exprest to be the Scripture and on this Expression he so strongly builds that p. 10 11. he concludes thence and Certainly too thus The Religion of our Church sayes he is therefore certainly Primitive and Apostolick because it teaches us to believe the whole Scriptures of the old and New Testament and nothing else as matter of Faith What mean the word Scriptures Any determinate sence of it or the dead Characters Alas their Church is far from teaching them the first or from having grounds to own such a pretence but puts the Book in their hands and bids them find the sence of it or their Faith for there is their Rule 'T is the bare Letter then unsenc't he means by the word Scriptures and so he must say 't is the outward Cuaracters his Church teaches us to believe and nothing else as matter of Faith that is their whole Faith has for its object Ink thus figur'd in a Book A worthy Argument to proove their Church is certainly Primitive and Apostolick whereas itis known Faith was before those Characters and besides if this be to be Apostolical we owe nothing to the other Apostles for our faith but onely to those six who writ But we mistake him he means neither sence of the word Scripture and hates these distinctionswith all his heart which would oblige him to either He meant to talk of Scripture indeterminately and confusedly which might make a fine show and yet expose him to no Inconvenience by giving any particular account of his meaning His Inference from this his First Principle being an Immediate one will utterly overthrow the Papists without doubt Therefore saith he p. 11. unless there can be New Scriptures we can have no New matter of Belief no new Articles of Faith No my Ld Yes as long as by Scriptures you mean no determinate sence of Scriptures but the bare Letter onely whose sence is fetch 't out by Interpretations and these as we experience depend on menes private Judgments and Fancies if menes Fancies may vary every hour you may have diverse Interpretations every hour and so new Articles of Faith every hour Is not this a mad kind of arguing to conclude as absolute an unerrableness in Faith as if they had not onely a determinate Principle but even as self-evident and unmistakable as the First Principle in Metaphysicks to guid themselves by whereas our daily eysight and their own sad experience every day teaches us by the practice of this Principle and yet their differing in the Sence of Scripture in most high and most concerning Points that the Speenlation is naught and the Principle it self a false and mis-guiding Light Nay I doubt my Ld. himself has no hearty value for this his First Principle though he sayes he wholly relies on it For I never saw Protestant Book in my Life thinner and sleighter in Scripture-Citations than is his Dissuasive so that if that be his First Principle he makes little use of it 35. Many other Propositions or Supposals are imply'd in his book to give it force As that It matters not how a Citation is qualify'd so it be but alledg'd 'T is no matter whether the question be rightly stated or no. The Tenets of our Church are not to be taken from the use of definitions found in approved Councils speaking abstractedly but from the particular Explications of some Divines Every Foppery is a proper Effect of the Churches Doctrin Points of Faith ought to be comprehensible to Reason and Spiritual things sutable to Fancy The Act of an Inquisition Sayings of a few Divines or Casuists are all Catholik Faith and the Doctrin of the Church That is rationally dissuasive which is confessedly Uncertain No Answer was ever given to the Citations or Reasons produc't in the Dissuasive Talking soberly and piously about a point is oftentimes as good as prooving it That t is Self-evident Scripture's Letter can bear but one Interpretation as wrought upon by Human Skills These and multitudes of such like though not exprest yet run imply'd in his carriage all along this book and suppos'd true to give it any force yet so evidently false and weak that to pull them out thence and make them show their heads is enough to confute them I conclude and charge the Dissuader that he not onely hath never a Principle for his Dissuasive to subsist by but farther that 't is Impossible but himself should know in his own Conseience that he has none nay more that the Protestant Cause and the same I say of all out of the Church can have none The first part of my charge I have manifoldly prooved in this present Appendix The other part of it which charges him with Consciousness of having no Grounds hath two branches and for the former of those I alledge that the wayes he takes all along to manage his Dissuasive are so evidently studious so industrious so designed and perfectly artificial that though one who is guided on in a natural way is oftentimes not aware of his thoughts or their method till he comes to reflect yet 't is Impossible he should not be aware of his which he postures with such exquisit craft and such multitudes of