tell all the World when he is wrong'd I gather hence that in your Account To say a thing more plainly is to disguise it and to say we know it is to laugh at it I. S. Thence you start aside to tell us That the Vulgar Catholick has less Certainty than the Vulgar Protestant because the one has only the Word of his Priest the other hath the Word of his Minister and the Word of God in Seripture besides Ib. C. Had I a mind to turn the Dispute into a Wrangle I should here tell you as you did me You leave out those words you do not like But take and leave what you please Only tell me why I must be thought to stare aside when I step straight forward only to a conclusion which naturally follows from your own Premises If Truth depend on intrinsical grounds and not on mens saying this or that can it depend any more on the Word of your Priest than of our Minister And therefore if the Word of your Priests be all that your Vulgar Catholics have doth it not also follow on this supposition that they have less certainty than Vulgar Protestants have who have besides the Words of their Ministers the Word of God too But this is to walk where you have no mind to see me and therefore it must needs be a starting aside out of the way I. S. Do you think Catholick Priests are at liberty to tell the Vulgar what Faith they please as your Ministers may interpret Scripture as seems best to their judgment of Diseretion When you cannot but know they dare not teach them any Faith but what the Church holds nor does the Church hold any but upon Tradition R. p. 4. C. Say and Prove Sir is your own Rule and thereby you have here set your self a very hard task Prove then We cannot but know first That your Church holds no Faith but upon Tradition whilst the Council of Trent takes the Word written as well as unwritten Traditions for the Rule of Verity and Discipline Prove again that the same Council held no Faith but upon Tradition decreeing the No-necessity of Communicating in both kinds and yet confessing there was neither Scripture nor Tradition to build that bold Decree upon Prove We know that your Priests dare teach no Faith but what the Church holds Not to mention any more Have none of them ever taught the Pope's Deposing Power And doth your Church give that liberty or dare they do it without her leave Yet be it all as you say Have the Vulgar Catholicks any more than the Priest's word for their Faith If not what I said is true and they cannot with reason hold your Doctrine for Truth unless you will have a groundless presumption that Priests dare not teach any Faith but what the Church holds pass for an intrinfical ground of Truth which proves all they teach to be such I. S. Again you do well to say your People have it in Scripture or in a Book for they have it no-where else Ib. C. If by it you mean the Word of God I say they have it there I. S. You know Vulgar Socinians and Presbyterians and all the rest have it as much there Ib. C. For what reason you couple Socinians and Presbyterians so frequently I must not now stay to ask I grant they have the Word of God in the Scripture as well as we I. S. Then I suppose you do not think they truly have the Word of God on their side R. p. 5. C. I do not think that any who err in Faith have the Word of God on their side I. S. To tell me that Truth can depend no more upon the saying of a Romish Priest than of an English Minister when I tell you it depends not on any private man's saying is not the Reply of a man well awake Ib. C. Let it pass but for a Dream if you please Yet may the Interpretation of it be of some concernment to your Vulgar Catholicks For if I say true as you grant I do then whilst they have no more but the Word of their Priests to build their Faith upon they have according to me less Certainty than the Vulgar Protestants and according to you none at all I. S. But two things more say you follow from my Position which you fear I will not grant Ib. C. I remember them very well The First was That we cannot with Reason hold any thing for a Truth merely because the Church of Rome hath determined it for her Determination is no intrinsical ground of Truth but only an outward Testimony or Declaration of it and then what 's become either of her Infallibility or Authority to command our Faith I. S. Slips of honest Ignorance deserve Compassion and Instruction and because I do not know this to be any more I will be so charitable as to set you right R. p. 5. C. Such Slips I may be guilty of for I am but a Man and am not exempt from humane Infirmities I shall thankfully therefore accept your Compassion be attentive to your Instruction and the rarer such Charity appears in you the more highly do I prize it I. S. Authority amongst those who already admit it for true has force to prove that to be Truth which depends upon it and will conclude against those who allow its Veracity if it be shewn to be engaged against them R. p. 5 6. C. By the way what kind of Authority do you speak of I. S. Humane Authority such as that of the Church the Infallibility whereof in deriving down Christian Faith we go about you see to demonstrate Ib. C. So far good but now supposing this Authority be of force with those who already admit it what is it I pray tell me which can oblige men to admit it If nothing they may reject it and be