worse because it wanted his Approbation I question not but he likes the Reformation as well for not sending Missions into China as for not endeavouring to do good in Coffee-houses The Doctor may call to mind what Instructions were given by St. Paul to Timothy viz. That he should be zealous in his Exhortations even to importunity Preaching as well out of season as in it and then perhaps he will not think it such a mortal Offence to endeavour the reclaiming of a Soul from Error or Vice wheresoever a probability of doing it or even a possibility shall appear especially when he considers that some men are such studious shunners of Pious Instructions that unless they meet with them amidst their Pastimes and when they least think of them they will always want them Such is the goodness of our Lord that when the Guests come not where they may be regularly invited he sends his Servants into the High-ways c. to call them But the Keepers of these Houses will be Losers by such Disputes for men do not love to lace their Coffee with Controversies Dr. St. knows how great an Argument Gain is with most men The Author of a Seasonable Discourse against Popery did it before him when he addressed two of his main Dissuasives to the Grasiers and the Lawyers putting them in mind that if Catholic Religion should be restored in England the one would be impoverish'd by Fasting-days and the other by Appeals to Rome and so engaging that Passion viz. the love of Money to be of his side which as a Divine he ought to have preached against But no damage ought to be apprehended from that which is good And forasmuch as concerns Coffee-houses if men love not to lace their Coffee with Controversie they may lace it with somewhat else or else drink it plain here being variety of Discourses as well as Liquors and a great Liberty of Conscience of calling for what they please Neither is Disputation it self such a Nuisance to this Trade as Dr. St. imagins for let but the Doctor since he thinks it no crime to go to a Coffee-house honor one of them with his Presence tho' with a Disputing design and I will undertake it shall have Custom enough and particularly Mr. G.'s as often as he is in Town This Marginal Note is too long but the matter lay so near my Road that I could not forbear the taking a view of it Discourses were vented in them there being no places so Sacred which such things as these had not access to some time or other no not the Pulpits themselves I consider'd indeed that Misrepresentations of late had been more frequent in Pulpits than formerly wherefore I hinted it was to be feared that e'r long none of them would be left but what would have met with some Misrepresenter or other I will not deny what indeed is evident in it self that I reflected on some Preachers but how this could pass for a Complement on the whole London-Clergy I stand in need of Dr. St.'s Subtilty to make out for as my saying that some Lyes were told in Coffee-houses did not reflect on all those who frequented them nay I was then actually endeavouring to excuse the frequenting them so neither could my intimating that the Pulpits had been liable to some part of that Misfortune concern all those who Preached in them Indeed my Complement as the Doctor calls it was so far from being design'd by me to all the London-Clergy that I directed it not to Dr. St. himself any farther than his own Conscience should look on it as belonging to him However had he taken it to himself I should not have contended so much to have rescu'd it out of his hands I question not but there is a great deal of sincerity amongst the London-Clergy and even so much as to acknowledge that every individual Member of that Body hath it not And after all had it been true as it was not that I had reflected on this whole Clergy what had That been in comparison of Dr. Tenison's If you are a Papist c. which takes in so many Countreys and Ages and even his own Sovereign These are two Instances what Use these Gentlemen can make of their Inferring Faculties when they see it for their purpose Is there any thing here half so plain or so naturally deduced as that which I drew from Dr. Tenison's Proposition Nay rather are not the Inferences of these two Doctors evidently forced whereas mine is genuine and obvious even to the meanest Understanding And yet base and unworthy ways of catching men are laid to my charge and these Gentlemen pass for Plain-dealers But this will not always be so There is a time to come in which there will be nothing of what is now hidden but what shall be revealed And then it will appear how ill a choice those have made who have preferred Fame before Truth and the saving of their Credit before the saving of their Souls The Doctor says farther That for his part he thought his Loyalty at this time to be more valuable than Mr. M. 