naturall credulity of children to their parents and teachers Yet I do not hereby exclude but that as riper yeares come on so they ought to gaine stronger groundes and maximes to confirme what they first accepted of in a more simple manner But here peraduenture it will be expected that since we say we meane not in this discourse by the terme Religion the vertue so named by Divines but the skil of attaining to eternall blisse we should give the reason why we call this Religion The answere hereunto is not difficult for since the end we ought to ayme at in this life belongeth to the next And since we know so very little of that even the great Clerks much lesse the ordinary sort of Christians whose chiefe endeavours are bestowed upon their temporall concernements It was requisite for our nature that this science should be delivered us from God himselfe And coming from him the most confâ—rmable course was that it should be done by way of command that onely becoming his greatnesse and taking away all possibility of dispute in us Which being so effected you see the art of obtaining happinesse was now become a matter of obedience to Almighty God Besides the object of our Beatitude being the diuine essence the way to attaine it must consequently be an ardent affection to Almighty God And such affection proceeding from a high esteeme of him And the performance of duties and the acknowledgements of the greatenesse of him wee honour flowing naturally from such esteeme It followeth that the chief if not the whole skill of acquiring blisse must consist in making due acknowledgements and in framing vehement affections towardes the God-head And thus you see that the skill which before wee seemed to make different from the vertue of Religion as preceding and directing it is now found to be coincident or convertible with it And though the name of Religion seemed to be spoken aequivocally of the two and in truth is so seeing the notions are quite divers Yet because the thinges that are executed by both are the same the name is justly and fitly derived from the one to the other and so necessarily that without due consideration we can not finde in what one signification differeth from the other The third REFLEXION That the Religion without which there is no salvation is but one OUt of what we have hitherto discoursed it is evident that if according to the course of all other arts and sciences and according to the custome and rule of nature in all her other proceedings the way of conquering the high walls of heaven by our violent affections be but one That is to say that as our nature and her acts and her defects are proportionable one to another and of one kind in all men so the happinesse all men ayme at being but one also the best way unto it ought to be but one and the defects from the best one proportionate to an other that is the way of all men to bliss proportionably considered ought to be but one then it followeth clearely that if God intendeth to direct vs wisely and conformably to our Nature towardes the End he created vs for which he must of necessity do vnder forfeiture of his great wisedome and goodnesse should he make nature and vs in it with designe to bring vs to our eternall well-being and not vse the meanes for it his commandes to vs can be no other then of such thinges as by their essences do integrate the streight and direct way in which did we know the causes of things we should of our owne inclinations and by the skill of morall Philosophy both march our selues and guide others in our charge And out of this we may conclude manifestly that Religion is but one onely which if we hit on and put in execution we become happy but if we misse of it we become unhappy whether the fault of missing it be ours or no Not that I suppose the missing can happen without our fault which is an other disputation But that this rule is universally true that whosoever hath not the true Religion miscarrieth and faileth of obtaining blisse By this we see how dangerous the rocke is to which so many seeke for refuge of their shippe-wracked consciences solacing themselves with such discourses as these God is good and mercifull and therefore commandeth not impossibilities but is content if I do my endeavour to fulfill his precepts I for my part am very ready if I knew them Nay I labour and study to find them out and yet can not Therefore why should I trouble my selfe any further Rather let me cast away all anxiousnesse and trust to the mercies of so unlimited a goodnesse For if what we have hither to laboured to evince be true namely that Gods commands are not meere voluntary ones but of such actions as do naturally breede the effect for which they are commanded then labour as much as you will if you do not that which is commanded that is if you take not the true way of going to heaven you shall never come there The prescriptions of the Doctour to the Apothecary are commandes But if the Apothecary though he endeavour never so much do not mingle the right drugges and temper them according to the Doctours prescriptioÌ„s the Physick will not prove healthfull to the Patient The husbandmans prescriptions to his kynde are commands Yet if his seruant though he worke by his greatest wittes should sow pease instead of wheate the croppe will not come up fit for the Masters table So in all other trades and arts It is not enough to do our endeavour But the thinges themselves must be really performed or else the desired effects will not follow Then assuredly those who content themselves with this cold comfort that God is mercifull do make lesse account of that so important businesse of their salvation then they do of those meaner profits which arise out of vulgar arts and occupations These two then do stand very well together that the same thing may be a coÌ„mand and withall a naturall action towardes the end for which it is coÌ„manded Nay ordinarily and regularly it is alwayes so and no command is otherwise unlesse where there is some fault either in the commander or in the subject The Generalls commandes are of doing such thinges as are ordered to safety and victory the Statesmans for keeping peace and for procuring plenty the Bishops of those actions which breede vertue and good life in the people Yet all these are commands and have therefore power of forcing obedience because they are or at least ought to be supposed such as of themselves are necessary for the common good in respect of which one man subjecteth himselfe to another And from hence the sillynesse of this excuse is more evident For if it be naturall to all good commands that they be of actions conformable to the end for which they are given and that the command be made for
