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A42578
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Veteres vindicati, in an expostulatory letter to Mr. Sclater of Putney, upon his Consensus veterum, &c. wherein the absurdity of his method, the weakness of his reasons are shewn, his false aspersions upon the Church of England are wiped off, and her faith concerning the Eucharist proved
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Gee, Edward, 1657-1730.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing G462; ESTC R22037
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94,746
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111
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VETERES VINDICATI IN AN Expostulatory Letter TO Mr. SCLATER of PVTNEY UPON HIS CONSENSVS VETERVM c. WHEREIN The Absurdity of his Method are shewn The Weakness of his Reasons are shewn His false Aspersions upon the Church of England are wiped off and her FAITH concerning the EUCHARIST proved to be THAT of the PRIMITIVE CHURCH Together with Animadversions on Dean Boileau's French Translation of and Remarks upon Bertram King Charles the Martyr to the Prince 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 27. But if you never see my face again I do Require and intreat you as your FATHER and your KING that you never suffer your heart to receive the least check against or Disaffection from the TRUE RELIGION established in the CHURCH of ENGLAND I tell you I have TRYED IT and after MUCH SEARCH and MANY DISPUTES have concluded IT to be BEST in the WORLD not onely in the Community as Christian but also in the special notion as Reformed keeping the middle way between the POMP of SUPERSTITIOUS TYRANNY and the MEANNESS of FANTASTICK ANARCHY LONDON Printed for Henry Mortlock at the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-yard and at the White Hart in Westminster Hall. 1687. IMPRIMATUR Guil. Needham RR. in Christo P. ac D. D. Wilhelmo Archiep Cantuar. à Sacr. Domest Ex Aedib Lambeth Apr. 7. 1687. TO THE READER IT is not material to thee to know what were the particular Reasons that put me upon answering this Book of Mr. Sclater whether it were a Challenge or a Request both or neither such as it is it was designed for a Vindication of our most Holy Mother the Church of England from those very silly and very false Aspersions cast upon her by Mr. Sclater up and down his Book I hope no one will think that I have been too sharp upon him I am certain his behaviour in his Book was so very extravagant and his abuses so open and so intolerable that I can assure the Reader that it was with trouble that I did restrain using oftner a just Indignation There is no one that reads him who had he been to examine his Quotations as I obliged my self for t he most of them would not I think have been as sharp upon him as I have any where been It would have stirred up a very meek man's Indignation to have been served as he did me his Reader with his Quotation from Hilary pag. 38. where having by chance cast my eye on the first part of the passage set down by him I went hunting for the rest of it as it stood in his Book quite through St. Hilary's whole Book from thence and little dreamed of what I was very angry to find that I was to look backwards in St. Hilary for the other two parts of that passage There are other dealings in his Book much more provoking than this However if any one think I am too severe upon him I must onely say that it is perchance more pardonable in me than in another not that I have any personal quarrel against Mr. Sclater whom I am morally certain I never spoke with in my life but upon another account One short Address I cannot avoid the making here to my Brethren of the Clergy who have not opportunities of a full examination of these Controversies in Antiquity it self that they would beware for Mr. Sclater's sake of taking things too much on trust from our Romish Adversaries or of relying too much on some extraordinary passages out of the Fathers This Address I make because I have been informed that this unhappy man was very much imposed upon and perhaps almost perverted by that passage out of St. Chrysostome about St. Peter's having the Care of the whole Church committed to him which passage therefore I was the more carefull to examine and to confute it that some may see how unsafe it is to rely on scraps of Fathers about these Things and how little they ought to value even the most favourable place out of Antiquity for Popery since the stress of all Antiquity is directly against it as our excellent Writers have abundantly shewn and even such as I are able to shew AN EXPOSTULATORY LETTER TO Mr. EDWARD SCLATER of PVTNEY SIR THE expectation that some person of more leisure and better abilities would have condescended to the trouble of examining this your Treatise was the sole reason that hindred your receiving this sooner from me I am very certain there is nothing in it either so strong or so well managed that could affright any such from bringing your Book to account and therefore I must impute their neglect herein to another cause which I believe you are not at all desirous to hear mentioned by me I am sure I have the opinion of some and those learned persons to confirm me in this my belief 'T is for your own sake therefore chiefly and for those Readers who may possibly be startled at the Title of your Book that I undertake to examine it and to oblige you and them to see how very little reason you had or they to be mov'd by it to call your Book Consensus Veterum and what a miserable mistake you have made in this your forsaking the Communion of your Mother the Church of England and falling to that of Rome I hope you will not be angry that I take the same liberty to examine your method in this Change that you say you did to examine that of our Church One thing I 'll promise you which I am persuaded I shall in the examining of your reasons find you very often faulty in that I will constantly as to my Proofs and Authorities use all the fairness and ingenuity that becomes a Scholar or a Christian herein The Cause of the Church of England is so infinitely better and more steady than that you have so lately espoused that it would be as extremely imprudent as unjust to practise the contrary in the defence of her as she does not need so I am sure she does abhor and is far from admitting any indirect or fraudulent management of her Cause I shall therefore without any farther Preface prosecute my design and begin with your Preface which presents the Reader with a needless Apology about the Plural Title of your Tract for if those other quotations and proofs about the true Catholick Church and the Supremacy of St. Peter and the Bishops of Rome were of any force with you they deserve their place in the Plural Title of your Book if they were not yet that other about the Eucharist though with you All in All can be but one how great soever How Transubstantiation concludes Communion under one species I cannot understand since if Transubstantiation was always the Opinion of the Catholick Church as you affirm it was from the very beginning it would have concluded then as well as now which I am sure it did not for besides our Saviour's Institution in both kinds and his Precept as strict for either of
