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A66372 An answer to the address presented to the ministers of the Church of England Williams, John, 1636?-1709. 1688 (1688) Wing W2680; ESTC R96 20,716 37

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here is a different use of the same Word and if in our Author's way of Arguing a different use of the same word will render us uncapable of attaining the sense contained in these words it would be to little purpose to read the word without an Infallible Assistant always at hand to explain it clearly and certainly to us So that if there be no better way to end the many Controversies of this Age than what he calls the only and surest way they are likely to continue for his time And if their Church has no surer way to bring the Case to an issue than this of exposing Christianity to save themselves they will as soon make men to quit all Religion as that which they have to be of theirs of which they cannot be but by subverting those Principles upon which the best Religion in the World the Christian is supported Here I might have concluded but our Author may take it ill if after I have traced him from Paragraph to Paragraph I should leave out his pathetical Conclusion which is as follows I conceive an Answer to these Doubts absolutely necessary for the Salvation of my Soul. For how can I be saved if I know not what is necessary thereunto I need not say a satisfactory one for no other can flow from your Learned and virtuous Pens I only fear that some Pin-feather'd Divine out of an itch to appear in Print may prevent yours and put me off with a Flim-flam or an uncharitable Jeer or Railing against some particular Church he may fancy me to be of which is nothing to my purpose who seek where I may find securely Necessaries to Salvation not where I cannot find them This would be also prejudicial to the Church of England for when Men see Doubts so sincerely and submissively Proposed Answered only with Jeers Railing and Invectives or omitted and let pass as not deserving an Answer they must needs doubt of the Learning ae well as of the Virtue and Charity of their Leaders Now were the Satisfaction I here desire intended for myself alone it might have seemed more proper to have made my Address in particular to some one of your Reverend and Learned Body but forasmuch as it concerns so many others and as I perswade my self will prove extremely beneficial to Religion it being the surest nay only way to end the many Controversies of this Age I am forced to desire of you whose high Character obliges you to a Zeal of Souls a publick and withal a speedy Answer by which you will highly oblige SIRS Yours ever LONDON Printed for Randall Taylor 1688. Our Author has too plainly discovered himself and had reason to suppose his Reader might well fancy him to be of some particular Church and he may as well expect to receive a due Correction for this his Dissimulation that pretends to be in doubt and yet to be in a Church as he supposes Infallible that pretends the Answer to these Doubts absolutely necessary for the Salvation of his Soul and yet is of a Church in which he is judged to hazard his Soul if he doth but doubt that Presents An Address to the Ministers of the Church of England to resolve his Doubts and yet has a Guide of his own whom it's necessary to believe and whom he is bound to follow that pretends to be sincerely desirous of finding out the Truth and doth all he can to involve it Lastly that brings these very Doubts to the Ministers of the Church of England that have been of late so frequently answered by them to the Confutation tho it seems not altogether to the Silencing of their Adversaries I will direct him to the Books and I hope by way of Courtesie he will in his next direct us to the Answers that have been since returned to them The Peoples Right to Read the Holy Scripture in Answer to the Representer A Discourse concerning a Guide A Vindication of the Answer to some late Papers Page 40 c. An Answer to a late Dialogue between a New Catholick Convert and a Protestant to prove the Mystery of the Trinity c. The Doctrine of the Trinity and Transubstantiation compared c. in 2 parts An Answer to the Request to Protestants to produce plain Scriptures c. With the Vindication of it called A Short Summary of the principal Controversies An Answer to a Book Entituled Reason and Authority Page 1 2 c. The Difference betwixt the Protestant and Socinian Methods in Answer to the Potestant's Plea for a Socinian All these Books with several others to the same purpurpose were Printed the last year and if our Author had consulted them as he ought and had as sincerely read them as he pretends to propose his doubts whatever his Confidence might I am apt to think his Conscience would not have found any just occasion to have made this Address nor needed Another to Answer it But it seems nothing less will satisfy our Author than an Answer from the Ministers of the Church of England It 's not a particular person that he conceives sufficiently qualified to undertake his Case and to rescue his Soul which he is so solicitous to save out of this danger and to instruct him in this weighty Affair But it is their Reverend and Learned Body as he fleeringly stiles them that he presents his Address to from whom he expects a Publick and withal a Speedy Answer He writes as if they were now in Convocation or that they were all obliged through the Two Provinces forthwith to assemble about