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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89446	The Church of England vindicated against her chief adversaries of the Church of Rome wherein the most material points are fairly debated, and briefly and fully answered / by a learned divine.	Menzeis, John, 1624-1684.	1680 (1680)	Wing M33A; ESTC R42292	320,894	395

question the Veracity of God as in the first case 4. If the Proposals of the Church made Articles Fundamental ergo after the Churches definition the Christian Religion should be essentially different from what it was before contrary to Ephes 4 there is but one Faith The sequel is evident because after that definition of the Church there should be Fundamentals or Essentials in Religion which were not before And from this it follows the now Roman Religion is essentially different from the old Christian Religion For by the new definitions of their Church they have made many Essentials which the Ancient Church never knew as I demonstrated against M. Demster Paper 4. 5. I argue with Learned M. Stillingfleet thus The Church is a Church before she past out her definition ergo by her definition she makes no Fundamentals The sequel is proved because the Church cannot be a Church without the belief of all Fundamentals ergo whatever definition she passes posteriour to her being a Church is none of the Fundamentals E. W. the Author of Protestancy without Principles Discourse 3. cap. 6. Sect. 19. superciliously undervalues this argument of D. Stillingfleet supposing he hath evicted the nullity thereof by this simile As in a Kingdom or Commonwealth after the settlement of some great matters I suppose he means the Fundamental Laws they may thereafter proceed to make new Laws so he conceive it to be in the Church But the faculty of that Jesu●t lies in throwing a Feather to the ground with high confidence Two things if I mistake nor may discover the lameness and impertinency of the Jesuits sim●l● And first it's beyond doubt that after the settlement of the Fundamental Laws of a Kingdom the King and Parliament have a Legislative Power to create new Laws not only to declare what Laws formerly were in being but to give a being to Laws which formerly had none But the more Judicious Romanists deny that the Representatives of the Catholick Church far less of the Roman or a Pope have power to make Articles of Faith which were not but that their power is only declarative of Articles of Faith which formerly were So Alphonsus à Castro de haeres lib. 1. cap. 8. Valentia in Part. 3. disp 1. quest 1. punct 6. and Azor. Part. 2. Moral lib. 5. cap. 3. quest 2. yea so much is acknowledged by E. W. himself Sect. 22. Hence when lately D. Taylor in his Disswasive cap. 1. Sect. 2. concluded the impiety of the Romish Religion because it did attribute to the Romish Church i. e. the Pope power to make Articles of Faith contrary both to Scripture Gal. 1. 8 and to the third Oecumenick Council at Ephesus It was replyed to him by a Romanist that they only give to the Church a declarative power to declare what be Articles of Faith If the Church have only a declarative power then she has not such power to make Articles of Faith as the King and Parliament have to make Laws to the Kingdom or if she have power to make Articles of Faith then D Taylor 's Charge of impiety stands in force against Romanists They may chuse which of the two absurdities they will run upon But secondly if the King and Parliament should add to the Fundamental Laws of a Kingdom when addition were made to them thereafter the Constitution of the Kingdom should in so far be altered and different from what it was consequently if the Church should add to the Fundamentals of Faith the Christian Religion should essentially vary from what it was before Nay if the Church may add to Fundamentals and make that Fundamental which was not Fundamental why might she not pair from them also and make those things cease to be Fundamentals which were Fundamentals and so overturn all Christianity and make it a quite different thing from what it was But the Unity of the Christian Religion and of the Catholick Church prove convincingly that the Fundamentals of the Christian Religion are always the same and unalterable Sixthly and lastly The absurdities of this Romish Doctrine may appear by the imp●ous consequences which flow from it As 1. The imperious Usu●●ation of one part of the Catholick Church namely of the Church of Rome her Popes or Councils over the whole Catholick by this she assumes a mighty Soveraignty over the Consciences of all the World to impose on them Fundamental Articles of Faith which Christ never