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B08370
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A soveraign remedy against atheism and heresy. Fitted for the vvit and vvant of the British nations / by M. Thomas Anderton.
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Anderton, Thomas.; Hamilton, Frances, Lady.
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1672
(1672)
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Wing A3110A; ESTC R172305
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67,374
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174
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he concluded there had bin no such thing as Christs Diuinity and proceeded to teach Circumcision and Poligamy and at length came to be an impure Apostata as the famous Beza doth term him in his Treatise de Poligam pag. 4. Impurus ille Apostata Bernardinus Ochinus Read likewise Sebastian Castalios ' own words in his Preface of the great Latin Bible dedicated to King Eduard 6. which are The more I do peruse the Scriptures the less do I find the same he meanes the profecies of the conuersion of Kings and Nations performed hovvsoeuer you understand the same profecies Dauid George say the Protestant Diuines of Basil in their History of him edit 1568. discoursed thus If the doctrin of Christ and his Apostles had bin true and perfect the Church vvhich they planted c. should haue continued c. But novv it is manifest that Antichrist hath subuerted the doctrin of the Apostles and the Church by them begun as is euident in the Papacy therfore the doctrin of the Apostles vvas false and imperfect And so this protestant Apostle of Basil by reflecting vpon the fundamental principle of the Reformation which is a supposition that the true Church and doctrin had bin inuisible or destroyd for many ages by Popery became a blasphemous Apostat affirming that our Sauior was a seducer In like manner Adam Neuserus the chief Pastor of Heidelberg turnd Turk and was circumcised at Constantinople See Osiander in his Epitom Centur. 16. pag. 818. The like fate had Alemannus Beza his bosom friend as Conradus Schlusserburg sayes in Theol. Caluin fol. 9. and Beza confesseth ep 65. pag. 108. Alemannum affirmant ad Iudaismum defecisse And all their conuersions to so damn'd sects were grounded vpon their not finding any pagan Kings or Nations to haue bin euer conuerted to protestancy but all wayes to popery Q. I must confess Sir that if all the Heathen Kings and Nations haue bin conuerted to that Christianity which we call popery and this was performed by Papists which could not be don without miracles and no pagan Kings and Nations haue bin euer conuerted to Protestancy nor by Protestants yee haue much more to say for yourselues than euer I heard before and we much less But I doubt you will hardly proue that untill the end of the first 600. years there were any Kings or Nations conuerted to Popery though afterwards I must own that profession was spread ouer the world and reignd untill our Protestant Reformation began in the year 1517. And to auoyd prolixity I desire you to rosolue me this one question whether Constantin the great the first Christian Emperor was a Papist Vve belieue that he and the Church of his time was Protestant because the purest Christianity Protestancy was then in vogue though afterwards it degenerated insensibly into Popery A. Euseb de Vita Constantini l. 3. c. 47. lib. 4. cap. 38. S. Hieron contra Vigilant ante med Costantinus Imperator saÌ„ctas reliquias Andreae Lucae Timothei transtulit Constantinopolim apud quas Daemones rugiunt And ibid. Si reliquius Sanctorum traÌ„sferre in aureos loculos re condere non licet sacrilegus fuit cum Constantino Arcadius omnes Episcopi non solum sacrilegi sed fatui iudicandi qui rem vilissimaÌ„ cineres dissolutâ—s â—n sericâ— vase aureo portauerunt c. S. August tom 39. dâ— Sanctis saith Crucis caracterâ— Basilicae dedicantur altaria consecrantur S. Greg. apud Bedam hist lib. 1. c. 30. Euseb de vitâ Constantini l 3. c. 2. atque interdum vultum salutari illa passionis signavit nota Zozomen hist l. 1. c. 8. Sanctae Crucis plurimum tribuit honoris Prudentius in Apotheosi vexillumque Crucis summus Dominator adorat S. Chrysostom in ep 2. Cor. hom 26. versus fin Nam ipse qui purpuram indutus est accedit illa amplexus sepulchra fastu deposito staâ— Sanctis supplicaturus ut pro se ad Dominum intercedant See the same also in S. Chrysost ad pop hom 60. versus finem That Constantin the great was a Papist and the Religion then in vogue and the only then called Catholik was Popery is euident by Eusebius his Ecclesiastical History written a litle after Constantins death as also by what the Centurists