that time Louis Maimbourg then a Iesuite wrote a Book Intituled A Treatise concerning the True Word of God Four Chapters of that little Book are spent in the managing of this Method And If you will take it upon his own Word he has come into the Field with Invincible Weapons About two years after this Protestants Plea is set to sale among us after the English manner in other knacks After the French comes the English Guide after the Foreign Expositor the English Misrepresenter We follow when the Mode declines elsewhere When others molt their Feathers we take them up and write with them Yet this is to be acknowledg'd that our Author both in his Judgment and Manners and closeness of Writing does much exceed that Monsieur Maimbourg though he may seem to have taken some Hints from him My Last Observation toucheth the design of this Book which looks as if it were particularly levell'd against the Established Church of England It is true the more general Name of Protestant is used but the Authors who are cited are not Luther or Calvin Calâ—…xtus or Daille Cartwright or Travers but Archb. Laud Archb. Bramhal Mr. Chillingworth Dr. Hammond Dr. Fâ—…rn and Dr. Stillingfleet Now it has been one of the later Stratagems of evil Men to Misrepresent the Ministers of this Sound Church as favourers of the Doctrines of Socinus and at this very time this Art is in Practice Otherwise why dâ—…es the Paper just now scattered abroad style the Socinians the Brethren of Protestants by descent and iniquity To what other purpose serveth the beginning of the long Book just now appearing and call'd a Letter to the Bishop of Lincoln For the Author complains of the Arian History of Sandius as publish'd here at London though 't was set sorth in Holland and in England twice refuted and of that Bishops declining an Answer to it which surely he might reasonably do without any approbation of so ill a Book for every Man is not at leasure to do every thing in Learning which in the general is fit to be done The Title of this Book is Serviceable to the abovesaid design by way of Insinuation And who will assure us that it was not pick'd out of the Guide for this disingenuous end That it was gathered meerly as the choicest Flower contain'd in that Book and not as the fittest in this juncture for this calumniating purpose I do not believe that this was the principal design either of the Author or the Publishâ—…r But if a Man that goes about to fence himself from his Neighbour can both dig his Ditch and cast his durt upon him he may perhaps be so ill natur'd as to think he does well to dispatch two works at a time However it be with our present Author this is certain Socinus himself taking notice of it that England and Scotland were not favourable to his Doctrine and that it sprang out of Italy Sozzo the Uncle Blandrata Paruta Alciat were Italians and bred in the Roman Church Ochinus was of Siena and some say Confessor to the Pope and General of the Order of the Capucins Faustus Socinus the Nephew as well as Laelius the Uncle was of the same Siena and nearly related to Pius the Second and Third and to Paul the Fifth And of the First Chapter of the Second Book of the Reformation of the Church of Poland these are the Contents After what manner the Seeds of Divine Truth were carried out of Italy into Poland in the Year 1551 by Laelius Socinus And before his remove in the Year 1546 he had form'd a Socinian Cabal of Italians in the Territories of Venice and especially at Vicenza amounting to a considerable number And I find it said elsewhere that in the Year 1539 the burning of a Lady who had turn'd from the Church of Rome open'd the Eyes of Men in Poland and dispos'd them to inquiry into Truth I have seen some Applications of the Socinians to the Mahometans in which they shew what approaches they make towards them I have read of Conditions of Accommodation betwixt the Socinians and the Romanists But Fame it self I think has not invented any such project betwixt the Socinians and the English Church I do not offer this discourse as a proof of encouragement for Socinianism in the Church of Rome yet it is an Argument sufficient for the Silencing of those of that Communion who charge it upon Ours And for other Churches that which is said already may be a proof of the wonted Sincerity of Monsieur Maimbourg who tells his Readers with assurance that the Persons who after the interval of nigh 900 Years reviv'd Arianism were all of them either Lutherans or Calvinists before they became the Disciples of Socinus A Man ought to have been Master of their History before he had pronounc'd so freely of them But some have an extraordinary Talent in making History It is true the Author de Constantiâ Religionis Christianae was by Education a Lutheran but he was taken young into the School of the Iesuites And after having been Ten Years among them he turn'd Socinian as he himself relates his own Story And Men who consider the Nature of causes and effects are
