Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A61526
|
An answer to some papers lately printed concerning the authority of the Catholick Church in matters of faith, and the reformation of the Church of England
|
Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.
|
1686
(1686)
|
Wing S5562; ESTC R14199
|
24,213
|
73
|
Imprimatur Z. Isham R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. Ã Sacris 1685. AN ANSWER TO SOME PAPERS Lately Printed concerning the AUTHORITY OF THE Catholick Church In MATTERS of FAITH and the REFORMATION of the CHURCH of ENGLAND LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in S t Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVI AN Advertisement IF the Papers here answered had not been so publickly dispersed through the Nation a due Respect to the Name they bear would have kept the Author from publishing any Answer to them But because they may now fall into many hands who without some assistance may not readily resolve some difficulties started by them He thought it not unbecoming his duty to God and the King to give a clearer light to the Things contained in them And it can be no reflection on the Authority of a Prince for a private Subject to examine a piece of Coyn as to its just value though it bears His Image and Superscription upon it In matters that concern Faith and Salvation we must prove all things and hold fast that which is good AN ANSWER TO THE First Paper IF all men could believe as they pleased I should not have fail'd of satisfaction in this First Paper the Design of it being to put an end to Particular Disputes to which I am so little a Friend that I could have been glad to have found as much reason in it to convince as I saw there was a fair appearance to deceive But there is a Law in our Minds distinct from that of our Inclinations and out of a just and due regard to That we must examine the most plausible Writings though back'd with the greatest Authority before we yield our Assent unto them If particular Controversies about Matters of Faith could be ended by a Principle as visible as that the Scripture is in Print all men of sence would soon give over Disputing for none who dare believe what they see can call that in Question But what if the Church whose Authority it is said they must submit to will not allow them to believe what they see How then can this be a sufficient reason to perswade them to believe the Church because it is as visible as that the Scripture is in Print unless we must only use our senses to find out the Church and renounce them assoon as we have done it Which is a very bad requital of them and no great Honour to the Church which requires it But with all due submission it is no more visible that the Roman Church is the Catholick Church than it is that a part is the whole and the most corrupt part that one Church which Christ hath here upon Earth It is agreed among all Christians That Christ can have but one Church upon Earth as there is but one Lord one Faith one Baptism And this is that Church we profess to believe in the two Creeds But if those who made those Creeds for our direction had intended the Roman Catholick Church why was it not so expressed How came it to pass that such a limitation of the sense of Christs Catholick Church to the Roman should never be put to Persons to be Baptized in any Age of the Church For I do not find in the Office of Baptism even in the Roman Church that it is required that they believe the Roman Catholick Church or that they deny the validity of Baptism out of the Communion of the Roman Church From whence it is to me as visible as that the Scripture is in Print that the Church of Rome it self doth not believe that it is the one Catholick Church mentioned in the two Creeds For then it must void all Baptism out of its Communion which it hath never yet done And as long as Baptism doth enter Persons into the Catholick Church it is impossible that all who have the true form of Baptism though out of the Communion of the Roman Church should be Members of the Catholick Church and yet the Communion of the Roman and Catholick be all one as it must be if the Roman Church be the Catholick and Apostolick Church professed in the Creeds If we had been so happy to have lived in those Blessed Times when the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul it had been no difficulty to have shewed that one visible Church which Christ had here upon Earth But they must be great strangers to the History of the Church who have not heard of the early and great Divisions in the Communion of it And there was a remarkable difference in the Nature of those Schisms which happened in the Church which being not considered hath been the occasion of great misaplication of the sayings of the Antients about the One Catholick Church Some did so break off Communion with other parts of the Catholick Church as to challenge that Title wholly to themselves as was evident in the case of the Novatians and Donatists for they rebaptiz'd all that embraced their Communion Others were cast out of Communion upon particular differences which were not supposed to be of such a nature as to make them no members of the Catholick Church So the Bishops of Rome excommunicated the Bishops of Asia for not keeping Easter when They did and the Bishops both of Asia and Africa for not allowing the Baptism of Hereticks But is it reasonable to suppose that upon these Differences they shut out all those Holy Bishops and Martyrs from the possibility of Salvation by excluding them from their Communion If not then there may be different Communions among Christians which may still continue Parts of the Catholick Church and consequently no one Member of such a Division ought to assume to it self the Title and Authority of the One Catholick Church But if any One Part doth so though never so great and conspicuos it is guilty of the same Presumption with the Novatians and Donatists and is as much cause of the Schisms which happen thereupon in the Church as they were For a long time before the Reformation there had been great and considerable breaches between the Eastern and Western Churches insomuch that they did renounce each other Communion And in these Differences four Patriarchal Churches joined together against the fifth viz. that of the Bishop of Rome But the Eastern Patriarchs sinking in their Power by the horrible Invasion of the Enemies of the Christian Faith and the Bishops of Rome advancing themselves to so much Authority by the advantages they took from the kindness of some Princes and the Weakness of others They would hear of no other terms of accommodation with the Eastern Churches but by an intire submission to the Pope as Head of the Catholick Church Which all the Churches of the East refused however different among themselves and to this day look on the Pope's Supremacy as an Innovation in the Church and Usurpation on the Rights of the other Patriarchs and Bishops In all
