with such a person were not he mad that is a renouncor of Reason or Man's Nature who should not believe them You see then these Witnesses have power to propose such an Object as can oblige to Belief You see the Dissenters are Irrational that their act of dissenting springs from some Passion or Vice and Vice is punishable and so is the Effects of that Dissent if it be in such a matter as is highly pernicious to Mankind's best concerns Now our Church makes account she is able to propose an Authority incomparably more ample than the Attestation now spoken of for the true Descent of her Faith and judges such a proposal founded on the eye-sight of all those Witnesses to be able to oblige to interiour Assent in such a degree as to render them most highly wilful vicious and irrational who should disbelieve it hence the crime intrenching upon the order to mankind's Salvation the highest concern imaginable both to edify those dissenters by correcting their vice and the circumstant Faithful by breeding a conceit in them through the punishment of the others of the sacredness of Faith and its Rule and the hainousness of Pride of understanding the ready way to all Heresies they may nay ought punish their Interiour Dissent Not out of an height of Authority without motives as Mr. Whitby conceits but because that Authority is her self such a motive to Belief that onely irrational vicious and wilfully-blind persons can recede from it by disbelief And hence our Churches procedure is rational natural sweet and charitable tending to amend an enormity of Will not bred from a rationally but passionate dissatisfy'd Understanding Nay Mr. Whitby's discourse justifies Our Churches procedure who seems to allow his Church a power to require a positive Assent when the case comes to be such that the denier of it must needs be held wilfull and our Church neither sayes nor acts otherwise 15. By this Discourse I would not have Mr Whitby imagin that I am about proving our Churches Infallibility in this place but onely showing that holding She can evidence her Authority She goes rationally to work and consonantly to her self in requiring Assent to her Proposals whereas Theirs confessing her self fallible even in interpreting Scripture upon which all both her Faith and Authority as a Church depends were self-condemn'd irrational and tyrannical if She should go about to require any such Interiour Assent Now though he in big words denies this to be her carriage asking when did they meaning Bishops Convocations or Parliaments challenge any power over our minds and Consciences and alledges the consent of their Divines for it yet I wonder what he thinks of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy made by a Protestant Parliament is there no obligation there to hold any thing Yes as strong as Oath can tye it And which is worse 't is more Irrational to go about to bind Our Assents who are not of their Church than to bind their own Subjects This in practice is perform'd towards all but so imprincipled a procedure that their Church waves it when it comes to a rational scanning in a Dispute and Controversy acknowledging so their want of Grounds to make it good Which shows that the Authority of their Church sprang from the Parliament or Secular State in regard She professes her self very heartily content with external Obedience let the Interiour Assent goes where it will most unlike the Church settled by the Wisdome of the Eternal Father and constituted the Pillar and Ground of Truth who provided in the first place for the Churches Power to hold us to the same Tenets which are the Principles of our Actions knowing that unless the Root of Faith be sound the Actions its branches must needs be rotten and unconscientious and that no Congregation could long hold together nor indeed longer than the plain force of the Secular Sword aw'd them unless by power to evidence its Authority it had power to oblige men's Understandings connaturally to an Unity in the same Faith which done all else would follow And hence we may see confessedly in the Protestant Principles the reason of their present and past distractions and divine of the future for men's Fancies being naturally various and no power in her to keep them in an Union they must needs ramble into multitudes of dissenting Sects which to strive to unite into one were to force both Nature and Conscience too Nature in striving to unite their Understandings in Faith without offering them Evidence of Authority Conscience in binding them to Act as Protestants do whereas they are ready to stake their Salvation upon it that their best reasons working upon the very Rule of Faith Protestants recommend obliges them to the contrary and that to force them to act with Them is to force them to sin So that the Protestants at once profess they will not or cannot oblige their Vnderstandings and yet at the same time contend by force to oblige their Wills without nay against their Understandings 16. In a word let Protestants write talk quote words as long as they will Plainest Common Sence tells them and every man who considers it that unless they settle some undisputable Method of arriving at Christ's Sence or Faith that is some self-evident and so all-obliging Rule of Faith the Protestant Church can never hope for Power to reduce their Dissenters nor to hold together or govern efficaciously their own Subjects that is they can never hope for Unity within themselves nor lastly Union with them that have it and charitably endeavour they may have it too THIRD APPENDIX Animadversions On Some Passages in Mr. Stillingfleet 1. THe loud Fame of Mr. Stillingfleet's Book preventing its Publication and withall the report of his good parts coming from diverse Judicious Persons bred in me a great Impatience to see something of his other Writings that so I might have more solid Ground to build my Expectation on than common rumour or commendation of acquaintances A Protestant Friend show'd me a little Treatise of his concerning Excommunication I perus'd the beginning of it and immediately told him Mr. Stillingfleet was a very ingenious person and writ the best I ever yet saw any Protestant For he settled first his notion or the true nature of the Thing and thence attempted by intrinsecal mediums to draw immediate Consequences which show'd that his head lay right for Science But withal I assur'd my Friend 't was impossible he could write against us and take that method the nature of his Cause not enduring so severe a Test. His Book coming forth and bearing in its Title a Rational Account of the Grounds of Protestant Religion my Expectation was more erected and till my self could get leasure to peruse it I told diverse both Catholicks and Protestants that they might expect from Mr. Stillingfleet's Wit the most that could be said either for the later or against the former But coming to over-look cursorily his Infallibility of Tradition
