will set him right and leave him to his Cell for the rest The Answerer's Argument is this when set in due form If all questions and doubts relating to Salvation are to be resolved by Scripture then all things necessary to Salvation are contained in Scripture but all questions and doubts relating to Salvation are to be resolved by Scripture as appears from the Texts quoted above therefore c. I shall here return him my words again because in repeating he has perverted them He takes up with such a sort of Arguments which how useful soever they may prove I will recall it and say with him tho not useful to make some men of their Religion have a plainer tendency to not as he corrupts them may very well make others of none Q. 2. Whether all things necessary to Salvation are clearly contained in Scripture Ans From Scripture not a word However he condescends to deliver His sense and that of his Church on this Qnestion It is That all persons cannot immediately learn all the necessaries to Salvation by meer reading of Scripture that many other helps are necessary to wit attention consideration to be cleared from prejudices and prepossessions from pride love of the world interest obstinacy partiality sloth and besides all this the assistance of teaching Guides and a dependency from God for the Wisdom he hath promised such promises I find made to the Church but not any to particulars that shall refuse to be absolutely guided by the Church So that Scripture is plain in this sense only that by these means it may be apprehended Now by Guides he means not false ones such as Christ bid us beware of and consequently till a Protestant hath a reasonable conviction that his Church-Teachers tho' divided from the Catholic Church and condemned by General Councils tho' Abettors of a Religion of not 150 years settlement tho not in Communion with one Bishop in the whole World out of His Majesty's Dominions yet still are true Guides and till he be morally sure that he wants not himself any one of the ten other dispositions requir`d is to persuade himself that he may very well be one of those who wrest the Scripture to their perdition and consequently hath no good ground for any one Act of Faith. This will create but small comfort to any Protestant Less yet will he find in St. Cyril's Sentence The things that are easie are yet to Heretics hard to understand especially if all those be Heretics according to St. Augustin who when the Doctrine of Catholic Faith is declared to them chuse to oppose it and rather embrace what is their own sense if the Catholic Faith be according to the same Dr a Communion with the whole world so that according as his Scholar St. Prosper defines it a Christian when in Communion with this General Church is a Catholic when separated from her an Heretick I wonder how this man was so confident as to name that word Heretic which his Brethren are usually as much afraid to mention as a murtherer to come up to the murder'd Corps lest by its bleeding he be betray'd He saith that as to this second Question there is from Scripture not a word in the Answer And what needed it when the same Texts that were brought to prove the Scripture contains all things necessary do prove that it plainly contains them As for instance Joh. 20. 31. These are written that ye might believe and that believing ye might have life Where the end for which they were written which was that they might believe and the persons for whom they were written for all Christians sufficiently prove that they were for the manner so exprest as well as from the matter so evident that they might believe So again 2 Tim. 3. 15. The Scriptures are able to make thee wise unto Salvation If they were the Scriptures that Timothy knew from a child and were able to make him wise unto Salvation surely they were plain in those things So again Luk. 10 25. What is written in the Law How readest thou must needs imply the Law was plain to be read and understood So Luk. 16. 29. They have Moses and the Prophets But to what purpose if Moses and the Prophets were not to be understood by them But 2. What proof would he have of this Can he have any plainer proof than from the things contained therein Tolle lege will shew there is a God and God alone is to be worshipped That the Soul is immortal That there is a future state and that a state of rewards and punishments That man is fallen That Christ redeemed him That Christ is the Son of God. That he became man. That he was Crucified and died a Sacrifice for us That he rose from the dead ascended into Heaven is there our Mediator c. of which and the like we may say as Justin Martyr did to Trypho the Jew Attend to what I shall rehearse out of the holy Scriptures proofs which need not to be explained but only to be heard But he goes on However the Answerer delivers his sense on this Question It is That all persons cannot immediately learn all necessaries by meer reading of Scripture that many other helps are necessary to wit attention consideration And can he say any thing to the contrary Some things are so plain as that with the meer reading of them they are immediately understood Others require attention and consideration and yet be plain though not equally as plain as the former The Answerer further proceeded to shew the mind ought to be clear'd from prejudices And doth this detract any thing from the perspicuity of Scriptures For the Propositions may be plain but yet be obscure to him that is under prepossessions as was shewed at large in the Answer All which were there sum'd up thus If men come with an honest heart and use a competent diligence with a dependence upon God's assistance for the wisdom he hath promised I know nothing necessary to Salvation but what is plainly taught in Scripture and may be learn'd from it What hath the Prover to say to this Such promises of obtaining wisdom from God I find made to the Church but not to any particular that shall refuse to be absolutely guided by the Church But is not this promise made to particulars without any mention of the Church that he is to learn it from What thinks he of the place the Answerer had his eye upon Jam. 1. 5. If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God and it shall be given him What of Joh. 7. 17. If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God Now it should have been according to our Author's projection If any man lack wisdom or would know whether the Doctrine be of God let him go to the infallible Church to the Vicar of Christ or a Council called by him or to the
