nature and causes of things here below though they know well enough that there was never any agreement amongst the wisest and severest that at any time have been engaged in that disquisition nor is it likely that ever there will be so And herein they can countenance themselves with the difficulty obscurity and importance of the things inquired after But as for the high and heavenly mysteries of the Gospel the least whereof is infinitely of more importance then any thing that the utmost reach and comprehension of humane wisdom can attain unto they may be neglected and despised because there are contentions about them Hic nigrae succus loliginis haec est Erugo mera The truth is this is so far from any real ground for any such conclusion that it were utterly impossible that any man should believe the truth of Christian Religion if he had not seen or might not be informed that such contention and differences had ensued in and about it for that they should do so is plainly and frequently foretold in those sacred oracles of it whereof if any one be found to fail the veracity and authority of the whole may justly be called into question If therefore men will have a religion so absolutely facile aud easie that without diligence endeavour pains or enquiry without laying out of their rational abilities or exercising the faculties of their souls about it without foregoing of their lusts and pleasures without care of mistakes and miscarriages they may be securely wrapt up in it as it were whither they will or no I confess they must seek for some other where they can find it Christianity will yield them no relief God hath not proposed an acquaintance with the blessed concernments of his Glory and of their own eternal condition unto the sons of men on any such terms as that they should not need with all diligence to employ and exercise their faculties of their souls in the investigation of them in the use of the means by him appointed for that purpose seeing this is the chiefest end for which he hath made us those souls And as for them who in sincerity give up their minds and consciences unto his Authority and guidance he hath not left them without an infallible dâ—rection for such a discharge of their own duty as is sufficient to guide and lead them in the middest of all differences divisions and oppositions unto rest with himself and the difficulties which are cast upon any in their enquiring after truth by the errour and deviation of other men from it are all sufficiently recompenced unto them by the excellency and sweetness which they find in the truth it self when sought out with diligence according to the mind of Christ. And one said not amiss of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I dare say he is the wisest Christian who hath most diligently conâ—idered the various differences that are in and about Christianity as being built in the knowledge of the truth upon the best and most stable foundations To this end hath the Lord Jesus given us his holy word a perfect and sure Revelation of all that he would have us to believe or do in the worship of God This he commands us diligently to attend unto to study seach and enquire after that we may know his mind and do it It is true in their enquiry into it various apprehensions concerning the sense and meaning of sundry things revealed therein have befallen some men in all ages and Origen gives this as one occasion of the differences that were in those dayes amongst Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 3. Con. Celâ— 1. When many were converted unto Christianity some of them variously understanding the holy Scripture which they joyntly believed it came to pass that heresie ensued For this was the whole rule of faith unity in those dayes the means for securing of us in them imposed on us of late by the Romanists was then not heard of not thought of in the world But moreover to obviate all danger that might in this matter ensue from the manifold weakness of our minds in apprehending spiritual things the Lord Jesus hath promised his holy spirit unto all them that believe in him and ask it of him to prevent their mistakes and miscarriages in the study of his word and to lead them into all that truth the knowledge whereof is necessary that they may believe in him unto the end and live unto him And if they who diligently and conscientiously without prejudices corrupt ends or designs in obedience to the command of Christ shall enquire into the Scriptures to receive from thence the whole object of their faith and rule of their obedience and who believing his promise shall pray for his Spirit and wait to receive him in and by the means appointed for that end may not be and are not thereby secured from all such mistakes and errours as may disinterest them in the promises of the Gospel I know not how we may be brought unto any certainty or assurance in the Truths of God or the everlasting consolation of our own souls Neither indeed is the nature of man capable of any further satisfaction in or about these things unless God should work continual miracles or give continually special revelations unto all individuals whch would utterly overthrow the whole nature of that faith and obedience which he requires at our hands But once to suppose that such persons through a defect of the means appointed by Christ for the instruction and direction before mentioned may everlastingly miscarry is to cast an unspeakable reproach on the goodness grace and faithfulness of God and enough to discourage all men from enquiring after the truth And these things the Reader will find further cleared in the ensuing discourse with a discovery of the