restrains you from it For our discourse is about the Ground of that Authority which ascertains to us Faith which theresore is antecedent to the notions of Faith Faithful Church Councils Fathers nay and creditable history-History-books too since those rely on Tradition taken at large for their Certainty as is evident by plain reason Coroll 16 24. which devolves into this that Tradition is FIRST AUTHORITY and so not proovable or disproovable by any other secondary Authorities but ought to be impugn'd by pure Reason But if you think fit to grant this Certainty to Tradition taken at large yet deny it to Christian Tradition which hath besides its Human force most powerful Divine Motives also to strengthen it please to speak it out and the strange unreasonableness of the position will quickly be made appear Or if you grant Christian Tradition Certain in bringing down those common Points in which we agree yet Fallible nay actually erring in bringing down to us those other points which we were found holding upon Tradition when you left us and for which as grievous Errors you pretended to leave us please to declare in what you hold the virtue of Tradition consists ascertaining to us both those common points and how we come to know Tradition is engag'd for them which done it will quickly appear whether its ascertaining virtue has its Effect upon some and not others or on all Unless you do this your very admittance of Tradition's Certainty in some overthrows you without more ado for to acknowledge it argumentative for the Certainty of some grants it a virtue of Ascertaining which therefore you are oblig'd to grant in all unless you give the reason of your Exception otherwise to admit it when your Interest is not toucht and reject it when it opposes you is plainly to confess that Tradition is able to certify yet that you admit it when you list and reject it when you list 7. Being inform'd then by Evident Reason that no kind of Authority but only the way of Reason is a competent Weapon to fight against Tradition with I have three things to propose to your Thoughts on this occasion which I hope will sound reasonable to any intelligent man by the very mentioning First that you would not alledge such Arguments as strike as well at the Constancy of every Species in Nature especially Rational Nature that is such natural Mediums as tend to destroy all Natural Certainty Secondly that your objections be not forrain or fetch 't from afar of for these are multipliable without End and apt to be suggested by Fancy upon every not-seeing the coherence of some other remote whether real or conceited Truth with the Tenet we aim to impugn but that they be immediate and close that is taken out of the Intrinsecal Nature of the Thing For so they will be more forcible and by consequence be apt to do your Cause much service and unless they be such they will do it none For in regard my whole process is grounded on the nature of the Thing as appears by my Transition and every Logician knows that remote and common considerations are liable for any thing we know to be connected or not-connected with the point we would apply them to because we see no Connexion but what 's Immediate it follows that 't is a very incompetent and dissatisfactory way to impugn an Adversary who endeavours all along to frame his discourfe out of the Intrinsecal Nature of the Thing by remote or unimmediate that is indeed Unconnected Mediums The third thing I request is that you either grant that no Argument or Reason is Conclusive Obliging-to-Assent or Satisfactory but what is either Proper at least Necessary Cause or Effect or else show us out of Logick that other Mediums have this virtue and how they come to have it This way of procedure will give me a great respect for you as taking honestly the Way which is apt to clear Truth and you will have this Satisfaction to your Conscience that you have endeavour'd it to your power by following the best method you could imagin to give your Cause its due advantage in case it can bear that Test that is in case it be Truth And if it cannot bear it that is if it be no Truth 't is your own best Advantage by this strict procedure to have discover'd it Your Judicious Readers also that look seriously for satisfaction will rest much edify'd and thankfull for your pursuing that Method which is likely to save them a great deal of fruitless pains in reading multitudes of books writ in a loose way whence no Conclusion or Satisfaction is likely to result 8. My fifth request and I hope 't is just and reasonable is this that if you conceive your Discourse has made good the Certainty of Written Authorities or quoted Testimonies without Tradition which I see isimpossible and hence you make account you have title to produce them against Tradition's Certainty That being the matter in hand and therefore you resolve to pursue the way of Citing Authours you would then be please'd to vouch your Citations to have truly in them the nature of Testimonies that is to be built on Sensible Knowledge and not on Speculative or Opinion in the Authour alledg'd and that they fall under none of Dr. Pierce's faulty or Inconclusive Heads or else show they are Conclusive though thus Faulty which is done by confuting my Grounds laid in my First Appendix § 6 7 8. Or lastly to declare that though thus Faulty and Inconclusive they ought still