himself a greater liberty as to Rhetorical flights in his Homilies since in other places he bestows Titles as high and as great as these on other Apostles which if I take in the same sense that you do these the Good Father is made inconsistent with himself and to preach down-right falsities and contradictions I 'll instance onely in St. John and St. Paul do but give your self the trouble to reade over his Preface to his Comments on St. John's Gospel and tell me then whether you do not find him among other large Elogies calling St. John the Pillar of all the Churches throughout the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tom. 2. p. 555. ad fin Edit Savil. and telling us that He had the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven But for St. Paul I am confident I can make even you confess that He mounts him above St. Peter himself concerning whom you have furnished a Catalogue of such glorious Titles Look but upon his Comment on that a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys Tom. 3. p. 679. saying of St. Paul's 2 Cor. 11.28 about his care of all the Churches a passage by the bye that is more than all your whole Church can patch together for St. Peter how he advances our Apostle there he tells us that St. Paul had the care and charge not of a single House but of Cities and Countreys and Nations yea of the whole world b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. 5. contr Jud. Tom. 6. pag. 364. in another place that he was intrusted with the charge and Government of the whole world which is the very same Commission and as full and clear as that great one which is your chief and best that you quote for St. Peter of his having the charge of the Church throughout the world And he does not onely make St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal in dignity to St. Peter but which is much more advances him above him as I undertook to prove c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 D. Chrys Orat. 9. Tom. 6. p. 97. Edit Savil. No one says he speaking of St. Paul is greater than he no nor equal to him neither c. By this time I hope I have made it evident that St. Chrysostome will not doe your business that he is as much nay more against you than for you and that you and I ought both of us to own our several Quotations for Rhetorical Flights since in another d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 D. Chrys Tom. 8. p. 115. Edit Savil. place if you and I be obstinate against any allowances for these passages He spoils all we have both brought when he tells us That the Apostles were appointed by God to be Rulers not Temporal Rulers to receive each his Nation or City but Spiritual Rulers intrusted in Common All together with the Care of the Catholick Church throughout the World. Therefore as all your Authorities from St. Chrysostome for St. Peter's Supremacy are out of doors pag. 15. so that from St. Augustine comes too late having the same fault as I could most easily shew but do not think I need to trouble my self with it pag. 15. or what the Popes Legates said at Chalcedon that being to make a Man his own witness Especially since that great Council had so little value for what they said that they did notwithstanding all the Pope's opposition decree that Constantinople should enjoy equal Privileges with old Rome and which is more did declare e Etenìm antiquae Romae Throno QVOD VRBS ILLA IMPERARET jure Patres Privilegia tribuere EADEM CONSIDERATIONE moti 150 Dei amantissimi Episcopi S. Sancto novae Romae Throno AEQVALIA PRIVILEGIA addixerunt c. Concil Chalced cap. 28. Edit Bever Oxon. that as well old as new Rome had such great Privileges bestowed upon them purely because they were successively the Imperial Cities of the world CHAP. XIV The ridiculous Vse of his Testimonies shewn and his foolish Aspersions upon the Church of England wiped off THese Testimonies say you I content my self withall as sufficient to shew pag. 15. I have not gone rashly on without the advice of ancient Councellors c. It had been one further happiness for your Testimonies could they but have contented others as well as you say they have done you but how can that be expected since they are as I think I have fully shewn far from being satisfactory because altogether insufficient for the design you gather'd them for In a word you have neither proved that Christ left his Church in a Monarchical State nor that St. Peter was made the sole Head and Dictator as you word it of the Catholick Church nor lastly that the Bishops of Rome have and do succeed him in such a charge Had you done these you had done your cause service to attempt and not to do it is but to tell the World that it cannot be done and what thanks you will have for that I can very easily guess All these Testimonies you sum up with St. Bernard pag. 15. but since he lived far too late to be admitted a Witness about these things and you might as well have quoted those two Monsters of Men Gregory the Seventh and Innocent the Third for those purposes I must set him aside No Body ought to wonder that you are pleased with what you have thus scraped together or that you think you have found something since every one likes his own best how little reason you had to flatter your self I think I have abundantly proved but on you go and now strongly imagine that the wise God and his Son could leave which is a little too bold with God did leave might surely serve you none other at his Ascension pag. 16. c. To be short Sir all this pleasant fancy is answered already and all you have so carefully been about hitherto proves but a Dream a Delusion proceeding from your examining things by false Measures and through a false Glass But for all this This must be the Church you called Catholick in your Creed and till now did not so well mind c. Alas Sir that a Man of your parts and years should not before this have minded what Catholick meant and where that Church was when there 's scarce a person of any tolerable sense in England that cannot with a great deal of readiness give a sufficient account of these things but here is the Mystery you have found that the Church of Rome is this very Church mentioned in our common Creed and that when we profess we believe the Holy Catholick Church we mean tho' we do not mind it the Church of Rome It is to no purpose to endeavour to reclaim such Men as you since you seem to have abandoned the common principles by which Mankind govern themselves for else how could you dream of a part being the whole a Member the Body That the Church of