it either Pious or Politick to use any other Force but that of Arguments for the Conviction and Reduction of Disputers One may as well try to tame a Tyger with Rational Arguments as by Threats or Violence for a man may be sooner frighted out of his Wits than his Opinion to conquer long-setled Judgments and therefore as the best Physick to cure a Quartane is To be kind to it So if Rational Discourse gentle Perswasions cannot operate upon the intelect mind of man rougher Applications for what 's Reason to one may be Non-Sense to another shall never work a free or plenary assent for those that are perforce Proselyted may become Dissembling Hypocrites but never Real-Converts What Wise or Worthy Spirits therefore would proceed so Irrationally so Ignobly or what advantagious Acquisition or Glory can there be in such a Conquest But this is a point already most amply discuss'd by much abler penns Reply to the Answer of the Catholick-Apology and Advocate of Conscience-Liberty To them therefore I refer the Reader and I le return to the Author Who maintains constantly that sole Reason in all Streights and Exigences must Guide and Steer us in our Course to our Haven Heaven For says he when I ask Why you believe any Mystery of Faith You will answer perhaps Because the Present Church Commands you If I proceed and ask Why do you believe what the Present Church Commands you You will say Because the Former Church Teaches the same Why do you believe the Former Church Because GOD Commands you so to do Why do you believe that God Commands it Because you find it in the Scripture Why do you believe the Scriptures to be the Word of GOD Because they were confirm'd by Miracles Why do Miracles confirm that Because they are Workes which can proceed from nothing but the Absolute and Immediate Power of the Deity Why so Because nothing contrary to or above the Course of Nature can be done by Natural Agents And why should I or any man else say any thing against all this Since he has so pertinently and solidly answer'd all the Why 's himself but I suppose he imagin'd that Syllogistically sounding the depth of the Catholick method or rule of Faith with this chain of Questions and finding Reason at the bottom of it which methinks should make him the sooner embrace it therefore he had invincibly fortifi'd his own arguments for an absolute and independent guidance of private reason in all contingencies but alas 't is triumphing before the Victory because as inconsequent as if one should say my Rulers are no more than rational men and I being a man of reason too therefore my obligation ceaseth to be rul'd by them neither ought any man in reason to command or obey others but is not this cum ratione insanire A Doctrine which if prevalent would in a short time destroy not only Ecclesiastical but all secular Oeconomy and Jurisdictions and in the end leave nothing but outward shape to distinguish Men from Beasts which have no other Superiority or Mastership amongst them but what they get Vi Armis with their Horns and Heels Certainly this is very prodigious I had almost said monstrous Reason and so truly I think is the greatest part of his discourse which in effect teaches that Divinity cannot stand unless Philosophy support it nor St. Peter and St. Paul instruct unless Aristotle and Plato comment consequently no man can be a good Christian that is not a good Philosopher which certainly is a very false and Anti-Christian assertion Authority and Obedience are Correlatives there must be both or neither and therefore his mysterious discourse of Obedience in Spirituals which he calls the most pleasing smell in the Sacrifice I shall never understand which totally invalidates all Ecclesiastical Regiment and Power St. Augustine who I presume wanted not for Humane Reason said peremptorily Ego verò Evangelio non crederem nisi me Ecclesiae Catholicae commoveret Authoritas And to the same Authority leaving the Scepticks to their Identities Idities and Quiddities will I ever submit both my understanding my reason for would it not be very pleasant to hear a man Catechise or Preach to himself and a pretty riddle for Master Schollar Preacher and Auditour to be all in the same man who without some external conveyance or outward aid can no more properly or safely indoctrinate himself than he can possibly put his mouth to his own ear and whisper in it Witty men no doubt may frame arguments against natural and experimental Demonstrations as for example Oral Loquution or Local Motion but certainly none though few perhaps can solve every particular objection will be perswaded that we can neither speak nor move The same I say as to the Church when men are as certainly they may be indisputably satisfi'd that it is and must necessarily be infallible in its Conciliar-Definitions whatsoever riseth in opposion they consequently know though perhaps not precisely How must necessarily be inconclusive fictitious and false without descending to particular disputes which is not only a toilsome but endless labour For I have often thought that since our Revolt from