Christianity yet for any thing we know or these crafty common words inform us they have still all that is needfull to save them that is though they go wrong all their lives they are still all the while in the way to Heaven But I suppose Dr. St. means that no more is necessary for any ones salvation than just as much as he can understand in Scripture Which I wish he would once begin to set himself to prove make out by some convincing argument I am heartily weary of speaking still to his unprov'd and voluntary Assertions 14. To suppose the Books so written to be imperfect i. e. that any things necessary to be believed or practised are not contained in them is either to charge the first Author of them with fraud and not delivering his whole mind or the Writers with Insincerity in not setting it down and the whole Christian Church of the first Ages with folly in believing the Fulness and Perfection of the Scriptures in order to salvation As far as I apprehend the foregoing Principle was intended to shew that Scripture was sufficirntly Intelligible to be the Rule of Faith and this under examination is to prove it to be the measure of Faith as he calls it Princ. 28. and all he contends here is that it CONTAINS all that is necessary TO BE BELIEV'D and practic'd And that we may not multiply disputes I grant those Holy Books contain all he pretends some way or other either Implicitly or Explicitly either in Exprest words or by necessary conâ—equence But that those Books contain or signifie for they are the same all that is to be believed and practiced so evidently that all persons who sincerely endeavor to know their meaning and this for all future Ages may thence alone as his discourse aims to evince that is without the Churches interpretation arrive to know what 's necessary for their salvation with such a Certainty as is requisite for the Nature and Ends of Faith and the Obligations annext to it I absolutely deny and if he means this by the word Perfection which he adds to Fulness I deny also that either the first Author can be charg'd with Fraud since he promis'd no such thing or the Writers with Insincerity since they were not commanded nor did intend thus to express it nor as far as appears had any order from God to set down his whole mind but only writ the several pieces of it occasionally nor did the Christian Church in the first Ages ever attribute to Scriptures such an Intelligibleness as that private persons should ground their Faith upon their Evidence without needing the Churches Interpretation if we speak of all points necessary to Mankinds salvation as he seems and ought to do And here I desire to enter this declaration to all the world that I attribute not the least Imperfection to the Holy Scriptures Every thing has all the Perfection it ought to have if it can do what it was intended to do and in the manner it was Intended Treatises of deep Philosophy are not Imperfect if they be not as plain as plainest Narrative Histories no not if they be ita editi ut non sint editi in case they were meant as a matter for the Author to explain and dilate upon to his Scholars nor are the Laws Imperfect though they often need Learned Judges to interpret them Nor are we to expect that the Prophecy of Isaiah should be as plain as the Law of Moses The Immediate End of writing each piece as far as appears to us was occasional St. Pauls Epistles were evidently so nor can I doubt but they were perfect in their kind and apt to signify competently to those to whom he writ what he intended so that if they had any farther doubt they might send to ask him or do it viva voce and yet we see that even in those days when the complexion of all the Circumstances was fresher and neerer then now some unlearned persons err'd damnably in mistaking and misconceiving them that is while they went about to frame their Faith out of them 'T is questionless also they rely'd upon them as Gods Word or dictated by the Holy Ghost else they had not so built upon them or adher'd to them They might sincerely endeavour too to know their meaning yet if the Writings were disproportion'd to their pitch they migh Erre damnably for all that What farther End God intended the H. Scriptures for appears not by any Expresse either promise or declaration of our Saviour but out of the knowledge that they were writ by persons divinely inspir'd and the Experience the Church had of their Vsefulness towards Instruction and Good Life joyn'd with the Common Knowledg we have that all Goods that come to the Church happen through the ordering of Gods Providence hence we justly conclude as Dr. St. well says that they were intended and writ also for the Benefit of future Ages And from their Vsefulness and the success of their Use we may gather how God intended them for the Church The Learned and stable sons of the Church read them with much fruit to excite their wills to Goodness The Pastore of the Church make excellent use of them in exhorting preaching catchising c. and in many other uses of this sort they are excellently beneficial which are so many that were it now seasonable for me to lay them open at large as I truly hold them none would think I had little Reverence for Scriptures but in deciding Controversies or finally silencing Hereticks as the Rule of Faith ought to do by the unavoidable evidence of the Text to private persons no use was ever made of them alone with any success as the Fathers also complain Unless the the Churches Authority going along animated the dead Letter in dogmatical passages and shew'd the sense of the places to have been perpetually held from the beginning and so give It the Sense Majesty Authority and Force of Gods VVord elevating it thus above the repute of being some private Conceit or Production of Skill and Wit interpreting the Letter Scripture then is perfect or has all due to the nature God intended it if duly made use of as the Churches best Instrument it be able to work those Effectâ— spoken of though it be not so Evident or self-authoriz'd as to be the Rule of Faith We give it absolute Pre-eminence in its kind that is above all other Writings that ever appear'd in the world but we prefer before it Tradition or Gods Church which is the Spouse of Christ the Pillar and Ground of Truth and consisting of the Living Temples of the H. Ghost for whose sole Good as its Final End Scripture it self was intended and written 15. These Writings being owned as containing in them the whole Will of God so plainly reveal'd that no sober enquirer can miss of what is necessary for salvation there can be no necessity supposed of any Infallible society of men either
The Twelfth has nothing new but what is built on this Manifest Truth None can be assur'd without Means to assure which since Means speaks that by virtue of which as a necessary requisit an End s to be compas't that is without which it cannot be compas't amounts to this self-evident Truth That cannot be done which cannot be done § 13. The Thirteenth has for it's Basis this undeniable Verity 'T is presumable that they who constantly maintain a Tenet do hold the same Tenet and judge it available to their Cause or for their purpose and that They who write against it and vilifie it do not hold it in their hearts nor judge it to be available to their Cause Both which are perfectly the same with this Proposition which Practice makes self-evident Men not Frantick or in some high Passion will not act directly against their own Interest or to their own overthrow or to this which is self-evident speculatively Rational Agents left to their nature will act as they are that is rationally The rest of this § is shown to be self-evident in our Discussion of the 11th § 14. The Fourteenth supposing the Evidence of the 11th 13th and 10th is reduc't to this clear Truth They act irrationally and unjustifiably who relinquish a Rule Infallibly-Certain upon Vncertain Grounds or that 'T is better to proceed upon Certainty than Vncertainty which Nature teaches all Mankind § 15. The Fifteenth contains these two Truths for it's supporters both of them self-evident practically That charge is Irrational which is grounded on a Thing unknown to the Accusers and that Rational which is grounded on matter of Fact notorious to the whole Christian world § 16. The Sixteenth subsists by vertue of this Evident Truth An Vniversal Change in matters both manifest to sense