humane testimony And you shall finde the Miracles of the Apostles also to have a fuller attestation Even 1. besides the most credible humane testimony 2. a natural impossibility of deceit and falshood 3. and a further attestation of God supernaturally And you shall finde that the Gospel hath its certain evidence in the sanctifying effect by the co-operation of the holy Spirit of Christ unto this day Peruse it impartially and you will finde all this in what is said What would men rather desire to attest the veracity of a Messenger from Heaven than Miracles Evident uncontrolled multiplyed miracles And must this messenger live in every age and go into every Land to do these Miracles in the presence of every living Soul If not how would those that live in another Land or Age be brought to the knowledge of them but by the testimony of those that saw them And how would you have such testimonies better confirmed than by multiplyed miracles delivered in a way which cannot possibly deceive and fully and perpetually attested by the Spirit of effectual sanctification on Believers It is an unreasonable arrogancy to tell our Maker that we will not believe any miracles which he doth by whomsoever or howsoever witnessed unless we see them our selves with our own eyes and so they be made as common as the shining of the Sun and then we should contemn them as of no validity So much shall here suffice against the Objections from the Intrinsecal difficulties in the Christian Faith Many more are answered in my Treatise against Infidelity published heretofore CHAP. XI The Objections from things Extrinsecal resolved Obj. I. ALL men are Liars and History may convey down abundance of Vntruths Who liveth with his eyes open among men that may not perceive him partially men write and how falsly through partiality and with what brazen-faced impudency the most palpable falshoods in publick matters of fact are most confidently averred and that in the Land the City the Age the Year of the transaction who then can lay his salvation upon the truth of the history of acts and miracles done one thousand six hundred years ago Answ The Father of Lies no doubt can divulge them as well by Pen or Press as by the Tongue And it is not an unnecessary Caution to Readers and Hearers too to take heed what they believe especially 1. when one Sect or party speaks against another 2. or when carnal Interest requireth men to say what they do 3. or when falling out provoketh them to asperse any others 4. or when the stream of the popular vogue or countenance of men in power hath a finger in it 5. or when it is as probably contradicted by as credible men 6. or when the higher Powers deterre all from contradicting it and dissenters have not liberty of speech But none of these nor any such are in our present case There are Lyars in the world but shall none therefore be believed There is history which is false but is none therefore true Is there not a certainty in that history which telleth us of the Norman Conquest of this Land and of the series of Kings which have been since then and of the Statutes which they and their Parliaments have made yea of a battail and other transaction before the Incarnation of Jesus Christ Doth the falshood of Historians make it uncertain whether ever there was a Pope at Rome or a King in France or an Inquisition in Spain c But I have proved that it is more than the bare credit of any Tradition or Historians in the world which assure us of the truth both of fact and doctrine in the Christian Faith Obj. II. Are not the Legends written with as great confidence as the Scriptures and greater multitudes of Miracles there mentioned and believed by the Subjects of the Pope And yet they are denyed and derided by the Protestants Ans Credible History reporteth many miracles done in the first ages of the Christian Church and some since in several ages and places And the truth of these was the Cloak for the Legends multiplyed falsities which were not written by men that wrought Miracles themselves to attest them nor that proved the verity of their writings as the Apostles did Nor were they ever generally received by the Christian Churches but were written a while ago by a few ignorant superstitious Friers in an age of darkness and in the manner exposing the stories to laughter and contempt and are lamented by many of the most learned Papists themselves and not believed by the multitude of the people And shall no Chronicles no Records no certain History be believed as long as there are any foolish superstitious Lyars left upon the Earth Then Lyars will effectually serve the Devil indeed if they can procure men to believe neither humane testimony nor Divine Obj. III. Many Fryers and Fanaticks Quakers and other Enthusiasts have by the power of Conceit been transported into such streins of speech as in the Apostles were accounted fruits of the Spirit Yea to a pretence of Prophesie