2. 22. Tab. Suff. tab. 21. And having thus rid his hands of the Pope he proceeds against the infallibility of the Councils in his Tab. Suff. tab. 22. This being his signal Doctrine Non est impossibile c. It is not impossible that the Pope or Council should attempt to establish that as now of Faith which was some time before not of Faith and by that very attempt fall into an error and even promulgate that error c. And further he tells us As to a certain prophetick inspiration immediately and miraculously enlightning the Council or Pope if constantly and by the ordinary Law of God it be asserted to be required it is altogether fabulous and asserted without any solid ground Thus he Upon these grounds I say did this good proficient in this his Masters School endeavour to sustain your otherwaies ruinous Fabrick of Purgatory for in truth there is no other means left to support it but by the destruction of all the Authority of both Popes and Councils to deliver us our holy Faith And now I desire my Reader to consider for his just and full satisfaction of the design of this School that if these grounds be once admitted Christian Faith which they now combat is a meer mockery For if after all the Canons of Councils all the Anathmaes pronounced against any Opinion the very Anathema it self carrying with it and being an exercise of that power invested in the Church to oblige us to submission and beleef it still remains to be showen that the Pope or Council determined conformably to Tradition or else Master Whites styling the doctrine and profession new will not savour the least of Heresie or that it is not impossible a Council may err and promulgate an errour we are at an irrecoverable loss For no Catholick claims any other assurance of his Faith then upon this firm foundation that our holy Mother the Church is his infallible Directress That the Councils her mouth are the unerring Deliveres of Truth Which if it stand no firm absolutely but upon a supposition of a due application it being impossible we should have any higher or more authentique proof of this supposition then the Council it self there is no security no assurance left of any thing delivered by them Not so says he We may easily know when Councils and Consistories apply themselves aright by examining tradition of what we have seen and heard And shall I a private an illiterate Christian not yet acquainted with these solid and cleer-sighted Persons recall all the decrees of Councils to a new examine is there still a higher Court to which I may and ought to appeal from their sentence as to a superiour Iudg and Umpire over them shall I take this liberty upon me to censure their Proceeds to admit to reject their definitions as my weakness shall find them consonant to or dissonant from what I have seen and heard and if they were to receive their approbation from this Court How can I unless a senseless pride blind me hope that my industry in the search my ability to find shall not only equallize but even exceed that of five hundred perhaps a thousand Bishops and Prelates and the scrutiny of numberless Divines assisting them in this Inquest And even to ease us of this sollicitude you see what exact care is taken in these proceeds Pope Benedict here tells you of the holy Church that she teaches nothing rashly brings in nothing unwarily introduces nothing in faith unadvisedly And hence it is that all such sacred decisions are still ushered in with some such expressions as these After an humble invocation of the holy Ghost After a careful examination of the matter After a diligeâ—â— deliberation with our brethren c. But if all this sollicitude in truth signifie nothing if we must not acquiesce here but re-examine all in a higher tribunal iâ— not this the utter Extermination of all that authority we hitherto have believed the Church is furnished with to deliver us our holy Faith Is not this to resolve finally en dernier resort our Creed into our own brests to make every idle head competent Judge of Popes Councils Consistories All And them Judges of just nothing wherein do those loose bands of disagreeing Protestants all disagree from us and all agree against us but in this that we acquiesce and submit to the holy Church as the faithful keeper and dispenser of our Faith and Tradition and so submit that from her sentence we admit no Appeal against her decrees we admit no Contradiction whilst they by a supereminent pride assume to themselves a power to judg this Pillar of Truth and resolve All into their own capriccioes private reason spirit fancies pride and nothing And yet I pray you consider whether by this appealing from the Church to Tradition what we have seen and heard we are not sunk into a deeper sink of Errour of Independancy then they for they appeal to Scripture which though irrationally they accept as Canonical they admit their Translations as authentick and contest the sense onely with the Church whilst