Truth our Reason supposes all that it hath to do is but to judge of what is proposed to it according to the best Principles that it hath which is all that God in that kind requires of us unless in that work wherein he intends to make us more then men that is Christians he would have us make our selves less then Men even as Brutes That in our whole obedience to God we are to use our Reason Protestants say indeed and moreover that what is not done reasonably is not Obedience The Scripture is the Rule of all our Obedience Grace the Principle enabling us to perform it but the manner of its performance must be Rational or it is not the supposition of Rule or Principle that will render any act of a man Obedience Religion say Protestants is revealed in the Scripture proposed to the minds and wills of men for its entertainment by the Ministry of the Church Grace to Believe and Obey is supernaturally from God but as to the Proposals of Religion from Scripture they averre that men ought to admit and receive them as men that is judge of the sense and meaning of them discover their truth and finding them revealed acquiesce in the Authority of him by whom they are first revealed So far as men in any things of their concernments that have a moral good or evil in them do refuse in the choice or refusal of them to exercise that judging and discerning which is the proper work of Reason they un-Man themselves and invert the order of Nature dethroning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Soul and causing it to follow the faculties that have no light but what they receive by and from it It 's true all our carnal reasonings against Scripture-Mysteries are to be captivated to the Obedience of Faith and this is highly reasonable making only the less particular defective collections of reason give place to the more noble general and universal principles of it Nor is the denying of our reason any where required as to the sense and meaning of the words of the Scripture but as to the things and matter signified by them The former Reason must judge of if we are men the latter if in conjunction with unbelief and carnal lusts it tumultuate against it is to be subdued to the Obedience of Faith All that Protestants in the business of Religion ascribe unto men is but this that in the business of Religion they are and ought to be men that is judge of the sense and truth of what is spoken to them according to that Rule which they have received for the measure and guide of their Understandings in these things If this may not be allowed you may make a Herd of them but a Church never Let us now consider what is offered in this Section about Reason wherein the concernment of any Protestants may lye As the matter is stated about any one's setting up himself to be a new and extraordinary Director unto men in Religion upon the account of the irrefutable Reason he brings along with him which is the spring and sourse of that Religion which he tenders unto them I very much question Whether any instance can be given of any such thing from the foundation of the World Men have so set up indeed sometimes as that Good Catholick Vanine did not long since in France to draw men from all Religions but to give a new Religion unto men that this pretension was ever solely made use of I much question As true Religion came by Inspiration from God so all Authors of that which is false have pretended to Revelation Such were the pretensions of Minos Lycurgus and Nunia of old of Mahomet of late and generally of the first Founders of Religious Orders in the Roman-Church all in imitation of real Divine Revelation and in answer to indelible impressions on the minds of all men that Religion must come from God To what purpose then the first part of his Discourse about the coyning of Religion from Reason or the framing of Religion by Reason is I know not unless it be to cast a Blind before his unwary Reader whilest he steals away from him his Treasure that is his Reason as to its use in its proper place Though therefore there be many things spoken unduly and because it must be said untruly also in this first part of his Discourse until toward the end of Pag. 131. which deserve to be animadverted on yet because they are such as no sort of Protestants hath any concernment in I shall pass them over That wherein he seems to reflect any thing upon our Principles is in a supposed reply to what he had before delivered whereunto indeed it hath no respect or relation being the assertion of a Principle utterly distant from that imaginary one which he had timely set up and stoutly cast down before It is this That we must take the words from Christ and his Gospel but the proper sense which the words of themselves cannot carry with them our own reason must make out If it be the Doctrine of Protestants which he intendeth in these words it 's most disadvantagiously and uncandidly represented which becomes not an ingenious and learned person This is that which Protestants affirm Religion is Revealed in the Scripture that Revelation is delivered and contained in Propositions of Truth Of the sense of those words that carry their sense with them Reason judgeth and must do so or we are Brutes and that every ones Reason so farr as his concernment lies in what is proposed to him Neither doth this at all