Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n
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A58328
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Animadversions by way of answer to a sermon preached by Dr. Thomas Kenne, Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells, in the Cathedral Church of Bath, on Ascension-Day last, being the fifth day of May, 1687
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Reed, John, Father.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing R665; ESTC R36704
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18,505
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40
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your Lordship be pleased to observe how in that most wicked time of the Synagogue speaking out of that Chair which Christ commanded to be obeyed they answer truly in matters of Faith and their chief Pastors Prophesie and why Because Christ commanded that Chair to be obeyed and did not he command the Church built upon the Rock to be obeyed also Witness these words of St. Matth. 18th Chap. 17th Vers And if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as a Heathen man and a Publican Whence it is to be gathered that the Church of Christ cannot err in her spiritual Jurisdiction rogavi pro te Petre ut non deficiat fides tua As for my part I will never allow that Church to be the Church of Christ that owns her self fallible and this I am ready to Sign and Seal with the last drop of my Blood. The Protestant Church did and does still own her self fallible therefore it cannot be the Church establish'd by Christ on the Rock This shou'd be enough to oblige your Lordship to make it your sole business to find out truth and embrace it there is none that values his Eternal Felicity but will think it well worth his while it being that only unum necessarium so much recommended by our Saviour in his Gospel But all this my Lord might be answer'd much breifer in saying your Lordship mistook hugely in the Supremacy the Protestants of England give their King which you said to be only civil and politick as that of King Saul in the Jewish Church Read if you be pleased the Oath of Supremacy and you will find that the King is made in effect what the Popes pretended to have been heretofore in this Realm The Popes never pretended any civil or temporal Jurisdiction in England but a Spiritual one only which is the very Jurisdiction King Henry the Eighth super-added to his Temporal Power which was never done by any Christian King in England before nor elsewhere that ever I heard or read of Your Lordship therefore must allow a spiritual Supremacy in the King it is the only genuine sense it can have and not at all to be contradicted For alas If Supremacy were nothing then to own a Supream politick or civil Power in the King there is no Roman Catholick this day in his Dominions that wou'd loose any preferment either spiritual or civil on that accompt For we are not such fools as to expose our selves to suffer so many rude persecutions and undergo the loss of so many considerable imployments of both kinds for not taking the Oath of the Kings being Supream Politick and Civil Head of the Churches of all his Realms That I am very free to take my self tomorrow if I cou'd but share with your Lordship in the fat of your double Benefice Nay without any Spes lucri I swear with all my heart that I know no other Supream Politick or Temporal Power in all his most Sacred Majesties Dominions but what is in his Royal Person alone and do beseech God Almighty to bless and preserve Great James our Sovereign King Lord and Master on the Throne of his Royal Ancestors till he sees his Subjects in general and each individual person of them swear and protest the same and maintain to the loss of their Lives and Fortunes that true Allegiance due by the Laws of God and Nature to his most Sacred Majesties Civil and Politick Supremacy obedite prepositis vestris And so in paying to Caesar what is due to Caesar they 'll pay to God also his own due This is enough for that Point of your Sermon let us come now to the Controversie of the last Part which was with much vehemency against the Real Presence I thought indeed that matter had but little or no relation at all with the words of your Text God is gone up with a shout the Lord with the sound of a Trumpet But your Lordship knows best your own Reasons which I leave to your self and come to my Matter which is to refute your Objections and explain the Roman Catholick Doctrine concerning the Real Presence seeing you wedged that Mystery into your Discourse without any relation to your purpose I did no sooner hear your solemn protestation against this holy Sacrament then immediately I supposed you were an Abjurator ready to swear point-blank that Christs most sacred Humanity is not really and substantially on our Altars in Vertue of the Sacramental words For I saw you exhorted with passion your People not to be tottered by every blast of wind that shall say Christ is on this Altar or Christ is on that Altar for Christ is actually in Heaven and shall continue there till he comes to judge at the end of the World. As for this Point I answer first that if your Lordship means to perswade your poor People that he is not really present on your own Communion Tables you may swear it confidently and so may I too for I own no power in you to bring him nor intention to make use of any power to possess his most sacred Humanity really in your Communion Bread And it is our Roman Catholick Doctrine that without characterical power and lawful intention he cannot be really present on our Altars and much less on your Tables seeing you renounce all such power and intention But to say and swear his real Presence not to be on our Altars after Consecration done by a lawful Priest legally intentioned is the greatest fit of rashness in nature for none can say it with truth nor swear it without a most sacrilegious Perjury and that according to your own Rule of Faith which is Scripture expounded by every individual person of sound judgement There is nothing more rash nor that can come nearer madness then to say there is none of found Judgement nor ever has been amongst so many Learned and Eminent Roman Catholick Doctors who are and have been ready at all hours to maintain that most holy Mystery to the effusion of the last drop of their Blood as many have done rather then forswear themselves in denying the most positive Article of Faith we have in Scripture And no Protestant ought to find fault with this Doctrine seeing their Judgements give them that they can most favourably expound Scripture for the mystery of the Real Presence as you will see by so many positive Proofs drawn out of the Gospel But I wou'd fain know first what you are at concerning this Mystery I am mistaken if you did not intend to perswade your People that Roman Catholicks pretend to have Power by vertue of the Sacramental Words to bring down Christ Jesus his most Sacred Humanity on their respective Altars and rob the Saints in Heaven of the beatifical sight of that Sacred Pledge in which consists the plenitude of their Eternal Joy and Happiness For you exhorted your Auditory with such eagerness to stick to their Principles and not to be tottered here and
