Faith Does he think the Mysteries of Faith are the Way to Faith Or can he pretend that the State of the Question exprest so carefully before-hand in a Preface to signify my meaning throughout the whole Treatise following is totally to be set aside and neglected and that only single words pickt out where for brevity's sake I did not constantly repeat it are to give my true Sense What impertinent Brabbling is this Again p. 16.17 I no less punctually declare that I only treat of the Objects or Points of Faith as their Truth depends on those Motives or Rule of Faith. Yet all will not do to a man bent upon Cavill 9. My last Note towards the End let 's him see clearly when to whom and how Infallible Assent is requisite and not requisite And I had forestall'd this too before in an Elaborate Discourse from p. 131. to p. 158. in Error Nonplust where I shew'd that since Faith must be True and not possible to be a Lye therefore all who have true Faith must be out of capacity of being in an Error or must be in some manner Infallible That it was enough simply to have Faith that they be Materially Infallible or not capable of being in an Error by relying on a Ground that cannot deceive them such as is the Testimony of Gods Church tho' they see not how it must be so Nay that this is absolutely sufficient for All who are coming to Faith provided they do not happen to doubt that their Reasons for the Churches Infallibility are Inconclusive and so be apt to remain unsatisfy'd or are not bound to maintain the Truth of Faith against Opposers in which case they are to be able to see and prove the Conclusiveness of their Grounds from some Certain Principle which I call there to be Formally Infallible This and much more is laid out there at large which prevents most of his Objections here But no notice takes the good Dr. of it It was it seems too great a Mortification to him to peruse a Book which he was highly Concern'd to answer and knew he could not 10. His Fourth Contradiction is solv'd in three lines I treated of the Humane Authority of the Church the Rule of Faith which was Extrinsical to Faith as 't is a Theological Virtue or Divine Yet it being an Extrinsical Argument as all Testimony is I therefore went about to prove it's force from Intrinsical Mediums fetcht from the Natures of the Things viz. Man's Nature and the Nature of the Motives Nor can the Certainty of Witnessing Authority be prov'd otherwise 11. His Fifth is clear'd by my first four Notes which shew that I spoke of Faith which was by the Confession of both Parties Divine and Supernatural and for that reason called so by me but did not treat of it as thus qualified or go about to prove it Divine but prov'd it's Truth meerly as it depended on Humane Faith previous to it and so did only formally treat of that Humane Faith it self on which the Knowledge of Divine Faith leans and by which those coming to Divine Faith are rais'd up to it Yet what hideous Outcries the Dr. makes here that by my Doctrine we are to seek for the Certainty of Faith formally Divine That I make Divine and Supernatural Faith derive it's Certainty from Natural Infallibility c. Tho' he knows as well as that he lives that we make Faith as Formally Divine derive it's Certainty from the Divine Authority testify'd to us by Miracles That this Establishment of Divine Faith by Supernatural means is presuppos'd to our Question and granted by both sides and that our only Point is how we may know certainly what was this Divine Faith thus ascertain'd at first Whoever reads Third Catholick Letter p. 23.24 will admire with what face he could object these falshoods or counterfeit an Ignorance of what has been so often and so clearly told him and which he had seen so particularly answer'd in my Defences But this is his usual Sincerity 'T is pretty to observe into what a monstrous piece of Nonsense our Dr. has fall'n here and how because I argue from Supernatural Faith he thinks I am arguing for it or proving it Whereas common sense tells every man who has not laid it aside that he who argues from another thing supposes that other thing and so cannot possibly while he does so go about to prove it or treat of it But it seems For and From are the same with his great Reason and not possible to be distinguisht He might have seen other Arguments drawn from the Supernaturality of Faith to prove that the Rule which is to light intelligent men who are Unbelievers to Faith must be more then Morally Certain But he thought best to chuse the worst and while he objected that too mistook From for For that is the Premisses for the Conclusion and the Cart for the Horse 12. His Sixth Exception if pertinent amounts to this I.S. did not prove any point Divine and Supernatural therefore Dr. St. needs prove no point of Faith he holds to be truly deriv'd from Christ A fair riddance of his whole Task For the rest We do not desire him to prove by his Rule one determinate point more than another only since he talks of his Grounds which cannot be such unless they derive their solid Virtue of supporting to what 's built on them we instance now and then in some main and most necessary Articles of which if he can give us no account how they come to be absolutely ascertain'd by his Ground or Rule he can give it of none Each Point of Faith is of a determinate sense We shew that Tradition gives and ascertains to us this determinate sense and we shew why it must do so and how it does so this with Absolute Certainty Let him shew his Rule has the power to do this then pretend we are on equal Ground But alas He must not say this who is all for Moral Certainty and fancies nothing above it For he cannot say by such Grounds any Point is or is True while it may be False that they were taught by Christ and if he says they are or were taught by Christ while they may not be so he in plain terms affirms the same thing may at once be and not be For thither the Doctrine of Faith's possible falshood must be reduc't at last and the Greatest of Contradictions will be found to be his First Principle 13. His 7th Exception is answer'd in my last Note which shews that the Ground upon which the Truth of Faith depends must be more than Morally Certain tho' every Believer needs not penetrate the force of those Grounds or have even so much as Moral Certainty of their Conclusiveness But what means he when he Objects my saying that True Faith by reason of its Immoveable Grounds can bear an asserting the Impossibility of it's Falshood Can
against too by others Yet I shall not be so like some I know to turn a Dispute into a Wrangle but shall apply my self to shew how far the Doctrine of Tradition is from deserving to be charg'd with such injurious reflexions 10. But before I go farther I must take notice of your quoting F. Warner here p. 8. and your appealing to him where you put Haeresis Blacloana in the Margent By which you seem to hint that he is the Author of that Book and an Adversary to the Doctrin of Tradition even so far as to judg it not sound in Faith for no less aversion could make you very much question whether F. W. would absolve any man who professed to embrace Catholick Faith on Mr. G's Grounds But as that very Reverend Person declares he never saw that Book till some of them were presented him bound so himself has forestal'd your little policies aiming to set us at variance in our Tenets in his Anti-Haman p. 203. We Catholicks have Faith because we believe firmly those Truths that God has reveal'd because he reveal'd them to the Church Which as a faithful Witness gives hitherto and will give to the end of the World Testimony to that Revelation And we cannot be Hereticks because we never take the liberty to chuse our selves or admit what others chuse but we take bona fide what is deliver'd us reveal'd by the greatest Authority imaginable on Earth which is that of the Catholick Church He proceeds Here then is the Tenure of our Faith. The Father sent his only begotten Son consubstantial to himself into the world and what he heard of his Father he made known to us Io. 15.11 The Father and Son sent the H. Ghost and hee did not speak of himself but what he heard that he spoke Io. 16.13 The Holy Ghost sent the Apostles and they declared unto us what they had seen and heard 1 Io. 1.3 The Apostles sent the Highest and Lowest Prelates in the Church and the Rule by which they fram'd their Decrees was Let nothing be alter'd in the Depositum Let no Innovation be admitted in what 's deliver'd Quod Traditum est non innovetur But he more expresly yet declares himself no Adversary to this way ibid. p. 267. Your Friend Mr. G. B. had call'd this way of proving Doctrines that They had them from their Fathers they from theirs a New method of proving Popish Doctrines and receives for Answer these words You discover your Ignorance in saying that Method was New or that Arnaud invented it Mr. Thomas White had it before Arnaud Mr. Fisher a Iesuite before T. W. Bellarmin before him St. Austin St. Stephen Pope Tertullian before them all Where you see he both allows this very Method we take as practis'd by Modern Controvertists of note nay by some of his own Order too whom he is far from disapproving and by Antient Fathers also whom he highly venerates Your petty Project thus defeated I shall endeavour to open your Eyes if they be not which God grant they be not wilfully shut 11. The Asserters of Tradition observing that the Adversaries they had to deal with admitted Christ's Doctrin to be Divine held it the most compendious way to put a speedier End to all Controversies which Experience taught them were otherwise liable to be spun out into a voluminous length and the most efficacious Method to conclude all the Heterodox of what denomination soever to prove That the Doctrin held now by the Catholick Church was Christ's or the self-same that was taught at first by Himself and his