which imbu'd you antecedently with those contrary Tenets not the Scripture's Letter was your true Rule of Faith in regard you frame It according to the Interest of those foreheld Tenets He pressingly therefore demands whence you had those Tenets or Points of Faith by which you guide your self in adhering or not adhering to the Scripture's Letter as it lies 5. If you say from other places of Scripture controlling plainly the others he replies this can onely make you acknowledge Scripture's Letter plainly contradicts it self and so leaves you doubtful which side to hold as far as the bare Letter carries you or if it invites you to any thing 't is to hold both sides of the contradiction What therefore he still demands is what it is which forelaid those Judgements in you by which you were byast beyond the power of the Letters Indifferency to hold one side rather than â—he other Here you are at a loss with your â—retence of the Letter's Authority being gone beyond it If then you recurr to Reason and Science teaching you that God is immutable a Spirit c. he straight replies Then that Science taught you that Point whether Scripture had been or no. It therefore was your Rule in this and the same may be said of what-ever you avail your self to interpret Scriptute by not the Letter If you say you rely on the Science or Skill of your Parents Forefathers and Pastours then their skill which ascertaind them of Gods sence not Scripture's Letter was their Rule and so is likewise yours for whoever relies on any precisely as skilful relies in very deed and properly on their skill and not on the Letter their skill works upon Besides oue not skilful himself is a bad Judge how far anothers skill extends If you say you rely not on their skill fallible perhaps in them and obscure to you but on their Senses enabling them to be knowing Witnesses of what was delivered them and free from the former exceptions you are driven for your last refuge to Tradition and still desert your Letter-Rule In a word he challenges the consciousness of your most inward thoughts whether however in Controversies against others you quote Scripture yet in reading the Letter for your own Faith you bring not along with you some thoughts to interpret it by which you are resolved to hold to and so the Scriptures Letter lies before you as matter to work on so as to preserve it significative of what you judge sound and not to frame your Judgements by that is you use it as a thing ruled not as a Bule Nay more if you look narrowly into the bottome of those Thoughts you shall discover the natural method of Tradition to have at unawares setled your Judgements concerning Faith and actually guiding you in the Interpretation however when your other Concerns awake design in you you protest against it and seem perhaps to your unreflecting self to embrace and hold to the meer guidance of the Letter 6. Again Waving the insufficiency of the Scriptures Letter to declare its own sence he asks this smart question how you are certain of the Truth of the Letter in this very Text and demands your certain proof or demonstration either either for the Thing or for the Certainty of the Authority upon which you hold that any particular Text you alledge is truly a part of the Scriptures Letter and not foisted in or some way altered in its significativeness or how you know by the diligence of the Letter-examiners if it be a negative Proposition that the particle not was not inserted if affirmative not left out You alledge Consent of all our Copies He replies first that this onely argues that those ancient Copies whence ours came were alike perhaps not so much but who knows or can undertake that they were not alike faulty or alike Unlike the true Original or that there were not some in those dayes which never came to our knowledge different from ours in the very point between us In a word that all depends on the Truth of the Copies immediately taken from the Original or the very next to them which what they were by whom taken where and how preserved from time to time how narrowly examined when they were first transcribed and such like is so buried in obscurity and oblivion and so far from Evidence apt to beget Certain Knowledge that we must have recourse to Charity to allow it our Hopes had we no other Rule of Faith than that bare Letter Again though human diligence did play its part yet it is acknowledg'd sayes your Deist that there are almost innumerable Variae Lectiones in it still controverted nay so many in the new Testament alone observed by one man my Lord Vsher that he durst not print them for fear of bringing the whole Book into doubt and why may not there have been such formerly and now blindly determined and swallowed in each Text that concerns our mainest Points of Faith If you reply as Nature will lead you that the Faith of Christ believed and taught from Father to Son was writ in the hearts of the Faithful and this made them both able and willing to that is actually did preserve the Letter from Errour in any passage that concerned the Body of Christian Doctrine he challenges you to fly your Colours to desert your own Rule and embrace Tradition the Rule of Roman-Catholikes and lastly that you make Scriptures Letter the thing Ruled not the Rule Yet without this recourse no satisfactory account can possibly be render'd to a strict Examiner why Errour might not creep into the Text in substantial points of Faith as well as in less concerning passages which devolves to this that the Scripture's Letter held forth as a Rule of Faith can never convince an obstinate and acute Adversary FOURTH DISCOURSE That the Two last Properties of the Rule of Faith are clearly incompetent to Scripture 1. THere remain the two last conditions Certainty in its self and Ascertainableness to us That the later is incompetent to Scripture alone or unassisted by another certain Rule that is incompetent to it as a Rule however it may agree to it as a thing regulated or ruled is the Subject in a manner of all our foregoing Discourse and it so depends upon the former Property of the two last named Certainty in it self that if it fails that later is impossible Now as for its Certainty in its self or its being establish't on secure Grounds we may consider Scripture's Letter either Materially as such and such Characters or Formally as Significative of a determinate sence suppos'd to be Christ's and both of these either in its single self or as dependent on other helps or Causes on foot now in the world according to the course of things 2. And as for the meer material Characters in Books 't is evident that they are of themselves as liable to be destroy'd as any thing else in Nature as burnt torn
Again for God's love who ever deny'd they ought to have reason to believe the Churches Authority Is any thing more frequent in our Controvertists and Divines treating of the Ground of Faith than large Discourses concerning Motives of Credibility 9. Thirdly he saies that disputing with Romanists whether Scripture be the sole Rule he means t is so limitedly that is between Christians who have already acknowledged Scripture a Rule of Faith By which I see Mr Whitby guides him self by sounds though he must need know if he knows any thing of Catholick Tenâ—â—â— our sence is quite different I beseech you Sir deal fairly with us Is not that speaking formally and properly the Rule of Faith which gives us Christs sence and does not that give us the Sence of Scripture which regulates us in the Interpretation of it Did ever Catholick then hold that Scripture interpreted on any fashion much less on your fashion by private Judgments or reasons regulated by Grammatical skill Criticisms and such like verbal knowledges is a Rule of Faith nay do not we constantly abhor this way as the Source of Heresy Take us right then we hold not Scripture's Letter alone a Rule but Scripture interpreted by the Church that is indeed the Church formally speaking and so you see you mistake our Principle Yet upon our joint-agreement in this your Discourse against us proceeds Retrive it then you see your Errour Again you tell us Scripture is your new Rule but forget quite in your discourse to tell us that your Reason assures you Scripture is to be the onely Rule or why it should be so since