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A63840 A defence of the confuter of Bellarmin's Second note of the church, antiquity, against the cavils of the adviser Tullie, George, 1652?-1695. 1687 (1687) Wing T3236; ESTC R7422 16,243 26

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and no alteration of the Will it self Who sees not at first sight the illusion of such an evasion But now because the Adviser counsels the Confuter to prove in his next That a diversity of Practice as he pleasantly calls the denial of the Cup is an alteration in Religion I 'le endeavour to do it for him in as few words as I can now that I am upon the spot and save him the labour For if the Sacrament of the Eucharist be a part of the Christian Religion and I hope 't will be granted to be a very considerable one and the Cup an essential part of that Sacrament then they who deprive the Laiety of the Cup the diversity of Practice here spoke of make thereby an alteration in Religion but c. And I 'le make good this Argumentation to him when he pleases The custom of administring the Cup with Water only instead of Wine was not I hope so great a diversity of Practice as not administring the Cup at all to the Laiety who were at that time partakers of the Cup such as it was and yet it were worth his while to read what stress St. Cyprian in his 63 Ep. to Caecilius lays upon the practice of our Lord in his Institution of this Sacrament And in a word so far is this defrauding the Laiety of the Cup from being no alteration in Religion that besides what has been said it opens wide the Door to the greatest alterations imaginable For if the Church nay what is worse the Church of Rome in particular can by her own transcendent Prerogative alter and act contrary to this positive Law and Institution of Christ she may by the same reason dispence with or formally abrogate any of the other at her pleasure As for his Quotations out of Luther and Melancthon I have not been able to find upon a pretty diligent search as much as the very Tract and Epistles from whence he cites them and therefore am apt to imagine that taking them up at second hand he or his Author made a mistake in them However it be it matters not much for his second Citation out of Luther appears at first sight so forreign to his purpose that by it we may guess at the rest But above all recommend me to the Skull which could Cite that place of Spalatensis l. 5. c. 6. for the refusal of the Cup or conclude that because private Persons upon extraordinary occasions as want of Wine antipathy to it or the like mentioned by this very Author may lawfully receive in one kind the Church may make an universal standing Law against the Laiety's receiving in both Give me leave but just to continue the words of Spalatensis where the Adviser leaves of and you will be sufficiently able to pronounce of either the judgment or ingenuity of this Author without any farther descant upon him After having told us then in the general in what cases the Sacrament may be lawfully received under the species of Bread alone he proceeds Though in such a case says he the Sacrament is not truly and properly whole Wine may either be wanting or the Person abstemious or it may be more convenient to recieve at home than in the Church upon a lawful cause in which case a man may carry the Bread along with him tho not so conveniently the Wine as old examples teach us a practice perhaps not altogether warrantable in the Church But the Church neither could nor can by an universal Law deprive the Laiety of the Cup whether they will or no upon no necessity at all for what Christ granted to all men is in vain denied by the Church and where the whole Sacrament may and ought to be exhibited it cannot be mutilated and halfed without the greatest injustice and this is expresly prohibited under an Anathema by Gelasius in a Canon of the Church In the next Paragraph the Adviser is all upon the ramble again and you scarce know where to have him I 'le pick up the sense tho' he has dropt here and there and digest it for him as well as I can First Then he is angry with the Confuter for dateing the rise of the Papal Authority he speaks of so far back as Pope Victor and his reason is because the Church of Rome is generally believ'd to have been in those days pure and uncorrupt Here wants nothing but a good consequence The Faith of the Church of Rome was then sound and Orthodox and therefore one of her Bishops could not be of a warm passionate or assuming temper as Africans generally are of which Country he was and by an unwarrantable action undesignedly perhaps lay the first Foundation of a future encroachment and usurpation This is the whole Logic of the Business But the practises the Confuter censures were own'd by the Christians of those days I wonder then he did not show the vanity of what the Confuter alledges concerning the reprimand that Celestine met with from