this Doctrine affoords us a far more full and ample reserve to evacuate all Faith at our pleasures since it is still in our power and we competent Judges what is Tradition what not where the Council proceeded with due Application upon the depositum of Faith where upon the uncertain wavering opinions of Schoolmen or pretended assistance of the Holy Ghost which extends to Creeds Catechismes Definitions yea the very Canon of Scriptures and indeed All that any way belongs to Christian Religion Nor will it avail if this Gentleman should tell me that I do him wrong to rank his Doctrine with that of the Protestants or indeed hold it worse then theirs for the Protestants down right tell us the Church hath erred de factâ— in these these Points in particular He and Master White more modestly and shily mince the matter and teach us that possibly onely or not impossibly the Council may err and promulgate an errour And perhaps he will say that these inconveniencies are saved by this his succeeding Doctrine in the same place Tab. 22. For there having delivered this his Doctrine against the infallibility of Councils he presently adds But it is impossible that such an errour thus promulg'd by the Council should pass into an establisht Doctrine of the Church and be accepted as a Doctrine delivered by the Fathers and preached by Christ For as to the first it will presently appear even in this our question that if their new model of Purgatory be subsistent not only possibly or not impossibly but de facto the Florentin Council and Church hath erred in this particular And since to say even not impossibly the Council may err the foundation of all assurance is now pulled up I know not but this Doctrine is as high and higher Independancy then theirs And as to those words of Master Whites I answer that they
the Arim to their preferring their private reasonings before the proper rule and light Tradition appointed by Christ to steer by and the concurrence of Divines seems general holding that there is no new Revelation that the Church onely declares matters of Faith which supposes them delivered not newly found out else she might make matters of Faith and bring all Truths within the compass of Christianity whereas indeed Christianity can onely be a belief of those Truths Christ taught whilest he was conversant amongst men This puts all to a loss For how shall it be known when Councils and Consistories apply themselves aright Easily by examining Tradition of what you have seen and heard This is the common light and plain way promised to keep even fools from straying from Christs Doctrine Neither is Mr. b b White Blacklow taxable in point of Disobedience he having submitted himself both to the Pope and Council FINIS The principal Errours PAg. 70. line 4. leave very ill consequences behind it read draw very ill consequences after it p. 98. l. 11. I now draw hopes r. I now draw is hoped p. 150. l. 3. corporea r. corporeae Introduction This is not well 〈◊〉 by T. W. See Consilium Authoris a See ratio operis Scito Dâ—um naturae esse authorâ—m c. Know God is the Author of Nature and that he perfects and elâ—vates it by supernatural things not that he showrs into our souls a series of things of a different or unlike order or nature Reason is Nature to us and the perfâ—ction of Reason is demonstration Do not then despair of demonstration from God Page 3. Page 11 Page 31. Page 12 13 14 15 16. Peg. com 21. * Sonus Buccinae the Title of one of Mr. Whites Books In Edic consir Conc. Câ—lc act 3. Gâ—l Pap. 1. ad Ep. Dar. miratisumus Grat. cau 24. q. 1. C. majores Aug. Ser. 32. de verb Apostoli Aug. Ser. 41. de S. S. Hom. 16. de 50. Serm. 41. de S. S. Hom. 14. in Levit. lib. 8. in Ep. ad Rom. 11. Master Whites Name in his Instit. Sac. a See Institutiones Sacrae in the beginning Ratio operis where after a description of the Theology he delivers Vide c. saith he to the Reader See what an execrable thing it is in such matters as these after a proposition and a hope of Verity in them to feed our hungry Souls with vain and lying trifles Remember then thou art a man born capable of truth and that all these things are proposed to thee in a familiar language that thou mightst understand and enjoy them He who hopes this without Demonstration goes about to delude himself and thee They object the obscurity of Faith and the inaccessible darkness of the Divinity to our Reason But this hinders nothing for such Demonstrations may be given of the Mysteries as is given of God himself c. Courage then and dare thou to expect in Theology the full satiety of thy understanding Seek in it certainty and the evidence of Science and Demonstration And in the same Institut Sac. 2 Volume lib. 3. Lect. 2. And since Grace is so implanted in Nature that they draw each other with connected Members and interlaced links it is not to be doubted but most of the Mysteries of Faith may be Demonstratively known so that the Church