IMPRIMATUR May 29 1665. John Hall R. P. D. Epis Lond. á Sac. Domest To J. S. the Author of Sure-Footing his Letter lately Published THE ANSWER OF MER. CASAUBON D. D. Concerning The New way of INFALLIBILITY lately devised to uphold the Roman Cause The Holy Scriptures Antient Fathers and Councills laid aside LONDON Printed for Timothy Garthwait at the Kings-head in St. Pauls Church-yard 1665. SIR I Have by the help of a Friend lately received your Letter to me which you have published with some other pieces of yours Had I apprehended any difficulty in the business I could have found an excuse from my present indisposition of body which hath been upon me this long time But I think I shall not need much Study to answer you this Letter I mean I will not insist upon personal things which do not at all concern the cause it self no further than civility doth oblige me First you challenge me so I understand you of somekind of breach of friendship A great crime I shall acknowledge it if truly guilty But the truth is Now that you have put me in mind by those circumstances you mention I remember well when Bp. Morton of Reverend and Blessed memory lived in Durham-house which was at the beginning of the late Troubles there was a civil Gentleman in the House whether in the quality of Chaplain or Secretary I do not remember with whom I did walk some time but what our communication was about Religion or any thing else I can give no account It should seem by your Letter you are the Gentleman But whether this may be called Acquaintance or Friendship I know not For since that time so many years ago I never heard of you that I remember neither did I think my self by any Law of friendship such as this obliged to inquire If your memory of me and my name hath been more tenacious I wish you much good of it I have often grieved that mine is no better If it were your kindness to think of me when I did not of you I am beholding to you for it But how I should know 20 years after that S. W. the Author of SCHISM DISPATCHT now turned into I. S. in Sure Footing c. which I prosess I do not understand was the party whom I had seen in Durham-house especially after so much trouble of body and mind which those times did occasion I will leave it to your further consideration I protest to you seriously that neither by any information I have had from any body else nor by any suspition of mine I never had the least thought of any such thing Before I enter into the cause I will make an end of this business of our acquaintance You charge me at the end of your Letter that I was accessory to your change Truly Sir because I acknowledge we did talke together but can give no account of particulars in any thing that I think as my mind and my apprehension of things then was which I remember very well could possibly proceed from me so far I may and will in civility believe you But to believe that I said any thing to you wittingly and willingly which I knew to be false and fictitious contrary to my sense and judgement and this too to no end at all that is without any provocation or inducement but to do my self hunt when for ought I knew what I said to you might probably come to the knowledge of that Reverend Prelate a zealous Protestant and who entirely loved me you must pardon me Sir if I believe you not in this but absolutely deny it and offer my self to take my oath to the contrary But because I am not willing to believe that you willfully devise but rather that your memory hath deceived you I will see what I can do to help you First then you say I told you They were mad who read the antient Fathers and saw not that they meant Christ was as really in the Sacrament as in Heaven I remember it was once by a Jesuite laid to my Fathers charge publikely that he should write somewhere in the margin of a book written by a learned Protestant where he treateth of the Eucharist Omittamus Patres nam corum authoritate velle uti ad nostram sententiam confirmandam est exquisitissimo genere insanioe insanire Though the words might be justified being written hastily too if by nostram sententiam we understand them who make a meer figure of the Sacrament Yet I shall not need to fly to that in case it be granted these words were written by my Father For there was a time and I have acknowledged it in a book dedicated to King James that learned and religious King above 40 years ago when my Father who then followed other studies was very much set upon by Cardinal Perron in matters of Religion neither could he avoid it because it was by order from the King What opinion you or any others now have of the Cardinal I know not but he was then generally accounted the greatest Wit and most Eloquent man of his time And I can shew how at that time my Father did write many things from his mouth so expresly acknowledged by him for his remembrance which afterwards upon further perusal and consideration himself in the same paper condemned and consuted I have at this time by me a very considerable Collection of such Notes and had them when I answered the Jesuite No wonder then if he had written such words at that time who afterwards at more leisure took infinite pains to