the convertible Points I took notice of in your last Ascention Sermon and unless I be much mistaken that days controversie was in order to take away all suspicion of your being Roman Cotholickly inclined For your Lordship living as Seneca saith sine impedimento that is to say without a Wife and having the reputation of one that lives morally well which is enough for the Rabble to say you are Popishly affected you undertook that days work to take away the scandal which had no other ground than your good Works thank then my Lord your own Church for this abuse which proceeds from that unhappy Merit-killing Doctrine which prives out of your Schools all good Works and Meritorious actions To this purpose I remember the Friday following your Lordship us'd all means in your instruction of Faith to perswade your Auditors that Abrahams Justification was for his Faith and not for his good Works All your Proof was because Abraham believed before he was circumcised a very weak or rather no argument indeed quasi vero that all Abrahams good Works were only comprehended in his circumcision Pray tell me now if you have this positively in Scripture You can never do it my Lord but you will find the contrary in positive Terms both in the New and Old Testament What shall be the final Judgement of Predestination and Reprobation Shall it not be for Doing or not doing good Works Witness the very words of our last Sentence recorded in the Gospel venite Benedicti patis mei esurivi enim dedistis mihi manducare c. Come ye blessed of my Father c. I was hungry and you gave me to eat c. And the other Sentence shall be most terribly terrible against the Reprobate for want of good Works Ite maledicti in ignem Aeternum c. Go ye cursed to the everlasting Fire c. And why Esurivi enim non dedisti mihi manducare c. Because I was hungry and you did not feed me c. I will content my self now with one Proof out of the Old Testament it is in the 30th Chapter of Deuteronomy 19 verse I call Heaven and Earth to record this day against you that I have set before you Life and Death Blessing and Cursing therefore choose Life that thou and thy seed may Live. How cou'd God Almighty call Heaven and Earth to Judge them if he had not endowed them with Free Will for you cannot Lawfully hang a Cripple for not running nor a Man Born Blind for not Reading You must make God then far more cruel than Man if he damns for not doing Good Works you supposing he deprives him of Free-will which is the Doctrine of our pretended Reformers who attribute all to Faith and nothing to Merit As for your Lordship I think I cannot deal fairer with you then to remit you to the Western Window of that Cathedral wherein I heard you Preach and there you will find in Capital Letters your own Judgement drawn out of the 2d Chapter of St. James v. 26. For as the Body without the Spirit is Dead so Faith without good Works is Dead also This is all I have to say against those two Sermons I heard your Lordship Preach now I beseech the Almighty God that you may rather soon then late make it your main Concern to find out Truth and for this purpose you must invoke faithfully and fervently the Holy Ghost to Englighten your understanding that you may see your errour and enflame your will to embrace truth and return speedily to the bosome of Christs only saving Church on Earth and then you will have the Sign of the Holy Cross in Veneration you will make use of it in the beginning of all your undertakings You will own out of the words of God himself a Visible Spiritual Supream Head of his Church on Earth and that the Sacrament of the Altar cannot be a Sacrament according to the Institution thereof if Christs most Sacred Humanity be not there substantially and really present And finally you will confess that Free-will and Meritorious Actions are absolutely necessary for Salvation Recant timely my Lord otherwise it is much to be fear'd that this just Judgment shall surprize you ignorans ignorabitur Do what lyes in you and God will never refuse his helping hand It is a Principle with us in Divinity that facienti quod in se est Deus non denegat Gratiam Do it again I say with all the speed possible for S. Ambrose assures us that the Holy Ghost doth not Love to be put off Nescit tarda Molimina Spiritus Sancti Gratia. Tertulian says Christiano Christianum non est a Christian has no to Morrow but will say with the Royal Prophet ecce nunc coepi Your Lordship will Pardon me I hope for exhorting you to mind your Salvation timely having no other Interest in your Conversion but the Glory of God and the good of your Soul. But if you shut your ears to this spiritual Admonishment I call God to Witness that there is not a Tittle in this silly Scroul but shall arise in Judgement against you I am but a poor Begger I own nay a Begger indeed that begs his bread daily and feeds only on the Charitable Benevolence of Christians and will do so while I live in please God for I can never aspire higher but do not despise the words of the little ones quia infirma mundi elegit Deus ut confundat fortia I am the weakest of all men I confess in utroque homine yet my poor Prayers shall be for your Lordships speedy Conversion to the greater Glory of God to your own Eternal Felicity to the great Joy of all the Angels and Saints of Heaven to the publick Edification of your fellow Subjects to the Conversion of Thousands of your poor stragling Sheep and perishing Lambs and finally to the unspeakable comfort and satisfaction of My Lord Your most humble Servant and Well-wisher in Soul and Body F. J. R. FINIS Books Printed and sold by Nathaniel Thompson at the Entrance into the Old Spring-Garden near Charing-Cross A Manual of Controversies clearly demonstrating the Truth of Catholick Religion By Texts of Holy Scripture Councils of all Ages Fathers of the first 500 years Common sense and Reason And fully Answering the principal Objections of Protestants and all other Sectaries Price bound 1 s. 6 d A Manual of Devout Prayers Fitted for all Persons and Occasions To which is added the Rosary Latine and English Prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary c. The Prayers of St. Bridget and other most devout Prayers upon several occasions never before published With a Catholick Calender for ever Price 1 s. A most excellent way of hearing Mass with profit and Devotion Containing the whole Mass in Latine and English with divers choice Select Prayers before and after Confession and Communion An an Examen of Conscience To which is added the Rosary of our Blessed Lady Prayers to