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A30976 A few plain reasons why a Protestant of the Church of England should not turn Roman Catholick by a real Catholick of the Church of England. Barlow, Thomas, 1607-1691. 1688 (1688) Wing B831; ESTC R18233 36,351 51

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to the Jews at Berea they had and daily search'd the Scriptures whether those things which Paul preach'd were so The Apostle commends them for it and shews them the great benefit and blessing they gain'd by doing it They daily searched the Scriptures Therefore says he Many of them believed Their having and reading the Scriptures the Old Testament in their vulgar Tongue was a happy and powerful cause and means of their Believing the Gospel which S. Paul preach'd 4. S. John assures us that the Gospel was by him writ to that very end That we might believe and have eternal Life The Reading and Knowing of the Scriptures was the means God himself had appointed to bring us to true Faith and Salvation and therefore to forbid all reading or hearing the Scriptures in a vulgar and to the People intelligible Language is to contradict God and his Apostles and to deprive men of the great and effectual means of their Salvation 5. S. Peter writing to the dispersed Jews who by God's appointment had and read the Scriptures in their vulgar Tongue he admonisheth and requires them That as new-born babes they should desire the sincere milk of the word that they might grow thereby As the Mothers milk is a wholesom nourishment for young Children to preserve and promote a temporal life so in S. Peter's Judgment the Scriptures are a wholesom nourishment for young Christians to preserve and promote a Spiritual Life and therefore he exhorts them to desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby And farther as to take away Milk from new-born Children were evidently injust in it self and pernicious to the Children so to take away the Scriptures from young Children in Christ would be equally or rather more impious in him who should take them away and more pernicious to them from whom they are taken Because taking away the Mothers milk from Infants and young Children is only prejudicial to the Body and a temporal Life but to take away the Scriptures from young or any Christians is prejudicial to their Souls and Salvation 6. But altho' S. Peter exhorts the Jews to desire the sincere milk of the Word that is to read and understand it for the benefit of their Souls for he well knew that they had the Scriptures given by God himself in their vulgar Tongue and that there was none then who would hinder them to read them And tho' our Blessed Saviour commanded the Jews to search the Scriptures to bring them to the knowledge and belief that he was the true Messiah and so to eternal Life And altho' S. Paul commands the Colossians that his Epistle to them be read to the Brethren in Laodicea and that the Epistle from Laodicea be read to the Colossians Now tho' those Epistles were writ in Greek a vulgar and well known language to the Colossians and Laodiceans yet S. Paul commands that they be publickly read in both Churches But let Peter and Paul and our Blessed Saviour himself say what he will for diligently reading and searching the Scriptures in any vulgar and to the people known Tongue his pretended Vicar in contradiction to our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles does absolutely condemn all such Reading of Scripture as dangerous and to the people pernicious Lastly you may if you think it convenient and have an opportunity propose this case to your Popish Emissary who ever he be that endeavours to seduce your Parishioners from truth and the Church of England Suppose Sempronius a great and very rich man make his last Will and Testament and divide his estate amongst his Children and give many considerable Legacies to his Friends and Servants and in his Will particularly expresses what and to whom and upon what conditions his Legacies are bequeath'd now Sempronius dyes and some great man has got his Will into his hand and keeping and it being a Will in a Language not understood by the Legatees will neither let them have the Will nor a true and attested copy of it in a Language they understand So that they cannot be assur'd nor any way certainly know either who are by the Will Legatees or what the Legacies are or upon what conditions they are given save only as he who keeps the Will shall be pleased to signifie to them who if he be not an honest man may cheat and cousin them and they have no remedy to secure their right especially if he who keeps the Will be or pretend to be a supream Power from whom lyes no appeal to any superiour Judge who might examine the cause and do them justice In this case 't is most evident that he who keeps the Will is unjust in himself and injurious to the Legatees in keeping them from the knowledge of the Testators Will and so from the knowledg of what he has given them This being granted as of necessity it ought and must you may desire him as a like case to consider 1. That our Blessed Saviour even as Man and our Mediator was very great the Prince of Peace and head of his Church 2. That he liv'd and dy'd for his Church and in his Will left exceeding great Legacies to his Saints and Servants with the conditions he required of the Legatees to make them capable of those Legacies 3. That the Gospel was his last Will and Testament in which who are Legatees and upon what conditions their Legacies become due are particularly express'd 4. His Will was writ in a Language the People do not now understand and the Bishop of Rome having got it into his hand and pretending that he as Vicar of Christ is the sole Supream keeper of it does absolutely deny the People any copy of it in any vulgar Language by them understood and so deprives them of the knowledge of their Blessed Saviour's Will and Testament of the gracious Promises and great Legacies given in it and of the holy Precepts and conditions required of the People to give them a right to those Legacies So that in contradiction to our Blessed Saviour's express command they must neither search or read or have the Gospel in any vulgar Tongue by them understood upon pain of Excommunication They are not permitted to read the Gospel nor must they trust to their own eyes and understanding tho' given them by God for that purpose but they must believe the Church and the Pope or rather an ordinary Priest from him must tell them what Legacies are given and what Duties are requir'd by our Blessed Saviour in the Gospel Now in the former case if the keeping Sempronius his Will from the Legatees was evidently unjust and injurious to the Legatees much more will the detaining our Blessed Saviour's Will from his People the Salvation of whose Souls are so highly concern'd in it be unjust in the Pope and his party and not only injurious but pernicious to the People For in Sempronius his Will the Legacies were only
