and foretasts of the glory which Christ hath purchased and promised If you know no such thing in your self as this you have resisted the Holy Ghost or Quenched the Spirit And if you would not have him dwell and operate in your heart no wonder if you cannot see him in the holy word And if you would not consent that he Rule your Mind and Life no wonder if you deny him also in that word which he did make to Rule you If you question the Real existence of these several Testimonies of Gods Spirit First Those that were given to Christ and his Apostles I have plainly proved to you in the Treatise were delivered down to the world three waies 1. By the most credible humane Testimony to produce a humane Faith 2. By such a Connexion and such Circumstances of those humane Testimonies as amount to a Natural Infallible Certainty As we have of the Wars in England and that there was such a man as K. Charles K. James c. and that our Laws were made by the King and Parliament that London was burnt that there is such a City c. even to them that see not any of these 3. By new Divine Attestations to these Attestations so that there concurreth First A full humane Faith Secondly A Natural Certainty Thirdly A Divine Faith to the ascertaining us that Christ did die rise ascend work miracles give the Spirit and by it the Apostles wrought the like Secondly And the other two Testimonies still shew themselves They are yet in Being The sacred Gospel is among is and on it the Life Light Love fore-described The Believers sanctified by this Gospel are among us and have within them the Impressed Life Light Love We see it where distance selfishness prejudice or malignity hindereth not shining though as through a Lanthorn and working though imperfectly in others And they that have it may so feel it in themselves as will preserve them against the Cavils of Unbelievers As the Great Creator hath his standing Testimony in the Natural Conscience of mankind which in despight of the Devil shall keep up some Natural Religion in the world And they that have not a written Law are a Law unto themselves shewing that God hath a Law in their hearts So the Gracious Redeemer hath his standing Witness in the sanctified even his holy Spirit the Divine Nature the New Creature the Image of God the Father Son and Spirit dwelling in them by Divine Life Light and Love so as shall keep up a Church of holy ones to Christ in despight of all the powers of Hell even the spirits of Death of Darkness and of Malignity And so much for the Validity of Gods Attestation III. All then that remaineth doubtful or further to be spoken to is What it is that God hath thus attested by the Holy Ghost And First We are sure it is not nothing It is not nothing that all this is done for nor nothing that maketh this change on souls Secondly We are sure it can be no less than the Truth of the Person Office and Doctrine of Christ himself He hath certainly by this proved his own Verity and Veracity for his own Miracles and Resurrection were seals affixed hereunto Thirdly We are sure that the same Gospel spoken by himself was confirmed also when spoken or written by his Disciples Else the same should be sure and not sure Fourthly We are sure that the Apostles Miracles c. confirmed all their Commissioned work I have proved this in my Treatise of the Lords Day Whatever Christ Promised them the Spirit for that he gave them the Spirit for He that findeth his Promise with the Performance may know that it was the Promise which was Performed Therefore our work is to find out that Promise And First We find their Commission Mat. 28. 19 20. Go and Disciple me all Nations Baptizing them into the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatever I have Commanded you And the Promise is Lo I am with you alwaies to the end of the world And Joh. 16. 7 12 13 14 15. It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Advocate will not come unto you But if I depart I will send him unto you I have yet many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now Howbeit when he the spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all the truth For he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that he shall speak and he shall shew you things to come He shall glorifie me for he shall receive of mine and shew it unto you Luk. 24. 49. And behold I send the promise of my Father upon you But tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem till ye be endued with power from on high so Act. 1. 5. Ye shall be Baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence Verse 8. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem and to all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth John 17. 8. I have given to them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them Verse 17 18. Sanctifie them through thy truth thy word is truth As thou hast sent me into the world so I have also sent them into the world And for their sakes I sanctifie my self that they also might be sanctified through the truth John 14 26. But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you Adde to these the Texts which mention the Performance of these Promises as John 20. 22. Act. 2. Act. 15. 28. Heb. 2. 3 4. So great salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness both with signes and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will 1 Pet 1 12. The things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you by the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven Rom. 15. 19 20. Through mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God so that from Jerusalem and round about by Illyricum I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ Gal. 3. 2. This onely would I learn of you Received ye the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith By all this it is evident that the Spirit was given them to enable them to understand the Gospel and to preach it to the world to remember all that Christ had taught them to help them to deliver the Covenant of Grace and draw men into it and Baptize them To gather Churches and to teach them to observe all that
