Brief Account of One Suggestion of the Romanist, Chapter 2 · Section 8
SECT. VIII.
His Seventh Ground very confounding to Protestants. Impossibility pretended against evidence. Reasons must be allow'd to have some force, against all but Rigorous demonstrations. Such pretended but not performed by S. W. Five problemes left in one Demonstration. Many faileurs found in a second. Force of Testimonies to oblige belief that the Popes authority was usurp'd. Canons in force at Rome. Perspicuity of their decisions. Lawfullnesse of the matter. Liablenesse to misinterpretation causelessely objected. Words heard as liable to misinterpretation, as Read. Who are S. W's indifferent part of the World. S. W's retractation. The domonstration fall…n into a bare probability. The different significations of words. Wordish Testimonies. Authorities, whence to produce Testimonies. Apostolick, Nicene, Ephesine, Chalcedon Canons.
1. COme we now to his seventh ground, in these words [No evidence can possibly be given by the Protestants obliging the understanding to believe that this authority was usurp'd.] The whole weight of this ground is layd on these words [can possibly] This indeed, if made good layes us flat before him, and I humbly conceive, if not made good, it concludes S. W.'s attempted usurpations upon his Readers mindes intolerable usurpations.
2. Till this Magisterial principle appeared we Protestants might with some chearfull prospect, read the Scriptures, study the Ancient Records of the Church, lay up in our mindes what we finde in the diffused body of the Fathers writings delivered us by themselves (which if we may believe our eyes, do really support our praetensions, and from whence we fetch our Doctrines, and at once disclaim all that we do not thus fetch, and not only labour to fetch c…lours of proofs for them) and compare these with what Baronius or Bellarmine have collected from them, and given us with Romish descants or tinctures on them, Till then we had liberty to use the natural talents and faculties of intellect, &c. which God had given us, and from Gregories affirming, that Peter himself was not called Ʋniversal Pastor, that the title was Antichristian and Diabolical, and many the like, to conclude irrefragably, that he neither praetended to the title, nor derived any right to it from St. Peter. Till then it was to some purpose to cull out the most unanswerable records of the purest antiquity, and to expect from a Romanist fair words, and vouchsafements of so much patience, as to consider, whether they indeed proved, what we undertook them to prove, and as long as reason weighed down the ballance on our side, to think our understandings, if not his also, regularly obliged to assent, and believe, what without violence to our understandings we were not able to disbelieve. Till then, matters of Doctrine, and of faith (which are no more born with us than revealed to us by daily voices from heaven, or oracular responses out of the cave, no more by (the foreign) natural reason, or common notions, than (the foreign) the private spirit, or Enthusiasme) were left to be concluded regularly, by that one medium divine Revelation from Christ and his Apostles, by any sufficient means (uncorrupted Conduits, i. e. impartial testifications) conveighed to us. And this left us some faint gleams of hopes, that however the Romanist deemed his Church infallible, yet having also admitted this test of Ʋniversal Tradition, the real and placid vigour of that might so farre praevail, against the but gives, and tyranny, and simulated force of the other, that a temper by mutual condescensions, a suspension, if not composure of impertinent disputes and controversies might at least be prayed for with faith (which is not competible to impossibilities) and attempted with charity, and expected with patience, when God should see the Christian world tolerably qualified for such a blessing. But as soon as this fatal thred of S. W's spinning came out, to insnare, and intangle our steps, as soon as it commenced Ground, and self-evident Principle, not that no evidence is (that had left us some hopes of rallying our forces, or coming off with life) but [that no evidence can] and yet that not killing enough, but [that no evidence can possibly be given by the Protestants, obliging the understanding to believe—] we are lest either to attempt removing of mountains, or to fall into fits of despair, to force nature, or to yield up our throats to our immortal combatant.
