two so potent Kings could so little prevail towards it For all that was done had only this design to appeas the seditions sprung up in Sivil by occasion of a Dominicans Conclusions in which he affirm'd that our Lady was Conspurcata with Original sin But the controversy was so uncivilly carried that it scandaliz'd our English Merchants as one of them there present told me not long after meeting him at Dunkirk But because this objection is much urged let us see the probabilities of its being defin'd The first is that the maintainers of the Affirmative are only a few of one Order and some few taught by them But if good account be made I believe these few will prove some thousand or fifteen hundred of the most learned in the Christian world Their Order is known to have always been the flower of the Schools to have had the Inquisition many ages in their hands to have a stile of Divinity of a higher strain then ordinary by their great study and adhesion to the Doctrin of St. Thomas of Aquine Their Monasteries numerous especially in Spain and Italy no great Convent wherin there are not a dozen or more grave and learned Divines almost all the honours amongst them being distributed according to the probate of ability in knowledg so that the Order is no contemptible part of the Learning of the Church Neither is it credible their Schollars can be few much less as this Author passionatly terms them unus et alter He objects farther the subscriptions of many Prelates Orders and Universities the general acclamation of the people the weighty necessity of cutting off scandals That some Universities oblige the Schollars to make vows to maintain the negative and in a word that the Affirmers hold against the whole Church Nor do I doubt that many Prelates Orders and Universities subscribed the Negative and peradventure to the Petition or that the people who follow the greater cry did demand the same but that the Affirmers held against the whole Church I totally deny and shew manifestly the contrary For Buls having been accepted and standing in force by which all Censure against the Affirmative is forbidden and no one syllable obtain'd any way derogatory to the probability of the opinion but generally a caveat to the contrary expresly put into such instruments and the Defenders of the negative submitting to them 't is clear that all the maintainers of the Negative alow the Affirmative to be probable and by consequence not against the consent of the Church since it seems to imply a flat contradiction that the Church should believe a Negative to be true and yet at the same time admit the affirmative may be true Now as for Universities there are entire ones for the Affirmative and that not on the score of St. Thomas but of the Fathers What Universities strive for the Negative so ranckly as to make men take vows I know not The Article of Paris as I hear is only that they shal not teach it in the University els-where every one is free As for hindring scandals 't is a necessary part of Government but certainly obliges not to a defining or deciding of Truths according to the inclinations of the people push'd on by the clamours of violent Preachers Notwithstanding all this our adversary presumes this very point may prove an Article of Faith especially if a Council should meet about the decision wherin he proceeds with a very high confidence it being as he thinks now ready to topple into a matter necessary to salvation But I am far from that mind for I see the fervours of the Schools are a quite different thing from the judgments of the Church and how little all those tumults moved the Court of Rome and certainly would have made far less impression in a general Council The controversy betwixt the Jesuits and the Dominicans what a busle makes it in the School and in the world while it stands upon the fairer tongue upon motives esteemable by the people and meer plausibilities Wheras coming to be examin'd before the Pope in Congregations it could not hold water but the weaker part was forc'd to break off the cours of judgment by mingling Princes quarrels into Ecclesiastical questions I dare confidently say if the Point of our Ladies Conception were to be handled either in a Council or grave Congregation the party that free her setting aside the passions of Princes would be distressed to find an argument that themselvs should hope would endure the discussing And so the pretty gradations of our imaginative adversaries who so easily frame a ladder for this opinion to climb up into a matter of Faith is like an odd attempt of an acquaintance of mine who being come out of Lancashire to go beyond-sea and repuls'd at Dover for want of a Pass put off his hose and shooes and began to wade into the sea when being asked what he meant he answer'd he would go on foot since they would not let him pass in the Boat for said he I have often waded through the Beck at my Fathers door when the bridg was taken away By which counterfeiting of simplicity he got to be admitted into the ship wheras those who make their argument from the School-discussions to Church-definitions will if I am not mistaken remain on the wrong side of the water THE NINTH ENCOUNTER Shewing the unanimous agreement of Divines that all infallibility is from Tradition THe third argument is drawn from this Waddings proceedings and his consorts with the addition of another not unlearned man according to the cours of these times who puts Scripture and definitions of the Church to be the adaequate ground into which our Faith is resolv'd Besides 't is urg'd that even those who speak of Tradition seek it not in the testimony of the present Church but of the ancient Fathers This being already answer'd in the sixth Objection we need not here add much to it For what imports it if Wadding and his associates understood not upon what grounds the Church uses to resolve and decide controversies and therfore bring Revelations Metaphorical expressions of Scripture the cry of the people a multitude of School Divines and the like arguments so that in their lives and believing or acting as Christians they proceed not out of these grounds but by the Colliers principle rely on the Church and by her on what she rely's Galilaeo dislikes the notions of wet and dry which Aristotle gives do they therfore disagree or not know one anothers meaning when they talk of a wet and dry cloth Among our modern Philosophers great quarrels there are about the explication of time and place yet this hinders not but that in common discours when they speak of years and days Country's and Towns they make a shift to understand one another The reason is because these conceptions used in ordinary discours are planted in them by nature the same objects working the same effect upon souls of one
nature But the other notions are made by study and artificial proceeding and prove fals or true according as the precedent discourses are fallible or solid Even so believing is made by nature in us and is all alike in those to whom the object is proposed alike But to explicate and declare it happens differently among Doctors as they understand better or wors Now then admit all those we call Schoolmen were against the doctrine I maintain though I conceive such an universal agreement impossible unless they be supposed to demonstrate their Tenets which if they do I readily submit if not what doth it impeach the opinion I defend or what would it avail to bring one or more on my behalf whose authorities may be rejected with the same facility as offer'd since they neither carry with them security from error nor evidence of Truth let us therfore permit Divines to try out their own quarrels in their own Schools not mingling them in our business Yet to give some satisfaction let the objector answer me himself Does not the greater part of Divines seek out Tradition Yes will he say but not that Tradition which rely's on the present Church for they seek it in laborious quotations of Fathers in all ages Let 's agree then in this They seek Tradition as well as I But I pray what do they intend by so great labour in heaping of Fathers do they mean it was those Fathers opinion and so make their conclusion good because such a number of Doctors held it or do they farther pretend out of these Fathers testimonies to shew it was the publick doctrin of the Ages in which they lived If the adversary be as ingenuous as he is ingenious he will confess they pretend to argue the publick belief out of this numerous Catalogue Nevertheless for fear some other may be more reserv'd let 's remember what was before objected that some points have been defin'd notwithstanding the opposition of many Fathers and this by the verdict of these Divines Whence it clearly appears that this numbring of Fathers would not make a doctrin certain to them unless they thought the sense of the respective Ages were imply'd in it Therfore in conclusion it is evident that they also rely for Faith upon the succession of it through divers ages which is the same as the Doctrin's being handed from the Apostles to us So that you see we all agree and I whom you took to be particular in this conceit am thus far of the common opinion But the adversary urges that I come to the knowledg of this succession by the testimony of the present Church wheras they who search it in Fathers find it by the consent of antiquity Suppose it be so what difference makes this It is too great a servility to be bound not to say any word but what has before faln in my adversaries way Yet at least can he justify this do not those Divines according to what himself would have them say profess that the present Churches definition makes a certainty in our Faith Admit then the present Church in a Council or otherways as it shall please those Divines should define that a point doubted of were come down by Tradition from the Apostles to us would not they say Tradition were sufficiently known by such a Testimony Surely it cannot be deny'd I ask again whether the professing a point of doctrin to be hers by receiving it from hand to hand be not to testify and define that Tradition stands for this doctrin Therfore all such Divines confess Tradition may be known by the testimony of the present Church Why then do they use such diligence in collecting so many passages out of Fathers chiefly for this reason because Sectaries deny that principle therfore they are forc'd for their satisfaction not for instruction of Catholicks to take so much pains with little thanks many times Though it be true their learned labours confirm besides some weak believer and enlighten the borders of Catholick Faith and so in themselvs are both ornamental and profitable to the Church And now what if I should add that these very Doctors hold there is no security of Faith but only by Tradition I know I am thought subject to talk Paradoxes nevertheless because it is a point important to the unity of the rule of Catholick Faith out it shall go and the discours be neither long nor obscure I ask therfore do not these Doctors require to the certainty of a Definition that the Definers proceed without malice or negligence and use all human endeavours to discover the truth I cannot answer for every particular but am sure the principal Divines require these conditions otherwise they doubt not but the definitions may be erroneous I ask again what certainty can we have of this proceeding of the Definitors or was there ever Council yet against which the condemned Party did not cry out that they had fail'd in observing them I conclude therfore two things first that in the Churches definitions of this nature there can be no more then the certainty of moral Prudence according to these mens opinions if they follow their own grounds Secondly that there is no Moral quarrel betwixt Sectaries and them concerning the infallibility of such definitions for the exception generally in the first condemnation of any heresy rises from this part Whether the Judg proceeded equally and not Whether if he did so his authority were to be rejected there being seldom found so blind a boldness in any as to say a Judge does him wrong and yet proceeds rightly for either he judges what he understands not and that 's rashness or seeing the right he pronounces wrong and that 's malice both which are unexcusable from injustice So that I believe in this point they do not assure the Church against Hereticks though both sides should agree in the speculative part that the Difinitors were infallible I know Divines say Catholiks are bound to believe the Definitor proceeded as he ought unlesse the contrary be evident and I see they speak with a great deal of reason but withall I see this maxim is a principle of Obedience and Action not of Infallibility and belief I have yet a little scruple about this doctrin For either the Definitors are assur'd the doctrin they define is true or no If not how can it be said they proceed rationally who determin a position as certain which they see not to be so If they are then the Opinion was certain before the Definition on some ground precedent to and independent of it and so not made certain by the definition but only declar'd to the ignorant by the Authority of the Definer that it was and is certain upon other grounds Now excepting Tradition Scripture and Definitions I know not any thing men seek into for an irrefragable Autority Therefore what is defin'd must be before certain either by Scripture or by Tradition Let those Divines now chuse which