their Miraculous Gifts 2 Cor. 12. 12. and encouraged their Auditors to try and examine their Doctrines Acts 17. 11. Gal. 1. 8 9. And this way of trying is so far from making Faith Vain as our Author pretends that it would be vain without it But saith he Were not the Proselytes of St. Paul obliged to believe the Sense and Interpretation he gave to the Text Without doubt but then he did not require them to receive and believe it because he told them so but because it was revealed and that they beforehand were satisfied in the Confirmation he brought of his Apostleship For where there was a new Revelation of any Point to be believed or matter to be done being that could not be any farther examined by Scripture than as it was not contrary to it it wholly was to be resolved into his Mission and they had the same reason to believe his Doctrine as his Mission 3. There is another sort of subordinate Authority which receives both its Mission and Doctrine in an ordinary way And therefore must needs be subject to the like ways of tryal and proof as the former But with this difference that what inspired Persons taught as revealed from God that upon proof of their Mission by Miracles 2 Cor. 12. 12. was to be believed but now when we have only ordinary means and the written Word for our Rule there is no other Doctrine to be received than what is contained in that Rule and so neither can they oblige us nor are we obliged to believe them because they tell us so but as it 's consonant with or contained in or rightly inferred from the Scripture which we are to compare it with and to judge of it by But now our Author makes their Guides not only equal but superior to the Apostles when he tells us We are bound to believe them because they themselves tell us so and that without any examination So that if a man mistakes his Guide or his Guide mistakes he must unavoidably mistake also being wholly to be determined by them And then he must be an Arian with the Popes Felix and Liberius a Nestorian with Anastasius a Monothelite with Honorius and deny the immortality of the Soul with John XXIII And now let any judg where the Foundations of the Prophets and Apostles are digg'd up whether in the Reformed Churches that teach us we are not bound to believe any Guide without tryal of their Doctrine or the Church of Rome which with our Author affirms we are bound to believe our Guides because they tell us we must do so Now our Answerer takes his turn to ask Questions He tells us that for the first he has a pinching one ` T is this If I must know the Church by some marks or notes then I must find these marks first and where must I seek them This is pinching indeed Suppose in a Gazette I should find some marks of a Man that is sought for were it not a severe Objection against the Man who gave them and a pinching Question I must find these Marks before I find the man and where shall I find them I conceive such pinching would force a smile and this Answer Why Friend the marks and the man are found at once for they are to be seen in his Face At the same time as one takes a view of the Catholic Church he sees therein a continual Succession of Bishops and Teachers from the Apostles he discovers her in all parts of the World and finds her thus Catholic he sees in her an undivided Faith Union under one Pastor in the use of the same Sacraments and finds her One he observes her Rule is Let nothing be alter'd of what was receiv'd from the Apostles by a constant Universal Tradition in the Churches which they founded and is convinced she is Apostolical he finds God favours her with the Gift of Miracles promised Mat. 10. and Joh. 14. that she hath fulfilled the Prophesies concerning the Conversion of Nations converted to Christianity by her Children only and he concludes this is she The Prover saith that Now the Answerer takes his turn to ask Questions And good reason after the Addresser had put so many before He tells us further That for the first he has a pinching one 'T is this If I must know the Church by some Marks then I must find out those Marks first and where must I seek them But why is this called the first Question when there are several before it He might better have called it the only Question since it's what he has singled out of many to try the power of his Logic upon And now let us see how he quits himself when he comes to be Respondent His Answer to the Question is Suppose in a Gazette c. and the Marks and the Man are found at once for they are to be seen in his Face Where his whole business is to go off from the Question that is ask'd to a Question that is not ask'd The main Question in the Answer was How shall I find out the true Church Is it because She her self so declares Or that She is knowable by a self-evident Light Or is She to be found out by Marks If by Marks then we must find out the Marks before we find out the Church which is to be known by those Marks and then the pinching Question comes on Where must I seek them That it 's to be fear'd will lead us to the Scriptures Now what is the Sense of the Question Where must I seek them Certainly it is not in dispute whether the Marks are not to be found in the thing sought for by those Marks as he impertinently lays it For if they are the proper Marks of the thing then surely they are to be found with the thing that they are the Marks of or else it is impossible to find out the thing by these Marks But the meaning of the Question is the same as it was in the Address and from whence the Answerer borrowed the Terms and that is Where are the Notes Where are they described Or How shall I come to know them And thus it follows in the Answer It is to be feared this will lead us to the Scripture But because some men are hard of Understanding whether for a weak or a bad reason I determine not I shall begin the matter again It is agreed that there is a Church and that there are certain Marks by which the Church may be found Now the Question is What are those Marks Whether Continual Succession Vniversal Extent Vnion under one Visible Pastor c. Or The Profession of the true Faith right Administration of the Sacraments Now how shall we know or where shall we find which of these are the Marks belonging to the Church and by which it is to be known I shall make it plain by his own instance Supposing that there is somewhat of great Importance depends upon
