A LETTER To Mr. G. Giving a True Account of a Late Conference At the D. of P.  

Imprimatur,  
Martii 12. 1686/ 7. Guil. Needham.   
LONDON, Printed for H. Mortlock at the Phoenix in Saint Paul's Churchyard. 1687.   

A LETTER To Mr. G. Giving a True Account of a Late CONFERENCE At the D. of P.  
SIR,  
I Was very much surprised at the sight of several Copies you have given out of the Conference between us at my House in january last. For although you took great care in the Conference itself to keep me from expecting any great Ingenuity from you after it; yet I could hardly believe you would have ventured so far as to have given out such false and imperfect Copies of what passed as all those have been which came to my hands, and were all said to be dispersed by you. You know very well that the Gentleman who wrote for you never read his Papers in the Conclusion, that we might judge how fairly he had represented both sides: and when they were neither Read, nor Compared, nor Signed as they ought to have been, with what Ingenuity can these be dispersed through so many hands for true and Authentic Copies? At least you ought to have sent them to me and to have answered my Objections against them before you had read them in Coffeehouses, and made such Descants upon them in places where you were sure I would not be present to contradict you. But when nothing was done to make your Copy appear to be good, they must be of very easy faith and understanding who would take your word in this matter, without so much as any Motives of Credibility.  
I hear you made great boasts of your Victory after the Conference, which I only smiled at, and thought you hoped to make yourself considerable by your Vanity. If you gain no greater Victories, you will very little increase the Number of your Converts: For the Gentleman for whose sake the Conference was, declared immediately after it, that he was much more confirmed in the Communion of our Church by it, and resolved to continue in it; which he hath since repeated several times to me. But of all the Persons of your Church, I have yet met with, you had least Reason to go away with the boast of a Victory.  
For I pray call but to mind how the Conference ended, and I think you will be ashamed of your boasting. When you came to your Demonstration of Infallibility in the Church of Rome, which came to this in short, That all Traditionary Christians believe the same to day which they did yesterday, and so up to the time of our Blessed Saviour and if they follow this Rule they can never err in faith, therefore are infallible; And you proved they could not innovate in Faith unless they did forget what they held the day before, or out of malice alter it; I thought the best way to show the Vanity of this rare Demonstration was to produce an Instance of such as followed Tradition and yet you could not deny to have erred, and that was of the Greek Church, which went upon Tradition from Father to Son, as much as ever the Roman did: And I desired to know of you whether the Greek Church notwithstanding did not err in matters of Faith; And if it did, than a Church holding to Tradition was not infallible. Your answer was, That the Greek Church followed Tradition, till the Arians left that Rule and took up a new one, i e. Scripture privately interpreted. I told you I did not mean the Arians, but the present Greek Church (which you charge with Heresy) and yet they follow Tradition from Father to Son. This I was forced to repeat over and over, but no answer could I get from you, but you still ran back to the Arians, and compared them and the Calvinists, which I told you was not at all to the purpose; for I insisted upon the present Greek Church, and so you rose up in a heat, and endeavoured to keep those who wrote from setting down this last part as it ought to have been.  
In the Papers dispersed by you, you make me barely put the question, Whether the Greek Church did follow Tradition from Father to Son in matters of Faith, or no? But do not mention the Inference I drew from it, and which is set down in the Original Paper that was read aloud and approved by both parties, That if the Greek Church followed Tradition, which is undeniably true, and is granted by yourself in your Answer, than a Church holding to Tradition as its Rule may err in matters of Faith, which unavoidably overthrows your pretended Demonstration. For you cannot make an evasion, by saying, That though the Greek Church once adhered to Tradition, yet in the Time of Arianism it left that Rule and took up another, and so ever since fell into error as the Calvinists did; for that is apparently false as to the present Greek Church (of which I spoke) as is known to every one that knows any thing of the Greek Church, which in all its differences with the Roman Church as to the Procession of the Holy Ghost, the Pope's Supremacy, Purgatory, etc. still pleaded Tradition and adhered to it. Neither is so much of your Answer true, as that even the Arians went off from the Rule of Tradition, for they insisted on it, and Petavius thinks they had good Reason for it. But however I said my Instance was not about them, but the present Greek Church, and this I do affirm, you gave no Answer at all to.  
I know what Arts have been used to get Mr. T. to approve your Copy: I have not seen what he wrote, and I desired him to bring the Gentleman to me who wrote for you, that we might compare ours together, but word was left with my Servant, that he was not well. But suppose he should now correct his Copy, this will be too late for my Vindication, since so many imperfect ones have been given out and dispersed, not only here in Town, but over several parts of the Nation. And therefore I am 〈◊〉 to take this way to put a stop to such dis 〈…〉 ceeding. I hear Mr. M. pretends that I gave but false Copies, which is so far from being true, that I was often solicited on the account of your Papers, before I let one be seen, and then it was only to correct the Errors of yours. And mine was taken by a Person of Learning as well as Integrity, who was present at the whole Conference and very well understood the whole matter. But because your Writer's Copy was not then read, and none signed, I desire you now to make good these two things, which the whole Conference depended upon.  
(1.) That we have no absolute Certainty as to the Rule of our Faith, viz. the Scripture; although we have a larger and firmer Tradition for it, viz. the Consent of all Christian Churches, than you can have for the Points of Faith in difference between us.  
(2.) That the Tradition from Father to Son is an infallible conveyance of matters of Faith, notwithstanding the Greek Church is charged by you with Error, which adhered to Tradition.  
If you give a satisfactory Account of these two things, you will acquit yourself much better than by boasting in Coffeehouses, and dispersing such Copies of Conferences. If you decline giving an Answer to this just and necessary Vindication of myself, the World will easily see on whose side the Victory lay; but I confess I did not think it worth boasting of.  
If you are really such a man at Controversy, as I hear you would be taken for, I offer you a fair opportunity to show yourself: and I do promise by God's Assistance to return an Answer to you in such a manner, as will be least liable to the Injury of False Copies.  
I am, SIR, Your Humble Servant, E. S. March 7. 1686/ 7.  
THE END.