Christs doctrine we mean that which was generally preach'd by the Apostles and contains all such points as are necessary to the salvation of the World not only in particular to single persons but for government of the Church and bringing multitudes with convenience to perfection in this life and felicity in the next Which being establisht they immediately proceed to this general Position that All Christ taught or the Holy Ghost suggested to the Apostles of this nature is by a direct uninterrupted liue entirely and fully descended to the present Church which communicates with and acknowledges subjection to the Roman Adding also the convers of that proposition viz. Nothing is so descended but such Truths nor any thing held by this tenure but what is so descended which being cast up amounts to this great Conclusion No errour was ever or can be embraced by the Church in quality of a matter of faith The proof consists in this Since 't is confessed the Catholik Church goes upon this Maxim that Her Doctrine is received from Christ and still handed along to the present generation they who cavil at this assertion should assign some Age when they conceive an errour crept in and the maintainer should prove it enter'd not in that Age Because that Age held nothing was to be admitted as of Faith except what was deliver'd to it by the former but the Objectors themselves say this supposed errour was not deliver'd by the former since they put it to be now first believ'd therfore the Age in which they imagin this errour crept in could not be the first that believ'd it And lest some might reply though the present Roman Church stands now upon the proposed maxim yet anciently it did not the same argument may be thus reiterated If this principle which now governs the Church had not always done so it must have been introduced in some Age since the Apostles name therfore the Age and immediatly 't is urged either the Church had assurance in that Age all she held was descended lineally as we spake from the Apostles or not If so then questionless she held her doctrin upon that maxim For it is the only undoubted and self-evident principle If not then she wilfully belyed her self and conspired to damn all her posterity voluntarily taking up this new Rule of faith and commanding it to be accepted by all the world as the necessary doctrin of Christ and his Apostles descended upon the present age by universal Tradition from their Ancestors and for such to be deliver'd to their children and all this against the express evidence of her own conscience Thus far reaches the argument He that shall compare this perpetuation of the Church with the constancy of propagating mankind and proportion the love of happiness and natural inclination to truth which is in the superiour part of mankind and commands powerfully in it to the material appetite of procuring corporal succession and weigh what accidents are able and necessary to interrupt the progress of one and the other will find the propagation of Religion far stronger and less defectible then that of mankind supposing them once rooted alike in universality and setledness Since therfore the means of conducting nature to its true and chief end Felicity are more principally intended then those by which it is simply preserv'd in being this Contemplator will clearly discern that if humane nature continue to the last and dreadful day this succession also of a true Church must be carried on through the same extent of time there appearing indeed no purpose why the world should endure a minute longer if this once come to fail that part of mankind which arrives to bliss being the end why the rest was made as mankind is the end for which all the other material Creatures are set on work Again if a rational discourser should plot in his head how with condescendence to the weakness of our nature he might bring mankind to bliss and to this end plant in it a perpetual and constant knowledg of the true and straight way thither did observe that Man in his immature age is naturally subject to believe and after his ful growth tenacious of what he had suck'd in with his milk could he chuse but see that to make the Mothers flatter into their Children the first elements of the acquisition of Beatitude and continually go on nursing them up in the maxims of piety till their stronger years gave a steddy setledness to their minds must needs be the most sweet and connatural way that can be imagin'd to beget a firm and undoubted assent to those happy principles If he think on and chance to light on this truth that the greatest part of mankind some through dulness of understanding some by the distractions of seeking necessaries for their subsistence or at least conveniences for their accommodation and others for the diffluence of nature to Pleasures and Vanities are to their very departing hour wholly incapable of searching out their Religion either by their own contemplation or the learned books of others I cannot doubt but such a considerer would without the least difficulty or hesitation conclude that were it his design to set up a Religion which he would have constantly and universally propagated he must of necessity pitch upon this way And so with a resolute and pious confidence pronounce if God has not already taken this course certainly he should have done it To these considerations give my pen leave to add the confession of our Adversaries who boldly acknowledge the Roman Church has had universal Tradition for the whole body of its faith ever since St. Gregories days which is now a thousand years and very near two parts of the three that Christian Religion has endured They confess those Doctrins which are common to us and them remain in our Church uncorrupted and have still descended from Father to Son by vertue of Tradition since the very times of the Apostles They will not deny the Ages betwixt Constantine and St. Gregory flourisht with an infinity of Persons famous both for piety and learning and the Church never more vigilant never more jealous being continually alarm'd by such Troops of powerful and subtle Hereticks so that there is no likelihood gross errours such as Idolatry and Superstition import could creep in undiscern'd in those days And perhaps much less betwixt Constantine and the Apostles the time being so short that it scarce exceeds the retrospection of those who liv'd with Constantine At least that age could evidently know what was the faith of Christendom in the age of the Apostles great Grand-children and they again be certainly assured of the Doctrin of the Apostles disciples their Grandfathers Which is an evidence beyond all testimony of writers that since Constantines time it was known by a kind of self-sight what the Grandchildren of the Apostles held and it could not be doubted of them but they knew and held the doctrin of the
Apostles that I say in Constantines time the publike doctrin of Christianity was the doctrin of the Apostles Besides the communication of Christians being very difficult and infrequent during those persecutions the contagion also of heresies scatter'd it self slowly among Christians in those times And here I shall note a ridiculous cavil very common not only in the mouths of the more rash and shallow Protestants but even in the writings of many of their gravest and most solemn Doctors who cry out against the Ignorance of our Church as the cause of our errors and yet put the Ages in which they insult that Frigebat Scriptura cum vetustis Autoribus some hundreds of years after the time wherin they acknowledg the doctrins term'd errours were already flourishing as if they could proceed from a defect which follow'd them A slander so palpably absur'd that all the charity I have can scarce perswade me to think they are not blinded rather with malice then ignorance that dare vent such gross contradictions And now having abridg'd as 't were the whole sense of Rushworths Dialogues concerning Tradition into this short compendium I will apply my pen to answer what exceptions are taken against either the forme or matter of that Discourse THE SECOND ENCOUNTER Defeating three oppositions made against Tradition THe first objection against the form is that I put my Adversary to prove his position instead of going about to maintain my own This they imagin because I bid them assign the Age which they take to be as much as a demand of them to prove that in such a time came in the error but 't is a plain mistake For I do not require they should prove the errour began in such an Age but only exact of them for Argument sake to name the Age in which they find most difficulty for me to conclude or wherin they conceive the sinnews of my discours will be most slack and feeble for the force of the main argument is indifferent to any Age they can pitch upon equally demonstrative in all and so by striking at every one concludes against all This I say not any way to disclaim the advantage we Catholicks have whilst we press our adversary to prove his Thesis being no less a just then strong and secure retreat and which I reserve my self the liberty of retiring to perhaps at another time but now I only urge him to name one Age at hazzard meerly to give way to the prosecution of the argument a Justice I might do for my self if I would without his courtesie and have all the laws of disputation bear me out in it It is therefore to litle purpose to demand whether I ask of the first man that held such an opinion or when it came to be universal though the question be plainly of this later for we hold it was ever so nor is there any art necessary to answer it the argument made being indifferent to all The skill therefore required is only to know what belongs to the form of demonstrating for the most part indeed not found in the quaint discourses of Rhetoricians But the Adversary thinks when the Question is put concerning a Doctrine's being Vniversal it must suppose none to hold the contrary opinion as if we could not know what is the publick Faith of France because perhaps a few conceal'd persons may believe somwhat different Wherin he reflects not that Heresie signifies the cleaving to a private opinion so that when there were any such in former ages that very thing made them Hereticks how good wits or great learning so ever