inform his indifferent Reader of the sence of those hard places do but make the understanding thereof the more intricate and that the Commentary is not less obscure than the Text and nothing is more wonderful than that the illustration he makes to facilitate the understanding of what is conceived obscure by the Prayer in our Churches Liturgy which he says was borrowed from the Roman and I say was translated out of our own Lord from whom all good things come grant us thy humble servants that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good and by thy merciful guiding we may perform the same I say it is strange that he does not so far discern that this Prayer is so easie that no one pretends not to understand the perfect meaning and extent thereof whereas he cannot but know that some men of more than common understanding profess not to comprehend the other and therefore it is too magisterial a determination that whosoever hath not a capacity to understand Sancta Sophia is an enemy to mental Prayer which no body can be who understands it or in the least degree hath endeavoured to practise it Since it is the best if not the only way to keep the mind fixed upon the subject it is solicitous for and the object to whom the Prayers are directed which in the loud pronunciation of many words is it may be to many men the most difficult thing in the sacrifice of Prayer especially if there be any affectation of words which insensibly carries the mind away from what it should be intent upon and the least moment of diversion puts a period to mental prayer which without any sensible motion hath a vehemence that cannot bear interruption and as little any prescription of method from another man To the personal reflexions and invectives against the Doctor fuller of causeless passions and of bitterness and virulence than I have ever observed in so little room in any book I shall answer in a more proper place anon After Mr. Cressy hath spent many pages in commending to his friends the having a good opinion of Visions and Revelations and Miracles and very pathetically advises them to read the Histories of the lives of Saints which the more they have done they may probably be the less inclined to conform to his opinions he professes that the only ground of the Catholicks faith is divine Revelation made to the Church by Christ and his Apostles and conveyed to posterity in Scripture and Tradition and we say that the ground of the Faith of the Church of England is the same leaving out the two last words and tradition not that the Church of England is an enemy to or disclaims the use of tradition but is not guided and governed by it by reason of the incertainty of it Where the tradition is universal and uncontradicted we have as much resignation to it as they have and therefore we do acknowledge the reception of the Scripture to be by unquestionable and never doubted tradition and that having thereby received it it hath in it self enough to convince the Reader that it could not be formed and invented by the wit of man nor that it hath not been disguised or corrupted by the malice of man and so we are possessed of the Scriptures by the same tradition that they are and whatever they believe by as confessed a tradition we believe likewise as well as they But when they urge many things as necessary to be believed by the authority of tradition we do not reject the authority but deny the tradition and say there is no tradition that will warrant it and how fallible that pretence is needs no other manifestation than that controversie of the observation of Easter which continued half a hundred years only upon the point of tradition with so much bitterness and animosity the Greek Church alledging that tradition was for them and the Roman Church the contrary and if tradition was so doubtful a guide in those Primitive times when so few years had run out what must it be now when five times as many are since expired They therefore do not deal ingenously who amuse their auditors with telling them that we reject all tradition consider not antiquity submit to no authority but every man chuses a Religion according to his own spirit Whereas they well know that the Church of England doth as much respect tradition when it is agreed upon as all evidence must be that is submitted to and requires as much subjection to authority and leaves as little to the private fancy and imagination of men and pays as much reverence to the primitive Fathers where they concur together in opinion as the Church of Rome doth but denies any subjection to that Church and believes that her own children with others she meddles not should have the same reverence for her determinations as those others have for the Roman since her determinations are made with as much regularity as lawful authority and with the unanimous advice of as learned men as by the others of which we shall say more in the conclusion of this discourse If Mr. Cressy was not very confident that all for whom he writes will confidently believe all he says and had not a marvellous contempt of all other persons he would not so positively say That when examination is made of miracles in order to the Canonization of any Saint the testimony of women will not be received pag. 68. and gives the reason for it because naturally imagination is stronger in them than judgment and whatsoever is esteemed by them to be pious is easily concluded by them to be true which may likewise be the reason that his beloved Sancta Sophia is so much valued by women and his Miracles so much believed by them only and neither the one or the other in any degree regarded by any learned men of the Roman Church But his averment that the testimony of women is rejected in those cases is without