is I. To shew how unfit J. S. of all Men is to undertake this Cause II. To settle the true State of the Controversie between us III. To examine the Reasons he produces against our Grounds of Certainty IV. To lay open the weakness of his Arguments on behalf of the Infallibility of Oral and Practical Tradition I. As to J. S. his appearing in this Cause again we are to consider that in his Catholick Letters he frequently owns Faith vindicated Reason against Raillery and Errour nonplust and even Sure Footing it self But I shall now shew that he disowned the main Principles in those Books when he was in great danger of being Censured at Rome for them and therefore is not to be allow'd to produce them again The Account of this Matter will give great Light into the state of the present Controversie and is therefore necessary to be premised to it Out of those Books of J. S. a considerable Person in the Church of Rome selected three Propositions about the Grounds of his Infallible Certainty which were these I. That he who is obliged to profess Faith propositions true must see the Connexion between their Terms and consequently that they cannot be unconnected or false II. If the two Terms be not seen to be connected these Propositions may nay ought to be denyed by the Respondent whose Office and Right it is to grant nothing but what is evident lest he ensnare himself III. 'T is requisite and necessary that the Assent of Faith in divers particular Believers be formally Infallible or that those Persons be infallibly certain by evident Reasons that the Authority or Rule of Faith they rely on cannot herein deceive them Else great Wits and acute Reflecters whose piercing Vnderstandings require convictive Grounds for their Faith would remain for ever unsatisfied nor would the wisest Christians sincerely and heartily assent to nor with honesty profess the Truth of their Faith nor could any prove it true or establish rational doubters in it or convert Men of exact knowledge to it or convince Hereticks calling the Truth of it in question Nor could Governors and leading Persons with any Conscience or Credit propose and preach the Truth of Faith to the Generality These Propositions were tender'd to two Doctors of the Sorbon who declared The First could not be explained in a Catholick Sense and therefore very unfit for Catholick Letters For if say they a Person sees the Connexion between the Terms it would be Science and not Faith it is enough to see them not to be contradictory or that the Connexion is not repugnant to Reason Divine Faith is above not contrary to Reason As to the Second they agreed That neither could that be explained in a Catholick Sense because it is destructive of Faith and a Proposition ought not cannot be denied although the Respondent hath not Evidence of the Terms of which it consists when he otherwise knows the Church which Faith not Demonstration teaches to be Infallible in Matters of Faith to propose as a Truth revealed by God. To the Third they say That it cannot be explained in a Catholick Sense Because it is sufficient that the Church be believed by Faith to be Infallible and it is not requisite that the Infallibility of the Church be proved by evident Reason See here the main Design of his Catholick Letters declared to be no Catholick Doctrine which is to prove that there must be Infallible Certainty by Conclusive Evidence of the Churches Infallibility And if this be not Catholick Doctrine I am infallibly certain his Letters are far from being Catholick in their Sense One of these Doctors writes to the A. B. of D. That the Natural Sense of the Propositions could not be Catholick and that all Bishops were bound to suppress this Doctrine lest it did mischief to the Flock of Christ. And that the A. B. of Paris would revoke his Licence if the Author did not retract them as he hoped he would What Retract the Substance of his Catholick Letters Is this possible And yet again publish the same Doctrine as Catholick This is indeed very surprising But so it was For the A. B. of D. averrs That J. S. confessed the Propositions to be Heretical yea very Heretical but he said they were not taken in his sense which the other said was a ridiculous Plea. He granted that J. S. might contradict himself but there was no colour for saying the Propositions were not taken in their true sense And Mr. S. being requir'd by the A. B. of Paris to Anathematize these Propositions and to subscribe to the Censure that they could not be explained in a Catholick Sense he did it And yet the sense of them is maintained by him in his Catholick Letters Is not such a Man fit to hold the Cards for Mr. G. who makes the same Doctrine to be Heretical and Catholick as his Circumstances require And in his own Language he goes backwards and forwards blows and sups declares for and against the same Principles This Doctrine of J. S. was complained