they had if they dissented from the doctrine deliver'd by their forefathers He presses Catholiks cannot tell when the communicating of Children began since St. Austin thinks it an Apostolical Tradition We answer we are of that mind too but with this qualification that it was a Tradition begun by some Apostles not all in some Countries not all in some circumstances not all And therfore 't was neither superstition to use it nor sacriledg to leave it off how strongly soever the opponent avers one of these two to be unavoydable The second opposition made against the form is that 't is a fallacy of that kind called Soritae in which the Scepticks found so great difficulty that they used to press them against the Stoicks and other dogmatists as insoluble and manifestly demonstrating there was no science But to understand the meaning of this objection the demonstration propos'd is to begin from the Apostles time and so it must be supposed that the next Age after the Apostles in any controversy against new doctrins examin'd no farther then on which side stood the verdict of the Apostles wherof they could not be ignorant The Argument therfore pressed that the next that is the third Age must of necessity take the same method against its Novellists convincing them of falsity because their doctrine was contrary to that of those who had heard the Disciples of the Apostles speak And so since the Tradition of Faith was convey'd from age to age stil with this caution that the latter was to believe such a doctrin because receiv'd from the former upon this warrant that it descended lineally from Christ in the same manner to them as they deliver'd it to their posterity it necessarily follows that this doctrin could not but continue pure even to our present time unless some age should prevaricate all bounds of truth and nature and deliver somthing to the following age as traditionally deriv'd from Christ which had not been so receiv'd This argument so propos'd though I know not whether so understood seem'd to the opponent like the ratiocination of one Mr. Thinn a melancholy Philosopher who perswaded himself a person might be found that could leap from off Pauls for sure he needed a high standing to Rome because 't was possible some man might leap full twenty foot and no doubt but another somwhat more and still another more then he and so without end therfore among all one quick springer would be found who could make his jump from hence to the Capitol But certainly he that weigh'd the two arguments might without extraordinary study have found there was some difference in their form Mr. Thinn being oblig'd to take variety of men undetermined but this argument engaging only sixteen ages and peradventure not needing above six or in rigour some three and those such as have had a real existence wheras the Worlds durance and latitude are not sufficient to find men enough to justify Mr. Thinns Proces This I say was obvious enough to any mean understanding not preoccupated with prejudice against the conclusion But one who had understood how Aristotle unwrapped Zeno's fallacies might easily have known that Infinity it self could not add more then one full foot to Mr. Thinns leapers if the encrease were made by sub-proportional parts wherof the first was one half foot and if by equal quantities as Feet or Inches he
never dreaming any such thing is not this as very a Bull as to say an Army shot off all their Attillery that the Enemy might not discover where they lay or to do as is reported of an acquaintance of mine who being in good company to ride through a Town where he was afraid to be taken notice of at his entrance set spurs to his horse holding his Cane straight before him and Trumpeted Tararara Tararara the whole length of the Town Nevertheless since 't is for our side says the Zelot 't is an invincible demonstration But we desire leave to consider one point farther In what times came in the errours our Adversaries so loudly complain of see whether they be not those ages when there were great quarrels about innovations encroaching on the Church and multitudes of exceptions taken so that had any side entertain'd a new errour not common to both parties especially if the novelties were any way notable they could not have been pass'd over without mutual contradictions or upbraidings The doctrines therfore which in those times pass'd unreprehended and were currantly admitted among all parties as being common to them all without question were not Errata sed Tradita Whence certainly it must needs appear a manifest folly to think any errour could run through the Church so uncontrol'd as to gain without the least sign of opposition an universality and much like the story that the great Turk with an Army of three or four hundred thousand men should steal upon Germany by night and take all the good fellows so fast asleep that not a man should escape nor so much as a Goos gaggle to wake the drowsy neighbours and having thus silently run over the Empire should pass into France and thence into Spain and still catch them all napping without the least notice or resistance wherof if any slow and dull heart should doubt as seeming indeed somwhat an improbable story the reporter should immediatly prove all with a why not since the Greeks had surpriz'd Troy so and perhaps some other great Captain one single Town or Garrison Besides if we venture to throw away a little faith on so extravagant a fable the action will still remain unpossible to be conceal'd Who shall hinder the Conqueror from proclaiming such unparalleld victories to applaud himself and terrifie the rest of the world who can forbid his souldiers to Chronicle their own valours and every-where boast such un-heard of exploits Certainly were there no Catholick testimonies of these late unhappy divisions from the Church yet would succeeding ages find evidence enough as to the matter of fact even in the writings of the Reformers themselvs How often do their Books insult o're the blindness of their Predecessors and triumph in the man of God Martin Luther and the quicker light Jo. Calvin as first discoverers of their new-found Gospel can we think it possible distracted Europe should blot out of her memory the sad effects of schism and heresy before the tears they have caus'd be wiped from her eys for my part I am confident our once happy Island will never forget the graceless disorders of Henry the hights unfortunate intemperance though there were not one English Catholick left in the world to remember them by the smart he endures ever since Add to all this the points wherin Protestants accuse us are the most palpably absurd positions that can fall into a Christians head as making Gods of Saints or Statues which were the dotages of the basest sort of Pagans Nor is the example of errours often sprung and often quell'd again of any advantage to the Opponent For our question concerns opinions remaining till this day and by himself supposed to have gaind the mastery of the Church and never fail'd since their beginning because all doctrins which appear to have a being before any age the Adversary can name are thereby evidently proved perpetual Traditions especially when the Authors were such as lived in Communion with the Catholik Church then extant and remain'd in veneration with the Church succeeding Methinks also since the opposer maintains it was more then a whole Age in working it self up to this universality if the errour were gross it must without doubt have been a long time in one Country before it passed into another else we shall scarce find a reason why it became not general in a shorter period of years and so it would easily appear until such an age that new doctrin was never heard of and in every Country the beginnings would be mentioned by the Historians and other writers as who came out of Greece into France to plant Images who first introduced the Priests power of absolution who invented the doctrine of preferring the judgment of the Church before our own private interpretation of Scripture all which we see exactly perform'd against every considerable Heresy a minute and punctual account being stil upon Record who were the original contrivers who the principal abettors where they found patronage where opposition How long they lived and when they died To evade this reason is fram'd the next crimination by saying what is answer'd has its probability if the errours laid to our charge were contrary to Christian doctrine But they only pretend to accuse us of superfaetations or false and defective additions to the Faith first planted which excrescencies only the Reformers seek to take away And though it be manifest when they come to charge us in particular they instance in doctrines substantially opposite to the Faith of Christ as Superstition and Idolatry could their calumnies be justify'd against us yet because this objection civilly renounces such harsh and uncharitable language let us see what may be intended by Superfaetations Either the disliked additions are of truths or of falsities If of truths we expect they would demonstrate who has forbidden us to learn and advance our knowledg in Christian Religion or matters belonging to it Did God give his Law to Beasts that have no discourse nor capacity by joyning two revealed truths to arrive at the discovery of a third Again where is it prohibited for the Doctour and Preacher to know more then the Ideot and old wife What fault then can even the proud and peevish humour of this age find in this point If Hereticks will raise dust and obscure the clearest articles of Christian faith and that so maliciously as without setling some further explication the people are in danger of being perverted is it a sin to establish such defences and Ramparts against encroaching errours If the addition be of falsities let us examin how the Opposer knows they are false If he reply because they are contrary to clear Scripture then they are also contrary to that Faith which deliver'd Scripture to be true If the points be not against Scripture either they crosse some known Article of Faith or only the Principles of naturall reason If they be purely objects of natural reason though truths they belong not
