CONTROVERSY LOGICKE Or The Methode to come to truth in debates of Religion Written by THOMAS WHITE GENTLEMAN ANNO 1659. THE INTRODUCTION MR. John Biddle who is represented to me as one of the most learned and most rationall among the enemies of the Roman Church wrote a booke wherein he declared what opinion he had framed to himselfe out of Scripture concerning the blessed Trinity And that not out of Scripture alone but also out of the Fathers of the first three Centuries smoothly skipping ouer according to the vsuall actiuity of a Protestant Doctor aboue a thousand yeares att a leaue By which proceeding he pretendeth that neither the Caluinist nor any other who sticketh to pure Scripture nay not the Protestant himselfe who extendeth his authority to the Fathers of the first three hundred yeares and no further haue any law or right to censure him seeing he maintaineth all the Principles of both these sortes of persons and offereth to justify out of them by disputation whatsoever he hath written Excepting which two pretended authorities namely of Scripture and of the Fathers of the first three Centuries both of them privately interpreted there is nothing but meere willfulnesse to move any of the fore-mentioned persons to believe firmely any conclusion of faith and Religion or to censure rationally any who hold the contrary opinions This man not withstanding his so conformable plea and the maine position of liberty of Prophecying which is the Basis of all those who refuse the judgment of a speaking Church wee see detained prisoner by publike authority and his booke burned by the hand of the publike Executioner This begott in me as I conceive it did the like in sundry others a desire and curiosity of speaking with him Which not being able to compasse by my slender power My next worke was to reade his booke After which I must not deny him this commendation that supposing the principle of every mans choosing his Religion out of Scripture Grammatically intrepreted at is the manner of all those who recede from the authority of tradition he proceedeth very rationally and consequently Neither do I imagine that any of his persecutors is able to give a satisfactory answere to what he hath written And this hath bin confirmed in me since I have vnderstood that some have sett out workes against him which haue not afforded the discreeter part even of their owne followers the content they expected from them And that others have attempted to do the like but have bin soo discreete as to suppresse their endeavours vpon their finding the successe did not correspond to their wishes This hath made the booke be esteemed exceeding dangerous to Christian Religion by those who thought they have no rule to know what is solide and what is not in Matters of Religion yet are by the force of custome and consent of the greatest part of the Christian name detained from renouncing the God-head of the whole Trynity as esteeming it the maine foundation for a materiall point of Christian beliefe and that which hath brought forth during to many ages those heroyke actions and noble effects wherewith the Christian world is enriched aboue the neglected times of Paganisme Now this consideration or rather experiment as it conuinced clearly that disputations betweene all such as adhere solely to Scripture are for the most part meerely vaine and fruitlesse for witty men will neuer commit too great a folly as to maintaine by Scripture what is palpably and vngloseably against it so it made me reflect that euen the disputations which we Catholikes do vse against Protestants are seldome and onely by accident profitable And by farther rumination my thoughts sprunge out the ensuing treabise I may not conclude this preamble without reflecting vpon Mr. Biddles appeale to the Fathers of the first three Ages which exclusion of those of the following Ages Not because it is his but because it is common to him and to the Protestants and euer to the learnedest Caluinists as may be seene in the workes of Chamier and Daille Truly to my thinking it is a most ridiculous and vnreasonable proposition For I would faine know how it can fall into the braines of any indifferently discoursine man to doubt whiter the Fathers of the fourth Age did not know what the Fathers of the former Ages held better then we can discouer it out of their writings that remaine to vs Then more of them were extant Neither was there any cauils or att least very few which of them were trew which suppositions The stile the phrase the circumstances the practises of the times wherein those Fathers wrote were then better vnderstood And which is the chiefe ô fall there were yet wittnesses aliue who either had knowne them or att least knew others that had knowne them and had conuersed with them so that by being acquainted with the opinions of the men they could not doubt of the sense and interpretation of such hard passages as by inaduertence naturall euen to the most diligent and most wary writers could not chose but sometimes fall from their pennes These were the aduantages of the 4.th Age ouer this wherein we now liue And consequently if we can aske the 4.th Age what it was that these fathers held and may haue their assured answere to our question There can be no comparison betweene that euidence and what we can guesse att out of those scrappes and remnants of darke expressions which in many cases must be the subject of our enquiry if we examine their writinges I will giue you for an example this booke of Maister Biddle that hath occasioned the following discourse Reade the testimomyes he alleageth they will seeme to you the very contexture of the treatises out of which he hath drawne them so large in some places so continuedly page after page whereas generally our Protestant citations are bur of a line or two spoken vpon the by whiles the Authors discourse concerneth an other businesse And yet neuer the lesse nothing can be more manifest then that the doctrine he pretendeth to abett by those testimonies was not the opinion of the fathers he alleageth for it The councill of Nice called the Great that is the Vniuersall Christian world with open mouth and one consent condemning the Arrians of nouelty And St. Athanasius so many times vpbraiding them to their faces that their progenitors were onely Caïphas and Artemas and such like and that their Clergy men were faine to learne how to professe their faith and how to speake a certaine token of their hauing bin formerly taught the contrary The like in effect is in all other controuersies betweene Protestants and vs for in any of them the 4.th Age doth testify that the doctrine it holdeth is descended from their fore-Fathers and is in quiet possession of beliefe in the Church and that the opiniō they dispute against is a nouuelty they do thereby declare the doctrine of the precedent age more efficaciously then any testimonies
vicious is a quality common to all sorts of Actions not a speciall kinde of Action And yet an Action is said to proceede from Man as Man as farre as it is vertuous or vicious Neither is there any Action so proper to vertue and vice as not to include some other nature within it selfe Fortitude requireth some action or passion to gouverne and wherein to exercise courage and stoutenesse temperance hath pleasures to moderate as in meate and drinke which belong so an other faculty Justice hath civill actions to regulate which are determined by lawes and by customes And Prudence is a common eye over all Yet possibily though the actions be the same the sciences wherein they are concerned may never the lesse be divers As the skill of Musike or of Logike is very different from the science which teacheth to make use of them with moderation in due time and place So Philosophers assigne Arts to the one and the science of Morall to the other Wherefore it is apparent that what in Christian language we call Religion is correspondent to that which the heathen wizards termed Morall Philosophy Correspondent I say or rather proportionable with the imparity of pagan darkenesse to the light of truth delivered us by almighty God For as the next world was altogether obscure and unknowne to those old Philosophers So was also by consequence the true end of humane life and action And therefore all their skill and study fell short and was notable to bring them to the least action perfect in the way of nature since it was not possible for any action to be perfect in respect of nature which not onely missed but not so much as aymed att her true End and consequently was uncapable of reaching to the circumstances due thereunto Now that which I draw from the mention I have made of these Philosophers is that Reigion is in proportion to Christian life what they did esteeme Morall Philosophy to bee towardes a good or happy life in naeure The second REFLEXION How Religion is naturally to be bred in mankinde FRom these premisses it followeth clearely that if Mans nature were in its due perfection Religion would be as well knowne and with as much security assented to as are now the common principles of nature and of naturall liuing For since according to the maxime of Philosophers no one action can be performed by man as man but that it must be either vertuous or vitious and by consequence in euery passage of his life