the action as the action is for the end which must be in Gods commands by which he ordereth vs to eternall life his commanding being the Idea to all actions and this matter being the principall on which he exerciseth that power it is evidently convincing that whether the command be possible or impossible knowne or unknowne if it be not fullfilled the action is not done without which the end can not be obtained And consequently the party becometh damned Not because he did not obey the command but because he did not the action nor followed the way necessary to salvation which if he had done without command it would have saved him for it is in vertue of doing the action that the fullfilling of the command saveth all those whom it doth save and without it none are saved The fourth REFLEXION That Religion is certaine And the meanes to attaine unto it THe case standing thus that either we must do what God hath commanded us in this world or else must suffer his indignation in the next And that there is no excuse for ignorance I neede not urge to any one who is sensible of their soules interest that the knowledge of the law of God ought to be certaine and undoubted both in it selfe and to us That is that every one according to his particular circumstances ought to have a constant and immutable assurance that it is Gods law in which he walketh And that in the Church there are meanes left by our blessed Saviour to secure us of this truth for every one according to his capacity if the execution be conformable to the principles The first part is so cleare that time were spent in vaine to declare it For since the end of our faith and knowledge is the observing in fact and not onely in will the commandements of God with the losse of blisse and incurring eternall damnation if it be not done in effect And since on the other side it is impossible that he who is uncertaine whither he be in the truth or no and hath but a changeable opinion concerning the law of God should constantly and firmely in all his workes performe that law It is evident that such a man is not fit for Christian life but is like one that whilest he holdeth the plough is still looking backe nor can he hope for any thing from God because his faith is wavering and unstable In his practise he can not choose but be carried too and fro with every wind of opinion Now forwardes now backewardes and never steere any constant course towardes heaven and blisse Whereas this rule of good life as is before declared is of a nature that it comprehendeth all our actions the highest and the lowest the first and the last and all that are comprised between these extreams As for the second part of what we have aboue said Namely that God hath left in his Church meanes for all sorts of people to come to this degree of certainty for euery one according to his growth It is of it selfe manifest to all such as have so reverent a conceit of God as to thinke he doth not his works by halfes nor leaveth mankinde for whom he made the world destitute in the chiefe point and in that for which as for his sole end he created man himselfe to witte for bringing him to blisse and eternall happinesse For since mans nature is made in the most excellent part of it to require evidence and that it is so laudable in matters of Geometry Astronomy Physicks Metaphysicks and whatsoever is of great importance not to be satisfyed without evidence and certainty and to ayme at it with all our strength and that truely our understanding were abused if it should be forced to accept of what it doth not clearely see and is not certainly assured of its nature being made to see and its essence being a power of seeing How can any rationall discourser thinke that God hath failed us in this so materiall and principall concernement Certainly no man of judgement can suspect it But to satisfy even hard believers lett vs looke into particulars And presently wee finde that men in respect of knowledge are of two sorts some who by themselves are capable of vnderstanding truths others who live upon trust of the former kind of knowing men Of this latter sort are all they whom we call schollers who at the first do trust their masters till themselves grow up to the ripenesse and ability of knowing and of teaching others And much more all those who arrive not so forward as to be schollers which in some respect or other are the greatest part of mankinde The Physitian trusteth the Pilot when he is at sea the Souldier when he is in an army the baker for his bread and the brewer for his drinke the Gentleman trusteth his husbandman for his corne the Physitian for his health the Lawyer for his suites and every master in his kinde Now in matter of Religion God hath given vs an advantage which is not in any of the trades or sciences necessary to our temporall life For he hath provided us not some one man or some meeting of a dozen or twenty which is a great cōsult in other affaires but he hath given vs a whole world of men to consult withal and that at one meeting Consider how vast the Church is which holdeth communion with the See of Rome All that at once is your warrant You can not imagine they will tell you a lye for they speake to you not in wordes but in their lives and therefore they must be cosened thēselves or else they can not cosē you there you have a fidelity pledged vnto you beyond the certainty that Euclide or Archimedes could afforded you For it is more impossible that so great a part of mankind should live in a cōtinuall hypocrisie and dissembling then that the surest consequences Geometry can make should