divided from them and rather Glories that he gives light to all the World than borrows from it The Author of the Brief Disquisition blames the Protestants for the great deference they pay to unwritten Tradition meaning by it that which is not Written in the Scriptures but in the Fathers although at the same time he makes them to ascribe to Councils and single Fathers a greater Authority than they really do notwithstanding they are very just to them Ruarus though he was a Man of extraordinary Candor yet in his Letters to Bergius he does not barely refuse but reject with derision his Catholick Interpretation of Scripture according to the Rule of Vincentius Lirinensis which admitteth That Sense which was every where always and of all beleived A Rule by which we help our selves And he further professeth that he should be much concern'd if the Interpretations of Calvin and Luther were not more solid and acute than those of the Fathers We of this Church consider in the Interpretations of the Fathers not so much the acuteness though in S. Chrysostome for instance sake and in Theodoret it is not wanting as we do the History and the light which they may give us into the consent of the Churches in the Primitive times We are not apt to believe that there was such an Universal Corruption and Apostacy as Socinians speak of immediately after the Apostles times We are not Strangers to the Testimony of Hegesippus of which they make use for the blackning of the Primitive Church He does not say that the Leprosy was spread throughout the Church but that it began early We do not undervalue the Fathers but proceed in the method of the Antients who begun first with the Holy Scriptures and then descended to those who wrote next after the Holy Pen-Men The Calvinists themselves Radon and Silvius in a Disputation at Petricow in Poland did not plead just after the manner of the Socinians They pleaded the Scriptures together with Councils and Fathers as Subordinate Witnesses Their Socinian Adversaries Gregorius Pauli and Gentilis mock'd at their way of arguing They profess'd they would admit of nothing but the pure Word of God as shiing sufficiently by its own Light. And they denied that there was contain'd in formal terms in the Holy Scriptures the Doctrine of Three Persons in one Divine Essence Again the Members of our Church do not imitate the Socinians in traducing Constantine the Great and preferring Constantius the Arian before him They celebrate his Memory as a Defender of the Faith so far are they from reviling him as a Perverter of it They do not joyn with Socinians in reproaching the Fathers of Nice as Mercinary and Flexible Men whom Constantine had gained to his party by interest or force They do not with Gregorius Pauli call the Explication of the Nicene Faith the Creed of Sathanasius They hate the irreverence as much as they despise the jingle They do not beleive that the Nicene Creed is forg'd as some Socinians do though at the same time they take this upon the modern Authority of Laurentius Valla whom they make to say that he read it in very Antient Books of Isidore who in his time was a Collector of Councils Such a Collector of Councils as Varillas of History a Father and a Collector together The truth is it is Valla's business to elude the sense of Isidore and to ascribe a twofold Creed to the Nicene Fathers the Apostolical and that which bears their Name Whereas Isidorâ—… distinguishes betwixt their Creed and that of the Apostles The Protestants repeat in their Liturgy the Creed of Nice in the form agreed on in the Council of Constantinople and would not do so if they did not beleive it Orthodox They do not say with some modern Arians that it was framed by Marcellus Ancyranus a Heretick or joyn with those Spanish Iesuites who it seems charg'd this Creed with the Heresie of Photinus the Master of Marcellus They pay a more just Duty to the Emperour and the Nicene Fathers than to say with the Enemies of the Holy Trinity that setting Council against Council they chuse rather to follow those of Sirmium and Rimini than those of Nice Our Church-Men do not with the Socinians disregard the Fathers who liv'd after that famous Council and acknowledge that those Fathers are against it and bid defiance to their opposition But so does Socinus so does Crellius so does Pisecius for thus he discourseth Do they say Theology knows nothing of this It is enough if the Apostles do S. Austin damns this Christ approves it The same Pisecius is more severe in his censure than Socinus himself and he agrees with Scaliger if Scaliger be by him rightly cited in accusing all the Fathers up to S. Austins time of ignorance in another Doctrine about the Receipt of departed Souls not Martyrs and in affirming that the Errours of the first Fathers prepared the way for Antichrist In fine Though the Church of England does not make the Councils her Rule of Faith or make her last Appeal to them yet she believes that in times of Controversie when the Heads of Men are apt to be disturb'd even in Matters otherwise plain enough by the Heats and Distempers of the Age they live in they are of special use The Authority of them tends to the quelling of the Party And then when the Faction cools it tends to the fixing and further strengthning of the weak and interrupted Faith of many For as in a Ballance one Scale may descend more or less below the Level so there may be Faith and Assent without adding the weight of Fathers and Councils and yet in unquiet Times especially and disputing Ages such Testimonies may give some further strength to Minds made feeble either by publick Distractions or the private Attacks of Crafty Seducers Thus our Church gives to the Scripture the things that belong to the Scripture and to Tradition the Dues of Tradition And it gives more even to the former than generally Socinians do and more also to the latter though with just Caution and Subordination So that their Plea and ours is not in a strict way of speaking the very same But Fourthly If we admit that the Plea of the Protestant and Socinian is the same for the general nature of it we cannot be truly said to plead for them unless the general Plea be with Truth and Pertinence as well as Boldness applied to the very merit of the Cause If two Men will plead the same thing with equal Assurance but not with equal Reason in Truth and Merit 't is not the same If the Confidence of Men in pleading might weigh against the Right of others they that were in the wrong would be in the right For what was wanting in the Reason of the Case would be supply'd by Impudence But is it said by any of the Robe