so to Religion as to be accounted Articles of Faith if they contradict some other fore-taught Article then the Argument before explicated concerning the infallibility of Tradition and the creeping in of Errours against it returns to its force If neither of these why are they false or upon what grounds condemned But peradventure he excepts not against the Truths but the obligation to believe and profess them Admitting then the additional points to be in themselvs true why will not the Opposer assent to them has he a demonstration against them No for then they could not be true Has he such Arguments that nothing opposite is equivalent to their eminent credibility No for setting aside demonstration no argument can be comparable to the Churches Authority The reason therfore if the inward thoughts be faithfully sifted will at length appeare no other then the preferring his own Opinion before the judgement of the Church which being the effect of an obstinate and malepert pride makes no legitimate excuse for not believing THE FOURTH ENCOUNTER That unlearned Catholiks rely upon the infallibility of Tradition THe next exception is of main importance for it undermines the demonstration at the very root denying that the Church of Rome relys on Tradition and having divided the believers into learned and unlearned first undertakes to prove the unlearn'd not to be grounded on Tradition at least not for their whole Faith For if a question arise never thought on before and once a Council determine the Controversie that decree is accepted as if it had come from Christ by Tradition and all professe a readiness to obey and therfore are like to perform their word if occasion be offerd Besides in Catechisms and instructions the Common-people are not taught that the doctrine comes handed down to them from the Apostles In Sermons we see when any proposition of difficulty or concernment is treated proofs are alleag'd out of Scripture and ancient Fathers a practise even the fathers themselvs continually observe who having propos'd a point are ready to adde it is not they alone that teach this doctrin but the Apostles or Christ or some renouned Father never mentioning Tradition unlesse to oppose or disable it when some Hereticks have laid claim to it as the Quartadecimans Chyliasts Communicants of Infants and the like The charge I confess is fierce let us see what powder it bears what shot We agree the Church comprehends both learned and unlearned and so are bound to maintain that both sorts rely on Tradition As for the first objection then concerning the readiness to embrace a Councils definition with the same assent as if the truth were descended by Tradition I can either and indifferently grant or deny it Since if I please to grant it I have this secure retreat that a conditional proposition has no force unless the condition be possible and for the possibility of the condition I distinguish the subject which may be matter of Practice and Obedience or a speculative proposition Of the first I can allow the assent to be the same that is an equal willingness to observe it Of the second I deny it ever was or can be that a Council should define a question otherwise then by Tradition Therefore to rely on the Councils definition taks not away but confirms the relying on Tradition This if need were I could easily justifie by the expresse proceedings of all the principal Councils Thus the condition having never been put nor supposed ever will be all this Argument rests solely on the Objectors credit and is with as much ease rejected as it was proposed Now should I chuse according to my above reserv'd liberty to deny such equality of assent the Opponent has offerd no proof and so the quarrel is ended for though I could produce instances to the contrary I think it not fit to multiply questions when the argument can be solved with a simple denial But how the Opponent can justify the second branch of his exception that in Catechisms this doctrin is not taught I am wholly ignorant As far as my memory will serve me I never heard the Creed explicated but when the Catechist came to the Article of the Catholick Church he told them how Catholick signify'd an universality of place and time and that for this title of Catholick we were to rely on her testimony Likewise in the word Apostolick he noted that the Apostles were the founders of the Church and her doctrin theirs as being first receiv'd from them and conserv'd by the Church ever since and that for this reason we were to believe her Authority Thus you see that famous phrase of the Colliers faith is built on this very principle we maintain True it is Catechists do not ordinarily descend to so minute particularities as to tel ignorant people whether any position may be exempt from this general Law But then we also know the rule Qui nihil excipit omnia includit Sermons upon which the third instance is grounded are of another nature their intention being not so much literally to teach the Articles of Christian doctrin as to perswade and make what is already believ'd sink into the Auditory with a kind of willingness easiness that their faith be quickned into a principle of action to govern their lives the principal end perhaps for which the Scripture was deliver'd and recommended to us Therfore neither the common practice nor proper design or use of Sermons reaches home to make us understand on what grounds the hearts of Catholicks rely who after all disputations retire themselvs to this safe guard To believe what the Catholik Church teaches as none can be ignorant that has had the least convers with such Catholiks as profess not themselvs Divines For the last period of this objection where the Fathers are brought in to cry out against Tradition and Hereticks made the sole pretenders to that title 't is a bare assertion without so much as a thin rag of proof to cover it of which I believe hereafter we shall have particular occasion to discourse more largely Thus cannot all the diligence I am able to use find any ground of difficulty in the belief of the unlearned but that assuredly their faith is establisht on Tradition if they rely on the Church as it is Catholick and Apostolick which all profess from the gray hair to him that but now begins to lisp his Creed THE FIFTH ENCOUNTER That Catholick Divines rely on the same infallibility of Tradition T is time now to come to the second part and see what is objected against the learneder sort and the long Robe's Resolution of their faith into Tradition And first is brought on the stage a couple of great Cardinals Perron and Bellarmin the former saying out of St. Austin that the Trinity Freewill Penance and the Church were never exactly disputed before the Arians Novatians Pelagians and Donatists Whence is infer'd that as more was disputed so more was concluded therfore
a different question to ask Whether an opinion be Heresy and Whether the Maintainer be an Heretick the opinion becomes heretical by being against Tradition without circumstances but the Person is not an Heretick unless he knows there is such a Tradition Now St. Cyprians case was about a doctrin included in a practice which he saw well was the custome of the African but knew not to be so of the universal Church till some congregation of the whole Christian World had made it evident And herein consists the excuse St. Austin alledges for St. Cyprian 't is true I have no assurance this Apology can be alledged for John 22. but another perhaps may that the multitude of Fathers which he conceiv'd to be on his side might perswade him the opposite opinion could not be a constant Tradition There remains only Bellarmins excuse to be justify'd which is not of so great moment Divines helping themselvs by the way that occurrs best to them and missing in such reasons without any scandal to their neighbours One of these two solutions will generally satisfie all such objections as are drawn from some fathers mistakes against the common Faith For nothing can be more certain then if any Father had known the doctrin contrary to his errour to have been universally taught in the Catholik Church by a derivation from their ancestors beyond the memory of any beginning he would readily without dispute have submitted to such an Authority and so much the sooner as he being neerer the Fountain could less doubt that the stream of which he saw no other rise reach'd home to the Spring-head This therfore is evident that whoever erred knew nothing of such a Tradition whencesoe're that ignorance took its root the severall causes of which depend upon the several cases of their mistakes here not pressed and therfore not examin'd THE SIXTH ENCOUNTER Disabling three other Arguments brought against Tradition THe seventh objection pretends not only different but opposite Traditions might be deriv'd from the Apostles And this they support with these two crutches one consists in a demurrer that the contrary is not proved the other in an Instance that it plainly hapned so in the case of the Quartadecimani who inherited from St. John a certain custom which was condemned by a practice deriv'd from some other Apostles But the weaknesse of this objection appears by its very proposal For since all Catholicks when they speak of Tradition deliberately and exactly define it to be a Doctrine universally taught by the Apostles we may safely conclude where two Apostles teach differently neither is Tradition And that this word universally may not seem by slight of hand cog'd into the definition on purpose to take away this objection the necessity of it is evident because all that weare the name of Christian unanimously agreeing that in point of truth one Apostle could not contradict another wherever two such Traditions are possible to be found it absolutely follows no point of truth is engaged An inference expresly verified in the example of the Quartadecimans their contention being meerly about a Ceremony not an Article of Faith Wherfore only indifferent and unnecessary practises are subjects of such a double Tradition and by consequence such Traditions are not of Christian beliefe or concerning matters here in controversy this very definition rather directly excluding them The eighth Argument seems to take its rise from our own confessions telling us We acknowledge some points of Faith to have come in later then others and give the cause of it that the Tradition whereon such points rely was at the beginning a particular one but so that yet at the time when it became universal it had a testimony even beyond exception by which it gain'd such a general acknowledgment The example of this is in certain Books of Scripture as the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Apocalyps whereof in St. Jerom's time the Greek Churches refus'd the one and the Latin the other yet now both have prevaild into an universal reception To which I return this clear answer 't is the nature of things acted that depend on Physical and mutable causes to have divers degrees in divers parts according to the unequall working of the Causes and so Christ having deliver'd by the hands of his Apostles two things to his Church his Doctrin as the necessary and substantial aliment thereof and his Scriptures ad abundantiam it was convenient the strength of Tradition for one should far exceed its strength for the other yet so that even the weaker should not fail to be assured and certain Upon this reason the Doctrin was deliver'd to all the Apostles and by them to the whol community of Christians the Scriptures to some particular person or Church yet such whose credit was untainted and from them by degrees to be spread through the whol Church and communicated to the Pastors in the Books themselvs to the people by their Pastors reading and explications For who does not know before Printing was invented the Bible was not every mans money Whence it appears Scriptures are derived to us by a lower degree of Tradition then that of Catholik doctrin and consequently our Faith and acceptance due to them is not of so high a nature as what we are bound to in respect of doctrin For the sense of Scripture is to be judged by the doctrin as the Church and custom of Antiquity teaches us alwaies commanding and practising that no man exercise his wits in interpreting the holy Scripture against the receiv'd Faith of the Church as in all matters of science they who are Masters in the Art judge the text of Books written upon such subjects by their unwritten skil and practical experience And here I would willingly ask what such Protestants as object this to us can answer for themselvs since they directly professe not to know Scripture by the Spirit and therfore must necessarily rely on Tradition especially those who take for their rule to accept only such Books for Canonical as were never doubted of for they cannot deny but the Scriptures were receiv'd in one Church before another as the Epistles of St. Paul St. John or St. Marks Gospel c. and how do they admit the Apocalyps so long refused by the Greek Churches whom they use to prefer before the Latin But they presse us farther that if a particular Tradition became universal this depended on the Logick of those Ages to discern what testimony was beyond exception I demand what signifies Logick do they mean common sense sufficient to know three and four make seven or wit enough to comprehend and manage with a just degree of discretion the ordinary occurrences in humane actions If they do I must confess it depends on Logick For I cannot think God Almighty deliver'd the Scriptures to Apes or Elephants who have a meer imitation of reason in their outward carriage but to Men that have truly understanding and a capacity of evidence within