blameless I. S. It has not this effect upon humane nature by its proper power as 't is meer Authority but because intrinsical Mediums justifie it worthy to be relied on Ib. C. Must not those intrinsical Mediums be known before it can oblige men to admit it I. S. Let that Authority come into dispute it will lose its credit unless it can be prov'd by such Mediums to deserve what it pretends to No Authority deserves any Assent further than Reason gives it to deserve Ib. C. Till that Reason then appear no man is bound to assent unto it I. S. The Authority of the whole Catholick Church would be no greater than that of an Old Woman were there no more reason to be given for believing the former than there is for believing the later Ib. C. I hear all this have you any more to add for my Instruction I would not lose a drop of your Compassion it is so rare a thing I. S. By this time I hope you see that all Truths are built upon intrinsical Mediums Ib. C. Not one jot more I assure you than I did before for you
Imprimatur Liber cui Titulus The Reflecter's Defence of his Letter to a Friend c. Jan. 18. 1687. Guil. Needham R. R. in Christo P. ac D.D. Wilhelmo Archiepisc Cant. à Sacr. Domest Note L. Signifies The First Letter A. The Letter to a Friend or Answer R. The Reply or Second Catholick Letter THE Reflecter's Defence OF HIS LETTER to a FRIEND AGAINST The Furious Assaults of Mr I. S. In his Second Catholic Letter IN Four DIALOGVES LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street MDCLXXXVIII A DIALOGUE BETWEEN I. S. a Roman-Catholick AND C. a Catholick CHRISTIAN C. WHatever Honour it may be to me it was I am sure a very wonderful Condescension in you Sir to stoop so low with all your Glory of Self-Evidence Absolute Certainly and Infallibility as to address a Catholick Better to one unto whom you allow no more at best than honest Ignorance and hardly so much when you are a little our of humor as common Sence or to understand English How civilly you have therein Treated me how justly you have Accused or how fully Confuted me is not a thing that deserves the notice of many The things we talk of are too weighty to rely on either mine or your Wit Breeding Reputation or Skill I am not therefore careful either to Vindicate or Recriminate or yet to learn of your Right Catholick Letter how to answer it as it deserves I shall only with your good leave lay the matter open in a plain Dialogue and leave it to every moderate Judgment in your own words to see by the very Methods we take which side desires and sincerely endeavours that Truth may appear There is only one little Mistake of yours running almost quite through your obliging Letter which it concerns me here to give notice of because it reflects on the Honour of a Person whose Books I confess my self unworthy to carry after him Know then Sir beseech you that you honour me too much in calling me Dr. St.'s Defender and my Letter a Defence of his I never had the happiness either by Face to be known by him or in Word or Writing to converse with him Neither had I his Letter by me or knew much more of it when I writ mine than what I read in yours which I thought not my self obliged to account all Oracle The Reputation therefore of that Great Man is no way concerned in my Failings as you would fain have it but whatever they are I alone am to answer for them This I now tell you because of your I will not say after you affected Inadvertence who might have seen in the Title-page of my Letter that I intended only to Reflect on some Passages 〈◊〉 you first and also in the beginning of it what they were all regard to the Conference it self being laid aside And this I take to be Answer enough to a great part of your Catholick Epistle I. S. Your Answer affords no work for a Replier but the most ungrateful one in the world to be perpetually telling men of their Faults without the least hopes of doing them good or contributing to their amendment R. Pref. C. Whether then your Charity in judging us incorrigible or your Wisdom in writing so long a Letter to no purpose or your Delight in troubling the World with Impertinences be the greatest I will not now inquire but rather by a sincere promise of Amendment endeavour to put you in better hopes and a more charitable opinion I. S. Be pleased to leave off your affected Insincerities otherwise I must be forced to expose them yet farther R. pag. 80. C. Be pleased first to exercise more your Charity in discovering them to my self or I shall a little suspect your Justice in exposing them to others I. S. Your constant use is to pick out a few words scattered here and there which you thought you might most commodiously pervert Ib. C. If I pick'd up nothing but what you had scatter'd and answer'd all I pick'd up I did all that I undertook to do You must not perswade me that I may not answer some periods of a Discourse without binding my self thereby to answer the whole though you would make the World believe that all my answering is only perverting I. S. I have now traced you punctually step by step wherefore I have reason to expect the same exact measure from you Ib. C. How reasonable a task this is I will not dispute though I know not why your being at more pains than needed as you certainly were if the Answer afforded no more work for a Replier must bind me