and most concerning must needs be Notorious which engages that Principle Man is Sensitive or an Animal Whence this being a direct part of the Definition of Man 't is consequently Self-evident § 17. The Seventeenth is reduc't to this plain Proposition Men of Reason cannot hold and own themselves and propose to others Points most difficult to believe upon pretence that they came from Christ and yet yield nor own any reason why they held they came from Christ or thus Men either have or else yeeld no Reason where there is most need of both which comes to this that A pressing Necessity which is the most violent of Causes which in our case strains Humane Nature if it act nor frustrates it of it's end has no Effect at all which destroys all Causality and consequently all Science in the World § 18. The Eighteenth is as plain as it is that Mankind amongst which were in all Ages persons of great Wit Goodness in matters of highest moment and which require the best and surest Ground can continue to hold such things and yet confess the Ground on which they hold it naught and Insufficient or upon second Thoughts going about to settle a better palpably and directly contradict their own pretence which is to say Where there is most need of reason men do not use it at all And since Effects are not done without Causes which in our case are Motives and the greatest Necessity is the most powerful of Motives or Causes if that move them not to act rationally nothing will do it and so it implies by consequence the contradictory to this Identical Proposition Rational Agents are capable to act rationally § 19. The Nineteenth has the same Basis with the 16th and 17th § 20. The 20th is meerly this Identical Proposition dilated All in any kind are the Vniversality or All in that kind § 21 The Twenty First and Second are Grounded on those Evident Truths Those who have Means to arrive at an End can arrive at that End and those who have not means cannot And since Means speaks that which makes an End compassable they amount to this That whâ—â—â—câ—â— be done can be done and that which cannot cannot § 22. The last Paragraph supposing the fore-going ones True is of the same strain and full as evident as it is that None can arrive at an End without what 's Necessary to arrive at that End or that That cannot be done which is Impossible to be done Postscript Having thus attempted to reduce the main Parts of my Discourse concerning the Ground of my Faith to First Principles it is required of Dr. St. that in maintaining his he would not decline the same Test This if he thinks it safe to undertake it will quickly and evidently appear on whose side Truth stands And this is mainfestly his Task who pretends to Principles For he must either vouch those he produces to be First Principles or reducible to the First else he must confess them to be none at all I have little hopes he will think it fit to expose his Discourses to this Noon-day-Evidence nor indeed will the Genius of Errour endure such a Triall as the going about to connect it with First and Self-evident Truths for what Communication can that Darkness have with this Clearest Light and I conceive it was Clearness of Style that is a Grammatical or Rhetorical Clearness and not a Logical or Rational one which consists in resolving his Discourse into First Principles that Dr. Tillotson boastingly attributed to him in his Sermon-Preface for himself as is evident by his whole way of writing never dream't of any other 'T is more to Dr. St's purpose which is to keep things from being understood to avoid by all means this discovering Method and all arguing from the nature of the Thing whence he foresees no small danger of too great Evidence is likely to spring and to leade his Reader into a Wilderness of Words whole Libraries of Authors where by his way of managing Citations which is by Criticising upon ambiguous words and phrases they may dance in the Maze till they be weary I hear he is about this stratagem and that he ayms out of some high Expressions of the Fathers concerning the Excellency and Self-sufficiency of the Scriptures to prove the Vselesness of the Church to ascertain Faith But alas how he will be defeated Not one Testimony of any Authority will be found which comes home to his purpose or proves that private men need not the Churches Interpretation ere they can securely build their Faith on it To save him therefore the labour of collecting and Printing multitudes of these to no purpose and his Readers from the fruitless toil of troubling themselves with Impertinences I produce him one out of Vincentius Lirinensis worth thousands for it speaks with as high Reverence of Scripture and of it's Fulness Perfection and Self-sufficiency as any perhaps more and so he cannot not with any reason except against it and being intended purposely to speak to this Point must needs be the most apposit decider of the Question that can be not to add the Acceptation and Esteem that Excellent Treatise
only in the Word It being agreed then amongst us all that what Christ and his Apostles taught is Gods Word or his Will and the Means to Salvation all that is to be done by us as to matters of Faith is to know with Absolute Certainty what was the first taught Doctrine or Christs sense and whatever can thus assure us of that is deservedly call'd the Rule of Faith Now the word Rule made use of to mean a Spiritual or Intellectual Direction is Metaphorical or translated from some Material thing as most words that express Spiritual Notions are and 't is one of those kind of Metaphors which are transferr'd from one thing to another for some Proportion or Resemblance between them For as a Material Rule is such a thing as if one endeavour to go according to it and decline not from it preserves one from going crooked so this Intellectual Rule call'd the Rule of Faith is of that Nature that if one go according to it and swerve not from it it preserves one from going wrong or from erring in his knowledge of what is True or First-deliver'd Faith and Faith being intended for persons of all sorts or Capacities the Rule of Faith must be able to preserve even those of the meanest Capacity from Erring in Faith while they relie upon It. Agian this being the Proper and Primary Effect of the Rule of Faith and every Nature that is having essentially in it self a Power to produce of its self and without the Assistance of any other its Primary Effect or rather being it self that Power as man to discourse Fire to burn c. it follows that since to preserve all that relie on it in right Faith is the Proper effect of the Rule of Faith what has not in it self the Power to do this and this of its self independently on any thing else but on God who establishes the Natures of all things to be Certain Powers to produce their Proper Effect is not in true speech a Rule of Faith Since then not one Catholick in the World holds that Scriptures Letter of it self and independently on something else viz thâ— Church's Tradition attesting the Truth of the same Letter and Interpreting it has in it self Power thus to certifie persons of all capacities of Christian Faith without possibility of Erring nor any one but holds the Churches Authority is able alone to do this Effect since 't is known and confest it actually perform'd this in the beginning there is not one Catholick that I know of who holds either that the Scripture is the Rule of Faith taking the words in this sense or that any thing but the Churches living voice and Practice or Tradition is It and so taking the words properly as I do they all agree with me On the other side taking those words the Rule of Faith for any thing that contains Faith or that may signify it with absolute Certainty to people of all sorts not of it self but meerly by vertue of another whose Power of Asserting the Truth of the Letter in those Passages at least that concern Christian Faith and of unerringly Interpreting it lends it to be thus certainly significative of Gods Will taking I say Rule of Faith in this sense as some of ours do I grant with them that Scripture is a Rule of Faith So that still I agree with them in the Thing only I dissent from them in the word and judge that this Container of Christs Doctrin as now describ'd is but improperly call'd a Rule of Faith as not having in it self the nature of such a Rule that is not having a Power in it self and of its