's because he as a Son of the Church of England professed he would not Rebel against the King notwithstanding he might be of another Religion whereas Mr. M. being of the same Religion could not so well separate Loyalty from Interest Now for my part tho' I hold Works of Supererogation yet I am far from thinking Loyalty at least as it is here * Viz. A not Rebelling against the King. describ'd to be one of those And therefore it is my opinion that we ought as little to value our selves on our not being Rebels as we would do on our not being Thieves or Murderers nay rather less forasmuch as Theft and Murther are certainly less Criminal than Rebellion And therefore a Loyalty to be boasted of if there be any such must be somewhat more than an ordinary Obedience However if the Doctor think his Loyalty at this time more valuable than mine because he demeans himself peaceably under a Prince of a different Religion he ought to remember that for three years which he hath lived so it has fallen to my share to pass over twelve in the same manner only with this difference that He enjoys entire Priviledges of a Free-born Subject sitting under a large Fig-tree and gathering the Fruit of a well-spread Vine and is promis'd the continuance of them having no other * Vnless perhaps a Restraint from vexing others and consequently the want of the old more effectual method of silencing Jesuits be an inconvenience to him cause of disquiet save only what ought to prompt him to nothing but Gratitude the bare Contemplation that were it not for the Goodness of his Sovereign it might have been otherwise These I say are his Enjoyments during this great trial of his Fidelity whereas I on the other side during my Probation was not only debarr'd of those Advantages which my Education
be Real unless it were grounded on * Without Faith it is impossible to please God Heb. c. 11. v. 6. Orthodox Faith. It seemed to me to be a surer mark of Charity for Men to adventure both Estate and Life for the Conversion of others as formerly the Apostles and now the Catholic Missioners did than to keep at home and in our warm Beds and cry We hope or we declare they may be saved tho' they are in an Error Which if it were a Charity was in my opinion a very Lazy one Moreover if the Protestant Religion were false it was more Charitable in the Catholics to tell them so than by soothing them in their Error to engage them faster to it Wherefore the Protestants ought not to fetch an Argument as some most unreasonably do for the Truth of their Religion from their having as they imagin a greater Charity than Catholics since it must first be proved that their Religion is true before it will appear that the Catholics want Charity in condemning it Lastly If it must pass for a Sign of Charity to think well of more Religions than one the Turkish Tenets will have the advantage of the Nine and Thirty Articles forasmuch as the Mahometans declare that every one will be saved in his own Religion and the Articles on the other side confine Salvation to the * See 18th Article Christians only But both these Charitable Religions must give way to the Origenists who will have neither Men nor Devils to be Eternally Damned Wherefore it is apparent that this plausible pretence of Greater Charity weakens not the force of the forementioned Argument but leaves it Such as that the most cautious Christian may safely repose on it Nay the more cautious a Man is in his everlasting concerns the better and safer this Argument will appear to him For those who have a quicker Sense of their Temporal Interests than their Spiritual will not so much consult what is safe for their Souls as what is secure for their Estates And if both cannot be made sure alike they will trust a scanty probability or rather an Improbability with the former so that they may have Demonstration which yet Gods knows can be but Imaginary for the latter Now what would Dr. Tenison have me do in these circumstances Would he have me Read the Scriptures Iread them Would he have me peruse the Fathers I did it without his advice Would he have me make use of what he calls * Pag. 18. Ministerial Guides I heard the Instructions of the English Clergy for many Years Would he have me pray I looked on Prayer as the chief means of obtaining true Faith and therefore omitted it not Would he have me be humble In this Point I can only say that during this search I had so mean an Opinion of my own understanding that I could not but conclude that Almighty God whose Providential care appeared in all other things had likewise provided some * Such a guide must be one who could not Err himself i. e. Infallible Guide for me that I might not Err in so important a concern as that must needs be without which it was impossible to please him viz. * Ut supra Hebr. 11. 6. Faith. Wherefore having thus far observed as I suppose the Doctors directions what would he have me do after all Doth he require the interior Sense he speaks of pa. 10 That also pleaded for the Roman Catholics And now if this be all he looks after would he have me according to what he says p. 15. at last Judge for my self Why then I do Judge and Pronounce too I mean for my self that Holy Scriptures Antient Fathers and Common Reason are all for the Roman Catholics and against the Protestants And what shall interpose between this Sentence and it's Execution I mean between Concluding that the Roman Catholic Religion is the best and Embracing it as such Doth the Church of England pretend that I ought to submit my private Judgment to her Public Decisions She doth not Nor if she did would Dr. Tenison be her Advocate And therefore to conclude if Dr. T being as I conceive no great friend to Retractations of this kind will still affirm that I departed from the Church of England on false Principles he must at least acknowledge that those principles were such as I had received from her So that in effect I am censured by my Teachers for doing that very thing which they Taught me to do An hard case and that which certainly must prevail with us to observe our Saviours Command in being * Matth. c. 7. v. 