there had been no place for that disjunctive Syllable I easily believe that many a pert batchellour will be ready to tell us that he can find wayes to salve all these places of Scripture and many more if they were urged But that cōcerneth not me I enquire onely what the outward face of Scripture is and to what belief it wil leade an honest heart left to its owne strength For if those queinte disputants do encounter with a person that is not enured to the Sophistry they will turn blacke into white make two egges three as the tale goeth of the impertinent forward scholler and bring to passe whatsoever they undertake Therefore it was necessary to impose among the conditions of reading the Bible this for a principall one That they who by Scripture ayme at coming to the truth should admitt of no Interpreter And this because of the danger in lighting upon a false one instead of a true one before one hath groundes to discerne which is a false one and which a true one For the case is very indifferēt betweene a Catholike Interpreter and any other The Catholike knoweth the doctrine of Christ that is to say the sense of the Scripture independently from the words of the Scripture And therefore in substantiall points which concerne Christs doctrine he cannot teach or interpret amisse without swerving from his owne faith But it is evident that every other who hath no rule for his beliefe besides the bare letter and words of Scripture is subject to errour through every passion and prejudice which hiddenly swayeth his heart awry and corrupteth his judgement by pride or other affection So that he may be rightly compared to a rotten cane that being leaned upon will breake and with its splinters wound and gore him that expected support from it The seventh REFLEXION That the reading of the Fathers will bring a man to the truth of Religion And that naturall reason will greatly advance a man thereunto IT seemeth strange to mee that any man who acknowledgeth Scripture should reject the Fathers since he can not renounce them without professing att the same time by so doing that he believeth himselfe to be able with his little witte and generally lesse study and learning to penetrate deeper into the intelligence of Scripture then so many ages eminent for industry sciēce and holynesse could reach unto And all this upon no other pretence but because they were men and consequently liable to erring As if himselfe were not a man but something else so farre beyond comparison with all other men that we ought rather to confide in his ability and honesty then in all mankinde that went before him Which is so unworthy and so intolerable a pride that I admire how any auditory can endure it But to come more closely to the point I say that seeing the Holy Fathers did both receive the prevaching of the Apostles neerer hand then wee do and did hold the truth of Scripture as strongly as we do and did spend much time in the earnest study of it and proceeded therein with as sincere hearts as wee can It may in no wise be doubted but that they had the meanes and the wills of having the true faith and consequently that they had it Therefore what was their universall Tenet in Matters of faith can not bee false nor ought to be rejected Or with any colour of reason be questioned by us as disagreeing with Scripture Besides their writings being large and numerous in which upon severall occasions and in differing circumstances they repeate and inculcate the same thinges by different wordes and expressions it must needes thence follow that their sense and meaning in most things of importance can not choose but be sufficiently explicated So as who ever shall reade them with candour ingenuity and judgement can not possibly doubt of it And accordingly experience hath shewed us that the judicious Protestants who gave themselves to the reading of the Fathers were in judgement neere unto Catholikes in most of their opinions And that which detained them from being absolutely Catholikes was besides the chaines of interest nothing but a secret pride of not submitting themselves to the Tradition of the Church in some particular points in which Tradition was not so cleare to them Though withall I deny not but that a wrong apprehension of some Catholike Tenets presumed upon the explication of some particular Doctors might unhappily contribute to this their obstinacy No doubt then but if any indifferent person not preimbibed with any wrong maxime shall bestow competent paines in reading the Fathers he will infallibly become Catholike Especially if hee take this rule along with him to compare the practise of Protestants with the practise of the Fathers and of the former Church By which he will see that this which they call Reformation hath cut away under pretence of abuses not the abuses but the very thinges themselves in which the abuses were like unskillfull Chirurgians that cut of a leg to cure a small sore in it or like Mahomet who tooke away all use of wine to cure drunkennesse And in the meane while they cavill att petty questions in which they strive to shew that the Church hath erred As for naturall reason No man will expect that it should be an entire meanes of attaining to the knowledge of the supernaturall truths which are contained in Christian Religion But onely that it may be a helpe thereunto by shewing that they are so farre from contradicting reason as indeed nothing can be more conformable to true reason then the whole oeconomy of them is And I dare promise whosoever shall seeke this that if he come unto it armed with true and sound Philosophy he may arrive to a full contentment of his understanding and heart in all that concerneth so noble an enquiry Now since Catholike Religion hath been so intelligibly divulged in the world St. Augustin maketh mention that he found the Mystery of the Trinity in the Platonists Bookes Now if you aske me how this came to passe I answere that God provided in Alexandria a City much addicted to learning one Ammonius Hermias a great Philosopher and a Christian Hee to make Christian Religion more acceptable sought to joyne it with Platonicke Philosophy Which was no hard matter to do Plato having bing been as Numenius sayth of him Moses speaking Greeke that is to say one who having lighted upon the Hebrew learning had sucked much out of it Now this Ammonius finding in Plato the Ideas of Being and of Vnity and of Life and such other ayery notions easy to be wrought upon to what hee designed endeavoured by these to instill into his Schollers the Mystery of the Trinity Which he did with such happy successe that of the three prime wittes of his Schoole the one Origen became so great and eminent a Doctor of the Church as antiquity hath acknowledged him The other two Amelius and Plotinus prooved two Conductours of the
CONTROVERSY LOGICKE Or The Methode to come to truth in debates of Religion Written by THOMAS WHITE GENTLEMAN ANNO 1659. THE INTRODUCTION MR. John Biddle who is represented to me as one of the most learned and most rationall among the enemies of the Roman Church wrote a booke wherein he declared what opinion he had framed to himselfe out of Scripture concerning the blessed Trinity And that not out of Scripture alone but also out of the Fathers of the first three Centuries smoothly skipping ouer according to the vsuall actiuity of a Protestant Doctor aboue a thousand yeares att a leaue By which proceeding he pretendeth that neither the Caluinist nor any other who sticketh to pure Scripture nay not the Protestant himselfe who extendeth his authority to the Fathers of the first three hundred yeares and no further haue any law or right to censure him seeing he maintaineth all the Principles of both these sortes of persons and offereth to justify out of them by disputation whatsoever he hath written Excepting which two pretended authorities namely of Scripture and of the Fathers of the first three Centuries both of them privately interpreted there is nothing but meere willfulnesse to move any of the fore-mentioned persons to believe firmely any conclusion of faith and Religion or to censure rationally any who hold the contrary opinions This man not withstanding his so conformable plea and the maine position of liberty of Prophecying which is the Basis of all those who refuse the judgment of a speaking Church wee see detained prisoner by publike authority and his booke burned by the hand of