self thus to ascertain Faith by absolutely engaging the Divine Authority This Distinction now given I learned from the Council of Trent which no where says that Scripture is a Rule of Faith as it does expresly of Tradition Sess. 5. but only that it contains Faith as also Tradition does but whether it contains it in such a manner that all those who are to have Faith by relying on it may by so doing be absolutely secur'd from erring which is requisite over and above to make it in true speech deserve the name of a Rule the Council says nothing I am sure it is far from saying that people of all sorts reading the Scriptures and attending solely to the Letter as interpreted and understood by their private selves shall be sure never to erre in right Faith nay it engages not for their security from erring so much as in any one point which yet ought to be said if Scripture in it self and of it self have the power of regulating them in their Faith or be a Rule Rather the Council by its Carriage says the direct contrary for though being about to define against Hereticks it professes to follow in its definitions the written word yet 't is observable that it no where builds on any place of Scripture but it professes at the same time to build its Interpretation of that place on Tradition which evidently argues that though Scripture in the Judgment of the Council contain'd the Point yet that which indeed regulated the Council in its Definitions was the Tradition of the Church as it also expresly declares where ever it defines And I dare say that there is not one Catholick in the world who thinks the Council knew not both what and how to define against Luther and Calvin at that time without needing to seek its Faith anew in Texts of Scripture which plainly concludes that the Council was not regulated by It or look'd upon it as her Rule but only consider'd it as of a sacred Authority and available against Hereticks professing to rely on Scripture and accusing the Church for going contrary to the Word of God Nay the Council defines that none should dare to interpret Scripture contrary to the sense which our H. Mother the Catholick Church hath held and does hold which clearly takes it out of private hands and makes the sense of the Church ever held the only Interpreter of Scripture especially in matters of Faith and extends to all Scripture which unavoidably makes it no Rule of Faith I am sure the Distinction now given shows my sentiment consistent if not perfectly agreeing with that Common Opinion of our Divines that Scripture is a Partial Rule or that Scripture and Tradition integrate one compleat Rule For they clearly mean by those words that Faith is partly contain'd in Scripture partly in the Tradition of the Church So that what they had an eye to in so doing was not the Evidence requisit to a Rule but only the degree of Extent of Scripture to the matter contain'd in it whence 't is evident they meant onely that Scripture contain'd some part of Faith which I perfectly allow to it and perhaps more This is my Judgment concerning the notioâ— of the Rule of Faith and what is such a Rule and these my Reasons for that Judgment If any one thinks
to be ascertain'd that he who was really GOD Infinite in all his Attributes and Infinitely happy in himself should purely out of his overflowing Goodness toward miserable mankind take his nature upon him become his Brother Friend Physician Master nay suffer for his sake many hardships during his life and at length buffeting scourging crowning with thorns and a most cruel death on the Cross and to keep the remembrance of these many Benefits warm in our hearts to give us after a wonderful manner his most precious Body and Bloud in a Sacrament instituted for that end by this means not only reviving the memory of the former incomparable love-motive but also adding new Incitements to that best of virtues by our apprehending lively that he so dearly embreasts and embosoms himself with us by his uniting himself to us through his corporal presence that so our souls may by means of the Love springing from this consideration feed on and be united to him Spiritually On the other side if these be not Truths but that the Church may perhaps erre in embracing them who sees not that the Church it self is Idolatrous at least materially in giving True Divine Honor which is Proper only to the Creator to a Creature Each of these two Points then is of that High concern as to Christian Life and Practice that it must needs be of its own nature either a most wicked and damnable Heresy to deny or else to assert it Wherefore 't is the highest Impiety to imagin that God has left no Way to ascertain Mankind whether these two Points omitting many others be True or False since 't is unavoidable they are if True the greatest and most efficacious helps to Christian Devotion that can be If False the greatest Hindrances to the same as corrupting the best Devotions of those Christians into Idolatrous worship The Knowing then the truth of these and such like being most certainly will'd by God we are to expect such a Rule of Faith as is declarative of these and such as these with Absolute Certainty Let us now consider whether Writing be the best means for such an end which if it be not it may certainly be concluded from Gods Wisdome Goodness c. that it hath not been made choice of or intended by God for it But 't is observable that Dr. St. perpetually waves any Discourse of this nature and chuses rather to argue from Gods Power which though I have already shown how Incompetent and Absurd it is let us examine at least what works he makes of it If says he the will of God cannot be sufficiently declared to men by writing it must either be c. I must distinguish the words cannot be declared by writing as I did formerly and affirm that they may either mean that the Way of Writing as taken in the whole latitude of its nature and standing under Gods Infinite Power ordering it with all possible Advantage to the end intended cannot sufficiently declare Gods will as to such Points or they may mean that Gods Revelation of his Will by Writing so qualifi'd as it is now actually found in the Scripture cannot sufficiently or with absolute Certainty declare Gods Will as to the Points aforesaid to men of all capacities in all future Ages Taking them in the former sense I deny the Proposition and say that Gods will as to such Points can be sufficiently declar'd by Writing For 't is absolutely within the compass of Gods Power to contrive a Book on that manner as might define exactly or else explicate at large in what precise sense every word that expresses each point of Faith is to be taken and to provide that it should never be taken in that book in more than that one sense or if in more to notifie to us in which places 't is taken in a different meaning He could also have laid it so that a hundred or two of Originals of these Books might be preserv'd publickly in several distant Countries from the Beginning which might by their perfect Agreement bear Testimony to one another and so assure us the Text was kept hitherto inviolate even to a tittle and also remain a Standard to correct all the multitudes of Diverse Readings which as experience shows us is apt otherwise to set the Copies at variance with one another He could also have so order'd it that the Original Languages might have been as well understood by the Generality of the Church as their own is so have avoided the Uncertainty of Translations Again lest crafty Hereticks should at any time for the future by wittily alluding places or playing upon words or other Sophistries pervert the sense Gods Power could have caus'd a Book to be written after the manner of a large Prophecy foretelling that in such a time 〈◊〉 place such and such a Heretick should arise perverting such and such a Point and forewarn men of his Sophisms and Errours This and much more might have been effected by Gods Power to establish Writing such an absolutely Certain and Intelligible Way which why his Wisdome should not have done in case Faith be an Assent which while it relies on the Ground God has left for Mankind cannot be an error as it may be if none can be absolutely certain both of the Text and sense of Scriptures I would gladly be informed Especially since Dr. St. tells us here Princ. 