There is the Great Body of the Church, there are but few at a time upon Earth, and of them we know not which belong to that truely Catholick Church or not. And who do not, cannot be truly Catholicks, though they bear that Name with us. And of them fo Called, you your felves will not fay that there is Perfect Unity among them, in all the Neceffary and moft Effential Parts of it before Mentioned.

But if that Article in the Creed had been meant in your Senfe, it must have been the Holy Roman Catholick Church, and not left us to seek where to find this Church, the Infallible Guide. And you your felves have not found it, while you are in quite Contrary Opinions where to find it. But by leaving it in the General and Indefinitely under the Name of the Catholick Church only, it is rather Exclufive of any Particular Church, and Extends to all Chriftian Churches, which make up the Catholick Church upon Earth, in fuch an Unity as our Fallen State will bear, where Human Paffions are not Subdued, but mix themselves in our Religious as well as Temporal Concerns. Therefore by the Unity of the Church you cannot mean a Perfect Unity; no not even with your Head, and in Doctrines which are Indifpenfible towards your Eternal Salvation, as in the Depofing Doctrine, upon which the Apostle has Pronounced Damnation; and which, if not True, Cardinal Perron, as before Quoted, gives up the Church of Rome, for many Ages

O

paft

paft, for the very Synagogue of Antichrift. See alfo the Morals of the Jefuits, which though Condemned by fome, are Defended by others. This is not Perfect Unity, even in Neceffaries; and the Bulla in Cana breaks it to pieces, where whole Churches and Nations are Excommunicated of those you say are in the Unity of the Church, and in his Communion who has Excommunicated them!

But if we will be Content with no Unity in the Church but what is Perfect in all things, the Confequence muft be, that we have no Unity at all. As our Pretence to Infallibility is the greatest Inftance of our Fallibility. And if we will have no Guide but who is Infallible, we must have none upon Earth. And fo the Church is render'd wholly useless to us, if we may not take their Help, as Inftructors and Rational Guides, or in the Apoftles Words, as (a) Helpers of our Foy, without giving them the Dominion over our Faith.

And indeed the Security you demand of an outward Infallible Guide, is Altering the Courfe of Nature, or as I called it, finding fault with the Creation; for God has made us Rational Creatures, and given us no other Guide but our own Reafon, with the Affiftance of His Grace, to come at the Knowledge of Himfelf, and Confequently of all other things. And to find fault with this, is the Clay faying

to

(*) 2 Cor. 1. 24.

to the Potter, Why hast thou made me thus! To bid us Diveft our felves wholly of our, Reafon, or to Believe Implicitly, which is the fame thing; and is not in our Power, whatever we may think, because Reafon is our Nature and that we should not believe our Outward Senfes, is indeed to make us other Creatures than God has Made us. And to Refufe the Affiftance of a Church, because fhe is not Infallible, is Depriving our felves of a Means which God has Appointed; and is the fame Perverfnefs, as if we fhould refufe to confult a Lawyer or Phyfician, because it is Poffible they may Errin their Judgment. But tho' I allow their Skill to be better than mine, in their feveral Profeffions, yet we ftill keep to our felves fo much Ufe of our Reason, that if I knew it was Poyfon the Phyfician were going to give me, I would not take it: And ther are fome things fo plain, that no Lawyer could Perfuade me to. Much more ought we to be careful in our Eternal Concerns, and not to give our felves up Implicitly to any whatfoever, that if they should Direct us against the moft Exprefs Commands in Scripture, or the Dictates of Reason and Common Morality, or bid us Deny all our SenJes, we muft Acquiefce without Examining! This is Abandoning both Senfe and Reajon which God gave us as a Guide, and therefore will Require it of us; and this only is that which will render us Self-Condemned, and bear Witness against us at the Laft Day: For as I faid,It is not in our Power? to Extinguish Rea

fon in us, tho' we may Blindfold it and keep it down for a time, yet it will Recoil upon ús, and Convict us, wherein we have Departed from it. Without this there could not be fuch a thing as a Sting of Confcience, for what is that but a Check to our Reason? What elfe is Repentance, or Returning from any Error, or from any Evil we have done? You endeavour to Convert Men to your Church wholly upon their Reason, for you can have no other Topick whereby to lay hold of an Adversary : In vain therefore would you perfuade him to Truft to that Choice of his Reafon in Coming over to you, but never to Truft any other Choice his Reafon fhould make afterwards, because it is very Fallible; I fay this could not go down with any Man, but it must make him Doubt whether his Reafon has Led him Right in the first Choice too of going to your Church, and from the fame Argument, because his Reason is very Fallible. God fays to us [a] Come now and let us Reafon together. We ask no more of you. Nay, you cannot Refuse it us, whether you will or not; for your own Reafon will, as I faid, one time or other Return upon you, and Convince you of Obftinacy in not hearkening to Reafon, for without this you cannot be faid to have Acted according to Reafon. This renders me Inexcufable, whether I be Right or Wrong; for if my Reafon Milleads me after due Examinati

on,

[4] Ifac. i, 18.

on, the Error is Human, and will be more eafily Pardoned, but if I will not Hear, I will not open my Eyes, it mkes me Guilty though I were in the Right, because that is by Chance, and not my Choice upon Reasonable Conviction, which I have Refused. And Truth is never Afraid, for the more it is Canvaffed it Appears the Brighter. It is ftrange to fee those who Pretend to fuch an Affurance as is Infallible, and yet seek to Avoid the Light of Reafon, as if Afraid of being Detected! And to Confess it in the very Body of their (a) Canon Law, where they Excommunicate any Laick, who fhall Publickly or Privately Difpute concerning the Catholick Faith.

This Method will fecure to them all that they have Caught: But if obferved by others as well as by themfelves, they would never Catch another. And it is a plain Indication that who are against Reafon, Reason is against them.

For if Reafon could be heard, it would make it very obvious to you, That in all the particular Foints before mention'd, the Certainty is on our Side, and the Doubt (at least) on yours. For Example, None make a Doubt but that we may lawfully Pray to God, and not before any Image of Him: Or without the Worship

03

(a) Inhibemus quoque ne cuicunque Laice perfone liceat publice vel privatim de Fide Catholica difput are. Qui vero contra fecerit, Excommunicationis laqueo innodetur.

Corp Jer. Can. Sext. Decretal. lib. Quint. Tit. ii. cap. ii. § 1. Paris. 1687.