they have no truth in them a proof as such still carrying its truth in its force of concluding but probable arguments have no force to conclude and consequently no truth For the truth of a saying is different from that of an argument a true argument being that which proves the thing to be a true saying which only affirms it to be And if we look into it we see what I say is but the Law of Nature and naturall constancy for as to not act 't is enough to have no reason but to act we ought to have a positive cause so to remain in the Religion of our Birth and Education there is no other reason requir'd then because we are in it whereas to change we must have efficacious motives to perswade us Here my Adversary wil exult and think at least Protestants cannot become Catholiks without evidence which he conceives impossible And I grant his consequence if he can prove his supposition For to my sight nothing is more clear then that Protestants chang'd their Religion from being Catholiks and that upon but probable grounds whence it is evident no Protestant who is formally such that is holds his Religion on probable arguments against the Catholik Church but stands in a continual formal rebellion against Her who by his own acknowledgment was once his Magistrate and against whom himself confesses he has no more then probable exception Therfore whoever of a Protestant becomes Catholik goes so far with evidence that he reconciles himself to a government under which he once was and had no just reason to depart from it none being sufficient to excuse so great a disorder and so ought under peril of eternal damnation return to his first obedience For where he is he is certain to find no security since his relyance by his own verdict is at most but upon plausible arguments wheras under the other government there may be certainty for ought he knows of which there is this fair motive that they all professe it which is more forcible for the credit of it then what ever he can say in abetment of the contrary Rashly therfore he opposes himself to follow a fals way a way that assuredly leads to unavoydable precipices They reply the Turks also agree in the Law of Mahomet and yet that brings no evidence their Law is true But alas they observe not that in saying so they unawares call themselves no Christians For to us this consent is no argument Mahometanism is true because it carries no farther then that the Law is Mahomets And so far is manifest out of their common agreement therfore in parity 't is evident out of the consent of Christians that the doctrin handed down from the Apostles is Christs and the doubt may perhaps remain with the Objectors but not with us whether Cbrists doctrine be true as neither we nor they doubt that Mahomets preaching was fals And seeing the case is common to all Christians against the Roman Catholik he only relying on Tradition they all renouncing it he only can run his Religion up to the Person of Christ and there leave it securely establisht upon the infallible credit of his word And as no other sort of Christian society can pretend to this priviledge so neither can they with any colour of justice exempt themselves from the Authority of that Church that enjoys it an Authority which if ever she had and such as she claims it is of so unchangeable a nature being constituted by God being the rock on which the salvation of mankind is built and the fundamental stone of the Church no time nor variation of material accidents can prejudice or prescribe against it Wherfore if Protestants at first departed unjustifiably they remain for ever guilty of the same crime til they restore themselves to the Primitive union Again who unles he had renounc'd all morality ever call'd it liberty not to know or not be bound to the rules and principles of good life Sure these objectors either think religion concerns not good life but is a vain and empty Idea in the air little important whether it be known or no or forget themselves so far as to fall into the sequel of this gross absurdity Besides who can be so desperatly passionate as to term it liberty to have no good government and relaps again to the rude state of barbarousnes where murther rapes a thousand intolerable insolencies are publikly permitted For if we cast our eys on the End of Religion we shall see that to want the due Rules is as inconvenient towards the direction of mankind to final beatitude as the Laws of Canibals are destructive to all civil and friendly society So that 't is to be ignorant of all reason to cry up a liberty to have no Religion or to chuse one indifferently as unconcern'd whether it be right or wrong Were it not better plainly to avow the preferrence of the pleasures and profits of this world before hopes so far off as the future life then with these ambushes to ensnare unwary souls into the same inconveniencies under title of a probable Religion And truly if we look upon their lives we shall find that hoc Janus summus ab imo Personat I intend not by this any waies to derogate from the old Roman vertues in this sort of people as if there may not be found Regulus's or Cato's or Seneca's among them for I doubt not but the very vapour of Christianity has this wholsom effect among whom it passes to breed in them as Heroick spirits as ancient Rome ever saw and more too if the like occasions presented themselves But Nature and Generosity and Opinion too often challenge their shares or rather mastery in such actions and how little can justly be ascribed to the hope of heaven I rather suspect then declare To return therfore to our discourse The Jew the Turke the Heathen can pretend a profession of his Religion for all these stick to such conclusions as their principles afford them But the Christian who cals Christs doctrin his and confesses that he or his Sect has deserted those who alone pretend to the successive livery and seisin of it can no way presume to the possession till he plainly demonstrate the clearness of his title Wherfore it avails not any drowsie rather then quiet nature to say his Father and peradventure Grandfather was Protestant before him and therfore he is Possessor bonae fidei whilst he pretends only probable arguments for so long he implies the possession to be unjustly detain'd from the advers party who has the actual receit by succession especially when this so unparalleld a Riot is committed without susficient evidence by the very Actors confession A Protestant then has no better claim to posseâ—sion of Christs Doctrine by his so long continuance in Heresie then the Parricide in Aristotle who having beaten his Father pleaded that his Father had beat his Grandfather and his Grandfather his great
Grandfather as though such a graceless entail could prejudice the law of Nature Though not so absurd yet as weak is another Objection taken from the Jewish Cabala however it seems worthy of thanks to the Suggestor What it was is not hard to guess our Saviour himself having given us the hint of it when he reproach'd the Jews for following the Traditions of their Fathers or Elders to the ruin of Gods commands But to decipher it better I ought to divide it into matter and form The form I call the Rules the matter what was deliver'd or found out by these Rules As for the matter it seems in some way proportion'd to the proceedings of certain of our Divines who pretend to be mysticall and their imployment is in the sublime mysteries of our Faith to invent or imagin what they think congruous circumstances to move the affections to petty devotion which imaginations as they are fram'd out of good intentions so have they many weaknesses and little or no doctrin in them Conformable to this we may conceive that after there were no more Prophets among the Jews who fail'd them not long after the second building of their Temple the Rabbins began to frame explications on their Books of holy Scripture and the mysteries learn'd from the Prophets These interpretations according to the degree of their skil and prudence some perform'd better some worse But as the Jews were a superstitious and ignorant Nation not having principles of true knowledg naked before their Eys but wrapt up in Metaphors and Allegories all together went among them for sound Law Til after our Saviours time and the dispersion of that generation some foolish knave to give authority to this mess of good and bad jumbled together invented the story how Moses had deliver'd this doctrin to the Sanhedrin and they had conserv'd it by traditional conveyances from Father to Son A story as impossible and incredible to one who penetrates into the carriage of that Nation as the Fables of Jeoffrey of Monmouth and King Arthur's conquering Hierusalem Now if we look into the form we shal find it more ridiculous then any Gypses canting or the jugling of Hocus Pocus and as pernicious to true Doctrin as any Pseudomancy To make good this censure I shal in short describe their form it consists in inventing the sense of Scripture by three abuses of the Letter which as far as my memory servs me for I have not the books necessary are these One by taking every letter of a word for a whole word beginning with that letter Another by changing letters according to certain rules fram'd by themselvs The third to find numbers of years or other things by the numbers which the letters of the word compound in such Languages where their letters are used for cyphers So much being deliver'd in short I cannot conceive any indifferent judgment so blunt that he sees not how far these ridling ways of explication are from the natural intention of a Writer and how destructive to all truth if used otherwise then for pleasure and as a disport of chance and encounter Our Country man Doctor Alablaster invented a far more convenient trick by purely dividing words and joyning the ends of the former to the beginnings of the following as we also do somtimes in English to disguise common words and the Hebrew is far more apt for such knacks But he found this age too subtle to cozen any considerable number with such trivial bables Wheras the Cahala gain'd upon the Valentinians and Gnosticks to build prodigious errours in very good earnest upon their more ridiculous invention I am not ignorant some eminent persons have been pleased somtime to give way to such toyes through luxury of wit and gayety of humour But it is one thing to play for recreation and a far different to establish a Basis of Faith and doctrin which is abominable on such Chimerical dreams And yet this it is our Opposer would Father upon no less then Moses and the Sanhedrin and all the sacred Magistracy of the old Law Let us give a step farther and see if it were true how like it were to our case The Tradition we speak of is the publick preaching and teaching and practice exercised in the Church setled by the Apostles thorow the World This Cabala a doctrin pretended as deliver'd to few with strict charge to keep it from publicity and so communicate it again successively to a select Committee of a few wherein you may see as fair an opportunity for jugling and cozenage as in our case there is impossibility The Moderns therfore who profess Cabala may say they receiv'd it from their predecessors but they can yeild no account why any Age may not have chang'd that which was in the breasts of few shut up together in a chamber and so ther 's no possibility of farther assurance then the vote of a Council of State for its being deriv'd any higher But the Arguer demands whether they cannot ask me In what age or year their doctrin was corrupted And I answer they may very boldly But if I assign an age or year can they acquit themselvs in point of proof clearly they cannot for since there was no Register nor visible effects of this doctrin it being forbidden to be divulg'd 't is evident that cannot convince it was not corrupted in that year or age He urges farther the notoriousness of the ly so impudent as few would venture on not reflecting that he speaks of a secret altogether incapable of notoriousness May not they add says he the dispersion of their Churches through so many Countries and Languages I yeild they may but to no purpose unless they continue Sanhedrins in every Country For otherwise this dispersion will prove but the derivation from their Council of Tiberias or such like time which is nothing to the succession from Moses Add to this that the Nation since Christs time is infamous for falsifying doctrins and corrupting Scriptures and even in our Saviours time and long before their Rabbins were justly branded with the foul imputation of frequent forgery their Sects and heresies being grown up to that desperate height as to deny there were any spirits or shall be any Resurrection which is the very top of impiety But what is no less to be consider'd then any thing yet offer'd the very subject of the question is different The Church we speak of is a vast and numerous body spread o're the world and he must be a mad man that would go about to deny this Body has remain'd perpetually visible from Christs time to ours however some Heretick may pretend the invisible part viz. that the Faith has been interrupted But for the Sanhedrin what assurance nay what probability is there of deriving its pedegree from Moses to the daies of our Saviour In all their oppressions during the time of the Judges in the division of the Tribes in the raign of their Kings in the
