charity grant among Jews it might have been done as not a few think the very Law was lost in the times of their wicked Kings or other oppressions what inference can they make against Christian Tradition Of Books of Scripture peradventure there was a time when some one or rather any one might have been lost because it was in few hands shall we therfore conclude the same possibility of suppression when we treat of Doctrins universally profest by so many Millions when we dispute of Practices every day frequented by the whole Church Stil ther 's one jarring string that grates my ears with its loud discord though the stroak come not from the hand of these objectors yet I wil endeavour to put it in tune Some sick heads roving up and down in their extravagant phansies wil needs entertain a wild conjecture that at first our Saviour was indeed stil'd God and though the learned who had the knack of distinguishing knew wel enough the inward meaning then signify'd only a most eminent aud god-like person yet the common People understanding their Preacher simply as the letter sounded came by degrees universally to believe his true and real divinity But with what ingenuity can such rambling wits think the chief Principle of Christianity should be so negligently taught or accuse so many holy Saints of those purest times to be such deceitful Teachers Besides did not their rashness blind them they would easily see the raising the Person of Christ from humane to divine would necessarily infer a notorious change in the solemn Prayers of the Church and daily devotion of the People which certainly would give so great a stroak to both it could not possibly be attempted either undiscern'd or unresisted Lastly the Christian Faith being delivered not in a set form of words but in sense a thousand ways explicated enforc'd according to the variety of occasions and capacity of the learners how can any ambiguity of phrase endanger them into a mistake who attend not so much to the dead letter as the quickning sense so variously exprest so often incultated to them by their masters THE FIFTEENTH ENCOUNTER Declaring the state of this Question Whether the Scripture can decide controversies THere remains yet a second part of our Apology for as this is the Catholicks principle to adhere to the authority of the Church that is to the living word written in their Breasts which governs all their actions relating to religion so on the other side whoever have at any time under the pretence of reformation oppos'd her Authority such have constantly rais'd up their Altar against Tradition upon the dead letter of the Scriptures Which as the Catholick Church highly reverences when they are animated by the interpretation of Tradition so by too much experience she knows they become a killing letter when abus'd against the Catholick sense in the mouths of the Devil and his Ministers But before we set our feet within the lists I am bound to take notice of an opposition no less common then slight and absurd and this it is When we retire to Tradition after both parties have lost their breath in beating the aerial outside of Scripture they presently cry out Cannot Aristotle cannot Plato make themselves be understood why then should not the Bible as wel determine Controversies If this were not after sixteen hundred years of experience after so much pains of our own since Luthers time idly cast away in tossing the windy balls of empty words without coming to resolution of any one point peradventure it were pardonable but now alas what can it be but an obstinate desire of darkness and a contempt of Gods Law and truth by a bold and irrational assertion and loud clamours to beat down the Catholick Church like Dametas in the Poem striking with both hands and his whole strength but winking all the while Let us therfore open our Eys and look thorow this objection Cannot Plato and Aristotle make themselvs be understood Yes but what then Ergo the Scripture can determine controversies The supposition wherin all venom ly's is conceal'd which thus I display As Aristotle wrote of Physicks and Metaphysicks so the Scripture was written of those controversies which since are risen among Christians But Plato and Aristotle can make themselvs be understood concerning those Sciences therfore the Scripture can do as much concerning these Controversies This ought to be the discourse But had it been cloth'd in so thin and transparent a dress the Authors would have blusht to thrust it into light For t is a most shameless Proposition to say the Scriptures were written of the Controversies long after their date sprung up in the Christian world Beginning from Genesis to the Apocalyps let them name one Book whose theme is any now-controverted Point betwixt Protestants and Catholiks T is true the intent and extrinfical end of writing St. Johns Gospel was to shew the Godhead of Christ which the Arians afterward deny'd but that is not so directly his theme as the miraculous life of our Saviour from whence the Divinity of his Person was to be deduc'd and yet the design so unsuccessful that never any Heresy was more powerful then that which oppos'd the truth intended by His Book But I suppose their reply wil be they purpose not to say the Scripture was written of our present controversies but of the precepts of good life and Articles of Faith necessary to them about which our controversies arise If this be their meaning their Assumption is as ridiculous as in the other their Major or chief Proposition For their argument must be framed thus As Scripture was written of the necessaries to good life so Aristotle and Plato of Physicks and Metaphysicks But Aristotle and Plato writ so plainly that all questions rising about their doctrin can be declared out of their words therfore all questions relating to good life may also be clear'd out of Scriptures Wherin the Minor is so ridiculous to any that have but open'd a Book of Philosophy that 't is enough not only to disanul the proof but discredit the Author And yet were it true the consequence would not hold For whoever considers what belongs to the explication of Authors knows there is a great advantage to discern the sense of those who proceed scientifically above the means to understand one that writes loose Sentences An Archimedes an Euclid a Vitruvius wil be of far easier interpretation where the Subject is of equal facility then a Theognis Phocyllides or Antoninus because the antecedents and consequents do for the most part force a sense on the middle propositions of themselvs ambiguous Now the works of Plato and Aristotle are generally penn'd though not always so rigorously yet stil with an approach to the Mathematical way The Scripture uses a quite different method delivering its precepts without connexion betwixt one another And though I deny not but peradventure the Articles of our belief have in themselvs as much