be false If you seeke skill that Church is full of learned men in all kindes of Sciences that any other can pretend vnto Search but the Book-sellers shoppes and you shall find a hundred Catholike Authors for one of any other Communion thousands continually studying in Colleges and Religious houses whose perpetuall search may justly challenge the probability of knowing truth If you looke after outward piety and the meanes of preseruing and encreasing of learning you shall finde it there in a higher degree then in all the communities of other sects So that if one may rely vpon outward signs there is no comparison betweene any other company of men and that Church And consequently it is beyond all doubt or question vnto what authority a discreete person who can not or will not take the paines to looke himselfe into particular pointes ought to adhere vnder paine of forfeiting his judgement If he be neuer so little conuersant in the learning of the world he must needes be a mad-man if in the way of moderne authority
and serious apprehension of the future life and of the goods of it But that sense prevayleth in him above reason Now that the Catholike faith hath all the advantages upon which wise men do use to adventure their lives estates and honors wil easily and clearly appeare if the right way be taken to shew it the authority of the Church being so farre beyond all wittnesses used in judgments and all probabilities men use to rely upon in warre and in marchandising that there is no comparison betweene them And the objections which Heretikes use to bring to hinder their clients from embracing the Catholike faith are for the most part but authorities of the nature of those we have discoursed of before Which in such abundance of writings as are in Scripture and in the Fathers cannot faile of being easily mett with by those who purposely seeke them there being in them so many sayings delivered upon the by whiles the Author is attentive to some other question or in circumstances not well knowne to us In fine such difficulties as is impossible to be avoided in much speaking and that neither convince the Authors minde nor much lesse the verity of the question debated The Arguments which are drawne from reason for the proofe or disproofe of particular points are chiefly about Mysteries difficult in nature against which Heretikes use to frame the ordinary obvious objections As against the blessed Trinity how the same thing can be one and three against the Incarnation how the same person can be God and Man and against the Holy Eucharist how can Christes body be divided like a homogeneall body or be at the same time in different places such kind of arguments Universally are hard to be answered because neither the propounder nor the auditory have usually Philosophy enough to understand the solution and sometimes the answerer himselfe falleth short For not every Catholike nor yet every Catholike disputant is necessarily a great Philosopher At the least if the Catholike disputant suspecteth his adversaries subtility in questions of this nature he ought either to bee provided for him or abstaine from disputing or professe himselfe no Master in such speculations and so rather wave them with his owne disparagement then attempt them with the dishonour of the cause In other points the objections against Catholike Truths are generally very triviall ones As against the Popes authority that there cannot be more heads or foundations then one and that Christ is that one Against satisfaction for sinnes that Christ satisfyed sufficiently for all mankinde Against praying to Saints that there is but one Mediatour or that Saints have no eares and therefore can not heare And the like which are pittifull pulpit-bables to fill the mouths of weake persons as soone as with one of these they have troubled some simple persō that themselves are fitt to dispute with the Pope of Rome Such toyes are obvious against any thing And an exercised disputant can not be ignorant of the answeres to them though he may soone be weary of the employement in answering them and ashamed of having suffered himselfe to be drawne unto it As for arguments from reason to proove Catholike Truths They may have as much strength as the disputant is capable of For no argument is so strong but that if it be shott from a weake hand it may prove wholly blunt and impenetrant And therefore I leave the Catholike disputant to his owne discretion in this part Which will tell him that he ought not to engage himselfe in it unlesse he be assured both that his dart is a good one and that he hath the dexterity to ayme it right and the strength to throw it home Out of this short survey of the nature of arguments a good Logician will easily discerne that it is meere losse of time to fall on disputing with one who is not able or will not so much as professe to bring a demonstration for what he intendeth to prove It being indeed to no more purpose then the tossing of balls in a tennis court So that the reason why wee answer or att least ought to answere Hereticks arguments is because they thinke them demonstrative which are not for want of sufficiency in Logick and wee make oppositions which are not demonstrative because they are not able to judge what a demonstration is for to please them with apples whose stomachs loaht strong food The sixteenth REFLEXION On the Qualities requisite in the Auditory that is present att the Disputation HAving said thus much of the disputants It is reasonable to say a word or two of the Auditory Those then before whom you are to dispute are either