the African Bishops upon his intrusion into their Affairs or to go farther back did the Adviser never hear of the bustle that Victor's excommunicating the Asiatic Bishops made in the Church Or was no Body ever so kind as to tell him how ill that action was resented by Bishops of the Latin Church it self as may appear from a fragment of a Letter of Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons to Victor upon this occasion see Euseb Hist l. 5. c. 24. But Secondly Pope Victor's practise could be no other than an Apostolical truth because he lived in the Second Century I thought we should have him upon the Argument of bare Antiquity for all his former indignation at the Confuter for telling him 't was Bellarmin's second Note of the Church and here again is nothing but the poor business of a little Logic and conclusiveness wanting For the argument proves too much and so proves nothing at all to his purpose being that which a fortiori will justifie the Treachery of Judas and all the Heretical Doctrines that were broach'd before Victor's time But I need not farther expose its absurdity the Confuter having done it so excellently well in his first particular His third appearance of reason is that the Popes the Confuter mentions as beginners of the present Innovation of the Papal Authority living before or in the time of the four first General Councils if what is pretended were true those Councils would have taken notice of it Now because he confines his observation to those Councils only so shall I do my answer which need be no other than this That the Innovation was then perfectly in its Infancy the Tares as yet according to his own distinction in the dark and under ground not grown up and overtopping the Corn as they did afterwards and therefore difficultly perceptible at least in their future fatal tendency and event and as such might consequently easily escape the severe and solemn Animadversion of a general Council But can the Adviser imagin that
Laughter or Indignation of every Reader as he is in Humour when he meets with it for he who would vouchsafe such stuff any other Reply might justly be thought guilty of as great trifling in refuting as he in advancing it His Remarks upon the Confuter's Conclusion are a pure Declamation and I have no great appetite to encounter a School-Boys Exercise He tells us He cannot possibly make sense of what the Confuter says in reference to the Church of England That her Religion by Law established is the true Primitive Christianity for so run his Words and what then Is the Confuter bound to find him in understanding He might have enough to do at that rate I thought he had explain'd himself in the next Page and that very pertinently too by telling him That our Religion is as old as Christ and his Apostles with whom whosoever agrees they are truly ancient Churches tho of no longer standing than yesterday As they that disagree with them are new tho they can run up their Pedigree to the very Apostles and this he farther confirms by Tertullian's Authority Now if the Adviser had had a mind or ability to have spoke pertinently to the matter in hand he should have endeavour'd to have shewn either that Conformity with Primitive and Apostolic Doctrine does not make a Church truly Ancient and Apostolic or that the Doctrines of the Church of Engl. have no such Conformity for if they have 't will be found that Christ and his Apostles have a greater hand in the Constitution of this Church than in that of Rome notwithstanding his trifling harangue to the contrary The World knows very well he tells us when this Church was first establish'd by Law and so does the World know too when Christianity was first seated in the Throne and protected by the secular arm and yet I believe the Christians of those days thought no worse of their Religion for that nor I believe would the Adviser think worse of his if the Laws were on its side But where this Church was before 't was establish'd by Law that is not so easie to tell Why truly in my mind 't was much in the same state with the Jewish Church under the Dominion of Pharoah in Aegypt the one being born down and enslaved by a Temporal Tyranny the other by both a Temporal and Spiritual Usurpation till God was pleased as to rescue the one so the other too out of the House of Bondage After this he whissles and plays about the separation and novelty of this Church To which I shall only return That if he pleases to be but so kind to himself and to us as to lay aside the Buffoon and Declamator for a while and condescend for once to speak to the purpose upon that or any other subject he needs not fear a suitable reply from some or other In the last place he is for finding out the Confuter some work in Relation to the proof of our adequate belief of the Creed and in the same sense in which it was taught by the Apostles and professed by the Primitive Church No man who knows the Reverend