where commanded in Scripture either as to the Obligation or Time of its Celebration as now practic'd by the Church Baptism is necessary to Children for Salvation We are bound to believe that the Son is Consubstantial to the Father that the second Person was Really Physically and Substantially united to our Humane Nature and not Morally only that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son. What plain Texts of Scripture prove these Tenets so as the Arian Eutychian Anabaptist c. shall be oblig'd to submit being convinc'd by the Evidence thereof A. P. therefore asserts that an Infallible Church is requisite to expound Holy Writ to us and by her Traditions which are the living Word of GOD instruct us in necessary Doctrines That which the Dr. appeals to for Judge to wit The written Word of GOD is no other than what has been the Appeal of all Hereticks from CHRIST's time Which consequently cannot be the Rule of one True Church that is Essentially different from an Heretical one And certainly no man of Sense and Judgment can say that a guilty Person will ever appeal to that Judge by whom he is evidently and sufficiently condemn'd but all Hereticks are guilty Persons and yet boldly appeal to Holy Scripture Therefore Holy Scripture is not the Judge by whom Hereticks are evidently and sufficiently condemn'd Whence is clearly made out that there must be some other living Judge by whose Authority Hereticks may be clearly convinc'd and all necessary Points of Doctrine taught and deliver'd to us Would not that be the worst constituted Government in the World in which there should be no living Judge or Explicator of the Law but every one should be permitted to Expound it so as his own Capricio or private Judgment suggests or as it may most make for his own Interest What Malefactor at this rate would not find a Plea for his own Defence and a Salvo for the most Enormous Crimes Now if this in Humane Laws would be esteem'd highly derogotary to the Prudence of the Law-giver shall those be deem'd to have the Spirit of GOD who presume to affirm the same of his Divine Majesty and so far to call in question his Infinite Wisdom and Goodness as to think that in the establishment of his Church he would omit That without which no State or Government could long subsist But here the Dr. may reply what he afterwards says that every one is not left to Expound this Rule at Discretion but must Vse the help of all Ministerial Guides possible that is he must Consult his Confer p. 18. Minister and if one satisfy him not advise with another and so to the end of the Chapter Now what shall we say if this Man prudently distrusts the Mission of his pretended Ministers as every one may that of the Church of England being grounded on meer Humane Authority What if he distrust his Ministers Sincerity Learning Vertue What if he question his having us'd Pious Means in humility of Soul Of which no Body can be assur'd What if Consulting many one tells him one thing another as it usually happens quite contrary What Means are there left to quiet this dubious mind You will say He is then left to his own Conscience Now being so left A. P. desires to know whether this Mans Conscience may be Erronous and actually err in things necessary to Salvation If so then his Religion may prove a meer Fancy if more an Opinion but at most a private Judgement and wholly void of Divine Faith. If he cannot err then each one must be allow'd to be Infallible in his own Perswasion and so the Dr. must grant that to each particular Member which he denies to the whole But that each one may err after all his Endeavours if we allow no living Judge to whom we are bound to submit is manifest from daily Experience by which we see that thousands having made use of all Ministerial Guides possible cease not to dissent amongst themselves and disagree even to Contradiction in things of the greatest moment And against the Dr. ad hominem Roman Catholicks use all the means Protestants can prescribe and many more in humility of Soul and have an undoubted assurance of being in the true way Which being so A. P. would be satisfy'd with what Conscience the Church of England can Prosecute men by Sanguinary Laws who follow her own Rule with the greatest Perfection One word to the Dr. and A. P. will go on to the other Parts of the Dr's Rule That can't be the only true Rule of Faith without which a true Church did subsist But without a compil'd Canon of Scripture assign'd by the Church of England as the only true Rule of Faith a true Church did subsist Therefore a compil'd Canon of Scripture can't be the only true Rule of Faith. The first Proposition is evident for a Church can t subsist without its Essentials one whereof questionless is a Rule of Faith. The second is prov'd thus The Primitive Christians made a true Church But this Church subsisted many years without a compil'd Canon of Scripture as is evident For several years after CARIST's Death pass'd without any written Gospels or Epistles more before they were divulg'd and some Ages before they were compil'd into a Canon Therefore a true Church subsisted without a compil'd Canon of Scripture Therefore that can't be the only true Rule of Faith. The Dr. goes on and asserts that they had the same Proofs for their Bible with the Roman Catholicks viz. The Testimony of the Vniversal Church Confâ—r p. 9. of all Ages