Sanctifications or Initiations to enter us in the other six vertues Baptisme for faith Confirmation for hope Penance to redresse the wrongs we do to God and to our neigh-bour Matrimony and Extreme-Unction to injure us to temperance and to fortify us against the terrours of death Prudence because it eminently belongeth to commanders received its proper initiation in the installing of Spirituall Gouvernours which are Priests and Bishops Who being more eminent in Science and Charity have power to governe the flocke oâ— Christ And to the end that emulation might not breake unity among them Christ by his owne practise and mouth gave the Primacy to Saint Peter to whose see and successour inferiour Bishops were to have recourse in all publike necessities or dissentions of the Church And who att this day is commonly called the Pope It is incredible how great encrease of devotion and Charity accrueth to Christian people by the reverent administration and faithfull reception of these sacraments What respect and awe towardes to what adhesion their teachers their doctrine what obedience to their directions in fine how great a life to the Church and eminency above such synagogues as are destitute of these holy institutions The Apostles therefore armed with these and the aforesaid powers dispersed themselves into all the quarters of the earth planting this common doctrine and practise through the universe and dying left the inheritance of the same to their successors Who in debates about doctrines and in other dissentions meeting together and finding what the Apostles had left to the Churches they had planted did cast out such as would not conforme themselves to the received Tradition And so Christians were divided The parties cast out being denominated from their Masters or particular doctrines The part adhering to the Apostles Tradition retaining the name of the Apostolike Church Which because it was as it were the whole of Christians was therefore termed Catholike or Universall These Apostles and Disciples left certaine writinges But neither by command nor with designe to deliver in any or all of them a summary of our faith but occasionally teaching what they thought requisite for some certaine place or company which the Holy Ghost intended for the comfort of the Church In which as we professe there is nothing false or uncertaine so we know the unwritten Preaching ought to be the rule of their interpretation att least negatively Neither can we vindicate those bookes from the corruption of transscribers and much lesse of Interpretours whose labours can not pretend to the authority of scripture otherwise then by a knowne conformity to the Originals Tradition therefore became the rule of faith and Councells and Apostolicall Sees became the infallible depositaries of Tradition The other Sees fayling either by the destruction of Christian Religion in those quarters or by a voluntary discession from the rule of faith the Roman See first instructed by the two chiefe Apostles and afterwardes by perpetuall correspondence with all Christian countries and their recourse to it in matters of faith and discipline remained the onely single Church which was able in vertue of perpetuall succession to testify what was the Apostles doctrine Afterwardes Heretikes confounding equivocally the names of Apostolike and Cathlick by an impudence of saying what they list without shew of reason the Catholike party hath been forced for distinction sake to adde to their Church the sirname of Roman Declaring there by that the Roman particular Church is the Head and Mistresse and cause of Vnity to all those Churches that have share in the Catholike By this linke of truth namely of receiving doctrine by succession and by the linke of Vnity in the Roman head of the Church as the Church hath hitherto stood in Persecutions Heresies and Schismes so we are assured it will never faile untill the second coming of Christ but do hope it will encrease into an universall kingdome of his to dure an unknowne extent of Ages designed in the Apocolypse by the number of a thousand yeares in great prosperity and in freedome both from Pagans without and from Heretikes with in and in great aboundance of Charity and good life This being evidently the effect of Christs coming we see that the generall good life of Mankinde which proceedeth from the knowledge of the End to which we are created and from other motives and meanes delivered by Christs doctrine was the great and onely designe for which he tooke flesh that is to be the cause to us of a happy life both in this world and in the next The which having been the main advantage of the State of Paradise or of our nature before corruption It is cleare that Christ hath repaired the fault of Adam by making whole Mankind capable of attaining everlasting blisse unto which before his coming one only family had means to arrive The settling of Mankind in this repaire restored it to such a condition in respect of God that from thenceforth he resolved to bestow his greatest benefits upon it that is eternall felicity Whereas before as long as it was in the state of sinne his decrees were for its Vniversall Damnation By which it is cleare that Christ appeased his Fathers wrath and made him a friend of a foe he had formerly been unto us So that because eternall blisse followeth out of a good life and out of a constant habit or inclination to it as likewise damnation out of the state of a sinnefull inclination formal justification and sanctity do consist in the habit of good life and the state of damnation consisteth in an habituall inclination to sinne Neither the one nor the other in an extrinsecall acceptation or refusall of the Divine Will or its arbitrary Election or dislike which are only the efficient causes from whence proportionably to their natures they depend Further because Man-kinde was not able of it selfe to gett out of the State of sinne and by consequence lay in subjection and slavery to it And seeing that Christ by the explicated meanes and actions did sett it free and gave it power to come out of that subjection and misery he did clearely Redeeme Man-kinde from this servitude of sinne and of sinnes Master the Divell and gave it the liberty wherein it was created att the first And because Christ did this by his death and by the penall actions of his life he is rightly said to have by them payed a ransome for mankind Notwithstanding this generall preparation by which Man-kinde was enabled to well-doing no particular man arriveth to any action of vertue without the speciall providence and benevolence of Almighty God By which by convenient circumstances both externall and internall he prepareth the heart of that man unto whom he is gratious and favourable to receive these common impressions and maketh it good earth fitt for the seede of his eternall cultiuatour who without any respect to former merits planteth faith and charity and all that is good in him meerely of his