to be so too But seeing you have made this my task I 'll endeavour to obey you only excuse me when you step into the Dirt if I follow you not lest I come to need more Holy-water than by your Letter I guess you can well spare However the way is tedious and as you have made it rugged enough 't is time to set forth I. S. Perhaps it has scarce been seen hitherto that all our Polemical Contests were reduced within so narrow a compass R. Pref. C. I like not Perhaps I had rather you had said Absolutely or Certainly Then should I have hoped seeing they narrow so fast they would soon have come to nothings Some of you told us many years ago when the chief Question was Which is the only true Church That this was the shortest Compendium of our Controversies If you have now found a shorter than the shortest why stand we thus at a distance Let 's throw away our Weapons and embrace I. S. My first Letter insisted chiefly on two short Discourses whereof the one undertook to shew the Nullity of the Rule of Faith claim'd by Dr. St. and his Protestants the other the Absolute Certainty of the Catholic Rule R. Ib. C. I hope it will be thought but an honest Ignorance if I be not able to distinguish Dr. St.'s Protestants from the Catholick Christians of the Church of England whose Rule of Faith is the Holy Scripture Remember now what your two Discourses undertook to shew and when that is shown indeed and I wish you be not in too good earnest to shew it wonderful things as you speak will follow and you will be sure of many Converts yea I dare say even of Dr. St. and all his Protestants In the mean time what a neat way of reducing Controversies to a narrower compass is this whereby the Disputants have not left them any common Rule whereby it may be determined who is in the right I. S. The whole Controversie was in short about the Certainty or Vncertainty of Christian Faith. Ib. C. These words would make one think you are Narrowing our Contests into a wider compass yet as if the Dispute had been betwixt Believers and Infidels and then which Party you would have the Infidel denying the Certainty of Christian Faith would not be hard to find It 's a little
oddly expressed but I am willing to make the best on 't and to think that you mean no more than what you said but now that it was about the Nullity of our Rule and the Absolute Certainty of yours I. S. Both of those Discourses were supposed by us to be Conclusive Ib. C. I doubt it not but you thought them Absolute Demonstrations yet I was bold to tell my Friend in a Letter I thought you were mistaken I. S. Your whole Letter seems to have no other design but to bring the Dispute into a Wrangle Ib. C. And you I thank you took care it should not lose its design if that was it and have return'd me nothing else but a Wrongle for a Reply But let 's fall to our Business I. S. I grieve and wonder there should be so little value for Souls among your Party as to send men to the Tribunal of God without furnishing them with Assurance that they can justifie their Accounts themselves R. p. 2. C. Speak you this in good earnest as considering how you shall justifie your Accounts your self at that Tribunal What better course our Party takes to furnish men with such Assurance than yours doth I told you A. p. 3. whereof you are not pleased to take any notice though you were so punctual in tracing me step by step Now I must needs continue my wonder seeing no man can be assured that he can justifie his Accounts unless he know that he hath the Grace of God and seeing you being a Roman Catholick believe the Council of Trent saying No man can know that he hath obtain'd the Grace of God how you can be so unreasonably exacting as to require that of our Party which your self believe no man can do I. S. If you speak as I did of an Account of Faith I hope you will not perswade us a man cannot know why he believes without knowing whether he be in a state of Grace R. p. 3. C. And I hope you will not endeavour to perswade us that a mans bare knowing why he believes will enable him to justifie his Account even of his Faith it self We know why we believe the Christian Faith think you we are therefore able to justifie our Account of Faith Then our Dispute is ended Suppose another may know why he believes the Pope to be Antichrist as I am sure he may whether it be true or false and his Reasons good or bad I hope you will not grant he can thereby justifie his Account of Faith. I. S. The bare Assurance of the Truth which a man believes is a Justification of his believing it Ib. C. You spake of an Account that will pass as it is in it self L. p. 5. but this Account of Faith will not pass as it is in it self without Grace Such a bare Assurance will only be such a Justification of a man's believing as will add to his condemnation for holding the Truth in Vnrighteousness and knowing his Master's will without doing it I. S. If you speak of an Account of our whole lives you turn things against the plain scope of my Discourse against my plain words and I much fear against your own knowledge Ib. C. Your scope in this part of your Discourse was evidently this to make our Party appear careless of mens Souls I. S. The only Question was of the Certainty of Protestant Faith An Account why you Protestants believe was the only Account that belongs