Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A42574
|
The primitive fathers no papists in answer to the Vindication of the Nubes testium : to which is added an historical discourse concerning invocation of saints, in answer to the challenge of F. Sabran the Jesuit, wherein is shewn that invocation of saints was so far from being the practice, that it was expresly [sic] against the doctrine of the primitive fathers.
|
Gee, Edward, 1657-1730.
|
1688
(1688)
|
Wing G459; ESTC R18594
|
102,715
|
146
|
would not do his business and was not to the purpose and thereupon challenged him to produce Fathers for that Point promising him at the same time a fair Answer But our Compiler durst not offer to accept of the Challenge dares not meddle with such a thing but if two or three bits of the Old Testimonies out of the Nubes may be admitted they are at my Service and from these it is that he would fain prove that even in matters of Belief the Tradition of the Catholick Church is the best Demonstration What better than the Express Testimony of Scripture it self Methinks our ignorant Compiler might have been contented to have made Tradition only as good or equal to Scripture for the Demonstration of Faith which is the highest the Council of Trent it self durst rise in favour of Tradition and never pretended to mount Tradition so much above Scripture as to make it the BEST DEMONSTRATION of Matters of FAITH But when Ignorance and too great a stock of Confidence meet together such Assertions as these are commonly the fruits of them But for this extravagant Assertion he hath a mind to bring in Origen for a Voucher who speaking concerning the Belief of Christ's being the Son of God says that is to be embrac'd which by a Succession from the Apostles is preserved in the Church by Ecclesiastical Tradition but in Answer to this Is not that Truth and Faith concerning Christ's being the Son of God expresly taught and held forth in the Holy Scriptures and which is more doth not Origen himself expresly tell us in this very place for our Compiler is for looking no further than his own Book that that Truth was to be learnt by us ab IPSO from Christ himself whose Words Doctrine and Actions are used to be thought to have been the Subject of the New Testament which I take to be Scripture and as this Doctrine was to be read in the Scriptures so it was delivered down from thence in Ecclesiastical Tradition which can mean nothing else than either that the Scriptures which did comprehend that Faith were delivered down successively from Age to Age in the Church or that this was always taught in the Sermons and Homilies of the Fathers of the Church successively And to give our Compiler a better knowledge of Origen's sence about these things I will refer him to one Passage which I will set down and desire him to consider of it Origen in Leviticum c. 7. Homilia 5. p. 144. Edit Froben 1536. Origen in his Homilies upon Leviticus speaking of the Old and New Testament tells us that in THEM every word that appertaineteh to God by which Expression the least he can mean is that every Point of Faith may be sought after and found out and all Knowledge of things may be apprehended from THEM But if any thing doth remain which the Holy Scripture doth not determine no other third Scripture ought to be received for the Authorizing any Knowledge but we are to commit to the Fire that which remaineth that is we must leave it to God for in this present World God is not for having us to know all things Our Compiler is next for having Tertullian on his side but why does he not then bring us something to prove it or rather why did he not disprove what I had produced for the Authority and Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures from Tertullian He neither does the one nor offers at the other and yet this must pass it seems for vindicating And just thus he serves me after for when I in Vindication of S. Basil had quoted him declaring for the necessity of Scripture-Evidence for Matters of Faith he says not one Syllable in Answer to it but is for referring me to the old Quotations out of Basil Epiphanius and Lirinensis which I had shewn him before were not to the purpose which is such perfect trifling as none but such a Compiler as he is would be guilty of He then falls to thanking me for saying in relation to the Testimony from Gregory Nyssen that we allow the Tradition of Antiquity to be highly useful and necessary in the Interpreting or giving us the genuine Sense of Points of Faith all the Answer I will give him is much good may it do him however how far that Expression was from doing us any hurt or them any good I have abundantly shewn in my Vindication which I am loth to transcribe hither but that I may not be behind-hand in Civility for the Compiler's Thanks I will present him in Token of my Gratitude with a Passage or two from his Gregory Nyssen and other Fathers which I must recommend to his Consideration Gregory Nyssen in his Dialogue de Animâ Resurrectione lays it down for a Position which no Man ought to contradict that in that only the Truth (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nyssen Dial. de Animâ Resurrect Tom. 2. P. 639. Edit Paris 1615. must be acknowledged which hath upon it the Seal of Scripture-Testimony And in another part of his Works he calls the Holy Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem in Orat de iis qui adeunt Hierosol Tom. 2. p. 1084. a true or streight and inflexible Rule S. Austin is as clear and full against our Compiler while he assures us that in those things which are laid down plainly in the Scripture all those things are found which concern Faith or Manners (c) In iis quae aperte in Scripturâ posita sunt inveniuntur illa omnia quae continent fidem moresque vivendi August de Doctr. Christianâ l. 2. c. 9. Tom. 3. p. 17 18. S. Hierom speaking of the Hereticks in his time which made so much noise and pretended so highly to Apostolical Tradition gives this severe Doom upon them but those things also which they of themselves invent and yet feign to have received as it were by Tradition from the Apostles without the Authority and Testimonies of the Scriptures the sword of God doth smite (d) D. Hieron in Aggeum c. 1. Tom. 6. p. 230. Edit Basil 1565. I could give him several such Testimonies from other Fathers but I will neither trouble him or the Reader with any more at present it will be time enough to send him the rest when he hath answered these And will now pass to his next Chapter and the Vindication of it But here it seems there was no need of any Vindication for I am brought in as one of their own side for saying and granting that our Church doth honour the Saints in observing days in honour or memory of them and I have the Compiler's thanks for it here we have had this Concession up once already it made one of the most terrible Articles of Popery against me in our Compiler's masquerading Letter from a Dissenter to the Divines of the Church of England In my Answer to that scurrilous Letter I did sufficiently acquit my self and our