favorable to you or cōtrary or indifferent And because these qualities arise either out of the understanding or out of the will we will take a survey of these two faculties To begin with the understanding It is cleare that in order to that nothing rendereth a man unfitt to be at such a disputation but incapacity And this is either naturall or for want of study and art or by custome The incapacity of nature is helped by much explication and so is that which proceedeth from want of study with this difference that natural incapacity is taken away by explicating the particular Matter in hand which is tolerable because it doth not draw the disputation out of its owne boundes But when the incapacity is through want of study It is because the disputation supposeth some principles whereof the Auditory is ignorant And these are of two kindes The one Logicall the other Theological The first happeneth chiefely in the use of disputation As if the Auditory be ignorant of the forme that ought to be used in disputing and so wil have the disputant play the defendants part or contrariwise the defendant act the disputants part or desireth that instead of rigorous forme they fall on discoursing or preaching at large Likewise if he be ignorant of the right use of distinction And so either hindereth the defendant from distinguishing when it is necessary he should or permitteth it him when there are not truly two senses in the wordes the disputant speaketh But the defendant by adding some wordes of his owne seemeth to finde two senses where indeed there is but one As for example If the disputant should assume that it is the nature of a man to have two legges And the answerer should distinguish allowing it to be the nature of white men but not of blacke men or the nature of Europeans but not Africans Now if this be allowed the disputant is wronged For taking his rise from this that to have two legges is the nature of a Man hee might prove that Africans have two legs because they are men So for want of Logcik in the respondent and in the Auditory the defendant is not allowed to take the nature of Man in common but is confined to the nature of an European and so is putt beside his argument The second
Religionâ— those who are gone astray from it be so important and perpetuall as it is What shall we determine to be the best course to deale with erring people to reduce them into the path of Salvation The answer is not hard for either their wil or their understanding is faulty If the will you are to consider what be the particular obstructions of it whether some love of temporall thinges or meerly tepidity Of the former the common remedy is to inculcate the vanities of this world and to represent what will become of us in the next Tepidity proceedeth from not being sufficiently acquainted as I may say with the affaires of Religion and the next life or out of a dullnesse of nature The first is to becured by engaging the party in familiar conversation with good compaÌ„y where he may heare such spirituall Matters often handled and discussed whether it be by sermons or by discourses or by colloquies and conferences whereby in prâ—cesse of time the fire may kindle of it selfe and breake out into a quicke flame But the second is to be wrought upon with feares as by frequent commemoratioÌ„ and of hell-fire For by any other course nothing will be gained of such a temper especially if the dullnesse be of that nature that allurements have little force upon it If the fault be in the understanding It is because the true motives of Christianity do not sinke deepely into his soule Now seeing that both experience and reason do teach us how the soule judgeth best When it is most at rest and in quiet you are to draw your patient what you can into a kind of solitude That is to chuse the seasons when least turmoyle either of businesse or of pleasures doth infest him procuring also that there be no adversary at that time to hinder your reasons from taking root in him For it is cerraine that he who will heare nothing but in opposition and under contestation shall never or but very slowly come to understand truth his soule being like a Cistrne into which the water runneth by a spoute at one end and emptieth it self as fast by a hole at the other end For if as soone as one maketh a proposition or short discourse to enlighten the hearers understanding that hee may see the truth of what is layed before him an other att his elbow presently crosseth it saying it is false or raysing difficulties before it be rightly apprehended such a man shal never come to understand what is said to him Not but that happily he may gett some glimpse of it But it will be like a flying vision which permitteth not the judgement to worke upon it Let him therefore weigh deliberatly with himselfe how Religion is the seriousest the severest and the most important affaire we have or can have in our whole lives That it containeth many propositions or parts that every one of them requireth a quiet and a settled judgement to determine it That this judgment can not be made by him but in a calme serene and quiet position and state of his braine And after all this he will clearly see that it is impossible he should be able to performe that duty of Assent which is required in so grave a concernement whiles two adversaries doe disquiet and importune him with their earnestnesse and wrangling in which their sayings doe slide by with great violence and multiply themselves before any one of them can be quietly possessed But what then Must he not heare oppositions and the conflict of