and Miracles And how know we that it was not so with the Apostles Answ 1. It is the Devils way of opposing Christ to do it by apish imitation So would the Egyptian Magicians have discredited the miracles of Moses And Christianity consisteth not of any words which another may not speak or any actions of devotion or gesture or formality which no man else can do There are no words which seem to signifie a rapture which are not miraculous but they may be counterfeited But yet as a Statuary or Painter may be known from a Creator and a Statue from a Man so may the Devils imitations and fictions from the evidences of Christianity which he would imitate Look through the four parts of the testimony of the Spirit and you may see this to be so 1. What antecedent Prophesies have foretold us of these mens actions 2. What frame of Holy doctrine do they deliver bearing the Image of God besides so much of Christs own doctrine as they acknowledge 3 And what Miracles are with any probability pretended to be done by any of them unless you mean any Preacher of Christianity in confirmation of that common Christian Faith There are no Quakers or other Fanaticks among us that I can hear of who pretend to miracles In their first arising two or three of them were raised to a confidence that they had the Apostolical gift of the Spirit and should speak with unlearnt Languages and heal the sick and raise the dead but they failed in the performance and made themselves the common scorn by the vanity of their attempts Not one of them that ever spake a word of any Language but what he had learnt nor one that cured any disease by Miracle One of them at Worcester half famished and then as is most probable drown'd himself and a woman that was their Leader undertook to raise him from the dead But
be to our benefit only and his hurt yea though it be in going to the slaughter if he did so by us could do us no wrong nor give us any just excuse for our disobedience For as sweet as life is to us it is not so much Ours in right as His and therefore should be at his disposal § 9. The breaking of Gods Laws must needs deserve a greater penalty than the breaking of any Man's Laws as such The difference of the Rulers and their Authority puts this past all controversie of which yet I shall say more anon § 10. What is said of the subjection of Individuals to God is true of all just Societies as such the Kingdoms of the world being all under God the universal King as small parcels of his Kingdom as particular Corporations are under a humane King Therefore Kings and Kingdoms owe their absolute obedience to God and may not intend any ultimate end but the pleasing of their universal Soveraign nor set up any interest against him or above him or in coordination with him nor manage any way of Government but in dependance on him as the Principle and the End of it nor make any Laws but such as stand in due subordination to his Laws nor command any duty but what hath in its order a true subserviency and conducibility to his pleasure CHAP. X. Of GOD's particular Laws as known in Nature THe true nature of a Law I have opened before It is not necessary that it be written nor spoken but that it be in general any apt signification of the Will of the Rector to his subjects instituting what shall be due from them and to them for the ends of Government Therefore whatsoever is a signification of Gods will to man appointing us our duty and telling us what benefit shall be ours upon the performance and what loss or hurt shall befall us if we sin is a Law of God § 1. A Law being the Rectors Instrument of Governing there can be no Law where there is no Government And therefore that which some call The eternal Law is indeed no Law at all But it is the Principle of all just Laws The Eternal Wisdom and Goodness of God that is the Perfection of his Nature and Will as related to a Possible or future Kingdom is denominated Justice And this Justice some call the Eternal Law But it is truly no Law because it is the will of God in himself and not as Rector nor is it any signification of that Will nor doth it suppose any governed subjects in being from Eternity nor doth it make any duty to any from Eternity But all the Laws which God maketh in time and consequently which men make which are just and good are but the Products of this Eternal Will and Justice And whereas some say that there is an eternall truth in such Axiomes as these Thou shalt love God above all and do as thou would'st be done by and the good should be incouraged and the bad punished c. I answer God formeth not Propositions And therefore there were no such Propositions from Eternity Nor was there any Creature to love God or to do Good or Evil and be the subject of such Propositions That Proposition therefore which was not from Eternity was neither true nor false from Eternity for non entis non sunt accidentia vel modi But this is true that from