Rome there have been written pro and con-books enough I should not exceed if I said to fill ten Vaticans and yet we are in the same or a worse condition the reason is because Corrosives are apply'd instead of Lenitives Vinegar instead of Oyle wherefore I compare Controversie to Physick which as it cures many that would have dy'd so it kills more that would have recover'd and liv'd without it Whether what I have hitherto said will have the good or ill fortune to be thought Reason or not I am not Prophet enough to know nor concern'd enough to care the principal motive being to employ some spare hours but if it be esteem'd wholly insignificant Solamen miseris c. I am not the first by forty who have written to no purpose yet this I 'le boldly say is to some whatever arguments or engins of Wit are invented and directed to undermine and subvert the Power and Authority of God's Church will but deceive and at last recoile and ruine the Inventor And all these glittering words and gilded reasons which I confess are drest in graceful language this Author has rally'd together against it can be at most but Verisimilities they may possibly delight some amuze and puzle others but solidly and indubitably can inform none for I should take it very kindly from him or any man else that would tell me candidly what those imperative words Feed my Sheep feed my Lambs spoken to St. Peter signifie if not that there should constantly be in God's Church which is essentially compos'd of Docentes discentes Pastors i e. Instructors and Teachers of others For Christ our Lord who never made or said any thing in vain did not speak plurally as this Author interprets Feed ye my Sheep feed ye my Lambs even where your selves
Humour to cure which there is no Medicine more Effectual or Balsome more Soveraign than our Mutual and Cordiall Prayers for one another But to pursue our Author As for those Men says he who accuse us of Pride and Vanity for Attributing so much to our own Reason making Presumption and Self-Flattery the Fountain of this Opinion it is a Scandal so false and so Ridiculous that without much Humility I should disdain to answer it And truly in my Opinion I have not heard a louder sound of Pride than in that very Expression But letting this pass with his Subsequent soft Arguments for the Civility and Gentleness of his Religion which permits every man to have his full Swing or Career I am come to Master Hob's for whom though it is not my business nor design to be Advocate nor in the least to diminish this Author's merit who in some parts of his Discourse against him and elsewhere shewes great Fertility of Wit and Pregnancy of Rhethorick Yet I cannot but think Master Hobs's Arguments much more Conducing to Order and Uniformity than his Unreasonably-Rational or Chimaerical Method which slighting all Ecclesiastical Tribunals authoriseth every Particular Person in Spirituals to be his own Judge and Pastor and makes the Governours of the Church of CHRIST stand for meer Cyphers which is directly against the Institution Doctrine and Designe of CHRIST himself But that Humane Reason which exalts itself above this Divine Jurisdiction be it never so full of Flourishes and Astonishment is but a glorious Nothing He is very apt to mistake Concerning the Roman Church For although indeed her Publick Liturgie the Mass be Universally said in the Latine Tongue yet all Preaching and Catechizing is performed in the Language of each respective Country and all her Members without any restraint say their Prayers in their own Native Language I am not at all satisfy'd With his endeavouring to Distinguish between Right Reason and that which is falsty esteemed so For if in all matters of Faith and Difficulty every Man's Reason must be his Rule and every man's Rule must be his Reason without adhering or submitting to any other Superior Regulation or Judge or Captivating his Understanding as Scripture requires in Obsequium Fidei If this Rule I say can be thought Regular and safe then I think this Author needs not to despair of bringing men by Degrees to believe That nothing can be in so Rational or Credible which is not evidently so to whom 't is propos'd especially since he has already affirm'd which is pretty well towards it that nothing can be dangerously Erroneous that a man firmly believes But can any thing be more Illogical and distant from Reason Unless it be this which per Consequens follows Every Orthodox Divine is a Rational Man Ergo every Rational Man is an Orthodox Divine and ought not to be taught but to teach himself Contrary to which Matth. 