True and hee expresses himself to do it lest Adversaries from his being wholly silent should take occasion to bee more impudent That is the reason of the thing requir'd it not but the unresaonableness of the Carping humour of Adversaries You alledge his words That Faith which was profest by the Fathers in the Nicene Council according to the Scriptures 315. l. 3. 4. c. is to mee sufficient c. Whence your discourse makes his opinion to bee that Scripture is the sufficient Rule of Faith Lord Sir where are your thoughts wandring or what 's the Nominative Case in that clause is to mee sufficient to the word is Is it not that Faith to wit the Nicene which you mistake for the Rule of Faith and joyn the Epithet sufficient to Rule of Faith which in the Testimony is joyned to Faith Your conceit that it seems hence the Scripture was to him the Rule to judge the Creeds of Generall Councills is a very weak one hee told you before his Faith came to him by Tradition of Ancestours all that is here intimated is that hee judg'd the Nicene Creed to be according to the Scriptures and what Catholik judges not so of that and the Council of Trent too and yet holds not Scripture which is to bee interpreted by the Church the Rule and Standard to judge the Church by To use your own words p. 332. You use a wretched importunity to perswade Testimonies to bee pertinent yet all will not do and your too violent straining them makes them the more confess their naturall reluctancy But now comes the Testimony of Clemens Alexandrinus charg'd to be taken not by mee but by the Authour I borrowed it of out of the middle of a long Sentence and both before it and after it Scripture nam'd so as to make it quite opposit to our Tenet I have already given account of my action and my Adversary now become my Judge charges it not wholly upon mee Alas I am not able to read the Testimonies in the books and understand them there 't is such a peece of mastery and therefore am fain to take them upon trust from others that can read them there But my Seducer how hee will acquit himself of so foul an Imputation is left to any Ingenuous Papist to judge c Sir let mee tell you you should consider circumstances ere you come to lay on such heavy charges I beseech you was the book in which this Seducer forsooth us'd this Testimony writ against Protestants who hold Scripture the Rule of Faith or against some Catholik Divines holding the Opinion of Personall Infallibility Clearly against the later This being so what was hee concern'd to transcribe the whole large Testimony no wrong being done to them either position of Ecclesiasticall Tradition which hee cites or of Scripture which hee cites not equally making against that Tenet or rather that passage of Ecclesiasticall Tradition being far more efficacious upon them than that which concern'd Scripture which they account not obligatory unless interpreted by the Church By this time the Reader will discern there was a great deal of rashness in the Accuser but no Insincerity at all in the Alledger Nor is there the least danger of the Testimonies following upbraiding them who patch together abundance of false words and fictions that they may seem rationally not to admit the Scriptures For what is this to us whose endeavours are to lay 〈◊〉 beginning from First Principles why wee and every man may and ought rationally admit the Scriptures and neither make our Faith ridiculous by admitting into it what 's uncertain nor leaving any excuse to Atheisticall Impiety in not admitting what 's Certain This is the summe of my aim and endeavours though nothing will content you but that wee admit the Letter to bee plain to all and by consequence to you and then your Fancy is to bee accepted for God's Word and your pride of understanding will bee well at ease You pass over nine of my Testimonies two from St. Basil and three from St. Austin alledg'd by mee Sure-footing p. 135 136 137. one from Ireneus and two from Tertullian and another from St. Peter Chrysologus Sure-footing p. 138 139. sleighting them as but a few whereas speaking of Testimonies from the Fathers as you do here you had answer'd but eight in all which you seem by your words to judge such a great multitude in comparison of 9 and those 9 or those few which remain as you call them so inconsiderable for their number in respect of the other numerous or innumera le 8 that the paucity of their number made them less deserve speaking to Yet a careless generall kind of Answer you give such as it is p. 318. telling the Reader that there is nothing of Argument in those few which remain but from the