to be alledgd and to give your reason for it which candidly spoken out I am sure will be this that you must either produce such or none I hope all our ingenuous Readers will think me very reasonable who am well contented with any thing which is spoke out expressly and declaratively of what method or way of Satisfying you take and onely desire you would not quote and speak confusedly and in common as if you meant to persuade your Readers that your discourse has in it some strange force taken in the bulk though you will vouch no one particular piece of it to be Certain or as if you suppos'd their reasons were to be amazd and stupify'd meerly at the venerable Names of Authors and the solemnity of a diverse-letter'd or diverse-languag'd quotation without clearing to their Judgements the virtue by which such Citations can pretend to have force able to subdue their understandings to Assent or which is all one satisfy them If you refuse to do me reason in this point and still resolve to pursue the huddling together Testimonies without warranting their Certainty by showing upon rational grounds they must be such I shall declare beforehand to my Readers that I must be fore't to do right to my self which is to rank all your Testimonies under Dr. Pierce's Faulty Heads and so let them go as they are 9. Particularly I beg the Justice of you not to think to
my fault and endeavour to amend it For however I see my Grounds Evident yet I am far from judging my self Infallible in drawing my Consequences though I see withal the method I take will not let me err much Or if I do my Errour will be easily discoverable because I go not about to cloud my self in words but to speak out as plain as I can from the nature of the Thing 12. In the next place I earnestly request you as you love Truth not to shuffle of the giving me a full Answer nor to desist from your Enterprise as I hear a Certain person of great esteem for his learning and prudence has already done though you find some difficulty where to fasten upon the Substantial part of my discourse There are perhaps many difficult passages which my Shortness forc't me to leave Obscure These will naturally occasion mistake and Mistake will breed Objections to impugn me with Please if others fail to make use of those at least 'T is no discredit in you to mistake what 's obscure rather it argues a fault in me did not my circumstance of writing Grounds onely to Schollers excuse me that I left it so To make amends for which I promise you to render it clear when I see where it pinches you or others And on this score I owe very particular thanks to Mr Stillingfleet that by speaking clearly out his thoughts he gave me a fair occasion to open that point he impugn'd I think upon mistake of our Tenet 13. If you think fit somtimes to argue ad hominem be sure what you build on be either our Churches Tenet or mine for I am bound to defend nothing else If then you quote Fathers first see they speak as Fathers that is as Believers and Witnessers for so 't is evident our Church means them by her Expressions in the Council of Trent as also did Antiquity For both of them constantly alledge and stand upon Traditio Patrum not Opinio Patrum Next see you bring Consensus Patrum or an agreement at least of very many of them speaking as Witnesses otherwise you will not touch me nor our Church for she never abetted them further In case you bring Councils it would be very efficacious you would chuse such Testimonies if you can finde them as I brought from the Council of Trent that is such in which they declare themselves or the Circumstances give it they proceed upon their Rule of Faith For otherwise every one knows that Bishops in a Council have in them besides the Quality of Faith-Definers those also of Governours and of the most Eminent and solid Divines in God's Church If Scripture you must make Evident the Certainty of your way of arguing from it ere I or our Church shall allow it argumenative Thus much for Authority If you oppose me by my own Principles or Discourses of my Reason I must defend my self as well as I can One thing on this occasion I must mind you of 't is this that though you should conquer in this way of arguing ad hominem you onely conquer me as a Discourser by showing that I contradict my self not my Tenet for to prove that false you must fix your foot and build your discourse on some Certain Ground which barely my holding it on which your discourse ad hominem relies cannot make it You must build then on some Grounded Truth if you will go about to overthrow a pretended one Indeed if you can show Tradition contradicts her self you will do more than miracle and so must conquer But I fear not the Gates of Hell much less Man's wit can prevail against that impregnable Rock Onely I beseech you bring not as Parallels against our Tradition in hand which is a vast and strong stream other little petty rivulets sprung originally from the Sensations of two or three For then as one side was liable in a thing not known publikly to bely their Senses so the conveyance down of such sleight built Attestations may easily be self-contradictory In a word if you will argue take first into your Thoughts the nature of the Thing you argue against and then fall to work assoon as you will Now if you should chance to say you hold the Sayings of Fathers and Councils some at least