15. aware of such Teachers for the future I have said nothing here at least directly of the marks of the True Church viz. Vnity Holiness Universality Perpetuity Conversion of Infidels and the like nor of many other things which concurr'd at that time to convince me of the truth of of the Religion I embraced But thus much I have said that since Dr. Tenison hath been pleased to make the World acquainted with my Conversion it may not be wholly ignorant of those Motives which occasioned it And since we are Commanded * Ready always to satisfie every one that asketh you a Reason of that Hope which is in you 1 Pet. c. 3. v. 15. to give a Reason of the hope which is in us to every one that asks when we are upbraided with our change in this public manner the public seems to demand this Reason and consequently we seem to lie under an obligation of rendring it Which I hope will excuse me with my Readers for so long a Comment on the Doctors Text. And now to return to my Remarks methinks Dr. Tenison conceiving that I had left his Church for want of due Information ought not to have press'd so much for my being excluded from that Conference but rather to have been glad of this opportunity wherein by his great Learning he might have rectified my understanding and been a means of reducing me to one of his two fair Flocks viz. to St. Martins in the Fields or St. James Westminster For tho' those Flocks are so numerous that one stray Sheep can hardly be found missing yet we know it was the property heretofore of a good Shepherd to leave the Ninty Nine that he might seek after the Hundredth this being perhaps in former days a competent number for one Shepherd I say it had been a clearer sign not only of the Doctors Charity but also of his confidence in the goodness of his cause to have admitted me to his Conference than to pretend my turning Roman Catholic through Ignorance as an Argument for the sending me away and consequently depriving me of what he ought to think an opportunity of being better informed But perhaps the Doctor who thought this Conference * Pa. 3. And yet D. T. was displeased with Mr. P for proposing a Rule of Faith for the Subject of that
or not The Scripture does not tell us of a Church which is to continue only to the end of the Fifth Age. It tells us indeed of one which is to continue to the End of the World And this Church I hope may be found as well in the Fourteenth Age as in the Fifth For if all the Christians of the Fourteenth were Erroneous and Corrupted and stood in need of Reformation those of the Fifth might have been so too for any thing which the Scriptures can assure us to the contrary This Rock then of my Protestant Faith being shaken I mean a Belief that the Church of England had Model'd it self according to the Doctrins of the first Five Hundred Years it will not be wonder'd at if at least I gave way to some doubts I found no better footing in that way which was taken by those Church of England-men who conversed more with Roman Catholics than with Protestant Dissenters viz. Scripture as it is understood by every private Man. First Because those who took that way differed from one another in most material things and also Such as were esteemed Heretics by the Church of England followed the same Rule Secondly Because according to my own Judgment who were by this Rule to judge for my self the Church of England was beholding to Tradition for some Parts of her Doctrin and Practice as Infant-Baptism the Observation of the first Day of the Week and the like having no clear Scripture for them and therefore could not hold them and require them to be held by the Rule of Scripture Interpreted without the help of Tradition Thirdly Because it was sincerely my own Judgment that the Scripture was much clearer for the Catholics than for the Protestants particularly in Transubstantiation Sacramental Confession Extreme Vnction Purgatory St. Peters Supremacy and lastly and chiefly being that which includes all other Points the Decisive Authority of the Church wherefore if I must follow Scripture Interpreted by my self I must at the same time necessarily cease to follow the Church of England These certainly were Motives if not for an absolute departure from the Church of England yet still at least as I have already hinted for the doubting of her Truth About this time I remember that I had two notions concerning Faith. First That Faith was not that which must necessarily suit with the Fancies of particular Men since then it ought to be as various as those Fancies were but it was that which God would have us believe whether we fancied it or not viz. That which he would have us * Bringing into Captivity all understanding into the Obedience of Christ 2 Cor. c. 10. v. 5. submit our Fancies and Judgments to meerly because it was revealed by him And in this submission as I thought consisted both the Difficulty and Merit of Faith. And consequently that I ought not so much to consider the nature of the things proposed to be believed as the Authority by which they were proposed Secondly That this Faith was the * Ephes c. 2. v. 8. Gift of God and for that reason that more confidence was to be put in humbe Prayer for the obtaining it than in any Human Skill or Industry Wherefore as far as God Almighties Grace assisted my weakness I endeavored to obtain this Gift by that means making it my earnest Prayer to his Divine Goodness that I might know the Truth and firmly purposing to embrace that