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B08370 A soveraign remedy against atheism and heresy. Fitted for the vvit and vvant of the British nations / by M. Thomas Anderton. Anderton, Thomas.; Hamilton, Frances, Lady. 1672 (1672) Wing A3110A; ESTC R172305 67,374 174

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declared by the Parliament of Q. Mary a bundel of Cranmers errers and priuat opinions which himself and som few others inuented or borrowed from Luther and Caluin and other Innouators who had resolued to make themselues popular and powerfull by setting vp their own priuat interpretations of Scripture and opinions for points of Religion So that though all England or a greater part of the world than England is should embrace that Reformation and submit their iudgments to that Church their protestant Tenets are still priuat opinions and the submission of their iudgments to the same doth still inuolue that pride and preference of their own choice of a nouelty or new interpretation of Scripture before the ancient doetrin and against the publik testimony of all precedent English Parliaments as also against the tradition of the Catholik Church As for Queen Elizabeth shee accommodated her religion to the times untill shee got the Croun and then shee made use of the new Faith to serue her turn and secure her interest Indeed Iohn Fox his Martyrs were great but foolish sufferers their ignorance was proportion'd to their obstinacy they cast themselues into the fire without Knowing wherfore And yet Iohn Fox sayes those Tinkers Tanners and silly women confuted the Bishops that endeuored to saue their liues which themselues had forfeited acording to the ancient lawes of the land And though they dyed not Martyrs yet they dyed like Englishmen that is with as litle concern and as great courage as if their cause had bin better But this is no miracle in England though the foolish partiality of Iohn Fox his pen doth endeuor to make his Protestant Readers mistake those proud mad fellows for pious Martyrs Q. Though I do approue of your difference between heretical obstinacy and Catholik constancy yet I must still condemn your application therof to protestancy and popery for an other reason which is that Protestancy is so far from inuoluing pride that the Church of England doth not as much as pretend to be infallible in its doctrin neither doth it exact from its children a submission of their iudgments to itself but only to Scripture And I hope there is as much humility I am sure there is more safety in submitting our iudgments to Gods written word as to the tradition of the Roma Catholik Church A. As I commend the Church of Englands modesty and ingenuity in acknowledging its fallibility and in dispensing with the submission of your iudgments to the same no fallible Church can exact or expect a submission of iudgment in any points of doctrin so must I continue in my opinion of the pride and obstinacy of protestancy 1. Because you will not belieue any thing inculcated to you by God vnless it be deliuered to you in writing as if the Diuine maiesty had not as much right to command by orders intimated to us by word of mouth as by his writing All the true belieuers of the world vntill Moyses his law were gouernd by the testimony and tradition of the Church without any writing or Scriptures neither is any thing written in the old or new Testament wherupon Protestants may with any color of probability ground their pretended priuilege of not belieuing any thing but Scripture and this doth in many places tell them they are as much obliged to belieue Tradition or Gods unwritten word as the written Now why Englishmen and som Northen people alone should refuse to obey the Catholik Church vnless it shewes for euery particular Gods order in writing is not intelligible themselues and all other Nations owning the contrary to be prudently practised in all human gouernments This must be pride and obstinacy 2. The pride and obstinacy of this their pretended priuilege which is the life and fundation of all Protestant Reformations is further discouered by the practise of aprinciple wherin all Protestants agree which is that not one of them thinks he is bound in conscience to submit his iudgment to any of their own or any other Congregations sense of Scripture in controuerted texts if that sense agreeth not with his own priuat interpretation If that of his Church agree not with his own sense he may stick to his own and reiect the other And this is the reason why Protestants are diuided into so many sects How this principle and practise may be excused from heretical pride and obstinacy I know not For they stand at a defiance with all Churches and will as litle submit their iudgments to their own as to that of Rome Euery Protestant is by the fundamental Tenet of the Reformation his own Master and a supreme Iudge of Gods written law Doth not this demonstrat how those Reformations are founded vpon pride and obstinacy Can there be greater than that simple men and silly women should presume to be Masters and Iudges of those Diuine and incomprehensible mysteries That they should preferr their priuat iudgments before that of their own Church and of ours vnto which the greatest Doctors in all ages haue submitted Vvhat a proud foolish insolent and obstinat people would the English conclude any other to be wherof not one would acquiesce in the iudgment or sentence of the Courts of Iudicature but euery one assume to himself the power of deciding his own law suites and of appealing from the Chancery or euen from the Parliament to his own priuat opinion and iudgment Let euery Protestant know this is his own case in matters of religion He appeals in what concerns Faith and the sense of Scripture from his own Church and the Catholik and general Councells to his own proper iudgment Doth he think that Christ would institute so absurd a spiritual gouernment Can any man of sense imagin it agrees with Scripture To what purpose then should the Scriptures and St Paul bid us be of one belief peaceable and humble Is any of these virtues or that of Catholik Faith consistent with such pride obstinacy and dissentions as this principle must inspire and we see in all the reformed Churches and in that of our own Countrey You see therfore that your reformed Churches and interpretations of Scripture haue so litle in them of the vnity obsequiousness and humility of Christian Faith so much recommended to us by St Paul that they seeme to the most learned Roman Catholiks not only to sauor of heresy but to be the very source of heretical pride and damnable obstinacy so far are they from hauing the least smack of the fundation or fruit of Christianity SECT III. SOM INFERENCES FIT TO BE considered by all Protestants and vvhether any may be saued if they dye in that persuasion IF Protestancy doth inuolue that pride and obstinacy which I haue endeuored to proue and deduce from its principles without doubt he who dyes a Protestant is damn'd But Because som are called Protestants and yet know not what protestancy is I will deliuer my opinion how far their ignorance may excuse them from being