charity grant among Jews it might have been done as not a few think the very Law was lost in the times of their wicked Kings or other oppressions what inference can they make against Christian Tradition Of Books of Scripture peradventure there was a time when some one or rather any one might have been lost because it was in few hands shall we therfore conclude the same possibility of suppression when we treat of Doctrins universally profest by so many Millions when we dispute of Practices every day frequented by the whole Church Stil ther 's one jarring string that grates my ears with its loud discord though the stroak come not from the hand of these objectors yet I wil endeavour to put it in tune Some sick heads roving up and down in their extravagant phansies wil needs entertain a wild conjecture that at first our Saviour was indeed stil'd God and though the learned who had the knack of distinguishing knew wel enough the inward meaning then signify'd only a most eminent aud god-like person yet the common People understanding their Preacher simply as the letter sounded came by degrees universally to believe his true and real divinity But with what ingenuity can such rambling wits think the chief Principle of Christianity should be so negligently taught or accuse so many holy Saints of those purest times to be such deceitful Teachers Besides did not their rashness blind them they would easily see the raising the Person of Christ from humane to divine would necessarily infer a notorious change in the solemn Prayers of the Church and daily devotion of the People which certainly would give so great a stroak to both it could not possibly be attempted either undiscern'd or unresisted Lastly the Christian Faith being delivered not in a set form of words but in sense a thousand ways explicated enforc'd according to the variety of occasions and capacity of the learners how can any ambiguity of phrase endanger them into a mistake who attend not so much to the dead letter as the quickning sense so variously exprest so often incultated to them by their masters THE FIFTEENTH ENCOUNTER Declaring the state of this Question Whether the Scripture can decide controversies THere remains yet a second part of our Apology for as this is the Catholicks principle to adhere to the authority of the Church that is to the living word written in their Breasts which governs all their actions relating to religion so on the other side whoever have at any time under the pretence of reformation oppos'd her Authority such have constantly rais'd up their Altar against Tradition upon the dead letter of the Scriptures Which as the Catholick Church highly reverences when they are animated by the interpretation of Tradition so by too much experience she knows they become a killing letter when abus'd against the Catholick sense in the mouths of the Devil and his Ministers But before we set our feet within the lists I am bound to take notice of an opposition no less common then slight and absurd and this it is When we retire to Tradition after both parties have lost their breath in beating the aerial outside of Scripture they presently cry out Cannot Aristotle cannot Plato make themselves be understood why then should not the Bible as wel determine Controversies If this were not after sixteen hundred years of experience after so much pains of our own since Luthers time idly cast away in tossing the windy balls of empty words without coming to resolution of any one point peradventure it were pardonable but now alas what can it be but an obstinate desire of darkness and a contempt of Gods Law and truth by a bold and irrational assertion and loud clamours to beat down the Catholick Church like Dametas in the Poem striking with both hands and his whole strength but winking all the while Let us therfore open our Eys and look thorow this objection Cannot Plato and Aristotle make themselvs be understood Yes but what then Ergo the Scripture can determine controversies The supposition wherin all venom ly's is conceal'd which thus I display As Aristotle wrote of Physicks and Metaphysicks so the Scripture was written of those controversies which since are risen among Christians But Plato and Aristotle can make themselvs be understood concerning those Sciences therfore the Scripture can do as much concerning these Controversies This ought to be the discourse But had it been cloth'd in so thin and transparent a dress the Authors would have blusht to thrust it into light For t is a most shameless Proposition to say the Scriptures were written of the Controversies long after their date sprung up in the Christian world Beginning from Genesis to the Apocalyps let them name one Book whose theme is any now-controverted Point betwixt Protestants and Catholiks T is true the intent and extrinfical end of writing St. Johns Gospel was to shew the Godhead of Christ which the Arians afterward deny'd but that is not so directly his theme as the miraculous life of our Saviour from whence the Divinity of his Person was to be deduc'd and yet the design so unsuccessful that never any Heresy was more powerful then that which oppos'd the truth intended by His Book But I suppose their reply wil be they purpose not to say the Scripture was written of our present controversies but of the precepts of good life and Articles of Faith necessary to them about which our controversies arise If this be their meaning their Assumption is as ridiculous as in the other their Major or chief Proposition For their argument must be framed thus As Scripture was written of the necessaries to good life so Aristotle and Plato of Physicks and Metaphysicks But Aristotle and Plato writ so plainly that all questions rising about their doctrin can be declared out of their words therfore all questions relating to good life may also be clear'd out of Scriptures Wherin the Minor is so ridiculous to any that have but open'd a Book of Philosophy that 't is enough not only to disanul the proof but discredit the Author And yet were it true the consequence would not hold For whoever considers what belongs to the explication of Authors knows there is a great advantage to discern the sense of those who proceed scientifically above the means to understand one that writes loose Sentences An Archimedes an Euclid a Vitruvius wil be of far easier interpretation where the Subject is of equal facility then a Theognis Phocyllides or Antoninus because the antecedents and consequents do for the most part force a sense on the middle propositions of themselvs ambiguous Now the works of Plato and Aristotle are generally penn'd though not always so rigorously yet stil with an approach to the Mathematical way The Scripture uses a quite different method delivering its precepts without connexion betwixt one another And though I deny not but peradventure the Articles of our belief have in themselvs as much
to thy salvation so that thou understand them according to the Faith of Iesus Christ which I have orally deliver'd to thee and this is in direct terms the Catholick Rule that the interpretation of Scripture is to be govern'd by Tradition or by the faith and doctrin so receiv'd and formally depends from the first words Remain constant to my doctrin Or by another explication which is more material and flat and most incredible That the old Scripture for of that only the Apostle speaks no other being written while Timothy was a child should be able without relation to the knowledg of Christ by other means to make a man understanding enough to be saved by the Faith of Him as may be seen by Sr. Peters being sent to Cornelius So that of these three senses the first is nothing to our adversaries purpose and nevertheless is the best The second positively and highly against him the third incoherent to the words precedent and following and in it self an incredible proposition But give it the greatest force the words can by any art be heightned to they come nothing neer the state of the question proposed which concerns the decision of all quarrels carried on by litigious parties Whereas this Text is content with any sufficiency at large to bring men to salvation a point not precisely now controverted betwixt us Besides Timothy being already a Christian 't is a pure folly to think the Apostle sent him to the Scriptures to chuse his Religion The words immediatly following the place explicated are urged for a new Argument They are these All Scripture is inspired from God and profitable to teach to reprove to correct to instruct in justice that is good life that the man of God become perfect being furnisht to every good work The paraphrase according to my skil is thus The holy Writ I spake of is any Book inspir'd from God and profitable to teach things unknown reprehend what is amiss to set straight what is crooked to instruct in good life that the Church of God or any member therof may become perfect being by instructions and reprehensions applyed out of Scripture by such preachers as Timothy fitted to any good work or all kinds of good works This I conceive the natural meaning and most conformable to the Text were we to seek the interpretation of it indifferently without any eye to our present controversy And in this sense 't is a cleer case the Apostle speaks of the benefit of Scripture when explicated and apply'd by a Preacher in order to the perfecting of those that hear him But if by importunity the adversary will needs have it that the Scripture should give the quality of being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the person himself that reads it to content him I shall not hinder him of his mind but only prove it nothing to his purpose For still this must be the sense that it produces in the reader the excellencies requir'd in a Preacher namely to make him do all those good works which are expected of him as teaching reprehending c. so that one way or other still the Scripture is apply'd to furnish him with Precepts Arguments Examples and such like instruments of perswasion but of giving the first Catechism or binding ones self Apprentice to the Bible to learn the first rudiments of Christian profession ther 's not the least word or syllable that colours for such a