both parties Yes by all meanes But in doing so he must be sure first to make himselfe Master of what one party sayth And when he findeth himselfe able to propose his difficulty to the bottome then in the name of God let them encounter the adverse party For when onely two rationall men discourse of a point it will not be hard for him who seeketh truth to penetrate so farre as to see whether or no the adverse party is able to give satisfaction to the argument proposed If he can salve it then no change ought to be made in the inquirers opinion and judgement seeing both sides are equall But if he can not then it is apparent on which side the truth lyeth as farre as may be discerned out of the learning of these two men So that we may conclude there is no solide way but this of arriving to truth in matters of Religion To converse first with the maintainer of one opinion Afterwardes with the maintainer of the contrary opinion with both of them as much without passion as is possible But never to bring them to conflict together when both animosity and shame of being overcome shall debauch their endeavours and their quicke replyes and many ambayes shall leave the auditour unable to judge solidely of what they say though there were nothing besides to obscure and hinder the cleare sight of Truth The eighteenth REFLEXION On what is learning And how mistaken I finde still remaining a disadvantage to the disputant of either side which I must strive to remove if it be possible It is a certaine pre-possession settled in the beliefe of the Auditory or of him that is to be perswaded of the learning and goodnesse of some private person or Doctour upon whose authority truly dependeth the beliefe of the party though perhaps he pretendeth the authority of Scripture or of Fathers or some other rule for his assent This enforced by custom as impetuous a cause almost as nature it selfe lyeth like a great loade upon the heart of him who hath a long time either by his owne judgment or by the constant cry of his neighbours and of those with whom he converseth fixed and redoubled in himselfe a deepe apprehension of such a persons ability and honesty I shall therefore adde here some few markes or rather distinctions of learning to hinder men from erring in their judgments concerning it And first I must note that there are divers sortes of learning And that it doth not follow that he who is eminent in one sort must therefore of necessity excel in another Geometry Physicke Law Philosophy Metaphysikes and Divinity are all of them different sorts of learning all so independent of one another that he who is excellent in one of them may have but a small share in any of the rest Neverthelesse I often see that if a man hath any of these in such a measure as to deserve reputation for it the common sort of people thinketh he knoweth all things and hath recourse to him for what belongeth to another science As if all learning were but one because the name is but one Nor is this proper to the vulgar alone but even they of better ranke do often mistake the true kind of learning that concerneth their present occasion and purpose expecting to finde it in him who hath somewhat like it as will appeare by further discourse The next observation then which we have to make is
that he was faine to learne of new to reade Deservedly hee But what I deduce out of this relation is first that his reasons though in his owne judgment they were not efficacious yet they convinced the whole auditory and that of no common persons By which we may understand that the reasons he brought were not demonstrations nor were the best that might have been alledged for that subject Celse better could not have been opposed And neverthelesse they carried so great an Auditory From whence we may inferre how violent a power the force of this art of talking must necessarily have upon the ordinary sort of men to make them take their Master for a great Doctor An other note that I make upon this occasion is that all the talking of such men is not or ought not to bee sufficient to perswade us not onely that they speake the truth but even that they speak their owne mindes And after all their earnestnesse we may suspect their discourse is framed but to comply with the humour of the times or to promote their present interest or to please their auditors Tully professeth the same of his Oratours and sayth he also practised it himselfe But here I may not omitt the story of that expert generall and understanding man Hanniball the Carthaginian Antiochus having furnished him with a puissant and flourishing army would entertaine him also with an Oration concerning the art of warre and the manner how he ought to proceede in it made by a famous and long-practised Oratour Phormio who in the presence of Antiochus and his Captaines discoursed to Hannibal of this subject to the great applause and admiration of all that heard him excepting Hannibal who being asked how he liked him answered that in all his life-time he had never heard such an old dotardly foole prate A strange censure one would thinke on a man so generally exacted and cryed up Yet if we consider that Phormio had learned his skill of warre onely in written discourses and Histories but Hannibal in the field and in action it selfe wee may easily conceive that Phormios Oration talked of thinges in the ayre and formed his adversary in his fancy whereas Hannibal had studied the thinges in themselves and so knew groundedly what he spoke and saw that all the Oratours glorious speech was but a painted pageant not any effectuall exhibition