numerically the same through all the successions of his natural Constitution although he hath the same Appellation But when we see the body of a man left uninformed and lifeless by the departure of his Soul from that time we declare the being of that Compositum and peculiar denomination to be determined and cease and if we could perceive the departed Soul according to Pythagoras his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 undertake the Information of another body we should as readily pronounce that to be a new Compositum or another person this is the case of your Disciples Conscience which you call the Soul of his Faith in its transmigration from the System or Body of the Protestant Faith to that of the Papists which from its dissonant Articles and Essentials to those of our Church hath been ever distinguished by a different Appellation so that these two neither in Name nor Essence are the same Faith and consequently if one is true the other is false therefore I shall leave your Disciple to be informed by your self after what manner with both these Faiths he shall behold his Saviour and thus you may observe how easie it is for you to mistake an equal Sincerity of Conscience for an Identity of Faith in your Allegorical Arguments From Page 20 to Page 26. you employ your confident Guide to assert its own Sufficiency by recriminating ours as not totally exempt from mistakes as well as its self but of the validity of that sort of arguing I shall leave the Reader to judge and proceed to the Merits of the Cause Thus much then we acknowledge that we do not think our selves obliged to believe the Pastors of Holy Church upon the bare account of Humanity to be absolutely infallible neither do we attribute to them so high Illuminations and Gifts as the first planting of the Gospel did require and Christ's Conversation afforded his Apostles who likewise was not altogether exempt from mistakes but yet we rely upon the Spirit of Truth which our Saviour promised to send to the Apostles and their Successors after his Ascension to preserve them from teaching such Errors as are inconsistent with the Divine Oeconomy in Affairs of Religion and the harmony of the Scriptures And this in one of your lucid Intervals Page 24. you in effect affirm in these very syllables And I verily believe if God had not stirred up some persons of excellent Abilities and worthy Spirits for such surely they were though not exempt from humane weakness to examine by the Rules of their own Reasons those Follies and dangerous Errors in Religion which c. Now in my poor Opinion it will neither blemish your style nor injure your Notion to Pen it plainly thus If God had not by the assistance of his Grace stirred up c. For that is the means according to the Promise of our Saviour and the Tenor of the Scripture by which God stirs up and enables the Minds of men to all religious Performances whether private or publick I choose to answer your Recrimination after this manner rather than to rake into Antiquity by reviving the exceptions to the Constitutions of those Counsels you quote in this Paragraph and therefore shall say no more to this Point but that our Saviour's not promising the same measure of his Spirit to every private man as to his Apostles and their Successors states the right Guides of Holy Church above the scandal of your Comparison Page 25 26. You again tell us that we are in much more danger of being drawn from the Christian Faith by building our Belief wholly upon the Authority of past or present Ages then to remit the Judgment of those things to our own Reasons in this Assertion the term wholly altogether excludes a Rational Satisfaction on the Believers part and therefore doth not assault the Protestant Principles for which only I am concerned You reinforce this Argument against the Authority of the Church with another absurd Allegation much of the same Class with the former that the Christian was neither the most ancient nor universal Religion in the world As to the last I doubt not but you will agree with us that immense Dominions or vast numbers of Votaries are not the inseparable Characteristicks of the true Religion for the greatest part of the World was inslaved to Idolatry and Gentilism as you observed in the time of the Law as well as of the Gospel and you who own the Scriptures must acknowledge with us that the first was dictated by God the Father and the other by his Son the Supream Testimony for the truth of both 2ly As to the Antiquity of the Christian Faith you cannot but know that the Contents of the Scriptures and the Consent of learned men assert the foundation of the Gospel to be laid in the Eternal Decree of a Messias before the Creation of the World and that the first notice of it here below was immediately after the Fall of our first Parents when God promised a great Redeemer for the Relief of man who should vanquish and be avenged of the subtilty of the Serpent and after this the Substance of the Christian Principles were existent in the Primitive Integrity of Abel and his Successors until the time of