the non-precept and the reason thereof out of the first part nothing can be deduced out of the second this consequence is inferred Pagans would be equally scandaliz'd by the Permission as by the Precept Wherfore if it be commanded neither certainly ought it be permitted Although no law obliges one Divine to maintain the reasons of another yet I see no such evidence in this consequence as for it to renounce the reason for me thinks if those we call Saints were meant to be Gods we should of necessity be bound to worship them whence it follows if it be not necessary to worship them neither are they Gods nor the worship exhibited to them such as is due to God but only of that degree which we give excellent creatures a position so conformable to Nature that it can scandalize none but the enemies of Perfection who under pretence of avoiding Idolatry take away the due honour and excitation to Vertue But which way out of a non-Precept can be infer'd the non-Teaching of the Doctrin I cannot imagine since what those Doctors hold continues true at this day when it cannot be denied that Praying to Saints is both taught and practiced For though in our prayers there be some directions to Saints yet generally Christians are not bound to such dâ—votions and they that are 't is but their own voluntary acceptance of the obligation to which such prayers are annexed THE THIRTEENTH ENCOUNTER Reflecting on certain considerations and shewing that there is nothing able to disprove the Church of Rome's Communion to be the signe of the true Church ALthough out of the whole preceding discourse it be evident that this way I defend makes the Churches Definition depend upon the Tradition of the point defined and not Tradition upon them as if because by Tradition we know the Churches Definitions to be true therfore we know the truth deliver'd by Tradition Nevertheless since there may be some truth in this reflexion That Tradition is known sometimes by Definition let us see what can be said against it T is first therfore put into consideration whether since four Disciples of Christ have written Gospels or the Gospel that is as much as they preach'd for they preach'd nothing but the Gospel if God would have us trust the Church he was not both to specifie so much very plainly in them and farther deliver such signs as were necessary ever to know Her by For answer I ask a cross question Whether if God Almighty would have all men see by the Sun he was first to tell them which It is and paint ' Its picture on every wall that so we might know which is the Sun And because any question may seem rather offensive then deserving any answer I proceed to the application and ask Whether any of those Christians of whom Saint John says exierunt ex nobis could doubt which was the Church wherof he had been a part and left it And since you cannot answer otherwise then affirmatively I think I need not repeat the same question of Arius and Pelagius and Luther If then God has provided for all these that they were taught to yeild obedience to the definitions of this Church so clearly that they could neither doubt which Church was their teacher nor of what Church he spake how dare they presume to accuse him of deficiency in his providence The same Authority that gave you the Scripture and told you it was the Word of God said likewise that what she taught was no lesse the Word of God If you believe her report for the Book why refuse you it for the Doctrin If her recommends be not security enough for the one they will certainly prove far less for the other since unlesse I am strangely mistaken the doctrin of the Catholik Church is not so hard to believe as the story of the Bible let any Atheist or discreet Moore or Pagan be judge Oh but since the Evangelists wrote Gospels they wrote all they preach'd for they preach'd nothing but the Gospel The Gospel is known to be the same with the Greek Evangelium that is the Good-spel or happy tidings of Christs comming so that the Book or Preaching which tels us Christ is come is a Gospel be there never so much more or lesse in the Book or Sermon how then it can be infer'd out of the name Gospel that the Apostles writ as much as they preach'd for it is not credible they preach'd all they wrote I am not able to comprehend The second consideration is how we know when the Church has defined To which I answer In the practice of sixteen ages it has no more been doubted when the Church had defined then when a Parliament had enacted Why then is there required more information But some Divines say more some less to be enough Let them be doing in the Schools as long as the practice goes on sufficiently for the Churches government Thirdly we are to consider Whether sufficient notes be left to know the Church by But who shall use these notes Catholicks They are in the Church Hereticks They know what Church they forsook Pagans They look not into the Scriptures to finde the Churches mark Peradventure those Hereticks whose separation is so long since that they remember not out of what Church they went But none are grown so aged yet However the marks of the Church are apparent enough in Scripture if there want not wil in the seeker to acknowledg them The fourth consideration is Whether points of Faith or to be of Faith be infinite new ones continually springing or finite if finite why are they not all delivered at once to make an end of incertitude and defining The answer is they are both finite and infinite finite in gross and wholy deliver'd by the Apostles wholy believed and practis'd by this present Church but infinite in the detail by which mans wit can parcel out this general stock of Faith For as soon as any sharp and crafty Heretik has varied some proposition necessary to the explication of a fore-believed Doctrin there may be occasion of setling some new proposition which shal be no other then a part of what was formerly believ'd in Substance though not so explicitly deciphred As he that professes Christ is a Man implies he has a mans Nature a mans Understanding and Will and Action though this word Man distinguishes not precisely these faculties nor does he that repeats all these qualities in particular say any more then he that said in general he was a Man Now then I answer the objection as Aesops Master did those who would have bound him to drink up the Sea stop the Rivers said he and I will performe my bargain So say I hinder impertinent curiosities from importuning the Church and her Truths wil be undoubtedly seen in her belief and practice without making new Definitions The last objection that it will appear a shift to say the Churches definitions are certain and yet
a different question to ask Whether an opinion be Heresy and Whether the Maintainer be an Heretick the opinion becomes heretical by being against Tradition without circumstances but the Person is not an Heretick unless he knows there is such a Tradition Now St. Cyprians case was about a doctrin included in a practice which he saw well was the custome of the African but knew not to be so of the universal Church till some congregation of the whole Christian World had made it evident And herein consists the excuse St. Austin alledges for St. Cyprian 't is true I have no assurance this Apology can be alledged for John 22. but another perhaps may that the multitude of Fathers which he conceiv'd to be on his side might perswade him the opposite opinion could not be a constant Tradition There remains only Bellarmins excuse to be justify'd which is not of so great moment Divines helping themselvs by the way that occurrs best to them and missing in such reasons without any scandal to their neighbours One of these two solutions will generally satisfie all such objections as are drawn from some fathers mistakes against the common Faith For nothing can be more certain then if any Father had known the doctrin contrary to his errour to have been universally taught in the Catholik Church by a derivation from their ancestors beyond the memory of any beginning he would readily without dispute have submitted to such an Authority and so much the sooner as he being neerer the Fountain could less doubt that the stream of which he saw no other rise reach'd home to the Spring-head This therfore is evident that whoever erred knew nothing of such a Tradition whencesoe're that ignorance took its root the severall causes of which depend upon the several cases of their mistakes here not pressed and therfore not examin'd THE SIXTH ENCOUNTER Disabling three other Arguments brought against Tradition THe seventh objection pretends not only different but opposite Traditions might be deriv'd from the Apostles And this they support with these two crutches one consists in a demurrer that the contrary is not proved the other in an Instance that it plainly hapned so in the case of the Quartadecimani who inherited from St. John a certain custom which was condemned by a practice deriv'd from some other Apostles But the weaknesse of this objection appears by its very proposal For since all Catholicks when they speak of Tradition deliberately and exactly define it to be a Doctrine universally taught by the Apostles we may safely conclude where two Apostles teach differently neither is Tradition And that this word universally may not seem by slight of hand cog'd into the definition on purpose to take away this objection the necessity of it is evident because all that weare the name of Christian unanimously agreeing that in point of truth one Apostle could not contradict another wherever two such Traditions are possible to be found it absolutely follows no point of truth is engaged An inference expresly verified in the example of the Quartadecimans their contention being meerly about a Ceremony not an Article of Faith Wherfore only indifferent and unnecessary practises are subjects of such a double Tradition and by consequence such Traditions are not of Christian beliefe or concerning matters here in controversy this very definition rather directly excluding them The eighth Argument seems to take its rise from our own confessions telling us We acknowledge some points of Faith to have come in later then others and give the cause of it that the Tradition whereon such points rely was at the beginning a particular one but so that yet at the time when it became universal it had a testimony even beyond exception by which it gain'd such a general acknowledgment The example of this is in certain Books of Scripture as the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Apocalyps whereof in St. Jerom's time the Greek Churches refus'd the one and the Latin the other yet now both have prevaild into an universal reception To which I return this clear answer 't is the nature of things acted that depend on Physical and mutable causes to have divers degrees in divers parts according to the unequall working of the Causes and so Christ having deliver'd by the hands of his Apostles two things to his Church his Doctrin as the necessary and substantial aliment thereof and his Scriptures ad abundantiam it was convenient the strength of Tradition for one should far exceed its strength for the other yet so that even the weaker should not fail to be assured and certain Upon this reason the Doctrin was deliver'd to all the Apostles and by them to the whol community of Christians the Scriptures to some particular person or Church yet such whose credit was untainted and from them by degrees to be spread through the whol Church and communicated to the Pastors in the Books themselvs to the people by their Pastors reading and explications For who does not know before Printing was invented the Bible was not every mans money Whence it appears Scriptures are derived to us by a lower degree of Tradition then that of Catholik doctrin and consequently our Faith and acceptance due to them is not of so high a nature as what we are bound to in respect of doctrin For the sense of Scripture is to be judged by the doctrin as the Church and custom of Antiquity teaches us alwaies commanding and practising that no man exercise his wits in interpreting the holy Scripture against the receiv'd Faith of the Church as in all matters of science they who are Masters in the Art judge the text of Books written upon such subjects by their unwritten skil and practical experience And here I would willingly ask what such Protestants as object this to us can answer for themselvs since they directly professe not to know Scripture by the Spirit and therfore must necessarily rely on Tradition especially those who take for their rule to accept only such Books for Canonical as were never doubted of for they cannot deny but the Scriptures were receiv'd in one Church before another as the Epistles of St. Paul St. John or St. Marks Gospel c. and how do they admit the Apocalyps so long refused by the Greek Churches whom they use to prefer before the Latin But they presse us farther that if a particular Tradition became universal this depended on the Logick of those Ages to discern what testimony was beyond exception I demand what signifies Logick do they mean common sense sufficient to know three and four make seven or wit enough to comprehend and manage with a just degree of discretion the ordinary occurrences in humane actions If they do I must confess it depends on Logick For I cannot think God Almighty deliver'd the Scriptures to Apes or Elephants who have a meer imitation of reason in their outward carriage but to Men that have truly understanding and a capacity of evidence within