15. there is no need of an Infallible society of men either to attest or explain them and all that is Fallible as common sense tells us falls short of elevating it above possibility of being an Errour whence follows that there being no means on foot in the world Tradition of the Church failing or being set aside to secure us absolutely of this it can only be had by the Extraordinary Operation of Gods Power securing the Letter of such writings and rendering those VVritings themselves perfectly Intelligible in the manners assign'd in case VVriting be indeed the RULE OF FAITH VVriting then can be the Rule of Faith or able thus to ascertain Faith to us if Gods Infinit Power undertakes the framing it such as I have express'd but because experience tells us 't is not so order'd let us leave this Platonick way of considering how thing should be in that supposition and following the Aristotelian consider things as they are and accordingly examin how Gâ—ds Wisdome has thought fit to order such Writings actually and thence gather whether however 't is agreed between us they be most excellent for other uses and ends they were ever intended by the same Wisdome for a Rule of Faith To evince the contrary of which not to repeat those many Arguments I have brought elsewhere I fartner offer these Reasons First If the Writings of men divinely inspir'd were meant for a Rule of Faith then either all such Writings as such are therefore to belong to that Rule or some onely If all then since some Writings granted to have been written by
neither was it in their dayes accepted by a great portion of the world that Christ was God or his Doctrine truth that so they might receive it transmitted from the foregoing divinely assisted Church that these and these doctrines were His but they were the First that were to propagate this doctrine and publish and make out the Truth of it not could their own testimony avail to the end inâ—ended for what could they testify That Christ said thus and did such and such miracles to testify the truth of his doctrine or that the H. Ghost inspir'd them The latter was latent and the hearers had but their own words for it the other was patent indeed and so fully Convictive to those who knew and convers'd with them and were acquainted with the Circumstances but to remote nations whither two or three of them were to go and Preach it signifi'd little and depended upon their bare words Hence Miracles were at first and shall till the end of the world in like cases be absolutely necessary to make such unheard of Tenets enter and sink into the hearts of great multitudes how circumstanc't soever But when afterwards a World or vast Body of men were by those Extraordinary Means settled unanimously in a firm beleif that Christ was God or at least that his doctrine was true there could need no more but to know it was continu'd down all along the same to make deserters of his Church against whom we dispute at present accept it and it being visible audible and practical and so subject to sense hence Attestation of the foregoing Age to the Age succeeding was the most Proper way to continue it down and perfectly Certain being now grown so Ample and Vast and the Attesters being Intelligent Persons and having the sense of Christ's Law written in their heart could deliver and explain themselves pertinently to all arising difficulties and clear all possible misunderstandings which the dead Letter could not and so this Living rule is perfectly Intelligible too I omit here the Supernatural assistances which those who comprehend what most effectual means of Sanctity there is in the Doctrine Sacraments and Discipline of the Church and consequently as appears by divers excellent effects of it the Product also of those means or Holiness in great multitudes of the Faithful will see and acknowledge do incomparably strengthen the Authority of the Church in delivering down right Faith Hence appears our Dâ—s unreasonableness intimated to us in this principle That though Connatural and Ordinary means be now laid in the world to continue Christ's doctrine from ouâ— time forwards and were laid in the first Age to continue it along hitherto Though Common Reason and as I remember St. Austin have taught him that into the place of Miracles succeeded the consent of Countries Nations though Mr. Baxter whom perhaps he holds as Holy a Father as great a Saint and as eminent a Scholar as St. Austin himself have told him in his More Reasons for the Christian Religion c. p. 32. That humane testimony may be so circumstanc't as amounts to a natural infallible certainty instancing in the existence of King Iames and our Laws being made by King and Parliament which how Dr. T. his Schollar will like I know not and so the Churches infallibility in Faith to the end of the world might descend down to us by testimony to have been the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles without needing New miracles done still to evince it Nay though himselâ— in correspondency to both these Doctors does in his Rational account p. 205. make Tradition of the same use to us now which our Eyes and Ears had been if we had been actually present when Christ delivered his Doctrine and wrought his miracles and so could as well certify us of the first taught doctrine as if we had seen and heard it and consequently of the Infallibility of the Church in case that were a point of Doctrin taught at first yet now one of his principles must be that no Argument though never so strong and convictive no Tradition how well qualifi'd soever it be nor any Plea in the world though never so legal and evident shall acquit the Church from a most intolerable Usurpation if she challenge Infallibility but down right Miracles full as great observe his â—igour publick and convincing as were those of Christ and his Apostles and wrought by those very persons that challenge this infallibility nay and wrought with a design too for the conviction of those who do not beleeve it How shrewdly sure this Romeâ—destroying Principle is laid But if one should ask seriously whether a Convincing reason to prove this infallibility I mean such a one as evidently concluded the point might not do without a miracle I know no rational man that ever would deny his assent upon such a condition nor would Dr. St. perhaps in another occasion but here oh here 't is another case His hatred against the Church of Rome's Infallibility is so vigorous that he professes to desy Demonstration it self that is renounce Humane Nature rather than admit it nothing but Miracle with all the nice cautions imaginable shall serve the turn A notable resolution and only parallel to his whom nothing would satisfy of the truth of Christianity but the miraculous appearance of his Angel Guardian but the Miracle not being granted him he dy'd an Atheist In a word if the Church ever usurpt't the pretence of Infallibility I hope she first invaded it at one time or other Now since as long ago as St. Paul's time she we was called by that good man Columna Firmamentum veritatis The Pillar and Ground of Truth which words ill consist with a Fallible proposer of such truths as belong to her sphear oâ— points of Faith he ought to shew and make out when the Church lost that Title and preheminence otherwise since she is found claiming it now and actually holding and possessing it upon the tenure of Tradition as promis'd her by Christ we have very good reason to hold she never usurp'd it at all but inherited it by a continued line of Succession from the beginning of Christianity to this very day Nor has it ever seem'd Intolerable to any but to those whom nothing would content but new fangled Innovation and altering the long-establish'd doctrine of Christ deliverd down perpetually from his time 17. Nothing can be more absurd then to pretend the necessity of such an infallible Commission and Assistance to assure us of the truth of these writings and to interpret them and at the same time to prove that Commission from those writings from which we are told nothing can be certainly deduc'd such an assurance not being supposed or to pretend that infallibility in a Body of men is not at liable to doubts and disputes as in those books from whence only they derive their Infalliblity The first part of this Principle is granted as to the Absurdity of the