now proceeding to the midday they are to be Demonstrated b See ibid Ratio operis Theology is planted in nature Faith is delivered to us in humane language What more sublime things are disputed in Theology then Father Son Generation Spiration Nature Person c. And yet we were taught all these things by Nature and Reason even before Christ But if these things now be rendered evident there will nothing at all remain obscure See more fully in the same Book lib. 2. where all these things are pretended to be demonstrated by the Principles of natural Reason c See ibid. Ratio operis A libertatis cavo sibilâ—t alter anguis The other Snake hisses out of the Denn of Liberty Where of these contingent Theological Truths he largely promises demonstrations and attempts is every where in his new Theology where these mysteries are treated d See ibid Ratio operis Eadem Labyrintho c. In the same Labyrinth with Divinity Phylosophy too grew old But Digby hath held forth his Torch If now they dispair of it is vanished Dare now greater things his foot-steps will lead thee to the fortress of Theology c. What then dost thou fear and trembling shunnest the Digbaean attempts If the things thou learnest are false reason it self will teach thee so if they are true the happy success will now provoke thee glad if they are uncertain dost thou loose any thing by seeking set then the right foot forward and gratefully hold on that path trodden by other mens labours Exeg on the Apocalyps Sec. xâ— a See Instit. Sac. Ratio operis Expect that full Satiety or surfet of thy Vaderstanding in Theology Inst. Sac. lib. 2 Lect. 1. Inst S. li 3. lec 2. alibi In the Letter of Vindication Exeg on the Apocalyps sect. xi a See Instit. Sac. Ratio operis Sulcus quem duco c. The trench I now draw hoped will serve to derive both truth and certainty in Theological matters b See ibid. neque tamen sustinet haec aetas c. Nor does the present age sustain that mention be made of demonstrations or infallible decisions that theology may be esteemed a science knit together and woven with the connexion of consequences or that it be believed to stand on other foundations then a meer habnab medley of waxen words or a certain juggling temerity of babling Crackers without any sence or meaning under the sir-name of Phylosophy on either side of the contradiction What further mischief can we expect or how long do we hinder Fire and Sword and adore this Idol of desolation in the Temple c. Exeg on the Apacalyps Sec. 14. Master Whites Prophesie of the happy state of the Church and civil Governments guided by his demonstrâ—tive Religion In Râ—shâ—orths Dialogues Dialog. 2. Instit. Sac. 1. 3. Lcct. xi Inst. Sac. lib. 3 Lect. 9. Inst. Sac. lib. 3. Lect. 1. Concilium Provinciale Senonense Decreta fidei cap. 12. Inst. Periâ— lib. 5. lec 4.
the easiliest misled for them was pubâ—ished this our Bull of Pope Benedict the xii and as much of the Florentin Council as seemed necessary and sufficient to arm their souls against the attempts of this novelty by some Pious and Vigilant Shepheards to whom the care of their souls was committed Which Bull and part of the Council because it may not have fallen into my Readers hands I give it him again at the â—atter end of my Discourse Letter A. This Sir was the true ground of putting forth that little Volume nor had the Publishers any regard aâ— all as you tell us pag. 7. and 8. to The Letter of Vindication or as you now style it Challenge of which certainly not Master White himself but some Scholar of his and he but a slender Proficient in his Masters Doctrine was Author And truly the likeness of its style with that of this your Letter and the Authors still fancying himself inspired with the genius of Montalt the fained Writer of the late Provincial Letters as children by reading Romances fancy themselves to be Knight Errants Don Hercioes would perswade me they both came out of the same Shop And besides that the Protestation contained in the beginning of that Challenge as I heard well observed would be subscribed by all the Protestant Divines of the Church of England It is not consequent if Master White remaine still himself that now he should proclaim That if any thing expresly repugnant to any Doctrine of his be found in any Decree of Councils or Popes he is contented to be esteemed to have lost the Cause who had so lowdly before the publication of this book in his other writings disclaimed and disowned the authority of both Popes and Councils as we shall presently see Sect. 17. The Publishers supposed the sole evidencing that this new minted Purgatory stood condemned by that authority to which he who resists cannot remain a Catholick would proove a sufficient defence to well meaning souls against the assaults of this new Doctrine nor had they any design to enter the lists of Disputation against any persons whomsoever as appears evidently in this that they make no application of the Doctrine