besides what I have demonstrated to the Contrary in my former Discourses 't is evident Christian Religion had descended many steps ere the Scripture's parts were much scatter'd much less the Whole collected and no less clear that that can never be a Rule or Way to Faith which many follow yet their thoughts straggle into many several Judgments not in indifferent points but in that of the Trinity amongst the rest as your self profess of the Socinian that he rejects not the Trinity in the first place because it seems a contradiction but because 't is not clearly discover'd in Scripture by which you see he adheres firm to your Rule and so ought to be acknowledg'd one of your Church since though he hap to differ in some points yet he holds fast the Rule common to both which is the substantiallest Principle of a Church as such being the Ground of all Faith And indeed your Kindness to him here and your tender care not to displease him shows you have a true brotherly affection for him Though I fear he he will con you small thanks for making his Principle run thus That which is not clearly revealâ—d in Scripture and is coniradictory ti reason is not to be believ'd which seems to imply that were it clear in Scripture yet contradictory to Reason then he would notwithstanding belive it An over-strain of Piety no Socinian was ever guilty of and I can assure you no learned Catholick Divine I ever heard of ever made such an Act of Faith But 't is another case if it onely seems contradictory and is not judg'd by him to be evidently such for then there is room left in his mind for the contrary Assent of Faith to settle there 10. You say you prescribe not the doctrin imputed to the Socinians because it makes Reason the Iudge of Faith but the Rule of Faith Pray take pains to consider what you say He that judges must have some Principles in his head by which he is regulated in making such a Judgment those Principles then must be his Rule in that Action and if that Judgment be an adhesion to a point of Faith those Principles are his RULE OF FAITH Examin now well your own thoughts whether your Principles by which you find out certainly by interpreting Scripture this is God's sence or a point of Faith be not Maxims of your human Reason I am sure in disputes against us you prove and defend your Faith by such skills as Languages History and other Knowledges got by Human Learning and consequently hold It your selves upon the tenour of those skills which therefore are your Rule of Faith and not upon the bare Letter You I know will deny it But I beg your second thoughts to reflect that a Rule to such an Effect is the immediate Knowledge to the Power as conversant about that Effect and that if another intervene it regulates the former which thereupon becomes the thing ruled not the Rule Do then these skills clear the Letter of Scripture that is make known Gods Sence to you If so since their Immediate effect is to clear it 't is impossible to deny but they are at least part of the Revelation for revealing is clearing and God's Sence was not clearly revealed but by those means that is by human maxims and so they are at least the more formal part of your Rule of Faith Again I ask might you not have mistaken the true Sence without those Human Maxims If so then They and not Scripture's Letter were your Rule If not then onely common Sence is requisit to understand clearly what 's reveal'd in Scripture and then either your Brother Socinian or you want Common Sence which I think you 'l scarce say 11. But will you see you still hold Reason your Rule notwithstanding you cry up the Written word Find you not there expresly that God has hands feet nostrils and passions like ours and this in clear terms Why is it not then a point of Faith You will not answer sure it is against Maxims of Reason you renounc't them formerly p. 94. when you had found out your new Rule and onely allow'd your Reason power to judge if a point were sufficientlie reveal'd that it is most rational to 〈◊〉 it self though it seem to contradict or thwâ—â—â— Reason Now this is sufficiently reveal'd being plainly writ in your Rule of Faith and the direct Letter of Scripture why will you not then captivate your Reason and believe it I see you do but complement with God's incomprehensible Knowledge in speaking so highly of it and so humbly of your own shallow Intellâ—ct Will you deny a point of Faith so plainly reveald for your own capricho or conceit Perhaps you 'l say 't is not clearly reveal'd because the contrary is plain in Scripture too I ask is it as plain if not it cannot overthrow the title of This to be a point of Faith If as plain why should you not believe both Be valiant Sir and believe a contradiction it being clearly reveal'd Perhaps it seems but such and then your own profession p. 94. obliges you to admit it You that can acknowledge an Infinit extension of space when you say all the world besides does so too sure you thought all the World was in your Fancy may also hold Materia ab aeterno and that it is onely a part
vulgar reason easily telling them that there can be but one Truth that is that all the other Professors to follow Scripture do notwithstanding believe and speak false Now these honest Scholars of plain down right Nature that of her lowest form too being unable to judge which truly follow the Scripture's Letter and onely capable to know they all profess it with Words and Actions expressing the greatest seriousness in the world are to think that all equally mean to follow it to their power Whence their common reason will tell them though they cannot express it in our terms or defend it that meerly for want of Light that is Evidence in the Directive Power of that Rule they all but one party and perhaps that too as well as the rest go most miserably astray This third Property then of the Rule of Faith namely to justify the undoubting vulgar is wanting to Scriptures Letter 3. There follows the fourth Property of the Rule of Faith which is that it must be able of its own nature to satisfy the most Sceptical dissenters and rational doubters that the Doctrin it holds forth came from Christ. To make a true conceit of what may be judg'd sufficient for this End let us reflect on the nature and temper of such Dissenters and Doubters and we shall quickly discover that they are men given to stir their thoughts by much reflexion and to call them to a strict account ere they yield them over to Assent Wherefore if we suppose them true to their own thoughts and not to betray the Light of their Reason to some Passion in which case their Faith it self were in them a Vice we cannot imagin that any thing under Demonstration can bind and restrain those active and volatil Souls from fluttering still in Objections and hovering in doubts when their Eternal Good is concern'd Especially when an Authority is about scanning upon whose word they are bound after they have approv'd it to believe unconcievable and unheard of things above the reach of human Reason Apprehension Let now any man go about to demonstrate to those great wits these points That the Scripture's Letter was writ by men divinely inspir'd That there is never a real one however there may be many seeming Contradictions in it and this to be shown out of the very Letter it self That just this Catalogue or number of Books is enough for the Rule of Faith and no one Necessary that was lost none be abated or if so how many That the Originals out of which the Translations were made were entire and uncorrupted That the first Translations were skilfully rightly made and afterwards deriv'd down sincere