sequels from the former The 24. 25. and 26. Propositions have not any thing worth our taking notice of Proposition XXVII The nature of certainty doth receive several names eiâ—â—â—â— according to the nature of the proof or the degrees of 〈…〉 Thus moral certainty may be so called either c. 〈◊〉 the 27. Proposition the Authour declares that â—â—â—â—stianity is morally certain that is it implys a firm Asâ—ent upon the highest evidence that moral things can receive This seems to involve a contradiction How can our Assent be sufficiently firm for Faith and exclude all doubts and fears of Falshood as Christian Faith must if its certainty be only moral though in the highest degree of moral certainty For the highest degree of moral certainty doth not include an absolute impossibility of the contrary So that Dr. Stillingfleet must confesse 't is possible his Faith may be false and the Scriptures a Fable though he be morally certain in the highest degree it is not so Hence followeth against the 28. Proposition that a Christian having no more then moral certainty in the Highest degree that the Scriptures are the Word of God his Faith cannot be resolved into the Veracity of God as the ground of his believing because the Veracity of God excludes all Fallacy and possibility of Falshood and includes not only the highest degree of moral but of Metaphysical certainty and by consequence every assent of Faith grounded thereupon and reduced thereunto must be of the same nature The 29. Proposition confines Gods Revelations to Scripture only without proof or pretext for so bold an assertion as we have manifested in confuting the 14. Proposition Proposition XXX There can be no better way to prevent mens mistakes in the sence of Scripture which men being fallible are subject to then the considering the consequence of mistaking in a matter wherein their salvation is concerned and there can be no sufficient reason given why that may not serve in matter of faith which God himself hath made use of as the means to keep men from sin in their lives unless any imagin that Errors in opinion are more dangerous to mens souls then a vicious life is and therefore that God is bound to take more care to prevent the one then the other This 30. and last Proposition doth not agree with the 15. and 18. For in the 15. the Author maintains that no sober Enquirer into the Scriptures can miss of what is necessary for salvation and from thence concludes there can be no necessity supposed of any infallible Society of men or of the Church of England to attest or explain Scripture To what purpose then are Bishops Deans Chapters and Pastors or at least their Revenues and Tythes May not this bring Dr. Stillingfleet under the suspicion and censure of being rather a Prevaricator then Assertor of the Church of England and an Impugner of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy His 18. Proposition also destroys this 30. as you may see by comparing both in the 18. he says God hath promised to them who use their best endeavours or means to understand the Scriptures that either they shall not erre or they shall not be damn'd for it From whence it follows 1. That Scripture is obscure even in matters necessary for salvation contrary to the 15. Proposition 2. That they need not fear being damn'd and therefore need not be concerned for erring which is contrary to this 30. Proposition and indeed to all Christianity whereof St. Paul says it is one of the first principles that without faith it is impossible to please God and that Faith is the substance and foundation of Religion and hopes of salvation In this sense it 's certain that errours in opinion are for more dangerous then a vicious life is both because here ie is the worst of vices and because it is more difficult to recover true Faith once lost then to repent of any other sins You have seen D. Stillingfleets â—rincâ—ples cleared and confuted Now you shall see them retorted against himself in his own Conclusions Conclusion I. There is no necessity at all or use of an infallible society of men to assure men of the truth of those things which they may be certain of without it and cannot have any greater assurance supposing such Infallibility to be in them Conclusion II. The Infallibility of that society of men who call themselves the Catholick Church must be examined by the same faculties an man the same Rules of tryal the same motives by which the Infallibility of any Divine Revelation is Conclusion III. The lesse convincing the Miracles the more doubtful the Marks the more obscure the sence of either what is called the Catholick Church or declared by it the lesse reason hath any Christian to beleeve upon the account of any who call themselves by the name of the Catholick Church Conclusion IV. The more absurd any Opinions are and repugnant to the first Principles of sence and reason which any Church obtrudes upon the faith of men the greater reason men still have to reject the pretence of Infallibility in that Church as a grand Imposture Conclusion V. To disown what is so taught by such a Church is not to question the Veracity of