A vindication of the Animadversions on Fiat lux

4. I desire to know when a man who lives here in England, begins to be obliged to believe the Determinations of your Church that are made at Rome. It may be he first hears of them in a Mercury or weekly News book; or it may be he hath notice of them by some private Letters from some who live near the place; or it may be he hath a knowledge of them by common report; or it may be they are printed in some Books, or that there is a brief of them published somewhere under the name of the Pope; or they are put into some Volume written about the Councils; or some Religious Persons on whom he much relies, assures him of them. I know you believe that your Churches Proposition is a sufficient means of the Revelation of any Article, to make it necessary to be believed; but I desire to know what is necessary to Cause a man to receive any Dictate or Doctrine as your Churches proposition; not only upon this account, that you are not very well agreed upon the Requisita, unto the making of such a Proposition, but also because, be you as infallible as you please in your Proposals, the means and ways you use to communicate those Proposals you make, unto Individuals in whom alone the faith whereof we treat exists, are all of them fallible. Now that which I desire to know is, What is, or what are those certain means and ways of communicating the Propositions of your Church unto any Person, wherein he is bound to acquiesce, and upon the application of them unto him to believe them, fide divina cui non potest subesse falsum. Is it any one thing, or way, or means, that the hinge upon which his assent turns? Or is it a Complication of many things concurring to the same purpose? ⟨p. 126⟩If it be any one thing, way, or medium, that you fix upon, pray let us know it, and we shall examine its fitness, and sufficiency for the use you put it unto. I am sure we shall find it to be either infallible or fallible. If you say the former, and that particular upon which the Assent of a mans mind unto any thing to be the proposal of your Church depends, must in the testimony it gives, and evidence that it affords be esteemed infallible, then you have as many infallible Persons, things, or writings, as you make use of to acquaint one another with the determinations of your Church; that is, upon the matter you are all so; though I know in particular that you are not. If the latter;

4. I desire to know when a man who lives here in England, begins to be obliged to believe the Determinations of your Church that are made at Rome. It may be he first hears of them in a Mercury or weekly News book; or it may be he hath notice of them by some private Letters from some who live near the place; or it may be he hath a knowledge of them by common report; or it may be they are printed in some Books, or that there is a brief of them published somewhere under the name of the Pope; or they are put into some Volume written about the Councels; or some Religious Persons on whom he much relyes, assures him of them. I know you believe that your Churches Proposition is a sufficient means of the Revelation of any Article, to make it necessary to be believed; but I desire to know what is necessary to Cause a man to receive any Dictate or Doctrine as your Churches proposition; not only upon this account, that you are not very well agreed upon the Requisita, unto the making of such a Proposition, but also because, be you as infallible as you please in your Proposals, the means and wayes you use to communicate those Proposals you make, unto Individuals in whom alone the faith whereof we treat exists, are all of them fallible. Now that which I desire to know is, What is, or what are those certain means and wayes of communicating the Propositions of your Church unto any Person, wherein he is bound to acquiesce, and upon the application of them unto him to believe them, fide divina cui non potest subesse falsum. Is it any one thing, or way, or means, that the hinge upon which his assent turns? Or is it a Complication of many things concurring to the same purpose?