Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n
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A53946
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The antiquity of the Protestant religion with an answer to Mr. Sclater's reasons, and the collections made by the author of the pamphlet entitled Nubes Testium : in a letter to a person of quality : the first part.
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Pelling, Edward, d. 1718.
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1687
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Wing P1072; ESTC R1036
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27,540
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74
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THE ANTIQUITY OF THE Protestant Religion WITH AN ANSWER TO Mr. Sclater's REASONS AND THE COLLECTIONS Made by the Author of the Pamphlet ENTITLED NUBES TESTIUM In a Letter to a Person of Quality The First Part. LONDON Printed for Ben. Griffin and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1687. IMPRIMATUR Hen. Maurice Rmo P. D. Wilhelmo Archiepiscopo Cant. à Sacris Dec. 13. 1686. ERRATA PAge 15. l. 6. for Aeneus read Aeneas in the Margint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 22. l. 14. f. Canon r. Canons p. 31. l. 20. f. where r. were p. 41. l. 7. f. moduling r. modelling p. 59. l. 11. f. Contro-sie r. Controversie THE ANTIQUITY OF THE PROTESTANT RELIGION With an Answer to Mr. Sclaters Reasons and the Collections made by the Author of the Pamphlet entitled Nubes Testium SIR VVHEN I receiv'd your Letter I did at first a little wonder that such a knowing person should desire me to give a plain and particular proof of that Point which we Protestants do stand upon that our Religion was Anciently and Generally profest in the Christian World before the Reformation For the matter seems so clear to those who converse with Books and will not suffer themselves to be govern'd by partiality of judgment that we may well be amazed at the great confidence of the Divines in the Church of Rome who would fain perswade you to believe the contrary whether out of a design or by means of their violent Passions and prejudices I will not say It is indeed taken for granted by people on that side that at the Reformation their Church was the only Catholick Church in the World and that their Faith was undoubtedly True and Primitive in all its particulars because otherwise the Church as they conceive must have failed and the Promises of God touching his preserving and assisting his Church to the Worlds end must have come to nothing Upon which false suppositions they run away at all rates with many strange notions of Vs and of the Reformation believing and giving it out that we forsook the True Church which was entitled to Gods Patronage and Guardianship and did set up a new Religion which no good Christians ever own'd and therefore that we must needs be in a miserable and lost condition Seeing then the difference between us is so wide either They or We must necessarily be under a very great mistake And therefore in compliance with your commands I shall indeavour to satisfie you that the mistake lies not on our side especially since the Author of the Nubes Testium and Mr. Sclater in his Consensus veterum have taken so much pains to possess the World with a Notion to the contrary In the prosecution of this matter I shall 1. First take as short and as particular a view as I can of the State of Christianity from the Primitive times to the Reformation and shew you how the Doctrines we profess were generally profest and own'd from Age to Age in those Churches which are nearer home 2. That at the Reformation and before the Faith of those Churches which are more Remote and distant from Us was the same with Ours in most of those material points which lie now under debate And when these Two things are cleared several inferences will easily follow which will abundantly serve to justifie Our Reformation and to discharge the Protestant Religion from those Imputations which are commonly but unjustly cast upon it 1. First let us look into the condition of Religion from the Primitive Ages to the time of the Reformation and see if those Doctrines which we Protestants profess were not profest and own'd from Age to Age before ever the Name of Protestant became a characteristical note of Distinction And for the clearing of this I think it too tedious to gather up Sentences and ends of Sayings out of the Ancients as Mr. Sclater and the Author of the Nubes Testium have endeavour'd to do For they know well that we have a Catalogus Testium to which their Nubes is but as it were of a Hands breadth And besides the latter of these doth ingenuously confess That many things in the Ancient Fathers are Obscure that their Preface pag. 3. Names have been prefixt to Books of which they were never the Authors and that additions have been made to some of their writings besides the divers mistakes of Transcribers in the publishing of their Works The most effectual way therefore will be to observe the Doctrines of the Ancients in their Disputations and Controversies with the Adversaries of the Truth and that either when they purposely wrote against some known Error and generally used the same arguments as so many Received Principles or when they met together in Councils to settle matters by publick Canons and Definitions These observations will more readily and more certainly help us to understand the sense of the Ancient Church than our having recourse to this or that passage in particular Authors So that if it be made appear that our Religion is agreeable to that which the Ancients did in their Disputations and Assemblies maintain as the Primitive Faith you need not enquire further for your satisfaction nor trouble your self with Heaps of quotations out of single Authors unless you have a mind to gratifie your Curiosity and for that you may consult Bishop Taylors Disswasive or Bishop Mortons Appeal or Bishop Vshers Answer to the Jesuites challenge which the Writers in this Age would do well to try if they can Answer But to go to our business It is notorious that the first great Controversies in the Church were about the Common Doctrines of Christianity a great many Hereticks for divers Ages from Simon Magus downward to Pope Honorius and the rest of the Monothelites violently opposing some the Reality of Christs Humane Nature some his Divinity some the Distinction between his two Natures some the Divinity of the Holy Ghost as a distinct Person from the Father and the Son and the like general Principles which the Christian Church held Against these Seducers not only Books were written by the Primitive Fathers severally but divers Councils were called the first a Local Synod at Antioch against Paulus Samosatenus who taught that our Saviour was a meer Man. After this Six general Councils met The First at Nice against Arius for asserting that Christ Jesus was a Creature The Second at Constantinople against the Eunomians and Sabellians and the rest that affirm'd the Holy Ghost to be a Creature too the Third at Ephesus against Nestorius for reviving the Arian Heresie The Fourth at Chalcedon against Eutyches who own'd the Divine and Humane Nature too yet taught that upon the Vnion of them both were mixt Absorpt and Transubstantiated into One The Fifth at Constantinople again to stifle a fresh the Nestorian Blasphemy and the Sixth there also against Pope Honorius and his Associates who own'd as but one Nature as Eutyches did so but