any ground Was not the single testimony of the Nurse the only evidence of the first miracle that was wrought by his adored S. Benedict in the mending the Sieve or putting together the broken pieces of the Earthen pot If he were much conversant in the acts of Canonization as he ought to be before he publishes the Rules observed there he would have found that the seventh miracle wrought by Philip Nereus the Founder of the order of the Oratorians for which he was Canonized was that he cured diseases oftentimes by his word as particularly in the case of Maria Felici à Castro in Monasterio Turris speculorum Moniali quae continua febri correpta Philippo jubente statim convaluit And his eighth was that he cured many sick people meerly by his apparition Ac Drusilla Fantina quae praecipiti casuprostrata ac horribili capitis oculorum totius corporis collisione semiviva jacens tribus Philippi apparitionibus mirabiliter
undertook to defend them was solemnly prohibited and condemned by the Pope since which time he says such doctrines have been wholly restrained and silenced to which I shall only say that these modern Casuists continue still the greatest Confessors in all Catholick Countries and it is observable that not one amongst them hath ever yet renounced or disclaimed one of those dangerous Opinions or positions which stand so condemned and it can therefore hardly be known that such doctrines are wholly restrained and for their being silenced which they urge still as a matter of great reformation in those loud differences and as if all the passions and inconveniencies which arise from thence were thereby suppressed if not extinguished whoever hath any conversation with those adversaries may quickly discern that neither of them hath laid aside their propositions or the animosities against each other and the silence contributes so little of charity that poor Monsieur since he was known to be the Author of the Provincial Letters can scarce enjoy peace in his Grave Indeed if the Bishops of France were not over-powred and even silenced too by the Regular Clergy those excesses would in a short time be well reformed The danger is that in the method and form of customary confessions there remains still a contention between the Authority of the Scriptures and of the Church without which it could hardly fall out that so many men who all hours of the day and of the night indulge to themselves even without concealing it the practice of those sins which the Scripture hath prohibited under the penalty of damnation cannot be seduced by example or importunity hardly by sickness to eat flesh upon a day of abstinence nor from prophane or unclean discourse in that very time which can proceed from no other principle than that the disobeying the injunctions of the Church which without doubt ought to be observed is a greater sin than those of our Saviour and men would not run to confession as they wash their hands with a resolution to make them less clean as soon as they have done If those fountains of confession and absolution from whence so many draw the waters of life come to be poysoned or prophaned they were much better be dryed up for a time or carefully inclosed that men might not resort thither till they are better instructed in the use of them and we may without breach of charity believe that very odious corruptions and presumptions had broken into those sacred offices when the Church it self took so much notice of it and could not prescribe a more secret remedy than a publick Bull which Pope Pius the fourth thought necessary to publish Contra sacerdotes qui mulieres poenitentes in actu Confessionis ad actus inhonestos provocare allicere tentant Bul. To. 2. Nor can we suppose that this remedy wrought its effect when another Pope near one hundred years after was compelled to renew and inlarge that Bull with greater penalties as Pope Gregory the fifteenth hath done Contra sacerdotes in confessionibus Sacramentalibus poenitentes sollicitantes Bul. To. 3. In which it is observable that a greater latitude is permitted to Confessors for the discovery of this horrible impiety than is allowed for the discovery and prevention of the foulest Treason and after all this the condemning the dangerous positions of the modern Casuists hath been found as necessary which is still an argument that somewhat was still amiss in the administration of those Offices That great reverence was paid to the memory of many excellent persons after their death by visiting their Tombs and other commemoration of their vertues and noble actions hath great testimony from antiquity as ancient as we have any evidence of the practice of any formal devotions amongst Christians As the Primitive Christians amongst the Iews did not decline going to the Synagogues nor the practice of all things which were in custom with that Nation when the same could be innocently performed so amongst the Gentiles they observed whatsoever was in great reverence amongst them as the paying respect to the memory of their Ancestors always was and that did not contradict or offend any Christian Precept and it is not improbable that they might take that practice from them since the visitation of the Tombs and Sepultures of Martyrs is as ancient as Martyrdom it self but that those forms of Prayer for the dead which are now practised in the Roman Church were in use amongst Christians from the beginning till Protestantism arose Mr. Cressy will not prove and there is too great reason to doubt that whosoever doth believe that enormous sins which are unacknowledged and unrepented of at the death of the sinner may be expiated and consequently must be pardoned by what they who live after him can do for him hath a great temptation to live without