and Learned Confuter can doubt of his Abilities for a much harder Task than what the Adviser would set him but I presume he knows how to dispose of his time much better than to lay it out in refuting the Suggestions of every incompetent Adversary and since he has thought fit to fling out this Surmise about the belief of the Church of England in my Apprehension 't would much more become him to make it out in the first place and then perhaps he may hear of the Confuter if he chances to write any thing worth his Confutation He tells us in one place of the forwardness of the beardless Divines of the Church of England I must confess I know not whether the Down is still upon his own Chin or no but if not I must needs tell him that for ought I find in his friendly half Sheet of Paper the Beard contibutes no more to the making of the Divine than it do's to the making of the Philosopher and therefore I shall conclude with one piece of Advice to him and that which may do him more true Service than all he has given the Confuter can ever do him and that is That if it be really his hard fate not to be able to write more to the purpose than what he has hitherto done he would give over writing in this kind and for the future follow the bent of his Genius which seems to lead him rather to the Comical Humour of the Stage than into the Field of Controversy FINIS
Club together over the Pot he speaks of in his Introduction for the Confutation of Bellarmin and to instance no farther in this fulsome kind what else is his whole scribble but one continued breach of Good Manners and common Civiliey unless he thinks it the part of the Gentleman to Boffoon a whole Church and all her Clergy I shall not farther recriminate though I justly might from several of their late Papers were it worth the while I shall only therefore tell him that Bellarmin in that very Chapter we are now upon gives his Adversaries the Lye twice very roundly and why should he be angry with a man for copying after such an Original And that I could wish some People were not so deeply concern'd in the Character of those who in the Apostle's homely Phrase shall in the latter times speak Lyes in Hypocrisie 1 Tim. 4. 2. and by lying Wonders 2 Thess 2. 9. impose upon the People as to deserve such plain English But the Lye deserves a Stab they say and therefore we may now expect a keen Pen when pointed with such generous Resentments In the second place therefore he pretends that the Confuter in kicking down the Church of Rome has overthrown his own at the same blow For he having asserted p. 49. not as the Adviser words it That the addition of Articles to the ancient Creed takes of all claim to the ancient Truth as if a Church that coins new and false Articles of Faith does thereby forfeit her Title to those true and ancient ones she before retain'd though not impugn'd by these new ones as the Adviser would suggest but that the present Church of Rome having superadded several Articles of her own contrary to several of those Christian Truths upon which she was originally founded becomes another Church from what she was then and cannot plead Antiquity for her present Constitution the Adviser subsumes that neither then can the Church of England be the ancient Church who besides the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds has another of a later date of nine and thirty Articles besides another Plot-Creed call'd the Test Sure this Man wrote only to make People merry Or is he really not able to distinguish betwixt Articles of the Christian Faith of necessity to be believ'd in order to Salvation and such he cannot but know the Church of Rome accounts all the Articles of the new Trent Creed and those of Communion and external agreement which tho ancient Truths and if we cannot give better proofs of their true Antiquity than they can do of their necessary Articles wee 'l be content to lose them are yet of an inferior Nature And as to our Plot Creed in particular I 'le set another Plot-Creed with a Witness against it and that is the deposing Power by Law establish'd by a Law that 's a Creed in the strictest Sense to them the Definition of a General Council and had it not been for this and other Plot-Creeds of absolving Subjects from their Allegiance and the like I am apt to believe they had never been troubled with ours In the next Paragraph the Adviser leads us such a Dance there 's no keeping Pace with him He frisks and frolicks it so in his Field of Crontroversy that he puts me in mind of the Diversion of another sort of Animal lately come into a good Pasture and in a warm Sun. I was in despair for some time of finding out his meaning in his long Ramble of two Pages but beating about for it laid in a very narrow compass I found it at last in a Corner of the Field of Controversy and 't is in short this That the Confuter's Argumentation which see p. 50. c. do's not prove that when a Change or Alteration