weakness falseness and insufficiency of those rules and reliefs which are tendred unto us by the Romanists in the lieu of them that are given us by God himself Now if this be the condition of things in Christian Religion as to any one that hath with sincerity consulted the Scripture or considered the Goodness Grace and Wisdom of God it must needs appear to be it is manifest that mens startling at it or being offended upon the account of divisions and differences among them that make profession thereof is nothing but a pretence to cloke and hide their sloth and supine negligence with their unwillingness to come up unto the indispensable condition of learning the truth as it is in Jesus namely obedience unto his whole will and all his commands so far as he is pleased to reveal them unto us With others they are but incentives unto that diligence and watchfulness which the things themselves in their nature high and arduous and in their importance of everlasting moment require at your hands Further on those who by the means formentioned come to the knowledge of the truth it is incumbent according as they are
we also do Strom. 4. To this purpose speaks Salvianus de Gub. Lib. 3. Alia omnia idest humana dicta argumentis testibus egent Dei autem Sermo ipse sibi test is est quia necesseest ut quicquid incorrupta verityas loquitur incorruptum sit testimonium veritatis All other sayings stand in need of Arguments and witnesses to confirm them the Word of God is witness to its self For whatever the Truth incorrupted speaks must of necessity be an incorrupt Testimony of Truth And although some of them allowed the Testimony of the Church as a motive unto believing the Gospell or things preached from it yet as to the belief of the Scripiure with faith Divine and Supernaturall to be the Word of God they required but these two things 1. That Self-Evidence in the Scripture its self which is needfull for an indemonstrable Principle from which and by which all other things are to be demonstrated And that Self-Evidence Clemens puts in the place of all Demonstrations 2. The Efficacy of the Spirit in the heart to enable it to give a saving assent unto the Truth proposed unto it Thus Austin in his Confessions Lib. 6. cap. 5. Persuasisti mihi ô Domine Deus non eos qui crederent libris tuis quos tanta in omnibus ferè Gentibus authoritate fundasti esse culpandos sed eos qui non crederent new audiendesesse siqui mihi forte dicerent Unde scis illos libres unius veracissimi Dei Spirituesse humano generi ministratos idipsum enim maximè credendum erat O Lord God thou hast perswaded me that not they who believe thy Books which with so great Authority thou hast setled almost in all Nations were to be blamed but those who believe them not and that I should not hearken unto any of them who might chance to say unto me Whence dost thou know those Books to be given out unto mankind from the Spirit of the only True GOD for that is the thing which principally was to be believed In which words the holy man hath given us full direction what to say when you come upon us with that Question which some used it seems in his dayes A great Testimony of the Antiquity of your Principles Adde hereunto what he writes in the 11 th Book and 3 d Chapter of the same Treatise and wee have the summe of the Resolution and Principle of his Faith Audiam saith he intelligam quomodo fecisti Coelam terram Scripsit hoc Moses scripsit abiit transivit hinc ad Te. Neque enim nunc ante me est nam si esset tenerem eum rogaremeum per Teobsecrarem ut mihi ist a paâ—derct praberem aures corporis mei sonis erumpentibus ex ere ejus At si Hebraea voce loqueretur frustra pulsaret sensum meum nec inde mentem meam tangeret si autem Latinè scirem quid diceret sed Unde scirem an verum dicoret quod si hoc scirem num ab illâ— scirem Intus utique mihi intus in domicilio cogitationis nec Hebraea nec Graeca nec Latina nec barbara verityas sine oris linguae organis sine strepitu syllabarum diceret verum diâ—it ego statim â—â—tus confidenter illi homini tuo dicerem Verumolits Cum ergo illum interrogare non possim Te quo 〈◊〉 vera dixit Veritas rogo Te Deus meus rogo partepeccatis meis qui illi servo tuo dedisti haec dicere 〈◊〉 mihi haEc intelligere I would bear and understand O Lord how thou hast made the Heavens and the earth Moses wrote this he wrote it and is gene and he is gone to Thee For now he is not present with mee if he were I would lay hold on him and ask him and beseech him for thy sake that he would unfold these things unto me and I would cause the ears of my body to attend unto the words of his mouth But if he should speak in the Hebrew tongue he would only in vain strike upon my outward sense and my mind within would not be affected with it If he speak in Latine I should know what he sayed but whence should I know that he spake the Truth should I know this also from him The Truth that is neither Hebrew Greck Latine nor expressed in any Barbarous Language would say unto me inwardly in the dwelling place of my thoughts without the organs of mouth or tongue or noyse of syllables He speaks the Truth and I with confidaence should say unto him thy servam Thou speakest the Truth Seeing therefore I cannot enquire of him I beseech Thee that art Truth with whom he being filled spake the Truth I beseech thee O my God pardon my sinnes and thou who gavest unto him by servant to speak these things grant unto me tounderstand Thus this holy man ascribes his assent into the one unquestionable Principle of the Scripture as to the effecting of it in himself to the work if Gods Spirit in his heart As Basil also doth on Psal. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith which draws the soul unto consent above the efficacy of all rational wayes or methods of perswasion Faith that is wrought and begotten in us not by geometricall enforcements or demonstrations but by the effectuall operations of the Spirit And both these Principles are excellently expressed by one amongst your selves even Baptista Mantuanus Lib. de Patientia Cap. 32 33. Saepenumerò faith he mecum cogitavi Unde tam sâ—adibilis esset ista Scriptura ut tam potenter insluat in animos auditorum unde tantum habeat energiae ut non adopinandum sed ad solidè credendum omnes inflectat I have often thought with my self Whence the Scripture is so perswasive whence it doth so powerfully influence the minds of the hearers whence it hath so much efficacy that it should incline and bow all men not to think as probable but solidly to believe the things it proposeth Non saith he est hoc imputandum rationum evidentiaequas non adducit non artis industriae verbis suavibus ad persuadendum accommodatis quibus non utitur It is not to be ascribed unto the evidence of Reasons which it bringeth not neither to the excellency of Art sweet words and accommodated unto per swasion which it makes no use of Sed vide an id in causa sit quod persuasi sumus eam à prima veritate flâ—xisse But see if this be not the Cause of it that wee are perswaded that it proceeds from the prime Verity He proceeds Sed unde sumus ita persuasi nisi ab ipsa quasi ad ei credendum non sua ipsiâ—â— trahat Authoritas Sed unde quaeso hanc sibi Authoritatem vindicavit Neque enim vidimus nos Deum concionantem scribentem docentem tamen ac si vidissemus credimus tenemus à Spiritu Sancto fluxisse quod legimus Forsitan
of the slaughter'd Disciples of Christ. So that what the Historiâ—n said of the old Râ—mâ—ns in reference unto the Galls or Cimbrians usque ad nostram memoriam Romanâ— alla omniâ— virtuti suae prone esse cum Gall is pro salute non proglorta certari we may apply unto them it is not Truth only but our Temporal safety also that we are enforced to contend with them about And whom they cannot reach with outward violence they endeavour to lade with curses and by precipitate censures and determination to eject them out of the limits of Christianity as to the spiritual and eternal priviledges wherewith it is attended And these things make all hopes of Reconciliation for the future and of present moderation languid and weak as all endeavours after them hither to have been fruitless For whilest they contend that every proposall of their Church every way and mode in the worship of God that is in usage amongst them is not only true and right but of necessity to be embraced and submitted unto and therefore impose them by all sorts of penalties on the consciences and practises of all men is it not evidenâ— that there can be no peace nor agreement in the world but what waste and solitude arising from an extermination of persons otherwise minded then themselves will produce some oâ— them I confess to serve their present supposed advantages have of late declâ—â—med about moderation in matters of Religion and I wish that herein that may be sincerely indeavoured by some which for sinister ends is corruptly pretended by others For mine own part there are no sort of men from whose frame of spirit and waies I shall labour a greater distance then theirs who set themselves against that moderation towards persons differing from them and others in the result of their thoughts upon an humble sincere investigation of the truth and wayes of Christ which himself and his Apostles commend unto us or that refuse to consent unto any way of Reconciliation of dissenters wherein violence is not offered unto the commands of God as stated in their consciences Let the Romanists renounce their principles about the absolute necessity of the subjection of all persons unto the Pope in answer unto that groundless and boundless Authority which in things sacred and civil they assign unto him with their resolution of imposing the dictates of their Church per fas nefas upon our consciences and we shall endeavour with all quietness and moderation to plead with them about our remaining differences and to joyn with them in the profession of those important truths wherein we are agreed But whilest they propose no other forms of Reconciliation but our absolute submission unto their Papal Authority with our assent unto and profession of those doctrines which we are perswaded are contrary to the Scripture with the sense of Catholick Antiquity derogatory to the Glory of God and prejudicial to the salvation of those by whom they are received and our concurrence with them in those wayes of Religious worship which themselves are fallen into by degrees they know not how which we believe dishonourable unto God and pernitious to the souls of men I see no ground of any other peace with them but that only which we are bound to follow with all men in abstaining from mutual violences performing all offices of Christian love and in a special praying for their repentance and coming to the acknowledgment of the Truth On this account was it that some while since upon the desire of some friends I undertook the examination of a discourse entituled Fiat Lux whose Author under a pretence of that moderation which is indeed altogether inconsistent with other principles of his profession endeavoured to insinuate a necessity of the reception of Popery for the bringing of us to peace or agreement here and the interesting of us in any hope of eternal rest and peace hereafter Whether that small labour were seasonable or no or whether any service were done therein to the interest of Truth is left to the