Brief Account of One Suggestion of the Romanist, Chapter 2 · Section 6
SECT. VI.
His fifth Ground how farre from having any least force in it against us. No possession, and no validity of it, if there were. S. W's proofs spent on that only which wanted them not. Some force of Possession acknowledged. No breach on our part, and so no need to consider causes of division. S. W's unsuccessefull acts.
1. HIS fifth Ground, that No possession ought to be disturbed without sufficient motives and reasons, and consequently it is it self a title, till those reasons invalidate it, and shew it null,] is long since, as farre as it is appliable to our quaestion, disappointed and invalidated, not only by the evidences formerly produced, for an Original right to an foreign, or independency from all forain jurisdiction, parallel to that of the Africans, and consequent to that, the unlawfullnesse of all intrusions, and the oblig…tion of reducing unjust p…ssessions to what it was foreign, from the beginning, by the force of the Ephesine Canon, in case of the Cypriots, but now farther by considering, what power it is, which is by S. W. pretended to have been in possession so long, viz. that of Ʋniversal Pastorship by divine right, which till he hath proved demonstratively to have been in possession among us, he must no longer assume; and I shall flatter my self that I have abundantly evinced in the four former Sections, that he hath yet been very far from all appearance of thus p…oving it.
2. Had the four former grounds been solidly evinced, had this of Ʋniversal Pastorship approved it self to have been really in possession, the one acknowledged Doctrine for many hundred years, and the Scepters of this and all other Kingdomes willingly subjected to it, as to the undoubted Scepter of Christ, there might then be a season for the fifth ground, though still there would be just place also for Writs of error, and right once evidenced (as soon it would be) must have the deference from unjust, though aged possession, especially when the mindes of men were the possession, and pride on one side, and error on the other, the evil Spirits (little better than Devils) that possesse it, for sure humility and truth can never be forbidden by the most inveterate contrary custome to return jure postliminii to their due habitations.
3. But when the possession it self, as it is by S. W. stated, is the foreign, the first thing that is supposed, but not duely evidenced by him, and all the slight offers of proof for that already shewn to be uneffectual (for which I referre the Reader to the four …ormer Sections) 'tis visible that there is no farther consideration due from me to this his fifth ground; which having a generall truth in it, till it be applyed to our hypothesis, and so being in thesi by me most willingly, and securely granted to his first demand, is yet by S. W. beyond all the former, whose wants were more visible and importunate, allowed a liberal proportion of proofs from Nature: Morality, Policy, Common Law; but all these pains, as now appears, misplaced by him, like the charity which the Pharisee was warned of, the calling in only of his rich neighbours to his Feast; It had been well if in complyance with that Text, any of the four former, the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blinde, had been thought capable of it.
4. Briefly therefore, I cannot affixe any probable sense to this proposition in thesi, wherein I have any concernment to deny, or question it; All the question is of the hypothesis; I shall never praetend the disturbing of any sort of possessions without sufficient motives or reasons. I, as readily as he could wish, acknowledge possession it self a title, till reasons are produced to invalidate it, and farther, I have no dislike to his proofs, but discern reason to conclude, that that part of S.W. which wrote this Paragraph, is very well inabled to demonstrate a truth, and consequently that his former faileurs have not with any justice been imputable to him, who had sagacity enough to invent, but to the matter, which was too barren to yield arguments, other than Topical or Sophistical. Only I cannot say of him, as Zeno of himself, that he sometims wanted opinions, but never arguments, for if I may judge by these five proposals of so many grounds, I must resolve he hath more opinions than arguments, conclusions, then praemisses, five grounds, but no tolerable mediums of eviction, save for one of them.
5. All that I have to resist in his descant on this fifth ground, is his Corollary, that I was very little advised in stating the question rightly and clearly, Sch. p. 10. Where I tell him that the motives are not worth heeding in this controversie, but only the truth of the matter of fact.] For the rebuke in this Corollary of his, the reason he assignes, is, [for the matter of fact, to wit, that there was then an actual government, and that we broke from it, being evident to all the world, and confess'd by the Protestants themselves, if there be no reasons to be examined, I am convinced to be a Schismatick so flatly and plainly, that it is left impossible even to plead a defense.
6. But he was certainly told long since, and need not be now reminded, that we do not confesse any breach on our part, that we still are where we ever were, under our lawfull Pastors, of whom the Primate of England residing at Canterbury, is the chief, whom the Pope hath himself look'd on,*Quasi comparem velut alterius Orbis Apostolicum et Patriarcham. Capgrav. in vit. Anselmi. as it were his Compeer, and Patriarch of this other little world, from whom having never separated, nor from our immediate superiors under him, we have no need to consider causes of divisions or breaches of that kinde, which as upon mature advise we know they cannot be just, so we are without all scruple perswaded that we have not been guilty of them, nor can, save by one of these three wayes, either by casting off our Bishops, or calling in and submitting to some foraign power, or separating from other sister Churches, who are not before hand with us herein to cut us off from their Communion.
7. In managing this part of his cause, where truth wholly destitutes him, 'tis strange to see, what arts he resorts to, one while pressing me to change my method, and insist on the causes of our separation, when I assure him of the deliberate choice of this part of my method, and (which he of all men hath no praetense to complain of) my perfect concurrence with him in an unextorted profession, that no cause can justifie a separation (and that therefore we have much rather chosen to preserve our selves from this guilt, than to incurre first, and then palliate it, to injoy innocence, than to forecast and study Apologies) Another while telling us, that the breach is visible to all the world, and by us confess'd, when he knowes that all the magnifying glasses in the world cannot help any the sharpest sight to see what is not, and that there is nothing we more deny, than what he saith we confesse, viz. that we have ever broken off from any; Our lot having constantly been that which Christ foretold the earlyest Christians, to be cast out of the Synagogue, in which we had else remained, and now to have the foreign from those that have cast us out, and so made it impossible for us to be guilty of what they charge us; Let him but take notice, what I insist on this third time, that we confesse no breach on our part, but are ready, if yet they please to redintegrate secundum Canones, and that if herein we are proved liable, we shall contentedly fall under the guilt, and entertain no advocate to plead our causes, and he will be forced to confesse his Corollary had as much injustice, as I willingly acknowledge his fifth ground (considered, as here it is, only in thesi) to have truth in it.