a certain Spanish Don P. 7. he treads out the ground measures the length of his Weapon makes a Speech and would tempt a man to think he is resolved to fight but he withdraws safely and calls in two others to engage a desire he has to see the Holy Scriptures and Athanasius his Creed to combat one another for his divertisement Now which of these two he is for he says not nor yet seems to guess which would have the better in case of a Contrast But alass this man mistakes those two are Friends and if there were any difference between that Creed and the Holy Scriptures Athanasius if he were now alive would be the first man to declare against that Creed it is certain he learnt and sounded all his Doctrines upon those no man read them with greater care and attention no man cites them oftner or with greater veneration Whether our Authour knew this or no I cannot tell but after all his preparatory flourishes he gives no more than this dry insipid request to the Fathers of our Church that they would not tell him that every Christian suppose every Baker Shoemaker or Cobler upon a sincere perusal of this Holy Book would certainly have composed the Creed of Athanasius Now this is a thing which never was spoken either by Bishop Presbyter or Deacon or Parish Clerk Can any Reverend Bishop be presumed to think and say that the great Athanasius had not more wit and reason more art more skill in Consequences than every Cobler and Tinker or than this Man 's two Friends Nailor and Muggleton it is prodigious to think how men dote that undertake to write Books against Reason But whatever this Man does or can say most certain it is that if Athanasius was the Composer of this Creed he did it upon a sincere perusal of the Holy Scriptures by the power of a good Reason and by the skill which he had in Consequence As for Authority of Pope or Council he had none for this Composition this Creed lay in obscurity and was unknown in the Church long after the days of Athanasius and as it was composed at first so it was brought into the use of the Church afterwards for some time without any considerable Authority morely by the private reason of some that were little more than private Men. Thirdly In the next place our Authour sets down some matters of Faith great and necessary Articles P. 7. as he calls them and these are the Mystery of the Incarnation the Doctrines of the Trinity Consubstantiality Transubstantiation Predestination and Free-will These he examined by his Reason but he does not tell us what account his Reason gave of them It is possible after a sincere perusal of the Holy Scriptures that he might find great reason to believe the Incarnation of our Lord and the Doctrine of the Trinity and by consequence that of Consubstantiality and something of a Predestination and it is possible that from thence he found no reason to believe the Doctrine of Transubstantiation for herein many other Mens Reasons would agree with His. This he does not tell us but yet this I will presume in favour to him that he does not think that the Fathers in the Council of Nice and those in the after Councils who fixed the Doctrine of the Trinity and Consubstantiality I say he does not think but that they made their Determinations with highest reason I will presume too that he thinks that the Fathers in the Lateran and Tridentine Councils had reason to determine the Doctrine of Transubstantiation for though we think that in these two later Councils the generality acted by false reasons by prejudice and by worldly interest yet we do not doubt but they all and every one of them pretended to act with reason for certain it is that the private reason of any single man is a much better guide than the private Spirit of a Quaker or any other for a Reason may be urged and is upon information to be corrected but the pretence to the Spirit is not But if the majority of those Fathers at the Council of Nice were able by Scripture and Reason to establish those Doctrines of the Trinity and Consubstantiality to be Articles of the Christian Faith I know not why our Authour since he has the same Scripture and like Reason might not have done the same Sure I am that after this Council Athanasius pleaded much in the defence of the truth of these Doctrines and that not from the Authority of the Council but from the true sense and meaning of the several Texts Sozom. lib. 7. cap. 12. the same way of arguing was used in the first Constantinopolitan Council and so it continued till Theodosius by advice of Nectarius which he received from Sisinnius took another method After these doughty performances P. 8. our Authour comes in the next place a little more closely to Scripture or the sacred Records of Christian Religion and sets his reason to search and examine them and if possible to draw from thence a scheme of Christian Doctrine But here it seems his Reason was jaded and