the publike Executioner This begott in me as I conceive it did the like in sundry others a desire and curiosity of speaking with him Which not being able to compasse by my slender power My next worke was to reade his booke After which I must not deny him this commendation that supposing the principle of every mans choosing his Religion out of Scripture Grammatically intrepreted at is the manner of all those who recede from the authority of tradition he proceedeth very rationally and consequently Neither do I imagine that any of his persecutors is able to give a satisfactory answere to what he hath written And this hath bin confirmed in me since I have vnderstood that some have sett out workes against him which haue not afforded the discreeter part even of their owne followers the content they expected from them And that others have attempted to do the like but have bin soo discreete as to suppresse their endeavours vpon their finding the successe did not correspond to their wishes This hath made the booke be esteemed exceeding dangerous to Christian Religion by those who thought they have no rule to know what is solide and what is not in Matters of Religion yet are by the force of custome and consent of the greatest part of the Christian name detained from renouncing the God-head of the whole Trynity as esteeming it the maine foundation for a materiall point of Christian beliefe and that which hath brought forth during to many ages those heroyke actions and noble effects wherewith the Christian world is enriched aboue the neglected times of Paganisme Now this consideration or rather experiment as it conuinced clearly that disputations betweene all such as adhere solely to Scripture are for the most part meerely vaine and fruitlesse for witty men will neuer commit too great a folly as to maintaine by Scripture what is palpably and vngloseably against it so it made me reflect that euen the disputations which we Catholikes do vse against Protestants are seldome and onely by accident profitable And by farther rumination my thoughts sprunge out the ensuing treabise I may not conclude this preamble without reflecting vpon Mr. Biddles appeale to the Fathers of the first three Ages which exclusion of those of the following Ages Not because it is his but because it is common to him and to the Protestants and euer to the learnedest Caluinists as may be seene in the workes of Chamier and Daille Truly to my thinking it is a most ridiculous and vnreasonable proposition For I would faine know how it can fall into the braines of any indifferently discoursine man to doubt whiter the Fathers of the fourth Age did not know what the Fathers of the former Ages held better then we can discouer it out of their writings that remaine to vs Then more of them were extant Neither was there any cauils or att least very few which of them were trew which suppositions The stile the phrase the circumstances the practises of the times wherein those Fathers wrote were then better vnderstood And which is the chiefe ô fall there were yet wittnesses aliue who either had knowne them or att least knew others that had knowne them and had conuersed with them so that by being acquainted with the opinions of the men they could not doubt of the sense and interpretation of such hard passages as by inaduertence naturall euen to the most diligent and most wary writers could not chose but sometimes fall from their pennes These were the aduantages of the 4.th Age ouer this wherein we now liue And consequently if we can aske the 4.th Age what it was that these fathers held and may haue their assured answere to our question There can be no comparison betweene that euidence and what we can guesse att out of those scrappes and remnants of darke expressions which in many cases must be the subject of our enquiry if we examine their writinges I will giue you for an example this booke of Maister Biddle that hath occasioned the following discourse Reade the testimomyes he alleageth they will seeme to you the very contexture of the treatises out of which he hath drawne them so large in some places so continuedly page after page whereas generally our Protestant citations are bur of a line or two spoken vpon the by whiles the Authors discourse concerneth an other businesse And yet neuer the lesse nothing can be more manifest then that the doctrine he pretendeth to abett by those testimonies was not the opinion of the fathers he alleageth for it The councill of Nice called the Great that is the Vniuersall Christian world with open mouth and one consent condemning the Arrians of nouelty And St. Athanasius so many times vpbraiding them to their faces that their progenitors were onely Caïphas and Artemas and such like and that their Clergy men were faine to learne how to professe their faith and how to speake a certaine token of their hauing bin formerly taught the contrary The like in effect is in all other controuersies betweene Protestants and vs for in any of them the 4.th Age doth testify that the doctrine it holdeth is descended from their fore-Fathers and is in quiet possession of beliefe in the Church and that the opiniō they dispute against is a nouuelty they do thereby declare the doctrine of the precedent age more efficaciously then any testimonies
vicious is a quality common to all sorts of Actions not a speciall kinde of Action And yet an Action is said to proceede from Man as Man as farre as it is vertuous or vicious Neither is there any Action so proper to vertue and vice as not to include some other nature within it selfe Fortitude requireth some action or passion to gouverne and wherein to exercise courage and stoutenesse temperance hath pleasures to moderate as in meate and drinke which belong so an other faculty Justice hath civill actions to regulate which are determined by lawes and by customes And Prudence is a common eye over all Yet possibily though the actions be the same the sciences wherein they are concerned may never the lesse be divers As the skill of Musike or of Logike is very different from the science which teacheth to make use of them with moderation in due time and place So Philosophers assigne Arts to the one and the science of Morall to the other Wherefore it is apparent that what in Christian language we call Religion is correspondent to that which the heathen wizards termed Morall Philosophy Correspondent I say or rather proportionable with the imparity of pagan darkenesse to the light of truth delivered us by almighty God For as the next world was altogether obscure and unknowne to those old Philosophers So was also by consequence the true end of humane life and action And therefore all their skill and study fell short and was notable to bring them to the least action perfect in the way of nature since it was not possible for any action to be perfect in respect of nature which not onely missed but not so much as aymed att her true End and consequently was uncapable of reaching to the circumstances due thereunto Now that which I draw from the mention I have made of these Philosophers is that Reigion is in proportion to Christian life what they did esteeme Morall Philosophy to bee towardes a good or happy life in naeure The second REFLEXION How Religion is naturally to be bred in mankinde FRom these premisses it followeth clearely that if Mans nature were in its due perfection Religion would be as well knowne and with as much security assented to as are now the common principles of nature and of naturall liuing For since according to the maxime of Philosophers