suppose that it is true That there is something better than another this being an evident Truth assented unto by all rational men and whoever denies that there is something better than another must necessarily deny himself to be better than an ass or a block For if he be better then there is something better than another And certainly whoever comes to deny himself to be better than an Ass or a Block is either a mad-man or a fool and consequently unworthy to be discoursed with any further Now if there be something better than another there is something the best of all Things For one thing is better then another because it comes nearer that which is the best of all things And how can it come nearer that which is not It is a common Maxim amongst Philosophers Supremum in unoquoque genere est mensura reliquorum in eodem genere The best and greatest in each kind is the measure of the rest in the same kind For one thing is said to be better than another in such a kind because it comes nearer that which is the best A Duke is better in Dignity than an Earl because he comes nearer the King who is the best man of the Kingdom in Dignity So that unless in each kind there be admitted something that is the best there can be no rule nor measure whereby one Thing may be judged better than another in such a kind Wherefore if it be true that there is something better than another there must be something the best of all Things and if so then there is a True God For the very notion of a true God is Ens Optimum Maximum the Best and Greatest of all Things as all even Atheists do confess as we suppose for unless we agree about the notion of God there can be no Dispute between us Yea what is the Best of all Things that exist is also the best of all Things that are possible For nothing possible can exist or be produced but by virtue of something that does exist and nothing can produce what is better than it self Nemo dat quod non habet No body gives what he has not I conclude therefore that if it be true as certainly it is that there is something better than another there is a true God II. If there be a True God I prove that there is some True Religion For if there be a True God we ought to worship him in what manner he will be worshipped by us and obey him in what matters he will be obeyed by us Subjects ought to reverence and obey their Sovereign and Servants their Masters in what manner and in what matters they require and if there be a true God the Best and greatest of all things Ens optimum Maximum certainly he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and Supreme Governour of the Vniverse and we are his Subjects and Servants as no Body who grants a True God can deny We ought therefore to respect and obey God Yea what is to be respected or who is to be obeyed if God be not the Best of All things the universal Monarch If we ought to worship God in what manner he will be worshipped by us and obey him in what matters he will be obeyed by us there must be some Doctrine teaching us in what manner God will be worshipped by us and in what matters he will be obeyed by us For how can we worship or obey God if we neither know in what manner we are to worship him nor in what matters we are to obey him For whether God will assign by Himself the particular manner of the worship to be given to him or will leave the assignation thereof to men and he must necessarily do either the one or the other we must obey his will and to obey it we must know it And how can we know it unless there be some Doctrine that teaches it If there be some Doctrine teaching us in what manner God will be worshiped by us and in what matters he will be obeyed by us there must be some true Religion For by a true Religion we understand according to the common notion thereof a Doctrine that teaches men in what manner God will be worship'd by them and in what matters he will be obeyed by them Wherefore I conclude that if there be a True God as has been proved there is some True Religion III. If there be some True Religion I prove that there is some true revealed Religion For if there be some true Religion there is some Doctrine teaching us in what manner God will be worship'd by us and in what matters he will be obeyed by us for this is the notion of a true Religion as we have seen If there be some such Doctrine it must be revealed unto us by God For how can we know Gods will unless he reveal it unto us either immediately by himself or mediately by others commissioned by him Natural Religion or the Light of nature teaches us only in general That we are to worship God in what manner he will be worship'd by us and that we are to obey him in what matters he will be obeyed by us But it does not tell us as is manifest the particular manner wherewith he requires we would worship him nor the particular matters wherein he requires we should obey him which doubtless may be very different And of what concern is it that we know we are to worship and obey God if we neither know how we are to worship him nor in what we we are to obey him Yea should God be pleased to leave to every one the choice of the manner wherein he is to worship him yet since this would certainly be a very particular manner of worship not intimated unto us by the Law of Nature God must reveal