more necessarily than any natural causes now how they can do so upon voluntary Agents I desire Mr. S. to inform me § 3. He proceeds by a long Harangue to shew That not only these material Characters in themselves are corruptible but in complexion with the causes actually laid in the World to preserve them entire because either those causes are material and then they are also liable to continual alterations or spiritual that is the minds of men and from these we may with good reason hope for a greater degree of constancy than from any other piece of nature which by the way is a very strange Paradox that the actions of voluntary Agents have a greater certainty and constancy in them than those of natural Agents of which the fall of Angels and Men compared with the continuance of the Sun and Stars in their first state is a very good evidence § 4. But he adds a Caution That they are perfectly unalterable from their nature and unerrable if due circumstances be observed that is if due proposals be made to beget certain knowledg and due care used to attend to such proposals But who can warrant That due proposals will always be made to men and due care used by them If these be uncertain where 's the constancy and unerrableness he talks so much of So that notwithstanding the constancy of this spiritual cause the mind of man of preserving Scriptures entire yet in order to this as he tells us So many actions are to be done which are compounded and made up of an innumerable multitude of several particularities to be observed every of which may be mistaken apart each being a distinct little action in its single self such as is the transcribing of a whole Book consisting of such Myriads of words single letters and tittles or stops and the several actions of writing over each of these so short and cursory that it prevents diligence and exceeds humane care to keep awake and apply distinct attentions to every of these distinct actions Mr. Rushworth much outdoes Mr. S. in these minute Cavils for he tells us That supposing an Original Copy of Christs words written by one of the Evangelists in the same language let him have set down every word and syllable yet men conversant in noting the changes of meanings in words will tell us that divers accents in the pronunciation of them the turning of the speakers head or body this way or that way c. may so change the sense of the words that they will seem quite different in writing from what they were in speaking I hope that Oral and Practical Tradition hath been careful to preserve all these circumstances and hath deliver'd down Christ's Doctrine with all the right Traditionary Accents Nods and Gestures necessary for the understanding of it otherwise the omission of these may have so altered the sense of it that it may be now quite different from what it was at first But to answer Mr. S. We do not pretend to be assured that it is naturally impossible that the Scriptures should have been corrupted or changed but only to be sufficiently assured that they have not received any material alteration from as good Arguments as the nature of the Subject will bear But if his Reason had not been very short and cursory he might easily have reflected that Oral Tradition is equally liable to all these contingencies For it doth as much prevent diligence and exceed humane care to keep awake and apply distinct attentions to the distinct actions of speaking as of writing And I hope he will not deny that a Doctrine Orally delivered consists of words and letters and accents and stops as well as a Doctrine written and that the several actions of speaking are as short and cursory as of writing § 5. Secondly He tells us Scripture formally considered as to its significativeness is also uncertain First Because of the uncertainty of the letter This is already answered Secondly Because the certain sense of it is not to be arrived to by the Vulgar who are destitute of Languages and Arts. True where men are not permitted to have the Scriptures in their own Language and understand no other But where they are allowed the Scriptures translated into their own Language they may understand them all necessary points of Faith and Practice being sufficiently plain in any Translation of the Bible that I know of And that eminent Wits cannot agree about the sense of Texts which concern the main points of Faith hath been spoken to already § 6. As for the Reverence he pretends to Scripture in the conclusion of his Fourth Discourse he might have spared that after all the raillery and rudeness he hath used against it It is easie to conjecture both from his principles and his uncivil expressions concerning them what his esteem is of those Sacred Oracles Probably it was requisite in prudence to cast in a few good words concerning the Scriptures for the sake of the more tender and squeamish Novices of their Religion or as Mr. Rushworth's Nephew says frankly and openly for the satisfaction of indifferent men that have been brought up in this verbal and apparent respect of the Scripture who it seems are not yet attained to that degree of Catholick Piety and Fortitude as to endure patiently that the Word of God should be reviled or slighted Besides that in reference to those whom they hope hereafter to convert who might be too much alienated from their Religion if he had expressed nothing but contempt towards a Book which Protestants and Christians in all Ages till the very dregs of Popery have been bred up to a high veneration of it was not much amiss to pass this formal complement upon the Bible which the wise of his own Religion will easily understand and may serve to catch the rest But let him not deceive himself God is not mocked SECT VI. § 1. SEcondly He comes to shew That the Properties of a Rule of Faith belong to Oral Tradition And First He gives a tedious explication of the nature of this Oral Practical Tradition which amounts to this That as in reference to the civil Education of Children they are taught their own and others names to write and read and exercise their Trades So in reference to Religion the Children of Christians first hear sounds afterwards by degrees get dim notions of God Christ Saviour Heaven Hell Vertue Vice and by degrees practise what they have heard they are shewn to say Grace and their Prayers to hold up their hands or perhaps eyes and to kneel and other postures Afterwards they are acquainted with the Creed Ten Commandments and Sacraments some common Forms of Prayer and other practises of Christianity and are directed to order their lives accordingly and are guided in all this by the actions and carriage of the elder faithful and this goes on by insensible degrees not by leaps from
