it self To omit here that he makes it the very temper of a Christian mind not to question Tradition he maintains Continuance of Time to be so far from weakening the Certainty of Traditionary points that it contributes to strengthen them more And the reason is because the Churches Doctrin spreads by Time and so the sway of Tradition's descent is ampler besides that every new Degree of Continuance establishes its Title to Possession and makes it hainouser to revolt from it And Effects show our discourse true for there were more variety of Heresies that is Renouncers of Tradition in the first 400 years after the Apostles than we read of in any 400 years since Nor that we may use a familiar Instance in Human Tradition does I conceive any man living more doubt now of Mahomets or Iulius Caesar's existence than within an 100 years after they liv'd 15. A few Notes well weigh'd will strengthen the force of these Allegations which even at first sight seem to look very favourably on our Cause I mind my Reader then First That almost every Citation alledg'd is of Councils or Fathers speaking directly against Hereticks that is in such Circumstances as put them to declare what fixt them Catholicks and what made the other Hereticks Secondly That though some Fathers and Councils speak highly of Scripture as that it contains all Faith c. 'T is first to be markt whether they speak of Scripture Senc't or as yet to be Sencâ—t and if the later by whom or whether any Fathers say that Scripture wrought upon by private Interpretation and Human Wit is apt to ascertain Faith or be the Rule of Faith which is the true point between the Renouncers of Tradition and us Thirdly They shall observe it frequent in Fathers to force Hereticks to accept the Sence of Scripture from those who gave them the Letter of Scripture and very frequent to Sence that Letter even when dark by Tradition but never to bend Tradition to the outward show the Scripture's Letter seems to bear as interpreted by human Skills or to say Universal Tradition is insufficient or uncertain unless the Scripture's Letter thus interpreted came to clear or assist it Lastly 't is impossible they should hold Scripture thus interpretable the Rule of Faith it being notorious that most Hereticks against whom they writ held it theirs And so had they held Scripture thus interpreted the Rule of Faith they could not have held them Hereticks since they adher'd stiffly to that Rule or Root of Faith however they might err in many particular Tenets Not to repeat how all the Properties of the Rule of Faith are urterly incompetent to Scripture's Letter This done all the Testimonies for Scripture against Tradition lose their edge That is if my discourse also hold the test it will appear by way of Fact as it did before by Argument that there is neither Reason nor Authority against Tradition So that I have no more to do but to show that our Church at present grounds her faith on Tradition as formerly which done it follows all the Substance of my foregoing Discourses is but an Explication of our Churches Sence 16. To know our Churches Sence in this point we will not fetch our Testimony from private Authours as is the Protestants mode when they would affix any thing upon her but we will attend to what her own living voice pronounc't in her late famous Representative the Council of Trent Where in every Session definitive of Faith It professes to follow TRADITION either in most express or equivalent Terms As Session 4th The Holy Synod clearly seeing that this Truth and Disciplin Christ's Doctrin is contain'd in the written Books and Traditions without writing which received by the Apostles from Christ's own mouth or from the very Apostles the Holy Ghost dictating as it were deliver'd by hands per manus Traditae have come down to us c. And Again Also the TRADITIONS both belonging to Faith and Manners as dictated orally by Christ or the Holy Ghost and conserved by CONTINVAL SVCSESSION in the Catholick Church c. Session 5. The Holy Council following the Iudgment aud Consent of the Church Ibid. § 4. As the Catholick Church where ever diffus'd hath alwayes understood it For by reason of this RVLE OF FAITH according to the TRADITION of the Apostles c. Session 6. It professes to follow that Doctrin which Christ taught the Apostles deliver'd and the Catholick Church the Holy Ghost suggesting perpetually or interruptedly retain'd Session 7. The Holy Synod adhering to the Holy Scripture the Traditions of the Apostles and the Consent of Councils and Fathers Session 13. The sound and sincere doctrin which the Catholick Church hath ever kept and will ever keep to the end of the World And again For so ALL OVR ANCESTOVRS that ever were in the tru Church of Christ most openly have profest And yet again cap. 3. This Faith was ever in the Church So cap. 4. It was ever held in God's Church More such like Expressions are found in the same Session But to proceed Session 14. chap. 1. The Consent of ALL the Fathers EVER understood c. Chap. 5. The Church of God NEVER taught nor held c. Chap. 5. The Vniversal Church EVER understood that c. Chap. 7. It was ever held in God's Church Chap. 8. It was PERPETVALLY COMMENDED by our Fathers to Christian people No Catholick EVER held c. And in the same Session concerning Extream Unction alledging S. Iames his Text it adds By which words AS THE CHVRCH HATH LEARNED BY TRADITION RECEIV'D DOWN BY HANDS he teacheth c. And Can. 3. As the Catholick Church EVER understood from the beginning c. Can. 6. Which the Catholick Church ever observ'd from the beginning and doth observe c. Session 21. chap. 1. The Council professes to follow the Iudgment and CVSTOME of the Church Chap. 2. It declares that this power has PERPETVALLY been in the Church Session 22. That the antient Faith and doctrin may be retain'd in the Church Ibid. cap. 1. As the Catholick Church EVER understood and taught Chap. 1. According to Apostolical TRADITION Session 23 Holy Writings show it and the TRADITION of the Catholick Church ever taught it Chap. 2. They are known to have been in use from the very Beginning of the Church Session 24. The Holy Fathers Councils and the VNIVERSAL TRADITION of the Church have ALWAYES taught And speaking of some Errors It pronounces them different from the Catholick Church and from the CVSTOME approved SINCE THE APOSTLES TIME Session 25. The Catholick Church instructed by the Holy Ghost teaches out of Sacred Writings and the ANTIENT TRADITION of the Church c. According to the use of the Catholick and Apostolick Church TRADITAM deliver'd from the first or Primitive times of Christian Religion c. More Expressions of the like strain are found in this Session And to close up all in their Acclamation they use this
them which breeds a certain awe in them before-hand preparing their minds to more reverence for the future Afterwards growing up they come acquainted with the Creed the ten Commandments the Sacraments some common forms of Prayer and other Practices of Christianity and are directed to order their lives accordingly the Actions or Carriage of the circumstant Church and Elder Faithful guiding the Younger notwithstanding the difficulty of the yet-undigested Metaphor in which dialect Faith is delivered to frame their lives to several sorts of Virtues by the doctrine deliver'd in words as Faith Hope Charity Prayer Adoration c. and the concomitant or subservient Virtues to these and the more intelligent whose Understandings are clear'd by Study and the circumstance of conversing with the learneder sort of Fore-fathers to do out of Knowledge and Reflexion what others do as it were naturally and by meer Belief or guidance of others And this goes on by insensible degrees till at last the Teachers die and leave in their room a new Swarm of the same nature with themselves as to Christian Life that is practising the same external Actions which determin to a certain degree the sence of the Words they have been inur'd to and since the practice of those Actions was instill'd from their Infancy and serious holding consequently the Principles of those Actions that is the same Points of Faith with the former Age. And this goes on not by leaps from an hundred years to an hundred or from twenty to twenty but by half-years to half-years nay moneths to moneths and even less according as the young brood of Eaglets made to see the Sun in his full Glory grow up to a capacity of having their tender eyes acquainted first with the dawning afterwards with the common day-light of Christian Doctrin 5. If any should be so dull as to think this looks like a Speculation onely and not to see plainly that 't is confirm'd by ten thousand Experements every day I desire them to consider how the Primitive Faithful were inur'd to Christianity ere the Books of Scripture were writ or communicated or how themselves though Protestants or Presbyterians were first imbu'd with Christian Principles ere they could read and they shall finde it was meerly by this way of Tradition Nay more I dare affirm that the very Presbyterians much more the Protestants still adhere to their Faith because their Parents Pastors taught them it when they were young and not upon the Evidence of Scripture's Letter to their own private Judgement which is manifest by this that those who