to be Certain my Reason tells me from Principles that having renounc't Tradition which onely could ascertain them rational nature in you will not let you have any hearty conceit of their Convictiveness whatever you pretend but that you rawly alledge them and so let them go with a valeant quantum valere possunt That therefore we may have some security more than your bare word which Experience tells us is now affirmative now negative in this point as it best sutes your Interest or after a pretty Indifferent manner half-one-half-tother that your profession of holding to such Authorities is not hollow-hearted but rooted in your Reason 't is just your Readers should expect you would declare in what the virtue of Certifying consists and that They have this virtue This if you do you acquit your self to go to work solidly and you offer us fair play in giving us some hold of your Reason whereas a common Expression gives none This Procedure also will show when apply'd whether you are Justisiable or no for admitting some Authorities of that nature and rejecting others 14. My last request is that if in the course of your Answer you think fit to complain of me for bringing History and other Proofs heretofore commonly without more ado admitted into Incertainty please to amend the fault you finde and settle their Certainty on some better Principles than I have endeavour'd In the mean time 't is Evident my whole Book ayms at settling the Certainty of all Authority by evidencing the Certainty of First Authority upon which the Assuredness of History Fathers Councils Church Faith nay Virtue or Christian Life must all be built This is my way if you judge it incompetent to do the Effect spoken of be pleas'd to manifest it Unfit and show us a Better 15. Perhaps I may have demanded more of you in some particulars than is due from the strict duty of meerly answering in the Schools a bare denial or distinction is enough for a Respondent But I conceive we are not on these terms in regard we are not met face to face where the returns of the one to the other can be quick on every occasion This obliges us for the Readers satisfaction to enlarge our selves and bring reason for everything we affirm or deny lest we should be thought to do it gratis And your case here is particularly disadvantageous For if you go about to overthrow that on which I aym to show the Certainty of all Authority built and yet declare not on what your self hold them built and by your faithful promise to show it shortly give them strong hopes you will perform it you send them away very much dissatisfy'd either with you or with all the Authority in the world though built on Sensitive Knowledge Of which it being impossible Rational Nature should permit them to doubt they must needs dislike your attempt and have an ill conceit of your performance SIR I understand to my exceeding Satisfaction that multitudes of the most Eminent Solid and Ingenuous Wits of our Nation have been diligent perusers of my Book Consider their eyes are upon you while you Answer I am confident they will judge I have requested no more of you in this Letter but what 's reasonably due to their and my satisfaction and so will look your Answer should be correspondent They are weary of endless Contests about Faith and seeing we are not now controverting the signification of some ambiguous Testimony but penetrating deep into the very bowels of a point which is of the greatest concern in the whole world and pursuing in a method likely to decide the clearing of it their expectations are very much erected and attentively observing what will be the issue of this rational combat Frustrate not their desires to see Truth manifested by bringing the Question back from the plain open field of Evidence-in-our-method to a Logomachy or word-skirmish in a Wilderness of Talk out of which the Thread of Grounds or Principles had disent angled it To them therefore as well as your self I address this requesting those of them who are acquainted with my Answerer to press him to do himself me the world his Cause too if it can bear it the right due in Reason and here demanded This Sir if you will perform I shall lay aside the remembrance of the Justice I have to it and look upon it purely as a Favour and most obliging Civility to him who is next to Truth 's Feb. 6th 1665. Your Friend and well-wisher J. S. POSTSCRIPT IF you complain of this Fore-stalling as Unusual as long as it is rational you can have no reason to do so and it will appear such to him that considers it was an unusual Circumstance occasion'd it IT is this I had endeavour'd to bring Controversie from an Endless to a Conclusive Way and both my Reason and Experience made me apprehend my Protestant Answerer would have such strong Inclinations to bring it back into the way of quoting and glossing Testimonies that is into a wordish scanning a great part of all the Libraries in the World that a slender touch at it in my Book was not forcible and express enough to oblige him to take notice of it Having communicated therefore my thoughts with intelligent and ingenuous persons both Catholiks and Protestants and receiv'd their approbation I resolv'd and pursued it as you see And I hope the manifold Usefulness of it as shall be seen what way soever now you take upon you of answering will sufficiently justify my Action FINIS
