a Man directly to Berwick if he that travels in it confidently believes he 's right will certainly bring him to Dover Crede quod habes et habes He had rather think he says with Origen that the Divels themselves by the excessive kindness of their Judge shall at last be exempted from Damnation than that he himself shall be damn'd for that Opinion Undoubtedly this shews the Author to be a very Compassionate and good Natur'd Man but certainly that cannot be true Charity which ' thwarts the irrevocable Decree of Heaven and truly I do not see why he may not with as much Reason doubt that the Glorify'd Bodyes may fall from their Beatitude as think that the Divels themselves shall at last be releas'd from their Damnation but as certainly the former are past all hopes of Relaxation from their Torments so the latter are past all fear of being depriv'd of their Felicity and Eternal Jubilee For that which truly makes Heaven and Hell is not so much the excessive Greatness as Infinity of their Joyes and Torments He thinkes He may very well believe that there are Secret and Wonderful ways by which GOD may be pleased to apply his Merits to Mankind besides those direct open and ordinary ones of Baptism and Confession This I must confess is very secret wonderful and dark Divinity because Diametrically opposite to the Divine Writ where JESVS answering Nicodemus his Question said positively Amen Amen I say to thee Vnless a Man be born again of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of GOD. And therefore why this Author should advance a Beliet so palpably Anti-Christian I cannot imagine unless he supposes which is Blasphemy to think that our Blessed Saviour did not then fully understand his own mind The Text clearly confutes the Extravagancy and impiety of such an imagination and discovern this Authors Human Reason to be in this as in many other particulars but a fallacious Dream from which if he would rouse and thorowly awake himself he would quickly perceive it to vanish into nothing and prove a meer Illusion For I leave any Prudent Christian to judge whether he thinks it not onely absolutely necessary to walk towards Heaven by those Direct Open and Ordinary wayes of Baptism c. but also absolutely impossible unless in case of Martyrdom which is still Baptism in Bloud to cross over upon such a slight and slippery Bridge as this because the Author think's without proving that there may be other secret and wonderful ways of gerting thither And he may if he please goe one Step farther and believe that there may be no other secret and wonderful ways for a man to live besides Breathing Corruptio optimi pessima And certainly that must need 's be an impious excess of Charity which not onely shakes the Foundation but frustrates the whole Fabrick and Designs of Christianity GOD deliver all good Christians from such gentle and good-Natur'd Doctrine Our Blessed Saviour that best knew foretold there must be Heresies which most Divines agree to be those Gates of Hell mentioned in Scripture and consequently in-lets to Damnation Contrary to which this Author contends that scarce any Heresie if at all discoverable can be Damnable and maintains such a Facility to avoid all dangerous Errours that no Men of ordinary Sense and Reason can possibly fall into them Haereticum hominem post unam secundam correptionem the Scripture saith devita But how can he be shun'd that is not knowable And therefore I must intreat this Author to correct Saint Paul's Admonition or his own Human Reason which he thinks fit for one of them certainly is very much in fault To obey in matters of Belief without being able to believe the thing commanded is no less he says and seems more a Contradiction than simply to obey without knowledge of a Command Certainly this Author thinks every Man's Reason has a secret Magnetick Power to attract or draw down the high Mysteries of Faith within view of his Understanding which is impossible But if Men's Reasons are as beyond Debate they may be satisfy'd that those who guide them neither will nor can deceive what should make them start or fly back Their incapacity to understand can be no good or sufficient Reason for them to disbelieve and a much worse Argument to prove any thing de fide false which they propose who doe truly and Naturally conveigh to us the Will and Pleasure of GOD they are his Voice Qui vos audit me audit or at least the very Eccho of it The Church never Doctrinally but when and what CHRIST speaks and if he that hears one hears both which our Saviour himself saith Human Reason which thus far ought to proceed and we to follow tells us Our business and duty then is to obey and not dispute Besides if that saying be true Fides est Argumentum non-apparentium I do not see why Faith and Obedience should stand still because Reason cannot go forward He says The Vnity of the Christian Church is broken not so much by them who differ in Opinions as by them who will not allow ef such a Difference Cuâ—us contrarium verum est By this I see Reason has her Antipodes too for Can any thing be more directly against it than to call him the greatest Wrangler who would prevent others from quarrelling And to say he that would reconcile Differences and hinder Men from going together by the Eares was the occasion of their falling out Certainly 't is as Rational to say There can be no Order where there 's no Confusion as to