that strict guard upon his affections and his passions which he might otherwise believe to be necessary But I do not think that any but illiterate Catholicks have that opinion whether the most learned amongst them are not well content that the rest in this and many other particulars should believe what they themselves do not believe I refer to Mr. Cressy assuring him likewise that if I did think that my Prayers or any thing else I could do could purchase the least ease to the Souls of my Friends or of my Enemies I would your them out with all may heart and should not fear any reprehension from the Church of England which hath declared no judgment in the point except it be comprehended in the Article of Purgatory and then the censure is no more than that it is a fond thing which in that case I would be content to undergo and for the many Masses which are usually said for them and which seems to give rich sinners some advantage I will say no more than that to my understanding that Priest who believes his Mass gives any benefit to the departed Soul hath much to answer that he doth not say it for charity but takes ten pence or a shilling at the rate that Masses are sold in that climate which seems to be more literal Simony than any act that passes under that reproach For the matter of Indulgences Mr. Cressy seems to be intirely of the Doctors judgment and opinion and therefore I cannot but wonder and lament that it being upon the matter the only Chapter in which he hath treated him with civility he chuses to conclude it so rudely as to say that every prudent Reader will easily discover from how poysonous a heart it issues and to how unchristian an end it was directed My exceptions to Indulgences is the deceit and fraud that is in them and the circumvention of the common people from which the Church it self cannot be excused there is scarce a Village in all the Catholick Dominions of the world which hath not one day in the year if not more the benefit of an
Plantation of Christianity that where the age and the people were most inclined to superstition which in the first conversion and growth of Religion they were not disposed to at least to that worship and reverence which shortly after degenerated into superstition there was least care taken to introduce Forms and Ceremonies into the Church but when prophaneness broke in as a torrent and the lives of Christians discredited the doctrine of Christ and the power of Princes was found necessary to reform the manners of the Church such Forms and Ceremonies were brought into the exercise of Religion as were judged most like to produce a reverence into the professors towards it and to manifest that reverence in providing whereof General Councils medled very little knowing very well that they could not be the same in all places and that every State and Kingdom knew best what ways and means were most like to contribute to the general end the reverence for Religion and sure there cannot be too intent a care in Kings and Princes to preserve and maintain all decent Forms and Ceremonies both in Church and State which keeps up the veneration and reverence due to Religion and the Church of Christ and the duty and dignity due to Government and to the Majesty of Kings in an age when the dissoluteness of manners and the prophaneness and pride of the people too much inclines them to a contempt of Religion to a neglect of order and to an undervaluing and contending with the most Soveraign authority That the Secular power cannot provide for Ecclesiastical Reformations because Kings and Princes are not qualified to perform the offices and functions of Religion because they do not pretend to consecrate Bishops to ordain Priests or to administer the Sacraments is an argument to exclude them as well from the temporal as spiritual jurisdiction in the determination of matters of right between private men in the punishment of the most enormous crimes and offences Justice must be administred according to the established rules of the Law and not the will and inclination of the Iudge and it cannot be presumed that Kings can be so well versed in the Laws and customs which must regulate the proceedings of Justice and therefore may be excluded from the authority and power of judging the people and they are wonderful careful that you may not believe that they would bereave them of that inherent power and authority which they confess is committed to them alone but why the one and not the other since they can as well provide for the one as for the other is not so easie to be comprehended by any rules of right reason Kings provide for the good administration of justice by making learned men Iudges whose province it is to execute the Law in all cases and they provide for the advancement and preservation of Religion by making pious and learned men Bishops and use their advice and assistance in matters relating to the Church as he doth that of the Judges in cases pertaining to the Law and as he doth other Counsellors in such things as have an immediate dependance upon the Wisdom of State and both Bishops and Iudges are bound to render an account of their actions to Kings who have intrusted them and if they have been corrupt in the discharge of their several Offices they are equally liable to the Kings displeasure and to such punishments as the Laws have provided for such enormities which are inflicted upon them by the Kings authority And as no foreign power can be so competent as the King 's to administer this Justice since it must either controul it or be controuled by it so it is no easie matter for the Pope to prove himself a more spiritual Person than Kings are who have been in all Ages thought to have somewhat of the Priest and the Prophet by