judgement of men unprejudiced Not long after there was published an Epistle pretending a Reply unto that discourse being indeed a meer flourish of empty words and a giving up of the cause wherein the Author of Fiat Lux was engaged as desperate and indefensible However I thought it not meet to let it pass without some consideration partly that the design of that Treatise with others of the like nature of late published amongst us might be further manifested and partly that the ends of moderation and peace being fixed between us I might farther try and examine whose and what principles are best suited unto their pursuit and accomplishment I have not therefore confined my self unto an Answer unto the Epistle of the Author of Fiat Lux which indeed it doth not deserve as I suppose himself being judge but have only from it taken occasion to discuss those principles and usages in Religion wherein the most important differences between Papists and Protestants do lie For whereas the whole difference between them and us is branched into two general heads the first concerning those principles which they and we severally build our profession upon and resolve our faith into and the other respecting particular instances in doctrines of faith and practice in Religious worship I have laid hold of occasion to treat of them both of the former absolutely and of the latter in things of most weight and concernment And because the Judgement of Antiquity is deservedly of moment in these things I have not only manifested it to lie plain and clear against the Romanist in instances sufficient to impeach their pretended infallibility which is enough to dissolve that whole imaginary fabrick that is built upon it and centers in it but also in most of the material controversies that are between them and us These things Christian Reader I thought meet to premise towards the prevention of that offence which any may really take or for corrupt ends pretend so to do at the differences in general that are amongst Christians or those in especial which are between us and the Roman Church as also to give an account of the occasion design and end of the ensuing consideration of them THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS CHAP. 1. AN Answer to the Preface or Introduction of the Reply to the Animadversions page 1. CHAP. 2. A Vindication of the first Chapter of the Animadversions The method of Fiat Lux. Romanists Doctrine of the Merit of Good Works p. 27 CHAP. 3. A defence of the second Chapter of the Animadversions Principles of Fiat Lux re-examined Of our receiving of the Gospel from Rome Our abode with them From whom we received it p. 37 CHAP. 4. Further Vindication of the first Chapter of the Animadversions Church of Rome not what she was of 〈◊〉 Her Fall and Apostacy Difference between Idâ—laâ—ry Apostacy and Heresie Schism Principles of the Church of Rome condemned by the
believed to belong to the Unity of Faith Lastly The Determinations of your Church you make to be the next efficient Cause of your Unity now these not being absolutely infallible leave it like Delos flitting up and down in the Sea of Probabilities only This we shall manifest unto you immediately at least we shall evidence that you have no cogent reasons nor slable grounds to prove your Church infallible in her Determinations At present it shall suffice to mind you that she hath Determined Contradictions and that in as eminent a manner as it is possible for her to declare her sense by namely by Councils confirmed by Popes and an infallible determination of Contradictions is not a Notion of any easie digestion in the thoughts of a man in his right wits We confess then that we cannot agree with you in your Rule of the Unity of Faith though the thing its self we press after as our Duty For 2. Protestants do not conceive this Vnity to consist in a precise Determination of all Questions that are or may be raised in or about things belonging unto the Faith whether it be made by your Church or any other way Your Thomas of Aquine who without question is the best and most sober of all your School Doctors hath in one Book given us 522 Articles of Religion which you esteem mraculously stated Quot Articuli tot Miracula All these have at least five Questions one with another stated and determined in explication of them which amount unto 2610 Conclusions in matters of Religion Now we are farre from thinking that all these Determinations or the like belong unto the Unity of Faith though much of the Religion amongst some of you lyes in not dissenting from them The Questions that your Bellarmine hath determined and asserted the Positions in them as of faith and necessary to be believed are I think neer 40 times as many as the Articles of the antient Creed of the Church and such as it is most evident that if they be of the nature and importance pretended it is impossible that any considerable number of men should ever be able to discharge their duty in this business of holding the Vnity of Faith That a man believe in generall that the holy Scripture is given by inspiration from God and that all things proposed therein for him to believe are therefore infallibly true and to be as such believed and that in particular he believe every Article or point of Truth that he hath sufficient means for his instruction in and conviction that it is so revealed they judg to be necessary unto the holding of the Unity of Faith And this also they know that this sufficiency nf means unto every one that enjoys the benefit of the Scriptures extends its self unto all those Articles of Truth which are necessary for him to believe so as that he may yield unto God the