this important Case and by one Solemn Act of theirs to return an Answer to these Doubts which is absolutely necessary for the Salvation of his Soul. But because it 's now not a season for this purpose and 't will be too long to stay till the days grow longer and the ways better I thought I might as well presume to try what might be done by a private hand and he might as well accept of it as he might Present an Address to the Ministers of the Church of England in behalf of himself and others and at last subscribe in his own name with a Sirs Yours ever FINIS Books lately Printed for Richard Chiswell A Discourse of the Holy Eucharist in the two great Points of the Real Presence and the Adoration of the Host in Answer to the Two Discourses lately Printed at Oxford on this Subject To which is prefixed a large Historical Preface relating to the same Argument Two Discourses Of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead The Fifteen Notes of the Church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin examined and confuted 4 0. With a Table to the Whole Preparation for Death Being a Letter sent to a young Gentlewoman in France in a dangerous Distemper of which she died By W. Wake M. A 120. The Difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome in opposition to a late Book Intituled An Agreement between the Church of England and Church of Rome A Private Prayer to be used in difficult Times A True Account of a Conference held about Religion at London Sept. 29. 1687. between A. Pulton Jesuit and Th. Tenison D. D. as also of that which led to it and followed after it 4 0. The Vindication of A Cressener Schoolmaster in Long-Acre from the Aspersions of A. Pulton Jesuit Schoolmaster in the Savoy together with some Account of his Discourse with Mr. Meredith A Discourse shewing that Protestants are on the safer Side notwithstanding the uncharitable Judgment of thier Adversaries and that Their Religion is the surest Way to Heaven 4 0. Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist wherein is shewed that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation overthrows the Proofs of Christian Religion A Discourse concerning the pretended Sacrament of Extreme Vnction with an Account of the Occasions and Beginnings of it in the Western Church In Three Parts With a Letter to the Vindicator of the Bishop of Condom The Pamphlet entituled Speculum Ecclesiasticum or an Ecclesiastical Prospective-Glass considered in its False Reasonings and Quotations There are added by way of Preface two further Answers the First to the Defender of the Speculum the Second to the Half-sheet against the Six Conferences A Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the new Exceptions of Mons. de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator The FIRST PART In which the Account that has been given of the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition is fully Vindicated the Distinction of Old and New Popery Historically asserted and the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in Point of Image-worship more particularly considered 4 0. A Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the New Exceptions of Mons. de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator The SECOND PART The Incurable Scepticism of the Church of Rome By the Author of the Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist 4 0. Mr. Pulton Considered in his Sincerity Reasonings Authorities Or a Just Answer to what he hath hitherto published in his True Account his True and Full Account of a Conference c. His Remarks and in them his pretended Confutation of what he calls Dr. T 's Rule of Faith. By Th. Tenison D. D. A Full View of the Doctrines and Practices of the Ancient Church relating to the Eucharist wholly different from those of the Present Roman Church and inconsistent with the belief of Transubstantiation Being a sufficient Confutation of Consensus Veterum Nubes Testium and other late Collections of the Fathers pretend●ng to the Contrary 40 An Answer to the Representer's Reflections upon the State and View of the Address Answer Address Answer De Doctr. Christ. l. 2. c. 9. Sum. Part 3. Tit. 18. c. 3. ff 3. White 's Way to the true Church Sect. 8. N. 2. Enarrat in ps 8. In John 1.1 c. 4. Homil. 1. in Math Hom. 3 de Laz. Address Answer Address Answer Address Answer Q. 4. Address Answer Address Answer Address Answer Address
fully as to meet with all temptations and all cases that may fall out and all good works that as Gregory expounds it he needs speak no more to us concerning any Necessary matter seeing all things are found in Scripture Q. 2. Whether all things necessary to Salvation are clearly contained in Scripture It was we have seen the Opinion of St. Austin that not only all things thus necessary are contained in Scripture but also that they are plainly therein contained And yet neither that Father nor any of the same mind with him as who was not then and who is not now except the Church of Rome did ever thereby understand that all these Necessaries are expresly contained in Scripture since an evident Consequence is equivalent to a plain and express Proposition as it was Matt. 22.31 32. Nor 2. do they understand by being clearly contained in Scripture that all persons may immediately learn all Necessaries by the meer reading of it as our Author puts the Case without the use of those means for the understanding of it that God has appointed and the nature of the thing requires