Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A48362
|
A reply to the Answer made upon the three royal papers
|
Dryden, John, 1631-1700.; Leyburn, John, 1620-1702.
|
1686
(1686)
|
Wing L1941; ESTC R9204
|
29,581
|
64
|
that this Gentleman would force his Modesty to such a Degree as to give the Lye to a Lady of her transcendent Quality especially who had been so well bred up in the Principles of the Church of England I shall rather favour him with this Construction that tho' she thought what she said was true yet in reality it was not But how came she to make this Declaration she tells us she never had any scruple till the November before and then they began upon reading Doctor Heylin's History of the Reformation which was commended to her as a Book to settle her and there she found such abominable Sacriledge upon Henry the Eighth's Divorce King Edward's Minority and Queen Elizabeth's Succession that she could not believe the Holy Ghost could ever be in such Councills And because Doctor Heylin's History wrought her Conversion he seems to be displeased at the Author of that Advice but I must needs dissent from him for it being a History of the Reformation it wasmore fit to put that into her hands to settle her in her Religion if the Reformation had been from God being within her Sphere than any Book of Controversy wherein she might have been plunged into difficulties insuperable the Objection oftentimes out-weighing the Solution And tho' in the History of Reformation he tells us there are two distinct parts The one built on Scripture and Antiquity the other upon Maxims of State yet the one being visible and the other invisible had she been a Person of greater Understanding than she was how could she possibly discern both what he requires to have been the Subject of her Consideration was so far beyond her Reach that more Speculative Persons than her Condition would permit her to be come short of that Performance and therefore no better way could be than to be conversant with such Objects or motives as were of her own size One of which was that where the Foundations of a Pretended Reformation were Sacriledge Rapine and Lust She could not believe the Holy Ghost could ever be in such Councills He replies thus were not the Vices of Alexander the Sixth and of many other Popes as great at least as those of Henry the Eighth Be it so and suppose them greater therefore neither she nor any Body else in Prudence can believe that God ever chose Alexander the Sixth or such as he points at by vitiously acting to be the Reformers of his Church or to give Being to a Reformation As to the Invasion upon the Rights and Lands of the Church he replies to by Retaliation Are there not Miscarriages of the like Nature in the Church of Rome It may be so but if by such Miscarriages one should think to reform the Church I shall as freely declare with this great Lady that I cannot believe the Holy Ghost can ever be in such Councils From her scruples which the reading of Dr. Heylin's History of the Reformation had put into her mind she came to the Examen of points in difference by the Holy Scriptures where it seems says he contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome she found some things so easie that she wondered she had been so long without finding them out That some things may easily be met with in Holy Scripture makes not against the Doctrine of the Church of Rome nay standing to the bare Letter without the assistance of Tradition experience has made it manifest that her Champions have fought against all sorts of Enemies with that success even at their own weapon that partiality it self cannot deny her the Victory Nor is it any great wonder that a Lady of her great endowments being but yet a seeker of Truth and not acquainted with the Catholic Rules of Expounding Scriptures and having no other interest but her Soul's safety should easily find what she did not formerly when she thought her self secure and was not concern'd nay what great Doctors do pass slightly over when thousands of lesser Talents than she have done the like What discoveries then hath she made First of the Real Presence then of the Infallibility of Confession and praying for the Dead As to the Real Presence importing a Real and Substantial change of the Elements into the Body and Blood of Christ. He demands In what words of Christ is it to be found I answer in these This is my Body And whereas he adds That the wisest Persons of the Church of Rome have confessed that the bare words of our Saviour can never prove it I answer 'T is hard for him to determine who are the wisest but he knows well that they generally teach that those words cannot be verify'd without that change