so qualify'd as is apt to convince to answer it and not at all by Protestant Grounds which yield them all Fallible yet I have that regard for any thing that tends though remotely to Solidity that I will even remit something of my own advantage to give it a respectful Consideration The Testimony is of Gennadius cited by my L. p. 58 59. thus For after Christ's Ascension into Heaven the Souls of all Saints are with Christ and going from the body they go to Christ expecting the resurrection of their body with it to pass into the perfection of perpetual bliss To which my Ld. subjoyns and this he delivers as the Doctrin of the Catholick Church I take this excellent Testimony as put down by himself to do which the usage of St. Greg. Nazianzen's immediately foregoing gives me small encouragement In answer then I affirm that this Testimony so insisted and rely'd on as against us is as plain a declaration of the Faith of our Church at present as any now-adayes Catholick could pronounce For since no Catholick holds that any goes to Purgatory but they who die Sinners to some degree and that all who are Saints are with Christ in Heaven as is evident by the Churches common language affirming constantly the Saints are in Heaven and never that the Saints are in Purgatory but the Souls onely it is manifest that the words are as expresly for us as we our selves could invent or wish I hope it will not wrogMethod if on this occasion I show how Protestant Writers speed when they bring against us any Testimony of a Father speaking as a Father that is declaring that he delivers the sence of the Catholick Church however in other Testimonies which speak not narratively or matter of Fact the very nature of words joyn'd with the variety of their Circumstances must needs afford room for ambiguity and several Glosses I affirm then that this Testimony not onely is not in the least opposit to us but is directly opposit to the Protestants in another point of Faith in which we differ To discover this let us reflect on the words After Christes Ascension into Heaven the Souls of all Saints are with Christ and ask what mean these words After Christs Ascension And first 't is Evident it puts a distinction between the Souls of Saints before Christs Ascension and After it in some Respect and what is this Respect most expresly this that the Souls of the Saints After Christes Ascension go from the body to Christ that is that before the Ascension none did The avowed Doctrin of the Catholick Church prosessing that those who die Saints in the Law of Grace go straight to Heaven but that the best Saints before our Saviours dying for them and Ascending with them did not Whence also we hold that Christes descending into Hell was to free them from that State of Suspence and Want of their strongly desired and hopet for Bliss According to that Hymn of S. Ambrose and S. Augustin in the Common-prayer-book so oft said over by rote but never reflected on When thou hadst overcome the Sharpness of death thou didst open the Kingdome of Heaven to all Believers Signifying plainly that no Believers sound Heaven open for them till after Christ's death By the Success of this one Testimony is seen how utterly the Protestant Cause would be overthrown by way of Testimony as well as Reason were Citations distinguish't brought to Grounds and those onely admitted from the Fathers in which 't is manifest they speak as Fathers or Witnessers of what is the present Churches doctrin To close up this Discourse about the Dissuader's Citations He is to show us first that they fall not under the Faulty Heads to which they are respectively assign'd or under diverse others of those Heads Next that they have in them the nature of Testimonies And lastly which is yet harder that though they have in them the nature of Testimonies their Authority is Certain and their language unambiguous so that they may be safely rely'd on for Principles or Grounds of a solid Discourse This if he shows of any one citation which strikes at our Faith I promise him very heartily to subscribe to the validity of all the rest 13. Thus much for his Authorities Next should follow a Refutation of his Reasons produc't against our Faith for as for those against our School-Divines or Casuists they concern not me as a Controvertist Let him and them fight it out Now Reasons that strike at our Faith must either be against the Ground of Faith and those shall be consider'd in my Answer to his First Section or against points of Faith And these may proceed two wayes First by showing those points Incomprehensible to our Natural Reason or unsutable to our Faney and this way he frequently takes making a great deal of game upon such subjects as any Atheist may do by the same way in points common to him and us But this hurts us not in the least in regard we hold not Mysteries of Faith Objects of Human Reason nor Spiritual Things the Objects of Fancy and so these Reasons need no farther Answer The other way Reasons against Points of Faith may proceed is to show those Points contradictory to some Evident Principles at least to some other known or else acknowledg'd Truth And these were worth answering But such as these I find none in his whole Book rather that he builds his sleight Descants or Discourses on some controvertible Text or Citation relying on them as firmly as if they were First Principles Indeed p. 65. the