preternatural sleights to render his Discourse plausible For the later of those Branches namely that he cannot but know the Protestant Cause can have no Principles to make it Evident I discourse thus ad hominem what I have prov'd in Sure-Footing out of the nature of the Thing 'T is their most constant and avow'd Profession and his p. 9. that they do wholly rely upon Scripture as the foundation and final resort of all their Persuasions This being so Fathers and Councils are not held at all by them but as far as they are agreeable to Scriptures that is their Testimony has no basis of Certainty from themselves or of their own but what they participate from Scripture Wherefore either they are No Principles or else Subordinate ones to their First Principle Scripture Unless then It be Certain or deserve the name of a Principle They can never be held by Protestants such nor consequently can merit the name of Principles even Subordinate ones because then pretended First Principle from which onely they can derive Title to that dignity is in that case none it self To Scripture then le ts come By which word if they agreed to mean any determinate Sence of it certainly known to be the true one their Discourse were well-built But since their Church can own no determinate Sence of the Scripture deriv'd down from Christ and his Apostles in antecedency to the Scripture's Letter but having renounc't that Way or Tradition must say she has it meerly from that Letter as yet unsenc't She must mean that 't is the Scripture Letter She relies on as the foundation and final resort of all her Persuasions nay for her Persuasion that this is the Sence of it Since then Principles are determinate Sences not characters or Sounds neither is
right to alledge either Scriptures Fathers or Councils I add Reason History or Instances See Corol. 12. 15 16 18 19. And it is done thus All discourse supposes that Certain on which it builds But if Tradition or the way of conveying down matters of Fact by the former Ages testifying can fail none of these are Certain therefore a Protestant or Renouncer of Tradition cannot with Reason pretend to discourse out of any of these that is Reason being Man's Nature he has lost his natural right to alledge any of these in way of proof Now that none of these are Certain if Tradition be renounc't is shown thus Scripture's Letter as to its Incorruptedness nay its very Being is Uncertain alone or without Tradition as is confest by Protestants and proov'd Sure-Footing Disc. 3d and 4th So are Fathers and Councils too For Fathers being Eminent Witnessers to Immediate Posterity or Children of the Churches Doctrin received and Councils Representatives of the Church their strength as Proofs nay their very Existence is not known till the notion of Church be known which is part of their very Definition and to which they relate Nor is the Being or Nature of Church known till it be Certainly known who are truly Faithful or have true Faith who not which must be manifested by their having or not having the true Rule of Faith Wherefore since the Properties of the Rule of Faith do all agree to Tradition our Rule and none of them to theirs as was evidently and at large shown there in my five first Discourses it follows the Protestant or Renouncer of Tradition knows not what is either right Scripture Father or Council and so ought not to meddle with them nor alledge them Again since pretended Instances of Traditions Failing depend on History Historical Certainty cannot be built on dead Characters but on Living Sence in men's hearts deliver'd from age to age that those passages are true that is on Tradition it follows that if the way of Tradition can fail all History is Uncertain and consequently all Instances as being matters of Fact depending on History And lastly since Reasons are fetch 't from the nature of things and the best Nature in what it is abstracting from disease or madness Unalterable is the Ground of the human part of Christian Tradition and most incomparable strength is superadded to it as it is Christian by the supernatural Assistances of the Holy Ghost Disc. 9. 't is a wild conceit to think any piece of Nature or Discourse built on it can be held Certain if Tradition especially Christian Tradition may be held Uncertain Third Way 5. THe Third Way is to examin the Method he takes in dissuading For common sence telling us 't is not to be expected any should be able to perform any thing unless he takes the right way to perform it 't is Evidert he cannot be held in reason to have power to dissuade unless the Method he takes be proper to that Effect that is not common to that Effect and a contrary one Now to dissuade is to unfix the Understanding from what is held before which includes to make it hold or assent that what it held before Certain is False or at least Uncertain The Way then he takes must be evidently able to oblige to some kind of Assent nay as he handles it for I suppose he aims to make them hold as Protestants