Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A56411
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The fire's continued at Oxford, or, The decree of the convocation for burning the Naked gospel, considered in a letter to a person of honour
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Parkinson, James, 1653-1722.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing P494; ESTC R1197
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18,231
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16
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beyond Sea than his Father thought allowable if not prevented by the Fellows of his Colledg He wrote a Book call'd The Constant Communicant dedicated to and approv'd of by his Grace the present Arch-Bishop of Canterbury wherein he pleads the Authority of the Church as an Obligation so to be Thus far he 's come without the least suspicion of want of Zeal for the Church on of Heresy But we won't secure him for the future for the last Publick Act that was at Oxford he expelled one of the Terrae Filius's for being very abusive to Dr. Wallis and refussing to desist when commanded This mightily displeas'd the Junior Masters and he now finds they have not forgot him In October last he joins with the Senior Fellows to expel another of their Degree Mr. Colmer Fellow of his own Colledg for Fornication which though it has occasion'd him and his Colledg all their Troubles yet let us by no means say it made the Naked Gospel Heretical and Impious But pursue Matter of Fact about the Manner of the Decree After the Bishop of E. had visited E. Colledg contrary to their Statutes and Protestation the major part of the Fellows suspended for not betraying their Priviledges One of them Excommunitated for the heinous Crime of reading Prayers after that Suspension the Rector himself expell'd for Contumacy c. and excommunciated for not yielding up his Lodgings as you have been informed While they were seeking redress from her Majesty and Privy Council a Petition against the Naked Gospel subscrib'd by Thirty or Forty of the Masters was publickly and rudely presented to Dr. M. Pro-Vice-Chancellor to be read in Congregation but he refused and gave it to the Vice-chancellor Now pray Sir please to observe that this was an irregular way of proceeding for the Vice-Chancellor only ought to take notice of Matters of that Nature and Petitions are not to be tendred by great Numbers However he gave way so far as to call a meeting of the Heads of Houses where the Business met with some opposition it being freely said that it was not fit they should be made Tools for the Bishop of E or some such thing yet 't was then referr'd to the two Professors Dr. Jane who drew up the famous Decree of 1683 and Dr. Hall barely to draw Propositions out of the Book the latter declin'd it and the former is said to have done it as in the Decree In the mean time her Majesty in Council is most graciously pleased to order the Lord Bishop of Exeter should put in an Answer to the Rector and Fellows Petition and to declare a Day should be appointed for hearing May we not think this hasten'd the Decree But now the Masters seeing nothing done upon the former Petition lay hold of a time when a Convocation was call'd upon another Occasion to deliver another Petition in a yet more tumultuous manner and with many more Hands to the Vice-Chancellor as he came out who took it amiss and reprov'd them saying He did not like that way of proceeding yet it came at last to what the World sees I shan't tell you Sir what manner of Men promoted it you easily by this time guess and though the University seem to be very sensible of the Figure they make in the World and the Deference paid their Opinion yet knowing that one of the Professors refus'd to be engag'd and hearing that several Heads of Houses and others were absent when the Decree past considering also the Time and Manner of it and the ill Fate of the now exploded Decree in 1683 That the N. G. supposing Dr. B. the Author ought not to prejudice him in his just Rights which seems chiefly design'd and especially his Colledg who are nothing concern'd that it 's now no Secret who are the Engines and Movers of all this that his worst Enimies live not far from a place where the Prayer has not been used for his Majesties success in Ireland but just on Fast-days when it can't be help'd no nor that in time of War and Tumults that considering the Time when some things happen'd one may wish there was not some further use intended to be made of them than the ruining a Rector and major part of a Colledg who are notoriously known to be as firm and hearty for the present Government as any in the three Kingdoms that the University are not the proper Judges of Heresy that they have no Statute as I can hear of for burning of Books That the Author is abus'd in the Quotations that he 's only guilty of a large generous and extensive Charity neither Socinian nor Arian And last of all considering that several Persons of a Character above any of the worthy Condemners and no ways inferior to the best of them if not exceeding in Learning and Wisdom have declared that upon reading the Book they could not see any Heresy in it I say Sir when one seriously reflects and without prejudice on all these things one may ver well afford to wish the Decree just as much Success as its Authors have shewn Justice And here it may not be amiss Sir to oblige you with what hath been said by an excellent Prelate of our own Church who has also summ'd up that celebrated Epistle of the Great and Wise Constantine which will be so entire a Vindication of the Author of the Naked Gospel that nothing can be so much as whisper'd against him and which Persons of free and generous Minds may be apt to oppose to the Sentiments of the University however considerable ' There are some wise Persons says this great Man speaking of the first Council of Nice that think the Church had been more happy if she had not been in some sense constrain'd to alter the Simplicity of her Faith and make it more curious and articulate so much that he had need be a subtile Man to understand the words of the New Determinations And a little after Now then they that liv'd in that Age that understood the Men that saw how quiet the Church was before this stir how miserably rent now what little benefit from the Question what Schism about it gave other Censures of the Business than we since have done who only look on the Article as determin'd with Truth and Approbation of the Church generally since that Time Socrat. lib. 1. c. 2. But the Epistle of Constantine to Alexander and Arius tells the Truth and chides them both for commenting the Question Alexander for broaching it Arius for taking it up and although this be true that it had been better for the Church it never had begun yet being begun What is to be done in it Of this also in that admirable Epistle we have the Emperor's Judgment I suppose not without the advice and privity of Hosius Bishop of Corduba whom the Emperor lov'd and trusted much and employ'd in the delivery of the Letters ' First he calls it a certain vain piece of a Question