Eternity there were the grounds of the verity of such Propositions when they should after be And that if there had been subjects from Eternity for such Propositions and Intellects to frame them they would have been of Eternal truth § 2. At the same time of his Creation that God made Man his subject he also made him some Laws to govern him For subjection being a general obligation to obedience would signifie nothing if there were no particular duties to be the matter of that obedience Else Man should owe God no obedience from the beginning but be Lawless for where there is no Law there is no Obedience Taking a Law in the true comprehensive sense as I here do § 3. All the objective significations in natura rerum within us or without us of the Will of God concerning our Duty reward or punishment are the True Law of Nature in the primary proper sense § 4. Therefore it is falsly defined by all Writers who make it consist in certain axioms as some say born in us or written on our hearts from our birth as others say dispositively there It is true that there is in the nature of Mans Soul a certain aptitude to understand certain Truths as soon as they are revealed that is as soon as the very Natura rerum is observed And it is true that this disposition is brought to actual knowledge as soon as the minde comes to actual consideration of the things But it is not true that there is any actual knowledge of any Principles born in Man Nor is it true that the said Disposition to know is truly a Law nor yet that the actual knowledge following it is a Law But the disposition may be called a Law Metonymically as being the aptitude of the faculties to receive and obey a Law as the Light of the Eye which is the potentia dispositio videndi may be called the Light of the Sun but unhansomly And the subsequent actual knowledge of Principles may be called the Law of Nature metonymically as being the perception of it and an effect of it as actual sight may be called the Light of the Sun and as actual knowledge of the Kings Laws may be called His Laws within us that is the effect of them or the Reception of them But this is far from propriety of speech That the inward axiomes as known are not Laws is evident 1. Because a Law is in genere objectivo and this is in genere actionum A Law is in genere signorum but this is the discerning of the sign A Law is the will of the Rector signified this is his will known A Law is Obligatory this is the perception of an Obligation A Law maketh duty but this is the knowledge of a duty made 2. The Law is not in our power to change or abrogate But a mans inward dispositions and perceptions are much in his power to encrease or diminish or obliterate Every man that is wilfully sensual and wicked may do much to blot out the Law of Nature which is said to be written on his heart But wickedness cannot alter or obliterare the Law of God If this were Gods Law which is upon the heart when a sinner hath blotted it out he is disobliged from duty and punishment For where there is no Law there is no duty or transgression But no sinner can so disoblige himself by altering his Makers Laws 3. Else there would be as many Laws of Nature not only as there are men but as there are diversity of perceptions But Gods Law is
matter of fact indeed by common sense but their sufficiency and gifts by which they carried on their ministry were suddenly given them by the holy Ghost when Christ himself was ascended from them And Paul that had conferred with none of them yet preached the same Gospel being converted by a voice from heaven in the heat of his persecution 3. Their doctrine containeth so many and mysterious particulars that they could never have concorded in it all in their way 4. And their labours did so disperse them about the world that many new emergent cases must needs have cast them into several minds or ways if they had not agreed by the unity of that Spirit which was the common Teacher of them all § 25. 7. That the Disciples of Christ divulged his Miracles and Resurrection in the same Place and Age where the truth or falshood might soon have been search'd out and yet that the bitterest enemies either denied not or confuted not their report is apparent partly by their confessions and partly by the non-existence of any such confutations That the Disciples in that Age and Country did divulge these Miracles is denied by none for it was their employment and by it they gathered the several Churches and their writings not long after written declare it to this day That the enemies confuted not their report appeareth 1. not only in the Gospel-history which sheweth that they denyed not many of his Miracles but imputed them to conjuration and the power of Satan but also by the disputes and writings of the Jews in all Ages since which do go the same way 2. And if the enemies had been able to confute these Miracles no doubt but they would have done it