Apostles It was bootless for them to attempt to prove this by Texts of Scripture manag'd by their Private Wits For the Truth of our Faith depending on Christ's Teaching it if it were not Absolutely Certain Christ taught it it could not be evinc't with Absolute Certainty to be True. Now the same Experience inform'd them that no Interpretation of Scripture made by Private Judgments of themselves or others could arrive to such a pitch of Certainty and consequently would leave Faith under the scandalous ignominy of being possibly and perhaps actually false It was to as little purpose to alledge against such Adversaries the Divine Assistance to the Church or Christs Promise of Infallibility to it as you very weakly object to Mr. G. p. 16. as not once asserted by him For tho' this was believ'd by the Faithful yet it was disown'd by all those Heterodox and being it self a point of Faith it seem'd improper to be produc't for a Rule of Faith. Besides how should they prove this Divine Assistance If by Scripture interpreted by their Private Judgments these not being Absolutely Certain it would have weaken'd the Establishment of that Grand Article which to the Faithful was a kind of Principle to all the rest in regard that upon the Certainty of it the Security they had of all the other Articles was to depend If by the Divine Authority of the Church it self it was not so easie to defend that method not to run round in a Circle whereas all Regular Discourse ought to proceed straight forwards These Considerations oblig'd them to set themselves to make out by Natural Mediums that the Human Authority of such a Great Body as was that of the Church was Absolutely Certain or Infallible in conveying down many visible and notorious Matters of Fact and among the rest or rather far above the rest the Subject being Practical and of infinite Concern that such and such a Doctrin was first taught to the Age contiguous to the Apostles and continued ever since By this means they resolv'd the Doctrin of the present Church into that of Christ and his Authority and consequently these being suppos'd by both Parties to be Divine into the Divine Authority granted by all to be the Formal Motive of Divine Faith. 12. This is the true state of that Affair And now I beseech you Learned Sir Where 's the Polagianism Where is the least Ground or shadow of Ground for all these bugbear words and false accusations which to make them sink deeper into the Reader 's Belief and create a more perfect abhorrence of our Tenet come mask't here under an affected shew of Godliness All hold their Faith relies on the Divine or Christs Authority into which they finally resolve it and all Catholicks hold Grace necessary to believe the Mysteries of Divine Faith tho' all perhaps do not judge Grace needful to believe upon Human Authority this Matter of Fact viz. That Christ taught it Yet my self in Faith vindicated seeing that the admitting this Truth would oblige the Heterodox to relinquish their ill-chosen Tenets and return to the Church against which they had a strong aversion did there declare my particular Sentiment That God's Grace and some Assistance of the Holy Ghost was requir'd to make them willing to see the force even of this Natural Demonstration so much against their Humour and Interest Is it
of Errour for the pure Gold of Truth and Soul-poysoning Heresies for means of Salvation Had I a mind to set up a similitude-mender and that you will needs have it a Purse I should beg your leave to put it thus Suppose that Purse's Mouth were tyed up with a knot of such a mysterious contrivance that none could open it I mean still as to the understanding the Mysteries of our Faith 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 while others tortur'd their Wits with little tricks and inventions turning and winding the ambiguous folds of it some one way some another and yet entangled their own thoughts more and more while they went about to unty the Knots that so perplex't them 22. This is the true case You make account containing does all the business whereas 't is nothing at all to our purpose which is in the final Intention of it about the Absolute Certainty of your Faith unless we have equal assurance that you can get out thence what 's contain'd there as you pretend to have that 't is contain'd Now it cannot be deny'd but the Primitive Church was imbu'd with Christ's sense by the Preaching of the Apostles and their immediate Successours and so had a sure and proper Way to interpret Scripture and while this sense was still deliver'd down they could not fail of an absolutely Certain Rule to understand it right But there steps up now one Heretick then another opposing himself to the sense of the Church and relying on the dextery of his own wit will needs find out contrivances how to open the Scripture's Meaning by wayes of his private Skill But falls into multitudes of Errours finding no way to unfold the deeply-mysterious Book having refus'd to make use of the right means viz. Christ's sense descending in the Church by Tradition Whence notwithstanding all his little Arts and boasting presumption like the Fox in the Fable Vas lambit Pultem non attingit 23. Mistake me not I do not mean Scriptures Letter is not clear in such passages as concern Common Morality or the Ten Commandments with the Sense of which every one is imbu'd by the Light of Nature Nor in matters of Fact such as were most of those Marks or Signs to know the Messias by foretold us by the Prophets our Saviour's doing such and such Miracles his going beyond Iordan c. Nor in Parables explain'd by himself and such like But in Dogmatical Points or Tenets which are Spiritual and oftentimes profound Mysteries and of these by the way I desire still to be understood when I speak of the Certainty of the Letter or Sense of Scripture for with other Passages I meddle not as the Tenet of a Trinity Christ's God-head the Real Presence of his Body in the Sacrament and such like which have a vast Influence upon Christian Life either immediately or else in a higher Nature being as it were Principles to many other Articles of Faith which depend on their Truth One would verily think I say that such as these should be some of your Golden Points or else there were none at all contain'd in your Purse Yet we experience That even in such as these your Rule is not intelligible enough to keep the Followers of it from erring So that let your Purse have never so Golden and Silver a lining you are never the richer unless you can come at it or can certainly distinguish the pure Gold of Truth from the impure Dross of Errour Your Similitude then comes not home to your purpose nor shews that you have therefore all your Faith or all Divine Revelations because you have a Book which you judge contains them Let 's see now if it does not make against you You put the Doctrin or Points of Faith to be the Gold and Silver contain'd in the Purse and consequently that must be the Purse into which that Doctrin of Faith was put by Christ our Saviour and this was evidently the Heads and Hearts of the Faithful For the Points of Faith being so many Divine Truths are onely contain'd in Men's Minds properly and Words being by their very Definition but Signes of what is in our Minds Truths are no more really in a Book than Wine is really in a Bush which signifies it Since then those Truths were onely in the Breast of Christ Originally and after him in that of the Apostles and their Thoughts could not be communicated nor consequently the Gold and Silver deliver'd to the Legatees otherwise than by signifying it which can onely be done by one of these ways by Living Voice and Practice or by Writing that is by Tradition or Scripture neither of these can with any Sense be liken'd to the Purse it self into which the money is to be put or answer comparatively to It but they are both of them Wayes Means or Methods of putting these heavenly Riches into it's Proper Purse the Souls of the Faithful Of these two Ways our Saviour chose the First which was Teaching his Doctrin orally for he writ nothing and by doing thus told us it was the better For it had been against his Infinit Wisdom to chuse the worser way for Himself to make use of and leave the better to his Servants Nor did his servants the Apostles affect the Way of Writing so as to use it onely but on the contrary they made use of this Oral Way of Preaching constantly and that of Writing for the most part at least if not altogether occasionally They converted the present Church by their Preaching they comforted the future Church by leaving many most edifying Words and Actions of our Blessed Saviour Written which being Particulars and not breaking out openly into Christian Practice might otherwise in likelihood at least to a great degree have been lost to succeeding generations besides the abetment their Writings give to Faith it self when certainly interpreted and rightly understood So that according to this discourse of yours we should either have never a Purse to put Points of Faith in for you take no notice of the Souls of the Faithful into which they are properly put and in which onely they are in reality contain'd Or if you will needs call that a Purse which contains them meerly as a Sign does the thing signify'd or as that which may signify to us our Faith you must put two Purses Tradition and Scripture And then the onely Question is out of which Purse we can with more Certainty get it That is whether a Living Container which can give us perfect light of it's Sense by all the best ways imaginable or the Dead Letter which as Experience demonstrates can neither clear it's Sense to Private Understandings nor if we doubt of it's Meaning and had a mind to ask it could either hear or reply much less pertinently and appositely speak to the Asker as oft as he