a rule is necessary for him by wich to square and regulate his proceeding that it may be vertuous It is manifest that if he be not very secure and perfect in this discipline he must vnauoidably faile and swerue from vertue and nature and consequently he would not be complete in the course of nature nor enioy that perfect State which is conformable to his nature Therefore enioy the perfectiō of human nature it is necessary that he have all security of his beliefe and a complete rule for his actiōs and consequently the principles of Religion ought to be as euident to him as the principles of nature No lesse is euident out of the former part of our discourse For if Religion be the skill of obtaining beatitude or heavenly glory and if this be the end of our birth and of our liuing in this world It followeth that our very life here can not be so directed as it ought to bee vnlesse we have the science and rule of Religion And because the right direction of our life to aeternall Beatitude is of greater valew and worth then our continuation in this world It is euident that the science of attaining Beatitude ought to be more cleare vnto vs then the skill of guiding our selfes in our corporal life Wherefore seeing that we finde Religion is not now so cleare and certaine vnto vs as are the Principles of our naturall and ciuill life we may easily gather that we are not in the right temper which human nature requireth And from hence one may argue that if the happy state in which our first Parents were created had continued till their multiplication had filleth the earth the knowledge of God and other principles for gaining so celestiall blisse would haue bin as naturall to them as the prouiding of meate clothes houses and such naturall accommodations are to vs now and would have bin derived from Parents to children with the same connaturallnes and would have bin embraced by the children with a like or greater heate of affection And that the vnhappy apple was the cause it is not now so as it likewise was of all other disorders in mankinde whereof this is not the least if not the source of most of them as they who looke into the matter will easily discerne The due way therfore to attaine the knowledge of Religion is by nature Such nature I meane as we may obscure to worke in children when they learne their first languages which as it is not effected without the deliuering of them by their mothers and nurses so neither is it without the endeauours of the litle soules labouring to expresse their thoughts and mindes And nature hath in her such principles that neither the one party nor the other can give over the paines till they have brought the effect to passe after the same maner in that happy state of innocency children would have bin trained vp in Godliness as perfectly as in naturall qualities without any violent straining of them thereunto and as it were even before they should have bin awarie of it And this is clearely deduced out of an axiome that Philosophers do vse in the beginning of Logicke where they teach vs Logick ought to be learned before other sciences because it is an instrument or methode to obteine sciences by and consequently ought to be possessed before one setteth himselfe to the gaining of science So Religion being the instrument and methode to guide vs for the well acting of our lifes when once we are come to the vse of reson It is cleare that it ought to be planted in vs before we come to the age and vse of discretion Againe since no action ought to be exempt from the direction of Religion not euen the very first It can not be doubted but that Religion ought to take possession of our hearts euen before Reason Neither do I speake this as a thing that should haue bin onely in the state of Paradise but as what is connaturall to vs here and is practised by many pious Mothers who teach their children their prayers and stampe in their mindes a deepe conceit of God and of heauen before they are capable of judging in matters concerning temporall commodities So that it is plaine that it belongeth truly to the nature of Religion to be propagated in man kinde by discipline and by deliuery ouer from father to sōne and to be embraced in the meere vertue of such a reception through the
he followeth any other or so much as misdoubteth there can be any other comparable to this As for the other sort of men who of themselves are able and curious to look into the veins in which the rootes of Religion do runne Lett them but reflect on the change that hath been made in the world since Christian Religion began to flourish that is since Constantines time and since the first 300. yeares after Christ and they may demonstratiuely conclude that seeing the long space of 4. or 5 thousād yeares of nature was not able to produce those great and noble effects which wee evidently see have sprung up so aboundantly in so farre shorter a time the finger of God must necessarily be in this time and that Protestants by rejecting it as Papisticall do confesse plainely that all the great effects of Christian Religion are proper to those whom they terme Papists And seeing that the Ages since the first three after Christ are the whole flourishing time of the Christian Church this their disclayming them will appeare unto any understanding man to be the very renouncing of Christianity it selfe Now if he who pretendeth to knowledge be able to manage humane nature and to see how a freedome of heart from the pleasures and cares of this world is that which bringeth all good to man both in temporall and in spirituall considerations And that this freedome can not be introduced without a settled assurance of the goods of the next world nor that persuasion be wrought by any other meanes then by faith and by the course which Christ tooke for it He will not onely forbeare admiring that the world though fraught with arts in the first 2000. yeares should deserve the just revenge of the deluge-waters But will also discerne that as in the latter 2000. yeares before Christ it had advanced nothing att all So had it endured 4000. yeares more without the light that Christ brought into it it would never have growne better The love of worldly goods exalting arts and civility to a certaine pitch and then by its encrease into immoderation reducing all backe to barbarisme Or at least floating mankinde in a certaine compasse too and fro and never permitting it to grow into any heighth of perfection The fifth REFLEXION How Christian Religion hath been propagated and conserved THe threade of our discourse hath by this time woven vs into the consideration of the meanes where by one may come to the true Religion In which two inquiries occurre vnto vs the one concerning the beginning and first publication of Religion the other concerning the circumstances that belong unto it now in the present age wherein we live As for the former wee hauing our Saviours command to expresse that it ought to be done by preaching and hauing the testimony of all Christians euer since that it was so performed there remaineth no place to question how Christian Religion came first into the hearts of mankinde The Apostles had by Gods speciall gift the knowledge of all languages By this they could speake to all natitions And so it is generally vnderstood they did and that by word of mouth they propagated through all the world that faith which themselues had learned from Jesus Christ But that they carried any bookes about with them or that they did sett the nations they preached vnto on learning those languages in which the scripture was written there is no mention at all Nor is it either probable or possible that they did so it is well knowne that many of the Nations which att that time became Christian had no writing or reading in many ages after And so it is euident that the generall propagation of Christian faith was by vocall preaching and by vocall tradition from father to sonne of the doctrine first planted among them by the Apostles And indeed supposing Nations to be vnlearned it is cleare that there can be no other ordinary way of conueying this necessary discipline to posterity No doubt but the methode of the first institution is in a manner Ideall to the following continuation which is but a kind of repetition of the beginning And so we might justly conclude without any further paines that the conseruation of Religion ought to be likewise effected by original deliuery that is to say by Tradition But the very thing it selfe affordeth vs more light to see evidently the truth of our Conclusion For looking into the nature of that which is to be done we shall see plainly that it is impossible it should be effected by any other way What is it we meane by planting Religion in a Country but that the People of it should haue the knowledge of the way how to goe to Heauen Lett us then examine what signifyeth this word People There are two Notions of it The first is that it signifyeth the men the women and the Children of a common wealth or nation so comprising all the individuals of humane Nature that live in that nation Now of these it is the property of children to believe what is told them without doubting wheter it be true or no or ever judging of the thing proposed As for women a great part of them participateth of the same quality