Christendom groans under the sad effects of them and it is a very self-denying humour for those to be most sensible of the want of them who would really suffer the most by them Can there be any Iustice done where the Offenders are their own Iudges and equal Interpreters of the Law with those that are appointed to Admister Iustice And is there any likelihood Justice should be better done in another Country by another Authority and proceeding by such Rules which in the last resort are but the Arbitrary will of a Stranger And must such a one pretending to a Power he hath no right to be Iudge in his own Cause when he is the greatest Offender himself But how is this applied to the Protestants in England This is our Case here in England in matters Spiritual for the Protestants are not of the Church of England as 't is the true Church from whence there can be no Appeal but because the Discipline of that Church is conformable at present to their fancies which as soon as it shall contradict or vary from they are ready to embrace or joyn with the next Congregation of People whose Discipline or Worship agrees with the Opinion of that Time The sense of this Period is not so clear but that one may easily mistake about it That which is aimed at is that we of the Church of England have no tie upon us but that of our own judgments and when that changes we may join with Independents or Presbyterians as we do now with the Church of England And what security can be greater than that of our Judgments If it be said to be nothing but fancy and no true Iudgment we must beg leave to say that we dare Appeal to the World whether we have not made it appear that it is not fancy but Iudgment which hath made us firm to the Church of England Might it not as well have been said that the Protestants of the Church of England adhered to the Crown in the Times of Rebellion out of Fancy and not out of Iudgment And that if their Fancy changed they might as well have joined with the Rebels Will not this way of Reasoning hold as strongly against those of the Church of Rome For why do any adhere to that but because it is agreeable to their Judgment so to do What evidence can they give that it is Iudgment in them and only Fancy in us If Reason must be that which puts the difference we do not question but to make ours appear to be Iudgment and theirs Fancy For what is an infallible Iudge which Christ never appointed but Fancy What is their unwritten Word as a Rule of Faith to be equally received with the Scriptures but Fancy What is giving honour to God by the Worship of Images but Fancy What is making Mediators of Intercession besides the Mediator of Redemption but Fancy What is the Doctrine of Concomitancy to make amends for half the Sacrament but Fancy What is the substantial Change of the Elements into the Body of Christ but Fancy for both Senses and Reason are against it What is the deliverance of Souls out of Purgatory by Masses for the Dead but meer Fancy But I forbear giving any more Instances So that according to this Doctrine there is no other Church nor Interpreter of Scripture but that which lies in every Man 's giddy Brain Let Mens Brains be as giddy as they are said to be for all that I can see they are the best faculties they can make use of for the understanding of Scripture or any thing else And is there any Infallible Church upon Earth which must not be beholding to Mens giddy Brains for believing it And it may be never the less giddy for doing it For God-sake why do any Men take the Church of Rome to be Infallible Is it not because their Understandings tell them they ought so to do So that by this consequence there is no Infallible Church but what lies in every Mans giddy Brain I desire to know therefore of every serious Considerer of these things whether the great Work of our Salvation ought to depend on such a Sandy Foundation as this I thank God I have seriously considered this matter and must declare that I find no Christian Church built on a more sandy Foundation than that which pretends to be setled upon a Rock I mean so far as it imposes the new Faith of Trent as a necessary Condition of Salvation Had we no other reason to embrace Christianity than such as they offer for these New Doctrines I am much afraid Christianity it self to all inquisitive Men would be thought to have but a Sandy Foundation But what is this Sandy Foundation we build upon Every Man 's private judgment in Religion No understanding Man builds upon his own Judgment but no Man of understanding can believe without it For I appeal to any ingenious Man whether he doth not as much build upon his own Judgment who chuseth the Church as he that chuseth Scripture for his Rule And he that chuseth the Church hath many more Difficulties to conquer than the other hath For the Church can never be a Rule without the Scriptures but the Scriptures may without the Church And it is no such easy matter to find the Churches Infallibility in the Scripture But suppose that be found he hath yet a harder Point to get over viz. How the Promises relating to the Church in general came to be appropriated to the Church of Rome Which a Man must have an admirable Faculty at discerning who can find it out either in Scripture or the Records of the Ancient Church The places of Scripture which are brought about Christ's being with his Church to the end of the World about the Power to forgive Sins about the Clergy being God's Labourers Husbandry Building having the Mind of Christ do as effectually prove Infallibility of the Church of England as the Church of Rome for I cannot discern the least inclination in any of them to favour one against the other And pray consider on the other side that those who resist the Truth and will not submit to his Church draw their Arguments from Implications and far-fetch'd Interpretations at the same time that they deny plain and positive Words which is so great a Disingenuity that 't is not almost to be thought that they can believe themselves This is a very heavy Charge To resist the Truth to deny plain and positive Words of Scripture to be guilty of great Disingenuity so as not to believe our selves are faults of so high a nature as must argue not only a bad Cause but a very bad Mind And God forbid that those of the Church of England should ever be found guilty of these things But to come to Particulars Is it resisting Truth or arguing from Implications and denying plain and positive Words of Scripture to say We must not worship Images We must make God alone the