satisfie himself about that matter having examined all the Testimonies of Antient Fathers and Records of all Ages of that Argument with great accuracy which Work of his had been published soon after his Exercitations if he had lived No wonder then I say However I had no reason to believe it then upon his report whom the Jesuite I mean before spoken of in other things I had found very bold and partial to say no more But afterwards it was my luck in the King now Charles the Second our Gracious Lord and Soveraign his Library at St. James's where for ought I know it is still to light upon the book and I do acknowledge I found the words there Now the thing being in a manner publick already though not perchance so publickly known it is possible I might say somewhat of it to you the word mad makes me think I did who probably being before resolved were willing upon very little ground as I conceive to make some advantage of it And how much less I pray as to the matter of the Eucharist doth Calvin himself say in that passage by me produced in the book you mention Substantiam vcri corports sanguinis Jesu Christi utì ex utero Virginis illam semel accepit Proesentem esse in cana tam sidelibus quà m infidelibus which passage is out of his Epistles But many other to the same purpose may
onely way God hath appointed and Mankind must trust unto It is far from my thoughts in this short Answer to your Letter to reason the case with you by way of Confutation there be some about it you tell me who I hope will make you sensible how miserably you are mistaken in your grounds Give me leave onely to insist a while on the monstrousness of your Opinion as it doth appear unto me You know the World is much amended generally in point of knowledge within these hundred or two hundred years Who hath not heard of that admirable or regeneration of Learning by all kind of Writers since or about that time so much extolled and magnified Let Pope Leo the X. who then was and his Cardinals have a great part under God of the thanks if you will I am not against it though by the aversness you shew frequently to Books and Learning I doubt you will be more ready to curse than to bless them for it But durst you even now undertake that every twentieth or fiftieth man or woman generally among you is able to give an account of their Faith I will not say rational but reasonable so that they may deserve the name of sound Christians in the main Fundamentals wherein we for the most part agree England I think I may say not to disparage others is furnished and hath been these many years with as able Ministers as any Nation can boast of in Europe I have been a Minister and Preacher here these Forty years and above I know what I have found to my grief in more places then one We may thank the Puritans of England if it be no better whose endeavour hath alwayes been in all places to set up their Lectures and Pulpit-Preaching instead of Catechising whereas Three moneths right Catechising will make more Christians I am confident then Forty years Pulpit-Preaching Do not think I pray to take any advantage of this and tell me Though it be so among us Hereticks yet you thank God it is otherwise among Catholicks as you call your selves For I could tell you strange things from your own Writers men who never were suspected in the least degree to favour Protestants concerning your Preachers what manner of men they are commonly how able or how carefull to discharge their duties I will name but one to you till you desire more Laurentius Villavineentius Doct. Theol. De reite formando studio Theol. which Book though not that particular passage of Ministers he did almost verbatim transcribe out of Hipperius a Protestant though otherwise a virulent inveigher against Protestants as any I have read Read him there but especially De sacris Concionibus formandis Lib. I. c. 2. and I think you will say you have your belly full So now Will you have a fight of former times from unquestionable Records In the dayes of Alfrid King of England the ignorance of the Land was such generally that himself complaineth in his Preface to Gregories Pastoral Christianity was become an empty name without any substance or reality And Asserius one of his Masters in his life doth relate that it was a long time before he could read because he could get none to teach him though he much desired it Some six or sevenscore years before when Cuthbert was Archbishop of Canterbury and Ethelbald King of the Mercit or Middle-land Counties a Synod was held at Clyff by which it was ordained that for the time to come All Priests should learn the Creed and the Lord Prayer that they might be able to teach them to others So in England How elsewhere In the dayes of Charles the Great in France there were so many ignorant Priests that a Law or Capitulum was made for the rebaptization of such as had not been baptized in the Name of the Father the Son a hard Lesson it seems for the Priests of those dayes and the Holy Ghost Yet we deny not but the worst dayes afforded some men of worth but what the generality was we may guess by these particulars I have read a Book intituled Fragmenta Caroli Magni printed at Antwerp