obedience that he requireth receive the holy Spirit of promise and be accepted with God Herein doth that Vnity of Faith which is amongst the Disciples of Christ in the world consist and ever did nor can do so in any thing else Nor doth that variety of Apprehensions that in many things is found among the Disciples of Christ and ever was render this Vnity like that you plead for various and incertain For the Rule and formall Reason of it namely Gods Revelation in the Scripture is still one and the same perfectly unalterable And the severall degrees that men attain uuto in their Apprehensions of it doth no more reflect a charge of variety upon it than the difference of Seeing as to the severall degrees of the sharpness or obtuseness of our bodily eyes doth upon the Light given by the Sunne The Truth is if there was any common measure of the Assents of men either as to the intension of it as it is subjectively in their minds or extension of it as it respecteth Truths revealed that belonged unto the Vnity of Faith it were impossible there should be any such thing in the world at least that any such thing should be known to be Only this I acknowledg that it is the Duty of all men to come up to the full and explicit acknowledgment of all the Truths revealed in the word of God wherein the Glory of God and the Christians Duty are concerned as also to a joynt consent in Faith objective or propositions of Truth revealed at least in things of most importance though their faith subjective or the internal assent of their minds have as it will have in severall Persons various degrees yea in the same Persons it may be at different seasons And in our labouring to come up unto this joynt-acknowledgment of the same sense and intendment of God in all revealed Truths consists our endeavour after that perfection in the Vnity of Faith which in this life is attainable as our moderation doth in our walking in peace and love with and towards others according to what we have already attained We may distinguish then between that Unity of Faith which an interest in gives Vnion with Christ unto them that hold it and Communion in Love with all equally interested therein and that Accomplishment of it which gives a sameness of Profession and consent in all acts of outward Communion in the worship of God The first is found in and amongst all the Disciples of Christ in the world where-ever they are the latter is that which moreover it is your Duty to press after The former consists in an Assent in generall unto all the Truths of God revealed in the Scripture and in particular unto them that we have sufficient means to evidence them unto us to be so revealed The latter may come under a double consideration for either there may be required unto it in them who hold it the joynt perception of and assent unto every Truth revealed in the Scripture with an equall degree of certainty in adherence and evidence in perception and it is not in this life wherein the best of us know but in part attainable or only such a concurrence in an assent unto the necessary Propositions of Truth as may enable them to hold together that outward Communion in the worship of God which we before mentioned And this is certainly attainable by the wayes and means that shall immediately be layed down And where this is there is the Vnity of Faith in that compleatness which we are bound to labour for the attainment of This the Apostolicall Churches enjoyed of old and unto the recovery whereof there is nothing more prejudiciall than your new stating of it upon the account of your Churches Proposals This Unity of Faith we judg good and necessary and that it is our Duty to press after it So also in generall do you It remains then that we consider what is the way what are the means and Principles that Protestants propose and insist upon for the attainment of it that is in answer
God in his Word than unto these Principles of yours is rejected by you out of the limits of the Catholick Church that is of Christianity for they are the same To make good your judgement and censure then you vent endless Cavils against the Authority Perfection and Perspicuity of the Scriptures pretending to despise and scorn whatever is offered in their viâ—dication This rope of Sand composed â— false suppositions groundless presumptions inconsequent inferences in all which there is not one word of infallible Truth at least that you can any way make appear so to be is the great Bond you use to gird men withall into the Unity of Faith In brief you tell us that if wee will all submit to the Pope wee shall be sure all to agree But this is no more but as I have before told you what every party of men in the world tender us upon the same or the like condition It is not a meer agreement wee aym at but an agreement in the Truth not a meer Vnity but a Unity of Faith and Faith must be built on Principles infallible or it will prove in the close to have been fancy not Faith carnall imagination not Christian belief otherwise wee may agree in Turcism or Judaism or Paganism as well as in Christianity and to as good purpose Now what of this kind do you tender unto us Would you have us to leave the sure word of Prophesie more sure than a voyce from Heaven the Light shining in the dark places of this world which wee are commanded to attend unto by God himself the Holy Scripture given by Inspiration which is able to make us wise unto Salvation the Word that is perfest sure right converting the Soul enlightning the eyes making wise the simple whose observation is attended with great reward to give heed yea to give up all our Spirituall and eternall concernments to the credit of old groundless