Imprimatur Hic Liber cui Titulus A Vindication of the Principles of the Author c. Dec. 14. 1687. Jo. Battely A VINDICATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THE AUTHOR of the Answer to the Compiler of the Nubes Testium From the Charge of POPERY In Answer to a late Pretended Letter from a Dissenter to the Divines of the Church of England As Deceivers and yet True 2 Cor. 6.8 LONDON Printed for Henry Mortlock at the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-yard 1688. A VINDICATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THE AUTHOR of the Answer to the Compiler of the Nubes Testium c. HAD I not already promised the world in Print a speedy Vindication of my self the natural care and tenderness that every man hath for his own Reputation are a sufficient engagement to set about the clearing of my self from being that Counterfeit or teaching that Popery I am accused of in a Pretended Letter from a Dissenter to the Divines of the Church of England I have already hinted to the world in the Advertisement at the end of my Second Letter to Sabran the Jesuit that I am very well satisfied not onely that this pretended Letter came out of Henry Hill's Press but that it was the Issue of the Representer's or Compiler's call him whether you will malicious Pen. This every one that I converse with as well as my self quickly saw and every man else cannot but see that either knows the Print of Henry Hills or the Stile of the Representer Having made this discovery of their unhansom underhand-dealings herein I was once thinking to have shewn how very conformable this management was to the Secret Practices of some of the Members of the Church of Rome in former times against the Established Church of England but when I found Materials increase too much upon my hands which would have made an Introduction too large for such a Discourse as I intend this to be I have upon that and a better reason laid that design aside I cannot however but tell the Representer here that I have read and considered his Third Chapter in his Third Part of Popery Misrepresented and Represented about the Jesuits in Protestant Pulpits And that I found neither Truth nor Reason there as I think I could make apparent unto the world were not this a Subject too nice for the present Age. I will tell him also that it would have been as prudent in him not to have touched upon this string since this is a Subject in the treating of which he doth inevitably run himself upon hurting either his Cause or his Conscience Among the Methods made use of against the Church of England there is none more likely to have ruined the Church than that which was so much in vogue in the late King's Reign I mean the beginning and keeping up of Fears and Jealousies against the Church as if her Greatest as well as most Learned Members had been at best Popishly affected and waited onely for a good opportunity either of stepping over unto the Church of Rome or at least of accommodating Matters with Her and meeting her half way How successful this false and most unreasonable Slander of the Church of England was no person can be ignorant that remembers even the last part of the late King's Reign What share some of our Representer's Friends had in the raising or fomenting those Jealousies and Fears of the Best Church-men and Greatest Men in it is not so easie to discover here That they had some share in them is what we have very good reason to suspect since we are sure that they did reap the greatest advantage from them But when that time was come which the Fanatical Enemies of the Church of England said the Church-men waited onely for and when those deluding and deluded People saw that to the Confusion of all their false surmizes the Clergy of the Church of England continued firm to their Mother-Church and vigorous against all the Assaults of Rome and were as far as ever from betraying the Cause or the Defence of the Church of England or the Protestant Interest those Fears and Jealousies were laid aside and buried and the Multitude began to have a new as well as just apprehension of things and were not ashamed to confess that they had been very much abused with those false Fears and groundless Jealousies and that they were now abundantly convinced that the Church-men really were what they had all along professed and shewn themselves to be True Sons of the Church of England and the most faithful and diligent Defenders of the Protestant Cause This discovery of the Sincerity of the Clergy of the Church of England was I do not in the least question very uneasy to one Part of the World who could not but be highly troubled that the serviceable and prosperous Fears and Jealousies were now out of date and laid by as utterly useless and I do not doubt that they were thereupon no little unwilling to have them quite forgotten All the business was how to retrieve those Fears and Jealousies before they were clean extinct and what must be done to keep some of them up and to continue them in the Heads of the deluded People I can very easily suppose that there were as many Expedients almost as Welwishers to the support of the Old Method but he in my opinion seems to have hit on the most probable means who was for shewing to the World that there still is an Agreement in most material things between the two Churchs of England and Rome This was the Invention of one of our Representers Church who it seems took it very ill that the world should think the Clergy of the Church of England were such great Opposers of Popery or that they really were as far from being infected with Principles of Popery as they were desirous to be thought at this time That he might therefore convince the People and expose to the world that great mistake He prepares a Collection and publishes in Print his worthy design which was to shew according to the Title it bears An Agreement between the Church of England and the Church of Rome But there were two great Mistakes committed in the publishing of that Pamphlet which were like to ruin the design of it and prevent its doing any good towards the keeping up of Fears and Jealousies of the English Clergy the One was that the Author thereof did discover so plainly what Church he was of and the other was that the Book did in its Title page shew out of whose Press it came Had it been the Work of some Protestant Dissenter it would have required a fairer examination and deserved the greater credit as coming from one who commonly makes such professions of Conscience and Sincerity and who by his former share of promoting Fears and Jealousies of the Clergy might seem to be in a particular manner interested to make good his quondam charge against the Clergy of the Church of