say There can be no Unity without Difference 'T is a Solecisme and Paradox much above the reach of my Reason but if be understands it 't is well enough Who knowes saith he whether that GOD who liked best that no Men's Bodyes should have the same complexion no Men's Faces the same Figures no Hares the same Lines no Voyces the same Sounds nay not so much but their Motions and Gestures should be Distinguishable has not likewise best pleased himself with no less Variety in the parts of Men that are Immaterial and even in the most Immaterial Actions of those parts which is the Worship and Adoration of a Deity This though it look prettily upon Paper is a meer Quick-Sand and easily answer'd with asking another Question Who knows whether GOD is best pleased with such Variety in the Faith as in the Faces of Men That which fortifies me indubitably to believe the contrary are those express Words of Scripture One GOD one Faith one Baptism which evidently inferre that besides that General Impediment viz. the Sinfulness and Frailty of our Natures men if sway'd solely by their own reason easily may and too frequently do miscarry for want of a Right Path. Does GOD says he gain any thing by our Devotions does he receive Hurt from one kind of Worship and Advantage by another No surely say I for he is an Unutterable
Humour to cure which there is no Medicine more Effectual or Balsome more Soveraign than our Mutual and Cordiall Prayers for one another But to pursue our Author As for those Men says he who accuse us of Pride and Vanity for Attributing so much to our own Reason making Presumption and Self-Flattery the Fountain of this Opinion it is a Scandal so false and so Ridiculous that without much Humility I should disdain to answer it And truly in my Opinion I have not heard a louder sound of Pride than in that very Expression But letting this pass with his Subsequent soft Arguments for the Civility and Gentleness of his Religion which permits every man to have his full Swing or Career I am come to Master Hob's for whom though it is not my business nor design to be Advocate nor in the least to diminish this Author's merit who in some parts of his Discourse against him and elsewhere shewes great Fertility of Wit and Pregnancy of Rhethorick Yet I cannot but think Master Hobs's Arguments much more Conducing to Order and Uniformity than his Unreasonably-Rational or Chimaerical Method which slighting all Ecclesiastical Tribunals authoriseth every Particular Person in Spirituals to be his own Judge and Pastor and makes the Governours of the Church of CHRIST stand for meer Cyphers which is directly against the Institution Doctrine and Designe of CHRIST himself But that Humane Reason which exalts itself above this Divine Jurisdiction be it never so full of Flourishes and Astonishment is but a glorious Nothing He is very apt to mistake Concerning the Roman Church For although indeed her Publick Liturgie the Mass be Universally said in the Latine Tongue yet all Preaching and Catechizing is performed in the Language of each respective Country and all her Members without any restraint say their Prayers in their own Native Language I am not at all satisfy'd With his endeavouring to Distinguish between Right Reason and that which is falsty esteemed so For if in all matters of Faith and Difficulty every Man's Reason must be his Rule and every man's Rule must be his Reason without adhering or submitting to any other Superior Regulation or Judge or Captivating his Understanding as Scripture requires in Obsequium Fidei If this Rule I say can be thought Regular and safe then I think this Author needs not to despair of bringing men by Degrees to believe That nothing can be in so Rational or Credible which is not evidently so to whom 't is propos'd especially since he has already affirm'd which is pretty well towards it that nothing can be dangerously Erroneous that a man firmly believes But can any thing be more Illogical and distant from Reason Unless it be this which per Consequens follows Every Orthodox Divine is a Rational Man Ergo every Rational Man is an Orthodox Divine and ought not to be taught but to teach himself Contrary to which Matth. 28.19 20. our Blessed Saviour commanded his Disciples to goe Preach Teach and Baptize all Nations But I never read that they sent the Scriptures alone to the Unconverted that they might by the Rules of their own Reason examine and frame out the True Religion but withall went themselves or sent Expositors Without which I never heard of Turk or Jew that ever chang'd his Alcoran or Talmud for the Christian Bible which evidently demonstrates against this Author That Reason alone can be no Competent means or security either of becoming or remaining a good Christian All Men therefore are or should be instructed We are Taught and they were Ttaught the same who Teach us and their Masters had Teachers and those Teachers Masters till we come Gradually to the Supream the Original Guides of the Present Church which also receives the Traditions of the former and so orderly downward till we come to the Apostles and at last to our Ne plus ultra our Saviour CHRIST himself So that 't is no Contradiction but a certain Truth that there is no going to CHRIST but from CHRIST Ã JESV ad CHRISTVM That Humane Reason then which unlinckes it self from this Divine and Infallible Concatenation flyes giddily about and can