in Religion begins publickly to be abetted maintained and propagated c. That then such an Alteration in Religion could spread it self over the whole Christian World and yet the Authors Promoters Abetters and Embracers of it not be known and taken notice of This being a popular tho very weak refuge insisted upon by greater men than the Adviser I shall give it a more distinct tho short Answer First then I say That the Confuter p. 52. has given him one particular Instance of an acknowledg'd Change of which they themselves cannot yet assign the Author by whom nor the time when it was introduc'd and that he has farther p. 53 c. as much as his design'd Brevity would admit evinc'd the Rise and Progress of two notorious changes in Religion establish'd in the Church of Rome and the Opposition they met with and could at h pleasure have farther enlarg'd upon this Subject Now either of these Ratiocinations are a sufficient Confutation of Bellarmin's adopted by the Adviser And how little he has replied to his Instances we shall see by and by 2dly He is mightily out in his Computation unless the old blunder of the Roman being the Catholick Church run still in his Head if he thinks all those Doctrines of theirs which we charge with the want of true Antiquity were ever universally receiv'd over the whole Christian World as he flourishes to exaggerate the Matter What thinks he of one of the Confuter's instances the Papal Authority to go no further But I hope his better Knowledg in this point will supersede me the labour of enlarging upon so copious an Argument 3dly I must tell the Adviser that the Doctrines we complain of being generally such as are calcuted for the Meridian of Rome the greater Veneration Wealth and Grandeur of the Pope and his Clergy 't is no wonder at all that we hear not of so much Bustle and Noise about them in the Western World as we might otherwise have expected And if he asks me as he 's good at such silly questions Where the Church of England was all this time and why She did not Preach and make Laws against such Corruptions and their Abetters I presume to ask his Wisdom again Where She was under the late Reign of Cromwel and why She did not Preach and make Laws against him and his Abetters Why truly She was in both Cases under the invincible Tyranny of an Usurper and therefore methinks the general Answer of the Housholder to his Servants asking him whence came the tares that an Enemy had Sown them might satisfie in this Anti-tipe of the Parable likewise especially since we find neither Master nor Servants any farther sollicitous in particular Enquiries about them even when they grew up and were consequently seen and discern'd for ill weeds to be sure grow fast enough And I shall only in this place desire the Gentlemen who are so ready to boast of the present Continuance of the discriminating Doctrines of the Church of Rome notwithstanding the Opposition they have met with to make this farther Remark with me upon the Parable of the Tares That they were suffer'd to grow up with the Wheat until the Harvest and let them recollect what became
of them then 4thly Were there no other method for Errors to spread in the Church than by what the Adviser seems to Dream of by appearing in open Contradiction and Defiance to the true Church condemning its Doctrine and opposing the Articles of her Faith as Erroneous and Heretical as he tragically expresses it then his inference might probably hold good unless we will suppose such Errors to have appear'd in a very dark and supine Age indeed and even in a more cautious 't is possible Records might be lost but alas since they usally grow up and advance after a quite different manner pedetentim by little and little as Fisher Bishop of Rochester owns the Doctrine of Purgatory did or it may be under the Colour of greater Piety and Devotion or the like as the Doctrines of Image and Saint-worship and thereby draw in the Pastors of the Church themselves for their Maintainers and Abetters his Argumentation falls to the Ground 5thly He ought to distinguish betwixt such Errors as immediately confront the prime Foundations of the Christian Faith and that Apostasy the Spirit hath foretold should be brought in by such as speak lies in Hypocrisy 1 Tim. 4. 