A. D. 1560. in a place it treateth of the ancient manner as the marginal Note doth import of choosing Bishops First he is chosen à Clerosen Populo that is by the Clergy and the People according to the language of those times Then he is presented to the Apostolick that is the Pope for consecration Then faith the Record Pontifex jubet inquiri de quatuor Capitulis Canonicis Inquisition is made concerning the four Canonical Articles by which it seems the capacity or incapacity of men for such a degree was wont in those days chiefly or in the first place to be judged The first is Whether he had not been Arsanoquita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sodomite The second Whether he had not lain with a Nun The third with a Beast The fourth Whether he had not married one that had been married before or a Widow Et de his inculpabilis inventus c. and being found innocent in these he further takes an Oath he will be so for the time to come Some few more questions being asked among which I find none except it be included in Dimissoria ab Episcopo concerning his sufficiency in point of Learning he is consecrated the next day I could tell you of Italy and other places But by this I hope you will give me leave to ask you What you think of the Fathers and Mothers of Families of those times in what a capacity they may probably be supposed to have been to preserve and transmit sound Christianity without any further helps of written Word or Record unto posterity Ordinary Romanists I know when they are put to it about the Popes Infallibility they fly to Christ his Promise and peculiar Providence which is a good plea could they prove by Scripture or true Tradition that is the consent of Primitive Fathers that such infallibility was ever promised by Christ unto the Pope Which to say your friend and Master as I find him stiled in Dr. Hammond Mr. White doth resolve to be Heretical yea archiheretical where Dr. Hammond will tell you p. 263. for I have not the Book But a plausible plea however I say as it pretends to ground upon Christs Promise but not your plea because you disclaim Christs Promise and all plea of a peculiar Providence as a principle to be grounded upon Is not the Church of Rome much beholding to you One thing I must grant to you that your way though few Romanists I think will acknowledge it their way is no new way absolutely For it was indeed the Heathens way as is objected unto them by ancient Fathers which they made use of to uphold their Heathenism against Christianity and what those Ancient Fathers thought of that way you may read in them or may be told by others in due time It was also the very way the infidel Jews used as by others
Wits you so often tell us of who perchance look upon you as a crazy man and think it Charity not to offend you their applause to confirm you in your distemper If I had so much interest in you as some have I know what advice I would give you if that mentis gratissimus error as the Poet expresses it which ordinarily doth accompany such distempers have not taken too deep root To tell you truth that whole passage of yours in your Letter of Advice to your Answerer p. 14. I easily yeeld to those great discoursers c. I do not like Your language is modest enough were it in another cause but in such a cause as this your opinion I mean such study such sedulity yea such zeal as you there mention must needs do you great wrong Sir the worst I wish you is that you may be sensible of your case before it be too late and the best I can wish to our cause were it lawfull or charitable to wish hurt unto any that good may come of it is that all Romanists who meddle with Controversies were of your mind and opinion which I make no question but all men truly rational on either side would look upon as the ultimus conatus a pittifull one God knowes of a dying Cause as to reason I mean and good authority either of Scripture or of Ancient Fathers Now I come to particulars in the order I find them Infallibility you say the Popes personal Infallibility is not the thing you build upon and therefore not very sollicitous what becomes of it You do not it may be and Mr. Whyte doth not but others of your profession both for number and account incomparably the greater part who perchance will think I do them wrong to call you a part tell us otherwise and make it their chiefest Article Of this somewhat hath been said by me in my late booke and it is the opinion of divers others Papists and Pretestants that it is the main point or Controversie till you have disproved this I need to say no more Now if you and Mr. Whyte and some more whom you think considerable or a considerable partie be of another opinion and think it Heretical or Archiheretical to maintain the contrary what occasion you Romanists have to boast of your good agreement who are of such different beliefe in main fundamentals I leave to you to consider But was not this a sufficient ground which you call my mistake since you dispaired and gave over this which others of your company built so much upon to make you since you would not be so ingenuous or had not so much light yet as to acknowledg your error and return to us to