Dissuader tells us of a Demonstration of his for the Novelty of Transubstantion and that a plain one too But I shal manifest shortly from the very words of the Author Peter Lombard on which his Plain Demonstration relies that 't is either a plain mistake or plain Abuse of him nay argues the direct contrary to what the Dissuader product it for Some Consequences also he deduces ad hominem against diverse points of our Faith built on our own Concessions or Allow'd Truths taken from the Fathers by which he attempts to overthrow it But these Consequences are so strangely Inconsequent and those tenets he would counterpose so far from Contradictory that 't is hard to imagin whence his Reason took its rise to leap into such remote conclusions I 'le instance in two found p. 49 and 50. That the Conflagration of the last day and the Opinion of some Fathers that the Souls were detain'd in secret receptacles till the day of Judgment do both destroy intermediate Purgatory Which Consequences if he will make good I will vield his whole Book to be Demonstrative and Unanswerable In a word all the good Reasons he brings are taken from some of our Divines writing against others and he hath done himself the right to chuse the best which levelled against the opinion of a less able Divine in stead of a point of Faith must needs bear a
Certain means to arrive at their Sence and till then I beseech you what are they else but meer WORDS or rather meer Characters and Sounds What high deference I give to Scripture see § 18 19. beginning p. 146. in Sure-Footing To Councils see Corol. 27. To Fathers taking them properly you may be inform'd by the whole Body of my Discourse concerning Tradition of which they are a part and the Eminentest Members of it in Proportion to their number Your 4th Injury is that the onely thing I place Infallibility in is Oral Tradition and the Testimonies of Fathers of Families whereas I place Infallibilities also in other things though I make this the greatest But your discourse makes me disesteem and exclude all others both Popes Prelates Fathers and Councils by establishing this Whereas by settling this I establish all others nor find you any such Expressions in my Book on the contrary 't is evident by those words I include them unless you think Popes and Prelates are not Fathers of Families but take lodgings or hire rooms in other mens houses by the week Truth is being to express the obligatory descent of Faith from Age to Age I cast about for a common word fit to express such Deliverers and conceiv'd this of Fathers of Families the aptest because the Church consisting of Families this was most General and every Master of a Family by being such has an Obligation to see all under him taught their Catechism or Faith This in common which was enough for my purpose then But were I to distinguish the strength of those Testimonies I should show that a Priest hath an Incomparable advantage above a Layman a Bishop above him and the Head of the Church above a Bishop Your 5th Injury is lighter because it speaks but your own Apprehensions and I am to expect no better from you My many chimerical suppositions and my Impertinencies in which I so please my self must needs begets wonder say you in case the man as probably be of any account and reputation in the world Now my Suppositions in the way I take are chiefly these that men in all Ages had Eyes and Ears the wit and if they were good Christians the Grace not to tell an open and damnable ly to no purpose and for these I should much wonder my self if you did not wonder at such odd Grounds and esteem them Chimerical because you have read them in no ancient book for you use not to look into Things By this extravagant kind of dealing you say you cannot but suspect me to be one of the Fraternity of the new-pretended Lights I believe you heartily For to begin with Self-evident principles and thence to deduce Immediate Consequences is such a new Light to you as I dare undertake scarce one beam of it ever enter'd into the Eye of your Understanding I conceive 't is the difference between your way ours which breeds all this mis-intelligence Ours ayms to bring all Citations to Grounds by way of Cause and Effect yours to admit them confusedly especially if writ by some old Authors provided they speak not for the Interest of Papists for then they are questionable Ours is to be backwards in assenting to any thing writ long ago till our Reason be satisfy'd no Passion or mistake could invalidate its Authority yours to believe them hand over head if the book be but said to be Authentick which is to a degree the same Weakness as that of the rude Country people who think all true they see in Print and that their having a ballad of it is sufficient to authenticate it Our Principle is that no Authority deserves any Assent farther than Reason gives it to deserve and hence we lay Principles to assure us of Knowledge and Veracity in the Authour ere we yeeld over our Assent to his sayings Yours is kinder-hearted than to hold them to such strict terms and is well appay'd if some Authour you have a conceit of praise the other for a good Writer or his work for a good Book Ours is to lay Self-evident Principles and deduce immediate consequences and by this means to cultivate our Reason that noblest Faculty in us which constitutes us Men yours to lay up multitudes