exclude the Ministry or Authority of the Church both which are entrusted with it by Christ to propose the Rules contained in his Word unto Rational Creatures that they may understand believe love and obey them To cast out this use of Reason with pretence of an antient sense of the words which yet we know they have not about them is as vain as any thing in this Section and that is vain enough If any such antient sense can be made out or produced that is a meaning of any Text that was known to be so from their Explication who gave that Text it is by reason to acquiesced in Neither is this to be make a man a Bishop much less a chief Bishop to himself I never heard that it was the office of a Bishop to know believe or understand for any man but for himself It is his Office indeed to instruct and teach men but they are to learn and understand for themselves and so to use their Reason in their Learning Nor doth the variableness of mens thoughts and reasonings inferr any variableness in Religion to follow whose stability and sameness depends on its first Revelation not our manner of Reception Nor doth any thing asserted by Protestants about the use of Reason in the business of Religion interfere with the rule of the Apostle about captivating our Understandings to the
to mince the matter and give opportunity to new cavils and exceptions by babyâ—meâ—â—y-mouthed Petitions of some small things that there is a strife abouâ— when a man may as honestly all 〈◊〉 once suppose the whole Truth of his side and proceed without fear of disturbance And so wisely deals our Author in this business That which ought to have been his whole work he takes for granted to be already done If this be granted him he is safe deny it and all his fine Oration dwindles into a little sapless Sophistry But he must get the great number of Books that he seems to be troubled with out of the World and the Scripture to boot before he will perswade considerate and unprejudiced men that there is a word of Truth in this Supposition That we in these Nations received not the Gospel originally from the Pope which pag. 354. our Author tells us is his purely his whereas we thought before it had been Christ's hath been declared and shall if need be be further evinced But let us suppose once again that we did so yet we constantly deny the Church of Rome to be the same in Doctrine Worship and Discipline that she was when it is pretended that by her means we were instituted in the knowledge of Truth Our Author knows full well what a facile work I have now lying in view what an easie thing it were to go over most of the Opinions of the present Church of Rome and most if not all their practises in Worship and to manifest their vast distance from the Doctrine Practise and Principles of that Church of old But though this were really a more serious work and more useful and much more accommodated to the nature of the whole difference between us more easie and pleasant to my self then the persuit of this odd rambling chase that by following of him I am engaged in yet lest he should pretend that this would be a division into common places such as he hath purposely avoided and that not unwisely that he might â—â—ve advantage all along to take for graâ—â—â—d that which he knew to be principally in question between us I shall dismiss that business and only attend unto that great proof of this Assertion which himself thought meet to shut up his Book withall as that which was fit to pin down the Basket and to keep close and safe all the long Bill'd Birds that he hoped to Lime-twig by his preceding Rhetorick and Sophistry It is in pag. 362 363. Though I hope I am not contentious nor have any other hatred against Popery then what becomes an honest man to have against that which he is perswaded to be so ill as Popery must needs be if it be ill at all yet upon his request I have seriously pondered his Queries a captious way of disputing and falling now in my way do return him this answer unto them 1. The Supposition on which all his ensuing Queries are founded must be rightly stated its termes freed from ambiguity and the whole from equivocation which a word or two unto first the Subject and then secondly the Predicate of the Proposition or what is attributed unto the Subject spoken of and thirdly the proof of the whole will suffice to do The Thesis laid down is this The Church of Rome was once a most pure excellent flourishing and mother Church This good St. Paul amply testifies in his Epistle to them and is acknowledged by Protestants The Subject is the Church of Rome And this may be taken either for the Church that was founded in Rome in the Apostles dayes consisting of Believers with those that had their rule and oversight in the Lord or it may be taken for the Church of Rome in the sense of latter Ages consisting of the Pope its Head and Cardinals principal members with all the Jurisdiction dependent on them and way of Worship established by them and their Authority or that collection of men throughout the world that yield obedience to the Pope in their several places and subordinations according to the Rules by him and his Authority given unto them That which is attributed to this Church is that it was once a most pure excellent flourishing and Mother-Church all it seems in the superlative degree