28.19 20. our Blessed Saviour commanded his Disciples to goe Preach Teach and Baptize all Nations But I never read that they sent the Scriptures alone to the Unconverted that they might by the Rules of their own Reason examine and frame out the True Religion but withall went themselves or sent Expositors Without which I never heard of Turk or Jew that ever chang'd his Alcoran or Talmud for the Christian Bible which evidently demonstrates against this Author That Reason alone can be no Competent means or security either of becoming or remaining a good Christian All Men therefore are or should be instructed We are Taught and they were Ttaught the same who Teach us and their Masters had Teachers and those Teachers Masters till we come Gradually to the Supream the Original Guides of the Present Church which also receives the Traditions of the former and so orderly downward till we come to the Apostles and at last to our Ne plus ultra our Saviour CHRIST himself So that 't is no Contradiction but a certain Truth that there is no going to CHRIST but from CHRIST Ã JESV ad CHRISTVM That Humane Reason then which unlinckes it self from this Divine and Infallible Concatenation flyes giddily about and can no more naturally settle or fix than a Feather in the Wind and that a man who stubbornly steps aside from this Universal this General Track will not onely lose his Way but his Reason and Himself too But now to another Matter Henry the Eighth did certainly more than seem as this Author says to leave the Pope because he would not consent to his Libidinous Desires and assum'd therefore the Supremacy that he might give himself leave to Marry or Repudiate what Wives he fancy'd or dislik'd But although Abbeys Monasteries and Religious-Houses were thereupon demolished and the Profits and Revenues converted to Secular Uses I cannot think he got any great Advantage by the Bargain either to Body or Soul who dy'd with a Perdidimus Omnia in his Mouth and found by Wofull Experience That in the end ther 's nothing got by Reforming But to leave this Digression The Author desires those who would have his Vnderstanding captivated to convince him First by theirs that it ought to be so and not to think to enslave his Reason till they first overcome it which when they have done then they will lose what they contend for For by our Reason's being Guided Conquered and Enslaved Their's are become Guides Conquerours and Masters so that it will appear at last impossible for Human Reason to lose anything in one place without gaining as much in some other Thus he To which I answer in the first place If Scripture be Reason our Understandings ought to be captivated to the Obedience of Faith In the next I would not have him think us so unreasonable as to deprive men Totally of the Use of their Reason by no means but to check and keep it within it's proper Sphear and in this we abridge him of no Liberty which we allow our selves But Humane Reason must have a large Mixture of Divinity in it to be so Adorable as this Author seems to make it I grant 't is very pretious and prizable in being given though not Magisterially to rule to guide us to those that can Infallibly do it And thus I confess we are Rul'd by Reason though not in all things by our own for all the Difficulties and Obscurities of Scripture without the Churche's Light are no more Interpretable or Discoverable by Private Reason than our Eyes can see Objects without Day-Light or a Candle and yet neither our Reason nor our Eyes are given us in vain But he that in Spiritual Affairs which so neerly concern bis Soul Assigns no Visible no External rule or Standard to measure Reason by nor any General Touch-Stone to try True from False Adulterated from Currant Coyne That Man I say for all his pretended Light within fishes in the Dark with them that labour'd all Night and caught nothing or builds his Superstructure before he lays
like best but Pasce oves meas c. Feed thou my Sheep Peter c. But if all Men and Women as this Author advises should turn Sheepheards and Sheepheardesses and so become Pastors without Sheep and Sheep without Pastors both and neither or somthing and nothing straggling and feeding upon various tabifick pastures who should or could feed and keep the whole Flock in order when there would be no such thing as a Flock to be kept if all Men Women and Children of all degrees and qualities were intended by our Blessed Saviour to feed i. e to Instruct and Teach themselves and therefore if the Authors doctrine as to this particular be reason 't is of that new sort of reasons which for a while may tast sweetly and deliciously to licorish and licentious Palates but in the end I fear they 'l find 't was but a bitter-sweet a pleasant Poyson In a word if his discourse as it hath plausibility had weight enough to make any deep impression in the minds of Men though truly I do not think this was the Author's drift it would necessarily by degrees introduce Anarchy and Confusion for it evidently invades and disannuls all Ecclesiastical Rule and Power Annihilates the Pastoral Office and makes all Clergy-Men totally Useless and Superfluous and how can any Arguments let them be never so Learnedly and Rhetorically adorn'd have any real or intrinsecal goodness or solidity in them which draw such mis-shapen and ill favour'd Consequences after them Per effectum Causa Finally I compare his Treatise to a painted Feast for Non sunt omnia quae videntur which may whet and encrease mens Appetites but can never satisfie their hunger or rather to a Posie of Nettles and Roses