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
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
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
would soon come to an end of his addition unlesse he put mens strength and nimblenesse to be infinite But to sit Judge of Religion of eternal bliss and damnation some curious and unhappy wits dare think requires neither so much indifferency nor reflection as the composition of quantity Yet I cannot but admire it could scape a piercing ey to discern that as the consequent of Mr. Thinns discourse is ridiculous and impossible so that of the proposed demonstration is evident and undeniable For what ingenuous forehead will deny but such verities as all the world allows to remain still untainted in the Church of Rome have descended by this traditionary way to us from Christ Wherfore both the possibility and actuality of this way is not only acknowledg'd by the unanimous confession of all parties but its force and efficacy made evident by the downright violence of reason all the controversie being meerly about the multitude and sufficiency of the things receiv'd not the impotency of the means to convey them to us But to make an end of this petty Question I appeal to all Masters nay even Scholars in Geometry whether this form of arguing be not the same that Euclid Archimedes and Apollonius use in their severest demonstrations As when Euclid undertakes to demonstrate this plain and elementary Theoreme that No Circle can touch another in more then one point himself acts the part of the Denier and according to the law of Mathematicks supposes at random the other point to see whether the Proposition be maintainable and if the Contactus in the point assign'd be proved impossible by an argument applyable to any other that can be offered the Theoreme remains infallibly demonstrated and the Rules of that precise and strict Science perfectly comply'd with The third opposition is drawn out of a conceited impossibility of the case and so they demand how can it come to passe that all the Doctors of one age should meet together to instruct the world of Scholars that are to succeed them in the next an action if not impossible at least so incredible as by no means to be aver'd without legitimate Authority which they say is wanting And further should we undertake that not only all Doctors but all men of one age met with the men of the next to teach them it were an enterprize so highly impossible as not to be thought on even among the wildest capriches of a Romance yet to so hard straits are we driven that we must defend the possibility of this later assertion Which to compasse we distinguish this word Together as capable of signifying an unity either in place or time and if the Opponent mean one Age cannot meet another in a Town or great Hall as Councils use I am easily perswaded such interviews are impossible but if this Assembly needs only the unity of time I think it will require but a moderate stock of faith to believe either that men of the same Age live together in that Age or that Fathers meet with their Children If then we put all Fathers and Mothers all Pastors and Teachers to make one Age and all Children and young persons who come to be instructed and afterward outlive their Tutors to compose the other age I see no great impossibility in this position but a clear one in the contrary For I cannot believe the Opponents think men since Christs time start out of mole-hils with clods on their heads as it seems Empedocles and Horace imagined and the Toscans of their wise Tages high Master of their skill in Augury And this answer cuts off another difficulty urg'd by certain Speculatists that because in some rude times they imagine the learned were few and therfore subject to corruption by hopes or fears they might more easily be prevail'd with to proclaim a fals Tenet in that Age whence this claim of infallibility would remain broken But the former answer saves it for since neither the great multitude of Instructors nor instructed persons can meet in any other assembly then that of the whole and open World all possibility of corruption is evidently avoided THE THIRD ENCOUNTER Solving two other Objections against the infallibility of Tradition THe fourth opposition denys the necessity of assigning any Age wherein an errour may be said to have crept in because say they an errour might begin first in one Country and insensibly steal over into another without any notice taken of its novelty so that there is no time wherin its beginning is discoverable For proof they instance in some errour held by divers Hereticks in divers ages and tell you the best Historian knows who was first mentioned to have broacht that errour wheras perhaps a less diligent or careless Writer may cite some middle or late Author attributing to him the original invention of that opinion To this we reply 't is too desperate an Answer to call a hundred years an insensible time to suppose all the Pastors stupify'd and the Doctors asleep for a whole century together At least let us ask this fair question Was there no Doctor or Bishop made it his business to promote that new opinion within a hundred years If you say no how could an innovation of any considerable importance get footing which had no eminent patron If you say yes see whether that was not the occasion of impugning all heresies when extraordinary persons divulged them I but you 'l say it was so transcendent a Doctor that he overtopt all Here I confess my weakness for if some sky-faln Angel indeed should come with tongue and pen more then humane I doubt not but he might perhaps endanger a great part of the Church but if we make our comparison only betwixt men who ever had the like reputation in the Greek Church as Origen yet he was condemned by the same Church Who was more eloquent then Eusebius Caesariensis more cunning then Eusebius Nicomediensis more subtle then Arius Let us add a faction so powerful as to make ten Councils to number three hundred Bishops yet notwithstanding all this the Arians were condemned The Dragon drew but a third part of the Stars and the Apostle has armd us even against the treachery of Angels charging that in spight of them we cleave fast to what we have receiv'd to what was Preach'd to us that is to Tradition For rely but on what in memory of our own age the Church has universally held and deliver'd as from Christ and no subtlety of men or Angels can make you mistake Yet Let it be supposed some unparallel'd Brain had the power to make a doctrin universal could this stand with the still way of creeping in insensibly Is not this position that a Doctor was so great took so much pains to divulge his opinion wrote so many Books in defence of it that he overcame all opposers and at last made it universal and yet all this while the new doctrin stole in unawares the Pastors of the Church
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