ambiguity of this word Tradition which wee will needs take for unwritten Tradition You add p. 318. that you need not show this of every one of them in particular for whosoever shall read them with this Key will find that they are of no force to conclude what hee drives at I was going Sir to use your own words and to ask with what face you could pretend this Let 's bring the book I 'le undertake it shall not blush to tell you how careless you are of what you say I omit that the word Tradition doth by Ecclesiasticall use signifie in the first place unwritten Tradition Moreover that wee may let Mercy triumph over Justice wee will pardon the first Testimony found p. 135. though St. Basil by counterposing Tradition of Faith to the conceits of the Heretick Eunomius seems to mean by Tradition Sense receiv'd from Fathers attesting this being the most opposit to Conceits or new-invented Fancies that can bee for even an Interpretation of Scripture may bee a Conceit or Fancy newly invented whereas what 's barely deliver'd cannot bee such The 2d is the same St. Basil's p. 136. Let Tradition bridle thee Our Lord taught thus the Apostles preach't it the Fathers conserv'd it our Ancestours confirm'd it bee content to say as thou art taught Is not here enough to signifie unwritten Tradition Did Christ teach it by reading it in a written Book or the Apostles preach it by book or is the perpetuating it by Fathers and Ancestours the keeping it by way of writing The third is St. Austin's p. 136. I will rather beleeve those things which are Celebrated now by the Consent of Learned and unlearned and are confirm'd throughout all Nations by most grave Authority Is universall consent and most grave Authority of all nations the book of Scripture or written Tradition or rather is it not most Evidently unwritten universall Tradition or Sense in the hearts of all Beleevers learned and unlearned or the Church Essentiall The 4th is from the same St. Austin 'T is manifest that the Authority of the Catholik Church is of force to cause Faith and assurance Do these words Authority of the Catholick Church mean
the Book of Scriptures Or can I desire more then this Father offers mee in express terms or a greater Testimony that you are to seek for an Answer to it then the strange Evasion you substitute instead of a reply Especially if wee take the Testimony immediatly following which from the best establisht Seats of the Apostles even to this very day is strengthen'd by the Series of Bishops succeeding them and by the Assertion of so many nations Is here the word Tradition pretended Indifferent and apt to bee taken ambiguously and not rather Assertions of so many nations or Consent of nations and Authority of the Catholik Church of force to cause Faith and Assu rance which to demonstrate is the whole Endeavour of Sure-fooring The 5th is the same Fathers cited p. 137. The Faithfull do possess perseveringly a Rule of Faith common to little and great in the Church Is the word Church the same with the word Tradition or in danger of being ambiguous or as you say of the word Tradition p. 318. commonly us'd by the Fathers to signify to us the Scriptures The 6th is of St. Irenaeus All those who will hear Truth may at present perfectly discern in the Church the Tradition of the Apostles manifest in the whole world What means the world at present but that the Tradition of the Apostles is yet vigorous and fresh in the Church which remark had very unfitly suted with Scriptures The 7th and 8th are Tertullians Both say the same Sence that what is establisht as Sacred or profest at this present day in the Churches of the Apostles is manifestly deliver'd by the Apostles or a Tradition of the Apostles which is incompetent to Scripture it not being a Tradition or point delivered but the Delivery The last is of Chrysologus which has indeed the word Tradition but by the additionall words of the Fathers not left ambiguous but determin'd to unwritten Tradition For the Fathers according to you are not to give or diliver down the Sence of Scriptures it being plain of it self This Sir is the upshot of your skill in Notebook-learning the three first Testimonies from Scripture you answerd not mistaking quite what they were brought for the 4th you omitted You have given pittiful answers to eight from the Fathers and shufled off nine more without answer pleading you had given us a Key to open them which was never made for those locks By which I see you reserve your greatest Kindnesses like a right friendly man till the last You will not have the Councill of Trent make Tradition the onely Rule of Faith you had oblig'd mee had you answer'd my reason for it in my 4th note p. 145. 