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
Conversion of Nations Fulfilling of Prophesies which baffles all Cavils and strikes all Objections dumb a Miraculous Propagation Now he who prefers the Dictates of his own Private and naked Reason and Understanding in matters that concern Religion before the Guidance of a Church thus Adorn'd thus Mark'd thus Signaliz'd deserves not nor truly has he either the one or the other Nothing certainly can be more contrary to Humane Reason than to think we ought to believe nothing above it For there are Truth 's Un-intelligible by the most Exalted and Sublimated Souls in Heaven viz. The Total and Perfect Quality of the Divine Essence which nothing Created nothing Inferiour to God himself can Comprehend The Saints and Angels enjoy Eternity without knowing what it is the most Towring Wisdom and Depurated Reason can no more reach or fathom that Inscrutable Infinity than Ten Millions of Oceans can be crowded into the smallest Cockle-Shell For it drowns or rather as a Bottomless Abysse swallows up all Philosophy and Learning 'T is the Philosophers-Stone in Divinity too hard to be Penetrated by the Knowledge of Men or Angels In fine We know that such a thing there is but never shall it 's full and perfect Definition it being no less than the Eternal Tri-Une God whose Deep brief Character of Himself was Sum qui Sum. Whence I inferr That Men are not endued with Understanding Presumptuously to stretch beyond it's Strength and Power or to use it as they themselves list But according to the Will and Pleasure of the Divine Donor who certainly gives Man Reason not absolutely but Conditionally that in Matters of Faith at least it should retribute and pay Homage to Him I mean be Regulated by His Beloved Spouse the Church For as that is no true Liberty which has no Limit so that is no true Reason which has no Restriction Besides if most Men are allowed and granted to have Reason certainly the Church do's not want it Vis unita fortior but has in it a more Ample Perfect and incorrigible manner because more immediately and perpetually accompanyed and Assisted by the Holy Ghost And this is true nay infallibly true if Scripture be not false How those Headless-Members the Acephalists would answer here I cannot tell but am certain that As that is not true Reason but Delusion which flowes not from the right Fountain So a Visible Congregation or Body of Men without a Visible Head or with more than one is equally Monstrous But those Spiritual Privateers who slight the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy or Convoy contemn the Doctrine of the Church and resolve to believe no more than their Understandings can Chew and their Reason Digest there being many things in Nature which pose Mortality as the Flux and Re-flux of the Sea the Effects of the Loud-Stone c. will live Infidels and dye Atheists Nor is this said To remove the Cognizance of Divine Truths out of the Court of Reason but to quell it's Pride and Arrogance and bring it to Submit and stoop by an Humble Faith to those Divine Truths for certainly a mans Reason may Rebell against his Faith as well as his Passion against Reason and this Limitation or Coaction does not at all deprive man of his Power nor abridge him of the Liberty and natural priviledge of Election or Choice Religion says he appears and what Christian dares deny it to be the Principal End of mans Creation and therefore as if Horses are made for Burthen they have a Natural ability given where-with to do it If Birds do fly they have Wings given them for that purpose because where an end is Natural the means are so too So if Religion be the End of Man as he is Partaker of a Rational Soul that Reasonable Soul hath some Power naturally placed in it for the excercise judgment and choice of Religion All this is Undeniably true But yet the Author may please to consider That the Horse may be over-loaded and the Bird fly too high and so certainly Reason may soar above it's Natural Pitch Meridian Altitude and Consequently into a Region where 't is a mere Stranger and cannot subsist without some stronger Principle than it 's own proper Strength to support it And so granting the Antecedent I deny the Consequence That because GOD gives man Reason as I have said to light or introduce him into the right Entrance of Religion therefore being once initiated he needs not to ask any more questions or be guided by others but let him follow his own Reason I might as well have said his Nose and he cannot possibly go astray Briefly In the Search or Choice of our Way Reason I grant must rule but that once found Obey For that private Spirit which is not first quickned or animated and then constantly Actuated by that of God's Church which was Authoriz'd and Sanctify'd by the Divine Breath of JESUS is a False Conception no true or lawful Issue of the Understanding but a Spurious or Abortive Embrion of the Brain a Falle Light a Deceitful Phantasm But the Author says If this Doctrine that is for every Man to believe ad libitum were Generally planted in the Minds of men both the Reality and Pretence of Fighting for Religion were utterly Cancell'd Truly so far I should like his Doctrine especially if he could warrant men that Intellectual or Religious Differences should never come to Blowes But Alas Experience makes me more than doubt 't is but an Airy or imaginary Notion For as I do not deny but that those who endeavour an Establishment of Unity and Uniformity in Faith and Religion may possibly occasion War So those I fear of contrary Principles can never long prevent it But I hope that GOD who rules the unruly Ocean will Thus far I do most willingly agree with him That I would have none who disturbe not the publick peace tranquility of the Government be persecuted upon a purely conscientious score For I think it a most uncharitable and unreasonable method