of truth Hence we may conclude that the ability of discoursing in a high straine and in a pathetike manner is no argument of true learning in him that exerciseth it unlesse juggling and folly in impertinency may passe for learning Who were better talkers or better discoursers then the Academikes Yet their profession was that they had no truth and that indeed there was none to be found The nineteenth REFLEXION On what Divinity And who is a Divine LEtt us now apply this to practise and to our present subject Religion as we have already said is the most important and the most necessary businesse that belongeth to Mans nature and action It is so precisely one that if a man chance to mistake in it be the cause what it will he is lost for ever For as hee that misseth his way cometh not to his journeyes end whether it be his fault or others misguidance that hath made him misse his way So who treadeth not in the true path of Religion never arriveth at eternall happinesse lett the fault lye where it will Now if learning in Religion be the skill of shewing the path to heaven and if all the great noise that these talkers make helpeth one never a steppe thitherwards as not delivering any point of truth that may be relyed upon It is evident that the pretended learning of such persons is much further from the notion of true learning then the Grammar learning we spoke of before For though learning be lowe ad meane as being onely of wordes yet of them att least the Grammarian hath knowledge Whereas this prating this parrate-vertue though it be of thinges yet is it not a science of them but all is meere wordes and winde I heare them reply as they want neither wordes nor impudence to dispute against evidence that though it is true they promise no certainty because none can be had yet they make out high probability which is the Princesse that governeth humane affaires I will not at present discusse whether there be any certainty or no It is enough that the Catholike Church professeth certainty and ever hath done so and nature forceth even the denyers of this truth to act as if they had certainty in perswading and forcing others to their opinions But I wish that these men would speake plaine English and that in lieu of this quaint terme High probability they would tell us the meaning of it in wordes that honest men may understand Lett me see if I can helpe them That which they meane by prohability must either be some accesse towardes truth on the objects side Or a strong perswasion made in the Auditor If it bee a perswasion In the Auditory without any approach to the object clearely it signifyeth nothing else but a high cheate or an excellent juggle with prayse neither may I deny nor do I envy to such men Then for the objects side If there be no fixednesse or certainty of the object by all the arguments of this high Oratour I can not comprehend there is more in all he sayth then peradventure it is true peradventure not So that High Probability signifyeth High Peradventure Which how great a Non-sence it is if applyed to fixed verities that are not subject to the mutability of change and chance that is how ridiculously it is applyed to Religion and to truths of faith is evident to every sensible man If now men will needes have one termed a Divine because he can thus finely talke in the ayre of God and of thinges belonging to him he must be a Divine of blind Tiresias his tribe who in the Poët professeth his Divinity in these termes O Laërtiade Quicquid dicam aut erit aut non Divinare etenim magnus mihi donat Apollo The last part of the reply telleth us that Probabiliry governeth all human action I deny it not But withall I take notice that Action is one thing Beliefe an other Human action is about the gaining of a future End which dependeth on fallible principles as all mortall thinges doe Which are continually involved in a thousand uncertainties and changes But faith is of unchangeable verities which nothing hath power to make otherwise then it is already settled It is a parallel to science I meane to true science such as we se exercised in Geometry for which no man looketh into probabilities And to expect that faith should depend on probabilities is no lesse ridiculous then to thinke the like of Geometry since it is more necessary and more important then Geometry and the way to heaven is missed with greater danger and losse then
us to follow them doe demolish the fences and bullwarckes of the same Christianity and good life But all they who deserve the name of heretikes do agree to charge the Church of Christ with corruption and adultery and do deny in her both infallibility to know Christs doctrine and power to governe And consequently they destroy externall unity and the essence of it Which as it is not formally to ruine good life so it is more then to breake downe her outworkes since it entrencheth upon the very substance in common and leaveth no meanes but meere chance and hazard to come to the knowledge of Christs law and consequently to eternall salvation Whence we may understand what this name Popery signyfyeth to witt An affection or resolution to maintaine faith and good life and the causes of conserving them There are divers other points controverted betweene Catholikes and Sectaries But they are such as for the most part require no explication but a flatt denyall As when they accuse us to have deprived the Laiety of halfe the Communion we deny it For besides that the generall practise of Christians hath bin from the beginning to give the sacrament sometimes in one kinde ometimes in both the Church hath