Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n
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A53931
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A treatise proving Scripture to be the rule of faith writ by Reginald Peacock ... before the Reformation, about the year MCDL.
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Pecock, Reginald, 1395?-1460?; Wharton, Henry, 1664-1695.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing P1043; ESTC R1772
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67,273
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88
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derides their folly This denial of Infallibility moderation towards the Lollards and disesteem of Legends drew upon him the envy and hatred of the Clergy to which may be added his favour with and faithful adherence to his Patron Duke Humphrey who had always manifested a moderation towards the dissenting Lollards and aversion from the superstitious practices of the Clergy No sooner was the Duke oppressed by a contrary State Faction but his Client the Bishop was attempted and his ruin designed Several Passages were taken out of his Writings which his Enemies accused of Heresie at least of Error Hereupon in the year 1457. he was cited to appear at a Synod held at Lambeth by Thomas Bourchier Archbishop of Canterbury attended with the Bishops of Winchester Lincoln and Rochester and 24 Divines by whom after a short hearing he was condemned of Heresie and injoyned to recant his heretical and erroneous Opinions publickly at S. Paul's Cross. The Recantation he performed on the fourth day of December when his Books were also publickly burnt His Fortunes after that time are very uncertain Some relate him to have been made away in prison others to have been kept prisoner in his own Episcopal Palace until his natural death and lastly some that he had a small pension assigned to him out of the Revenues of the Bishoprick and retired into a Monastery where he ended his days in a short time The Opinions which he was forced to recant as they are represented by Bale Bishop Godwin and Fox are these I. That it is the Office of a Christian Bishop before all other things to preach the Word of God. II. That human Reason is not to be preferred to the Holy Scripture III. That the modern use of the Sacraments as attended with so many superstitious Ceremonies and Customs was lâ—ss advantageous than the use of the Law of Nature IV. That Bishops buying their Admissions of the Bishop of Rome do sin V. That no man is bound to believe and obey the Determination of the Church of Rome VI. That the Revenues of Bishops are by Inheritance the Goods of the Poor VII That the Apostles composed not the vulgar Creed VIII That the Article of Christ's Descent into Hell was not formerly in the Creed IX That no other sense is to be attributed to Holy Scripture but the first and genuine sense X. That it is not necessary to Salvation to believe the Body of Christ is materially in the Sacrament XI That the Universal Church in a General Council may err even in Matters of Faith. XII That it is not necessary to believe in the Holy Catholick Church XIII That it is not necessary to believe the Communion of Saints XIV That the voluntary begging of the Mendicant Friars was unprofitable and no ways meritorious It must not be imagined that these Articles were generally at that time accounted erroneous and heretical in the Church For if we examine them we shall find that many of them were taught and believed by the greatest Divines of the Church at that time some at this day allowed to be literally true by the Learned Writers of the Church of Rome and in fine that our Author knew the Doctrine of the Church far better than his Judges and although condemned by them was no less Orthodox than they As for the twelfth and thirteenth Articles which seem to be most odious they are meer Calumnies as appears from this very Treatise For towards the end of it he acknowledgeth it to be necessary to believe the existence of the Holy Catholick Church and of the Communion of Saints but yet unnecessary to believe on them that is as himself explains it to give a blind assent to all their Determinations The seventh and eighth Articles are known to be literally true by all Learned Men. For no proof can be brought that the Apostles composed this Form of Creed which we now use and it is most certain that the Article of Christ's Descent into Hell was found in none of the Ancient Creeds for the first 400. years except in that of the Church of Aquileia The first second sixth and ninth Articles if candidly interpreted cannot be denied to be true by any sober Romanist and whosoever considers the gross Ignorance and Superstition of those times will not deny the third The fourth Article may be justified by the Opinion of many great Canonists who define all such payments to be Symony and the Church of France hath all along decried and disapproved them The fourteenth was defended by Richard Archbishop of Arniagh Gulielmus de S. Amore and many other great Divines of the Church of Rome The eleventh and consequently the fifth Articles were believed and maintained by Occant Peter de Alliaco Cardinal of Cambray Thomas Waldensis Panormitan Antoninus Cardinal Cusanus Clemangis and many others in this Age. Lastly the tenth Article may be defended from Peter Lombard Peter de Alliaco Scotus Tonstal Bishop of Durham and others who believed indeed the Truth of the Article but denied it to be necessary to be believed That Treatise which I here publish and which gave occasion to the present Discourse was by me transcribed out of a Manuscript extant in Trinity College in Cambridge which seemeth to have been written with Bishop Peacock's own hand as may be conjectured from the frequent Emendations and Additions inserted in the Margin and bottom of the Pages by the same hand The whole Work was intituled by the Author A Treatise of Faith however in the Front of it this Title is affixed by a later hand Reginald Peacock Bishop of Chichester 's Sermons in English whereas the whole Treatise is a Dialogue between the Father and the Son divided into two Books whereof the first proposeth to treat of the most probable means of reducing the Lollards to the Church which he assigns to be an intire submission of Judgment to the Decrees of the Church although supposed fallible The second treateth of the Rule of Faith. The first Part is chiefly taken up with a long Digression proving that Faith is only probable not sciential or that the Truth of the Christian Religion cannot be proved by demonstrative but only by probable Arguments This Dispute is managed in a Scholastick Way full of Subtleties and Niceties of Philosophy and School Divinity and very obscure which therefore I thought not worthy either my transcribing or the Readers perusal However I transcribed some considerable Fragments or Excerpta which seemed to me more remarkable and worthy of notice which I here present to the Reader The second Book or Treatise of the Rule of Faith I have published intire as far as the Manuscript Copy permitted me For which is much to be lamented some few Leaves were wanting in the end Besides what I have already mentioned many things may be here found worthy a particular Observation as with how great ardor he impugns the refusal of