of at Rome and a Congregation of Cardinals was appointed to Examine it and they sent their Instructions about it to the Popes Nuncio at Paris where J. S. then was And therein they took notice that in his Vindication sent to them he detested that Doctrine as Heretical viz. that the Evidence of the Connexion of Predicate and Subject and the Evidence of the Rule of Faith by which the Believer may be infallibly certain he cannot be deceived is necessary in order to Faith. I desire the Reader to mark this Declaration which J. S. sent to Rome and to compare it with the Doctrine of his Catholick Letters But of that hereafter But it is worth our while to shew with what a double Face I. S. appeared in his Vindication and Complaint sent to Rome and in his Books which he published here And by that the Reader may judge of the Catholick Sincerity of the Writer of these Letters I. About the Faith he designs to demonstrate Faith Vindicated Preface I declare then that my chief End in this Treatise is to settle Christian Faith or to demonstrate that it must be truly or absolutely certain and that my applying it now and then to my Opposers is only a Secondary Intention and meerly Occasional Querimonia advers Lominum p. 49. He saith He speaks not of Faith in itself but as it is controverted among us The same he affirms p. 145 146. that he meddles not with Faith but with respect to his Adversaries or as it is disputed between Catholicks and those he calls Hereticks p. 148. If it were his design to settle Christian Faith and to make it truely and absolutely certain and only secondarily applying it to his Opposers how is it possible that at the same time he should not meddle with Faith in itself but meerly with respect to his Opposers Is not this a
Which are there received as in the Lump and if we receive the Book which contains all we must by the same Authority receive all contained in it As if a Purse be left to a Man by his Fathers Will full of Gold and Silver and this by the Executors be declared to contain all the Gold and Silver his Father left him they who deliver this Purse to him from the Executors do certainly deliver to him all the Gold and Silver left him by his Father But if he suspects there was both Gold and Silver left him by his Father which was not in that Purse then he must call in Question the Integrity of the Executors who declared that all was contained therein This is now the Case of the Christian Church as to all Divine Truths which respect Mens Salvation the Primitive Church who answer to the Executors in the other Case did unanimously declare that all such Truths were undoubtedly contained in the Written Word Although therefore there may be a real Difference in the nature of the Doctrines therein contained as there is between Gold and Silver yet he that receives all must receive one as well as the other and the Matters of Salvation being of greatest Moment they that receive the whole Will of God upon Grounds of Certainty must be assured that therein they receive all Matters necessary to our Salvation Never was any Purse so rifled as this is by J. S. he examines not only the Coin in it but the very Strings and Linings of it He is a dreadful Man at Ransacking a Metaphor He tells me My Similitude is so far from running on four Legs that it is in many regards lame on the right and indeed only foot it ought to stand on and which is worse perhaps against my self The sum of it amounts to this that because Scripture contains all and Protestants have Scripture therefore they have all A strange kind of Discourse As if because they have it in a Book therefore they have it in their Minds and Souls in which and no where else Faith is to reside But was not the Question put whether we had All the Points of Faith which our Saviour taught And how could I answer a Question about All but by shewing where we had All If All the Doctrine of Christ be there we must be certain we have all if we have the Scripture which contains all But it is not enough to have it in a Book I grant it But still if you ask where all my Faith is contained I must refer you to that Book which contains All. For I profess to believe every thing there and nothing as a Point of Faith but what is there We do not pretend that it is enough for Persons to say their Faith is in such a Book but we grant that they ought to read and search and actually believe what ever they find in that Book but still all Points are not equally necessary to all Persons that are therein contained but all such as are necessary to Salvation lie there open to the Capacities of all who desire to know them Now this is one of the things J. S. finds fault with this similitude of a Purse for viz. That People think it is an easie thing to open and as easie to come at the Sense of Scripture as to take Money out of a Purse 'T is but plucking the Strings and the Deed is done And is this