this man do himself a greater prejudice than by thus confessing that he holds not Christian Faith absolutely speaking True Or can he lay a greater scandal on Christian Faith it self than to quarrel at a Position that can give him no displeasure but by asserting it's perfect Truth If this do not like his new-fashion'd Christian Principles I suppose he will own the contrary Position and affirm that True Faith by reason of it's Moveable or Uncertain Grounds Cannot bear an asserting the Absolute Impossibility of it's Falshood And this is in plain terms to assert that absolutely speaking True Faith may all be False which is both Unchristian and strong Nonsense to boot He should have Preach't this to his Auditory at Guildhall and then he should have seen how every honest Hearer would have abhorr'd his Doctrine have lookt upon Him as scarce half a Christian and on such a Faith as absurd praeternatural and Irrational as well as I did 14. These are the greatest Contradictions the Dr. could pick even out of an Adversaries Book concerning which he keeps such a mighty noise blusters and triumphs He tells the Reader I affirm that Moral Certainty destroys the Essence of Faith. And I affirm it does taking Faith without some absolutely certain Principle as Demonstration is to ground it on For Faith is essentially True and it cannot be True to those who see that notwithstanding it's Grounds which are to prove it Christ's Doctrine it may yet be none of his Doctrine Again he says I make Moral Certainty Sufficient and Insufficient for Faith. Distinguish good Doctor 'T is not Sufficient for the Ground of Faith as we treat of it for if there may be Deceit in that Ground the Truth of Faith as to us sinks And yet Moral Certainty and even less of the force of that Ground is Sufficient to many nay All so they adhere to a Ground that is really Infallible and Salvation is attainable by those Persons Oh but Salvation is to be had by such a Faith no better grounded and that 's the main business What If for want of a firm Ground Faith hap to be False Who ever said it or that in case any Point embrac't upon such a Ground happen to be Vntrue it could be a Point of Faith or that any man could be sav'd by vertue of a Heretical Tenet or a pernicious Falshood Yet for want of Dr. St's understanding plain sense and his applying my words to a wrong subject I must forfeit my Sincerity and Moral Honesty whereas himself forfeits both by confounding every thing which I had so carefully distinguisht There is not a tittle objected by himself or Lominus but I distinctly and clearly answer'd in my Clypeus Septemplex and Vindiciae to the satisfaction of all my Superiours and Judges Yet this man of Moral Honesty has the Ingenuity to object them afresh without taking notice of my Answers or letting the Reader so much as know any such Satisfactory Answers or any answer at all had been already given 14. As for the three Propositions pickt out of my Books apart from the Context and which as taken in the precise words in which they were exhibited were censur'd I desire the Reader to reflect that these words There is no God tho' found in the Holy Scripture it self yet as separated from the words adjoyning and exprest in those precise terms are perfect Atheism and deserve the highest Censure and yet the same words as they lie in the Sacred Book it self with these foregoing words The Fool hath said in his heart joyn'd with them the direct contrary is signify'd by that place This was my very case The words or passages taken alone without the Prefaces declaring the sole Intent of the Author without the State of the Question and other Paragraphs or words in the same Paragraph giving light by the Tenour of the Discourse to my true meaning bore a shew as if I had affirm'd that it was requisite to Faith to demonstrate the Mysteries of Faith and among them the Supernatural Infallibility of the Church which is a Point of Faith. Especially since there was inserted by the Exhibiter a Parenthesis in the middle of the second Proposition he speaks of Propositions of Faith whereas there was not a word of any such thing but about fifteen times the contrary in the self-same Paragraph viz. That I spoke of Motives Premisses and Grounds of Faith. Now the Censurers knew not that those Propositions were in any Book or had any Antecedents or Consequents as they publickly declar'd and I have it under their hands and consequently Censur'd them as my self should have done had I been in their Circumstances and circumvented as they were As soon as I saw the Censure I offer'd voluntarily to Subscribe to it knowing that those Propositions thus singled out were no more my Doctrine than There is no God was the Sense of the Sacred Writer nay quite contrary to it The Censurers declar'd they were surpriz'd and complain'd they were by indirect wiles impos'd upon So at the Arch-Bishop of Paris his Command I writ my Vindiciae to manifest the true Sense of those passages as they lay in my Books which I shew'd very clearly and particularly to be that I only spoke of Faith as standing under a Rule ascertaining it's Descent from Christ. My Books being in English it was order'd that some Persons of great Learning and Repute who understood English should examine and testify whether taking those Propositions as they lay in my Books the Orthodox Sense I assign'd to them were indeed my genuine meaning in those places My Adversary too allow'd of them to attest it for indeed their known Probity and Learning was such that it was impossible to except against them and that Venerable and Pious Personage Abbot Montagu to whom they were known it being requir'd gave Testimony to both those Qualifications in them They all unanimously attested by their Subscriptions that the Orthodox Sense I assign'd was indeed the true meaning of those Places and that the Sense condemn'd was not in those Books but the direct contrary whence follows that when I Subscrib'd the Censure I subscrib'd only to what had ever been my own Doctrine Those Reverend and Judicious Persons were Mr Francis Gage Dr. of Sorbon Mr Thomas Godden Dr. of Divinity Mr Robert Barclay Principal of the Scotch Colledge in Paris Mr Bonaventure Giffard and Mr Iohn Betham then Batchelours of Divinity in Sorbon both of them since Doctors of the same Faculty and the former of them now Bishop of Madaura Mr Edward Cary Mr Edward Lutton and Mr G. K. The Arch-Bishop of Paris being perfectly satisfy'd hoping it might end future Disputes desired me to Subscribe to the Censure I refus'd at first alledging that such a Subscription might be improv'd into a pretence that I had retracted He replied Uteris itaque quâ Subscriptionis formulâ tibi placuerit
into Falsity and overturn what 's Built on it deserves not the name of a Ground and a Rule which may perhaps mislead me when I follow it is in reality no Rule Besides should you declare 't is a Fallible Rule Men would wonder with what sense you could pretend that a Fallible Testimony nay which you confess to be such can make you Absolutely Certain of the thing it attests it being the same as to profess I grant they may all be deceiv'd in what they tell me yet I am absolutely Certain by their very Testimony that what they tell me is True. What could you do then in that perplexity being neither in condition to allow Infallibility nor avow Fallibility and standing gor'd with both the Horns of the Dilemma or Contradiction Why you were forc't to call in your constant and dear Friend sufficient Certainty to help you out at a dead plunge For this is able to do more than Miracle this can divide an Indivisible and put a middle betwixt two Contradictories by shewing the World a Certainty that is neither Infallible nor Fallible but between both or mixt of both we may imagin half the one half the other Lastly fearing that you would be driven at length as you must to bring your Rule home to particular Points and knowing tâ—e Socinians and other late-sprung Heretical Congregations whom you ought to acknowledge Christian Churches since they hold stiffly to that which you maintain here is the onely Rule of Christian Faith deny'd many of those which you hold Divine Revelations to be contain'd in Scripture nay on the contrary hold they are excluded thence and that the oppositâ— Tenets are contain'd there therefore you very prudently and warily chang'd All the Divine Revelations which were the words of the Question into all matters necessary for our Salvation Providing thus a security for their Souls at least tho' you could not for their Errours and a kind of Excuse for the Incertainty of your Rule which permitted the followers of it to run astray and withal a Retreat for your self In all which dexterous Alterations as this due commendation must be allow'd you to have acted very wisely and politickly so it must be absolutely deny'd you have given any Answer at all to the Question The Words which you would obtrude upon us for an Answer carry indeed a pretty shew and shift it off with much cunning but when we come to look into their sense with an Eye directed to the Question they squint aside to quite other matters and the whole Reply in a manner is made up of different Notions from what was ask't Nor can I liken the Replies you generally make to our Questions or the Explications you make of your own Answers to any thing better than to that mock Exposition of the First Verse in Genesis which Luther made for your Friend Zuinglius's Iinterpretation of Hoc est Corpus meum Deus God that is a Cuckow creavit created that is devoured Coelum Terram Heaven and Earth that is a Hedge Sparrow with bones and feathers and all 20. You put a pretty Similitude indeed to Illustrate your own Tenet but in reference to our main Question the Absolute Certainty of your kind of Protestant Faith by your Grounds 't is so far from running on four legs that it is in many regards lame on the right and indeed onely foot it