And the most of them are governed by their husbandes esteeming them if they have any worth in them the best of men The third member of this division falleth under the second notion of the word People and single is the whole subject of it for it signifyeth a multitude of men employed in seeking and in attending to their livelihoods and subsistance not looking after learning or applying themselves to study for which the greatest part of them wanteth either leisure or capacity or inclination Now in which sence soever this word is taken I◠appeareth manifestly that Tradition is the necessary and onely meanes to establish faith in the people For the Maxime is well known that he who is not of an art must in what belongeth to that trust those whose particular skill and profession that art is And thus it is euident that the People taken according to the explication giuen must rely vpon an Authority for knowing what is the true Religion and what is not But when we once come to Authority there is no pretence for any but for that of the Catholike Church shee onely can speake authoritatiuely all others speaking from their owne heads and shee onely professing to speake from the mouth of Christ and of his Apostles shee onely hauing had the sense and meaning of the Apostles deliuered to her because shee onely hath continued euer since their times all the rest hauing nothing but dead words and the killing letter deliuered to them whiles for the sense of those wordes they haue no further recourses them to their owne imaginations and discourses In the next place lett us consider what is the knowledge of heaven And our first remarke will tell vs that it is such a knowledge as God himselfe was
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
Platonicke Schoole and brought into it the imitation of the Trinity which is found in their discourses and in the writings of their followers So amiable is truth that the very likenesse of it enamoureth the understanding How much more would the substance do so were it rightly pursued and truly discovered Which without question it may be even in this very particular the termes in which this sublime Mystery is delivered being so naturall and the thing it selfe being the connaturall substance of Almighty God that dependeth not upon any chance or free disposition and the intention of revelation being generally to bring us to the knowledge of the thing that is revealed And therefore you will say the wonder is not so great that since Christian Religion was knowne and voyced about in the world these Mysteries should be treated of by Philosophers in their Schooles and writings But if in any of them before the coming of Christ there shoud have sprung out of pure nature the least intimation of any of these supernaturall Mysteries That would be a strong confirmation of what we have here said Certainely if this may be expected from any it must be from Aristotele He being of the onely person amongst the Heathens that hath written with solidity Of him then it is reported that as he lay upon his death-bed considering the miseries that poore man-kinde falleth dayly into through Errors and that it is not in the power of Nature to deliver Man from them hee pronunced this great sentence That Homer had much reason to make the Gods take human shapes upon them to draw by that meanes poore Men out of Errours Behold the Incarnation of the sonne of God ' as so lively grounded as any Christian can speake of it And this by the meere strength of reason And is it possible that now after so glorious publication of the Christian faith through the whole earth there should be found any Christians so unreasonable as to thinke it unreasonable that God should become man to save us from our sinnes which are the true roote of all our miseries The like is of the holy Eucharist Did but men understand so much of Metaphysickes as to know the Nature of their owne growth or augmentation they would find no difficulty in that now by many so disbelieved and decryed though in it selfe so heavenly and needefull a Mystery But ignorance and pride maketh that to be held for absurd which in truth is most conformable to Nature I will adde but one word more upon this occasion for their sakes who are affected with reason and are best satisfyed with discourses built upon that foundation This Principle being supposed that all thinges are governed in the perfectest manner that may be in conformity to the generall rules of nature which Divines use to expresse in these wordes that God ever doth that which is best then presently All the Mysteries of Christian Religion Namely the creation of Man the fall the oeconomy or conduct of the world untill the coming of Christ since Christ the end of the world the last Judgement the Resurrection the severall States of soules before it and of men after it Beatitude Damnation And whatsoever else is in Catholike beliefe as the Doctrine concerning the Church Church-gouvernement the Sacraments and whatsoever else belongeth of necessity to credulity and obedience All these I say will appeare so mainely evident and reasonable that no man of a just capacity and unpassionate mind can take any exception against it Whosoever will employ his time and endeavours in this search and shall begin it with a right understanding of Nature will find with unspeakable comfort and satisfaction to himselfe that what I have here said is true I confesse some paines are required to know these thinges as also there are some necessary to comprehend the demonstrations of Archimedes and the Cronickes of Apollonius Pergeus about which we see so many straine their wittes to understand them for the delight that is in them when they are once mastered And yet the importance ad consequence of them is not comparable to the knowledge of these truths which looked after with a like attention in a due progresse will become as evident as they But wee must not expect to attaine to the depth of all these pointes by onely discoursing of them in familiar conversation for our divertisement and recreation or by reading some treatise of them in such sort as one would do a Romance only for entertainement or passe-time and delight They who are skilled in Geometry or Algebra do well know they never purchased those sciences so cheape Seeing then that this is of so much higher a straine in it selfe and of so farre greater a concernment towardes the governement of their lifes Lett them if they can not be satisfyed with simply believing these truths use industry to finde Masters able to instruct them and employ a competency of labour in pursuite of them The eighth REFLEXION Of conference and Disputation in common AFter the way of reading there offereth it selfe to our consideration that of personall discoursing or Dialogising This may be performed in two Manners The one when hee who is to learne contributeth on his side bearing himselfe with a desire to come to truth and helping it on by acknowledging candidly what seemeth to him true out of his former persuasion and proposing wherein hee findeth difficulty and asking no more then to have that opened unto him which some preoccupation hath obstruted This Manner of treating is called Conference And no doubt but it is a farre shorter and more efficacious way to come to knowledge then reading Provided the teacher be an able Man and Master of his profession For a writer can speake but in common whereas such a teacher knoweth by the answers of his opposer wherein particularly lyeth the difficulty he is to remove and accordingly spareth and contracteth many discourses wihch the writer is forced to deliver att ayme and att hazard Besides the very orall delivery is farre more intelligible and giveth a singular energy to what is so taught The other Manner of Dialogising is when the Auditour standeth upon his guard and yieldeth nothing upon fore-knowledge but will bee coâ—vinced and see evidence for every thing he is to allow And this is properley called Disputation The parties in this are clearely two and no third to moderate the Disputation though oftentimes one be necessary to moderate the Disputants Who otherwise through contention and earnestnesse may bee apt to neglect the rules of DisputatioÌ„ whereof the first or chiefe is that the one meddle not with the others office as long as he holdeth to the rules of Disputation The parties being two a disputaÌ„t and a respondent The first thing the disputant is to doe is to state the question or rather to require of the respondent to do it if it bee necessary That is if he suspecteth the termes of the Thesis to be equivocall Then is he
