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 |
|
A36460
|
The Leviathan heretical, or, The charge exhibited in Parliament against M. Hobbs justified by the refutation of a book of his entituled The historical narration of heresie and the punishments thereof by John Dowel.
|
Dowell, John, ca. 1627-1690.
|
1683
(1683)
|
Wing D2056; ESTC R27156
|
30,110
|
170
|
the Church cast out That Heretick and Catholick became not Relatives by this excommunication nor by this did Heretick become a name and a name of disgrace both together A Person by becoming an Heretick was excommunicated this name did preceed not follow excommunication It must be acknowledged that the Heresies concerning the Trinity were very troublesome in the Church but not so vexatious during the ten Persecutions as in Constantines time and after but what is the cause that when he proposes the Troubles arising from the Doctrine of the Trinity he would mix those doctrines which were wholly alienated from the doctrine of the Trinity as those of the Manichees For saith he according to the usual Curiosity of Natural Philosophy they could not abstain from disputing the first principles of Christianity into which they were Baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy-Ghost Some there were who made them Allegorical others would make one Creator of Good another of Evil. This was the principal Tenet of the Manichees who took their Names from one Manes This Monstrous opinion that there were two Eternal Principles Light and Darkness these were two Contrary Gods the one the Author of Good the other of Evil. What is this to the Trinity That which he adds is not to be endured From which doctrine they are not far distant that now make the first cause of Sinful actions to be every man as to his own Sin Is this great Truth Manichism To say man by his free-will is the Author of Sin In commendation of himself in his own life thus I Printed then two treatises that stung the Bishop Bramhal in his Mother Tongue The question at the time was and is still whether at Gods or our own choice we will Can we will evil at Gods choice We therefore do affirm expressly contrariant to Mr. Hobs that the causation of Evil cannot be attributed to God without Impiety He mentioning our late fatal Wars thus Such Crimes and Sufferings I will not impute unto the Deity I have no Sence if this be not a Repugnancy in this Tract he affirms that those who assert that the causation of Evil cannot be attributed to God are allyed to the Manichees And yet when in the Verses which respect his life he recounts the English Evils and Calamities during the Wars he dares not impute them to the Deity Truly how far this Opinion is from Manichaism let the World Judge Can any man have sence to believe that if Sin flows from God the first Cause but it must be attributed to him The Manichees believe an Eternal being the Author of all Evil. Take their Monstrous opinion from themselves There was an Epistle which they in St. Austin called the Fundamentum and thus begins Manichaeus Apostolus Jesu Christi Providentiâ Dei Patris haec sunt salubria verba de vivo ac perenni Fonte Manichaeus the Apostle of Jesus Christ by the Providence of God the Father these are sound and wholsōe words flowing from a Liveing and Perpetual Fountain In this Epistle thus In exordio fuêre duae substantiae a se divisae c. In the beginning there were two substances divided from one another God the Father had the cōmand of Light and then he proceeds to describe that kingdom he then goes to the Kingdome of Darkness which was at the side of Light giveing a wild description of that Kingdome of Darkness He gives an account of the Black King of it that he with his hideous Train assaulted God the Father the King of Light who being affraid of him sent some of his Troops who mixing with the Black Regiments formed his World That what is Good must come from the King of Light what is bad from the King of Darkness These frenzies of him who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bewitched once that great man who by the Grace of God beeing inlightned fell from them to the Catholic Church St. Augustine a Presbyter in Hippo disputes Fortunatus a Manichaean Presbyter of that City Both dispute about the Original of the Evil of Sin he assigns it to the Black Prince quitting the Cause affirmed it could have no other Original then from the Evil Nature of the Prince of Darkness The like we find in his second dispute with Felix the Manichaean Saint Austin assigns rightly this to the Free will of man It cannot enter into my head why Mr. Hobs should give this assertion my understanding is too shallow to fathom this depth Nothing farther to be reproved till we come to the 6 page onely this passage may receive a little Censure pag 6 Constantine the great was made by the valor and assistance of the Christian Soldiers sole Emperor He not much regarding the peculiar Providence of God takes nonotice of that great miracle of y e Cross appearing at Noon with this inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole Army of Constantine was inferior to Magnentius his Forces a small number of his Soldiers were Christians it was more the peculiar action of the Arme of Heaven which dissipated the Army of Magnentius and gave the Eagles to Constantine In the latter end of his time their arose a dispute between Alexander the Bishop and Arrius the Presbyter of that City Here the Philosopher hath erred in his Chronology for for the quarrel between them began before the Licinian Persecution in the Tenth of Constantin's who commanded the Empire 37 years Would this was the worst Error This Controversy between the Inhabitants and Souldiers presently became a quarrel and was the cause of much bloodshed in and about the City This so far concerned the Emperors Civil government that he thought it necessary to call a general Council of all the Bishops and other eminent Divines throwout the Roman Empire to meet at the City of Nice Indeed I read in the Time of Constantius the Aarrians prosecuted the Catholicks with the greatest fury imaginable The lamentable Tragedy of which is given us by an Alexandrian Synod in their Letters to Julius Bishop of Rome But that any murders were committed during the Reign of Constantine I do not observe but to lessen the honor of Christian Religion he assigns the calling of that Council to the Peace of the Empire The prime reason was the Establishing the Peace of the Church and the Uniformity in Doctrine which will be manifested he said to the Fathers in his Exhortation to them That they would fall in hand w th the Articles of Faith and whatsoever they should decree therein he would cause to be Observed On which he thus Animadverts This may perhaps seem a great indifferency then would in these Days be approved off I know not the sence of this reflection for what could be more desired by a Council of the Emperor then to assure them that he would ratify those Canons which they decreed cencerning the things they were called for The main of the discourse is concerning his animadversions on this Article