all which and much more it appeareth that the Apostles though then in a state of Justification had a very general and defective knowledge of the Office of Christ and that though his Prophetical Office was ordinarily believed Joh. 4. The Samaritane woman could say when the Messiah cometh he will tell us all things and a temporal Kingdom expected yet his spiritual Kingdom and especially his Priestly office by his sacrifice death resurrection heavenly intercession for all the old Types and Sacrifices was little understood by the Disciples Yea he sometimes sorbad them and others to tell men that he was the Christ because the great evidences of his Resurrection Ascension and Spirit by which it was to be evinced were yet to come And we believe not that all that were saved before had more knowledge than the Apostles so that though all the faithful Jews believed in the promised seed even the Messiah as one that was to be sent to be their Deliverer and Saviour yet it was by a saith that was very general and far from that distinctness which after the Resurrection of Christ was required of all to whom the Gospel was promuglate which I have said the more of to you lest you think that we hold what we do not and so take occasion to erre by supposing us to err Clemens Alexandrinus Justin Martyr Arnobius Lactantius and other old Christians do go yet further then yet I have conceded to you And our very learned Dr. Twisse doth argue that God could have saved the world without a Redeemer if he had pleased because he saved the faithful under the old Testament without any existent Mediator except God himself or any existent sacrifice or merit or intercssion of him and because he saveth Infants without faith But for the first I take it to be at best too great temerity or audacity to dispute whether God could have done things better or otherwise which he has done so well of which I have said more in my Premonition before my Treatise called the unreasonableness of Infidelity Though I know that Wallaeus and many other learned Protestants say the same And as for Infants they are not saved without the Sacrifice and grace of the Redeemer though they know him not nor are they in the Covenant without the faith of their Parents or Owners which is as their own And if the Spirit of the Prorphets be called the Spirt of Chrict 1 Pet. 1. 11. And the reproach of Moses was the reproach of Christ Heb. 11. 26. We may much more conclude of the ordinary Believers before his coming that Christs Interest and his Spirits operations and help extended much further than mens understanding of him his undertaking and his future work No doubt but the eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that had undertaken mans Redemption and thereupon was our Lord Redeemer gave even to Socrates Plato Cicero Seneca Antonine Epistotus Plutarch c. What light and mercy they had though they understood not well from whom or upon what grounds they had them Ninethly And also we hold that the Jews were not the whole of Gods Kingdome or Church of Redeemed ones in the world as I have fully proved elsewhere But that as the Govenant was made with all mankind so amongst them God-had other Servants besides the Jews Though it was they that had the extraordinary benediction of being his peculiar sacred People Tenthly And we hold that as the Jews had by Promises Prophesies and Types more means to know God and the Messiah to come than other Nations so they were answerably obliged to more knowledge and faith than other Nations were that had not nor could have their means If then all the world be under the first Covenant of Grace and if you confess this to proceed from the wisdome and goodness of God and that men are bound so to believe and if Christ since his Incarnation hath diminished none of the mercies of God to the world but rather greatly increased them and so where the Gospel is not preached nor cannot be had they that refuse it not are in no worse case than they were before how can you say that they are Remediless if Christ be the ransome and remedy We know that all men partake of a great deal of mercy from God after the notorious demerit of their sin We know that this mercy telleth them aloud that God dealeth not with them according to the first Law of Innocency They see he pardoneth them they feel that he pardoneth them in part that is that he useth them not as they deserve We know that all this mercy obligeth them to hope that he will yet be further merciful and to repentance obedience thankfulness and love We know that the Heathen are no left as the Divels without remedy but all the Nations are under Divine obligations to use certain means which have a tendency to their recovery And we know that God biddeth no man to use his means in vain Fourthly Let us