answered but is indeed a meere toye and if it prooue any thing it prooues the Title of this Chapter to be true If sayth he (t) Pag. 326. this Doctrine of the absolute certainty of Christian Fayth were true then seeing not any the least doubting can consist with a most infallible certainty it will follow that euery least doubting in any matter of Fayth though resisted and inuoluntary is a damnable sinne absolutly destructiue so long as it lasts of all true and sauing Fayth Doth not this Sophisme tend also to prooue that if one be tempted with inuoluntary doubts against the Truths I spake of he must forfeit his certainty that there is a God or that Christian Fayth is certainly probable and so either incurre damnation without his owne fault which is impossible or attaine heauen without any certaine beliefe or knowledge that there is a God or that Christian Fayth is certainly probable 2. As for the argument it selfe it is of no moment It doth not distinguish betwixt the Habit of Fayth whereby Christians are permanently denominated Faithfull and which remaines euen when we are a sleepe and the Act or exercise thereof which may be hindred by many good employments as study or serious attention to any businesse without the least preiudice to the Habit of which we are depriued only by Voluntary errours or doubts against it not by those which are inuoluntary and resisted If this answere giue not satisfaction let him either afford a better against his owne obiection or else professe that he doth not certainly belieue there is a God or that he is not certaine that Christian Fayth and Religion is so much as probable And by the way me thinks he should reflect that if he thinke euery Act destroyes the cōtrary habit and in that respect no doubting may consist with the habit of infallible fayth then the Doctrine of Catholicke Diuines that euery voluntary Act of Heresy or Infidelity is destructiue of the habit of Fayth should not in reason and true consequence be tearmed by him (v) Pag. 368. a vaine and groundlesse fancy 3. An other argument to prooue the fallibility of Christian Fayth in effect is this (w) Pag. 326. We pray for the increase and strengthning of our Fayth Therefore our Fayth is not infallible You might as well argue We may pray for a high degree of happines in heauen Therefore euery Saint in heauen is not perfectly happy Do you not know that there may be intension of degrees euen in qualities which haue no mixture of the contrary No light includes darknes yet one light may be greater then another Thus the most imperfect acte of fayth is most certaine in the most perfect kind of certainty though not most certaine in the most perfect degree of certainty and we may well belieue that the least degree of Christian Fayth is incompatible with any deliberate and not resisted doubt or vncertainty and yet pray for the increase thereof If you deny this then tell me whether you may not pray for the increase of your beliefe of a God and his Attributes and for the strengthning of it against all temptations rising either from the suggestions of the enemy or from the weakenesse of mans vnderstanding in order to so high misteryes as also of your certainty that Christian Religion is probable in the higest degree of probability and when you haue granted that you may as I hope you will then you will haue answered your owne argument vnlesse you will acknowledge your selfe not to be certaine that there is a God or that Christian Religion is probable 4. A third reason wherby he endeauours to prooue that Christian Fayth is not absolutely certaine is this in substance That seeing as S. Iohn assures vs (x) Pag. 326. our Fayth is the victory which ouercomes the world if our Fayth be a certaine infallible knowledge our victory ouer the world must of necessity be perfect and it should be impossible for any true belieuer to commit any deliberate sinne How this doth follow I cannot perceiue no more then one can inferre that Christians cannot commit as grieuous sinnes as men that reiect Christianity because the beliefe of Christians is true and the beliefe of others is false The Angels in heauen and Adam in Paradise were indued with infallible Fayth yea and with Euidence in the opinion of diuers good Diuines and yet the Angels and Adam sinned deliberatly and damnably Fayth doth direct but not necessitate the will which still remayning free may choose good or euill If he will still maintayne the argument for good then he must be conuinced to say that he doth not with certainty belieue a God or that vertue is to be imbraced because he can doubtlesse commit deliberate sinnes against God and vertue 5. Not vnlike to this is another reason (y) Ibid. That Charity being the effect of Fayth if our Fayth were perfect Charity would be perfect so no man could possibly make any progresse in it Giue me leaue to speake to your selfe do you not see that by this reason if you belieue in God with certainty your loue of God must be perfect without possibility to make any progresse in it which because it is false it must follow by force of your Argument that you do not with certainty belieue a God But as for the reason in it selfe because it concernes more then your selfe I must tell you that it doth falsly suppose that Charity is both an immediate and necessary effect of Fayth without interuention of Freewill which may refuse to follow the direction of Fayth and either wholy cease to loue God or loue him now more now lesse And therefore no wonder if vpon a false supposall that follow which is also false 6. This is not a time to enter into long discourses how you confound certainty with perfection as if because Fayth is absolutely certaine but yet obscure it must be also absolutely perfect which is a great mistake for it wants the perfection of euidence hath a possibility annexed to it that it may be both resisted and reiected But it will not be vnpleasant notwithstanding nor vntimely to stand a while and see how excessiuely confident you are of the strength and force of the foresaid Arguments and the contentment which you take in them Thus you speake of them (z) Pag. 326. 