to bee false for any thing wee know or that wee have onely Probability for our Faith And you kindly tell us p. 135. that what M. S. calls a civill piece of Atheistry is advanc't in most express terms by his best Friends Sir I account Rushworths Dialogues my best Friend and I perceive you abuse the Preface of it notoriously which was wholly design'd to evince the contrary positions citing the Author of it p. 132. to say that such a Certainty as makes the cause alwayes work the same Effect though it take not away the absolute possibility of working otherwise ought absolutely to bee reckon'd in the degree of true Certainty whereas hee only tells us there p. 7. that by Morall Certainty some understood such a Certainty as made your cause alwayes work the same Effect whom a little after hee reprehends for undervaluing this for morall Certainty which is true or Physicall Certainty putting an Instance of the Certainty hee has that hee shall not repeat in order the same words hee spoke this last year and yet sayes hee these men will say I am onely morally Certain of it Your injury then lyes here that by leaving out the words at the beginning of the Citation by morall Certainty some understood such a Certainty c. you make him say what hee evidently makes others say and condemns them for so saying for hee is far from abetting their tenet tha a reall possibility to bee otherwise makes a true Certainty but asserts that to bee truly Certain which they mistook for possible to bee otherwise or morally Certain which is the plain tenour of his discourse as it is the whole scope of that Preface to force the direct contrary Position to what you would so disingenuously impose upon him The two next Citations are onely mistaken for 't is one thing to say what men would doe did they love Heaven as they ought or had they no Interest in their Souls another to ask what means is most efficacious to beget a hearty love of Heaven in their Souls the prudentialness of their obligation in case of a higher probability onely joyn'd with their undervalue of Heaven was enough to make them miscarry but 't is a question whether 't was enough to elevate them sufficiently amidst the Temptations of our three Spirituall Enemies to heavenly love so as to save them or if they bee very speculative against the Temptations of Fancy and the seeming Impossibility of the mysteries Also 't is another thing to ask what men should do if there were no Infallibility or which is all one to them if they hold none and whether Infallibility or an absolute Impossibility Faith should bee otherwise bee not incomparably the best for mankind and so laid by God who ever does the best for his Creatures As I would not therefore have the Protestants renounce all practice of Religion because they have not an Infallible means of knowing their Faith to bee true so neither do I doubt but had they such Assurance their Faith would work through Charity with far more liveleness and steadiness than either it now does or can do You abuse what you cite from mee p. 140. by impugning half the Sentence onely the other half would have discoverd I spoke not of mans nature according to his morall part but according as 't is cognoscitive and this chiefly in naturall Knowledges imprinted directly by his Senses on his Soul Represent things truely and then dispute as much as you will otherwise you but injure your self and abuse your Reader while you go about with a preposterus Courtesy to oblige mee P. 145. According to your usuall sincerity you quote Rushworth's Nephew to say that a few good words are to bee cast in concerning Scripture for the satisfaction of indifferent men who have been brought up in this verball and apparent respect of the Scripture to which you add who it seems are not yet arriv'd to that degree of Catholick Piety and Fortitude as to endeavour patiently the word of God should bee reviled and slighted Wheras in the place you cite hee onely expresses it would bee a Satisfaction to indifferent men to see the positions one would induce them to embrace maintainable by Scripture Which is so different from the invidious meaning your malice puts upon it and so innocent and unoffensive in it self that one who were not well acquainted with you and knew not your temper and over good nature to bee such that you car'd not to undo your self to do your Friend a Kindnes would wonder with what Conscience you could so wrest and pervert it P. 146. You mention my explaining the notion of Tradition which you carp at as tedious and yet as wee have seen by frequent experience all was too little to make you understand it though I endeavourd there according to my utmost to render it unmistakable But you mistake it here again objecting that I instance in set forms the Creed and ten Commandments whereas the Apol. for Tradition sayes That cannot bee a Tradition which is deliver'd in set words It had been better you had put down that Authors own words Apol. p. 81. which are A Tradition as wee have explicated it being a Sence deliver'd c. for why was it not possible hee