authorized her to do 2. It establishes a most grievous Schism thus she cuts off from the Catholick Church as Hereticks o● persons erring fundamentally all who cannot submit to her heretical Decrees 3. It makes Romanists unchristianly uncharitable and to conclude that all shall be damned which do not with Issachar couch down under the burdens which she imposeth 4. Hence also it is that they abuse the World with an implicite Faith if they be in a readiness to believe what is imposed by their Church it 's enough though they know little in particular what she has imposed yea some say though explicitly they believe nothing Nay Tolet lib. 4. de instruct Sacerd. cap. 3. If a Country man saith he believe his Bishop propounding some Heretical Doctrine about the Articles of Faith he meriteth by believing though it be an errour because he is bound to believe until it manifestly appear that it is against the Church O dreadful impiety Shall it be not only not sinful but meritorious to believe Lyes when it but seems to be the Doctrine of the Romish Church The absurdity of the Romish Assertion being now sufficiently evicted our Doctrine upon the other hand may be clear viz. that those Articles are only to be held for Fundamentals on which Scripture hath put a character of necessity for the appointment of Fundamental Articles or the prescribing of the necessary conditions for obtaining Eternal Life dependeth wholly upon the good pleasure of God and therefore are to be gathered from the Scripture which are the compleat Rule of Faith and deliver to us the whole Counsel of God concerning our Salvation But this Jesuit must needs be st●ll prevaricating and therefore pag. 86. he brings in this as a character given by me of a Fundamental if it be commanded to be believed by all But never did I assert any such thing nor did I ever think that a meer necessity of Precept does infer a point to be Fundamental we are commanded to believe Articles of Faith whether integral or Fundamental But in this is the difference that Fundamentals are also necessary necessitate medii finis by necessity of the means and of the end so as Salvation cannot be attained without the belief thereof neither is any thing to be held a such unless the Scripture which is the adequate Rule of Faith put a character of necessity thereupon From what has been said I deduce this Corollary that the unity of the Catholick Church stands in the unity of Fundamentals and consequently though there be diversity

so considering the posture of humane affairs For seeing the World is divided into so many various Languages whether the Lord thought fit to reveal the Doctrine of salvation by a written Instrument such as the Scriptures or by the definition of a visible Judge as Papists pretend yet it behoved to be delivered in some one Language and seeing those Truths were by the confession of both Parties to be conveyed to others of different Languages by the means of fallible persons either there behoved to be an intrinfick evidence in the Doctrine to shew that it came from God which we affirm or the most part of the world should only have a moral and humane certainty of those Mysteries of salvation which the plurality both of Papists and Protestants do judge insufficient to salvation It 's no Phanatical Enthusiasm therefore to say that souls enlightned by the Spirit of God without the knowledge of Greek or Hebrew Languages in a faithfully translated Bible may see the wonders of Gods Law I say no more than Cassiod Instit lib. 1. cap. 16. Quid in illis literis utilitatis suavitatis non invenies si purissimo lumine mentis intend●s i. e. What spiritual utility or suavity will not be found in those divine writings if thou look on them with a pure eye Neither doth he restrict this to the Original Languages and therefore cap. 21. speaking of Hierom Beatus Hieronymus saith he Latinae Linguae dilatator eximius qui nobis in Translatione Divinae Scripturae tantum praestitit ut ad Hebraeum fontem paene non ●geamus acc●dere He so highly commends Hieroms Translation of Scripture as if there were not much more need of the Original and therefore supposes that translated Scripture could be a ground of Faith Learned Hornbeck Part. 1. Theol. pract lib. 1. cap. 3. records many instances of holy persons both Ancient and Modern who felt a divine convincing and converting power in the Scriptures such as is not to be found in any other writing What serious Christian can but acknowledge that there is a stupendious Majesty yet tempered with an admirable sweet condiscention in the Scriptures Though there be sublime Mysteries in holy Writ which Natural Reason could never have discovered yet all