uncertain Stories inevident presumptions fables invented for and openly improved unto carnal secular and wicked ends Is your request reasonable Would wee could prevail with you to cease your importunity in this matter especially considering â—the dangerous consequence of the admission of these your Principles unto Christianity in generall For if it be so that S t Peter had such an Episcopacy as you talk of and that a continuance of it in a Succession by the Bishops of Rome be of that indispensable necessity unto the preservation of Christian Religion as is pretended many men considering the nature and quality of that Succession how the means of its continuation have been arbitrarily and occasionally changed what place formerly popular Suffrage and the Imperial Authority have had in it how it came to be devolved on a Conclave of Cardinals what violence and tumults have attended one way what briberies and filthy respects unto the lusts of unclean Persons the other what Interruptions the Succession it self hath had by vacancies Schisms and contests for the place and uncertainty of the Person that had the best right unto the Popedome according to the customes of the dayes wherein he lived and that many of the Persons who have had a place in the pretended Succession have been plainly men of the world such as cannot receive the Spirit of Christ yea open enemies unto his Cross would find just cause to suspect that Christianity were utterly failed many Ages ago in the world which certainly would not much promote the Settlement in Truth and Unity of Faith that we are enquiring after And this is the first way that you propose to supply that Defect which you charge upon the Scripture that it is insufficient to reconcile men that are at variance about Religion and settle them in the Truth And if you are able by so many uncertainties and untruths to bring men unto a Certainty and Scttlement in the Truth you need not despair of compassing and thing that you shall have a mind to attempt But you have yet another Plea which you make no less use of than of the former which must therefore be also now you have engaged us in this work a little examined This is the Church its Authority and Infallibilâ—ty The truth is when you come to make a practical Application of this Plea unto your own use you resolve it into and confound it with that foregoing of the Pope in whom solely many of you would have this Authority and Infallibility of the Church to reside Yet because in your mannagement of it you proceed on other Principles than those before mentioned this pretence also shall be apart considered And here you tell us 1. That the Church was before the Scripture and giveth Authority unto it By the Scriptures you know that wee understand the Word of God with this â—ne Adjunct of its being written by his command and appointment We do not say that it belongs unto the Essence of the Word of God that it be written Whatever is spoken by God wee admit as his Word when wee are infallibly assured that by Him it was spoken and that wee should do so before himself doth not require at our hands for he would have us use our utmost diligence not to be imposed upon by any in his Name Therefore wee grant that the Word of God was given out for the Rule of men in his Worship two thousand years before it was written but it was so given forth as that they unto whom it came had infallible assurance that from Him it came and his Word it was And if you or any man else can give us such assurance that any thing is or hath been spoken by him besides what we have now written in the Scripture wee shall receive it with the same faith and obedience wherewith wee receive the Scripture its self Whereas therefore you say That the Church was before the Scripture if you intend no more but that there was a Church in the world before the word of God was written wee grant it true but not at all to your purpose If you intend that the Church is before the Word of God which at an appointed time was written it may possibly be wrested unto your purpose but is farre from being true seeing the Church is a society of men called to the knowledg and worship of God by his Ward They become a Church by the call of that Word which it seems you would have not given untill they are a Church of Effects produce their Causes Children beget their Parents Light brings forth the Sunne and Heat the Fire So are the Prophets and Apostles built upon the foundation of the Church whereof the Pope is the Corner stone So was the Judaical Church before the Law of iâ— constitution and the Christian before the Word of Promise whereon it was founded and the Word of Command by which it was edified In brief from the day wherein Man was first created upon the earth to the days wherein we live never did a Person or
of a man upon and according to the inbred Principles of his nature but every acting of the understanding of a man about the things of God proceeding from such Principles or guided by any such rule as no way impeach its rationality To vindicate your discourse in your Fiat upon this subject you make use of two mediums 1. You pretend that to be the whole subject of your Discourse about Reason which is but a part of it and 2. You deny that to be the Design and aime of your Book which your self know and all other men acknowledge so to be On the first head you tell me that your Discourse concerned Reason to be excluded from the employment of framing Articles of Religion It is true you talk somewhat to that purpose and you were told that Protestants were no way concerned in that Discourse And it is no less true that you dispute against the use and exercise of Reason in our choise