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A58868 An answer to Dr. Sherlock's Preservative against Popery shewing that Protestancy cannot be defended nor Catholic faith opposed, but by principles which make void all reason, faith, fathers, councils, Scripture, moral honesty. Sabran, Lewis, 1652-1732. 1688 (1688) Wing S214; ESTC R28119 9,604 10

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Command Fol. 9. Now the Doctor takes the Catholic's part and tho' saintly yet speaks well in so clear a Cause The intention of these Disputes is only to lead you to the Infallible Church and set you upon a Rock and then 't is very natural to renounce your own Judgment when you have an Infallible Guide But now for convincing Reasons against this plain Truth The first is They cannot with any sense dispute with us about the particular Articles of Faith because the sense given of Scripture and Fathers takes its Authority from the Church understanding it so This is false The sense takes its Authority from God who spoke that Word tho' we are certain that we have the true Sense of that Word because we receive it from the Church which is protected and guided in delivering us both the Letter and Sense by the Infallible Spirit of God that is to abide with her for ever according to Christ's promise Jo. 14. 16. If John and William dispute which is the right way to a place is John disabled from convincing William of his mistake by Reasons because he hath with him a Guide who certainly knows the way and that he would himself pass by those Reasons if his Guide assur'd him that he apply'd them ill and wrongly to that way Fol. 11. Must the belief of an Infallible Judge be resolved into every man's private judgment Must it not be believed with a Divine Faith and can there be a Divine Faith without an Infallible Judge There can be no Divine Faith without a Divine Revelation nor a Prudent One without a moral Evidence in the motives of Credibility on which may be grounded the evident Obligation to accept of it The Judgment being possest with that moral Infallibility rests not there but observing that Goodness and Mercy of God which cannot permit that Falshood should be propounded in his Name with all the apparent Marks of his Hand and Seal and without any like appearance on the contrary inclin'd by a pious motion of the will called by the famous Council of Orange affectio credibilitatis and strengthened by that Grace of God which bestows the Gift of Faith fastens on God's Veracity and with a submission not capable of any doubt embraces the revealed Truth If the Infallibility of the Church were more than morally evident it were impossible that any Heresie should be Fol. 17. No understanding Protestant can be disputed into Popery which owns an Infallible Church First because no Arguments or Disputations can give me an Infallible certainty of the Infallibility of the Church We saw Dr. Sherlock just now pleading for the Jews against St. Paul now he reasons even against Christ our God blessed for evermore His words prove that Christ who own'd himself Infallible did imprudently to Preach or work Miracles for since they could not give an Infallible Certainty an evident one he means by his whole Discourse no prudent Jew or Gentile could be disputed by him into Faith. Arguments so offensive to pious ears ought to meet with no other Answer than Prayers for him who offers them 'T is impossible by reason to prove that men must not make use of their own Reason and Judgment in matters of Religion That men must use Reason to come to the Knowledge that God hath revealed what they believe is very certain as the Jews Exod. 14. Crediderunt Domino Moysi servo ejus did believe God and Moyses his Servant all Nations Christ and his Apostles so each Christian now Christ and his Church the first as Author the second as Witnesses commissioned from God of their Faith by conceiving the Proofs they offered of their Commission So far Judgment So the Apostles believed Christ saying of himself that he was the Son of God their Judgment being convinced that God spoke by him which method appears most particularly in the man born blind whom he cur'd and who was thereby convinced that God was with him Nisi Deus esset cum illo but after that there is no further use of Reason if we believe St. Paul but in order to the bringing into Captivity all Understanding into the Obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10. The Doctor frames a Dispute fol. 21. betwixt a sturdy Protestant as he calls him and a Catholic You may guess how well he manages the Catholic's part In the Couclusion he gives this topping reason for the Protestant Religion We have as much assurance of every Article of our Faith as you have of the Infallibility of your Church This is the great point indeed which if a Protestant loses he loses all for 't is certain and evident that the Catholic has the same assurance for each Article of his Faith proposed by the Church which he hath of the Churches Infallibility He proves it first because we are in general assured that the Scriptures are the word of God. Hitherto there holds some parity tho' but lame but suppose it were entire The Conclusion would be this Catholics are as certain of the Sense of Scripture as Protestants are that they have the Letter whence it follows demonstratively that when Protestants differ in the Sense from Catholics they have less assurance for it than Catholics who have always as much as the Protestants have for the Letter whereas Protestants must never be more certain of the Sense of the Letter than of the Letter it self 2dly And in particular we are assured that the Faith which we profess is agreeable to Scripture If he means they have the same proofs for this which Catholics have for the Infallibility of the Church that is for the being of that Church which declares her self Infallible for a Church erring in such a point would cease to be the Church of Christ then 't is evidently false since each Christian in this Age hath the same Evidence of her being the Church of Christ and of her teaching Truth and consequently of her Infallibility which he hath of Christ viz. Prophesies Miracles c. which no Protestant as much as challenges for the Certainty of the particular Sense of Scripture What other Sense this Proposition can have I do not conceive Fol. 23. If you must not use Reason and private Judgment then you must not by any Reason be persuaded to condemn the use of Reason I never read so much and so little of Reason there is such a rumbling of the word which for eight or nine lines occurs at least once in each and yet so little sense All he says might be with equal weight said by a sick man who dissuaded from choosing his own Remedies and desir'd to send for a skilful Doctor should answer 'T is impossible by reason to persuade me not to use my reason in governing my self by reason as my own reason teaches me which would be to condemn reason and yet be guided by your reason Such Discourse would prove the sick party at least somewhat light-headed what 't is a Symptom of in Dr. Sherlock