make you look about I say to find somewhat else that you might build so many strange practises and opinions of your Church upon for which you know and partly acknowledge you have no ground at all or at least not sufficient ground either in Scripture or what we call Tradition that is the consent of Ancient Fathers I say no more In the next place you endavour to countenance your new way though not under the notion of new by the temper of the times which hath produced so many attempting witts Truly Sir it cannot be denyed but your opinion or way hath much of the temper of the times be it spoken without any disparagement or disrespect to any of reall worth whether you call them Witts or otherwise Not to speak of England lest I may be thought to aime at any particularly you cannot but know by report and by books that in some places beyond the Seas there is a sect of men who take upon them to be the onely Witts of the World and glory in that title whose chiesest Witt is to make a mock of all Religion and to scoff at the Scriptures which the dullest Complexions if they make it their study are very capable of and indeed rather deserve the name of Boufons some naturally have a faculty that way who are good for little else then Wits You might better have forborn that word which you often use when you tell us of men of real worth I am not so addicted to old things though you make me so but I can embrace new with thanks and congratulation when I shall see just cause Their attempt or project I profess I do not like who to make themselves the more admired trample over all that former ages which produced so many excellent wits had in great respect and esteem under the notion of Learning or Science However though some innovation in matter of humane Learning or Science may be born yet in such a fundamental of Religion as you make your way to be no man truly sensible of Religion but will abhorr it It is the ready way to no Religion at all or to any and you know many account them the onely Witts shall I say or wise men of the world that are of that temper I will not say it is your end but that it will be the effect of your new way give me leave to call it as I find it should it prevail which God forbid I have much reason to believe As for the rest that you object I have said it before but I must repeat it You play the Sophister too grosly and abuse your Reader shamefully when you tell us Your way is not new because the ancients of Vincentius Lirinensis I have given you a particular account I wonder you would name him maintain Tradition There is as much difference between that Tradition which they maintain and that which you do as there is between a brute and a man though both be animalia Neither will that help you to say they maintain some may speak so Tradition unwritten therefore oral For it may be so called in regard of the first original or Authors though since that recorded and attested by multiplicity of Authors And though there were no such attestation extant which cannot be said of true Tradition yet still you are as much to seek to bring it to Fathers and Mothers of Families in your sense which seem confident never came into any mans mind till you or Mr. Whyte dreamed it of all other inventions in this kind the most ridiculous I ever heard of So much of mistake laid to my charge Now to the injuries you complain of The first is That I confess my selt a stranger to Rushworths Dialogues and that I make some doubt whether Schisme Dispatcht and Rushworths Dialogues might not be of one Author though under two names Your descant upon this is my genius doth not incline me to trade in books that pretend to reason You do pretend indeed and so do most in your case with as much or more confidence ordinarily though the matter appear never so ridiculous to others and false as the most rational in best causes As in our English story he that could not confirm his new Revelations by miracles Mr.
White 's miracle it seems you do not much trust to endeavoured to do it by strong asseverations and from thence proceeded to Oaths and Execrations against himself if it were not true c. so D. Hammond tells you you know where You are not come to Oaths and Execrations I am glad of it for then we should be forced to stop our eares instead of them we hear of strong asseverations of principles of nature and connexion of causes and demonstrations these we may hear and laugh The Doctor it seems by this application began to suspect somewhat which I do more then suspect But I believe had he seen your Sure footing and these pretty Corollaries he had never taken so much pains to consute you as he hath done But he also I perceive made some question whether Rushworths Dialogues the Apology and the Dispatcher were three or one The next injury I charge you you make nothing of and disclaim the testimonies of Popes and Prelates c. I say so you say you do not in that very page it may be but all that you have written doth tend unto this and you do it eminently in your Corollaries page 100 101. Still provided that Tradition be taken in your sense for orall tradition that is the instruction and catechising of fathers and mothers of families in