of or adhering unto any Religion or any way or practice in Religion that is the Liberty of a mans rational judgement in determining what is right and what is wrong what true what false in the things that are proposed unto him as belonging unto Religion guided bounded and determined by the only Rule measure and last umpire in and about such things This you oppose and that directly and that to this end to shew unto Protestants that they can come unto no certainty in Religion by this exercise of their Reason in and about the things of God That men should by the use of Reason endeavour to find out and frame a Religion is fond to imagine They who ever attempted any such thing knew it was not Religion but a pretence to some other end that they were coyning To make the reason of a man proceeding and acting upon it its own light and inbred Principles the absolute and Soveraign judge of the things that are proposed to be believed or practised in Religion so as that it should be free for him to receive or reject them according as they answer and are suited thereunto is no less absurd and foolish and who ever will assert it must build his Assertion on this supposition that a man is capable of comprehending fully and clearly whatsoever God can reveal of himself which is contrary to the prime Dictates of Reason in reference unto the simplicity and infiniteness of Gods being and so would imply a contradiction in its first admission It is no less untrue that a man in the lapsed depraved condition of nature can by the light thereof and the utmost improvement of his reason come to a saving sanctifying perception of the things themselves that God hath revealed concerning himself his will and worship which is the peculiar effect of the spirit and grace of Christ. But to say that a man is not to use his reason in finding out the sense and meaning of the propositions wherein the Truths of Religion are represented unto him and in judging of their truth and falshood by the Rule of them which is the Scripture is to deny that indeed we are men and to put a reproach upon our mortality by intimating that men do not cannot nor ought to do that which they not only know they do but also that they cannot but do For they do but vainly deceive themselves who suppose or rather dream that they make any determination of what is true or false in Religion without the use and exercise of their Reason it is to say they do it as beasts and not as men then which nothing can be spoken more to the dishonour of Religion nor more effectual to deter men from the entertainment of it For our parts we rejoyce in this that we dare avow the Religion which we profess to be highly rational and that the most mysterious Articles of it are proposed unto our belief on grounds of the most unquestionable reason and such as cannot be rejected without a Contradiction to the most Soveraign dictates of that Intellectual nature wherewith of God we are endued And it is not a few trifling instances of some mens abuse of their Reason in its prejudicate exercise about the things of God that shall make us ingrateful to God that he hath made us men or to neglect the laying out of the best that he hath intrusted us with by nature in his service in the work of Grace And what course do you your self proceed in When any thing is proposed unto you concerning Religion do you not think upon it doth not your mind exercise about it those first acts of Reason or Understanding which prepare and dispose you to discourse and compute it with your self do you not consider whither the thing it self be good or evil and whither the propositions wherein it is made unto you are true or false do you not call to mind the Rule and measure whereby you are to make a judgement whither they be so or no we talk not now what that Rule is but only whither you do not make a judgement of the Propositions that are made unto you by some Rule or other and whither with that judgement your mind do not assent unto them or dissent from them Yea is not your judgement which you so make the assent or dissent of your mind or what course do you take I wish you would inform us of your excellent expedient to teach a man to cry Credo without the use or exercise of his Reason to bring him thereunto But when you have done so I know it is no other way but that by it you may teach a Parrat or Starling to say as much or the Crow that cryed of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But you would evade all concernment in this Discourse by denying that your Fiat Lux was written unto any such concernment against Protestants I know not well what you mean by your Vnto any such concernment against Protestants That the main design of your Discourse is to bring Protestants unto an uncertainty in their profession by everting the Principles which you apprehend them to build upon and thereon to perswade them unto Popery I was in hope you would have no more denyed It hath been evidenced unto you with as needless a labour as ever any man was put unto but it is done because you would needs have it so and shall not now be done again Your ensuing Discourse wherein you attempt to say something unto the ninth Chapter of the Animadversions is not unlike the preceding and therefore I shall cast them under one head Your business in it is to cast a fresh dishonour upon Christian Religion by questioning the defensibility of its Principles against Jewish Objections any otherwise then by an irrational Credo Let us hear you speak in your own language Your vaunting florishes You say about Scripture which you love to talk on will not without the help of your Credo and humble resignation solve the Argument which