because impossible to reduce mens Judgments 't is but one remove from convincing them with Beetles and Halters by taking away their Estates and Starving their Bodies But against those who are found any way machinating against our true and lawful Governours especially the Supream with all Severity and Rigour Currat Lex But yer let every man smart for his proper Fault and not a whole Community or Body of men be made the very Buttocks of the Nation to be kick lash'd and slander'd for the Crimes of Particulars For that certainly is as remote from Reason Equity and Justice as it would be To Pistol a man because his Nose stands awry or knock his Brains our because he Squints Or indeed because the Serpent seduced Eve and she Adam whose Original Guilt corrupted and deprav'd their whole Progeny By the very same Crooked Rule the Apostles themselves might be call'd Traytors because Judas betray'd his Lord and Master Nor can or shall I ever believe
THe Reader may please to take notice that these short Annotations were written within two months after the Publication of that Treatise of Human Reason REASON REGULATED OR Brief Reflections upon a 〈◊〉 TREATISE of HVMAN-REASON By T. P. Printed Anno Dom. 1675. Reason Regulated OR Brief Reflections upon a late Treatise of Human-Reason THE very same Motives which caused that Ingenious Author to publish his HVMAN-REASON and his Search into the Nature and Quality of his Religion and those were he says to Communicate it's Effects to others carri'd me also on to a resolution of exposing these short Observations to the View of some of my Particular Friends though I must confess the Extraordinary Quaintness and Rarity not to say Intricacy of his Arguments were enough at first sight to deterr and startle a much stronger Humanist than my self from opposing so great a Master of Reason Yet when I consider'd that if according to his own Principles I follow'd sincerely the Dictamen or sway of my own Judgment for Human Reason is nothing else I could not as to the Period or Effect which is to arrive at Truth and Happiness possibly err or be misguided nor consequently raise in him the least Indignation against me This Consideration I say conquer'd all other Obstacles and Arguments to the contrary and encourag'd me to prosecute my Design For thought I in this Procedure if he dares believe himself my Reason though directly opposed must perfectly agree with his Now if this be Implicatory and Absurd which truly in my Judgement is in a very high Degree He that broach'd the Opinion must if he can either reconcile or defend it FFirst he says That the Variety of Guides in so long and dangerous a Journey meaning I suppose our Pilgrimage to Heaven where he sometimes meets with no Tract or Path at all and sometimes with so many and those so contrary in the Appearance of their First Entry will confound him more than the want and in this Intricate Labyrinth resolves to follow his own private Reason and Judgment Which cannot Rationally disprove me in affirming 'T is evident to most Mens Humane Reason upon a diligent and impartial search that the Directive part or Guides of Gods Church are as discernable from all Pretenders to and Usurpers of that Office as Light is from Darkness or Day from Night and therefore His Plea of Variety for all his Specious talke will hardly acquit him from a notorious and dangerous defect and neglect in his Reason and Duty for a man may doe all that possibly he can and yet not doe all that 's possible to be done nor consequently can he ensure himself of Future Secuity and Happiness let him pretend never so carefully and constantly to follow the clearest Light of his own Reason unless he can Demonstrate which is impossible an impossibility of distinguishing true Guides from false Neither doe we in following the Direction of the Church relinguish but punctually obey our Reason we grant That must necessarily be Previous or Introductive i.e. It ought to direct us to be directed but when it assumes and this is the Vulgar and Epidemical Errour the whole Conduct in every Particular Occurrence to it self it ceaseth then to be our North-Star and becomes a meer Ignis fatuus cheating us into dark and dangerous Pit-falls and Precipices To which that saying of Saint Bernard is very Pertinent and Applicable He that will be his own Teacher will have a Fool to his Scholar God not-seldom permits the Divel to transform himself into an Angel of Light which is an infernal Fallacy hardly if possibly distinguishable by any private Reason or Industry and therefore the same Merciful God to prevent our being intangled and caught in so enticing and treacherous a Snare hath been pleas'd out of his Immense care and love to Man-kind for he ordinarily works by secondary means to promise the Perpetual Illumination of the Holy Ghost to those whom he left under Him to Guide Govern and Instruct us concerning all difficulties we shall encounter in our Way to Heaven So that if we are deceived in being Govern'd and Rul'd by that Church which our Blessed Saviour hath commanded us under Penalty of being accounted Heathens and Publicans to obey He that can neither deceive nor be deceived has done it Which is both false and impossible in the highest Degree And yet I doe not deny but that God Almighty may so immediately irradiate a Soul with Divine Light as that it may be saved without an intermediate Guidance of any Church at all Fallible or Infallible But certainly we must not conclude what He Will doe from what he Can and for a Man to desert the Communion and Direction of the Church because God if he pleases can otherwise save him would be as desperate a Presumption as for a Man to leap out of a Good Ship into the Sea because God strengthn'd Saint Peter once to walk upon the Water God Almighty no doubt can sustain a Man without any corporal Nourishment at all but I should think it a madness for