ought to stand on and which is worse is perhaps against your self You resemble the Holy Scripture to a purse full of Gold and Silver left by a Father and entrusted to Executours who tell his Son this is all his Father left him and if they deal truly with him do certainly deliver all it contains This the Primitive Church Christ's Executours did by delivering us the Scripture and assuring us all Divine Truths which respect Mans Salvation were contain'd there in the Lump among which some were Gold Points some Sylver Points but having the Purse of Scripture we have the one as well as the other and consequently all matters necessary to our Salvation these being of greatest moment Thus stands the Similitude for run it cannot and the summ of it as far as I apprehend 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 or Souls in which and no where else Faith is to reside And as if a Man were a jot the more learned for having purchast Aristotles Works and reading and not understanding them 21. I could except against divers particulars presum'd on in this Similitude as that you have any Absolute Certainty of your having the whole Scripture that was writ or that it contains all Divine Revelations or that you have the right Copy to every material particle in it that may signify Faith that is indeed right Scripture c. or the right Purse c. But I am more concern'd for some plausible Insinuations in this Similitude which may hazard to corrupt the Reader 's Judgment For however you decline and avoid it yet the generality of Readers whenever they hear any speech of the Certainty of the Grounds of their Faith they immediately apprehend they are to be Certain of the particular Points of their Faith by vertue of those Grounds And 't is a common Errour in many of an indifferent good Judgment I wish it did not sway with some who pass for great Schollars that when a thing easily sinks into their Apprehension they are apt to conceit it to be a Truth When therefore they hear of a Purse which is a thing very easy to open it being no more but pulling two strings which use to run very glib and that Scripture is in many regards here compar'd to a Purse they are presently inclin'd to fancy that Scripture's sense is as easy to be come at as 't is to take money out of a Purse 'T is but plucking those easily following strings and the deed is done But alas Here lies all the difficulty The Arians Novatians Socinians c. have all of them this Purse yet are never the richer but for want of skill to open it and get the Gold and Silver thence they go away empty or worse Now certainly those high points viz. A Trinity Christ's Divinity the Real Presence c. Should deserve to be reckon'd amongst the Golden Ones and therefore should be as most valuable so most easily attainable being of the highest import for the Church or the Body of Christianity Yet 't is granted the Socinians Err in the two first of those Points for all their acuteness and wit. I except next against the resembling the Contents of it to Gold and Silver which certainly enrich those who are Possessours of such a Purse whereas those Sects lay claim to that Purse too with equal Title yet coming to open it by their Interpretation they take the Dross
Absolutely Certain if you be not equally Certain of the later Surely none at all For 't is not the whole Book in the lump that can be produc't to prove Faith or confute Heresy but particular Texts and if These and the mainly significant Words in them be not Absolutely Certain what becomes of the Absolute Certainty of your Rule or your Faith Nay I am not fully satisfied that their concurrent Testimony does strengthen the Certainty of even so much as the Books For I observe that our Judges suspect the Testimony of honest men and misdoubt the justness of the Cause if known Knights of the Post are call'd in to corroborate their Evidence But you have prudent Maxims of your own which are beyond the reach of Lawyers 37. You endeavour to come a little closer to the Point p. 29. and set your self to prove that Scripture is your Rule of Faith ay that it is In order to which You advance this Proposition that Certainly all that believe it to be the Word of GOD must take it for a Rule of Faith. These two confident Words Certainly and Must are very efficacious to perswade those who will take it upon your Word nay they are so magisterial that they impose a kind of necessity upon them of believing all is as you say or else of denying your Authority which would break Friendship But if they will not but happen to be so uncivil as to require Proofs for it they quite lose their force and which is worse such positive Assertions make People expect very strong Arguments to Answer and make good such confident Affirmations else it hazards Credit to pretend Great Things and bring little or no Proof How you will justify those big Words we shall see shortly In the mean time let us ask you how you come to be thus Certain of it Is there no more requisit to a Rule but to be the Word of God Or did you never read in Errour non-plust long ago p. 73 74 75. the Answer now given You to this Pretence in the Confutation of your 12 th Principle in which You endeavour to establish Scripture to be a Rule Or can You so much forget your self and your duty to reply to it as to discourse still thus crudely with the same confidence as if You had never read or heard of such a Book or any thing alledg'd there to the contrary If we must needs mind You of it so often take these few words along with you now at least and till you have reply'd to them and others such which are there alledg'd I beseech you let us be tir'd no more with such Talk as serves onely to amuse but can never edify or convince To be writ by men divinely inspir'd to be Divine Infallible and the Word of God signifies no more but that they the Scriptures are perfectly Holy and True in themselves and beneficial to Mankind in some way or other and this is the farthest these Words will carry But that they are of themselves of sufficient Clearness to give sincerely endeavouring Persons such security of their Faith while they rely on them as cannot consist with Errour which is requisit to the Rule of Faith these Words signifâ—y not They may be most Holy they may be most True in themselves they may be exceedingly Useful or Beneficial to Mankind and yet not endow'd with this Property which yet the Rule of Faith must have And pag. 75. What then Dr. St. is to do is to produce conclusive Reasons to evince that the Letter of Scripture has such a Perspicuity and other Perfections belonging to such a Rule as must Ground that most Firm and Unalterable and if rightly Grounded Inerrable Assent call'd Christian Faith. We see here the Question rightly stated and the Point that sticks now let 's see whether your Proof does so much as touch it or in the least mention it 38. The Argument you make choice of I suppose it is your best the matter in hand being of highest consequence to prove that all who believe Scripture to be the Word of God must take it for a Rule of Faith is this For since the reason of our believing is because God has reveal'd whatever God has reveal'd must be believ'd and a Book containing in it such Divine Revelations must be the Rule of our Faith. i. e. by it we are to judge what we are bound to believe as Divine Revelations What a wild medly is here instead of a Reason Here are four Propositions involv'd The First is this the reason of our believing is because God has reveal'd and this is granted onely you may note that we are equally bound to believe what God has reveal'd by the Church's Testimony as by Writing if it be equally clear it was thus reveal'd nay more by the former than by the later in case that way of ascertaining the Divine Revelation be more clear than this nor does your First Proposition deny this but rather asserts it The Second This whatever God has reveal'd must be believ'd And this is pretended for an Inference but alas 't is nothing less For how does it follow that because the reason of our believing is God's Revealing therefore we are bound to believe what God has reveal'd whether we know it or no All then that can be said of it is that 't is pious Non-sense unless you add to it that we have also Certain Grounds God has indeed reveal'd it For otherwise besides the danger of erring our selves in matters of the highest moment and this unalterably too in regard we entertain that Errour as recommended by the Divine Revelation we shall moreover hazard to entitle God's Infinit veracity to a Falsehood and make Truth it self the Authour of Lies The Third that a Book containing in it such Revelations must be the Rule of our Faith is absolutely deny'd For a Book may contain in it Divine Revelations and I may not know certainly it does contain them Or I may know certainly by very good Testimony it does contain them yet not know certainly it does contain them all Or I may know it does contain them all yet perhaps not be able to know any one of those Divine Revelations in particular which are contain'd there for example if it be in a language I understand not Or tho' I do understand the language yet by reason of it's mysterious Sublimity and deep Sense and thence Obscurity and Ambiguity in many passages relating to spiritual matters and the Chief Articles of our Christian Profession I cannot be assur'd with Absolute Certainty which is the right Sense of it and therefore considering me as in the way to Faith that my Assent depends necessarily on the Truth of some Preliminary which is the object of pure Reason I might not nay cannot with any true Reason firmly assent to what I see may be an Errour nor hazard my salvation upon an Vncertain Ground and on which I know great multitudes have