alwayes believed that the entire communion was perfectly administred in either We likewise deny that ever the Church held the necessity of communicating Infants The Popes personall infallibility that Indulgences can draw soules out of Purgatory that Prayers ought of necessity be in an unknowne tongue to though we may thinke it fitting in some circumstances that the publike service for reverence and Majesty be so performed that faith is not to be kept with Heretikes that the Pope can dispense with the subjection to Princes And many such other Tenets which are injuriously imposed upon Catholikes by Sectaries and are flatly denyed by us and therefore require no further explication or discourse about them A Sampler of Protestants Shuffling in there Disputes of Religion COntroversy Logick or the art of discoursing in matter of Religion between those who profess the Law of Christe can not be complete unless as Aristotle made a Book of fallacies to avoide cavills in his Organe or instrument of science so wee also discover the common fallacies used in controversies Not all but the chiefest and most ordinarily in this business This then is the scope of my present work For which the first note I make is that owre Ancients have taught us and by experience wee daylie finde that Heresie is in a manner as soon overthrowne as layed open falshood like turpitude being ashamed of nakedness Therefore 't is falshoods game to vest it self like an Angel of light in the skin of the lamb and to seeme to weare the Robes of truth I mean by words like those of the Catholick party to delude the simplicity of the Innocent and welwishing People And now must it be our theame to unvaile theire Shufflings The first Shuffle Of the Word Scripture And first If we aske them what they rely upon they braggingly answer on Gods word upbraiding Catholicks to rely upon men when they fly to the churches witness but if we press thē to declare what they meā by Gods word to wit the Book of the Bible or the meaning of it they are forced to answer the sense for even beasts can convince them that wee have the Book as well as they Marching on another step and pressing to know by what instruments or means they have the sense there is no subterfuge from confessing it is by reading and their owne judging or thinking the sense of the Scripture is that which they affirme though all Catholicks affirm the contrary And although even in this they are cosened following for the most part the explication of their preacher Yet I press not that for they know not that they do so But I conclude see what you meane when you say you rely upon Scripture or Gods word to wit that you rely upon your owne opinion or guessing that this is Gods word So that this glorious profession of relying upon Gods word is in substance and reality to rely upon the opinion or guessing of a Cobler or Tinker or some house-wife when the answerers are such or at most of a Minister who for his owne interest is bound to maintaine this is the meaning of Gods word The second Shuffle Of Generall Councils SOme Protestants are so bold as to profess they wil stand to Generall Councils Now a General Council in the language of Catholicks is a general meeting of the Christian World by the Bishops and Deputies of it to testify the Doctrine of the Christian Church And is accounted inerrable in such determinations and therefore to have power to command the faith of Christians and to cast out of the Church al who do not yield to such their determinations and agreements and by consequence to have a supreme Authority in the Church in matters of faith The Protestants loath to leave the shadow though they care not for the substance use the name but to no effect For the intention being to manifest the Doctrine of the Christian World They first agree not upon the notion of what a Council is Requiring sometimes that al Bishops should bee present sometimes that all Patriarks though known to bee professed Hereticks and under the Turk sometimes objecting want of liberty and mainly that they decide not by disputation out of onely scripture or that they taught false Doctrine So that to the Protestant a Council signifies an indefinite and uncertaine when and what it is meeting of men going upon the scripture Which as it is before declared signifies every cobler or Ministers fancie which hath no authority to binde men to believe and is to bee judged by the Doctrine or agreement in faith with the Protestants The third Shuffle Of the consent of Fathers THe consent of the Fathers or Doctours of Christians before oure age and controversies beares so Venerable an aspect as that few Hereticks dare at least before honest understanding Christians give it flatly the lye Therefore the discreeter part of Protestants acknowledg it yet with a salve that they were all men and might bee deceived which in effect is to say that it is no convincing or binding Authority as Catholicks hold it to bee nay to bee a stronger authority then that of Councils as being the judgement of the Catholick Church or the learned part of it which is al one as to faith The Protestant first at one clap cutts of a thousand or 13. hundred yeares nay some 15. hundred The one saying S. Gregory the great was the last Father and first Papistrie the more ordinary course being to acknowledg onely the Fathers of the Persecution time before Constantine finding Popery as they call it to publick afterwards some pressing that ever since the decease of the Apostles the Church hath been corrupted So that they neither give any authority to the consent of Fathers nor