conveying Christs Doctrine from one Age to another without any corruption or change which is to say that it is impossible but that this Rule should always have been kept to That this is not a Self-evident Principle needs no other evidence than that he goes about to demonstrate it But yet notwithstanding this I think he hath as much reason to call this a Self-evident Principle as to call his proofs of it Demonstrations § 2. In order to his Demonstration a Priori he lays these four grounds which I shall set down in his own words First That Christian Doctrine was at first unanimously setled by the Apostles in the hearts of the faithful dispersed in great multitudes over several parts of the World Secondly That this Doctrine was firmly believed by all those faithful to be the way to Heaven and the contradicting or deserting it to be the way to damnation so that the greatest hopes and fears imaginable were by engaging the Divine Authority strongly applied to the minds of the first Believers encouraging them to the adhering to that Doctrine and deterring them from relinquishing it and indeed infinitely greater than any other whatever springing from any temporal consideration and that this was in all Ages the perswasion of the faithful Thirdly That hopes of good and fears of harms strongly applied are the causes of actual will Fourthly That the thing was feasible or within their power that what they were bred to was knowable by them This put it follows as certainly that a great number or body of the first Believers and after faithful in each Age that is from Age to Age would continue to hold themselves and teach their Children as themselves had been taught that is would follow and stick to Tradition as it doth that a cause put actually causing produceth its effect This is his Demonstration with the grounds of it § 3. To shew the vanity and weakness of this pretended Demonstration I shall assail it these three wayes by shewing First That if the grounds of it were true they would conclude too much and prove that to be impossible which common experience evinceth and himself must grant to have been Secondly That his main grounds are apparently false Thirdly That his Demonstration is confuted by clear and undeniable Instances to the contrary SECT III. § 1. IF the grounds of it were true they would conclude too much and prove that to be impossible which common experience evinceth and himself must grant to have been For if these two Principles be true That the greatest hopes and fears are strongly applied to the minds of all Christians and that those hopes and fears strongly applied are the cause of actual will to adhere constantly to Christ's Doctrine then from hence it follows that none thâ—â— entertain this Doctrine can ever fall from it because falling from it is inconsistent with an actual will of adhering constantly to it For supposing as he doth certain and constant causes of actual will to adhere to this Doctrine those who entertain it must actually will to adhere to it because a cause put actually causing produceth its effect which is constant adherence to it And if this were true these two things would be impossible First That any Christian should turn Apostate or Heretick Secondly That any Christian should live wickedly Both which not only frequent and undoubted experience doth evince but himself must grant de facto to have been § 2. First It would be impossible that any Christian should turn Apostate or Heretick Heresie according to him is nothing else but the renouncing of Tradition Now he tells us That the first Renouncers of Tradition must have been true Believers or holders of it ere they renounced it and I suppose there is the same reason for Apostates But if all Christians or true Believers as he calls them have these Arguments of hope and fear strongly applied and hope and fear strongly applied be the causes of actual will to adhere to this Doctrine 't is necessary all Christians should adhere to it and impossible there should be either Apostates or Hereticks For if these causes be put in all the faithful actually causing as the Grounds of his Demonstration suppose and indefectibleness be the proper and necessary effect of these causes as he also saith then it is impossible that where these causes are put there should be any defection For a proper and necessary effect cannot but be where the causes of such an effect are put especially if they be put actually causing and consequently 't is impossible that any single Christian should ever either totally apostatize or fall into Heresie that is renounce Tradition § 3. And that this is a genuine consequence from these Principles though he will not acknowledg it here because he saw it would ruine his Demonstration is liberally acknowledged by him in other parts of his Discourse For he tells us That it exceeds all the power of nature abstracting from the causes of madness and violent disease to blot the knowledges of this Doctrine out of the soul of one single Believer And that since no man can hold contrary to his knowledg nor doubt of what he holds nor change and innovate without knowing he doth so it is a manifest impossibility a whole Age should fall into an absurdity so inconsistent with the nature of one single man And That it is perhaps impossible for one single man to attempt to deceive posterity by renouncing Tradition Which passages laid together amount to thus much That it is impossible that Tradition should fail in any one single person And though in the passage last cited he speak faintly and with a perhaps as if he apprehended some danger in speaking too peremptorily yet any one would easily see the last to be as impossible as any of the rest And he himself elsewhere being in the full Career of his Bombast Rhetorick delivers it roundly without fear or wit Sooner may the sinews of entire nature by overstraining crack and she lose all her activity and motion that is her self than one single part of that innumerable multitude which integrate that vast testification which we call Tradition can possibly be violated § 4. But it may be we deal too hardly with him and press his Demonstration too far because he tells us he only intends by it to prove that the generality of Christians will always adhere to Tradition But if he intended to prove no more but this he should then have brought a Demonstration that would have concluded no more but this concludes of all as well as of the generality of Christians A clear evidence that it is no Demonstration because it concludes that which is evidently false That there can be no Apostates or Hereticks Besides supposing his Demonstration to conclude only that the generality of Christians would always adhere to Tradition this is as plainly confuted by experience if there be any credit
either wholly or for the far greatest part of them take upan humour against propagating Mankind And yet both History and the experience of the present Age assures us that a great part of Asia and of Africk where the most flourishing Churches in the World once were are fallen off from Christianity and become either Mahometans or Heathens In Africk almost all those vast Regions which Christianity had gained from Heathenism Mahometanism hath regained from Christianity All the North-part of Afrique lying along the Mediterranean where Christianity flourish't once as much as ever it did at Rome is at this time utterly void of Christians excepting a few Towns in the hands of the European Princes And not to mention all particular places the large Region of Nubia which had as is thought from the Apostles time professed the Christian Faith hath within these 150 years for want of Ministers as Alvarez tells us quitted Christianity and is partly revolted to Heathenism partly fallen off to Mahometanism So that it seems that notwithstanding the Arguments of hope and fear the very Teachers of Tradition may fail in a largely extended Church As for Asia in the Easterly parts of it there is not now one Christian to four of what there were 500 years ago and in the more Southerly parts of it where Christianity had taken deepest root the Christians are far inferiour in number to the Idolaters and Mahometans and do daily decrease What thinks Mr. S. of all this Have those Christian Nations which are turn'd Mahometans and Pagans failed in their Faith or not If they have I