all that in any Person to resolve therefore to Eat no more or to say that Meat and Drink are not necessary for the Preservation of his Life Starving would infallibly convince him of his Error as Perdition will those that wilfully separate from the Church out of which there is no Salvation And 't is no more Uncharitable or less true to affirm this than to say Those that were out of Noah's Ark were inevitably and irrecoverably drown'd in the Deluge What greater Temerity and Madness can there be than for a Man to disobey God's Positive Command in hopes of his Favour and Assistance some other extraordinary way And therefore that Humane Reason or what if I say'd Septicism which devian's from that Method and rejects that irrevocable and indispensable Injunction Harken to the Church be it never so speciously and floridly propos'd can never issue from the Father of Lights but is Originally Created or Kindled at the Wild-Fire of a Flashing Fancy that can have no longer Duration or Permanence than Lightning which in an instant vanishes Submitting our Judgments to Authority or any thing else whatsoever he says gives Vniversality and Perpetuity to Errour This may Jingle pretily to some Ears that itch after Novelty and Libertinism but I shall never believe it Rational unless he can Demonstrate that the fittest thing to hold Water is a Cullender For he might as well have told me and as solidly though in plainer Words If you would keep and confine the Sea within it's due Bounds and Limits there is no better way in the world than to dig down the Banks and demolish the Walls and then you need fear neither Inundation nor Deluge His vertitur Orbis A Man I know may see the Sky in a Pail of Fair Water but I never before heard as he argues that Heaven was to be seen in the Bottom of a Well and therefore that ordinary
the Foundation For 't is as Irrational as if a Man should say I can guesse so exactly of the Longitude Latitude Altitude and Profunditie of any thing by my Eye that no Demonstration by any Mathematical Instruments can or ever shall Controul or Convince me And truly what better has this Author said from the beginning to the Ending of his Treatise than this That Mens Reasons and Judgements as to the Regulation of their Faith are so very Cleer and Demonstrative that there is no certain way no possibility to know whether they be true or false right or wrong Turne it which way you will this is all you shall find in it which Unreasonable Reasoning verifyes the Old Proverb All is not Gold that Glisters And in Truth if each Man's Reason Promisculously must be Umpire in this Rational Strife men may Play at this Sport to Perpetuity and never win nor lose But certainly our Blessed Saviour has not left the Condition of Mankind in this endless Confusion but has miraculously Founded and Signaliz'd a Church to end all Controversyes if Men that talk so much of Reason would but rightly use it for that Reason which as to Spirituality does not take the Church for it's Rest can never aim or hit right but must necessarily fly at Randome and spend it else without Advantage If that Authority says he which we Obey prescribe Truth we have Good Fortune in our Obedience and meerly Good Fortune but if it draw us into Errours we have nothing to say for our Excuse because we have nothing to Alledge for our Obedience to that Authority It seems then that our Saviour's Commands are of no Validity and Hearken to and Obey the Church meer Fopperies but certain it is CHRIST our Lord has most expresly and Emphatically enjoyn'd this and therefore we may nay must without any If 's absolutely obey it and this questionless will be a very good and sufficient Plea for our Obedience at the Day of Judgement How those who slight it would excuse themselves were there to be any Pleading at that Grand-Assize cannot imagine but am certain if they come off well they will have Extraordinary good Fortune indeed His following Discourse Of Mens Blind-folding themselves as he blindly calls it in obeying Ecclesiasticall Superiours and that those who commit themselves to the Guidance of their own Vnderstanding are as safe on the Left Hand as on the Right but who can credit this That knowes one Hand from the other As secure of Happiness in their Errours very strange as others who are otherwise guilded even in the Truths which they happen to fall into is so extravagantly Frivolous and proofless that it carryes it 's own Confutation with it sic Transeat totum God says he Commands no more but to search and yet shall find whether the Truth or not Ipse Dixit the Reward of Searching And truly I have endeavour'd and narrowly search'd to find Reason in this But after all my Diligence can perceive no Reward of my Searching which makes me conclude That 't is much more Rational to believe that GOD gives Man not only a Will to search but Power to find and Vnderstanding to know the Truth when found or else his Commands were vain But what a Desperate long Leap doe's this Author leave between Searching and Heaven If it were as he imagines I doe not see why a man 's Heartily wishing himself there might not bring him or waft him thither without more adoe and Eternal Happinesse be given him as a reward of wishing But undoubtedly finding the Truth is the reward of Searching and Heaven the reward of finding the Truth which those who search where it is not shall find nothing but anxiety and in the end that they wretchedly cheated themselves and others with shippery Sophism's and Chimaera's c. As no men are sav'd but through Mercy so none unjustly Perish for Truth is missed not so much through Difficulty of Finding as Tepidity and Negligence in searching it I cannot possibly says the Author conceive it agreeable to the Goodness of the Divine Nature so to have hidden and involved and almost disguised the Truth from us if he had intended to have censured the missing of it