therefore first debate this Case with any unbeliever that hath your objections Whether you have any fault to find with the Christian Doctrine of the way of mans salvation for the first 4000 years before the Incarnation of our Lord If you have First Is it with the Author Secondly Or with the terms and conditions of life First The Author then was none but God The eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wisdome and word did interpose to prevent the execution of strict Justice by resolving to glorifie Love and Mercy Do you deny the being of Gods eternal wisdome or word Do you deny him to be God himself Or a Divine subsistence dream that it is but some Accident in God No your fair description of God p. 210. dischargeth you from the imputation of so gross an error You will say that the Divine power and goodness interposed as well as the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wisdome and word True Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt in divisa but so that each hath an eminency in his own work though not as separated or a solitary principle or cause The Father and Divine Vital Active Power was eminently glorified in the Creation The Son and Divine wisdome is eminently glorified in the making of the Remedying Medicine And the Divine Love and Spirit is eminently glorified in the operation of it to the Health and Salvation of the Soul The son and the wisdome or word doth not finish all the work himself but with the Father and Divine power sendeth the holy Spirit and communicateth to man the Love of God And all together will be glorified in our glorification Secondly And if it be the terms of life that do offend you First It is either the terms of satisfying the Justice of God Secondly Or the terms of conveying the benefits to man First For the first there is nothing in it to give offence For we dream not of any extrinsecal agent or action much less that which
MORE REASONS FOR THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION AND No Reason Against it Or a Second Appendix to the Reasons of the Christian Religion BEING I. An Answer to a Letter from an unknown Person Charging the Holy Scriptures with Contradictions II. Some ANIMADVERSIONS On a Tractate De Veritate Written by the Noble and Learned Lord Edward Herbert Baron of Chizbury c. and Printed at Paris 1624. And at London 1633. Resolving Twelve Questions about Christianity By Richard Baxter LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Princes Arms in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1672. TO THE Right Worshipfull Sir Henry Herbert Kt. c. SIR THe reasons are many which induce me to presume to direct these Papers first to you and to tell the world how much I honour you first my personal ancient obligations to you secondly Principally your approved wisdom and moderation and taking part with the waies of Charity and Peace in your most publick capacity in these trying times thirdly your Relation to the Noble Author on whose writing I here Animadvert which as it is your honour to be the Brother of so learned and ingenious a Lord and the Brother of so excellently holy as well as learned and ingenious a person as Mr. George Herbert Orator to the University of Cambridge and a faithful Pastor in the English Church so it obligeth me the more to give you an account of this Animadversion It is long since I sought after the Book as provoked by the Title and the honour of the Authors name and received it from you as your gift The premised Letter from an unknown person of the same name occasioned me to review it The sad case of many of my acquaintance and the increase of Infidelity of late especially among debauched sensual Gallants and the danger of England hereby and the Temptations against which the best of Christians have need of help were the Reasons of my presumption it being my Calling to propagate and vindicate the Christian Faith I am so far from writing against his whole Book that I take most of his Rules and Notions de Veritate to be of singular use And had so great a wit had but the Internal Conditions due to such an Intellectual apprehension as his and your holy and excellent Brother had no doubt but our supernatural Revelations and Verities would have appeared evident to him and possest his soul with so sweet a gust and fervent ascendent holy LOVE as breatheth in Mr. G. Herbert's Poems and as would have made them as clear to him in their kind as some of his Notitiae Communes The truth is as he was too low to us who number not our Divine Revelations with the Veresimilia but with the Certain Verities so he was too high for the Atheistical Sensualists of this age And I would they would learn of him that the Being and Perfections of God the duty of worshipping him and of holy Conformity and Obedience to him and particularly all the ten Commandments the necessity of true Repentance and the Rewards and Punishments of the Life to Come with the Souls Immortality are all Notitiae Communes and such Natural Certainties as that the denyal of them doth unman them To know this and to live accordingly would make a great alteration in our times And Christianity could not be disrelished by such that so know and do I may well suppose that your approbation of the Cause I plead for will make it needless to me to Apologize for my boldness in medling with such an Author while I do it with all tenderness of his deserved honour I remain Your obliged Servant Richard Baxter Jan. 17. 