Which is manifestly false For neither the Universal Church nor any part of it deliver'd them the Bible as the Protestants have it Whether you consider the Number of Books Conformity of Texts or what is most Material the Sense and Meaning thereof For although the * Note This was only a National Council and of no General Obligation Council of Laodicea approv'd of no more Books than those which the Church of England now allows to be Canonical nor indeed of all those the Apocalypse not being then receiv'd yet that Council rejected not the other Books as Apocryphal But the Church then beginning to examine Holy Scripture approv'd for the present only the above-mention'd Canon neither rejecting nor admitting the other pieces Now in the Council of Carthage held in the year 397. the other parts of Holy Writ being brought under Examination were found to be of equal Authority and consequently receiv'd into the Canon St. Augustin subscribing thereto And this was confirm'd by Pope Innocent the first in the year 402. who giving an Account what Books were receiv'd and directing himself by the Rule of Tradition viz. Quid custodita Series temporum demonstraret sets down these very Books the Epist 3 cap. 7. Roman Catholicks now still allow of And St. Augustine was of the same Judgment as also Pope Gelasius August de Doctr. Christ cap. 8.
and upon this Rock being in the Greek of the Feminine Gender cannot be apply'd to Peter who is of the Masculine Had St. Paul been endow'd with the Dr's Learning he would certainly never have said Petra autem erat CHRISTVS CHRIST was the Rock He being no more of the Feminine Gender than St. Peter The Dr. having Read of twelve Foundations Page 11. denies Peter to have had any Prerogative above the rest of the Apostles He should have set down A. P's Answer who by way of Retortion askt the Dr. why he was by the Evangelists always nam'd in the first place the Order of the others being always inverted since he was neither called First to the Apostolat nor Best Beloved of Christ why he is Read to have presided in the Council of the Apostles and why all Controversies of Faith in all past Ages were ever refer'd to St. Peter's Successors to be decided As for Mrs. Rs. saying softly 't was St. Peter 's Confession Conf. p. 11. on which Christ built his Church A. P. knows nothing on 't A little after the Dr. says A. P. taxt the Greeks with being Lyars c. A. P. spake this in the Dr's Opinion Since the Greeks to say nothing of the other Councils having in the Council of Florence as also in two other Councils Assembled in the East since the Reformation Disapprov'd Condemn'd and Anathematiz'd all the Protestants Negative Articles the Dr. could not but hold them for Lyars and the Roman Church with all others then in the World being of the same Perswasion the Dr. must allow all those to be Lyars from whom he has receiv'd his Scripture Now whether the Greeks are Hereticks in their Doctrine about the Holy Ghost it appertaining nothing to the present Controversy A. P. values not The Dr. now proves his Bible from a Principle of which he said not a word in the Conference viz. that all Christians cannot be in a Confederacy to vend a Lye. Here A. P. has gain'd his Point since all Christians were in a Confederacy in receiving the Canon of the Roman Church the Vulgata and Belief of the now Controverted Articles no one Parcel of them delivering the Protestants Canon Text or Exposition The Dr. mistakes when he asserts that the Ibid. Roman Church proves her Being and Authority out of the Scriptures Which is false For she proves her self and her Infallible Authority by all those Arguments by which the Dr. would prove the Christian Religion against Jews or Gentiles and then confirms it only by Scripture The Dr. in his thirteenth Page as in several other places complains That A. P. would fix to nothing That is A. P. in two hours and an half would not allow the Dr. to pass from the Question in Debate though he made several Offers at it Next you have an account of A. P's saying in a little heat He would be hang'd knocking the Table Confer p. 13. thereupon A. P. grants both the Words and Actions to be true and though he seem'd then justly to be provok'd Yet he confesses it to have been a Fault and desires none may take occasion of Scandal from it but rather learn how in the greatest Provocations Men ought to moderate their Passions A little after you are told That the Greeks have Pag. 14. always had Churches which none deny that Among the Latins they have Catalogues of Witnesses against the Romish Errours and that a true Church though not as such may have many Corruptions When the Dr. shall produce his Catalogue 't will be then time to examine the Credit of his Witnesses and the Validity of their Evidence In the mean time A. P. allows That there may in the True Church be Corruptions in Manners though not in Faith. The Dr. goes on saying That the present Corruptions in the Roman Church were not formerly made Articles of Faith. A. P. absolutely denies these suppos'd Corruptions of the Dr's and avers That the Dr. will never be able to shew That St. Gregory's Faith was not that which Rome now Teaches But that some who call themselves Catholicks should oppugne the Synods of the second of Nice and Trent is no great wonder since all Hereticks are desirous to retain that Name and fail not to oppugn the Councils