are brought up under Mr. Baxter are apt to follow him others Mr. Pierce and all in general hold fixedly to the doctrin of others especially if their Parents be of the same persuasion So hard it is to beat down Nature by Designe or not to follow Tradition in practice though at the same time they write and talk never so vehemently and loud against it Nay 't is easie to remark that those who were brought up Protestants while they follow'd their Teachers and Forefathers in the Traditionary way continu'd firmly such and that none declin'd from that Profession until they began to use their own private Judgments in interpreting Scripture and that then they ran by whole shoals into innumerable other Sects However then they exclaim against Tradition yet 't is evident they owe to It all the Union and Strength they have and to the renouncing It all their Distractions and Weakness 6. What is said hitherto is onely to explain the Nature of Tradition perfectly and to settle a right conceit of it which done many Objections will be render'd unnecessary either to be answerd or mention'd as those that proceed against a kind of Prophetical Afflatus which can have no force against our way building upon perfect Evidence of our best Senses but especially those which take so wrong an aym that they dispute against res traditae or the things deliver'd instead of Tradition it self and thereupon accuse us for holding Human Traditions or things invented by men for Faith Whereas when we speak of the Rule of Faith we mean by the word Tradition onely the Method of publickly delivering and conveying down Tenets held to have come from Christ in the manner before declared This note premised to avoid mistake and keep the Reader 's mind more steady to the matter in hand let us see now whether Tradition have in it the nature of a Rule of Faith which is done by examining whether the fore-named Properties belong to it or no. 7. And first 't is already manifest from what is said that the First Property of the Rule of Faith namely that it must be Evident to all as to its Existence absolutely agrees with Tradition For Tradition being the open conveyance down of Practical Doctrines by our best senses of Discipline that is our Eyes and Ears and this by Sounds daily heard and Actions daily seen and even felt 't is as easily appliable to all sorts or Evident to them as to its Existence as it is to see and hear So that it can be insinuated into or affect not onely the rudest vulgar and little Children but in some degree even very Babes as was shown 8. The second Condition which is that its Ruling Power should be easily Evidenceable to any Enquirer is thus shown to agree to Tradition Let the rudest Doubter come and desire to be certify'd that Tradition is a Rule able if follow'd to convey down Christ's doctrin to our very daies or to the world's end and let these plain Interrogatories be put to him Suppose all Protestants in England were settled in an unanimous Profession of their Faith and that their Children without looking farther should believe and practice as their Fathers had brought them up would it not follow in self-evident terms that those Children while they followed this method would be Protestants too Suppose these now grown men under those Parents should have children too of their own who should behave themselves in the same manner towards their Fathers by believing and practising as they taught them without looking any farther would it not be equally evident they would still be Protestants also Since to believe and practice thus is to be a Protestant and would not this method if followed carry on that doctrin still forwards from Generation to Generation to the very end of the world 'T is then most easily evidenceable to the rudest capacity that this immediate delivery of Tradition as above explicated is a certain way of deriving down Christs Doctrin while the world shall last This Property therefore of the Rule of Faith is found evidently to agree to Tradition 9. The third Condition which is that the Rule of Faith must be apt to justify unreflecting and unredoubting persons that they proceed rationally while they rely on it is found most exactly in Tradition For the common course of human conversation makes it a madness not to believe great
multitudes of Knowers if no possible consideration can awaken in our reason a doubt that they conspire to deceive us Now in the way of Tradition all deliverers or immediate Forefathers are Knowers as appears in those who immediately heard the Apostles all the Knowledge requisit being of what they were taught and practic 't accordingly all their lives of which 't is impossible the rudest person should be ignorant who ever had any Effect of such a Teaching wrought upon him Nor can any unless their brains rove wildly or be unsettled even to the degree of madness suspect deceit where such multitudes unanimously agree in a matter of fact look seriously when they speak act themselves and practice accordingly and show in the whole course of their carriage that they hope to be sav'd themselves and to save others whom they thus instruct by relying on this Truth that their Forefathers thus taught them which amounts to this that Nature or common Reason at unawares steals into them a solid apprehension that Tradition is of a certain kind of Nature and so that while Fathers thus taught Children it was ever such that is that Tradition is a certain Rule of conveying down Faith which is all we study to evince at present I may add that Nature telling them by their own experiences that Parents generally would be apt to teach their Children what themselves had been taught and believ'd to be good and true needfull to their eternal Salvation their natural thoughts would lead them by a downright procedure to judge that Tradition was ever in some considerable Body of Deliverers who stuck to it and own'd it and that those had true Faith or truly that doctrin which Christ and the first Planters of Christianity taught But of this point more hereafter 10. If it be objected that this multitude of plain honest-meaning Souls are as much justify'd for believing Scripture I answer that if you mean their Faith conceiv'd to be found in Scripture or a determinate Sence of Scripture's Letter it cannot with any show of reason be pretended that they are as much justifiable for believing any setting aside Tradition's help for without this it totally depends on the inward Judgments Fancies or Skills of men which they are unqualify'd to judge of not on open verdict of Senses to wield the Certainty or Uncertainty of which lies clearly within the reach of their common reason And as for Scripture's Letter they cannot possibly be justify'd in reason for believing even the Substantial Truth of it without Tradition's assisting hand and preserving care And the reason is the same because the common course of human Experience tells them that Judgments or Opinions often disagree but their plain Sensations especially if frequently repeated never Whence a Jury of the plainest High-shoes would upon the Evidence of the sight of six Witnesses without more ado condemn a Malefactor but not upon the Judgments of a thousand men if a Testimony grounded on Sense were not brought Now take away Tradition and all ground from Certain Sence fails us either for the meaning or even Letter of Scripture and all is left to men's Judgments built on latent Skills or Fancy or at least on Sense liable to great and numerous mistakes as hath been shown Disc. 4. § 3. Again seeing every one apprehends the most vulgar have reason enough to believe there was such a one as K. Iames and Q. Elizabeth of which they are no otherwise ascertain'd but by Tradition why are not they as much or more justify'd for believing points of Faith received down by the same tenour whereas if you go about to pump their common Reason about the Authority of the Statute-Book or the Truth of its Letter you shall find them blunder and at a â—oss being pos'd beyond their sphere of 〈◊〉 Nature by a question entrenching upon skill to which they can never answer with a steady assuredness inwardly and if they do so outwardly 't is manifest that some Passion and not their Reason breeds that irrational Profession The third Condition then of the Rule of Faith which was to be apt to settle and justify unreflecting and undoubting vulgar is manifestly found agreeing to Tradition 11. I put next the 6th Condition because the proof of it evidently proves the fourth fifth and seventh For what is built on immovable Grounds or Certain in its self has in it wherewith to settle and satisfy the most piercing Witâ— convince the most obstinate Adversaries and to ascertain us absolutely To prove that Tradition has Certain and Infallible Grounds it may suffiâ—â— to note that Disc. 1. § 13 14 15. it being evidently proved Faith must be Infallible to us anâ— no less evident that it cannot be such without having Infallibly-câ—â—tain Grounds since nothinâ— can be firmer to us than the ground it stands on now the Rule of Faith is its Ground It follow evidently that This must likewise be Infallibâ—â— certain There being then onely two Ground or Rules of Faith owned namely Deliver of it down by Writing and by Words anâ— Practice which we call Oral and Practical