ought they will as God's command the Order of the World and common Reason obliges them be rather willing to trust their Pastors who are better qualifi'd for such Knowledge and whom God hath set over them to instruct them what is the sense of Scriptures than trust their own private shallow judgments And 't is observable that Dr. St's discourse all along concerning this point is a plain begging the Question For if God have left a Church and commanded the Faithfull to hear it and conform to it's Faith and consequently to receive the sense of Scripture as to Points of Faith from it then there is no necessity of Scripture's being intended to be plain to all Capacities of it self nor of thinking men may sincerely desire to know God's will in Scriptures and use due means to understand it without making use of the Churches Judgment in that affair upon which false supposition Dr. St. wholly builds his otherwise perfectly ruinous discourse Wherefore his supposition being deny'd I must reply that those who sincerely desire to know Gods wisl have a certain virtue in them called Humility and this teaches them not to overween in their own opinion but to think that their Pastors appointed by God to teach them are generally wiser then those who are to be taught and that those who are wiser know better than those who are lesse wise A little of this plain honest rational Humility would quite spoil all Dr. St's discourse and convince all his Principles to be a plausible piece of Sedition and licentious presumption tending of its own nature utterly to destroy all Church and Church-Government and if applied to that Subject Temporal too I should be glad to know what means the word such in the last line if he means Infallible and that the Church pretending to Infallibility must have Infallible Assurance that she is Infallible t is asserted by us and his supposition that she is not is absolutely deny'd For the Church is Infallibly certain that Christ's promise to her shall not fail and also Infallibly certain by constant Tradition and the beleef of good Christians in all Ages that Christ has promis'd her this Security or Immunity from Errour in Faith none questioning it but those who have rebel'd and revolted from her In a word this whole Principle is Faulty being built on a False and unprov'd Supposition and were the Supposition granted and that the Church were Fallible still it were false that his Faithfull would have greater Assurance of their Faith than ours as hath been partly now shown and more amply in my Reply to the foregoing Principle Recapitulation The Sum then of Dr. St's Performances in these ten Principles of his which most Fundamentally concern his Faith and the pretended Reduction of it to Principles is briefly this that he hath not brought so much as one single Argument proving either that Scripture's Letter is the Rule of Faith nor that Tradition or the Infallible Testimony of Gods Church is not it And as for the particular Maxims or Sayings of his on which he chiefly relies they have been one by one disprov'd and the opposite Truths establish't As 1. That Faith being such an Assent as when built as it ought to be on the means left by God for mankinde to rely ou is impossible to be False and so that Means or the Rule of Faith being necessarily such as while men rely upon it is impossible they should erre These things I say being so as I have largely prov'd in Faith Vindicated and the Introductory Discourse to this present Examin Dr. St. has not so much as made an offer or attempt to show that Scripture is the Rule of Faith 2. That since 't is agreed God can contrive Writings sufficiently Intelligible for that End or sufficiently clear to ascertain those who rely upon them of their Faith and yet on the other side 't is evident God has not de facto done this or contriv'd such Methods and ways as our Reason tels us evidently are proper means to keep those Writings call'd the Scriptures from being thus mis-understood by severall Parties even in Fundamental Points as we experience they are it follows hence most manifestly that God never intended the way of writing for the Rule of Faith 3. Since several Parties of excellent capacities in understanding words aright and both owning Scripture for their Rule and applying themselves with greatest diligence to know the true sence of it do notwithstanding differ in those Fundamental Points of a Trinity and the God-head of Christ 't is manifest that Scripture is not able so secure those who rely on it to their power of the Truth of their Faith and so is not the Rule of Faith 4. Again since in passages that concern Faith the knowing whether the words be taken properly or improperly is that which determines what is Faith what not and this knowledge is not had from Scripture it follows that Scripture is not the Rule of Faith 5. God has no where promis'd that he will still assist those who sincerely endeavour to compass an end in case they take a way disproportion'd to attain that end and which way was consequently never intended by him for such an end for this were to engage himself to do perpetual Miracles when ever any one should act irrationally Wherefore unless it be first solidly prov'd that Scripture is the Rule of Faith or apt of its own nature to give those who rely on it Inerrable security of the Truth of their Faith while they thus rely on it and consequently that it was intended by God for such an end none can justly lay claim to God's assistance or tax his Justice or Veracity if they fall into Errour Much lesse if they neglect those Duties which Nature makes evident to them and common Christianity teaches viz. to obey and hear their Governours Pastors and Teachers ordain'd by God and rely on their own private Wit or God's Immediate Assistance to their single selves rather than to those Publick Officers of the Church God had appointed to govern and direct them for this intolerable spiritual Pride is so odious and pernicious that it most justly entitles them to delusion Errour and Heresie 6. Hence since God has left some means for Faith and 't is Blasphemy to say that those who rely according to their utmost power on the means left and Intended by God to lead Men into Truth can while they do so run into Errour which yet private understandings as was seen may relying on the Written Word it follows 〈◊〉 unavoidably that some other way is left which is not Writing to secure the Relyers on it from Errour in Faith or to be to them the Rule of Faith 7. Scripture not being the Rule and Christ's Doctrine being once settled and accepted in the Christian part of the World by means of Miracles there needed no more but to derive it down to future Ages and this Doctrine being Practicall and so objected
to to our Sences Testimony was sufficient to do it so it were sufficiently qualify'd that is the best and on the best manner supported that any ordinary means can be such was the Testimony of the Church or Tradition which besides what is found in humane Testimony has also the whole body joynt force of supernaturall motives to preserve the Testifiers Attentive and Veracious Thus the Church or the Christian Society of Men being establish't Infallible in delivering down Faith needs not prove her Infallibility by Miracles but 't is sufficient the Faithfull beleeve that Christ promis't to protect her from Errour and consequently to beleeve the An est of her Infallibility or that she is infallible upon the same Rule they beleeve all their Faith and the Scriptures too viz. upon Tradition and that her Controversiall Divines who are to defend Faith by way of Reason or Argument prove the Quid est of this Infallibility or make out in what it consists or in what second Causes this ordinary and constant Assistance is founded and consequently prove it's force by such Maxims as ground the Certainty of Humane Testimony and if the Reader comprehends them by the strange efficacy of supernaturall motives also conspiring to strengthen Nature as to that effect of rightly testifying the Doctrine received and beleeved to be Christ's 8. There is no Necessity then of proving this Infallibility meerly by Scripture interpreted by virtue of this Infallibility Nor do the Faithfull or the Church commit a Circle in beleeving that the Church is Infallible upon Tradition For first taking them as Faithfull precisely they are meerly Beleevers not Reasoners or such as put one proposition artificially before or after another Next they beleeve only the supernaturall Infallibility built on