proceeded from or by the Son only both which terms were then in use for this and nothing els can be signify'd by proper added to from or by then he condemn'd St. Cyrils doctrin Now our sly Interpreter would make Theodoret condemn this saying that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Son His last reason is one that makes all the rest impertinent and shews they were dilated only to vilify the Saints and the Church whose Crown they are and the Founder of the Church who glorify'd himself in Them and Her 'T is that the Church of Rome and Protestants agree in the position he seemed to labour at so hard what need or occasion had he then to rave into the Fathers about a point wherin there is not the least difference among us Next he excepts at our Controvertists for alledging the Fathers against them since we know they receive not the Fathers I answer there is by nature planted in all honest dispositions such a respect to their Ancestors that though the malicious part of their congregation and this Sophister in chief cry down Antiquity as loud as they can yet shal they never be able wholly to root out of the hearts and consciences of the generality of Christians that esteem and reverence which they naturally bear in their Breasts towards the Fathers of Christianity So that our Controvertists cite writings of those ancient and holy Doctors not in reference to the ensoured and barbarous party of Hereticks but for their sakes who yet retain some spirits of goodness and Christian humanity in them Then he brings divers sayings of Moderns to prove the Authorities of Fathers are not irresistible especially in the interpretation of Scripture among which one somthing insolent Afterwards he reckons the varieties betwixt the ancient and present Church some in Ceremonies some in Disciplin and some as he pretends in Belief these later we have touch'd before the two former for the most part we make no difficulty to acknowledge since the prudential disposure of such discretionary points fals cleerly within the verge of the Churches jurisdiction But here I particularly invite the Ey of the serious Reader to observe how maliciously he corrupts the Council of Trent in two very considerable passages one where he says It anathematizes whoever shall deny that Bishops are a higher Order then Priests wheras in the Latin which himself has the boldness to cite truly in the Margin ther 's no such word to be found as Order but only that Bishops are superiores Presbyteris a phrase implying no necessiy at all of their being several Orders though in that word consists the whole emphasis of his fals imputation His other abuse is yet more gross and palpable concerning our Ladies immaculate Conception for the Council expresly declaring their intention was not to meddle with the Question he says 't is impossible so to expound their words that they shall in plain terms give the ly to all the Fathers and to render this foul play the more plausible among such as look not wel to his fingers he translates in hoc decreto falsly and perversly in this number as if the Council had positively decreed the Blessed Virgin not to be in the number of those who are born in original sin when their very words directly tel him they on purpose resolv'd to prescind from her particular Case and not determin any thing concerning It in that Decree Certainly had this man either face or conscience an ordinary malice could never have engag'd him into such a desperate absurdity so notorious that its practice cannot be unknown even to him though he shut his Eyes against the light since all disputers upon this point unanimously agree that the Council intended wholy to abstract from the question and leave both sides probable nevertheless this shameless forehead dares in such broad and unmannerly language not only slander a grave and venerable Council but outface the whol Catholick world What trust can be given to so bold a Jugler in matters either of less moment or less evidence when in a Case so important as the Decree of a Council and so palpably manifest that all that can read may easily discover the cheat yet he blushes not to venter on 't can any thing be answered in his defence or any excuse made why he should not be accounted an impudent lying knave THE NINTH SURVEY In answer to two Questions in his last Chapter One the Fathers being rejected to what Judg we ought to recur The other what use is to be made of the Fathers ALl this while our new Edifyer of the reform'd Temple has us'd only his Sword-hand to keep off those dangerous enemies the Fathers now he begins to manage his trowel and bedawb the face of antiquity with a little fine morter Let 's see at least what work he makes though we have smal reason to expect any good building from him that is not able so much as to pull down Thus then workman-like he enters upon his task demanding of himself this question the Fathers being rejected where shall we now lay our foundation to what Rule or Judge must we have recourse He answers To the Scripture and if in any one place it seem obscure we must then seek out another to clear it Which first supposes that for all points necessary there are some evident and clearing Texts But I must ask on what Authority he believes this doth the Scripture declare it so plainly that ther 's no debate about it He knows the whole Catholik Church denys any such self-evident alsufficiency in Scripture Did they who delivered him and his Brethren the Bible recommend it to them under this qualification No for his party went out of the Catholik Church and receiv'd the Scriptures from none but Her who never taught them any such lesson Perhaps you 'l say all other Christians testify'd the verity of that book and so upon their credit you are the more induc'd to accept it But those Christians are such as your selvs generally condemn such as have been cast out for taking this very proposition to justifie their rebellion against Her whom you acknowledge then to have been the true Owner and Mistris of Christs Doctrin Besides any one that has but half an Ey may see no Scripture-disputation with Heretiks was ever finisht without new reply's but the Church has alwaies been forc'd at last to condemn them upon the score of Tradition Thus you borrow'd this desperate device from those who in all ages were thrust out of the same Church for holding the very same principles But suppose there were some clear Texts in our Controversies as we think there are in disfavour of you may they not be rendred obscure by other places objected against them which we pretend you endeavour to doe If so your remedy is worse then the evil and the comparing of divers places is the very cause that makes all balanceable indifferent and obscure Are we not now
Captain searches the Hospitals for Perdues Forcers of breaches It is a great step towards the reducing others to reason if first we make our own thoughts rational This is my endeavour this is my fault for which I am so deeply censur'd even by Catholiks As for Persons my writings neither name nor touch any and those who make themselvs pointed at by their forward boasts of defending the opinions I dispute against either understand not me or themselvs for did it deserve the pains I would undertake to shew out of their printed Writers that they doe not with any universality maintain those tenets I contradict If in this present Treatise I have in one place descended to more particulars then my course and nature incline me to I appeal to your own Judgment whether I do more then follow my Adversary by replying upon his very words and therfore your commands ought to be my excuse But some think at least this conjuncture improper to begin this Work I wish they could give me a good cause of delay they should finde me very ready to accept it But I know no time in which destructive Errors should live unconfuted our great Master securing us by his example neque ad horam cessimus nor can your self be ignorant with what fury and violence the opposite opinion strives at this very day to possess the Chruch of God and break the eternal Rule of Christian faith Wherfore though conscious of my own weaknes and that unless God extraordinarily shews his power my endeavours wil take no place yet propter Sion non tacebo propter Hierusalem non quiescam Your most obliged Cosen and obedient servant T. W. 27 March 1654. The Table THe Introduction page 1 The first Encounter Explicating the argument by which Rushworth proves the infallibility of Tradition p. 7 The second Encounter Defeating three Oppositions made against Tradition p. 14 The third Encounter Solving two other Objections against the infallibility of Tradition p. 22 The fourth Encounter That unlearned Catholiks rely on the infallibility of Tradition p. 31 The fifth Encounter That Catholik Divines rely on the same infallibility of Tradition p. 36 The sixth Encounter Disabling three other arguments brought against Tradition p. 44 The seventh Encounter Answering the Greeks and some Divines who object new beliefs to the Catholik Church p. 50 The eighth Encounter That our Lady's immaculate Conception is not likely to become an Article of Faith p. 64 The ninth Encounter Shewing the unanimous agreement of Divines that all infallibility is from Tradition p. 70 The tenth Encounter That there was no Tradition for the errour of the Chyliasts p. 77 The eleventh Encounter That there was Tradition for the Trinity before the Council of Nice p. 84 The twelfth Encounter That the necessity of communicating Infants is no Tradition but prayer to Saints is p. 99 The thirteenth encounter Reflecting on certain considerations and shewing that there is nothing able to disprove the Church of Romes Communion to be the sign of the true Church p. 107 The fourteenth Encounter Four other Arguments revers'd p. 113 The fifteenth Encounter Declaring the state of this question Whether the Scripture can decide Controversies p. 135 The sixteenth Encounter Examining five Texts brought for the sufficiency of Scripture p. 150 The seventeenth Encounter Examining such places as are brought against the admittance of any but Scriptural