Tradition 't is left unavoydably out of the imposibility that Scripture should be Infallible as Rule that Tradition must be such 12. Though this Conclusion supposing thâ— Truth of the Propositions I assume as alreadâ— prov'd be sufficiently consequent to those Adversaries against whom I contest at present thâ— Certainty of Tradition in regard they do 〈◊〉 stick to grant that either Scripture or Tradition must be the Rule of Faith Yet I foresee more will be expected from a pretender to demonstrate its Certainty and that he should frame his Discourse from intrinsecal Mediums Reflecting then on the nature of Tradition as before explicated we shall observe that it hath for its Basis the best Nature in the Universe that is Man's the Flower and End of all the rest and this not according to his Moral part defectible by reason of Original Corruption nor yet his Intellectuals darkly groping in the pursuit of Science by reflected thoughts or Speculation amidst the misty vapours exhal'd by his Passion predominant over his rational Will but according to those faculties in him perfectly and necessarily subject to the operations and stroaks of Nature that is his Eyes Ears handling and the direct Impressions of Knowledge as naturally and necessarily issuing from the affecting those Senses as it is to feel heâ—â— cold Pain Pleasure or any other material Quality Again those Impressions upon the Sense are not made once but frequently and in most many times every day Moreover to make these more express and apt to be taken notice of their lives are to be fram'd by the Precepts they hear and conformable Examples they see so that Faith I mean the substance of it or that solid plain Knowledge as far as 't is apt to cause downright Christian 〈◊〉 comes clad in such plain matters of Fact that the most stupid man living cannot possibly be ignorant of it
Erroneous Opinions can never gain any solid footing in the Church For since Disc. 5. § 15. Corol. 11. the Church is a Body of men relying on Tradition or the Authority of attesting Forefathers not on the Authority of Opinators these Opinions can never have any firmness in her by means of Authority and on the other side being Erroneous they can never gain any depth of adhesion by being demonstrably true nor Errour being necessarily opposit to Truth can they even maintain their quiet posture by being evidently not opposit to Faith It follows that neither upon the score of Reason nor Authority can they sink deep into the minds of the Faithful at least the intelligent party of them or gain any solid footing in the Church but are subject to be contradicted or have their verity disputed by the searching and unsatisfy'd wits of Opposers 35. The Prudence requisit in Church-Government is one Cause why Erroneous Opinions are not immediately but after some long time perhaps to be declared against by the Authority of the whole Church For since a Church is a most vast and sacred Common-wealth and so of the greatest gravity and Authority imaginable she is not in prudence to engage it trivially in sleight occasions nor rashly when the point is unevident Wherefore seeing an Erroneous Opinion while held but by few is of sleight concern and so onely fit to be taken notice of by inferiour Officers when universally held is of great Authority amongst the multitude she is in Prudence to suspend till its Opposition to Faith be clear'd by the Science of Divinity and this satisfactorily to a great part of the Opinatours lest either she should in stead of tares pluck up wheat or use her Authority more to destruction than edification by a too hasty decision 36. No Erroneous Opinion in Divinity if Vniversal and Practical can be very long permitted in the Church For since Corol. 31. a meer Opinion can never gain the Authority of a Traditionary point 't is manifest it can never subsist when it is shown to clash with any of the said Points Wherefore since it is liable to discussion and men are naturally of different Judgments and Interests and the variety and Nature of worldly Interest is such that if any thing makes for the Interest of some 't is for that very reason against the Interest of another it will excite them to discussion and sifting its Conformity or Disconformity to Christian Principles which is the way to clear the Terms and make it appear But especially seeing absurd or irrational Practices are the proper Effects of Erroneous Principles and that our natural Corruption inclines men to follow such Practices till they be checkt by regard to something held Sacred that is by being shown opposit to Faith it follows that till this opposition be shown they will infallibly grow on still more and more till they come to such an height of absurdity that they need now no skill to discover them Experience teaching us that the most palpable and evident method to try the Truth of any Speculation is to put it into matter and bring it into Practice Those irrational Practices therefore must needs after some time discover themselves opposit to Christian behaviour and consequently confess the Principle which begot them opposit to Christian Faith which done it presently loses its credit and is quasht by the incomparably more powerful force and all over-bearing Authority of Tradition 37. Erroneous Opinions and the irrational Practices issuing from them though suppos'd Vniversal and of long continuance can never corrupt substantially the Iudgments or Wills of the Faithful For since Corol. 31. nothing not held ever or not coming from Christ can possibly be accepted as held ever or coming from Christ 't is evident no Erroneous Opinion can come to gain the sacredness and repute of a Traditionary point nor their proper practices the Esteem of Christian Practice Wherefore Traditionary Points being the Principles which absolutely possess the Judgmenrs and govern the lives of the Faithful as Christians it follows that no Opinion can ever be held by them but in a conciev'd subordination to Traditionary points or points of Faith nor practicâ—t by them but with a conceivd subordination and conformity to those Practices which spring from undoubtedly-known Christian Tenets or Traditionary points Seeing then what is not held and practicâ—t but as conceivd subordinate to other Tenets and Practices must needs be less held than those others nay not held at all otherwise than conditionally or upon supposal of such a subordination â—tis clearly consequent that Traditions Certainty is so powerful an Antidote that bad Opinions and Practices can never corrupt substantially and absolutely the Judgments or wills of the Faithfull 38. No Erroneous Opinion or its proper Practice is imputable to the Church properly and formally taken For since the Church formally as such proceeds on Christian Tradition no such Opinion nor consequently Practice is imputable to the Church properly and formally taken but onely to some men in the Church materially consider'd as left to the contingent force of their private Discourses that is indeed to the Schools not the Church 39. 'T is exceedingly weak and senceless to think to impugn the Church by objecting to her such Opinions and Practices For since they concern her not nor are imputable to her as Church or to her Members as Faithful the wise Objection can onely signify thus much that the Church has men in her who are fallible in their private Discourses or School-disputes that is she has men in her who are men A heavy imputation 40. The Knowledge of Tradition's Certainty is the first Knowledge or Principle in Controversial Divinity that is without which nothing is known or knowable in that Science For since Controversy or the Science which establishes the Certainty of Faith depends on these two Propositions Whatever God said is true and God said this the former of which is out of Controversy as we now handle it with our modern Dissenters and onely the later is the subject of our debate Seeing also as hath been largely and manifoldly evident nothing can ascertain us of this but Tradition nor It unless its Certainty be known it follows that the Knowledge of Tradition's Certainty is the first Knowledge or Principle in Controversial Divinity 41. Christ's promise to his Church however comfortable to the Faithful can bear no part in the notion of the Rule of Faith nor be the first Principle of a Controversial Divine For since Christ's promise to his Church is held as a point of Faith that is receiv'd upon the Rule of Faith that is subsequent to that Rule 't is manifest that it can be no part of that Rule nor first Principle in Controversy Again the Rule of Faith Disc. 1. § 4 and 9. must be so evident as to its Existence that no other Knowledge must intervene between the natural power of Understanding and It and this in the meanest vulgar