the Assistance of the Holy Ghost that is on the Churches Sanctity and this is prov'd by the Human Testimony of the Church to have been ever held since the beginning and the force of the Human Testimony of the Church is prov'd by Maxims of meer Reason Add that the Certainty of such a vaâ—t Testimony is self-evident practically in the same manner as 't is self-evident that the Testimony of all England cannot deceive us in telling us there was such a man as King Iames whence no Circle can possibly be committed if it be beleeved for it's own sake or rather known by its own light though there would be if discoursing it rationally we should put the same Proposition to be before and after it self 9. Since those who have the least capacity of penetrating Scripture and consequently according to Dr. St. have the fewest Motives of good life applyed to them may frequently live amongst greatest Temptations that is in circumstances of needing the most 'T is a blind Undertaking and no securer nor wiser than idle Fortune-telling to bear men in hand that persons of all capacities who sincerely Endeavour shall understand Scripture in all such things as are necessary for their Salvation 10. Since 't is most evident that private Iudgments may err in understanding Scripture but not evident that Christ has not promis'd his Church Security from erring in Faith they run the greater hazard by far who rely on their private sense of Scripture then those do who rely on the Church especially since the Church denyes not Scripture but professes to go according to it and so in common reason is likely to comprehend its meaning far better than private men but most especially since our Moderns when they first began to rely on their own Judgments of Scripture for their Faith revolted from hearing the Church and rebell'd against Pastours and lawfull Superiours which both Gods Law and the light of Nature taught them they were to follow and submit to Thus our new Apostle of the private spirit of Gifts and new Light hath endeavour'd to pull down the Church and subvert the Foundation laid by Christ and instead thereof to set up as many Churches as there are private and proud Fancies in the world Each of which may by this devillish Doctrine defy the Church for Teaching him his Faith or for governing him as as a Church that is governing him as one of the Faithfull for she can bind never a subject in conscience to any thing but what her self and each man judges to be True and Sound wherefore if any or each private person understands Scripture another way then she does he is enfranchis'd by his Rule of Faith which he ought not relinquish from her Authority she may in that case wish him well and pity him as every old wife may also do and he in return may wish well to the Church end pity her She may endeavour to admonish and instruct him better so to pluck him out of his Errour and he in requital that he may not be behind-hand with the Church in Courtesy may with equal nay better Title admonish the Church of her failing and endeavour to pull her out of her Errour or as the new phrase is reform her for being conscious to himself that he reads the Scripture and sincerely indeavours to know the meaning of it he has all the security of his Faith and consequently of the Churches being in an Errour that may be Nor can he being thus gifted want Power to preach to her and others For certainly the World would be most perversly ordered if they who are in Errour should have Licence and Power to propagate their Errours and those who follow Truth should have no leave to propagate Truth Thus the Church has lost all power that is has lost her self being able neither to lead nor drive her equally-gifted Subjects so that her exercising Jurisdiction over them would by this wicked Doctrine be a most Tyrannical persecution and every such private man's refractory Disobedience see the wonderful gifts of the private spirit would become a most Glorious Confession of Christian Faith and every Rebell acting against the Church so he be but so self-conceited as to judge he knows more of God's mind in the Scripture then all the Church besides would by this Doctrine in case the Secular power should think fit to curb his Insolence be a most blessed Martyr such no doubt as John Fox'es were The Fifth Examen Sifting the Eleven remaining Principles which seem Chiefly to concern the nature of Faith WHoever hath perus'd the foregoing Examin and reflected well upon what a sandy Foundation Dr. St. has built his Faith will doubtless expect that he will assigne it such a nature as is of no exceeding great strength for fear lest his weak Grounds ' should not support his Superstructures nor his Proofs carry home to his Conclusions Now the Conceit which the Generality of Christians have of Faith importing it's true Nature is that 't is such an Assent as is impossible to be an Errour or False Whence follows that its Grounds are likewise such And indeed since all hold That Faith is an Immoveable and Unalterable Assent which is to
be Formally Infallible in the Grounds of Faith and so able to discourse of those Grounds and make out their Absolute Certainty by way of Skill or Art there ought to be moreover another sort of men in the Church Formally-Infallible in discerning the True and distinct notion of each Point of Faith and this is the proper work of the Governours of the Church For these by reason of their State of Life which is to meditate on God's Law day and night their perpetual Converse with the Affair of Faith by Preaching Teaching Catechizing Exhorting their Concern to overlook their Flock lest any Innovatour should infect them with Novelties their Constant Addiction to observe exactly their Rule Tradition the Standard by which they govern themselves in distinguishing the true Faithfull from revolting Apostats or Hereticks their Duty to be well vers't in the Doctrine of Fathers and Acts of former Councils and according to these soberly and gravely not quirkingly and with witty tricks to understand and interpret Holy Scripture These Eminent Personages and Chief Magistrates and Mâ—sters of the Faithfull being tâ—us furnisht with all requisite endowments to give them a most distâ—nct and exact knowledge of the doctrine descended to them by Tradition and of the sense of the Church in case any Heretick revolts openly from the formerly deliverâ—d Faith these Men I say are by the Majesty and sway of their moâ—t venerable and most ample Authority to quash and subdue his petty party newly sprung up and either reduce him to his duty by wholsome advice and discipline or if he persists in his Obstinacy to cut him off solemnly from the Church by Excommunication that so the sounder Faithfull may look upon him according to our Saviours command as on a Heathen or a Publicanâ— it being thus made evident that he stands against all his Superiâ—urs and rebels against the most sacred Authority upon Earth Or in case that Heretick cloak his poisonous doctrine in aâ—biguous expressions or goes about to pervert the words used formerly by the Church by drawing them to a sinister sense never intended by Her They being perfectly acquainted with the language and sense of the Church are to invent and assign proper words to express the Churches sence and such as are pertinent and effectual for the present juncture and exigency to defeat the crafty Attempts of those quibbling Underminers of Faith or else they are to clear the true sence of the former words us'd by the Church by declaring in what meaning the Church takes and ever took them And sometimes too beating the Heretick at his own weapon Scripture's Letter by avowing this to be the sence in which the Church ever took such and such places Hence they are said to define Faith that is to expresse in distinct words it 's precise Limits and bounds that so no leaven of Errour may possibly intermingle it self and to seal and recommend their Acts by stamping on them the most Grave most Venerable and most Sacred Authority in the whole Christian world Now that this Authority of the Church Representative is Infallible in knowing the Points of Faith and that on the best manner is prov'd hence because if such a Learned Body consisting of the most Eminent and Knowing Personages in the world can be deceiv'd while they rely on the Means left by God to preserve mankinde from errour in understanding the Points of Faith 't is