we can draw out of the writinges of that precedent age are able to convince Thus rationall Reader thou seest what hath bin my motiue to spinne this thridde for thee to worke thy selfe out of the ambiguities and labirinths wherein our country is att present so perplexed in matters concerning Religion the designe of it is to make thee discerne that disputation att large as it is commonly managed is Needelesse Vselesse and dangerous Needelesse because there are other meanes Easy for those who are otherwise busied and neede belieuing and cleare for those who wil take the paine and employ the time requisite for their instruction Vselesse because neither the ouercommer doth gaine his cause nor doth the weaker loose it since in such a disputation nothing is compared but what the two Antagonists did say or att most could haue said which is litle or nothing to the maine cause it selfe Besides such a running discourse may well fill the auditors heads but can hardly euer cleare them there wanting time rest and quiet to settle a mature and solide judgement And lastly such disputation is dangerous because in encounters of that natures witt tongue and chance do for the most part beare a great sway and haue a maine stroake and oftentimes do breake and disorder the better cause and the weaker sort of hearers apt to judge by the euent do take sinister impressions and receiue damage att the indiscretion or misfortune of an ouersett disputant In a word the scope of this short discourse is to shew that quietnesse and solitude in which our braine is serene and our spirits are calme and a man hath his best wittes present to him Not publike disputes wherein vsually is nothing but wrangling and provoking one another into distempers and mutuall animosities Is the most proper meanes to discerne truth and especially in matters of Religion And I dare confidently say that whosoeuer shal take this course will finde the fruite of it which I hartily wish to all those who stand in neede of it As for Mr. Biddles booke If those of his aduersaries who are separated from the Catholike Church are able to confute it by their principles that is to say if they can shew not onely that the truth which they maintaine is more plaine in scripture then his errors are but that it is so euident that the explications which may be brought for his party are not receiuable and so that his errors may be condemned out of the force of scripture alone Then Catholike writers will not neede to engage their pennes against him But if I am not much mistaken whosoeuer shall goe about it wil find it a hard taske the question being of such a nature as requireth a seeming contradiction in wordes to expresse it and so the knott of it lyeth in determining which part of the seeming contradictory passages ought to be explicated by the other Now how such a controuersy can be decided by bare wordes I can not comprehend If then those aduersaries do proue to weake too maintaine this cause and the inefficaciousnesse of single scripture in this so maine a point do become euident It may be necessary to vse Catholike arguments for the defence of Christian truth Vnto which the following considerations may prepare thee The first REFLEXION What Religion is TO vnderstand a right the nature of disputation about Religion we must first know what Religion it selfe is We due not here take it in the sense of Schoole-diuines for a speciall vertue by which we performe the honours due to almighty God to his frendes the Saintes and to what euer holy thinges do belong to him and his But Religion in our present treatie signifieth a skill or art of doctrine coming to aeternall blisse To vnderstand this the better we are to remember that it hath euer bin receiued as an undoubted truth among the true-beleeuers both in the law of nature and in that of Moyses as also more euidently among Christians that man hath two lifes The one in this state of mortality and corruption while we live vnder the lawes of change and of necessity in this world the other which we expect after the end of this to dure for euer in great blisse and happinesse if we behaue our selfes here as we ought to do or in great miseries and torments if we neglect our duties in this world Now the life of the next world being to last for euer and the consequences of it for good and bad being so highly exalted aboue the contentments and afflictions of our present life it followeth that the art or skill of steering a right course towardes it is incomparably more necessary and more esteemable then any art or learning whatsoeuer belonging to the affaires of this world Beyond the skill of trading and of gaining wealth in which the Easterne and Arabian wizardes place their wisedome Beyond the out witting and the ouer powering glory of the Potentats and State Masters of the Earth whose felicity is to ensnare the world into the necessily of a willfull bondage to their vnlimited ambition beyond the selfe-pleasing contentment of those who settling in their owne nest do laugh att the restlesse negotiations of such as turmoile in the waues of fortune and to satisfy themselues with the enioying of home-bred and easily-compassed delights of body and of minde So that the skill designed by the name of Religion in our proposed discourse is of an excellency and of a necessity not to be paralleled by any other whatsoeuer and being compared to all others it outweigheth their worth beyond all measure and proportion and at that rate deserueth to be esteemed by vs and to be sought after with our whole force and with our vtmost endeavours Besides what we hitherto said Philosophers do offer us yet another consideration not to be neglected They make a generall diuision of mans actions into two kindes whereof the one they seeme to say are the actiōs of man as he is man But that the others do proceede from him as he is endowed with some particular quality yet withall that such quality is proper onely to humane nature As for example no liuing creature but man cā be a smith a carpenter a Pilot a musitian a Philosopher And yet none of the actions peculiar to these persons are in themselues considered to be the Actions of Man as he is Man But if any Action bee prudently valiantly justly or temperately performed they say that action proceedeth from him who doth it as he is Man But truly according to my judgement this is not properly a diuision of Actions as Actions but rather of the degrees or of the qualities of the same kind of actions For the smith and the Pilot cannot exercise their respectiue trades but that their working must needes be either in convenient measure and circumstances or out of such and accordingly what they do must be either prudent or imprudent just or vniust c So that to be vertuous or