no one action can be performed by man as man but that it must be either vertuous or vitious and by consequence in euery passage of his life a rule is necessary for him by wich to square and regulate his proceeding that it may be vertuous It is manifest that if he be not very secure and perfect in this discipline he must vnauoidably faile and swerue from vertue and nature and consequently he would not be complete in the course of nature nor enioy that perfect State which is conformable to his nature Therefore enioy the perfectiō of human nature it is necessary that he have all security of his beliefe and a complete rule for his actiōs and consequently the principles of Religion ought to be as euident to him as the principles of nature No lesse is euident out of the former part of our discourse For if Religion be the skill of obtaining beatitude or heavenly glory and if this be the end of our birth and of our liuing in this world It followeth that our very life here can not be so directed as it ought to bee vnlesse we have the science and rule of Religion And because the right direction of our life to aeternall Beatitude is of greater valew and worth then our continuation in this world It is euident that the science of attaining Beatitude ought to be more cleare vnto vs then the skill of guiding our selfes in our corporal life Wherefore seeing that we finde Religion is not now so cleare and certaine vnto vs as are the Principles of our naturall and ciuill life we may easily gather that we are not in the right temper which human nature requireth And from hence one may argue that if the happy state in which our first Parents were created had continued till their multiplication had filleth the earth the knowledge of God and other principles for gaining so celestiall blisse would haue bin as naturall to them as the prouiding of meate clothes houses and such naturall accommodations are to vs now and would have bin derived from Parents to children with the same connaturallnes and would have bin embraced by the children with a like or greater heate of affection And that the vnhappy apple was the cause it is not now so as it likewise was of all other disorders in mankinde whereof this is not the least if not the source of most of them as they who looke into the matter will easily discerne The due way therfore to attaine the knowledge of Religion is by nature Such nature I meane as we may obscure to worke in children when they learne their first languages which as it is not effected without the deliuering of them by their mothers and nurses so neither is it without the endeauours of the litle soules labouring to expresse their thoughts and mindes And nature hath in her such principles that neither the one party nor the other can give over the paines till they have brought the effect to passe after the same maner in that happy state of innocency children would have bin trained vp in Godliness as perfectly as in naturall qualities without any violent straining of them thereunto and as it were even before they should have bin awarie of it And this is clearely deduced out of an axiome that Philosophers do vse in the beginning of Logicke where they teach vs Logick ought to be learned before other sciences because it is an instrument or methode to obteine sciences by and consequently ought to be possessed before one setteth himselfe to the gaining of science So Religion being the instrument and methode to guide vs for the well acting of our lifes when once we are come to the vse of reson It is cleare that it ought to be planted in vs before we come to the age and vse of discretion Againe since no action ought to be exempt from the direction of Religion not euen the very first It can not be doubted but that Religion ought to take possession of our hearts euen before Reason Neither do I speake this as a thing that should haue bin onely in the state of Paradise but as what is connaturall to vs here and is practised by many pious Mothers who teach their children their prayers and stampe in their mindes a deepe conceit of God and of heauen before they are capable of judging in matters concerning temporall commodities So that it is plaine that it belongeth truly to the nature of Religion to be propagated in man kinde by discipline and by deliuery ouer from father to sōne and to be embraced in the meere vertue of such a reception through the
the action as the action is for the end which must be in Gods commands by which he ordereth vs to eternall life his commanding being the Idea to all actions and this matter being the principall on which he exerciseth that power it is evidently convincing that whether the command be possible or impossible knowne or unknowne if it be not fullfilled the action is not done without which the end can not be obtained And consequently the party becometh damned Not because he did not obey the command but because he did not the action nor followed the way necessary to salvation which if he had done without command it would have saved him for it is in vertue of doing the action that the fullfilling of the command saveth all those whom it doth save and without it none are saved The fourth REFLEXION That Religion is certaine And the meanes to attaine unto it THe case standing thus that either we must do what God hath commanded us in this world or else must suffer his indignation in the next And that there is no excuse for ignorance I neede not urge to any one who is sensible of their soules interest that the knowledge of the law of God ought to be certaine and undoubted both in it selfe and to us That is that every one according to his particular circumstances ought to have a constant and immutable assurance that it is Gods law in which he walketh And that in the Church there are meanes left by our blessed Saviour to secure us of this truth for every one according to his capacity if the execution be conformable to the principles The first part is so cleare that time were spent in vaine to declare it For since the end of our faith and knowledge is the observing in fact and not onely in will the commandements of God with the losse of blisse and incurring eternall damnation if it be not done in effect And since on the other side it is impossible that he who is uncertaine whither he be in the truth or no and hath but a changeable opinion concerning the law of God should constantly and firmely in all his workes performe that law It is evident that such a man is not fit for Christian life but is like one that whilest he holdeth the plough is still looking backe nor can he hope for any thing from God because his faith is wavering and unstable In his practise he can not choose but be carried too and fro with every wind of opinion Now forwardes now backewardes and never steere any constant course towardes heaven and blisse Whereas this rule of good life as is before declared is of a nature that it comprehendeth all our actions the highest and the lowest the first and the last and all that are comprised between these extreams As for the second part of what we have aboue said Namely that God hath left in his Church meanes for all sorts of people to come to this degree of certainty for euery one according to his growth It is of it selfe manifest to all such as have so reverent a conceit of God as to thinke he doth not his works by halfes nor leaveth mankinde for whom he made the world destitute in the chiefe point and in that for which as for his sole end he created man himselfe to witte for bringing him to blisse and eternall happinesse For