146. But this is not your way you still slip over my reasons all along as if none had been brought and then say some sleight thing or other to the Conclusion as if it had never been inferrd by mee but meerly gratis and rawly affirm'd I have explicated our Divines that seem to differ from mee herein Sure footing p. 187. 188. and the Council it self takes my part in it by defining and practising the taking the Sence of Scripture from that quod tenuit tenet Sanct a Mater Ecclesia which in this antecedency to Scriptures Sence can no where bee had but from Tradition You cavill at mee for not putting down the words in which that Councill declares it self to honour the Holy Scripture and Tradition with equall pious affection and reverence Why should I you see I was very short in all my allegations thence and rather touch't at them for Catholicks to read them more at large than transcrib'd them fully But how groundless your Cavill is may bee understood hence that I took notice of a far more dangerous point to wit it's putting the Holy Scriptures constantly before Tradition and show'd good reason why But you approve not even of any honour done to the Scriptures upon those Terms and your interest makes you wish that rather it's Letter and Sence both should remain uncertain than it should owe any thing to the Catholick Church You ask how an Apostle and Evangelist should bee more present by the Scripture ascertain'd as to words and Sence then by or all Tradition I answer because that Book is in that case Evident to bee peculiarly and adequately his whereas Orall Tradition was common to all and 't is doubtable what hand some of those Apostles or Evangelists might have had in the source of that which was lineally deriv'd to us Sir I wonder how you hit so right once as not to answer likewise the Testimony I brought p. 152. of the Catholick Clergy's adhering to Tradition in the â—ick of the breach you might as well have spoke to that as to the Council of Trent divers others But I perceive it had some peculiar difficulty as had divers of the neglected nine else your Genius leads you naturally to flie at any thing that has but the semblance or even name of a Testimony whereas unactive I stoop at no such game till I see certainly 't is worth my pains and I fear yours will scarce prove so THey come in play p. 320. And because they are huddled together here something confusedly it were not amiss to sort them under Dr. Pierce's Heads found Sure-footing p. 170. To the first Head which comprises those which are onely brought to vapour with belongs that of St. Hierom. p. 323. To the second Head which consists of those which are raw unapply'd and onely say something in common which never comes home to the point belong all those of Eusebius That of St. Chrysostome and St. Austin's p. 324. of Iustin and Theodoret p. 325. That of Hilary p. 327. of St. Basil. p. 328. of Chrysostom p. 328. and 329. and those of St. Austin in the same place Of Theoph. Alexandr p. 330. Theodoret p. 330. 331. The 2d and 3d. from Gerson p. 331. To the 4th that of St. Austin p. 325. To the 7th Head which comprises those which are false and signifie not the thing they are quoted for appertain that of Ireneus p. 326. of St. Austin St. Hierome and the 2d of Theoph. Alexandrinus p. 330. To the 8th consisting of those which labour of obscurity by an evidently ambiguous word that of Optatus p. 327. The first from Gerson p. 331. and that from Lyra p. 332. St. Cyprian's Testimony was writ by him to defend an Errour which both wee and the Protestants hold for such and therefore no wonder if as Bellarmin sayes more errantium ratiocinaretur hee discoursed after the rate of those that err that is assumes false Grounds to build his errour on Whence the inferring an acknowledg'd false Conclusion from it is an argument rather his Principle was not sound I know Sir you will fume at this usage of your Testimonies but with what reason For first you putting them down rawly without particularizing their force or import
