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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A53894 No necessity of reformation of the publick doctrine of the Church of England. By John Pearson, D.D. Pearson, John, 1613-1686. 1660 (1660) Wing P1001; ESTC R202284 20,122 29

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very well omit and conclude with them Thus much of the doubtfulnesse of the Articles which they have much pretended no way proved scarce endeavoured As for the second Part of their charge the Defectivenesse of the Publique Doctrine they endeavour to prove it by three severall Arguments The First is brought from the 6. Article the onely Article of all the 39. accused by them of defect in it self Their Objection is this The Article is defective in the not enumerating all the Books of the New Testament And my Answer is plainly this Though the Article doe not enumerate all or any of the Books of the New Testament yet the Doctrine of this Article is not defective and my Reason is because the Article describes them as well as if it did enumerate them so that any man may rest as much satisfied with the Description as with the Enumeration As for Example the Council of Trent doth enumerate all the Books of the New Testament by name Sess. 4. the Church of England not following that Council expresseth her self otherwise saying All the Books of the New Testament as they are commonly received we doe receive and account them Canonicall Now all the Books named in the Council of Trent are commonly received or they are not if they be not commonly received then I confesse the Article may be thought defective but this I suppose our Brethren will not say or if they doe it is a known untruth if they be all commonly received then hath our Article left none out in her description more then they have in their enumeration If they did or could name any one Book which they could prove to belong to the New Testament and yet is not commonly received then they might charge the Article with defect for it would want that Book so named and yet not received But if they can name no Book of the New Testament which is not commonly received then the Article containeth every Book of the New Testament which can be named and if it contain all that can be named it must contain all that can be enumerated and consequently it cannot be defective in the not enumerating Wherefore I entreat our Brethren the Ministers of sundry Counties that they will not preferre the Council of Trent before the Articles of our Church where nothing materiall can be objected to either As for the doubts which have been in the Church of the Epistles of S. James and the second of S. Peter they make nothing against this description for though they have been doubted of yet they are now commonly received and the Article embraceth all as they are commonly received referring to the time in which the Articles were penn'd not to the age before Eusebius wrote the History of the Church and the Differences about the Scriptures Now at this time the Church of Rome had declared and enumerated all the Canonicall Books of the New Testament the Church of England upon the Reformation did no way differ from the Church of Rome in this Particular but had in its Practice received and used all the same Books and therefore needed no other way to denote them then by the Books of the New Testament commonly received Where there was a difference between our Church and theirs there to make good the Reformation it was necessary to enumerate the Books because the difference could not be otherwise known and therefore we have in reference to the Old Testament a Catalogue of the Canonicall Books and another of the Apocryphall but where there was difference neither with them nor among our selves there such an Expression as might acknowledge the consent and no way prejudice the truth was thought most proper In the Article made in the time of King Edward 6. in the year 1552. printed by Richard Grafton 1553. there was neither description nor enumeration of any Books of the Holy Scriptures and therefore it is hard measure that the Church in the days of Queen Elizabeth 1562. adding an enumeration of the Books of the Old Testament and a Description of those of the New for the supplying of a supposed defect should be accused as defective The second Argument to prove the Defectivenesse of the Publique Doctrine is that There are no Articles for discovering and condemning sundry points of Popery To which my Answer is That if they meane no more then that which will discover a man to be a Papist there is abundantly sufficient contained in the Articles to discover any man For we may assure our selves the Church of Rome will admit no man to their Society who shall be ready to subscribe our Articles This therefore as to such a Discovery can be no reall Defect because we can need no more then what is enough But if the Articles did want some Doctrines for the Discovery of Popery which they doe not yet those which our Brethren mention cannot be wanted for that purpose They signify a defect of such Tenets as are opposite to those of Arminius and think that they if they were setled would discover Popery Whereas it is most evident that the deniall of the Doctrines contrary to those of Arminius is no good or sound way to discover a Papist If the Church of England had found out no other way to discover a Romanist then the denying of Arminianisme there would suddenly be Popish Priests enow to possesse mine and all your Benefices I look upon the Dominican Friers to be as great enemies of Armianisme as I or you are and yet to be as much Papists as any are I suppose no man thinks a Praedeterminant or a Jansenian to be inclining to an Arminian and yet 't is probable that the Major part of the Papists are of those Opinions I therefore conclude as a most evident and infallible truth that the Articles are not defective in the way of discovering Popery or Papists for that reason onely because they have not sufficiently express'd themselves against Arminianisme The third Argument endeavouring to prove the Defectivenesse of the Publique Doctrine is an enumeration of severall Common-places in Divinity not comprehended in the Articles For so they argue Those Articles contain nothing of the Creation of Providence Fall of man c. and these they urge thus All which the Scripture teacheth and that as necessary as appears by the comprizing most of them in the Apostles Creed To which I answer That this Argument containeth in it two Objections neither of which can be made good and yet if both were true they could not prove that which they intend The first part of the Argument asserts That the Articles contain nothing of the Creation Providence and the rest of the Doctrines enumerated at least 20. in number Which is a manifest untruth For it cannot be said that the Articles contain nothing of the Creation when the first Article teacheth us that God is the Maker of all things Visible and Invisible How can it be true that the Creation is comprized in the