notwithstanding the errableness of thousands of Transcribers Printers Correcters c. and the malice of antient Hereticks and Jews who had it in their hands And lastly That this and this onely is the true sence of it to which is requisite great skill in Languages to understand the meaning of words in Grammar to know what meaning they should generally beat according to its Rules as thus construed or put together Criticism to know what a word doe most commonly or may possibly signify by rules 〈◊〉 nicer Etymologies or acception of Authours ancient or modern by dialects of several Countries c. History to make known the true scope of the Authour the best Interpreter of his meaning Logick to draw consequenceâ— aright and so find out the thread of the discourse to avoid equivocation in words by discovering which are to be taken properly which Metaphorically And to apply this right fome skill in the things themselves that is in Nature and Metaphysicks especially that which treats of the nature of Spirits as the Soul Angels God and his Attributes but especially in Divinity both Speculative and Moral which by the way supposes Faith and comes after it and so cannot be presuppos'd to the Rule of Faith which precedes it Let any man I say go about to demonstrate all these difficult Points ro those acute men and will they not smile at his endeavors since most of them that concern the truth of the Letter are such that we want Principles to go about to evidence them and the rest so obscure that a searching and sincere wit would still find something to reply to rationally or at least maintain his ground of Suspence with a Might it not be otherwise And were some one or two of these points demonstrable yet who sees not it is a task of so long study that a great part of a man's life would be spent in a weaâ—isome and hopeless endeavour to come to Faith by this tedious method which would both dis-invite to a pursuit and even a diligent man may in likelihood die ere he could rationally embrace any Faith at all Faith then being intended for a man to lead his life by 't is necessary it's Rule and the means to come to it should be easily victorious by reason of it's Certainty and Evidence over the shock of Doubts or the assaults of Intellectual Fears In which the Scripture's Letter being defective 't is plain that 't is far from the Nature of a Rule of Faith 4. The same discourse holds to prove that the Scripture's Letter is not convictive of the most obstinate and acute Adversaries which is the fifth Property of the Rule of Faith Yet to apprehend this more lively let us imagin it apply'd to practice and that some Text of Scripture were quoted to convince a Deist in some point He asks how you are certain that Book is God's word You alledge the Excellencies of it which indeed are such that eyes already enlighten'd by true Faith may discern something in it above nature and cry Digitus Dâ—i est hîc though not his dim sight He answers that many parts of it are indeed very excellently good but that the Devil can transform himself into an Angel of Light On the other side he requites your Excellencies with many strange Absurdities and Heresies even by your own confession in the open Letter as it lies and most unworthy God as that he has hands feet and passions like ours according to which he is variable He finds you direct Text against acknowledg'd Science in divers particulars and reckons up a multitude of Contradictions to his Judgment You answer that those places are understood according to human apprehension and are indeed incompetent to God but that there are mystical and spiritual meanings couch't in those sacred Oracles which with the help of History would reconcile those seeming Contradictions He cries you quite abandon your pretended Rule that since you confess Heresies are in the open Letter taken as it lies you must have some Knowledge in your Head concerning God which makes you decline the sence of the words as they lie and run to gloss them and demands whence you came by those tenets which oblige you to correct the plain Letter challenging your thoughts and carriage as witnesses that that
multitudes of Knowers if no possible consideration can awaken in our reason a doubt that they conspire to deceive us Now in the way of Tradition all deliverers or immediate Forefathers are Knowers as appears in those who immediately heard the Apostles all the Knowledge requisit being of what they were taught and practic 't accordingly all their lives of which 't is impossible the rudest person should be ignorant who ever had any Effect of such a Teaching wrought upon him Nor can any unless their brains rove wildly or be unsettled even to the degree of madness suspect deceit where such multitudes unanimously agree in a matter of fact look seriously when they speak act themselves and practice accordingly and show in the whole course of their carriage that they hope to be sav'd themselves and to save others whom they thus instruct by relying on this Truth that their Forefathers thus taught them which amounts to this that Nature or common Reason at unawares steals into them a solid apprehension that Tradition is of a certain kind of Nature and so that while Fathers thus taught Children it was ever such that is that Tradition is a certain Rule of conveying down Faith which is all we study to evince at present I may add that Nature telling them by their own experiences that Parents generally would be apt to teach their Children what themselves had been taught and believ'd to be good and true needfull to their eternal Salvation their natural thoughts would lead them by a downright procedure to judge that Tradition was ever in some considerable Body of Deliverers who stuck to it and own'd it and that those had true Faith or truly that doctrin which Christ and the first Planters of Christianity taught But of this point more hereafter 10. If it be objected that this multitude of plain honest-meaning Souls are as much justify'd for believing Scripture I answer that if you mean their Faith conceiv'd to be found in Scripture or a determinate Sence of Scripture's Letter it cannot with any show of reason be pretended that they are as much justifiable for believing any setting aside Tradition's help for without this it totally depends on the inward Judgments Fancies or Skills of men which they are unqualify'd to judge of not on open verdict of Senses to wield the Certainty or Uncertainty of which lies clearly within the reach of their common reason And as for Scripture's Letter they cannot possibly be justify'd in reason for believing even the Substantial Truth of it without Tradition's assisting hand and preserving care And the reason is the same because the common course of human Experience tells them that Judgments or Opinions often disagree but their plain Sensations especially if frequently repeated never Whence a Jury of the plainest High-shoes would upon the Evidence of the sight of six Witnesses without more ado condemn a Malefactor but not upon the Judgments of a thousand men if a Testimony grounded on Sense were not brought Now take away Tradition and all ground from Certain Sence fails us either for the meaning or even Letter of Scripture and all is left to men's Judgments built on latent Skills or Fancy or at least on Sense liable to great and numerous mistakes as hath been shown Disc. 4. § 3. Again seeing every one apprehends the most vulgar have reason enough to believe there was such a one as K. Iames and Q. Elizabeth of which they are no otherwise ascertain'd but by Tradition why are not they as much or more