3. But in sober earnest, I think not all the Contumelies in both his books so enormously inhumane, as this one ground of his, that (when a matter of fact being sufficiently testified, reason requires our belief of it, when upon the strength of this ground in reason, our understandings are actually swayed with such praevailing arguments, and so obliged to assent, drawn with the cords of a man, convincing reasons) will yet bear down and outface us, that this is impossible; undertaking to demonstrate against our senses, to evince that what we see in matter of fact, or have testified to us as infallibly by others repeated sensations, cannot possibly be, which is not to remove us into the field, but the quarry, not to sentence us to Nebuchadnezars, but to Niobe's transformation; whilest she had her animal faculties unpetrified, she was able by walking to confute the Mountebanks demonstrations against motion, and believe the snow white in despight of the other as demure artificers evictions that it was black, but when no evidence can possibly be given to oblige her understanding, then certainly her soul both sensitive and rational, hath undergone its foreign, And Arrian hath but abused, in telling us, that none but the Practical faculty is capable of that metamorphosis. But I hope we may plead our cause before we be thus more than condemned to the mines, even to be parts of them our selves, and treatably propose our cafe to any other Romanist, and desire him to be Ʋmpire between us.
4. What if the Protestants (I may make suppositions for arguments sake) should undenyably prove, that the Popes themselves for four Centuries did not so much as praetend Ʋniversal Pastorship, that all the Texts of Scripture which are now brought for it, did in their opinion conclude no such matter, that the four first General Councels, the authentick conservatoryes of Apostolical Tradition, did instead of attesting or favouring, give manifold praejudices against it; were it now utterly impossible that these, and innumerable such like (joyned with this advantage, that no argument of any solidity were after sixteen hundred years leisure of search, produced to the contrary) should oblige the understanding to believe that this authority were usurp'd? I ask not whether these are actually produced by us, nor if they were, whether S. W. would believe them, nor whether (supposing his pretended demonstration to the contrary, to be before hand by himself assented to) it were possible, for whatsoever evidence to oblige his understanding; I know not what withes can hold, or binde Samson, befo…e his locks are cut, whilest his new kinde of Nazarites vow is on him; But, I say, whether there may not some tolerable understanding be found, which shall not be able to resist, and so shall be bound and obliged to believe such evidences.
5. If this be possible, there is then no truth in his seventh ground; If it be demonstratively impossible, he is obliged in charity to his ground, to perfect his demonstration, if it be but by way of additional supply to the defects of Rushworths Dialogues, which I think hath not had leisure to demonstrate fully this vulgar probleme. This I am forced to import…ne, 1. because 'tis certainly of concernment to me, who would not alwayes be a combating with gyants, battering impregnable sorts, attempting impossibilities, and should hope my fondnesse to the Gallies were so moderate, that I might be content to be manumitted, and not defie or disclaim that rest, and acquiescence of understanding, which a rigorous demonstration should commend to me, 2. because in the two pages, which are here annex'd for the proof of this seventh ground; my understanding doth not discern its obligation to believe that it is yet evidenced. I must be fain to give an account of my dullnesse in this particular, lest it be thought affected.
6. His first proof is taken from the case of the Reformers, whose words, saith he, could not in any reason be imagined evident against such an universal verdict of the whole Church they left, and particularly of all the learned men in it, incomparably and confess'dly more numerous, and as knowing, as any have been since. But I take it, this is farre from a demonstration in many respects. That, if it be truely so called, must consist of nothing that is not true, immediate, and so necessary; whereas here be no fewer then five questions, which may very problematically at least be disputed.
7. As 1 if those whom he calls first Reformers, were actually and properly so styled, yet 'tis questionable, whether they left the whole Church, or indeed any part of it, untill (and 'tis impossible they should, after) they were inexorably sentenced, and cast out of it. 2. Whether for the Ʋniversal Pastorship, as constituted in St. Peter and his Successors by Christ, an Ʋniversal verdict of the whole Church were then produced to them; it being not demonstrated, 1. that all that was producible, was produced to them, nor 2. that the verdict of the whole was with any truth producible this way, for that must imply, that either the Greek Church was of this minde, or that it was no part of the whole Church; nor yet 3. that the Negative decision of the Ʋniversities, Monasteries, whole Clergy of England, and the united profession of all men and women in this Kingdome, that by the Lawes of God and the Nation, the Bishop of Rome had no such right in this Nation] was reconcileable with the whole Churches verdict for the Affirmative. 4. that the French Church was then included in that universal verdict, (not to mention others also.)