whereof a man cannot smell the sweet without stinging his Nose for although it be intermixt with a great deal of Scholarship and Wit and carrys Reason in the Front yet according to my sentiment 't is so Aenigmatically if not Implously rapt up that notwithstanding it be but a very small Volum I cannot but think There 's a great deal too much of it and lest the Reader if it have any should think so of mine it shall not be long before I make an end Two passages upon a Review of his Treatise I thought convenient here to insert and speak to First Where he says That ever since the beginning of the Christian Belief there has been the Authority of above an hundred to one against it and this Authority backt and strengthned with the Vniversal agreement of more than three thousand years before it This hundred to one and these three thousand years makes a very great noise indeed but to as little purpose For what rational man knows not that not the greatness of the number for so every Rebellion and Usurpation might be justifi'd but the legality of the Power and Authority of men is that which justly exacts and requires and to which we are in duty oblig'd to pay our submission and obedience Secondly Where he acknowledges that the best and truest Humane Reason could not have found out of it self that Mystery by which I suppose he means the Incarnation of Jesus Christ but it was necessary first to be revealed and as soon as the Spirit had revealed it which it did by Miracles c. even Humane Reason was also to behold and to confess it not that Grace had alter'd the eye-sight of Human-Reason but drawn the object nearer to it and till the object was brought so nigh the Wisdom of man did as safely not discern it as it does not now the new state of things which shall be revealed at the second Coming And what news is there in all this or who-ever question'd the truth of it but yet if that not-discerning or non-credence had been accompany'd with an obstinate resolution to disbelieve or reject every thing but what Reason happen'd to find out by its own self-search which would have been like a Man's denying to see a thing though brought and set just before his eyes because he did not first seek and spy it out himself that nescience or non-discerning I say would not then have been safe but highly culpable because the things which before men might have been innocently ignorant of after sufficient and due proposal become at least necessitate Praecepti necessariè Credenda More than this I know nothing he has material to be answer'd to These ensuing Verses which have long lain dormant I thought not altogether improper to make the Epilogue of this little work Upon his Majesty's Gracious Condescention to a Toleration in 72. A year which I could wish had always lasted Regum est Parcere subjectis debellare superbos OVr Royal Pilot studying how to Steer And please each individual Passenger Embarqu'd with him finds no Rocks nor Shelvs So formidable to us as our Selves For our intestine Feuds and discontent Endanger most the Ship of Government And what 's the Source from whence this mischief flows And in its progress so deformed grows But at the Tinder-boxes of our brains Striking new lights and for our frantick pains Groaping in darkness this unhappy Fate Breeds a Confusion both in Church and State But as the great King with a Fiat maâ—e Light out of darkness and his breath convey'd Form to the Chaos so by this Act of Grace Ours blows foul weather from the cloudy face Of his Great Brittain timely to prevent State-pleurisies which no medicament Can cure but letting Blood and now we see England a Free-State and a Monarchy And may 't unanimously be confest The Publick Good 's our private Interest That not Religion we shall find to be The strongest Bond of our Fidelity But those that would like Esops Dog have all Catching at shadows let the substance fall These Peccant humours our Physitian strives T' asswage with soft and gentle Lenitives In which Attempt whether his Wisdom or His Clemency exceeds is dubious for The Monster-multitude like flouds confin'd By persecution grow the more combin'd And forcing Vent or Issues like the Sea Rage but with more impetuosity But these Religious Struglings finding scope By this Indulgence of our English Pope Those rapid Zealots may this being done Recurr and in the proper Channel run But if this fails as in the Stars we see A Regular Irregularity So in our English Sphear I hope 'till prove These various Sects may without clashing move And not Create their own Misfortunes still In short we may be happy if we will FINIS ERRATA PAge 2. line 18. opposed read opposite p. 12. l. 22. corporal r. corporeal p. 33. l. 12 after one r. true p. 34 l. 2. Canary Claret Syder and Muscadine are r. Canary Claret and Syder Muscadine p. 39. l. 24. in so r. in se p. 51. l. 2. by r. to p. 51 l. 23. after Prophecyes add and. p. 52. l. 10. by r. to p. 53. l. 7. after stretch add it p. 55. l. 1. his r. the. p. 55. l. 3. after Election dele or choice p. 55. l. 24. after Pitch add and. p. 58. l. 28. Disputers r. Dissenters