no more naturally settle or fix than a Feather in the Wind and that a man who stubbornly steps aside from this Universal this General Track will not onely lose his Way but his Reason and Himself too But now to another Matter Henry the Eighth did certainly more than seem as this Author says to leave the Pope because he would not consent to his Libidinous Desires and assum'd therefore the Supremacy that he might give himself leave to Marry or Repudiate what Wives he fancy'd or dislik'd But although Abbeys Monasteries and Religious-Houses were thereupon demolished and the Profits and Revenues converted to Secular Uses I cannot think he got any great Advantage by the Bargain either to Body or Soul who dy'd with a Perdidimus Omnia in his Mouth and found by Wofull Experience That in the end ther 's nothing got by Reforming But to leave this Digression The Author desires those who would have his Vnderstanding captivated to convince him First by theirs that it ought to be so and not to think to enslave his Reason till they first overcome it which when they have done then they will lose what they contend for For by our Reason's being Guided Conquered and Enslaved Their's are become Guides Conquerours and Masters so that it will appear at last impossible for Human Reason to lose anything in one place without gaining as much in some other Thus he To which I answer in the first place If Scripture be Reason our Understandings ought to be captivated to the Obedience of Faith In the next I would not have him think us so unreasonable as to deprive men Totally of the Use of their Reason by no means but to check and keep it within it's proper Sphear and in this we abridge him of no Liberty which we allow our selves But Humane Reason must have a large Mixture of Divinity in it to be so Adorable as this Author seems to make it I grant 't is very pretious and prizable in being given though not Magisterially to rule to guide us to those that can Infallibly do it And thus I confess we are Rul'd by Reason though not in all things by our own for all the Difficulties and Obscurities of Scripture without the Churche's Light are no more Interpretable or Discoverable by Private Reason than our Eyes can see Objects without Day-Light or a Candle and yet neither our Reason nor our Eyes are given us in vain But he that in Spiritual Affairs which so neerly concern bis Soul Assigns no Visible no External rule or Standard to measure Reason by nor any General Touch-Stone to try True from False Adulterated from Currant Coyne That Man I say for all his pretended Light within fishes in the Dark with them that labour'd all Night and caught nothing or builds his Superstructure before he lays
it either Pious or Politick to use any other Force but that of Arguments for the Conviction and Reduction of Disputers One may as well try to tame a Tyger with Rational Arguments as by Threats or Violence for a man may be sooner frighted out of his Wits than his Opinion to conquer long-setled Judgments and therefore as the best Physick to cure a Quartane is To be kind to it So if Rational Discourse gentle Perswasions cannot operate upon the intelect mind of man rougher Applications for what 's Reason to one may be Non-Sense to another shall never work a free or plenary assent for those that are perforce Proselyted may become Dissembling Hypocrites but never Real-Converts What Wise or Worthy Spirits therefore would proceed so Irrationally so Ignobly or what advantagious Acquisition or Glory can there be in such a Conquest But this is a point already most amply discuss'd by much abler penns Reply to the Answer of the Catholick-Apology and Advocate of Conscience-Liberty To them therefore I refer the Reader and I le return to the Author Who maintains constantly that sole Reason in all Streights and Exigences must Guide and Steer us in our Course to our Haven Heaven For says he when I ask Why you believe any Mystery of Faith You will answer perhaps Because the Present Church Commands you If I proceed and ask Why do you believe what the Present Church Commands you You will say Because the Former Church Teaches the same Why do you believe the Former Church Because GOD Commands you so to do Why do you believe that God Commands it Because you find it in the Scripture Why do you believe the Scriptures to be the Word of GOD Because they were confirm'd by Miracles Why do Miracles confirm that Because they are Workes which can proceed from nothing but the Absolute and Immediate Power of the Deity Why so Because nothing contrary to or above the Course of Nature can be done by Natural Agents And why should I or any man else say any thing against all this Since he has so pertinently and solidly answer'd all the Why 's himself but I suppose he imagin'd that Syllogistically sounding the depth of the Catholick method or rule of Faith with this chain of Questions and finding Reason at the bottom of it which methinks should make him the sooner embrace it therefore he had invincibly fortifi'd his own arguments for an absolute and independent guidance of private reason in all contingencies but alas 't is triumphing before the Victory because as inconsequent as if one should say my Rulers are no more than rational men and I being a man of reason too therefore my obligation ceaseth to be rul'd by them neither ought any man in reason to command or obey others but is not this cum