8. Thirdly, whether S. W's meaning, when he saith, [whose words could not in any reason be imagined evident] be this that their bare words, without any authority of reason to back them, i. e. their bare unconfirmed affirmations, could not be imagined evident, or whether 2. by their words] may be understood the Testimonies against the Popes pretended authority, produced by the Bishops about the time of the extinguishing Act, and that he resolve that those could not in any reason be imagined evident; or whether 3. his meaning be somewhat else, which I cannot divine at? If it be the first, then though I doubt not but their words, if but bare words, might be evident, as that signifies intelligible, yet supposing that not to be his meaning of the Praedicate, I shall only minde him of the subject of his proposition, that I imagine not the evidence to belong to their bare affirmations; but the Testimonies by them produced to confirm their sense; Secondly then if by their words] he mean plainly these their testimonies, then what impossibility is there in imagining those testimonies might be evident (I say not were but might be) which being not taken into consideration at all, (not so much as produced) by S. W. may possibly have more force in them of evidence, then he can yet, before he consider them, be qualified to imagine. But if his meaning be somewhat, which I cannot divine, then how can that be demonstrative to me, which is not to me, perhaps no more to others, intelligible.
9. Fourthly whether both the Ʋniversities, the Greater Monasteries, and all the Clergy of England that then were, before the Extinguishing Act came out, were no greater barre to the extensive style of [All the learned men in the Church] than they were before to the supposed verdict of the whole Church, for though they were no considerable part of the one, they might be of the other.
10. Fifthly, whether in the comparison here proposed between the number and knowledge of learned men in that age, and since, wherein, for the number, that age is said incomparably and confess'dly to carry it from all succeeding ages, and for the knowledge to aequal them, his meaning be of those of that age in this Nation that asserted the Ʋniversal Pastorship, compared with all others of the same, since that time, that have profess'd learning among us? some ground there may be for this slight question, because the learned men of one age, are not probably so numerous, caeteris paribus, as of many, at least the learned men, which were neither members of the Ʋniversities, chief Monasteries, and whole Clergy in Convocation (who were unanimous against the Popes p…aetensions) are not readily supposeable to be quite so numerous, as the whole diffused society of all the learned men of an age together.
11. If he will consider these questions, he will finde that something may possibly be said by a good manager on each of them, though I, whom S. W. hath sent to preach, and not to dispute, be resolved incompetent for it, and therefore shall not take that task upon me. But still because another may, and the matter appears not uncapable, here are competent praejudices against the demonstrative efficacy of this first proof of his.
12. But he rests not in this, he hath another eviction for it. They praetend not, saith he, to any evidence from natural principles, concluding demonstratively that the former Government was usurp'd, nor yet from Oral Tradition, since their immediate Forefathers delivered them other Doctrine, else the Reformation could never have begun, against our common supposition, their grounds then must be Testimonial proofs, from Scriptures, Fathers, or Councels which being manifestly liable to be interpreted divers wayes, no sufficient assurance can be pretended hence, without evidencing either more skill to fetch out their certain sense, or more sincerity to acknowledge what they knew, than was in the Church they left—] Here again we must apply the tube, and work very narrowly, ere we shall discern the demonstration.
13. For 1. I suppose 'tis not a fault that we pretend not to natural principles for a matter of divine Revelation, that we must leave to Rushworths Dialogues, which hath the Monopoly of demonstrating all the Romanists Religion, from common notions, for which we short-sighted Preachers must content our selves with the directions of one Text of Scripture, that Faith cometh by hearing, and that by the word of God, and nothing else, i. e. divine Revelation.