1 2. of the first sort were the early Heresies concerning the Person of our Saviour His Divinity and Humanity The Resurrection of the Body and the like such as these indeed did not nor cannot well be suppos'd to appear in the Church without a mark upon the time of their rise their Authors and open Embracers The other is a mystery of Iniquity and may be advanc'd by specious and almost imperceptible methods as is hinted above without any great stir or din about them 6thly To the single Instance of the Confuter concerning an acknowledg'd change the rise whereof they themselves cannot account for the half Communion I shall add two more the Doctrines of Purgatory and Indulgences both own'd by Fisher Bishop of Rochester and Cardinal Cajetan to be of uncertain Original thereby acknowledging them not to be of the number of those Ancient Truths we contend for and yet are not able to tell who first brought them in To his two Instances of Alteration in Religion the Papal Authority and the worship of Images which we can account for according to the Adviser's Directions I add one more The great Burning Article of Transubstantiation whose Rise Progress and Opposers they have lately been told of See Disc against Transubst remitting the Adviser to Polydore Virgil for farther Instruction in this matter if he desires it After all which I must farther presume briefly to remind him of the several new Definitions of the Trent Council and of others which from Doctrines formerly taught sprang up presently in that prolifick Soil of Religion into Articles of Faith and sure 't is a considerable Alteration in Religion to make the belief of Points necessary to Salvation which were not so before And yet I hope we are able to name the who the where and the when of those Alterations But Lastly I must tell the Adviser that tho out of complaisance to him and his Betters I have so far enlarg'd upon this Argument yet as stated by himself with reference to the publick Appearance of Corruptions 't is answer'd in one word by the same curt Ratiocination as it was before when consider'd with Relation to their first rise only For tho we could give no account of the open Maintainers Embracers and Abetters nor of the Opposers of any Doctrine or Practice prevailing in the present Church of Rome yet if we are able to demonstrate that such Doctrine or Practice manifestly differs from what was at first establish'd in the Church by Christ and his Apostles or going yet farther can show out of unquestionable Records that no such thing as for instance the present Papal Authority was ever own'd in the Church for such a time 600 years for example do's it not inevitably follow That a change however has been made both from the true Antiquity the Scriptures and the subordinate Antiquity of so many Centuries of the Church tho we could not name the place where the time when and the Persons by whom such Corruptions were publickly maintained and abetted I can scarce for my own part believe that men are in earnest when they oppose such a wretched piece of Sophistry to the unanswerable argument of matter of Fact and the plainest experience in the World. We come now to his Remark upon the Confuter's instance of Communion in one kind and his advice to him here is to prove in his next That a diversity of practise is an alteration in Religion and especially of such a practise which Christ left indifferent in respect of the Laity and without any positive command of their receiving it in both kinds But since he has not thought fit to prove this at all which was his proper province in this place unless by two or three frivolous Citations of which afterwards I shall still take the contrary for granted being well assured first That he can show no positive command to the Clergy to receive it in both kinds which does not equally include the Laiety and secondly That they being equally interested with the Clergy in the benefits that accrue to mankind from the effusion of our Saviour's Blood and the Sacrament of the Eucharist being instituted in Commemoration of this effusion of his Blood as well as of the breaking of his Body the drinking of the Cup as well as the eating of the Bread becomes as necessary a part of this Sacrament in relation to the Laiety as it is to the Clergy they who equally partake of the benefits of both being equally concern'd in the Commemoration of both And a thousand years constant practice accordingly is a good exposition of our Saviour's Design in the institution and can then the refusing the Cup to the Laiety be called a diversity of Practice only of administring it to them Or is the abolishing of a practice of such Divine Authority and of so long a continuance in the Universal Church in relation to such Myriads of People only a differing modus of exercising it A familiar Instance will illustrate the matter though it seems sufficiently to discover it self by its own natural absurdity Suppose then some friend of the Advisers should by his last Will and Testament leave so much Beer and so much Bread to be distributed every Week for instance to the Poor of the Parish where he had lived and the Adviser his Executor should for a long time take care to have both the Beer and the Bread faithfully distributed according to the Testator's Will but yet at last for some private reason of his own should deprive them of their portion of Beer and confine them to Bread only does he imagine he could sham off the Wotld and the Poor People concern'd with this piece of Sophistry That what he did was only a diversity of Practice in fulfilling the Will of the Deceased