proof in Religion p. 262 The eighteenth Encounter Declaring the reasons of the Authors concluding without proceeding to the examination of the Fathers Testimonies p. 173 The first Survey Of the Nature and subject of Deille's Book p. 179 The second Survey Of the two first Chapters of his first book wherin he urges that the Fathers of the three first Ages were few and their writings wholly unconcerning our Controversies p. 188 The third Survey Of his third and fourth Chapters wherin he objects forgery and corruption of the Fathers works p. 197 The fourth Survey Of the fifth Chapter wherin he objects the Fathers Eloquence and that on set purpose they spake obscurely p. 208 The fifth Survey Of the six Chapters following wherin he objects wilful deceit to the Fathers p. 216 The sixth Survey How the Authority of Fathers is infallible p. 226 The seventh Survey Of the four first Chapters of his second Book wherein he pretends The Fathers gave wrong notions of the Faith of the Church and that they spake not like Judges 232 The eighth Survey Of the two last Chapters of his second Book wherein he says many Fathers have agreed in the same Errors and objects certain varieties between the ancient and modern Church p. 238 The ninth Survey In Answer to two Questions in his last Chapter One the Fathers being rejected to what Judge we ought to recur The other What use is to be made of the Fathers p. 250. ADVERTISMENT THe Reader is desired to take notice that this Apology particularly relates to the last Edition of Rushworth's Dialogues in 80 of the Long-Primer-Letter 1654 as which alone has felt throughout this Authors last hand and principally undertakes the refutation of Lucius Lo. Falkland's Discours of Infallibility and George Lo. Digby now Earl of Bristow his printed Letters to Sir Ken. Digby which he performs in a stile modest and respective answerable to the dignity of their Persons and civility of their Writings The Animadversions upon Daillé are apply'd to the English Translation by T. S. not to the French Original wherin the Reader wil easily pardon those uncourteous expressions he shal meet with if he consider how little favour he deservs from his equals that insolently condemns his Betters nay perhaps approve the justice of so necessary a resentment since 't were unreasonable in him to pretend the least regard from his Cotemporaries that has compos'd so infamous and injurious a Libel against all Antiquity ERRATA PAge 13. l. 1. since in Const. p. 27. l. 13. Eight's p. 58. l. 20. which were p. 78. l. 10. handing p. 82. l. 16. to our ears p. 102. l. 7. reatus l. 17. is there p. 106. l. 2. be not l. 28. but by their p. 119. l. 2. exposes p. 127. l. 3. evident they cannot p. 128. l. 5. part that is the p. 137 l. 10. the venom p. 142. l. last attempt the other p. 143. l. 1 2 dele but out of Scr. nor yet in that doe they use so fair play p. 148. Parenthesis begins at this l. 10. and ends at being l 13. p. 152. l. 2. vivifying l. 25. in the first p. 174. l. last day as com p. 179. l. 7. with p. 193. l. 2. so few p. 237. l. 28. not bound p. 238. l. 19. certain varieties p. 245. p. 243. l. 23. dele of l. 7. in his p. 248. l. last shal not in AN APOLOGY FOR TRADITION The Introduction THus it will sometimes happen that events of greatest importance take their rise from smal occasions The Controversy this following Treatise undertakes
never dreaming any such thing is not this as very a Bull as to say an Army shot off all their Attillery that the Enemy might not discover where they lay or to do as is reported of an acquaintance of mine who being in good company to ride through a Town where he was afraid to be taken notice of at his entrance set spurs to his horse holding his Cane straight before him and Trumpeted Tararara Tararara the whole length of the Town Nevertheless since 't is for our side says the Zelot 't is an invincible demonstration But we desire leave to consider one point farther In what times came in the errours our Adversaries so loudly complain of see whether they be not those ages when there were great quarrels about innovations encroaching on the Church and multitudes of exceptions taken so that had any side entertain'd a new errour not common to both parties especially if the novelties were any way notable they could not have been pass'd over without mutual contradictions or upbraidings The doctrines therfore which in those times pass'd unreprehended and were currantly admitted among all parties as being common to them all without question were not Errata sed Tradita Whence certainly it must needs appear a manifest folly to think any errour could run through the Church so uncontrol'd as to gain without the least sign of opposition an universality and much like the story that the great Turk with an Army of three or four hundred thousand men should steal upon Germany by night and take all the good fellows so fast asleep that not a man should escape nor so much as a Goos gaggle to wake the drowsy neighbours and having thus silently run over the Empire should pass into France and thence into Spain and still catch them all napping without the least notice or resistance wherof if any slow and dull heart should doubt as seeming indeed somwhat an improbable story the reporter should immediatly prove all with a why not since the Greeks had surpriz'd Troy so and perhaps some other great Captain one single Town or Garrison Besides if we venture to throw away a little faith on so extravagant a fable the action will still remain unpossible to be conceal'd Who shall hinder the Conqueror from proclaiming such unparalleld victories to applaud himself and terrifie the rest of the world who can forbid his souldiers to Chronicle their own valours and every-where boast such un-heard of exploits Certainly were there no Catholick testimonies of these late unhappy divisions from the Church yet would succeeding ages find evidence enough as to the matter of fact even in the writings of the Reformers themselvs How often do their Books insult o're the blindness of their Predecessors and triumph in the man of God Martin Luther and the quicker light Jo. Calvin as first discoverers of their new-found Gospel can we think it possible distracted Europe should blot out of her memory the sad effects of schism and heresy before the tears they have caus'd be wiped from her eys for my part I am confident our once happy Island will never forget the graceless disorders of Henry the hights unfortunate intemperance though there were not one English Catholick left in the world to remember them by the smart he endures ever since Add to all this the points wherin Protestants accuse us are the most palpably absurd positions that can fall into a Christians head as making Gods of Saints or Statues which were the dotages of the basest sort of Pagans Nor is the example of errours often sprung and often quell'd again of any advantage to the Opponent For our question concerns opinions remaining till this day and by himself supposed to have gaind the mastery of the Church and never fail'd since their beginning because all doctrins which appear to have a being before any age the Adversary can name are thereby evidently proved perpetual Traditions especially when the Authors were such as lived in Communion with the Catholik Church then extant and remain'd in veneration with the Church succeeding Methinks also since the opposer maintains it was more then a whole Age in working it self up to this universality if the errour were gross it must without doubt have been a long time in one Country before it passed into another else we shall scarce find a reason why it became not general in a shorter period of years and so it would easily appear until such an age that new doctrin was never heard of and in every Country the beginnings would be mentioned by the Historians and other writers as who came out of Greece into France to plant Images who first introduced the Priests power of absolution who invented the doctrine of preferring the judgment of the Church before our own private interpretation of Scripture all which we see exactly perform'd against every considerable Heresy a minute and punctual account being stil upon Record who were the original contrivers who the principal abettors where they found patronage where opposition How long they lived and when they died To evade this reason is fram'd the next crimination by saying what is answer'd has its probability if the errours laid to our charge were contrary to Christian doctrine But they only pretend to accuse us of superfaetations or false and defective additions to the Faith first planted which excrescencies only the Reformers seek to take away And though it be manifest when they come to charge us in particular they instance in doctrines substantially opposite to the Faith of Christ as Superstition and Idolatry could their calumnies be justify'd against us yet because this objection civilly renounces such harsh and uncharitable language let us see what may be intended by Superfaetations Either the disliked additions are of truths or of falsities If of truths we expect they would demonstrate who has forbidden us to learn and advance our knowledg in Christian Religion or matters belonging to it Did God give his Law to Beasts that have no discourse nor capacity by joyning two revealed truths to arrive at the discovery of a third Again where is it prohibited for the Doctour and Preacher to know more then the Ideot and old wife What fault then can even the proud and peevish humour of this age find in this point If Hereticks will raise dust and obscure the clearest articles of Christian faith and that so maliciously as without setling some further explication the people are in danger of being perverted is it a sin to establish such defences and Ramparts against encroaching errours If the addition be of falsities let us examin how the Opposer knows they are false If he reply because they are contrary to clear Scripture then they are also contrary to that Faith which deliver'd Scripture to be true If the points be not against Scripture either they crosse some known Article of Faith or only the Principles of naturall reason If they be purely objects of natural reason though truths they belong not
their Souls But if they take Logick for an ability to discourse beyond the reach of ordinary prudence and that human evidence which governs our lives I see no occasion of expecting any such Logick in our present question The ninth attempt consists in a diligent survey of our Fortifications to spy out some breach or weaker place by which errour may creep into the Church This I cannot call an Argument for none are so unwise as to make such a consequence It may be therfore 't is unlesse they bring strong proof of this necessity in some particular instance that may shew it to be an exception from the common maxim à posse ad esse non valet consequentia And yet in this discourse I find not so much as the very posse which I thus declare If any should deny that George could leap over Pauls-steeple and a quaint Oratour to maintain the affirmative should largely discourse how the rise of the last footing the help of a good staffe the cast of his body and many such circumstances give advantage to the leap but never think of comparing these with the height of the Steeple no sensible person would say he had proved the possibility of performing such a wild and extravagant enterprize So he that discourses at large how errours use to slide into mans life without comparing the power of the causes of errour to the strength of resisting which consists in this principle Nothing is to be admitted but what descends by Tradition as also without considering the heat and zeal stil preserv'd alive in the Churches bowels from the great fire of Pentecost says no more towards proving an errour 's overrunning the Church then the Oratour we exemplified for Georges leaping over the Steeple Wherfore this attempt is so far from the business it deservs not the honour of being accounted an Argument Yet because we compar'd the propagation of the Catholique Faith to the perpetuation of Human kind let us propose the like discours against it and say that in Affrick or the Land of Senega there are under earth great mines of Arsnick Whereof one may at some time or other vapour a contagious smoak which encountring with a strong wind from the South may breed so great a Plague in all the North Countries that none can escape it and hereupon presently conclude that all on this side the Line are quite dead and those who seem to live and discourse are but phantasms and have nothing of real in them though I believe the instances brought in for declaration of so groundless a conceit may seem better to deserve that name THE SEVENTH ENCOUNTER Answering the Greeks and some Divines who object new Beliefs to the Catholick Church THe first is of the Greeks Hieremie Nilus and Barlaam who profess to stand to Tradition and the first seaven General Councils and can be no way disprov'd say's the objector unless by what shall be as forcible against the Catholick cause But truly this instance is so lame it needs a new making before it be answered For the Author expresses not in what points of difference betwixt us and them he intends to urge it If about shavings or fastings and the like we shal have no quarrel against him if about the Procession of the holy Ghost I doubt he will find himself entangled in an equivocation betwixt the matter and manner of that mystery However that all arguments against them will serve against us is but the Authors liberal addition without any proof or means to guess at it That they accuse us to corrupt Tradition by sowing tares among it has two parts one justify's my plea that we rely on Tradition since they charge us with endeavouring to corrupt not disclaim it the other that we do indeed corrupt it is only said not proved and farther shews that the plea of the Greeks is non-Tradition alleadging only this that their Fathers do not deliver the doctrin of the procession of the Holy Ghost not that they say the contrary which clearly demonstrates there are no opposite Traditions between them and us As little force has the Note cited out of Tertullian to prove that he thought more was to be believ'd then what was drawn from antiquity because he was content private men might begin good customs in their own houses For sure he could not believe that omnis fidelis could constituere for the whole Church or even for his neighbours house So that we need a great deal of Logick to draw from this remark the creeping of an errour into the Church not a word being so much as intimated that this good custom should be against what was already receiv'd which had been enough to make it rejected and not comprehended in Tertullians known judgment There is another instance strongly urg'd and largly dilated but if I guess right of so much less credit the more 't is opened It is out of a history by one Wadding an Irish man concerning two Treaties of two Kings of Spain with two Popes to tear from them a definition for the Immaculateness of our Ladies Conception I follow an Authors words who has read the book and it seems found a great violence in the carriage of the business which made him express it by the word tearing Who this Wadding is I know not for I have heard of more then one but whether this be any of them I am totally ignorant having never seen the Book nor any other signs by which to discover the Author Out of this Book they collect three arguments One from Waddings testimony another from the State of the question he handles a third from his practice joyntly with the practice of divers others of the same degree For the first I am desirous notice should be taken of the Authors condition When he wrote this book he was Secretary to the Bishop of Carthagena and He his Kings Ambassador to move the Pope to define our Ladies Conception without original sin and in solliciting this to use an extraordinary importunity Wherin I see two circumstances that concern the qualification of his Book One that he was to act a business of great heat and if his zeal were not conformable to the eagerness of his senders he was like to have little thanks for his pains The second that he was Secretary to an Ambassador by which he had priviledg to say and publish Dicenda Tacenda whether they were his own opinions or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so they any way advanc'd his cause Now this encouraged Secretary undertakes to affirm that many things have been defined against the opinions of some Fathers and in the present case he says peradventure it has been defin'd that our Lady was free from all actual sin He adds the validity of Hereticks Baptism the beatifical vision before the day of Judgment the spirituality of Angels the souls being immediatly created and not ex traduce the Assumption of our Lady and her delivery without pain To Wadding
we may add Salmeron who has the boldness to say Doctores quo juniores eo perspicaciores Poza is no les audacious in citing opinions defin'd against the Fathers Erasmus says myriades Articulorum proruperunt Fisher Bishop and Martyr and as learned as any in his age consents that Purgatory was brought in by little and little and Indulgences after men had trembled a while at the torments of Purgatory Alphonsus de Castro puts in the rank of newly receiv'd Doctrines Indulgences Transubstantiation and the procession of the holy Ghost But beyond all is the fact of Clement the eighth a grave and wise Pope who desirous to end the controversy between the Dominicans and the Jesuits accused by them of Pelagianism neither sent for learned men by way of a Council to know what their Forefathers had taught them nor examin'd with which of them the purest Ages sided but refer'd the whole matter to what St. Austin said and so it had been defin'd had not Cardinal Perrons advice prevail'd And St. Austin was so various in his own opinion that he knew not himself what he held wheras before him all the ancients sided with the Jesuits Thus far that Book I know this term Defining is frequently used by our Divines in matters of the Churches determinations nor do I see any great inconvenience in the word if the thing be understood to wit that Defining is nothing els but the acknowledging and clearing a Tradition from the dirt and rubbidg opposers had cast upon it For the rest that some Fathers have had their eys ty'd in particular points so far as not to see the force of Tradition by which the Church had notice of the truth of some position is a thing not to be doubted And if it were fit or necessary I could bring instances of bold Divines in our days so blinded by arguments that they see not the light of Tradition in some particular questions and so the expressions only changed hold condemned heresies So short is the sphear of our discours if not directed by a carefulness to wel-imploy our Logick or by a secret grace steering us towards truth beyond the ability of our Reason But what consequence any can draw out of these sayings against Tradition I understand not unless this be taken for a Maxim that every one must necessarily know of a special point that it is deriv'd by Tradition because really 't is so an inconsequence I hope already sufficiently demonstrated Now if these two can stand together that truly the Church has a Tradition for a point and nevertheless some learned man may be ignorant of it this argument has no force at all As to the positions he cites for newly adopted into the family of faith he fairly shews the priviledg he and his Master had to speak any thing that sounded to his purpose and let his adversaries take care whether true or no For nothing is more clear then that the validity of Baptism by Hereticks was a Tradition and decided by it so the Beatifical vision of the Saints before the day of judgment the spirituality of Angels are not yet held matters of Faith but only Theological conclusions as likewise the souls being concreated to the perfecting of the body Then for the blessed Virgin 's being free from actual sin as also her Assumption and her delivery without pain which others add these either are known by Tradition or not matters of Catholick Faith and so no ways advance our Adversaries pretences For Alphonsus de Castro 't is plain by his very expressions either he means the manner only or at most some circumstances unessential to the things and therefore certainly not cited without some violence offerd to his words Poza is a condemned Authour and Salmeron's saying not to be followed or to be understood as it is whence he took it in such things as later disputes have beaten out more plainly Erasmus was learned in Criticism and one whom if not others his very English Patrons Warham of Canterbury Fisher of Rochester and More in the Chancery exempt from all calumny of being a desertor of the ancient Faith besides his own Books especially his Epistle Ad Fratres inferioris Germaniae by effects demonstrate his loyalty whatever bad impressions a certain liberty of practising his wit too freely may have made in some even great and eminent persons But what he speaks concerning Articles of Faith he either took from the scoldings of some ignorant Divines who are ready to call every word they found not in their books when they were Schollers Heresie or else because truly he understood not what belong'd to Decisions in that kind There remain two Authorities really considerable one of the holy Bishop Fisher the other of the prudent Pope As for the first I conceive there is a great equivocation through want of care and warinesse in distinguishing For let us take either the Council of Florence or Trent in which we have the Churches sense concerning both Purgatory and Indulgences and see whether the holy Bishop says any of the points those Councils defin'd are either denied by the Greeks or brought in by private revelations or new interpretations of Scripture For how could he be ignorant that the Greeks had agreed to the Latin Church about the definition of Purgatory in the Council of Florence or forget himself so far as not to remember a publick practice Indulgences in all the ancient Church for remission of the Penal injunctions laid upon sinners Besides he says the Latins did not receive Purgatory at once but by little and little Whence 't is evident by the name Purgatory he means not only so much as is established in the Council but the manner also and circumstances were introduced by revelations of private persons and argumentations of Divines The like he expresses of Indulgences saying They began after men had trembled a while at the pains of purgatory Whence it is plain he contented not himself with the precise subject of the Councils Definitions or the sense of the Church but included also such interpretations as Divines give of them So that by speaking in general terms and not distinguishing the substance of Purgatory from the Accidents and dressing of it as likewise in Iudulgences not separating what the Church has alwaies practiz'd from the interpretative extention which Divines attribute to them he is mistaken to suppose new Articles of Faith may be brought into the Church Neither imports it that he uses those words No Orthodox man now doubts for that 's true of such Conclusions as are term'd Theological and generally receiv'd in the Schools yet are not arriv'd to the pitch of making a point of Catholick belief besides he expresses himself that this generality extends no farther then That there is a Purgatory In Clement the eighth's action the main point is to consider on what grounds he sought to establish the Definition he went about to make And upon the immediate step we both joyntly