one Will neither Now what was the business of all these zealous Fathers but to confirm the Apostles Creed which had been handed down to them from the beginning They look't upon it to contain all things necessary to be believed they reckoned it the saving and the Only short Rule of Faith the Faith that is Immovable as Ignatius the Martyr call'd it the unmovable and Irreformable Faith as Tertullian the Perfect Faith that unites all Ignat. Ep. ad Smyr Tertul. de veland verg Iren. l. 1. c. 3. Churches throughout the whole World into one body as Irenaeus thought the Right Catholick Faith as Athanasius and the rest of the Ancients did esteem it This was the reason why they were so very industrious and careful to keep Super haec autem iidem in Chalcedone sancti Patres anathematizaverunt eos qui aliud Symbolum tradiderunt aut tradunt praeter hoc quod expositum est a trecentis decem octo sanctis Patribus explanatum a centum quinquaginta sanctis Patribus Justinian in Quintae Synodi Collat. prima Concil Tom. 4. part 2. pag. 47. Edit Bin. the common Creed inviolable So that as Justinain the Emperor tells us the Fathers of the Council at Chalcedon anathematiz'd all those that had delivered or do deliver any other Symbol besides that Creed of the Apostles which was explained by the two first general Councils that at Nice of 318 Fathers and the next at Constantinople consisting of an hundred and fifty I know not what the Men of Trent thought of this heavy Anathema when they Added to the Ancient Creed a great many New Articles of their own as equally Necessary to Salvation But by this Sir you may see that the Apostles Symbol as it was explicated in the first General Councils was that and that only which the Primitive Fathers so zealously contended to maintain which you cannot conceive why it should have been had not they concluded it to be a Perfect Summary And this I note not only to shew their great and most unreasonable uncharitableness who condemn all that stick to this Primitive Creed only But moreover to vindicate our selves who own and teach the very same Articles of Faith and necessary principles of Christianity which was the only thing contended for by the old Catholick Fathers Upon which account we are no more Hereticks than They were our Creed being the very same with Theirs So that there can be no colour of Reason for any to forsake our Communion as if our Faith were unsound or Defective or to be dissatisfied in their minds as if there were any danger of their Happiness if they be but careful to adorn this Faith with a sutable conversation And hence I cannot but look upon it as a strange piece of weakness at least in the Divines of that party that they are so grosly mistaken in their notion of of the Catholick Faith. For they quite over-look the Common Creed as if that were not it whereas in Truth that alone is the Catholick Faith and give that Title to the Trent-confession which is the Roman Faith only and yet whoever denieth any part of that Confession though he owns the Apostles Symbol must be hooted at presently as an Heretick Nor can it be thought any less than strange Inconsideration in Mr. Sclater that he should leave our Church for that of Rome upon an Idea he hath formed in his own fancy of that Churches Vnity in the Faith. For is not our Church in most perfect Vnity as to the Christian Faith Were the Apostles Creed profest only in the Roman Church we might all go thither But is not our Faith the same with Hers in those points wherein 't is truly Primitive and Catholick If Mr. Sclater can shew us wherein we contradict any of those principles of Christianity which so many Ancient councils confirm'd as the One Catholick Faith we will not blame him for thinking that we have broken the Unity thereof But we are so far from offering an hundred Faiths as he unworthily Page 5. insinuates that we teach but One and the same which is Common to all the Churches in the World. Therefore his little quotations out of Ignatius Cyprian and the supposititious Clemens Romanus are nothing at all to his purpose But his Allegation out of Irenaeus pag. 8 is grosly impertinent For Irenaeus evidently speaks of the Apostles Creed and of that alone Pray consult the place and see if Irenaeus doth not expresly and distinctly repeat the substance of that Confession the Articles whereof we repeat daily in our Churches and then he presently subjoyns in the very next Chapter This Doctrine and Faith the Church keeps with all care as if she dwelt in one House although she be disseminated over the whole World. Her Faith is agreeable to these Doctrines as if she had one Soul and one and the same Heart These Articles she doth consonantly preach teach and deliver as if she had but one mouth For though there be different Languages yet the Faith delivered is one and the same Neither do the Churches in Germany believe or teach any other Faith nor do those Churches in Spain nor those in France nor those in the East nor those in Egypt nor those in Lybia nor those in the middle parts of the World But as the Sun is one the same in the whole World so the Doctrine of Truth every where shines and enlightens all men that are willing to come to the knowledge of the Truth He adds too which Mr. Sclater disingenuously conceals that none of the Governours of the Church though never such able men do teach any other Doctrines than these for no man is above his Master nor doth the weakest diminish the Faith delivered But the Creed being one and the same the greatest man doth not add more no doth the meanest man believe less And now Sir what is all this for the advantage of the present Roman Faith which is superadded to the Apostles Symbol This passage is so far from countenancing that it utterly condemns that Addition Or what is all this against Vs who believe teach that very same Faith which all Christian Churches did adhere to in Irenaeus time Or what encouragement is all this for any man to leave our Communion as if we had violated the Vnity of the Faith The truth is Irenaeus the rest of the Ancients said as we do that Christ hath but one Catholick Church on Earth that all Churches make up this Catholick Church that they are all united in one by one common Faith and that the Apostles Creed is that one and only Faith. Now this Faith is uniformly believed by us and therefore Mr. Sclater needed not to say as he doth pag. 10. What would I have once given to have found such Vnity among Protestants Let him but give us our Due and we desire no more and this he cannot deny without denying us our due that in England Scotland