Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A23646
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England's distempers, their cause and cure according to the judgment of famous princes, peers, parliaments &c., occasioned by a book of a learned frier, accusing the whole nation of perjury for abjuring transubstantiation and sent unto the author for a reply / written in defence of the true catholike faith by R.A.
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R. A. (Richard Allen)
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1677
(1677)
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Wing A1043; ESTC R32701
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10,647
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29
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they were agreed and vers 9. St. Peter gave St. Paul the right hand of fellowship that he should go to the Gentiles Now if St. Peter set his Chair at Rome it was contrary to his own covenant or agreement Or 2. If St. Peter's Headship is so necessary a point of the Faith for the good of the universal Church sure our Saviour would have spoken of it in more solemn plain words Or 3. St. Paul in his Salutations or Greetings sent to the Saints at Rome would surely have remembred the chief Pastor if there had been any such or if St. Peter had been the man Or 4. If St. Peter was ordained Universal Pastor and Head of the Church St. Paul did not well to take upon him the care of all the Churches 2 Cor. 11.28 when that belongs to the chief Pastour except they will say that St. Paul was St. Peter's Curate However it is not the Chair but the Doctrine nor a succession of persons but truth of Doctrine that makes a true Church People are then much mistaken to call Popery the old Religion when the Protestant Religion is the most antient clearly founded in Holy Scripture and the other but new not to be found in Holy Scripture nor in any Record of pure Antiquity So that we have no difference with the true Church of Rome but with a prevailing Party or Faction called in our Laws not Roman Catholicks but Popish Recusants CHAP. IV. Of Tradition TRadition is a Monster that lives meerly by Air. Our learned Frier calls it Vncontrollable Tradition If he takes it for the manner of delivery called Oral Tradition or for the matter delivered called Vnwritten Verities they are both controllable and controlled by daily Experience and found guilty of falshood The Council of Trent it self hath overthrown Tradition with their too much zeal to establish it For by joyning it with Holy Scripture instead of building it up they cast it down because Tradition is no more able to stand with Holy Scripture than Dagon before the Ark of God Hereof a learned Carmelite present in that Council gave them warning advising them to consider first Whether the Christian Doctrine hath two parts one written by the Will of God the other forbidden to be written but only to be taught by word of mouth or whether in the whole body of Christian Doctrine it happened accidentally that all being taught some part of it hath not been committed to writing It is said he that in the Old Testament God shewed a necessity of writing it and therefore writ the Decalogue with his own finger and laid it up in the Ark to be kept In the New as the Holy Ghost did direct the Apostles to write and preach the Truth so he did not forbid them to write any thing and hold it in a Mystery as in some false Religions they do For then how were the Apostles Successours able to write that which was forbidden of God And if it happened accidentally that derogates from the Providence of God in directing the Apostles to compose the New Testament And therefore he thought it not fit to make it an Article of competition against the Holy Scriptures Thus reasoned the Learned Carmelite to whom the Council gave no other but a check by the mouth of Cardinal Pool But we may reason thus If Holy Scriptures the same that we receive as well as they be the Word of God as that Council hath decreed then they are of Divine Authority and Credit sufficient to be believed for themselves and whatsoever they say is divine truth and if so then Tradition is clearly cast out as useless or needless For Holy Scriptures say of themselves that they are sufficient and most certain Joh. 20.30 31. Jesus did many more things but these are written that we may believe and believing may have life through him The written Word is sufficient of it self Luc. 1.3 4. It seemed good to write unto thee that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou art instructed For Scripta manent and are a certain Rule when Instructions by word of mouth vanish or in time are mistaken And it is incredible to imagine that stories for 1600 years passing through so many mouths of men of various Judgments Tempers or Affections c. should not be altered or corrupted when we see it is so by daily experience in very short time Tradition now is quite out of doors cast out by the Word of God which will not endure the fellowship of such an Idol and Teacher of Lies And if this main Pillar fail their whole Religion falls to the ground CHAP. V. Of the Council of Trent I Had not spoken of this famous Council but that the Frier provokes me to it with his learned follies I question not their great wisdome and learning I believe many of them were devout holy men in their mistaken way but most of them I believe more politick than pious seeking their own more than the Kingdom of Jesus Christ The Protestants have many Objections against this Council the two principal the