true Sence of that Letter in Points of Faith deliver'd See Coroll 29. 30 it follows that Scripture alledged by the Church relying on Tradition for its Rule engages certainly and fully the very Authority of the Divinely inspir'd Writer himself and gives that Testimony the whole Effect upon our understanding which that Sacred Writers Authority deserves to have given it No wonder then the Council proceeding upon Traditionary Interpretation as it constantly declares it self to do honours Scripture-Testimony so as to put it before Tradition or the delivery of Christs Doctrin from hand to hand Scripture thus alledg'd and securd having the same force as if the Apostle or Evangelist himself should sit in the Council and by way of living voice declar'd his own Sence in the matter to whom thus present what deference the Council would have given is obvious to be imagin'd Hence also the Protestant may see what high esteem our Church gives to Gods Word truly so calld that is having Gods Sence certainly-known to be such in it and that 't is onely the outward Letter as us'd to hammer a Faith out of by wordish skills that is indeed their Method of interpreting it which by reason of its Uncertainty falls short of engaging the Sacred Authority of Gods Word we fleight and scorn And most justly since 't is the having no better way to work on Scripture which has brought Scripture it self thus usâ—d to scorn and contempt as appears in the carriage of our Bedlam of new Sects in England I expect here some mighty man of talk but very weak Speculator should object that this is an excellent way to bring all into our Churches hands But till he can prove that both Letter Sence of Scripture are knowable with such a Certainty as to build on them that most firm Assent call'd Faith by any other way than this of Tradition I can neither hinder my Inferences nor will he ever be able to confute my discourse 20. Thus much to show evidently that the Substance of the Doctrin we have given in our former Discourses is the very Sence of our Church at present and that her present Sence in this matter is agreeable to the Judgment of Antient Fathers and Councils I have no more to do now but to show that at the very time of the Breach here in England the Catholick was found adhering fast to this Rule of Tradition renounc't by the Protestant This is evident by the Protestants own confession For as oft as you hear them alledge that England was formerly overgrown with Popery that the new Light of the Gâ—spel hath of late discovered it self that they reformâ—d in Faith that the former Church errd and such like expressions which naturally must burst out from them so oft you hear them acknowledge themselves Deserters of Tradition and Innovators Which Expressions of theirs by the way easily manifest to the most vulgar understanding who â—tis that hath renounct Tradition whence it being also easily evidenceable to the rudest capacity that Tradition is a most certain way of bringing down Faith Disc. 5. § 8. the most vulgar Soul is capable of knowing which Profession it is to follow For the two former points being known they are Certain by motives within their own Ken that Protestants have renounct the Certain way to bring down Faith but that we renounct Tradition of old is unacknowledged by us disputable and onely knowable by skills they are not Masters of Common Sense then teaching them they must guide themselves by reasons they are capable of and not by reasons of which they know nothing and that God requires no more at their hands than they can do Gods goodness has provided for those weak people out of the very Confessions of Traditionâ—s deserters Certain means to judge whether they ought to be Catholicks or Protestants But to return whence we diverted 21. It is not onely the Protestants own Confession but the open Profession of the Catholick Clergy in the very nick of the Breach manifests our claim and constant adherence to Tradition Whose Declaration found in the Synodal Book 1559. begins thus Because by relation of publick Fame it hath lately come to our knowledge that many Tenets of Christian Religion hitherto received and approvâ—d by the Publick and 〈◊〉 Consent of Christian Nations and BROVGHT DOWN BY HANDS even from the Apostles to Vs are callâ—d into doubt Therefore c. Where we find them stick firmly to Tradition And insisting on this Principle they proceed to make a Profession of their Faith which they exhibit to the Bishops to be given to the Lord Keeper but the State by power over-bearing the Votes of the Reverend Convocation and persecuting them for their constancy the Breach ensuâ—d The Catholick cleaving fast to his Old Rule Tradition the Protestants chusing a new one of Scripture privately interpreted whose vanity a little reason makes them see but experience perfectly find and relinquishing the Antient Rule so demonstrably self-evident secure and solid By which means they became cut off from the onely Certain way to know Christs Sence that is from the Root of Faith and consequently from the Body of the Church The Guilt of which Fact neither Human Authority Multitude Prosperity Continuance nor yet all their Voluminous wordish Excuses will ever be able to Efface ANIMADVERSIONS On Dr. Pierce's Sermon Also on Mr. Whitby and Mr. Stillingfleet where they touch the Way lay'd in the foregoing Discourses In Three Appendixes Psalm 63. Sagittae parvulorum factae sunt Plagae eorum Anno Dom. 1665. TRANSITION To The following APPENDIXES I Have finisht my Discourse how dexterously must be determin'd by the Iudgment of my Readers and Confutation from mâ—â—e Adversaries But I account those onely my proper Iudges competent Adversaries who lay their Principles ere they discourse and weigh the efficaciousness of their Testimonies in the Scales of Reason ere they alledge them If I find a man laying no Principles of his own but supposing them and making account all men must admit them out of respect to him or his party and yet bend all his endeavours to cavil at Principles laid by others to ascertain and establish the Groundwork of Christianity If I find one ignorant of or resolv'd against the onely-Certain method and Rule of Discourse which is that No Position deserves Assent unless the Connexion of its Terms be Evident which must either be when they are Evidently connected of themselves of which nature ought to be all First Principles or made evidently-connected by the interposition of some other which we call Evident-by-consequence or Deduction Lastly if I find a man wedded to Parrat-talk of Ayr and Sounds that he thinks it a rare thing to load margents with Citations without first distinguishing them and considering what strength each ought to have according to rational Principles I decline such an empty Soul for my Iudge and sleight him as mine Adversary And lest any should impute this carriage to me
which imbu'd you antecedently with those contrary Tenets not the Scripture's Letter was your true Rule of Faith in regard you frame It according to the Interest of those foreheld Tenets He pressingly therefore demands whence you had those Tenets or Points of Faith by which you guide your self in adhering or not adhering to the Scripture's Letter as it lies 5. If you say from other places of Scripture controlling plainly the others he replies this can onely make you acknowledge Scripture's Letter plainly contradicts it self and so leaves you doubtful which side to hold as far as the bare Letter carries you or if it invites you to any thing 't is to hold both sides of the contradiction What therefore he still demands is what it is which forelaid those Judgements in you by which you were byast beyond the power of the Letters Indifferency to hold one side rather than â—he other Here you are at a loss with your â—retence of the Letter's Authority being gone beyond it If then you recurr to Reason and Science teaching you that God is immutable a Spirit c. he straight replies Then that Science taught you that Point whether Scripture had been or no. It therefore was your Rule in this and the same may be said of what-ever you avail your self to interpret Scriptute by not the Letter If you say you rely on the Science or Skill of your Parents Forefathers and Pastours then their skill which ascertaind them of Gods sence not Scripture's Letter was their Rule and so is likewise yours for whoever relies on any precisely as skilful relies in very deed and properly on their skill and not on the Letter their skill works upon Besides oue not skilful himself is a bad Judge how far anothers skill extends If you say you rely not on their skill fallible perhaps in them and obscure to you but on their Senses enabling them to be knowing Witnesses of what was delivered them and free from the former exceptions you are driven for your last refuge to Tradition and still desert your Letter-Rule In a word he challenges the consciousness of your most inward thoughts whether however in Controversies against others you quote Scripture yet in reading the Letter for your own Faith you bring not along with you some thoughts to interpret it by which you are resolved to hold to and so the Scriptures Letter lies before you as matter to work on so as to preserve it significative of what you judge sound and not to frame your Judgements by that is you use it as a thing ruled not as a Bule Nay more if you look narrowly into the bottome of those Thoughts you shall discover the natural method of Tradition to have at unawares setled your Judgements concerning Faith and actually guiding you in the Interpretation however when your other Concerns awake design in you you protest against it and seem perhaps to your unreflecting self to embrace and hold to the meer guidance of the Letter 6. Again Waving the insufficiency of the Scriptures Letter to declare