of Magdeburg and all other learned Protestants confess For it is euident by their writings that Constantin erected Temples in memory of Martyrs and the Apostles prouided his Sepulchre there to the end that after his death he might be made partaker of the prayers there offered He translated to Constantinople the reliques of St Andrew Luke and Timothy at which the Deuil did roare which particular circumstance St Hierom presseth against Vigilantius whom he concludeth an heretik for being against the praying to Saints and worshiping their reliques St Augustin and St Gregory two other Doctors of the Church defend the practise of consecrating Churches when Constantin built them with the sign of the Cross and sprinkling of holy water which I belieue the protestant Clergy of Dublin were ignorant of when as I haue bin credibly informed they framed very lately a new form of their own heads to consecrat Mr Lingars oual Temple with such hatred to the Cross that they would not make use of the sign therof in the Consecration nor bless themselues in the beginning or throughout the whole work nor place any Cross in the top of the Church for fear of profaning it or troubling the Spirit of that peaceble Minister not long before departed Nay Crosses were pull'd down in that Diocess and Catholiks punished for opposing them who committed such sacrileges Vvithout doubt Constantin the great was one of the most rank Papists and though he was the man who pulled down Idols and established Christianity in the world with its splendor and publik exercise yet I feare our Zealous Dublinian Clergy will protest against his Religion as superstitious and censure him guilty of Idolatry when they heare how often he blest himself making the sign of the Cross in his forhead nay which is worse not only adorning but adoring with an inferior religious worship the Cross and which is worst of all praying to St Peter and Paul that they vvould be Intercessors for him to God At least the Church of England will not challenge him as a member of theirs he being so auerse to the spiritual supremacy and Ecclesiastical iurisdiction of temporal soueraigns that he would not sit down at the Councell of Nice untill the Bishops had therto giuen their assent nor would he take vpon him to iudge of Ecclesiastical causes saying God hath ordained you Bishops and hath giuen you povver to iudge of yourselues by meanes vvherof vve yeeld ourselues to your iudgment So Crispinus in his book of the estate of the Church pag. 99. and Zozomen hist l. c. 10. post med sets down these popish vvords of Constantin Mihi vero non est fas cum homo sim ciusmodi
declared by the Parliament of Q. Mary a bundel of Cranmers errers and priuat opinions which himself and som few others inuented or borrowed from Luther and Caluin and other Innouators who had resolued to make themselues popular and powerfull by setting vp their own priuat interpretations of Scripture and opinions for points of Religion So that though all England or a greater part of the world than England is should embrace that Reformation and submit their iudgments to that Church their protestant Tenets are still priuat opinions and the submission of their iudgments to the same doth still inuolue that pride and preference of their own choice of a nouelty or new interpretation of Scripture before the ancient doetrin and against the publik testimony of all precedent English Parliaments as also against the tradition of the Catholik Church As for Queen Elizabeth shee accommodated her religion to the times untill shee got the Croun and then shee made use of the new Faith to serue her turn and secure her interest Indeed Iohn Fox his Martyrs were great but foolish sufferers their ignorance was proportion'd to their obstinacy they cast themselues into the fire without Knowing wherfore And yet Iohn Fox sayes those Tinkers Tanners and silly women confuted the Bishops that endeuored to saue their liues which themselues had forfeited acording to the ancient lawes of the land And though they dyed not Martyrs yet they dyed like Englishmen that is with as litle concern and as great courage as if their cause had bin better But this is no miracle in England though the foolish partiality of Iohn Fox his pen doth endeuor to make his Protestant Readers mistake those proud mad fellows for pious Martyrs Q. Though I do approue of your difference between heretical obstinacy and Catholik constancy yet I must still condemn your application therof to protestancy and popery for an other reason which is that Protestancy is so far from inuoluing pride that the Church of England doth not as much as pretend to be infallible in its doctrin neither doth it exact from its children a submission of