Grandfather as though such a graceless entail could prejudice the law of Nature Though not so absurd yet as weak is another Objection taken from the Jewish Cabala however it seems worthy of thanks to the Suggestor What it was is not hard to guess our Saviour himself having given us the hint of it when he reproach'd the Jews for following the Traditions of their Fathers or Elders to the ruin of Gods commands But to decipher it better I ought to divide it into matter and form The form I call the Rules the matter what was deliver'd or found out by these Rules As for the matter it seems in some way proportion'd to the proceedings of certain of our Divines who pretend to be mysticall and their imployment is in the sublime mysteries of our Faith to invent or imagin what they think congruous circumstances to move the affections to petty devotion which imaginations as they are fram'd out of good intentions so have they many weaknesses and little or no doctrin in them Conformable to this we may conceive that after there were no more Prophets among the Jews who fail'd them not long after the second building of their Temple the Rabbins began to frame explications on their Books of holy Scripture and the mysteries learn'd from the Prophets These interpretations according to the degree of their skil and prudence some perform'd better some worse But as the Jews were a superstitious and ignorant Nation not having principles of true knowledg naked before their Eys but wrapt up in Metaphors and Allegories all together went among them for sound Law Til after our Saviours time and the dispersion of that generation some foolish knave to give authority to this mess of good and bad jumbled together invented the story how Moses had deliver'd this doctrin to the Sanhedrin and they had conserv'd it by traditional conveyances from Father to Son A story as impossible and incredible to one who penetrates into the carriage of that Nation as the Fables of Jeoffrey of Monmouth and King Arthur's conquering Hierusalem Now if we look into the form we shal find it more ridiculous then any Gypses canting or the jugling of Hocus Pocus and as pernicious to true Doctrin as any Pseudomancy To make good this censure I shal in short describe their form it consists in inventing the sense of Scripture by three abuses of the Letter which as far as my memory servs me for I have not the books necessary are these One by taking every letter of a word for a whole word beginning with that letter Another by changing letters according to certain rules fram'd by themselvs The third to find numbers of years or other things by the numbers which the letters of the word compound in such Languages where their letters are used for cyphers So much being deliver'd in short I cannot conceive any indifferent judgment so blunt that he sees not how far these ridling ways of explication are from the natural intention of a Writer and how destructive to all truth if used otherwise then for pleasure and as a disport of chance and encounter Our Country man Doctor Alablaster invented a far more convenient trick by purely dividing words and joyning the ends of the former to the beginnings of the following as we also do somtimes in English to disguise common words and the Hebrew is far more apt for such knacks But he found this age too subtle to cozen any considerable number with such trivial bables Wheras the Cahala gain'd upon the Valentinians and Gnosticks to build prodigious errours in very good earnest upon their more ridiculous invention I am not ignorant some eminent persons have been pleased somtime to give way to such toyes through luxury of wit and gayety of humour But it is one thing to play for recreation and a far different to establish a Basis of Faith and doctrin which is abominable on such Chimerical dreams And yet this it is our Opposer would Father upon no less then Moses and the Sanhedrin and all the sacred Magistracy of the old Law Let us give a step farther and see if it were true how like it were to our case The Tradition we speak of is the publick preaching and teaching and practice exercised in the Church setled by the Apostles thorow the World This Cabala a doctrin pretended as deliver'd to few with strict charge to keep it from publicity and so communicate it again successively to a select Committee of a few wherein you may see as fair an opportunity for jugling and cozenage as in our case there is impossibility The Moderns therfore who profess Cabala may say they receiv'd it from their predecessors but they can yeild no account why any Age may not have chang'd that which was in the breasts of few shut up together in a chamber and so ther 's no possibility of farther assurance then the vote of a Council of State for its being deriv'd any higher But the Arguer demands whether they cannot ask me In what age or year their doctrin was corrupted And I answer they may very boldly But if I assign an age or year can they acquit themselvs in point of proof clearly they cannot for since there was no Register nor visible effects of this doctrin it being forbidden to be divulg'd 't is evident that cannot convince it was not corrupted in that year or age He urges farther the notoriousness of the ly so impudent as few would venture on not reflecting that he speaks of a secret altogether incapable of notoriousness May not they add says he the dispersion of their Churches through so many Countries and Languages I yeild they may but to no purpose unless they continue Sanhedrins in every Country For otherwise this dispersion will prove but the derivation from their Council of Tiberias or such like time which is nothing to the succession from Moses Add to this that the Nation since Christs time is infamous for falsifying doctrins and corrupting Scriptures and even in our Saviours time and long before their Rabbins were justly branded with the foul imputation of frequent forgery their Sects and heresies being grown up to that desperate height as to deny there were any spirits or shall be any Resurrection which is the very top of impiety But what is no less to be consider'd then any thing yet offer'd the very subject of the question is different The Church we speak of is a vast and numerous body spread o're the world and he must be a mad man that would go about to deny this Body has remain'd perpetually visible from Christs time to ours however some Heretick may pretend the invisible part viz. that the Faith has been interrupted But for the Sanhedrin what assurance nay what probability is there of deriving its pedegree from Moses to the daies of our Saviour In all their oppressions during the time of the Judges in the division of the Tribes in the raign of their Kings in the
St. Paul Who speaking to the Galathians protested that whoever circumcis'd himself as a thing necessary or because of the old Commandment was bound to keep the whole Judaical law So say I whoever condemns Images upon this prohibition of Moses is bound to keep all the law of the Jews For if these words be a law to us because they are written in theirs all that 's written in their law must be so to us since he that made one made all and for whom he made one and deliver'd it to them for them he made and deliver'd all the rest as one entire body of law to be observ'd by them He therfore that counts himself bound by this Law must if he have common sense esteem himself equally obliged to all the rest Upon the same reason hangs the keeping of the Sabhath day for of all the Decalogue these are the only two points unrepeated in the new Testament so that all the rest we are bound to accept in vertue of that but these two we cannot Wherfore whoever holds The Sabbath day is commanded by God either does so because he finds it in the old Law and to him I protest he ought in consequence to this judgment submit to all that law and become a Jew or els because he finds it in observation among Christians that is in Tradition and to him I protest he is bound to embrace all that comes down by Tradition namely the whole Roman Catholick Faith Therfore every rigorous observer of the Sabbath is bound in common sense either to be a Jew or a Catholick To make an end I know our adversaries alledg many sentences of Fathers to prove the sufficiency of Scripture wherof the most part I am sure are as far beside the state of the question as those places of Scripture we come now from examining However I finde my self not concern'd to look into them pretending no farther at this present then to consider the ground upon which those I oppose rely for their assurance that Scripture is sufficient to decide controversies according to the state of the question as it is proposed Now because they reject wholly the Authority of Fathers from a definitlve sentence in matter of Faith it is impossible for them if they are not quite Bedlams to rely on their Authority for acceptance of Scripture for what can be imagin'd more palpably absurd then to receive upon their credit the whole Rule of Faith and yet not take their words for any one Article of Faith and consequently what can be imagin'd more vain and fruitless then for me to lose my labour in striving to shew that Protestants have no colour from Antiquity to expect this al-deciding power in Scripture whilst themselvs aver the whole multitude of Fathers is not capable of giving a sufficient testimony for their relyance on Scripture since therfore there is nothing like a ground in Scripture and they scorn all ground except Scripture I must leave them to the freedom of doing it without ground FINIS DAILLÈS ARTS DISCOVER'D OR His RIGHT USE Prov'd A Down-right ABUSE Of the FATHERS By THO. WHITE Gent. EZECH 13. 12. Ecce cecidit Paries nunquid non dicetur vobis Vbi est litura quam linistis Printed in the Yeare 1654. DAILLè's Arts DISCOVER'D THE FIRST SURVEY Of the nature and subject of Daille's Book HAving clos'd the precedent Treatise which this consideration that since Protestants disavow to be determin'd by the authority of Fathers I had just title to decline any farther search into those reverend Witnesses of our ancient Faith being a task that would require some labour of me to do and yield no profit to them when done Yet I easily observ'd that as my excuse to indifferent Persons will defend me from the imputation of being troubled with the Writing-Itch so it seems to engage my clearing my self of a far more important charge which otherwise might occasion some passionate or captious spirits to fix this scandal upon me that I acknowledge not the judgment of Antiquity an injurious aspersion which the French Daillè has actually endeavour'd to cast upon the whole Catholik Church in his abusive Treatise of the right use of the Fathers And because that Monsieur 's Book is Denizon'd among us by the adoption of those two great Secretaries whose names forc'd me into this imployment and rais'd to the esteem of being the source whence their streams took their current I cannot but give my Reader a hint concerning it for no other reason but only to make him understand what Great men are subject to when the luxuriousness of their wits carries them beyond the bounds of those professions they are skild in With this Note therfore we wil begin our discourse that Many great and nimble wits both ancient and modern have meerly for their recretation undertaken to plead the cause of natural defects and striven to set them above the opposite perfections like Aesop's Woolf who having lost his tail would perswade other Wolvs to cut off theirs too as unnecessary burdens But nature contradicting this Art and by a perpetuall current of impressions forcing us to the contrary belief such quaint discourses gain no more credit then Prismatical glasses in which we are pleasd to know our selvs delightfully cosen'd Now what in these men is only a Caprich of wit and gayness of humor were it applied to a business of high concern and which could not be judg'd by our senses but requir'd a deep penetration to distinguish right from wrong would certainly be a most pernicious and insufferable wickedness a trap to ensnare and ruin all the weak and unlearn'd whom either the cunning of Logick can deceive or sweetnesse of Rhetorick inveagle But being arriv'd already within sight of my designed Port I beg my Reader to believe me of that discretion as not easily to lanch forth again into the main Ocean of a new bottomless controversy and therfore I shall only essay to decipher the quality of the Treatise in common leaving its strict perusal to them that are more at leisure and have their Noses better arm'd for raking in a dunghil To make then a neerer approach to the work I shal begin with the Author's intention which aims at no lesse then this bold and desperate attempt To disable the Fathers from being Judges in the Controversies of this present Age. Let us enquire the true and genuine sense of this proposition And first who are signifi'd by the word Fathers For this he assigns us three Ages from Christ to Constantine from Constantine to Gregory the great and from Him to Vs. Now this last part though it contains a thousand yeeres he cuts off from the score of Fathers and much more puls them out of the Bâ—nch of Judges the middle division he grumbles at as not being worthy of or at most hardly admittable to that appellation the first Age alone he freely acknowledges By what Criticism he does this I am not able to
