the Testifiers a wise man may sometimes both be deceived and deceive but a multitude can hardly if ever in regard of choice of direction in case of errour or detection in case of forgery the publicity and openness of the testimony and consequently its lyableness to conviction if false or fraudulent the hazard of loss of peace ease and quiet honour credit and reputation profits pleasures and wordly delights means of subsistence liberty yea life it self which that Testimony and Profession exposeth to a practice quite contrary to the Law of Nature which obligeth to self-preservation but that it is warranted by those higher severe lawes of Mortification and Self-denial c. as to all those endearments prescribed in the Scriptures by them attested which whether observed or not observed is a certain conviction of a faithful testimony the observance being matter of credit thereunto non-observance of disgrace which by fore-going the profession might be avoided and lastly the vigilancy subtilty and potency of Enemies and opponents past and present for whom it was and is easie in case of imposture at once both to detect and to destroy who yet either have been wholly silent under the publick attestations of Sacred Truth or have added thereunto their own acknowledgments instances whereof History abounds withal or lastly have disputed the same with the sword rather then with argument though the Gates of Hell never could nor shall prevail herein Let those I say and the like be all duly scann'd and compared together and then undoubtedly the conclusion can be no other then that the Testifiers and Witnesses of the Revelation or Doctrine confirmed by Miracles contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are and have been a prudent honest and faithful Society which can or could neither be suspected of Errour or of being deceived in themselves nor yet of imposture or intent of deceiving others and consequently that this same Word or Revelation by them thus attested and professed is of a truth the Word of God At leastwise the whole may be of such vertue and influence as to beget in us that veneration and reverend esteem for those Testifiers and the Scriptures by them testified together with the Religion which according to the prescript thereof they profess as to bring us to the Bible and to perswade us to a research of the Scriptures with the applauded Bereans whether things be so as is reported without which take notice my testimony for the Scriptures ought to be of more force with you then yours against them can be expected to be with me mine being with you onely of suspected partiality yours with me of manifest prejudice and then are we half-Proselytes already for Sir the Divine Authority of the Scriptures may convincingly appear to one thus prepared by the subordinate and introductory attestation of the Church from the superiour Testimony of the Scriptures themselves the second thing propounded to be spoken to namely that evidence which may be collected from the intrinseck characters and cognizances of Divinity as so many dignifying prerogatives enstamp'd upon the Word it self as that which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as saith Athanasius as in a manner self-manifestative and hence which is remarkable frequently likened to the objects or mediums of our natural senses as light voice and sound smell savour and taste fire and heat c. whence any that hath his senses exercised to the discerning hereof may gather that as the things mentioned doe indemonstrably discover themselves to be what they are so the Holy Scriptures whereof those are figurative resemblances doe infallibly prove themselves to be Divine Now these three or four Characters of the Scriptures seem of all others to be more especially argumentative and convictive of their Divinity to natural Conscience namely 1. the majesty of their stile witness those many majestick Titles of Divinity which the Author doth therein assume to himself which I must not hear recount importing either independency of being or universality of perfection or absolute power and authority or excellency of operation c. but all no less then Divinity and amongst other particulars that magisterial affidavit Thus saith the Lord familiar to the Holy Scriptures and pretended to in no writings in the world besides 2. The transcendency spirituality and sanctity of the matter and contents both in doctrines and duties the great mysteries of the Godhead and godliness three distinct persons in one nature in the one two distinct natures in one person in the other the mystery of diverse yea adverse both natures and persons united in one Covenant the mystery of Regeneration the mystery of the Resurrection c. and other Doctrines Duties as opposite to man's corrupt Will as these are to his Reason as the doctrines of original sin the impotency of pure naturals in spirituals the servitude and Bondage of Free-Will c. the duties of mortification of the Flesh self-denial and that strange retaliation of evil with good and hatred with returnes of Love c. infallible marks of Sanctity as is also finally the universal tendency and intendment of the whole contexture namely the exaltation and advancement