327. These you see are strange and portentous consequences and yet the deduction of them is cleere and apparent which shewes this doctrine of yours you meane our doctrine of the infallibility of Christian Fayth which you would faine haue true that there might be some necessity of your Churches infallibility to be indeed plainly repugnant not only to Truth but euen to all Religion and piety and fit for nothing but to make men negligent of making any progresse in Fayth or Charity And therefore I must intreat and adiure you either to discouer vnto me which I take God to witnesse
respect I lay asde and as it were forget at this present the Surname of Catholicke while my scope is to maintaine Christianity 1. But I must notwithstanding by the way desire thee by example of this Man whose errours I vndertake to discouer that thou wilt be pleased to reflect vpon the misery into which they do bring themselues who forsaking in truth that glorious Surname content themselues with the only name of Christians For consequently hauing lost the Guift and Light of supernaturall and infused Fayth which in their Christendome they receaued they lye so open to all manner of deceites that though they be warned of them they runne vnawares into them because not regarding or not esteeming and weighing the necessity and importance of a Guide they follow the Eye of their owne Reason only which is too short-sighted to preserue them from falling into the manifold pitfalls which lye on all sides of Christian Fayth as we learne by all those who in all ages haue swarued from it 2. This Man as the world knowes had warning abundant in a little Treatise called The Direction that he should not goe a destructiue way tending to the ouerthrow of all Religion Direct â—a 4. per totuÌ„ no lesse then of Catholicke Doctrine How little he hath obserued it will appeare by the ensuing discourse penned to the like intent and to no other then I dare say the Direction was to wit to preuent or rather now to discouer Socinianisme couertly creeping into this Kingdome vnder the shrowde of Naturall Reason The vanome of which Sect being still as it seemes growing or as I may say compounding it is no wonder if the enemy of mankind doth vse all his art to make that Treatise more and more odious by which it began to be detected The Direction falsified 3. For to what other purpose doth this man in his preface say against all Truth and against the word of the letter that the Author of the Direction fastens the (a) Prefat n. 7. imputation of Atheisme and Irreligion vpon all wise and gallant men that are not of our owne Religion and this in a different letter as the very words of the Directour who yet hath neither any such words or sense And againe that (b) Prefat n. 2â— as the Samaritans saw in the Disciples couÌ„tenances that they meant to goe to Hierusalem so you pretend it is euen legible in the forheads of those men that they that is some Protestants of worth and learning and auctority too are euen going nay making hast to Rome words set downe in a different letter and in the same context with the other words of the Direction which yet hath not any one such word or syllable And the Author was farre from presuming to meddle with the intentions of those persons with whom this man would make him odious 4. He neither commended nor discommended nor so much as considered their vicinity to vs. His purpose was to shew that for want of some publicke infallible Authority they could not possibly auoyd frequent variations by which whether they fell to come neerer to vs or to go further from vs was not materiall to his purpose Let altars be demolished to morrow let pictures be defaced let all that is done be vndone These last alterations will prooue his intent as strongly as the others can wherein they happen to agree with vs. For his scope being to discouer the impietyes of the Socinians and to preuent the hurt of soules by forewarning them of the danger to this end he declared some of the reasons for which this Sect disperseth it selfe and is able to do it by working vpon the minds of diuers Protestants The chiefest he affirmed to be the want of a publicke infallible Iudge of Controuersyes without which they are left to their owne priuate spirît or wit and discourse which must of necessity bring forth a multitude of differences altercations and alterations and end in Socinianisme the quintessence whereof is to resolue Fayth into Opinion or into euery mans owne Reason and Persuasion Now to shew that for want of some liuing Guide alterations in matters of Fayth and Religion must needes be frequent he alle adged