Abraham to whom it was revealed that the Messias should descend from his own Loins and afterward more particularly to Jacob of what Tribe he should be born After this manner the Christian Faith was preserved and conveyed down to the Penning of the Scriptures and then the Types and Predictions under the Law were the Harbingers of its manifestation in the Incarnation Doctrine and Miracles of our Saviour until he sealed it with his Passion Upon this account you may very well conclude as you do although against your foregoing Allegation in the same Page that there is more and greater reason to be found for the Belief of a Christian than for any other whatsoever In your 27 28 Pages I find such a medley of vile Contradictions as never before was vented by man for here in your Allegorical Style you take it for granted that there may be a thousand right Religions or ways of true Worship although you have acknowledged the truth of the Scriptures which admit but of one And secondly That your infallible Guide by wandring up and down in this multiplicity of Paths will by a long troublesom and tedious Voyage bring you to happiness at last Now for the applying this Allegory you should have made a new Demonstration That there are so many right ways to Eternal Salvation otherwise if you will measure your Metaphor by the Rules of Holy Writ it is a thousand to one but your Guide will deceive you As to the Contents of your 29 30 31 32 Page I acknowledge that it is not only an Act of Charity but the absolute duty of Christians to allow the Gate of Heaven to be as broad as the Scriptures have stated it And on the other
commanded as agreeable to Truth and most conducible to his Honour and to the bond of Peace among men I hope this may convince any one who acknowledges Divine Revelation As to your subsequent Objection concerning the uncertainty in the interpretation of Scripture the Catholique Church declares that the Essentials of Faith and all things of necessary obedience are set down positively and plainly enough in the Scriptures for the understanding of all such who diligently observe them and make a right use of those aides which God hath prepared for that end Consistent with this also is our Divines asserting a literal and typical sence from a simple and a compound signification of the same Text This latter is applicable to the Types and Sacraments in the Old Testament which as they were of present use in the Worship of the Jews so it cannot be denyed but that they had a prospect and a reference to the coming of our Saviour And the same Text also may contain in it an Analogical Sence in relation to another and all this according to the intent of the Spirit of Unity that penned them which the same Divines will tell you hath ever been accounted the best medium to comprehend and preserve the harmony of Holy Writ Your next is such an Argument as was never heard of before I say that the Commands of God concerning Religion are equally obeyed and fulfilled by all the various kinds of obedience which the Consciences of men conceive themselves bound to pay unto them how erroneous or senceless soever for so your Assertion ought to be understood as if nonsence and error were as agreeable to his Divine Will and Pleasure as what is Right and the Truth Thus while your natural Guide bids defiance to all Authority of others it sets up its own and most stupidly out-faces God's own Declarations In the next place you would deduce from the Suns melting the Wax and hardning the Mud that Faith is properly one though according to the divers receptions of it it produceth not only divers but contrary effects That is that the same Faith may be the Cause of Godliness and Profaneness Piety and Irreligion of the true Worship and Idolatry the owning of one God and Polutheism and Atheism for all these lie couched under that futilous Sophism of contrary effects and your suitable similitude of a hard and soft temper but I hope I shall not need to Advertise any Reader that these inconsistent Notions are the effects of your new Humane Reason Page 40 41 42 43. you Phantastically accumulate inveighing Similitudes against too austere and uncharitable censuring of Members infirm or weak in matters of Faith but as they are altogether unapplicable to the Methods and Tenents of our Church as hath been made evident so neither are they in the least available for the defence of your Doctrine which by an extream on the other hand much more mischievous and destructive to all Order in Religion doth not admit of any Censures at all Page 44 45. How ever others as you guess with probability enough may accuse you of Pride and Vanity for attributing so much to your own reason yet I will not pretend to have so clear a sight into the whole Contexture of your Thoughts and Actions as to judge whether it was Pride and Vanity or humility and Charity most scandalously mistaken which induced you first to embrace and then to publish this Doctrine so absolutely new to the World but I hope I may without any tyrannical Assumption let you know that in my apprehension wise men will