to that Question Ib. C. That Question and the shifting off the Proof to another you wave in the beginning of your third Section L. p. 4. saying Of this Proposal there will be occasion to say more by and by At present consider say you how you deal with Souls who rely on you And all through the Section your business is to charge us with carelesness of mens Souls I suppose you mean especially in our not giving them Assurance of their Faith. This being the Fault you charge our Party with you thus proceed to aggravate it Must not every body one day bring in his own Account c. And will not the happiness or misery of their Souls depend on that Account Can you suffer them to run that terrible hazard without making them able to justifie their Accounts themselves and furnishing them with Assurance that they can c. These are your plain words and if I mistook them it was no wilful mistake but occasioned merely hence that I thought you had discoursed with more shew of Reason than indeed you did For no better Reason could be given why we must fail in Duty if we furnish not men with Assurance that they can account for their Faith than this because it is our Duty to furnish them with Assurance that they can justifie their Accounts as you set it in the plural of which the Account of Faith is one However because I saw you are one that love to walk in the dark so that he who traces you most diligently may possibly miss you and when you are hit have a trick of crying out You mistake it is not I. I aim'd again and hit right My Fault then if it was one was no sooner spied than amended and if it may be forgiven I am content that you and your Council of Trent shall be good friends as long as you can agree on 't I. S. I had alledged further that till Protestants produce the Grounds which prove their Faith to be true it cannot with Reason be held Truth You put my Discourse first in my words only leaving out those which did not please you R. p. 4. C. Your words are these Truth is therefore Truth because 't is built on intrinfical grounds which prove it to be such and not on private mens abilities or their saying this or that wherefore till those grounds be produced it cannot be with Reason held Truth I left out indeed the words therefore and which prove it to be such not because I disliked them but because I thought them superfluous as being implied in the rest Well now you have them what will they avail you or hurt me All I desire of you is that you will stick as close to your own words as you would tye me to do which I suspect you will hardly do because you begin to vary more than I did already especially in leaving out the word intrinfical I. S. Then you disguise it in your own and laugh at it for being too plain Ib. C. These are my words You might as well have said more plainly What any thing is that it is whatever be the reason why it is so or whosoever saith it is or it is not yet can no man with reason believe it till he have a reason to believe it This I still take to be all that you meant by Truth 's being built on intrinsical Grounds c. And you seem to confess it by your saying nothing to the contrary for you are not he that useth not to
have neither told me what you mean by intrinsical Mediums only you seem to hint that they are Reasons why a thing is to be believed and so are extrinsical Mediums to neither have you said a word that I know of to shew how all Truth is built upon them I. S. You see also that whereas you apprehended they would overthrow our Church's Testimony or Authority such Mediums in case we produce them are the best means to establish it and give it force upon our selves and others Ib. C. This also I see just as much as I did before You suppose I apprehended why you know best for I am half confident you never apprehended I did so that the intrinfical Reasons of your Church's Authority when produced would overthrow it To whose roving Fancy owe we this pure and fine Invention Sir That which I apprehended was this That seeing all Truths depend on intrinfical grounds as you say and cannot be held Truths till those intrinsical grounds of them be produced Therefore they are not to be held Truths for the Authority of your Church because that Authority whatever it be and on what intrinsical grounds soever establish'd is no intrinsical ground of those Truths to be believed And have you yet said one word to contradict this Not a syllable but talk at random of another thing I. S. You also see how it comes that the Church can oblige to belief not by a dry commanding our Faith as you apprehend but by having its humane Authority solidly grounded upon Reason it self becomes a Motive able to beget assent Ib. C. Now Sir I thank you you have set me right just as I was before What I saw you have made me see and what I saw not I see not yet Such is the illuminating vertue of your compassionate Instructions I ask not you whether this great pains to tell me what I knew and had told you so was the business of a man well awake Yet lest you should say I was not attentive I will repeat to you the Lesson you have taught me Your Church's Authority is Humane Authority it has force to prove the Truths which depend upon it it has this force amongst those that admit it and it concludes against such as own its Veracity it deserves no Assent farther