14. Secondly for Oral Tradition, as that is distinguish'd from what we fetch from testimonial proofs, 'tis no otherwise impossible, that they which extinguish'd the Papal power here, should be able to avouch that, than because that were not reconcileable with their beginning the Reformation, but this hath already appeared to be a very waterish colour, farre from real and demonstrative, when neither they that extinguish'd the Papacy, were called Reformers, but the Act, declaratory of former right and common custome of England, not introductory of new law, nor 2. if they had been called Reformers, would it follow that their forefathers taught them other Doctrine, they might retrench the Popes praetensions, and undeceive some seduceible followers, without teaching contrary to the doctrine of their forefathers.
15. Thirdly then, for Testimonial proofs of Scriptures, Fathers and Councels, if those were the only evidences our Forefathers made use of, there is yet no impossibility, but they might be so tendred, as to convince and so oblige the understanding.
16. For example, If the Apostolike Canon shall tell us, that the foreign,Apost. Can. 34. the first or Primate among the Bishops of every Nation shall be accounted foreign, as their head, and that every one of those Primates shall foreign, doe only those things foreign, which belong to his Province and the Regions under it, and that God shall thus be glorified through the Lord Jesus Christ in the holy Ghost; and again,Ap. Can 12. that he that is excommunicated in one City shall not be received in another without commendatory Letters from the former; and again,Can. 14. that it shall not be lawfull for a Bishop leaving his own Province, foreign, to invade anothers, unlesse there be a sufficient cause forcing him to it, and this too, foreign, not of himself, but by the foreign, the judgement and vehement exhortation of many Bishops, where if …las judgement do signifie, as the Scholiast reasonably resolves, foreign a Synodical sentence, then the many Bishops must be no lesse than a Councel of Bishops; And if in pursuance of these grounds Apostolical, and foreign, according to the Canon thus pronouncing, the first Nicene Councel, shall decree, foreign,Nic. Can. 5. that they that are cast out by some, shall not be received by other Bishops, and that this must be observed foreign, by the Bishops through every Province, And when in a farther harmony of accord the Milevitane Councel shall expressely prohibit all appeal from their B shops, but to the African Councels, Can. 22. Non provocent nisi ad Africana Concilia vel ad Primates provinciarum suarū, ad transmarina autem qui putaverint—and Primates of their own Provinces, and that they which shall appeal to any foraign whether Bishop or Councel, shall not be received to Communion by any in Africk, and when the practice of all this is visible in the Synodical Epistle of the African Councel to Pope Caelestine (as is to be seen both in the book of Canons of the Roman Church, and the Greek collection of the Canons of the African Church) where they beseech him foreign, for the future, that he will not receive to his Communion those that come to him from them▪ being excommunicate, foreign, because he may easily finde it defined in the Councel of Nice, If, I say, upon one such collection of Testimonial proofs, from the most unquestion'd and obliging Canons, and the like concurrence of innumerable Pr…mitive writers, our Ancestors did actually conclude, that there lay no place for appeal from the Bishop of any Dioecese in England, but to the Primate of Canterbury, that the Pope was not to meddle among us, but upon the sentence and importunate intreaty of a Councel of Bishops, and that 'twere a crime censurable with excommunication to acknowledge any foraign (such was the Papal) Jurisdiction, my question now is, whether this evidence cannot possibly oblige the understanding to believe that authority was usurp'd, which was assumed by the Pope, in direct opposition to all these Canons?
17. If it cannot possibly oblige, that impossibility must proceed either 1. from some abrogation of the Canons, or 2. unintelligiblenesse of the obligation, or 3. unlawfullnesse of the matter (arising from a contrariety to some other valid law, or from some repugnance in nature) or 4. from some other hinderance of aequal (or greater) weight with any of these, but there is no place for any one or more of these pleas, therefore I may conclude no foundation for this praetended impossibility.