and I should explicate it diversly But to the point I speak of Tradition or delivery you and the Apology of a Tradition or the thing deliver'd which you confound Now a Tradition or point deliver'd being Sence and Sence abstracting from my particular manner of expressing it hee had good reason to say there that a Tradition is a Sence settled in the Auditor's hearts by hundreds of different Expressions explicating the same meaning nor do you any where find mee say but that though the Creed and Ten Commandments bee the shortest expressions of the main points of Speculative and Practicall Christianity and so most sutable to the young memories I speak of yet I no where say that Forefathers exprest the Sences contain'd in them no other way or that they did not deliver them in hundreds of different Expressions according as the manifold variety of occasions and circumstances accidentally lighting prompted the Fancies of the Teachers after a naturall kind of manner to declare themselves You see Sir how unfortunate you are still when you would make us contradict our selves or one another And the civillest Excuse for your perpetuall failings herein is to alledge that you are utterlyignorant of what you would impugn and I wish that were the worst You put upon mee p. 152. that unless a person to bee converted can demonstrate one pretended Rule certain and Infallible the other not hee hath not found out the Rule of Faith I wish you had told us where I say this for I must disavow it as directly opposit to my Doctrine which is that our Rule of Faith's Certainty is Practically-self-evident and known by virtue of an obvious familiar conversation with the nature of things and
Predicate being the very same notion no other middle notion could come between them by connexion with which they might bee shown connected with one another You remember them I suppose it was they that made you and your Friends such sport in your Book Practicall Self-evidence is that which wee are not thus imbu'd with by nature through the common light of Understanding nor yet is it acquir'd by rationall Discourses for this is Evidence by-deduction not Self-evidence but that which is stoln into us as it were at unawares by a common converse with things in this world which all mankind in a manner even those who are very rude are acquainted with Examples of the former are if you have done laughing A Rule is a Rule Faith is Faith also A whole or a part and more is more than a part or is a part and more Examples of the later for your better satisfaction I propose three or four One shall bee that in a square space 't is a neerer way to go from one corner to that which is opposite by the Diameter than to go by the two sides Another shall bee that things look less afar off and bigger neerer-hand A third shall bee that abstracting from madness 't is impossible Mr. T. or any other such you see how kind I am to you should take for his Text The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God and at the same time and in the same circumstances things stand now in England should preach Atheism and endeavour to perswade them out of that very Text there is no God The last shall bee the Existence of Q. Elizabeth or K. Henry the 8th Now I affirm that all these are Practically-self-evident for it was not by virtue of Speculative discourses the vulgar arriv'd to the Knowledge of these and such like things as is evident by this that they know not how to prove these or give an account of their assent by way of evident discourse but by virtue of the common knowledges of things in the world they are acquainted with Now what is thus self-evident is so far from being impossible to bee evidenc't Speculatively that 't is the proper task of Learned men by which I mean not those tedious mighty men of Talk who think it an excellent confutation of Sence to cavill at words and Expressions to look into Nature and discover or if you bee not offended demonstrate what were the proper Causes which wrought thus after a naturall manner that Effect call'd Certainty in rationall Souls as to all the aforesaid particulars which found they will appear to bee the mediums fit to demonstrate that Effect That this is so in the two first Examples you are so well skilled in Euclid the mathematicks though one Prophet T. say's I have not read him as to know that notwithstanding this Practical-self-evidence all mankind has of them Mathematicians notwithstanding go about to demonstrate them speculatively without fearing to do a needless action out of the nature of Quantity as I make account I could demonstrate the 4th the 3d. too out of the nature of Man or out of this if you please that a man is a man or a rationall Creature that is a Thing that acts not if hee have the use of Reason without a motive To come nearer home I concieve that 't is to all unprejudic't and unpreoccupated Understandings as are all Catholikes who have not their Faith from skill but by the naturall way of Education Self-evident Practically that the Doctrine deliver'd now as taught by Christ and his Apostles by such as profess to have it by way of Tradition or uninterrupted Succession from them is truly their Doctrine or that the Certainty of Traditions conveying down matters of Fact is practically-self-evident and thence I proceed to look speculatively into the Causes of such an Assurance and so demonstrate it Which when I go about I discover that besides what ascertain'd Humane Tradition in witnessing the Existence of Henry the 8th or any other matter of Fact infinite Advantages were found in Christian Tradition enabling it to bring down the first-preach't Doctrine above what was found in them But I expatiate too far I hope by this Sir you see at length what my whole Book ayms at though good man you were so taken up with cavilling at little wordish Exceptions you spy'd it nor before that is to demonstrate by way of Speculation what I conceiv'd before to bee self-evident practically you see also at the same time how infinitely you oblige mee by professing your Ignorance of this point for in so doing you profess withall that you are utterly Ignorant of what my whole Book meant And are not you rarely qualify'd to bee an Impugner of my Book who are so perfectly to seek in knowing what 's the main end it drives at Is it not evident hence that your endeavours to confute mee can never go to the bottom of the difficulty but onely talk superficially that is wordishly and withall mistakingly to some passages in it Surely plain reason tells us in every ordinary affair that if one man understands not the main end the other ayms at however hee may talk prettily and express himself in good language yet hee can never speak home and to the purpose And as this is plain à priori from it's proper Cause your Ignorance of my main intent so you have abundantly demonstrated the same à posteriori in your whole Book which no where as I hope to show you hereafter begins at the bottom but is wholly made up of a great many aiery gay prettinesses such as best befits one who mocks at Evidence and Demonstration But 't is no matter your Friend Mr. Stillingfleet will extoll you for it the more and the Generality of your party who are accustom'd and educated by you to loose sermonary Discourses will like it the better whereas had you profest the way of Evidence you had been character'd by him as monstrously opinionated of your self and that kind of Readers your onely admirers would not have understood you 14. Your second Part treats about the Properties of the Rule of Faith and whether they agree solely to Orall Tradition I assign'd seven of which you are pleas'd to mistake quite no fewer than all But I must not here take notice too much of your Reason but of your Kindnesses contradistinguisht by your Friend Mr. Stillingfleet to your Reasons that is which are Irrationall You tell mee p. 57. that I might have learn'd something from the same Authour from whom I borrow'd my Chief Properties of the Rule of Faith if I had but had the patience to have consider'd his Explication of them Surely learned Sir you have great skill in Judiciary Astrology or else you deal with Lilly and Booker or perhaps have an inchanted Glass which discovers to you all I do in my study For you know exactly all I do there nay which is yet more wonderfull all I do
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
the reason of your mistaking mee here and in some other passages was this I minded not Rhetorick at all but onely Sense you as became a solid Confuter minded not the Sence at all but onely the Rhetorick which by mee was never aim'd at either there or in any other part of my Book If what I write bee Truth and my Expression Intelligible I have my End and can without Envy permit you to dress up your own Falshoods in the gingle of periods and empty flourishes The second place brought to make mee liberally acknowledge that it follows from my Principles no man can possibly relinquish Tradition is found in you p. 165 and 166. and thus Since no man can hold contrary to his knowledge nor doubt of what hee holds nor change or innovate without knowing hee doth so it is a manifest Impossibility a whole Age should fall into an absurdity so inconsistent with the nature of one single man Is here any liberall acknowledgment that no man can desert Tradition Or is there a word here to that purpose but onely that no man can doubt of or hold the contrary to what hee knows nor go about so visible an action as innovating without knowing hee does so with which yet may well consist that not onely one single man but all mankind may for any thing is there said knowingly and wilfully desert Tradition and turn Apostates I wonder learned Sir what you are akin to that Philosopher who maintain'd Snow was black you have so admirable a faculty of identifying the most disparate nay contrary notions and by a knack of placing things in false lights make even Propositions which signifie the self-same become perfect Contradictions The third place of mine which you say must make mee liberally acknowledge it a genuine consequence from my Principles