which I should be convinced of tho' it should be ever so contrary to my Worldly Interest as the Roman Catholic Religion at that time most apparently was To Prayer I judged it necessary to add a serious endeavor of amending my Life lest otherwise I should be found to sue Hypocritically for more light from Almighty God whilst I made no use of that which I had received from him by complying with what I already knew to be his Will. This is a Point which all those who are in search of the True Faith ought to examin their Consciences upon and therefore I would not omit the mention of it in this place Amidst these doubts I confess ingenuously that what our English Doctors have made so light of was of great moment with me viz. That the Church of England-men affirmed that Salvation might be had amongst the Roman Catholics but the Roman Catholics absolutely denyed that the like was to be had amongst them For Salvation in the Roman Communion both Churches concurr'd whereas for the latter we had only the bare word of Protestants in their own behalf Who likewise at the same time told us they were fallible and consequently for ought they knew might be mistaken And if they were actually mistaken I should be undone by rarrying with them whereas on the other side if they were not mistaken I could receive no damage by being amongst the Roman Catholics In a word I considered that if the Protestants were true I should be safe with the Roman Catholics but if the Roman Catholics were right I could not be so with the Protestants This Motive is so strong in it's own Nature that many Protestants confess that it must needs have great Power with those who as they say cannot throughly examin the differences betwixt us and these I take to be the greatest part of Mankind And if so I will venture to add that GOD Almighty having taken as much care of the Ignorant as of the Learned would never permit Falshood to be supported by such Arguments as must in common Prudence oblige all unlearned persons to be engaged in it But above all methinks this Argument should be of force with those Vniversal Gentlemen who pretend that their Religion is the Catholic because they believe nothing but that wherein all agree forgetting that such a Restraint of their Belief is peculiar to themselves and not common whereas here is an Agreement of all Parties at least such as have any Esteem with them on which they may safely rely viz. That Salvation may be had in the Roman Catholic Church which is all we do or at least ought to aim at by our Religion As for those other Points which perhaps they hold viz. A Deity a Saviour and the like tho' they have the universal consent of all Christians for their Truth yet they have it not for their sufficiency to Salvation especially so as to exclude the Necessity of believing other Articles when they are duly proposed and it will be of small Consequence to them that what they hold common with others proves True if their additional Article which holds this Truth to be sufficient should prove False What was urged in derogation of this Argument as if the Protestants shew'd a greater Charity by thinking well of Catholics than Catholics did by thinking ill of them was nothing to my purpose For I was then in search of True Faith and not of Charity and knew withal that how great appearance soever there might be of Charity it could not
Mr. P. might mention this again after he sat down tho' I do not remember it Moreover after this first sitting down the Doctor added two of his Objections against me and offered at some Preliminary things as he called them And it was after these Discourses tho' they are omitted as trivial in Mr. P s account that Mr. P. began his Argumentation and not immediately after the proposal of having it Written as Dr. T. says for Mr. P. perceiving that the Doctor had a mind to consume the time in unprofitable Cavils endeavored to cut him short by putting him in remembrance of the business for which they had met I mention these particulars that the not admitting of this Proposal of Writing may appear what truly it was the Doctors Tergiversation Had Mr. P. been then as well acquainted with Dr. T. as he is now he would absolutely have refused the Conference had not his desire of Writing been yielded to And this is the resolution which he has taken for the future Which in my judgment is but shutting the Stable-door after the Steed is Stolen For I believe he is never like to have the Doctors Company on such hard terms notwithstanding that he seems to offer p. 70. what he refused at the Conference Whereas he says Mr. P. began a Verbal Conference by saying the Protestants had no Bible It was not so For he began the Conference by desiring the Doctor to Assign his Rule of Faith Having first given us some account how the Youth for whose sake the Conference was came to entertain thoughts of making himself a Member of the Roman Catholic Church And to that Proposition after much debate concerning these Desires in the Youth the Doctor replyed being again and again pressed to it by Mr. P. that his Rule of Faith was the Holy Scripture And it was on this Answer that Mr. P. asked the Doctor how he could prove that the Book which he called Holy Scripture was truly such and not before as it is made by the Doctors Account which as I have complained before is one of the most intricate things I ever met with and no more like the Conference than it is usual for the new hands at Cards after the Pack