of God and debasement of the Creature peculiar to Holy Writ beyond all other whatsoever 3. The sincerity and impartiality of the Writers and Compilers who appear to be so far from concealing that on the contrary they have faithfully divulged upon Record each other 's nay almost each his own defaults and infirmities Moses his Grand-father Levi's iniquity his Brother Aaron's Idolatry his and his sister Miriams sedition and his own faulty precipitancy David Mose's rashness and inconsideracy and his own Murther and Vncleanness the Evangelists their very Master's humane infirmities as hunger thirst weariness fear c. and their own dulness of understanding impertinent Queries St. John's and Jame's ambition Thomas's incredulity Peter's triple denial of his Lord and Master recorded by St. Mark his own Disciple Paul's dissention with Barnabas and accessary guilt of Stephen's Death recorded by St. Luke his own Follower St. Paul Peter's Judaizing and his own Blasphemy and Persecution c. an unquestionable conviction of the faithfulness and truth of their Testimony not to be match'd by any Writers whatsoever besides 4. And lastly the jnfallibility and veracity of their predictions the predictions themselves are recorded in the Holy Scriptures the accomplishment of them is sufficiently attested partly by Humane History partly by experience and to argue with Bellarmine if Scriptural predictions of things to come be true as is approved by the event why not scriptural attestations of things present All which duly considered what peruser of those Sacred Digests will not assent to and conclude upon the Divine Authority of the same till this same assent introduced by the Testimony of the Church as the preparative medium by which per non propter our Faith and obedience in and to the Holy Scriptures is first in order of time though not of
Dignity pre-engaged be perfected and ripened into a firm perswasion by the concurrent certificative Testimony of the Holy Ghost as the efficient cause thereof exerted in if distinct from the admirable efficacy of the Doctrine it self upon the mind and judgment the heart will and affections c. namely that the Revelation that is the doctrine confirmed by miracles both co-attested canonically in the Scriptures and ministerially by the Church contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament as they are approved and received throughout the Reformed Churches is of a truth the Word of God c. There be several other Secondary and Collateral arguments of the Divinity of of the Scriptures as the cessation of Gentile-Oracles the subversion of Pagan-Idols by vertue hereof like the fall of Dagon before the Ark the implacable Malice rage and fury of Satan and his accomplices against them the Divine Judgements upon their inveterate Opponents the invincible courage constancy and resolution of their Confessors and Martyrs the quality of the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists their first Publishers and Writers the admirable preservation of them against all opposition the confession of Adversaries Jews Gentiles Sibylls Phylosophers Heathens and Hereticks c. touching the divine truth thereof And also several other Internal markes and cognizances of Divinity as antiquity consent of parts efficacy of doctrine and the like But the former being only known to us by humane Testimony it is plain that the prudence and discretion the honesty and integrity of the present Witnesses of the Divinity of the scriptures as persons Rationally Infallible or such as cannot in reason be suspected of any either active or passive deceit imposture in the case is must to any considerate person appear to be equivalent to all the rest and a more sure and compendious argument for fixing and setling of our belief in the particular The latter I have omitted as not so argumentative or convictive to natural-Conscience which I have here more especially addressed my endeavour to as the others above urged But that none may wonder why I urge not here the argument of miracles which others of the greatest Fame lay such a main stress upon I will give you and the world this brief account of it Miracles are considerable in reference to the case in hand but two ways namely as either matter of Divine testimony co-attested together with the doctrine by them confirmed canonically in the Scriptures or else as matter of humane testimony co-attested together with the said doctrine ministerially in by the Church as hath been preasserted Now in short Sir under neither consideration are Miracles or can they rationally be supposed to be the argument of our Faith but only the partial Object thereof as matter of Divine testimony as hath been said in the Scriptures and matter of Humane testimony in the Church and therefore requiring a correspondent assent to both Where for a further account of my self I crave leave to Remonstrate against a very Eminent and worthy Divine of the quorum of the Clergy by you contemned now living who in a Book as noted as himself holds this of Miracles for the main convictive Argument of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures as though best now because such of old which is a meer fallacy a non