since mans nature is made in the most excellent part of it to require evidence and that it is so laudable in matters of Geometry Astronomy Physicks Metaphysicks and whatsoever is of great importance not to be satisfyed without evidence and certainty and to ayme at it with all our strength and that truely our understanding were abused if it should be forced to accept of what it doth not clearely see and is not certainly assured of its nature being made to see and its essence being a power of seeing How can any rationall discourser thinke that God hath failed us in this so materiall and principall concernement Certainly no man of judgement can suspect it But to satisfy even hard believers lett vs looke into particulars And presently wee finde that men in respect of knowledge are of two sorts some who by themselves are capable of vnderstanding truths others who live upon trust of the former kind of knowing men Of this latter sort are all they whom we call schollers who at the first do trust their masters till themselves grow up to the ripenesse and ability of knowing and of teaching others And much more all those who arrive not so forward as to be schollers which in some respect or other are the greatest part of mankinde The Physitian trusteth the Pilot when he is at sea the Souldier when he is in an army the baker for his bread and the brewer for his drinke the Gentleman trusteth his husbandman for his corne the Physitian for his health the Lawyer for his suites and every master in his kinde Now in matter of Religion God hath given vs an advantage which is not in any of the trades or sciences necessary to our temporall life For he hath provided us not some one man or some meeting of a dozen or twenty which is a great cōsult in other affaires but he hath given vs a whole world of men to consult withal and that at one meeting Consider how vast the Church is which holdeth communion with the See of Rome All that at once is your warrant You can not imagine they will tell you a lye for they speake to you not in wordes but in their lives and therefore they must be cosened thēselves or else they can not cosē you there you have a fidelity pledged vnto you beyond the certainty that Euclide or Archimedes could afforded you For it is more impossible that so great a part of mankind should live in a cōtinuall hypocrisie and dissembling then that the surest consequences Geometry can make should be false If you seeke skill that Church is full of learned men in all kindes of Sciences that any other can pretend vnto Search but the Book-sellers shoppes and you shall find a hundred Catholike Authors for one of any other Communion thousands continually studying in Colleges and Religious houses whose perpetuall search may justly challenge the probability of knowing truth If you looke after outward piety and the meanes of preseruing and encreasing of learning you shall finde it there in a higher degree then in all the communities of other sects So that if one may rely vpon outward signs there is no comparison betweene any other company of men and that Church And consequently it is beyond all doubt or question vnto what authority a discreete person who can not or will not take the paines to looke himselfe into particular pointes ought to adhere vnder paine of forfeiting his judgement If he be neuer so little conuersant in the learning of the world he must needes be a mad-man if in the way of moderne authority
he followeth any other or so much as misdoubteth there can be any other comparable to this As for the other sort of men who of themselves are able and curious to look into the veins in which the rootes of Religion do runne Lett them but reflect on the change that hath been made in the world since Christian Religion began to flourish that is since Constantines time and since the first 300. yeares after Christ and they may demonstratiuely conclude that seeing the long space of 4. or 5 thousād yeares of nature was not able to produce those great and noble effects which wee evidently see have sprung up so aboundantly in so farre shorter a time the finger of God must necessarily be in this time and that Protestants by rejecting it as Papisticall do confesse plainely that all the great effects of Christian Religion are proper to those whom they terme Papists And seeing that the Ages since the first three after Christ are the whole flourishing time of the Christian Church this their disclayming them will appeare unto any understanding man to be the very renouncing of Christianity it selfe Now if he who pretendeth to knowledge be able to manage humane nature and to see how a freedome of heart from the pleasures and cares of this world is that which bringeth all good to man both in temporall and in spirituall considerations And that this freedome can not be introduced without a settled assurance of the goods of the next world nor that persuasion be wrought by any other meanes then by faith and by the course which Christ tooke for it He will not onely forbeare admiring that the world though fraught with arts in the first 2000. yeares should deserve the just revenge of the deluge-waters But will also discerne that as in the latter 2000. yeares before Christ it had advanced nothing att all So had it endured 4000. yeares more without the light that Christ brought into it it would never have growne better The love of worldly goods exalting arts and civility to a certaine pitch and then by its encrease into immoderation reducing all backe to barbarisme Or at least floating mankinde in a certaine compasse too and fro and never permitting it to grow into any heighth of perfection The fifth REFLEXION How Christian Religion hath been propagated and conserved THe threade of our discourse hath by this time woven vs into the consideration of the meanes where by one may come to the true Religion In which two inquiries occurre vnto vs the one concerning the beginning and first publication of Religion the other concerning the circumstances that belong unto it now in the present age wherein we live As for the former wee hauing our Saviours command to expresse that it ought to be done by preaching and hauing the testimony of all Christians euer since that it was so performed there remaineth no place to question how Christian Religion came first into the hearts of mankinde The Apostles had by Gods speciall gift the knowledge of all languages By this they could speake to all natitions And so it is generally vnderstood they did and that by word of mouth they propagated through all the world that faith which themselues had learned from Jesus Christ But that they carried any bookes about with them or that they did sett the nations they preached vnto on learning those languages in which the scripture was written there is no mention at all Nor is it either probable or possible that they did so it is well knowne that many of the Nations which att that time became Christian had no writing or reading in many ages after And so it is euident that the generall propagation of Christian faith was by vocall preaching and by vocall tradition from father to sonne of the doctrine first planted among them by the Apostles And indeed supposing Nations to be vnlearned it is cleare that there can be no other ordinary way of conueying this necessary discipline to posterity No doubt but the methode of the first institution is in a manner Ideall to the following continuation which is but a kind of repetition of the beginning And so we might justly conclude without any further paines that the conseruation