of this Bull or Council to any particular Doctrine of any particular Writer but fairly and candioly deliver the words of both the Pope and sacred Council in their Original and our vulgar Language And this indeed was abundantly sufficient for their design There needed no Application of the Churches affirmative to their negative now sustained both in private discourses and in Print they needed not tell the Reader that where one part of the contradiction stands defined the other undoubtedly stands condemned by the same sentence Children know that already Sect. 10. Who could justly suspect that this innocent this piously zealous proceeding should beget an adversary in print who could imagine that the care of the flock of Christ should now be accused of unreasonableness of injustice the Publishers accused of weakness of ignorance even of School-boyes Latine of animosity of an empty vanity to appear in print in a little volume without any name without any designed adversary where there was nothing their own but the pains to translate and the charges to print But so it was those whose consciences were their self-accusers who saw with what satisfaction that little Volume was received by pious persons and how their new Doctrine of Purgatory stood pointed out to every mans eye as condemned by that sacred authority took fire An O or an A shall be a sufficient subject to him who watches an occasion to write A Puny Scholar then of that School for such an one he was as will be rendered evident hereafter and none of the ablest proficients appears in the Field armed with a strong zeal to his Masters Doctrine and with contempt enough against the innocent Publishers whom in the entry to his discourse he proceeds to vilifie and undervalue Persons surely who never wronged him probably never saw him till now never heard of him and at this howr do not know him But it is not to vindicate their persons however injured and undervalued or to make use of that right which nature furnishes all men with to repell an offered violence by an equally violent resistance For we have learnt a far other lesson in the School of Grace then my Adversary hath in his new Masters Master Whites To render good for evil to pardon and pray for those that injure us But in the defence of our holy and deer Mother the Catholick Church and her never erring Faith in the defence of these decrees of the Pope and sacred Council that I undertake this quarrel and I desire my Reader but to be unbyassed in this our present dispute whether this Position That no Souls are delivered out of Purgatory before the re-assumption of their bodies and the general day of judgment stands not condemned by this present Bull of Pope Benedict 12. and the Florentine Council Sect. 11 And first that the contradictory of this Position is the universally received Doctrine of the Catholick Church appears most evidently in this That all Orthodox Writers who have treated this subject of the state of separated souls since the Promulgation of the Bull aforesaid and Council suppose it as a certain truth and therefore no one of them anywhere sustain the contrary Nor can the force of this evidence be weakned by saying That it is indeed the universally received opinion of Divines only but not their Faith for besides what I shall hereafter say in refutation of this answer those who are acquainted with the prying curiosity of the Schools and with the strange variety of their apprehensions know very well that where any thing may lawfully be denyed their restless curiosity ceases not to call it to the Test nor is it universally imbraced as Truth and therefore it is authority only and that irrefragable which puts limits and bounds to their curious scrutiny and the variety of their opinions But because my Adversary having now as he tells us conferred with those solid Persons acquainted with every Ressort of Master Whites Doctrine and as cleer sighted in those ages which afford us these Authorities as in that they live in With a strong youthful Confidence proclaims That it is incomparably false That the Question of Purgatory was in the dayes of Benedict agitated and settled by this Bull of his Or that the Council of Florence ever intended or defined any such matter And with a clutter of four or five pages settles us a quite other Question and Controversie as then disputed and determined to wit Whether perfect Charity be a sufficient disposition to beatifie a soul And appeals to Cherubinus his Compendium of this Bull and tells us That all Learned Writers agree It will justly fall under our consideration First Whether this our present Question of Purgatory were not then intended and defined And secondly Whether this his new