expect from him clear Instances of more that have failed in propagating their kind § 7. But besides those who have totally Apostatized from Christianity hath not the whole Greek Church with the Jacobites and Nestorians and all those other Sects which agree with and depend upon these and which taken together are manifoldly greater than the Roman Church I say have not all these renounced Tradition for several Ages And here in Europe hath not a great part of Poland Hungary both Germany's France and Switzerland Have not the Kingdoms of great Brittain Denmark Sweden and a considerable part of Ireland in Mr. S's opinion deserted Tradition If I should once see a whole Nation fail because no body would marry and contribute to the propagation of Mankind and should find this sullen humour to prevail in several Nations and to overspread vast Parts of the World I should then in good earnest think it possible for Mankind to fail unless I could shew it impossible for other Nations to do that which I see some to have done who were every whit as unlikely to have done it So that whatever cause he assigns of Heresie as Pride Ambition Lust or any other vice or interest if these can take place in whole Nations and make them renounce Tradition then where 's the efficacy of the causes to preserve Faith indeficiently entire in any For the Demonstration holds as strongly for all Christians as for any § 8. Secondly From these grounds it would follow that no Christian can live wickedly because the end of Faith being a good life the arguments of hope and fear must in all Reason be as powerful and efficacious causes of a good life as of a true belief And that his Demonstration proves the one as much as the other will be evident from his own reasoning for he argues in this manner Good is the proper object of the will good propos'd makes the will to desire that good and consequently the known means to obtain it Now infinite goods and harms sufficiently proposed are of their own nature incomparably more powerful causes to carry the will than temporal ones Since then when two causes are counterpoised the lesser when it comes to execution is no cause as to the substance of that effect it follows that there is no cause to move the wills of a World of Believers to be willing to do that which they judge would lose themselves and their Posterity infinite goods and bring them infinite harms c. in case a sufficient Proposal or Application be not wanting which he tells us is not wanting because Christianity urged to execution gives its followers a new life and a new nature than which a nearer Application cannot be imagined Doth not this Argument extend to the lives of Christians as well as their Belief So that he may as well infer from these grounds that it is impossible that those who profess Christianity should live contrary to it as that they should fail to deliver down the Doctrine of Christ because whatever can be an inducement and temptation to any man to contradict this Doctrine by his practice may equally prevail upon him to falsifie it For why should men make any more scruple of damning themselves and their Posterity by teaching them false Doctrines than by living wicked Lives which are equally pernicious with Heretical Doctrines not only upon account of the bad influence which such examples of Fathers and Teachers are like to have upon their Scholars but likewise as they are one of the strongest arguments in the World to perswade them that their Teachers do not themselves believe that Religion which they teach for if they did they would live according to it Why should any man think that those arguments of hope and fear which will not prevail upon the generality of Christians to make them live holy Lives should be so necessarily efficacious to make them so much concerned for the preserving of a right Belief Nay we have great reason to believe that such persons will endeavour as much as may be to bend and accommodate their Belief to their Lives And this is the true source of those Innovations in Faith for which we challenge the Church of Rome which any man may easily discern who will but consider how all their new Doctrines are fitted to a secular Interest and the gratifying of that inordinate appetite after riches and dominion which reigns in the Court of Rome and in the upper part of the Clergy of that Church SECT IV. § 1. SEcondly The main grounds of his Demonstration are apparently false For First This Demonstration supposeth that the generality of Christian Parents in all Ages perfectly understood the Doctrine of Christ and did not mistake any part of it that they remembred it perfectly and that they were faithful and diligent to instruct their Children in it which is as contrary to experience as that the generality of Christians are knowing and honest It supposeth likewise that this Doctrine and every substantial part of it was received and remembred by the generality of Children as it was taught and was understood perfectly by them without the least material mistake So he tells us That the substance of Faith comes clad in such plain matters of Fact that the most stupid man living cannot possibly be ignorant of it But whether this be
to be given to History St. Hierom tells us That Liberius Bishop of Rome for all his particular Title to Infallibility built upon Tradition as Mr. S. speaks Coroll 28. turned Arian And that Arianism was establish't by the Synod of Ariminum which was a Council more general than that of Trent And that almost all the Churches in the whole World under the names of Peace and of the Emperour were polluted by Communion with the Arians Again That under the Emperour Constantius Eusebius and Hippatius being Consuls Infidelity was subscribed under the names of Vnity and Faith And that the whole World groaned and wondered to see it self turned Arian And he uses this as an argument to the Luciferians to receive into the Church those who had been defiled with the Heresie of Arius because the number of those who had kept themselves Orthodox was so exceeding small For says he the Synod of Nice which consisted of above Three hundred Bishops received Eight Arian Bishops whom they might have cast out without any great loss to the Church I wonder then how some and those the followers of the Nicene Faith can think that three Confessors viz. Athanasius Hilarius Eusebius ought not to do that in case of necessity for the good and safety of the whole World which so many and such excellent Persons did voluntarily It seems Arianism had prevailed very far when St. Hierom could not name above three eminent Persons in the Church who had preserved themselves untainted with it Again Arius in Alexandria was at first but one spark but because it was not presently extinguish't it broke out into a flame which devoured the whole World Gregory Nazianzen likewise tells us to the same purpose That the Arian Heresie seized upon the greatest part of the Church And to shew that he knew nothing of Mr. S's Demonstration of the indefectibility of the generality of Christians he asks Where are those that define the Church by multitude and despise the little Flock c And this Heresie was of a long continuance for from its first rise which happened in the 20 th year of Constantine it continued as Joh. Abbas hath calculated it 266 years And the Pelagian Heresie if we may believe Bradwardine one of the great Champions of the Church against it did in a manner prevail as much as Arianism as the said Author complains in his Preface to his Book That almost