the action as the action is for the end which must be in Gods commands by which he ordereth vs to eternall life his commanding being the Idea to all actions and this matter being the principall on which he exerciseth that power it is evidently convincing that whether the command be possible or impossible knowne or unknowne if it be not fullfilled the action is not done without which the end can not be obtained And consequently the party becometh damned Not because he did not obey the command but because he did not the action nor followed the way necessary to salvation which if he had done without command it would have saved him for it is in vertue of doing the action that the fullfilling of the command saveth all those whom it doth save and without it none are saved The fourth REFLEXION That Religion is certaine And the meanes to attaine unto it THe case standing thus that either we must do what God hath commanded us in this world or else must suffer his indignation in the next And that there is no excuse for ignorance I neede not urge to any one who is sensible of their soules interest that the knowledge of the law of God ought to be certaine and undoubted both in it selfe and to us That is that every one according to his particular circumstances ought to have a constant and immutable assurance that it is Gods law in which he walketh And that in the Church there are meanes left by our blessed Saviour to secure us of this truth for every one according to his capacity if the execution be conformable to the principles The first part is so cleare that time were spent in vaine to declare it For since the end of our faith and knowledge is the observing in fact and not onely in will the commandements of God with the losse of blisse and incurring eternall damnation if it be not done in effect And since on the other side it is impossible that he who is uncertaine whither he be in the truth or no and hath but a changeable opinion concerning the law of God should constantly and firmely in all his workes performe that law It is evident that such a man is not fit for Christian life but is like one that whilest he holdeth the plough is still looking backe nor can he hope for any thing from God because his faith is wavering and unstable In his practise he can not choose but be carried too and fro with every wind of opinion Now forwardes now backewardes and never steere any constant course towardes heaven and blisse Whereas this rule of good life as is before declared is of a nature that it comprehendeth all our actions the highest and the lowest the first and the last and all that are comprised between these extreams As for the second part of what we have aboue said Namely that God hath left in his Church meanes for all sorts of people to come to this degree of certainty for euery one according to his growth It is of it selfe manifest to all such as have so reverent a conceit of God as to thinke he doth not his works by halfes nor leaveth mankinde for whom he made the world destitute in the chiefe point and in that for which as for his sole end he created man himselfe to witte for bringing him to blisse and eternall happinesse For since mans nature is made in the most excellent part of it to require evidence and that it is so laudable in matters of Geometry Astronomy Physicks Metaphysicks and whatsoever is of great importance not to be satisfyed without evidence and certainty and to ayme at it with all our strength and that truely our understanding were abused if it should be forced to accept of what it doth not clearely see and is not certainly assured of its nature being made to see and its essence being a power of seeing How can any rationall discourser thinke that God hath failed us in this so materiall and principall concernement Certainly no man of judgement can suspect it But to satisfy even hard believers lett vs looke into particulars And presently wee finde that men in respect of knowledge are of two sorts some who by themselves are capable of vnderstanding truths others who live upon trust of the former kind of knowing men Of this latter sort are all they whom we call schollers who at the first do trust their masters till themselves grow up to the ripenesse and ability of knowing and of teaching others And much more all those who arrive not so forward as to be schollers which in some respect or other are the greatest part of mankinde The Physitian trusteth the Pilot when he is at sea the Souldier when he is in an army the baker for his bread and the brewer for his drinke the Gentleman trusteth his husbandman for his corne the Physitian for his health the Lawyer for his suites and every master in his kinde Now in matter of Religion God hath given vs an advantage which is not in any of the trades or sciences necessary to our temporall life For he hath provided us not some one man or some meeting of a dozen or twenty which is a great cōsult in other affaires but he hath given vs a whole world of men to consult withal and that at one meeting Consider how vast the Church is which holdeth communion with the See of Rome All that at once is your warrant You can not imagine they will tell you a lye for they speake to you not in wordes but in their lives and therefore they must be cosened thēselves or else they can not cosē you there you have a fidelity pledged vnto you beyond the certainty that Euclide or Archimedes could afforded you For it is more impossible that so great a part of mankind should live in a cōtinuall hypocrisie and dissembling then that the surest consequences Geometry can make should be false If you seeke skill that Church is full of learned men in all kindes of Sciences that any other can pretend vnto Search but the Book-sellers shoppes and you shall find a hundred Catholike Authors for one of any other Communion thousands continually studying in Colleges and Religious houses whose perpetuall search may justly challenge the probability of knowing truth If you looke after outward piety and the meanes of preseruing and encreasing of learning you shall finde it there in a higher degree then in all the communities of other sects So that if one may rely vpon outward signs there is no comparison betweene any other company of men and that Church And consequently it is beyond all doubt or question vnto what authority a discreete person who can not or will not take the paines to looke himselfe into particular pointes ought to adhere vnder paine of forfeiting his judgement If he be neuer so little conuersant in the learning of the world he must needes be a mad-man if in the way of moderne authority