their very Office whereas some Popes have been pure Lay-men when they have been chosen to that Supreme office which is all the qualification they have to be more Ecclesiastical after and very many have been chosen Popes who never were Bishops which is not a necessary qualification for that dignity every Deacon-Cardinal being as capable to be elected Pope as the Priest and Bishop Cardinal and he that was a Bishop before consecrates no Bishops himself after he is Pope but that function is performed by other Bishops by vertue of his Commission or Bull and the same may as regularly be done by Bishops by vertue of Kings Commissions in their several Kingdoms otherwise it would be in the power of Popes to extinguish the function of Bishops in any Princes Dominions and therefore the French Ambassador declared in his Masters name to Innocent the Tenth that if he persisted in the refusal to make Bishops in Portugal upon that King's nomination they should chuse a Patriarch of their own who should supply that defect But God be thanked that senseless usurpation and exemption of the Clergie from the common justice of Nations is pretty well out of countenance and since the Republick of Venice so notoriously baffled Paul the Fifth upon that very point other Kings and Princes have chastised their own Clergie for transcendent crimes without asking leave of his Holiness or treating them in any other manner than they do their ordinary Malefactors For the unity proposed and professed by us in the Creed I believe one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church if it be well considered in what time that Creed was made which is not yet defined or determined by any Church and if it had been made by the Apostles themselves according to the fancy of some men that every one of the Apostles should contribute his Article it would then be Canonical Scripture which it is not pretended to be yet I think it is agreed by most learned men that it was framed in the infancy of Christianity and in or very soon after the time of the Apostles themselves and then it can have no other signification than Credo Sanctam Apostolicam Ecclesiam esse Catholicam which was a necessary Article at that time when the believing that the Church was to be universal and to consist equally of Gentiles as well as Iews was one of the most difficult points of Christianity and most opposed and for the Confirmation whereof the Apostles took most pains after they were all reconciled to it themselves and as it could have no other sence then so the restraining it to any one Church now or to make it serve for a distinction between Churches and Nations and to produce a separation between them must be very unnatural if any sence at all To conclude then this discourse of unity I know not how Mr. Cressy can refuse to submit to that good rule and determination that S. Gregory long since gave upon the third Interrogation administred to him by Austin the Monk Cum una sit fides cur sunt Ecclesiarum diversae consuetudines altera consuetudo Missarum
in sancta Romana Ecclesia atque altera in Galliarum tenetur Respondet Gregorius Papa Novit fraternitas tua Romanae Ecclesiae consuetudinem in qua se nutritam meminit sed mihi placet ut sive in Romana five in Galliarum seu in qualibet Ecclesia aliquid invenisti quod plus omnipotenti Deo posset placere sollicitè eligas in Anglorum Ecclesia quae adhuc ad fidem nova est institutione praecipuâ quae de multis Ecclesiis colligere potuisti infundas non enim pro locis res sed pro bonis rebus loca amanda sunt Ex singulis ergo quibusque Ecclesiis quae pia quae religiosa quae recta sunt elige haec quasi in fasciculum collect a apud Anglorum mentes in consuetudinem depone If Austin had conformed himself to these Instructions it is very probable that he might have had as good success in reconciling the Eritish Church who principally insisted against any deference to the Roman not comprehending any possible reason for such a superiority or if the successors of Gregory had been of his temper and Christian prudence Christendom had been much better united at this day or more innocently separated and unanswerable reasons for the reformation of some errors which had unwarily creeped in or removing some scandals which could not otherwise be kept out would not have been so often rejected upon no other reason than that the Bishop of Rome was not of that opinion nor would whole National Churches because they have with the consent of the Soveraign power removed some error which the other chuses to retain be reviled with the names of Hereticks and Schismaticks and the universal be contracted within the Province of Rome and not be allowed to be members of the Catholick Church because they will not be subject to that of the Roman which would usurp the authority of condemning many more Christians than are contained within the community thereof To make any profession of a willingness to submit mens judgments for the sence of Scripture to a lawful General Council besides that I do not know that there is any difference upon any Text of Scripture that concerns Salvation I confess I take it to be very impertinent and in that respect not very ingenious since it is manifestly impossible for any such Council ever to meet whilst that of Rome challenges the sole power of calling it and pretends to such a Soveraignty in it that nothing must be debated by it but what is proposed by the Pope or his Legats and all Kingdoms or Provinces as well as private persons who will not submit to his Soveraignty shall be excluded from thence under the notion of being Hereticks so that all Protestants must appear as Delinquents to be censured and condemned which would be a strange condition to submit to when no body can compel