oiS A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
acknowledgment of the truth, sendmg us unto it for our settlement; affirming that they who speak not " according to the law and the testimony have no light in them." He assures us that the word of God "is a light unto our feet; and his law perfect, converting the soul;" that it is " able to build us up, and to give us an inheritance among all them that are sanctified;" that the things in it are " written that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing we may have life through his name." See also Lidve xvi. 29, 31 ; Ps. xix. 7, 8 ; 2 Pet. i. 19 ; John v. 39 ; Rom. xv. 4; Heb. iv. 12. Is there no truth in all this, and much more that is affirmed to the same purpose? or are you surprised with this mention of it, as C^sar Borgia was with his sickness at the death of his father Pope Alexander, which spoiled all his designs, and made him cry that he had never thought of it, and so had not provided against it? Do you not know that a volume might be filled with testimonies of ancient fathers, bearing witness to the sufficiency/ and efficacy of the Scrip- ture for the settlement of the minds of men in the knowledge of God and his worship? Doth not the experience of all ages, of all places in the world, render your sophistry contemptible? Are there not, were there not, millions of Christians always, who either knew not, or regarded not, or openly rejected, the authority of your church, and disbelieved many of her present proposals, who yet were and are steadfast and immovable in the faith of Christ, and vallingly seal the truth of it with their dearest blood? But if neither the testimony of God himself in the Scriptures, nor the concurrent suffrage of the ancient church, nor the experience of so many thousands of the dis- ciples of Christ, is of any moment with you, I hope you will not take it amiss if I look upon you as one giving in yourself as signal an in- stance of the power of prejudice, and partial addiction to a party and interest, as a man can well meet withal in the world. This discourse, you tell me in your close, you have bestowed upon me in a way of supererogation ; wherein you deal with us as you do with God him- self. The duties he expressly, by his commands, requireth at your hands, you pass hy without so much as taking notice of some of them; and others, as those of the second command, you openly re- ject, offering liim somewhat of your own that he doth not require, by the way, as you barbarously call it, of supererogation : and so here you have passed over in silence that which was incumbent on you to have replied unto, if you had not a mind " vadimonium deserere," to give over the defence of that cause you had undertaken, and in the room thereof substitute this needless and useless diversion, by the way, as you say, of supererogation. But yet, because you were so free of your charity, before you had paid your debts, as to bestow it upon me, I was not unwilling to requite your kindness, and have therefore
FAITH AND CPIARITY OF ROMAN CATHOLICS. 349
sent it you back again, with tliat acknowledgment of your favour wherewith it is now attended.
CHAPTER XIII.
Faith and chai'ity of Roman Catholics.
Your following discourse, pp. 44, 45, is spent partly in the com- mendation of your " Fiat Lux," and the metaphysical, abstracted discourses of it; partly in a repetition, in other words, of what you had before insisted on. The former I shall no farther endeavour to disturb your contentment in. It is a common error, —
" Nequc est quisquam
X Quern nou in aliqua re videre Suflfenum
Possis." CatuU. xxii. 19.
I am not your rival in the admiration of it, and shall therefore leave you quietly in the embracements of your darling. And for the latter, w^e have had enough of it already; and so, by this time, I hope you think also. The close only of your discoiU"se is considerable, and there- fore I shall transcribe it for your second thoughts; and it is this: —
" But, sir, what you say here, and so often up and down your book, of Papists' contempt of the Scripture, I beseech you will please to abstain from it for the time to come. I have conversed with the Roman Catholics of France, Flanders, and Germany; I have read more of their books, both histories, contemplative and schola.stical divines, than I believe you have ever seen or heard of; I have seen the colleges of sacred jjriests, and religious houses; I have communed with all sort of people, and perused their counsels; — and after all this I tell you, and out of my love I tell you, that their respect to Scripture is real, absolute, and cordial, even to admiration. Others may talk of it, but they act it, and would be ready to stone that man that should diminish holy Avrit. Let us not wrong the innocent. The Scripture is theirs, and Jesus Christ is theirs, who also will plead their cause when he sees time."