there had been no place for that disjunctive Syllable I easily believe that many a pert batchellour will be ready to tell us that he can find wayes to salve all these places of Scripture and many more if they were urged But that cōcerneth not me I enquire onely what the outward face of Scripture is and to what belief it wil leade an honest heart left to its owne strength For if those queinte disputants do encounter with a person that is not enured to the Sophistry they will turn blacke into white make two egges three as the tale goeth of the impertinent forward scholler and bring to passe whatsoever they undertake Therefore it was necessary to impose among the conditions of reading the Bible this for a principall one That they who by Scripture ayme at coming to the truth should admitt of no Interpreter And this because of the danger in lighting upon a false one instead of a true one before one hath groundes to discerne which is a false one and which a true one For the case is very indifferēt betweene a Catholike Interpreter and any other The Catholike knoweth the doctrine of Christ that is to say the sense of the Scripture independently from the words of the Scripture And therefore in substantiall points which concerne Christs doctrine he cannot teach or interpret amisse without swerving from his owne faith But it is evident that every other who hath no rule for his beliefe besides the bare letter and words of Scripture is subject to errour through every passion and prejudice which hiddenly swayeth his heart awry and corrupteth his judgement by pride or other affection So that he may be rightly compared to a rotten cane that being leaned upon will breake and with its splinters wound and gore him that expected support from it The seventh REFLEXION That the reading of the Fathers will bring a man to the truth of Religion And that naturall reason will greatly advance a man thereunto IT seemeth strange to mee that any man who acknowledgeth Scripture should reject the Fathers since he can not renounce them without professing att the same time by so doing that he believeth himselfe to be able with his little witte and generally lesse study and learning to penetrate deeper into the intelligence of Scripture then so many ages eminent for industry sciēce and holynesse could reach unto And all this upon no other pretence but because they were men and consequently liable to erring As if himselfe were not a man but something else so farre beyond comparison with all other men that we ought rather to confide in his ability and honesty then in all mankinde that went before him Which is so unworthy and so intolerable a pride that I admire how any auditory can endure it But to come more closely to the point I say that seeing the Holy Fathers did both receive the prevaching of the Apostles neerer hand then wee do and did hold the truth of Scripture as strongly as we do and did spend much time in the earnest study of it and proceeded therein with as sincere hearts as wee can It may in no wise be doubted but that they had the meanes and the wills of having the true faith and consequently that they had it Therefore what was their universall Tenet in Matters of faith can not bee false nor ought to be rejected Or with any colour of reason be questioned by us as disagreeing with Scripture Besides their writings being large and numerous in which upon severall occasions and in differing circumstances they repeate and inculcate the same thinges by different wordes and expressions it must needes thence follow that their sense and meaning in most things of importance can not choose but be sufficiently explicated So as who ever shall reade them with candour ingenuity and judgement can not possibly doubt of it And accordingly experience hath shewed us that the judicious Protestants who gave themselves to the reading of the Fathers were in judgement neere unto Catholikes in most of their opinions And that which detained them from being absolutely Catholikes was besides the chaines of interest nothing but a secret pride of not submitting themselves to the Tradition of the Church in some particular points in which Tradition was not so cleare to them Though withall I deny not but that a wrong apprehension of some Catholike Tenets presumed upon the explication of some particular Doctors might unhappily contribute to this their obstinacy No doubt then but if any indifferent person not preimbibed with any wrong maxime shall bestow competent paines in reading the Fathers he will infallibly become Catholike Especially if hee take this rule along with him to compare the practise of Protestants with the practise of the Fathers and of the former Church By which he will see that this which they call Reformation hath cut away under pretence of abuses not the abuses but the very thinges themselves in which the abuses were like unskillfull Chirurgians that cut of a leg to cure a small sore in it or like Mahomet who tooke away all use of wine to cure drunkennesse And in the meane while they cavill att petty questions in which they strive to shew that the Church hath erred As for naturall reason No man will expect that it should be an entire meanes of attaining to the knowledge of the supernaturall truths which are contained in Christian Religion But onely that it may be a helpe thereunto by shewing that they are so farre from contradicting reason as indeed nothing can be more conformable to true reason then the whole oeconomy of them is And I dare promise whosoever shall seeke this that if he come unto it armed with true and sound Philosophy he may arrive to a full contentment of his understanding and heart in all that concerneth so noble an enquiry Now since Catholike Religion hath been so intelligibly divulged in the world St. Augustin maketh mention that he found the Mystery of the Trinity in the Platonists Bookes Now if you aske me how this came to passe I answere that God provided in Alexandria a City much addicted to learning one Ammonius Hermias a great Philosopher and a Christian Hee to make Christian Religion more acceptable sought to joyne it with Platonicke Philosophy Which was no hard matter to do Plato having bing been as Numenius sayth of him Moses speaking Greeke that is to say one who having lighted upon the Hebrew learning had sucked much out of it Now this Ammonius finding in Plato the Ideas of Being and of Vnity and of Life and such other ayery notions easy to be wrought upon to what hee designed endeavoured by these to instill into his Schollers the Mystery of the Trinity Which he did with such happy successe that of the three prime wittes of his Schoole the one Origen became so great and eminent a Doctor of the Church as antiquity hath acknowledged him The other two Amelius and Plotinus prooved two Conductours of the