A LETTER OF THANKS From the AUTHOR OF SURE-FOOTING To his Answerer Mr. J. T. Quis autem magis de his novit hic ne seductus homo qui etiam nunc superest hucusque in hoc mundo versatur aut qui ante nos Testes fuerunt habentes ante nos Traditionem in Ecclesiâ quique etiam à Patribus suis Traditum acceperunt quemadmodum etiam hi à Patribus suis didicerunt qui ante ipsos fuerunt quomodo Ecclesia acceptam à Patribus suis veram fidem usque huc continet itemque Traditiones Epiphan contra Aerium haer 75. Paris 1666. SIR 1. YOur Friend Mr. Stillingfleet who I thank him professes a great deal of real kindness for mee tells your self in the beginning of his Appendix that your performances in your Book have been so clear and satisfactory that hee hopes Mr. S. in stead of another Letter of directions to his Answerer will write you one of Thanks for the Reason and Kindness you have shew'd him throughout your Book I hate to be ungratefull and have that reall kindness for him and your self too as not to suffer your hopes to be defeated My Obligations of Gratitude hee concieves to spring from a twofold Head the Reason and the Kindness you have shown mee The former of which is to be examin'd by reducing the respective parts of your Discourse to Grounds or Principles which I shall do when it shall please God to give me leasure and health to answer your Book and I promise you faithfully to own as much Reason in it as these will allow mee I fear you may dislike the verdict of Principles and think them discourteous because of their inflexible genius and self-confident too because they love naturally to express themselves with an Assuredness and are oft so bold as unconcern'd in the Sceptical humour of others to talk of those bug bears to Fancy Evidence and Demonstration But be assur'd Sir though they are not altogether so good-natur'd nor bashfull as your timorous quivering Probabilities which you phrase modest yet they are very just and honest and as they cannot flatter you so neither will they injure you in the least My other Obligation to Gratitude is the Kindness you have shew'd me and as Mr. Stillingfleet sayes very truly throughout your Book which it were a Sin to deny For I know no greater Kindness from one that opposes me than to write in such a manner as to put himself upon the greatest Disadvantages imaginable to give me so many Advantages against him and his Cause Nor am I to expect your Intention should go along with your Favours 't is abundant Kindness in an Adversary that by his means I enjoy the reality of the Benefit and this I have receiv'd from you never to bee forgotten but with Ingratitude As oft as you omit what 's important mistake either voluntarily or weakly triumph causlesly injure me undeservedly cavill groundlesly prevaricate from the business purposely revile bitterly jeer sillily or falsify and pervert my meaning or words palpably so many reall Kindnesses you conferr upon your poor Servant of which in this Letter of mine both to your self and the world I here make my hearty Profession and Acknowledgment 2. And first I am to give you very humble thanks for totally waving to take notice of my Letter to my Answerer The whole scope of it was to request you would hold to a Method which was evidently Conclusive that you would begin with some First Principles and vouch them to bee as First Principles should bee self-evident That as all Art and Common Sence gives it you would not produce any Thing against Tradition till you show it depends not on Tradition for its Certainty that you would either confess your Testimonies unapt to Certify or declare in what their virtue of Certifying consists which must needs either show them feeble if they be such or if otherwise enforce and strengthen them That you would uphold your Arguments satisfactory that is able to subdue the Understanding to Assent and show us how they come by that virtue with diverse other Requests not Prescriptions as you call them onely tending to make a short End of Controversy by bringing Truth quickly to a clearing by the way of Principles Now who sees not that I had oblig'd my self to the same severe Laws of Concluding by proposing them to you and so had you had any Principles worthy to be call'd such or the confidence in your Cause to venture upon any Conclusive method you had gain'd a notable advantage against me in laying hold of that method and obliging me to stand to it because I was the Proposer of it At least you might have pleas'd to have shown my Way Inconclusive and substituted and establish't a better in case you had thought any Evident or Conclusive method your Advantage But 't is a manifest signe you judg'd any rigorous way of Concluding unsutable to your Causes and your own Interest and that to continue still on Foot Inconclusive endlesly-talking wayes of Discourse as is yours which consists in being able to say a great many pretty plausible any-things to every thing was more proportion'd and advantageous to your moderate modest courteous and probable Faith which is I dare say for it far from that Boldness and Self-confidence as to talk of Principles