it God therefore must reveal unto us in what particular manner he will be worshipped by us and in what particular matters he will be obeyed by us And if so then there is some true revealed Religion which is nothing else but a Doctrine teaching men in what particular manner God will be worshipped by them and in what particular matters he will be obeyed by them revealed by God Wherefore I conclude that if there be some True Religion as has been proved that there is there is some true revealed Religion IV. If there be some true revealed Religion I prove that Christian Religion is true For if there be some true Revealed Religion certainly That among all Religions that pretend to be revealed by God must be true which can evidently shew that it has been miraculously propagated For a miraculous propagation cannot be effected without true and real Miracles and True and Real Miracles are Gods Broad Seal and manifest proofs of the Truth in whose Confirmation they are wrought and a certain kind of Divine Revelation Because God can speak as well by works as by words All professors of revealed
a Religion should be propagated in such a manner and that without any Miracle Wherefore since we have the same proofs and grounds for Catholique Religion as for Christian if we will proceed rationally we must be both Catholiques and Christians or otherwise we can neither be Christians nor Catholiques And therefore I conclude that if Christian Religion be true as has been proved Catholique Religion is true VI. If Catholique Religion be true I prove that it teaches nothing whatsoever as an Article of Faith which is not True or which is an error or corruption For if Catholique Religion be true it is free from all Fundamental and Essential Errors as is manifest all such Errors being destructive to the very Being of a True Religion If Catholique Religion be Free from all Fundamental Errors it does not err against any Fundamental point of Religion For a Fundamental error in Religion is nothing else but an error against a Fundamental point of Religion If Catholique Religion does not err against any Fundamental point of Religion then it does not err against this point viz. That God is not the Author of any error or corruption whatsoever this being doubtless a Fundamental point of Religion as all who admit any Religion do consess If Catholique Religion does not err against the fore-mentioned point it does not teach God to be the Author of any error or corruption whatsoever or of any thing whatsoever which is either an error or corruption for to teach this is to err against the forementioned point as is evident If Catholique Religion does not teach God to be the Author of any error or corruption whatsoever it does not teach any thing whatsoever as an Article of Faith which is either an error or corruption For to teach a Thing as an Article of Faith is to teach God to be the Author of it or that it has been delivered by God as all do grant Now since it is manifest according to the unanimous consent of both Catholiques and Protestants who blame us upon this account that the Roman Catholique Religion teaches as Articles of Faith Purgatory Transubstantiation Invocation of Saints Veneration of Images Adoration of Christ in the Eucharist Infallibility of the Roman Catholique Church its perpetuity to the end of the world our Canon of Scripture and other Doctrinal Points controverted between us and them it must needs follow that none of these Points are either errors or corruptions In the like manner we may conclude the same of any particular Point which comes under debate as for instance I prove Transubstantiation to be no error nor corruption The Roman Catholique Religion does not teach any thing as an Article of Faith which is either an error or a corruption as has been shewn otherwise it would not be a True Religion But the Roman Catholique Religion does teach as an Article of Faith Transubstantiation as all do confess Therefore Transubstantiation is no error nor corruption Wherefore I conclude That if Catholique Religion be true as has been proved it teaches nothing as an Article of Faith neither does it as here it is taken teach any thing but what it teaches as such which is either an error or a corruption and consequently it is free from all errors and corruptions whatsoever which is what we pretended to prove And to draw into a closer Circle all the forementioned proofs supposing that it is true That there is something better than another the proof of a true Deity runs thus If there be something better than another there is something the best of All Things If there be something the Best of All Things there is a True God Therefore if there be something better than another as certainly there is there is a true God A True Deity supposed the proof of a True Religion is framed in this manner If we ought to Worship God in what manner he will be worshipped by us and obey him in what matters he will be obeyed by us there must be some Doctrine teaching us in what manner God will be worshipped by us and in what matters he will be obeyed by us If there be some such Doctrine then there is some true Religion Therefore if we ought to worship God in what manner he will be worshipped by us and to obey him in what matters he will be obeyed by us