its own sence he asks this smart question how you are certain of the Truth of the Letter in this very Text and demands your certain proof or demonstration either either for the Thing or for the Certainty of the Authority upon which you hold that any particular Text you alledge is truly a part of the Scriptures Letter and not foisted in or some way altered in its significativeness or how you know by the diligence of the Letter-examiners if it be a negative Proposition that the particle not was not inserted if affirmative not left out You alledge Consent of all our Copies He replies first that this onely argues that those ancient Copies whence ours came were alike perhaps not so much but who knows or can undertake that they were not alike faulty or alike Unlike the true Original or that there were not some in those dayes which never came to our knowledge different from ours in the very point between us In a word that all depends on the Truth of the Copies immediately taken from the Original or the very next to them which what they were by whom taken where and how preserved from time to time how narrowly examined when they were first transcribed and such like is so buried in obscurity and oblivion and so far from Evidence apt to beget Certain Knowledge that we must have recourse to Charity to allow it our Hopes had we no other Rule of Faith than that bare Letter Again though human diligence did play its part yet it is acknowledg'd sayes your Deist that there are almost innumerable Variae Lectiones in it still controverted nay so many in the new Testament alone observed by one man my Lord Vsher that he durst not print them for fear of bringing the whole Book into doubt and why may not there have been such formerly and now blindly determined and swallowed in each Text that concerns our mainest Points of Faith If you reply as Nature will lead you that the Faith of Christ believed and taught from Father to Son was writ in the hearts of the Faithful and this made them both able and willing to that is actually did preserve the Letter from Errour in any passage that concerned the Body of Christian Doctrine he challenges you to fly your Colours to desert your own Rule and embrace Tradition the Rule of Roman-Catholikes and lastly that you make Scriptures Letter the thing Ruled not the Rule Yet without this recourse no satisfactory account can possibly be render'd to a strict Examiner why Errour might not creep into the Text in substantial points of Faith as well as in less concerning passages which devolves to this that the Scripture's Letter held forth as a Rule of Faith can never convince an obstinate and acute Adversary FOURTH DISCOURSE That the Two last Properties of the Rule of Faith are clearly incompetent to Scripture 1. THere remain the two last conditions Certainty in its self and Ascertainableness to us That the later is incompetent to Scripture alone or unassisted by another certain Rule that is incompetent to it as a Rule however it may agree to it as a thing regulated or ruled is the Subject in a manner of all our foregoing Discourse and it so depends upon the former Property of the two last named Certainty in it self that if it fails that later is impossible Now as for its Certainty in its self or its being establish't on secure Grounds we may consider Scripture's Letter either Materially as such and such Characters or Formally as Significative of a determinate sence suppos'd to be Christ's and both of these either in its single self or as dependent on other helps or Causes on foot now in the world according to the course of things 2. And as for the meer material Characters in Books 't is evident that they are of themselves as liable to be destroy'd as any thing else in Nature as burnt torn
first Revolters a small handfull compar'd to all Christianity besides and onely occasionally not constantly happening that the Descendents of these Revolters were taught by them to believe Them in the right in interpreting Scripture and not their own Judgments that is follow'd the way of Tradition however misplac't To which if we compare the numerous contingencies both in man's Nature and other circumstances hindring Propagation every day happening we shall find much reason to prefer the multitudes of the other before this But if we add to this Consideration the daily decay of innumerable particulars upon whom the Continuation of Mankind depends by natural or accidental deaths and reflect on the innumerable new Subjects and even whole Nations into which Tradition hath and does daily propagate it self and those uninfected by new Heresies for whole Ages that is without any one Deserter of Tradition among them and none of those beholding to Progenitors for their Faith but to Externs who converted them whereas Propagating their Kind can onely be by those of the same race We shall find that the Causes laid to propagate preserve a Body of Traditionary Christians look far more steadily and less needing a recourse to any particular Providence than those which we can discover laid for the keeping on Foot a Body of Men. Whence if any as the common fashion is bring against the perpetuation of Tradition such wildroving Arguments as would equally strike at the Certainty of perpetuating Mankind or continuing any Species in Nature the readiest answer is to show they do so and then to tell them we intend not Tradition should last longer than the onely Species capable of Faith will that is longer than Mankind is to stand who onely can have it or need it EIGHTH DISCOURSE Endeavouring to demonstrate à Posteriori the Vninterruptedness of Tradition hitherto 1. HAving seen and weigh'd the strength of those Causes which preserve and continue Tradition on Foot and thence endeavour'd to demonstrate its Indefectibleness as the proper and necessary Effects of those Causes we will now begin our Discourse at the other end and try if we can conclude the same from some Proper Effect that is from such an Effect as could onely have sprung from the actual Indeficiency of Tradition as its Cause That so we may show the Certainty of Faith's Conveyance to us doâ—bly guarded and on all sides Evident 2 Though indeed this seems a needless endeavour against the Protestant who yeilds that those points of Faith in which we agree came dowâ— by this way of Tradition Whence he is to be prest to answer candidly these Queres Wâ— not the Trinity Incarnation and other points 〈◊〉 which we agree held in all Ages since Christ by Gods Church He must yeild it no Protestaâ—â— ever denying it besides that we both agree to call that God's Church which held those maiâ— points of Faith Next he is to be askt whether seeing those points were held ever of Faith Fathers did not actually teach Children so or the former Age the later Common reason will teach him they did which devolves into this that a Protestant must confess those points came down by Tradition and that Tradition hath not faild to bring them down to us Ask him next by what virtue Tradition perform'd this and whether the same virtue were not powerful to bring down others as well as these had any such been And when he assignes this virtue I cannot suspect him negative in so plain a point Ask him farther Is there not a necessary Connexion and Relation between such a constant Cause and its formal Effect So that if its formal Effect be Those Points received as delivered ever the Proper Cause must be an ever-delivery whence we can argue from such an Effect to its Cause for any particular Point and consequenly for any Point that is in Controversie between Them and Us in case it be a Point we held ever deliver'd And if so as manifest Reason evinces it our now-held Faith was taught by Christ and his Apostles and our dispute is at an end But because I rather suspect the Protestant seeing his Cause and Interest too deep engag'd and himself streightned by such strict Connexion of Terms will fly of and deny Tradition to be a necessary Cause notwithstanding its constant tenour of having wrought this its Effect millions of times or from step to step during so many Ages and will not care to alledge that all this is pure Chance and contingency I shall pursue the Designe and Method I at first intended 3. 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 hearts And the Existence of this Perswasion we affirm to be Impossible without the Existence of Traditions ever-Indeficiency to beget it 4. To prove this I lay this first Principle That Age which holds her Faith deliver'd thus from the Apostles neither can it self have chang'd any thing in it nor know or doubt that any Age since the Apostles had chang'd or innovated any thing therein This Proposition needs no proof to evidence it but onely an Explication For since no man can hold contrary to his Knowledge or doubt of what he holds nor change or innovate in the case propos'd without knowing he did so 't is a manifest Impossibility an whole Age should fall into an Absurdity so inconsistent with the Nature of one single man 5. The second Principle shall be this No Age could innovate any thing and withal deliver that very thing to Posterity as receivâ—d from Christ by continual succession For since Man is a rational Creature he must have some reason or motive good or bad which he proposes to himself as an Eud to be atchiev'd by his action and whatever his remote end is his immediate End in telling Posterity a late invented thing was held immediately before is to make them believe it Wherefore since a seen Impossibility cannot be a motive to one not frantick and that 't is evidently Impossible they should make Posterity believe a thing so universally known to be false as this must needs be because were it possible the whole Age should conspire to tell such a lye the whole I say otherwise the Refusers would easily discover the cheat yet 't is manifestly Impossible all at age to know the truth should conspire from so many several and so far distant places in the precise time to deceive the new Off-spring every moneth ripening to a capacity of such knowledges or blot out all the Monuments which would evidently undeceive their abused Posterity 'T is then as impossible this Principle should falter as that the foregoing Age should conspire to act without a motive or that the succeeding Age should believe what they know to be otherwise that is should hold both sides