is well shuffled to be like the former ones The Cards it is true are all the same but their places being changed the Games are different I do not say that this Account is more confused than the Conference but the confusion has quite another shape or figure than it had But the matter of Fact being cleared as above it becomes more evident how much Dr. Tenison dissembled when instead of proving his Bible to be true Scripture as was desired he offered to dispute Pag. 6. out of that Book which Mr. P. should own to be Scripture since it could not but be manifest to him that Mr. P. did not only ask him for the proof of those places wherein his Bible differs from ours but for the proof of the whole or if he had demanded a proof of such places only it was not for the sake of any Arguments which the Protestants take thence for the defence of their Religion but that it might appear on what Testimony they had received the Scripture and consequently on what grounds their Reformation had proceeded And therefore when to avoid this proof he offered to dispute out of Mr. P's Bible which he might easily have done by the help of his own Interpretation it was a plain tho' with the Rabble a very plausible evasion This * Ibid. Method viz. of Disputing out of Mr. P's Bible says the Doctor Mr. P. would not allow but repeated his Discourse about our not having a Bible and our not being able if we had one to prove we had one and asked again about the Rule of our Faith. Dr. T. before he answered to this applyed himself to Mr. M. who seem'd to be the calmer person c. Here the Doctor discovers his way of Disputing How comes the Doctor to apply himself to Mr. M. whereas Mr. P. had begun his Conference with him and proposed the main Question of it How come we not to receive an Answer to this Question till two or three Pages full of wrangling after it was proposed nor then neither as he confesses p. 9. till Mr. P. and Mr. M. not suffering him to tell a Story pressed him to it nor even then as he farther * Pag. 9. owns till he had chid Mr. P. for asking him Questions and seeming to Catechize him Surely after so long an Expectation the Answer must needs be extraordinary In the next place how comes Mr. M. tho' a Convert and * Pag. 5. possessed with a Spirit of fiercer Bigottry than other Romanists to be the calmer person But Dr. T. wants an excuse for turning away from his Antagonist and speaking to one who as he was told at the beginning was to have no part in the Dispute And as for the Complement he is resolved that I shall pay dear for it before he parts with me Besides some such appearance of Candor the common Artifice of Detractors is necessary for the obtaining a belief to the basest of Calumnies which is to * Pag. 23. follow Dr. T. * Pag. 6. put Mr. M. in mind that such Discourses as these concerning the proof of Holy Scripture and some others lately used by the Romanists about the Trinity and Transubstantiation would rather make the People Atheists or Vnbelievers than Converts And that the Indifferent were ready to say Content We cannot believe Transubstantiation and we will have no Trinity We cannot have the Bible unless we take it upon Roman Authority and none we will have Mr. M. said That would not be the consequence but gave no reason why he said so But Mr. M. can give a very good reason why he then gave none It is because before he could pronounce Six words Dr. T. turn'd back again to Mr. P. And it was not for one as I have intimated already who looked on himself as wholly unconcerned in the Controversie to interrupt it so far as to press the Doctor to hearken to him What I would have then said had the Doctor been pleased to stay for it was That those who would give themselves leave to consider would find so good Authority in the Roman Church for the belief of the Trinity and the Holy Scripture that tho' there were no other Authority for them as indeed there is none yet this alone would be sufficient And consequently that there would be no danger of Atheism but where Obstinacy and Perversness should interpose which would never leave Men destitute of a Pretence for Incredulity tho' they should want a just reason for it ever so much I should have added that it was an excellent Argument of the Truth of a Religion when it could be shewn that either such a Religion was True or else that none was so Wherefore if it could be
Church is Infallible I say it is contrary to our supposition not deny'd by him and to her own Profession and if he understands less than that the Query remains viz. How that which is less than Infallible can be that which cannot fail And yet how frivolous and unsatisfactory soever these last Positions are I cannot but applaud the Contrivance of them For could any thing be better calculated for a Vulgar Capacity How says a Long-Acre-Artisan am I as sure that the Protestant Religion is true as I am that I have cast up a Sum right Why then I am safe enough I have cast up many a Bill and have never been mistaken yet especially when I have taken care And it seems this is done without that supernatural Infallibility which the Papists talk of And therefore what need is there of it This is a very pleasing Delusion with People who care for no more Security in Religion than what will barely suffice for the keeping their Consciences in some tolerable Quiet and the more it pleases them the greater hazzard I shall run of their ill will by endeavouring to lay it open However because I am more