as a True Deity supposed doubtless we ought there is some True Religion Supposing that there is some True Religion the proof of some true revealed Religion is as follows If there be some Doctrine teaching us in what manner God will be worshipped by us and in what matters he will be obeyed by us it must be revealed by God if there be some such Doctrine revealed by God there is some true revealed Religion Therefore if there be some Doctrine teaching us in what manner God will be worshipped by us and in what matters he will be obeyed by us as evidently there is a True Religion being supposed there is some true revealed Religion Supposing that there is some true revealed Religion the proof of Christian Religion goes thus If among all Religions which pretend to be revealed by God that must be true which has been miraculously propagated certainly that must be true which though containing several Mysteries far above the reach of Humane Reason and divers severities very contrary to Humane Inclination yet has been propagated over a great part of the world without the help of Arms or humane Enticements by men very unfit of themselves for so great a work and has overcome other Religions established in the world which preached liberty and pleasures If such a Religion propagated in such a manner be true then Christian Religion is true Therefore if among all Religions which pretend to be revealed by God that must be true which has been miracuculously propagated as certainly it must supposing that there is some true revealed Religion Christian Religion is true Supposing that Christian Religion is true and that the forementioned reason is solid as doubtless it is the proof of Catholique Religion is thus If Christian Religion be true because propagated in the manner aforesaid a Religion that though containing as high Mysteries and as hard Precepts as Christianity yet has been propagated in the like manner must needs be true If so then Catholick Religion is True Therefore if Christian Religion be true because propagated in the manner aforesaid as beyond Debate it is in the forementioned supposition Catholique Religion is True Finally supposing Catholick Religion to be true we prov'd That it does not teach any thing as an Article of Faith which is not true in this manner If Catholique Religion be true it does not err against any Fundamental Point if so it does not teach any Thing as an Article of Faith which is not true Therefore if Catholique Religion be true as it is in the present supposition it does not teach any thing as an Article of Faith which is
Spirit of an Atheist or if he be a Christian to the private Spirit of a Jew a Turk or an Heretick His intention therefore is to appeal to the private Spirit of such as are of the True Religion and we cannot be ascertainâ—d who or what appertains to the True Religion unless we be informed which the True Religion is And thus we force our Adversary again to make enquiry into the True Religion and then we may attack him after our own way asking him whether he grants the Roman Catholick Religion to be a true Religion if he grants it we may shew according to what we hinted above That the Roman Catholick Religion is the true Religion and if so that to her appertains the judgment of Controversie and of the true and genuine sense of Scriptures Councils and Fathers Whence I conclude that till we have found out which is the true Religion scarce any other Thing under Debate appertaining to Religion can be proved And when that is found out all other Things appertaining to Religion are proved without difficulty And here I cannot but reflect upon the unreasonableness of our Adversaries who will tie us to certain Topicks without giving us leave to make use of others of no less force Some will have us shew them in the First Four General Councils or in the Fathers of the First 600 years after Christ in express terms all the Points which we defend in opposition to the Protestant Church and unless we can do it they proclaim the victory against us And why might not we in the same manner require of them to shew us in the Apostles Creed all their Thirty Nine Articles or in the First Chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel all the Mysteries of Christian Religion we admit beside the Four First General Councils several others of equal Authority and beside the Fathers of the First 600 years other Fathers and Doctors Others will have All Controversies decided by express Scripture and by their Scriptures only and with their versions and interpreted according to their sense without hearkening either to Councils or Fathers or any other Topicks though very solid and effectual whereas any good and solid argument let it be drawn from any Topick whatsoever is sufficient to evince a Truth and no Body can with reason require more of his Adversary than that he should prove solidly the Thesis which he undertakes to defend Neither is it necessary That all Truths should be evidenced out of every place Wherefore it is not Prudence to permit that our Adversary should prescribe us the manner wherein we are to attack him it is better to force him to fight our way For though perhaps the way he proposes unto us may be apt enough yet another may be more advantageous and an adversary may with more