causa pro causa partly and partly ab accidente for First to argue ab absurdo from his own Hypothesis namely this That which Christ himself in his time used as the best argument to prove the Divine Authority of his doctrine is the best still to which I subsume But so it is that that of visible miracles was the best argument which Christ used to prove the Divine authority of his doctrine making the Ear-witnesses of the one Eye-witnesses of the other as infallibly demonstrative signs and seals of Divinity and then the conclusion followeth full of absurdity viz. that that of visible miracles obvious to our Eyes as those were which he wrought in the dayes of his flesh to his then-proselytes is the best argument that can be used still to prove the Divinity of his doctrine the scriptures or which is all one Christ must re-descend into the world and work New miracles visible as his first before he can have New converts Absurd Again If that which Christ himself used as the best Argument to prove the Divinity of his Doctrine which is known to have been visible miracles be the best still then are we under an unavoidable necessity of incurring the same guilt to wit non-conviction and positive unbelief or in the same Authors opinion which I do not here dispute the sin against the Holy Ghost with those reprobated Infidels in the dayes of Christ through our being destitute of the same provisions against it namely visible miracles Nay more we are under a necessity of incurring sin without possibility of remedy a necessity of sinning through want of the preventive visible miracles without possibility of remedy because the positive unbelief mentioned and sin against the Holy Ghost if those be distinct are known by scripture-verdict to be unpardonable this gross absurdity followeth by necessary consequence how injurious nay blasphemous against the Wisdome Goodness Holiness and Justice of God the asserting of such a thing were is easy to determine Thirdly Dilemmatically that Reverend Author must necessarily consider miracles either as Recorded in the Scriptures or as Reported by the Church for as visible they were peculiar to Christ's Contemporaries and Eye-witnesses If as Recorded in the Scriptures as such they being part of the Divine testimony which is this complex the Doctrine of Christ confirmed by Miracles they are not the Argument but the Object of our Faith and we believe not the Scriptures for the Miracles but the Miracles for the Scriptures as part of the sacred narrative and together with the Doctrine by them confirmed and joyntly with them therein Recorded the Collateral Object of our belief If again as Reported by the Church then by my Authors Divinity the testimony of the Church is the main or best Argument that can be used to prove the Divine Authority of the Scriptures A train of Absurdities and if we abstract from the testimony of both Scriptures and Church let any tell me what significancy Miracles are of in the case The Author I assure you is a person approved for Eminent both Learning and Piety and indemnified from your two extenuative Characters of which in their due place but personal respects must vail to the interest of the truth I can easily declare with him that I believe that Doctrine to be of God which is confirmed by undeniable Miracles I can as easily declare that I believe all true Miracles to be of God because they exceed all created power but the critical Query in the case by him omitted is how shall one be assured that such Miracles were ever wrought as Christ's turning of Water into Wine for instance his Raising of
in and by the Church of Rome especially since Trent-Council assembled and ended above your hundred years ago is inconsistent with and destructive of this individual Headship true Faith and Church-constitution being nothing else but an Anti-christian miscellany and compound oppositum in apposito of God and the Creature God-man and meer-man in the most material points and principles of Christianity the Persons of both in point of Worship the Power and Authority of both in matters of Faith the Righteousness and Merit of both in point of Satisfaction and Justification the Wills of both in the act of Conversion the Intercession of both in the great office of Mediation yea an universal co-equivalency or equal concurrence of Worth Vertue and Efficacy from both throughout the whole business of Redemption and Salvation especially from Christ and the Virgin Mary constituted therein Corredemptress with her Son and Saviouress a latere as if her Brests as well as his Sides had been no less then sacramental and the Mothers Milk and the Son's Blood equally saving Moreover to prosecute this Religious medley God and the Creature in the Decalogue Christ and the Church in the Creed Scripture and Tradition in the Canon Pater-Noster and Ave-Maria in the Litany Sacrament and Sacrifice in the Supper c. all so many Riddles in the Mystery of Iniquity A Religion consisting of such Trent-Forge-Principles and Practices as these viz. In point of Doctrine Papal Supremacy and Authotity Church Infallibility unwritten Traditions equall'd in authority with the Holy Scriptures the doctrine of Man's free-Will in opposition to God's