to Assent to the contrary which therefore must needs require the Evidentest Method imaginable obliging their Reason to conclude that a man who takes this way of Discourse cannot but make good what he sayes at least that it may be strongly hop't from his method he will do it This reflected on let us weigh the Method my Ld. takes in his Dissuasive and if it be Evident to every ordinary capacity that as to the Godly part of it the Quakers out-do him and as to its quoting part the Smectymnuans us'd the same against the Protestants to confute Episcopacy for They too quoted and gloss'd Scriptures and Fathers both and indeed every Sect that has not yet shaken of the shame to disrespect all Antiquity then it is also Evident that this Method is Common to those Discourses which have in them power to satisfy the Understanding and those who have no such power Now that being most evidently no Method or Way to such an Effect which many follow and take yet arrive not at that Effect 't is plain to Common Sence that my Ld. of Downs miscalls his Book a Dissuasive and that it can have in it no power of moving the Understanding one way or other unless he can first vouch some Particularity in the Method he takes above what 's in others in which we experience miscarriage and himself professes we though taking it miscarry in it Let us then search after this Particularity in his way of writing Is it that he brings some stronger or more unavoidable sort of Testimonies then were ever yet produc't by others No Every Scholler sees they are so common that they have been hundreds of times produc't and himself p. 1. 2. acknowledges their vulgarness But perhaps he invalidates all the Answers our Controvertists have given to those Testimonies and presses them farther against us beyond what any has done yet Quite contrary He barely and rawly puts them down as if this were the very first time they had seen light nor takes the least notice of any Answer at all given to them formerly But it may be he layes Grounds to distinguish and press home his Testimonies and so gives them their full weight which others have not done Alas no I fear he never thinks of that but judges if we may conclude from his carriage the deed done so he but quote nor can I see one Principle laid in his whole Book strengthening any one Testimony by bringing it to its Ground Experimental Knowledge in the Authour he cites that the Churches constant Voice and Practice manifested this her Sence but as they are put down carelesly so they are past over slubberingly without the least enforeing them by way of laying Principles Is he at least Particular in his Sincerity and Ingenuity I know not how they will be satisfied with it who read his late Adversary Impeaching him for the contrary Vices and some passages in this present Appendix Where lies then this Particularity in his Method without which his Dissuasive can never in reason be held Creditable I speak ingenuously and from my heart All the Particularity I can observe in it lies in these two things First that he huddles together multitudes of his own sayings without any pretence of proof for the most part and when he brings any they are such as we have spoken of Next that instead of enforcing his Proofs by way of Reason he overflowes strangely with godly language and Scripture-phrases with which plaufible manner of Expression most unreasonably and unnaturally he strives to combat the Wills of his
Readers before he hath brought any thing able to satisfy their Understandings 6. Yet though his Method have no particularity in it as to its quoting part who knows but it may be very particular as to its Rational part that is full of Proofs which conclude evidently or Demonstrations But I am so far from feeling the force of any one such Proof in his whole Book that I cannot discern its very Existence or even any Attempt of that kind and I dare affirm my Ld. of Downs never meant it or dream't of it If he have any such I request his Lp. would in his Reply single them out from all the Pious and Inconclusive Talk which swell his Book and I promise them very heartily to lend them a due and respectful Confideration But I am sure he will neither pretend he has any nor attempt the having any if he but reflect that a Demonstration is a Proof which has in it a virtue of obliging the Understanding to Assent and that it obtains this virtue by building on Intrinsecal Mediums that is on Proper Causes or Effects of which 't is impossible the one should be without the other This clearing Method onely the Champions of Truth dare take and the Defenders of Errour must avoid under penalty of having their Cause quite ruin'd and crush't to pieces And this severe Method of finding Truth relying on the Goodness of my Cause I fear not to take and stick to in Sure-Footing as appears there by my Transition which sufficiently shows the Particularity of my Method I expect now my Ld. of Downs would show me the particularity of his or renounce all right and Title to