intent on doing Benefits to them than desirous of receiving any from them I will state the matter aright and by that means shew them truly how the Case stands They suppose already with the Doctor that the finding out of true Religion is like the casting up of a Sum and that Seekers in Faith are of the same quality with Accomptants in Arithmetic And now let them suppose with me that twenty several Accomptants were employ'd about casting up of the same Sum and that the Life of each of these in particular depended on his right Computation that these Accomptants were of equal capacity and that in outward appearance they all used the same diligence and application and lastly when their respective Computations were finished that their Totals were wholly different one from the other We will now suppose that the honest Artisan whom I mention above is one of these Accomptants What do you think would he hold his Life secure whil'st he differed in his Computation from Nineteen others who had every way as sufficient means of being in the right as himself The Application is easie There are Twenty several Computers in Religion I might say many Twenties of equal Skill and * I say of equal Industry that I may suppose most advantageously for the Protestants For in truth it cannot be allowed that their Industry in Religion is equal to ours Witness our Laborious and Dangerous Missions Penitential Retirements the general obligation of Confession and doing Penance with much more which the Protestants have discarded Industry Salvation depends on their being in the right They all differ in their Computations The Church of England is one of these Computers and it is Nineteen to One that she is in the wrong and this is all her Security Let the L. A. Trades-men consider whether they would trust Five Pounds on the like And yet what is That or indeed their whole Worldly Interest compared to HEAVEN And now what is become of this Famous Answer which wanted a Reply Was it not truly Froth which looks like something but vanishes whil'st it is look'd on These Gentlemen deal with their Clients as Nurses do with little Children bid them hold fast when they put nothing into their hands and the poor Infants are so long deceived 'till their Curiosity or some other Appetite prevails with them to pry into their Treasure This was just such another * Dr. St. 's second Letter to Mr. G. p. 17. Purse as Dr. St. put into Mr. T.'s hand Mr. T. desired to know Whether the Protestants were absolutely certain that they held all the same Doctrin that was taught by Christ and his Apostles Dr. St. undertook to shew that they were and for proof says that there was an absolute Certainty for the New Testament from the concurrent Testimony of all Christian Churches as well Heretical as Orthodox which is all he either said at the Conference or published since in his Letters to Mr. G. to prove that Protestants held all the same Doctrin that was taught by Christ and his Apostles and consequently the Absolute Certainty which he delivered to Mr. T. was no more than what at the same time he bestow'd on the * Note that the Arians other Heretics take the Scripture for their Rule of Faith as well as Protestants Arians who deny the Godhead of our Savior and all other Heretics both Ancient and Modern Of the Arians you may say That they are Absolutely Certain they hold the same Doctrin that was taught by Christ and his Apostles because there is an Absolute Certainty for the New Testament and so of the rest Wherefore had Dr. St. when he made a Present of this Absolute Certainty to Mr. T. been so ingenuous as to confess that what he then gave him was no more than what Heretics possessed as well as he viz. a Certainty of the New Testament I suppose he would not have been so well pleased with it as he seem'd to be And therefore I would advise him to open his * Mr. T. hath the Paper he took at the Conference and may peruse it at leisure Purse once more and try what he can discern in it And if upon a second Computation he finds himself no richer than an Arian or any other Heretic I suppose he will return back to the Doctor for a better Legacy For if we are not as careful in laying up Spiritual Treasures as we are in gathering Temporal Ones we may be Rich for a Moment but we shall be Poor for a whole Eternity And here tho' Mr. T. hath great Reason to look about him from what hath been said viz. that for any thing he learnt at the forementioned Conference he is no surer that he is in the right than an Arian yet I must tell him That this is not the worst of his Case because whil'st Dr. St. gives him an Absolute Certainty for a part of Scripture from the Universal Testimony or Tradition of Christians with one Hand he takes it away with the Other by telling him that Tradition is no Infallible Conveyance of Matters of Faith. For tho' the Doctor endeavors to reconcile this Contradiction in his Second Letter to * Page 33. Where the Dr. raises a Mist by telling us what his Adversaries hold that he may keep his own Contradiction out of sight In his next let him speak plainly and tell us how he himself comes to hold That Tradition is a Ground of Absolute Ceâ—â—ainty for the Scripture and yet no Infallible Conveyance in Matters of Faith or let him deny that he holds these two Propositions or either of them Mr. G. yet I will leave it to Mr. T. to consider provided he promise me to take time for it how well he hath succeeded in his Undertaking THE CLOSE I Have now