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 |
|
A25674
|
A vindication of the Roman Catholicks from the foul aspersions thrown upon them by John Tillotson ... in a sermon preached by him in November, 1687 ...
|
Antoine.
|
1688
(1688)
|
Wing A3517; ESTC R6580
|
11,687
|
16
|
it there But let the Doctor leave Canting and give a solid reason if he can why the Church which declared Authoritatively the Scripture to be the Word of God hath not Authority enough and Knowledge to instruct us in the Will of God if there were no Scripture The Doctor proceeds in the same Page and says the Teachers of the Jewish Church did not proceed so far as to deprive Men of the use of the Holy Scripture in the 2d Page he cannot avoid a Contradiction For he says that the Jewish Teachers did take away the Key of Knowledge from the people which the Doctor insinuates was the Scripture Then they took away the Scripture and did not But suppose they did not take away the Scripture yet the Doctor says they took away the Key of Knowledge then a Man may have the Scripture and yet not have the Key of Knowledge then the Jews might have the Scripture and yet not see Christ in it as in fact did not So may the Vulgar have the New Testament and yet not see the they New Law in it So may a Protestant Cobler have the Bible and yet want the Key of Knowledge and to whom shall he go to for it What if he should go to the Pope For the Doctor owns in his Sermon the Pope had the Key and indeed I cannot tell how the Doctor should come by it unless he stole it Or perhaps it was found in the Ruins of the Monasteries here in the beginning of the reformation which were broke down the Doctor may say to seek for this Key and it was found there all rusty as the Doctor says and they have been rubbing it ever since But to come to my purpose How is it that the Scriptures alone can perfectly instruct us in the Will of God as this Doctor says when a whole multitude may have them and yet not see the Will of God in them as the Jews had the Scripture and yet saw not the Will of God in it Now why may not the Doctors of the Church of England put the Scripture into the Hands of all the Vulgar and yet teach them false Doctrine from their Pulpits and keep the true sense and meaning of the Scripture from the people as well as the Scribes and Pharisees then the people may have the Bible and yet not know the Will of God. Then is the Pastor more necessary for the people than the Bible We see the Quakers Anabaptists Presbyterians Sweet-Singers Lutherans Church of England c. all these differ in Faith and that they are not all of the right Faith. I suppose the Doctor will own all these have the Bible How come it that they do not testifie themselves by it The Doctor must answer that the Teachers of these Men do give the people the Bible but keep from them the Key of Knowledge as the Scribes and Pharisees did And if any one should accuse the Doctor of acting like a Scribe and Pharisee in this Sermon how will he vindicate himself I will undertake to prove him guilty of above 40 false Reflections and above-right lies against his Neighbours in this one Sermon which is more than he can prove upon either Scribe or Pharisee Towards the end of this Page the Doctor says it is a horrible impiety to interpret the Scripture in a wrong sense to the people God forgive the Doctor for it the Roman Catholicks do own it a Crime But he says it is more horrible not to permit the people to read it He thinks this must be taken upon his bare Word for he brings not one thing like a proof for it In the 5th Page the Doctor doth intermix Prayers in an unknown Tongue with the not reading the Scripture and says that the people for these two Errors are sure to perish and surely damned and that the Scripture is necessary to save them and that the Church of Rome in these two points doth contrive the Eternal Ruin and Destruction of the peoples Souls For these uncharitable and extravagant expressions the Doctor brings not any thing like a Proof This I will prove upon the Doctor according to his own Tenent that whatsoever Protestant reads not the Scripture is surely Damned And whatsoever Pastor of the Protestant Church doth not take such care of all and every one of his Flock First That he be instructed to read 2 dly That he have the Bible 3 dly That he read it This Pastor for neglecting his Flock in a thing so necessary to Salvation must be surely Damned also This must follow if the Scripture be necessary to Salvation And if the Protestant Religion had started up before Printing was found out how many poor Protestants would this Doctor have Damned then I ask'd the Doctor why a vigilant Pastor cannot instruct his Flock in all things conducing to Salvation without giving them the Bible Until the Doctor answers I say he may and that it had been done in all Ages and I know not why it may not be done in the Protestant Church unless it be because Truth and the Will of God are not in the Protestant Ministers The Reader may be perhaps desirous to know the truth of the Roman Catholick practice in these two points As to the first to wit The reading the Scripture the Church doth not debar the Laity from it She alloweth it to every one whom the Pastors judge will use it with respect and submission to the Church through the Motive of Piety not Curiosity Where the Scripture may be ill used there it is not generally suffered to be read And what slavery is in this The Vulgar of the Roman Church do believe that they are to be fed by their Pastors neither to feed themselves nor to be fed by Bibles St. Paul saith That Christ appointed Pastors lest his people should stray into Errors The Doctor appoints the Bible The Roman Church appoints the Bible for the Pastor chiefly and the Pastor for the people The Doctor appoints the Bible for the people and the Pastors are useless If an Indian should come into England which would soonest make him of the Protestant Church the Doctor or the Bible If the Doctor then is the Bible not necessary to Salvation If the Bible how comes it that so many Millions of well inventioned people in the World could never see the Protestant there who notwithstanding were no strangers to the Bible This I admire in the Church of England who since the reformation are much more solicitous to get Estates and keep them than those things which belong to the next World and for this I appeal to their Consciences that every one should not claim a right to be Judge of the Laws of the Land to preserve their Estates as well as to be Judge of the Scripture in order to preserve the Soul. In the next place the Doctor brings Scripture for his Tenent If any one shall think any Text he brings to be like a proof if