to oblige the respondent to explicate his meaning in the position For that belongeth to the respondent who can not be forced to hold by the wordes of his Thesis any more then himselfe meaneth by them He may also oblige him to yield the reason of his Tenet if it be such a one that the opposite is the more common or of Authors that he is bound not to forsake without great reason For as in truth it is an impudence to maintaine any thing without a reason So the reason failing the maintainer is putt from his position though peradventure the position it selfe be not confuted Neither ought there to be required more reasons then one for one truth Not but that many arguments may be framed to prove the same conclusion but because among them one at the least ought to be irrefragable and which cā not be cōvinced of defect For if none be such the respondent ought not to maintaine his assertion for true since he himselfe must needes thinke that peradventure it is false not having evidence or knowledge that it can not be otherwise then as he affirmeth it The second duty of the disputant in a serious disputation intended for the finding out of truth is to propose no argument but such as in his opinion is convincing We can not oblige a man to know so much For all of us are fallible in particulars and even Geometricians themselves do sometimes mistake a truth for demonstrated when really it is not so But that which we may exact of our disputant is that he esteem his argument convictive and propound it for such ād he is to make account that himselfe is overcome if fair law being givē him he do not overcome For his part being to prove if he do not that faileth of his end which is to lose the day and if before he begin he doth not expect to do this he cometh not to dispute but to mock the Auditory and to persuade them or to make a shew of that which in reality he knoweth he can not performe His third duty is to proceede in forme Now by true and rigorous forme is meaned Syllogisticall forme So that in rigour every attempt of his should be a Syllogisme But among expert and ingenuous Logitians This is not exacted unlesse it bee upon a pinch where there is a controversy upon the consequence For then the rigour of forme concludeth the question Otherwise to goe as they call it by Enthymemes that is by putting one onely Antecedent whence the denyed proposition is averred to follow is the shorter and the clearer way For it taketh away both lenghth and confusion from the respondent And because if the Antecedent be false it is but one and so the deniall or distinction of it putteth the arguer in his ready way and if the consequēce be naught that is to be proued the Disputation goeth the more smoothly on His fourth duty is to prove what is immediatly denyed him and to bring that in his consequent whether it be a proposition or a sequele he ought to make good These are the necessary and maine duties of the disputant For although anciently he was allowed to make what demandes he pleased of thinges pertinent to his proofe before the respondent could discern what he aymed at by his questions Yet our latter Schoole-practise hath cutt of this liberty as being very subject to circumvent the respondent and rather captious then a solide meanes to arrive att truth As for the Answerer His first duty is to remember his name that is to say that he sitteth there to answere and therefore ought to speake no more then he is asked His solemne wordes are knowne to be I grant I deny I distinguish As for granting it is att his danger As for denying he ought not to deny any proposition that of it selfe is knowne to be true As for distinguishing he must shew that the Arguers wordes do bear more senses then one or else he giveth no distinction Hee must also shew that the parts of his distinction are to the purpose of the argument otherwise his distinction is frivolous This he must do when the Actour requireth it Otherwise he must onely give his distinction and grant the one part and deny the other to the end the arguer may choose whether he will accept of that which is granted or prove that which is denyed If he grant a proposition formerly denyed or if he deny a proposition formerly granted he hath lost the day Whether he may distinguish a proposition that he hath before simply granted or denyed is a question touching the honour of the defendant But without doubt in rigour it is lawfull to be done For no proposition can be supposed to be granted or denyed in all senses possible And therefore upon further occasion it may be declared in what sense it was formerly allowed or denyed The ninth REFLEXION Of the Application of the same to Religion BUt to apply these observations to our present subject we must cast our eyes upon the ayme and scope of our disputation Other disputations that are not of Religion wee see are sometimes done for the exercise of yong Schollers to inure them to a subtile and rigorous Manner of discoursing and to make them perfect in the consequences to their Tenets which is a laudable course according to the worth of the sciences they are about Other whiles men meete to dispute either for recreation sake or for ostentation of their wittes The latter is pardonable in yong men and the former is a commendable Manner of passing their time for those who have no better meanes of spending it But when all this is applyed to Religion it taketh an other hew For here wee looke for truth in the most necessary part and businesse of our life in which to be deceived is the greatest mischiefe that can befall us Beyond the ruine of our estate Beyond the taking away of our life Beyond the extinguishing of our family And beyond the losse of all that is deare to us in this world Wherefore he that in this Matter maintaineth any position meerely for ostentation of his witte is guilty of a most Sacrilegious action and committeth upon the party he seduceth the worst sort of murther that Mans Nature is capable of in like Manner to make a meere recreation of such disputing Is a high contempt of God of eternall Beatitude and of Divinity For exercise it may be necessary so it be knowne to befor that end and that under colour of exercise no wrong persuasion be induced into the Auditory Yet is all this from our present businesse For the Disputation for which these rules are intended is a kind of trial of the truth of Religion By which the Auditory may take an Apprehension of what they are to follow during their whole life So that it is not to be allowed without just security from both parties From the Arguent for his disputing and from the
we can draw out of the writinges of that precedent age are able to convince Thus rationall Reader thou seest what hath bin my motiue to spinne this thridde for thee to worke thy selfe out of the ambiguities and labirinths wherein our country is att present so perplexed in matters concerning Religion the designe of it is to make thee discerne that disputation att large as it is commonly managed is Needelesse Vselesse and dangerous Needelesse because there are other meanes Easy for those who are otherwise busied and neede belieuing and cleare for those who wil take the paine and employ the time requisite for their instruction Vselesse because neither the ouercommer doth gaine his cause nor doth the weaker loose it since in such a disputation nothing is compared but what the two Antagonists did say or att most could haue said which is litle or nothing to the maine cause it selfe Besides such a running discourse may well fill the auditors heads but can hardly euer cleare them there wanting time rest and quiet to settle a mature and solide judgement And lastly such disputation is dangerous because in encounters of that natures witt tongue and chance do for the most part beare a great sway and haue a maine stroake and oftentimes do breake and disorder the better cause and the weaker sort of hearers apt to judge by the euent do take sinister impressions and receiue damage att the indiscretion or misfortune of an ouersett disputant In a word the scope of this short discourse is to shew that quietnesse and solitude in which our braine is serene and our spirits are calme and a man hath his best wittes present to him Not publike disputes wherein vsually is nothing but wrangling and provoking one another into distempers and mutuall animosities Is the most proper meanes to discerne truth and especially in matters of Religion And I dare confidently say that whosoeuer shal take this course will finde the fruite of it which I hartily wish to all those who stand in neede of it As for Mr. Biddles booke If those of his aduersaries who are separated from the Catholike Church are able to confute it by their principles that is to say if they can shew not onely that the truth which they maintaine is more plaine in scripture then his errors are but that it is so euident that the explications which may be brought for his party are not receiuable and so that his errors may be condemned out of the force of scripture alone Then Catholike writers will not neede to engage their pennes against him But if I am not much mistaken whosoeuer shall goe about it wil find it a hard taske the question being of such a nature as requireth a seeming contradiction in wordes to expresse it and so the knott of it lyeth in determining which part of the seeming contradictory passages ought to be explicated by the other Now how such a controuersy can be decided by bare wordes I can not comprehend If then those aduersaries do proue to weake too maintaine this cause and the inefficaciousnesse of single scripture in this so maine a point do become euident It may be necessary to vse Catholike arguments for the defence of Christian truth Vnto which the following considerations may prepare thee The first REFLEXION What Religion is TO vnderstand a right the nature of disputation about Religion we must first know what Religion it selfe is We due not here take it in the sense of Schoole-diuines for a speciall vertue by