Evidence Demonstration or even Certainty unless minc't and allay'd with the Epithet Sufficient though you will never show us how acknowledg'd possibility to be otherwise can ever convince us sufficiently to Assent the thing is so or why a Capacity to bee false for any thing wee know is not the very notion of Incertainty and so most abusively pinn'd to the notion of Certainty Now that you should so perfectly wave speaking to that Letter it being particularly directed to your self whereas the Book you pretend to answer was not the end aym'd at in it being by all men's Confession very importantly good that is to shorten Controversies and bring our Disputes to a period also the method of Discoursing being as Logick tells us one of the praecognoscenda to the Discourse it self and so either Disputant has right to require it should be first treated of though I civilly requested it of you Lastly it being so indifferently fram'd to your or my interest or rather totally for his who had Truth or Grounds on his side that is for you were your cause so qualify'd and as such equally lik't by Judicious Protestants as well as Catholicks This being so that you should so totally sleight and disregard it in these circumstances is a clear argument you think it not safe to venture your cause and Credit upon Principles or any Evident or Conclusive method of discoursing and a plain Confession by way of Fact that all your discourse against my Book has neither Principles to subsist by nor Evidence to conclude by Which acknowledgment of yours though tacitly and modestly exprest for you are a
occasion for your pastime and merriment The next tast you give of mee is enough to give any Reader who loves sincerity a whole belly full of your manner of confuting 'T is found p. 65. where you make mee say that the Scripture cannot bee the Rule of Faith because those who are to bee rul'd and guided by the Scriptures Letter to Faith cannot bee Certain of the true Sence of it Upon this you descant thus Which is to say that unsenc't Letters and Characters cannot bee the Rule of Faith because the Rule of Faith must have a certain Sence that is must not bee unsenc't Letters and Characters which in plain English amounts to thus much Unsenc't Letters and Characters cannot bee the Rule of Faith that they cannot Here is not much rumbling of Rhetorick as you call it p. 63. but here is a strange jumbling of Sence Let 's see if I can set right what you have taken such pains to disorder I discourse then thus Points of Faith are determinate Sences and Faith is Certain therefore the Way or Means to Faith that is the Rule of Faith must bee a Certain Way of arriving at those determinate Sences These Sences say you Protestants are arriv'd at by the Scripture's Letter signifying it to you therefore you must bee Certain by it that those Determinate Sences were mean't by God Not that the Rule of Faith was those Sences but the Way to them and They the End of it of which that Rule must bee significative as I all over exprest so it was properly related to those Sences as the thing Signify'd Whence in proper Speech they are to bee called its Sence in the same manner as 't is call'd my Hand-writing which my Hand writ though neither my Hand is the writing nor involves writing in any part of it's Definition but is distinguisht from it as Cause from Effect nor yet does the Letter taken as the Way to Faith or God's Sence imply as any part of it self the Sence 't is to cause in my Knowing Power If by this time you bee awake you will see how you wilfully abuse mee and how far I am from tautologizing which for a blind to avoid a more pertinent Answer you pretend The pith of the Cavill lies in those words in your Descant The Rule of Faith must have a certain Sence that is as you put it upon mee it must not bee unsenc't Letters and Characters or it must bee senc't Letters c. Observe the words have and bee the former of which means no more than when wee say a Cause must have an Effect but wee do not therefore infer that the Cause taken as a Cause has in it self that very Effect which it produces in another for Example the Fire which causes or heats is not heated not the Cold that cools cooled nor for the same reason the Letters which are the Cause of Sence in us are not as such senc't that is have not that very Effect in themselves which they produce in another viz. in the understanding For Senc't means made to bee understood and they cannot bee made to bee understood taken as significative or as the way to bee understood I hope by this you see how the Rule of Faith being the Means Way or Cause