the whole World was run after Pelagius into Error Will Mr. S. now say that in the height of these Heresies the generality of Christians did firmly adhere to Tradition If he say they did let him answer the express Testimonies produced to the contrary But if they did not then his Demonstration also fails as to the generality of Christians And if the greater part of Christians may fall off from Tradition what Demonstration can make it impossible for the lesser to do so Who will say it is in Reason impossible that a Thousand persons should relinquish Tradition though Nine hundred of them have already done it and though the remainder be no otherwise secured from doing so than those were who have actually relinquish't it Now is not this a clear evidence that this which he calls a Demonstration a Priori is no such thing Because every Demonstration a Priori must be from causes which are necessary whereas his Demonstration is from voluntary causes So that unless he can prove that voluntary causes are necessary he shall never demonstrate that it is impossible for the generality of any company of men to err who have every one of them free-will and are every one of them liable to passion and mâ—stake § 5. From all this it appears that his whole Discourse about the Original and Progress of Heresie and the multitudes of Hereticks in several Ages is as clear a confutation of his own Demonstration as can be desired The only thing that he offers in that Discourse to prevent this Objection which he foresaw it liable to is this It is not says he to be expected but that some contingencies should have place where an whole Species in a manner is to be wrought upon it sufficeth that the causes to preserve Faith indeficiently entire are as efficacious as those which are laid for the preservation of Mankind the vertue of Faith not being to continue longer than Mankind its only subject does and they will easily appear as efficacious as the other if we consider the strength of those causes before explicated and reflect that they are effectively powerful to make multitudes daily debar themselves of those pleasures which are the causes of Mankinds propagation and if we look into History for experience of what hath passed in the World since the propagating of Christianity we shall find more particulars failing in propagating their kind than their Faith To which I answer First That it may reasonably be expected there should be no contingencies in any particulars where causes of actual will are supposed to be put in all Because as he says truly a cause put actually causing cannot but produce its effect Suppose then constant causes laid in all Mankind of an actual will to speak Truth to the best of their knowledg were it not reasonable to expect that there would be no such contingency to the Worlds end as that any man should tell a lye Nay it were madness for any man to think any such contingency should be supposing causes actually causing men always to speak Truth Secondly It is far from Truth that the causes to preserve Faith indeficiently entire are as efficacious as those which are laid for the propagation of Mankind And whereas he would prove the strength of these causes which are laid to preserve Faith because they are effectively powerful to make multitudes daily debar themselves of those pleasurâ—s which are the causes of Mankinds propagation I hope no body that hath read the innumerable complaints which occur in their own Historians and others of the best and most credible of their own Writers of more than one Age concerning the general viciousness and debauchery of their Priests and Monks will he overforward to believe that all those who debar themselves of lawful Marriage do abstain from those unlawful pleasures § 6. But nothing can be more impudent than what he adds That if we look into Histories for experience of what hath past in the World since the first planting of Christianity we shall find far more particulars failing in propagating their kind than their Faith Do any Histories confirm it to have been the experience of the World that the far greatest part of the World did in any Age give over propagating their kind But Histories do confirm that the far greatest part of the Christian World did fall off to Arianism and Pelagianism and consequently as he supposeth did desert and renounce Tradition Did ever whole Nations and vast Territories of the World
This I confess is not altogether without some shew of reason Mr. S. may do well to take the matter into his deeper consideration he hath in his time improved as weak probabilities as these into lusty Demonstrations And if he could but demonstrate this it would very much weaken the force of this Instance of the Greek Church otherwise for ought I see this Instance will hold good against him and whatever he can say for the impossibility of Tradition's failing in the Latin Church may all be said of the Greek Church if he will but grant that the Apostles preached the same Doctrine to them both that the arguments of hope and fear which this Doctrine contains in it were applied as strongly to the Greeks as the Latins And yet notwithstanding all this Tradition hath plainly failed in the Greek Church Let him now assign the Age wherein so vast a number of men conspired to leave out the Article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost and shew how it was possible a whole Age could conspire together to damn their Posterity or how the Faith of immediate Fore-fathers might be altered without any such Conspiracy and we are ready to satisfie him how the Doctrine of the Latin Church might be corrupted and altered and to tell him punctually in what Age it was done And until he do this I would entreat him to trouble us no more with those canting questions wherein yet the whole force of his Demonstration lies How is it possible a whole Age should conspire to change the Doctrine of their Fore-fathers And in what Age was this done For if it be reasonable to demand of us in order to the overthrowing of his Demonstration to assign the particular Age wherein the Latin Church conspired to change the ancient Doctrine with the same reason we require of him in order to the maintaining of his Demonstration to name the particular Age wherein the Greek Church conspired to alter the Doctrine of Christ which was undoubtedly in the first Age truly delivered to them by the Apostles and also to shew from the rational force and strength of Tradition how it is more impossible for the whole Church to have failed in transmitting the Doctrine of Christ down to us or to have conspired to the altering of it than for such a multitude of Christians as is the vast body of the Greek Church If Mr. S. or Mr. White shew this they do something otherwise I must tell them that unless they can manage these pretty things they call Demonstrations better they must shortly either quit their Reason or their Religion or else return to the honest old Mumpsimus of the Infallibility of the Church from an extraordinary and immediate assistance of the Holy Ghost or to make the business short and stop all gaps with one Bush come over to the Jesuites and acknowledg the Popes Infallibility both in matters of Faith and Fact by which means they may reconcile themselves to him and prevent that direful stroke which threatens them from Rome and is ready to cut them off from the Body of the Traditionary Church And thus I have done with his First Demonstration and I take it for a good sign that the Popish Cause is at a very low ebb