Dissuade 7. I have been something longer about laying open the Necessity of a Proper Method to dissuade ere one can in reason hope to perform that Effect because I see plainly that in the pursuit of Truth Method is in a manner ALL and that 't is impossible any Controversy should hover long in debate if a right Method of concluding evidently were carefully taken and faithfully held to I have told my Ld. of Downs where he may see mine and I desire him earnestly as he loves Truth either to admit it as Conclusive and follow it or show it Inconclusive and propose us a better to begin and proceed with Evidently And that I may more efficaciously endeavour to bring him nay provoke him as far as I may with Civility to a Method particular and proper to dissuade I declare here before all the world that I know his Cause to be so unable to bear it and hope himself is so prudent that he will never either venture to allow our Method competent to conclude evidently nor yet go about to establish a better of his own Fourth Way 8. THe fourth Way of disanulling my Lp's whole Endeavours is to speak ad hominem and challenge him thus Your Grounds allow neither Fathers to be Infallible in any Testimony you produce from them to dissuade with nor yet your self in interpreting Scripture nor I conceive will you say that you see with Infallible Certainty any Proposition you go about to deduce by Reason if there be any such in your Dissuasive to be necessarily consequent from any First or Self-evident Principle therefore You are Certain of nothing you alledge in your whole Book If then His Lordship would please to speak out candidly he ought to say I know not Certainly that any thing I say against your Religion is true yet notwithstanding I would fain dissuade you from holding the Faith of your Forefathers and to relinquish a Religion you judge unalterable and hope to be sav'd by holding it Which were it profest and deliver'd ingenuously as it lies at the very bottome of his heart his Lp's Dissuasive would be a pleasant piece and lose all power to move any Child of common Sence nay the vulgar Reason of the wild Irish would be too hard for it Now that this ought in due candour to be profest in case neither the Fathers nor Himself be Infallible in any saying or Proof of theirs is thus Evidene't For since to be Infallible in None hîc nunc taking in the whole Complexion of assisting Circumstances is the same as to be hîc nunc Fallible in All or Each and if they be Fallible or may be deceived in Each they can be Sure of None it follows that who professes the Fathers Himself though using all the means he can to secure him from Errour Fallible in Each must if he will speak out like an honest man confess he is Sure of None Let then my Ld. of Downs either vouch Infallible Certainty in himself reasoning or Interpreting or in the Authorities he cites I mean Infallible considering their endeavours in complexion with all the means on foot in the world to preserve them so or else confess that notwithstanding all means us'd by them they are in each Saying and Proof Fallible and so himself sure of never a Motive he brings to dissuade with Now to see so Eminent a Writer and chosen out on purpose as he professes by the whole Church of Ireland go about to combat a settled Persuasion held sacred unalterable descending from Christ by Attestation of Forefathers the Way to Bliss c. and bring no better Arguments to do it but such as are were he put to declare it and would speak out confessedly Uncertain is so far from being a competent Dissuasive from Catholick Faith that 't is when laid open which is here perform'd as good a Persuasive for the Generality of Catholicks to hold stedfastly to it as man's Wit can invent and far better to the weaker sort of Speculaters than to demonstrate the Infallibility of the Ground of Faith Such advantage Catholick Faith gains by the Opposition from her Adversaries if they be rightly handled and their Discourses brought to Grounds Fifth Way 9. THe Fifth Way is built on the fourth or indeed on the Protestants voluntary Concession For they granting they have no Demonstration for the Ground of their Faith must say they have onely Probability and consequently that Faith quoad nos is Uncertain or to use their own Expression that Faith in us is an Assent cui non subest dubium of which we have no doubt yet cui potest subesse falsum or possible to be false which amounts to this that Faith at large is but highly probable much lesse their Faith as contradistinguisht from ours Probabilities then being of such a Nature that they do not absolutely weigh down the scale of our Judgment I mean while they are seen to be but Probabilities as is my Ld's case it follows that if there be Probabilities for the other side the way to dissuade from It is to put all those probable reasons in the opposit ballance and then by comparing them show they have no considerable weight counterpos'd to those he brings for his Tenet Now that there is no Probability for our side is very hard
