View of Some Exceptions Made by a Romanist, Part 2 · Subpart 17 – Subpart 18
C. 8. Anſ. to the 8. Chap.
Section 1 His Lordſhip ſuppoſing in charity that you had attempted to prove the Roman Church to be the true Church by its agreement with Scripture and Antiquity, which is in effect, by holding the truth; You plainely tell him he is miſtaken in you. It ſeemes you defie ſuch meane waies of proving yours to be the Church, as accordance with Scripture or Truth, you muſt have it by ſome more noble way of demonſtration; and if you would ſtand to this peice of gallantry, and never urge Scripture or Fathers to prove your opinions, but content your ſelfe with your being the true Church, to prove all after it: As I confeſſe I ſhould not charge on you that Circle which his Lordſhip doth in this particular (ſuppoſing, as he thought favourably to you, that you had proved the truth of the Church by the truth (and conſonancy to Scriptures and Fathers) of your doctrines) ſo I ſhould have two quarrels more againſt you, in ſtead of that one compoſed. Firſt, that you would diſclaime Scriptures and fly to miracles, (for ſuch are your reall revelations, as you interpret them by the verba ſignorum, in the Pſalme, the ſignes being there interpreted by the wonders that follow) that you would fly to Gods extraordinary providence, when I preſume you conceive his ordinary would have ſerved your turne; for ſure if at another time a man ſhould have asked you, is not your accordance with the Scriptures and Fathers a prime proofe that you are the true Church, I doubt not but you would be ſo well natured as to confeſſe it; and why now ſhould the Devils infirmity, the feare of a Circle, make you ſo cowardly, as not to dare to owne ſo popular an argument, eſpecially when your fire comes downe ſlowly, or your bath Col the voice from Heaven, (which is the onelyonly proper notion that I know of a reall revelation) is not very audible to us that are afarre off: nor if we were, to be put upon the racke; doe we know, or can confeſſe at this day, that we or any of our Fathers ever heard that 'twas ſo ever revealed, that the Roman Church is the true, or the infallible Church. And beſides when you know, we Proteſtants are a little hard of beliefe, and dare not credit your owne report, that you have ſuch oſtenſions, and revelations, and ſignes, when you neither produce witneſſe, nor tell us, when or what they were, but give us farther ground of jealouſie, by an odde phraſe let fall by you, that thoſe reall revelations of yours are motives (no more then) of credibility, when as true miracles acknowledged to be ſuch, are grounds of Faith, and he is an Infidell that believes them not; and to be but a motive of credibility, is but a petty thing that every topicall argument will take place of, probable being more then credible in the ordinary notion of the words.
Section 2 The ſecond quarrell that your words have brought upon you, is your telling us (without proofe that it is ſo, but onelyonly by giving a ſimilitude to ſhew it may be ſo, and ſo, in your phraſe, to be a motive of no more then credibility, which in him that concludes it is ſo, is petitio principii againe) that the ſame motives you uſe to prove the truth of Chriſtianity againſt Infidels, will prove yours to be the true Church; which being confidently ſaid, we are ſo vile in your eies, as not to be vouchſafed ſo much as the mention what they are, (unleſſe by your former words we conclude you meane miracles) much leſſe any evidence concerning them; And yet by the way, the miracles by which we prove the truth of Chriſtianity to Infidels, muſt be thoſe which we meet with in Scripture, and not thoſe other in your Legends; and upon a ſtrict ſurvey and recollecting of all them (and ſo comming as neare to them as can be) I muſt profeſſe I cannot ſee your Churches being the true Church in thoſe miracles, neare ſo clearly and diſtinctly, as I can ſee the man afarre off to be one of my acquaintance, when he comes neare me, which you undertooke I ſhould, and made me try; and therefore I hope will recompence me for the loſſe of my labour, by giving me your reaſons next time for your aſſertion, that I may try againe whether your proofes are more lucky then your experiments.
Section 3 But then I cannot ſee why you ſhould be ſcurrilous upon both his Lordſhip and Maſter Chillingworth, for thinking you were in danger of the Circle, in which ſure Baron had deprehended your Friend Turnbull, and in which you had beene engaged infallibly, if you had but gone about to prove your Church the true Church by the truth (or conſonancy to Scriptures and Fathers) of your opinions; which way of proving me thinkes 'tis poſſible you may ſtand in need of, before you come to the end of your anſwer. In the meane, as the calling downe Hercules upon the Stage, was wont to be a Character of a Tragicke Poet, i. e. of a fabulous, wonderfull undertaker, Cum fabulae exitum explicare non potuerit, ſo to fetch us in miracles and oſtenſions, to prove that divine truth that you confeſſe muſt not be proved by the Scripture, will paſſe for a peice of Poetry, I feare, inſtead of a motive of credibility; and thoſe that are chearfully diſpoſed, will be apt to tell you, that you were faine to conjure hard, and doe, or pretend miracles, or elſe you had beene encloſed in that Circle.
To the 9. and 10. Sections, Chap. 9.
To theſe I anſwer in a word, that neither the Greeke, nor any other Church can pretend the Primacy or Principall ſucceſſion of Paſtours, that is to ſay, from the Preſident of the Apoſtle Saint Peter; none, I ſay, beſides Rome, can pretend this; and without this one, no…e can be authenticall or ſufficient to prove a Church, or a ſucceſſion of Paſtours Eccleſiaſticall; and ſo the Enquirers ſtarting-hole in the Greeke Church, into which he alwaies makes his retreat, is prevented and ſhut up againſt him.
By this alſo is the 10. Section anſwered, for whatſoever Churches claime unto ſucceſſion ſhall be alleadged, it can no way evacuate that of Rome, as hath before beene ſhewed.