of them are wonderfully suited for carrying on the work of a sinners salvation the like whereof is not to be found in any other Religion whatsoever Whereupon Learned Divines do conclude that in the Complex of the Principal or Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity is an intrinsick evidence of their Divine Original And concerning the stile of holy Scripture Camero hath an excellent expression Tom. 3. pag. 138. Est divinum aliquid in Scripturae stilo quod effari non possum persentiscitur tamen i. e. there is some divine thing in the stile of holy Scripture which I cannot express yet it is felt which he illustrates by this simile when an Angel appears though he assume an humane shape there is ever something peculiar in the Apparition which strikes the mind of the Beholder with an apprehension of somewhat extraordinary Is it then any wonder there be something peculiar in the Scriptures of God to demonstrate their Divine Original Though I speak for the self-evidencing light of holy Scripture I do acknowledge the great usefulness of the Motives of Credibility in their own place for they prepare the mind for discerning this Divine Light resplendent in the Scriptures If this do not satisfie pertinacious Romanists they may at last consider what their Learned Cardinal de Lugo hath said disp 1. de fide Sect. 7 8. where he maintains at length against his Fellow-Jesuits that the first assent given by Christians to Scriptural Revelation is immediate and not founded upon any Prior objective ground Indeed he calls it obscure and inevident but withal infallible most certain and immediate yea he particularly denies it to be founded on the testimony of the Church Miracles or constancy of Martyrs c. only he affirms that a man comparing Scriptural Revelation accompanied with such Miracles the death of Martyrs the approbation of so many judicious Doctors c. with the Idea which he hath in his mind of a Divine Revelation finds such a consonancy betwixt them that without any discursive inference he immediately assents to that Revelation as Divine which the said Author illustrates by this similitude as when saith he a man receives a Letter from his Friend or hears him speak at a distance he compares the Characters of the Letter and the Voice which he hears with the Idea which he hath in his mind of his Friends Writing or Voice and so without any argumentation concludes this is his Friends Writ or Voice and such he supposes to be our first assent to Divine Revelation This Notion of the Cardinal for which he disputes with much Learning and acuteness quite overturns the whimsies of the Pamphleting Missionaries who would have the first assent to Scriptural Revelation to be grounded on the testimony of the Church or definition of their infallible Judge As for the Clamours of the Adversary that the Protestants mentioned in the Objection have charged the Translations of one another with Errours and Discrepancies Ought he not to remember that there be as great variety and contrariety betwixt the Versions made by Popish Authors such as Lyranus Paulus Brugensis Valla Cajetan Erasmus Pagnin Arriat Montanus c. Had those imagined a perfection in the Vulgar Latin would they have dissented from it so often Do not Vega Andradius Driedo Mariana affirm that the Council of Trent when it declared the Vulgar Latin to be Authentical Scripture never intended to assert its freedom from Errour Doth not Isidore Clarius a Popish Bishop aver that he has amended 8000 places in the Vulgar Latin and yet left many to be corrected yea so many were the Errours of the Clementine Translation that one spared not to call it the New Transgression But forbearing to recriminate I answer first Had not this Pamphleter resolved to abuse his Reader by often confuted Cavils he might have learned from our Authors that those Censures for most part are rather the superfaetation of over reaching passion than a rational and composed Verdict of our Translations Might he not have found how the Learned and Modest Rivet in Isagog ad Scripturam Sac. cap. 12. doth chastise both Castalio and Hugh Broughton for their Petulancy upon more Judicious Translators than themselves May not Joseph Scaligers testimony of Beza's Translation preponderate Castalio's Censure In quibus faetus supra caput extulit omnes Ille tuorum operum summa caputque liber Quo penetrale novi reseratur foederis quo Discussa lucem nocte videre datur When the passage of Hugh Broughton alledged by the Pamphleter had been objected by F. Johnson to D. Shirman the Doctor in his Reply pag. 962. spares not to call him passionate Hugh and withal shews that the main thing which offended Broughton at