of Religion ought to be likewise effected by original deliuery that is to say by Tradition But the very thing it selfe affordeth vs more light to see evidently the truth of our Conclusion For looking into the nature of that which is to be done we shall see plainly that it is impossible it should be effected by any other way What is it we meane by planting Religion in a Country but that the People of it should haue the knowledge of the way how to goe to Heauen Lett us then examine what signifyeth this word People There are two Notions of it The first is that it signifyeth the men the women and the Children of a common wealth or nation so comprising all the individuals of humane Nature that live in that nation Now of these it is the property of children to believe what is told them without doubting wheter it be true or no or ever judging of the thing proposed As for women a great part of them participateth of the same quality And the most of them are governed by their husbandes esteeming them if they have any worth in them the best of men The third member of this division falleth under the second notion of the word People and single is the whole subject of it for it signifyeth a multitude of men employed in seeking and in attending to their livelihoods and subsistance not looking after learning or applying themselves to study for which the greatest part of them wanteth either leisure or capacity or inclination Now in which sence soever this word is taken I◠appeareth manifestly that Tradition is the necessary and onely meanes to establish faith in the people For the Maxime is well known that he who is not of an art must in what belongeth to that trust those whose particular skill and profession that art is And thus it is euident that the People taken according to the explication giuen must rely vpon an Authority for knowing what is the true Religion and what is not But when we once come to Authority there is no pretence for any but for that of the Catholike Church shee onely can speake authoritatiuely all others speaking from their owne heads and shee onely professing to speake from the mouth of Christ and of his Apostles shee onely hauing had the sense and meaning of the Apostles deliuered to her because shee onely hath continued euer since their times all the rest hauing nothing but dead words and the killing letter deliuered to them whiles for the sense of those wordes they haue no further recourses them to their owne imaginations and discourses In the next place lett us consider what is the knowledge of heaven And our first remarke will tell vs that it is such a knowledge as God himselfe was
to oblige the respondent to explicate his meaning in the position For that belongeth to the respondent who can not be forced to hold by the wordes of his Thesis any more then himselfe meaneth by them He may also oblige him to yield the reason of his Tenet if it be such a one that the opposite is the more common or of Authors that he is bound not to forsake without great reason For as in truth it is an impudence to maintaine any thing without a reason So the reason failing the maintainer is putt from his position though peradventure the position it selfe be not confuted Neither ought there to be required more reasons then one for one truth Not but that many arguments may be framed to prove the same conclusion but because among them one at the least ought to be irrefragable and which cā not be cōvinced of defect For if none be such the respondent ought not to maintaine his assertion for true since he himselfe must needes thinke that peradventure it is false not having evidence or knowledge that it can not be otherwise then as he affirmeth it The second duty of the disputant in a serious disputation intended for the finding out of truth is to propose no argument but such as in his opinion is convincing We can not oblige a man to know so much For all of us are fallible in particulars and even Geometricians themselves do sometimes mistake a truth for demonstrated when really it is not so But that which we may exact of our disputant is that he esteem his argument convictive and propound it for such ād he is to make account that himselfe is overcome if fair law being givē him he do not overcome For his part being to prove if he do not that faileth of his end which is to lose the day and if before he begin he doth not expect to do this he cometh not to dispute but to mock the Auditory and to persuade them or to make a shew of that which in reality he knoweth he can not performe His third duty is to proceede in forme Now by true and rigorous forme is meaned Syllogisticall forme So that in rigour every attempt of his should be a Syllogisme But among expert and ingenuous Logitians This is not exacted unlesse it bee upon a pinch where there is a controversy upon the consequence For then the rigour of forme concludeth the question Otherwise to goe as they call it by Enthymemes that is by putting one onely Antecedent whence the denyed proposition is averred to follow is the shorter and the clearer way For it taketh away both lenghth and confusion from the respondent And because if the Antecedent be false it is but one and so the deniall or distinction of it putteth the arguer in his ready way and if the consequēce be naught that is to be proued the Disputation goeth the more smoothly on His fourth duty is to prove what is immediatly denyed him and to bring that in his consequent whether it be a proposition or a sequele he ought to make good These are the necessary and maine duties of the disputant For although anciently he was allowed to make what demandes he pleased of thinges pertinent to his proofe before the respondent could discern what he aymed at by his questions Yet our latter Schoole-practise hath cutt of this liberty as being very subject to circumvent the respondent and rather captious then a solide meanes to arrive att truth As for the Answerer His first duty is to remember his name that is to say that he sitteth there to answere and therefore ought to speake no more then he is asked His solemne wordes are knowne to be I grant I deny I distinguish As for granting it is att his danger As for denying he ought not to deny any proposition that of it selfe is knowne to be true As for distinguishing he must shew that the Arguers wordes do bear more senses then one or else he giveth no distinction Hee must also shew that the parts of his distinction are to the purpose of the argument otherwise his distinction is frivolous This he must do when the Actour requireth it Otherwise he must onely give his distinction and grant the one part and deny the other to the end the arguer may choose whether he will accept of that which is granted or prove that which is denyed If he grant a proposition formerly denyed or if he deny a proposition formerly granted he hath lost the day Whether he may distinguish a proposition that he hath before simply granted or denyed is a question touching the honour of the defendant But without doubt in rigour it is lawfull to be done For no proposition can be supposed to be granted or denyed in all senses possible And therefore upon further occasion it may be declared in what sense it was formerly allowed or denyed The ninth REFLEXION Of the Application of the same to Religion BUt to apply these observations to our present subject we must cast our eyes upon the ayme and scope of our disputation Other disputations that are not of Religion wee see are sometimes done for the exercise of yong Schollers to inure them to a subtile and rigorous