which onely themselves know and are conscious of and on the other side nothing appears why such a kind of Impression is impossible nay 't is granted possible 't is clear none can argue against that inward Light 's existence out of the nature of that inward perswasion Fanaticks have in regard 't is latent and unknown It follows then that the way to conclude against it is to show out of evident Principles the contrary to these Inspiration to be Truth None therefore as plain matter of Fact testifies taking the way of arguing from Principles absolutely evident or demonstrating but Catholiks or the followers of Tradition and they effecting this by virtue of Tradition Disc. 5 6 8. it follows that they and onely they are able to confute Fanaticks and conclude their inward Light delusive Again since a Fanatick builds on conceited experience of Divine Inspiration there is no hopes to convince his Judgment without producing Demonstration for the contrary a task onely performable in the way of Tradition Which is enforc't and strengthen'd by this Consideration that the Basis of Tradidition is natural Knowledge directly imprinted by his Senses in which Knowledges he is undeceivable and these Sensations or Knowledges are daily repeated not on one private temper but on innumerable millions conspiring in the same that is Tradition is built on almost Infinit daily and most manifest Experiences whereas the conceited Effect of Inspiration or his strong persuasion that God speaks thus inwardly is found with consent of tenets in a few onely and liable to deceit by depending upon Fancy not Sense as appears in diseased or mad persons and the Fanaticks contradicting one another though both proceeding on the same Principle Without Tradition's help then 't is very hard if not impossible to confute Fanaticks as Experience also testifies by Protestants being forc't to recurr to Tradidion in disputes with them though very easy with it or by means of it 22. There is no arguing against Tradition without questioning the Constancy of every species in Nature that is the Certainty of whole Nature For seeing Man's Nature is as necessarily fit to receive the direct Impressions of Objects on his Soul that is Natural Knowledges and as necessarily determin'd to work for a motive or reason good or bad as Fire is to heat or water to wet and this absolutely and alwayes abstracting from disease incapacitating him to use his senses or his Fancy and both these spring out of the very Substance of his Nature as Rational or of such a species which Original Corruption hinders not it follows that he is as fit for those Operations and consequently will as frequently perform them as Fire burn water wet fruit-trees bear fruit or any other species in Nature do its ptoper Effect that is generally and onely rarely and contingently fail unless the Authour of Nature order the whole course of it worse for Man than for other things which were blasphemy to say and contrary to Experience since we find a course of Supernaturals on foot and that they comfort and strengthen man's true nature as hath been formerly declared Less liable then is the human Species to contingency in those its natural operations than any other kind is Wherefore seeing Traditions Certainty is grounded upon direct natural Knowledges and its Indefectiveness on Mankind's Incapableness to act without some motive to argue against It were to question These that is the constancy of the best and best-supported Species in Nature and a fortiori the Constancy of the rest Note here that all the Arguments brought by witty Reasoners against Tradition are fetcht from the Contingency of some one or some few Particulars whence by a wild kind of roving way they would conclude the defectibleness of the Generality or of the entire Species But because it looks too palpably inconsequent in Logicall form to say a few can err ergo all therefore they use to bring it in with a why not So that all the arguers against Tradition from natural reason oppose directly any Constancy in the Species or Generality and so are destroyers of natural Certainty and of their own Arguments to boot 23. There is no possibility of arguing at all against Tradition rightly understood or the living voice of the Catholick Church with any show of reason For since 't is evident that Scripture's Copy or Letter is in the whole and every tittle Uncertain Disc. 2 and 4. without Tradition as also that the writings of Fathers Councils History and of any written or dead Testimony whatever Corol. 14 and 16. are utterly unauthoriz'd otherwise than by means of Tradition and that no living Testimony or Tradition is alledgable against the Tradition we speak of or Catholick Tradition Corol. 13. and 17. Nor any pretended Instance of Traditionâ—s failing has force but by its being faithfully convey'd down by Tradition and depending on Tradition for its Certainty Corol. 19. and all Arguments from Natural Reason are so weak that they destroy all Certainty in that matter while levell'd against Tradition Corol. 18. 22. It follows that no Argument from any Authority publickly appearing in the world nor yet from intrinsecal mediums fetcht from second Causes in Nature can bear any show against Tradition Nor yet from private Effects pretended from the first Cause call'd Inspiration or Light of the Private Spirit Corol. 21. For besides what has been concluded for this point however this pretenâ—e may make the first Syllâ—â—gism yet when it comes to be prov'd that is made appear outwardly that the first Cause inspir'd thus or thus no extraordinary Effects proper to that Cause as miracles being producible their arguing or Proof is at an end however their Inward Adhesion stands There being then no other Argument imaginable but what is fetcht from Authority living or dead or else from Effects or Experience testifiable by those Authorities or from proper Effects or Causes in the ordinary course of natural things or from extraordinary private and unseen pretended Effects of the first Cause and none of these bearing any show against Tradition 'T is evident There is no possibility of arguing against Tradition rightly understood or the living voice of the Catholick Church with any show of Reason 24. Tradition is the First Principle in the way of Authority as it engages for matter of Fact long ago past For seeing that is the first Principle in any Knowledge into which all Knowledges in that kind are resolv'd to establish their Certainty and all ptetended Authorities for any matter of Fact long ago past Corol. 16. and consequently all Knowledges caus'd by the means of them are resolv'd finally into Tradition and depend on it for their Certainty it follows that Tradition is the very first Principle in the way of Authority as it undertakes for the truth of matters of Fact long ago past 25. Tradition in the matter of Tradition that is in matter of Fact before our time is Self-evident to all those who can need