tyred out much more than in all the rest of his Disquisitions perhaps he found not there any thing like to the Doctrines that make up the Apostles Creed He does not tell this though he ought to have done it if he had compared his scheme with it But he tells us that he disagreed from all Churches the Church of England in her 39 Articles P. 8. and all the Catechisms of Catholicks Calvinists Lutherans and Socinians I was pleased that in his opinion the Doctrine of the Church of Rome did no more agree with Scripture than that of the Church of England But though I was pleased in this yet I was not very confident of any advantage from it because our Authour oft queries and seems to doubt whether his Reason does not much differ from other Mens I know that God Almighty has given different Talents to Men for Heads and Brains and Wits as well as Hearts are not alike in every Man I am sure the Ancients by virtue of plain honest reason were able to find the Christian Doctrine in the Holy Scriptures so did St. Irenaeus St. Athanasius St. Hierome St. Chrysostome St. Augustin and the rest This was a light to their feet and a lamp to their paths sufficient to satisfy those good men in matters of Faith and as this Man speaks in the great and necessary Articles But though this Man could not find the Christian Doctrine there yet it seems that he thought that he found something there that pretty well agreed with the dreams of Ebion and Cerinthus and with those of his dear Friends P. 8. Nailor and Muggleton The first of these I am much enclined to believe and if I were as impertinent as He is perhaps I might give some evidence of the second As for Ebion and Cerinthus this Gentleman is too close
by General Councils and so by the Catholick Church and they have been in peaceable possession of it for many hundred of years P. 16 17. and now they cannot be divested of it neither by themselves nor by others neither in whole nor in part All these things he sets down I suppose as his own opinations and sentiments and would have his Friends to judge him by them as Orthodox and a true Convert He is not concerned whether they be true or false for he knows or may know that every one of these pretences has been proved by Dr. Barrow to be gross falsities and that almost to the evidence of Demonstration and yet our Authour brings not the least proof for any one of them from any Old Authour Indeed he tells us that we have the Succession of Bishops of Rome delivered to us by St. Augustine and that is true P. 15. but he was unlucky to put us in mind of that passage and much more because he never read it himself for had he seen the 165. Epistle of St. Augustine where that Succession is mentioned and the very next to it he might have found in that great Father a full contradiction to all his thoughts concerning the Scriptures and concerning Authority and then perhaps he would have imployed his time to better purposes than in writing this Book St. Austine in that Epistle sets down the succession of the Bishops of Rome from St. Peter and that for no other purpose but to shew that none of all those Bishops was a Donatist Augustinus Epist 165. And that because a Donatist had set down the succession of their Bishops before not that he thought any one of them after St. Peter was a Sovereign Guide or had unerring authority in him for he himself presently adds to this that if any of them had been a Donatist or worse yet the Christian Doctrine would not have suffered the least by it In illum ordinem Episcoporum qui ducitur ab ipso Petro usque ad Anastasium qui nunc super eandem Cathedram sedet etiamsi quisquam traditor per illa tempora subrepsisset nihil praejudicaret Ecclesiae innocentibus Christianis This I suppose our Authour is not willing to think because he depends so much upon Authority and so little upon the Scriptures but St. Augustine did because he relyed upon the Scriptures to teach us that Doctrine which Jesus Christ and his Apostles had revealed to the World and therefore in the same Epistle he slights all his other Arguments and fixes intirely upon the Scriptures as those alone which could give us a full and solid evidence for the truth of a Christian Doctrine Augustinus Epist 165. these are his words Quanquam nos non tam de istis documentis praesumamus quà m de Scripturis sanctis and then he cites a Text. But in the next Epistle and that against the Donatists after some other velitations and general topicks whereof Councils was one as appears by those words Faciant mille concilia Episcopi he comes to the holy Scriptures and triumphs in his Arguments and doubts not to defeat his adversaries by the force of them He begins with words frequent in his writings Augustinus Epist 166. In Scripturis didicimus Christum in Scripturis didicimus Ecclesiam has Scripturas communiter habemus quare non in eis Christum Ecclesiam communiter retinemus