1671 2 SIR I Was right glad when I first heard that you had written and put to Print a Book of the Reasons of the Christian Religion and I did immediately buy the Book hoping that in the Reading and Perusing of it I might have received satisfaction as to any doubt or scruple and an answer satisfactory to all Objections that in Reason may be raised against the Grounds of the said Christian Religion because I did think you to be as able to say and write as much as any man in that thing having as I thought studied it as much as any that I had heard of but in the reading and perusing it I contrary to my expectation found it to be short of giving me satisfaction For the greatest occasion of any doubt or scruple in any thing tending or relating to the Christian Religion that I at any time had or have were from that variousness and contrariety if not contradictions which are or at least seem to be in the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists and other Books received for Scripture But you in answer to that Objection page 412. say Nothing but ignorance maketh men think so understand once the true meaning and allow for the errors of Printers Transcribers and Translators and there will no such thing be found But you neither tell me which are those errors nor yet how I may know them 1. Therefore I humbly pray you in writing to tell me whether that which is written in the first Chapter of Matthews Gospel verse 8 9. where Matthew writes that Joram begat Ozias and Ozias begat Joatham be any error of the Transcribers Translators or Printers or the contrary to it which is written in the second book of the Kings and in the books of the Chronicles if not how may they be understood for in those books it is written that Joram was Father to Ahaziah and Ahaziah was Father to Joash and Joash was Father to Amaziah and Amaziah was Father to Azariah and A zariah was Father to Joatham by the account of which Books there is above an hundred Years between the death of Joram the son of Jehosaphat and Joatham 2. And Secondly Whether that which is written by Luke in his Gospel Chapter 24. vers 9 10. 22 23. where Luke writes that Mary Magdalen and other Women told the Disciples that they had seen a Vision of Angels which said that Jesus was risen from the dead and was alive whether this be any error of the Transcribers Translators and Printers or any of them or the Contrary which is written by St. John in his Gospel for he writes Chap. 20. verse 2. That Mary Magdalen told two of the Disciples and said to them They I suppose meaning the Adversaries have taken away the Lord out of the Sepulcher and we know not where they have laid him If not how may I understand them to be both true Testimonies or Reports for it seemeth by Luke ver 11 12. and 23 24. of his 24. Chapter that Mary and the other Women had told those things of their seeing the Angels which said that Jesus was risen and alive before that Peter ran or went to the Sepulcher 3. And Thirdly Whether that which is written by Matthew in the 28th Chapter of his Gospel that the Angel said to Mary Magdalen and the other Mary fear not
Gentleness in the Answer I shall grant you the first as far as in such hast and brevity I am able And the second as far as the nature of the cause will bear But if you account all Christians deceived fools you must not expect to be called wise nor that I should flatter you and tell you that Apostasie is a state of safety For I that believe Heb. 6. and 10. must think that this were not Gentleness but Cruelty and worse than to kill you for fear of displeasing you Prop. 1. If it could not by us be proved that every word of the Scriptures is true nor the Pen men infallible or indefectible in every particle yet might we have a certainty of the Christian Religion The reason is Because every particle in the Scripture is not an essential part of the Christian Religion no nor any Integral part if you take the Christian Religion strictly for the Doctrine of necessary Belief Desire and Practice And that part which is indeed the essence yea or Integrity of Christianity may be certainly proved and believed without our being able to prove the certainty or truth of all the rest which is in the Scriptures The Holy Scriptures contain all our Religion and somewhat more that is the Accidents and appurtenances of it As the body of a man besides the parts Essential and Integral hath its Accidents such as are the Hair and the Colour and some Humours which are for Beauty and other uses though not Parts So far are the Papists from being in the right who think that the Christian Religion is not all but part contained in the Scriptures that there is more than all that is necessary to salvation even the appurtenances which have an aptitude to the adorning and promoting of the rest To know who was the Father of every person mentioned in the Bibles Genealogies to know what age each person was of whose age is there mentioned to know the name of every person and every Town to know how far each City was from another whose distances are there expressed with a multitude of such like Historical Genealogical Chronological Topographical Physical incidental passages is but an appurtenance and not strictly a part Essential or Integral of the Christian Faith of Holiness or Religion Yet remember that we maintain as certain that they are all Lyars who accuse God of Lying And that whatever some ignorantly