opposition to written And so you explain your self Schism Disp p. 47. To Stop the way against the voluntary mistakes of mine adversaries I declare my self to speak here not of written tradition to be sought for in the Scriptures and Fathers which lyes open to so many cavills and exceptions but of orall tradition All the rest of your accusation is but words and impertinencies which I will not spend time upon To this may the third also which you call injurie be referred That I charge you you slight Scriptures Fathers and Councils as and call them in scorn wordish testimonies It is not your bare professing you respect and honour them in such and such a sense that will serve the turn The greatest Rebell in the world may tell his King he doth honour him as he is a Man perchance Gods creature made after his Image c. when he hath a knife in his hand to stab and murder him as a King So you deal with the Scripture you cast upon it all the dirt and scorn you can as Scripture in general you call it a dead dumb letter what do you think of the Author in the mean time you make it to be of no use at all as to the rule of faith or deciding of controversies of religion But if fathers and mothers of families tell you that understood in points of faith in this and that sence it is good Scripture and the word of God then it shall be Scripture with you and not till then As for other uses which godly people might make of them so highly recommended unto all people by the Ancients upon that score those uses you take away also whilst you forbid them to read them But this you will say doth not concern Oral Tradition properly in so doing you do no more then other Papists But then I must tell you it doth not a little aggravate the case that flattering mothers should be trusted by you for the conveyance of faith and Religion sound and sincere and the true sence of Scripture in things controverted to posterity and so many brought up to learning and so much more rational and intell gent not allowed where the Inquisition reigneth especially the use of them for fear they turn hereticks Before I proceed you charge me I call ordinary Citations testimonies though many citations have nothing in them of a testimony True but he that cites commonly doth intend his citation as a confirmation of somewhat that he saith and so it becomes a testimony in a larger sence as the word is commonly taken in Bellarmine for example and others Testimonia Patrum any words of theirs are so called though never intended for such by the authors nor attired in the formality of a testimony I wonder you should stick at such a thing but you may as wel ' wonder I take notice of it The fourth injury I say the onely thing you place infallibility in is Oral Tradition and the Testimonies of fathers of families Have not you told us many times you admit of nothing to have any part in the rule of faith but Oral Tradition Do not you upon that account exclude Christs promise to his Church Do not you forbid your adversaries to use dead testimonies that is Fathers and Councils or some book granted to be sacred yea elsewhere expressly any kind of testimony either from Scripture Councils Fathers or History except your Oral Tradition be first granted to you which granted all testimonies become uselss Is not this your business every where that tradition your tradition is the onely thing against which nothing must be heard and which onely gives credit unto all other things such credit as they are capable of You would make a man hope sometimes that you begin to be sensible of the absurdity of your doctrine which makes you so often say and unsay and contradict your self But I fear it is not so well but rather that you are afraid to offend your party and therefore write so variously and inconsistently You say you place infallibility in other things too though you make that the greatest Either you aquivocate in the word Infallibility and abuse your Reader or manifestly contradict your self and overthrow your own grounds But Popes and Prelates are masters of families also you say and therefore have a part or bear a share in your Tradition I could answer that flattering mothers is the word in Dr. Hammonds reply all along or most occurrent not without ground certainly and in the very manner or nature of this Tradition as it is explained it is certain they must be the greatest part incomparably But if we take in Fathers as well as Mothers which I suppose is your intention then Popes and Prelates may come in I will grant you but then it must be in the most literal sense as they are fathers of children as well as other men though they have no wives For though he may be called Pater familias I know that keeps a house though of servants onely yet servants men and women at large are not for your purpose as you explain the business of Tradition but such only who were taught by their Fathers and Mothers when Children neither are others mentioned by you that I remember Yea most of your arguments fall to the ground as natural affection and the like if others be admitted besides Children If therefore you take in Popes and Prelates as partners or actors in your tradition it must needs be you presuppose they have Children all or most Which though it may be true enough yet whether they will take it well at your hands to acknowledg it so publickly
