and are affectionately concern'd for the Good of their native Country; and I am heartily forry they are not all fo: For when the Leaders and Guides of their Confciences are once arriv'd to that boldness, as to tell us to our Faces and the whole World in Print, that we are Schifmaticks and Hereticks, and to upbraid us with that Sacrilege which was committed in Popish Times, and by zealous Papifts, which they themselves are moft guilty of; by robbing the People of the Cup in the Sacrament, of the Holy Scriptures, and as the Archbishop ingeniously expreffes it, Stealing away the Tenth Commandment in the Face of the Eighth; and when this is done at a time when (as the Author himfelf acknowledges) they are over look'd by the Government, and partake largely of the unmerited Goodness and Clemency of the Church of England; they certainly take the ready way to put our Magiftrates upon the Debate, whether they ought to be over-look'd ftill.

ANSWER

12

ANSWER

TO THE

INTRODUCTION.

HERE is nothing whereby a Man's Difpofition and Temper of Mind is made more evident, than by his Stile and Manner of Writing; fo that let a man take what caution he can, or ufe never fo much Art to conceal his true Sentiments and natural Difpofition, yet the Paffions of his Mind will by fome means or other difcover themselves, and the Spirit and Soul of the Man will be reprefented in this Mirror: And if fo, then it will cer tainly be an undeniable Instance of the real Worth, the unaffected Piety, the genuine Humanity and Compofednefs of Mind, with which the late Archbishop of Canterbury was endow'd that even his Controverfial Writings were pen'd with fuch Smoothnefs of Stile, and Candor of Expreffion, and a generous Difdain of those many Calumnies and Reflections which were continually caft upon him, not rendering Railing for Railing, but on the contrary Bleffing; and like the Sun, neglecting thofe Clamors which were occafioned only by his Height and Brightness: And in this Clafs the Author of the True and Modest Account, &c. has plac'd himself.

For

For if ever any meer human Author wrote with Strength of Argument and Demonftration, as well as Accuratenefs of Stile and Politeness of Expreffion, it was certainly the late Archbishop of Canterbury; and yet the Author of the True and Modeft Account, &c. will allow him only the mean Commendation of an Ingenious Perfon: But, as he infinuates, without any found Senfe or folid Argumentation, by which he be trays his own want of Capacity, Learning and good Senfe; of which he has given us another Inftance, in the Judgment he paffes on the Difpute between his Grace and Mr. Serjeant, who (as he tells us) was fo great a Wit, and fo indefatigable a Writer, and by much fuperiour to the Ingenious Dr. Tillotfon: In Anfwer to which, I fhall refer the Reader to the Preface to the First Volume of the Archbishop's Sermons, where he will find a full and fatisfactory Account of the Controversie between them, and plainly difcover how little N. C. is to be depended on for his Character of Men, as well as his Judgment of Controverfies in Religion, and how trifling an Author Mr. Serjeant is.

But to come nearer to the Point, he tells us that his Defign, in his Introduction to his Book, is to undermine the Foundation upon which the Archbishop built all his Controverfial Writings against the Church of Rome. This indeed was a great and dangerous Defign, which if this Goliab had been able to accomplish, he might have fpar'd himself the labour of planting a formal Battery against the reft of his Arguments, and writing his Book.

He tells us, that the Archbishop laid down. this Fundamental Principle: That whatsoever is

plain and evident to our Senfes and Reason, is to be believ'd, tho' all the Men and Churches in the World fhould perfuade us to the contrary; as that two and two make four: And thus far he owns him to be in the right, as every Man of Senfe and Reafon must do; tho' a little after he is pleas'd to deny it in pag. 19. where he prefers the Authority of Tradition even before the Evidence of Senfe, and fuppofes that tho' God's Goodness will not put it into Man's Heart to tell a Lie, yet bis Wifdom may bave Reasons to impose upon the Senfes.

But he fays, that from this Fundamental Principle, it doth not follow that this is the Proteftant's Cafe with regard to the Papifts; no, I grant it doth not follow from thence, nor did the Archbishop make fo filly an Inference: But it doth neceffarily follow from this Sup pofition, that if the Tenents of the Church of Rome are contrary to Senfe and Reafon, they muft needs be falfe; if they fhould teach that two and two do not make four, but five, or that the Subftance which I eat, and which my Senfes inform me is Bread, is not Bread, but the Body of a Man, that then they ought not to be believ'd, tho' never fo many Men or Churches fhould combine together to affirm thefe Propofitions to be true. And this is plain from hence, because Sense and Reason are more certain Judges of Truth than any Human Authority can be. The beft Man in the World may be deceiv'd in his Opinions of Things, he may be biafs'd by Prejudice and Intereft, Bodies of Men have been fo, and Councils have err'd; but Senfe and Reafon are the fureft Criterions of Truth; and upon their Teftimony all the Certainty which we have of Things is founded. To this N. C. answers, That if our Senfes

Senfes and Reason are to be credited before Authority, or Antient Tradition, that then the Church of Rome, and feveral other Churches, have been in an Error for many Years, and miftaken in feveral Points of their Religion, and have introduc'd into their Church feveral Tenents contrary to the Teftimony of Senfe and Reafon: And all this I readily grant, nay, that the Roman Church was, and ftill continues fo much corrupted, that it requires the utmost of our Charity to believe it a true, tho' a very unfound part of the Catholick Church of Chrift. For as the Archbishop tells us, (Vol. 6. p. 261.) "It is not neceffary that the whole Chriftian Church, or any part of it, fhould be free from all Errors and Cor"ruptions; even the Churches planted by the Apoftles in the Primitive Times were not fo. St. Paul reproves feveral Doctrines and Pra"Atices in the Church of Corinth, and of Coloß, and of Galatia; and the Spirit of God feveral "things in the feven Churches of Afia; and

yet all these were Parts and Members of the "Catholick Church of Chrift, because they a"greed in the main and effential Doctrines of "Chriftianity; And when more and greater "Corruptions grew in the Church, the greater "need there was of a Reformation. And as every particular Perfon has a right to Reform any thing that he finds amifs in himself, fo far cc as concerns himself; fo much more every "National Church hath a Power within it "felf to Reform it self from all Errors and Cor"ruptions: And whatever Part of the Church, "how Great and Eminent foever, excludes from

"her