Then he throws out near twenty Texts one after another comments in short upon them and never doubts but that he and his Adversaries did sufficiently understand them without the assistance of a Sovereign Guide or an unerring Authority if our Authour had considered this it might have done him good but because he is pleased to find the Succession of Roman Bishops in St. Augustine I will shew him what he seems not to know two very considerable uses which that great Father made of that topick the First was to conciliate a most profound veneration to the Holy Scriptures thus therefore he writes August contra Faust Manich lib. 11. cap. 5. contra Faustum Manichaeum lib. 11. cap. 5. Distincta est à posteriorum libris excellentia canonicae Authoritatis veteris novi Testamenti quae Apostolorum confirmata temporibus per successiones Episcoporum propagationes Ecclesiarum tanquam in sede quâdam sublimiter constituta est cui serviat omnis fidelis pius intellectus A Second use that he made of this consideration of the Succession of Bishops in their Sees was in case of a dispute about a Text to evidence what was the first and so the true Christian Doctrine To this end he very frequently in his disputes with the Donatists requires them to search what was taught in the Churches of Corinth Galatia Ephesus Philippi Thessalonica all the Churches that had the honour to receive Apostolical Epistles Now if all these having several Successions of Bishops should agree in any one point that was controverted St. Augustine took their consent to be a good Argument that such a Doctrine was original and true he sends them indeed to Rome too but upon no other accompt and no higher reason than he does to those other Apostolical Churches Now I think I may presume in kindness to our Authour to give him one advice and that is this to have a care when he refers to St. Augustine that he knows his mind and that St. Augustine did write what he cites him for for I can tell him that a certain person who was of his opinion concerning a Soveraign Guide and unerring Authority to be sound in the Church of Rome came at length to believe and that consequentially to his opinion that the decretal Epistles of the Popes were of the same Authority with and to be reckoned amongst the Canonical Scriptures and to confirm his opinion he cited St. Augustine for it and this his citation had got into Gratians Decretum but the last Roman-Correctours of Gratian found it to be either gross forgery or a gross mistake and they have done St. Augustine right and a favour to such Persons as our Authour is to let them know that St. Augustine is no great friend to such fond and absurd opinions You may see Gratiani Decreti prim part Distin 19. Cap. 6. But because it may be some trouble to consult that Authour I will give you the truth and the forgery together St. Augustine in his Book De Doctrina Christiana lib. 2. cap. 8. had given us these words In Canonicis Scripturis Ecclesiarum Catholicarum quam plurium authoritatem sequatur inter quas sane illae sunt quae Apostolicas sedes habere Epistolas accipere meruerunt c. Now this was plain and good advice in the examination of Books that might be alledged to be Canonical Scriptures to give a preference to the testimony of those Churches that were called Apostolical Seats and such as had the honour to receive Epistles from the Apostles as Rome Corinth
after Luther's opposition against the Church of Rome either found them or pretended to find them in some German Library and sent them to Peter Crabb who printed them in the Year 1537. and annexed them to the rest of the Councils as if they had been the true Acts of that Lateran Council for which he had no Authority but what he received from Cochlaeus 2. They are so ill put together that every man who reads them must misdoubt them For some of them are in the style of Conciliary Acts and others speak after the manner of a Narrator who tells what was done in a Council Thus speaks the 11th 33d 39th 51st 61st In the 11th we find these words In Lateranensi Concilio piâ fuit institutione provisum 33. Evectionum personarum mediocritatem observent in Lateranensi Concilio definitum 39. De multâ Providentiâ fuit in Lateranensi Concilio prohibitum See the rest and you will find that these and those words there used speak plainly that these are not Canons of a Council Hist of the Irish Remonst pag. 66. From these and other Arguments Peter Walsh has well guessed That the words of Matthew Paris who says that Innocent proposed 70 capitula to the Fathers of this Council which to some did seem easie and to others burthensome gave occasion to some Collector to put together what he found in the Decretals under the name of Innocentius in Concilio Lateranensi and give to his Collection the Name of the Acts of the Lateran Council it is plain that Gregory IX who put out the Decretals did allow