them to appear but their own Soveraigns Nor can it be called a free Council where all who ought to be looked upon as members of it are not equally free When General Councils were first called all the Christians of the world were one mans subjects who could both compel as many of them as he thought necessary to be present and to obey and submit to whatsoever was determined whereas now there being so many Kings and Princes who have much larger Dominions than the Emperor and are equally Soveraigns in those their Dominions and none of their subjects can appear there without their Soveraigns consent And lastly it being a Catholick Tenent that how numerous soever the convention in Council is and how universal soever the consent is in what is determined the Canons made there are not obligatory to any Kingdom before it be received and submitted to in that Kingdom upon which the Council of Trent is not yet received in France and in many other Catholick Countries and therefore it will be very hard for Mr. Cressy to justifie the defending or urging the authority of that Council in England where it was never received and hath been always rejected And for these reasons it may reasonably be thought morally impossible for any general free Council ever to meet which must grow every day more impossible as the Christian Faith is farther spread and when the whole world is converted as we do not only pray it may but believe it will be it will be very hard for the greatest Geographer to assign a place for the meeting where the Bishops from all parts may reasonably hope to live to be present there and to return from thence with the resolutions of the Councils into his own Country For the Instruments and means of unity which Mr. Cressy says were left by our Lord to his Church for the preservation of unity besides that most of those means are as applicable to the Church of England as to the Church of Rome though none of them in the terms he uses appear to be enjoyned or left by our Saviour let him but prove the Ninth and Tenth That the ordinary authority is established in the Supreme Pastor the Bishop of Rome and that his jurisdiction extends it self to the whole Church c. and in case any Heresies arise or that any Controversies cannot be any otherwise ended he hath authority to determine the points of Catholick truth opposed c. I say let him prove this and he hath no need of any of the other means and I will give him farther this advantage over me that if he can prove that I am obliged to conform my judgment in any thing to the determination of the Pope more than to the determination of the Bishop of S. Iago I will go to Mass with him to morrow and Mr. Cressy himself might be a good Catholick if he had not unwarrantably to say no worse of it subscribed to the Bull of Pius the Fourth which is no obligation by the Council when he submitted to his new Ordination though he were of the same opinion And if that Tenth proposition of his be the doctrine of the Catholick Church the Colledge of Sorbon hath been often to blame in not consenting to it and I know not how the Iansenists in France can be excused for paying not more reverence to the judgment and determination of two Popes upon the five Propositions for Alexander the Seventh confirmed what Innocent the Tenth had first defined nor was the silence that is since submitted to in those particulars an effect of the Popes authority but of the Kings which amounts to little less than a revocation at least a suspension of the Popes Decree The Argument that the Doctor uses from the Tragical miscarriages of Popes is very apposite and convincing to those Propositions which Mr. Cressy would perswade men to believe do establish his personal Supremacy He says that our Saviour hath committed a Supreme jurisdiction to the person of the Bishop of Rome over the whole Church that in case any Heresies arise or any Controversies in causis
by taking away the strong supporters which have hitherto upheld it and erecting rotten or mouldering pillars in the place and all this benefit and advantage may be lost or prevented by his fond and unseasonable advertisement if the King and the Bishops have prudence enough to make good use of it by driving away or discountenancing such a perfidious and unskilful champion May they not from hence apprehend that as he came to them upon a sudden and unexpected so that he is upon thoughts of returning to the Church for which he hath so much care and entering into a kind of correspondence with his adversaries by giving good counsel how to behave himself better But how comes it to pass that this miserable Doctor who he yet seems to think may mean well to be so stupidly couzened and deceived that instead of complying with his engagement to defend the Church he hath betrayed her and the whole cause to all the Fanatick Sects which have separated from her and with most horrible cruelty sought her destruction and with her the ruine of Monarchy All this tragical demolishing of foundations consists in this that he allows all sober enquirers to be for themselves judges of the sence of Scripture in necessaries and judges likewise what points are necessary This saying of his hath betrayed the cause of his Church and left her in a most forlorn condition tottering upon foundations and principles which to Mr. Cressy's certain knowledge were not extant at least not known in England thirty years since Let it be in the first place observed and it is sure worthy to be observed that this most pernicious proposition which hath in such an instant brought the Church of England into such a tottering condition is not made use of nor so much as taken notice of by any of those enemies of hers the Presbyterians Anabaptists or Independents who have