with so heavy a Sentence as that of Eternal Ruine especially seeing there is but one true Way I thought All ways had been alike with him as to the end for one Hundred false ones and no certain Mark set upon the Entry of that One to Distinguish it from the Others To which I answer If GOD Almighty had left us a Way without any Means or Marks as he strangely imagines to find it out it would be great Cruelty indeed in him which is far enough from his Nature to punish Men Eternally for what is not in their Power possibly to avoyd But since 't is most evident that he hath left both sufficient means to find and Marks to know it by his Discourse upon this Point is in my Opinion only just so many Words to no purpose And since those Marks which are set upon the Entry of this Way are most clear and conspicuous to all Men that look not Obliquely upon them if after they are entred they meet with any thing that Reason may perhaps at first Flinch or Boggle at the Consideration of it's Inerrability takes away all doubt and bids them confidently persevere As in Visible Objects says he we Receive confidently and rest in the Report of the Sight c. So ought we as entirely and absolutely to resign our Belief to the Dictates of our own Understanding in things intelligible which are as Properly and Naturally the Objects thereof as things visible are of the Eye-Sight and we might as well say We will trust our Eyes in Green White and Black but not in Red or Yellow Collours as affirm That our Reason must Guide us in the Contemplation of Nature the Search of Arts the Government of Publick Societies and the Begulation of Mens Lives as far as the Bounds of Morality but that it is not at all to be Followed or Obey'd in Matters that concern Religion Here I must confess the Author has some Colour but I think not much Reason for what he says For if he thinks the Objects of Faith are as Naturally Intelligible by our Understanding as the Colours of the Rain-Bow are visible to our Eyes he makes no Distinction or Difference at all between the Faculties Operations or Effects of Nature and those of Grace which certainly is a Grand Mistake For although our own Reason or understanding tell us There is a God and He to be Worshipp'd and Obey'd by us yet they cannot by their own Light or inward Forces inform us In what manner that must be done by External Agents by some thing which is without us And what imaginably more probable than the Church of Christ which can shew a Lineal Succession from the same Christ and His Apostles a Perpetual Visibility Unity Universality
or rather extraordinary saying of Democritus That Truth lyes in the Bottom of a Deep Well I must confess I doe not well understand and so for fear of drowning shall let it pass as too deep and dangerous a Mystery for my shallow Reason to dive or look into Thus some Criticks of this Speculative Age first turn their Brains and then all things Topsie-turvy For if this Doctrine of Democritus be true we must no longer say Look up but down to Heaven and Pump or draw up Salvation as they do water in Buckets He needed not To have Enumerated the Various Sentiments of the Antient Philosophers and no warre ensuing Thence to infer a possibility for Christians of different Belief to live as to the Exteriour Harmoniously and Peaceably For doubtless the Several Sects among us if all the force they use to reduce others to their way be as it ought to be only perswasive not compulsive may as in other dissenting Countries move in our English Sphere without clashing as the Planets do in their Regularly-Irregular Motions If this be all he drives at there 's no Difference at all between him and me Whether the Reformation which he endeavours to vindicate were the occasion of so much Bloud Confusion and almost Desolation in all those Countries which admitted or rather were forc'd to it I shall not here dispute but 't is out of Controversie they actually happen'd which Dismal Effects I must confess enforce me to believe that God Almighty's Benediction for all their specious Reasonings and Religious Pretences never did or will goe with it He runs on for several Pages very wittily and Rethorically to prove That every Mans Particular Reason if well follow'd and there 's a Parenthesis will Infallibly carry him at last though perhaps through many Tedious and Troublesome Wandrings to his Eternal Happiness Well I am contented with this and say so too but withall must ask him a Question Why does not that man well follow his Reason who in all Doubts and Difficulties for certainly such things there are thinks nothing under Heaven more Rational than to submit to and acquiesce in the Interpretation Definitions and Decrees of General Councils If he says These all together may Erre as likely as he then I say this to my Reason sounds as unreasonably as if he should say One Man may be as strong as ten thousand and thus if his own Argument be good whether the Victory be on his or on my side he is equally defeated I grant a Christian though without any Fraction or Division for certainly there 's no Plurality in the Radical Unity may believe Various Articles by the same Act of Faith for it's Root or Fountain although it germinat's and spreads into several Branches or runs in various Rivulets is indivisibly one and the same for doubtless a Man's Faith may encrease without Variation but to say as this Author That a Man may be to day fully a Papist seven years hence a Protestant and then What-he-fancyes-next and that although be believes things directly Opposite evidently Contrary Pro and Con or forward and backward Yet if he be all the while Actuated and moved by the same Soul of Faith which he says is Conscience it is still the same Numerical Faith This I say is such a Preposterous piece of Jumbling Divinity that although he may please himself with the Fancy for that 's the very best of it I shall never believe