justify'd for believing points of Faith received down by the same tenour whereas if you go about to pump their common Reason about the Authority of the Statute-Book or the Truth of its Letter you shall find them blunder and at a â—oss being pos'd beyond their sphere of 〈◊〉 Nature by a question entrenching upon skill to which they can never answer with a steady assuredness inwardly and if they do so outwardly 't is manifest that some Passion and not their Reason breeds that irrational Profession The third Condition then of the Rule of Faith which was to be apt to settle and justify unreflecting and undoubting vulgar is manifestly found agreeing to Tradition 11. I put next the 6th Condition because the proof of it evidently proves the fourth fifth and seventh For what is built on immovable Grounds or Certain in its self has in it wherewith to settle and satisfy the most piercing Witâ— convince the most obstinate Adversaries and to ascertain us absolutely To prove that Tradition has Certain and Infallible Grounds it may suffiâ—â— to note that Disc. 1. § 13 14 15. it being evidently proved Faith must be Infallible to us anâ— no less evident that it cannot be such without having Infallibly-câ—â—tain Grounds since nothinâ— can be firmer to us than the ground it stands on now the Rule of Faith is its Ground It follow evidently that This must likewise be Infallibâ—â— certain There being then onely two Ground or Rules of Faith owned namely Deliver of it down by Writing and by Words anâ— Practice which we call Oral and Practical Tradition 't is left unavoydably out of the imposibility that Scripture should be Infallible as Rule that Tradition must be such 12. Though this Conclusion supposing thâ— Truth of the Propositions I assume as alreadâ— prov'd be sufficiently consequent to those Adversaries against whom I contest at present thâ— Certainty of Tradition in regard they do 〈◊〉 stick to grant that either Scripture or Tradition must be the Rule of Faith Yet I foresee more will be expected from a pretender to demonstrate its Certainty and that he should frame his Discourse from intrinsecal Mediums Reflecting then on the nature of Tradition as before explicated we shall observe that it hath for its Basis the best Nature in the Universe that is Man's the Flower and End of all the rest and this not according to his Moral part defectible by reason of Original Corruption nor yet his Intellectuals darkly groping in the pursuit of Science by reflected thoughts or Speculation amidst the misty vapours exhal'd by his Passion predominant over his rational Will but according to those faculties in him perfectly and necessarily subject to the operations and stroaks of Nature that is his Eyes Ears handling and the direct Impressions of Knowledge as naturally and necessarily issuing from the affecting those Senses as it is to feel heâ—â— cold Pain Pleasure or any other material Quality Again those Impressions upon the Sense are not made once but frequently and in most many times every day Moreover to make these more express and apt to be taken notice of their lives are to be fram'd by the Precepts they hear and conformable Examples they see so that Faith I mean the substance of it or that solid plain Knowledge as far as 't is apt to cause downright Christian 〈◊〉 comes clad in such plain matters of Fact that the most stupid man living cannot possibly be ignorant of it
but that Christ promist his Church Infallibility is not thus self-evident but needs other Knowledges to evidence it unless we will make all come by Inspiration Besides if God's Providence laid in second Causes for Tradition's Indeficiency be not Certain in its self abstracting from Christ's promise to his Faithful Tradition can never convey certainly that Promise to us It must then be assur'd to us by Scripture's Letter ascertain'd onely by imagin'd diligence from Copy to Copy not by Tradition that is that Letter could not be certain its self and so fit to ascertain others till Tradition's Certainty be establish't antecedently And were it suppos'd a true Letter this Letter Tradition being as yet suppos'd unknown to be able to convey down certainly Christs sence must be interpreted onely by private skills and so all the Churches Veracity that is all Mankinds Salvation must be built on that private Interpretation Private I say for in that supposition till the Scripture's Letter for that point be Interpreted certainly truly the Churches veracity or power to interpret it truly is not yet known which besides the common Rule that no Scripture is of private Interpretation is particularly and highly faulty in this case that it would make our Fundamental of Fundamentals the Certainty of our Rule of Faith rely on such a private Interpretation Moreover to say Tradition of the Church is Certain because Christ promist it puts it to be believ'd not seen and is the same in Controversy as it is in Nature to say in common such an Effect is wrought because 't is God's will which gives no account of that particular Effect but onely sayes something in common Wherefore since the Certainty of the Rule of Faith it being antecedent to Faith must be seen not believ'd a Controversial Divine ought to make it seen that is ought to demonstrate its Certainty and Indeficiency by intrinsecal mediums or dependence on proper Causes It signisies therefore no more in the Science of Controversy to say Christ promist than in Natural Science to answer to every Question in stead of showing a proper Cause that God wills it which is a good saying for a Christian as is also the other but neither of them a competent Principle either for Philosopher or Controvertist Consent Of AUTHORITY To the substance of the foregoing Discourses 1. THus far Reason Let 's see how 't is seconded by Authority And first by the Scriptures 2. For the Self-evidence of the Way to Faith or which is all one The Rule of Faith see the Prophet Isay c. 35. v. 8. This shall be to you a direct way so that Fools cannot err in it That is evident to the rudest Vulgar or self-evident else Fools might possibly err in it in case it needed any Skill of Discourse and were not obvious to Common Sense 3. Now what this Self-evident Rule is is most expressively declar'd by the same Prophet c. 59. v. 21. speaking of God's favour intended to the Gentiles that is of the Law of Grace This is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my Spirit which is in thee and my words which I have put in thy Mouth shall not depart from thy mouth and from the mouth of thy Seed and from the mouth of thy Seed's Seed from henceforth for ever Here we see God's promise to perpetuate Christ's Doctrin and on what manner that is by Oral Tradition or Delivering it from Father to Son by word of Mouth or Teaching not by scanning a Book put in their hands We see it promist also that this Tradition shall be Indefectible or Vninterrupted and Lastly that his Spirit or Sanctity is both in the Church and will continue ever with her which being so she must needs be supernaturally assisted by the Holy Ghost that is incomparably above the power of Nature to this Effect of perpetuating Christ's doctrin by Tradition 4. As pithy and home is that of the Prophet Ieremiah c. 31. I will give my Law in their Bowels and iâ— their Hearts will I write it and still more that of St. Paul contradistinguishing the Law of Grace from Moses his Law by this that the later was writ in Tables of Stone the former in the fleshy Tables of mens Hearts Both as express as can be imagined to send us for our Faith to living Sence in the hearts of the Faithful not to meer dead Letters