talk to the contrary God cannot lie See the excellent Amesius his Disputation of this Question An falsum subesse potest fidei divinae after his Medulla Theologiae which book with his Cases of Conscience and Alstedius his Encyclopaediae may after the Scriptures and Concordance make a good Divine and be a better Library than the Fathers of the fourth Council Carth. were acquainted with He that thinketh God can lie destroyeth the Objectum Formale fidei divinae and therefore can have no Faith If God could lie in one thing we should never be sure that he revealeth the truth unless by sense it self and after-experience All Faith goeth upon such a Syllogism as this Whatsoever God saith is true But this God saith Ergo it is true So that whosoever believeth every word in the Scripture to be Gods word must believe it all to be true or he can believe none of it at all But yet it is possible for a man to believe one part of the Bible to be Gods Word and not another part which needeth no proof Because that many of the ancient Churches for a certain time doubted of yea received not the Epistle of James Peter 2d the Heb. Apocal. c. and yet were truly of the Christian Religion First We deny not but that there are many false and wicked sayings historically recited in the Scripture as the saying of Cain Pharaoh Gehezi the false Prophets the Devil of Job to Christ c. but the Scripture is nevertheless true For it is true that all these untruths were spoken Secondly The Disciples of Christ were not absolutely and in all things infallible as all Christians do Confess They were not as perfect in Knowledge as now they are in Heaven Either Paul or Barnab as was mistaken about the fitness of Mark to go with them Thirdly There was a greater assistance of the Spirit promised them when two or three of them were assembled in Christs name than when they proceeded singly Mat. 18. 18. But there can be nothing above perfect infallibiâ—ity and impeccability to them all Fourthly We confess that Christs Disciples were not indefectible or sinless As their understandings so their wills and lives had still some imperfections Marke Paul and Silas did not all perfectly do their duties in the case they differed about Peter did amiss in avoiding the Gentile Christians when Paul blamed him openly Gal. 2. And Barnabas and others did not do well in being drawn away to the same â—issâ—â—â—lation When Paul saith of Timothy I have no man like minded â—nd of others They all seek their own He took not all Christians that had the Spirit to be perfect If any man had not the Spirit of Christ he was none of his Rom. 8. 9. And the very wrangling deâ—â—â—â—â—ng Galathians had received the spirit Gal. 3. 1 2 3. And so had the wrangling Corinthians Christ in them 2 Cor 8. 5. Fifthly We confess that he who is either infallible or defectible lyable to error or sia is of himself capable of being deceived and of deceiving others If he were Infallible in respect of the Knowledg of all the Truth yet while he can sin of himself considered he can be heedless careless rash partial and for by respects speak too little or too much It is the Devils last method to undo by overdoing and so to destroy the authority of the Apostles by over magnifying them therefore we will not use his methods nor deny any of this Sixthly Moreover we confess that it is possible for a good Christian to doubt whether those that were but Evangelists as Marke and Luke had the same promise of the Spirits infallible assistance with the Apostles seeing we find not that promise so expresly any where made to them And thereupon he may possibly think that some errors may consist with their measure of the Spirit as it did with many Christians who had the same Spirit Seventhly And we do not believe that the extraordinary operations of the Spirit were alwaies equally in the Apostles themselves we suppose the Prophets could not alwaies Prophesie nor those that spake with tongues use that gift at their own pleasure nor yet those that did miracles healed the sick or raised the dead But that the Spirit wrought as in various sorts and measures in several persons 1 Cor. 12. so also at various times and in various measures in the same person Whereupon it is possible for a good Christian to doubt whether every word in Scripture was written then when the writer had the gift of infallibility and indefectibility
Christ had commanded them and made part of his Laws To teach them all truth which was Evangelical or part of their Ministerial Office To enable them to be most certain and full in their Testimony of what they had heard from Christ and seen him do which was part of the Gospel In a word to to perform all their proper Office I do not at the present suppose you to take these Texts for the word of God For I must suppose you to be an Infidel But I onely offer them as part of the certain historical evidence concurring with all the forementioned history and evidence of the fact to prove what it was which the Apostles miracles were used to confirm This same Gospel they preached every where when they wrought these miracles And if they confirmed not the Gospel or Christian Religion they confirmed nothing So that it being certain that this Spirit and Miracles were real and certain that they were the Testimony of God and certain that it was the Truth of Christs person actions doctrine sufferings resurrection ascension and Covenant and Commandments which they attested and all