ease find in a way wherein he is versed Cavils wherewith to elude our Arguments though never so good then if he be brought into a road wherein he is not acquainted Yet because they may have no occasion to quarrel with us as if we did refuse to be tried by Scripture we profess that we are not unwilling to be tried by it But then it must be with These Conditions which no rational man can look upon as absurd viz. By True Scripture By the whole Canon of Scripture By the True Versions thereof and by Scripture rightly understood The same may be said of Councils and Fathers We have made frequent mention in this Discourse of Fundamental points of the True Religion yet we do not require of our Adversaries that which they are loth to do to exhibit unto us a Catalogue of all such Points What we require of them is only That they grant this point to be Fundamental and Essential to a True Religion viz. God is not the Author of any error or corruption whatsoever or whatsoever God reveals is true And sure no Body who grants any true Religion yea any True Deity can refuse to grant This position For it is certain that there are some Points determinately Fundamental and Essential to a true Religion and if there be and such why not this The very Foundation of Divine Faith consists in this Principle That God does neither deceive nor is deceived in any Thing whatsoever and consequently that he is not the Author of any error great or little and that what ever he reveals is true Otherwise one might say Though God has revealed such a Thing perhaps it is not so as he has revealed it which doutbless would be a manifest Blasphemy Yea the reason why we ought to believe God before man is because men do many times deceive and are many times more deceived But God does never deceive nor is deceived We have mentioned also several times Natural and Revealed Religion By Natural Religion we understand Those necessary common Principles of Morality relating to our duty towards God our selves and our Neighbour which Nature has printed in the hearts of men and are usually stiled The Law of Nature Such are these Principles Do as you would be done by Worship God Honour your Parents Obey your Superiours Fly Evil. Do Good and such like Natural Religion also does inform us concerning several Attributes of God as that he is Supreme Governour of the Vniverse That he is not idle in the world That he complies with his Character and consequently that he rules and governs the world That he is just and merciful and consequently that he will reward those who do well and punish such as do ill By a revealed Religion is signified a Religion that contains either some high Mysteries seated above the Sphere of Humane Reason or some particular manner of worshipping God or some particular matters wherein we are to obey him freely revealed unto us by God Now God may manifest his will unto men divers ways either by Writings Words or other Signs by positive Injunctions or by Silence as men also may manifest their will by himself or by others Commissioned by him whether Angels or Men or he may manifest his will partly by Writing and partly in Words or by Writings or Words so clear that any one may understand them or so obscure that to understand them there is need of an Expositor He may also determine by himself the particular manner wherein he will be worshipped and the particular matters wherein he will be obeyed or he may assign others to determine them and though it be Free for God to chuse this or that way of governing men yet supposing there are men he must needs lay hold of some way or other to manifest unto them his pleasure otherwise he would not comply with this Character of being Governour of the world and consequently there must be some Religion freely revealed by God Besides out of that common notion of God assented unto by All Ens Optimum Maximum the Best of all Things though we may prove the Existency of a Deity by other Notions agreed upon by
A RATIONAL Compendious way TO CONVINCE Without any DISPUTE All Persons whatsoever Dissenting from the TRVE RELIGION By J. K. PSAL. IV. 7. Signatum est super nos lumen vultus tui Domine Printed in the Year 1674. THE PREFACE THE variety of Sects which daily swarm here in England has forced me upon this way of ending Controversies in Religion No body can confute in particular the proper Tenets of each Sect unless he be first well informed what they are and our Sects are so numerous and so various that to be well informed of the particular Tenets of each one of them a mans life is not sufficient Yea even Those who do profess to be all os the same Religion are many times so different one from another that we can scarce find Two among them who do perfectly agree in the Articles of their Faith Several Religions retain only the name of what they were when first broached and should one be perfectly acquainted with the proper Tenets of the Sects which are now in Vogue within a short time he would be to seek when other new Heresies come into fashion Besides it is one thing to convince a man that he is in a wrong way which we may do by refuting the particular Errors of the Religion he professes and another thing to shew him which is the True way which cannot be done but by demonstrating unto him the True Religion