in a Book that is recommending to us Tradition which is the perfectest and naturalest way imaginable to write them there as hath been shown Note the word Hearts which in the Metaphorical expression is the Principle of Action not of meeâ— Speculative Knowledge as is the word Brain Which intimates the Practical nature of Tradition and that it imprints Christs Law and conveys it down by Christian Carriage and Action not by Speculative scanning the significativeness of Characters in a Book Note also the word Fleshy which signifies that the manner of writing Christ's Law is through the affecting the Soul by her Inferiour part considering her as she is a virtue of understanding that is by Sensations which make strong and plain Impressions in Mankind according to their material part and so force into them Natural Knowledge Whence things thus imprinted are apt to settle themselves solidly and even sink deeply into the most material gross and vulgar understandings Quite contrary to which in all regards is the way of beginning with reading and labouring to understand certainly Letters in a Book which is a kind of Speculation and so belongs to the Superiour part of the Soul as she is understanding being Artificial both in the very Nature of such Characters the skill in Reading and highest skills requisit to Sence them with Certainty 5. After Scripture-verdict succeed next in order those of Councils I will onely mention three in several Ages leaving multitudes of others The first Synod of Lateran We all confirm unanimously and consequently with one heart and mouth the Tenets and sayings of the Holy Fathers adding nothing subtracting nothing of those things which are DELIVERâ—D VS quae TRADITA sunt nobis by them and we believe so as the Fathers have believed we preach so as they have TAVGHT The Council of Sardica in its Encyclical sent to all Catholick Bishops We have received this Doctrin we have been taught so we hold this Catholick Tradition Faith and Confession And the seventh General Council in its second Act. We imbu'd with the precepts of the Fathers have so confest and do confess In the Third we receive and venerate the Apostolical Traditions of the Church And in the seventh Act giving their final determination they declare the Grounds on which they proceed in these words We walking in the King's-high-way Regiam viam incedentes and relying on the Doctrin of our holy and divine Fathers and observing the TRADITION of the Catholick Church define c. where we see General Councils that is the greatest Authority in the Catholick Church relying on the Teaching of
form of words This is the Faith of Blessed Peter this is the Faith of the Fathers this is the Faith of the Orthodox From which Testimonies note we 17. First That the Council in every Session not one excepted where Points of Faith are handled constantly professes to follow TRADITION Secondly It layes claim perpetually to Vninterruptedness of this Tradition as appears by the words ever alwayes from the Apostles times from the beginning from the Apostles have come down by hands to us The Church hath alwayes understood held openly profest taught hath ever kept and will ever keep perpetually commended by our Fathers hath learned by Tradition received down by hand hath ever observed and such like Plainly showing that this Persuasion of our Faith's descent uninterruptedly is deeply and unanimously rooted in the heart of the whole Catholick Church Which strengthens our Doctrin Disc. 8. § 2. and 3. 3ly It makes the Suggestion of the Holy Ghost or Sanctity in the hearts of the Faithful efficacious to perpetuate the delivery of received Doctrin See Sess. 6. Decreto de Iustificatione Sess. 13. de SS Euchar. Sacramento and many other places The very point I went about to explicate in my 9. Discourse 4ly 'T is observable that though it mentions the Holy Scriptures also with Tradition yet this is both very rarely and when it does so It onely expresses that Faith is contain'd in them but when it brings Places of Scripture to ground Definitions upon It perpetually professes to Interpret them by Tradition Which is most Evident both by its decreeing this in common Sess. 4. That none dare to interpret Holy Scriptures against the Sence which our Holy Mother the Church hath held and does hold meaning that Sence in the Hearts of the Faithful is the Rule to interpret Scripture by see Corol. 30. As also by several Instances Sess. 5. § 4. Sess. 14. Can. 3. Sess. 22. cap. 1. and to omit others in that most remarkable plaâ—e Sess. 14. In which after the Text of S. Iamesâ—lledg'd â—lledg'd for Extream Unction the Council subjoins In which words as the Church hath learn'd by Apostolical Tradition received down by hands be teaches c. Where Tradition is most evidently made the Rule which instructs and guides the Church in interpreting Scripture And 't is observable that the Council no where grounds any definition on Scripture but at the same time she grounds her Interpretation of Scripture on Tradition which devolves into this that the Council makes Tradition her onely Rule to know Certainly Christ's Sence or Points of Faith that is in proper speaking the onely Rule of Faith 18. But why then is the Holy Scripture made use of at all by the Council and that so solemnly nay and which is to be noted constantly put before Tradition To satisfy fully this difficulty 't is not the proper season at present yet being a good point and worth clearing I will not totally neglect it We may observe then that when we read any Book writ by an Authour we much esteem but yet such a Book as requires studying Aristotle's for Example or some other such whom we hold Scientifical we sometimes hope well as it were when we apply our own Industry to find out his meaning and have a kind of respect for what we conceive to be his Sence yet his Authority takes not full hold of our Understanding by reason the way we take is not evidently convictive that this is his Certain Sence But if the Point he writes on be first clear'd to us through a Scientifical discourse by word of mouth made by some Interpreter vers'd in his Doctrin and perfectly acquainted with his meaning we have as it were new Eyes given us to look deeply and thoroughly into his Sence and by this Security of arriving at it his Authority in case we highly esteem'd it has now its full force upon us to strengthen our Assent according to the degree of power it had upon our Understanding Now what a well-skill'd and insighted Interpreter or scientifical Explicater of the point is to such an Author the same is Tradition to Scripture For This bringing down Certainly Christ's Sence in every Point of Faith It easily and securely guides us to the true meaning of Scripture in those passages which concern such a point whereas the wordish way of Grammar and Criticism being evident by Principles to be ambiguous and by Experience to lead men into different Sences it can never satisfy us thoroughly that the Sence we arrive at by this method is infallibly the true one or Christs and so never engages certainly the Authority of GOD'S WORD And hence it is that Scripture thus interpreted is of sleight force and at best good onely for Ecclesiastical Rhetorick or Sermons where the concern is not much if the Preacher misses in this particular passage so the Substance of the Point he preaches on or his Text be truly Christ's doctrin nor is Scripture thus interpreted even a competent proof in the Science of School-Divinity as being Uncertain and so unapt to beget Science whence Intelligent Divines quoting and building on Scripture are to be suppos'd to