Free-Grace the Doctrine of Perfection of Merits Pardons and Indulgences redounding from a surplusage of Works of super-erogation and satisfaction as they are termed as if any meer Man could fullfill in obedience beyond what the Law requires and satisfy in penance beyond what Sin deserves a rare Religion the doctrine of Purgatory and Souls Departed the doctrine of Mass-service and Transubstantiation the Consecrating Priestling turning a petty Creator as is supposed converting sacramental Forms into real Substance and Commemoration into Expiation celebrating Christ's Death with his death as well as with his own in destroying instead of discerning the Lord's Body yea both Saviour and Sacrament at once the doctrine of Ministration in an unknown Tongue by means whereof they do most sacrilegiously robb the Children of their Bread in the Scriptures as they do of the Cup in the Supper and many more such like Doctrines not of men onely but of Divels which I list not to dwell upon the Subject being so Frightful In point of Worship Idolatry and Imagery Superstition Saint-Worship c. In point of Polity absolute Tyranny the Keys turned into a Sword sufficiently exercised and dearly experienced throughout the World upon Princes-Crowns their Subjects-Consciences and Protestant-Blood in sanguinary Lawes a bloody Inquisition direful Anathemaes execrable Massacres rageing Persecutions c. the violent Calentures of that Torrid Zone The Religion in fine of that Church which is in Doctrine damnably Heretical in Worship grossely Idolatrous in Polity and Government intollerably Tyrannical in all palpably Antichristian opposite to and virtually destructive of Christs fundamentality and headship in his Person or Natures in his Offices in all their parts in his States in his vertues merits graces priviledges Institutions and ordinances c. in one or more or all of those and consequently destruction of the Catholick Faith and Religion by Himself and his Apostles and the whole successive series of Christians throughout the World professed and practised and finally of the truth of a Christian Church his Body all in effect nullified thereby yea and a false head other foundation and another name being substituted in opposition to the true the Religion I say professed and practised in the Church of Rome and that Church her self especially since Trent-Council being such as is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 described it followeth by necessary consequence that the separation of the Church of England both primitive in her first Reformers and present in their Successours persisting in that happy divorce from her and embodyed into a contradistinct but true Church under Christ the onely true Head in a Joynt profession of his Faith the true Religion is so far from being Schismatical this being ever a causeless and groundless separation in or from matter of true Religion in a true Church that on the contrary it is righteous and Justifyable yea absolutely necessary by the authority of that Law whereby we are strictly commanded to renounce and abjure her society upon peril of sharing in her Plagues from which Good Lord deliver us Sir if in this short defence of our Reformation which it is like may seem a kind of morose Tragedy to an airy Mercurius but that I aim at a further goal you think I have falsified or misrepresented any principle of the Romish Church charge me with it and spare not and if I do not Justify what I have asserted brand me for as great a slanderer as your self Again Sir True Religion being that onely of which the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth is the Author the Holy Scriptures the Word of Truth is the Rule and the Holy Church whereof our Church of England is part the Pillar and Ground of Truth is the publick Trustee Keeper and Conservatory as Pillars or Tables are of affix'd Papers and Proclamations to wit modo forensi non architectonico derived and delivered as is above-said to her from the Apostles and to them by Christ from God himself And the Reformed Religion Faith Doctrine and substantial Worship professed and practised in and by the Church of England being such as may appear from her publick tests and monuments especially the three Creeds Apostolick Nicene and Athanasian and her doctrinal Articles unanimously agreed upon in two several Convocations viz An. Dom. 1562 and 1604 c. compared with the Sacred Canon whose test and trial in the Case she is willing to undergo It follows that the Reformed and onely reforming Religion professed and practised in and by the Church of England is the onely true Religion which when you assault with Argument as now you undermine by Stratagem you shall be dealt withall Moreover Sir The Church of England is no less satisfied in her Clergy then in her Religion that as God hath by a Law of as long duration as that of Sun and Moon in the ordinary course of his Providence appointed to publish and propagate his Truth and instruct his Church by a constant series and succession of persons of holy Order and Office authorised and qualified thereunto so her Clergy is such having derived their orders together with their Religion ex traduce Apostolica from the original Seminary Founders of Christianity in England who are recorded in History the monumental Memory and best Intelligencer in such cases to have been Apostles or Men Apostolical whether Philip or Joseph of Arimathea sent by him as Tertullian