been so vigilant and industrious so many years to make her totter and yet now the work is so near done to their hands by a secret friend who is the more able to do them good by his not pretending any affection towards them neither of them will put their cause upon that proposition nor apply it to their own designs and therefore it is possible that it may not be altogether so dangerous to the Church as he would have it supposed to be and of which it is probable he would not have given notice if he had in truth thought it to be dangerous In the next place let us examine whether the Doctor himself cannot make another and better interpretation of his own words than his implacable enemy hath done all good Physicians compound their Antidotes according to the nature and malignity of the poyson that their patients have swallowed Now the poyson that Mr. Cressy and his lurking brethren usually bait their traps with and by which they catch most of their prey is Their confident denouncing damnation against those and all those who are not of their mind that is who are not received into the Church of Rome and not intirely submit to all her dictates That the Scripture consists in dumb letters which cannot declare its own meaning and therefore is liable to be misinterpreted by the wit of bold and presumptuous men as the founders of all Heresies have been and therefore they can only be safe who receive and conform themselves to that interpretation of Scripture that the Church in the custody of which it is deposited hath given and declared to be Orthodox That that Church is the Church of Rome where there constantly resides a Supreme Magistrate who in case any new opinions shall start up to the prejudic of Religion which have not been enough convinced by former definitions of the Church hath full authority committed to him by our Saviour to declare and determine what is agreeable or contrary to the sence of the Scripture since it cannot be supposed that our Saviour would constitute an officer and not indue him with all necessary faculties or not qualifie him sufficiently for the discharge of so great a trust and from hence they resolve that the greatest danger of damnation is not from the commission of those sins against which the spirit of God hath so plainly denounced it but in an obstinate presumption in contradicting the opinions or directions of the Catholick Church and refusing to submit to the authority of the Vicar of Christ who hath the unquestionable power to bind and to loose to pardon and to condemn sins having the Keys of Heaven and of Hell and therefore whilst they will depend upon him and put themselves under his protection they cannot but be safe This is the common poyson which these men carry about them to administer to those who they find most like to be deluded and in the composition of it there are some ingredients according to the humour of the compounder which cannot be according to the Catholick prescription since that Soveraign power of their Supreme Magistrate the Pope is not nor ever will be acknowledged to be an essential part of the Roman Catholick Religion Let us now see what Antidote the Doctor hath provided for the prevention or expulsion of this poyson to confirm men in their absolute confidence and dependence upon the Scripture the force and virtue whereof that poyson would enervate he says That it is repugnant to the nature of the design to the wisdom and goodness of God to give an infallible assurance to persons in writing his will for the benefit of mankind if those writings may not be understood by all persons who sincerely endeavour to know the meaning of them in all such things as are necessary for their Salvation and consequently there can be no necessity supposed of any infallible society of men either to attest or explain those writings amongst Christians and this and no more than this is the sence of that which contains all that confusion which Mr. Cressy thinks must bring confusion upon his own Church as into that of the Roman and from thence the Doctor proceeds to shew how incompetent a Magistrate they have chosen to determine all differences in Religion which he proves by such arguments as are very natural for the proving thereof and for the answering avoiding whereof we shall be compelled anon to take notice of Mr. Cressy's admirable artifice and dexterity Now if the Doctor hath for want of skill in discerning consequences made choice of an improper medium to prove that which he hath a mind to prove God forbid that there should be such Tragical effects to attend that argumentation as the destruction of Church and State and it would be as unreasonable to condemn an argument that he who uses it thinks to his purpose because it was never used till within thirty Years One man says that the Scripture is so very difficult that no man can understand it without repairing to the advice of an adversary who will tell him the interpretation