Confession of Sins as ever commanded is no harder to meet withal than confess your sins to one another And if the Apostles and in them their Successors had power to forgive and retain sins there must be an Obligation in others to confess them otherwise that power had been useless Praying for the Dead is also frequently grounded upon Scripture and though her Royal Highness seems to have been somewhat confirmed in the belief of it by the concession of the two Bishops yet she no where affirm'd that to be the sole Motive to change her Religion but only that it added more to her desire of being a Catholic The Places usually cited for the Infallibility of the Church he would perswade us may as well be apply'd to other Churches as to the Roman but because I have already proved the Roman to be that one Catholic Church I shall supersede from any further trouble at the present From Christ's promise of being with the Church to the end of the World and she now believing no other Church to be that Church but that which is called the Roman she makes this inference That our Saviour would not permit the Church to give the Laity the Communion in one kind if it were not lawful so to do This Illation is evident for otherwise he would not be with his Church to the end of the world From this excellentDiscourse of her Royal Highness 't is an invincible Truth that all the force of Sense and Reason do center in this conclusion that she did not think it possible to save her Soul otherwise than in the Roman Church and by her Paper the world may see the pregnant Power of Truth which forced those two great Lights of England's Church to a private concession of what in publick they were unwilling to own Magna est veritas prâ—valebit FINIS A Catalogue of Books Sold by Matthew Turner at the Lamb in High-Holbourn ACTS of the Clergy of France The second Edition To which is added a necessary advice how to read Books of Controversie Quarto A Discourse of the necessity of Church Guides Quarto The Guide in Controversies Four Parts Quarto A True Narrative of the pretended Popish Plot with Figures A Papist Mis-represented and Represented Quarto Why are you a Catholic And Why are you a Protestant Quarto Bishop Condom's Discourse of Universal History Octavo Digitus Dei against Nullifidians Octavo The MASS Triumphing Octavo The MASS Vindicated Octavo Veron's Rule of Faith Octavo Bishop Condom's Exposition of Catholic Doctrine Twelves His Treatise of Communion in both Species Twelves The Touch-stone of the Reformed Gospel Twelves Turbervil's Manual of Controversies Twelves Abridgment of Christian Doctrine Eighteens Vane's Lost Sheep Return'd home Twelves Counsels of Wisdom or the Maxims of Solomon Twelves The Catechism of Penance Eighteens Four Maxims of Eternity Eighteens Christian Thoughts for every Day Twentyfours St. Francis de Sales Introduction to a Devout Life Twelves Thomas of Kempis Following of Christ. In Twelves and Twentyfours THE END
can be any such Command and by consequence no Injury is offered to our Senses no reproach to the Church His next offer is at a Clip to the Royal Stamp and because he says 't is with Submission I presume it to be unadvised for whereas the Kings Paper runs thus that none can be that Church but that which is called the Roman-Catholic Church he snips off I know not how this word Catholic and so restrains the Kings meaning to the particular Church or Diocess of Rome this must be confessed not to be the best way of examining the King's Coin for tho' by this term Roman sometimes all Churches in Communion with the Church of Rome be signify'd yet by the Parallel made betwixt the whole and the part he is convinced not to have meant so To requite then his Parallel 't is as visible that the word Roman is not Roman-Catholic as that one word is not two as to the Corruption with which in general Terms he aspersed the Roman Church since 't is as invisible as the Proofs he brings to justify the Charge I shall pass it by After it was settled That Christ can have but one Church upon Earth and that this is that Church we profess to believe in the two Creeds He thus subsumes But if those who made those Creeds for our Direction had intended the Roman-Catholic Church why was it not so expressed how came it to pass that such a Limitation of the Sense of Christ's Catholic Church to the Roman should never be put to persons to be baptized in any Age of the Church My first Answer shall be ad hominem by retorfion If the Apostles intended we should believe that Christ was Consubstantial to his Father or that Hereticks were not to be re-baptized why did they not insert it into their Creeds If the Apostles and Nicene Fathers after them intended we should believe the duality