hardly be perswaded to allow that for a good natured or peaceable opinion which encourageth every one stubbornly and inhumanely to undertake to govern himself from within in opposition to all Authority and Example especially since the Creator hath instituted Subordination and Order for the prime and original Cement not only of all Societies Celestial and Terrestrial but also of the Fabrick of the material World As for your so often reiterated Accusation of such who claim an Infallibility for their Party by saying That who ever is not of my opinion is in the wrong and whoever is in the wrong is to perish eternally for his Error It cannot be at all applyed to the practice of the Protestant Church for which I am only concerned for that steers a rational and moderate Course betwixt the two Extreams of their Opinion and yours as hath been manifested before But let me remind you also that your Doctrine might more reasonably deserve the Encomium you give it in this Paragraph for allowing its Disciples to lay down an Opinion when Cause shall appear for so doing if it did also advise them to renounce the Guide that brought them into it which is all the reason in the World Page 46 47. As to your Quarrel with Mr. Hobbs I am not concerned to maintain his Opinions or to reconcile them with yours yet in my weak apprehension you will find it a Task too hard for your Natural Reason to make good that Position by which you design his Defeat That men ought not to think those Worships dishonourable to God that are not practised by themselves For whoever shall hold this Assertion must either want sincerity and deceive their own Souls by practising one sort of Worship and approving of others or else they must believe that all sorts of Worship are right which are practised among men or that the Deity equally approves of both the right and the wrong all which is not only contradictory to Divine Revelation but also repugnant to the Fundamentals and Systems of all the Religions in the World and consequently your Doctrine by broaching an universal Dissention amongst all mortal Votaries would introduce a variety in Divine Worship more unaccountably ridiculous than any that ever was heard of in this or former Ages however you abuse them In the next place you alledge That if ignorant or malicious Physicians in this violent Fever did not apply new Heats instead of Julips they might by Writing Disputing Preaching and Living Charitably which is all the former reduce the World in a short time to its ancient healthful and natural temper But what Coherence or Alliance hath the natural temper of the World with its ancient and healthful state in Religion Therefore to make better sense of this Clause we will rectifie it thus That we allow Writing Preaching Disputing and living Charitably to be the chief outward means as well to Confute Errors in Notion as to reclaim evil Doers and so reduce the Christian World to the Primitive Integrity of Life and Purity of Doctrine But let me remind you though that the Exercise and Effects of these Performances chiefly depend upon Example and Authority both which your Doctrine most irrationally disavows neither can we possibly agree with you that this ancient and healthful Temper of the World was a general Idolatry among the Sons of men which within six Lines after you
should attack your Doctrine having as you boast Coup't up their Front and Reer in the Ambuscade of this Dilemma That those who dispute most against the Power and Priviledges of Humane Reason do it because their own reason perswades them to that belief and so whether the Victory be on mine or on their side are equally defeated Yeur Argument is parallel to this He that is sick and from a true sence of his Disease acknowledgeth his weakness by that very acknowledment makes it manifest that he is well and he that is in the like Condition but is so insensible of his Distemper that he conceits he is in health is well also whereas the indisposition of both remains but the last labours under the most desperate Symptoms your own Case see now your Victory or rather your plain Defeat either way Neither in my weak opinion is your Answer to the Accusation which you quote against the Wits more convincing than your Victory was triumphant for if lapsed Reason in its most accurate state as it is possessed by the Wits may be made a slave to the wills interests or the prejudices of men or be apt to be wanting in any part of its necessary duty for so hazardous a passage all which you acknowledge in your fourth page then it cannot appear to judicious and considering men to be a Guide solely to be relyed on in this grand Affair nor can even the weakest Understandings be so absolutely unbyassed as to render their Errors unblameable as you have stated this Case for every Sciolist knows that your advancing the humane Faculty into an Office too high for it is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which intails a just condemnation upon all such Errors as are consequential to that But if such fatal mistakes be the meed of the Wits what Confusion shall