having so much advantage wit and malice Object Perhaps they did and their writings never come to our knowledge Answ The unbelieving Jews were as careful to preserve their writings as any other men and they had better advantage to do it than the Christians had and therefore if there had been any such writings yea or verbal confutations the Jews of this age had been as like to have received them as all the other antient writings which they yet receive Josephus his testimony of Christ is commonly known and though some think it so full and plain that it is like to be inserted by some Christian yet they give no proof of their opinion and the credit of all copies justifieth the contrary except only that these words are like to have been thrust in This is Christ which some Annotator putting into the Margin might after be put into the Text. And that the Jews wanted not will or industry to confute the Christians appeareth by what Justin Martyr saith to Tryphon of their malice That they sent out into all parts of the world their choicest men to perswade the people against the Christians that they are Atheists and would abolish the Deity and that they were convict of gross impiety § 26. 8. The great diversity of believers and reporters of the Gospel Miracles doth the more fully evince that there was no conspiracy for deceit There were learned and unlearned Jews and Gentils rich and poor men and women some that followed Christ and some as Paul that perhaps never saw him and for all these to be at once inspired by the holy Ghost and thenceforth unanimously to accord and concur in the same doctrine and work doth shew a supernatural cause § 27. 9. There were dissentions upon many accidents and some of them to the utmost distance which would certainly have detected the fallacy if there had been any such in the matters of fact so easily detected 1. In Christ's own family there was a Judas who betrayed him for mony This Judas was one that had followed Christ and seen his Miracles and had been sent out to preach and wrought miracles himself If there had been any collusion in all this what likelier man was there in the world to have detected it yea and his conscience would never have accused but justified him he need not to have gone and hanged or precipitated himself and said I have sinned in betraying the innocent bloud The Pharisees who hired him to betray his Master might by mony and authority have easily procured him to have wrote against him and detected his fraud if he had been fraudulent it would have tended to Judas his justification and advancement But God is the great defender of truth 2. And there were many baptized persons who were long in good repute and communion with the Christians who fell off from them to several Sects and Heresies not denying the dignity and truth of Christ but superinducing into his doctrine many corrupting fancies of their own such as the Judâ—izâ—rs the Simonians the Nicolaitans the Ebonites the Cerinthians the Gnosticks the Valentinians Basilidians and many more And many of these were in the days of the Apostles and greatly troubled the Churches and hindred the Gospel insomuch as the Apostles rise up against them with more indignation than against the Infidels calling them dogs wolves evil workers deceivers bruit beasts made to be taken and destroyed c. They write largely against them they charge the Churches to avoid them and turn away from them and after a first and second admonition to reject them as men that are self-condemned c. And who knoweth not that among so many men thus excommunicated vilified and thereby irritated some of them would certainly have detected the deceit if they had known any deceit to have been in the reports of the afore-said Miracles Passion would not have been restrained among so many and such when they were thus provoked 3. And some in those times as well as in all following ages have forsaken the faith and apostatized to open infidelity and certainly their judgment their interest and their malice would have caused them to detect the fraud if they had known any in the matters of fact of these Miracles For it is not possible that all these causes should not bring forth this effect where there was no valuable impediment If you again say It may be they did detect such frauds by words or writings which come not to our knowledge I answer again 1. The Jews then that have in all ages disputed and written against Christianity would certainly have made use of some such testimony instead of charging all upon Magick and the power of the devil 2. And it is to me a full evidence that there were no such deniers of the Miracles of Christ when I find that the Apostles never wrote against any such nor contended with them nor were ever put to answer any of their writings or objections When all men will confess that their writings must needs be written according to the state and occasion of those times in which they wrote them and if then there had been any books or reasonings divulged against Christ's miracles they would either have wrote purposely against them