the God of Order and Unity can Fancy or be Pleased with such a Deformed shapeless and Confus'd Variety He might as well have told me and I should as soon have believ'd him that a Man if he be all the while vivify'd or actuated by the same instruments of Life viz. Heart and Vitals though he be set just upon his Head he stands directly upon his Feet Tricks of Activity are commendable enough but certainly 't is desperate for a Mans Faith to leape the Sommerset And thus Unity or Sameness of Beliefe so often inculcated in Holy Scripture is quite thrown out of doors and Divine Faith reduc'd to a strong or rather a Weak and Wavering Fancy Wherefore allowing His Philosophical Discourse about Corporal Substances to be true for I grant in Sublunary Bodies there is yet without any Alteration or Change in the Form or Species as he pretends may be in Faith a perpetual Flux and that they must necessarily Trans-spire to make room for new Nourishment Yet I deny for the Reasons aforesaid That only such a Fixt Motion or Variable Identity as he speaks of is requisite to a Man's Faith Nor truly can I perceive any better or more solid Result from all his surprizing Arguments than this That so Men doe but believe 't is no great matter for the What or the Why. He will still have his own sole and singular Reason to Counterballance if not outweigh all Ecclesiastical Rule and Superiority as much as to say The best way to secure a Ship at Sea is to take away her Anchor and Rudder For what is it says he you will trust your Soul with in this Important Business Is it the Authority of Men These verily may lead you into Errour and 't is not impossible into the worst and greatest of all which is the Desertion of Christ himself Such a Possibility I utterly deny and for my Confidence and Warrant produce the sacred Writ where the Church is call'd The Ground and Pillar of Truth with the Divine Promise annext Against which the Gates of Hell shall never prevail Now if this Gentleman can shew such a Character given or Promise made to his solitary Reason I 'le submit and beg his Pardon if he cannot then he must excuse me for doubting his Reason did not take such Directions as it ought and might have done before it set forth nor consequently can he ascertain me that 't is purify'd from all Passion Interest and Sensuality Pride made the Greatest Angel a Divel and a Man 's own Reason too far trusted turns to Madness The Arian Heresie which he hints at Clouded but never Totally Eclipsed or Corrupted the Church which will ever remain immaculate and pure For the Westerne Parts felt little or nothing of that Spiritual Pestilence which in less than four Years she happily Dispersed and dissipated as the Sun by Degrees does Mist's and Vapours As to the Condemnation of Athanasius and whatsoever sinister or Anti-Christian Proceedings he chargeth the then Pope with If he would vouchsafe to peruse some of our Antient or Modern Controvertists who treat at large of the Sanctions of General Councils I presume he would clearly and evidently discover his Mis-information and that which he is willing to take for a certain Truth for Quod volumus facile credimus would prove a meer Calumny and Imposture But still from the wicked Errours of some of that Council he infers a possibility that all might unanimously have err'd so For says he This possibility of Errour even in so high
a Degree we shall find in the Nature and very Elements of a Council For if any one Member of it may be a Heathen or Atheist in Opinion as the Lives he says of many Popes and the Speeches of some declare that they themselves have been why not Two not Three not more not the Maijor Part that is The whole Council Though this I Confess be out of my Element yet I think the inconsequence of it may be Demonstrated by this Syllogism That which may happen to any one egge in the Parish may happen to all But it may happen to any one egge in the Parish to goe into a Man's Mouth at once therefore it may happen to all the Egges in the Parish to go into a man's mouth at once Now Who sees not the Aequivocation of his Logick which Distinguishes not between a Divisive and Collective sense Who those Persons were which he mentions with so much Veneration of such Excellent Abilities and worthy Spirits to examine by the Rules of their own Reason those Follies and dangerous Errours in Religion I know not but am certain those that Converted the Idolatrous Nations of the World to Christianity were of that very sort of Men who he is pleas'd to say are first taught to think and then to speak they know not what I mean the Sons of the Church of Rome so that he who charges these with Superstition and Idolatry because they beg the intercession of the Saints and use pious Representations his Reason indeed teaches him first to think and then to say he knows not what For would it not be wonderful Wisdom in any man to tell another that if he has a mind to preserve the memory of a very dear Friend he must by no means look upon his Picture for that would infallibly take his thoughts quite off from him but if he stares upon the bare Wall he will there certainly find a very lively and perfect Idea of him Qui vult decipi decipiatur Undoubtedly the Picture of our Blessed Saviour upon the Cross is so far from making us think of any Strange or False Gods that it gathers our vain and scatter'd thoughts together and makes us more Vigorously and Attentively think of Him to whom we address our Prayers What hurt or danger can there be in any thing which occasions one to think of our Saviour Christ as a Picture of his Passion very Effectually doth or what Idolatry when excited thereby to a Contemplation of our Saviours Crucifixion one Bowes towards not to the Picture Do Men worship or adore any Minister pronouncing the word JESVS because they doe or should Bow at that sacred Name Certainly no me-thinks the very Light