we have when all sorts of people whether men women c. for you exempt none shall be allowed the priviledge to govern themselves from within without the least regard had either to Example or Authority or any thing else whatsoever especially since deplorable Experience manifests that neither the Penalties of humane nor of divine Laws nor the immediate Judgments of Gods own hand can restrain some even of all degrees of men from perpetrating the greatest crimes and falling into the most barbarous Practices as well as Opinions is it not plain before you in this Case that more of God's glory and regiment will be found among the Fowls of the Air and Beasts of the Desart than among those who shall practise your abominable doctrine For even among such Animals some footsteps appear both of Authority and Example nor can they commit either blasphemy or idolatry the two inevitable as well as uncontrollable products of your detestable opinions while you phantastically pretend to prevent I know not what universality and perpetuity of Error by broaching Myriads every day so long as the minds of the Rabble shall continue injudicious and wavering In the 5th page you seem to be sensible that you have too magisterially and rashly asserted Humane Reason's absolute ability to judge of Spiritual Truths by acknowledging that the what and the how of religious Mysteries are out of its sight and that it must make use of those helps which God hath prepared for us to that purpose to make them visible as such This is the true sense of your Clause to which all Catholicks will agree for it cannot be denied but if the Mysteries of Religion are delivered down to us upon a supernatural account but that our natural Capacity and Reason will need proportionable helps to enable it to apprehend them how plain is it therefore that from a high Conceit of your parts you designed to impose phantastical Phrases for new Notions upon weak understandings For a Close to this Paragraph you are reduced to trifle with one of Democritus his Allegories as if we shall find truth in our hearts as we see Heaven in a Well and this you assert is very applicable to your matter If so then according to your Metaphorical Doctrine your Disciples must not only leave searching the Scriptures for the true Religion and paying their Adoration to the Deity for Eternal Happiness but on the contrary they must look down into natural Reason to find out the first and consequently worship themselves to obtain the second These Principles indeed are entirely new and suitable to the wretched Conceits of the forlorn Votaries in the Covent of Bethlehem In the sixth Page you have quoted so tragical an Objection as you call it that notwithstanding your endeavours in 8 subsequent pages to give it an answer in my mean opinion you come very much short of it viz. To allow this liberty would beget as many Religions as there are several persons and consequently draw after it such disorder and confusion as is inconsistent not only with the Quiet but the very Being of Humane Society Now the truth of this Objection is so evident to all who have either seriously considered the unsteady and vexatious condition of lapsed Humanity or have read the past or do at all observe the present state of affairs in the World that they need not expect any other Arguments to evince that difference of Opinions especially in Religion hath ever had ill effects in dividing of Affections although not to the same degree in all Ages and Places but yet according to the circumstances of times and opportunities the temper of private persons as well as that of publick Government the Animosities which did arise from thence proved more or less mischievous to Humane Society Neither did those differing Sects of Philosophers you quote so peaceably agree if you will trust History as not to envy scandalize nay murther one another which possibly might have occasioned publick Commotions had they not been prevented by the juncture of Affairs in those times and prudence of Governors which preserves London and Amsterdam in Peace at this day notwithstanding the aptness of those Cities as well as all others infested with Sects to break out into Tumults not to quote late instances But however this instance as it is stated by your self of several Opinions dividing Philosophers and the Philosophers their Disciples doth not amount to so wild and independent Frenzy as to give every single person how mean soever in degree or incompetent for parts leave to become an uncontrollable Pope in Religion or constitute himself an individual Church and in effect to practice what Morals he lists so much the Consequences of Faith by governi g himself from within not having any regard either to Example or Authority the grand ligaments of Order or any thing else which Position not only defaces the Forms and Superstructures of all Government both Ecclesiastical and Civil but rases out all remains and foundations of Humane Society therefore no History can make mention of so licentious a practice in the world what ever page the 9th you wrongfully affirm of