evident no man in the world can be â—â—cur'd thereby from Errour and so the Means would be no Means to arrive at Truth but rather a Means to leade men into Errour since they err'd relying solely on that which it being supposed to have been intended by God for a Contrary end is absolutely Impossible 5. Though the Substance or Essence of Faith consists in believing what is True upon the Divine Authority certainly engag'd for those Truths which is the Formal Motive of Believing and therefore 't is enough for trne Faith that the â—Generality of the Church or the Vulgar be materially Infallible in their Faith yet it addes evidently a great perfection to Faith that they be Formally Infallible and that the Faithfull see with Infallible Certainty that the Divine Authority is actually engag'd when they believe First because Faith is an Intellectual Virtue and so to proceed knowingly upon it's Grounds makes it more Agreeable to the Understanding and Perfective of it 2. Because the more evident 't is that the Divine Authority is engag'd the more heartily those who reverence it are dispos'd to submit their Iudgments by believing whence Faith in such Persons is more lively firm and Immoveable also more Efficacious and if other Considerations be equal more apt to work through Charity than it is in others Moreover such Faithful are incomparably more able to satisfy and convert others being able as is supposed to make â—ut evidently the Grounds of their Faith Wherefore every thing being then in it's perfectest state when 't is able to produce it's like or another of it 's own kinde 't is a signe that Faith in such men is Ripe Manly and Perfect since 't is able to propagate it sâ—lf to others or as S. Paul phrases it gignere in Evangelio Whence those who are to convert souls and propagate Faith are oblig'd to labour all that may be to accomplish themselves in this particular lest they fall short of this Perfection which seems properly and peculiarly due to their state For 't is not so opprobrious to the Layity to be unable to perform this but 't is highly so to them because they are lame without it 6. Notwithstanding this 't is God's Will that all the Faithfull should be formally Infallible in their Faith or know Infallibly the Grounds of Faith cannot be False as far as they are capable For this being as was lately shown a Perfection in Faith and God who is Essential Goodness not being Envious but desirous his Creatures should have all the Good they are capable to receive especially such goods as tend to the bettering their souls and promoting them towards Heaven it follows that he wills them this Perfection in Faith as far as it can stand with the Universal Order of the World or the particular natures of Things that is as far as they are capable to receive it 7. He hath therefore ordain'd such a Means by which to know his Will as far as concerns our Belief or what he would have us believe that is he has constituted such a Rule of Faith that it's Certainty may be most easily penetrable by all degrees and sorts of the Faithfull Whence follows most evidently that Tradition and not Scripture is that Rule For of all ways of Knowing and Ascertaining imaginable nothing is more easie to be comprehended or to satisfy people of all sorts then is that of Witnessing Authority as we experience in their perfect belief of K. Iames or K. H. 8ths existence and such like The Grounds of which Truths not needing to be
learnt at School but being either inbred or by an ordinary converse with the world instil'd into them nothing is easier then for the wiser sort of them to fall into the account of it of themselves occasion being given as also to awaken as it were those dormant Knowledges in the Vulgar and make them reflect and see not with a clear and distinct sight as do the wiser portion of the Church but with a grâ—sse and confused yet solid Knowledge and suitable to their pitch that a Rule of such a nature is Certain and so those who professedly own and proceed upon it are in the truth they who reject it in an Errour Whereas yet they are utterly Incapable by any Maxims in their rude Understandings either to know that the Letter of the Scripture on the rightness of which all depends was preserv'd from Errour among so many Translatious and Transcriptions or that the Sense is necessarily such as they conceive it to be amidst such multitudes of Commentators and Sects wrangling about the meaning of that Letter nor yet are they competent Judges of the skill of all those several Sects and sorts of men whom they see and hear differ about the sense of it Tradition then of the Church being thus prov'd the Rule of Faith 't is both farther shown how Unreasonable Unnatural and Unsafe Dr. St's private-spirited Rule of Faith is and also even hence demonstrated against him here that Tradition of the Church is Infallible since being by this moans prov'd to be the Rule appointed by God to light Mankinde to their Faith 't is impossible that those who rely and proceed upon it should be led into Errour and also Impossible that Faith it self thus grounded should be False But I needed not have gone thus far to confute D. St's four Principles now under hand The four first Notes had abundantly given them their Answer and 't is time we now begin to apply them to that purpose Whereas then he grounds them all on our Tenet That No Divine Faith can be without an Infallible Assent he may please to know that we only mean by those words there materially Infallible or so as cannot possibly be an Errour and in this sense we own the Position and so must he too unlesse he will speak open blasphemy For Divine Faith being a believing upon the Divine Authority and as we both suppose upon some Means laid by God himself by which he proposes to us what we are to beleeve by telling us he has said it in case an Assent thus Grounded could possibly be an Errouâ— it would follow necessarily that God himself would be the Cause of that Errour The Substance then of Faith could be preserved and the Chief End of Faith our Salvation on some fashion attained were there no more than this that is though never a man in the whole world did know or could come to know that the Rule of Faith were Infallible provided none in the Church did speculate and so looking into the Grounds of his Faith and finding them as far as he could see Inconclusive did begin to suspect the Truth of it nor any out of the Church did oppose Faith For the Faithfull would in that case be in actual possession of those Excellent Truths call'd Points of Faith firmly assented to by their Understandings which were apt to produce thoâ—e Good Dispositions of their Wills call'd Virtues in the same sort though not in the same degree as they do now and by means of them they might arrive at Heaven Thus the Dr. may see that all he builds on is a pure mistake and that all the Faithfull may be thus Infallible in their Assent and thus Infallible in judging the Proposer does not nay cannot deceive us nay Infallible in judging thus of the matters propos'd to us to beleeve and yet not one man be Infallibly sure by way of Evident Knowledge that the Church is Infallible because all this proceeds not in the least in this supposition from the reach of any man's Intellective Faculty but purely from the Goodnesse and Conclusivenesse of the Grounds laid by God and his good Providence which led those men to embrace them though they neither penetrate nor went about to discourse them but simply to believe them on the same manner as our ruder unreflecting vulgar are led now But in this case were all the World no wiser the wisest in the Church would be no wiser then the weakest and rudest vulgar now mention'd wherefore both for that reason and many others ' assign'd in my 3d and 4th Note it was absolutely requisite to the Church and so becoming God's Providence to order that it should be otherwise and that the Conclusiveness of those Infallible Grounds on which God has founded our Faith should be penetrable by those who set themselves to such speculations or fall into doubts concerning them according as the exigencies of the Church shall be found to need such helps If this will not serve Dr. St. I am sure it will serve to defeat all his Arguments I shall farther tell him that the Generality or main Body in the Church is formally Infallible in judging the Church to be such in delivering down the First-taught