notwithstanding it is still in his power by his former Doctrine that it is not impossible the Council may err and promulgate an error to evacuate all the Canons of all the Councils at his pleasures for however the Authority of the Council now stands ingaged in the definition of any Doctrine however the Decree is now published to the whole world however the Church accept of the Decree however all Catholiques submit to the Decree yet it remains still in his power to say It never passed into an established Doctrine of the Church whilest he or his cleer-sighted Scholars intend to shake it And how far this his reserve of an establisht Doctrine delivered by Fathers and preached by Christ extends will sufficiently appear in his very attempt of the Faith of the Church in our Question of Purgatory For I have reason to beleeve he had a special regard to his beloved Purgatory when he renounced thus the Authority of Councils The consciences of all the illiterate Catholiques bear witness that the delivery of Souls from Purgatory is now their received Faith from their present Pastors and Teachers no Divine but knows that for Three hundred years and upwards ever since the promulgation of Pope Benedict his Bull no Orthodox Writer but submits to his Decree as unquestionable Master White himself tells us That St. Gregory the great was the first Founder of that Faith we now fight for a thousand years ago pursued and sustained by the numberless number of incomparably eminent Doctors and Saints In sum if there be any Article of our Faith witnessed any establisht it is this not any one carrying after it a more ample continued practise not any one testified by so many Foundations Prayers Masses Almes c. as this And yet this is no establisht Doctrine of the Church It is not a Truth delivered by Fathers as preacht by Christ And therefore he being overwhelmed with the consent of the whole Church for a thousand years appeals with the Protestants to the Primitive Ages immediate to Christ their plea and his being just the same differing onely in this that they say the substance of Purgatory is not the establisht Doctrine of the Church as delivered by Fathers preacht by Christ He that the delivery of Souls from thence is not even yet established Sect. 18. This Doctrine then is not the way as our ingenious Scholar says to keep fools from straying but the way to make fools stray and supposes a high folly in him who accepts it who leaves the received Doctrine of the holy Church to gadd after new models of a modern Divine But the way to keep both fools and wise men from straying is that which all the wise men in the world have hitherto followed to acquiesce to submit to the Church the Pillar of Truth without further dispute or reserve without further examination of her Decrees by what we have seen and heard We know assuredly that he shall never have God his Father in Heaven who hath not the Church his Mother on Earth And how injurious would he shew himself sayes the pious Emperour Marcianus to the most Reverend Synod who should attempt to question anew and publickly dispute and controvert such points as are once judged and rightly determined For who will grant says Pegna more authority to the Opinions of single persons disputing of Faith according to their own Fancy then to the definitions of Councils lawfully called and congregated where the Fathers hearts are governed by the Holy Ghosts dictamen T is already excellently well decreed for many Reasons That things once defined should be no more called in question For if such Doctrines as are thus constituted and decreed should be again brought under doubt and disputation surely no Iudgment or Sanction would remain firm and strong against any Errours what soever every establisht Truth and Definition of the Church being troubled afresh with the same Furies Thus Gelasius the First related by Gratian By which my Reader will observe how far a different road that ancient piety of Christians walkt in to Heaven then what is now chalked out to us by this School armed against the Authority of Popes and Councils Sect. 19. But before I leave this Point I will mind my Reader That if it were as he supposes it lawfull for every man to call the Decrees of Popes and Councils to a new trial by this Touchstone of Tradition by asking his very Question What we have seen and heard my Adversary hath lost his cause For to this Question being proposed in our present controversie of Purgatory what can we with truth answer but that we have seen innumerable Masses Dirges Alms c and that we have constantly heard that souls are delivered out of Purgatory by these powerfull helps before the Day of Iudgment And what can we with truth answer but that we have hitherto beleeved this and if we are still our selves and are not so inconstant as to be carried away wiâ—h the wind of a new Doctrine we do beleeve it and shall continue to believe it And for the proof of this Assertion I appeal safely even to the Consciences of those few Proselytes this new Master Master White hath gained Whether till of late this new Systeme of Purgatory came to light they ever entertained the least doubt of it Whether