common with that impropriated part of it the Church and therefore in the business of Religion supposed as general Preliminaries and as it is in all other Arts and Sciences confessed Principles for he that cometh unto God as Candidate in this Sacred Profession must believe that God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him A Godhead Religion Concomitant Reward and Happiness Common-Creed wherein all Heathens and Pagans Jews Mahometans c. whose several Testimonies I must not here insert as well as Christians universally throughout the world are Joynt Confessors save here and there a Protagoras Diagoras Lucian the Author of the Contempt of the Clergy c. and such like Desperadoes who yet never durst out of a Feaver expresly deny any of all the Three a GOD his WORSHIP or a FVTVRE STATE or suppose they live the Pope's Life questioning what they dare not cannot deny Clement the Seventh is the Man I mean his Three Dying-Resolves will be their certain though too late Conviction viz. Whether there be a God Whether the Soul be Immortal Whether there be a Heaven and Hell Again Sir That in order to the due knowledg of this God the right and acceptable performance of this worship and the discovery and attainment of this happiness a special Revelation of the Divine Mind Will and Rule of Faith Life is to the creature absolutely necessary that a scriptural Rule and Revelation is most convenient and that to afford the creature such a Rule is most congruous to the sacred nature honour of God are all rational truths aswell as the former For Sir as touching the necessity of such a Rule and Revelation although a person might by the conduct of the Light and Law of Nature emproved by the accessary help of the works of Nature discover and learn That there is a God yea and in some degree what He is both in his negative Attributes independency infinity immutability c. and in his affirmative-goodness wisdom power c. yea and those in their very eminencies omnisciency omnipotency c. and the like as the necessary and essential properties of the first Cause Likewise that there is religious worship due to this God yea and that he ought to be worshipped 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a way and manner most acceptable to himself Lastly that reward and happiness attends and depends upon that Worship yea and in some respect what objective happiness chief good is viz. God himself qui omnis beatitudinis fastigium meta finis as said the Divine Plato like as his Master Socrates the former the very sum adequate measure and boundary of all real blessedness yet notwithstanding all this What Vnity of Essence in Trinity of Persons is One in Three without division Three in One without confusion God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost all one individual Spirit the proper object of divine Worship What the right and acceptable manner of performing that Worship Wherein that true formal happiness consists which attends thereupon and by what means attainble c. Those Sir believe it are not at all discoverable by that common Light by reason of that infinite disproportion which is between such a defective medium and the object and hence in the Academy the Lyceum the Stoa and other Athenian Phrontisteries would have found no more credit then the doctrine usually preached for a hundred yeares last past in the Church of England hath in your books Follies Lett. 1. pag. 59. else what mean't the Heathenish polytheisme and great Armado of mock-Deities alias Mortals bewrayed by the Tombs they had aswell as Temples thirty thousand strong as it is in Hesiod's muster-roll copied by St. Augustine of whom three thousand amongst the very Graecians as it is in Homer's whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if with you as Canonical as belike his Iliades and Odysses are then we know at once what is your Creed your Bible and Practice of Piety six thousand amongst the Romanes as it is in Varro's more Gods then there are of Contemned Clergy all England over what mean't their monstrous Idolatries their two hundred eighty eight Beatitudes recounted by the learned Roman now mentioned and such like stuff of which to speak with the Father me piget quod illos non puduit and that not amongst the ruder Plebeians only but even persons of more defecated intellectuals their polished Sophies Ingeniosoes Vertuosoes and the most refined of all Nations and professions the Egyptian Priests the Persian Magi the wisest Graecian Philosophers Stoicks Peripateticks Platonicks c. the most inquisitive Roman Naturalists the Graecian and Roman both Orators and Poets even the very Princes in either Faculty Demosthenes and Tully in the one and in the other which your Reader may chance to wonder at Protestant-Homer Let. 2. pag. 43 45 46. and which is yet stranger Virgil the undoubted Nonconformist had he but held out to Bartholomew the Famous the onely persons of either Perswasion I assure you that I ever read or dream'd of