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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29530	An answer to a book, entituled, Reason and authority, or, The motives of a late Protestant's reconciliation to the Catholick Church together with a brief account of Augustine the monk, and conversion of the English : in a letter to a friend.	Bainbrigg, Thomas, 1636-1703.	1687 (1687)	Wing B473; ESTC R12971	67,547	99

forward to give any extraordinary Authority to such a Lateran Council intirely governed by such a Man as Pope Innocent III. especially in such a Doctrine which it self durst scarcely speak out but imposeth upon you in it by giving you onely one Word and that a barbarous one in all the presumed Acts of it And that comes in as it were by surprize and most amazing without any deliberation or consultation but you have it there before you in the reading of it can be aware and perhaps too before the Fathers who were convened in that Council themselves could be These Considerations I think sufficient to persuade any man to think himself under no great obligation to believe Transubstantiation by virtue of the Authority of this Council and I presume it will least of all affect the Faith of an English-man I shall onely add one thing more concerning this Lateran Council which some perhaps may think worthy of a remark and that is this This Lateran Council was not onely famous for new Doctrine Addit ad Concil Later quartum Edit Labb but new Doctours For here we find not onely Transubstantiation but St. Dominick He was at this Council And he and that Doctrine were in one and the same condition there in a like obscurity something perhaps but not much taken notice of but he and that went on from thence to be most conspicuous and remarkable They for some time after gave the great noise and talk to the World whereever Transubstantiation came the Fathers of the Inquisition who were the Order of Dominicans soon followed after and those Persons that were not subdued under the power of that Doctrine were sufficiently awed by the Terrour of these Fathers For whereas the Senses of Men were obstinate and refractary against their espoused Doctrine those Men made use of one Sense to oppose all the rest for by Rods and Scourges and Burnings they so affected the Sense of feeling that this in a most compendious way stilled and silenced all the others Thus Transubstantiation grew great And he that would argue for it from the Authority of the Lateran Council does but trifle it is and must and can be no otherwise prevalent than by the Authority of these Dominican Fathers The Order of these was confirmed the year after this Lateran Council and that by Innocent III. Thus effectually did this Pope doe his business when he made a new Doctrine and a new Law he provided a new Order of Men and a new Office to promote it and it is no wonder if by so doing he brought a new face of Christianity into the World Briet Annales in An. 1216. This Monsieur Briet says in his Annals in his remark upon the Order of Dominicans and the Franciscans An. 1216. Aliam Christianitati faciem induxit And I easily believe him that the Christianity which began to appear and was most visible in the World soon after this Lateran Council was as different from the Primitive Christianity as St. Dominick was distant in time from St. Peter or as his Rules were different from those in St. Peter's Epistles Now I have done with our Authour's Allegations from Councils And here according to fashion I might be tempted to talk a little of victory and tell my Reader what I think I have done But here I am stopped for our Authour has possest himself of this Post He has given us in the next Paragraph p. 21. such a Jargon of words that are designed to speak a victory but most certainly shew an intolerable vanity that I cannot imitate him For after he had reflected upon his doughty performances How he had found the Pope's Supremacy in the Council of Chalcedon and the Books called Apocrypha put into a higher rank than we place them as he thought by the Council of Carthage And the unbloudy Sacrifice decreed by the ninth Council of the Apostles And the adoration of Images established in the second Council at Nice with the general concurrences of Ancient Fathers And Transubstantiation owned and confirmed by 1300 Fathers in the great Lateran Council and he might as well have said 13000 and all to like purpose whilst never a man amongst them spake one word either to prove or disprove or approve that or any other Doctrine in the Council as far as it appears And after that he had remarked that all these Doctrines and I presume he means the Lateran Council too were brought into England by Augustine the Monk which Council was not in being till more than six hundred years were past after the death of Augustine When I say our Authour had seen that he had done all this he smiled and cockt his Beaver and admired his Atchievements and then forthwith speaks his glories in these words which I will set down here