Manner of discoursing and to make them perfect in the consequences to their Tenets which is a laudable course according to the worth of the sciences they are about Other whiles men meete to dispute either for recreation sake or for ostentation of their wittes The latter is pardonable in yong men and the former is a commendable Manner of passing their time for those who have no better meanes of spending it But when all this is applyed to Religion it taketh an other hew For here wee looke for truth in the most necessary part and businesse of our life in which to be deceived is the greatest mischiefe that can befall us Beyond the ruine of our estate Beyond the taking away of our life Beyond the extinguishing of our family And beyond the losse of all that is deare to us in this world Wherefore he that in this Matter maintaineth any position meerely for ostentation of his witte is guilty of a most Sacrilegious action and committeth upon the party he seduceth the worst sort of murther that Mans Nature is capable of in like Manner to make a meere recreation of such disputing Is a high contempt of God of eternall Beatitude and of Divinity For exercise it may be necessary so it be knowne to befor that end and that under colour of exercise no wrong persuasion be induced into the Auditory Yet is all this from our present businesse For the Disputation for which these rules are intended is a kind of trial of the truth of Religion By which the Auditory may take an Apprehension of what they are to follow during their whole life So that it is not to be allowed without just security from both parties From the Arguent for his disputing and from the
That not every ability which is oftentimes taken for learning is truly such though it bee a commendable quality and such a one as peradventure belongeth properly to learned men however others acquire it and there by gaine the opinion of being learned men Of this kinde is the knowledge of languages The which are divided into two sortes some of them being termed vulgar tongues others learned The name of vulgar imparted ordinarily that such a language is spoken naturally in some country and is proper to the people of that place or to some part of it That language is generally accounted learned which requireth bookes to the leaving of it and hath grammers and dictionaries to Study it by Though indeed the terme of a learned language hath a higher signification to witte a language necessary to the attaining of learning or in which learning was or is delivered For learning generally being brought into our Northerne climates from the Eastern ones and being first written in the languages of those parts they have gotten the prerogative among us to be estemed the learnd ones First the Latine came out of Italy then the Greeck then the Hebrew and consequently the Arabick the Syriack the Chaldaick even the Persian the Cophtick and the Abyssive though the principall ones are the three first in which the Chiefe of sciences Divinity is originally delivered unto us Out of which it is cleare that the knowledge of these languages in themselves is not true learning but that it is the knowledge of thinges delivered in them which deserveth truly to be esteemed so and the knowledge of languages onely instrumeÌ„tall to true knowledge or learning so that as we do not accompt a man who is expert in French Spanish and Italien properly speaking to be a learned maÌ„ for having them but a well-qualifyed Gentleman In like manner we should also say of him who is expert in the Orientall or learned languages that by such excellency alone he doth not deserve the title of a learned man but of a well-qualifyed man ranking this quality in its due degree with the arts of Musike designing Painting Fencing Dancing â—iding and such other innocent employments of unbusied persons Yet because they are as it were a steppe to learning and do belong to learned persons they have a higher ranke then those lowe and meerely fancyfull exercises both in themselves and in their clayme to the attribute of learning This mistake of the terme learning in applying it to the knowledge of wordes is of so great consequence that it forceth me to looke further into the nature of learning Learning then is that which is made and begotten in a Man by teaching A teacher is a master and an instructour Now seeing that the exercise of both these qualities is proper to men and not to beasts he is truly a teacher who teacheth those thinges which belong to Man as Man That is to say such thinges as make him more man or more perfect in the nature of man which are those on which dependeth the government of himselfe The doing of this dependeth first and principally of Divinity among Christians as of Metaphysikes and Morals in the way of pure nature It dependeth in the next place on the knowledge of the world the which is taught us by the science of Physikes or of naturall Philosophy And to this Arithmetick and Geometry are necessary though peradventure these two may also have an other clayme upon their owne right for admittance to a share of informing our soule of nature seeing that Quantity is the highest condition of naturall thinges or bodyes After these the notion of learning is derived to the science of Medicine or Physike by which we governe our bodyes Lastly and of all the rest most weakely to the knowledge of Law by which we governe our fortunes our disordinate affections having made it necessary to us and in a manner a part of the Governement of our selves These then and onely these knowledges do make a learned man What besides these is called learning is through mistake of the name All other knowledges belonging onely to some accidentall action or circumstance of mans life not to the governing of him as he is man Not that I will quarrell about the use of the word But I endeavour to prevent the abuse of the things arising from the aequivocation of the word For it importeth not how the name is used as being att the will of the Speakers but it importeth that the well-meaning auditor be not abused by the mistaking of that for reall and true learning which is not so nor can availe him for his pretended use and behoofe Lett this then be concluded that no knowledge of wordes maketh a learned man but onely the knowledge of those thinges which belong to the Governement of mans life There is yet an other quality which more seemingly though peradventure not with so good ground pretendeth to the appellation of learning It is a faculty of talking of those thinges which sciences or true learning do professe and teach And because true teaching consisteth in a verball and that chiefely orall delivery of the teachers minde this hath a strange force mong persons not well able to judge of the matter it selfe to perswade that such talkers are truly learned He needeth have a strong judgement to be able to avoyde the snares these men use to lay The knottes of their aequivocations are to close the thread of their discourse is so subtle the smoothnesse of their wordes and the well-ordering of their pathetick expressions is to penetrant that no ordinary Auditor can escape them Hee who is to cope with such agamester must either be truly learned or beyond measure cautions And yet as I said before this plausible speaker hath not so faire a clayme to learning as the Grammarian hath against whom we lately discoursed For the Grammarian truly knoweth what he professeth But this man after he hath made a discourse of an houre long after he hath quite perswaded you If after all this you have accesse to the cabinet of his soule and there enquire of him what opinion himselfe hath of what he hath so handsomely spoken and that he will ingeniously disclose his heart to you he will tell you that he knoweth not whether what he hath sayd be true or no but att the most that of any thing he knoweth it is the likeliest to be true Some ages passed there was in one of our Universities a man who having made a long speech in defence of Christian religion with exceeding great applause of all his auditory who were ravished and fully satisfyed with what he had sayd did through excesse of vanity the predominant humour of such falters breake out into this horride blasphemy Little Jesus how much art thou beholding to me For if I would have spoken against thee how farre more efficaciously could I have declaymed The story sayth that he was suddenly strucken with such a losse of memory