Fathers or foregoing Church and on the Churches Tradition as on their Rule and the High-way to Faith whence they repute Catholick Tradition and Faith the same thing We see also the Amplitude of this Rule recommending to us all Faith so that nothing ought be added to it And how empty a pretence the Fathers in this Council judg'd it to disallow this Rule under pretext of being opposit to Scripture is seen by these words in their First Session They who contemn the Teachings of the Holy Fathers and TRADITION of the Catholick Church and bring for their excuse and inculcate the words of Arius Nestorius Eutyches and Dioscorus saying Vnless we were sufficiently instructed out of the Old and New Testament we would follow the Doctrins of the Fathers of the six holy Synods and the Traditions of the Catholick Church Let him be accursed So that they held private Instruction from Scripture insufficient to build Faith on or which is all one to be a Rule of Faith Also that it was ever the common pretence of the most execrable Hereticks of old to decline Tradition and pretend to sufficient Light from Scripture's Letter and lastly that since the Sence of Scripture in points of Faith is not attainable sufficiently or with Certainty by the bare Letter of Scripture and with Certainty by Tradition and that Tradition brings us down determinate Sence Tradition is to sence Scripture's Letter and so that Letter no Rule but by virtue of Tradition seeing Faith being Sence and Points of Faith determinate Sences Faith's Rule must bring us to such determinate Sences 6. After antient Councils let us give a glance at Fathers and see what they say to this Point Celestin Saint and Pope to the Fathers of the Ephesin Council Agendum igitur nunc c. Now therefore we must act with a common endeavour to preserve things believed and retain'd to this very time by SVCCESSION FROM THE APOSTLES Ireneus cap. 4. Quid autem c. But what if the Apostles had not left us the Scriptures ought we not to follow the Order of â—radition which they had deliver'd to those to whom they committed the Churches To which Ordination assent many Natiens of those Barbarians who believe in Christ having Salvation writ by the Spirit in their hearts without characters and Ink and diligently keeping the Ancient TRADITION In the former we have it told a General Council what their proper task is namely to keep or hold fast what was believ'd and kept and how by Succession from the Apostles or from hand to hand In the second that the Apostles when they gave Bishops their Charge ordained or made it their Duty to observe Tradition that this Way of Tradition was sufficient to receive Faith upon that is sufficient to be a Rule of Faith without Scripture and that de facto it did perform that office to many Nations without Scripture Lastly he calls this delivery from Father to Son the writing it in their hearts by the Spirit that is the work of the Holy Ghost or Supernatural however it connaturally descended and seems to counterpose this to writing by characters or Ink as if this were not so immediately at least the Holy Ghosts work In regard as plain reason tells us the Sence of those Letters or Faith must either be had by those Inward Characters writ in the Readers hearts by God's Spirit and so It not the Ink writes it there or else by human or Natural Skills which are not attributable to our Sanctifier the Holy Ghost 7. The same Father lib. 1. cap. 3. For though there be diverse Tongues in the world yet the virtue of Tradition is one and the same The preaching of the Church is true and firm in which one and the same way of Salvation is shown over the whole world Here we have but one Rule of Faith or way to Faith this the preaching or living voice of the Church which is not onely said to be true but also firm that is the Certainty of its Truth is built on solid Grounds or founded in the nature of things order'd by God's special Providence to that end To show which hath been the aim of my present endeavours 8. Origen is more express 1. Periarchôn Servetur verò c. Let the Churches preaching deliver'd from the Apostles by order of Succession and remaining in the Church to this present be preserv'd That onely Truth is to be believ'd which differs in nothing from the Churches Tradition And 29. in Matth. We ought not to believe otherwise than as the Churches of God have deliver'd us by Succession Where he directly makes Tradition the Rule to judge what 's sound what not that is the Rule of Faith 9. Tertullian lib. de carne Christi If thou beest but a Christian believe what is traditum deliver'd And speaking to an Heretick By renouncing what thou hast believ'd thou provest that before thou didst renounce it what thou believedst was otherwise It was then deliver'd otherwise Moreover what was Deliver'd that was True as deliver'd by those to whom it belong'd to deliver Wherefore renouncing what was Deliver'd thou hast renounc't what 's True So that in this Father's Judgment a Christian and Follower of Tradition are the same and that to renounce what comes by Tradition is to renounce Truth which amounts to this that Tradition is the Test of Christianity and Rule of Faith Also he intimates that it belongs to some to deliver to some not and if to any to whom but those who lay claim and adhere to Tradition or Delivery and are in possession of it not to those who are known to have broken from Tradition and impugn its Certainty 10. Athanasius in lib. de Synodis They have declar'd themselves to be Vnbelievers by Seeking what they have not All therefore that are Seekers of Faith are Vnbelievers They onely to whom Faith comes down from their Ancestors that is from Christ by Fathers do not seek and therefore they onely have Faith If thou comest to Faith by Seeking thou wast before an Vnbeliever And in his Discourse against Paulus Samosatenus de Incarnatione He that searches after those things which are beyond his strength stands upon a precipice but he that sticks to Tradition stands out of danger Wherefore we persuade you which also we persuade our selves that you retain the Faith Deliver'd Traditam Fidem and avoid prophane words of Novelty I wish the Protestants would seriously weigh the import of these Sayings of this Father and consider what it was which sustain'd him who was a Pillar of Faith in his dayes and then applying it see whether it fits to Catholicks or Them They would plainly discern that which they prize themselves most for that is for taking their Faith out of Judgment by finding and seeking it in the Scriptures is alone enough to show them not to be truly Faithful That God has promised a perfectly secure way to give them true Faith that is by
to a lesser one in the margent and that to Luke 19. 22. And David's cutting of Goliah's Head with his own Sword a story known undoubtedly by all that were like to read his Sermon shall be secured from being thought a piece of a Romance or Knight-errantry by a punctual Citation in the open margent 1 Sam. 17. 51. And to omit diverse of the like pleasant strain lest any Unbeliever should be so impious as to doubt that his THEOPNEVST AHOLIAB was an Embroiderer you shall see it as plain as the nose on a man's face in an express Text Exod. 35. 30. 34. 11. But why insist I thus on so poor a foolery in a Book I design'd for solid or what advantage can I gain to my cause by so sleight an Animadversion I'answer â—Tis my temper when I see an odd action done without reason to trace it to its Original and to search after its proper Cause And upon consideration I finde none so proper for this Effect as a certain kinde of humour of quoting in D. Pierce and others of his Brethren so strongly possessing them and even naturaliz'd into them that so they be quoting they matter not much whether it be to purpose or not This I have shown in the whole bead-roll of his Citations the usefullest part as he sayes of his whole performance and that not one of those which he call Evidences is conclusive that is worth a straw or to purpose But because every one will not be capable to see it in those Citations he brings for Proofs I let them see it in those his late quotations of Scriptures In which he so pittifully betraies his silly and vain humour of quoting to no imaginable end but to satisfy his customary habit or Fancy and as in his Citations so in these imagins the Application of them to his Cause in stead of showing it that I conceive no Universitie-wit but will see in this carriage of his that Dr. Pierce's head is not too Scientiâ—ical nor himself a fit man to to demonstrate against the Papists SECOND APPENDIX Animadversions On Some Passages in Mr. Whitby 1. I Beg pardon of my Reader for my late Merriment and Children's play with aiery bubbles and Feathers Both D. Pierce's manner of writing and his Carriage towards Catholicks merited this kind of return I hope the passages in Mr. Whitby I have design'd to answer will give me occasion to speak more solidly And that they may do so I will pick out those which aim at some point of Concernment I have a particular respect for the person and am sorry his growing hopefulness receiv'd a foil by his Book against Mr. S. C. and this though a threefold disadvantage the badness of his Cause the Patronage of Dr. Pierce's malice and his impar congressus with so learned an Antagonist 2. My Designe leads me to take notice especially of that passage p. 93. Sect. 4. where he begins a discourse about the Soveraignty of Reason and explicates rather than proves it ought to be so what is his Rule and Guide to Faith Which because it look't plausibly yet was prudently neglected by Mr. S C. who hearing of more Eminent Antagonists writing against him judg'd it wisest to reserve himself to answer the Protestanrs second and best Thoughts in Them in case they were found to deserve it and because on the other side the Challenge was made to all the Romanists in the World and many passages in it light cross to the Grounds I had laid I took leave to consider and examin it my way In a great part of it especially at the beginning the discourse is rightly made but in other places he confounds Guide with Rule Power with Motive and by straining a word in Mr. S. C. beyond its necessary signification imposes on us a false Tenet which he mainly builds upon So that I am forc't to begin my answer by putting down our true one which gives Faith and Reason both their due This done his Superstructutes on that Supposition will fall of themselves 3. Our Tenet then is that Faith is the same with Belief that Belief relies on Authority and Divine Faith