in perpetuam rei memoriam that all such Conquerors as he is may never want words wherein to express their glories or their follies Thus he says Indeed P. 21. Fathers when I had diligently examin'd this truth and found it most evident beyond the possibility of any just or reasonable contradiction I was much scandaliz'd at the disingenuity of your Writers who whilst they accuse others of fallacy imposture and impudence dare advance so great and demonstrable a falshood in matter of fact that nothing but ignorance can excuse them so they expose themselves to the greatest censure of rashness and indiscretion as uncharitable and unjust to those whom they call their Enemies as also unsafe and abusing the credulity of their Friends I admired to see these words in this place and am yet puzzled to think what could just now inspire him with all this puffiness He knew that he had never read one of these Councils and that he had transcribed from others without skill or care and he could not but know that some of his Allegations are most trite and common and answer'd most sully and largely by numberless numbers Why then does he seem here thus to admire his Acts and put down such an extravagant rant I cannot but think that the spirit of his old Friends Nailor and Muggleton came in to his assistence at the Writing of this Perhaps it is a Flower borrowed from some of that sort of Persons to adorn and imbellish a Book It is here I am sure out of its place altogether groundless and senseless and gives us one Argument more of the mighty powers of Face and what great expectances there are from it I do much believe that our Authour may hope for more success from that one Paragraph than from all his Allegations out of Councils Our Authour in the next Paragraph tells us he designs to be brief and therefore laying aside other Controversies he will insist onely upon two and they are these I. P. 22. The Authority and Infallibility of the Roman Catholick Church II. The Doctrine of Transubstantiation The First of these I shall consider and leave the Second to others who both have

IMPRIMATUR Sept. 5. 1687. Jo. Battely AN ANSWER To a BOOK Entituled Reason and Authority OR THE MOTIVES OF A Late Protestant's Reconciliation TO THE Catholick Church TOGETHER With a brief Account of Augustine the Monk and Conversion of the English In a Letter to a Friend LONDON Printed by J. H. for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1687. AN ANSWER To a BOOK Entituled Reason Authority c. SIR I Have just now read over a late Book entituled Reason and Authority I read it with an excess of pleasure being surprized and amazed to find Reason so baffled and a monstrous Authority advanced against all reason Non-sense I perceive is in fashion and if I and You have as little sense and are as impertinent as others I may be a Writer and You a Reader I perceive by that Book P. 2 3. that a certain Man has left our Church without reason He was advised to take reason and make the best use of it in the choice of his Religion and the setling of his life and practice in order to salvation but he could find no reason to serve him P. 4 5. He narrowly escaped being an Atheist with reason and had almost denyed the Being of a God or at least his Providence with reason and something that looked like to a demonstration against the immortality of the Soul had so confounded him that he was up head and ears in the water all soused and plunged in the doubt and whether he is yet out of it we know not The Man goes on and considers the grounds of Religion the Jewish and the Christian and finds little reason to think that the five Books commonly ascribed to Moses P. 5. were ever written by him he finds so many mistakes and so many errours in the beginning of Genesis that he gives you to guess his meaning though he will not speak it to be that the Jewish Religion is little else than a forgery and that it has but small evidence of a Revelation from God Almighty Thus leaving the Jewish Religion the Man in all haste goes to the Christian P. 6. and considers the New Testament as the Book which all Christians in all Ages have owned to be the Records of the Christian Doctrine He does not say by whom they were written but at the reading of the first Chapter of St. Matthew he was hair'd out of his wits He met with such difficulties that his reason could not answer if he brought any with him to the reading of it for it is to be suspected that he used none because a little reason in such a case as this would at this time have lead him to have consulted his Authority For if he whom this Man calls God's Vicegerent and the great Elias that is supposed to solve all doubts can say no more to this difficulty than he himself could he might have kept his Reason still as bad as it was and have been content to be ignorant with Reason as well as under Authority But Dear Friend look about you now Thus far our Authour booted and spurr'd and whipping on has gone without reason just now reason comes in a most unlucky time I