ratione insanire A Doctrine which if prevalent would in a short time destroy not only Ecclesiastical but all secular Oeconomy and Jurisdictions and in the end leave nothing but outward shape to distinguish Men from Beasts which have no other Superiority or Mastership amongst them but what they get Vi Armis with their Horns and Heels Certainly this is very prodigious I had almost said monstrous Reason and so truly I think is the greatest part of his discourse which in effect teaches that Divinity cannot stand unless Philosophy support it nor St. Peter and St. Paul instruct unless Aristotle and Plato comment consequently no man can be a good Christian that is not a good Philosopher which certainly is a very false and Anti-Christian assertion Authority and Obedience are Correlatives there must be both or neither and therefore his mysterious discourse of Obedience in Spirituals which he calls the most pleasing smell in the Sacrifice I shall never understand which totally invalidates all Ecclesiastical Regiment and Power St. Augustine who I presume wanted not for Humane Reason said peremptorily Ego verò Evangelio non crederem nisi me Ecclesiae Catholicae commoveret Authoritas And to the same Authority leaving the Scepticks to their Identities Idities and Quiddities will I ever submit both my understanding my reason for would it not be very pleasant to hear a man Catechise or Preach to himself and a pretty riddle for Master Schollar Preacher and Auditour to be all in the same man who without some external conveyance or outward aid can no more properly or safely indoctrinate himself than he can possibly put his mouth to his own ear and whisper in it Witty men no doubt may frame arguments against natural and experimental Demonstrations as for example Oral Loquution or Local Motion but certainly none though few perhaps can solve every particular objection will be perswaded that we can neither speak nor move The same I say as to the Church when men are as certainly they may be indisputably satisfi'd that it is and must necessarily be infallible in its Conciliar-Definitions whatsoever riseth in opposion they consequently know though perhaps not precisely How must necessarily be inconclusive fictitious and false without descending to particular disputes which is not only a toilsome but endless labour For I have often thought that since our Revolt from Rome there have been written pro and con-books enough I should not exceed if I said to fill ten Vaticans and yet we are in the same or a worse condition the reason is because Corrosives are apply'd instead of Lenitives Vinegar instead of Oyle wherefore I compare Controversie to Physick which as it cures many that would have dy'd so it kills more that would have recover'd and liv'd without it Whether what I have hitherto said will have the good or ill fortune to be thought Reason or not I am not Prophet enough to know nor concern'd enough to care the principal motive being to employ some spare hours but if it be esteem'd wholly insignificant Solamen miseris c. I am not the first by forty who have written to no purpose yet this I 'le boldly say is to some whatever arguments or engins of Wit are invented and directed to undermine and subvert the Power and Authority of God's Church will but deceive and at last recoile and ruine the Inventor And all these glittering words and gilded reasons which I confess are drest in graceful language this Author has rally'd together against it can be at most but Verisimilities they may possibly delight some amuze and puzle others but solidly and indubitably can inform none for I should take it very kindly from him or any man else that would tell me candidly what those imperative words Feed my Sheep feed my Lambs spoken to St. Peter signifie if not that there should constantly be in God's Church which is essentially compos'd of Docentes discentes Pastors i e. Instructors and Teachers of others For Christ our Lord who never made or said any thing in vain did not speak plurally as this Author interprets Feed ye my Sheep feed ye my Lambs even where your selves
or rather extraordinary saying of Democritus That Truth lyes in the Bottom of a Deep Well I must confess I doe not well understand and so for fear of drowning shall let it pass as too deep and dangerous a Mystery for my shallow Reason to dive or look into Thus some Criticks of this Speculative Age first turn their Brains and then all things Topsie-turvy For if this Doctrine of Democritus be true we must no longer say Look up but down to Heaven and Pump or draw up Salvation as they do water in Buckets He needed not To have Enumerated the Various Sentiments of the Antient Philosophers and no warre ensuing Thence to infer a possibility for Christians of different Belief to live as to the Exteriour Harmoniously and Peaceably For doubtless the Several Sects among us if all the force they use to reduce others to their way be as it ought to be only perswasive not compulsive may as in other dissenting Countries move in our English Sphere without clashing as the Planets do in their Regularly-Irregular Motions If this be all he drives at there 's no Difference at all between him and me Whether the Reformation which he endeavours to vindicate were the occasion of so much Bloud Confusion and almost Desolation in all those Countries which admitted or rather were forc'd to it I shall not here