Actions of the Council it self and some Concessions of R. H. in his Considerations upon that Council will make good though Soane or Padre Paul had never writ a word CHAP. VI. Of the Church of England THe Frier tells me that the Church of England meaning saith he the Prelatical Protestants is no universal but a particular Sect no Church or Sect in the world agreeing or communicating with it No Mr. Frier The Harmony of Confessions tells you what you are and so do many other Writings between us and all the Reformed Churches full of Kindness Unity and Love yea between our Doctors and some of yours there were many passages of love and kindness pass'd between your Bellarmine and our learned Whitaker whom the Cardinal had in great esteem for his great Learning as every valiant man loves a man of valour though his enemy But it hath been long observed that our English Jesuits Priests c. are more bitter enemies to our Church than any Strangers of forreign Parts as Bishop Bramhall and others by their own relation found true by experience when they were in France during our late Troubles they found Strangers civil and kind our own very uncivil hereupon I conclude our Frier is an Englishman by his uncivil language But for a full Reply I say That the Church of Christ is Universal or Particular Universal absolute or respective Absolutely considered it is the whole company of Believers of all times and places elect of God to Salvation in Jesus Christ called in Scripture The Spouse of Christ Houshold of God c. In this Church there is no Condemnation as out of it no Salvation Or the Catholick Church is taken respective in respect of Men Places Times Doctrine and particular Congregations Now though the Church of England be a particular Church part of the universal and called The Church of England from the place where it is seated and the Church of Rome was no more at the best yet the Church of England is Catholick in respect of her Doctrine agreeing with all true Churches yea with the true Church of Rome it self And in this respect the Church of Rome now so called is not Catholick because she is fallen from the true antient Catholick Faith I have done now with our Friers scandalous Libel charging our Nation with Perjury which all the Friers in the world will never be able to prove CHAP. VII Of Dissenters in Opinion OUr Church is at Unity in it self and hath no differences but such as our Adversaries themselves scatter and cherish about in corners with feigned words deceiving the hearts of the simple The most considerable party of Dissenters is not so far gone but may easily be reconciled I know no difference between us but two words of one signification and one word plainly mistaken I should be sorry to grieve the hearts of any that are truely Godly and have no other designe but to keep a good Conscience and to live in the fear of God I desire them in love to consider the distracted condition of their Native Countrey and not stand upon terms that have no ground in Scripture whereto the Covenant doth no way oblige them and whereof the Learned Reformed of Forreign Churches are quite weary as they told our Divines at Dort Other Dissenters our Adversaries have sent as Pioniers to undermine us The most troublesome are Quakers a poor deluded people but if they would speak directly to some few Questions I believe a short Answer would stop their mouths CHAP. VIII Of Dissenters in Life and Manners SUch are all Drunkards Blasphemers Liers c. And these make the greatest breach in the Nation of all the rest I was told once that all I could say was that they drew the Judgments of God down upon the Nation I never thought to hear such an answer from the mouth of a Christian But these lewd Livers are the greatest Schismaticks they are a scandal to our Church a shame to our Religion a reproach to our Nation bring contempt upon our good Laws and Government Specially the beastly Sin of Drunkenness ruines many a hopeful Youth brings them to Beggery or worse and makes all that use it unserviceable and unfit for publick Employment One good Law such as our Honourable Parliament hath given an excellent pattern of already would remedy all Let the bleeding condition of our Neighbours make us beware before it be too late Repent of our Sins lest our Land mourn too and the people languish for all their Abominations Psalm 50.22 Consider this ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver ERRATA IN the Preface Pag. 1. l. 16. read Groninchou p. 7. l. 2. dele and. ibid. read to a trial p. 8. l. 18. after Christ put a Comma p. 11. l. 8. dele he p. 14. l. 23. r. manifest said he p. 15. l. 9. r. no other answer FINIS
requiring of me a Reply My Reply is That the very first words of his Book are a notorious untruth as all the Nation can witness and but little truth in the rest save in two or three places where the poor Infidel confesseth his Ignorance of the true Faith and some other things that every School-boy knows A full Reply I shall give him in four Assertions 1. That Transubstantiation was never heard of or known in the Church till above 1000 years after Christ neither name nor thing 2. That it was never generally received by Learned Papists themselves till the Council of Trent 3. That their Grounds and Reasons for it are too weak to support it and that monstrous weight of Doubts and Difficulties that depend upon it 4. That the Doctrine of the Church of England in this point is most agreeable to Holy Scriptures and to all pure Antiquity and may be called Transmutation I. To the first the Frier saith It was ever known and believed in the Church