perfidious as cruel and contentious insomuch as among the Turkish Mahometans and the Indian Banians the wickedness of Christians is the grand cause that they abhor Christianity and it keepeth out your Religion from most Nations of the earth so that it is a proverb among them when any is suspected of treachery What do you think I am a Christian And Acosta witnesseth the like of the West-Indies Answ 1. Every man knoweth that the vulgar rabble who indeed are of no Religion will seem to be of the Religion which is most for their worldly advantage or else which their Ancestors and Custom have delivered to them And who can expect that such should live as Christians who are no Christians You may as well blame men because Images do not labour and are not learned wise and virtuous We never took all for Christians indeed who for carnal interest or custom or tradition take up the bare name and desire to be called Christians rebels may affect the name of loyal subjects and thieves and robbers the name of true and honest men Shall loyalty truth and honesty therefore be judged of by such as them Nothing can be more unrighteous than to judge of Christianity by those hypocrites whom Christ hath told us shall be condemned to the sorest punishment and whom he hateth above all sorts of sinners What if Julian Celsus Porphyry or any of these objectors should call themselves Christians and live in drunkenness cruelty perjury or deceit is it any reason that Christ should be reproached for their crimes Christianity is not a dead opinion or name but an active heavenly principle renewing and governing heart and life I have before shewed what Christianity is 2. In the Dominions of the Turks and other Infidel Princes the Christians by oppression are kept without the means of knowledge and so their ignorance hath caused them to degenerate for the greater part into a sensual sottish sort of people unlike to Christians And in the Dominions of the Moscovite tyranny hath set up a jealousie of the Gospel and suppressed Preaching for fear lest Preachers should injure the Emperour And in the West the usurpation and tyranny of the Papacy hath lock'd up the Scriptures from that people in an unknown tongue that they know no more what Christ saith than the Priest thinks meet to tell them lest they should be loosened from their dependance on the Roman Oracle And thus Ignorance with the most destroyeth Christianity and leaveth men but the shadow image and name For belief is an intellectual act and a sort of knowing and no man can believe really he knoweth not what If any Disciples in the School of Christ have met with such Teachers as think it their vertue and proficiency to be ignorant call not such Christians as know not what Christianity is and judge not of Christ's doctrine by them that never read or heard it or are not able to give you any good account of it But blessed be the Lord there are many thousand better Christians Object XIII But it is not the ignorant rabble only but many of your most zealous Professors of Christianity who have been as false as proud and turbulent and seditious as any others Answ 1. That the true genuine Christian is not so you may see past doubt by the doctrine and life of Christ and his Apostles And that there are thousands and millions of humble holy faithful Christians in the world is a truth which nothing but ignorance or malice can deny 2. Hypocrites are no true Christians what zeal soever they pretend There is a zeal for self and interest which is oft masked with the name of zeal for Christ It is not the seeming but the real Christian which we have to justifie 3. It is commonly a few young unexperienc'd novices which are tempted into disorders But Christ will bring them to repentance for all before he will forgive and save them Look into the Scripture and see whether it do not disown and contradict every fault both great and small which ever you knew any Christian commit If it do as visibly it doth why must Christ be blamed for our faults when he is condemning them and reproving us and curing us of them Object XIV The greater part of the world is against Christianity Heathens and Infidels are the far greater part of the earth and the greatest Princes and learnedst Philosophers have been and are on the other side Answ 1. The greater number of the world are not Kings nor Philosophers nor wise nor good men and yet that is no disparagement to Kings or learned or good men 2. The most of the world do not know what Christianity is nor ever heard the reasons of it and therefore no wonder if they are not Christians And if the most of the world be ignorant and carnal and such as have subjected their reason to their lusts no wonder if they are not wise 3. There is no where in the world so much