began in a slight familiar conference betwixt two intimate friends and kinsmen as it were only for exercise to train themselvs and practice their postures but since by the entrance of new Allies is become of so high concernment that what at first was a private voluntary skirmish seems now to spread it selfe into a publique and solemn War Nor need I strain much to make good the phrase since the eminent Names on the one side and the great advantage of ground on the other may justly be admitted to supply the number of an Army in both And because I desire to prepare my self with the fittest proportion I could for the assaults of my Adversaries I have declin'd the Sword and Buckler and taken up a single Rapier chang'd the antique weapons of Dialogue though in my opinion they want neither ornament nor particular efficacy into the modern mode of direct discourse Wherein as I confesse Their guilded Armour shines more and dazles the ey so I fear not when we come to charge our courser steel wil prove substantial and impenetrable However I shall not spend much time in parley but after a short relation how I come to be drawn into the quarrel and by what method I intend to carry it on I shall immediately advance to a close encounter Before those Dialogues wherein that original private conference is at larg delivered were brought to light or as I think fully conceiv'd in the Authors brain an honoured friend and Patron of mine had couch'd some smal but quintessential part of their doctrin in a little pithy Present to a new-converted Lady and having cited it afterward for brevity sake in a controversial Epistle to an eminent Friend engag'd it therby into an almost fatal combat nothing but truth being able to rescue it from so potent an enemy Besides a deceased friend of mine having oblig'd me to declare my opinion concerning a witty discourse made by one of his acquaintance extorted from me an unlick'd Mola representing suddenly and imperfectly my judgement in reference to that Authors work This again stirring the same humours drew the doctrin into an eminent danger of encountring opposition Neverthelesse God so ordering it many years past in calm and happy daies of peace the two Adversaries whom these occasions had provoked not publishing their Labours as things below their persons till all-discovering time as I believe against the Authors intentions brought them both to light and by consequence an imputation on those Dialogues and a necessity on me to dis-engage the honour of their Composer In order to which my intention is not to reply minutely to either of the Opponents works muchles to handle any by-questions but only to chuse out of them or any others what I conceive may possibly be thought as yet unanswer'd and consequently capable of prejudicing those Dialogues By this reserv'd and moderate temper I hope to free my self from all such incivilities as necessarily attend on the undertaking to convince a particular person of weakness or inconsequence in his discours from which kind of captious proceedings besides my Reason I am beholding to my Nature for its extream aversnes Besides in answering a writing many impertinent quarrels are pick'd the substantial controversie lost or confounded and the Truth it self by multiplicity left more obscure then when the disputant began for where many questions are started and none deeply searched into the Reader goes away without any resolution more then what himself brought along with him I intend therefore with all candor and fidelity to select such objections as I think really interest the Controversie and handle them without relation to Books or distinction of Authors or citations of places as one who seeks Truth not the glory of confuting or vanity of answering But some may be unsatisfied with my proceedings and demand if this be my intention why do I cite those Authors in particular and as it were make a shew of answering without any effect I desire those to consider that the names of Author's carry weight among two sorts of Readers One such as diligently peruse the books written on both sides to whom I offer this satisfaction that they may find the solution to any difficulty which occurs concerning this subject in their writings The other such who look no farther then the Title page or whether a book be answer'd or no are insolent upon the writers name and importunely clamorous that 't is a Piece beyond all possibility of reply be it never so weak and trivial to whom the simple profession that 't is answered is a wedg fit for their knot I must confesse next to the assurednesse of my Cause 't is my chiefest comfort to deal with Persons of such quality such as the Protestant party never produced before it seems to have chosen them to live by or die with Two whose Merits found the way of honouring their Descents by their generosity whose eloquence none were found to exceed whose wits none wil be found to equal What erudition in Languages or acutenes in Logick could furnish was treasur'd in their breasts But above all a comprehensive judgement in managing the numerous and weighty affairs of a Kingdom to the very heightning that sublime and subtlest Office Secretary of State which they both successively exalted to such a pitch that it must expect a fall in whoever shall succeed them One is the right honourable George Lord Digby now Earl of Bristol ever mounting the scale of Honour to a degree so far above the reach of others that 't is even beyond their sight The other Lucius Lord Falkland who crown'd his deserved Lawrell with a wreath of Oaken Scyons dying in such a posture as if mischief could not have ravag'd England had it not made its passage through the brest of that Martyr of Peace I can accuse him of nothing but that he left this Book behind him it being too plain what unhappy impression it maks in his Friends since my self almost a stranger cannot read those quaint and gentile expressions those rarities of wit those coruscations of Greek and Latine remarques and which most of all surprizes my admiration those Noble sweetnesses and civilities so unexpected in a quarrelling Treatise but I feel in my heart an unusual sorrow and regret that our thoughts cannot stay on him without the sad check of a fuit But since we are out of hope to resuscitate him that 's gon like the day he died on let us by Davids example leave these flattering weaknesses of nature and seek severe reason in the controversy we pretend to manage THE FIRST ENCOUNTER Explicating the Argument by which RUSHWORTH proves the Infallibility of Tradition THe Dialogues in whose defence we now appear as Second govern their discourse by this fair method First they treat and settle these definitions Tradition we call the delivery of Christs doctrin from hand to hand in that part of the world which with propriety is call'd Christian By
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
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