when such stuff as this must be called Demonstration SECT VI. § 1. I Come now to his Demonstration a Posteriori which although it fall of it self if the Demonstration a Priori fail yet because it hath some peculiar absurdities of its own I shall consider it by it self as well as with relation to the other § 2. Before he comes to lay it down with the Grounds of it according to his usual fashion he premiseth something as yielded by Protestants which in his sense no Protestant ever granted Just so he dealt with us before concerning the Scriptures saying That by them the Protestants must mean unsensed Letters and Characters But let us see what it is That this Demonstration a Posteriori seems a needless endeavour against the Protestants who yield that those Points in which we agree as the Trinity Incarnation c. came down by this way of Tradition And this he saith no Protestant ever denied And then he asks Whether the same vertue of Tradition would not have been as powerful to bring down other Points in which we do not agree had any such been Now if he speak any thing to his own purpose he must suppose Protestants to yield that all those Points wherein we are agreed were conveyed down to us solely by Oral Tradition without Writing But this all Protestants deny So that that only which would avail his Cause against us is to shew that those Points wherein we differ have not only come down to us by Oral Teaching but that they are likewise contained in Scripture without which we say we can have no sufficient certainty and assurance at this distance that they were the Doctrine of Christ and that they were not either totally innovated or else corrupted in the conveyance from what they were at first And if he can shew this concerning any Point in difference I promise to yield it to him § 3. I come now to his Demonstration which I shall set down in his own words with the Principles upon which it relies The effect then we will pitch upon and avow to be the proper one of such a cause is the present perswasion of Traditionary Christians or Catholicks that their Faith hath descended from Christ and his Apostles uninterruptedly which we find most firmly rooted in their heart and the existence of this perswasion we affirm to be impossible without the existence of Traditions ever indeficiency to beget it To prove this I lay this first Principle That Age which holds her Faith thus delivered from the Apostles neither can it self have changed any thing in it nor know or doubt that any Age since the Apostles had changed or innovated therein The second Principle shall be this No Age could innovate any thing and withall deliver that very thing to Posterity as received from Christ by continual Succession The Sum of which is this That because a present multitude of Christians viz. the Roman Church are perswaded that Christ's Doctrine hath descended to them solely by an uninterrupted Oral Tradition therefore this perswasion is an effect which cannot be attributed to any other cause but the indeficiency of Oral Tradition For if neither the present Age nor any Age before could make any change or innovation then the perswasion of the present Age is a plain Demonstration that this Doctrine was always the same and consequently that Tradition cannot fail § 4. In answer to this I shall endeavour to make good these four things First That these Principles wholly rely upon the Truth of the Grounds of his Demonstration a Priori Secondly That these Principles are not sufficiently proved by him Thirdly That Doctrines and Practises which must be acknowledged to have been
that can be imagined it might then have taken place for what Weeds would not have grown in so rank a Soyl Doth Mr. S. think it impossible that those that were born in the Church then should be ignorant of the Doctrine of Christ when scarce any one would take the pains to teach it them or that it could then have been altered when so few understood and fewer practised it When ptodigious Impiety and Wickedness did overspread the Church from the Pope down to the meanest of the Laity can any one believe that men generally made Conscience to instruct their Children in the true Faith of Christ Was it impossible there should be any neglect of this Duty when all others failed That there should be any mistake about the Doctrine of Christ when there was so much Ignorance unless he be of Mr. Rushworth's mind who reckons Ignorance among the Parents of Religion Where were then the Arguments of Hope and Fear Were they strongly applied or were they not Were they causes of actual will in Christians to believe well when they lived so ill Or is Christianity only fitted to form mens minds to a right belief but of no efficacy to govern their lives Hath Christ taken care to keep his Church from Error but not from Vice As the great Cardinal Perron stooping below his own Wit and Reason to serve a bad Cause tells us That the Church sings and will sing to the end of the World I am black but I am fair that is to say I am black in Manners but fair in Doctrine As if the meaning of the Prophesies and Promises of Scripture made to the Church were this that by the extraordinary care of Gods Providence and peculiar assistance of his Holy Spirit she should be wicked but Orthodox to the end of the World Where were then the vigorous causes imprinting Christ's Doctrine and continuing it more particularly at Rome than any where else and of securing that See and its supreme Pastor in the faith and practice of the Christian Doctrine above any other See or Pastor whatsoever Who is so little versed in History as not to understand the dismal state of Religion in the Romish Church in those times Who does not know what advantages the Bishops of Rome and their servile Clergy made of the ignorance and superstition of those and the succeeding Ages and by what Arts and steps they raised themselves to that power which they held in the Church for a long while after When they could tread upon the necks of Princes and make a great King walk bare-foot and yield himself to be scourged by a company of petulant Monks When they could send any man upon an Errand to visit the holy Sepulchre or the Shrine of such a Saint and command five or six Kings with great Armies upon a needless expedition into the Holy Land that so during their absence they might play their own Game the better When they could mint Miracles and impose upon the belief of the People without the authority of any ancient Books absurd and counterfeit Tales of ancient Saints and Martyrs as delivered down to them by Tradition and could bring that foppish Book the Legend almost into equal Authority and Veneration with the Bible and perswade the easy people that St. Denys carried his own head in his hand after it was cut off two miles and kiss'd it when he laid it down Any one that shall but reflect upon the monstrous practises of the Roman Bishops and Clergy in these Ages the strange Feats they played and what absurdities they imposed upon the superstitious credulity of Princes and People may readily imagine not only the possibility but the easiness of innovating new Doctrines as they pleased under the specious pretences of Antitiquity and constant and uninterrupted Tradition § 8. And this kind of Discourse concerning the possibility of Errors coming into the Church is not as Mr. White ridiculously compares it as if an Orator should go about to perswade people that George by the help of a long staff and a nimble cast of his body and such like advantages might leap over Paul 's