of it to which he is to conform let the advice be never so contrary to his own judgment and reason The other answers that the understanding all the places of Scripture is so difficult that men had need to consult very much about it yet that whatsoever is necessary towards salvation is contained in such easie places of Scripture that every man who sincerely enquires to know the meaning of them may easily do it and is ready to name those places in which there is no difficulty nor any difficulty hath yet been pretended the believing of which our Saviour himself hath declared to be enough for Salvation Oh! but says he the consequence of this proposition makes every man the judge of his own Religion and he may be of what Religion he pleases The question is not what the consequence is which few men agree upon one consequence seeming natural to one and another to an other but whether the averment be a good answer to the other suggestion when an other more weighty argument is urged an other answer shall be applied without the reach of his consequences and yet the Doctor hath never said that no man hath need of any information or advice even in the easiest places of Scripture and so that Coblers and Laundresses may choose a Religion for themselves nor doth believe that any sober cr sincere enquirer will fail in asking advice of those to whom he ought to repair if that which seems to others most easie appear hard to him nor can any man appear to himself to be a sober or sincere enquirer without enquiring to help his ill understanding and then even the Laundress or the Cobler will be out of Mr. Cressy's reach by his arguments of damnation which will manifestly appear to them to have no foundation in Scripture but to be a presumption against it Certainly it is a new way and a new Law imposed upon the handling of Controversies and was not in practice thirty Years since that a man can no sooner apply a proposition let it be new and not known to be urged before towards the confirmation of a Principle in one Religion or towards enervating a principle in an other but that proposition is called a Principle and thereupon all the ill consequences are deduced from it that may serve turn to asperse his Person wound his reputation and to make the unhappy man who hath not been sharp-sighted enough in Logick to discern those consequences nor consents to any one of them be looked upon and abhorred as a Socinian or if that be thought worse of a Turk for the consequence by well stroking will be stretched as well to the one as to the other and the case of this unhappy disputer is the more miserable because though he intends very honestly and acknowledges none of the consequences that is only by his ignorance of what passes in his own mind which a cunninger man than himself hath discovered and assures him and can easily prove that he doth believe that which he protests he doth not believe by which no Classis of men seem to be liable to so many woes as they who make false syllogismes and they who cannot discover when they are false for both these will be perplexed with ill consequences according to the mercifulness of the subtle man who hath the handling of the man and the matter If I will not submit to the authority to which Mr. Cressy will subject me to because he says the Church requires my subjection and I tell him that it is an irrational claim and my reason cannot therefore submit to it If I will not believe what he hath in his hand to be a flint when he suffers me to handle it and to put it into my mouth because my senses tell me that it is a piece of butter I am presently concluded to be a man who will examine all matters relating to Religion by natural reason and make my outward Senses the sole judges of the mysteries of Faith and of the interpretation of Scripture and therefore I am a Socinian and do neither believe the Trinity the Incarnation nor the other Elements of Christianity and therefore no Name can be bad enough for me nor is it any matter what I say And after all this I am no Socinian and I do believe the Trinity the Incarnation and all the other Elements of Religion and my reason obliges me to believe them because they being all matters of fact are manifested by such evidence that I cannot suspect nor can my reason contradict though all the parts of it it cannot comprehend Doth not the most abstracted reason oblige me to believe that the Scripture contains nothing in it but what is true when I have as great a manifestation as the subject is capable of that it is the Word of God and therefore it must be true yet when Mr. Cressy or the Pope himself as he frequently does in all his Bulls applies a Text of Scripture to a very light or erroneous purpose the same reason may enable and warrant me to declare that such an interpretation is not reasonable therefore it is to be rejected Must that greatest faculty that God hath bestowed upon mankind and therefore bestowed it upon him that he may judge by it reason be laid aside or cast away because there are some few things above the reach of it and yet even when that is true for it is often thought to be true when it is not and that some things are above reason which are not reason shall contribute more to that obedience that is requisite than any stupid resignation to such authority as every day betrays it self in some weak or wilful determination It is more than probable that very many learned and pious men may be so partial to the Doctor as to believe that he is equally skilled in Logick and to foresee all consequences which may naturally follow from any proposition or principle he makes use of and that he can make it evident that none of those direful consequences do result from them which Mr. Cressy's subtilty doth discern and if this should be so his friends will have cause to wish that he had not been so transported with passion for two principles which he hath made choice of out of thirty whereas if half the other twenty eight sufficiently evince what he would have his work is done which the Doctor for his ease had abridged in the end of his Book that he hath upon the matter left all the rest of his Book at least those parts which are most dangerous to the Roman allegation unanswered and unexmined and that he hath made too much hast to his conclusion and to his triumphant Declaration on his own behalf of the right and justice whereof he makes so little doubt that having treated his adversary with that meekness from the beginning of his Book he charitably concludes with giving him good counsel upon the peril of his