by which they are condemn'd As to what he says concerning A Doctrine contrary to Transubstantiation Taught in the Saxon Church and such other things which he pretends He will prove out of Beda Hoveden c. When his Proofs are produc'd A. P. will return him a fair and candid Answer The Dr. next says there were Christians in Bohemia Ibid. making the Bible their Rule of Faith. A. P. grants that all Hereticks have ever done the like and always taken for their Theme the pretended Errours of the Church of Rome and that because they knew in that Church as in the Head and Mother of all others resided a Power of Condemning them The Dr. asserting of Transubstantiation That Confer p. 15. that manner of the Breads becoming CHRIST's Body was invented by Paschasius Radbertus A. P. Answer'd That he had nothing to do with Paschasius Radbertus but that it was Decreed in the great Council of Lateran Whence the Dr. infers That he err'd in Time near four hundred years The Dr. by making this Inference seems to have forgotten the very Rudiments of Logick A. P. says That he appeal'd to a General Council and troubles not himself with a private Man Therefore says the Dr. he errs nigh four hundred years in Time. This is just as if the Dr. being charg'd with following Luther's Tenets and replying That he had nothing to do with Luther but that his Religion was establish'd by an English Parliament held in the year 1662. It should thence be concluded that he err'd in Time Than which nothing could appear more ridiculous To contradict what A. P. had affirm'd about Conf. p. 15 16. the four Patriarchs being at the Council of Lateran either in Person or by their Legates the Dr. alledges Father Walsh's Letter to the B. of L. Now when F. Walsh's Authority and Name in History shall be equal to that of Binnius Labbè Carranza c. then A. P. will think it worth his Labour to answer this Objection But in the mean time he cannot forbear to mind the Dr. once again of his usual Dis-ingenuity in appealing to any Paper or Person of how little Credit soever when it makes for his Advantage and slighting the Authority of the most Learned and Understanding when quoted against him The account given by Binnius concerning this Council with whom the other two agree is this The fourth Council of Lateran consisted of four hundred Bishops and eight hundred other Fathers Abbots Deans and Priors of Convents there assisting at it the Patriarchs of the East those of Constantinople and Hierusalem in person and those of Antioch and Alexandria by their Legats there being present also the Ambassadors of the
BOOKS lately printed for Richard Chiswell THE Pillar and Ground of Truth A Treatise shewing that the Roman Church falsly claims to be That Church and the Pillar of That Truth mentioned by St. Paul in his First Epistle to Timothy Chap. 3 Vers 15. 4o. A Short Summary of the Principal Controversies between the Church of England and the Church of Rome being a Vindication of several Protestant Doctrines in Ansswer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled Protestancy destitute of Scripture Proofs 4o. Two Discourses of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead An Answer to a late Pamphlet Intitutled The Judgment and Doctrine of the Clergy of the Church of England concerning one Special Branch of the King's Prerogative viz. In Dispensing with the Penal Laws 4o. Preparation for Death Being a Letter sent to a young Gentlewoman in France in a dangerous Distemper of which she died The Difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome in opposition to a late Book entitutled An Agreement between the Church of England and Church of Rome A PRIVATE PRAYER to be used in Difficult Times 8o. REMARKS OF A PULTON MASTER in the SAVOY UPON Dr Tho. Tenison's LATE NARRATIVE With a Confutation of the Doctors Rule of Faith. AND A REPLY TO A. Chresners pretended Vindication Published by Authority London Printed by Nathaniel Thompson at the Entrance into Old-Spring-Garden near Charing-Cross 1687. To the Parishioners of St. Martins in the Fields and St James Westminster Gentlemen YOur Learned Pastor the Reverend Dr. Tenison having been pleas'd to his printed Account of a Conference had between Him and Me on the 29th of September last in which he has not only notoriously mis-represented the Matter of Fact but also stuff'd his whole Narrative with several false Aspersions reflecting not only on my particular Person but also on the whole Society whereof I am a Member and on our Holy Mother the Catholick Church of which I profess my self an unworthy Son The Dr. I say having been pleas'd to this Account to prefix an Epistle to you fraught with malitious Insinuations and Calumnies You will not I hope think me guilty of too great Presumption if endeavouring to clear my self from the false Accusations brought against me I though a Stranger making Appeal to you before whom the Dr. has laid his Charge and expect from your Judgement and Candor however prepossest with a good Opinion of the Dr and a Prejudice against both my Religion and Order a fair and equitable Hearing The Dr. begins his Epistle to you with a Complaint of many false Reports and Papers industriously spread by some of the less sincere and less generous Romanists Now as I protest an utter Abhorrence of all such unworthy Proceedings so I cannot easily believe any Catholick to have been