of arriving at Faith or Sence may have a certain Sence caus'd by it as it's Effect and yet it self not bee or include the Effect it causes in another but for that very reason exclude it and so bee unsenc't but yet significative or apt to bee senc't After this follows the Triumph And thus I might trace him through all his Properties of the Rule of Faith Which I heartily yield too and I beleeve my Reader that examins these Passages will bee verily perswaded not onely that you may do it but that you will do it 't is so naturall to you and necessary to boot Now the greatest Favour you have done mee herein is that by a few unselected Passages you have so acquainted our Readers with your manner of writing and what may bee expected from it that it will render it needless for mee to spend time in laying you open any farther Besides I foresee your Reason such as it is begins to come into play Yet some few Favours scatter'd here and there will I fear not cease to sollicit my Gratitude You drop some of them upon my Friends Capt. Everard you say p. 75. or his Friend affirm there are plain contradictions in Scripture impossible to bee reconcil'd and therefore Protestants ought to submit to the Infallibility of the Church instancing in the third Series of Generations Mat. 1. said there to bee fourteen yet counted amount but to thirteen And has hee not good reason since neither can Scripture alone recommend it self to an Unbeleever to bee of God's enditing if it bee found by him to bee significative of irreconcileable Contradictions and so needs the Churches Authority to ascertain it to bee such nor can wee have any security such Contradictions might not bee found in the main points of Faith themselves did not the Churches Faith writ in her heart keep the Letter of it safe from such enormous Corruptions Yet you must have your jest and to bring it in you constantly mistake on set purpose asking p. 76. if the Infallibility of the Church can make Thirteen Fourteen notwithstanding you say p. 75. this difficulty has been sufficiently satisfy'd by Commentators I suppose therefore you judge those Commentators have sufficiently satisfy'd you that Thirteen are Fourteen Any body can sufficiently satisfy any difficulty with you provided the Church and her Infallibility have no hand in it On this occasion I beseech you Sir give mee leave to ask you what Commentator has reconcild that most Evident Contradiction in your Translation of the Scripture Look in your Psalms put in the Book of Common-Prayer and there Ps. 105 v. 28. wee have these words Hee sent darkness and it was dark and they were not obedient unto his word But in the same Psalm and verse put in the middle of the Bible these Hee sent darkness and made it dark and they rebelled not against his word the former place sayes they were not obedient the latter they were obedient I suppose you conceit mistaking the whole thing your Church without Infallibility can reconcile those things which ours even with Infallibility is at a horrible puzzle with Mr. Cressy's turn is next against whom you have many a fling but one especially p. 93. because hee sayes Schism is impossible in our Church Which you call absurd and ludicrous you tell him hee cannot deny but 't is possible for men to break from our Communion but that the Subtility of it lies here that therfore Schism is impossible in our Church because so soon as a man is a Schismatick hee is out of it This done you ask And is it not as impossible in the Church of England Sir I must tell you your whole Book in a
manner is compounded of putting tricks upon your Adversaries that is putting their sayings upon such accounts they never intended then impugning your own fictions 'T is not on the impossibility of any going out of us nor meerly because whenany one is out of our Church hee is not in it wee ground the Necessity of our Churches Unity but in this that her nature and Constitution is so fram'd that shee can admit no division in her Bowells but keeps her self distinguisht from Aliens If any one recede from Faith it must bee by not hearing the present Churches living voice teaching him points which the Knowledge Practice and Expressions of the Teachers determins and make Evident what they are whence his disbeleef if exprest is an Evident matter of Fact which is most apt to make a plain distinction between the disbeleever and the Beleevers and an Evidence beyond Cavill for the Church Governours to proceed upon This done as likewise in the case of high disobedience against Church-Laws or Governours shee Excommunicates that is solemnly separates the