I know not But all this granted yet it is but little that you grant to Popes and Prelates For you say they are a part and the eminentest members that is somewhat but you add and indeed could not avoid it by your grounds pag. 333. in proportion to their number and what is that among so many millions of other men The fifth Injury I charge your way or Doctrine with many Chymerical suppositions and impertinencies I have said enough to this which I shall not need to repeat I shall onely add I understand by you some body is appointed to answer you You know what Dr. Hammond hath done already whom I think you never answered But by your Sure footing first and second part I perceive you or rather indeed your disease or delusion hath made a great progress If therefore it should so fall out that you have been mis-informed and your dreams are not thought so considerable as to deserve an answer pray for my life and health for it may do you good and I look upon you still as an ingenuous man however this hath happened to you and I will promise you very mathematically and scientifically as great an enemy as you take me to science to examine all your grounds and to make it appear clearly to your self if possible but to all men that have but eyes and ears to use your own expression that nothing can be more contrary to the course of Nature and to Reason and Providence grounded upon certain and approved experience of all Ages than what you ground upon What you may think of it I know not but I do not conceive that there is any thing of bragging in this undertaking else it would not become me and I should be sorry for it In that which followeth by Ours and Yours I know not what you mean whether Poepists and Protestants in general or whether you and me particularly but I think and it is more probable Papists and Protestants in general However it is apparent you do brag and vapour egregiously as if you intended to put your adversaries out of countenance by calling them cowardly rogues and by telling them what brave things you have done when in very deed it is but a dream and pure imagination Put this is as all the rest Tradition on its Throne and the gates of Hell c. it is no good sign But I have said or indeed suspected I say no more but I will not stand upon that you are no friend to ancient books or learning Truly Sir I think a man may gather so much by your own words and profession What mean you else when you so often tell us of wordish learning aicry descants and discourses knacks of humane learning Grammar and Criticisms bookishness and much reading and the like But if it be granted all this may come from a man that is a lover of true learning but impatient to see how much it is wronged by many false pretenders which is true enough yet if Fathers and Mothers of Families who I think generally do not pretend to much learning are able and sufffcient nay the onely sure means appointed by God to preserve truth in matters of Faith and Religion what further use have we of all books ancient and late that have been written on that subject You know Sir that ancient Fathers and Councils and other Ecclesiastical Writers their Translations and what hath been written upon them by sundry learned men will make a great part of that which we Divines at least call Learning that such Books in greatest Libraries take up most part of the room It is not enough to say a man may read them for his recreation if he will and we are not bound to burn them You need to say no more but that there is no need of them what will follow should you be believed generally by men in Authority any man may foresee without the gift of Prophesie in this age especially so much addicted to new knacks and inventions so fiercely set to disgrace and cry down whatsoever former ages have most esteemed and reverenced Your division of Books into several Classes and sentiment of them so divided I have no mind to quarrel at or examine because it is not much to the purpose or main business That many deserve no better then to be burned even of them that fill Catalogues and Libraries I should easily yield so it were done by them that could judge of Books indeed not by self-conceited men or by men addicted to one kind of study who are apt to think all needless that comes not within the verge of their cognisance or capacity But I do not like your counsel of abridging for that hath been the destruction of best Authors in all Ages and hath brought many a curse upon the Abbreviators Among them that deserve to be burned it would not much trouble me if Dr. Dee's tedious Legend about his Spirits were one And because you tell me of him I am very willing to take this occasion to acquaint others in case this paper be ever printed how I came to have to do with him I know I have said enough elsewhere but because many have heard of the Book by relation who never saw it and because somewhat is come to my knowledge since which I did not know then I hope it will not do amiss here When I lived at Sir John Cottons where