Bishops challenge as their Right To let him see how loosely he manages this debate betwixt us I can with putting in two or three necessary words subscribe to all our Compiler says for the Pope and yet be as far from owning the Popes Supremacy as the Church of England is or ever was The Fathers teach says our Compiler (a) Nubes Testium p. 22. that Christ Built his Church upon Peter So say I too if by Fathers here be meant two or three of them and not the Fathers unanimously as he hath it before or generally That the Bishop of Rome is the Successor of Saint Peter is what I can also grant and that that See is the Centre of the Catholick Communion if I may but put in here what is absolutely necessary while possessed by an Orthodox Bishop and that whosoever separates himself from it I add professing the true Faith and possessed by a Catholick Bishop is guilty of Schism I CAN I SAY SUBSCRIBE THOUGH I DO NOT TO ALL This without any Obligation in the least of believing the Popes Supremacy All that our Compiler puts down here reaching no farther than a Primacy of Order does not at all suppose in the Popes any Jurisdiction or Authority over the Catholick Church Having dispatched my Vindication against the Charge of the three first Articles of Popery I come now to examine the fourth which doth charge me with doubting whether there be really any Controversy about Tradition betwixt the Church of Rome and the Church of England Well then are these my expressions in the place quoted Or is this the sense of them there I must profess to the world that had I not already discovered the cheats of the malicious Representer in the former Articles I could not have believed that any person of common sense or learning would have been guilty of such tricks I had the same occasion in my chapter about the Tradition that I had in the former chapter about Supremacy of shewing how loose a Writer our Compiler is and exposing him for putting that down as an account of the Controversy which I could subscribe to if taken in that sense which the words would fairly bear and yet be never the nearer to Popery than I now am or ever intend to be Upon this coming to examine what he had put down at the Head of his Collections about Tradition I have these expressions To state therefore the Controversy about Tradition if there really be any betwixt us he should not have put down that for the account of the debate herein betwixt us which is agreed to by both sides nor should have omitted that wherein WE REALLY DISAGREE and that is about the Scriptures being a certain and Perfect Rule of Faith WITHOUT THE HELP of TRADITION which the Council of Trent hath made to be of Equal Authority with the Scripture One would think such clear expressions as these would have prevented my being accused of doubting whether there really be any Controversie about Tradition betwixt the Church of Rome and the Church of England but no clearness it seems can be protection against the Malice of such an Adversary as is fallen upon me and therefore he puts down those expressions as mine doubting whether there be really any Controversie about Tradition betwixt the Church of Rome and the Church of England when in that very paragraph I say that We meaning the Churches of England and Rome Really Disagree about Tradition's being part of the Rule of Faith. And therefore any other Reader less spiteful than my angry Adversary would easily have seen and observed that the expression in the beginning of the paragraph if there really be any was used and intended for an allusion to that state of the Controversie which had been set down by the Compiler about Tradition and ought not to be wire-drawn to make me doubt that in the beginning of the paragraph the contrary to which I did directly assert within three lines after The fifth Article of the charge against me is that I did say that the Tradition of the Catholick Church is to be received and the sixth is of the same kind that I confessed there That by Tradition we receive the Holy Scriptures and know how to separate the Scriptures from Apocryphal or Suppositious Writings I do freely own that these are my expressions in that place and these I am sure are far from looking like Popery if I that wrote them may be allowed to tell in what sense I did mean and intend them All the service that my Adversary could expect from the citing and insisting upon them was onely to amuse the common Readers with the Word Tradition that they not understanding the Ambiguity of the Word nor in what several senses the Word Tradition was used might be tempted to believe that I was for setting up there that Tradition which they used to hear preached against so much by the Clergy of the Church of England By Tradition here which I said we receive or admit of I did not mean that Tradition which is set up as part of the Rule of Faith in the Church of Rome nor did I any more mean Tradition as it is taken for any Doctrine of the Church of Rome which they say was from the beginning delivered to them All that I meant by Tradition there was no more than the bare means of delivering down to us the Word of God and any Rites or Customs in the Ancient Church When I said therefore that by this Tradition we received the Holy Scriptures and know how to separate the Scriptures from Apocryphal or Supposititious Writings The full and clear meaning of those expressions was that the Canonical Books of the Holy Scriptures or to speak to the meanest capacity that the Bible was delivered down from time to time and from hand to hand in all Ages unto us that we did receive them from our Forefathers in the Church as they had received them from theirs up unto the beginning and that since they delivered down to us onely those Books which the Church of England does believe and admit for the Word of God we do thereby know that no other Books could be part of the Scriptures which were not handed down to us for such This is as much as I need to offer either in Vindication of my self or explication of my words when I spoke of Tradition but because I cannot clear my innocence too much herein I will shew the world that I had very good Vouchers for every word that I said thereabout and will produce the sense of Arch-Bishop Usher who never was thought by any Sort of Protestants to be any ways inclineable to or guilty of Popery This most learned Prelate in his Reply to the Jesuits Challenge hath these words about (b) p. 35. Tradition This must I needs tell you before we begin that you much mistake the matter if you think that Traditions of all sorts promiscuously are struck at