such instances as lay open to the knowledge and euen to the eye of euery man and might afford a more sensible demonstration of what he intended to euince Yet so that as I said before his Argument receaued strength not from their comming neere to vs but from their altering from themselues From thence to inferre that they must intend Popery because they happen to agree with vs in some things or rather seeme to agree but indeed differ is iust as if one should say The first Protestants in England intended to persist in Papistry euen when they purposed the contrary yea euen when they did actually depart from vs Because forsooth they were not so furious against euery particular doctrine of Catholicks as some others were And I wonder how these men dare belieue the B. Trinity and other principall mysteries of Christian Fayth since they must by this meanes agree with Papists and so may feare least themselues be in a way to Popery 5. Others are apt to belieue on the contrarie side that the Directour was so farre from hoping that Protestants would become Catholicks by these degrees as that he rather feared it might be a cause of some temptation to Catholicks and a setling of Protestancy more effectually then could haue been performed either by the feruour of Zelots or feare of Death or any other meanes And therfore I make bold to say that although we Catholicks his Maiesties most humble and loyall subiects should be most vnworthy and vngratefull creatures if we did not with deepest thankefulnes acknowledge our infinite obligation to the tender Clemency of our dread Soueraigne Yet I may truly say if such a Truth may be spoken without offence that by many degrees They are more vnreasonable and vnthankefull who are vnquiet because the most moderate that is the most powerfull meanes which can be thought of are put in execution for establishing that which they pretend to desire I meane the Protestant Religion vnlesse indeed they desire Protestancy should perish if it do not in all respects perfectly and punctually sute with their humours For it is a true saying Moderate things may last but no Violence can long endure 6. This then was the Directours intention free from all malignity and directed only to matters of Religion and good of soules in the manner declared aboue Which to be true I haue heard him affirme most seriously by all that can be feared or hoped for in the next life for all eternity and therefore he could not but be sorry that any writing of his was interpreted to an other meaning of which if he had but once imagined his words to haue been capable himselfe without so much as hearing any plea of defense would haue been the first to haue sentenced
aggregate of Iewes Manicheans Arians and other condemned sects which all good Christians ought to detest I hartily with their Conuersion yet if they will obstinately resist in despite of their inuentions the words of the Apostle will be verified Iesus Christ yesterday and to day Hebr. 13. â— the same also for euer And they shall giue a fearefull account for their contempt of al Churches and errours against Christian Fayth when repentance will nothing auaile Euen at that day when as S. Ambrose grauely sayth Lib. 5. de fide c. 7. The Iew shall perforce acknowledge whom he crucified when the Manichean shall adore whom he belieued not to haue come in flesh when the Arian shall confesse him to be omnipotent whom he denied And I may adde when all good Christians shall ioyfully behold him whose Fayth they laboured to Maintaine The Doctrines confuted in the ensuing Treatise THe first Doctrine That Fayth necessary to Saluation is not infallible Chap. 1. The grounds of this Doctrine lead to Atheisme Chap. 2. The second Doctrine That the assurance which we haue of Scriptures is but morall Chap. 3. The third Doctrine That the Apostles were not infallible in their Writings but erred with the whole Church of their tyme. Chap. 4. The fourth Doctrine Iniurious to the miracles of our Sauiour and of his Apostles Chap. 5. The fifth Doctrine By resoluing Fayth into Reason he destroyes the nature of Fayth and Beliefe of all Christian Verities Chap. 6. The sixt Doctrine Destructiue of the Theologicall Vertues of Christian Hope and Charity Chap. 7. The seauenth Doctrine Takes away the grounds of Rationall Discourse Chap. 8. The eight Doctrine Opens a way to deny the B. Trinity and other high mysteries of Christian Fayth Chap. 9. The ninth Doctrine Layes grounds to be Constant in no Religion Chap. 10. The tenth Doctrine Prouides for the impunity and preseruation of whatsoeuer damnable Errour against Christian Fayth Chap. 11. The Conclusion CHRISTIANITY MAINTAINED OR The discouery of sundry Doctrines tending to the Ouerthrow of Christian Religion The first Doctrine That Fayth necessary to Saluation is not Infallible CHAP. I. CHRISTIAN Fayth being the foundation of Hope the eye of Charity the lesser light appointed for the night of this world the Way to Heauen if this Foundation be faulty this Eye deceitfull this Light an Eclypse to it selfe this way erroneous our Hope Charity Light Happinesse and all Christianity must end Chap. 1. in worse then nothing in euerlasting vnhappines For as S. Thomas said to our Sauiour (a) Io. 14.5 We know not whither thou goest and how can we know the way So what will it auaile vs to know whither we goe if we follow a misleading way the