than Reason gives it to deserve nor is it greater than that of an Old Woman till better Reason be produced for it Hence I conclude Seeing we admit not your Church's Authority neither own its Veracity it proves nothing to us nor concludes any thing against us Seeing Articles of Faith depend not on Humane Authority your Church's Authority can have no effect on humane Nature to oblige to a belief of them Seeing all its Credit depends on its intrinsical Reasons produced till they be produced we are not bound to give any credit to it When these Reasons shall be produced its Testimony has but the nature of an external Motive not of an intrinsical Ground And therefore either your Position overthrows your Church's Authority or it your Position chuse you which I. S. What is the Second thing you fear I will not grant C. If your Position be true it will follow That the common People must be allow'd their Judgment of Discretion for how without the free use of that they shall discern the intrinsical grounds of Truth when produced and so with Reason hold it I fear you cannot easily demonstrate Will you grant us this I. S. You gave your self the Character of a Scrupulous man and I see by this you have a mind to maintain it R. p. 7. C. And if you will grant it you will gain the Character of a man much more liberal than your Neighbours If you grant it 't is I doubt but in mockery because you so often laugh at us for desiring it I. S. You know that those who write and print can have no design their Books should not be read and you know those that read will and must judge of what they do read R. p. 7. C. Yet if their Books contain nothing else but unsensed Characters which is the thing you say of the Scripture and he that reads or interprets gives the sense I see not to what end they would have their Books read and therefore neither why they write them nor indeed how any one can judge of them unless they would have them judg only of the fineness of the Characters Pray Sir let me ask you Can you think God writes to less purpose than men are wont to do If he have caused a Book to be written and that to all was it not his Will that his Book should also be read of all to whom it was written or did he not intend they should judge of what they read therein and examine Doctrines by it Do you now grant us this Judgment of Discretion as exercised about Divine Truths revealed in the Scripture If you do I thank you for it If not to what purpose is your talk of reading mens Books or their writing them that we may judge I. S. Indeed I think it no great sign of a Judgment of Discretion to pretend to discern the Truth of Faith by Lights that do not shew it to be true Ib. C. Nor I neither I. S. You conclude that I have set us all on even ground Yes for I set Absolute Certainty on the one side and Vncertainty on the other and this in your Language is even ground R. p. 8. C. What I conclude is thus proved The Church of Rome is to be believed only when she produceth the intrinsical grounds of Truth and just so far is the Church of England or any other Church to be believed and so all are of equal Authority to oblige in points of Faith. This in my Language is even ground for the one stands no higher in Authority than the other Now say what you please of your Certainty and Vncertainty to gain the higher ground again I. S. Suppose we could not prove that Protestants are not certain are they therefore certain L. p. 4. C. You imagine it should seem that all the certainty of our Faith is this that Papists cannot prove it to be uncertain A. p. 6. I. S. The meaning of my words is clearly this That the certainty of the Protestant Faith must depend on their own proofs for it not on any man's being able or not able to prove the contrary R. p. 8. C. You meant so you say and the thing is true I. S. To avoid proving you put upon me the direct contrary to what I affirm'd viz. That the certainty of Protestant Faith does depend upon our not proving they have none C. I put no such thing upon you nor needed I do it to avoid proving which I had never undertaken but only to reflect on some parts of your Letter who had undertaken to prove the Nullity of our Rule Allow me then to give my own meaning as you take the liberty to give yours
the chanel Yet it seems the Church had the kindness to hold up the empty Cabinet in her hand whilst she secured the Jewel in her bosom I. S. St. Peter's Ship the Church that caught so many Fishes at first the Body of Primitive Christians hath stored up Provision enough for the succession of Faith to the Worlds end and there we may find it to our hands We need not therefore fish for our Faith in the chanel of Tyber as your great Wit tells us Ib. C. I would not though for two pence not have ventur'd that little Conceit of mine seeing it is return'd home again with so rare a discovery It would not be mannerly to enquire when Ships catch Fishes when they sail or when they sink nor how Fishes catch themselves or how the Body of Christians which are the Church are caught by the Church which is that Body or how those Christians are now the Provision of Faith stored up to the World's end 'T is plain you mean the Church of Rome hath the whole Doctrine of Faith stored up in her breast for all Ages and we are fools for seeking it in the unsensed character