326 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
of liis own time among the Jews into a body or system, which is called the " Mishna/' or duplicate of their law, — wherein he composed a new religion for them, sufficiently distant from that which was pro- fessed by their forefathers, — so have your schoolmen done also. Out of the passant traditions of the days wherein they lived, blended with sophistical, corrupted notions of their own, countenanced and gilded with the sayings of some ancient writers of the church, for the most part wrested or misunderstood, they have hammered out that system of 'philosophical-traditional divinity which is now enstamped with the authority of the Tridentine council ; being as far distant from the divinity of the New Testament as the fan^ago of traditions collected by Rabbi Juda, and improved in the Talmuds, is from that of the Old. Pages 83-35. Having nothing else to say, you fall again upon my pretended mistake of considering that as " spoken absolutely by you which you spake only upon supposition;" and talk of " metaphysical speculations in your ' Fiat,' which you conceive me very Unmeet to deal withal; and direct me to Bellarmine's catechism, as better suit- ing my inclination and capacity." But, sir, we are not wont here in England to account cloudy, dark, sophistical declamations, to be metaphysical speculations; nor eveiy feigned supposition to be a philosophical abstraction. I wish you would be persuaded that there is not the least tincture of any solid metaphysics in your whole dis- course. It may be, indeed, you would be angry with them that should undeceive you, and cry out, —
" Pol, me occidistis, amici,
Non servastis; " as he did, —
" Cui demptus i^er vim mentis gratissimus error."
You may perhaps please yourself with conceits of your metaphysical achievements; but your friends cannot but pity you to see your vanity. The least youth in our universities will tell you, that to make a general supposition, true or false, and to flourish upon it with words of a seeming probability, without any cogency or proof, belongs to rhetoric, and not at all to metaphysics; and this is the very nature of your discourse. Nor do I mistake your aim in it, as you pretend. I grant in the place you would be thought to reply unto, though you speak not one word to the purpose, that your inquiry is after a means of settling men in the truth, upon supposition that they are not yet attained thereunto; and you labour to show the difficulty that there is in that attainment, upon the accoiuit of the insufficiency of many mediums that may be pretended to be used for that end. In answer unto your inquiry, I tell you directly, that the only means of settling men in the truth of religion is divine revela- tion, and that this revelation is entirely and perfectly contained in
WHENCE THE GOSPEL CAME TO ENGLAND. S27
the Scripture; which, therefore, is a sufficient means of settling all men in the truth. Suppose them "rasne tabulae;" suppose them utterly ignorant of truth; suppose them prejudiced against it; suppose them divided amongst themselves about it; — the only safe, rational, secure way of bringing them all to settlement is their belief of the revelation of God contained in the Scripture. This I manifested imto you in the " Animadversions ; " whereunto you reply by a com- mendation of your own metaphysical abilities, with the excellencies of your discourse,- without taking the least notice of my answer, or the reasons given you against that fanatical, groundless " credo " which you would now again impose upon us.
CHAPTER XII.
False suppositions, causing false and absurd consequences — Whence we had the gospel in England, and by whose means — What is our duty in reference unto them by whom we receive the gospel.
Page 36. You insist upon somewhat in particular that looks to- wards your purpose, which shall therefore be discussed ; for I shall not willingly miss any opportunity that you will afford me of examin- ing whatever you have to tender in the behalf of your dying cause. You mind me, therefore, of my answer unto that discourse of yours, " If the Papist or Roman Catholic, who first brought us the news of Christianity, be noAv become so odious, then may likewise the whole story of Christianity be thought a romance. You speak with the like extravagancy, and mind not my hypothetics at all, to speak directly to my inference, as it becomes a man of art to do ; but, neglect- ing my consequence, which in that discourse is principally and solely intended, you seem to deny my supposition, which, if my discourse had been drawn into a syllogism, would have been the minor of it. And it consists of two categories, — First, That the Papist is now become odious ; secondly, That the Papist delivered us the first news of Christianity. The first of these you little heed; the second you deny. ' That the Papist,' say you, ' or Roman Catholic, first brought Christ and his Christianity into this land, is most untrue. I won- der,' etc. And your reason is, ' Because if any Romans came hither, they were not Papists; and indeed our Christianity came from the east.' And this is all j^ou say to my hypothetic, or conditional ratio- cination, as if I had said nothing at all but that one absolute cate- gory, which, being delivered before, I now only suppose. You used to call me a civil logician, but I fear a natural one, as you are, will