or false But whether side is the more probable or plausible purely in relation to Scripture Clearely he who in any point will proceede according to conscience and prudence in this way of arguing is obliged to consider all that is contained in the whole Scripture concerning that point Weighing what he putteth in each side of the ballance with the best judgement God affordeth him that so he may judiciously pronounce sentence For the doing of which he ought to consider not onely the number of places that concerne his purpose but their qualities also and be able to compare those one with an other Now this is so hard a taske that the learnedst and ablest man a live may despaire of ever being able to effect it For how can he or any Man with reason persuade himselfe that either he or any other hath ever produced or ever can produce out of Scripture all that may from thence be alledged for any point in controversy since our Saviour himself hath given us a cleare example that arguments may be drawne and those efficacious ones from Texts where we least dreame of any such sense As when disputing against the Sadduces he made this argument God is God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob But he is not God of nothing Therefore Abraham Isaac and Jacob shall rise againe or do remaine in soule hoping for their body and resurrection who can be confident of saying or knowing all that is in Scripture concerning any point when the proofes of truths may lye in such unlikely places Surely it must be either a great ignorance or a great temerity to undertake it And therefore we may conclude that it is impossible we should ever arrive so farre in this way of search as to know really what is more or lesse probable out of Scripture But all that we may hope to attaine unto is onely to be able to judge what is more or lesse probable out of those places which well our selves do know or att most out of those places which the Authors we have seene do bring And so it is evident that they who relye on Scripture or rather that professe to do so do not in truth relye upon it but upon their owne or their Teachers diligence whom they suppose to know the whole latitude of Scripture-proofe Which is not onely false but impossible for any man to do The fourteenth REFLEXION On the Arguments drawne out of the Fathers THe second nest of Authority out of which Arguments take wing Is the copious library of Fathers Wherein it is to be considered that whether Catholike or Protestant be to argue the Text he alledgeth hath a double remove from the conclusion he would prove For whereas in allegations of Scripture both sides agree that what it sayth is certainly true and so all the difficulty consisteth in knowing what is true meaning of the place alledged it is otherwise allegations of Fathers For in them there arise two questions The one whether that which the argugent pretendeth be the Fathers opinion the other whether that which the Father sayth be true after it is agreed to be his opinion For neither Catholike nor Protestant doth agree to all things that one or two Fathers may hold But indeed Protestants do defie them all And Catholikes require an universality in them to make them infallible So that if either Catholike or Protestant be the Arguer he ought to settle before-hand with his adversary that such a Father or Fathers as he intendeth to produce be of unquestionable authority between them Or else not to meddle with them for it were but labour lost and breath cast away The Protestants use to make two comparisons in Fathers The one in Age or Antiquity the other in learning or reputation As for the former they insist much upon the three first Ages supposing them to be purer then the rest In doing of which it is evident that their ayme is to reject all For when they list and that it concerneth them they will tell you that the impurity of doctrin began as soon as the Apostles were dead Now if by this Impurity they meane damnable errors then by saying so they evacuate all the authority of Fathers For they allow it no further then as it pleaseth every disputant or Minister to declare the point controverted to bee or not to bee a damnable error And thus even the three first Ages are blowne away with the rest But if the point in Controversy be no damnable error then the Fathers authority importeth litle erring being but of small consequence in such Matters as do not concerne salvation and there being no obligation upon a Christian to know unnecessary truths In a word If the Church can erre and hath erred these thousand yeares it is but courtesy to say she did not so in the former six hundred And so in truth the Fathers have no authority att all But if it can not erre nor hath erred Then the Fathers of the latter Ages own as good wittnesses as those of the former so they be induced with Universality The other comparison or distinction that Protestants use to make of the Fathers concerning their learning and reputation is as little to the purpose as that of their Antiquity For we do not cite Fathers as Doctors whose opinion is no better then the reason they bring for it but as wittnesses whose authority consisteth in a grave and moderate knowledge of what is believed and practised by the Church in the ages respectively wherein they lived And out of this it followeth that for wittnessing of Christian faith no one Father is to be preferred before an other It is true in some sense the testimony of a more antient Father may be sayd to be preferred before a more moderne one because the formall witnessing of it is of more neerenesse to Christ and of longer durance towards us But in regard of learning No Father hath more authority nor is more to be valued then an other for what concerneth faith though in other respects it be very considerable For a lesse learned Father is as credible a wittnesse as the learnedst of what is the present practise and beliefe of Christians so he have learning sufficient to warrant his understanding and knowing so much And in reality any Father whose authority carrieth us beyond the apparent memory of mankind att present living is as good as the best for declaring the faith of the Church in the time he lived in Which because it received its doctrine by entaile from age to age every Fathers testimony in such Matters of faith is firme and irrefragable To conclude therefore The Catholike maketh no difference of the quality of Fathers nor much of their Antiquity but admitteth all so they come with universality The Protestant though he will a little simper att it yet in Conclusion he rejecteth all setting his owne judgement which he calleth Scripture for high Umpire of what in them is right what wrong Therefore