by our Religion We willingly acknowledge that the word of God which by some of the Apostles was set down in writing was both by themselves and others of their fellow-labourers delivered by word of mouth and that the Church in succeeding ages was bound not only to preserve those sacred writings committed to her trust but also to deliver unto her children vivâ voce the form of wholsome words contained therein Traditions therefore of this nature come not within the compass of our controversy the question being betwixt us de ipsâ Doctrinâ traditâ not de tradendi modo touching the substance of the doctrine delivered not of the manner of delivering it Again it must be remembred that here we speak of doctrine delivered as the word of God that is of points of religion revealed unto the Prophets and Apostles for the perpetual information of Gods people not of rites and ceremonies and other ordinances which are left to the disposition of the Church and consequently be not of divine but of positive and humane right Traditions therefore of this kind likewise are not properly brought within the circuit of this question Thus that most learned Man whose Authority is so deservedly great in the world The Seventh Article of Popery is that I said there that I was willing and ready to receive any Doctrine not written that hath as perpetual unanimous and certain a Tradition as the Scripture and that I onely wait for the proving this and then I am ready to embrace all the Doctrines of Popery As for those last words and then he is ready to embrace all the Doctrines of Popery which are maliciously put in the Italick Character that so they might be thought by the Reader to be my own words I have no such expressions there and these are onely the Representer's consequence draw from what I had said there that we onely wait for their proving that any of those Doctrines they would obtrude upon us have been thus universally delivered But his business here was to make the passage look as invidious as he could and therefore he was so very careful to put his own Consequence down in the most odious terms that he could devise The former part of the Accusation about my professed readiness to receive any Doctrine not written that hath as perpetual unanimous and certain a Tradition as the Doctrines written in Scripture have I do readily own and plead guilty unto it since I am very well satisfied that my Religion as a Member of the Church of England is not in danger of being shockt or endangered by it I do still say that I am now ready to receive any such unwritten Doctrines which expressions of mine as well in my Book as here are far from supposing that the Church of England wants any necessary means of Salvation or that there are in any other Church any such unwritten Doctrines so qualified for a Christian's Reception as I there require but they do on the contrary suppose that the Church of Rome is not able to shew for any one point of Religion which they would obtrude upon us such a perpetual unanimous and certain Tradition as I do demand for it I used those words there because I did not onely believe but was fully persuaded that it is impossible for the Church of Rome to prove in that Method any of their Doctrines which are refused by us and if it be impossible I suppose I am in no very great likelihood of ever becoming a Roman Catholick while I make a thing impossible to them the condition of my ever becoming a member of their Church The eighth Article of Popery is my saying that there is no necessity of Express Scripture for the Constitutions and practices which his Church enjoyns in order to the more regular and decent service of God. But how comes this to be an Article of Popery against me And how comes this to be christened Popery Hath it not always been the Doctrine of the Reformed Church of England Is not this a Doctrine common to all persuasions of Christians in the world I cannot but look upon the Representer in great pain and concern to muster up a set of Articles of Popery against me that is forced to make a false muster and to call that Popery which in reality is not His weakness is as visible as his malice in this affair as his malice put him upon making me odious by drawing up a charge of Popish Principles against me so his weakness did in this place betray him into a miscalling that Doctrine Popery which is common to all sorts of Christians The Church of England hath professed this as her sense all along that there is no necessity of Express Scripture for her Constitutions and Orders for the more regular and decent Service of God but that these things are commanded onely in general and the particular determination thereof left to the Governours of the several Churches Nor is the Church of England alone nor the onely Church among the Reformed of this persuasion the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas do altogether concur with Her in this and so do all the Greek Eastern and Southern Churches not one of which doth require express Texts of Scripture for the several Ceremonies and Constitutions in their Churches for the more decent service of God but look upon a general Commission to the Church from the Word of God to enable and empower them to provide and order the particular Modes and Practices Nay our Dissenters themselves notwithstanding their too great rigidness in many things cannot but subscribe the Doctrine I set down above since they do not pretend to shew express Scripture for the several Orders made among them in relation to the Circumstances of Time Place Postures and Gestures used in the Service of God. Since then what I said above and was accused of Popery for it proves to be a Doctrine equally espoused by all Persuasions of Christians as well as by the Church of Rome I would fain know by what Art this is to be made Popery we may as well and with as great reason call the Doctrine of the Incarnation or of the Resurrection of our blessed Saviour Popery as that Doctrine about the no necessity of express Scripture for Ecclesiastical Constitutions since they are no more the general Belief of all Christians than this last mentioned Doctrine is This Charge then ought to have been omitted since what I have said above is so far from being one of my Articles of Popery that it is no Popery at all but a Doctrine assented to by the generality of the Christian World. Before I go on to the next Article I must consider what he hath further to object against me in this Point Here I am accused as if I had spoken onely my own sense and thereby given occasion to my Adversary to post me up as a Papist or Popishly inclined for it whereas I said plainly that it was the