which we performe the honours due to almighty God to his frendes the Saintes and to what euer holy thinges do belong to him and his But Religion in our present treatie signifieth a skill or art of doctrine coming to aeternall blisse To vnderstand this the better we are to remember that it hath euer bin receiued as an undoubted truth among the true-beleeuers both in the law of nature and in that of Moyses as also more euidently among Christians that man hath two lifes The one in this state of mortality and corruption while we live vnder the lawes of change and of necessity in this world the other which we expect after the end of this to dure for euer in great blisse and happinesse if we behaue our selfes here as we ought to do or in great miseries and torments if we neglect our duties in this world Now the life of the next world being to last for euer and the consequences of it for good and bad being so highly exalted aboue the contentments and afflictions of our present life it followeth that the art or skill of steering a right course towardes it is incomparably more necessary and more esteemable then any art or learning whatsoeuer belonging to the affaires of this world Beyond the skill of trading and of gaining wealth in which the Easterne and Arabian wizardes place their wisedome Beyond the out witting and the ouer powering glory of the Potentats and State Masters of the Earth whose felicity is to ensnare the world into the necessily of a willfull bondage to their vnlimited ambition beyond the selfe-pleasing contentment of those who settling in their owne nest do laugh att the restlesse negotiations of such as turmoile in the waues of fortune and to satisfy themselues with the enioying of home-bred and easily-compassed delights of body and of minde So that the skill designed by the name of Religion in our proposed discourse is of an excellency and of a necessity not to be paralleled by any other whatsoeuer and being compared to all others it outweigheth their worth beyond all measure and proportion and at that rate deserueth to be esteemed by vs and to be sought after with our whole force and with our vtmost endeavours Besides what we hitherto said Philosophers do offer us yet another consideration not to be neglected They make a generall diuision of mans actions into two kindes whereof the one they seeme to say are the actiōs of man as he is man But that the others do proceede from him as he is endowed with some particular quality yet withall that such quality is proper onely to humane nature As for example no liuing creature but man cā be a smith a carpenter a Pilot a musitian a Philosopher And yet none of the actions peculiar to these persons are in themselues considered to be the Actions of Man as he is Man But if any Action bee prudently valiantly justly or temperately performed they say that action proceedeth from him who doth it as he is Man But truly according to my judgement this is not properly a diuision of Actions as Actions but rather of the degrees or of the qualities of the same kind of actions For the smith and the Pilot cannot exercise their respectiue trades but that their working must needes be either in convenient measure and circumstances or out of such and accordingly what they do must be either prudent or imprudent just or vniust c So that to be vertuous or
forced to take mans flesh upon him to teach it us because it was so high and transcendent beyond all that our eyes had ever seene or that our eares had ever heard or that our imaginations had ever conceiued or fancyed that a lesse authority then Gods essentiall verity was not enough to settle our beliefe upon so sublime and so admirable mysteries Now this being so can we imagin that the discussion of ambiguous words in which such incomprehensible mysteries are hidden should be left to the fancyfull changeablenesse of human apprehensions Who seeth not that mans vnderstanding must of necessity alwayes incline the ballance towardes those thinges he useth to be conversant with that he is wont to see to heare and to conceiue Which is in effect directly contrary to the reason of our Saviours coming And accordingly we dayly meete with some that laugh at the doctrine of the real presence of Christes Body in the blessed Sacrament some at the blessed Trinity euery one framing grounds to himselfe according as his fancy driveth him or as the company he cōverseth with draweth him Now if the scanning of ambiguous wordes will not serve to settle the beliefe of Christian doctrine in the hearts of mankinde It is cleare that nothing but Tradition can performe that worke since there remaineth nothing else that can pretend there to And consequently nothing but Tradition can be the meanes to plant and continue Religion in the world Lastly let us looke into the quality of this doctrine And presently it appeareth to us that it ought to comprehend all our actions and consequently ought to precede the very first of them while as yet there is no judgement in us and when we are growne to the ripenesse of judging it ought to Master our very judgement it selfe since the exercising of that is also one of our actions How then can it be supposed that Religion ought to be studied and learned like a science or skill when as it ought to be possessed even then when we begin to study and that our very study ought to be regulated by it The sixth REFLEXION That the Scripture duely read will bring a man to the truth of Religion SEeing it is agreed on by all parties that the Scriptures were written by the same spirit which guided the Apostles in their preaching There can be no doubt but that the doctrines contained in their witings must needes be conformable to what they delivered in their sermons and in other vocall instructions with this difference that there could he no dispute about their meaning in what they preached and catechised by reason of their often inculcating and plaine expressing it Whereas nothing can be more cleare then that in what they have written their sense is oftentimes obscure and very difficult to be discovered and penetrated into And therefore the Scriptures are to be interpreted by the law writtē in the heart of that Church which hath alwayes adhered to the doctrine that from time to time they have received from their predecessours though withall I have no scruple but that if the Scripture be read in such sort as it ought to be it will of it selfe bring the man who so readeth it to the true Religion The conditions that I require for the due reading of Scripture are these First that he have a sincere intention and affection to submitt his owne minde and judgement to the Scriptures and not straine them to his opinion Secondly that he have a sound understanding not apt to be carried away lightly Thirdly that he meddle with no commenter or interpreter that is more cunning then himselfe nor rely upon any thing for the minde and sense of the Scripture but what the Scripture it selfe affordeth him Fourthly that he reade it long and attentively And Lastly that what he understandeth by reading of the Scripture he endeavour to put it in practise and governe his life accordingly For practise doth wonderfully enlighten any Booke which giveth rules in any kind of operation These thinges observed I doubt not but who taketh Scripture for his rule will not faile of becoming a Catholike at the last For both the reason before delivered in the beginning of the reflexion and experience and the instances of doctrines whereof part follow and more might be brought do manifestly declare that this effect must of necessity follow To see what the Scriptures will direct us in order to Catholike doctrine Let us begin with this very question concerning the interpretation of the Scriptures themselves It is planely set downe that it ought not to be by the private spirit Pet. 2. c. 1. That Christ sett in his Church Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors Doctors for the of building his body that the faithfull may not be turned round by every blast of doctrine Ephes. 4. That the Church is the Pillar and strength of our faith These and many more texts he shall find to shew him that the interpretation of Scripture ought to depend on the Church In other places he may reade that the Scripture is usefull for our comfort for preaching and for exhorting c. But not one word of looking in it for our faith unlesse when it selfe is taken into the question That is to say when the question is whether the new Gospell be conformable to the old which is the sole matter of controversy wherein the Scripture that is to say our Saviour in the 5. of St. John and St. Paul in the 17 of the Acts directeth the searching and looking into Scriptures For in both these places this onely was the point they spoke unto If the question be of the Popes supremacy that is to say of St. Peters Primacy among the Apostles For onely so much can belong to Scripture Wee have it expressely in the 10. of St. Mathew Simon the first And so he is counted by the other two Evangelists Whereas the order of the other Apostles is not kept Wee have tribute payed for Christ and for him as a speciall officer Matth. 17. We have him forwardest in the confession of Christ Matt. 16. The Church promised to be built upon him and the keyes in a speciall manner to be delivered to him So that it is not to be wondered att if presently after the tribute was particularly payed for him We have the sheepe of Christ in a speciall wise recommended unto him John the last We have Christs prayer personally for him and a charge given him to confirme the rest Luc. 22. We have him ordering the Church in the election of St. Matthias Acts the first Him first preaching to the Jewes Acts the 2. Him first receiving the Gentiles by Gods speciall order Acts the 10. Acts the 12. the Church praying for him Hee first giveth the Holy Ghost Acts the 8. Acts the 16 he in the Councell is the first that resolveth the question So that if the Scripture be sincerely consulted in this point there is all appareance or rather evidence of St. Peters