that he was faine to learne of new to reade Deservedly hee But what I deduce out of this relation is first that his reasons though in his owne judgment they were not efficacious yet they convinced the whole auditory and that of no common persons By which we may understand that the reasons he brought were not demonstrations nor were the best that might have been alledged for that subject Celse better could not have been opposed And neverthelesse they carried so great an Auditory From whence we may inferre how violent a power the force of this art of talking must necessarily have upon the ordinary sort of men to make them take their Master for a great Doctor An other note that I make upon this occasion is that all the talking of such men is not or ought not to bee sufficient to perswade us not onely that they speake the truth but even that they speak their owne mindes And after all their earnestnesse we may suspect their discourse is framed but to comply with the humour of the times or to promote their present interest or to please their auditors Tully professeth the same of his Oratours and sayth he also practised it himselfe But here I may not omitt the story of that expert generall and understanding man Hanniball the Carthaginian Antiochus having furnished him with a puissant and flourishing army would entertaine him also with an Oration concerning the art of warre and the manner how he ought to proceede in it made by a famous and long-practised Oratour Phormio who in the presence of Antiochus and his Captaines discoursed to Hannibal of this subject to the great applause and admiration of all that heard him excepting Hannibal who being asked how he liked him answered that in all his life-time he had never heard such an old dotardly foole prate A strange censure one would thinke on a man so generally exacted and cryed up Yet if we consider that Phormio had learned his skill of warre onely in written discourses and Histories but Hannibal in the field and in action it selfe wee may easily conceive that Phormios Oration talked of thinges in the ayre and formed his adversary in his fancy whereas Hannibal had studied the thinges in themselves and so knew groundedly what he spoke and saw that all the Oratours glorious speech was but a painted pageant not any effectuall exhibition of truth Hence we may conclude that the ability of discoursing in a high straine and in a pathetike manner is no argument of true learning in him that exerciseth it unlesse juggling and folly in impertinency may passe for learning Who were better talkers or better discoursers then the Academikes Yet their profession was that they had no truth and that indeed there was none to be found The nineteenth REFLEXION On what Divinity And who is a Divine LEtt us now apply this to practise and to our present subject Religion as we have already said is the most important and the most necessary businesse that belongeth to Mans nature and action It is so precisely one that if a man chance to mistake in it be the cause what it will he is lost for ever For as hee that misseth his way cometh not to his journeyes end whether it be his fault or others misguidance that hath made him misse his way So who treadeth not in the true path of Religion never arriveth at eternall happinesse lett the fault lye where it will Now if learning in Religion be the skill of shewing the path to heaven and if all the great noise that these talkers make helpeth one never a steppe thitherwards as not delivering any point of truth that may be relyed upon It is evident that the pretended learning of such persons is much further from the notion of true learning then the Grammar learning we spoke of before For though learning be lowe ad meane as being onely of wordes yet of them att least the Grammarian hath knowledge Whereas this prating this parrate-vertue though it be of thinges yet is it not a science of them but all is meere wordes and winde I heare them reply as they want neither wordes nor impudence to dispute against evidence that though it is true they promise no certainty because none can be had yet they make out high probability which is the Princesse that governeth humane affaires I will not at present discusse whether there be any certainty or no It is enough that the Catholike Church professeth certainty and ever hath done so and nature forceth even the denyers of this truth to act as if they had certainty in perswading and forcing others to their opinions But I wish that these men would speake plaine English and that in lieu of this quaint terme High probability they would tell us the meaning of it in wordes that honest men may understand Lett me see if I can helpe them That which they meane by prohability must either be some accesse towardes truth on the objects side Or a strong perswasion made in the Auditor If it bee a perswasion In the Auditory without any approach to the object clearely it signifyeth nothing else but a high cheate or an excellent juggle with prayse neither may I deny nor do I envy to such men Then for the objects side If there be no fixednesse or certainty of the object by all the arguments of this high Oratour I can not comprehend there is more in all he sayth then peradventure it is true peradventure not So that High Probability signifyeth High Peradventure Which how great a Non-sence it is if applyed to fixed verities that are not subject to the mutability of change and chance that is how ridiculously it is applyed to Religion and to truths of faith is evident to every sensible man If now men will needes have one termed a Divine because he can thus finely talke in the ayre of God and of thinges belonging to him he must be a Divine of blind Tiresias his tribe who in the Poët professeth his Divinity in these termes O Laërtiade Quicquid dicam aut erit aut non Divinare etenim magnus mihi donat Apollo The last part of the reply telleth us that Probabiliry governeth all human action I deny it not But withall I take notice that Action is one thing Beliefe an other Human action is about the gaining of a future End which dependeth on fallible principles as all mortall thinges doe Which are continually involved in a thousand uncertainties and changes But faith is of unchangeable verities which nothing hath power to make otherwise then it is already settled It is a parallel to science I meane to true science such as we se exercised in Geometry for which no man looketh into probabilities And to expect that faith should depend on probabilities is no lesse ridiculous then to thinke the like of Geometry since it is more necessary and more important then Geometry and the way to heaven is missed with greater danger and losse then
