word Father But as it is a substance â—ove it is not well expressed by either â—f these names but by the common â—ame of an Holy Spirit or Ghost made proper by want of a proper expression And this is that wee meane when we â—ay there are in God three Persons Faâ—her Sonne and Holy Ghost This indivisible thing we call God â—nd professe that he made time and in or with the beginning of time all other â—hings Whether spirituall and indivisible or bodily and subject to division and corruption or mortality Among the rest and as the principall of these Creatures which we know by our sense and conversation he made Man that is one man and one woman Hee made them such that by the corruption they were subject unto they should not be extinguished like the other Creatures sett round about them but should remaine spirituall things capable seeing him and of eternall happinesse These two he created in such state that reason was in them more powerfull then sense And could with ease have kept them from all unreasonable actions and from the unhappy effects of them had not the Envy of an other Intellectuall creature whom we call the Divell seduced the woman and by her meanes made the man also eate of fruits which they were fore-warned would bring them death and misery By this meanes disorder being brought into the two first men both in body and soule all their progeny became vicious every child drawing from his parents disorderly inclinations which avert him from the love and care of true Blisse and which strengthned by custome and opinion were able to carry the whole masse of Mankinde to eternall infelicity the just and deserved punishment of this default and its evill consequents This slavery of Man kinde to sinne was so strong that God Almighty was forced to lett great raines destroy it all reserving by his mercy onely 8. persons to people the world a new making the world it selfe much lesse distractive or inveighing with the pleasures of it by making it fuller of miseries And after a while againe he was forced to pitch upon one man and his seede neglecting the rest to conserve in them though weakely by lawes and speciall government the seedes of vertue often strengthening them by extraordinary meanes and encreasing their knowledge Yet for all that vertue faded much in them This people he governed first in Republike afterwardes in Royalty and lastly by Priests untill notwithstanding all his care and their science the people was growne into an extremity of perversenesse Then he came to the last remedy and taking or as it were grafting into his owne substance the nature of Man became the teacher and example to Man-kinde of all vertuous actions and good life And because mans nature was grafted by its noblest part that is by his Meus or roote of understanding to which God as a substance knowledge hath proportion It is rightly delivered unto us that the sonne of God tooke flesh upon him to be our guide and rule and not the Father or Holy Ghost though they both of them are inseparably in him So God who by his Ministers had hitherto instructed mankinde by Allegories and similitudes proportionable to their carnall imbecillity Now in his owne person opened the way to heaven in as plaine termes as mans nature is capable of teaching to abstract our selves from the love of creatures and to adhere to him by love of future blisse of our soules Having compleated the course of his teaching by word and example and having shewed us how to beare not feare the miseries of this world even death it selfe he thought good to give us a scantling of our future blisse of body being raised to life the third day after his death and during 40. days shewing us a new Nature which our bodies are to obtaine in the last resurrection if so we deserve it During his abode upon earth he chose certain believers called Apostles and under them did sett a number of disciples gave them authority to preach and practised them in it even during his owne life but ordered them more especially towards his departure how they should behave themselves in the conversion of Jewes and Gentils and how they should governe the people they converted and brought to his beliefe After this he left them ascending in their sight above the cloudes And after 10. dayes according to his promise he so replenished them with faith and charity that he made them fitt Executors of his commands and instruments of building the Church he intended to spread over all nations He gave them fervour of heart knowledge of tongues and power of miracles together with discretion to use all to the end for which he designed them This Church being to consist of all man-kinde as one Body-Politike He thought fitt to sett universall rules of certaine externall actions and practises common to all by and in which they should communicate together and know one another And the maine scope of this instruction being to bring Men to the honour and service of God He made likewise for the principall of our eternall actioÌ„s one to be a publike testimony and recognisance that God is the sole Author of good to us and absolute Master of Life and death of Being and of Not-Being Such a ceremony is called a Sacrifice This he did immediatly before his death taking bread and wine and after imposition of his handes or blessing them he assured us that the thing he then gave was that very body which was to be wounded and that very Bloud which was to be shed for us And so against all prejudice of sense wee believe that the substances of bread and wine were changed really into the substance of this body and bloud notwithstanding that the Natures that is all the operations and resemblances of bread and wine do remaine as before This he commanded his Apostles to doe and by mediation of this sacrifice or obtestation or highest Prayer to obtaine for the quicke and the dead what ever is fitt to be impetrated for them He commanded also that doing this we should remember or rather commemorate that is offer in a human phrase to Gods remembrance his death and passion For as it is a true sacrifice by the reall and locall parting of his body and blood so this being done under the shapes of bread and wine becometh a figure and allegory of the reall and blondy separation of them made upon the holy Crosse This sacrifice performed which convenient ceremonies we usually call the Masse This incorporation of all Christians into the body of Christ by participation of this sacrifice is the highest motive of love to Christ and to one another that can fall into mans heart and therefore hath ever been a symbol or token of peace among Christians and is esteemed the Mystery or sacrament of Charity But because Christian life consisteth of seven vertues three Theologicall and foure Cardinall Christ delivered other six