such as attention consideration and the assistance of Teaching Guides For the plainness or clearness of the things to be learned and understood and an Instructor to lead us to or help us in the understanding them are not only consistent but generally to be supposed It 's a good saying of one upon this Argument That is not obscure which by ordinary means may be apprehended but that is so which either hath no means at all to open it or hath such as are not ordinary Neither 3. can it be supposed that the Scriptures do so clearly contain all things necessary as that nothing of that kind ever was or can be excepted against For they may be plain and yet for some prevalent reasons it may not be confessed They may again be plain and yet not be understood to be so from several Impediments Sometimes this proceeds from a natural Impediment as it is in Children and such as are of a very weak capacity And yet even to such St. Austin supposes them to be intelligible God having bowed down the Scripture to the capacity of Babes and Sucklings that when proud men will not speak to their capacity he himself might Sometimes from moral Impediments such as prejudices and prepossessions as it was with the Apostles who understood not our Saviour when he told them openly and plainly again and again that he must be killed Mark 8.31 32. 9.31 32. Such again are vile affections as Pride and the Love of the World Interest and Obstinacy into which our Saviour resolved the Jews Infidelity John 5.40 44. Such are Partiality Negligence Sloth and Inconsideration There are also Judicial Impediments when for their contempt and obstinacy c. God sends men strong delusions that they should believe a lye 2 Thes. 2.10 11. But now where those and the like Impediments are not but that men lay aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and as new born babes in the Apostles Phrase desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby 1 Pet. 2.1 2. that they come with an honest heart and use a competent diligence with a Dependance upon God's assistance for the Wisdom he hath promised I know nothing necessary to Salvation unless what the Church of Rome hath made so but what is plainly taught in Scripture and may be learn'd from it But without this temper the plainest and most express words and the necessary meaning of those words will not convince some men As for Example what more plain than that in Exodus 20. there is a 2 d Commandment distinct from the First What more plain than thou shalt not make to thee any graven Image nor the likeness of any thing to bow down before it or worship it What more plain than drink ye all of it Matth. 26.27 What more plain than that Prayer is not to be in an Vnknown Tongue 1 Cor. 14. Lastly what more clear than that the Scriptures are able to make us wise unto Salvation And yet we know where these things will not be confess'd The Truth is that as long as there are Prejudices and Interest and depraved Affections in mankind Truth will be obscure And the things that are easy are yet to Hereticks hard to understand saith St. Cyril But the defect in them makes none in the Scripture which is as entire compleat and clear when men do disagree about it as when it is by all unanimously consented to I shall sum up what I have said in the words of St. Chrysostom who thus delivers himself upon this Argument The Scriptures are easy to understand and exposed to the capacity of every Servant and Plough-man and Widow and Boy and him that is most unwise And again Therefore God penned the Scriptures by the hands of Publicans Fisher-men Tent-makers Shepherds Neat-herds and unlearned Men that none of the simple People might have any excuse from reading and that so they might be easie to be understood of all men the Artificer the Housholder and Widow-woman and him that is most unlearned Tea the Apostles and Prophets as School-masters to all the world made their Writings plain and evident to all men so that every man of himself only by reading them might learn the things spoken therein If the Reader desires further satisfaction he may find it in a Learned Book newly publish'd called A Discourse concerning the Nature and Grounds of the certainty of Faith p. 40 80 81 c. Q. 3. What are these Necessaries to Salvation Our Author offers Three Instances of such Necessaries as are not clearly revealed in Scripture viz. The Trinity the Incarnation of our Saviour and the observation of the Lord's Day Of the first of these he thus discourses For Example Is the Belief of a Trinity One God and Three Persons necessary to Salvation If it be as the Creed of S. Athanasius assures us it is in what Chapter and Verse of Scripture is it clearly expressed If you send me to the 1 Epist. of S. John Chap. 5. Ver. 7. where we read There are Three who give Testimony in Heaven the Father the Word and Holy Ghost and these Three are One or to the Gospel of S. John Chap. 10. Ver. 50. I and my Father are One I desire you to shew clearly out of Scripture that the word One here signifies a strict Identity or Vnity of Substance as the Church of England holds not a meer Moral Vnion as many Learned Arrians and others will have it and as we all confess the same word signifies in S. John Chap. 17. Ver. 21. where our Lord Prays that all Believers may be One as he and his Father are One where certainly he cannot be supposed to mean One in Substance In what Verse then and Chapter in Scripture have we these or the like words The word One in the 1 Epist. of S.