their iudgments to itself but only to Scripture And I hope there is as much humility I am sure there is more safety in submitting our iudgments to Gods written word as to the tradition of the Roma Catholik Church A. As I commend the Church of Englands modesty and ingenuity in acknowledging its fallibility and in dispensing with the submission of your iudgments to the same no fallible Church can exact or expect a submission of iudgment in any points of doctrin so must I continue in my opinion of the pride and obstinacy of protestancy 1. Because you will not belieue any thing inculcated to you by God vnless it be deliuered to you in writing as if the Diuine maiesty had not as much right to command by orders intimated to us by word of mouth as by his writing All the true belieuers of the world vntill Moyses his law were gouernd by the testimony and tradition of the Church without any writing or Scriptures neither is any thing written in the old or new Testament wherupon Protestants may with any color of probability ground their pretended priuilege of not belieuing any thing but Scripture and this doth in many places tell them they are as much obliged to belieue Tradition or Gods unwritten word as the written Now why Englishmen and som Northen people alone should refuse to obey the Catholik Church vnless it shewes for euery particular Gods order in writing is not intelligible themselues and all other Nations owning the contrary to be prudently practised in all human gouernments This must be pride and obstinacy 2. The pride and obstinacy of this their pretended priuilege which is the life and fundation of all Protestant Reformations is further discouered by the practise of aprinciple wherin all Protestants agree which is that not one of them thinks he is bound in conscience to submit his iudgment to any of their own or any other Congregations sense of Scripture in controuerted texts if that sense agreeth not with his own priuat interpretation If that of his Church agree not with his own sense he may stick to his own and reiect the other And this is the reason why Protestants are diuided into so many sects How this principle and practise may be excused from heretical pride and obstinacy I know not For they stand at a defiance with all Churches and will as litle submit their iudgments to their own as to that of Rome Euery Protestant is by the fundamental Tenet of the Reformation his own Master and a supreme Iudge of Gods written law Doth not this demonstrat how those Reformations are founded vpon pride and obstinacy Can there be greater than that simple men and silly women should presume to be Masters and Iudges of those Diuine and incomprehensible mysteries That they should preferr their priuat iudgments before that of their own Church and of ours vnto which the greatest Doctors in all ages haue submitted Vvhat a proud foolish insolent and obstinat people would the English conclude any other to be wherof not one would acquiesce in the iudgment or sentence of the Courts of Iudicature but euery one assume to himself the power of deciding his own law suites and of appealing from the Chancery or euen from the Parliament to his own priuat opinion and iudgment Let euery Protestant know this is his own case in matters of religion He appeals in what concerns Faith and the sense of Scripture from his own Church and the Catholik and general Councells to his own proper iudgment Doth he think that Christ would institute so absurd a spiritual gouernment Can any man of sense imagin it agrees with Scripture To what purpose then should the Scriptures and St Paul bid us be of one belief peaceable and humble Is any of these virtues or that of Catholik Faith consistent with such pride obstinacy and dissentions as this principle must inspire and we see in all the reformed Churches and in that of our own Countrey You see therfore that your reformed Churches and interpretations of Scripture haue so litle in them of the vnity obsequiousness and humility of Christian Faith so much recommended to us by St Paul that they seeme to the most learned Roman Catholiks not only to sauor of heresy but to be the very source of heretical pride and damnable obstinacy so far are they from hauing the least smack of the fundation or fruit of Christianity SECT III. SOM INFERENCES FIT TO BE considered by all Protestants and vvhether any may be saued if they dye in that persuasion IF Protestancy doth inuolue that pride and obstinacy which I haue endeuored to proue and deduce from its principles without doubt he who dyes a Protestant is damn'd But Because som are called Protestants and yet know not what protestancy is I will deliuer my opinion how far their ignorance may excuse them from being