judge the Sence they build on to be the Churches and so they are presum'd to go to work as Faithful or parts of Ecclesia docens or else they lay true Science first which is ever agreeable to Faith and so when any Text concerns a demonstrated point they know by Science what the true Sence of that Point must be Much less is Scripture wordishly interpreted apt to build Faith on the unwaveringness of which kind of Assent must be grounded and secure in the Principles which beget it and not meerly actually such as it were by accident whereas Interpretations thus made Faith's Principles in this case are liable to possible if not probable mistake This will be clearer by a parallel made by a learned Authour worth inserting because it strengthens our Discourse by a new Consideration Let a Critick and a skill'd Carpenter read Vitruvius his Book of Architecture the Critick has but a dim dry and uncertain conceit of what he reads as to the truth of the thing but the Carpenter or Architect by reason of some Principles and Practice he has already of those matters understands him more thoroughly and makes lively and firm conceits of the truth and excellency of what he writes Such is the Practical way of knowing Christs Sence or Tradition to the interpreting Scripture usâ—d by the Catholick Church in comparison of the Critical Method affected by others In a word Tradition gives us Christs Sence that is the Life of the Letter ascertaind to our hands which therefore must needs move the Letter its Body naturally The other way takes the dead Letter and endeavours to move it Artificially to counterfeit that Life which it truly wants 19. To apply this Discourse to our matter in hand Tradition securing to us the Scripture's Letter truly significative of Christ's Sence and also the
true Sence of that Letter in Points of Faith deliver'd See Coroll 29. 30 it follows that Scripture alledged by the Church relying on Tradition for its Rule engages certainly and fully the very Authority of the Divinely inspir'd Writer himself and gives that Testimony the whole Effect upon our understanding which that Sacred Writers Authority deserves to have given it No wonder then the Council proceeding upon Traditionary Interpretation as it constantly declares it self to do honours Scripture-Testimony so as to put it before Tradition or the delivery of Christs Doctrin from hand to hand Scripture thus alledg'd and securd having the same force as if the Apostle or Evangelist himself should sit in the Council and by way of living voice declar'd his own Sence in the matter to whom thus present what deference the Council would have given is obvious to be imagin'd Hence also the Protestant may see what high esteem our Church gives to Gods Word truly so calld that is having Gods Sence certainly-known to be such in it and that 't is onely the outward Letter as us'd to hammer a Faith out of by wordish skills that is indeed their Method of interpreting it which by reason of its Uncertainty falls short of engaging the Sacred Authority of Gods Word we fleight and scorn And most justly since 't is the having no better way to work on Scripture which has brought Scripture it self thus usâ—d to scorn and contempt as appears in the carriage of our Bedlam of new Sects in England I expect here some mighty man of talk but very weak Speculator should object that this is an excellent way to bring all into our Churches hands But till he can prove that both Letter Sence of Scripture are knowable with such a Certainty as to build on them that most firm Assent call'd Faith by any other way than this of Tradition I can neither hinder my Inferences nor will he ever be able to confute my discourse 20. Thus much to show evidently that the Substance of the Doctrin we have given in our former Discourses is the very Sence of our Church at present and that her present Sence in this matter is agreeable to the Judgment of Antient Fathers and Councils I have no more to do now but to show that at the very time of the Breach here in England the Catholick was found adhering fast to this Rule of Tradition renounc't by the Protestant This is evident by the Protestants own confession For as oft as you hear them alledge that England was formerly overgrown with Popery that the new Light of the Gâ—spel hath of late discovered it self that they reformâ—d in Faith that the former Church errd and such like expressions which naturally must burst out from them so oft you hear them acknowledge themselves Deserters of Tradition and Innovators Which Expressions of theirs by the way easily manifest to the most vulgar understanding who â—tis that hath renounct Tradition whence it being also easily evidenceable to the rudest capacity that Tradition is a most certain way of bringing down Faith Disc. 5. § 8. the most vulgar Soul is capable of knowing which Profession it is to follow For the two former points being known they are Certain by motives within their own Ken that Protestants have renounct the Certain way to bring down Faith but that we renounct Tradition of old is unacknowledged by us disputable and onely knowable by skills they are not Masters of Common Sense then teaching them they must guide themselves by reasons they are capable of and not by reasons of which they know nothing and that God requires no more at their hands than they can do Gods goodness has provided for those weak people out of the very Confessions of Traditionâ—s deserters Certain means to judge whether they ought to be Catholicks or Protestants But to return whence we diverted 21. It is not onely the Protestants own Confession but the open Profession of the Catholick Clergy in the very nick of the Breach manifests our claim and constant adherence to Tradition Whose Declaration found in the Synodal Book 1559. begins thus Because by relation of publick Fame it hath lately come to our knowledge that many Tenets of Christian Religion hitherto received and approvâ—d by the Publick and 〈◊〉 Consent of Christian Nations and BROVGHT DOWN BY HANDS even from the Apostles to Vs are callâ—d into doubt Therefore c. Where we find them stick firmly to Tradition And insisting on this Principle they proceed to make a Profession of their Faith which they exhibit to the Bishops to be given to the Lord Keeper but the State by power over-bearing the Votes of the Reverend Convocation and persecuting them for their constancy the Breach ensuâ—d The Catholick cleaving fast to his Old Rule Tradition the Protestants chusing a new one of Scripture privately interpreted whose vanity a little reason makes them see but experience perfectly find and relinquishing the Antient Rule so demonstrably self-evident secure and solid By which means they became cut off from the onely Certain way to know Christs Sence that is from the Root of Faith and consequently from the Body of the Church The Guilt of which Fact neither Human Authority Multitude Prosperity Continuance nor yet all their Voluminous wordish Excuses will ever be able to Efface ANIMADVERSIONS On Dr. Pierce's Sermon Also on Mr. Whitby and Mr. Stillingfleet where they touch the Way lay'd in the foregoing Discourses In Three Appendixes Psalm 63. Sagittae parvulorum factae sunt Plagae eorum Anno Dom. 1665. TRANSITION To The following APPENDIXES I Have finisht my Discourse how dexterously must be determin'd by the Iudgment of my Readers and Confutation from mâ—â—e Adversaries But I account those onely my proper Iudges competent Adversaries who lay their Principles ere they discourse and weigh the efficaciousness of their Testimonies in the Scales of Reason ere they alledge them If I find a man laying no Principles of his own but supposing them and making account all men must admit them out of respect to him or his party and yet bend all his endeavours to cavil at Principles laid by others to ascertain and establish the Groundwork of Christianity If I find one ignorant of or resolv'd against the onely-Certain method and Rule of Discourse which is that No Position deserves Assent unless the Connexion of its Terms be Evident which must either be when they are Evidently connected of themselves of which nature ought to be all First Principles or made evidently-connected by the interposition of some other which we call Evident-by-consequence or Deduction Lastly if I find a man wedded to Parrat-talk of Ayr and Sounds that he thinks it a rare thing to load margents with Citations without first distinguishing them and considering what strength each ought to have according to rational Principles I decline such an empty Soul for my Iudge and sleight him as mine Adversary And lest any should impute this carriage to me