proper Contrition It adds farther that Reconciliation to God is not to be ascrib'd ipsi Contritioni sine Sacramenti voto QUOD IN ILLA INCLUDITUR to Contrition without desire of the Sacrament WHICH IS INCLUDED IN IT that is in Contrition Thus the Council I note First the Dissuaders craft in not putting down the words of the Council A practice frequent with him as I show'd before and purposely omitted as appear'd evidently then and will do more now because not at all favourable to his insincere humour of deforming all he meddles with Next by this means he handling onely Perfect Contrition makes our Church require actual or votive Pennance to Its Sufficiency Whereas the Council expresly voids any necessity of actual Pennance to this or proper Contrition and onely requires it to Attrition 3ly He omits the words which is included in it which put down had disanull'd all his whole discourse and cleard our Church from all his Calumnies For this shows the Councils sence to be that Contrition alone if qualifyed as it ought to be reconciles to God but that to be qualify'd as it ought to be it includes a purpose or desire of doing other duties incumbent on the sinner by reason of his Sin and signalizes this particularly of his duty to the Church in resolving to come to the Sacrament of Pennance Let us parallel it Suppose the Council had said True sorrow for sin will save you but not unless you have a will to restore what you have stoln for otherwise your sorrow is not true in regard true sorrow for Sin includes a will to rectify what sin had disordered Where 's now the occasion of my Lds. ranting declamation of the Councils going against Scripture and the promises of the Gospel teaching for Doctrins the Commandments of men of evacuating the goodness of God by Traditions of weakening and discouraging the best Repentance and of preferring Repentance towards men before that which the Scripture calls Repentance towards God and Faith in our Ld. Jesus Christ. Yet supposing that sinners are commanded by Christs Law to give account of their Souls to the Church and receive their Absolution and Pennance from her as well as they are to restore what 's stoln the case is undeniably parallell But since many other duties are included in Contrition as an obligation to restore credit or goods unjustly taken away to repair temporal damages our Neighbours have incurr'd by us and the spiritual ones of Scandal asking pardon for affrontive Injuries curing our former Uncharitableness and wordliness by giving Almes and such like a purpose of all which if our Contrition be right ought to be included in it 't is worth Enquiry why the Council particularises this of coming to the Sacrament of Pennance And to Catholicks who understand the nature of that Sacrament the Answer is so easy that 't is needless For after the heart is contrite or substantially turn'd there remains no more to be done but to wash of the tainture of bad Inclinations Mortal Sin uses to leave behind it and to make Satisfaction to our Neighbour or the World Wherefore because the wholsome Sacrament of Pennance rightly us'd is ordain'd and apt of its own Nature both to wash away those remaining staines by sorrowful and penal actions enjoyn'd by Church disciplin and also to ty men to the Execution of all due Satisfaction to the injur'd World hence the heart being truly converted interiorly this Sacrament is the most Efficacious means to set all else right so to come to it is the onely remaining duty as including all else and for that reason 't is particularly exprest by the Council that true Contrition must include a purpose to come to it because if true it must needs include a desire to take the best means to rectify what 's amiss And lest a Sinner should be apt to conciet and say within himself thus I am truly sorry for my offending God there is then no more to be thought on the Council most prudently declares that That will not do unless they desire likewise to set right what they had disorder'd of which the Church is to be the Judge and careful Overseer and so 't is their duty to the Church to let her take Cognizance of it The Dissuader did ill then to phrase it Ritual Pennante as if onely a dry Ceremony had been enjoyn'd by the Council ere the Soul could be reeoncild to God whereas 't is a Sacrament of its own nature executively satisfactory of all the kinds of duties and efficaciously reparative of all the disorders which are the Arrears and Effects of a sinful Action But he did worse to omit the Councils words and so leave out totally Quod in illâ includitur which candidly put in had made all his Process to no purpose But worst of all when he could not but see all this to inveigh against so innocent so rational charitable and wise Proceedure of this Grave and Venerable Council with the harshest Expressions that ever were clad in Holy Language And it were good my Ld. who is so high against our Casuists would let us know by what Cases he guides himself in