learning as among the Christians experience puts that past dispute with those that have any true knowledge of the world Mahomitanism cannot endure the light of learning and therefore doth suppress or sleight it The old Greeks and Romans had much learning which did but prepare for the reception of Christianity at whose service it hath continued ever since But barbarous ignorance hath over spread almost all the rest of the world even the learning of the Chinenses and the Pythagoreans of the East is but childishness and dotage in comparison of the learning of the present Christians Object XV. For all that you say when we hear subtil arguings against Christianity it staggereth us and we are not able to confute them Answ That is indeed the common case of tempted men their own weakness and ignorance is their enemies strength But your ignorance should be lamented and not the Christian cause accused it is a dishonour to your selves but it is none to Christ Do your duty and you may be more capable of discerning the evidence of truth Object XVI But the sufferings which attend Christianity are so great that we cannot bear them in most places it is persecuted by Princes and Magistrates and it restraineth us from our pleasures and putteth us upon an ungrateful troublesome life and we are not souls that have no bodies and therefore cannot sleight these things Answ But you have souls that were made to rule your bodies and are more worthy and durable than they and were your souls such as reason telleth you they should be no life on earth would be so delectable to you as that which you account so troublesome And if you will chuse things perishing for your portion be content with the momentary pleasures of a dream you must patiently undergo the fruits of such a foolish choice And if eternal glory will not compensate what ever you can lose by the wrath of man or by the crossing of your fleshly minds you
must give light to Christianity and prepare men to receive it And they think to know what is in Heaven before they will learn what they are themselves and what it is to be a man Cond 4. Get a true Anatomy Analysis or Description of Christianity in your minds for if you know not the true nature of it first you will be lamentably disadvantaged in enquiring into the truth of it For Christianity well understood in the quiddity will illustrate the mind with such a winning beauty as will make us meet its evidence half-way and will do much to convince us by its proper light Cond 5. When you have got the true method of the Christian doctrine or Analysis of faith begin at the Essentials or primitive truths and proceed in order according to the dependencies of truths and do not begin at the latter end nor study the conclusion before the premises Cond 6. Yet look on the whole scheme or frame of causes and evidences and take them entirely and conjunct and not as peevish factious men who in splenish zeal against another sect reject and vilifie the evidence which they plead This is the Devils gain by the raising of sects and contentions in the Church he will engage a Papist for the meer interest of his sect to speak lightly of the Scripture and the Spirit and many Protestants in meer opposition to the Papists to sleight Tradition and the testimony of the Church denying it its proper authority and use As if in the setting of a Watch or Clock one would be for one wheel and another for another and each in peevishness cast away that which another would make use of when it will never go true without them all Faction and contentions are deadly enemies to truth Cond 7. Mark well the suitableness of the remedy to the disease that is of Christianity to the depraved state of man and mark well the lamentable effects of that universal depravation that your experience may tell you how unquestionable it is Cond 8. Mark well how connaturally Christianity doth relish with holy souls and how well it suiteth with honest principles and hearts so that the better any man is the better it pleaseth him And how potently all debauchery villany and vice befriendeth the cause of Atheists and unbelievers Cond 9. Take a considerate just survey of the common enmity against Christianity and Holiness in all the wicked of the world and the notorious war which is every where managed between Christ and the Devil and their several followers that you may know Christ partly by his enemies Cond 10. Impartially mark the effects of Christian doctrine where ever it is sincerely entertain'd and see what Religion maketh the best men and judge not of serious Christians at a distance by false reports of ignorant or malicious adversaries And then you will see that Christ is actually the Saviour of souls Cond 11. Be not liars your selves lest it dispose you to think all others to be liars and to judge of the words of others by your own Cond 12. Be-think you truly what persons you should be your selves and what lives