think for no other purpose but to fool the Man and set him to combate with an Adversary that will certainly be too strong for him for instead of fighting us he now attacks Christianity it self and does all the mischief he can to that Common Faith which he and we profess To this end he revives old Controversies and starts new ones and makes Schemes of Christian Doctrine and that to shew to the World that Christianity has as weak a Foundation as the Jewish Religion was declared before to have To this end I suppose he tells us the three next things 1. P. 7. That some of the Orthodox did not receive into the Canon of the Scripture some of the Books that are now in it P. 7. for near 200 years after the death of our Saviour 2. That every Christian is not able by reading of the Scripture to compose such a Creed as that of Athanasius 3. P. 7. That there are some obscure Doctrines hard to be understood amongst Christians and here he sets down the Trinity Consubstantiality Transubstantiation Predestination and Freewill every one of these are altogether impertinent to this Man's purpose they may be of some use to an Atheist and serve him that is resolv'd to give a secret wound to Christianity but they signify nothing to a Roman Catholick or to him that would plead for Authority to determine Controversies in Christianity in opposition to Reason For first All the Churches in the World are now agreed about the Books of the New Testament and when the Orthodox in ancient times concurr'd in the acceptance of the Books that are now in the Canon they came to this conclusion merely by the reason of the case without the least interposition of any Authority of Pope or Council the last Book doubted of was the Revelations and the reasons for receiving of that Euseb lib. 7. cap. 27. any man may reade in Eusebius lib. 7. cap. 27. as he sets them down in the words of Dionysius of Alexandria Now I cannot imagine to what purpose this Gentleman puts us in mind of this old Controversie if he has Authority for what he does it may be something for his own satisfaction I am sure he has no reason to offer in the case that can be allowed by any man else for the Church of Rome is as zealous to preserve every one of these Books in their esteem and reverence as Ours is I guess that possibly he may be tempted to shew his skill in Controversie and therefore he sets down with an appearance of accuracy that such Books were not received into the Canon by the Orthodox for near 200 years after the death of our Saviour But here the Man's skill fails him for it is certain that Irenaeus quotes the Revelations in several places Irenaeus lib. 4. cap. 37. as a Book of like Authority with the rest of the New Testament and he himself tells us that he wrote in the time of Eleutherius and Bellarmine sets him down as a Writer in the Year 180. after our Saviour's birth and that will lessen the time mentioned of 200. after his death by fifty This mistake is not worth the noting if it did not give us to see how ready some men are to lay aside not onely Reason but the Sacred Records of the Christian Faith not considering the true consequences of their own Action since it is most certain that if a full Authority be not allowed to the Books of the New Testament there can be no pretence to any either in Pope or Council or in any thing that is called Church But our Authour goes on to a second thing and proceeds with more than ordinary caution and seems as wise as

a certain Spanish Don P. 7. he treads out the ground measures the length of his Weapon makes a Speech and would tempt a man to think he is resolved to fight but he withdraws safely and calls in two others to engage a desire he has to see the Holy Scriptures and Athanasius his Creed to combat one another for his divertisement Now which of these two he is for he says not nor yet seems to guess which would have the better in case of a Contrast But alass this man mistakes those two are Friends and if there were any difference between that Creed and the Holy Scriptures Athanasius if he were now alive would be the first man to declare against that Creed it is certain he learnt and sounded all his Doctrines upon those no man read them with greater care and attention no man cites them oftner or with greater veneration Whether our Authour knew this or no I cannot tell but after all his preparatory flourishes he gives no more than this dry insipid request to the Fathers of our Church that they would not tell him that every Christian suppose every Baker Shoemaker or Cobler upon a sincere perusal of this Holy Book would certainly have composed the Creed of Athanasius Now this is a thing which never was spoken either by Bishop Presbyter or Deacon or Parish Clerk Can any Reverend Bishop be presumed to think and say that the great Athanasius had not more wit and reason more art more skill in Consequences than every Cobler and Tinker or than this Man 's two Friends Nailor and Muggleton it is prodigious to think how men dote that undertake to write Books