understand For when I learn'd Latin Pater signified the immediate progenitour of the Son and St. Paul was of that opinion telling his Converts They had no Father but himself because he had in person begotten them by the Gospel and though by ampliation this word has included also the Parents of our Fathers and upwards even to Adam yet how it comes so to signifie the most remote as to exclude the neerest is beyond my skil in Grammar Pray let this good Definitor reflect upon himself if the first remembred of his race had died without Issue how could he have been one of his Forefathers no more had there been no Preachers after the first three hundred yeers till our time should we have accounted those Primitive Ones our Fathers That they are Fathers then is because they begot Preachers who continued the propagation of the same doctrine to our daies which we profess they did among us and that therfore we are their Spiritual Off-spring they our Fathers But Daillè and his Consorts fault is not that they contract the compass of the Fathers but that they acknowledge any For they are all Mushroms sprung up as new as the morning not so much as one from another if they be true to their tenets every one of them is bound to say to Calvin as wel as to the Saints I believe not for thy word but I have heard it from the Apostles own mouths in the Scripture Though indeed I have no reason to quarrel much with Him upon this point for if he acknowledges the word Fathers he denies the Thing or Vertue of it in them since to be a Father is to propagate Christs doctrine to posterity which quality he must of necessity deny them whilst he thinks their doctrine not to be that of Christ and that it ought by every private man be brought to the test of the Bible and so far accepted or refus'd as to the grave judgement of some judicious Blue-apron seems agreeable to the sense of Scripture This then is the pious design of this Authour To infinuate a belief that since the Apostles daies there has not been a sufficient living Witnesse of what they taught the world or what Christ taught them In which there are two notorious propositions infolded worthy to be look'd into First that these good Christians at one leap free themselves from all the bands of Community and Society of mankind and from all subjection to the Kingdom of Christ which they flatly deny For Nature teaches us there can be no Government without Judges I mean living Definitors and Deciders of occasional debates therefore if Christ has left no Judges upon Earth he has no kingdom here such Judges I speak of as should administer His Law for he came not to plant temporal Kings but a spiritual Regiment wherin if he has had no Judges since the Apostles decease his Kingdom expir'd with them Now then the whol drift of this Writer is to establish an absolute Anarchy where every one indifferently shall be Master without control in that great and principal Mystery of training up souls to eternal happiness which by how much more dark and difficult the spiritual conduct to future bliss is then temporal government to present wealth and security so much more unreasonable and unnatural must the position be that dissolvs all obedience to Ecclesiastical Superiours and abolishes all Order in the Church An assertion justly to be abhor'd by any who has the least spark of love to that only great Good the salvation of his Soul The other Proposition is that since the Apostles time there has been no publik either true doctrine or good life in that part of the World which we call Christian. I do not mean there may not have appeared some vertuous actions in private persons though perhaps the consequence might be driven so far but that all visible Companies have had both their Doctrine spotted with foul tenets and their consequent practises polluted with Superstition and Idolatry For as this is one of the main grounds for their rejecting the Fathers so the reason à priori which they alledge being once admitted evinces the truth of the Conclusion I charge upon them it being evident that if because man is fallible the Fathers are insufficient to propagate truth to their posterity and out of the position of insufficiency must of necessity follow the consequence of defect certainly then the following generations had not sufficient instruction either for belief or actions And indeed the Reformers themselvs acknowledg as much since they esteem the Fathers errours so gross that it was fit to leave the communion of that Church wherin they are defended rather then accept of such abominations Now if this be not to deny all good life and the main and universal fruit of Christs passion even in those preferr'd Ages I have lost my little wits This therfore I say is the aym and project of his Book to prove That since Christs time there has been no sufficient living testimony of the Truth of Religion no command or government of Christians as Christians and lastly no holiness or good life nor any fitting direction among mankind brought in and stated by our kind Saviour and wisest Law-giver Jesus Christ. Now how great an encouragement and advance this may prove either towards vertue or study of Religion I understand not This I know if any would purposely seek to draw off our hearts from all hope of heaven and practice of vertue I cannot imagin a more efficacious argument then First to tell how much pains our Saviour had taken to plant a right Faith and Christian life in so many years of example and Preaching closing all with such strange unparalleld suffrings Nay that he had sent the Holy Ghost in so manifest and glorious a manner from heaven upon his Disciples to fire their hearts with zeal and impower their hands to Miracles giving them Commission to publish his new Law over all the World and solemnly engaging to assist them for ever And yet afterwards bring in proofs how notwithstanding all this soon as these Apostles were dead Idolatry and corruption both of doctrin and manners began presently to appear in the greatest and best Members of the Church even the immediate Disciples of the Apostles and in short time so over-run the whole World that the means of Salvation was generally lost and the way to heaven obstructed with an universal deluge of vice and superstition These proofs are the work of our excellent Author whence I think it no boldness to conclude this Treatise of the right use of the Fathers is the perfectest piece that ever was written for the utter extermination of Christian doctrin and absolute ruin of all vertue For when I turn o're the Book I cannot but acknowledg it full of as good Topicks cast into as neat a stile and qualify'd with as seeming a fit temper conveniently to betray unwary souls as any modern I ever read but
I fear not these few animadversions I have hastily collected sufficiently demonstrate to the sight of any that will but open their eyes how dangerous and damnable a a poyson lies hidden under that guilded hypocritical cover THE SECOND SURVEY Of the two first Chapters of his first Book wherin he urges that the Fathers of the three first ages were few and their writings wholly unconcerning our Controversies THe intention of the Work being so pious so conformable to nature and the ways of the Author of nature you cannot chuse but expect the proofs very sound and convincing And if you will believe either my Lord of Bristow's judgment or my opinion we shall easily agree in his Elogium both of them and their Author that little material or weighty can be said on this subject which his rare and piercing observation has not anticipated To understand his perswasions the better I entreat you reflect upon two ways or rather two parts of one way ordinarily chosen by such jugling Orators as we before made mention of who use to employ their wits in contradicting open verities The first is to talk much of the common notion when the question is of a particular As if one would undertake to disswade a man from travelling to Rome because 't is a long journey he will plead the inconveniences which accompany long journeys and immediatly talk of Wildernesses wild Beasts great Robberies dangerous Rivers unpassable Mountains want of Company and disfurnishment of all accommodations by the way a thousand such frightful narrations which occur in the misfortunes of Shipwrack'd men and the desperate voyages of Romance-Lovers But never descend to consider whether all these be found in the way to Rome or what remedies are provided to correct such Symptomes knowing too wel that equivocation is easily couch'd and ambushed in common propositions but soon detected if a descent be made to particulars The other Fallacy is To assign real inconveniences but not tell you how far they annoy the Subject alledging many sad things but concealing how great they are As a man may have the Gout or Stone in so slight a measure that they shall never trouble him yet a third person who hears the melancholy relation may conceit and pitty his case as most deplorable because the Reporter not expressing the violence of these diseases leavs an impression in our minds of such a degree of pain and affliction as we ordinarily commiserate in those that suffer the extreamest fury of such vexatious tormentors These two Fallacies run in a manner through his whole Book which he divides into two parts very methodically In the former he pretends to shew 't is an excessive hard if not impossible task to know the meaning of the Fathers In the later that supposing their sense were known it imported little to the dispatch of controversies they being not infallible nor without all danger of errour grounding himself on this maxim that the understanding neither can nor indeed ought to believe any thing in point of Religion but what it knows to be certainly true Which had it come out of a Roman Catholicks mouth would have sounded gloriously and worthy the dignity of that Faith which God and Iesus Christ being the Author of have compleatly furnisht with clear and solid principles He perhaps would have offered you choice either of Faith or Knowledg produced in order to this as perfect demonstrations as Aristotle is ador'd for and towards that engaged you in the most evident directors of humane life