it were not their full perswasion A Doctrine which they beleeved to have been delivered with as firm and constant an Authority as any other whatsoever Whether ever they divided this from the rest of their Faith and allowed it a less degree of assurance onely as of Opinion Nor will it avail my Adversary to say That it was indeed his full perswasion buâ— not his beleef he never understood it though delivered to him from his present Pastors as the Faith of the Church but onely as the generally received Opinion of Divines and that in truth he never ranked it among the Articles of his Creed but in a lower form of I know not what consent of Schoolmen For the Experience of all Mankind will refute this falshood And confident I am if a long perswasion of his now received Doctrine hath not effaced the memory of his past disposition of soul his own conscience bears witness against him For as to the whole Universality of Catholiques they still assert and sustain this Faith they hear not of this novelty without horrour And for that handfull of persons who are thanks be to God not one in a million who have of late embraced the contrary let them for it highly concerns them duely examine their consciences Whether the private esteem of their Master Master White the Authour of this Doctrine the comfortable new apprehensions he introduces in lieu of that great terrour and fear they before were in of the sufferings of that state the easing their Consciences from the incumbent care of assisting their departed friendâ— for all this is immediately wrought by an acceptance of this Position
hath not wrought upon their inconstancy to abandon the Tents of the Church and to list themselves in this new Squadron to impugn their pious Mother to forsake a formerly received Beleef now to adhere to a new Doctrine which certainly at the first proposal checkt their former perswasion the holy Faith planted in their Souls Nor hath the contrary Assertion any thing but a bold confidence to warrant it for we know we feel we experience in our selves this Beleef We do beleeve the Councils can not misguide us We do beleeve the delivery of Souls before the Day of Iudgment This is our Faith as firm as a Rock not to be shaken by all the Sophistry of the world If it were possible as certainly it is not possible that it could be evidenced that our faith of both these is erroneous yet certainly it could never carry any fâ—ce of probability that we have not hitherto or even yet do not beleeve them every man being furnisht within his own brest with an irrefragable witness stronger then all the wit and Logick of the world The Protestants face us down that we make Idols of â—â—ictures against our own souls and knowledge What impudence is this And shall this new School have the confidence against all mens experience thus to give the Lye to the Consciences of the whole Christian world So that I hope my Reader rests satisfied that even this Courâ— to which he appeals hath given sentence against him even by this Question what we have seen and heard And how happily hath this our great Master Master White Arraigned himself as the first Author of our new Purgatory or any other the first Broâ—cher of a new Doctrine under the person of Luther Sonus Buccinae Tract. 1. viii before the Tribunal of his Bishop or a Nuntius of the Apostolick See That his own condemnation might be the more solemn and the sentence pronounced against himself conceived in his own words Thus then he makes Luthers and his own Process And let him be asked sayes he of the Doctrine of which he stands suspected and much more if now he hath sustained in Print whether he believes this his new Doctrine of Purgatory to be that Doctrin which this present Age he now lives in received from their Fathers of the immediate foregoing Age Whether he received it in his childhood when he was first instructed in Christian belief and which till he now became a Doctor he followed And let him answer for himself for what other answer can he make then that this his new broached Purgatory is not that Doctrin he thus was taught whilst he was yet a Child But that it is better Doctrine then the former which he himself hath now evinced out of sacred Monuments Heathen Poets out of the Bowels and Principles of Nature by Demonstration And that the contrary Doctrine to which he had been bred took its rise onely from ignorance of the nature of separated substances And let the faithfull people says he encompass the Tribunal now educated in this faith that the Authority of things which 〈◊〉 stand bound to beleeve descends handel down from Christ our B. Saviour and is otherwise even till this Age Will they nâ— cry out upon him as an Innovatour a Prophane Person an Heretick will they not proclaim and invoque to Prisons Fire with him to rid such a plague out of the world And he pursues But let the people be silent and let the Iudge â—erge him And do you not know Sir this new