you should live if you did not believe the Christian doctrine or if you doe not believe it mark what effect your unbelief hath on your lives For my own part I am assured if it were not for the Christian doctrine my heart and life would be much worse than it is though I had read Epictetus Arrian Plato Plotinus Jamblichus Proclus Seneca Cicero Plutarch every word and those few of my neighbourhood who have fallen off to infidelity have at once fallen to debauchery and abuse of their nearest relations and differed as much in their lives from what they were before in their profession of Christianity though unsound as a leprous body differeth from one in comeliness and health Cond 13. Be well acquainted if possible with Church-History that you may understand by what Tradition Christianity hath descended to us For he that knoweth nothing but what he hath seen or receiveth a Bible or the Creed without knowing any further whence and which way it cometh to us is greatly disadvantaged as to the reception of the faith Cond 14. In all your reading of the holy Scriptures allow still for your ignorance in the languages proverbs customs and circumstances which are needful to the understanding of particular Texts and when difficulties stop you be sure that no such ignorance remain the cause He that will but read Brugensis Grotius Hammond and many other that open such phrases and circumstances with Topographers and Bochartus and such others as write of the Animals Utensils and other circumstances of those times will see what gross errors the opening of some one word or phrase may deliver the Reader from Cond 15. Vnderstand what excellencies and perfections they be which the Spirit of God intended to adorn the holy Scriptures with and also what sort of humane imperfections are consistent with these its proper perfections that so false expectations may not tempt you into unbelief It seduceth many to infidelity to imagine that if Scripture be the word of God it must needs be most perfect in every accident and mode which were never intended to be part of its perfection Whereas God did purposely make use of those men and of that style and manner of expression which was defective in some points of natural excellency that so the supernatural excellency might be the more apparent As Christ cured the blind with clay and spittle and David slew Goliah with a sling The excellency of the means must be estimated by its aptitude to its end Cond 16. If you see the evidences of the truth of Christianity in the whole let that suffice you for the belief of the several parts when you see not the true answer to particular exceptions If you see it soundly proved that Christ is the Messenger of the Father and that his word is true and that the holy Scripture is his word this is enough to quiet any sober mind when it cannot confute every particular objection or else no man should ever hold fast any thing in the world if he must let all go after the fullest proof upon every exception which he cannot answer The inference is sure If the whole be true the parts are true Cond 17. Observe well the many effects of Angels ministration and the evidences of a communion between us and the spirits of the unseen world for this will much facilitate your belief Cond 18. Over-look not the plain evidences of the Apparitions Witches and wonderful events which fall out in the times and places where you live and what reflections they have upon the Christian cause Cond 19. Observe well the notable answers of Prayers in matters internal and external in others and in your selves Cond 20. Be well studied at home about the capacity use and tendency of all your faculties and you will find that your very nature pointeth you up to
require it or as if all our Pastors and Teachers were not to be so useful to us as a sign-post nor we were not to learn of them or of our Parents any thing that God either by nature or Scripture ever taught us or as if a child or subject who is required to learn the meaning of his Ruler's Laws to judge of them judicio privatae discretionis were thereby allowed to mis-understand them and to say that they command us that which they forbid us and because the King forbiddeth us to murder he alloweth us to say You proposed it to my understanding and I understand it that you bid me murder and therefore you may not punish me As if he that is bound to judge by a bare discerning what is commanded him and what forbidden were allowed to judge in partem utramlibet that it is or it is not as please himself As if when the King hath printed his Statutes he had forfeited all his authority by so doing and his subjects might say Why do you punish us for disobeying your Laws when you promulgated them to us as rational creatures to discern their sense Will it profit the world to write confutations of such stuff as this or must a man that is not condemned to Stage-playing or Ballad-making thus