Sexes dedicated to God Religious Ceremonies and all sorts of enticements to love heaven and follow good life So that the Antiquity the Protestant pretends to is of wanting wilfully those means of helping soules which the primitive Church wanted by the Violence of Persecution and the Antiquity meaned by Catholicks is of being like the Ancient Church in all things that promote vertue inwardly and outwardly The ninth Shuffle Of the Word Tradition TO Antiquity hangs Tradition that is the receiving of Doctrine and Customes from the Ancient Church The which Catholicks place in this that it is derived fom the Apostles to us by the continuall and immediate delivery of one Age to another the sons continuing their Fathers both beliefe and conversation in Christian life and treading the same paths of Salvation This was a bit of too soure a digestion for Protestants being not able to shew any Masters from whome they had received theire beliefe Yet a Tradition they must have not to be openly convinced of having forged their doctrine Some of them therefore sayed they received their doctrine by the Tradition of the Bible made unto them by the Churches continuing since the Apostles time Wherein you see an open equivocating in the word of Tradition Catholicks taking it for the delivery of doctrine that is of sense and meaning the Protestants for the delivery of a mute book or killing letter Others call Tradition the Testimony of the Fathers of all Ages and so att least divert the Question Turning the proof of Religion which is plaine and easie to every ordinary understanding into a business of learning and long study in which though they be worstted yet the People cannot see it nor descry theire falshood The tenth Shuffle Of the word Really TO descend from the Universality or defence of their whole Religiō to speciall articles of it wee shall finde them there like themselves As for example those who beare an outward respect to the Fathers finding them concurring so thick to testify Christes Body to bee in the Holy Eucharist will see me to say the same and use the word of Christ being Really and verily and truely in the Sacrament and that they onely question the manner how he is there which is lawfull amongst Catholicks to do So that you cannot almost distinguish them from Catholicks Vntil you come to explicatiō There the Catholick sayeth that Christes Body is in the sacrament as the substance of Bread was in the thing which before wee called Bread and now is no more but turned into that body wich was hanged on the Cross by an entitative and reall mutation The Protestant wil tell you that it is stil Bread and naturally and entitatively the same thing wich it was before consecration but that by faith which is a real actiō it is Christes true body to us How to justify these words that by Faith it is Christes true body is impossible unless they wil have us believe by faith what they tell us is false Therefore others say it is an assurāce of Christs Body as a bond is of mony Peradventure of enjoying Christe in Heaven But how different both senses bee from the Catholick which they seek to be thought theirs and from the natural meaning of the words every mā cā see So that the manner of being Christes Body which they question signifies whether it bee truely there or no but onely by a false apprehension they call Faith The eleventh Suffle Of the Word Sacrifice The like is of the word Sacrifice and Altar and such other In which the Catholick position makes these words proper and that the Mass is as or more properly signified by the word sacrifice as the sacrifice of the old law That there is a true and real separatiō of the body of our Saviour from his bloud and more proper to the names then nature can make which can not make a true body when the bloud is separated nor true bloud whē the body is left out wich in this sacramēt is performed and nevertheless Christe entire and untouched But a Protestāt wil tel you that whē the Holy offering is called a sacrifice it is meaned a sacrifice of praise or thanks giving that is in reality no sacrifice but an outward ceremony of praise or thāks giving others that it is a resemblāce or represētatiō of a sacrifice to wit of that of the holy Cross so that you see the differēce of the two significatiōs is no less thē whē by the same word as of Christes one means Christs Person another a Crucifix or the picture of Christe The twelfth Shuffle Of the Word Priesthood In consequēce and conformity to this they abuse the Word of Priesthood For finding al Antiquity gloriously full of this name they must also use it and finding St. Paul had too expressely taught us that a Priest was a publick Officer ordained to offer to God giftes and sacrifices and that he ought to be legitimately called to the office and that Catholiks take Priesthood in this meaning And how on the other side themselves had taken out of the Church all solemn offerings and sacrifice the business of a Priest and nevertheless shame on one side and ambition on the other egged them on to call themselves Priests they were forced to corrupt the Word sacrifice first as is declared to come to the name Priesthood So that Priesthood in the Protestant meaning is an officer chosen to sing Psalmes in the sight of the People The which how different it is from the Catholick explication of being the publick Officer of the eternall sacrifice is too plain to be declared Onely I must add that who takes ordination with the intention onely to become the chief or high singer of the Parish receiveth not Priesthood as it is meaned and used in the Catholick Church The thirteenth Shuffle Of the word Faith THe abuse of this name Faith must not bee omitted which Catholicks taking for a perswasion of such truths as are necessary to bring us to good life and salvation which perswasion wee settle upon Christes doctrine delivered unto us by Tradition of the Church The which meaning is cleare in the Apostle who expresseth himself to speak of faith that works by Charity The first Protestants took the word Faith as excluding Charity and cryed downe good works as improfitable the latter ashamed of this as destroying good life and plainly contrary to the whole designe of Scripture and Fathers took it for the same faith that Catholicks do but would have it have force precisely out of its being a persuasion and the working to follow to no effect but as a hanger on without any End whereas Catholicks make the persuasion to bee chiefly or wholly to breed Charity which is the true cause of salvation But the presbiterian party and the plainer dealing Protestants have quite changed and destroyed faith saying faith is a Persuasion that the believer must have that hee in Person is one of the