his whole Book where he sprinkles Scripture Holy-water all over as if every thing were a Devil he met with and here particularly in wilfully publickly and causlesly calumniating not a private person but an whole Council consisting of so great a multitude of the most Grave most Venerable and most Sacred Personages in the whole Christian World 21. A seventh kind of his Disingenuities is his Exaggerating and magnifying manner of Expression by virtue of which he can make any mote seem a Beam and though the Fault would ly in a very small room perhaps require none at all yet as men blow up Bladders with wind he can so swell and puff it up by plying it with his aiery Rhetorick that it looks as big as a mountain whereas come neer it examin and grasp it that will not now fill your hand which before took up the whole prospect of your Eye He can also by placing things in false lights make even the greatest Virtue seem a Vice and then make that new-created vice a monstrous one Both which were visibly discovered in our last Instance out of the Council of Trent 22. I pass by many other of his petty Disingenuities as his interposing Parenthesisses of his own speaking most confidently where he has least Ground so to make up the want of this with abundance of the other His confounding good Cases with bad Some private Bigotteries with acts of true Piety Books approved by the Church with those of private Authours understanding spiritual things grosly and materially as in his whole business of Exorcisms In which were I in as merry an humour as his Lp. is there I could make his discourse there far more ridiculous than he makes any thing found in the Churches Ritual which book we are onely to defend or he to object if
Scripture as they take the word a Principle nor consequently Fathers or Councils whose Certainty is resolvable into It. They 'l say that Letter is a Certain Way to arrive at a determinate Sence and consequently that they have determinate Sence by means of it I ask is the Letter alone such Then in case it alone be absolutely sufficient to such an Effect it will perform it in every one as if Fire be alone sufficient to burn all the world and so overpower all the resistence of the matter do but apply it 't will do that effect or burn it Is there requisit some Schollership in the Subject Scripture's Letter is to work upon or desire to see Truth in their Will Then if this be the onely requisit it will work its Certifying or determining Effect upon all Schollers and well-meaners and so no Schollers and well meaners can disagree in the Sence of it The contrary to which all sober men acknowledge daily Experience teaches us as much as we can be sure of any Human Action The like Discourse holds whatever requisits they desire for still it will follow they must say that in whomsoever they place that requisit they cannot differ in the since of Scripture which Common Experience will confute Nor will it avail them to run to Fundamentals unless it be said the Trinity is no Fundamental which the Dissuader makes the onely one p. 12. for the Socinians deny this amongst whom 't is a strange Immodesty in the Protestants to say there is nonc well-meaning Learned or unapply'd to Scripture Adding then to this most Evident Proposition that a Cause proper to produce such an Effect if we put the Patient dispos'd and the Application alwayes produces its Effect on the Truth of which all Nature depends adding this I say to the obvious and common Experience of Differers about Scriptures sence in all whom 't is Impossible to judge either Disposition of the Patient or Application is wanting for all read it and strive with all the wit and skill they have to find the sence of it it will follow most Evidently that the Fault is in the Agent or Cause that is that Scriptures Letter is unsit to Certify or bring us to a determinate sence of it and therefore since till we know the Sence of that Letter 't is to us but meer Words I am forc't by my reason to judge they have no Principles Those being Sence but that their whole way is wordish and not out of disrespect to them for this touches not them more than it does all others who have lest off the way of conveying down determinate Sence by Living voice and Practise or Tradition but I am oblig'd by Conscience and my duty to my Cause to declare that their whole Ground of their Faith is thus hollow and empty Whence I contest out of the nature of the thing that their Cause can bear no way of Sence or Principles but must forcibly be upheld by Wordishness as by quoting Texts without any Certain Interpreter Citations of Fathers not brought to Grounds not held by themselves Certain fine Scripture phras'd flourishes of piety and such like In which the Dissuader is Excellent Or else if the Objecter be very witty and have taken a great deal of pains in the way of Scepticism to be too hard for himself by bringing all into Uncertainty which is the acutest way of Wordishness and most proper to oppose any Discourse that tends