guilty of them without some more sufficient Testimony than the Dr's Word of whose insincere and disingenuous Actings his Account is a most apparent Evidence And that Letters sent both into the North and West of England bearing date the very day of the Conference and importing that there were at least Eight or Ten Jesuits put to Silence by the force of one Dr's Arguments manifestly shews that the Dr. is not the only person who has Cause to complain of false Reports or Reason to fear That unworthy Ends would be serv'd on the Credulous The Dr. to excuse the Bitterness not to say Scurrility of his Expressions tells you a story of a Person one of whose Names as he Words it was Gubbard who in the time of the Rebellion against King Charles the I. Recommending himself to the Committee at Norwich as a Man Who had a zeal for the same Cause in which they were engag'd took Possession of the Living of Mondesly out of which the Dr's Father was Ejected for his Loyalty That after a few years he Preach'd up Purgatory and other such Points in so open a manner That the Committee turn'd him out again and that in a little time he as it were vanish'd away By this story which the Dr. ushers in with his having a Motive to severe Language towards that sort of men meaning Catholick Priests which few have besides and closes with the Impression it made upon him when he was young and the raising his Suspition and Indignation ever since he would insinuate that this Gubbard was some Jesuit or Catholick Priest which he pretends to prove by his changing his Name his Favour with the Committee and his Preaching of Purgarory Catholick Priests sometimes change their Names thereby the better to shelter themselves from the rigorous Severity of the Sanguinary Laws executed on them by meek-hearted Protestants only in respect of their Function yet if it be consider'd that this is frequently done by other Persons on far different Motives and Occasions it will seem very ridiculous to infer from thence that the Person mention'd by the Dr. was a Priest Nor yet will his Preaching of Purgatory and such other Points evince him to have been a Romanist much less a Priest if it shall be consider'd how many far stranger Opinions were in those days of Liberty vented in the Pulpit and that many years have not pass'd since a very Learned Member of the Church of England Dr. Thorndike Prebend of Westminster and dying in her Communion desir'd an Ora pro animâ to be Engraven on his Tomb. Now to shew how great Favour the Priests and Jesuits found with the Committees of those Times I take the Liberty to inform the World that my Father had six Uncles Jesuits and yet was not only himself committed to Prison by the Rebels for his Religion and his Loyalty to his King but his House was also for a long time possess'd by a Committee Minister and two of his Brethren were for three years Educated in another Committee Ministers house at Kettring in Northamptonshire where they were oblig'd being under Age to go to Schismatical Service though it pleas'd Almighty God of his Infinite Mercy to reduce them afterwards into the Bosom of his Spouse the Catholick Church out of which none of our Family ever dy'd Nor do I believe any one Family in England was more frequently Pillag'd or more severely Sequester'd than Ours yet I bless God I am so far from having my Indignation thereby rais'd against that Party or entertaining any Hatred towards them that I rather glory in our having had occasion to suffer for our King and our Religion I here therefore Challenge the Dr. and his Adherents to make it appear that this or any other Committee Minister was either a Jesuit or Priest of the Roman Church or else must take leave to say that his vending such like scurrilous Suspicions and Surmises at this time of day seem directly to aim at that of which I am unwilling to think him guilty Having return'd this Answer to what is most material in his Epistle I leave you Gentlemen to judge whether he has been so Just or Fair as he pretends or
in the year 492. All which was confirm'd by the sixth General Council in the year 680. And in the Council of Florence held in the year 1438. the same Canon was again confirm'd the Greeks Armenians and Jacobites subscribing thereto So that when Protestancy began there were no Christians in the World who believ'd those Books precisely to be Holy Scripture which the Church of England allows of and consequently they have the Testimony of the Vniversal Church and every Member thereof against them wanting ten parts of that Rule which they believe the only essential one to Salvation Now as for the Text their own private Spirit is the sole Oracle it dropt from As for what relates to the Sense and Meaning of Holy Scripture the Dr. with all the Eyes of the quick-sighted Ministry shall never discover that Body of Christians who ever profess'd those Articles of Faith both Positive and Negative the present Church of England proposes for her Credenda Hence it is evident they have been their own Choosers of Books Texts and Sense and from first to last have no Authority either for one or other Mark here how the Dr. calls the Canon subscrib'd by St. Augustine and constantly allow'd by all the Universal Church for eleven hundred years Apocryphal Books of the later Time As also that his saying He is as sure of this Books being the Bible as of Cicero 's Offices