Schismaticall Offender from the Obedient Faithfull Hence those Faithfull look upon him as a Rebell or Outlaw or as our Saviour expresses as a Heathen or Publican no Church-officer admits him to Sacraments but upon his pennance and Satisfaction nor any Son of the Church will communicate with him in Sacred duties Pray you Sir is this the Temper of your Church of England Your Rule is the Letter of Scripture as conceiv'd significative of Gods word and this to private understandings Again you say all necessary points of Faith are plain in it nay that nothing is fundamentally necessary but what is plain there Hence all that hold the Letter to bee plainly Expressive of Gods Sence and intend to hold to what they conceive plain there whether Socinians Anabaptists Independents or whatever other faction all hold to your Rule of Faith and so are all Protestants For if you would ty any of these to any determinable points you force them from the Rule of Faith Scripture as seeming plain to them and would instead thereof bring them to a reliance on your Judgement And if you would punish them for not doing it you cannot evidence their Fault by way of matter of Fact that so you may proceed upon it for as long as they profess their intention to hold to what seems plain to them in Scripture and that your Text seems less plain to them there than their own you ought not to proceed against them Ecclesiastically without disannulling your avowed Rule of Faith And your carriage executes accordingly neither using Church-discipline against them for Tenets nor yet for denying or disobeying your Goverment Episcopacy though held by you divinely instituted When did you put any distinction by any solemn Ecclesiastical declaration between an Anabaptist Presbyterian Socinian c. and your selves When did you excommunicate them warn the purer Protestants by any Publick Ecclesiasticall Act not to joyn with them in Sacred Offices but to look upon them as Aliens Might not any of them come to receive the Communion if hee would or has any discipline past upon him to debar him from being admitted None that wee see Your Party then in indeed no Ecclesiasticall body cohering by Unity of Tenets or Government but a Medly rather consisting of men of any tenet almost and so bears division disunion and Schism that is the Formal cause of non-Entity of a Church in it's very Bowells These two flams of yours are Sir the Favours you have done my Friends and I can onely tell you in a country complement I thank you as much for them as if you had done them to my self Seeing your Reason begin to play it's part bravely in the following part of your Book I thought I had done my duty of Thanking but I percieve one main Engin your Reason made use of was to make mee perpetually contradict my self And this you perform'd by singling a few words out of my Book from their fellows introducing them in other circumstances and so almost in every Citation falsifying my Intentions and this purposely as will bee seen by this that you practis'd designe and Artifice in bringing it about This obliges mee in stead of making an End to return back and to show how sincerly you have us'd mee in almost all your Citations I omit your false pretence that I mean't to define contrary to my express words You tell your Reader p. 11. That if any presume to say this Book Scripture depends not on Tradition for it's Sence then the most scurrilous language is not bad enough then are those Sacred writings but Ink variously figur'd in a Book quoting for those words App. 4th p. 319. But if wee look there not a word is there found of it's depending or not depending on Tradition for it's Sence nor of making that the Cause why I us'd those words you object cite for it but onely that whereas my Lord of Downs sayes his Faith has for its object the Scriptures I tell him that since he means not by the word Scripture any determinate Sence which is the formall parts of words hee must mean the Characters or Ink thus figur'd in a Book as is evident there being nothing imaginable in them besides the matter and the form which every Schollar knows compound the thing This being then the plain tenour of my discourse there and not the least word of Tradition sencing Scripture Whatever the Truth of the Thing is 't is evident you have abus'd my words as found in the place you cite My Citation p. 12. which abstracts from what security wee can have of those parts of Scripture which concern not Faith you will needs restrain to signifie no security at all either of Letter or Sence which is neither found in my words nor meaning How you have abus'd my