of Nature should decide this Controversie without more adoe No Man bowes at those Five Letters I. E. S. U. S. but because Conjoyn'd they spell the Holy Name of JESVS So no Man Bowes at the Substance or Colours of a Picture of the Passion but because being dispos'd and shaddow'd by the Painter's Pencil they represent our Redeemer dying upon the Cross A Picture then is a Word to the Eye as a word is a Picture to the Ear and if it be not Idolatry to bow at the Name which is but a sound I shall never be convinc'd that 't is any to bow at the Picture of JESVS which is but a Shaddow unless it could be prov'd that all things are strictly forbidden which are not expresly commanded But to our Author Men ought he says to put their Confidence rather in the Traditions of the former than the Commands of the present Church This indeed wants nothing at all but proving but supposing it true what better means can he possibly propose to himself to know the Truth of former Traditions than the Sufferage of this present Church But he would have no man build his Belief upon the Authority of past or present Ages a strange Caution from a single person For says he If they look upon all the Consequences of that Opinion it seems then all our Fore-fathers were stupidly blind they are in much greater danger of being drawn from the Christian Faith than those who remit the Judgment of these things to their own Reason For God's sake why so That certainly now is the true Rule of Faith which was the Essential means of planting and conserving it first but Orall and Apostolical Tradition not written Books nor any Man's private Spirit or Reason was the Essential means of Planting and Conserving it at first therefore Orall and Apostolical Tradition not Written Books c. is still the true and certain Rule of Faith And Consequently this Author 's Human Reason much more likely to draw him from the Christian Faith than such a Rule I am glad his Reason hath at last compell'd him to Believe that Infallibility let him define it how he will must necessarily be annext to our Guide in Spiritual Matters And I should with all my Soul rejoyce to hear of any means That might restore the Greatest Part of Man kind as he says into a hopeful and comfortable Condition and that so many Millions might not Eternally perish But that Dreadful Sentence Extra Ecclesiam nulla est Salus turns my hope into fear and trembling for though ignorance perhaps may very much Extenuate or excuse yet if an Errour be Fundamental that ignorance though never so invincible cannot after it's Nature or quality nor acquit the Professor from all Guilt and Penalty for he that unawares drops into the Water if he be Overwhelm'd is as certainly drown'd as he that willfully plunges himself in over Head and Eares And I fear the reward of invincible Ignorance may be rather an Abatement of Punishment than a Fruition of Bliss Errours in Faith at least Fundamental I conceive to be of a more pernicious Consequence than at present a vitiou Life for no Rational Man I think questions but that 't is better for a Man to Loyter or Stumble nay to fall and hurt himself in a right Path than to walk Uprightly I mean with Moral Honesty in a wrong As there is more hopes certainly of the Salvation of a sinful Christian than a Religious Jew the former being still in the Road possibly to recover and persevere Penitently and Prosperously the latter being totally incapacitated through the Eccentrical Crookedness of his way to make a good or happy Period of his ill begun Progress There may be several wayes to the same Faith but certainly Not several Faiths as this Author imagines to the same GOD who is an Indivisible and Immutable Essence therefore Going-vigorously-forward signifies nothing unless we goe right He that wills the End must necessarily use the means So that this Author can never win me to his Opinion that all Men though never so Discrepant in their Faith following in all Particulars the Dictates of their own private Reason will infallibly in the end arrive at Security and Happiness till he hath proved that the Way which leads
a Man directly to Berwick if he that travels in it confidently believes he 's right will certainly bring him to Dover Crede quod habes et habes He had rather think he says with Origen that the Divels themselves by the excessive kindness of their Judge shall at last be exempted from Damnation than that he himself shall be damn'd for that Opinion Undoubtedly this shews the Author to be a very Compassionate and good Natur'd Man but certainly that cannot be true Charity which ' thwarts the irrevocable Decree of Heaven and truly I do not see why he may not with as much Reason doubt that the Glorify'd Bodyes may fall from their Beatitude as think that the Divels themselves shall at last be releas'd from their Damnation but as certainly the former are past all hopes of Relaxation from their Torments so the latter are past all fear of being depriv'd of their Felicity and Eternal Jubilee For that which truly makes Heaven and Hell is not so much the excessive Greatness as Infinity of their Joyes and Torments He thinkes He may very well believe that there are Secret and Wonderful ways by which GOD may be pleased to apply his Merits to Mankind besides those direct open and ordinary ones of Baptism and Confession This I must confess is very secret wonderful and dark Divinity because Diametrically opposite to the Divine Writ where JESVS answering Nicodemus his Question said positively Amen Amen I say to thee Vnless a Man be born again of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of GOD. And therefore why this Author should advance a Beliet so palpably Anti-Christian I cannot imagine unless he supposes which is Blasphemy to think that our Blessed Saviour did not then fully understand his own mind The Text clearly confutes the Extravagancy and impiety of such an