of Wills and unity of Persons in Christ how did it escape both their Creeds I believe we shall jump upon the same Solution which is that none of these Doctrines were questioned in those days no Hereticks had opposed them and therefore there was no need of decision this being the Province of General Councils in framing their Creeds Let 's see if this will square to my purpose Catholic and Roman-Catholic-Church in the Language of Antiquity was one and the same thing saving when the particular Church or Diocess of Rome was expressed which being so and the point never call'd in question in the first and best days of the Church when those Creeds were to be published what great surprize is it that the word Roman should not be comprized in any of their Creeds Or that it was not enter'd into the ancient Formulary or Ceremonies of Baptism so venerable to after ages and of which they have ever been most tenacious I have engaged Antiquity for the Roman-Catholic side let 's see whether she will stand by me and let Tertullian lead the Van who well understood the Language both of his own and the foregoing Age. Speak then Tertullian what thou knowest of Marcion's pecunary Oblation in Rome to the Roman Church Marcion says he gave his money to the Catholic Church which was rejected when he fell into Heresie Tertul. contra Marcion lib. 4. cap. 4. See how easily it dropt from his Pen to stile the Roman Church the Catholic Church What 's now the sense of St. Cyprian the mouth of the African Church to Antonianus You writ that I should send a Copy of the Letters to Cornelius Bishop of Rome to the end that he might understand that you communicate with him that is to say with the Catholic Church Cypr. lib. 4. epist. 2. And if it be the same to communicate with the Pope as it is with the Catholic Church then clearly the Roman and Catholic Church are one and the same St. Ambrose in his Funeral Oration upon his Brother Satyrus relates this passage of Satyrus that coming into a City polluted with Heresie he demands of the Bishop of the place whether he was in Communion with the Catholic Bishop that is with the Church of Rome St. Ambros. Orat. funeb So that in the phrase of that time communion with the Catholic Church and Church of Rome nothing differ'd John of Constantinople to Hormisda Pope writes thus We promise hereafter not to recite in the Sacred Mysteries the names of those who have separated themselves from the Catholic Church that is to say who agree not fully with the See Apostolic Tom. 3. Concil Edit Binii inter Epist. Hormisdae By this we may see the stile of old times Nay it was so familiar to use promiscuously the word Roman for Catholic that the very Arians as the Protestants now do called the Catholics by the name of Romanists Victor of Utica brings in Jocundus an Arian thus arguing with King Theodorick If thou put Armogastus to death the Romanists will proclaim him a Martyr Victor Utic lib. 2. de persec Vandal And Gregory of Tours recounts of an Arian King who seeing a miracle wrought by a Catholic concludes that this was a device of the Romanists Since therefore in the vulgar Speech and Records of old days Roman and Catholic are Synonima the King had much reason to declare That none could be that Church but that which is called the Roman-Catholic-Church And a rational account is given why the word Roman was not expressed in the two Creeds nor in the Ritual of Baptism From the Church of Rome's not denying the validity of Baptism to those who are out of her Communion he urges thus 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 she is the one Catholic Church mentioned in the Creeds This is very pleasant it is a fixed principle that there is but one Church Catholic and the Church of Rome by a thousand Declarations takes it upon her self to be that one Church and yet it must be as Visible to this Gentleman as that the Scripture is in print that the Church of Rome doth not believe her self to be that ōne Catholic Church mention'd in the two Creeds what can he offer to justifie so strange a Paradox For then says he it must void all Baptism out of its communion which it hath never yet done But what greater necessity is there for the Church of Rome to void Baptism given out of her Communion then for the Catholic Church Or if the Catholic Church doth not make it void what can oblige the Church of Rome to do it The Reply is That Baptism enters persons into the Catholic Church who though they be out of the Communion of the Roman Church yet having the true form of Baptism are Members of the Catholic Church But I beseech him if Baptism enters Men into the Catholic Church doth not Heresie Apostacy or Insidelity cast them out of the Catholic Church as well