I will not contend about the purity excellency or flourishing of that Church the boasting of the superlativeness of that purity and excellency seems to be borrowed from that of Revel 3.15 But we shall not exagitate that in that Church which it would never have affirmed of it self because it is fallen out to be the interest of some men in these latter dayes to talk at such a rate as primitive humility was an utter stranger unto I somewhat guess at what he means by a Mother-Church for though the Scripture knows no such thing but only appropriates that Title to Hierusalem that was above which is said to be the Mother of us all Gal. 4.26 which I suppose is not Rome and I also think that no man can have two Mothers nor did purer Antiquity ever dream of any such Mother yet the vogue of latter dayes hath made this expression not only passable in the world but sacred and unquestionable I shall only say that in the sense wherein it is by some understood the old Roman Church could lay no more claim unto it then most other Churches in the world and not so good as some others could The proof of this Assertion lies first on the Testimony of St. Paul and then on the acknowledgement of Protestants First Good St. Paul he says amply testifies this in his Epistle to the Romans This what I pray That the then Roman Church was a Mother Church not a word in all the Epistle of any such matter Nay as I observed before thogh he greatly commends the faith and holiness of many Believers Jews and Gentiles that were at Rome yet he makes mention of no Church there but only of a little Assembly that used to meet at Aquila's house nor doth St. Paul give any Testimony at all to the Roman Church in the latter sense of that expression Is there any thing in his Epistle of the Pope Cardinals Patriarchs c any thing of their power and rule over other Churches or Christians not living at Rome Is there any one word in that Epistle about that which the Papists make the principal ingredient in their definition of the Church namely subjection to the Pope What then is the This that good St. Paul so amply testifies unto in his Epistle to the Romans Why this and this only that when he wrote this Epistle to Rome there were then living in that City sundry good and holy men believing in Christ Jesus according to the Gospel and making profession of the faith that is in him but that these men should live there to the end of the world he says not nor do we find that they do The acknowledgement of Protestants is next to as little
c. THe Title of this Chapter was proposed the persuit of it now ensues The first Paragraph is a declamation about sundry things which have not much blame-worthy in them Their common weakness is that they are common They tend not to the furtherance of any one thing more then another but are such as any Party may flourish withal and use to their several ends as they please That desire of honour and applause in the world hath influenced the minds of men to great and strange Undertakings is certain That it should do so is not certain nor true so that when we treat of Religion if we renounce not the Fundamental Principle of it in Self-denyal this consideration ought to have no place What then was done by Emperours and Philosophers of old or by the later School-men on this account we are little concerned in Nor have I either desire or design to vellicate any thing spoken by our Author that may have an indifferent interpretation put upon it and be separated from the end which he principally persues As there is but very little spoken in this Paragraph directly tending to the whole end aimed at so there are but three things that will any way serve to leaven the mind of his Reader that he may be prepared to be moulded into the form he hath fancyed to cast him into which is the work of all these previous Harangues The first is his inâ—â—nuation That the Reformation of Religion is a thing pretended by aemulous Plebeians not able to hope for that Supervisorship in Religion which they see intrusted with others How unserviceable this is unto his Design as applyed to the Church of England all men know for setting aside the consideration of the influence of Soveraign Royal Authority the first Reformers amongst us were persons who as they enjoyed the right of Reputation for the Excellencies of Learning and Wisdom so also were they fixed in those places and conditions in the Church which no Reformation could possibly advance them above and the attempt whereof cost them not only their dignities but their lives also Neither were Hezekiah Josiah or Ezra of old aemulous plebeians whose lasting glory and renown arose from their Reformation of Religion They who fancy men in all great undertakings to be steered by desire of applause and honour are exceeding incompetent judges of those actions which zeal for the glory of God love to the Truth sense of their duty to the Lord Jesus Christ and compassion for the souls of others do lead men unto and guide them in and such will the last Day manifest the Reformation traduced to have been The Second is a gallant commendâ—tion of the Ingenuity Charity Candor and sublime Science of the School-men I confess they have deserved good words at his hands These are the men who out of a mixture of Philosophy Traditions and Scriptureâ— all corrupted and