Direction of a Fayth weake waueriug and subiect to Errour such is Christian Fayth in this man's iudgment deliuered in the Doctrine with which I thought fit to begin in regard it is the substance and summe of that which he deliuers and labours to prooue through his whole booke and is persuaded that it is of great and singular vse and demonstrable by vnanswerable arguments 2. I must confesse it is of great vse to ground Socinianisme which as the (b) Cap. 1. p. 7. Direction fortold reiecteth infallible supernaturall infused Fayth from being necessary to saluation and maketh our Christian Fayth of the Gospell and of Christ Iesus our Lord and Sauiour to be a meere human opinion resolued into the authority of men of no greater certainty then other human Traditions and Histories knowne by report Hence the saying in Charity Maintayned that an absolute certainty of Fayth is necessary to Saluation he taxeth deeply as (c) Pag. 328. most pernicious and vncharitable and els where (d) Pag. 325. n. 3. as a great errour of daungerous pernicious consequence yea pag. 37. thus he writeth Men being possessed with this false principle that Infallible Fayth is necessary and that it is in vaine to belieue the Gospell of Christ with such a kind or degree of assent as they yield to other matter of Tradition and finding that their Fayth of it is to them indiscernable from the beliefe they giue to the truth of other stories are in daunger not to belieue at all c. It is true that pag. 36. n. 8. he sayth We cannot ordinarily haue any rationall and acquired assent more then morall founded vpon credibilities wherby some may conceiue that besides human and rationall Fayth he supposes and requires Diuine Fayth which is a pure sincere firme adhesion to Gods word not caused by reason and discourse but infused by the Holy Ghost's inspiration into a belieuing soule But in truth he disclaimes from any necessity of Diuine Fayth or any diuine light aboue the light of meere reason and will haue men to be saued by the natiue forces of human rationall and fallible Fayth Men sayth he (f) Vbi supra pa. 36. n. 8. are vnreasonable God requires not any thing but reason They pretend that heauenly things cannot be seene to any purpose but by the midday-light but God will be satisfyed if we receiue any degree of Light which makes vs leaue the works of darknesses They exact a certainty of Fayth aboue that of sense and science God desires only that we belieue the conclusion as the premisses deserue wherof in rationall Fayth one is euer weake credible and not infallible And againe pag. 112. n. 154. Neither God doth nor man may require of vs as our duety to giue a greater assent to the mysteries of our Fayth then the motiues of credibility which are fallible deserue This is his doctrine which he deliuers often makes vse thereof to reiect the infallible Authority of Gods Church so prophane impious vnchristian as I wonder that a man professing himselfe a Christian durst venture to vent the same in print in a Christian country For is the certainty of the Fayth which Christians yield to the truth of the Gospell to the life of Christ Iesus our Lord and Sauiour to the histories of holy Scripture of no greater discernable certainty then the beliefe we yield to humane traditions I appeale to the conscience of euery true Christian whether he do not most cleerely discerne his assent to the Truths of holy Scripture to be superiour and incomparably more firme then his beliefe of meere humane storyes That the Serpent spake vnto Eue and persuaded her to eat of the forbidden tree that our first Parents were naked and did not perceiue it till they had eaten of the forbidden apple these storyes other the like would any Christian belieue them yea would they not laugh at them as they doe at Aesops Fables were they not of more credit with them then Caesars Commentaries or Salusts histories as this man * Pag. 327. n. 5. saith they are not That God requires not any thing of vs but only reason That he exacts no more then that we belieue the misteries of Christian Fayth with
for all those that obey Christ Iesus may be able to sway our will to Obedience and encounter with all those temptations which flesh and bloud can suggest to auert vs from it Ioine these two doctrines togeather the issue will be that any probable beliefe of Christian verities or euen of a God must suffice to saluation as enabling vs to worke by loue Now it is cleere that your graine of mustardseed your any probable persuasion or hope are verified in any low degree of probability of fayth in Christ or God and yet they do not exclude equal or greater probability in behalfe of the contrary part for example that Christ is not the Sauiour of the world or that there is not a God whence it followes that a man may attayne saluation though he belieue with equall or greater probability that Christ is not the Sauiour of the world or that there is not a God then is that wherewith he belieues the same and all other mysteries of Christian Fayth Whether this tend not to Iudaisme Turcisme Paganisme or Atheisme and to the ouerthrow of all Christianity I need not say 7. Moreouer who can oblige any vnderstanding man to dye for auerring the Truth of that Fayth wherof he proclaymes himselfe to haue no certainty And you O glorious Martyrs of Christ our Lord did rather spill then shed your bloud if you were so prodigall therof for a truth not certainly belieued to be such This is the very same argument which mellifluous S. Bernard brings against Petrus Abailardus a Progenitour of the Socinians who in those dayes taught that Christian Fayth was but opinion and not infallibly certaine (p) Epist. 