Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
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A26149
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An answer to some considerations on the spirit of Martin Luther and the original of the Reformation lately printed at Oxford.
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Atterbury, Francis, 1662-1732.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing A4146; ESTC R4960
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53,756
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88
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Church of Rome for the Catholic Church and is too trite a subject to be here insisted on But Truth and Holyness Error and Vice have a necessary Connexion §. 59. What then Luther we have prov'd an holy man and therefore this do's not touch us in the sense he would have it Yet truth and holyness Error and Vice are not it seem's so necessarily link'd together but that a Teacher of something false may bring forth the fruits of a good life and contrary the Teacher of Truth the fruits of a bad for these are his words in this very paragraph So that Necessary and Contingent are the same in this man's Logic. Agen he proves that where more corrupt Doctrines are §. 60. believ'd and taught there for the general are more corrupt lives Agreed but are Luther's Doctrines of such a stamp Indeed in his gross way of delivering 'em they may have such an appearance The 4 main heads are he says 1. The §. 61. Nullity and Antichristianism of the former Clergy and the non-obligation of their Laws But I have made out from the Smalcald Articles that Luther held no nullity in this case tho' in points fundamental he allow'd not the Authority of councils as depending merely on revelation for them yet in things indifferent I have shew'd that he was as willing to be concluded by their sanctions as any man 2. The inutility of works pennance mortifications c. This is all a slander he decry'd not the use but the merit of them 3. The servitude of Man's will and inability to do good even in the regenerate Ls. Doctrine of free will is when fairly expounded the same with the Church of Englands as such we own it and shall defend it 4. The sole sufficiency of Faith in us for our Iustification We have told him that Luther held good works as necessary to Salvation as any Papist of 'em all tho' he did not think they were the cause of justification That they follow'd upon it as heat attends the light of the Sun he own'd but then as heat do's not enlighten however close join'd with that which do's so neither do they justify If then ' t was out of these three latter points that a great dissoluteness of Life Covetousness Oppression c. grew 't is to be hop'd the crimes imputed are but a fiction and that the Reform'd are not so bad as they are represented since those three points when truly stated have a quite different air we see from what he has bestow'd upon ' em The Parragraph referr'd to I 'me sure proves no such thing § 7. there are two or three expressions from Erasmus Calvin and Musculus which represent some of the Reform'd as worse then while they were Papists And will he take the advantage of this so far as to say that the Reformation do's of it self make men worse If he will 't is plain he 's resolv'd to make all the spiteful inferences he can without troubling himself whether they are just or no. He proceeds to reflect on the many Sects that sprung § 62. up after the Reformation But a late Apologetical Vindicator of the Church of England has so fully clear'd this objection that the most partial must be satisfy'd I can add nothing to what that worthy Author has done and shall therefore spare my self the trouble of transcribing I shall only take notice of something the Considerer relates on this occasion By reason of these Sects he says following the Reformation so close at the heels c Lr. often foretold that the true Religion should not long continue after his death He bring 's not a Letter from Lr. to confirm this report which is an evident sign that he cannot for upon lesser occasions he do's not spare his Latin Indeed Luther was so far from any diffidence of this nature that his Adversaries have blam'd him for a too great presumption on t'other side particularly Bellarmin in his 12th Note urges against him a prophecy of his that in two years the Papal Kingdome should be destroy'd Tho' this too be a falsity and was broach'd by Cochleus a venemous writer and one so careless of truth or falshood that Sanders himself is not more But my Author has a great knack at Remarks i' the end of this Paragraph he makes another about our refining in the points of Controversy and coming nearer and nearer still to the Church of Rome Now let any man compare Bellarmin's bold truths with the softnings of the Bishop of Condom and the Representer and then tell me on which side this imputation lyes 'T will appear I believe upon this search that Old Popery and New Popery agree no more then the two styles We are come now to the last stage of the Pamphlet §. 63. where we may see how much art is requisite to manage circumstances well Nothing is less obnoxious to censure then the story of Ls. death when intirely told Yet as passages are here pick'd out and wrested it makes no good appearance This we have the more reason to take ill of him because he there quotes Iustus Ionas his account the most authentic extant and yet takes but a single circumstance from him in the whole relation The truth is no other account bear's any credit with us This was compil'd by Eye-witnesses Ionas Caelius and Aurifaber who solemnly invoke God to witness that they have related all things with exact fidelity and who indeed durst not have done otherwise since Count Mansfeld and several other persons of Quality were present also and could have confuted 'em had they been faulty in any thing Sleidan has contracted the story from them and in his words I shall give it you Vide marg a Prius quam Islebium perveniret quod erat sub exitum Januarii valetudine utebatur tenuiori sed tamen causam agebat propter quam erat vocatus aliquoties in templo docebat percepta quoque caena Domini 17. vero die Februarii coepit aegrotare gravius ex pectore Erant cum eo filii tres Joannes Martinus Paulus alii quidam familiares in his etiam Justus Jonas Ecclesiae Hallensis Minister quanquam erat imbecillus prandit tamen cum reliquis atque coenavit inter coenandum variis de rebus locutus hoc etiam inter caetera rogavit Num in illa sempiterna vita simus alter alterum recognituri cumque illi ex ipso averent scire quid inquit accidit Adamo c. A coena quum divertisset precandi causa sicuti consuevit coepit augeri dolor pectoris Ibi monitu quorundam usus est cornu monocerotis ex vino post in minori lectulo hypocausti per unam alteram horam suaviter dormit Cum evigilasset in cubiculum ingreditur ad quietem iterum se componit salutatis amicis qui aderant orate inquit Deum ut Evangelii doctrinam nobis conservet