against Reason But whatever this Man does or can say most certain it is that if Athanasius was the Composer of this Creed he did it upon a sincere perusal of the Holy Scriptures by the power of a good Reason and by the skill which he had in Consequence As for Authority of Pope or Council he had none for this Composition this Creed lay in obscurity and was unknown in the Church long after the days of Athanasius and as it was composed at first so it was brought into the use of the Church afterwards for some time without any considerable Authority morely by the private reason of some that were little more than private Men. Thirdly In the next place our Authour sets down some matters of Faith great and necessary Articles P. 7. as he calls them and these are the Mystery of the Incarnation the Doctrines of the Trinity Consubstantiality Transubstantiation Predestination and Free-will These he examined by his Reason but he does not tell us what account his Reason gave of them It is possible after a sincere perusal of the Holy Scriptures that he might find great reason to believe the Incarnation of our Lord and the Doctrine of the Trinity and by consequence that of Consubstantiality and something of a Predestination and it is possible that from thence he found no reason to believe the Doctrine of Transubstantiation for herein many other Mens Reasons would agree with His. This he does not tell us but yet this I will presume in favour to him that he does not think that the Fathers in the Council of Nice and those in the after Councils who fixed the Doctrine of the Trinity and Consubstantiality I say he does not think but that they made their Determinations with highest reason I will presume too that he thinks that the Fathers in the Lateran and Tridentine Councils had reason to determine the Doctrine of Transubstantiation for though we think that in these two later Councils the generality acted by false reasons by prejudice and by worldly interest yet we do not doubt but they all and every one of them pretended to act with reason for certain it is that the private reason of any single man is a much better guide than the private Spirit of a Quaker or any other for a Reason may be urged and is upon information to be corrected but the pretence to the Spirit is not But if the majority of those Fathers at the Council of Nice were able by Scripture and Reason to establish those Doctrines of the Trinity and Consubstantiality to be Articles of the Christian Faith I know not why our Authour since he has the same Scripture and like Reason might not have done the same Sure I am that after this Council Athanasius pleaded much in the defence of the truth of these Doctrines and that not from the Authority of the Council but from the true sense and meaning of the several Texts Sozom. lib. 7. cap. 12. the same way of arguing was used in the first Constantinopolitan Council and so it continued till Theodosius by advice of Nectarius which he received from Sisinnius took another method After these doughty performances P. 8. our Authour comes in the next place a little more closely to Scripture or the sacred Records of Christian Religion and sets his reason to search and examine them and if possible to draw from thence a scheme of Christian Doctrine But here it seems his Reason was jaded and tyred out much more than in all the rest of his Disquisitions perhaps he found not there any thing like to the Doctrines that make up the Apostles Creed He does not tell this though he ought to have done it if he had compared his scheme with it But he tells us that he disagreed from all Churches the Church of England in her 39 Articles P. 8. and all the Catechisms of Catholicks Calvinists Lutherans and Socinians I was pleased that in his opinion the Doctrine of the Church of Rome did no more agree with Scripture than that of the Church of England But though I was pleased in this yet I was not very confident of any advantage from it because our Authour oft queries and seems to doubt whether his Reason does not much differ from other Mens I know that God Almighty has given different Talents to Men for Heads and Brains and Wits as well as Hearts are not alike in every Man I am sure the Ancients by virtue of plain honest reason were able to find the Christian Doctrine in the Holy Scriptures so did St. Irenaeus St. Athanasius St. Hierome St. Chrysostome St. Augustin and the rest This was a light to their feet and a lamp to their paths sufficient to satisfy those good men in matters of Faith and as this Man speaks in the great and necessary Articles But though this Man could not find the Christian Doctrine there yet it seems that he thought that he found something there that pretty well agreed with the dreams of Ebion and Cerinthus and with those of his dear Friends P. 8. Nailor and Muggleton The first of these I am much enclined to believe and if I were as impertinent as He is perhaps I might give some evidence of the second As for Ebion and Cerinthus this Gentleman is too close