that he was faine to learne of new to reade Deservedly hee But what I deduce out of this relation is first that his reasons though in his owne judgment they were not efficacious yet they convinced the whole auditory and that of no common persons By which we may understand that the reasons he brought were not demonstrations nor were the best that might have been alledged for that subject Celse better could not have been opposed And neverthelesse they carried so great an Auditory From whence we may inferre how violent a power the force of this art of talking must necessarily have upon the ordinary sort of men to make them take their Master for a great Doctor An other note that I make upon this occasion is that all the talking of such men is not or ought not to bee sufficient to perswade us not onely that they speake the truth but even that they speak their owne mindes And after all their earnestnesse we may suspect their discourse is framed but to comply with the humour of the times or to promote their present interest or to please their auditors Tully professeth the same of his Oratours and sayth he also practised it himselfe But here I may not omitt the story of that expert generall and understanding man Hanniball the Carthaginian Antiochus having furnished him with a puissant and flourishing army would entertaine him also with an Oration concerning the art of warre and the manner how he ought to proceede in it made by a famous and long-practised Oratour Phormio who in the presence of Antiochus and his Captaines discoursed to Hannibal of this subject to the great applause and admiration of all that heard him excepting Hannibal who being asked how he liked him answered that in all his life-time he had never heard such an old dotardly foole prate A strange censure one would thinke on a man so generally exacted and cryed up Yet if we consider that Phormio had learned his skill of warre onely in written discourses and Histories but Hannibal in the field and in action it selfe wee may easily conceive that Phormios Oration talked of thinges in the ayre and formed his adversary in his fancy whereas Hannibal had studied the thinges in themselves and so knew groundedly what he spoke and saw that all the Oratours glorious speech was but a painted pageant not any effectuall exhibition of truth Hence we may conclude that the ability of discoursing in a high straine and in a pathetike manner is no argument of true learning in him that exerciseth it unlesse juggling and folly in impertinency may passe for learning Who were better talkers or better discoursers then the Academikes Yet their profession was that they had no truth and that indeed there was none to be found The nineteenth REFLEXION On what Divinity And who is a Divine LEtt us now apply this to practise and to our present subject Religion as we have already said is the most important and the most necessary businesse that belongeth to Mans nature and action It is so precisely one that if a man chance to mistake in it be the cause what it will he is lost for ever For as hee that misseth his way cometh not to his journeyes end whether it be his fault or others misguidance that hath made him misse his way So who treadeth not in the true path of Religion never arriveth at eternall happinesse lett the fault lye where it will Now if learning in Religion be the skill of shewing the path to heaven and if all the great noise that these talkers make helpeth one never a steppe thitherwards as not delivering any point of truth that may be relyed upon It is evident that the pretended learning of such persons is much further from the notion of true learning then the Grammar learning we spoke of before For though learning be lowe ad meane as being onely of wordes yet of them att least the Grammarian hath knowledge Whereas this prating this parrate-vertue though it be of thinges yet is it not a science of them but all is meere wordes and winde I heare them reply as they want neither wordes nor impudence to dispute against evidence that though it is true they promise no certainty because none can be had yet they make out high probability which is the Princesse that governeth humane affaires I will not at present discusse whether there be any certainty or no It is enough that the Catholike Church professeth certainty and ever hath done so and nature forceth even the denyers of this truth to act as if they had certainty in perswading and forcing others to their opinions But I wish that these men would speake plaine English and that in lieu of this quaint terme High probability they would tell us the meaning of it in wordes that honest men may understand Lett me see if I can helpe them That which they meane by prohability must either be some accesse towardes truth on the objects side Or a strong perswasion made in the Auditor If it bee a perswasion In the Auditory without any approach to the object clearely it signifyeth nothing else but a high cheate or an excellent juggle with prayse neither may I deny nor do I envy to such men Then for the objects side If there be no fixednesse or certainty of the object by all the arguments of this high Oratour I can not comprehend there is more in all he sayth then peradventure it is true peradventure not So that High Probability signifyeth High Peradventure Which how great a Non-sence it is if applyed to fixed verities that are not subject to the mutability of change and chance that is how ridiculously it is applyed to Religion and to truths of faith is evident to every sensible man If now men will needes have one termed a Divine because he can thus finely talke in the ayre of God and of thinges belonging to him he must be a Divine of blind Tiresias his tribe who in the Poët professeth his Divinity in these termes O Laërtiade Quicquid dicam aut erit aut non Divinare etenim magnus mihi donat Apollo The last part of the reply telleth us that Probabiliry governeth all human action I deny it not But withall I take notice that Action is one thing Beliefe an other Human action is about the gaining of a future End which dependeth on fallible principles as all mortall thinges doe Which are continually involved in a thousand uncertainties and changes But faith is of unchangeable verities which nothing hath power to make otherwise then it is already settled It is a parallel to science I meane to true science such as we se exercised in Geometry for which no man looketh into probabilities And to expect that faith should depend on probabilities is no lesse ridiculous then to thinke the like of Geometry since it is more necessary and more important then Geometry and the way to heaven is missed with greater danger and losse then