Imprimatur Liber cui Titulus A Treatise of Reginald Peacock c. Guil. Needham R. R. in Christo P. ac D. D. Wilhelm Archiep. Ã Sac. Dom. c. Ian. 12 1687. A TREATISE PROVING SCRIPTURE To be the Rule of Faith. WRIT BY REGINALD PEACOCK Bishop of CHICHESTER before the REFORMATION About the Year MCDL LONDON Printed for Iames Adamson at the Angel and Crown in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1688. PREFACE IF in any part of the Christian Religion an undoubted Certainty and most firm Assurance may justly be required if a scrupulous Examination and curious Enquiry may ever be allowed in Matters of Religion certainly an exact Knowledge of the Rule of Faith will deserve as our first so our chief Consideration For since the Articles of Christianity are not in themselves self-evident nor can be found out by the sole principles of Reason since all revealed Religions are no farther credible than as they can demonstrate their Revelation to have been true and real some Rule was necessary which might propose to Mankind those Articles of Faith which Reason could not suggest and propose them also with such evidence as that the denial of assent should in all become irrational What this determinate Rule is hath been the great Controversie of this and all preceding Ages However all parties agree in affixing some certain properties to it whereby it may be distinguished and indeed without which it can never supply the Office or serve the ends of a true Rule These may be reduced to four Heads That it be able safely and inviolably to convey down all revealed necessary Truths That it be fitted to propose them clearly and invariably to all Mankind That it be independent on all other revealed Articles And lastly that it be assigned as a Rule by God the Author of all revealed Religion If either of the two first Conditions be deficient the Rule will be unuseful if either of the latter uncertain and without authority The Scripture enjoys all these properties in so eminent a manner that no reasonable Doubt can be made of the Truth of it For if we consider that whatsoever is revealed may be pronounced whatsoever is pronounced may be written down and whatsoever is committed to Writing may be preserved safe while those Writings are preserved unaltered we must conclude that any revealed Religion may be intirely and without danger of mistake proposed from written Books to the universal Belief of Mankind since these will afford a standing Rule both to Pastors of teaching of their People and to the People of examining the Doctrine of their Pastors in case of Diffidence The independence of Scripture from all other revealed Articles is no less evident For that these Books were indeed written by those persons whose names they bear and these persons highly credible is known by the same evidences whereby the Authors and Credibility of any other Books are known I mean by the concurrent testimony and consent of all succeeding Ages considered not as a Collection of Men professing the Christian Faith but as persons devoid neither of common sense nor integrity as they must have been if they had mistaken themselves or deluded us in believing and then testifying a matter of fact so easie to be known and more easie to be remembred Being thus assured of the Credibility of Scripture that it was written by such Historians who really either performed or saw those Miracles which they do attest we cannot but believe these Miracles and consequently that the Authors and Founders of the Christian Religion acted by a Divine Commission and may reasonably command our assent to their Revelations Being thus assured of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures we may probably conclude from the nature and end of them but most certainly from their own Testimony that they contain all things necessary to Salvation and are the only Rule of Faith and all this although we did not yet believe any other Article of the Christian Religion On the other side Tradition wants every one of those Conditions which are necessarily required to a Rule of Faith. For first we can never be assured that any Articles were invariably and intirely without any addition or diminution conveyed down to us by Tradition since it hath been in all Times and Ages observed that Matters of Fact much more of Belief not immediately committed to Writing presently degenerated into Fables and were corrupted by the capricious Malice or Ignorance of Men. Nothing can exempt the Tradition of the Christian Religion from this Fate at least from our reasonable suspicions of it but the Infallibility of that Society of Men which conveys down this Tradition But the latter can never be known till this certainty of Tradition be first cleared and presupposed since the Belief of this supposed Infallibility must at last be resolved into the sole truth and certainty of Tradition In the next place Tradition cannot certainly and invariably propose the Belief of Christianity to all private persons For from whence shall this Tradition be received from a Pope or a Council or both or from none of these but only the Universal Church In every one of these Cases infinite difficulties will occur which will singly appear insuperable As who is a true Pope what his intentions in defining were whether he acted Canonically in what sense he hath defined What Councils whether Oecumenical Patriarchal or Provincial may be securely trusted What are the necessary Conditions and Qualifications of a General Council Whether all these Conditions were ever observed in any Council What these Councils are what they have defined what is the true sense and intention of their Definitions From whom must we learn the Belief of the Universal Church if Popes and Councils be rejected From all Christians or only from the Clergy If from the later whether the assent of every member of the Clergy be required If not how great a part may safely dissent from the rest From whom the opinion of the major part is to be received Whether from the Writings of Doctors or the teaching of living Pastors If from the latter whether it be sufficient to hear one or a few Parish Priests or all or at least the major number are personally to be consulted All these Difficulties may be branched out into many more and others no less insuperable be found out which will render the Proposal of Religion by way of Tradition if not utterly impracticable at least infinitely unsafe Thirdly Tradition is so far from being independent on other Articles of the Christian Faith that the Belief of all other Articles must be presupposed to it For since all Sects propose different Traditions and the truth of none of them is self-evident it must first be known which is the true Church before it can be determined which is the true Tradition Now the knowledge of the true Church can be obtained only two ways either from the Truth of her Doctrines or from the external Notes of a