besides the comfort and honour of that truly noble and learned Gentlemans company I had the use of a choise Library as any England for the number doth afford in his Father Sir Thomas then living his house at Westminster I had not been there many months but Sir Thomas did mention these papers of Dr. Dees unto me adding that my Lord of Armagh had seen them and wished them printed not for their worth or exellency but because he found in them so much of the humor and language of the times as that he thought many would be convinced by the book from whence either Canting language and affected Sanctitie did spring When I had perused them my answer was I was very fully satisfied of the reality of those things w ch the book related that I knew Dr. Dees hand very well I did know it because I had divers books which had been his among others a Simleri Bibliotheca where Dr. Dee had written in the margines the names of divers Manuscript books in England Greek and others w ch he had seen in several places I know not how I came to part with it as I did with many others for which I have been very sorry since and was sure it was his hand and made no question but the Devil or deluding spirits whom he thought to be good had appeared to him in that manner as is there related But for the printing I doubted scarce any man would adventure upon it because it was such mad uncouth stuffe for the most part So the business rested halfe a year more
or lesse After that Sir Thomas spake to me a second time and seemed very desirous that the Book were printed I told him I would look upon it again and if I found as I had done before I would bestow a Preface upon it and then we would try what could be done This was done and the book so it fell out printed What I have said of it in the Preface for which I have had thanks from many who were not much pleased with the Book I retract not If the Book hath not given content unto all men I have no great reason to wonder at it Onely this by your good leave I shall add to confirm the reality of the relations that are printed Many other papers of Dr. Dees since that Book was printed came to my hands containing more Visions and Revelations with many Letters from great Princes and particular transactions by all which for the hands and seals with many other circumstances will satisfie any rational man of the sincerity of the Records it doth further appear in what credit he was then in the World what use he made of his Spirits or rather they of him and that some great matter was attempted by the Devil in him by him but that God disappointed it Among those papers there is a particular relation of a Conference they had Dr. Dee and his mate Kelly with a great Prelate Bishop or Archbishop I do not well remember in Germany but not a German in the conclusion whereof because the Bishop would not yield these Apparitions were true that is from God and by good Angels Kelly in a great rage challenged him to go down with him to the open fields He should pray and he would pray and they should know which of them God did own for his and which not Which the Bishop refused but gave him very good Reasons such as became a sober grave Christian and Prelate why he would not That relation I think is in Latin I conclude What you say in scorn of that Book doth not concern me If you have any thing to say to the Preface I will answer you These late Papers I have mentioned if you desire to know are to be found with the permission of the worthy and honourable Owner there from whence the others now printed came And now to return to you Sir it doth offend you that I said Atheism and Mahometism would get well by your way How can it be otherwise when all faith all christianity practical and other necessary to salvation is reduced to such Authority You have already been told that you justify Mahometism and Atheism it is the way that the Atheists anciently took to uphold their cause and the Mahometans may when they please now they need it not Neither may you be sure will ever be converted by your principles And for Christianity in very deed I cannot phansie them I will except you I conceive yours is a different case much better then Atheists that build their faith upon such a ridiculous good sport to Atheists or atheisticall men senseless foudation The sixth and last injury which you say you account the worst That I should write Others of approved worth and abilities had met with you who I thought had done you more credit then you deserved I am sorry I should express my self which I avoid as much as I can so obscurely you should be so much mistaken in my meaning But when you know my meaning whether you will like it better I know not However I will tell you My meaning was that Dr. Hammond a man of approved worth and ability had already answered you who I thought had done you your book not your person more honour by so long and elaborate an answer which indeed I did wonder at then you had deserved by that book of yours I think I have done with all that concerneth me Nothing now remaineth but that as obliged if by nothing else yet by your example I subscribe my self Sir Your well-wisher and humble servant MERIC CASAUBON FINIS