190. Stulti ergo Martyres nostri sayth this Saint sustinentes tam acerba propter incerta nec dubitantes sub dubio remunerationis proemio durum per exitum diuturnum inire exilium S. Paul sayth (q) Rom. 5.7 Scarce for a iust man doth any dye And we may say who will giue his life for a Truth and most of all who will not only giue his life but thinke himselfe bound vnder paine of eternall damnation to lay it downe in testimony of that which for ought he certainly knowes may prooue to be an vniust and vntrue thing Was the precious bloud of Christ our Lord which by infinite degrees excelled that of Martyrs shed in such abundance for purchasing probabilities or for the impetration of Grace to enable his seruants to dye for the truth of things which in fine they esteemed but probable 8. Far be it from the harts of Christians to belieue and their tongues to professe that a God of infinite wisedome and goodnesse would oblige himselfe to reward men with euerlasting happines for imbracing the mysteries of Christian Fayth which may once proue false and to adiudge men to endles torments for adhering to the contrary which in the end may be found true if Christian Fayth can possibly be false as false it may be if it be but probable 9. Neuer could any doctrine be offered to the sonnes of Adam more plausible then that our beliefe of Heauen and Hell is but an opinion in it selfe and no way certayne concerning things of another world whereas worldly pleasures are in present possession and certaine If the greatest certainty wherewith all Christians hitherto haue belieued their fayth to abound hath not byn able to stay the cariere of mens licenciousnesse what shall we now expect but that flattered by this doctrine they who before did runne will now fly after the Idols of whatsoeuer may appeare to their soules or bodies obiects of delight 10. No lesse liberty doth this doctrine affoard for belieuing then it doth for liuing giuing scope to Apostasyes and endlesse changes of Religions as this man 's fourefold alteration makes manifest if all be true which is reported of him In which inconstancy notwithstanding he seemes to glory stiling it (r) Prefa n. 5. his Constancy in following that way to heauen which for the present seemes to him the most probable But of this more hereafter 11. I will doe him the fauour to suppose that he holds no Religion more certainly true then that of Christians which yet to him being not certaine what remaines in his persuasion and doctrine but that for matters of fayth and Religion God hath prouided no certainty on earth which is not only of very ill consequence as I haue said amōgst Christians themselues but exposeth Christian Religion to contempt among the enemies thereof and disbelieuers of it which this man it seemes doth not value a hayre but measuring euery body by himselfe taxeth Christians generally to be of the like weakenes vngroundednes vnsetlednes in their beliefe For sayth (s) Pag. 327. n. 5. he men may talke their pleasure of an absolute most infallible certainty but did men generally belieue that obedience to Christ were the only way to present and eternall felicity but as firmely and vndoubtedly as that there is such a Citty as Constantinople but as much as Caesars Commentaries or the history of Salust I belieue the liues of most men both Papists and Protestants would be better then they are I leaue the Censure of this Doctrine to others I only note first how poore a conceit this man himselfe hath endeauoureth to instill into others of the ground or adhesion which Christians vndoubtedly haue in their beliefe making it no more solid or firme then the beliefe of Caesars Commentaries c. And secōdly that it may perchance be his fortune to be really forbidden to write any more bookes if he can make no better consequences then to conclude the want of Fayth or firmenesse of Fayth in Christians from the faults in their liues seeing there may be in a manner infinite other causes why they do not liue as they most firmely belieue they should 12. This therefore you see is his doctrine concerning Christian Fayth that it is weake and weakely grounded that it is resolued into the authority of men as the beliefe of Constantinople Chap. 2. and Caesars Commentaries that a Christian may really and deliberatly doubt of the points of his fayth and yet be a Christian that is faythfull But that which doth most manifestly discouer the impiety of this doctrine and of this his manner of arguing is that the reasons by which he pretends to maintayne it induce plaine Atheisme that is they conclude as well that men can haue no certaine beliefe knowledge or assent that there is a God or that we are certaine that Christian Fayth is euen so much as probable which now I am going to shew The Grounds of this Doctrine leade to Atheisme CHAP. II. 1. I Said in the former Chapter that if a Christian be not certaine that his beliefe is true he may according to this mans owne cōfession doubt whether it be not false I pleaded his Confession vpon an Argument of his which perhaps seemed to him a great subtilty and hard to be