Steeple never considering all the while the disproportion of all these advantages to the height of the Steeple so saith he he that discourseth at large how Errors use to slide into mans life without comparing the power of the causes of Error to the strength of resisting which consists in this Principle Nothing is to be admitted but what descends by Tradition c. says no more towards proving an Error 's over-running the Church than the Orator for George 's leaping over the Steeple How vain is this When it appears from this Instance that I have given of the state of the Roman Church in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries and afterwards that the causes of Error were infinitely stronger than the power of resistance The great causes of Error are Ignorance and Vice where Ignorance reigns there 's no Power where Vice no Will to resist it And how great the Ignorance and Viciousness of all orders of men in the Roman Church was is too too apparent from the Testimonies I have brought Where was the strength of resisting Error when for 150 years together the Popes were the vilest of men Bishops and Priests overwhelmed with Ignorance abandoned to all manner of vice and most supinely negligent in instructing the People In such a degenerate state of a Church what strength is there in this Principle Nothing is to be admitted but what descends by Tradition When those who ought to teach men what that Doctrine is which was derived to them by Tradition are generally careless of their Duty and ignorant themselves what that Doctrine is When they addict themselves wholly to the satisfying of their Ambition and other Lusts and carry on designs of Gain and getting Dominion over the People What can hinder men so disposed from corrupting the Doctrine of Christ and suiting it to their own Lusts and Interests And what shall hinder the People from embracing those Corruptions when by the negligence of their Pastors to instruct them and not only so but also by their being deprived of the Scriptures in a known Tongue they are become utterly incapable of knowing what the true Doctrine of Christ is So that in an Age of such profound Ignorance and Vice and general neglect of Instruction 't is so far from being impossible for Errors to over-run a Church that the contrary is morally impossible and George's long staff and advantagious cast of his Body are more powerful causes to enable him to leap over Paul's Steeple than this Principle That nothing is to be admitted but what descends by Tradition is to keep Errors out of a Church in an ignorant and vicious Age when few or none are either able or willing to instruct men in the Truth For suppose this always to have been the Principle of Christians viz. That nothing is to be admitted as the
all his Writings to say any thing to remove a present Objection though never so much to the prejudice of his main Hypothesis then which I do not know any quality in a Writer which doth more certainly betray the want either of judgment or of sincerity or of a good Cause § 7. And whereas he says That Irenaeus his testimony proves it to be no Tradition for he sets down the supposed words of our Saviour which plainly shews it is a story not a Tradition a Tradition being a sense delivered not in set words but setled in the Auditors hearts by hundreds of different expressions explicating the same meaning When I consider this passage of Mr. White I confess I cannot complement him and say as he makes his Nephew do in the Dialogue between them I cannot but applaud your Discourse it hath so pleasing and attractive a countenance And again I am not able to oppose what you say by any weighty Objection your Arguments being not only strong and nervous but of so comely and winning a complexion c. I cannot I say speak all this of his present Argument But I may deservedly apply to it the last part of his Nephew's Complement That it is an Argument so framed as if without any evidence of its consequence it would perswade men to believe it But to return an Answer to this passage It seems according to Mr. White that Irenaeus was mistaken in the very nature of Tradition and if so learned a Father was ignorant in the common Rule of Faith what can we to use Mr. S's words undertakingly promise to weaker heads Mr. S. instanceth in the Creed and Ten Commandments as the principal Traditions which Parents teach their Children but now Mr. White can shew plainly that these are no Traditions but Stories because Tradition is a sense delivered not in set words c. As if Christ and his Apostles could deliver no Doctrine unless they expressed the same thing an hundred several ways But suppose they did so which no man hath any reason to imagine because a thing may be expressed as plainly by one way as by an hundred can no man deliver this Tradition who speaks it in any one of those expressions If one should employ his Servant to carry a Message and because Mr. White thinks this necessary should settle the meaning of it in his heart by telling him the same thing in an hundred several expressions and the Servant should go and deliver this Message in one of those very expressions that his Master used to him and should say these were his Masters very words would not this be well enough No if he had come to such a Philosopher as Mr. White he would soon have given him to understand that he was not fit to bring a Message or to be credited in it who had so little wit as not to know that a Message is a thing not to be delivered in set-words And now I would entreat Mr. White to reconcile himself in this matter to his Friends Mr. Rushworth says 'T is impossible to put fully and beyond all quarrel the same sense in divers words Which if it be true I would fain know what certain course Mr. White can prescribe to explicate the same meaning by hundreds of different expressions and consequently how Tradition can be infallibly conveyed by setling the sense of it in the Auditors hearts by such variety of expressions Mr. Cressy likewise a zealous Assertor of Tradition does affirm That the Primitive Churches were even to excess scrupulous in maintaining the very phrases of Traditionary Doctrines which according to Mr. White plainly shews these Doctrines to be stories not Traditions because Tradition is a sense delivered not in set-words The same Author complains That few among their learnedst Masters of Controversie propose the Points to be disputed between them and the Protestants in the Language of the Church By which I suppose he does not mean that these Controvertists were to blame in that they did not settle the sense of these Points by hundreds of different expressions explicating the same meaning but that they did not keep to the words wherein the Church had in Councils or otherwise if there be any other way declared her sense of those Points Again he says That St. Paul referring to the Doctrine setled by Oral Instruction to shew the uniformity of it everywhere calls it a form of wholsom words From whence we may conclude either that St. Paul did not well to call the Traditionary Doctrine as Mr. Cressy says he does a form of words or else which is more probable that Mr. White is mistaken in saying That a Tradition is a sense not delivered in set-words Furthermore the same Mr. Cressy tells us That St. Augustine was careful not only to deliver Traditional Truths themselves but the terms also in which those Truths were conveyed to his Times But now Mr. White could have informed St. Augustin that this officious care of his was not only superfluous