God but so firmly to adhere to it as to what he hath revealed in Scriptures that men dare not out of love to their souls reject what is so taught THe First Conclusion hath been retorted in the 30. Proposition against the Church of England which Dr. Stillingfleet undertakes to maintain because if an infallible Church be superfluous much more superfluous must the Church of England be that is confessedly fallible Nay it must be dangerous because by the Laws of the Land which confirm it and by the Benefices and Revenues that enrich it men may be induced to follow false doctrine whereunto as a fallible Church it may leade them The 2. Conclusion deprives the Church and State of England of all hopes of peace and quiet because if a Church pretending with good grounds to Infallibility must be judged and censured by every private mans 〈◊〉 and discretion much more a Church that acknowledgeth to be fallible and yet both reason and experience demonstrate that no Church or Common-wealth can be peaceable wherein every private person is permitted to be a Judge of its Laws or of its Religion The 3. Conclusion absolutely destroys the Church of England because it doth not as much as pretend to Miracles nor supernatural visible marks nor to the name of the Catholick Church and by D. Stillingfleets consequence no Christian ought to believe upon the account of 〈◊〉 Church The 4. Conâ—â—â—sion is also destructive to the Church of England because nothing is more repugnant to the first principles of sence and reason then that a Church confessedly fallible should pretend to direct men to the inâ—allible certainty of Christian Faith and that men 〈◊〉 be compelled by Laws and penalties to hazard their salvation by
following a guide that owns not to be fully assured whether his own Doctrine be the right way to Heaven The 5. Conclusion makes it lawful for every man to reject the authority of the Church of England and to make himself sole Judge of the Scriptures and all this out of love to his soul and out of reverence to Gods Veracity which is in equivalent terms to make Dr. Stilling fleets Religion inseparable from Heresie and Rebellion and inconsistent with the safety of any State or Soveraign Conclusion VI. Though nothing were to be delivered as the Will of God but what is by the Catholick Church declared to be so yet this doth not at all concern the Church of Rome which neither is the Catholick Church nor any sound part or member thereof From all which it follows that it can be nothing but wilful Ignorance weakness of judgment strength of prejudice or some sinful passion which makes any one forsake the Communion of the Church of England to embrace that of the Church of Rome This 6. Conclusion I shall endeavour to confute by proving that the Roman-Catholick Church alone is the whole Catholick Church In order whereunto I will set down these few Propositions 1. That there is and always hath been upon earth a visible Catholick Church otherwise Christ would not have commanded us to repair to it in our differences nor the Apostles have made it an Article of our Creed 2. The Catholick Church must have some visible and supernatural signes far exceeding all others in the appearance of being such whereby it may be discerned from all â—agan and Heretical Congregations pretending to be a part or the whole Catholick Church If this be not granted no man is obliged to be of any Church nay rather all men are obliged to be of no Church because not having any signes to prefer one Church before the other none could know which is the true one and therefore it 's a hundred to one at least they would fall into some Heretical Congregation there being so many and the true Church or Congregation but one 3. That no supernatural signs or Miracles can be visible and wrought for conrfimation of doctrine in any Congregation but in that one which is the true Church because the signes or Miracles which Christ said would follow the Beleevers Mark 16. or the true Church are of the same nature of Christs Miracles and in order to gain credit for the testimony it gives of it self and his doctrine and God being the Author of truth and concord cannot give supernatural signes of his trust or truth to any two or more dissenting Churches for if he did the wisest course as I said learned and pious men could take would be to turn Scepticks and not believe in God Hence also it followeth 4. That the Catholick Church cannot be composed of any two Congregations dissenting in any one point which eithâ—r holds to be an Article of Faith fundamental or not fundamental the reason is because if they be of equal authority men ought rather to suspend then submit their judgments to either of those Congregations and though both should agree in fundamental Articles yet because God being truth it self is as contrary to small as great unâ—ruâ—hs or errors he can no more permit the Testimony of his Church and his Miracles to confirm a little then a great untruth and so it must be infallible as well in not fundamentals as in fundamentals 5. Gods being of infinite Veracity as hath been proved in my confutation of Dr. Stillingfleets 