of Notes gleand from several Authours and if you better any Spiritual Faculty you have 't is your Memory not your Reason Hence we carry for the main of our Doctrin and as far as 't is antecedent to written Authority our Library in our Heads and can as well study in a Garden as sitting in a Library stufit with books whereas your way of Learning ties you to turn over leaves of Authours as children do their Dictionaries for every step of your discourse and as an ingenious man said of those Poets who spun not their Poems out of their own Invention but made them up of scraps of wit transcrib'd from other Authours Lord how they 'd look If they should chance to lose their paper Book So we may say of you that if your Notes you have with much pains collected hap to miscarry you are utterly at a loss so that little of your Learning is Spiritual and plac't in your Soul as true Learning should be but in material and perishable paper and characters In a word your whole performance ends here that you are able to declare what other men say whereas ours aims at enabling us to manifest what our selves KNOW No wonder then if our wayes being so different we cannot hit it but that as you think ours Chimerical so I assure my self yours and consequently all you write in that way is as far as you go about to conclude or cause Assent by it exceedingly ridiculous This I doubt not will confirm you in what you said before that I am no Friend to Ancient Books or Learning To Note-book Learning indeed not much to true Learning or Knowledge very much and even to the other as far as it conduces to This. To Books I am so much a Friend that I desire not a few should be selected of each sort by a General Council of Schollers and the rest burn'd as did an ingenious person but I would onely have the riff-raff burn'd 't is no great matter if that tedious Legend of Dr. Dee's Sprights accompany them and the Generality preserv'd but so that their Contents should be gather'd in Heads or Common-place books for Schollers to look in occasionally not for rational Creatures to spend their whole lives in poring on them and noting them with a foolish expectation to find true Knowledge by stuffing their Heads with such a gallimawfry and after 40. years thus spent never the wiser for indeed this is little better than for one to hope to frame himself a good sute of Apparel by picking thrums ends out of a multitude of old and overworn Garments But to the point I distinguish Books And as for the Scriptures ascertaining their Letter and Sence which is done by Tradition 't is clear they
are of Incomparable value not onely for the Divine Doctrin contain'd in them but also for many particular passages whose Source or first Attestation not being universal nor their nature much Practical might possibly have been lost in their conveyance down by Tradition Next follows those of Councils and Fathers and supposing Christ a perfect Law-giver 't is clear all they have to do with Faith is to witness the Churches beleef and the former of them to declare or explain Faith or the Churches Sence against obstinate Hereticks As such then their Books are to be valu'd that is exceedingly Next follow such as Euclid's or Archimedes his which express Science and those are of very great worth in regard they acquaint us with and manifest to our hands the Knowledge of the former world which being Speculative little of it could have come down by Tradition except when that Speculation became Practical and exprest it self in Matter by many useful or rather needful Arts Trades or Manufactures After these succeed Opinionative Books of which this last Age has produc't multitudes and these also are very useful if the Reader go not too credulously to work but have right Principles laid already in his head for then the variety of mens Conceits and their Reasons for them will hint to a Considerer diverse Consequences which otherwise the slowness and distractedness of our Reason would not have light of nay even the miscairiages of such Reasoners avail a wise man as Aristotle out of the contrary Opinions of Philosophers whom he saw failing in their Grounds gathered very happily the middle Truth These Books therefore are worth preserving Human Histories come next and These second Tradition in her object matter of Fact after she hath authenticated them and the Circumstances of their Writers There are others fit for Explications or Rational Declarations of a point by Similitudes allusions Examples such like as Pliny's Natural History Emblems Fictions others of an Ornamental Nature which being useful for Sermons and Discourses sutable to the middle size of the world 't is plain they are preservable With this caution that these and chiefly Opinionative books be either kept from the weak and credulous vulgar or else in the Preface to them some learned Authority declare in common how far they are to be credited lest by imposing on the reasons of the Generality they hinder the world's improvement prayer-Prayer-books and recreation-Recreation-books 't is almost as Evident they are to be preserv'd as 't is that Prayers and Recreations are to be used Onely caution is to be had the former be examin'd well and approov'd by Ecclesiastical Authority and that the later be chast and unabusive You have here my sentiment concerning Books against which you shall find nothing in Schism