but pernicious to Tradition § 8. But to return to Justin's Testimony to which the summe of Mr. Whites answer is That Justin esteem'd it not as a point necessary to salvation but rather a piece of Learning higher than the common Since he both acknowledges other Catholicks held the contrary and entitles those of his perswasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 right in all opinions that is wholly of his own mind It is not material to my purpose whether or no Justin look'd upon this as a point necessary to Salvation so long as it is evident that he looked upon it as a Divine Revelation and part of the Christian Doctrine And yet it seems he thought it a point of more than ordinary importance because he joins it with the Doctrine of the Resurrection and says that it was not disowned by any but those who also denied the Resurrection But whereas Mr. White says that Justin acknowledges other Catohlicks to have held the contrary I hope to make it evident from the scope and series of his Discourse that he acknowledges no such thing but that the plain design of his Discourse is to shew that this Doctrine was owned by all true Christians For when Trypho asks him Whether the Christians did indeed believe that Jerusalem should be re-built c. He returns him this answer I am not such a Wretch as to speak otherwise than I think I have told thee before that my self and many others as ye all know are of the mind that this will come to pass But that many indeed of those Christians who are not of the pure and pious perswasion do not own this I have intimated to thee That the negative particle though omitted in the Copy ought to be thus inserted will be clear to any one that considers what follows For after he had spoken of those who disown this Doctrine he immediately adds by way of further description of them that
the truth of the thing I am content therefore wherever in what I have writ he meets that term so applied that he take it only in his own sense for that which is certainly true for I mean no more by it And in this sense Mr. S. answers affirmatively and gives this account of it not only because the present Church cannot be deceived in what the Church of the former age believed but because the Church in no age could conspire against her knowledg to deceive that age immediately following in matter of fact evident in a manner to the whole world The Question then is whether this be a sufficient account for me to believe that to be certainly true or to be the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles which the present Church delivers and consequently whether the resolution of faith be barely into oral tradition Thus we see the clear state of the Question between us I come therefore to the vindication of those things which I had objected against this way of resolving faith into oral tradition Three things I especially insisted on 1. That it is inconsistent with the pretensions of the present Roman Church 2. That it hath not been the way owned in all ages of the Christian Church 3. That it is repugnant to common sense and experience and that the Church of Rome hath apparently altered from what was the belief of former ages If these three be made good there will be no cause to glory in this last invention to support the sinking fabrick of that Church These three then I undertake to defend against what Mr. Serjeant hath objected against them 1. That it is contrary to the pretensions of the present Roman Church And if it be so there can be no reason for those who are of it to rely upon it For if so be that Church pretends that the obligation to faith arises from a quite different ground from this how can they who believe that Church infallible venture their faith upon any other principle than what is publickly owned by her And whosoever thinks himself bound to believe by virtue of an infallible assistance of the present Church doth thereby shew that his obligation doth not depend upon what was delivered by the former ages of the Church As those who believed the Apostles were infallible in their doctrine could not resolve their faith into the infallibility of oral tradition but into that immediate assistance by which the Apostles spake and where there is a belief of a like assistance the foundation of faith cannot ly in the indefectibility of tradition but in that infallible Spirit which they suppose the Church to be assisted by For supposing this oral tradition should fail and that men might believe that it had actually failed yet if the former supposition were true there was sufficient ground for faith remaining still And what assurance can any one have that the present Church delivers nothing for matter of faith but what hath been derived in every age from Christ and his Apostles if such an infallible Spirit be supposed in the present Church which was in the Apostles themselves For on the same reason that those who heard the Apostles were not bound to trouble themselves with the tradition of the former age no more ought they who believe the present Roman Church to have the same infallible assistance They need not then enquire whether this age knew the meaning of the former or whether one age could conspire to deceive another or whether notwithstanding both these errors might not come into the Church it is sufficient for them that the definitions of the present Church are infallible in all matters of faith Therefore my demand was built on very good reason How can you assure me the present Church obliges me to believe nothing but only what and so far as it received from the former Church And Mr. S's answer is far from being satisfactory That this appears by her manifest practice never refusing communion to any man that could approve himself to believe all the former age did For this may be resolved into a principle far different from this which is the belief of the infallibility of the present Church For supposing that they are not bound to enquire themselves into the reasons why the tradition could not fail in any age it is suffient for them to believe the Church infallible and if it be so in proposing matters of faith it must be so in declaring what the belief of the former age was But my demands go on What evidence can you bring to convince me both that the Church always observed this rule and could never be deceived in it Which question is built on these two Principles which the infallibility of oral tradition stands on 1. That the Church must always go upon this ground 2. That if it did so it is impossible she should be deceived Both which are so far from that self-evidence which M. Serjeant still pretends to in this way that the Jesuits principles seem much more rational and consistent than these do For granting them but that one Postulatum that there must be an inherent infallibility in the testimony of the present Church to afford sufficient foundation for divine faith all the rest of their doctrine follows naturally from it Whereas this new way of resolving faith is built on such suppositions which no man well in his wits will be ready to grant For unless it be self-evident that the Church did always proceed on this ground it cannot be self-evident that oral tradition is infallible because the self-evidence of this principle depends on this that in all ages of the Church the only rule and measure of faith was what was delivered by oral tradition from the age foregoing Now if it be possible that matters of faith might be conveyed in ways quite different from this what self-evidence can there be that the Church much always proceed upon this Mr. S. then must demonstrate it impossible for matters of faith to be conveyed to posterity in any other way than oral tradition and not only that the thing is impossible but that the Church in all ages judged it to be so or else he can never make it at all evident that the Church always made this her rule of faith But if either there may be a certain conveyance of the doctrine of faith another way viz. by writing or that the Church might judg that way more certain whether it were so or not either way it will appear far enough from self-evidence that she always judged of doctrines of faith meerly by the tradition of the preceding age If another way be granted possible there must be clear demonstration that the Church notwithstanding this did never make use of it for if it did make use of another way of resolving faith in any age of the Church then in that age of the Church oral tradition was not looked on as the ground of faith