6 16 17. Propositions cannot permit any false Church to have or shew so credible an appearance of true Miracles as hath been alwaies and now is pretended to be in the Roman-Catholick Church They are so convincing that our adversaries can as little prove the fraud as deny the fact They are so frequent that there is scarce a Countrey in Christendom wherein they have not been wrought They are so authentick I speak only of such as are approved by the Bishops of Rome in order to the canonization of Saints that there cannot be a more narrow scrutiny into the nature and cure of the disease nor into the sincerity and sufficiency of the Witnesses and the severity of our judgments against such as we finde to be cheats and Impostors is notorious even in Ireland where our Ecclesiastical discipline is restrained by the Laws we have ventured to silence James Finanghty a simple ignorant Priest because himself and he who caused them to be printed were so weak as to fancy they were true Miracles I know Dr. Stillingfleet may object against this Proposition the Miracles of Antichrist but his Miracles will not be of the same nature with the Miracles of Christ and ours he will not convert Nations to Christianity by imitating the Apostles humility poverty and chastity as the Apostolical men of our Church have done in all former ages and even in this Witnesse both the Indies Brasile Ethiopia Persia Japan and China Besides though Antichrist's Miracles could be in appearance as palpable and as plausible as ours yet besides the precedency and prediction of ours as true the particular circumstances wherewith Scripture hath described that man of sin and the warning it hath given us not to beleeve his Miracles do so discredit him and them that no man who will reflect upon the Scriptures words and recurr to God for help will be deceiv'd by Antichrist's Impostures and lying Prodigies True it is that according to * See D. Stilling fleets Answ pag. 469. D. Stillingfleets Principles making every particular person Judge of Divine Revelation and admitting nothing as such that he thinks doth contradict sense in its proper object Antichrist's Miracles must be judged true Miracles and by consequence his Doctrine must be embraced as Divine Revelation For upon this account alone doth Dr. Stillingfleet deny the Miracle and Mystery of Transubstantiation notwithstanding the clearness of Scripture for it being impossible to express that Truth or any other in more clear terms then by Christs saying This is my body so likewise it must be concluded from Dr. Stillingfleet Principles that though Christ tels you clearly Antichrist's Miracles will not be true Miracles yet if your eyes tels you that is if you see a man lie like dead and afterwards see him stand and move by Antichrist's command you must prefer this evidence of sence in its proper object before Christs clear words and Revelation For the proper object of sense goes no further then to the outward appearance or accidents it doth not penetrate to the substance of bread or wine much less to the life or soul of a seeming dead man and by consequence men may be mistaken in the substance of both though they rely upon senses evidence in its proper object which is only the species or outward appearances or if you will follow the modern opinion certain impressions made upon the Organs of our senses and this may be
these seas of examples overwhelm contrary to the sence and practice of the greatest Doctors and Saints of Gods Church A man that can beleeve this may be credulous enough to think he can perswade the world to look upon all Miracles as mistakes and upon the Saints that wrought them as fools and phanaticks But if Dr. Stillingfleet will secure him elf and all Protestants from impostures let him enquire into the motives and Miracles which induce us to beleeve that the Roman-Catholick Church is infallibly assisted by God in delivering and interpreting his Word and Revelations He will not then presume to make every mans private Judgement according to his 5. and 6. Proposition the only ballance of so weighty an affair neither will he prefer his own particular opinion before the publick Testimony and constant Tradition of Christendom for many Ages especially if he will examine whether Gods Veracity Goodness and Providence be consistent with permitting fraud or falshood in that Doctrine which a Church in all appearance miraculous and supernaturally qualified proposeth as divine Whether the Miracles of the Roman-Catholick Church be true or false we dispute not at present but only averr that seeing so many * See S. Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 22. c. 8. where amongst other Miracles he telleth how that in the presence of him and others a devout woman called Palladia was suddenly cured by praying to St. Stephen and at his Monument his words are Ad sanctum Martyem crare periexerat quae mox ut cancellos attigit sana surrexit S. Malachias Miracles you may see in his life written by S. Bernard who says in what kinde of old Miracles did not Malachias excel he wanted not Prophecy not Revelation not the gift of healing and to conclude not raising of the dead and relates them particularly as also how himself assisting at Malachias his death got his blessing and after he expired took his hand and laying it on the withered and useless hand of a boy then present he was restored to perfect health because in the dead Saint saith S. Bernard lived the grace of curing diseases All these and other more ancient and modern Miracles as those of S. Bernard himself are by the Century Writers Ostander and most Protestant Authors said to be cheats delusions or inchantments See Ostander for one in Epit. cent 12. pag. 310. Partim permissione Dei praestigiis Satanicis effecta existimo not saith he that I think S. Bernard was a Magician but it is likely Satan wrought such Miracles to confirm Idolatry and the worship of Saints c. See S. Xamir his Miracles wrought to convert the Indians and Japonians to Popery himself being a Jesuite wise and wary men in every Age for at least a 1000. years and after a severe Scrutiny and serious study have judged our most authentick Miracles true if all these men should be mistaken none can be condemned for following their judgement And all prudent and learned men must confesse it is a mystery not intelligible how the infinite Veracity of God can be infinitely averse from fraud and falshood if he permits both the one and the other to be countenanc't and promoted by apparent Miracles so plausibly fathered upon the Divine Omnipotency that such as pretend them to be counterfeit cannot discover the fraud nor disprove the fact nor finde out any natural cause to work such prodigious effects and therefore are forc't imâ—â—â—ting the obstinate Jews to attribute them to the power of Beelzebub or to the craft of those very Monks which they would have the world beleeve were mad-men and yet now make them so witty as to contrive the cheat so cunningly and to counterfeit supernatural Miracles so naturally that our Protestant Adversaries have been hitherto as unsuccessful in discovering any fallacy in them I mean still those which moved the Popes to canonize Saints as the first Reformers Luther and Calvin were unfortunate in being convicted of Folly and Forgery in imitating them when the one attempted to cast out the devil in Germany and the other to revive the dead in Geneva Proposition XIV To suppose the Books so written to be imperfect i. e. that any things necessary to be believed or practised are not contained in them is either to charge the first Author of them with fraud and not delivering his whole minde or the Writers with insincerity in not setting down and the whole Christian Church of the first ages with folly in believing the fulness and perfection of the Scriptures in order to salvation Proposition XV. These Writings being owned as containing in them the whole Will of God so plainly revealed that no sober Enquirer can miss of what is necessary for salvation there can be no necessity supposed of any infallible Society of men either to attest or explain these Writings c. Proposition XVI There can be no more intolerable usurpation upon the faith of Christians then for any person or Society of men to pretend to an assistance as infallible in what they propose as was in Christ or his Apostles without giving any equal degree of evidence that they are so assisted as Christ and his Apostles did viz. by Miracles as great publick and convincing as theirs were by which I mean such as are wrought by these very persons who challenge this Infallibility and with a design for the conviction of those who do not beleeve it The 7.8.9.10.11.12 and 13. Propositions and but so many Prefaces to induce us to beleeve the 14. which says that if all things necessary to be believed or practised are not contained in the Holy Scriptures of the New and Old Testament it followeth that God was fraudulent in not delivering his whole minde or that the Writers were insincere in not setting it down and the whole Christian Church of the first ages fools for believing the fulness and perfection of the Scriptures in order to Salvation These consequences suppose but 't is not proved that God promised or decreed to deliver his whole minde so plainly in the Scriptures concerning all things necessary for Salvation that every one may easily understand his meaning and that the Primitive Church believed so But this agreeth not with the Records of Antiquity nor with the words of S. Peter 2 Pet. 3.16 saying that in S. Pauls Epistles there were some things hard to be understood and easily wrefted by men to their damnation And is further demonstrated to be false by the continual contestations of Protestants against the Roman-Catholick sence of Scripture about Image-worship whether it be prohibited in the Second Commandement and many other Controversies as the Real Presence c. For if Scripture or Gods meaning therein were as plain as is pretended in the 15. Proposition consciencious sober and learned men could not differ so irreconcileably in the true sence thereof Wherefore nothing is more clear to men in Scripture then that Scripture is not clear and that God did not intend it for the