conceit nor can it indeed consist with the direct meaning of the place since the being already a Christian is plainly suppos'd in Timothy by St. Pauls institutions viva voce before any exhortation to this use of Scripture So that here is no question concerning the first choyce of Faith but of perfection after Faith much less any mention of convincing in foro contentioso about which is all our controversy Another place is Acts 26. where St. Paul defending himself before Agrippa and Festus against the Jews accusation who calumniated him that he spake in derogation of the Law and brought in a new doctrin to the disturbance of the people made only this answer that he preach'd nothing but what the Prophets had foretold His words are these The Iews for this teaching Christs doctrin finding me in the Temple would have kill'd me But I having obtain'd succonr from God until this very day have persisted testifying or protesting to great and little that I spoke nothing but what the Prophets and Moses had foretold should come to pass as that Christ was to suffer that he was to be the first should rise from death to life and preach light both to Iews and Gentils This is the true interpretation of the Greek Text as far as ly's in my power to explicate it according to the intention of St. Paul I deny not but the words singly taken may be interpreted I have persisted testifying to great and little and in my Sermons saying nothing but what c. But this explication is neither so proper to his defence nor at all advances the Adversaries cause For since St. Paul tells us directly what the points are of which he spake whatever can be gathered out of them only this is said that these three points were foretold by Moses and the Prophets and on the other side the discours is imperfect running thus I preach'd indeed many other things yet nothing but what was in Moses and the Prophets to wit that Christ was to suffer c. His meaning therfore is that since he was in hold his perpetual endeavours had been to shew that these things he was accused to have preach'd against the law were the very marrow of the Law and foretold by Moses and the Prophets and that wheras the Jews expected Christ to be a temporal King who by force of Arms should restore the house of Israel to a great and flourishing estate the truth was quite contrary for according to the doctrin of Moses and the Prophets He was to be a passible man to suffer death afterwards to rise again triumphantly as the first fruits of the Resurrection and to send his Disciples both to Jews and Gentiles to spread the light of the Gospel throughout the world What advantage against the necessity of Tradition can be drawn out of this place of Scripture which doth not so much as talk of the extent of Catholick doctrin much less come within kenning of our Controversy is beyond my reach This I know that to say all points of Catholick doctrin can be sufficiently prov'd out of Moses and the Prophets is an assertion I believe our Adversaries themselvs will deny as being both ridiculous in it self and absolutely discrediting the necessity of the new Testament and yet clearly without maintaining so gross absurdities they can make no advantage of this Text. THE SEVENTEENTH ENCOUNTER Examining such places as are brought against the admittance of any but Scriptural proof in Religion WE are at last come to those places in which they most glory
understand For when I learn'd Latin Pater signified the immediate progenitour of the Son and St. Paul was of that opinion telling his Converts They had no Father but himself because he had in person begotten them by the Gospel and though by ampliation this word has included also the Parents of our Fathers and upwards even to Adam yet how it comes so to signifie the most remote as to exclude the neerest is beyond my skil in Grammar Pray let this good Definitor reflect upon himself if the first remembred of his race had died without Issue how could he have been one of his Forefathers no more had there been no Preachers after the first three hundred yeers till our time should we have accounted those Primitive Ones our Fathers That they are Fathers then is because they begot Preachers who continued the propagation of the same doctrine to our daies which we profess they did among us and that therfore we are their Spiritual Off-spring they our Fathers But Daillè and his Consorts fault is not that they contract the compass of the Fathers but that they acknowledge any For they are all Mushroms sprung up as new as the morning not so much as one from another if they be true to their tenets every one of them is bound to say to Calvin as wel as to the Saints I believe not for thy word but I have heard it from the Apostles own mouths in the Scripture Though indeed I have no reason to quarrel much with Him upon this point for if he acknowledges the word Fathers he denies the Thing or Vertue of it in them since to be a Father is to propagate Christs doctrine to posterity which quality he must of necessity deny them whilst he thinks their doctrine not to be that of Christ and that it ought by every private man be brought to the test of the Bible and so far accepted or refus'd as to the grave judgement of some judicious Blue-apron seems agreeable to the sense of Scripture This then is the pious design of this Authour To infinuate a belief that since the Apostles daies there has not been a sufficient living Witnesse of what they taught the world or what Christ taught them In which there are two notorious propositions infolded worthy to be look'd into First that these good Christians at one leap free themselves from all the bands of Community and Society of mankind and from all subjection to the Kingdom of Christ which they flatly deny For Nature teaches us there can be no Government without Judges I mean living Definitors and Deciders of occasional debates therefore if Christ has left no Judges upon Earth he has no kingdom here such Judges I speak of as should administer His Law for he came not to plant temporal Kings but a spiritual Regiment wherin if he has had no Judges since the Apostles decease his Kingdom expir'd with them Now then the whol drift of this Writer is to establish an absolute Anarchy where every one indifferently shall be Master without control in that great and principal Mystery of training up souls to eternal happiness which by how much more dark and difficult the spiritual conduct to future bliss is then temporal government to present wealth and security so much more unreasonable and unnatural must the position be that dissolvs all obedience to Ecclesiastical Superiours and abolishes all Order in the Church An assertion justly to be abhor'd by any who has the least spark of love to that only great Good the salvation of his Soul The other Proposition is that since the Apostles time there has been no publik either true doctrine or good life in that part of the World which we call Christian. I do not mean there may not have appeared some vertuous actions in private persons though perhaps the consequence might be driven so far but that all visible Companies have had both their Doctrine spotted with foul tenets and their consequent practises polluted with Superstition and Idolatry For as this is one of the main grounds for their rejecting the Fathers so the reason à priori which they alledge being once admitted evinces the truth of the Conclusion I charge upon them it being evident that if because man is fallible the Fathers are insufficient to propagate truth to their posterity and out of the position of insufficiency must of necessity follow the consequence of defect certainly then the following generations had not sufficient instruction either for belief or actions And indeed the Reformers themselvs acknowledg as much since they esteem the Fathers errours so gross that it was fit to leave the communion of that Church wherin they are defended rather then accept of such abominations Now if this be not to deny all good life and the main and universal fruit of Christs passion even in those preferr'd Ages I have lost my little wits This therfore I say is the aym and project of his Book to prove That since Christs time there has been no sufficient living testimony of the Truth of Religion no command or government of Christians as Christians and lastly no holiness or good life nor any fitting direction among mankind brought in and stated by our kind Saviour and wisest Law-giver Jesus Christ. Now how great an encouragement and advance this may prove either towards vertue or study of Religion I understand not This I know if any would purposely seek to draw off our hearts from all hope of heaven and practice of vertue I cannot imagin a more efficacious argument then First to tell how much pains our Saviour had taken to plant a right Faith and Christian life in so many years of example and Preaching closing all with such strange unparalleld suffrings Nay that he had sent the Holy Ghost in so manifest and glorious a manner from heaven upon his Disciples to fire their hearts with zeal and impower their hands to Miracles giving them Commission to publish his new Law over all the World and solemnly engaging to assist them for ever And yet afterwards bring in proofs how notwithstanding all this soon as these Apostles were dead Idolatry and corruption both of doctrin and manners began presently to appear in the greatest and best Members of the Church even the immediate Disciples of the Apostles and in short time so over-run the whole World that the means of Salvation was generally lost and the way to heaven obstructed with an universal deluge of vice and superstition These proofs are the work of our excellent Author whence I think it no boldness to conclude this Treatise of the right use of the Fathers is the perfectest piece that ever was written for the utter extermination of Christian doctrin and absolute ruin of all vertue For when I turn o're the Book I cannot but acknowledg it full of as good Topicks cast into as neat a stile and qualify'd with as seeming a fit temper conveniently to betray unwary souls as any modern I ever read but