perverted have hammâ—â—ed that faith which was afterwards confirmed under so many Anathemaes at Trent So that upon the matter he is beholden to them for his Religion which I find he loves and hath therefore reason to be thankful to its Contrivers For my part I am as far from envying them their commendation as I have reason to be which I am sure is far enough But yet before we admit this Testimony hand over head I could wish he would take a course to stop the mouths of some of his own Church and those no small ones neither who have declared them to the world to be a pack of egregious Sophisters neither good Philosophers nor any Divines at all men who seem not to have had the least reverence of God nor much regard to the Truth in any of their Disputations but weâ—â— wholly influenced by a vain Reputation of Subtility desire of Conquest of leading and denominating Parties and that in a Barbarous Science barbarously expressed untill they had driven all Learning and Divinity almost out of the World But I will not contend about these Fathers of Contention let every man esteem of them as he seems good There is the same respect in that bitter reflection which he makes on those who have managed differences in Religion in this last Age the Third thing observable That they are the Writers and Writings that have been published against the Papacy which he intends he doth more than intimate Their Disputes he rells us are managed with so much unseemly behaviour such unmanerly expressions that discreet sobriety cannot but loath and abhor to read them with very much more to this purpose I shall not much labour to perswade men not to believe what he sayes in this matter for I know full well that he believes it not himself He hath seen too many Protestant Books I suppose to think this Cenâ—â—re will suit them all This was meet to be spoken for the advantage of the Catholick cause for what there hath been of real offence in this kind amongst us we may say Iliacos intra muros peccatur et extra Romanists are Sinners as well as others And I suppose himself knows That the Reviling and Defamations used by some of his Party are not to be paralleld in any Writings of man-kind at this day extant About the Appellatioâ—s he shall think meet to make use of in reference to the Persons at variance we will not contend with him Only I desire to let him know That the reproach of Galilean from the Pagans which he appropriates to the Papists was worn out of the World before that Popery which he pleads for came into it As Roman-Catholicks never tasted of the sufferings wherewith that Reproach was attended so they have no special right to the honour that is in its remembrance As to the sport he is pleased to make with his Countrey-men in the close of this Paragraph about losing their wits in Religious contests with the evils thence ensuing I shall no further reflect upon but once more to mind the Reader that the many words he is pleased to use in the exaggerating the evils of mannaging differences in Religion with animosities and tumults so seemingly to perswade men to moderation and peace I shall wholly pass by as having discovered that that is not his business nor consequently at present mine It is well observed by him in his second Paragraph that most of the great Contests in the world about perishing things proceed from the unmortified lusts of men The Scripture abounds in Testimonies given hereunto St. James expresly From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members ye lust and have not ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain you fight and warr yet you have not chap. 4.1 2. Mens lusts put them on endless irregularities in unbounded desires and foolish sinful enterprizes for their satisfaction Neither is Satan the old Enemy of the well-fare of mankind wanting to excite provoke and stir up these lusts by mixing himself
Author are thoroughly canvassed Doth he not throughout his whole Disputation prove out of the Scriptures and them alone that Jesus was the Christ and his Doctrine agreeable unto them Is any such thing pleaded by Origen Tertullian Chrysostom or any one that had to deal with the Jews Do they not wholly persist in the way traced for them by Paul Peter and Apollos mightily convincing the Jews out of Scripture Let him consult their Answers he will not find them such poor empty jejune Discourses as that he supposes they might make use of pag. 148. and to the proofs whereof by Texts of Scripture he sayes the Rabbies could answer by another Interpretation of them He will find another Spirit breathing in their Writings another efficacy in their Arguments and other evidence in their Testimonies than it seems he is acquainted with and such as all the Rabbies in the World are not able to withstand And I know full well that these insinuations that Christians are not able justifiably to convince confute and stop the mouths of Jews from the Scripture would have been abhorred as the highest piece of blasphemy by the whole antient Church of Christ and it is meet it should be so still by all Christians Is there no way left to deny pretences of Light and Spirit but by proclaiming to the great scandal of Christianity that we cannot answer the Exceptions of Jews unto the Person and Doctrine of our Saviour out of the Scriptures And hath Rome