and cleerly evidenc'd by the principles of common sense that if you refuse the Authority of the Roman Church you renounce all the certainties on which you build every serious action of your life in a word constrain'd you to deny or affirm somwhat that your self in another case will confess a meer madness to affirm or deny But in Monsieur Daille's mouth who in his next words will cast you upon the vanity of a broken breath which has been a boulting and searsing these hundred years without any profit in the certainty of its meaning I cannot pierce farther then that this glorious principle is assum'd as the readiest means to betray his Auditor into a despair of Christianity and then leave him in the gulf of Atheism However let 's see the nature of his proofs which for the first point he has screwd up to eleven The three first are that the Fathers works especially in the three first Centuries were very few and of matters far different from the present controversies and besides many fals writings father'd upon those Saints by unworthy persons of which last imputation my third Survey gives you a more exact particular Nor can I deny any of this but I find two exceptions which I believe would shrewdly trouble the Minister to answer One that those of the pretended Reformation who have so much modesty in them as not to renounce utterly the authority of the whole Church of Jesus Christ at one blow strive to shelter their nakedness in these three Centuries wherof these three arguments make me plainly see the reason Because by the paucity of Books the difference of Subject and pretence of Forgery they hope nothing can be made evident for those Ages and so the purity for which they cry up those days as only worth our conformity is in that sense the Poet says purae sunt plateae that is ther 's no body in the streets My other unsatisfaction is He does not shew that even in these ages and those very works which he acknowledges for the Authors home-born Children and to have descended incorrupted to our daies there is not sufficient to convince all Hereticks For though every particular point peradventure cannot in so few works and written so accidentally to our purpose be clearly demonstrated yet the generality of the Rule we are to follow in Christian doctrin is so manifestly set down in those very Fathers he admits that were their writings made our judges no man could possibly be an Heretick since as the material points the Fathers wrote against were different from ours so the formal ones as the deserting the Catholick communion the renouncing the testimony of Apostolical Seas and the hiding themselves under the leaves of Scripture were common to all the ancient as well as modern Hereticks But however if he cannot maintain that there is not enough left to convince the truth his proof is deficient and wholly useless to the end he brings it One observation more I cannot chuse but note He quarrels with some Catholick Doctors who prefer the second Tricentury before the first as to the right understanding the sense of the Fathers Which he says he takes for a confession of the want of testimonies in the former Ages and doubts not but in equal cleerness they would prefer the first Tricentury for point of purity before the latter But either his own opinion or mis-understanding our Tenets deceiv'd him For we do not imagin
't is the Grecians objection about adding this word Filioque to the Creed of Nicaea which having insisted on more largly in another place I shall pacify with this short answer Since 't is confest by both parties that the main Creed was made in that Council and received this addition from another freely and openly avow'd for such by the Roman Church the question could not be of corruption which seems to imply a secret design of imposing on the world but of the lawfulness of the Addition Now let us pass to his accusation of later times where he complains there is far more fals play His first instance is against certain varieties in the ancient Fathers that some Manuscrips or Impressions agree not with others as if every one that sets out a Book must have seen all Manuscripts or else he corrupts the Ancient Copy But that which angers him is the words omitted or added are against his tenets whence he gathers it was no casual escape but a deliberate plot of voluntary corruption but he that wil lose so much time as to take notice how weak and inconsiderable the passages are even in his own citations wil easily see this chief proof consists meerly in a bold assertion I shall therfore rely on my Readers ingenuity and only cite two or three examples for a pattern of the rest As that the word Petra is changed into Petrus in that famous sentence of St. Cyprian Cathedra una super Petrum Domini voce fundata That in St. Amhrose some books are separated which in other Copies are joyn'd together that in St. Peters life is omitted a certain Exhortation advising his Successors to abstain from secular cares Pretences so slight in themselves so impertinent to the main cause that none but a petty Polititian would have stoopt to such trivial corruptions nor any but a wrangling Sophister pretended such childish exceptions But not content with what has been done he presses us with what would have been done if I know not whose counsail had been follow'd which is nothing but the wild Chimera's of a sick brain Next he is offended that Heretical books have been forbidden and abolish'd as if any could think it reasonable sedicious Pamphlets against Kings and States should passe unreprehended in their dominions exhortations to Idolatry be permitted among the Jews or such blasphemies as pretend to prove Christ an Impostor should be tolerated among Christians I wonder calumnies so shallow so impudent and of so desperate a consequence can finde patience enough in any person of understanding to read them yet I see great wits strangly applaud them The actions therfore cal'd by him corruptions consisting only in such to the very end of his fourth Chapter you wil easily perceive that this so wel bodied Chapter also if the impertinencies with which he lards it were substracted would prove as lean and starv'd as Pharao's Oxen. Besides if we seek to direct his arrow towards the intended scope this last concerns not the ancient Fathers since now Expurgations are only for Moderns as anciently they were only against Hereticks The other objections reach no way to disable this safe and principal answer That notwithstanding all his cavils there may stil remain a sufficient number of the Fathers writings pure and incorrupted to convince the doctrin of the Catholik Church THE FOURTH SURVEY Of the fifth Chapter wherin he objects the Fathers Eloquence and that on set purpose they spake obscurely I Shall pass now to the next Flourish rather then Argument where this bold unwary man offering to prove the Fathers are hard to be understood assigns those very reasons that make all other Authors more easily understandable For first what Languages more copious more regular and wherein Schollers are more vers'd then Latin and Greek which are the Fathers Idiomes Yes says he but few arrive to that perfection in them as is truly requisite for the exact managing of Controversies Be it so But then let no others meddle with this part of Controversies like Masters but they let such on both sides try the quarrel whilst others for this part rely on them But again he renews his first complaint how smal a number are they that are fitly qualify'd to enter the lists in so difficult a combate I do not fear if this Author were ask'd of France Holland and Germany he would readily undertake to find twenty of his own side compleatly furnisht for such a skirmish and since our Party is both more extended enjoys better commodity for studying and cleerly by its numerous works shews it self far more laborious He may well allow us at least as many as he promises to produce of his own If then betwixt both may be found at the same time forty sufficiently train'd for the encounter what need we ask any more there will not want enough besides capable to prosit themselvs out of their Labours He proceeds to help himself upon St. Hieroms speech against nimium diserti and some faults of weak interpreters And presumes the places he brings clear though my sight is not quick enough to perceive it of any but one of St. Austin cont Adimant which he clears himself by adding to the Fathers Text cùm signum daret corporis sui the word only in his interpretation Then he urges Men bring obscure places to interpret Scripture but the unhappiness is his instances are of his own party He presses that the Fathers before the rising of Heresies spake ambiguously and doubtfully and that which seem'd to be against their own certain sense and meaning as he exemplify's out of St. Athanasius and St. Basil concerning some Fathers before the Arian Heresy But this Wel-meaner forgets that at least in his examples he brings the salve with the stroak for confessing 't was shew'd to be against the writers meaning he implicitly tels us either there were other precedent or subsequent expressions in the same place which made the doubtful words plain or at least so evident passages of the same Author in other places that there could be no doubt of his meaning in the ambiguous ones And truly if we observe this gentle Sophisters discours we shal easily see he imagines that proofs from the Fathers ought to be brought by the popping out of half a Sentence and never regard either what goes before or follows after as by the instances we have already examin'd you may perceive is the reform'd fashion of citing Scriptures Wheras the Books of Fathers being large and ample allow greater Carreers to those who run matches in them He adds farther that the Fathers deliver'd some things on set purpose obscurely If his meaning be they exprest their thoughts in certain occasions shortly or not fully what danger is there in that We know wel all arguments drawn from them must be made out of what they have not what they might have written and so the erudition he spends in proving this had been better employ'd to shew the