to Establish and Settle because most opposit to it and so I am to expect Necessity will force them to take this way when any replies to SURE-FOOTING I know some will expect I should have answer'd the Dissuasive particularly but I know no reason why I should be sollicitous to stand cutting of each single Branch of Errour or be careful to hinder their growth after I have once pluck't the Tree that bore them up by the Roots POSTSCRIPT IF my Ld. please to reply which I fear will be too troublesome a task because of the illnaturedness and Inflexibleness of Principles or if he resolve to write hereaster against our Church his LP is intreated he would please to go to work like a Man that is orderly not confounding and jumbling all together Let him first define then what makes a Thing obligatory to be held by Catholiks a Doctrin of our Church or point of Faith then put down the very words of the Council in case it be difin'd next acquaint us with the nature of his objections vouch them Conclusive and let his Reader know in what their virtue or force of Concluding is plae't for this will strengthen them exceedingly and then let him fall to work when he will Above all I beg of him not to go about to forestall the sincere verdict of Reason by corrupting first the Will of weak people by pious Talk but first speak smart and home to their understandings with solid Reasons and then at the end of the Book preach as much as he pleases against the wickedness of a Point when he hath once demonstrated its Falshood Otherwise the Sermon so expands and ratifies the Proof and his Godly Rhetorick so evaporates his Reasons that it reflects no light at all and so no mortal eye though straining its optick nerves is able to discern it A Letter To Dr. Casaubon Honoured Sir AFter I had printed Sure-Footing I heard accidentally that you had been pleas'd to take notice of my Way and some signal Passages in Schisms Dispatcht I was glad to hear that so ancient a Friend of mine had offer'd me a fair occasion to renew our acquaintance resolving to take an account of his Exceptions and requite them with a due Satisfaction assoon as I could find a season proper Wherefore when the last sheet of my Appendix against the Dissuader was under the press finding both leasure and Opportunity to second my Intentions I took your Book perus'd diverse chief passages in it and particularly what concern'd my self p. 87. The first glance of it put me in some Wonderment at the difference I found between you in your Book and the character of you in my Thoughts long ago imprinted there For in these I found you a solid sober man a good Schollar as also ingenuous and candid but in your Book particularly in those passages I saw plainly and was troubled to see it you had either none of those Qualities I imagin'd in you or to a very small degree But I began straight to reflect with my self that as when I was a child I fancy'd rooms very spacious and streets very long which coming to the state of a Man I found very strangely diminisht so my riper and more Judicious Thoughts saw now the measure of your virtues in their true demensions which my younger and unexperienc't years had so strangely magnify'd and enhanc't I doubt not but your outward appearance will make it thought by those that know you I have said too much let 's see how
London and in your chamber there upon occasion of reading a book writ by a certain Protestant Bishop against the Real presence I observ'd and acquainted you with my observation that to my Judgment the Fathers spoke more favourably for the Papists tenet than the Protestants Hereupon you took me by the hand and told me they were mad who read the Ancient Fathers and saw not they meant Christ was as really in the Sacrament as in Heaven The other was yet more remarkable and this that either your Grandfather or Father I know not which but I think your Grandfather was intimate with Mr. Calvin and when he had put out his Explication of Christ's presencein the Sacrament which dodg'd and shuffled between really and notreally that is between is and is-not he challeng'd Mr. Calvin with it and laid open to him the non-Sence and indefensibleness of it asking him why he put out so strange an Opinion which he was never able to make good at which Mr. Calvin took hold of his own finger and said See you this I would willingly cut it off on condition I had never put it out so To which your Grandfather reply'd You should then explain it some other way Mr. Calvin answer'd My Institutions are so spread all over France that 't is now too late Thus you letting me see by a Testimony very immediate that the late Authour of this Tenet which now so reigns all over England wish't his finger cut off when he writ it How you will reconcile this with the late new piece of the Rubrick in the Common-Prayer-book absolutely renouncing all real presence in which point the Church of of England formerly exprest her self abstractedly do you consider Sir I beseech you let this be a fair