the former ages more pure then the later since we admit no errours in either but make no question that the universality of Fathers in any two ages held the same doctrin and so the Faith of the second Tricentury being known we account that of the former undoubted especially we all believing the latter Fathers receiv'd their doctrin from the former not by reading their Books which belong'd to few but by being instructed from their mouths who had receiv'd it from them But he thinks his Reformers very probably maintain that Christian Religion has long been in a dangerous consumption declining still by little and little and losing in every Age some certain degree of its Primitive vigour and native complexion to which purpose he cites the words of Hegesippus out of Eusebius That this infirmity began as soon as the Apostles were dead This position sounds to me as if the opinions they cry out against for abominations enter'd so early into the Church and have continued in it so long that they can now reckon fifteen Centuries nor can I desire either a more ingenuous confession or stronger proof of the truth of those doctrines which the nature of Christianity has preserv'd with such exact care and constant tenderness that in so many ages not one of them has been forgotten not one of them ever oppos'd by those who in all generations have stil been accounted the sound party of Christians Besides I should expect that so foul a blemish as these bold accusers lay upon the Church viz. that she has been an Idolatrous and abominable Harlot ever since the death of the Apostles ought not to be grounded on bare probable conjectures but evidently convinced under penalty that otherwise the Calumniators should suffer at least as heavy a Censure as they attempt to pass against the Church But because for the maintenance of this odious slander he chiefly rely's on Hâ—gesippus's testimony let the witness be fairly examin'd and that according to the Authors own citation which runs to this effect After the Apostles death the Masters of Seduction began publickly and professedly to vent their falssy named Science against the preaching of the truth which in plain English signifies no more then that Hereticks rose up against the Church and is so far from arguing the Churches corruption that it strongly concludes her purity since the doctrin which falshood contradicts must necessarily be it self true Thus clearly it follows from these words that the wrong imputed corruption was out of the Church and soundnesse of Faith in her Communion But if we look into the Text exactly the meaning of that passage is this After the Apostles death the consistence of Heresie took its beginning that is Hereticks grew into a body daring to shew their heads where before they lurk'd for fear of the Apostles which expression manifestly proves They began to make congregations distinct from the true Church And this being evident we cannot be troubled with those words going before in Higesippus which say till then the Church was a virgin and uncorrupted for it is a phrase natural enough to call the body corrupted whose putrify'd parts are cut off or rotted away as those degenerate members were from the Church of God And so this very Daillè could cite upon another occasion these self-same Innovators under the direct notion of Hereticks when he thought it might better serve his turn THE THIRD SURVEY Of his 3d. and 4 th Chapters wherin he objects forgery and corruption of the Fathers works AS to the third point of Forgery our Monsieur dilates himself exceedingly but how much to the purpose some few notes wil discover First he objects many counterfeit Books that are not now extant nor have been these many Ages and think you not there must necessarily arise a strange obscurity in our Controversies from such forgeries Then he complains that Transcribers have put wrong names to books either for the better selling them or out of ignorance and in some of them the question is about Authors almost of the same age all which is likewise little to the point for where the Ages opinion and not the particular credit of the Author's learning is requir'd the authority of one understanding writer ought generally to weigh as much as anothers and this is the case in controversies where the sense of the Church not that of private Doctors is the subject of our inquiry Neither must I forget his defamation of the ancient Christians as counterfeiters of the Sybils Prophesies out of the calumny of the wicked Celsey which neverthelesse we see Lactantius stands upon to the Heathens faces He omits not for a notorious piece of forgery that the Canons of the Council of Sardica are cited as of the Council of Nice wherin nothing is more certain then that the Canons were true though not admitted by the Greeks who being cal'd would not come to the Council So the question stands meerly upon this whether they ought to be cal'd the Canons of Nice being made by a Council gather'd afterwards to confirm the former which the Latines defend and the Greeks dislike Doubtless a main forgery to be urg'd by this temperate man whose charity no question would have winkt at small faults Yet because no ordinary satisfaction will content him though those Popes were all both commended by the Ages in which they liv'd and reputed Saints by the ensuing Church and One of them that great Saint Leo whose Oracles were so highly esteem'd in the Council of Chalcedon I will briefly set down the case The Arian Emperour Constantius though yet for fear not declar'd such summon'd a Generall Council of the Eastern and Western Churches to a Town cal'd Sardica There assembled betwixt 3 and 4 hundred Bishops The Arians seeing themselvs like to come to the worst by the number of the Orthodox party upon sought pretences went to another place cald Philippopolis where making an assembly of their own they term'd it from the Emperours Summons the Council of Sardica And partly by their diligence and sending circular Letters thorow Christendom partly by joyning with a great faction of Donatists but chiefly as it may be justly believ'd by the power of the Emperours Officers made the name of the Council of Sardica passe for the denomination of their Conventicle both in the East and thorow such remote parts as had not special intelligence of what pass'd in Sardica Hence any Canons pretended to be order'd at Sardica were blasted before known wherupon it fel out that the small party which knew the truth was forc'd in their collections of Canons to place these next to the Council of Nice as their order requir'd without a name and as an Appendix of the Council In this posture these Popes found them about an hundred yeers after and whether it was that they were not sufficiently acquainted with the Accident or whether they thought the action legitimate and the ground of it sufficient they urg'd them as
't is the Grecians objection about adding this word Filioque to the Creed of Nicaea which having insisted on more largly in another place I shall pacify with this short answer Since 't is confest by both parties that the main Creed was made in that Council and received this addition from another freely and openly avow'd for such by the Roman Church the question could not be of corruption which seems to imply a secret design of imposing on the world but of the lawfulness of the Addition Now let us pass to his accusation of later times where he complains there is far more fals play His first instance is against certain varieties in the ancient Fathers that some Manuscrips or Impressions agree not with others as if every one that sets out a Book must have seen all Manuscripts or else he corrupts the Ancient Copy But that which angers him is the words omitted or added are against his tenets whence he gathers it was no casual escape but a deliberate plot of voluntary corruption but he that wil lose so much time as to take notice how weak and inconsiderable the passages are even in his own citations wil easily see this chief proof consists meerly in a bold assertion I shall therfore rely on my Readers ingenuity and only cite two or three examples for a pattern of the rest As that the word Petra is changed into Petrus in that famous sentence of St. Cyprian Cathedra una super Petrum Domini voce fundata That in St. Amhrose some books are separated which in other Copies are joyn'd together that in St. Peters life is omitted a certain Exhortation advising his Successors to abstain from secular cares Pretences so slight in themselves so impertinent to the main cause that none but a petty Polititian would have stoopt to such trivial corruptions nor any but a wrangling Sophister pretended such childish exceptions But not content with what has been done he presses us with what would have been done if I know not whose counsail had been follow'd which is nothing but the wild Chimera's of a sick brain Next he is offended that Heretical books have been forbidden and abolish'd as if any could think it reasonable sedicious Pamphlets against Kings and States should passe unreprehended in their dominions exhortations to Idolatry be permitted among the Jews or such blasphemies as pretend to prove Christ an Impostor should be tolerated among Christians I wonder calumnies so shallow so impudent and of so desperate a consequence can finde patience enough in any person of understanding to read them yet I see great wits strangly applaud them The actions therfore cal'd by him corruptions consisting only in such to the very end of his fourth Chapter you wil easily perceive that this so wel bodied Chapter also if the impertinencies with which he lards it were substracted would prove as lean and starv'd as Pharao's Oxen. Besides if we seek to direct his arrow towards the intended scope this last concerns not the ancient Fathers since now Expurgations are only for Moderns as anciently they were only against Hereticks The other objections reach no way to disable this safe and principal answer That notwithstanding all his cavils there may stil remain a sufficient number of the Fathers writings pure and incorrupted to convince the doctrin of the Catholik Church THE FOURTH SURVEY Of the fifth Chapter wherin he objects the Fathers Eloquence and that on set purpose they spake obscurely I Shall pass now to the next Flourish rather then Argument where this bold unwary man offering to prove the Fathers are hard to be understood assigns those very reasons that make all other Authors more easily understandable For first what Languages more copious more regular and wherein Schollers are more vers'd then Latin and Greek which are the Fathers Idiomes Yes says he but few arrive to that perfection in them as is truly requisite for the exact managing of Controversies Be it so But then let no others meddle with this part of Controversies like Masters but they let such on both sides try the quarrel whilst others for this part rely on them But again he renews his first complaint how smal a number are they that are fitly qualify'd to enter the lists in so difficult a combate I do not fear if this Author were ask'd of France Holland and Germany he would readily undertake to find twenty of his own side compleatly furnisht for such a skirmish and since our Party is both more extended enjoys better commodity for studying and cleerly by its numerous works shews it self far more laborious He may well allow us at least as many as he promises to produce of his own If then betwixt both may be found at the same time forty sufficiently train'd for the encounter what need we ask any more there will not want enough besides capable to prosit themselvs out of their Labours He proceeds to help himself upon St. Hieroms speech against nimium diserti and some faults of weak interpreters And presumes the places he brings clear though my sight is not quick enough to perceive it of any but one of St. Austin cont Adimant which he clears himself by adding to the Fathers Text cùm signum daret corporis sui the word only in his interpretation Then he urges Men bring obscure places to interpret Scripture but the unhappiness is his instances are of his own party He presses that the Fathers before the rising of Heresies spake ambiguously and doubtfully and that which seem'd to be against their own certain sense and meaning as he exemplify's out of St. Athanasius and St. Basil concerning some Fathers before the Arian Heresy But this Wel-meaner forgets that at least in his examples he brings the salve with the stroak for confessing 't was shew'd to be against the writers meaning he implicitly tels us either there were other precedent or subsequent expressions in the same place which made the doubtful words plain or at least so evident passages of the same Author in other places that there could be no doubt of his meaning in the ambiguous ones And truly if we observe this gentle Sophisters discours we shal easily see he imagines that proofs from the Fathers ought to be brought by the popping out of half a Sentence and never regard either what goes before or follows after as by the instances we have already examin'd you may perceive is the reform'd fashion of citing Scriptures Wheras the Books of Fathers being large and ample allow greater Carreers to those who run matches in them He adds farther that the Fathers deliver'd some things on set purpose obscurely If his meaning be they exprest their thoughts in certain occasions shortly or not fully what danger is there in that We know wel all arguments drawn from them must be made out of what they have not what they might have written and so the erudition he spends in proving this had been better employ'd to shew the