or Belief on the Divine Authority as its Motive and on the Churche's as on the Applier of the other to my Understanding At next I hold that no Authority deserves Assent further than true Reason gives it to deserve and hence the Divine Authority being Essential Truth deserves in true Reason if possible Infinitely intense Assent or adhesion to its sayings from me and the Churches Authority being found by my Reason to be Certain it applies with Certainty that is closely the Divine Authority to my Understanding and so obliges it absolutely to believe the Truths God has told and to submit whatever reasons I may have against the Object reveal'd to this all-overpowering Authority of Essential Truth This being the First Cause of all those things whence my particular Reasons are taken Nay farther hence it is that I adhere more heartily and firmly to a point of Faith than to any Conclusion of any Science whatever because a more efficacious Cause equally closely apply'd is apt to produce a greater Effect and no Cause is or can be in 〈◊〉 reason comparable to that of the Divine Verâ—city in the point of causing Assent which is closely apply'd by me to the Churches assurance Hence my Faith is ever most Rational because â—is 〈◊〉 rational to believe a point for which the Divine Veracity is engag'd and highly rational to believe the Church assuring me that it is engagâ—d for such and such points Nor yet is the Divine Authority or the Church as Mr. Whitby p. 96. very mistakingly argues beholden to the judgment of my private reason for my belief of her Infallibility but on the contrary my private reason is beholden to them for that Judgment seeing I therefore come to have that Judgment because Those as Objects wrought upon my Apprehension and imprinted a conceit of them there as they were in themselves and so oblig'd my Reason to conclude and my Judgment to hold them such as they were This Rational Assent establishes my Faith against the assaulds of any doubts from Human Reasons resting assur'd thâ—â— the same God who told me this is the Maker of all things else and hath writ all Created Truths in the Things he hath made whence no created â—ruth can thwart my Faith unless He can contradict himself which is impossible Hence if I have true Science I am certain to find no part of it opposit to my Faith but on the contrary conformable to It as being a Child of the same Parent Essential Truth If I have not true Science I ought not to think so nothing therefore but mine own overweening can make me miscarry 4. Reason having thus playâ—d her part in bringing me to Faith deserts me not yet while I act in it nor I her my Acts of Belief are still rational because it was rational to believe at first
to salvation so that to vary from it or hold or practise the contrary is the way to eternal misery are all oblig'd to believe and act as their Forefathers did and not introduce Contrary Doctrins and practices to those they had receiv'd Had it been I say thus propos'd there had been no such cause of wonderment But all these that is indeed all of weight in the point is quite left out Such poor shifts even the best Wits must be driven to when they would maintain a false Cause 25. One word to M. Stillingfleet He hath challeng'd us to make out this Obligation to Belief as the onely Thing we are to prove in the Traditionary way he hath offer'd us the choice of our Weapon either Reason particular Testimony or Vniversal Tradition I have accepted his offer chosen my weapon and given here the first blow I hope he will not now run the Field but return an Answer to my Discourse in the way of Reason which I have chosen by his Offer I am sorry for his sake my reflexions here are not more elaborate being sent to the Press in loose quarters of sheets as soon as writ more time not being allow'd me nor I hope needful to answer such mistakes Onely I request him when he replies to take along with him the nature of the subjecta materia the Doctrins and Practises we speak of the Nature of the Manner of delivering it and the necessary Circumstances which give weight to both as I have declar'd above and I promise him God assisting me a very serious Reply 26. Ere I quite leave this matter I desire to take the Reader along with me in my quest for a Reason or proper Cause why so judicious a person as Mr. Stillingfleet could come to doubt of such an Obligation in posterity to beleeve their Ancestours in a matter of fact or a matter deliver'd to have been not deem'd or thought but done or which is equivalent being it's necessary effect seen or known by Sense For I make account there is not a man in the world or ever was such is the Goodness of rational Nature given us by God who in his natural thoughts could ever raise such a doubt or think he could possibly frame his thoughts to a disbelief of the contrary no more than any man in England whom Speculative Scepticism has not besotted and unmann'd can doubt of William the Conquerors Harry the Eighths or Mahomets Existence much less judge the contrary And it appears at first sight to be a strange distorsion or rather destruction of human Nature which can so alter it Now looking into Things I find it to be a proper and natural Effect of the Protestant's temper and indeed of all who have left the Church For their humour being to chuse every one his Faith by his private Judgment or Wit working upon disputable words They wonder and judge it very unreasonable their Posterity thus imbu'd should be oblig'd to beleeve and act as Ancestours do and so should I too For while they can never deliver it to their Children as received ever by the way of Infallible Sense or Witnessing but must say the former Church de facto err'd and consequently that themselves might do so too so that they can only deliver it as depending or built on their own fallible Opinion in interpreting Scripture all which is imply'd in their making Scriptur's Letter the Rule of Faith and allowing no Living Interpreter able to give infallibly the Sence of it 't is natural their posterity should 〈◊〉 hold themselves oblig'd to beleeve Immediate Ancestors but use their own Judgments and chuse their own Faith when they come at Age as well as They did and Experience tells us they have done so in England till they have chosen fairly And this horrid Unreasonableness is the venomous source the First defective Principle or indeed the very nature of all Heresie imported also in the very word which signifies Choice or chusing one's Religion mention'd by Clemens Alexandrinus cited above p. 135. and counterpos'd by him to Tradition as also by S. Athanasius cited p. 133. 134. where 't is most excellently describ'd and homely apply'd to the Protestants and such others as the Reader may see I am a bad Transcriber 27. I have done my main task and so shall only touch at his next paragraph It begins thus It is to no purpose to prove the Impossibility of motion when I see men move no more it is to prove no Age of the Church could vary from the foregoing when we can evidently prove they have done it You argue well But two things are requir'd ere you can see our Faith varies from the former First To see what our Church holds now and then to see what the former Church held before and if I see any thing you see neither well For while you cannot distinguish between Faith and its Explication some School-men and Church I have no hopes you should see candidly what our Church holds now and if you cannot at present see what our Church holds now how and by what method will you assure us you see what She held formerly The thing to be prov'd is a plain matter of Fact and you have renounc't all living Attestation the common and secure way to bring it down and consequently Fathers too For Fathers speaking of them as such being Evident Witnessers Transmitters or Propagates of the Faith received to Immediate Posterity if you question Delivery or Tradition which you do while you doubt Obligation in Posterity to believe Ancestours you question whether there be any Doctrin deliver'd and so any Fathers and I wonder how you can imagin any man oblig'd to believe Fathers Historians or any that writ or testify'd things long ago and yet think the next age not oblig'd to believe the former in a matter of Fact done in their own dayes How far short then are your Evidences of the former Churches Doctrin like to prove of being parallell to our seeing a man move with our corporeal Eyes But you may say any thing or rather indeed forc't by your bad Cause you must do so 28. You call this Way of ours a Superficial Subtilty I beseech you consider what you say Is that which is wholly builds on the Nature of the Things as you see ours does Superficial or Yours which is meerly an aiery Descant upon dead Words What do you think Controversy is I deal plainly with you you may take it to be an Art of Talking and I think you do so though you will not profess it but I take it to be a noble Science I hold its Object to be rationem reddere fidei or to maintain question'd Faith which is chiefly done by showing the Authority on which Faith depends quoad nos Certain Hence all other Authority depending on Tradition's I hold Knowledge of its Certainty the First Principle in Controversy And this being quoad nos necessarily antecedent to Authority it can onely be