Controversy and consequently treating of Faith precisely as 't is Controverted and there are but Two Points that can be controverted in relation to the Evincing or Defending the Truth of Christian Faith The one that what Christ taught was Divine the other that Christ taught what we now believe the Former of which being granted by all the Deserters of the Church and therefore cannot possibly need to be Prov'd by Me or any in my Circumstances it follows evidently that the later Point is only that which can be debated between me and my Adversaries that is we are only to treat of Faith as it stands under that Abstraction or Consideration that is as it stands under some certain Rule securing us that it was taught by Christ It being agreed on all hands that if he taught it it Is Divine 4. That tho' this and no other can with any sense be our Task yet 't is tedious to stand repeating at every turn this Abstracted Acception of Faith as 't is found or treated in our Controversies or reiterating still this reduplication as taught by Christ but 't is enough to have exprest it at first in Prefaces and the State of the Question and afterwards upon occasion in many signal passages which I did very punctually as appears by my Defences where I instanc't in Sixty three several places I might say I did it in whole Books where I spoke in short as is seen in my Method in which very small Treatise 't is inculcated above twenty times Whence where-ever I use the single word Faith it must necessarily mean Faith as Controverted or according to what is Controverted between us Such a sollicitous Repetition would argue a distrust in me that my Readers wanted Common Sense who could not reflect on what was in hand or keep a heedfull eye upon what was at first and once for all declar'd and signally exprest in those remarkable places Lastly That my treating of what Motives or Rule Christian Faith must have in it self or in its own nature to make good its Truth which is Essential to it as I did particularly in Faith Vindicated does not exceed the bounds of Controversy or treat of Faith as 't is a Theological Virtue or in any Consideration relating to it as such for I still express my self over and over in the Introduction to speak of its Rule or of Faith as proveable by its Rule and tho' I do not there apply it against any Adversary yet in the Inferences at the End I do this against Dr. Tillotson and Himself without any Reply for these Fifteen years Nor have they any Possible way to come off but either by answering Faith Vindicated and shewing there needs no Absolutely Certain Rule to secure us of our having Christian Faith or by shewing that they have some Rule Absolutely securing those from Error who rely on it The same Introduction and the same Answer serves to show how Moral Certainty of the Infallibility of this Rule is and how it is not sufficient For I declare my self there to speak of the Nature of those Motives or Rule in themselves and as laid in Second Causes by Gods Providence to light Mankind in their way to Faith to which the dimness of Eye-sight neglect to look at all or looking the wrong way even in many particular men is Extrinsical and Contingent Moral Evidence then of the Rule of Faith's Certainty nay even less may serve many particular men for they are still secur'd from Errour by adhering to what such a Rule delivers tho' they penetrate not the Grounds of its Certainty with which it well consists that that Rule as laid by God to light or satisfy all Mankind who are in their way to Faith must be in it self more than Morally Certain or must be impossible to be False otherwise it could not perfectly satisfy acute Schollars that what it abets is True nor enable Pastors and Learned men to defend the Truth of Faith as far as it depends on that Rule nor Secure any man Learned or Unlearned from Erring in Faith whereas by being thus Absolutely Certain it secures every man tho' never so weak from Errour while he follows it and preserves inviolable the Truth of Faith it self 7. This last Note fully answers his first pretended Contradiction that my Chief End in that Treatise viz. Faith Vindicated was to settle Christian Faith and yet that I speak not of Faith in it self but as it it controverted For I no where meddle with Faith in it self or as it is a Theological Virtue as School-Divines do but meerly in order to my Opposers With which may well consist that I may write a Book to settle Christian Faith by shewing it must have a Certain Rule before I apply it against my Adversaries by shewing they have no such Rule and so no Certainty of their Faith as I did against Himself and Dr. T. at the End of that Book and do peremptorily Challenge them to clear themselves of those Inferences and prove themselves to be Holders of Christs Doctrine or Christians An Instance will shew how weak this Cavil is A Scrivener makes a Pen and his Primary Intention considering him as he is doing that Action is that the Pen should be a good one and his writing taking him precisely as a Pen-maker was Secondary and Occasional And yet writing was for all that his Primary Intention as he was a Scrivener Thus it past with me My Main Primary and if he will precise End in that Treatise was to settle Christian Faith by demonstrating it was to have a sure Foundation and in this was terminated the particular design of that Book Now the doing this was apt to exclude all pretenders to Christianity who had no such Grounds but I did not this till I had ended the Treatise nor stood applying my Discourses or striking my Opposer just then with the Weapon I was but a making Which yet hinders not but the Primary End of writing that whole Treatise was in Order to my Opposers tho' a little more remotely and this is so Evident by my Inferences at the End that none but a Caviller enrag'd that he could not answer them would have made such an Objection 8. Hence his Second which Equivocates in the word Objects is frivolous For I no where treat of the Objects or Mysteries of Faith in themselves or say the Connexion of their Terms must be Evident but only that the Certainty of the Humane Authority of the Church which I make our Rule to know they were taught by Christ must be prov'd from the Objects or things without us viz. the Nature of Mankind and the Nature of the Motives laid to perpetuate Christs Doctrine And I wonder at his Insincerity to alledge this when I had particularly forestall'd it in my Introduction p. 18. and declar'd there once for all that in the following Treatise I only spoke of the Motives to light Mankind in their way to
Certainty in such Tradition I know no Party if Christian that has any Interest to oppose him The stronger any one can make this Faith they have all reason to like it the better By which 't is apparent that he is so far from condemning and censuring the way I take that he declares 't is not the Interest of any Party if Christian to oppose it and that himself and every one ought to like it better than the other way so it could be made good And that it can my best Reason tells me since as appears by my Method it has born the Test of being reduc't even to Self-Evidence and the miserable shifts and Evasions to which the most Learned of our Adversaries are driven to avoid it's force do more and more assure me 't is not at all hard to compass it 22. In the last place to omit many others I shall put the Testimony of that very Reverend Person F. Martin Harney Dr. of Divinity of the University of Lovain and Principal Regent of the General Studies of the Order of St Dominick Who being askt at Rome where he was at the time of the Contest his Judgment of my Doctrin compriz'd in my Method and of the Sense of the three Propositions as they lie in my Books gave under his hand this Testimonial of both I under-written have attentively read the Method writ by Mr John Sergeant and his Vindication of the three Propositions pickt out of his Books and I have found that the Method is sound Doctrin and usefull to reduce many to the Catholick Faith. And in his Vindiciae 'tis plainly demonstrated that the foresaid Propositions as written by the Author do make a Sense altogether Orthodox This Reverend Person I had never seen nor heard of nor could any thing but the love of Truth move him to this Approbation nay he must have lost much Credit with the Sacra Congregatio had my Doctrin been prov'd Vnorthodox or the Propositions in my Book as Infallible Dr. St. affirms Heretical 23. Modesty forbids me to mention the excessive Encomiums of that Eminent Controvertist Mr. Edward Worsley a Father of the Society who though utterly unknown to me took such a Friendship for me upon the reading my Books and in all places where he came extoll'd my poor Endeavours with such immoderate Expressions that to save my blushes in rehearsing them I intreat those who have the Curiosity to read them in my Declaratio from p. 73. to p. 78. I shew'd them to the Right Honourable the Earl of Castlemain who was pleas'd to do me the right to attest them to be his hand-writing The same noble Personage as many as knew F. Worsley will I doubt not do that right to his Memory as to witness for him that as he was Second to none in ability to distinguish between Sound and Tainted Doctrine so his sincere Candour and Integrity set him as far above the humour of Flattery as my Meanness could incline any to it 24. The Sum of my present Defence is this Eight Divines of great Repute appointed by the Arch-Bishop of Paris and admitted by my Adversary himself do unanimously attest that the Sense condemn'd is not in my Books but the contrary My Judge clears me the Censurers are commanded to make me Satisfaction The Highest Tribunal allows my Plea and acquits me Primates Arch-Bishops Bishops the Sorbon Eminent Divines and even those who take another way in their Writings approve and commend my Doctrine and most of them in very high and extraordinary expressions my own Superiour does the same nay even those who were formerly highly prejudic't