there had been no place for that disjunctive Syllable I easily believe that many a pert batchellour will be ready to tell us that he can find wayes to salve all these places of Scripture and many more if they were urged But that cōcerneth not me I enquire onely what the outward face of Scripture is and to what belief it wil leade an honest heart left to its owne strength For if those queinte disputants do encounter with a person that is not enured to the Sophistry they will turn blacke into white make two egges three as the tale goeth of the impertinent forward scholler and bring to passe whatsoever they undertake Therefore it was necessary to impose among the conditions of reading the Bible this for a principall one That they who by Scripture ayme at coming to the truth should admitt of no Interpreter And this because of the danger in lighting upon a false one instead of a true one before one hath groundes to discerne which is a false one and which a true one For the case is very indifferēt betweene a Catholike Interpreter and any other The Catholike knoweth the doctrine of Christ that is to say the sense of the Scripture independently from the words of the Scripture And therefore in substantiall points which concerne Christs doctrine he cannot teach or interpret amisse without swerving from his owne faith But it is evident that every other who hath no rule for his beliefe besides the bare letter and words of Scripture is subject to errour through every passion and prejudice which hiddenly swayeth his heart awry and corrupteth his judgement by pride or other affection So that he may be rightly compared to a rotten cane that being leaned upon will breake and with its splinters wound and gore him that expected support from it The seventh REFLEXION That the reading of the Fathers will bring a man to the truth of Religion And that naturall reason will greatly advance a man thereunto IT seemeth strange to mee that any man who acknowledgeth Scripture should reject the Fathers since he can not renounce them without professing att the same time by so doing that he believeth himselfe to be able with his little witte and generally lesse study and learning to penetrate deeper into the intelligence of Scripture then so many ages eminent for industry sciēce and holynesse could reach unto And all this upon no other pretence but because they were men and consequently liable to erring As if himselfe were not a man but something else so farre beyond comparison with all other men that we ought rather to confide in his ability and honesty then in all mankinde that went before him Which is so unworthy and so intolerable a pride that I admire how any auditory can endure it But to come more closely to the point I say that seeing the Holy Fathers did both receive the prevaching of the Apostles neerer hand then wee do and did hold the truth of Scripture as strongly as we do and did spend much time in the earnest study of it and proceeded therein with as sincere hearts as wee can It may in no wise be doubted but that they had the meanes and the wills of having the true faith and consequently that they had it Therefore what was their universall Tenet in Matters of faith can not bee false nor ought to be rejected Or with any colour of reason be questioned by us as disagreeing with Scripture Besides their writings being large and numerous in which upon severall occasions and in differing circumstances they repeate and inculcate the same thinges by different wordes and expressions it must needes thence follow that their sense and meaning in most things of importance can not choose but be sufficiently explicated So as who ever shall reade them with candour ingenuity and judgement can not possibly doubt of it And accordingly experience hath shewed us that the judicious Protestants who gave themselves to the reading of the Fathers were in judgement neere unto Catholikes in most of their opinions And that which detained them from being absolutely Catholikes was besides the chaines of interest nothing but a secret pride of not submitting themselves to the Tradition of the Church in some particular points in which Tradition was not so cleare to them Though withall I deny not but that a wrong apprehension of some Catholike Tenets presumed upon the explication of some particular Doctors might unhappily contribute to this their obstinacy No doubt then but if any indifferent person not preimbibed with any wrong maxime shall bestow competent paines in reading the Fathers he will infallibly become Catholike Especially if hee take this rule along with him to compare the practise of Protestants with the practise of the Fathers and of the former Church By which he will see that this which they call Reformation hath cut away under pretence of abuses not the abuses but the very thinges themselves in which the abuses were like unskillfull Chirurgians that cut of a leg to cure a small sore in it or like Mahomet who tooke away all use of wine to cure drunkennesse And in the meane while they cavill att petty questions in which they strive to shew that the Church hath erred As for naturall reason No man will expect that it should be an entire meanes of attaining to the knowledge of the supernaturall truths which are contained in Christian Religion But onely that it may be a helpe thereunto by shewing that they are so farre from contradicting reason as indeed nothing can be more conformable to true reason then the whole oeconomy of them is And I dare promise whosoever shall seeke this that if he come unto it armed with true and sound Philosophy he may arrive to a full contentment of his understanding and heart in all that concerneth so noble an enquiry Now since Catholike Religion hath been so intelligibly divulged in the world St. Augustin maketh mention that he found the Mystery of the Trinity in the Platonists Bookes Now if you aske me how this came to passe I answere that God provided in Alexandria a City much addicted to learning one Ammonius Hermias a great Philosopher and a Christian Hee to make Christian Religion more acceptable sought to joyne it with Platonicke Philosophy Which was no hard matter to do Plato having bing been as Numenius sayth of him Moses speaking Greeke that is to say one who having lighted upon the Hebrew learning had sucked much out of it Now this Ammonius finding in Plato the Ideas of Being and of Vnity and of Life and such other ayery notions easy to be wrought upon to what hee designed endeavoured by these to instill into his Schollers the Mystery of the Trinity Which he did with such happy successe that of the three prime wittes of his Schoole the one Origen became so great and eminent a Doctor of the Church as antiquity hath acknowledged him The other two Amelius and Plotinus prooved two Conductours of the