to have come from Rome or Athens What I say can the Pagan Mock-deities Idolatries and imaginary Beatitudes in the very judgement of the most strenuous Advocates of pure Naturals portend other then an utter Insufficiency of natural light for the ends and purposes above specified namely the administring of the due Knowledge of the True God True Worship and True Happiness Therefore a New Light or supernatural Rule and Revelation is absolutely necessary Again Sir the expediency of a scriptural or written Rule may appear from a three-fold danger and inconveniency which an unwritten one is liable to namely that of oblivion and forgetfulness that of depravation and corruption by unjust additions detractions falsifications and forgery and lastly that of utter destruction and suppression the first through the treachery of Humane memory the two last through the implacable enmity of Satan and his Accomplices against God his Truth and Church From all which a written Rule and Revelation is more secure as being a publick Record and Repertory whereunto recourse may be had upon all occasions as well for relief to Memory as for trial or redress of questioned and impeached Truth hence called by St. Peter a surer word of Prophecy than Vocal or Vnwritten to wit not by a certainty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of veracity for all Divine Revelation is equally sure in this sense because equally true but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of security upon the accounts mentioned True it is God was pleased to instruct his Church for the first Two thousand years and upwards onely viva voce by a vocal Revelation of his Mind and Will for ought certainly known to the contrary but then Sir the constitution of the Church was during that long Aera onely domestical confined within the Line and Limits of particular Families which compared with the longaevity and great age of the Aborigines of the World gives us plainly
God and his Will contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament as they are approved and received throughout the Reformed Churches is that one only Revelation which is thus both inspired and also by eternal sanction instituted and appointed of God for the all-sufficient and absolutely perfect Canon of his Church and that both as touching the Doctrine therein contained and its accessary mode of scription it being wholly committed to writing by God's Holy Prophets Apostles and Evangelists being all by the Holy Ghost as his immediate Actuaries extraordinarily qualified for irresistibly incited to and infallibly guided and actéd in the work commenced by Moses the first and finally concluded and perfected by St. John the last of Canonical Writers may be very rationally evicted and that to an utter exclusion not only of the Jewish Talmud the Turkish Alchoran Popish Traditions Enthsiastick Fancies c. from having part or lot in the Sacred Canon but of matters of a higher predicament namely all vocal Revelation such as was that whereby God instructed his Church for the first two thousand Yeares and upwards and the many Sermons of Christ and his Apostles not recorded though equally inspired of God with the Scriptural as also several Prophecies as those of Gad Nathan Iddo and others which were not only equally inspired but likewise recorded yet irrecoverably lost as being only accommodated pro tunc to some particular state condition exigency of the Church which once satisfied they were judged unnecessary to be incorporated into the universal Canon Where I advertise the Reader that the sufficiency of the Scriptures is evicted in their authority for it being once agreed upon that the Revelation contained therein is of a truth the Word of God we cannot more question its sufficiency then its testimony whereof this is a signal part namely that It is as inspired of God so as his Sacred Institutes profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction c. sufficient to perfect every individual Man and the whole Church of God That whatsoever things were written were written for our Learning c. That this word must be indeclinably observed without turning to the right hand or to the left That nothing must be added to this Word or diminished from it upon peril of accumulative misery denounced by St. John the last and longest liver of Canonical Writers as hath been said in the very last of his writings namely the very close of the Canon by way of penal sanction and ratification of the whole So that the very crisis of this weighty concern of stating and setling our Faith obedience in and to the Holy Scriptures lyeth in the evidence of the Divine Authority thereof after this discursive method That which is the Word of God ought necessarily to be believed and obeyed But the Revelation contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New-Testament is the Word of God Therefore this Revelation ought necessarily to be believed and obeyed The major or first proposition is a conclusion of natural Reason founded and following upon God's essential veracity and supremacy as hath been said the dictates of the very Light and Law of Nature as well as that of a Deity it self The minor or assumption namely that