for a time Here says He if the Wife persists in an obstinate denyal of the Bed opportunum est ut dicat maritus si tu nolueris alia volet si Uxor nolit adveniat Ancilla That is she shall be taken into her place not as Woman but as Wife after divorce made from the other for so the next words plainly speak ita tamen ut antea iterum tertio uxorem admoneat coram aliis ejus etiam pertinaciam detegat ut publice ante conspectum Ecclesiae duritia ejus agnoscatur Reprehendatur Si tum renuat repudia eam He must first admonish her twice or thrice in public and then Repudietur Uxor adveniat Ancilla I was willing to propose this passage intire to take off the disguise which it's Quoter has put upon it He has shufâ—…led the two ends of the sentence together and by taking out the ita tamen c in the middle made it speak just as he would have it That which gives distast to the Ear in it is a German by-word and such kind of things Lr. according to the humor of those times pursues with some fondness take it singly and it carries an air of levity I confess but in consort with the rest you see has a meaning quite different from what this Author would insinuate Thus far my Author has slip'd his first design not a letter of what has been yet said promoting any wayes the tryal of L s Spirit by the Fruits of it He begins now after a Parenthesis of 25. Pages to offer something that looks that way L s Anticelibacy stay 's not here he says he shook §. 12. off his Vow and Married a Nun This we acknowledge to be a Work and we 'll prove it no bad one Had he done it with the Pope's License his Adversaries must have been silent for that 's a rul'd case with the School-men and the K. of Aragon's story is too known to be repeated Yet these same Schoolmen do not stretch the point so far as to say the Pope has an absolute unlimited power over these Vows no a solemn Vow such as Luther's was is they say de jure positivo ac naturali and that in this therefore the Pope cannot make a nullity where there is none but onely declare it where it is a Papa non potest dispensare in Voto solenni quis enim potest dispensare in jure naturali positivo possunt quidem incidere causae in quibus Papa non quidem dispenset sed per interpretationem aequi boni declaret eum qui voverat non teneri voto Maldon Sum. q. 12. art 7. Now if L s Vow was of it self void what need of a recourse to the Pope to have it declar'd so 'T was made immediately to God without any intervening obligation to his Holyness and tho' the judgment of the Church be desireable to satisfy a scrupulous Votary that he is releas'd yet if the Votary be satisfy'd without this judgment and his grounds be rational he may act accordingly without sin Now L r. had several reasons to think his Vow not binding It was taken up without deliberation or even consent Neque enim libens cupiens fiebam Monachus sed à terrore agone subitae mortis vovi coactum ac necessarium votum a Praef. ad Lib. de Vot Monast. This citation my Author has pag 3. but mangled he leaves out those first words neque enim libens cupiens fiebam Monachus sed and then in the end coactum ac necessarium votum And yet p. 63. when these expressions are for his purpose he cites 'em all intire And against the express commands of his Father b Te ignorante invito id tentavi Ib to whom Obedience was he knew injoin'd by Scripture when Continence was not c Continentia non est mandata Obedientia vero est mandata Ibid. So many flaws had this Vow in it's first conception And as he had taken it up thro' disobedience so 't was laid down in compliance to that very authority it had defy'd for so Melchior Adamus relates the story But what need was there of doing this in the 42d year of his Age when in the homely phrase of the Pamphlet the boilings of nature were now well asswag'd But is the Considerer so well acquainted with Luther's Crasis as to be sure of that Are fresh lustings a greater wonder after forty then a new Religion after threescore If L r. did not then burn how comes this act to be a Fleshly Lust with my Author If he did why is it question'd when an Apostle has given his warrant for it He himself I own gives another reason for his Marriage the leaving his own doctrine confirm'd by his own example d Epist. ad Mich. Shifel But he does not give it as the onely one Tho should he lay the whole stress of the case upon this principle t would easily bear it Men were then strangely possess'd with the aeternal obligation of a Vow when they grew uneasy under it yet they look'd on Mariage with horror and detestation and chose rather the methods God had forbid then the remedies he had appointed To rescue men's minds from the slavery of these notions was L s design He could no wayes so effectually recommend his doctrine as by being himself the example of it This motive therefore was sufficient to authorise what he did since according to St. Thomas a Qui â—…ovet que dammodo sibi statuit legem obligans se ad aliquid quod est secundum se in pluribus bonum potest tamen accidere quod in casu aliquo sit in utile vel majoris boni impedimentum quod est contra rationem ejus quod sub voto cadit ideo necesse est quod in tali casu determinetur votum non esse servandum Aqu. 2. 2. qu. 88. 10. and St. Bernard's b Non arbitror Deum exigere à nobis quodcunque sibi promissum bonum si pro eo aliquid melius fuerit absolurum Bernard Ep 57. rules 't is allowable to exchange a Vow for any greater good that stands in competition with it And the picking out Bora to match with one who had formerly been a Nun was but making the President he was going to set more conspicuous and an open declaration that the quarrel between him and Rome was irreconcileable Besides it must be consider'd that L r. did not by any particular sollicitations invite Bora either to leave her Monastery or to take up thoughts of marriage she had done both of her own accord Her Veil she had thrown off above two years before her acquaintance with L r. and went so far in these resolutions as allmost to close with a match that was proffer'd her but this breaking off His offer was accepted But Adamus says that Lr. himself afterwards §. 12. regretted this action What