height of those Mysteries the Fathers saw just cause to conceal then in cavilling at their compendious expressions which suted best with their circumstances And certainly 't is most agreeable to reason that the mind of such as wrote before the Controversy began should be judged by those Fathers who for the easier defence of truth and fuller confutation of the Innovators were forc'd to break the Seal of secrecy and who being their immediate Disciples without doubt must necessarily best know their minds and consequently were most able to repeat the lessons they had so lately learnt of their Masters He afterwards reckons up certain Grammar weaknesses of some Fathers and the excellencies of others and out of both draws venom to his comb So that whether a Father write down right natural construction or by abilities of explicating himself polish his stile all breeds darkness to this great Illuminator or Calumniator rather of the Fathers Nay the very vices they cry out against in evil Preachers must be the faults of the Princes of antiquity by this Interpreters benevolence But he knocks all on the head by the example of St. Hierom who having related what had passed in him during his sleep in another place defends it was but a dream And can you believe the Objector was awake when he fumbled out this piece of impertinency Yet he urges it for a convincing evidence and bearing a special good wil to St. Hierom he very kindly perswades himself that the Stories of Malchus St. Paul the Eremit and St. Hillarion were Romances the first because his maligners calumniated it the other two though never question'd because he shew'd wit in them It seems too he would beget in his Reader this dutiful conceit of the Fathers that they were wont to deliver Romances for Articles of Faith concluding with this desperate and ungracious demand Who shall assure us that they have not made use of these same Arts in their discourses concerning the Eucharist and afterwards renews again the like impudent quaere discovering too openly the prophaness of his heart as if he suspected the Fathers might perhaps have cozen'd the people with some fals glasses to magnifie the power of Prelates Next he objects the Fathers often affirm or deny obsolutely what they mean only comparatively and if you wil not believe him he produces examples out of St. Hierom St. Chrysostom Amphilochius and Asterius But St. Hierom is plainly in the very words comparative The rest are both explicated to the same sense by the bordering Ages who might easily know the practice of their lives in that controversie and in his very citation have nothing capable of being urg'd against that explication besides the phrase it self is favourable What great difficulty is there to pick out the English of this sentence Praemia pudicitiae nuptiae possidere non possunt c. with the rest too trivial to be repeated He makes a second review of the Fathers speeches concerning some Heresy not yet debated upon another design to shew that while they speak against one Heresie they seem to fall into the contrary But there is no new difficulty brought unlesse it be of those terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both which this Author abuses by a wrong interpretation the first he renders let fall in heat of disputation instead of giving it the true sense which Englishes it thus suppos'd for disputation sake for so 't is contradistinguish'd to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which St. Basil opposes it the later he explicates done or said by dispensation whereas the proper signification is by discretion St. Athanasius's meaning being that he deliverd what was fittest in that occasion and for the person to whom or in whose name he spake for his words give us some hints inclining to either of those senses that He intended only to personate an objection against himself or else to draw some answer out of another without engaging to declare his own judgment But 't is worthy our pains to look into the sweet interpretation he makes and compare it with the Greek which himself puts in the margin he reads therfore thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is men ought not maliciously to take or understand and draw it to be his proper meaning what one writes or does as now it s cal'd ad hominem for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies according to the art and understanding to apply every thing to the particular circumstances which offer themselvs Lastly he tels us the use of words is chang'd since Antiquity but specifies so simply that without question he hoped none but blind men would look into his book as if the World now thought that Papa signifies not a spiritual Authority but a temporal Garbo that Confessio signifies some outward ceremony Missa all the prayers now used c. THE FIFTH SURVEY Of the six Chapters following wherin he objects wilful deceit to the Fathers HItherto our Oratour has opened those Pleas which in a manner of necessity follow'd that multitude of books the Fathers have written and would if we could believe him perswade us Nothing is to be learn'd or understood out of Books but every three words wil never fail to have some reason or other to make them so obscure that no light or satisfaction can be derived out of them Nor is all this enough unless he gives them a touch of wilfulness which he does upon three Heads First from their writing Commentaries where he notes that many times they recite others opinions without naming the parties whence he would infer that out of their Commentaries nothing can be gather'd concerning their own judgment in the point they handle I cannot deny but such kind of commenting is sometimes used nor do I understand why it should be reprehensible to propose to the Reader choice judgments of divers eminent learned Persons even of Hereticks somtimes at least in St. Hieroms days when there were not so many Catholick writers that all good explications might be found in them though this honest man who otherwise is no enemy of liberty in Authors and opinions be at present for his interest offended with it But we can come to no assurance of the Authors mind what then If we do not see directly what he inclines to though ordinarily some liking is shew'd more to one opinion then another yet we may know he proposes all interpretations for the reader to chuse as he pleases which implys that he saw no apparent inconvenience in any But why is this manner of commenting made a calumny against all the rest being a particular kind and not much used why brought for a prejudice against such places where only one opinion is mentioned why is St. Hieroms indefinite doctrin which imports no more then that such is the nature of some Commentaries turn'd to an Universal as if none should do otherwise Let him reflect upon Beza's or other of his own parties glosses and see whether
they do not somtimes explicate Scripture in a way equally obnoxious to the same exceptions I deny not but St. Hierom once surpriz'd by St. Austin in a weak explication upon a passage to the Galathians excuses himself by a confession that his memory being confused he had in that place mingled his own opinion with other mens without distinction But is it not an excellent piece of honesty out of one only particular defect of one Father to draw an imputation not upon him alone but on the whole Senate of Antiquity And yet this thread runs quite thorow this captious Objectors Book whose labour is out of a mole in her face to prove Venus was not fair Then he procesds to tax St. Ambrose and St. Hillary for borrowing doctrin of Origen without citing the original as if Virgil should have still named Homer in all the places wherin he imitated him or Torquato Tasso told his reader which Stanza's were his own invention which translated out of others His second discontent is that when a passage of Holy Scripture is acknowledg'd by the Fathers to be capable of divers interpretations yet they will presume to use that sense only which is convenient to their Auditory omitting the others which in those circumstances make nothing to their purpose The like distaste he takes against them when speaking of a Mystery that has two parts they do not still make mention of both as since Christ is God and Man he will by this rule be offended that a Father should stile him God without expressing in the same breath though altogether unnecessary to his Theam that he was Man as if we could not somtimes upon occasion omit what we never intend to deny but were still bound to clog our discours with all the jealous cautions of a Lawyers Indentures though indeed he seems only troubled when this happens concerning the blessed Sacrament for then it utterly disappoints the force of those Arguments he so highly esteems Nor does his peevishness stay at these smaller Peccadillo's but to fill up the measure of his anger and farther enforce the accusation he sees himself engag'd in his bold hand trembles not plainly to insinuate that the Fathers are in plain terms downright cheaters contriving these omissions and ambiguity's not by wisdom and pastoral prudence but by cunning and hypocritical policy with a malicious intention to delude their auditory But these are little familiar stroaks and kind expressions of his devotion and respect to the Fathers and the Church in whose communion they liv'd and Him in whose precious death both They and It are founded His last crimination confists meerly in a repetition of what we discuss'd in the former Chapter about the Fathers speeches ad hominem yet because he has a little changed his temper we must observe what he says First being in a kind humour he now imputes it only to excess of passion in the good old men as if the former had been out of malice which made them speak they knew not what wheras the Ages after them explicating such passages of their Predecessors attribute it to deep wisdom and solid learning Secondly he shews us out of St. Hierom how all Authors use two ways of disputing one direct and demonstrative or demonstration like another Topical and tentative but to what purpose more then to form an aery apprehension in the readers head of some strange fallacy's and abuses ordinarily practised by those ancient Maintainers of Christianity I understand not Yet there remains about two lines of Latin which his jugling art has obscur'd into a necessity of a short explication and they are that interdum coguntur loqui non quod sentiunt sed quod necesse est dicant contra ea quae dicunt gentiles which is as much as to say they are forc'd somtimes not to contradict the Gentils propositions that they may impugn them with better advantage As when they seem to admit the truth of some Oracles and apply their discourse only to shew how such extraordinary actions might be perform'd by the Devil wheras perhaps in their inward thoughts they believ'd there were really none true or if any that they were by Gods interposing his own power to the Gentils confusion as he did in the apparition of Samuel to Saul the Witch not being able to raise up souls by the single force of her charms One new demand he urges which seems and indeed is strangly impertinent Whether it be a part of our Faith to visit the Holy Land as if those words of St. Hierom adorâsse ubi steterunt pedes Domini pars fidei est signify'd truly that to exercise adoration were an Article of Faith then which what can be spoken more sencelesly wheras the true meaning is plain and obvious that t is a duty of Faith or an action proceeding from Faith or conformable to Faith in which sense 't is impossible to make any rational opposition against it I must not end without taking notice of a goodly piece of wit in mis-translating a passage of St. Hierom wh entreats his reader to judg his meaning out of his whole discours and non in uno atque eodem libro criminari me diversas sententias protulisse not to accuse me that I am of divers minds in the self-same Book which this good natur'd Interpreter explicates and not presently to accuse any Author of blockishness for having deliver'd in one and the same Book two contrary opinions Nevertheless himself has been I will not say so blockish for of that ther 's too little cause to suspect him but so slight and precipitate as to put the very Latin words in the Margin which is as neer as can be to contradict himself in the same breath In four ensuing Chapters he delivers us certain notes which are in substance true but bring not much obscurity or other disablement to the way of proving Religion by the writings of Fathers and if they did he and his new party remembring they wholly refuse the judgment of their Ancestors need not trouble themselvs but stand upon their exceptions and leave the Catholiks to make their arguments sound and free from all legitimate repuls For this is the law of Logick and reasoning that the Actor should have liberty to frame his opposition so it be according to the rules of discourse as himself thinks best With this caveat I might justly omit these four Chapters were it not that in his eighth he has a note of remark out of Tertullian as requiring only that the Rule of Faith continue in its proper form and order Caeterùm manente formâ ejus in suo ordine quantum libet quaeras tractes omnem libidinem curiositatis effundas to which he adds Ruffinus his Apology for Origen as of the same opinion and seems to take it for the practice of the present Church And truly I think with great reason For as far as I understand Religion Nothing makes an Heretick but to recede from