18. For the first, the Canons recited are all received and continue in force, in the very Roman Codex, and so cannot by them be praetended to be invalid, and to some of them the Pope himself makes Oath, that he will inviolably observe them, see the Diurnal Book of the Professions of the Bishops of Rome, in Corp. Jur. Can. Decret. par. 1. dist. 16. c. 8. And from that very Oath of the Pope, our Bishops then made this very conclusion, that the Popes, that exercised a primacy over any other Bishops but those of their own Province in Italie, transgress'd their own profession made in their creation, as hath been*Tr. of Schis. p. 105. elsewhere shewed from the Institution of a Christian man, in the year 1537.
19. For the second, the intelligiblenesse of the obligation, that hath already appeared from the Nicene Fathers citing it from the Apostolick Canon, and the African Fathers from the Nicene, which they could not have done, and withall advertised the Pope, that he might foreign very readily, and with a wet finger finde it there, if like the Sybills or other aenigmatical Oracles, the words had no obvious sense belonging to them, or such as an ordinary understanding could not possibly receive and assent to.
20. Thirdly for the unlawfulnesse of the matter in any respect, that can no otherwise be pleaded, than by charging the Writers of the Apostolike Canons, whether Apostles, or Apostolical persons, and so again the Councel, for enacting sacrilegious Decrees, yea and the Pope also for swearing the inviolable observation of them. As for any fourth kinde of hinderance beyond these, all that I can say is, that I cannot foresee nor consequently forewarn my Reader of any such. And here it may be worth adverting which of these hinderances, or obstructions to the obliging the understanding it is, which S. W. hath chosen to pitch on, even that which of all others would by some men have been least expected of him, as being most extreamly void of the least probability (the reason I suppose, not because this was seemingly praetensible, but because his seats of arguments are most of them this way, as some men have vehement praejudices, and arguments against any science they have not much dealt in) viz. that these testimonies are most manifestly lyable to be interpreted divers wayes, as, saith he, appears de facto.]
21. But 1. where doth any such fact appear, both for these, and for all the like Testimonies, that have here formerly, or elsewhere been produced by us? Or to omit that, because I know 'tis in any ill mans power to attempt to deceive, and so to misinterpret, I demand, Is that unjust irrational fact (a precedent for the confounding of all that is most sacred, whether divine or humane) able to prove demonstratively, that the testimonies are really lyable to it? Nay are they not as secure from it, as plain words that have no ambiguity in them can make a plain matter of ordinary practice? May not I as well say, that the plainest proposition in Euclid. when 'tis read there, is lyable to be misinterpreted, nay that the most common n…tion, when 'tis once put into words, is so too, as [that twice two make four] &c. For if a man shall come out of Bedlem▪ and say that four in his Dictionary denotes but three unites, or that two signifies two decads, but four is four unites, it is certain that this proposition is then de facto misinterpreted, and by the same proportion may these, and many the like Testimonies, of which without hyperbole I may assume, that by the same arts, that S. W. shall be able to reconcile them to the Popes Ʋniversal Pastorship, as in his four first grounds he hath stated it, any man shall be able to interpret S. W's words wherein he doth this, to such a sense, as shall render him extremely opposite to the Papacy.
22. Meanwhile I shall lay it up among my Observations, though it, be no more than this, that the universal liablenesse to be misinterpreted, not of these only which I have been so weak to produce, or of any particulars, but of Testimonies at all adventures, of whatsoever Testimonial proofs, wordish Testimonies, as he*P. 44. straightway calls them, is the one medium of S. W's demonstration, that no evidence can possibly be given by the Protestants obliging the understanding— 'Tis, it seems, only the Oral Tradition, the Childes hearing his Father say it, that his Father hath said it, and not reading it out of an hundred books of all his first and most creditable ancestors, that is of any considerable authority in this matter. But why a man may not understand, what he reads, as well as what he hears, or misinterpret what he hears, as well as what he reads, and why frequent fact makes not this apparent, as well as the other, I foresee another opportunity ere long to examine with him.