the same Authority to the Acts of a Pope and especially his Vncle this Innocent III. as if they had been the Acts of a Council And his Propositions in the Lateran Council though never accepted or agreed to by the Council would have as much Authority as the rest of the Decretals have III. But then thirdly it is to be observed farther That whether these reputed Canons were Propositions of Pope Innocent or real Acts of the Council yet no great stress can be laid upon them because all things were then done in extraordinary haste We cannot at this day learn from any man that in this Council there was any such thing as deliberation or consulation no argument was used either pro or con no reason offered no objection removed not a word is mentioned what this or that or the other man said All things past in a huddle after a quite different manner from what was used by the Apostles in their Council Acts 15. But more closely to our present business as to Transubstantiation the Doctrine of which our Authour says was here confirm'd Briet Annales in An. 1215. and Brietius says that the Name of it was here admitted in eo Nomen Transubstantiationis admissum fuit it is to be observed that if we speak strictly the very Name of Transubstantiation is not to be found in all the Council and there is but one Passage in it that refers either to the Name or Doctrine Cabassutius a Roman Catholick in his last Collection of Councils found so little of it that in his Notes upon this Council he has not one remark upon this Point Nor yet has Labbè any thing considerable of it though he takes in the Notes of Binnius and gives us the Errours of Almaric which gave occasion to this Doctrine yet the truth is something of it is in this Council in the first Canon of it But it comes in so sneakingly and so unlike to a Conciliary Act determining a Doctrine de fide that an easie Reader might not observe it and the more accurate would have no great regard for it It seems to be slurred upon the World or design'd to pass like a whisper thorough artificial conveniences where they that are near shall perceive little of it but at distance it will be noisie and loud The words in the first Capitul are these Vna verò est fidelium universalis Ecclesia extra quam nullus omnino salvatur In qua idem ipse Sacerdos Sacrificium Jesus Christus cujus corpus sanguis in Sacramento Altaris sub speciebus panis vini veraciter continentur Transubstantiatis pane in corpus vini in sanguinem potestate divinâ ut ad perficiendum mysterium unitatis accipiamus ipsi de suo quod accepit ipse de nostro These are the words and besides these we have nothing that refers to this matter in the whole Council and all that we have is no more than one barbarous word hooked in by a Parenthesis without any explicite and determinate sense Now this is surprizing and amazing that Christians should be obliged and that with peril of damnation to believe a Doctrine so difficult and so incredible as that of Transubstantiation and that onely by virtue of a word that seems to be slurred upon them must we for this deny our Senses and our Reasons and forget our selves to be Men must this be accounted Authority sufficient to awe Consciences and subjugate Faith and captivate Understandings God Almighty never did this and the Blessed Jesus spake plainly and fully whenever he required obedience under such severe penalties If Transubstantiation be de fide necessary to be believed in order to Salvation certainly we ought to have better grounds for it than the Lateran Council can give For any indifferent Person would require in such a case as this that the Fathers of the Council should have used all application of mind care and industry and hearty humble prayer to God for his direction before they had determin'd such a Point and laid such a burthen upon Christians but of this kind there was nothing done there IV. I add farther that as there appears but little ground for any man to believe Transubstantiation by virtue of the Lateran Council so there is much less for an English-man to receive either that or any other Doctrine in the Name and by the Authority of it An English-man can scarce think of it without wrath and indignation For this was called in the Year 1215. about two years after the great mortification of our King John by this Pope Innocent III. one of the great reasons for it was to shew to the World the Pope's Victory and England's Slavery From thence it was that he wrote his Letter to tell the Barons In additionibus ad Concilium Lateran quartum in Editione Labbeanâ Annales Monast Burton Edit Oxon. pag. 263. that England was his and the King his Vassal Here it was that he expanded his Plumes and shewed his pride and his glory Here he made known to the World that Pandulphus did not go beyond commission when he told King John that he ought to obey his Lord the Pope tam in terrenis quà m in spiritualibus as well in earthly matter as in spiritual nor yet acted beyond commission when he stressed this unhappy Prince so far that he was forced to resign up his Kingdoms