quoad rem though not quoad nomen i. e. by certain equivalent terms and for that cites Five Fathers all rejected for spurious by their own Learned Men. His equivalent Terms are Mutatio Transmutatio Transelementatio the two first we admit in the same sense that the Fathers used them the last is a change Etiam ad materiam primam saith a famous Schoolman and will not serve his turn There be other terms used by the Fathers that will do him as little good but I shall take no notice of more than he sends me Anno Christi 420. About this time lived St. Augustine who Lib. 3. de Doctr. Christ printed at Paris Anno 1517. saith Those words Except ye shall eat the flesh of the Son of man c. are a Figure and a little before hath these words Literam sequi signa pro rebus quae his significantur accipere servilis est infirmitatis This I am sure of let the Frier make the best construction of it he can St. Augustine was a famous Bishop sate in several Councils and was President of some himself and must needs know the Catholick sense of the Church at that time better than our Frier Anno 850. About this time lived Bertram a famous Presbyter who in his Book De Corp. Sang. Christi saith That according to their substance the Bread and Wine remain in the Sacrament after Consecration The bold Frier calls this an Impertinency when the whole University of Doway in their censure of it could neither deny the Book nor answer it Anno 1057. About this time lived Berengarius Archdeacon of Anjou who denied Transubstantiation Pope Nicholas 2. Concil Lateran 2. made him recant and make this publick Confession That the very Body and Blood of Christ in the Sacrament was truely and sensually broken and bruised in pieces with the teeth of the Faithful and this Confession the Pope and Council allowed for Catholick Our bold Friar saith it is false I shall prove him a Liar presently For this Confession is recorded by Lombard l. 4. dist 12. D. and De Conser dist 2. Ca. Ego Berengarius And their own Carranza testifies That the Pope did force and compel him to it And that it was allowed for Catholick by Pope and Council appears clearly because Lanfranc of Canterbury who sate in that Council sharply rebukes Berengarius for recanting that Confession as afterwards he did This Confession was as near the Capernaites as could well be But where is now our bold Friars Catholick sense of the Church for Transubstantiation Here is no appearance of it name or thing according to the Friars own terms Anno 1150. About this time lived Peter Lombard Bishop of Paris the likeliest man alive to know the Catholic sense of the Church because he made it his study and business to search the Fathers and collect Sentences out of their Writings and yet he saith l. 4. dist 11. A Si autem quaeritur c. If it be demanded what manner of Conversion is in the Sacrament or of what kind Definire non sufficio I am not able saith he to determine We acknowledg a Conversion as well as they but if Lombard in all his reading could not learn what manner of Conversion it was then it may be the same that we allow and the Fathers understood no other II. My second Assertion is That Transubstantiation was never generally received by Learned Papists themselves till the Council of Trent For their most eminent School-men some of them Cardinals say That they receive it out of reverence to the Church because she hath so decreed but otherwise in their own judgment rather approve that Opinion which saith That the substance of Bread and Wine remains in the Sacrament as most agreeable to holy Scripture and right Reason and that Transubstantiation was a rash Opinion having no ground in Scripture This was the more common Opinion of the Schoolmen for above 200 years The Friar saith I wrong the Doctors and will prove it I know not when But let him unmask himself that I may see the right face and then I shall return him his own challenge and let him put it to trial when he dares III. My third Assertion is That their own Reasons or Grounds for Transubstantiation are too weak to support it and the monstrous weight of Doubts and Difficulties that depend upon it Their general ground is the power and truth of Christ God Almighty who made all the world by his word hence they infer Possibility Verity Necessity The Answer is that an Argument from the Creation is but à particulari ad particulare and holds not nor à posse ad esse from Possibility to Verity as to say It may be so therefore it is so or God can do this and that therefore he doth it or it is done all such Arguments are inconsequent irrational and ridiculous An Argument may well follow from the Will of God to his Power but not from his Power to his Will Particular Reasons or Grounds they have 1. The Time when Christ spake the words a time say they when all Figures were ended but that is apparently false for there is a plain Figure in the Cup which they neither deny nor can avoid 2. Some argue thus The Bread which Christ gave in his last Supper came down from Heaven But Bakers bread came not down from Heaven therefore he gave not Bakers bread but the substance of his own Body It is retorted thus The substance of Christ his natural Body was taken of the B. Virgin and came not down from Heaven But the bread which Christ gave came down from Heaven Therefore the Bread which Christ gave was not the substance of his natural Body Considering the weakness of their Argument and inconvenience of the retort they fly to other grounds as 3. To Ubiquity through Personal Vnion of both Natures But this overthrows the grounds of their own assertion For as they handle the matter their