A VINDICATION OF THE Roman Catholicks From the foul Aspersions thrown upon them BY John Tillotson D D And Dean of CANTERBURY In a SERMON Preached by him in November 1687. WITH ALLOWANCE LONDON Printed for John and Thomas Lane and are to be Sold at the Sign of the Golden-Anchor the Corner Shop of VVild-street next Dukesstreet MDCLXXXVIII THE PREFACE SVCH is the Nature of a Sermon as that the Principles and Tenents of a Religion are no way better discovered than by it It being the Exposition of what is to be believed and practised in order to Eternal Salvation And what the Preachers do generally most insist upon that generally is chiefly presumed to be believed or practised in the Church Now in most Protestant Sermons it is observed that their chief business is railing against the Pope and Popery then that may be presum'd the chief Tenent of the Protestant Church With such Protestant Doctrine this Doctor hath filled his Sermon from the beginning to the ending falsly aspersing the Roman Catholick Church with the Notions of Slavery and Bondage no better arguments than Cora used against Moyses flattering the people with a false liberty which produceth nothing but Confusion and Distraction Not considering that this his Doctrine is contrary to the practise of his own Church For he doth not only make every ignorant Man or Woman a competent judge of Scripture and Religion but prefers their judgment before their Pastors whilst their Church obligeth every one to submit to her decrees I find in this Doctor 's Sermon many false and uncharitable Reflections upon Roman Catholicks Conclusions drawn from false Suppositions things unworthy of a Scholar And which is unworthy of a Preacher not one Word of Exhortation to Piety until he comes to the 21 page where he speaks thus It concerns us mightily for the Honour and Support of our Religion to be at a better Union amongst our selves Insinuating to the people the necessary effects of this Doctrine which are Division and Distraction All the rest of his Sermon is Bearing false Witness against his Neighbour THE TITLE OF THE Doctors BOOK The indispensible necessity of the knowledge of the holy Scripture in order to Mans Eternal Salvation c. THis Proposition in the sense of the Doctor is thus rendred plain There is no Salvation to be had without the knowledge of the Scripture which Proposition is notoriously false For at this present many thousand Protestants know not one line of it unto whom I presume the Doctor will not deny Salvation 2ly There was no Scripture heard of until the time of Moyses and were all Damned before his time 3dly From the time of Moyses till Printing was found it is not probable that every one of the Vulgar could have the Bible and will the Doctor Condemn them all If he doth not then the knowledge of the Scripture was not necessary If not necessary then why is it now The Doctor may say the knowledge of the Scripture is necessary not the reading of it and so annuls my last instance I answer the Doctors whole drift is at Damning all those that do not read it from the beginning to the end of his Sermon for if he were not for Damning those who read not his argument would be of no force against us for the vulgar sort of Roman Catholicks may have as much knowledge of the Scripture as needful without reading it The Doctor is then for imposing a necessity upon the vulgar of knowing the Scripture by their own reading But he doth not tell how much they must know of it if all I fear the Doctor hath Damned himself if not all How much must they know under pain of Damnation As much as the Doctor will assign the Papists shall know without Book I would willingly know of the Doctor why the people might not be saved if they know it by the Mouth of their Pastor without reading The Doctor seems to answer thus The people might know it but the Priests do interpret it falsly to them but the Doctor when he said so did not remember the Story of the Old Woman who sought her Daughter in the Oven The Doctor 's TEXT Woe be to you Scribes and Pharisees c. Mat. 23. V. 15. THe Scribes and Pharisees were Men as the Doctor owns who were teachers of the Law and under pretence of interpreting the Scriptures had perverted them and kept the true knowledge of them from the people I put this question to the Doctor Whether if those Scribes and Pharisees had faithfully interpreted the Scriptures to the people and yet had not put the Bible into the hands of every Milk-Maid to interpret whether Christ had denounced that Woe to them The Doctor must prove the affirmative before he can reflect upon the Roman Catholicks I will put down the practice of the Pharisees the Protestants and Roman Catholicks as to this point The Doctor says in his second Page that the Pharisees were teachers of the Law and under pretence of interpreting the Scriptures did pervert them and keep the knowledge of them from the people The Protestant Ministers are reformers of the Law and do interpret the Scriptures to the people and give the people the liberty to interpret them by the private spirit in opposition to their Pastors if they think fit which hath brought such a fertility of Faiths into this Nation that there are as many as Reformers and as many Reformers almost as Men. The Catholick Priests do confine the Scripture to the reading only of the prudent Laity and doth not think every Cobler a competent Judge of the sense of it nor able to guide himself in matters of Faith and Practice but the Pastors by the Bible are to guide him and to read and expound the Scriptures to him Which of these three doth the Impartial Judge think is the best in all respects in the 3 d. Page the Doctor speaks of knowledge and ignorance What he says of Knowledge is right Canting What of Ignorance is a false Imposition I never understood Ignorance a vertue in Roman Catholick Divinity If the Doctor had read the Manual of our Laity he might have found it there in the exposition of the Ten Commandments a sin Now if the Doctor thinks as he speaks we must be all lovers of Ignorance not only the Laity but the Priests themselves I humbly offer to the Doctor my self for an Experiment of his Protestant speculation to be examined if he knows how in all or any part of Divinity For if he pleases I will bring him Tradsmen who shall readily answer him with an Objection whatsoever he shall be pleased to ask In the 4th Page the Doctor saith the Scripture alone can instruct us in the Will of God perfectly I ask the Doctor Whether it be the Will of God that we should keep Sunday for Saturday and Christen Infants If it be where doth the Scripture instruct us so perfectly as that every Milk-Maid can see