warning to you how you deal disingenuously for the future and pardon some of my expressions to my high provocation and exceeding great hast I am sure the worst of them is a Civility compar'd to the harsh carriage you have us'd towards your self in openly falsifying both my words and sence and causlesly wresting to an ill construction every passage you touch't yet not doing me the right to go about to answer any one in the least that so I might see by your Reasons you had Grounds to think as you writ Had you argu'd against me I know too well the right of a Writer to take it ill if you laid open and nam'd my conceived Faults though the names of them had been harsh Words but not even to attempt to confute them yet to flie into such Expressions is the very definition of railing I was extreme sorry to lay open the Fault of a Friend though my own Concern made it Fitting and your demerit Just and do assure you that onely the Injury to my Cause which went along in that action oblig'd me to this Vindication Setting aside the duty I owe to That I am still as ever Your true Friend and humble Servant J. S. A LETTER from The Authour of Sure-footing to his Answerer SIR I Am certainly inform'd there is an Answer to my Book intended and a Person chosen out for that Employment whose Name I am unconcern'd to know it being only his Quality as a Writer I have to do with I receive the Alarum with great chearfulness knowing that if my Adversary behaves himself well it will exceedingly conduce to the clearing and settling the main point there controverted But because there is difference between being call'd an Answer and being an Answer and that 't is extremely opposit to my Genius to be task't in laying open mens Faults even as Writers though it has been my unhappiness formerly to meet with Adversaries whose way of winning made that carriage my only duty wherefore to prevent as much as I am able all occasion of such unsavory oppositions and to make way to the clearing the point that so our Discourse may redound to the profit and satisfaction of our Readers I make bold to offer you these few Reflexions which in effect contain no more but a Request you would speak to the point and in such a way as is apt to bring the matter nearer a clearing This if you please to do you will very much credit your self and your endeavours in the opinion of all ingenuous persons If you refuse and rather chuse to run into Rhetorical Excursions and such Discourses as are apt to breed new Controversies not pertinent to the present one under hand you will extreamly disparage both your self your party and your Cause and give me an exceeding advantage against them all I shall also have the Satisfaction to have manifested before-hand by means of this Letter that I have contributed as much as in me lies to make you avoid those Faults which I must then be forc't to lay open and severely press upon you little to your Credit nor your Causes neither You being as I am informd and Reason gives it signally chosen out as held most able to maintain it 2. That there may be no more distance between us than what our Cause enforces I heartily assure you that though I highly dislike your Tenets negatively opposit to what we hold Faith and the Way of Writing I foresee you must take unless you resolve to love Candour better than your Cause as being Inconclusive and so apt to continue not finish debates yet I have not the least pique against yours or any mans Person Nor have I any particular aversion against the Protestant party rather I look upon it with a better eye than on any other Company whatever which has broke Communion with the Catholick Church It preserves still unrenounc't the form of Episcopacy the Church-Government instituted by Christ and many grave Solemnities and Ceremonies which make our Union less difficult Many of their soberest Writers acknowledge divers of the renounc't Tenets to be Truths some of them also profess to hold Tradition especially for Scripture's Letter and even for those Points or Faith-Tenets in which they and we agree that is where their Interest is not touch't I wish they would as heartily hold to it in all other Points which descended by it and look into the Virtue it has of ascertaining and declare in what that Virtue consists I am confident a little candour of confessing truly what they finde joyn'd with an endeavour of looking into Things rather than Words would easily make way to a fair Correspondence I esteem and even honour the Protestants from my heart for their firm Allegiance to his Sacred Majesty and his Royal Father This uniting them already with all sober Catholiks under that excellent notion of good Subjects and in the same point of Faith the Indispensableness of the duty of Allegiance we owe our Prince by Divine Law Lastly I declare that for this as well as for Charitable Considerations I have a very particular zeal for their reconcilement to their Mother-Church and that 't is out of this love of Union I endeavour so earnestly