imagination and discovern this Authors Human Reason to be in this as in many other particulars but a fallacious Dream from which if he would rouse and thorowly awake himself he would quickly perceive it to vanish into nothing and prove a meer Illusion For I leave any Prudent Christian to judge whether he thinks it not onely absolutely necessary to walk towards Heaven by those Direct Open and Ordinary wayes of Baptism c. but also absolutely impossible unless in case of Martyrdom which is still Baptism in Bloud to cross over upon such a slight and slippery Bridge as this because the Author think's without proving that there may be other secret and wonderful ways of gerting thither And he may if he please goe one Step farther and believe that there may be no other secret and wonderful ways for a man to live besides Breathing Corruptio optimi pessima And certainly that must need 's be an impious excess of Charity which not onely shakes the Foundation but frustrates the whole Fabrick and Designs of Christianity GOD deliver all good Christians from such gentle and good-Natur'd Doctrine Our Blessed Saviour that best knew foretold there must be Heresies which most Divines agree to be those Gates of Hell mentioned in Scripture and consequently in-lets to Damnation Contrary to which this Author contends that scarce any Heresie if at all discoverable can be Damnable and maintains such a Facility to avoid all dangerous Errours that no Men of ordinary Sense and Reason can possibly fall into them Haereticum hominem post unam secundam correptionem the Scripture saith devita But how can he be shun'd that is not knowable And therefore I must intreat this Author to correct Saint Paul's Admonition or his own Human Reason which he thinks fit for one of them certainly is very much in fault To obey in matters of Belief without being able to believe the thing commanded is no less he says and seems more a Contradiction than simply to obey without knowledge of a Command Certainly this Author thinks every Man's Reason has a secret Magnetick Power to attract or draw down the high Mysteries of Faith within view of his Understanding which is impossible But if Men's Reasons are as beyond Debate they may be satisfy'd that those who guide them neither will nor can deceive what should make them start or fly back Their incapacity to understand can be no good or sufficient Reason for them to disbelieve and a much worse Argument to prove any thing de fide false which they propose who doe truly and Naturally conveigh to us the Will and Pleasure of GOD they are his Voice Qui vos audit me audit or at least the very Eccho of it The Church never Doctrinally but when and what CHRIST speaks and if he that hears one hears both which our Saviour himself saith Human Reason which thus far ought to proceed and we to follow tells us Our business and duty then is to obey and not dispute Besides if that saying be true Fides est Argumentum non-apparentium I do not see why Faith and Obedience should stand still because Reason cannot go forward He says The Vnity of the Christian Church is broken not so much by them who differ in Opinions as by them who will not allow ef such a Difference Cuâ—us contrarium verum est By this I see Reason has her Antipodes too for Can any thing be more directly against it than to call him the greatest Wrangler who would prevent others from quarrelling And to say he that would reconcile Differences and hinder Men from going together by the Eares was the occasion of their falling out Certainly 't is as Rational to say There can be no Order where there 's no Confusion as to say There can be no Unity without Difference 'T is a Solecisme and Paradox much above the reach of my Reason but if be understands it 't is well enough Who knowes saith he whether that GOD who liked best that no Men's Bodyes should have the same complexion no Men's Faces the same Figures no Hares the same Lines no Voyces the same Sounds nay not so much but their Motions and Gestures should be Distinguishable has not likewise best pleased himself with no less Variety in the parts of Men that are Immaterial and even in the most Immaterial Actions of those parts which is the Worship and Adoration of a Deity This though it look prettily upon Paper is a meer Quick-Sand and easily answer'd with asking another Question Who knows whether GOD is best pleased with such Variety in the Faith as in the Faces of Men That which fortifies me indubitably to believe the contrary are those express Words of Scripture One GOD one Faith one Baptism which evidently inferre that besides that General Impediment viz. the Sinfulness and Frailty of our Natures men if sway'd solely by their own reason easily may and too frequently do miscarry for want of a Right Path. Does GOD says he gain any thing by our Devotions does he receive Hurt from one kind of Worship and Advantage by another No surely say I for he is an Unutterable
Plenitude of Bliss and Delectation to Himself but 't is as certainly true that he may be pleas'd with one kind of Worship and abominate an other unless Jeroboam who the Holy Scripture more than once saith made Israel to sin committed no Crime nor consequently offended GOD in setting up the Calves in Dan and Bethel Without doubt saith he but that 's no proof He who gave Rules which might accept of several Interpretations when he might have made them as plain to all in one Sense as they seem now to every man in his own is likewise well contented that they shall be Interpreted severally Truly if our Blessed Saviour had not Constituted Select Judges and Expositors of his Divine Laws which no Laws ever were without I might perhaps be of his mind too but since GOD be thanked 't is evidently otherwise without doubt this Author is egregiously mistaken Certainly GOD Almighty if he had intended Reason to be absolute Lord Paramount independently to Rule and