Platonicke Schoole and brought into it the imitation of the Trinity which is found in their discourses and in the writings of their followers So amiable is truth that the very likenesse of it enamoureth the understanding How much more would the substance do so were it rightly pursued and truly discovered Which without question it may be even in this very particular the termes in which this sublime Mystery is delivered being so naturall and the thing it selfe being the connaturall substance of Almighty God that dependeth not upon any chance or free disposition and the intention of revelation being generally to bring us to the knowledge of the thing that is revealed And therefore you will say the wonder is not so great that since Christian Religion was knowne and voyced about in the world these Mysteries should be treated of by Philosophers in their Schooles and writings But if in any of them before the coming of Christ there shoud have sprung out of pure nature the least intimation of any of these supernaturall Mysteries That would be a strong confirmation of what we have here said Certainely if this may be expected from any it must be from Aristotele He being of the onely person amongst the Heathens that hath written with solidity Of him then it is reported that as he lay upon his death-bed considering the miseries that poore man-kinde falleth dayly into through Errors and that it is not in the power of Nature to deliver Man from them hee pronunced this great sentence That Homer had much reason to make the Gods take human shapes upon them to draw by that meanes poore Men out of Errours Behold the Incarnation of the sonne of God ' as so lively grounded as any Christian can speake of it And this by the meere strength of reason And is it possible that now after so glorious publication of the Christian faith through the whole earth there should be found any Christians so unreasonable as to thinke it unreasonable that God should become man to save us from our sinnes which are the true roote of all our miseries The like is of the holy Eucharist Did but men understand so much of Metaphysickes as to know the Nature of their owne growth or augmentation they would find no difficulty in that now by many so disbelieved and decryed though in it selfe so heavenly and needefull a Mystery But ignorance and pride maketh that to be held for absurd which in truth is most conformable to Nature I will adde but one word more upon this occasion for their sakes who are affected with reason and are best satisfyed with discourses built upon that foundation This Principle being supposed that all thinges are governed in the perfectest manner that may be in conformity to the generall rules of nature which Divines use to expresse in these wordes that God ever doth that which is best then presently All the Mysteries of Christian Religion Namely the creation of Man the fall the oeconomy or conduct of the world untill the coming of Christ since Christ the end of the world the last Judgement the Resurrection the severall States of soules before it and of men after it Beatitude Damnation And whatsoever else is in Catholike beliefe as the Doctrine concerning the Church Church-gouvernement the Sacraments and whatsoever else belongeth of necessity to credulity and obedience All these I say will appeare so mainely evident and reasonable that no man of a just capacity and unpassionate mind can take any exception against it Whosoever will employ his time and endeavours in this search and shall begin it with a right understanding of Nature will find with unspeakable comfort and satisfaction to himselfe that what I have here said is true I confesse some paines are required to know these thinges as also there are some necessary to comprehend the demonstrations of Archimedes and the Cronickes of Apollonius Pergeus about which we see so many straine their wittes to understand them for the delight that is in them when they are once mastered And yet the importance ad consequence of them is not comparable to the knowledge of these truths which looked after with a like attention in a due progresse will become as evident as they But wee must not expect to attaine to the depth of all these pointes by onely discoursing of them in familiar conversation for our divertisement and recreation or by reading some treatise of them in such sort as one would do a Romance only for entertainement or passe-time and delight They who are skilled in Geometry or Algebra do well know they never purchased those sciences so cheape Seeing then that this is of so much higher a straine in it selfe and of so farre greater a concernment towardes the governement of their lifes Lett them if they can not be satisfyed with simply believing these truths use industry to finde Masters able to instruct them and employ a competency of labour in pursuite of them The eighth REFLEXION Of conference and Disputation in common AFter the way of reading there offereth it selfe to our consideration that of personall discoursing or Dialogising This may be performed in two Manners The one when hee who is to learne contributeth on his side bearing himselfe with a desire to come to truth and helping it on by acknowledging candidly what seemeth to him true out of his former persuasion and proposing wherein hee findeth difficulty and asking no more then to have that opened unto him which some preoccupation hath obstruted This Manner of treating is called Conference And no doubt but it is a farre shorter and more efficacious way to come to knowledge then reading Provided the teacher be an able Man and Master of his profession For a writer can speake but in common whereas such a teacher knoweth by the answers of his opposer wherein particularly lyeth the difficulty he is to remove and accordingly spareth and contracteth many discourses wihch the writer is forced to deliver att ayme and att hazard Besides the very orall delivery is farre more intelligible and giveth a singular energy to what is so taught The other Manner of Dialogising is when the Auditour standeth upon his guard and yieldeth nothing upon fore-knowledge but will bee coâ—vinced and see evidence for every thing he is to allow And this is properley called Disputation The parties in this are clearely two and no third to moderate the Disputation though oftentimes one be necessary to moderate the Disputants Who otherwise through contention and earnestnesse may bee apt to neglect the rules of DisputatioÌ„ whereof the first or chiefe is that the one meddle not with the others office as long as he holdeth to the rules of Disputation The parties being two a disputaÌ„t and a respondent The first thing the disputant is to doe is to state the question or rather to require of the respondent to do it if it bee necessary That is if he suspecteth the termes of the Thesis to be equivocall Then is he