Christ as offered vpon the Cross is a general fountain of graces and pardons and the foundation of the sacrifices of the old as well as of the new Testament wherof they all were but types or figures therfore that Diuine and bloudy sacrifice of the Cross can not be so peculiarly attributed to the law of grace as to be called the proper sacrifice of the Christian and Catholik Church Q. Is not the sacrifice of the Cross and the sacrifice of the Mass the same sacrifice A. They differ not in the substance because the same Christ is offerd in both and Christ himself is the chief Priest in Both. But they differ in the manner for in the sacrifice of the Mass Christ is offered vnder the species or appearance of bread and wine and in the Cross he was offered in his own shape Q. If the substance of the sacrifice be the same what need is there of that of the Mass is it not sufficient that Christ offered himself vpon the Cross once for all A. It is a general rule grounded vpon reason and the concurrence or custom of all Nations which euer professed any Religion that euery particular Religion must haue its sacrifice peculiar to itself because Religion being Diuine worship and sacrifice being an action professing the Diuinity of that which is worshipt it inuolues a contradiction to say Religion and no sacrifice or to say that a religion can continue and the sacrifice therof not continue Seing therfore the Christian and Catholik Religion doth continue and that the bloudy sacrifice of the Cross or Christs passion doth not continue the sacrifice of the Cross can not be the proper and peculiar sacrifice of the Christian Religion and Catholik Church Q. It is not sufficient that the effects of the sacrifice of the Cross continue in the Church though Christ suffered but once for the cause may be sayd to continue in its effects A. It can not be properly sayd that the cause continues in its effects Otherwise it might be properly sayd that the Priestood and sacrifice of Noe after the deluge chap. 8. Gen doth yet continue because the effect therof viz. the assurance of not suffering an other deluge doth and will continue vntill the end of the world Q. If all the sins of the world be pardoned or at least be sufficiently satisfied for by the sacrifice of the Cross what vse is there for the sacrifice of the Mass or how can it be a propitiatory sacrifice in virtue wherof sins are pardon'd and satisfied for A. It is not against the sufficiency or infinitness of the sacrifice of the Cross that sins be forguien and satisfied for by the sacrifice of the Mass not only because the same Christ is offered in both sacrifices but because the sacrifice of the Mass is a commemoration of that of the Cross and doth apply the sufficiency of the same to the pardon of particular sins that were not committed before Christs passion as we say of Baptism and other Sacraments And if the sacrifices of the old testament were propitiatory in virtue of Christs passion before he came to the world there can be no ground to deny that the sacrifice of the Mass is a Propitiatory sacrifice in virtue of the same passion after that he sufferd CHAP. IV. OF THE CHVRCH OF GOD and of Diuine faith Q. Though I know that they who worship God as he commands are his Church yet there being so many Congregations of Christians pretending themselues alone to be those worshipers and the true Church or at least a part therof I would willingly know whether there be any certain and cleer signes wherby the true Church and its members may be discerned from all false and heretical Congregations and what signes these are I am satisfied that any two or more Congregations dissenting in any doctrin can not constitute that Catholik Church out of which there is no saluation because such Congregations can not haue either vnity or verity in that doctrin wherin they disagree and by consequence seing God who is truth itself and infinitly auers from falsood can no more countenance or confirm with supernatural signs the least than the greatest falsood that Church or Churches which propose contradictory Tenets whether fundamental or not fundamental can no more be the Catholik or part therof than God can forfeit his veracity or incline and oblige men to belieue contradictory points wherof one must needs be false A. That there are certain and cleer signes wherby the true Catholik Church of God may be discerned from all false and heretical Congregations is as euident as Gods veracity and his inclination to truth or as it is that God did not institute a Church wherin there could be no peace concord or order but all must haue bin disorder confusion and dissention For if the testimony of euery of those Congregations were as credible by supernatural signs of their being the true Church as they are confident in their pretentions of being so the most learned and prudent men might liue and dye safely in the state of perplexity and all the world at best must haue bin seekers or sceptiks and there being no reason in such a case to belieue why rather one sect than an other should be the true Church Therfore God being the Author of truth peace order and vnity his Church can not be a Congregation of dissenting or perplexed people changing from one faith to an other for want o● discernable and supernatural signes which none but the true Church ought to haue to the end all men may find it out and therby be directed to embrace the true Diuine worship and doctrin These signes must be supernatural that is signes aboue the sphere and power of natural causes at least they must seem so not only to the vulgar people but to the wisest men and greatest Doctors after a diligent scrutiny and mature consideration of all causes and circumstances because they must be such as produce in us an euident obligation of belieuing that God alone is the Author of the Doctrin proposed as Diuine and that he hath authorised that Church to propose the same The signs must not only be obseruable but obuious to euery vulgar comprehension and perceptible euen by our senses The reason is because many of the mysteries which are to be belieued with Diuine faith exceed human capacity and therfore as well the learned as the ignorant are to be instructed therin by the Church and must take its testimony for a sufficient proof of their obligation to belieue without doubting that God reuealed those things which it proposeth in his name and they can not comprehend though they be credibly reuealed Now to belieue that things so difficult as many mysteries which the Church proposeth are true and reuealed by God and that any man or Congregation of men is authorised by his Diuine authority to propose and press such things vpon our vnderstandings this belief I say can not