being his Book is with submission to his Doctorship a mistake Nor can he be said to believe a thing on anothers word who neither believes him in his whole story nor in his manner of relating it nor in the meaning of the Words he uses to explicate himself but such an one must be said to believe what himself pleases and not what the other relates Which is the proper Notion of an Heretick deriv'd from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to choose He proceeds to illustrate what he slightly touch'd Confer p. 10. in the Conference proving the Bible from Mens considering the Prophesies and their Events the Characters of CHRIST the History of CHRIST c. Now this proves nothing there being no other Testimony either for the Prophesies or Events than the Church of Englands private Judgement she not having taken them on the Testimony of any Christians in the World. But granting the Historical Part of Holy Writ to be clear'd by these Comparisons yet the Doctrinal part on which the main hinge of Controversy turns can never be that way made out Which being soreseen by the Dr. he adds moreover that Men must use Pious Means in Humility of Soul and so they shall have Further Assurance begotten in them Here the Dr. has found a Salvo for all the Errours that ever have been or shall be committed in Points of Faith For he that shall say he has us'd Pious Means in Humility of Soul and that he has an Interiour Assurance of the Truth as all Hereticks in the World have ever pretended ought never to be proceeded against And by the same Rule all Penal Laws Persecuting Christians for Conscience are evidently unjust Which notwithstanding have ever been the only Bulwark of the Church of England Now A. P. will demonstrate the above-mention'd Assertion of the Dr's to be Weak Erroneous and False Which he thus proves The Water is clearest at the Fountain-Head Hence if ever any us'd those Pious Means and had thereby Assurance begotten in them We must allow it to Luther Carolostadius Zuinglius Beza Castalio c. Who were the Principal Heads of the Reform'd Churches and consequently receiv'd more of the Divine Influence us'd more Industry in acquiring Authentick Copies comparing Texts imploring the Divine Assistance than any of their Followers To begin therefore with Luther Zuinglius says of him That He was a foul Corrupter and horrible Falsifier of GODS Word One who follow'd Lib. de Sacramentia fol. 472 the Marcionists and Arians that ras'd out such Places of Holy Writ as were against him Thou doest says he to Luther Corrupt the Word of God thou art seen to be a manifest and common Corrupter and Perverter of the Holy Scriptures How much are we asham'd of thee who have hitherto esteem'd thee With how great reason Zuinglius objected this to him those are Judges who have noted Vide Bell. Ser. de Pentec above a thousand places chang'd by him in the New Testament alone and that he set forth the Gospels seven times every Edition very much differing from the precedent Now A. P. desires to know whether and when Martin Luther had the Assurance he requires Luther on the other side affirms of the Zuinglian Vid. Pro. Ap. tract 10. S. 10. Subd 4. Translators that They were Fools Asses Antichrists Deceivers and of an Ass-like Vnderstanding Beza says of the Basilian Translation That It is in many places wicked and altogether differing from the Mind of the Holy Ghost Of Beza's Translation Castalio observes That to note all his Errours would require a great Volume Beza again pronounces of Castalio's Edition That It is False Foolish Vnskilful Bold Blasphemous Vitious Ridiculous Cursed Erroneous Wicked Perverse In the first English Bible set forth in the Reign of Henry the VIII by Tindal the chief Apostle of the pretended Reformation Bishop Tunstal has noted no less than two thousand Corruptions in the Translation of the New Testament alone A. P. therefore desires the Dr. to give a Rule to seekers of the Truth by which they may discover the True and Uncorrupted Word of GOD. Amidst so much Dis-union Clashing and manifest Contradictions all which naturally flow from that irregular Liberty of Expounding Scripture given to all men by the Reformers From what has been hitherto said A. P. draws this Argument That which leads to manifest Discord of Opinion cannot be the Rule of One Holy Catholick Church But the Rule assign'd by the Dr. as now prov'd has open'd the Door to manifest Discord in Opinion Therefore it is not the Rule of One True Catholick Church A. P. Humbly intreats the indifferent Reader to ponder this whole Discourse with that Attention and Judgement it deserves For if A. P. proves this point against the Dr. he is sure That the whole Basis of the Reformation will totter and that the Church of England has no more to say in her Defence than the most Erroneous Body of Christians which has ever been since CHRIST's Time. A Prosecution of the REMARKS WEre the Quaery concerning the Ordination of Confer p. 10. Linus any way material to A. P's Faith he would Answer it And what Copy St. Peter had of the Old Testament makes nothing to the proof of A. P's Canon for which he has the Testimony of an Infallible Church whereas the Church of England has none at all for hers The Dr. in the same Page says The Word Rock Note That Cephas the word our Saviour us'd is a Syriach word and signifies the same in either Gender As you are a Rock