Doctrine fights against the known Laws of your Country that such an Author as you are first thrust out of the sacred Communion of the faithful should expiate or pay for this his presumption with death Do you not know that you now fight against the Fathers and Monuments of Antiquity that you combate an immemorable custome that you now impugne that reverence due to our most dear Parents by whom above all things else the contrary Doctrine of Purgatory is recommended to us as most profitable both for soul and body And since it can not with any face be denyed but that he knows he contends against all these Let the Iudg further urge him From whence Sir can you hope to draw any Argument of that evidence which may inforce us and other prudent men to follow this noveltie with an obdurate soul And let him answer that out of the Scriptures And the Iudg reply and do not you know that wilfully you inhere to holy Scriptures Do you not know that words do not signifie naturally but by institution And therefore the construction of words is subâ—ect to such variety that it is impossible to pick out any sence demonstratively at least any one expresly repugnant to the Doctrine of so many wise men who all of them indeavour the understanding of those sacred Texts as well as you Or can you pretend Christian Faith is directed by the â—ables of Heathen Poets or that you now can demonstratively shew out of the Principles of reason that to be false which we all have with unavoidable Authority hitherto believed to be true or that you now have attained to such a cleer understanding of the nature of separated souls that all the learning of mankind before you could not reach that which now you pretend to have demonstratively and scientifically proved Is it not evident sayes he that this large-wide mouth'd gaping promiser will produce nothing worthy the hearing but must needs bâ— esteemed as a meer frantick and mad person as he who Vaunts he will do that which all learned men know is impossible and the very unlearned see is improbable And further he pursues let the same or another Writer sayes he being now unmindful of his own weakness imagin to himself that either by his own reason or explication of Scriptures he hath now found out that which all former ages were ignorant of to wit that now in the third age or mans estate of the Church we shall be directed by faith no longer 〈…〉 for the future by his demonstrations which is the Position of this our Master as we shall presently see And that this truth was left by God to him to be revealed and manifested to the Church Of which Position the vulgar Christians as a sluggish Cattel not at all given to speculation know nothing and so he contemns them he laughs at the Doctours he styles the Saints lyars because men but that he himself is the first to whom God hath made known so great a mystery But though he be a most arrogant person let him weigh with him and consider Though I have hitherto contemplated this sublime and happy truth But when I come to propose this Doctrine to others they will presently object and ask whether Christian Faith hath any other ground of its security then a continued succession through all ages to our present time Do you Sir promise this new light of science of Demonstration If I deny it will they
be Inthroned Let Peter Paul and Iohn nay let our Master who came from heaven to teach us give way Let all other Doctors whatsoever attend upoâ— his Triumph Let the astonisht captivated world shutting henceforth their ears to all others hear him Alone Why should we trouble our heads any more with the Gospels with Paul We find no Satiety of our understanding in their bare naked Assertions In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and God was the Word What if ten thousand miracles were wrought in confirmation of this Doctrine my Soul haâ—h not its full content I still thirst after light after evidence which here is not to be found Let us then shutting our ears to these drily proposed Doctrines hear great Trinobant and Satiate and glut our understandings with this his evident cleer Demonstration For thus what St. Iohn obscurely had told us he makes apparent That there is Vnity and Plurality in God without Repugnance Since that God knows himself and the thing defined being put the definition is also to be put in him but to know is to be another thing as another thing and to be known is to be an other thing as an other thing the business is plainly ended that God is in God as an other in an other and by consequence Aliety is truly and really and as a predicat of God found in God and not onely as a manner of predicating or as it is in our Vnderstanding Here is light here is evidence able to ravish a soul nay Satiate and Surfet her in the height of all her Thirst and longing after Truth Sect. 24. In truth Sir a sober Reader though he were in a melancholy mood would be tempted to smile at this Demonstration as you