23. At the present I demand, in behalf of him that subjects his understanding to the force of easie words, and by that means believes many ancient t…stimonies, brought against the P…pes sacred authority, (which is no more arrogance, then to believe what he thinks evident, and knowes not how to disbelieve, without questioning the truth of the testyfier, which also he hath not the least reason to question) what necessity should be incumbent on this man to evidence either his own greater skill, or that his sincerity is greater than was found in the Church (that leaves him, or he is forced to leave) or in any one ingaged advocate of that Church? That he must be thus insolent, that he is by his very undertaking obliged to assume one of these, and having assumed, to evidence it, is the last part of this demonstration, which S. W. hath not yet perfected, though it want his hand, as much as any of the former, whereon his pains were laid out; at his best leisure I presume to expect his severe evidences for it, not discerning, as yet, the force it hath to oblige my understanding.
24. An Appendix to this demonstration he thinks fit to cast in, to adde some weight to it, that their late Doctors and Controvertists have not feared to answer all these testimonies, and produced a far greater number, and not so behaved themselves therein, that the indifferent part of the world have held them nonsensical, which surely they would, had they deemed the other a perfect and rigorous evidence.] But sure neither is this demonstrating; It neither appears to S. W. what the indifferent part of the world think, nor to me, whom he will allow to be the indifferent part of the world; sure not the whole Eastern Church, whose Delegates in the Councel of Florence charged the introducing of new articles of down-right madnesse; none that they have cast out of their Communion; none that living within it dislike (as the French have been long suspected to doe) the Jus divinum of the Papacy; Who then are left to be the indifferent umpires? Of necessity either those which have received it as an Article of their Faith, all the faithfull adhaerents to that Apostolick See, their foreign, who are of their opinion in this, else could not be orthodoxe in all things, and these are very fitly pick'd out, as indifferent men to judge it on their side, or else it must remain that we fetch them from the Turks, or Heathens, or Jewes, and bating only that first sort, those that are, and must be of his minde, I might, I think, safely, (as once the like was done in a great Councel) adventure my part of the controversie to any indifferently chosen Ʋmpire of any of the three other denominations, that doth but speak the same language that we doe, and understands our several praetensions, to judge, whether the Ʋniversal Pastorship is more clearly inferred from Tu es Petrus, and Feed my Sheep, or the contrary from the Testimonies I have here and elsewhere tendred to him against it.
25. By the way he must be admonish'd, that all indifferent men do not presently call that nonsensical which they doe not assent to, any more than they fall into other parts of S. W's style, when they are not perswaded by his praetensions. They that say he is a Cunning Merchant, and so farre from nonsensical, have as ill an opinion of his practises, and would be more unwilling to be he, than any of the bespattered Preachers that have had to deal with him.
26. But this is not all he hath to say in defense of his important ground; For though he have some remorse, and so be forced to confesse, that if they would demonstrate by evident and unavoidable connexion of terms from some undenyable authority, that this Government was unjust, their understandings would in that case be obliged to assent to that inference.] Yet lest upon such a vast liberality as this, I should make shift to conclude, that what may be done in some case, is not utterly impossible, and so that his Ground had confess'dly fail'd under him, that [no evidence can possibly be given by the Protestants—] his method obliges him to draw back his almes, b…fore I had sup'd it up, and so I behold my fairest hopes soon blasted again, for, saith he, this is not to be hoped as long as divers words have divers significations] This is somewhat hard indeed, to be thus irremediably disappointed, when I was so neer my prise, to lose all sent so soon, when 'twas at the hottest.
27. But me thinks, 'twere yet possible to recover it again, for I may thus argue, that what is possible upon an hopelesse condition, is at most but hopelesse, not impossible, and therefore S. W. is really grown meek, hath for once retracted the [No evidence can possibly] upon which one term depended the whole demonstrativenesse of his ground, which if it be such, consists ex necessariis, and such is not that, which may possibly be otherwise, the phrase [not to be hoped] is a milder style, and suits well with a Topical argument, and a thousand such, as Mr. White hath taught us, will no more amount to a demonstration, then a thousand milde writers will make one severe or rigorous.