declar'd themselves satisfy'd in it So that poor Dr. St. is left alone to ballance against all this weighty Authority with one Lominus a meer Utopian or Man in the Moon on whose sole no-Authority he grounds all his sensless Calumnies Was ever weak man so baffled Add that he knew that all these Defences of mine had been made and accepted many years ago and those Authorities alledg'd and my Doctrine thus approv'd and clear'd yet he had not the Candour to let his Reader have the least hint of any of those particulars which argues not too great love of Moral Honesty Nor does he take off any one Answer of those many I had given but only says over again rawly some few things objected reply'd to and printed fourteen Years ago and plays upon a double-sens't word or two by applying them still to wrong Subjects which is in effect to tell the Reader he must either talk insignificantly against evident matter of Fact or say just nothing and to confess in plain terms he is at a perfect Nonplus 25. To close this present business I desire the Reader to reflect that those Judges Approvers and Commenders of my Books and Doctrine liv'd generally in divers and far-distant Nations were of different Faculties and Universities of different Education different Orders and to some degree of different Principles and Interests some of them of slight acquaintance divers utterly unknown to me or I to Them. So that 't is impossible to imagine that any thing but the Force of Truth and the Integrity of my way of proving the Certainty of our Faith as to it 's being taught by Iesus Christ could make them conspire to allow or abet my Writings so heartily and unanimously Nor could there be any Human inducements to make them so partial to a private man every way inconsiderable and of no Esteem at all but what my Writings and Principles gave me Whence though no one Church as Dr. St. weakly objects has ever own'd my Doctrine to give formal Approbations of Controversial or Theological Writings not being a work proper for Churches yet the Dignity of the Persons and all these Circumstances consider'd I conceive it may amount to the full weight of the Judgment of any one particular Church whatsoever that my Doctrin is Sound and Orthodox Nor will he I believe find that any work of a particular Writer hath had more Authentick Testimonials for it than my poor Endeavours have had except that of the never-enough-praised the Bishop of Condom And 't is not the least Confirmation of their Integrity that they have been twice brought to the Tryal at Paris and Rome and nothing unsound found in them Though I must do the Doctor the right to acknowledge he has spoke one and hitherto but one true word but he is to be pardon'd for prevaricating from his constant method of speaking Falshoods for it was at unawares and he knew not he did so The Truth he spoke against his will was this That I hardly escaped Censure at Rome and therefore to make his words good I 'le tell him how it was All my Books were sent thither to Cardinal Barberin and amongst them one written by the Right Honourable my Lord Chancellour Hyde in defence of Dr. St. against Mr. Cressy pretending the Title of this last being torn out they were all writ by
it as I would by a hirco-cervus a four-squar'd Triangle Green Scarlet or whatever such desperate words one may put together to compound strong Nonsense How should I mean any thing by a Compound of two such words which the Goodness of Rational Nature and the aversion which our understanding power has to Contradiction has forbid any man to use ever since the Creation Did the Dr. or any man living hear any Mortal man when he is about to express his Certainty of a thing say I am Fallibly Certain of it Yet how oft has he heard them say I am Infallibly Certain of such a thing whence were the word Infallibly a different Notion from Certain or Difference added to it as to its Genus it would nay must admit the Opposite Difference Fallibly as is done in all such cases which since it does not without straining nature and the Language of Mankind 't is not a different Notion but the same with True Certainty and therefore in proper Speech True Certainty and Infallibility are both one Yet after he has thus abus'd the Language of all Mankind he has the Confidence to tell me I make use of those words in an Improper and unusual Sense This farther appears by this that our Speculators use to add Moral or some other such Epithet to it which are of a diminishing signification when they would express it's deficiency from True Certainty This Logical Demonstration to prove Certainty and Infallibility to be the same was alledg'd in Faith Vindicated p. 37. But we must excuse such slight Talkers from even attempting to give an Answer becoming a Scholar to any such close Proofs tho' it has been prest upon him in Errour Non-plust p. 92. and upon Dr Tillotson in Reason against Raâ—â—â—ery from p. 64. to p. 67. He only tells us what he does own does not own and such sleeveless sayings that is he only says over again his own crude Tenets with the formality of a Distinction or two and places his main hopes to uphold his Credit not in the Strength of his Answers but in the Weakness or Partiality of his Readers The upshot is he owns clearly he has only Fallible Grounds for his Faith having been taught by Christ which is to assert and maintain for it is not to be suppos'd he will allow any others to have surer Grounds than his own that All Christian Faith may be False and the Grounds themselves in more Regards than one most perfect Nonsence 47. He proceeds next to give us his Notion of Absolute Certainty in these words When the Evidence is the highest which in point of Reason the thing is capable of then there is that which I call Absolute Certainty These words Which I call are very Emphatical and precisely True for no man living but himself and Dr. T. that I know of ever call'd it so For suppose the Evidence be but very slight and the Thing as propos'd to us or in our Circumstances can give us no more will this slight glimmering Evidence make us Absolutely Certain of it Again Does he mean in point of True Reason inform'd by the best Maxims to direct and establish it This is Conclusive Evidence or Demonstration and the Conclusion thus deduc't is Infallibly True because the Maxim which legitimates the Consequence is as all Logicians know Infallibly Certain being a Principle of our Understanding and Self-evident Is it this he means No He does not like Conclusive Evidence in the Grounds of his Faith by no means To come closer I ask him Does he mean that True Knowledge conformable to the Thing or object fixes him in that Certainty or in great part his own aiery Apprehension If such a Knowledge then since none can truly know what is not that Knowledge is as Impossible to be False or is as Infallibly True as 't is that the thing must be what it is And if no such Knowledge grounds his Certainty how is it an Absolute or Perfect one Can his apprehending it so make it so Can a man be Absolutely Certain of a Falshood because he apprehends that Falshood to be a Truth or that a thing is so when 't is not so If not then 't is only it 's being so which can be the Ground of Absolute Certainty and justify that Assent and then that Assent is Infallible for a thing is Infallibly what it is He 'l say he took it to be so and that 's enough But to omit that his taking a thing to be so neither makes nor proves it to be so I press farther When he took it to be so Did he take it right or did he mistake it If he took it right then again his Knowledge and Certainty grounded on that Knowledge are both Infallible for his Knowledge when he took it right could not but be conformable to the Thing and the Thing is Infallibly as it is If he took it wrong or mistook it and yet be Absolutely Certain of it then again there may be Absolute Certainty of a Falshood or that a thing is so which is not so which is a rare kind of Certainty indeed especially for the Ground of his Faith and Posterity no doubt will owe much to his Memory for the Invention 'T is left then that he must say he did not know whether he took it right or wrong but apprehended he took it right In which case to omit that this apprehending or thinking the Evidence so strong as to determin assent is the Second kind of Certainty he assigns here before he comes to Absolute Certainty I ask how he can possibly think himself Certain a thing is such when he sees he does not know whether he be mistaken in it or no And how a Judgment that a thing absolutely is and a Judgment that it may not be for any thing he knows can be consistent together in an Intellectual Nature without destroying the First Principle of our Understanding viz. That 't is not Possible the same thing should at once be and not be 48. I have not done with this new invented Absolute Certainty of his It must spring he says from the Highest Evidence which in point of Reason the thing is capable of Where every expression is Indeterminate and Ambiguous Suppose as I urg'd lately the thing be not capable of any Clear Evidence as himself supposes there is not for such or such a Doctrin to have been taught by Christ why must he needs Assent at all Why does he not Suspend God has endow'd us with a Faculty of doing this as a bridle to keep us from Precipitation and to preserve us from running into Errour why should we not use it but expose our selves to run headlong into Mistakes both prejudiciall to our Nature whose Perfection is Truth and pernicious in its Consequences to the Conduct of our Lives Again Certainty taken from the Thing as he says this is signifies a Determination of the Mind by means of the Object and is the