this could be done and would not have us to pretend to derive Authority from the Church of Rome when she was in her purity and perfection Now this is wonderfully wise to inquire by what Authority we presume to obey God to amend our ways to throw off Errours to follow Truth Let him be assured that we shall not pretend to have derived Authority from Rome neither in her corruption nor in her purity to doe this And our Authour in the next Paragraph owns that we need not in case the one be an Errour and the other be a Truth But he adds we are now seeking for that Authority which shall declare this Truth and set forth this Errour Now this is honestly said that he is seeking for that Authority I am sure he has made no discovery of it as yet He undertook pag. 21 22. to shew that and the Infallibility of the Church of Rome and has talkt out eight Pages and has not given us the least Argument for either of them now he says he is seeking for it and he may seek all his days at this rate for he seeks just as one did for the Hare in the top of the Steeple If there were any such Authority and Infallibility as he pretends it must be as apparent and as visible as the Church it self there would need no long seeking for it He must be blind or fool or mad that did not see it or know it I rather think that our Authour is seeking for Arguments to prove it and in this he is unhappy for he finds none But Pag. 28 29 30. he endeavours for one and that is to this purpose that there are Errours and Heresies in the World He tells us of Socinians of Luther and Calvin and Beza and I know not how many more of late days And from thence P. 30. p. 30. he talks in these words Fathers if these instances be not sufficient to require a Supreme Judge to determine the right Faith and silence the wrong then and then and I know not what but at last then pray excuse me if my reason and piety and the reverent notion which I have of a Just God and a mercifull Saviour totally force my Judgment and Conscience to dissent from you in this particular Now this is no Argument that there is such an Authority in the Church either Eastern or Western Roman or Graecian but a wheedling Discourse to persuade weak Persons that there may be such an one because in our Authour's Opinion it would be fit or requisite or proper for God Almighty in this method to direct the interests of his Church And to bring People on to this belief here is an audacious and presumptuous intimation that God would neither be wise nor good in case he did it not Here we beg our Authour's pardon we will believe God to be wise and good and mercifull whether he sets up such an Authority or no He knows what is fit and requisite and proper much better than such pert confident men He permits sins great and most enormous in the World though he could as easily give a stop to them as to Errours and Heresies There are Errours amongst Protestants and there are Errours amongst Romanists and if the Temporal Authority did not doe more than the Spiritual they themselves would complain of many more than now they do There are Errours and Heresies of late days and there were so from the first beginnings of Christianity in all times and places St. Paul tells of some in his days and Ignatius of others and Irenaeus of others and those most gross and vile and filthy Now if God had made provision of the pretended Authority and Infallibility to give stop to them it were most improbable if not impossible that ever these should have been Their existence therefore is plain argument and demonstration that there are no such powerfull means set up and appoionted by God to prevent hinder stop or silence them He has done enough against them as he has done against all sins it is presumption not to acquiesce in his Wisedom or to challenge that he must doe that which we cannot prove that he has done But our Authour leaves this and says he must proceed P. 30. p. 30. and that he does yet not to evidence the Authority and Infallibility of the Roman Church by better Arguments but to plead the interest of it in general from the performances of Augustine the Monk This is an Argument that pleases him he had been nibling at it three times before p. 18. p. 21. p. 27. There he intimates that this Augustine first taught the English Nation Christianity and that he taught them those very Doctrines as Christian Truths which we at this day oppose He says p. 21. That all the Controverted Points particularly and by name were declared by some of your selves to have been brought into England by Augustine the Monk above a thousand years since I suppose he means that his Friend the famous Napper or some of his Apocalyptical Acquaintance had declared this But