Geometry is neglected Therefore it were a great folly to imagine that faith should not be as certaine and as easy to arrive unto as Geometry is But that whiles there are certaine and infallible rules for the measuring of lines and angles there should be no certainer course to secure ones eternall happinesse and avoyde endelesse woe then to venture it upon the hazard of the dice or to play it att crosse and pile For his condition is no better then so that taketh his faith and Religion upon the recommendations of Probability But when ones affection is once engaged it maketh his eares flow and his understanding dull to any thing that can be said in opposition to what it is sett upon And so me thinkes I heare these men redouble their complaint and aske me with indignation what can we thinke that one who hath spent 30. or 40. yeares so well should after so long earnest study be still accounted an unlearned man To this question I dare scarce reply what is fitting Yet with their leave I shall aske againe of them whether he that should have spent 30. or 40. yeares in gathering ragges out of the kennels to furnish the paper milles or had cryed card-matches as long must of necessity be thought worth a thousand pound a yeare att the end of his labour though no exceptions could be made against him either for diligence in getting or frugality in conserving what he had gained In like manner he that will judge a right of a scholler or learned man must not onely reckon up the yeares of his study and the paines and industry he hath employed in it but consider also in what he hath bestowed it For if it were applyed onely to seeke out the proprieties of Latin and Greek words if onely in Criticismes whether of Grammer or of History It will avayle him no more towards the attaining of true learning then the selling of Card-matches towardes the purchasing a Mannour of a thousand pounds a yeare But peradventure some may object that the comparison holdeth not in these two cases For the Student here spoken of is supposed to have spent his age not in turning over tryffling bookes but much of it in reading the holy Scriptures and Fathers in which by our owne confession true learning is contained Therefore how can he be suspected of ignorance and want of learning Neverthelesse even this objection shaketh not my resolution Onely it obligeth me to take new information of what it was he looketh for all this while in those learned books It is sayd of the Kinges of Narsinga and of Pegu that in their prosperities they gathered such vast treasures both of pretious mettals and stones that they were faine to lett them lye heaped up in great courts because chambers were not able to containe them the Successour ever vying to out doe his Predecessour Now I aske if a dunghill cocke had been turned into these courtes how much richer would he have come out then he went in Certainely nothing att all Because he looked not there for the heades of Gold or Diamonds but searched about for some graines of wheate or barley or scratched the ground for some wormes and such thinges fitt for his stomack In like manner when a yong Gentleman that travelleth into forraine countries upon pretence of endeavouring thereby to enable himselfe if during his abode in any great citty as Paris or Rome his enquiry is after nothing but where the best Tavernes and entertainments are Can it be expected that att his returne home he should be able to give a good account in substantiall matters of the places he hath been in So if these great Students looke into the scriptures or Fathers to find out what a Metreta or a Corris or an Ephod is or in fine sift out Genealogies or Chronologies and spend there fourty yeares in such peddling divinity can it be imagined that att the end of them they should be any neerer the true quality of Divines then when they began Besides though they should seeke for true knowledge yet if they take not the right way it is impossible they should ever acquire it As those pictures which are contrived by the ingeniousnesse of Mathematicians to be looked upon either through some kind of glasse or purely by choosing a certaine position do require some one determinate Situation for the eye to be placed in else they appeare not so is the nature of all wordes and their objects as farre as the truths are dependent from the cloathing of the wordes Especially there is a degree of attention belonging to them which if it be too little the words are not understood If too great that which before was cleare to you becometh dimme by equivocations of wordes and their constructions And the more you look upon them without passion the more changeable is their aspect to you and you grow lesse certaine of what they meane Whereas with Reason it fareth contrary wise The more and the more impartially you looke upon a demonstration the more cleare and the more certaine it becometh to you Therefore in a text where Reason and the nature of the wordes do concurre to the explication of those wordes they will be better understood by arguments from Reason then the sense and reason from the wordes And when ever it happeneth that the sense and meaning is certaine by reason but the text or letter ambiguous it is evident that the latter ought to be governed by the former And accordingly they who in matter of Religion do receive knowledge of the truths belonging to it by a way not depending on a certaine forme of wordes have a mighty advantage in the explication of scripture over those who do but as it were shake the wordes together like lottes in a bagge which is the condition of those who have nothing but the bare wordes of scripture to rely upon to understand the true meaning of them It is not thē the number of yeares that a man hath spent in turning over the bible or that he hath employed in reading greeke and latin authors which can justify him to be a great Divine but there must be considered also what he sought there and how he sought it and with what freedome from passion and partiality which alone hath a huge stroke in making a man understand rightly or erroneously what he readeth Upon this occasiō there cometh into my minde a truth which peradventure may seem a Paradox but being looked into will appeare evident of it selfe and it is that a boy who can neither write nor reade may be a greater Divine them some man who hath studyed scripture his 40. yeares He who doubteth of this lett him remember that divinity hath for its End the knowledge of these truths which are to guide us to heaven and that the knowledge of them is so necessary that without it no excuse of that ignorance can hinder our perishing eternally and therefore that the knowledge of