waste his time Do the people need to be saved from such stuff as this If so what remedy but to pity them and say Quos perdere vult Jupiter hos dementat si populus vult decipi decipiatur And yet to do no more wrong to the Scriptures than to Councils and Bulls and Statutes and Testaments and Deeds and Bonds he concludeth Of all writings whatsoever that by the meer words of the writer you cannot be certain of his sense though they be common words and you take them in the common sense So that if any doubt arise about my words if I resolve it by writing I cannot be understood but if I spake the same syllables by word of mouth it would serve the turn As if no man could be sure of the sense of any Law or Testament or Bond or Covenant which is committed to writing nor of any exposition of them if once it fall under Pen or Press As if God's writing the Ten Commandments had left them unintelligible in comparison of his speaking them Then farewell all Historical certainty Hath every single Priest himself any assurance of the sense of the Council the Canons the Popes Decreetals and Bulls but by the way of writing And so the poor people must instead of the Church believe only that Priest that orally speaketh to them though he have no certainty of the matter himself If this doctrine be made good once it will spoil the Printers trade and the Clarks and Courts of Record and the Post-Office too But page 51. he maketh the consent of the universal Church to be the only sure communication of Christian Doctrine in the Articles of Faith yea the consent of the present age concerning the former But how the consent of the whole Church shall be certainly known to every man and woman when no writing can certainly make known any mans mind is hard to tell a man that expecteth reason And that you may see how much the subject of this Treatise is concerned in such discourses he addeth that If the Church had at any time been small its testimony had been doubtful but saith he it testifieth of it self that Christians were never few and therefore it is to be believed But we will have no such prevaricating defences of Christianity The major is the Infidels erroneous cavil the minor is a false defence of the faith The Church never said that Christians were never few it hath ever confessed the contrary that once they were few and yet it hath proved against the Infidel that its testimony was not doubtful having better evidence of their veracity than numbers You may perceive by these strictures upon this one discourse what an endless task it would be to write confutations of every man that hath leisure to publish to the world his opinions which are injurious to the Christian verity And therefore no sober Reader will expect that I or he must be so tired before he can be satisfied and setled in the Truth FINIS Non tam authoritatis in disputando quà m Rationis momenta quaerenda sunt Cicer. de Nat. Deor. 1. p. 6. Animo ipso animus videtur nimirum hanc habet vim praeceptum Apollinis quo monet UT SE quisque NOSCAT Non enim credo id praecipit ut membra nostra aut staturam figurámve noscamus Neque nos corpora sumus 〈◊〉 neque ego tibi dicens hoc CORPORI tuo dico Cum igitur NOSCE TE dicit hoc dicit NOSCE ANIMUM TUUM Nam corpus quidem quasi vas est aut aliquod animi receptaculum ab ANIMO tuo quicquid agitur id agitur à te Hunc igitur nosce nisi Divinum esset non esset hoc acrioris cujusdam animi praeceptum sic ut tributum Deo sit hoc est SEIPSUM posse cognoscere sed fi qualis sit animus ipse animus nesciat dic quaeso ne esse quidem se sciet Cicero Tuscul Quast l. 1. pag. mihi 226 227. Patet aeternum id esse quod seipsum movet quis est qui hanc naturam animis tributam neget Inanimum est enim omne quod pulsu agitatur externo Sentit igitur animus se moveri Quod cum sentit illud una sentit se vi suâ non aliena moveri nec accidere posse ut ipse unquam à se deseratur ex quo efficitur aeternitas Id. ibid. Obj. Age ostende mihi Deum tuum Resp Age ostende mihi hominem tuum fac te hominem esse cognoscam quis meus sit Deus demonstrare non morabor Theophil Antioch ad Autolycum lib. 1. initio Cum despicere coeperimus sentire quid simus quid ab animantibus caeteris differamus tum ea insequi incipiemus ad quae nati sumus Cicer. 5. de fin Qui seipsum cognoverit cognoscet in se omnia Deum ad cujus imaginem factus est Mundum cujus simulachrum gerit Creaturas omnes cum quibus symbolum habet Paulus Dom. de Scala Thess pag. 722. Ut Deum noris si ignores locum faciem sic animum tibi tuum notum esse oportet etiamsi ignores locum formam Cicer. 1. Tuscul Non ii sumus quibus nihil verum esse videatur sed ii qui omnibus veris falsa quaedam adjuncta esse dicamus tanta similitudine ut c. Cicer. de Nat. Deor. 1. p. 7. Lege Pisonis dicta de mente corpore in Cicer. de finib l. 5. p. 189. Omnes ad id quod Bonum videtur omnes suas actiones referunt Aristot de Republ. 1. c. 1. In homine optimum quidem Ratio Haec antecedit