after all he comes to treat more closely upon this Argument pag. 30 31 32. I shall consider what he says and then give a full accompt of the whole matter But before I begin I must complain for it is a grief that I have an Adversary so weak and yet so consident For those two learned Men their Mr. Cressey and our Reverend Dean of St. Paul's have accurately considered and weighed all the particulars of this Dispute and made the best advantages of it But the man knows nothing of their Writings Pope Gregory he names and Bede he names but gives us not any ground to think that ever he has read over Bede's History or consulted Pope Gregory's Epistles and both these ought to have been well studied by a Writer upon this Subject if he had due regard for Truth or his own Credit 1. First he says If you tell me a Story of the Abbat of Bangor I answer that the particular ground of it is evidently false and forged Now Bede is the man that tells us a Story of the Abbat of Bangor and the numbers of Monks in that Abbey Bede l. 2. c. 2. And the Story as it lies in Bede gives all the advantage to Protestants that they can wish lib. 2. cap. 2. And if there be something added to that Story from an Ancient Record found and published by Sir Henry Spelman the skill and integrity of that excellent Person would persuade an indifferent man not presently to damn it for a forgery for he was not likely either to contrive one or to be cheated with one But be this what it will the Story that Bede gives is sufficient for our uses and that I hope he will not say is false or forged 2. P. 30. He says that the Britains received the Christian Faith in the Apostles days but being persecuted by Romans Picts and Saxons Religion fled to the Mountains
Errour about keeping of Easter The Britains observed the Rule which they had received with their Christianity and they received that as our Authour says in the days of the Apostles The Asiaticks received the same Rule and the famous Martyr Polycarp defended it stoutly as an Apostolical Tradition a whole Council under Polycrates in the Year 197. declared it to be the Rule of St. John taught and practised by him Upon this accompt if we suppose it an Errour it can be no great one For there is no Traditional Doctrine either in Rome or any other Church which solely stands upon the credit of Tradition and has no support from Scripture that can be better evidenced to come from an Apostle and with the first Christianity than this Tradition which the Britains Scots Asiaticks Greeks alledged in very early times to have received in one and the same way For if this be so great an Errour though it be so well attested and so strongly urged to be an Apostolical Tradition what security can we have for the truth of any other Tradition whatsoever The great St. Augustine shews us in his Epistle Casulano S. August Ep. 86. that the name of St. Peter can give no more Authority to a Tradition than the name of St. John nor has any Tradition more grounds of credit because it comes to us by the way of Rome than if it came by the way of Ephesus the Eastern Church is as creditable a Conveyancer of Tradition as the Western Therefore if the Britains must be accused of any great errour for following of this Tradition the Roman Church must be highly condemned for requiring the observance of so many things by virtue of Tradition when they have not the least appearance of such Arguments as the Britains had to prove their Traditions Apostolical The Britains kept close to their first Rule never in the least varied from it The Roman Church oft changed and altered and that before this Augustine the Monk's days as the Learned Dean of St. Paul's has accurately shown in his Discourse against Mr. Cressey And when those of the Roman Communion argued against the Asiaticks and Britains they could not disprove the Tradition or shew that this practice was an Innovation but they alledged Reasons and external Arguments to shew the inconveniency of it from the mischiefs that might come by such a compliance with the Jews Thus the Tables were changed Romanists were for Reason against Tradition and so they ever will be when it is for their Interest 2. The second Errour charged upon the Britains is dissent from the Church of Rome in the administring of Baptism Now this I suppose is put in to make weight in the Accusation for though Bede has those words yet he tells not wherein their practice differ'd from the Romans nor yet wherein they were to be blamed and has not one word in all his History besides wherein he blames either the Britains or the Irish whom he calls in the language of those times Scots for any errour in the administration of Baptism He says lib. 2. cap. 4. of the Scots that they had the same ways and methods that the Britains had Bede lib. 2. cap. 4. similem vitam ac professionem egisse and there having been according to Bede