did pag. 11. at the word verbatim And yet that Passion would justly give way to his indignation against this Presumption No Christian but hath heard That the Faith our B. Saviour taught Mankind was to continue in his holy Spouse the Church on earth till the consummation of the world and his second coming to Judge And can we cease to wonder or indeed to conceive a just indignation now to find a Thomas the English-man who after Forty or Fifty years study should tell us That in truth we have all been mistaken there is no such matter But that in the Infancy and Child-hood of the Church She was to walk indeed by Faith but now in the third Age or Mans estate she is no more to be governed by Faith but by Science by Demonstration In this very Third Age or Mans estate of the Church in which now we live to begin undoubtedly from himself since he admits of no one Demonstration in any one former Schoolman and himself promises thousands And all this made out of the most prodigious explication of the Apocalypse that ever saw light as if it were a meer Poem and a Stage-play And peculiarly of that passage That there were two wings of a great Eagle given to the Woman that she might fly into the desart He understanding this Woman to be the Church these two Wings to be Faith and Science Faith which our B. Saviour gave her in his Oeconomy on Earth by which she was to steer her course in her Nonage But now She being come to Mans estate He himself gives her the other Wing of Knowledg for henceforth she is onely to be directed by his Demonstrations And with this new Wing he now gives her fairly she may walk if she please unless she be able to fly as she hath hitherto done for Sixteen hundred years with one Wing alone since this Wing quite destroys the other Evidence and Science being perfectly destructive of Obscurity and Faith But it is worth my Readers pains to see this admirable conception of his fancied demonstrative Third Age of the Church described at large in the same Book Sect. 9. and elsewhere In the tenth Chapter sayes he begins and is perfected the Enarration of the Third Age of the Church which because it is to be prosperous and blessed and subject to few evils therefore it is described onely in general c. The Reason of this is for since Grace prefects Nature and since in rational nature there are three degrees or species of knowledg by which successively the soul receives increase to wit Faith which governs Children Opinion which steers young men as yet unexperienced and unskilful And lastly Science which directs men now perfect It is necessary that in the Church Nature ascend by the self same degrees Till Constantins time the first Christian Emperour Faith alone took place From Constantin till our age Hereticks were combated by Rhetorical and Logical dissertations which because by little and little is fitted to conduct men to Evidence the immediat succeeding Age of the Church is to be expected in which Evidence succeeding there will be no place for Heresies but the Church shall flourish in most perfect Peace and Prosperity And having thus adorned the scene he brings himself down from Heaven with these happy demonstrations in this manner As in this Chapter sayes he S. John teaches describing unto us A strong Angel as fitting for mans estate Descending from Heaven from whence all good things are derived to us Cloathed with a Clowd That is with a celestial garment as who brings heavenly things to us not keeping himself aloof from us but even approaching and coming neer unto us â—nd the Rainbow which is the symbol of Divine Peace hung over his Head And his Face was like the Sun To wit as he who came to communicate perfect light to humane kind And his Leggs in strength and firmness as Pillars And in activity as Fire And he had in his Hand an open Book that is to be read and understood by All And in which there was no obscurity or involution And He put his right Foot on the sea that is he subjected turbulent spirits by force and Power And His left Foot on the Land that is confirming and strengthening the humble and meeek And he cried out with a lowd voice even like the roaring of a Lyon Which apertains to the latitude of the Church which is signified to be extended as farr as his voice might be heard c. And the effect of his voice was that the seven Thunders might speak their Uoices that is have their effects which the Apostle is forbidden to write for the reasons above delivered nevertheless he is commanded to seal them in his memory perhaps to be told to pious men in privat not publickly to be promulgated to the Church But least this could not be so happily adapted to himself and his long lasting third age of the Church steered by his Demonstrative Religion since presently the Text introduces this same Angel swearing That time should be no more and S. Iohn is presently described to have devoured this open Book which the Angel brought from heaven Which might seem to