words to avoid Calumny with the Vulgar cited by you p. 13. as also the former of those cited p. 14. I have already shown § 9 and 10. P. 17. You quote my words 'T is certain the Apostles taught the same Doctrine they writ whence you infer they writ the same Doctrine they taught Which your introducing Discourse would make to signifie an Equality of Extent in Writing and Tradition by saying I grant this Doctrine which signifies there the First deliver'd Doctrine was afterwards by the Apostles committed to writing Whereas whoever reads my 29th Cor. will see I can onely mean by the word same Doctrine a not-different Doctrine Whatever the truth of the point is this shows you have an habituall imperfection not to let the words you cite signifie as the Authour evidently meant them but you must bee scruing them to serve your own turn You quote mee p. 36. to say that Primitive Antiquity learn'd their Faith by another method a long time before many of those Books were universally spread amongst the Vulgar The summe of your Answer is that when the Apostles who did miracles
had rais'd and our Controversie begin to slide back into petty squabbles Consider I beseech thee how little I contributed to it nay what care I took to prevent it hazarding some ill opinion of singularity in putting forth antecedently a Letter to my Answerer requesting wee might hold to a Conclusive Method rather than which I foresaw permit the clearing that most concerning point in hand relapse into wordish Talk If thou readest that Letter I hope thou wilt acquit mee and think it rationall nay more thou wilt easily see that Mr. T. not onely waves speaking to it or giving reason why but goes point-blank opposit to it using frequent Ironies quibbles and little squibs of University-wit and neither laying Principles nor admitting or denying my Consequences except very seldom nor distinguishing Testimonies or vouching any Thing or Way hee builds on to bee Conclusive but catching mistakingly at this little word and the other putting upon mee twenty false meanings with all the crafty Arts that may bee to make mee relinquish pursuing the method I had begun so disadvantageous to him and fall to clear my self and accuse him which is little to our Cause and unsavoury to our Readers and so not worth heeding or reading whence hee and his Friends might hope the Discourse would die and come to nothing And indeed who expects better from him who characters Controversie which is the Science or Knowledge of the Grounds of Faith to bee nothing but a Blessed Art of Eternall Wrangling By which means hee gains himself indeed much credit for a great Controvertist who avoids all Methods of Concluding any thing that is labours to keep on foot and promote all the Ways of Wrangling and makes his Adversary none who pursues Conclusiveness and Wayes to avoid Wrangling But the plot shall not take I shall still go on my Way in my Answer and to this End that I might there onely attend thy Benefit I have voided out of the Way this riff-raff with which this Great Controvertist in his Way had so learnedly assaulted mee In a word I declare my resolution God giving life and health to bee this I will never leave following on my blow till either I bring them to lay Principles that will bear the test or it come to bee made evident to all the world they have none What I attempt is to settle the Absolute Immoveableness of Faith against my Adversary whose avow'd Position 't is p. 118 that 't is possible to bee False nay the Certainty of Scripture too which hee puts in the same case as to it's Firmness Pardon the sleightness in composing this and perhaps some possible oversight though my conscience knows of none I am chid by my Doctor for writing it while I was in a course of Physick my strength and health both much decay'd Which if it pleases God of his Goodness to restore I promise thee amends 〈◊〉 7. 66. Thy Soul 's hearty Well-wisher J. S. FINIS ERRATA Page 7. line 16. Description p. 14. l. 10. Sections p. 17. l. 17. in his 16. l. 30. You proceed p. 30. l. 16. particular p. 32. l. ult about p. 36. l. 22. beefool'd l. 23. too whereas l. 24. a Distinction d. 39. l. 11. wee too p. 40. l. 27. Tertullian p. 48. l. 21. determin p. 49. l. 19. determinate p. 56. l. 23. your Confute p. 63. l. 3. the cause p. 66. l. to from any p. 69 l. 2 3. Knowledges p. 75. l. 16. despair l. 27. demonstration p. 77. l. ult Thus. p. 95. l. 15. tenth p. 98. l. 2. more forcible p. 105. l. 21. self p. 106. l. 1. to some p. 107. l. 16. Philosopher's p. 121. l. 23. Tradition's p. 112. l. 9. Binius p. 117. l. 1. falshoods p. 120. l. 28. deliver