is all one a Protestant On the other side If it be the Catholikes share to be the Defendant He is bound to make good many points That is to say all that doctrine which we maintaine to be of faith and to have received by Tradition The Conclusion therefore is that the Catholike hath much to maintaine and little to oppose The Protestant hath great choice of what to oppose and little to maintaine So that his advantage on this hand is very great in regard of disputation Since if he receive a wound in any limb of that great body he is to defend it is a mortall one to his cause And his adversary is invulnerable to him every where but in one pointe The reason of this difference dependeth of the knowne Axiome Bonum ex integrâ causâ Malum ex quolibet defectu The Catholike Party hath a Religion hath an Art and skill of living well and of going to heaven Such a thing must have a body And a body can not consist without many members and parts Every one of which must be defended and made good All other Sects are but deficiencies more or lesse from this rule Those more who cleave fastest to the rule of deficiency that is to say to the rejecting of all that cannot be convinced out of Scripture Those lesse who perceiving the inconveniencies this bringeth upon them do soonest recede in practise from this crooked rule and to contradict their maine ground of all being fallible by forcing their subjects to hold their Tenets that they have no authority for themselves having forsaken the legitimate authority by which the Catholike Church sticketh to Tradition The eleventh REFLEXION Of some particular Caveats for Catholikes THe Catholike defendant having so hard a taske some few notes will be necessary for him As first that he should not ofter to maintaine against arguments drawne out of nature such positions as he is not able to satisfy himselfe in for example against an Arrian or Sabellian lett him not undertake to dispute and argue in reason how the same thing can be one and three unlesse he be first sure that hee understandeth it well and that himselfe resteth satisfyed with reason in that point For it is impossible to give the Auditory satisfaction if he hath it not himselfe Especially if the disputant be subtle and able to manage his Argument The like is of the blessed Sacrament to shew how one body can at the same time be im more places then one In this case therefore the Defendant is to keepe himselfe upon the generall defence that wee believe Mysteries of faith whether we can answere Arguments against them or no That the word of God is able to give us certitude above all demonstration and above all that wee can understand Neither are wee without the example of our Adversaries themselves when we do thus For in this very Mystery of the Eucharist they will tell us that Christ is really and truly present in it But that the Manner how he is there is not understandable In the Trinity and in the Incarnation Protestants do the like acknowledging these Mysteries to be true but withall professing them to be above their understanding Yet this rule is not so peremptory but that by discretion it may admitt exception For our Adversaries are so weake that they ground most of their Axiomes and proofes rather upon confidence wee will not deny them then that themselves are able to make them good So in the Mystery of the Eucharist when they insist upon the Maxime that the same body can not be att the same time in two places If you putt them to proove it you shall finde that their word will be to say that even our owne Doctors confesse it or that experience assureth us of it Whereas experience is no Argument against Gods Omnipotency And as to what private Doctors affirme it is att every Mans pleasure to grant or deny it So that if you understand your Adversaries strength you may non-sute him by putting him to prove what you know he can not But this is a hazard And you are shamed if you faile An other Caveat for our defendant is Not to engage himselfe in a Controversy upon the opinion of one party of Devines Nor undertake to defend against his Adversary a position which some of our owne Devines do oppose and so is rather a question of Scholasticall Divinity then a Controversy of faith To this purpose it is to be noted that some opinions are of a greater latitude then others establishing faith upon that whereof others confine it but to some one part As in the Matter of Infallibility some place it in the Pope some in a generall Councell some in both some in the whole Church which conteineth all these and more Here the cautious Controvertist that hath care of his Safety will be sure to choose that which is most ample and so quitteth himselfe from the trouble and danger of answering Arguments made against the single parts and keepeth himselfe to the strong hold of Christianity wherein all parties agree True it is that if the defendant be putt to declare his position and an Argument do presse him Hee may sometimes be obliged to choose one opinion of Divines before an other or rather is forced to follow that which he is best acquainted with But the rule I give must serve where and when there is place for it And besides the already mentioned advantages that this course giveth It causeth a great narrownesse or brevity in controversies which bringeth the dissenting parties farre neerer to agreement and setleth more stablenesse in Religion by making men dicerne what belongeth to faith and what doth not but is the opinions of particular Doctors The twelfth REFLEXION Of the qualities of some sort of Arguments drawne out of Scripture THe next thing we are to look into Is the quality of the Arguments which are to be used in those Disputations By the precedent discourse it is evident â—hat they are of three kindes Out of Scripture out of Fathers and out of reason To begin with Scripture It is againâ— cleare that arguments may be thence deduced two wayes The one out of the pure force of the wordes The other out of the connexion of the sense and discourse acknowledged â—n the wordes With the conclusion that iâ— to be proved In the former way Arguents either presse the wordes of one single sentence which they bring thinking to make it evident that their assertion is the very meaning of those wordes Or else they bring a conglobation of sundry places of which the one fortifyeth the other so as to make it evident that the plaine sense of wordes so often reiterated cannot choose but be the true meaning of the Scripture To begin with the first branch of the Manner of drawing arguments out of single Texts of Scripture we may divide into two kindes the Texts that are produced for this purpose For they are either such as
it is fruitelesse to dispute against a Protestant out of the Fathers unlesse you first settle what proof of Fathers he will admit Neither is it easy for a Protestāt to argue strōgly against a Catholike out of the Fathers For if the Catholike will binde him to it he must bring an universality of them or else the Catholike is not obliged to receive them And how can he go about to do this I understand not I meane in a private disputation where a Matter of three or foure testimonyes are capable of spinning out the whole time that people generally are willing to lend unto such an entertainment Neverthelesse the presumptuous and vaine Sophisters are forward to cry out that all the Fathers are on their side as their Patriarche Iewel begā the tune to them so shamefully that his owne Chaplaine forsooke him for his impudent falshood But concerning this point It is to be noted that although they break avowedly and confessedly from the universall face of antiquity in all Church-practise as in the Liturgies Letanies Masse praying to Saints praying for the dead most of the Sacraments Relikes Altars Pilgrimages Fastings Processions Cochibate of Priests religious men and women and almost all things of that nature yet have they so little ingenuity or rather they are so impudent as before women and ignorant persons to boast themselves Sectators of antiquity and they undertake to prove it by certaine broken ends of Texts concerning some speciall circumstance or nice point in which they have found some dark place in some Father I therefore putt these questions to any juditious person who is curious to heare disputation in Religion Whether in so large a Booke as the Scripture it be possible morally speaknig that there should not be divers hard and obscure passages And then whether an eloquent Sophister may not make use of such places to circumvent and delude weake soules