THE APPROBATION OF That Reverend Father of the Church, Joseph Hall, Bishop. of NORWICH.

In a Letter to his worthily respe∣cted friend, Mr. W. S.

I Return you many thanks for the favour you have done me, in affording me the view of this solid and seasonable piece of Dr. Twisse, in full answer to this preten∣ded Questionist; who under the colour of a Perplexing Case of Conscience from a Preacher of the Gospell, sends forth a Page  [unnumbered]foolish kind of challenge to all Protestant Divines. Had you not named the Author of the satisfactory Answer, and se∣conded it by anothers attesta∣tion, I could both have known and avouched him. There is a face of a style, by which we Scholars know one another, no less than our persons by a visible countenance; whosoe∣ver hath read the witty & ac∣cute exercitations of this Au∣thor upon the writings of Do∣ctor Jackson, will easily finde him in this Tractate both for form and matter. This sculk∣ing and disguised Chalenger could not have met with a meeter Combatant; a man so Page  [unnumbered]eminent in School-Divinity, that the Jesuits have felt, and (for ought I see) shrunk under his strength, in their Scientia Media, and whom the States of the Netherlands out of the fame of his worth, would fain have tempted away with large profers to a Publick Professor∣ship in one of their Universi∣ties. I onely wish he had met with a more able Adversary: For certainly, as I intimated to you in my last, this Beagle, whosoever he be, whether out of misprision or craft, hunts counter, and runs all the while upon a wrong ground; vainly supposing, that differences in points not fundamentall, make Page  [unnumbered]a diversity of Religions; and weakly conceiving, that be∣cause there are many false claims to Truth in the world, God hath not left us means e∣nough in his revealed Will to distinguish Truth from Error; as if, because there are store of counterfeit coyns abroad, it could not be safe for a man to receive, or possible to discern currant money: whereas, if his wit would have served him, he might have considered, that all, both Agenda and Credenda necessary to salvation (which only can difference Religion) are clearly laid down in the sa∣cred Oracles of Scripture, with which if any refractory soul Page  [unnumbered]will unjustly quarrell, he may by those helps which God hath left to his Church, be ei∣ther convinced, or shamed; in the mean while it is no reason that his absurd obstinacy should cast any blemish upon the clear face of truth, or be a∣ny prejudice to others, who are blessed with better appre∣hensions, whose not-forestal∣led souls, out of that judgment of discretion, which God hath endowed all wise Christians withall, upon due search may by those good means which God hath held forth to us, give himself so ful satisfaction in all important Truths, as wherein he may securely rest, with a re∣solute Page  [unnumbered]defiance of all opposi∣tions.

Had this Questionist but consulted with learned Bishop Davenant's irrefragable Dis∣course, De judice ac norma fidei, he had forborn the blurring of his Paper, and spared the labor of this his perplexed and shuf∣fling proposall of his pretend. edly-perplexing Question, which in very truth is no other than a stale and often explo∣ded Cavill, newly furbushed o∣ver with a false colour of a tenderly-conscientious irreso∣lution. The man will finde himself here over-answer'd, and receive too much honour from such an Antagonist, in Page  [unnumbered]that it may be said of him, Ae∣neae magni dextrâ cadis. Now since you are pleased to desire my Opinion of the whole work: to speak freely, One or two passages, I confess, to meet with in this learn∣ed and weighty Discourse, (as concerning the name and number of the Apo∣calypticall Beast, 666.) which doe not altogether carry my assent. That My∣sterie must and will lye still close, after all the scanning of the sharpest Wits and Judgements. But for all the Doctrinall points, I cannot but applaud them as worthy of the Authour, Page  [unnumbered]and satisfactory to the Rea∣der, and convictive of the Ad∣versary. Farewell, from your much devoted