need of these bold Sallyes against the vitals of Religion Is she no other way capable of a defence Better she perished 10000 times than that any such reproach should be justly cast on the Lord Jesus Christ and his Gospel But whatever our Author thinks of himself I have very good ground to conjecture that he hath very little acquaintance with Judaical Antiquity Learning or Arguments nor very much with the Scripture and may possibly deserve on that account some excuse if he thought those Exceptions insoluble which more learned men than himself know how to answer and remove without any considerable trouble This difficulty was fixed on by our Author that upon it there might be stated a certain retreat and assured way of establishment against al of the like nature This he assigns to be the Authority of the present Church Protestants the Scripture wherein as to the instance chosen out as most pressing we have the concurrent suffrage of Christ his Apostles and all the antient Christians so that we need not any further to consider the pretended pleas of Light and Spirit which he hath made use of as the Orator desired his Dialogist would have insisted on the Stories of Cerberus and Cocytus that he might have shewed his skill and activity in their Confutation For what he begs in the way as to the constitution of St. Peter and his Successors in the Rule of the Church as he produceth no other proof for it but that doughty one that It must needs be so so if it were granted him he may easily perceive by the Instance of the Judaical Church that himself thought good to insist upon that it will not avail him in his plea against the final resolution of our Faith into the Scripture as its senses are proposed by the Ministry of the Church and rationally conceived or understood CHAP. X. Protestant Pleas. HIs Sect. 13. p. 155. entituled Independent and Presbyterians Pleas is a merry one The whole design of it seems to be to make himself and others sport with the miscarriages of men in and about Religion Whether it be a good work or no that day that is coming will discover The Independents he divides into two parts Quakers and Anabaptists Quakers he begins withal and longest insists upon being as he saith well read in their Books and acquainted with their persons some commendation he gives them so farr as it may serve to the disparagement of others and then falls into a fit of Quaking so expresly imitating them in their Discourses that I fear he will confirm some in their surmises that such as he both set them on work and afterwards assisted them in it For my part having undertaken only the defence of Protestancy and Protestants I am altogether inconcerned in the entertainment he hath provided for his Readers in this personating of a Quaker which he hath better done and kept a better decorum in than in his personating of a Protestant a thing in the beginning of his Discourse he pretended unto The Anabaptists as farr as I can perceive he had not medled with unless it had been to get an advantage of venting his pretty Answer to an Argument against Infant-Baptism but the truth is if the Anabaptists had no other Objections against Infant-Baptism nor Protestants no better Answers to their Objections then what are mentioned here by our Author it were no great matter what become of the Controversie but it is Merriment not Disputation that he is designing and I shall leave him to the solace of his own fancies No otherwise in the next place doth he deal with the Presbyterians in personating of whom he pours out a long senseless rapsody of words many insignificant expressions vehement exclamations and uncouth terms such as to do them right I never heard uttered by them in preaching though I have heard many of them nor read written by them though I suppose I have perused at least as many of their Books as our Author hath done of the Quakers Any one with half an Eye may see what it is which galls the man and his Party which whether he hath done wisely to discover his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will inform him that is the Preaching of all sorts of Protestants that he declares himself to be most perplexed with and therefore most labours to expose it to reproach and obloquy And herein he deals with us as in many of their Stories their Demoniacks do with their Exorcists discover which Relick or which Saints name or other Engine in that bufle most afflicts them that so they may be paid more to the purpose Somewhat we may learn from hence Fas est ab hoste doceri But he will make the Presbyterians amends for all the scorn he endeavours to expose them to by affirming when he hath assigned a senseless Harangue of words unto them that the Protestants are not able to answer their Objections Certainly if the Presbyterians are such pitiful souls as not to be able any beter to defend their cause than they are represented by him here to do those Protestants are beneath all consideration who are not able to deal and grapple with them And this is as it should be Roman-Catholicks are wise learned holy angelical seraphical persons all others ignorant dolts that can scarse say Boe to a Goose. These things considered in themselves are unserious trifles but seria ducunt We shall see presently whither all this lurry tends for the sting of this whole Discourseis