the Revelation contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament is the very Word of God is apparent upon a threefold testimony namely that of the Church that of the Scriptures themselves and that of the Holy Ghost of which the two former onely are argumentative the one as Humane and Ministerial the other as Divine and Canonical as for that of the Holy Ghost He being the efficient cause of our Faith and obedience his testimony indeed is most certainly perswasive to a person 's own Conscience but this testimony being private and internal like the Hidden Manna which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it and the truth or divinity hereof being with all opponents equally questionable with that of the Word it self it can be no wayes convictive to others Well then to urge only the two former and that very briefly As touching the first of those namely the testimony of the Church which I here consider and observe it Sir not under the notion of a Church for as such it is onely knowable by the Scriptures not they by it but as a collective Body or society of prudent and honest faithful Witnesses professing and attesting the Holy Scriptures and the Religion therein prescribed so that the Argument standeth thus That Revelation which is by a society of prudent honest and faithful Witnesses who are neither deceived themselves nor deceivers of others professed and attested to be the Word of God in all rational construction and evidence is such But the Revelation contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament is by such a society of prudent honest and faithful Witnesses c. professed and attested to be the Word of God Ergo c. The major or first proposition Sir I reckon unquestionable with all Atheists and Infidels throughout the world for certainly as essential infallibility in God by vertue whereof in genere entis he can neither deceive nor be deceived is the ground of an infallible assurance in matters of Divine testimony so a rational infallibility in a society of prudent honest and faithful men who therefore cannot be suspected to be in genere moris either deceived in themselves or deceivers of others is a sufficient ground of rational assurance in matter of humane testimony as is that in question viz a humane testimony of a divine Revelation for what more can be required in the case As for the roof of the minor or assumtion all that is required hereunto is the eviction of the prudence honesty and faithfulness of those Witnesses or the rational infallibility of themselves and and their testimony namely that they are such as can neither be suspected of being deceived in themselves nor yet of any imposture or intent of deceiving others where I understand as to our immediate concern in the case the present Testifiers especially without a perplexing recourse had to the first being that the credit of the preceeding is still successively secured in the subsequent Churches thus being once perswaded of the prudence and honesty of the present Church namely that she is so wise and prudent as not to have been deceived by the next preceeding from whom she received the Scriptures and so honest and ingenuous as not to deceive the Reader or my self or the next ensuing we are accordingly assured of the same both prudence and honesty and consequently rational infallibility in the former and so in the next to that and so on to the very Apostles and first witnesses Now then Let the intellectuals and morals the wisdom prudence and discretion the honesty fidelity and integrity of the present Witnesses of the Divinity of the Scriptures be impartially scann'd and all compared with the multitude of
Lazarus from the Dead and his Curing of all manner of Diseases c. for confirmation of his Doctrine the two former one may by the very light of nature be assured of and yet question the last This certainly is no otherwise attested then first in a secondary and subservient order by the Church as a Ministerial mean of conveying to us the truth of matter of Fact and next in a superiour order by the Scriptures themselves as the the Canonical Records of the same and in both in conjunction with the Doctrine by them confirmed and both Doctrine and Miracles as the complex and conjunct object of our Faith equally credible upon Testimony which Faith is as hath been said by the concurrent testimony and inward illumination and motion of the publick spirit of the Holy Scriptures viz. the Holy Ghost ripened into this firm perswasion that the Revelation contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament that is both the Doctrine it self and the narrative of the Miracles by which it was confirmed as collateral parts and contents thereof is of a truth the Word not of Man nor Angel but of GOD himself and the onely authentick Canon and Rule of Divine faith worship and obedience which I thank God I am as much confirmed in the belief of not onely to speak with Campian in another perswasion quam me vivere as that I live but as surely as that there is a God by whom I live else had long ere now become a miserable prey to subtil Adversaries who are ever observed primarily as you do to attact their Opponents in the scriptural