that is properly the Gospel or Christian Religion what hindereth our certainty of all this If it were a doubt whether the Spirit attested more it is never the more doubtful whether he attested this much The Apostles constantly preached this Gospel They Baptized persons into the New Covenant They opened the Articles of the Faith to them and caused them to profess that Faith They engaged them into the promise and directed them in the practice of a godly righteous and sober life And they confirmed all this by miracles And is not all this then made sure Yea before they wrote any of the Scriptures And now to the Objection He that speaketh falsly in one thing is to be believed certainly or as infallible in nothing I again answer it is a blind Objection God onely is absolutely infallible All men are fallible in some things We are not to believe that the Apostles could erre in nothing at all Peter knew not what he said when he talkt of dwelling on the Mount They could erre and they could sin And he that sinneth erreth They were not absolutely perfect But it is in certain particulars even in the Declaration of the Gospel that God would not suffer them to erre or to deceive Those words which the Holy Ghost did by inspiration dictate to them it is certain that all those words the same Holy Ghost attested That is To all the word of God And thus much being past doubt what if we were now at a loss about some Appurtenances of the Gospel whether they were any of the Spirits dictates or any part of the word of God or any proper part of that which the Apostles were Commissioned for and Spiritually Enabled to teach What if in some points which they could know by common sense infallibly as well as other men any one should think that they were left meerly to that certainty of sense What if one be uncertain which are the Parts and which but the Appurtetenances of the Gospel in some things which salvation is not laid on Or were uncertain whether the Spirit did determine the Speakers tongue or pen about every such Appurtenance What 's this to the invalidating of any of the rest If indeed when they speak by the Spirits Revelation they spake falsly at any one time we could never be sure that they spake true But when we are sure that all is true which they speak by the Spirit and sure that they spake the Gospel or delivered the Christian Religion by the Spirit and are onely not sure whether every word in Genealogy or by circumstances were spoken by the Spirit nothing will follow hence but that every word of God is true and every word of the Apostles which was a word of God And it is perversness to argue They may erre when they speak their own words as men Therefore they may erre when they speak Gods words by the Spirit First The Testimony of the Internal sanctifying Spirit is infallible And so much as this Spirit attesteth to me is true And I am sure that this Spirit attesteth the truth of the Gospel in me for the substance of the Gospel is imprinted on my heart and by the impression I know the seal But what if I find on me no part of Gods Image which was made by the name of Jorams Father or Son what if I feel no Testimony of the Spirit in me which tells the age of such or such a man there named Nor can prove by the Spirit in me how far Bethany was from Jerusalem What if the mention of Pauls Cloak and Parchments did not sanctifie me Must I be uncertain of that which did Secondly What if I read a promise in the Scripture that God will never fail me nor forsake me but will preserve me in safety to his Kingdome If I were uncertain whether this promise extended to every hair of my head so that none of them should perish or to the preservation of my Colour and such like accidents Will it follow that I cannot be sure that I my self my soul my person shall not be forsaken What if I have a promise that all things shall work together for my good And I am uncertain whether sins or my own follies or rashness or the creeping of every worm in the world or the shaking of every leaf be numbered with those All things Must I be uncertain therefore whether any thing shall work for my good or whether sufferings for Christ shall do it Thirdly What if I be uncertain whether the vegetative faculties or soul in man be material or immateterial Must I be as uncertain whether man have an immaterial or incorporeal soul and whether the intellectual powers be such or not Fourthly What if I be in doubt when the Law doth summon a man to any place or command him any office whether it meant that he shall not change his cloaths or leave them off nor cut his hair or nails but bring all with him Doth it follow that I must be as uncertain whether the person himself must come or not Fifthly What if I be disputing whether a Tree be wood and I cannot tell whether the leaves their ribs or stalkes be truly wood or not must I therefore be uncertain of all the rest Sixthly What if we dispute whether all the Kings officers are to be obeyed and it be a doubt to me whether a Prelate or an Apparator be the Kings Officers can I therefore be assured of no others Seventhly When a witness sweareth to any writing that it is true or to any interrogatories If I be uncertain whether it be the true spelling or Syntax of the words or the propriety of every phrase or every circumstance of the matter which he attesteth must I therefore be uncertain whether he attest any thing at al This one consideration may shew the unreasonableness of