of Scripture where 't is not Yet have you Sir a worthy opinion of the Scripture I would have said St. Peter and his Partners with their Net the Word of God caught Men instead of Fishes as Christ had promised and with the same Net convey'd to us by Tradition in Scripture the Ministers of Christ do still fish with good success Consider if this Allegorizing of yours would not suit better also with one of your Sermons than with your Controversie I. S. All this is but prelude Now comes Mr. G.'s Argument the first Proposition whereof is this All Traditionary Christians believe the same to day which they did yesterday and so up to the time of our Blessed Saviour There is no denying this Proposition but by affirming that Traditionary Christians are not Traditionary Christians L. p. 8. C. But suppose these Traditionary Christians be so call'd from their adhering to a Tradition which reacheth not so high as our B. Saviour's time but only pertends to it c. A. p. 20. I. S. Whether we only pretend to it or no will be seen when the Fourth Proposition comes to be examined R. p. 26. The Second Proposition is this If they follow this Rule they cannot err in Faith. This is palpably self evident Whence follows the Third and therefore they are infallible R. p. 47. C. But unless the Rule of Tradition which they follow be longer than it is yet proved to be they may follow it and err all along by following it A. p. 21. I. S. No doubt of it R. p. 47. C. Then prove it to be of sufficient length I. S. As if we had never proved our Tradition reaches to our Saviour's days Ib. C. I know not when Suppose you had that 's not all for let it be never so long yet if you follow it not you may err and therefore are not infallible except you shew you cannot chuse but follow it A. p. 21. I. S. The Fourth Proposition brought to prove that this Tradition we lay claim to does indeed reach to Christ and his Apostles is this They could not innovate in Faith unless they did forget what they held the day before or out of malice alter it R. p. 48. C. You undertake to make this out more clearly L. p. 18. and therefore I would hear what you say there for our better Information A. p. 21. I. S. This is a most evident and a most unconscionable Falsification clear your Credit when you can I charge it upon you as a voluntary insincerity R. p. 48 49. C. Good words I pray Sir. What is it I have done I. S. You have directly falfified that whole Discourse by pretending here that the words you cite were to make out that Fourth Proposition clearly whereas the truth of that Proposition was made out by me L. p. 9. C. I saw it Sir and spake to it too as I shall shew anon What are those words of yours I cite Recite them I pray and I 'll recite my Answers to them I. S. Did Christ teach any Error L. p. 18. C. He did not A. p. 21. I. S. When a Father believ'd what Christ taught him and the Son what the Father believ'd did not the Son too believe what Christ taught Ib. C. No doubt of it but he did Ib. I. S. Run it on to the last Son that shall be born in the World must not every one believe what Christ taught if every one believ'd what his Father believ'd Ib. C. It is certain he must Ib. I. S. And will you then go about to perswade us that there actually is a company of men in the World who adher'd to this method all Sons believing always as their Fathers did whereof the first believ'd as Christ taught and who notwithstanding err'd in matters of Faith C. No you may be sure on 't These then are your words I cited I. S. This Discourse was level'd at a quite different business viz. That a Church could not adhere to Tradition and err in Faith at the same time C. 'T is true and I saw it that this was it you there made out but I do not yet see how it is a quite different business from that which I said you undertook to make out more clearly It was not proving I meant by making out more clearly but illustrating or explaining nor was it the whole which according to you consists of a Proposition and its proof but the Proposition only I said you undertook there to illustrate and therefore I would not proceed to the proof which you would seem to make out p. 9. till I had consider'd how you explain'd the Proposition p. 18. which after I had done I came to examine your proof as you call it both as it is p. 9. and as you again talk of it p. 32. This you saw A. p. 23. Where then lies the Falsification The Proposition is They could not innovate in Faith. Who are they that cannot Traditionary Christians And who are these They that hold the same to day which they did yesterday c. What cannot these do They cannot innovate or err in Faith. So say I you explain it p. 18. And do you not so though it was upon another occasion Do you not shew that if they hold to Tradition or be Traditionary Christians they cannot whilst they are so and when they are not so they are none of the they in the Proposition innovate or err in Faith Overcharging often occasions recoiling and if your Conscience feel it not so much the worse And now after all this noise one little thing is yet to be proved viz. That these Traditionary Christians adhere undecliningly to an unquestionable Tradition descending really and unvariably from Christ and his Apostles and could not possibly do otherwise that is that they neither did nor could err