Dispatch't or any of my Writings In a word I would have every thing distinguish't examin'd by Grounds allow'd as far as 't is reasonable Nor wonder I much at your mistake of me in this point for you are not the onely man that thinks all Books and even Authority to be absolutely deny'd when they are sorted and rank't in their just degree of merit that is indeed settled and establish't for we Metaphysicians think nothing to stand firm but by being or being held-to-be truly what it is You denounce Wo to Colledges and Libraries if these men should prevail Yet you see now I leave you Libraries enow and permit you your onely darlings Books and onely desire you would love them wisely Neither will Colledges forfeit their Libraries to my Discourse Onely whereas you would have Schollers educated there onely pore on books Note and when they come to write quote I would have them take Principles along with them by which to judge and consider of what they read Without which 't is to be fear'd their much reading will do them more harm then good and even pervert honest natural Reason in them by filling their heads with a multitude of unconnected and unconnectible Ends of Sayings impossible to be ever postur'd in the frame of Reason and themselves unfurnish't of means to know which rather to adhere to which may sit them to talk indeed of many things like Parrats yet all the while for want of Principles know nothing of what they say If you would have Colledges consist of such I conceive I am a far better Friend to Colledges than your self are and that no great cause of Woe will come to them by my means But as our way in your conceit brings Woe to Colledges and Libraries so you affirm that Atheism and Mahometism will get by it By which I understand what a Disputant you are I beleeve you would quote Scriptures and Books to confute an Atheist or Mahometan whereas I conceive since all Discourse supposes an Agreement between the Discoursers in some Common Principle and they denie or undervalue your written proofs you must begin to confute them by Maxims of common Reason antecedent to all Authority For these Human Nature obliges all men to hold to unless they have quite irrationaliz'd themselves into perfect Scepticism whereas they reject or sleight the other which to render Efficacious you must go to work first with Principles of plain reason Your last Injury which I account the worst of all the rest is deliver'd thus Others of approved worth and abilities have met with this man who I think have done him more credit than he deserved This argues you are so set to abuse me that no Testimony though never so valid and confest to be such can stave you of And the Judgment or Veracity of my Friends who speak by Experience shall be question'd rather than you will be brought to entertain any conceit of me that 's handsome You leap voluntarily into Falsifications and ill-languag'd misconceits without any motive but are so restif and backward to think or speak in the lest civilly of me that witnesses of approved worth and abilities cannot win you to favourable apprehensions nor keep you from pursuing your resolute Censoriousness Had you found half that Testimony for the Authentickness of an old Writer in some mouse-eaten rag of Antiquity it had gone down currently with your Genius and bin next to Gospel I value not your Judgment of me but highly and equally dislike your humour as void of all Ingenuity whether it had been us'd to my self or another When you review Schism Dispatcht and see your mistakes I hope you will have a good conceit of my Friends at least for whom in this passage I apologize But that I may re-acquaint my self with you I am to tell you that you also have met me formerly and knew me very well Nay that I am exceedingly bound to you for the best favour in the world which is that accidentally you contributed to make me a Catholick But because 't is long ago I am forc't to remind you of it by two Tokens One is that in Durham-house where you at that time lodg'd when you came to
over-bear me with the conceiv'd Authority of other Divines resolving Faith in their Speculative Thoughts after another manner than I do since this can onely tend to stir up Invidiousness against my person which yet their charity secures me from and not any wayes to invalidate mv discourse For every one knows t is no news Divines should differ in their way of explicating their Tenet which they both notwithstanding hold never the less firmly and every learned man understands that the word Divine importing a man of Skill or Knowledge in such a matter no Divine has any Authority but from the Goodness of the Proofs or Reasons he brings and on which he builds that Skill Please then to bring not the empty pretence of a Divines Authority or Name to oppose me with and I shall freely give you leave to make use of the Virtue of their Authorities that is their Reasons against me as much as you will I easily yeeld to those great discoursers whoever they be a precedency in other Speculations and Knowledges to which they have been more addicted and for which they have been better circumstanc't In this one of the Ground of Faith both my much Practice my particular Application my Discourses with our nations best Wits of all sorts my perusing our late acute Adversaries and the Answers to them with other Circumstances and lastly my serious and