Genuin Effect of some kind of Evidence and therefore Absolute or Perfect Certainty ought to be the Effect of Perfect Evidence nor is any Evidence a Perfect one unless it Concludes Now he does not like Conclusive Evidence and so he ought to renounce Absolute Certainty 'T is as difficult to guess what he means here by those words in point of Reason True Reason knows no Methods but this to Assent if the Thing be Clear and to Suspend if it be Not and to conclude or argue being the proper Act of Reason straining after Truth what 's not concluded is not Clear and therefore not to be accepted for an Absolute Truth or Assented to as such The summ then to come close to our present Question is that Absolute Certainty of such a Doctrine's having been taught by Christ must either be built on True Evidence of the Grounds for it and then it cannot consist with Deception and so is Infallible Or it is not and then indeed it may sometimes come to Iustify a great Propension Hope or Deeming that 't is so Or if I conceive it to be of small concern an unexamining letting it pass for such but it can never Iustify an Absolute Assent See more of this Subject and a perfect Confutation of this wild Assertion in Errour-Nonplust and Reason against Raillery After many rambling sayings of his own he falls to speak of putting an End to Controversies especially about Certainty and Fatality What we have to do with Fatality I know not but I believe he heartily wishes an end of This Fatall Controversy concerning Certainty for he is in a miserable ross about it being driven now to declare whether he will deny First Principles or renounce his Vnprincipled Doctrin The best way I can invent to end all Controversies is this that since Controvertists are Disputants and are to produce their Arguments which are good for nothing nor can ever End Controversies unless they Conclude those who renounce Conclusive Evidence and instead of it bring Invisible Motives Qualifications may be expos'd and turn'd out of the Lists as being even by their own Confession Insignificant Talkers and Endless Brabblers His wrangle about Light and Darkness Christ and Belial is spoke to in my Second Catholique Letter Let him shew that his Rule Scripture interpreted by Private Judgments does not Patronize Heresy as well as Faith which he will never do and we will be content to acquit him from that horrid Blasphemy of making Light and Darkness very consistent and Christ the Author of our Holy Faith and Belial the Father of Heresy and Lies very good Friends of which wicked Doctrin 'till he does this he stands Indicted 49. I alledg'd that Scripture being the Common Rule to him and all Hereticks the particular or distinguishing Rule must be their own Private Iudgments interpreting Scripture Does he deny this or shew my Discourse faulty by assigning any other that particularizes or distinguishes them No neither What does he then Why he sends me to the old Philosophers to learn Logick And I tell him with many thanks I know none except Aristotle a competent Master for Me. Next he makes Sense to be a Rule of Iudging that is an Intellectual Rule which I deny For the Rule to any thing is the Immediate Light to judge of any thing and multitudes of intervening Knowledges are requisit to inform us when the advertisements of our Senses are right as is evident in the fallaciousness of Sense in a Stick seeming crooked in water the bigness of things seen at distance and innumerable other particulars But I ought to distinguish between the Rule of Iudgment and the Iudgment made according to that Rule And so I do if that be all For the Rule is the Informer my Iudgment the thing inform'd But yet if my Judgment follow the Information and still go wrong my Informer was no good Informer The Evidence of this and the propension of uncorrupted Nature to believe Pastours Fathers and Teachers and those who were wiser than themselves in things they were Ignorant of did I told him make the Generality of those out of the Church follow the Way of Tradition of their own Church and not regulate themselves in the choice of their Tenets by their private Judgment of Discretion working upon Scripture's Letter as is evident in whole Nations as Denmark meeting in one particular Belief and whole Sects agreeing in the very Judgment of their respective Leaders whence the Sense they make of Scripture as themselves understand it is not their Rule First he quotes a Decree of the Church of England that nothing is to be requir'd of any man to be believ'd as Faith but what 's read in Scripture or may be prov'd by it But this makes against himself unless he thinks the Generality that is the Layity of that Church esteem themselves more able to judge of the Sense of what 's read in Scripture or to prove all the highest Points of Faith by it than their Pastours and Church-Governours are for otherwise Nature will and ought to incline them to believe their Judgment rather than their own in that affair which is to follow the Way of Tradition Indeed I must confess that by the Doctor 's Principles every one of his Sober Enquirers ought to preferr his own Judgment of Discretion above the Church'es but what He says is one thing what the Dictates of honest Nature teaches Mankind is another 'T is confest the Layity of each Congregation judges the Sentiments of their Leaders to be agreeable to Scripture but I affirm withall that not one in ten thousand when he comes at age lays aside Prejudice and setts himself to consider anew by his scanning the Letter whether his Leaders told him right or presumes of the competency of his own knowledge to judge or determin whether They understood Scripture in the right Sense or no. He talks to us indeed of Helps and how they call in the old Interpreters of the Church and desire them to use their own Reason c. But every man sees that Few or None stand Indifferent 'till they have us'd all these Helps but undoubtingly accept that very Faith in which they were educated And so they continue 'till the discoursing or reading those of a contrary Opinion unsettles them and put them into Doubts Besides if those Helps he talks of are not secure from erring themselves as to what they help others in they may help them to Misunderstand the Sense of Scripture in the Highest Points of Faith and so help them to be Hereticks And yet these are all the best Helps his Principles can Help them to For he assures us and maintains stoutly by affirming them all to be Fallible in what they are to help us that all his Helps may be deceiv'd in that very thing in which they are to help others They may indeed according to him give a strong guess at what is Christ's Doctrin
keep us from erring especially in matters only Knowable by Authority But our Dr has a Judgment or Discretion of another mold than Reason has fram'd for him In the mean time what Answer gives he to my Reason for the contrary position and that the relying on a Certain Authority is to keep our Eyes in our Head still In doing this we do not at all relinquish our Reason but follow and exercise it For nothing is more Rational than to submit to an Authority which my Reason has told me is Abso lutely Certain in things which the same Reason assures me can no other ways be known Certainly but by that Authority This seems plain sense and comprizes the whole Point and for that very reason he thought it not safe to meddle with it but instead of doing so to amuse the Reader with Seven impertinent Discourses of his own and thus it is he Answers my Catholick Letters 56. Hitherto he contented himself to impugn me with False Suggestions nimble Avoidances pretended Ignorance of our known and oft-repeated Tenet and with merry Conceits but now he thunders out his dreadfull Indignation against me with Angry Viper Venemous Froth Spleen Gall c. By which he gives us to understand that the place I prest upon was very raw and sore At the end of my Discourse I repeated his avow'd Position that Every Sober Enquirer may without the Churches Help find out all necessary Points of Faith in Scripture This being a Paradox so pestilential in its self and so Pernicious to Church-Government and to all the Dearest and most Sacred Concerns of Christianity I could do no less out my Zeal for those Best Goods than brand it with these just Censures viz. that it was the very First Principle nay the Quintessence of all Heresy Fanaticism in the Egg perfect Enthusiasm when hatcht and downright Atheism when fledg'd This I said and thus I justify my Charge To make private men competent Interpreters of Scripture as to all necessary Points of Christian Faith without the Churches Help and yet not to furnish them with any Certain Means of not erring or mistaking its Sense is the very First Principle of all Heresy For Non enim natae sunt Haereses nisi dum Scripturae bonae intelliguntur non bene No Heresy has any other source but when the Scriptures good in themselves are understood in an ill Sense Next let this wild licentious Principle that they need not the Churches Help to find out all Necessary Points in Scripture settle in the Heads of the Mobile 't is perfectly consequent that they must judge that whatever the Church holds contrary to what they conceive is the sense of Scripture is either False or Unnecessary and in case the Church judges that what They hold is a Grand Heresy and therefore that the contrary Tenet is a Necessary Point and therefore subjects them to Her Censures they must hate the Churches Government as the worst of Tyrannies that would oblige them to forgo their Rule renounce their Faith and obey Man rather than God. In a word this Principle naturally leads them to contemn the Church and her Pastours as neither able to help them in their Way to Faith nor to Govern them in it Unless the Dr means by Governing that the Church-Officers are to see that each of them follows their own Fancies and decline not from such Tenets let them be never so Heretical as their wise Judgment of Discretion has thought fit to embrace which is Fanaticism in the height Again the Conceit of this self-sufficiency