any Disparagement to a Rule of Faith to be plain and easie If it were not so it could not be a Rule of Faith for all Persons We do not say that any Person by opening the Scriptures may presently attain to the Certain Sense of all Places of Scripture but that which I assert is That no Man who sets himself to read and consider the Scriptures as he ought and prays for Wisdom from God shall miss of knowing all things necessary to his Salvation But Mr. S. is for mending the Similitude and truly he doth it after an extraordinary manner He will allow the Scripture to be a Purse provided the Purses Mouth were tied up with a Knot of such a mysterious contrivance that none could open it but those who knew the Mind of the Bequeather and that the Church to which it was left as a Legacy had knowledge of his Mind and so could open it whilst Others only perplexed themselves more while they went about it The Point then between Us is whether the Scripture were left only to the Church to Interpret it to the People in all Points or whether it were intended for the general good of the whole Church so as thereby to direct themselves in their Way to Heaven and consequently whether it may not be opened and understood by all Persons in Matters that are necessary to their Salvation One would think by the Church of Romes management of the Scripture keeping it so much out of the Peoples hands and talking so much of the Danger and Mischief that comes by it that they did esteem it just as the Old Romans did the Sybillin Oracles which were to be kept up from the view of the People and only to be consulted in Cases of great Difficulty and no farther Questions were to be asked but what the Keepers of them declared to be their meaning was to be so received without any farther Examination And this is the Sense of the Politicians of that Church concerning the Scripture But when they have written like Divines and have been driven to state the Controversie truly they have been forced to such Concessions as have overthrown the Political Hypothesis For I. They cannot deny that the Scripture was designed to be a Certain and Infallible Rule of Faith to all This Bellarmin proves in the beginning of his Controversies where he shews at large That the Law was the Rule in the Old Testament To the Law and to the Testimony Blessed are they that search thy Commandments c. That in the New Testament Christ proves his Doctrine by the Scriptures and refers the Pharisees to the Scriptures and confuted the Sadduces out of them That the Apostles direct Christians to honour and esteem and to rely upon them And then he proves that a Rule of Faith must be Certain and Known and for the Scriptures he saith Nihil est Notius nihil Certius Nothing is more Known nothing more Certain How can this be if there be such Mystical Knots which tye it together that none but the Church-Guides can unloose How can this then ever be so Known as to be a Rule of Faith to the People And not meerly a Rule but a most Certain and Safe Rule Which is the greatest Non-sense in the World if it cannot be understood by those who are to make it their Rule They may as well say That Algebra was a Rule for Masons and Carpenters and a Jacob's Staff for a Taylor 's Measure But Mr. S. hath beaten his Brains so long about Rules
what Sense I took it and could I answer him more directly than to tell him I took it in the largest Sense as it was made up of all the Parts and not in such a Sense as they do who give the Denomination of the Whole to a Part But by this I do not seclude all Hereticks I do not take upon me to judge of all the Bodies of Christians in the World whether they be justly charged with Heresie or not but I take them only as Christians and from their Universal Consent I prove the Certainty of the Canon of Scripture Hereby I profess a Brotherhood with Excrementitious Outcasts I know not what Brotherhood lies in making use of their Testimony but I had rather do it than with unsufferable Pride and Folly call so many Bodies of Christians for whom Christ died Excrementitious Outcasts But although he seems to own that their Testimony doth strengthen the Evidence for the Canon of the New Testament yet he calls it back again and for extraordinary Reasons 1. They may have corrupted the Letter of Scripture although they may allow of the Books Let us then take their Testimony for the Books and examine the Letter afterwards 2. This Vniversal Testimony must reach to each Chapter and Verse but we must have Assurance not only of each Verse but of each significant Word in the Verse How hardly are some Men satisfied about the Certainty of Scripture Are there not different Copies in all Parts to examin and compare if there be cause of Mistrust and if there be none What Prejudice is this to our Certainty At this rate Men may argue against every thing and that there can be no Certainty of any Writing unless