unable to remember or marke the contrary Texts and to judge betweene them Which if he also graunt as he can not choose but do I aske him againe what security he hath or can have that his disputant is not such a one or at least may not be such a one And what I say of Scripture may be with much more force transferred to the workes of the Fathers which are much more ample and besides that may containe errours in them So that in conclusion all disputation out of Fathers is but beating the ayre unlesse the parties be first agreed what Fathers authorities shall be allowed sufficient to decide and terminate their differences Yet after all this the Protestant that is carried away with a beliefe of his disputants abilities will be still apt to reply that at the least it can not be denyed but that he who hath studied the Fathers so well as to be able to make out of them against Catholikes a ranged battaile of such obscure places must needes be an able and a learned Man and therefore he is not to be blamed for following such a guide who hath read so much and is conversant in the Fathers Seeing that they who are unlearned and cannot upon their owne stocke judge of such Matters must rely upon those who have made them their long and serious study To him who shall make such an objection it ought to be represented How meane and pittifull a change it is to fall from the splēdide authority of the whole Church to the obscure authority of a private Doctor be he what he will As also that to retire from the authority of few or but of one were a great imprudence in an unlearned man Who because hee is not able to judge of the quality of Doctors hath reason to adhere to the quantity and number of them Besides in all likelihood this great Doctor especially if he be yong hath not read the Fathers themselves but hath taken out of other Authors that write of controversies such places as he hath found cited in them for his purpose And this argueth but a small Modicum portion of learning though happily he may make a great shew with it among unlearned persons like one who can recite three verses of Homer in a country Schoole The Fifteenth REFLEXION On Arguments drawne from reason for Religion THere remaineth yet to be discoursed of the last kind of arguments that may be employed in disputations of Religion whose store house from whence they may be drawne is reason For the performance whereof lett us consider how Religion is apprehended generally to be a knowledge above nature and to be derived by authority from a source of higher understanding then ours is Yet on the other side It is evident that it can not be planted in us otherwise then that the roote of it must of necessity be in Reason seeing that Reason is our nature Now then the roote and basis of believing is manifestly from this that we are perswaded we ought to believe which importeth as much as that it is reasonable we should believe And therefore the arguments which in Matter of Religion ought chiefely to be managed out of Reason should be in common whether it be Reasonable to believe what is proposed unto us And because no man can doubt whether it be reasonable to believe what God proposeth the whole question is reduced to this point whether it be reasonable to believe what the Church or our fore-fathers deliver unto us as the doctrine which Jesus Christ whose authority no Christian excepteth against did teach and deliver to the world from his eternall Father In which question the affirmative reasons belong onely to Catholikes the negative to all others Here the Catholike disputant hath two wayes to proceede The one is in a manner Metaphysicall and of a rigorous consequence by shewing that this principle of Adhering to our forefathers doctrine in the way that the Catholike Church relyeth upon it could not have been taken up in any middle age but must of necessity have been continued from the beginning And then by proving that if this Principle hath continued from the beginning it is impossible that any errour should have crept into the Church After the doing of which It is as evidently demonstrated that Catholike faith is the sole true Christian faith as that the three Angels of a Triangle are equall to two right Angels or any other verity in Euclide or Archimedes The other way is to assume to prudent morall men that whosoever seeth a like evidence for Religion as he judgeth sufficient to venture his life or his estate or his honour upon and not be excused neither in prudence nor in conscience nor in honor if he doth not embrace it For if he seeth the same advantage in two severall cases and will venture in the one and not in the other It is evident he proceedeth not according to Reason in one of them And in our case whatsoever he may say to justifye himselfe he cannot be excused from making in truth no reall
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 not every ability which is oftentimes taken for learning is truly such though it bee a commendable quality and such a one as peradventure belongeth properly to learned men however others acquire it and there by gaine the opinion of being learned men Of this kinde is the knowledge of languages The which are divided into two sortes some of them being termed vulgar tongues others learned The name of vulgar imparted ordinarily that such a language is spoken naturally in some country and is proper to the people of that place or to some part of it That language is generally accounted learned which requireth bookes to the leaving of it and hath grammers and dictionaries to Study it by Though indeed the terme of a learned language hath a higher signification to witte a language necessary to the attaining of learning or in which learning was or is delivered For learning generally being brought into our Northerne climates from the Eastern ones and being first written in the languages of those parts they have gotten the prerogative among us to be estemed the learnd ones First the Latine came out of Italy then the Greeck then the Hebrew and consequently the Arabick the Syriack the Chaldaick even the Persian the Cophtick and the Abyssive though the principall ones are the three first in which the Chiefe of sciences Divinity is originally delivered unto us Out of which it is cleare that the knowledge of these languages in themselves is not true learning but that it is the knowledge of thinges delivered in them which deserveth truly to be esteemed so and the knowledge of languages onely instrumeÌ„tall to true knowledge or learning so that as we do not accompt a man who is expert in French Spanish and Italien properly speaking to be a learned maÌ„ for having them but a well-qualifyed Gentleman In like manner we should also say of him who is expert in the Orientall or learned languages that by such excellency alone he doth not deserve the title of a learned man but of a well-qualifyed man ranking this quality in its due degree with the arts of Musike designing Painting Fencing Dancing â—iding and such other innocent employments of unbusied persons Yet because they are as it were a steppe to learning and do belong to learned persons they have a higher ranke then those lowe and meerely fancyfull exercises both in themselves and in their clayme to the attribute of learning This mistake of the terme learning in applying it to the knowledge of wordes is of so great consequence that it forceth me to looke further into the nature of learning Learning then is that which is made and begotten in a Man by teaching A teacher is a master and an instructour Now seeing that the exercise of both these qualities is proper to men and not to beasts he is truly a teacher who teacheth those thinges which belong to Man as Man That is to say such thinges as make him more man or more perfect in the nature of man which are those on which dependeth the government of himselfe The doing of this dependeth first and principally of Divinity among Christians as of Metaphysikes and Morals in the way of pure nature It dependeth in the next place on the knowledge of the world the which is taught us by the science of Physikes or of naturall Philosophy And to this Arithmetick and Geometry are necessary though peradventure these two may also have an other clayme upon their owne right for admittance to a share of informing our soule of nature seeing that Quantity is the highest condition of naturall thinges or bodyes After these the notion of learning is derived to the science of Medicine or Physike by which we governe our bodyes Lastly and of all the rest most weakely to the knowledge of Law by which we governe our fortunes our disordinate affections having made it necessary to us and in a manner a part of the Governement of our selves These then and onely these knowledges do make a learned man What besides these is called learning is through mistake of the name All other knowledges belonging onely to some accidentall action or circumstance of mans life not to the governing of him as he is man Not that I will quarrell about the use of the word But I endeavour to prevent the abuse of the things arising from the aequivocation of the word For it importeth not how the name is used as being att the will of the Speakers but it importeth that the well-meaning auditor be not abused by the mistaking of that for reall and