of the Blasphemies ' Pref. Whether Mahomet or Christian Doctors have more corrupted the Gospel is not so plain by the Light of Scripture as it is by that of Experience that the later gave Occasion Encouragement and Advantage to the former For when by nice and hot Disputes especially concerning the Second and Third Persons of the Trinity the Minds of the whole People had bin long confounded and by the then late Establishment of Image-Worship the Scandal was encreased so that to vulgar understandings the Doctrine of the Trinity appeared no less guilty of Polytheism than that of Image-Worship did of Idolatry Then was there a tempting opportunity offered to the Impostor and he laid hold on it to set up himself for a Reformer of such Corruptions as were both too gross to be Justified and too visible to be Denied Answ The Christian Doctors had not indeed in Mahomet's Time so far corrupted the Gospel as they have done since But their then late establishment of Image-Worship gave such scandal to the vulgar rude Arabians that the Idolatry which was visible therein made them infer that those who were so guilty thereof were no less guilty of Polytheism in the Doctrine of the Trinity which to this Day they still believe But where doth the denial of Christ's God-head appear in all this ' Cap. 7. pag. 40. The great Question concerning the God-Head of Christ is 1. Impertinent to our Lord's Design 2. Fruitless to the Contemplators own purpose 3. Dangerous Answ The great Question was not concerning the Godhead of Christ for therein both Parties agreed but concerning the Eternity of his Godhead They both held he was before the World and made the World Judges in Criminal Matters should not corrupt the Evidence And whatever the Author speaketh of that Question is by way of Gloss upon the Great Constantine's Letter never yet judged Heretical as I observ'd before Is here a Tittle of the Author 's denying the Godhead of Christ ' Cap. 8. pag. 46. Two Evangelists trace our Lord's Genealogy but as they derive it not from his real but supposed Father so do they take two several ways not to satisfy but to amuse us What is this but to admonish us against Curiosity The Pedigree of his Flesh might easily have bin either cleared or unmentioned â—ad the Evangelists bin wholly silent concerning it We had less wondred but that they should profess to instruct us yet doubly disappoint us first by deriving it from a wrong Father and then by distracting us between two ways what is this but to verify the Propher's Description Who shall declare his Generation and what doth this so careful concealment of his Generation according to his Humane Nature signify more plainly than a warning against searching after the Eternal Generation of his Divinity If it were needless and therefore left impossible to prove him derived from David which was one of his most revealed Characters How can it be otherwise to understand that Generation of his which must needs be so much the more above our Understanding as the Nature of God is above our own Answ Matter of Fact is plain Our Bibles shew us that the two Evangelists derive our Lord's Pedigree from his reputed Father and that they proceed therein two several ways The Inference is innocent What doth this so careful concealment of his Generation according to his Humane Nature signify more plainly than a warning against searching after the eternal Generation of his Divinity which must be so much the more above our understandings as the Nature of God is above our own Here again the eternal Generation of his Divinity is plainly suppos'd so far are they from proving the denial of it ' Pag. 48. And might not a Heathen at this rate justify Polytheism provided his Gods disagreed not amongst themselves The Schoolmen therefore will not stand to this State of the Question but distinguish between Person and Suppositum rationale which yet they cannot so do as to satisfy themselves and therefore shelter themselves in their impregnable Fort Mystery and thence thunder upon the Adversaries both of this and of another no less beloved Mystery For they make this their Cock-argument for Transubstantiation That since the Scripture is no less express for the One than the Other and the Contradictions no less gross in the One than in the Other therefore we must embrace the One as well as the Other 'To this Objection of the Romanists and to others of the Vnitaries we have found an Answer That we must not infer from our Own Nature to God's for that Ours is finite and God's is infinite Three Persons among us are Three Men because they agree in one Common Nature but the Divine Nature is not a Common One but a Singular and therefore Three Persons do not make Three Gods If you understand not this you must not wonder or at least you must not Gainsay it for it is a Mystery which Reason may not pretend to fathom Answ This Censurer understood well how to stop short for had he gone one Line further he had discovered the Innocency of the Author's Intentions the Words are Why if it be a Mystery and must still be so to what purpose do we enquire into it or dispute concerning it which plainly shew he did not intend either to Assert or Deny either side of the Question but set aside the whole as not to be Understood and therefore not to be Disputed These Words are not in the Author's Second Impression so unwilling was he it seems to displease that he was at a great charge to have these and other things left out But how justifiable are they even in the first for they follow Athanasius's way of stating the Trinity which was That Peter James and John are not three Men if they be of one Mind because then they are one in the Lord. And doth it not thence clearly follow that a Heathen might at the same rate justify Polytheism provided his Gods disagreed not among themselves But who knows not that the Schoolmen and Moderns do generally as the Author says reject that way of Arguing as indeed introducing three Gods one in specie but three in number ' Pag. 51. Thus have we pointed and only pointed at some of the many intangling Questions which puzzeled and divided the subtilest Wits of several Ages and were at last decided by no other Evidence but of Imperial and Papal Authority sufficient to silence Disputes but not stablish Truth And who is he that is not discouraged from giving a confident Assent to what is this way obtruded upon his Belief Answ This is not in the Second Impression if it were where is the Heresy of it Matter of Fact appears in the Historians and the Inference Who is he that is not discouraged from giving a confident assent to what is this way obtruded upon his Belief What consisidering Man would not ask the fame Question ' Cap. 9. pag. 53. I. There is