Faith as I have prov'd in my 6th and 7th note and elsewhere Besides my reasons given there and in other places I must desire him and the rest of my Readers that in conceiving how this may be they would take their measures from the Absolute Certainty such people are capable of in Parallell matters and not from their Ability to explain or defend this absolute Certainty or their Constancy in adhering to it if combated by plausible reasons for he is a very mean Reflecter upon Nature who observes not that the Vulgar have Absolute Natural evidence of many Truths which yet they can neither give reason for declare defend nor perhaps through levity incident to such weak souls do very firmly adhere to and no wonder since so great a man as Sextus Empiricus speculated himself out of the Conceit of the Certainty of his Senses of which yet none doubts but Nature till he began to pervert it by wrong speculations had given him as Infallible Certainty as to any other Also they are to reflect how Infallibility or which is all one Certainty may be in a thousand different degrees according to the greater or lesser Capacity of the subject which they will best comprehend by reflecting with how different a Clearness many things appear to us now we are at Age and how dimly when we were young which yet we were absolutely Certain of at that time Nor yet does one of those Infallibilities spoken of render the other Vseless for they may either be about different Objects as if the Church Officers were formally Infallible in knowing what particular Points came down from Christ's time and penetratâ—ng the distinct Limits of each point and those other Particular persons be only Infallible in judging the Church to
agreed to by all the World at what time all Deserters of our Church of what name soever broke from us as also who were the Authors and Abettors and who the Impugners of such New Doctrins besides in what places they first begun and were thence propagated to others but no such thing is known of us even by our Adversaries whom it concerns to be most diligent Searchers after it seeing they are in a hundred mindes about the Time when and the Persons who introduc'd these pretended New Doctrins of ours which they say vary from Scripture as may be seen by their own words in several Books and amongst others one call'd The Progeny of Protestants and this for every point in which they pretend we have innovated 't is plain that when we charge them with deserttng the known Doctrin of the former Church and the Rule of Faith we speak open and acknowledg'd evidence when they accuse us of the same their charge is obscure and unknown even to the very Accusers nay plainly prov'd false by the necessity of the things being notorious if it happen'd and the constant disagreement of those who alledge it when or how it happen'd 16. I say Notorious for since Points of Faith which ground all Christian practise are the most concerning Truths in the World it cannot be but the denyal of such Truths must needs raise great commotions before the opposite Truths could be nniversally spread and the change of Christian Practise and Manners which depend on those Truths must be wonderfully manifest and known to every body wherefore had we been guilty of such a change and introduc'd New Tenets and propagated them over the Christian world as is pretended it must needs be manifestly and universally known that we did so neither is it possible the change should be so Insensible and invisible that our very Adversaries cannot find it out especially this alone making their Victory over us so certain and perfect For seeing we own TRADITION as an Infallible Rule We are irrecoverably overthrown if they make out that we ever deserted It and surely nothing should be more easie than to make out That than which if True nothing can possibly be more Notorious 17. Moreover since it cannot be that Multitudes of men should profess to hold points both infinitely concerning and strangely difficult to believe and yet own no ground upon which they hold them if we ever as 't is said we have deserted Tradition we must till the time we took it up again have proceeded upon some other Ground or Rule of Faith And because none ever charged â—s with proceeding upon the Letter of Scripture or Phanaticism and besides thâ—se there is no other but Tradition 't is plain we never deserted but always stuck to Tradition 18. Besides 't is impossible that that Body of Men whiâ—h claim for their Rule of Faith an uninterrupted Tradition from the Apoâ—â—les days should not have held to that Rule of Faith from the beginning For otherwise they must have taken it up at some tim◠〈◊〉 other and by doing so profess to the 〈◊〉 that Nothing is to be held of Faith but what descended by an uninterrnpted delivery from the beginning and yet at the same time acknowledge that all they then held was not so descended but received by another Rule this of Tradition or uninterrupted Delivery being then newly taken up which is so palpable a Contradiction that as Humane Nature could not fall into it so if it could the very pretence would have overthrown it self and needed no other confutation 19. Add to this that none of tbose many Sects who from time to time have deserted our Church's Faith and Discipline and so become her Adversaries ever yet pretended to assign the time when we took up this Rule of Tradition and yet a change in that on which we profess to build all the rest must needs be of all changes the most visible and most apt to justifie the carriage of those Revolters Wherefore 't is demonstrably evident on all sides that as this present Body of men call'd the Roman-Catholick Church does now hold to Tradition so their Predecessors uninterruptedly from the Apostles days did the same that is did hold to it ever And since 't is shown before § 11. that this Rule if held to will certainly convey down the true Faith unchang'd to all after Ages 't is likewise demonstrable that they have the true Faith and are the truly Faithful or true Church 20. And hence by the way is clearly seen what is meant by VNIVERSAL TRADITION and where 't is to be look'd for and found which puzzles many men otherwise very judicious and sincere who profess a readiness nay a duty to follow Vniversal Tradition but they are at a loss how we may certainly know which is Ie. For since 't is evident that to compleat the notion of the Vniversality of Mankind for example it were absurd to think we must take in brutes too which are of an opposite nature to Mankind but 't is sufficient to include all in whom the nature of Mankind is found so to make np the notion of Vniversal Tradition it were equally absurd to think we ought to take in those in whom the nature of Tradition is not found but its Opposit that is Deserters of Tradition or their Followers but 't is sufficient to include those in whom Tradition is found as in its Subject that is Adherers to Traedition or Traditionary Christians All therefore that have at any time deserted the Teoching and Practise of the immediately fore-going Church how numerous and of what name soever they behave no show of Title to be parts of Vniversal Tradition and only they who themselves do and whose Ancestors did ever adhere to it how few soever they seem are the only persons who can with any sense pretend to be those of whom as Parts Vniversal Tradition consists Whence also that Rule of Vincentius Lirinensis directing us to hold that which is believ'd in all places all times and by all which is so mis-apprehended by our Modern Dissenters is clearly understood viz. by taking it with Restriction to all those who hold to Tradition For otherwise should we not restrain it to those only who have adher'd to the Rule of Faith but enlarge it to the utmost extent of the words so as to comprehend also those who have deserted that Rule nothing could possibly be held of Faith whlch any Heretick had ever deny'd and so in stead of being a Rule to distâ—nguish or know what we are to believe it would by thus confounding right Faith with all the Heresies in the world render it utterly Impossible ever to know what 's Faith what not or discern Christ's true Doctrin from Diabolical Errours But to return whence we digrest 21. It follows from the former discourse that those men who stick to Tradition can by applying that their Rule certainly know who have true Faith and which body of men is