they had the Scriptures in their vulgar Tongue till Pope Innocent the third which was somewhat above 1200 years after our Blessed Saviour condemn'd and prohibited the reading or hearing the Scriptures in any vulgar Idiome And amongst impertinent things which they mis-call reasons which they then and others since alledg'd against reading Scripture in a vulgar Tongue this was one That such reading of the Scriptures would be the cause of several Heresies Seditions Schisms and almost infinite other mischiefs Certainly all good Christians who as surely they are bound love God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ will judge this to be what indeed it is not sober reasoning but railing at and reviling the Holy Scriptures and that Holy Spirit who did dictate them to be a proper and powerful means to bring us to the knowledge of the truth and Salvation by it For if the Scripture be not a good means to procure such an end then they must say which if they do 't is no better than blasphemy That the Holy Spirit could not or would not give a good means for that end for which he intended it But it is certain that the Holy Scriptures are so far from being what they untruly say a cause of Heresie Sedition or Schism that no Book in the world does or can condemn those crimes with that clear evidence and Authority which the Bible doth Especially seeing the Scripture is the sole authentick Rule to know what Doctrines are de fide and what heretical and therefore I have often wonder'd what Heresies they mean when they say that reading the Scripture is the cause of Heresie seeing no Doctrine is or can be de fide a Doctrine or Article of our Christian Faith which is not contain'd in Scripture that being the adequate Rule and measure of our Christian Faith nor can any thing be truly and properly Heresie which is not contrary to some Divine truth reveal'd in Scripture But Azorius and others tell me that Articles of Faith and Heresies are not to be measured and defined by their agreement or disagreement with Scripture only but also by their agreement and disagreement with the Doctrinal definitions of the Church of Rome So that not only the Articles of the Apostles Creed of that of Nice of Constantinople and Chalcedon are de fide and all contrary Doctrines Heresies in which we and they agree but also all the Articles of their new Trent Creed first published by Pope Pius the 4 th in the year 1564. are at Rome de fide and all Doctrines contrary to any Article of that new Creed they call Heresies and condemn them Here I consider 1. That all Protestants do believe and profess many Doctrines contradictory to the Articles of their New Trent-Creed as is confess'd 2. And the Sacred Scriptures are the reason and ground why we do so which in express terms or by evident consequence condemns many of their Doctrines as their worshipping of Images denying the Cup to the Laity and to Priests that do not Consecrate forbidding the Clergy to marry c. And yet they mis-cal us Hereticks and our Doctrines maintain'd against them tho' consonant to the Sacred Scripture Heresies and accuse Scripture as the cause of Heresies not that it is the cause of Heresies properly and truly so call'd which are errors contrary to the infallible Rule of Faith for this would make Scripture contradict it self but because it is the true ground and reason why we believe and profess many Doctrines which are contrary to the erroneous definitions of their Church so that we confess the Scripture is the cause of those things which tho' real truths they mis-cal Heresies But to deprive the People of the benefit and comfort of the Scriptures upon so irrational and frivolous a pretence is evidently injust in them and not only dangerous but pernicious to the people So that had we no other reason but this the depriving the people of the use and benefit of the Scriptures it were abundantly sufficient to justifie our Separation from Rome reason 2 But Secondly The Church of Rome does not only deprive the People of the benefit and comfort of Scriptures prohibiting the reading or having them in any vulgar Language by them understood but for the same reason they deprive them of the benefit and Edification they might and ought to have had in the publick service of God all their Liturgies and publick Sacred Offices Missals Breviaries c. being in Latin a Language not understood by the people and many times not by the Priests themselves who not understanding the Language in which the Publick Service of God was celebrated could not possibly know to whom whether to God or Saint or Angels or for what the Priest prayed and so could not which the Apostle thinks they should in publick Prayers and Thanksgiving say Amen to any thing said by him who did officiate For this practice of the Church of Rome in having their Liturgies in a Tongue not understood by the People that it is unjust in them and pernicious to the People I shall only say two things 1. That it is expresly against Scripture and the directions the Apostle has given against it He spends a whole Chapter to this purpose and with so much zeal and so many reasons demonstrates that publick Prayers and Divine Service ought not to be in an unknown Language that it is a wonder that any who pretend to be Christians should as they of Rome do dare to contradict an Apostle of Jesus Christ and that Holy Spirit by which he spoke I know that some of the greatest Writers for Rome and the Vindication of their Sacred Offices in an unknown Tongue indeavour to Answer the Apostles reasons in this Chapter but with such insignificant and miserable shifts that you will easily see that they indeavour that which they cannot possibly do 2. And that it was as manifestly against the practice of the Church of God Jewish and Christian in all Ages is as manifest and by sober and ingenuous persons of the Roman Communion confess'd Now do you consider how pernicious this must needs be to the People to deprive them of that great comfort and edification which they might and ought to have had by the publick Service of God in a Language by them understood especially seeing Cardinal Contarenus and Cajetan convinced of this truth confess in the places now cited that if the Sacred Offices and publick Prayers were in a known Tongue it would tend much more to the Edification and benefit of the People reason 3 Thirdly While we were in the Communion of the Church of Rome the one half of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was taken from us therefore we had good reason to separate from their Communion The Cup in the Eucharist was taken from the Laity and all Priests too save him who did Consecrate and this is most unjust and illegal 1.