foundation and that especially in its very fundamentality namely the Divine Authority thereof here Asserted and I hope Evicted Thus Sir I have gone a great way about to bring you by the nearest way home at leastwise if not to gain upon you as a Proselyte yet to guard your Reader against you as an Enemy And now I Challenge you to do your Worst the hurt will be your own none of mine nor I hope of his being that I have arm'd him with an Antidote he shall not need to fear what I promised to produce in the next place viz. your infective example And indeed Sir your whole Rhapsody seemes to be nothing else but a continued exemplification of your Atheisme and Blaspemy expressed in depreciating extenuating debasing and what in you lies nullifying the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures and that in the most material Promises Invitations Precepts Narratives c. therein contained which could you by your foul index expurgatorius expunge them the sacred Canon as belike you have them your Creed let the remainder be branded for Apocryphal for me for to instance in a few what greater Promise is there recorded in the whole Book of God then that in Malachi Vnto you that fear my Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his Wings Or Invitation then that of Isaiah Ho every one that thirsteth come ye buy and eat yea come buy Wine and Milk without money and without price Or Precept then that early summons in our Saviour's triennial Preaching Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Or Narrative then that of St. John God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Everlasting Life Or its Parallel that of St. Paul This is a faithful saying and worthy of all Acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the World to Save Sinners c. And what a poor jejune dilute empty History were the Volume of Holy Scripture and consequently how helpless and hopeless your case and mine and that of all Sinners universally if depauperated of those and their parallel Evangelical contents being that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very quintessence the life and spirit the very soul and substance of that Blessed Revelation consisteth therein and yet most Blasphemously debased and prophaned by your self and prostituted to Contempt in others for which you must be accomptable witness those facetious but blasphemous Laconicks with which you Criticize thereupon viz. that of The Moon of Righteousness upon the first A spiritual Sack-posset upon the next The Soap of Sorrow and Fullers-earth of Contrition upon the third That of the Daughter of God and Dauphin of Heaven upon the fourth and that of a Christmas-Feast consisting of Three Dishes c. upon the last and the like which who but your self can either read or relate without Horrour I guess what your Reply might be here namely that you have onely transcribed the Blasphemies of others to wit those of the Clergy c. But then remember Sir what the doctrine of the Civil Law is approved with all civil men above alledged namely that Publication without Vindication is implicite Accusation especially in a case of of such an universal concern as are the Holy Scriptures which your own interest therein had obliged you to vindicate but that it is plain you have renounced it In short then supposing matter of fact to be matter of sad truth namely that some unhappy Clergy-men have to the disgrace of their function Religion and Scriptures committed such horrid Blasphemies which as yet I do not enquire into but methinks if any such be you should have by name singled them out of the society to their deserved contempt this will not justify you in what I charge you withal It being manifest that you have not only divulged those Blasphemies but divulged them without the least vindication of the Holy Scriptures Religion c. thereby so greatly damnifyed and disparaged which as hath been said is an implicite joyning of issues with the first Aggressors nay that you do industriously throughout your Letters betray and prostitute the same to accumulative contempt in the Laity and that with all imaginable artifice and advantage of an extemporary and occasional witt to use your own idiom in your own praise that cursed Volupia to whose unhallowed Shrines you have presumed to devote and sacrifice God's own Word and Oracles though you might easily have made experiment thereof upon another Theam at a much cheaper rate than that is like to prove of adventurous jesting with a two-edged tool and what plainer instance or argument of A. theism But for a further and fuller exemplification and conviction hereof I will first prompt your Reader with this rule that as in the sacred Decade or Ten commandements in particular so in the sacred Scriptures in general he that offends in any one point is by Divine verdict guilty of all to wit intensively in regard the Divine authority of the whole is violated in any one particular And now or instance in particulars of Scripture not by the Clergy but by you and the whole consequentially in those abused depreciated and what in you lieth exauctorated I do in the next place recommend to your Readers perusal a few pages of your second Letter noted in my Margent