take notice of what I have elsewhere said I am resolved to let him see I am not at all concerned about it I begin to understand him so well by this Appendix that I can give my self a reasonable account why he thought it not fit to meddle with any other part of my Book But if Mr. S. be resolved not to answer any of the testimonies I there produce unless I single them out and print them at the end of this Answer i. e. remove them from that evidence which attends them in the series of the discourse I can only say he is the most imperious answerer I have met with who is resolved never to deal with an adversary but on his own unreasonable terms Thus heartily wishing Mr. S's Science as great as his opinion of it and a good effect of our endeavours to promote the one by removing the other I am Sir Your affectionate friend and servant Edward Stillingfleet London June 28. 1665. FINIS Postscript SIR SInce the dispatch of the former Papers I have met with another Treatise wherein I find my self concerned written by the Author of Fiat Lux the Title whereof is Diaphanta I am afraid the Title affrights you for I assure you it is the most formidable thing in his whole Book But the man is a very modest man and hugely different from Mr. S's humor for he is so far from offering to demonstrate the grounds of faith that all he pretends to in the title of his Book is to excuse Catholick Religion against the opposition of several Adversaries What fault I pray hath the Catholick Religion committed that it must now come to be excused instead of being defended But when I look into that part which concerns my self I presently understand the meaning of it which is not to excuse Catholick Religion but themselves for not being able to defend it For he very ingeniously tells us that faith is firm and constant though all his talk for it be miserably weak i. e. he is sure they have an excellent Religion though he knows not what to say for it and their faith is a very good faith but it hath not yet had the good fortune to be understood by them For he acknowledges that as often as they dispute they are beyond the business so may any one believe who reads their late Books which is in effect to say there is no way left of disputing any longer with adversaries about their faith only they must believe it stoutly themselves but it is to no purpose to offer to defend it Nay it doth their faith a great deal of mischief for saith he in reading controversies we see not so much the nature of the faith as the wit of him who opposes or defends it From whence we may easily gather what unspeakable mischief they do their cause by writing for it By which expressions we may guess at what a low ebb the defence of their faith is among them for the way now taken to defend it is by disowning the defenders of it and by saying that they only vent their own opinions and though we confute them never so much yet their faith holds good still Was ever a good cause driven to such miserable shifts as these are especially among those who pretend to wit and learning One he saith T. C. vents a private opinion of his own and it is not a pin matter whether it stand or fall another he saith the same of I. S. a third of J.V.C. and yet for all this their religion is very firm and sure and they are all at perfect agreement about it Is this the victory over me Mr. S. mentions to be so easie a thing I see that by the same figure M. S. calls his way of arguing demonstration running out of the field shall be accounted conquering For I never saw any person do it more openly than this Author does For he plainly confesses that his Catholick Gentleman went quite besides his business that he built upon indefensible principles that his theological ratiocination was indeed pretty but too weak to hold And are not we hugely too blame if we do not cry up such mighty Conquerors as these are Truly Sir I expect the very same answer should be returned to your Book that Mr. S's argument is a pretty theological ratiocination and that your answer is not unwitty but though that way will not hold another will Thus when they are beaten off Infallibility they run to Tradition and when they are again beaten off Tradition then back again to Infallibility So that the short of all their answers is though such a one cannot defend our faith yet I can though I cannot yet the faith is firm and constant still I wonder what their Superiors think of this way of proceeding among them we should imagine if they be so weak as they say themselves they had much better keep them from appearing abroad and exposing their cause so ridiculously to contempt But it may be they think their faith is the better as well as their devotion for their ignorance and that it would be a mighty disparagement to their cause for such silly people to be able to defend it It is enough for them to admire it themselves and to say as their common people use to do though they cannot defend it yet there are some that can And although it may be no particulat person can do it yet their cause is able to defend it self But for all that I can see by such kind of answers the intention of them is to intreat us not to triumph over the weakness of their present Writers but to wait till the Cause it self thinks fit to write And when it doth so they may expect a further answer but it were a great piece of cruelty for us to hasten their ruine who fall so fast before us by each others Pens FINIS Books Printed for and Sold by Henry Mortlock at the Phoenix in St. Pauls Church-yard and at the white Heart in VVestminster-hall A Rational account of the grounds of Protestant Religion being a Vindication of the Lord-Archbishop of Canterbury's Relation of a Conference c. from the pretended Answer of T.C. folio Sermons preached upon several occasions with a discourse annexed concerning the true reasons of the sufferings of Christ wherein Crellius's Answer to Grotius is considered fol. Irenicum A Weapon-Salve for the Churches wounds in quarto Origines Sacrae or a Rational Account of the Grounds of Christian Faith as to the Truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures and matters therein contained quarto A Discourse concerning the Idolatry practised in the Church of Rome and the hazard of Salvation in the Communion of it in Answer to some Papers of a revolted Protestant wherein a particular account is given of the Fanaticisms and Divisions of that Church octavo An Answer to several late Treatises occasioned by a Book entituled A Discourse concerning the Idolatry practised in