the Person stood by and saw the Author write and even then he might question his Senses too These Objections do indeed lead to an Incurable Scepticism in the Church of Rome 3. The Judges suspect the Justness of the Cause if known Knights of the Post are called in to corroborate the Evidence What a desperate Cause is that which forces Men to fling such Dirt in the Face of so many Christian Churches And that without the least Evidence or Proof against them How come all the Greek Abyssine Coptick Oriental Christians to be compared to Knights of the Post because they afford a Concurrent Testimony with us about the Canon of the New Testament They may be the honestest and best Part of Christendom for any thing J. S. knows and what Justice can there be in such Uncharitable Censures It is not enough for you to say They are all accounted Hereticks or Schismaticks by you for we that know how unjust and unreasonable your Censures are so near home have no Cause to regard them at such a distance Thus I have Answered all the Objections I have met with in J. S. against our Rule of Faith. I now come to the last part of my Task which is to examin the Arguments produced to prove the Infallibility of Oral and Practical Tradition The main Argument is thus set down by Mr. S. All Traditionary Christians believe the same to day which they did yesterday and so up to the time of our Blessed Saviour and if they follow this Rule they can never err in Faith and therefore are Infallible And they could not innovate in Faith unless they did forget what they held the day before or out of malice after it All the Parts of this Argument Mr. S. endeavours to shew to be Self-evident but in truth it is a Self-evident Fallacy as I shall shew at large But before I particularly lay it open I must consider what he saith against the Method I used in the Conference for answering it I then thought and do still that the clearest Answer to an Argument which proves a thing impossible was to bring an undeniable Instance that such a thing really was which was proved impossible to be And to this purpose I produced the Instance of the Greek Church which professed to follow Tradition and yet they could not deny to have erred This Mr. S. saith Is giving no Answer at all for this is no Answer to his Argument but producing a new Argument against him And he magisterially tells me That it is my turn to answer and therefore I am confined to Concedo Nego or Distinguo as the Propositions are either true false or ambiguous or I may deny the Inference if I find more terms in the Conclusion than in the Premisses But these are my Bounds which I must not exceed But with submission to these Logicians I answer That where an Argument is designed to prove a thing impossible which is contrary to Sense and Experience the producing an evident Instance is the plainest and shortest way of Answering as well as in an Induction which is allowed to be disproved by a plain Instance As in the Case of Zeno's Argument against Motion Diogenes his Moving was a far more effectual Answer than if he had stood a great while with his Concedo Nego and Distinguo J. S. confesses That the vanity of Zeno 's Argument was not ill ridiculed by Diogenes his moving before him And why might not I then expose the vanity of this Demonstration by the Instance of the Greek Church unless some fault be found in the Instance He brings the Argument and I an Instance against it what are People the wiser and which shall they be for the Argument or the Instance Zeno brought his Argument and Diogenes his Instance were not By-standers the wiser when it so apparently proved the foppery of the Argument Doth J. S. think the vanity of it was not enough exposed by that means But he saith This is excepting against the Conclusion when there lies none against the Premisses No such Matter for it shews there is a Fallacy in the Premisses It is however but an Argument ad hominem call it what you will so it doth my business to shew the vanity of the Demonstration This way doth but sham an Adversary And truly that is a great matter if they be such as P.G. They are of no use for discovery of Truth As much as laying open Sophistry helps to the discovery of Truth which is not a little when we deal with Sophistical Disputers But we come to the Instance How doth he after all clear this Instance of the Greek Church Doth he deny that they hold to Tradition No. Doth he deny that they have erred notwithstanding All that he saith is That P. G. was no ways obliged not to deny that the Greek Church had erred in Points of Faith. No then he must grant that the Roman Church hath erred for they contradict each other Let him take his choice one doth my business as well as the other and more effectually destroys the pretence of Infallibility in the Roman Church But I say they did not err What is my saying to the business in hand Besides there are