did see it necessary to speak out more plainly the Sense of their Church about the Nature of Purgatory and therefore upon the Fifth Article in the Apostles Creed about the Descent into Hell when they come to give the various Senses in which the word Hell is used they tell us it is first taken for the Receptacle of the Damned wherein the Souls of them are tormented with an Eternal and Vnquenchable Fire They next will have it to signifie Purgatory and these are their own Words Furthermore there is a PURGATORY FIRE in which the Souls of the Pious are * Praeterea est PURGATORIUS IGNIS in quo Piorum Animae ad definitum tempus cruciatae expiantur ut iis in aeternam Patriam ingressus patere possit in quam nihil coinquinatum ingreditur Catechism ad Parochos Pars 1. p. 50. Edit Lugd. 1676. TORMENTED FOR A SET TIME in order to their being expiated that so an Entrance into their Eternal Country may lye open unto them into which nothing polluted does enter And to let the World see they did not give their own Sense herein but that of their Church they quote in the Margin the Council of Trent it self for it in the 25th Session about Purgatory and tell us immediately after that Holy Councils by which they must mean that of Florence as well as that of Trent have declared for the Truth of this Doctrine that it is confirmed by the Testimonies of Scripture and Apostolical Tradition and therefore the Parish Priest is to treat more diligently and more frequently of Purgatory because we say the Authors of the Catechism are fallen into those times wherein Men do not endure SOUND DOCTRINE If the Times were thought so bad when that Catechism was drawn up what must be thought of ours when not only the Protestants will not endure this SOUND DOCTRINE but the Present Writers of the Church of Rome the Bishop of Meaux his Vindicator and the Compiler will no more endure this SOUND DOCTRINE of a PURGATORY FIRE than the Hereticks but cry out so often that the Church doth not believe that the Church doth not teach a Purgatory FIRE Whereas it is as evident as that there is Day and Night that this Catechism drawn up by the Order of the Council of Trent and confirmed by Pope Pius the Fifth doth not only here deliver it as Sound Doctrine that there is a PURGATORY FIRE WHEREIN THE SOULS of the FAITHFUL are TORMENTED FOR A SET TIME but in the next Page speaking of the Souls of the Faithful which departed this Life before Christ's Resurrection says that they went not to Heaven which was not opened to any before Christ's Death and Resurrection but that they were carried either into Abraham 's Bosom or as it NOW happens to those who have something to discharge when they dye were expiated or purged by the FIRE OF PURGATORY But I have a better evidence than all these to prove that by Purgatory the Church of Rome doth certainly mean a Place of Torment wherein those Souls that are detain'd in it undergo Fiery-Torments which differ no otherwise from Hell-Torments but only in the Duration of them that Purgatory Torments are but for a time but the other are everlasting and it is no other than the Office for the Dead in the Romish Missal In the Mass for the Dead the Offertory runs thus O Lord Iesu Christ King of Glory DELIVER the SOULS of all the FAITHFUL DECEASED from the PAINS OF HELL and from the BOTTOMLESS PIT Deliver them l Domine Jesu Christe Rex Gloriae libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum de Poenis Inferni de profundo lacu libera eas de Ore Leonis ne absorbeat eas Tartarus ne cadant in Obscurum sed signifer Sanctus Michael repraesentet eas in Lucem Sanctam quam olim Abrahae promisisti semini ejus Missa pro Defunctis in Missali Romano fol. 51. Edit Paris in 8o. 1582. from the MOUTH of the LION that HELL may not SWALLOW THEM UP FOR EVER and that they may not fall into outer Darkness but let thy Holy Angel Michael convey them unto that Heavenly Light which thou hast promised of old to Abraham and to his Séed This is the service of the Church of Rome at this very day for the Dead the only enquiry now to be made is who these are for whom the Church of Rome is so solicitous to have them delivered out of the Pains of Hell and out of the Mouth of the Lion c. And who can I better inquire of than our Compiler himself He shall be the Man that the World may see how very fairly I deal with my Adversaries This Prayer then must be put up for one of these three sorts of men either for the Souls who are in Heaven or for the Souls who are in Hell or for some Souls who are neither in Heaven nor Hell but in a middle State or Place which their Church doth call Purgatory Is this Prayer therefore used for the Souls in Heaven No says our Compiler for it is needless to pray for those that are in Heaven there being no want there at all no want of Relief of Refreshment and consequently no Hell-Torments undergone by any Souls there of Pardon there being no Guilt there of Sins Is it for the Souls in Hell No replies the Compiler again it is as fruitless to pray for those in Hell that State being wholly irreversible So that by his help we have light upon the Souls that are prayed for there and those are the Souls in Purgatory which according to this Prayer undergo their Hell-Torments and are in a Condition nothing different from the damned but meerly in the Duration of their Pains these Souls torments being but temporary but those of the damned eternal And for the Condition of the Place in which these miserable Souls are we find it here represented in this Prayer as the same with Hell and we meet in this short Prayer with all the Terms by which Hell is described to us in the word of God so that there is no danger of our mistaking the sense of the Church of Rome about Purgatory since we find it so plainly set forth in her Office for the Souls in it as a Place of Fiery Torments However to put this thing without the possibility of a Reply that the Compiler may see that it is not I alone who gather thus much out of that Prayer I will give the Reader an account of Cardinal Capisucchi's Opinion in his 5th Controversy about the Words of this very Prayer which I have made use of and put down above The Cardinal first puts down the Opinion of them who look upon that Prayer as offer'd up for those that are in Hell who may come to be deliver'd thence as Trajan the Heathen Emperour is said to have been but This he refuses as most false and erroneous upon the reasons commonly given in