Guides of that Church For unless the Scripture be explain'd by some one that cannot err it cannot be understood and ye will dangerously err by reading it as Bellarmin argues And yet whether there be such a Church or whether the Church pretending to it be not a fallible and what is worse a deceiving Church or whether the Guides be not false ones a man cannot be so much as morally sure without he consult and understand the Scripture and when all is done according to this Author's way of arguing he may very well be one of those who wrest the Scripture to his own perdition and consequently hath no good ground for any one act of Faith or can be certain that there is a Church or this or that is the true Church c. This Paragraph of his is a kind of Jargon But it affords occasion to put it to him Who are the false Teachers those that with the Pharisees set up Tradition to an equal Authority with Scripture or those that maintain Scripture alone to be of Divine Authority Those that make Scripture to depend upon the Church or those that make the Church to depend upon Scripture Those that teach we are absolutely to submit to the Church and the Guides of it or those that with the Apostle direct us to follow them only as they follow Christ 1 Cor. 11. 1 Those that say men err by reading the Scriptures and so take away from them that Key of Knowledg or those that with our Saviour teach them they err for not knowing them Mat. 22. 29 Those that discourage men from reading the Scriptures because of their pretended obscurity or those that with our Saviour require that they search them and that because they are as the Psalmist saith a light to their paths Those that with the Fathers hold the Doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation may be clearly proved from Scripture or those that make them to depend upon Church Authority Those that derive theirs down for a thousand years after Christ without any proof from Scripture and precedent Antiquity or those that Reformed their Church 1500 years after Christ but can deduce the Genealogy of their Doctrines from Scripture and Genuine Antiquity for 4 5 and 600 years after I ask him again Who are the Hereticks in the sense he gives us those that with the Donatists in St. Austin's time confine the Church to their own party or those that with the Apostle comprehend in it all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours 1 Cor. 1. 2 Those that exclude the whole world if not of their corrupt Communion or those that according to his Quotation from St. Austin maintain a communion with the whole world Methinks after all he might to return his own words be as much afraid to mention that word Heretic as a Murtherer to come up to the murther'd Corps considering what havoc and devastation they have made amongst those they have call'd by that name I shall give him Quotation for Quotation from St. Austin and so conclude this Question It suffices us that we hold that Church which is demonstrated by most manifest Testimonies of the holy and Canonical Scripture And again Shew that there is some clear and manifest testimony given from Holy Canonical Scriptures to this thy Communion and I do confess we are to go over to thee Q. 3. What are the necessaries to Salvation Here plain and full Scripture will be of great use we may expect shoals of Texts What answer from Scripture is given to this Question think you E'en the same as honest Bays returns to a hard one in the Rehearsal YGad I won't tell you No he gives not one word of answer to it tho it be so material Any one may guess at the reason without casting a figure With what Confidence can the Prover thus impose upon the Reader Was there not one word of Answer returned to this Question Of that let the Answer speak Where it 's thus put Q. 3. What are these Necessaries to Salvation The Answer begins thus Our Author offers three Instances of such Necessaries as are not clearly revealed in Scripture viz. the Trinity the Incarnation of our Saviour and the Observation of the Lords Day And of these the Answerer Discourses for near eight Pages together to shew that the Addresser had to little purpose objected against them So that if the Trinity and Incarnation and the Lord's day are necessaries and for that reason were singled out as Instances of the Scriptures insufficiency and obscurity by the Addresser and on the contrary were defended by the Answerer then surely the 3 d Question no more wants an Answer than the Prover wants Confidence that denies it He writes indeed as if the Question was barely proposed in the Answer and he has used some art to confirm it when he has made as many Questions as there are Instances viz. of the Trinity Incarnation and the Lord's day So that Question the 4 th in the Answer is Question the 7 th in the Proof And this he does that the Reader if he has not the Answer before him may not be aware of his Falsification nor suspect that a man that first of all writes for the Publick and then engaged to set down the Questions in the order of the Answerer could be so false to both as to affirm there is not one word of Answer Q 4 'T is in its whole extent this By what Text of Scripture are we plainly taught that God is One in Substance Three in Person For as Joh. 10 50. Christ says I and my Father are One so 17. 21. he prays That all Believers may be One as he and his Father are one This second place may seem to expound the first and then Christ and his Father will be One only morally as all the Believers be One. Or else what Texts declares the Three Persons to be One by identity of substance Ans Not one Text of Scripture to give us the dubious Sense of the two in Question And yet these men pretend to clear Scripture for each Fundamental Point The Answerer supplies this want of Scripture with two Reasons The first is this Of the Three that bear record in Heaven `t is said they are One but of the Three that bear witness on Earth they agree in one I will admit this English Translation tho Apocryphal But what then But if in both were meant only a moral Vnion it would have been as well said of the Three that bear record in Heaven they agree in One therefore they have more than a moral Vnion Is not this special Logic Would not this way of arguing prove equally that the Believers are one with more than a moral Union because otherwise it might as wâ—ll have been said Joh. 17. May they agree in one The Question is Whether this second clear Text concerning the Three that