28. If this will not stand me in stead, to avert this discomfiture, I have no other reserve, for 'tis impossible to except against his proviso, that divers words have divers significa…ions] I cannot but be convinced of that, for [a man] is capable of signifying either one of the guests, or part of the furniture, him that sits, and eats at the Table, or that hangs by, and is pourtrayed in the Arras, and so in like manner [a rigorous demonstration] may signifie either according to Aristotles, or S. W's measures, and import no more in the latter notion, than either a probability, or a Sophisme, a well assured, yet demonstrably infirm argumentation.
29. But neither is there any such foreign, or ambiguous word in the Testimonies which I humbly have offered him; If there be, I beseech his directions, where the ambush is to be look'd for, where the ambiguous aenigmatical part of the Oracle lies; I confesse I cannot divine, but S W's gifts lye this way, in making a plain testimony as perplexed as he can, and therefore if single words will be obstinate, and resolve not to be unintelligible, yet it seems by his suggestions, that sentences are great jugglers and Stage-players, never come abroad but with V…sards, or Periwigs, or false sets of teeth about them, they, saith S. W. put on different faces, or if they are not thus fully provided, yet, saith he, by relation to several circumstances in history they give us occasion to raise several conjectures, and so still though the whole matter in the issue amount to no more but this, [occasion] not just cause [to raise] though with never such violence to plain words and senses [several conjectures] several, all aequally praetending, i. e. aequally groundlesse, and when all is done, but conjectures still, yet this is enough with S. W. to praeclude the poor Protestant all hope of ever obliging any others, or his own understanding by any wordish testimony, to believe any thing that S. W. will not make it lawfull for him to believe. Had this Demonstrator but a calling to his gifts, what miracles would he, nay what would he not be able to doe?
30. Lastly if all this will not establish one ground, He hath still a reserve behinde, If evidence were easily producible from such kinde of wordish Testimonies, yet they would still be as farre to seek for an authority whence to alleadge those testimonies comparable to that of the Church they left.] But 1. what is his dislike to wordish Testimonies, i. e. (as he opposes them to Oral Traditions) Testimonies written in words? Is not his Oral Tradition, wordish Tradition, and is not that aequally wordish, that is spoken, as that which is written in words? and may not that be written in my heart (as he will have it phrased also) which is transcribed thither out of the Records of a Councel, as what is stored up there from my Father, or Mother, or Romish Catechists?
31. Secondly, What difficulty is there to have as good an authority as the Church of Rome is, from whence to alleadge Testimonies against her? I shall make short of this difficulty; The Ʋniversal Councel of Nice is as good an authority as the Church of Rome can be, or (that I know of) praetends to be, and 'tis no hard thing, as de facto hath appeared, to alleadge testimonies from thence, as much as an enemy could wish to Romes praejudice. Nay the Church of Rome diffused in its amplitudie, or collected in a Councel, or contracted into a Pope, is sure of as good authority, as the Church we left, or rather cast us from them; And I doubt not to bring Testimonies that will fit my turn, from those, that are avowed, and allow'd an authority, by the consent of this Church in all these capacities; As when from the genuine Apostolick Canons, from General Councels, approved by the Pope, the Nicene and the Ephesine, yea and that of Chalcedon too (for as farre as 'tis from the Popes praetensions, he is by Oath bound to observe it inviolably) and in like manner from the Popes themselves (by the token, that Gregory wrote so many Epistles against the title that Boniface soon after him assumed) 'tis manifest we are provided with ample testimon…es, which will by necessary connexion of terms inferre all that we would have infer'd from them. And then what is thus visible to have been actually done, we will not be so tame, as to imagine impossible to be done, nor consequently attend to him any longer, whilest by a collection of little colours he again attempts to perswade us, against our senses, that 'tis impossible. And so much for his seventh ground.