industrious studying the Point join'd with the clearing Method God's Providence has led me to have left me as far as I know in no disadvantage What would avail you against me and our Church too for my Interest as defending Tradition is indissolubly linkt with Hers is to show that our Church proceeds not on Tradition or that in Her Definitions She professes to resolve Faith another way rather than mine or which is equivalent to rely on somthing else more firmly and fundamentally than on Tradition But the most express and manifold Profession of the Council of Trent to rely constantly on Tradition has so put this beyond all possible Cavil on my side that I neither fear your Skill can show my Grounds in the least subcontrary to hers nor the Goodness of any Learned and considering Catholik however some may conceive the Infallibility of the Church plac't ad abundantiam in somthing else will or can ever dislike it I expect you may go about to disgrace my Way as new But I must ask whether you mean the substance of it is new or onely that 't is now deeper look't into and farther explicated than formerly If you say the former my Consent of Authorities p. 126 127 c. has clearly shown the contrary and common sense tells us no other way was or could be possibly taken for the Generality of the Church at least in Primitive times till Scripture was publisht universally and collected If the later please to reflect that every farther Explication or Declaration as far as 't is farther must needs be new and so instead of disgracing us you most highly commend our reasons for drawing consequences farther than others had done before us Again if it be onely a farther Explication it is for that very reason not-new since the Sence of the Explication is the same with the thing explicated As 't is onely an Explication then 't is not-new as farther 't is indeed new but withal innocent nay commendable But there are three things more to be said on occasion of this objecting Catholik Divines One is that taking Tradition for the living voice of the present Church as I constantly declare my self to do not one Catholick does or can deny it for he would eo ipso become no-Catholick but an Arch-heretick and this all acknowledge In the thing explicated then that is in the notion of Tradition all agree with me and consequently in the Substance of my Explication nor can any do otherwise except they be equivocated in the Word Tradition and mistake my meaning which I conceive none will do wilfully after they have read here my declaration of it so unmistakably laid down The second thing is that an Alledger of those Divines will onely quote their Words as Speculaters not those in which they deliver themselves naturally as Christians or Believers which Sayings were they collected we should finde them unanimously sounding to my advantage and not one of them oppositely And lastly speaking of our Explication as to its manner Divines contradict one another in other kinds of Explications but not one Author can be alledged that expresly contradicts this which I follow 10. My sixth request is that you would speak to the main of my Book and not catch at some odd words on the by as it were Otherwise understanding Readers will see this is not to answer but to cavil 11. And because we are I hope both of us endeavouring to clear Truth I am sure we ought to be so therefore to acquit your self to your Readers that you ingenuously aim at it I conceive you will do your self a great deal of right and me but reason nay which is yet weightier do the common Cause best service if you will joyn with me to retrench our Controversie as much as we can Let us then avoid all Rhetorical Digressions and Affectations of Witty and fine Language which I have declin'd in my whole Book and chosen a plain downright manner of Expression as most sutable and connatutural to express Truth Likewise all Repetitions of what particulars others have said or answer'd before us such as are the Objections made by that ingenious person the L. Faukland and the Answers given them in the Apology for Tradition unless it be conceiv'd those Solutions are insufficient and Reasons be offer'd why they are judg'd so For I conceive it an endless folly to transcribe and reprint any thing others have done before us except it be Grounds which ought to be oft inculcated and stuck to and those particulars which we show to be not yet invalidated but to preserve still their strength Much less do I suspect it can fall under the thought of one who aims to discourse rationally such my Answerer ought to be to rake together all the filth and froth of the unwarrantable Actions or Opinions of some in the Church or to run on endlesly with multitudes of invective invidious sayings on his own head without proof then apply them to the Church as does the Disswader It would also very much conduce to the bringing our differences to a narrower compass if you would candidly take my Book endwayes and declare what in it is evident and so to be allowed what not What Principles are well laid or Consequences right drawn and what are otherwise To requite which favours I promise the same Carriage in my Reply to you By this means it will be quickly discover'd whether or no you have overthrown my Discourse by showing it ill coherent and how far 't is faulty that if I cannot clear it to be connected I may confess