Instruct in every particular Emergency Ambiguity must have given all Men the same measure to compass the same end For as a Ship though it lies in the Water if it has not enough to make it Float can no more move forward than if it lay upon dry Land So it can never sink into my Understanding How he that has less Reason should as safely and effectually proceed as he that has more unless this Author could prove a part of any thing to be as much as the whole or demonstrate Reason to be of the Miraculous Nature of the Manna among the Israelites whereof he who gather'd much had nothing over and he who gather'd little had no lack Were this seriously consider'd I am confident upon second Thoughts and they are best this Author would be convinc'd that a Man's Reason alone can never doe the Work I mean steer him securely over that deep Ocean of Scripture to the Port of Eternal Happiness without Embarking in that Ecclesiastical Ship the Church in which if they Conform to her Doctrine the Poor are as safe as the Richest and the Weakest as the Wise and in this Reliance we doe no more desert our own Reason than a Man does his Corporal Strength in taking a Staffe to help and support him in a dangerous and slippery Passage And whatever Arguments are advanc'd to enervate the solidity of this Ground let them never so briskly sally out they can be no better than meer empty Ebullitions or Bubblings of Reason As well says he the Mud by growing hard as the Wax by Melting obeys the Sun nor is it less glorify'd by the one than by the other It is true the same Sun and I grant 't is equally though variously obey'd by both softens Wax and hardens Mud their Natures being by Heat to melt and grow hard but I cannot conceive how the Parity holds exactly between those Inanimate material Substances and our Immortal and Immaterial Souls For certainly the Divine Insuser of Faith created them with Identical Capabilities and fitted them Uniformly for the Reception of their Proper Objects viz. the Mysteries of Christianity which whosoever Obstinately Dis-believes or rejects is deservedly Excommunicated because he wilfully exclude himself from that Mysticall Ark the Church of GOD. But by the way me-thinkes this Author talkes very incongruously of more than one Religion the very word bearing witness against him for the Substantive Religio I take to be deriv'd from the Verb Rebigo to Tye or Bind together but his Latitudinarian or Socinian Doctrine does not onely Untie and Unbind but Blends and Shuffles all into a Chaos Yet Faith with him must still be Properly one and the same though according to the diverse Receptions says he it produces not only divense but contrary Effects This I shall believe when he hath evinc'd that because all things which are potable are comprehended under the Denomination of Liquour therefore White-Wines Rhenish Canary Claret Syder and Muscadine are Certainly that Man would be censur'd to have drunk too much of these that could be brought to swallow so great a Contradiction Yet this the Author must say if he speakes consequently to his own Arguments is as defensible as his Hyperbole that the Diversity of Religious Opinions because injuriously produc'd by him under the Venerable Name of Faith are not several but one and the very self same belief which certainly is as far from right Reasoning as a Confusion of Fancyes is from purely Divine Faith I should have found no fault with His comparing the Vnity of God's Church to Wed-lock but that he spoyles the Similitude in allowing every Particular Member to believe contrary to one another nay to themselves by which he pulls down again what he built up and makes that Conjunction-Disjunctive by a new-found-Negative or Counter-Creed No body at all questions but that a Foot when it hath the Gout as he sayes or a Hand when it shakes with the Palsie remain still Parts of the Body but if they are Irrecoverably useless they are no otherwise so than as a Dead Bough is a Member of a Living Tree there may be Continuity but no Communication between them and this Debility or decay must needs happen through some secret Perversity or Obliquity in the Recipient not any Defect or Deficiency in the Radical Aliment The same I say of those that wilfully persist in Incredulity and Errour but yet withall must add this that they are never Irrevocably GOD's Grace being ever busie Anathematiz'd by this Church which is much more willing and ready upon Submission and Recantation to Re-embrace than for Obstinacy to Excommunicate any There may certainly be though he thinks otherwise a full and intire agreement in all Points of Faith of one Member with an other either Actually or Votively which to GOD is Aequivalent or else the Athanasian Creed admitted by most Protestants is not to be Credited which without Haesitation begins thus Whosoever will be saved it is needful before all things that he hold the Catholick Faith The which unless each one shall keep whole and Inviolate mark that he shall without doubt eternally perish now if this be as certainly it is true he that wilfully disbelieves any one Article forfeits his whole Faith and Consequently the least Defect therein is a total Privation Now as for Controversie at which he briefly touches like the Bloud I know it incessantly Circulates but Alas To no better purpose that I can perceive than to foment the Quarrel and keep it still alive For through the Immoderation and Unnatural heat of some Polemick Writers 't is so far from effecting a Reconciliation or Union which ought to be the Principal Design and end of it that it do's nothing else but breed an Implacable if not incurable Itch the scratching whereof may perhaps afford some present Titillation or Delight but 't is usually perform'd with so much violence and rage that it does not only not allay but more inflame and ferment the
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