true learning which is not so nor can availe him for his pretended use and behoofe Lett this then be concluded that no knowledge of wordes maketh a learned man but onely the knowledge of those thinges which belong to the Governement of mans life There is yet an other quality which more seemingly though peradventure not with so good ground pretendeth to the appellation of learning It is a faculty of talking of those thinges which sciences or true learning do professe and teach And because true teaching consisteth in a verball and that chiefely orall delivery of the teachers minde this hath a strange force mong persons not well able to judge of the matter it selfe to perswade that such talkers are truly learned He needeth have a strong judgement to be able to avoyde the snares these men use to lay The knottes of their aequivocations are to close the thread of their discourse is so subtle the smoothnesse of their wordes and the well-ordering of their pathetick expressions is to penetrant that no ordinary Auditor can escape them Hee who is to cope with such agamester must either be truly learned or beyond measure cautions And yet as I said before this plausible speaker hath not so faire a clayme to learning as the Grammarian hath against whom we lately discoursed For the Grammarian truly knoweth what he professeth But this man after he hath made a discourse of an houre long after he hath quite perswaded you If after all this you have accesse to the cabinet of his soule and there enquire of him what opinion himselfe hath of what he hath so handsomely spoken and that he will ingeniously disclose his heart to you he will tell you that he knoweth not whether what he hath sayd be true or no but att the most that of any thing he knoweth it is the likeliest to be true Some ages passed there was in one of our Universities a man who having made a long speech in defence of Christian religion with exceeding great applause of all his auditory who were ravished and fully satisfyed with what he had sayd did through excesse of vanity the predominant humour of such falters breake out into this horride blasphemy Little Jesus how much art thou beholding to me For if I would have spoken against thee how farre more efficaciously could I have declaymed The story sayth that he was suddenly strucken with such a losse of memory
Sanctifications or Initiations to enter us in the other six vertues Baptisme for faith Confirmation for hope Penance to redresse the wrongs we do to God and to our neigh-bour Matrimony and Extreme-Unction to injure us to temperance and to fortify us against the terrours of death Prudence because it eminently belongeth to commanders received its proper initiation in the installing of Spirituall Gouvernours which are Priests and Bishops Who being more eminent in Science and Charity have power to governe the flocke oâ— Christ And to the end that emulation might not breake unity among them Christ by his owne practise and mouth gave the Primacy to Saint Peter to whose see and successour inferiour Bishops were to have recourse in all publike necessities or dissentions of the Church And who att this day is commonly called the Pope It is incredible how great encrease of devotion and Charity accrueth to Christian people by the reverent administration and faithfull reception of these sacraments What respect and awe towardes to what adhesion their teachers their doctrine what obedience to their directions in fine how great a life to the Church and eminency above such synagogues as are destitute of these holy institutions The Apostles therefore armed with these and the aforesaid powers dispersed themselves into all the quarters of the earth planting this common doctrine and practise through the universe and dying left the inheritance of the same to their successors Who in debates about doctrines and in other dissentions meeting together and finding what the Apostles had left to the Churches they had planted did cast out such as would not conforme themselves to the received Tradition And so Christians were divided The parties cast out being denominated from their Masters or particular doctrines The part adhering to the Apostles Tradition retaining the name of the Apostolike Church Which because it was as it were the whole of Christians was therefore termed Catholike or Universall These Apostles and Disciples left certaine writinges But neither by command nor with designe to deliver in any or all of them a summary of our faith but occasionally teaching what they thought requisite for some certaine place or company which the Holy Ghost intended for the comfort of the Church In which as we professe there is nothing false or uncertaine so we know the unwritten Preaching ought to be the rule of their interpretation att least negatively Neither can we vindicate those bookes from the corruption of transscribers and much lesse of Interpretours whose labours can not pretend to the authority of scripture otherwise then by a knowne conformity to the Originals Tradition therefore became the rule of faith and Councells and Apostolicall Sees became the infallible depositaries of Tradition The other Sees fayling either by the destruction of Christian Religion in those quarters or by a voluntary discession from the rule of faith the Roman See first instructed by the two chiefe Apostles and afterwardes by perpetuall correspondence with all Christian countries and their recourse to it in matters of faith and discipline remained the onely single Church which was able in vertue of perpetuall succession to testify what was the Apostles doctrine Afterwardes Heretikes confounding equivocally the names of Apostolike and Cathlick by an impudence of saying what they list without shew of reason the Catholike party hath been forced for distinction sake to adde to their Church the sirname of Roman Declaring there by that the Roman particular Church is the Head and Mistresse and cause of Vnity to all those Churches that have share in the Catholike By this linke of truth namely of receiving doctrine by succession and by the linke of Vnity in the Roman head of the Church as the Church hath hitherto stood in Persecutions Heresies and Schismes so we are assured it will never faile untill the second coming of Christ but do hope it will encrease into an universall kingdome of his to dure an unknowne extent of Ages designed in the Apocolypse by the number of a thousand yeares in great prosperity and in freedome both from Pagans without and from Heretikes with in and in great aboundance of Charity and good life This being evidently the effect of Christs coming we see that the generall good life of Mankinde which proceedeth from the knowledge of the End to which we are created and from other motives and meanes delivered by Christs doctrine was the great and onely designe for which he tooke flesh that is to be the cause to us of a happy life both in this world and in the next The which having been the main advantage of the State of Paradise or of our nature before corruption It is cleare that Christ hath repaired the fault of Adam by making whole Mankind capable of attaining everlasting blisse unto which before his coming one only family had means to arrive The settling of Mankind in this repaire restored it to such a condition in respect of God that from thenceforth he resolved to bestow his greatest benefits upon it that is eternall felicity Whereas before as long as it was in the state of sinne his decrees were for its Vniversall Damnation By which it is cleare that Christ appeased his Fathers wrath and made him a friend of a foe he had formerly been unto us So that because eternall blisse followeth out of a good life and out of a constant habit or inclination to it as likewise damnation out of the state of a sinnefull inclination formal justification and sanctity do consist in the habit of good life and the state of damnation consisteth in an habituall inclination to sinne Neither the one nor the other in an extrinsecall acceptation or refusall of the Divine Will or its arbitrary Election or dislike which are only the efficient causes from whence proportionably to their natures they depend Further because Man-kinde was not able of it selfe to gett out of the State of sinne and by consequence lay in subjection and slavery to it And seeing that Christ by the explicated meanes and actions did sett it free and gave it power to come out of that subjection and misery he did clearely Redeeme Man-kinde from this servitude of sinne and of sinnes Master the Divell and gave it the liberty wherein it was created att the first And because Christ did this by his death and by the penall actions of his life he is rightly said to have by them payed a ransome for mankind Notwithstanding this generall preparation by which Man-kinde was enabled to well-doing no particular man arriveth to any action of vertue without the speciall providence and benevolence of Almighty God By which by convenient circumstances both externall and internall he prepareth the heart of that man unto whom he is gratious and favourable to receive these common impressions and maketh it good earth fitt for the seede of his eternall cultiuatour who without any respect to former merits planteth faith and charity and all that is good in him meerely of his