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
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
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
reduc'd to a hopeful condition of living hereafter in a perpetual and unavoidable unity of Religion especially since an hundred yeers experience sadly demonstrates what we say to be true Besides why does not this good Orator spend some time to shew us that his Arguments have not as much force against Scripture as against the Fathers I confess he has hinted it sometimes like one that saw the objection so obvious it could not be forgotten yet was unwilling to wade the Ford for fear he should find it too deep To supply therfore his omission I shall observe one considerable difference betwixt the Scripture and Fathers as far as concerns these objections Which consists in this that the Fathers works are many and copious The Scriptures bulk every Maid can tell that carry's her Mistresses Book to Church Whence it follows that as in a great Ocean there may be many Shelvs and Rocks and Whirlpools and whatever else is frightful to Sea men and yet nevertheless a fair and large passage remain either not at all endammaged by these perillous adventures or only so that they are easily avoyded by a careful Pilot wheras in a narrow Channel or Frith if we meet but half the number there will be no sailing without manifest danger So I conceive between the Fathers and the Scripture Every exception this Caviller alledges or at least provs may be true of their works and yet more then sufficient left to convince Hereticks but if Scripture be half as much disabled it wil utterly lose its Protestant pretended power of deciding controversys A truth I believe Rushworth has abundantly demonstrated For the variae lectiones are so many that they trench upon every line the several Translations give some little difference to every sentence the many Explications leave nothing untouch'd the Comparisons of one place to another may be more then there are words in the Text the places brought by one side and the other so short that Equivocation has force upon every one the Languages in which they are written either Hebrew whose titles breed a difference or Greek written by strangers and full of Improprieties the Method and Stile the many repetitions and occasionary discourses speak plainly the design of the Apostles far different from intending their writings should contain a full body of Religion much less to be the sole Judg to determin all contentions about faith Yes wil he say but there are more objections against the Fathers then against the Scripture As that the writings of the Fathers for the first three Ages are few I confess it but yet dare affirm there is more of them then the whole Scripture makes That the Fathers treat of matters different from our controversy's This is true but so do the Scriptures That there are supposititious works of the Fathers Hereticks pretend the same against our Scriptures That the Fathers speak according to others minds But the like is found in Scripture And so going on it will easily appear the same objections or equivalent might have bin made against Scripture if Mr. Rushworth had thought them worthy the labour of setting down Now when these Books are put into a Vulgar language as is necessary to them who pretend every one should be judge of their belief out of Scripture by being first Judge of the sense of it that is of what is Scripture for the dead letter is nothing to the purpose can it be less then madnes to think of demonstrating a controverted position out of one or two places of Scripture And yet as I have before noted this Patron of Presbytery assures us that we ought to believe nothing in point of Religion but what we know to be certainly true which is evident in his way to be nothing at all At last his own good nature has perswaded him to propose one profitable question What use is to be made of Fathers for deciding Controversies And his first resolution is in the design of his Book conformable to the fore-layd grounds that we ought to read them carefully and heedfully searching their Writings for their opinions and not for our own A wonderful wise conclusion especially considering he says the Reader must endeavour diligently to peruse them all For my part I should advise my friend rather to take his rest and sleep then spend so much pains and time to search out what others have written which when I have found little imported what t was or whether I knew it or no this being the idlest and unworthiest sort of study to know what such or such books say without any farther end Yet generally this is the great learning these Grammatical Divines glory in not that they are better even at this then their Adversaries but because they have no other As if they had forgotten there were any solid knowledg to be sought after but being blown like a thin empty glass into the windy substance of words hang in the air not having weight enough to settle upon firm ground At least to maintain the Fathers are not altogether vain and useless he will teach us to argue negatively out of their writings as that such a position is not found in the Fathers Ergo not necessary to be believ'd and by this to reduce our Faith to that number of Articles which they unanimonsly deliver But he has forgot his own arguments for since we have so few of their works how can we tel the greater part did not teach somwhat necessary to be believ'd which these have omitted since corruption enter'd into the Church immediatly after the Apostles decease why may not some considerable point be strangled in its infancy since the Fathers are so hard to be understood why may there not be many doctrins of importance which we find not for want of quickness of sight to discover them and since they oppose one another in so many things why may not at least some one of these be a fundamental Article of Faith I cannot give over this discours concerning the testimony of the Fathers without first observing a notorious cheat of our Adversary's and too great an easiness in our own party which once discover'd and perfectly understood makes our cause so evident that in my opinion there will be left no possibility of disputing about Antiquity The business is this Wheras their breach from the old Religion is so apparent and visible ther 's not the least colour to doubt it we let our selvs by their cunning be drawn into dark and petty questions and so lose the face of Antiquity by disputing of some nice point As for example when the Presbyterian has ruin'd the whole fabrick of the ancient Church by taking away Episcopal Authority instead of questioning them for so palpable an innovation we unwarily suffer our selvs to be engag'd into the discussion of this partieular quaere Whether Bishops be de jure divino which cannot be determin'd by the vast body of Antiquity as the right and proper