dispute but 't is out of Controversie they actually happen'd which Dismal Effects I must confess enforce me to believe that God Almighty's Benediction for all their specious Reasonings and Religious Pretences never did or will goe with it He runs on for several Pages very wittily and Rethorically to prove That every Mans Particular Reason if well follow'd and there 's a Parenthesis will Infallibly carry him at last though perhaps through many Tedious and Troublesome Wandrings to his Eternal Happiness Well I am contented with this and say so too but withall must ask him a Question Why does not that man well follow his Reason who in all Doubts and Difficulties for certainly such things there are thinks nothing under Heaven more Rational than to submit to and acquiesce in the Interpretation Definitions and Decrees of General Councils If he says These all together may Erre as likely as he then I say this to my Reason sounds as unreasonably as if he should say One Man may be as strong as ten thousand and thus if his own Argument be good whether the Victory be on his or on my side he is equally defeated I grant a Christian though without any Fraction or Division for certainly there 's no Plurality in the Radical Unity may believe Various Articles by the same Act of Faith for it's Root or Fountain although it germinat's and spreads into several Branches or runs in various Rivulets is indivisibly one and the same for doubtless a Man's Faith may encrease without Variation but to say as this Author That a Man may be to day fully a Papist seven years hence a Protestant and then What-he-fancyes-next and that although be believes things directly Opposite evidently Contrary Pro and Con or forward and backward Yet if he be all the while Actuated and moved by the same Soul of Faith which he says is Conscience it is still the same Numerical Faith This I say is such a Preposterous piece of Jumbling Divinity that although he may please himself with the Fancy for that 's the very best of it I shall never believe the God of Order and Unity can Fancy or be Pleased with such a Deformed shapeless and Confus'd Variety He might as well have told me and I should as soon have believ'd him that a Man if he be all the while vivify'd or actuated by the same instruments of Life viz. Heart and Vitals though he be set just upon his Head he stands directly upon his Feet Tricks of Activity are commendable enough but certainly 't is desperate for a Mans Faith to leape the Sommerset And thus Unity or Sameness of Beliefe so often inculcated in Holy Scripture is quite thrown out of doors and Divine Faith reduc'd to a strong or rather a Weak and Wavering Fancy Wherefore allowing His Philosophical Discourse about Corporal Substances to be true for I grant in Sublunary Bodies there is yet without any Alteration or Change in the Form or Species as he pretends may be in Faith a perpetual Flux and that they must necessarily Trans-spire to make room for new Nourishment Yet I deny for the Reasons aforesaid That only such a Fixt Motion or Variable Identity as he speaks of is requisite to a Man's Faith Nor truly can I perceive any better or more solid Result from all his surprizing Arguments than this That so Men doe but believe 't is no great matter for the What or the Why. He will still have his own sole and singular Reason to Counterballance if not outweigh all Ecclesiastical Rule and Superiority as much as to say The best way to secure a Ship at Sea is to take away her Anchor and Rudder For what is it says he you will trust your Soul with in this Important Business Is it the Authority of Men These verily may lead you into Errour and 't is not impossible into the worst and greatest of all which is the Desertion of Christ himself Such a Possibility I utterly deny and for my Confidence and Warrant produce the sacred Writ where the Church is call'd The Ground and Pillar of Truth with the Divine Promise annext Against which the Gates of Hell shall never prevail Now if this Gentleman can shew such a Character given or Promise made to his solitary Reason I 'le submit and beg his Pardon if he cannot then he must excuse me for doubting his Reason did not take such Directions as it ought and might have done before it set forth nor consequently can he ascertain me that 't is purify'd from all Passion Interest and Sensuality Pride made the Greatest Angel a Divel and a Man 's own Reason too far trusted turns to Madness The Arian Heresie which he hints at Clouded but never Totally Eclipsed or Corrupted the Church which will ever remain immaculate and pure For the Westerne Parts felt little or nothing of that Spiritual Pestilence which in less than four Years she happily Dispersed and dissipated as the Sun by Degrees does Mist's and Vapours As to the Condemnation of Athanasius and whatsoever sinister or Anti-Christian Proceedings he chargeth the then Pope with If he would vouchsafe to peruse some of our Antient or Modern Controvertists who treat at large of the Sanctions of General Councils I presume he would clearly and evidently discover his Mis-information and that which he is willing to take for a certain Truth for Quod volumus facile credimus would prove a meer Calumny and Imposture But still from the wicked Errours of some of that Council he infers a possibility that all might unanimously have err'd so For says he This possibility of Errour even in so high