Wherefore I have endeavoured without taking notice of the particular Errors of each Sect to find out a Method whereby to evidence to all persons whatsoever the True Religion For this being once evidenced unto them whoever strayes from it may clearly see not only that he is in the wrong but also how he may put himself in the right-Certain it is that if there be a True Religion in the world as we shall evince there is it may be found out by all such as are concerned therein and consequently by all persons whatsoever For they are all concern'd in finding out the True Religion since they are all bound to save their Souls Nor can they save their Souls unless they please God nor please God unless they embrace the True Religion which is only able to teach them what they are to do to please God Sine Fide impossibile est placere Deo Heb. 11.6 Nor finally embrace the True Religion unless they can find out and be convinced which it is And if all persons whatsoever may find out which the True Religion is there must needs be some way whereby they may find it out and this way also must be such that it may be found out For what matters it that there be a way to find out such a thing if no Body can find out which that way is My endeavour therefore was to find out This way of Convincing all persons whatsoever concerning the True Religion Now Natural Reason and Experience teaches us that it is not possible to convince any one by discourse but out of what the person with whom we deal does admit For all conviction by discourse must be grounded upon premises and nothing can be convinced or concluded out of premises unless they be granted If every Thing is to be proved we shall never finish the proof of any Thing The art therefore of convincing a person consists in discovering such premises granted by him whence is inferred what we pretend to convince him of And if the premises be not only granted by our Adversary but also True in themselves they may be effectual both to convince our Adversary and evince the Truth too But if they be not True in themselves yet granted to be so they may convince him but can never evince the Truth And such Arguments are commenly stiled Argumenta ad hominem Since therefore my design was not only to convince the persons but to evince the Truth also and to convince all persons whatsoever concerning the True Religion I further resolved to seek out Principles True in themselves pertinent to prove the intent and such as no person whatsoever could deny or question But where shall we meet with such Principles especially since we live in an Age wherein a good wit and a bold wit are accounted Synonima's and those are held to be most ingenious who can deny most If we apply our selves to the several Writers of each respective Sect thinking to convince the professors of such Sects by the Testimonies of their own Doctors we shall find that some Fancy one Author some another though they all profess themselves to be of the same Religion Neither will they stand to all the Author whom they Fancy asserts but to what they please only and in what sense too they please to interpret it Yea though they promise many times at the Beginning to stick to what such a Doctor to whom they are devoted does affirm in reference to such a Debate yet when they are press'd they flie off and say That they will not pin their Faith upon the sleeve of Luther Calvin or any other particular Doctor of the Protestant Church If we make our address to the ancient Fathers of the Church endeavouring to evidence by their Testimonies the Truth of ours and the Falshood of our Adversaries Religion this Topick is obnoxious to the same flaws as the former For our Adversaries admit among the ancient Fathers only whom they fancy and of him only what they fancy and this only in what sense they fancy and though to amuse the people they often vapour that the Fathers for the first 600 years after Christ did stand for them yet when they are pinched with clear Testimonies produced out of them destructive to their particular Sentiments they plainly confess that even the chiefest of the ancient Fathers were infected with Non-fundamental Errors and such Errors only they ascribe to Bellarmin and other Writers of the Roman Church and with several Superstitions of Popery or they come to slight them all saying with some German Lutherans that one Kemnitius is worth a thousand Austins or with their grand Patriarch Luther that they do not value a Thousand Cyprians a Thousand Austins nay nor the whole Universal Church worth a straw The same may be said of Tradition For they admit the Tradition only of such men and in such matters as they think fit or when they are urged they slight it If we appeal to the General Councils of the Church shewing that by their Canons our Tenets are established and the Errors of our Adversaries condemned of eighteen General Councils they admit only four Nay they do not afford any absolute assent to the Definitions of any General Council whatsoever but only a conditional viz. as far only as they guided by their own private Spirit do judge that what the Council defines is agreeable to Scripture And sure they will not deny such an assent even to what the Council of Trent has defined If we betake our Selves to Scripture producing thence many