that 't is impossible one single man should relinquish Tradition is cited by you p. 166. from Sure-footing p. 87. That it is perhaps impossible for one single man to attempt to deceive posterity to which you add in another Letter by renouncing Tradition It had been better in such nice points to put down my own words especially when you put them in a different Letter Mine are 'T is perhaps impossible that they should mislead posterity in what themselves conceit to bee true which is different from the Words and Sense you represent for mine for many weak persons by Sophistry or fine words pretended from Scripture and baptiz'd God's Word may bee inveigled to conceit that Tradition is false in which case should they renounce Tradition yet they would not therefore mislead posterity from what they conceit true which is all I there say or undertake for But the main is you represent mee to say 't is perhaps impossible in one single man which reaches any man whether good or bad whereas my discourse there proceeds upon good and holy men onely It begins thus p. 89. For supposing Sanctity in the Church that is that multitudes in it make heaven their first love had those Fathers that is those Holy men misled Posterity c. and then follow some of the words you cite I mean all of them that are mine This being so bee Judge your self Sir whether bating you the perhaps and speaking absolutely it bee not impossible for one good and holy man to mislead posterity in what he conceits to be true and whether it may not consist well enough with this branch of my discourse that great multitudes may turn bad that is chuse some false good for their last end and then out of affection to that disregard what 's true what 's false and mislead their children contrary to their own knowledge You say p. 171. that the onely thing I offer in that discourse to prevent this Objection is this Sure-footing p. 65. 'T is not to bee expected but some contingencies should have place where a whole Species in a manner is to bee wrought upon c. And had there been no more mee thinks it might have made you wary to challenge mee with the direct contrary had you not resolv'd to lay the necessity of my contradicting my self in every passage for one of your first Principles to confute mee with But I offer'd far more and more obvious preventions than that See the immediate Conclusion from my Grounds put down by your self p. 162. which one would think should inform you best what is the most genuine consequence from the same Principles This put it follows as certainly that a GREAT NUMBER OR BODY of the first Beleevers and after-faithful in each Age would continue to hold themselves and teach their children as themselves had been taught that is would follow and stick to Tradition c. Does a great number or Body signifie all not one excepted which you falsly put upon mee How disingenuous a proceeding is this to perswade your Reader those are not my Consequences from my Principles which I make my self but those which you make for mee and how do you make them by perverting constantly my words and sense Again you know I had writ a discourse declaring how Heresies came to bee introduc't and therefore one would think any sober Confuter that were not bent upon Cavill ere hee had challeng'd mee to hold that no one man could possibly turn Heretick that is that no Heresie could possibly come in should have look't first in that place to see how and by what means I made Heresies actually come in But you were resolv'd before-hand what to do that is to make mee speak contradictions and so it was not your Interest to see it or take notice of it Otherwise there you had seen mee prevent all the imputations which you by virtue of your forg'd monosyllable All had put upon mee See Sure-footing p. 66. We will reflect how an Heresie is first bred Wee must look then on Christs Church not onely as on a Congregation having in their hearts those most powerful motives able of their own Nature to carry each single heart possest by them but as on the perfectest form of a Common-wealth having within her self Government and Officers to take care all those Motives bee ACTUALLY APPLY'D AS MUCH AS MAY BEE to the subject Laity and that all the sons of the Church c. notwithstanding it happens sometimes that because 't is impossible the perfection of discipline should extend it self in so vast a multitude to every particular some one or few persons by neglect of applying Christian motives to their souls fall into extravagancies c. and if Governours bee not vigilant and prudent draw other curious or passionate men into the same faction with themselves which words would have clearly shown you that for want of due application which was one of the requisites my demonstrations went upon the Cause fell short of producing its effect of adhering to Tradition And this you might have seen neerer hand namely in the foregoing Discourse the very same which pretended to demonstrate
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
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