and my Grounds why I then believ'd rest still unchang'd nay are unchangeable But yet Reason acts much differently now then â—ormerly Before I came at Faith she acted about her own Objects Motives or Maxims by which she scand the Authorities we spoke of But in Acts of Faith she hath nothing to do with the Objects of those Acts or Points of Faith She is like a dimsighted man who us'd his Reason to find a trusty Friend to lead him in the twi-light and then reli'd on his guidance rationally without using his own Reason at all about the Way it self To make this clearer we may distinguish two sences in the word Reason one as 't is taken for that natural Faculty which constitutes Man which Faculty never deserts or ought to desert us in any action that is Manly or virtuous The other as 't is taken for that Power wrought upon by motives under its own ken in the same sence we call it human Reason by which is not meant the natural Power unactuated or abstractedly for then the word human were a Taâ—tology but Reason as conversant with such objects or inform'd by such knowledges as are commonly found within the sphere of our natural condition as Men such as are those which beget Science And this leaves us when we have once found the Authority now spoken of the Objects of Faith formally speaking being out of her reach nor is she thus understood the motive of our Assent to the verity of the Point of Faith but AVTHORITY onely Wherefore into Authority onely Faith as such is resolvd finally though if you go about to resolve the Rationalness of assenting to the Authority it self it will light into those Evident Reasons which your naturall power of reason as yet uninform'd by Faith but by motives or maxims within its own sphere was capable to wield 5. Reason therefore taken for my natural Power is my Eye or interiour sight as inform'd by common Principles or Maxims antecedent to Faith my Guid to bring me to believe Authority and those motives or Maxims are the Rules to my Reason by attending to which she hath virtue or skill to set her own thoughts right that is to guid me in my way to Faith but when I have once come to beleeve Authority that is come to Faith not Reason but Authority is my Guid for I follow Authority and not my Reason in judging what is Faith what not and though the Light of that naturall power never deserts me yet Reason as rul'd by her own natural maxims is useless to me as a Guid or those Maxims as a Rule for I apply neither of these to the mysteries of Faith to scan their verity or falsity by but purely rely upon Authority and beleeve them Authority then is my Guid and in the Infallibility of that Authority consists the power or virtue it has to guide me right that is to regulate or rule me as one of the Faithfull or as one who must have such Certain Grounds of my Assent as I may securely build my Salvation on This Authority then as it is Inâ—allible is also my Rule in my beleeving or the Rule of my Faith This of my Rule of Faith in Common against Adversaries of Faith in common But with Protestants who grant Christ to be God and consequently his words or doctrine true the onely Rule and Guid we need is to lead us into the Knowledge of what he said and assure it to us We affirm then that the Catholick Church is the Guid we follow and her Infallibility consisting in Tradition our Rule of Faith Hence all Catholicks profess her doctrin uninterruptedly succeeding from the Apostles time and so to continue to the end of the World hence with one voice they lay claim to Christs gracious Assistance to her in defending her from over-growing Errors against Faith or Heresies hence all profess to hear and follow her and pledge undoubtingly even the security of their salvation by relying on the Certainty of her Living Voice for their Tenets and on her Disciplin for the Practice of their Faith And though some Schoolmen make Scripture a partial Rule of Faith yet they can mean onely materially not formally that is that some part of Faith is signifi'd by Scripture's Letter not that Scripture's Letter alone is sufficient securely to signify it to private understandings so as to beget that most strong firm Assent found in Divine Faith as is evident by this that all hold no Scripture is of private Interpretation all hold the living voice of the Church and her constant Practice are the best Interpreters of Scripture Now Faith being Tenets and Sence that must be 〈◊〉 the Rule of Faith which ascertains us of Christs Sence not the materiall Characters which that Certain Interpreter we call the Church works upon and by her Practicall Tradition interprets 6. 'T is high time now to look back upon Dr. Pierce and his party how justly they deal with us and how mistakingly they discourse when they come to the Grounds of their Faith 7. First by the tenour of his discourse he would seem to obtrude upon us a Tenet which none but perfect mad-men could hold namely that we profess we have no reason why we believe the Church which devolves to this that we must profess we have as much reason to believe an old wife's dream as our Faith since there can be no less reason than none at all And hence he will needs assure the Reader that therefore the Enthusiastick Sectaries are in part Romish Proselytes c. And indeed upon so gross a calumny layd down for his principle and a sober Truth what might he not conclude with equal reason he might have inferr'd that all Bedlam were Catholicks and that to turn mad were to turn a Romanist But his carriage to put this upon Mr. S. C. is strangely unjust since he knows and hints it that he writ a Book upon his declaring himself Catholick entitled Motives of his Conversion does he think the word Motives does not signify Reasons or that to write an whole Book of Reasons why he adhea'd to the Catholick Church signifies that he renounc't all reason why he believ'd her 8. Next as for his own tenet he layes this for his Ground that Reason alone is Iudge in all cases I will propose him one case and 't is the Existence of a Trinity To work now with your Reason about this object and see how you evince it I doubt your best reasons will crack ere you make all ends meet But you mean you must have Reason to believe it I conceive speaking properly you should rather say you must have Reason to believe the Authority and Authority to believe It for Belief is as properly relative to Authority as Science is to an Act of true Reason or Evidence Whence 't is as incongruous to say I must have Reason to believe such a Point as to say I know such a point Scientifically by Authority