makeing it distant from the temporal The scriptures were wrested and false Glosses put upon them Arrius did not deny the praeexistence of the Son of God who was Incarnate the difference was not concerning the Eternal Generation but the Consubstantiality Having thus proved that his Leviathan contains certain Haeretical propositions It remains that I prove these Heresies Criminal and thus I state the Question and pursue it 'T is one of Mr. Hob's great Artifices to avoid those absurdities into which his own sentiments casts him Mr. Hobs percieving that he is justly charg'd with this imputation writes the book call'd The Historical Narrative of Heresie The Parliament complain'd That in it were contain'd several Heretical Opinions i. e. Opinions declared Heresie by the Church and Laws of England he being a Subject to the King is obliged to obedience to the Laws of his Soveraign By this therefore he doth manifestly contradict himself and opposeth these his great Moral and Political Postulata's ' Nothing is Just or Unjust but what is made so by Law and that nothing is Criminal but what a Penal Law prohibits ' From this his most just charge he would free his Leviathan to shew that his attemts are frivolous it must be prov'd that his Leviathan doth contain Heretical Opinions To which he returns That there is no opinion that opposeth a Penal Statute or that no Person can be justly by the Civil Magistrate punish'd for any Opinion contain'd in the Leviathan For saith he ' All the Penal Laws against Hereticks were repeal'd in the Reign of Q. Elizabeth To remedy the Inconvenience which might arise by Novel Dogma's She apointed a Court called the High Commission to declare what was Heresie But that High Commission never declared what was Heresie or if they did it was to no purpose for they were not impower'd to inflict any punishment upon an Heretick Withal the Parliament abolishing that Court nothing could be accounted Heresie Besides the Leviathan was Printed in 1651. when it was lawful to Write or Preach any thing in matters of Religion ' To which I suppose that some nay many things contained in the Leviathan are Heretical and so judged by the Church and punishable by the Civil Majestrate Not to mention many I will assign these Two The Nature of God and the Mystery of the Individual Trinity are by him Heretically and Impiously explicated He Blasphemously avers God hath parts and makes the Persons of the Holy Trinity to be Temporal not Eternal both which are declared Heretical by the first Article and by the three Creeds The Athanasian Creed is imbodyed into the Common Law and that his opinion concerning the Trinity is Heretical is indubitable waveing the Contests he strives violently to maintain that Nothing in matters of Faith is declared Criminal by the Law or punishable by the Civil Magestrate For faith he ' the Lady Elizabeth in her first year repealed all the Laws Ecclesiastical of Queen Mary and all other Laws concerning the punishing of Hereticks nor did She enact any other punishment in their place ' These lines he could not deliver without that same arrogance by which he explodes the Universityes and accounts most of the Learned men in the World Fools For the Writs de Heretico Comburendo and de excommunicato capiendo were in force he adds in the 2 place it was enacted ' That the Queen by her Letters Patents should give a Commission to the Bishops with several other Persons in her Majesties name to execute his Power ecclesiastical this is granted he proceeds In which Commission the Commissioners were forbidden to adjudge any thing to be Heresy which was not declared to be Heresy by some of the four first General Concils nor was there any thing in that Commission concerning how Hereticks ought to be punished But it was granted to them to declare or not declare to be Heresy or not Heresy as they pleased any of those Doctrines which had been condemned in the four first general Councils for Heresie ' To refute this and what he subjoyns t is requisite that I give the words of the Statute ' They shall not meaning the High Commissioners have Authority or Power to order determine or adjudge any matter or cause to be Heresy but only such as heretofore have been determined ordered or adjudged to be Heresy by the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four general Councils or any of them or by any other General Council wherein the same was declared Heresy by the express and plain words of the said Canonical Scriptures or such as hereafter shall be ordered determined or adjudged to be Heresy by the High Court of Parliament of this Realme with the assent of the Clergy in their Convocation ' By this it appears what a lame and false account he gives of the Statute for the Queen and her Parliament did not leave it indifferent to the High Commission to determine what was or what was not Heresy but limits them to declare what was Heresy or not Heresy not only to the four first general Councils as he seems falsely to insinuate but likewise to the express words of Scripture and to the Parliament which he seems to exclude for he omits the mentioning of them ' Nor was there he adds in that Commission any thing concerning how Hereticks ought to be punished ' The High Commission could not inflict capital punishment I hope Mr Hobs will not say there is no crime but t was capitall That the High Commission had power to punish persons in case of Heresy is evident both by the Law of England and practice of that Court. By the Law of England expressly by the Act Elizab that Court was Invested w th all Ecclesiastical power before the Cancelling of the High-Commission the Bishops had a Power to Imprison persons and the Writ de excommunicato capiendo still continues The words of the Act are that ' the Queen or any of her Successors should nominate one or more persons to use exercise and occupy all manner of jurisdictions priviledges or preeminences in any wise touching or concerning any spiritual or Ecclesiastical jurisdiction and to visiâ— reforme redress order correct and amend all such Errors Heresies Schismes c. ' It was perfect nonsence for a Parliament to enable the English Soveraign to erect a Court to punish and amend Errors and Heresies if the Law of England had not declared what was an Heresy and likewise not to Invest them with power to accomplish such ends which they had not if they could not inflict punishments he returned ' The jurisdiction was onely spiritual ' but to that was annexed a civil punishment Upon excommunication there lay a Writ de excommunicato capiendo that a Person excommunicated for Heresy or Errors in Doctrine by that Writ might be Imprisoned is clear as the day Certainly imprisonment is a civil Punishment This Writ lay against those who were obstinate Offenders in Causes Ecclesiastical is