codling as I may say in the hot Brains of many of those Fanaticks enfranchized thus blessedly from the Churches Government Dr St. still assuring them they cannot miss of knowing Gods Will in such Points so they but pray for Wisdom and Common Sense telling them they are no Scholars nor have this Knowledge by Humane Means it follows necessarily that they must think their Prayer is heard and that they have it by Divine Inspiration Whence they will imagin the Holy Ghost buzzes Truths in their Ears like a Bee in a Box which is perfect Enthusiasm And. it will come pat to their purpose and help forward very well that Dr St. when he stood engag'd to shew or produce his Proofs that his Faithfull have Absolute Certainty of their Faith that is of the true Sense of Scripture confesses plainly no such Proofs are producible and recurrs to Moral Qualifications and many other Invisible Requisites to give men assurance of it which are impossible to be known by Human Reason being only Knowable by God Himself Whence Nature obliging all men to guide themselves by some sure Light in things of Infinite Concern and all Motives that should appear outwardly to Reason being according to him Cloudy and Dark it directs them necessarily to seek for this sure Light within and so become Enthusiasts In the mean time not to speak of Atheists who are By-standers and confirm'd in their Atheism by seeing such Bedlam-doings amongst Professors of Christianity imbu'd with no better Principles than what he gives them the more refin'd ingenious sort of Mankind who are too wise to be led in the dark strain their best endeavours to search after solid Grounds by which they may be perfectly assur'd of Christs Faith or the sense of Scripture in such Points find that none such could be brought by the famous Dr St. but that when he was most highly engag'd to produce his Proofs for that most important Point he recurrs still to holes as dark as the private Spirit What can they do other were there no better Grounds than his producible but conclude that there is No Certainty of Christian Faith at all and that the Greatest Professors and Writers do by their Carriage confess as much and thence come to apprehend that Religion is a meer Cheat to keep up the Interest and Ambition of those who look for rich Livings and affect to have many Followers which will bring them to a Mepris of Religion it self and so dwindle into Atheism This is the Natural Progress of Dr St's Principles From which ill Consequences he shall never clear himself till he shews us the Light and Method giving him and his No Church men Certainty of the Sense of Scripture and this such an Absolute one as can in True Reason beget and justify a most Firm and Vnalterable Assent that the Tenets they hold are indeed Christs True Doctrin and till he restores to the Church and her Government that necessary Authority of which his ill-contriv'd Principles have robb'd her Let him not think to acquit himself by telling us here of his allowing the Church a Power of Proposing and directing in Faith. A Learned Son of the Church of England has told him A Private Person may do the Former and that the Later is such a Liberall Grant as was given to the Statues of Mercury which of old were set up
to it Daily propagate it to others must be in a manner infinitely stronger For sure he will not say that the Hatred against the Papists which I fear is the main Motive to continue the other is a more powerfull Cause to effect this than all the Motives laid by God and the Care of the Salvation of themselves and their Posterity was for the Body of the Church to perpetuate a Doctrine that came from Heaven In a word this one Instance is enough to shew evidently that he either grossly mistakes or wilfully perverts in that Appendix the whole Subject about which we are there discoursing And is such a slight piece or such a man worth answering were it not for the Repute he has got not for writing for the Church of England but for his Hatred and Scribbling against the Papists Since this one Errour is so Fundamentall that it must needs influence all that Discourse of his as far as 't is Serious or pretends to Solidity and so leaves nothing to be replied to but wilely Shuffles and aiery Trifles which are Frivolous in themselves and in his Writings Endless SECT I. The Author of the Catholique Letters clear'd from Dr. St.'s borrow'd Calumnies 5. HAving behav'd himself thus unfortunately to himself and his Friends ever since he came upon the Stage Dr. St. comes to settle his Method which he says he thinks is most Natural and Effectual to proceed in in handling the main Subject of our Debate about the Nature and Grounds of the Certainty of Faith. It consists of Four Heads and I shall follow my Leader he being such a Master of Method and take them as they lie The First is To shew how unfit J. S. is of all men to undertake this Cause who contradicts himself as occasion serves Certainly this man has a Method as well as a Logick peculiar to himself Does it follow so Naturally that Faith needs no Higher Grounds of Certainty because J. S. writes unconstantly Or does he prove so Effectually he has shewn his Grounds do allow Faith as 't is controverted between us the Certainty due to it's Nature because I write weakly But the truth is his Method is to avoid all Method and to wriggle in twenty Impertinent and Invidious things to make a shew of having said a great deal tho' to no purpose and to raise as much Dust as he can that he may run away from the business we are about and hide himself in the Mist. But is he sure that I. S. contradicts himself Impartial men will doubt it when they shall know that both those few pretended contradictions he has borrow'd out of Lominus and many more were objected and earnestly press'd against me in a far-distant Tribunal where my self was unknown and had few or rather no Friends but what my Cause Defences gave me That they were discust by those strictest Judges and compar'd with my Answers and yet not so much as the least check given me or any Correction of my Books even in the least tittle was order'd though this be a thing not unusual in such cases That the business already transiit in rem judicatam and that the Satisfaction I gave then to Superiours who could have no imaginable reason to be favourable to me to the prejudice of Catholick Doctrine is an abundant clearing of the Soundness of my Writings and the Sincerity of my Defences It would I say be enough to do this and then leave the Doctor 's malice to the Censure of all Ingenuous Persons for objecting anew things of which I was about Eleven years ago so authentiquely acquitted But alas his Method which oblig'd him to speak to the true Point as little as he could for shame and to fill up an empty figure of an Answer with as many Impertinencies as he could well hook in led him so directly to it that he could not for his heart avoid it Should he object Murther or any other heinous Crime to a pretended Malefactor already clear'd of it by his Proper Judges and the Court every honest man would admire at his folly but all 's meritorious with his Party against the Papists Tho' I say this be sufficient for my Vindication yet because those Defences of mine were in Latin and the clearing this Point conduces very much to the shortening and illustrating my future Answer I shall repeat here some few particulars of many which are found there at large And First I shall put some notes to give a clear Light of this business Next I shall show his Shallowness and Insincerity in what he objects Thirdly I will put down the most Authentick Approbations of my Books by the Testimony of Learned Men of all sorts and beyond all Exception and then reflect on his Imprudence in making such an objection 6. For the First I lay these Notes 1. That School-Divines discourse of Faith under another Notion or Consideration than Controvertists do The former treat of it as 't is a Theological Virtue and the Material Objects of it as reveal'd by a Testimony formally Divine And they prove it to be such by alledging the Miracles done to attest it the wonderfull Conversion of the World by it and the admirable Effects issuing from it as the Sanctity of it's Professors that live up to it the Heroick Sufferings of Martyrs c. And because 't is a Supernatural Virtue and so depends on God's Supernatural Influence as much as Natural Effects do on His Power as Author of Nature hence they consider it as introduc't by Supernatural Dispositions inclining men to it and God's Heavenly Grace making them embrace it and adhere to it constantly On the other side Controvertists particularly We in our Modern Controversies being to argue against those who admit whatever was taught by Christ to be Divine cannot possibly have the least occasion to treat of it as 't is such or use any of the former Arguments that are apt to prove it such but accommodate our Discourses precisely to make out what those men deny that is the Grounds by which we come to know assuredly that these or those Points were taught by Christ. Much less do we consider Faith as it depends on the Workings of God's Holy Spirit illuminating Interiourly the Souls of the Faithfull and fixing them in their Faith these being Invisible and so Impossible to be brought into Arguments or produc't against an Adversary in our Controversial Disputes 2. That 't is evident that in all my Books I am writing Controversies and consequently writing of Faith precisely as 't is controverted between me and my Opposers Which manifestly evinces that I treat of it under none of those Considerations School-Divines do in regard none of my Adversaries at least professedly deny it to be Divine or that God's Grace is requisite to it Nor can any man shew so much as One Argument in all my Books that looks that way 3. That since 't is manifest beyond all Cavill that we are writing