several Disputes between the Romanists and the Scots in lesser matters had this been their fault this would have been charged too upon them Our Authour adds P. 31. Although in some other matters they differ'd from the Church of Rome yet Augustine promised to tolerate them provided they would rectify these which the British Bishops consented to This is the worst Passage in all our Authour's Book for it is manifestly false point-blank against Bede's words who expresly says that they would not consent and then in the manner of citing the Passage there is that shuffling and juggle that plainly shews he designed falshood Bede lib. 2. cap. 2. The words in Bede are these Si in tribus his mihi obtemperare vultis ut Pascha suo tempore celebretis ut ministerium Baptizandi quo Deo renascimur juxta morem Romanae sanctae Ecclesiae Apostolicae Ecclesiae compleatis ut genti Anglorum una nobiscum praedicetis verbum Domini caetera quae agitis quamvis moribus nostris contraria aequanimiter cuncta tolerabimus At illi nihil horum se facturos neque illum pro Archiepiscopo habituros esse respondebant There cannot be a more plain denial than this How then comes our Authour to say that they consented The truth is he seems resolved to say it true or false and therefore he leaves the last words wherein Bede declares the Britains dissent Bede lib. 2. cap. 2. P. 31. and adds to them these Cum. Britones confitentur intellexisse se veram esse viam justitiae quam praedicaret Augustinus Bede lib. 2. cap. 2. And from thence would infer that the Britains did consent But these words belong to another matter they are part of Bede's Narration of the first meeting that Augustine had with the Britains then it seems Augustine did a Miracle and the Britains had a great sense of it and did confess that Augustine's way was the right way But yet for all this stound and hasty words they immediately recollected themselves and in the next moment tell him as Bede says Bede lib. 2. cap. 2. Non se posse absque suorum consensu ac licentiâ priscis abdicare moribus That without the leave and consent of their own Clergy and Laity or a Synod which was upon it forthwith called they could not depart from their ancient Customs Thus we see that the Britains who confessed as our Authour says yet would not consent till they had the Opinion and Judgment of a Synod and when Augustine proposed his Matters to the Synod they flatly denied either to receive his Doctrine or himself as their Archbishop So then it is plainly false that the Britains consented But yet our Authour puts down that Confession first in English and after another quite different discourse he puts it down in Latine and that on purpose to prove a consent Now this must be designed to cheat and couzen some I hope he meant it for the Roman Catholicks I do not fear that any Protestant can be gulled by such a sleight But from this Discourse our Authour observes that it may be inferred that Augustine and the Britains agreed in Substantials this may be allowed if he means onely those things which are necessarily to be held by every one that is a Member of the true Catholick Apostolick Church They agreed in the same Saviour in the same Scriptures in the same Creeds and in all the Doctrine that was maintained and declared in the first four General Councils But this will not suffice for our Authour imagines that they agreed in all the Doctrines which the Church of Rome at this day indeavours to impose upon others In order to this
pag. 32. he discourses After all this can we believe that the Britains who earnestly contradicted Augustine in these smaller matters and were so tenacious of their own Customs would have silently received so many and incomparably greater points of Faith had they in like manner disagreed from him therein credat Judaeus Apella Here our Authour is much to be blamed because he will not permit us to give him civil Language he does not onely betray his ignorance but what is much worse in this Paragraph he challenges to have skill in Bede and Bede is the man that contradicts him in every thing he says For Bede tells us that the Britains neither received greater points of Faith nor lesser from Augustine the Monk nor his Companions But for more than one hundred years after Augustine's arrival they esteemed all his teachings to be vain and trifling and little better than Paganism He concluded his History in the Year 725. as appears lib. 5. cap. 24. and he himself tells us in his Epitome that Augustine came into England in the Year 597. Yet he says Lib. 2. cap. 20. Cum usque hodiè moris sit Britonum Fidem Religionémque Anglorum pro nihilo habere neque in aliquo eis magis communicare quà m Paganis That the Britains according to their usual way had no esteem at all for the Faith and Religion of the English and that they would no more communicate with them than with the Pagans And Bede does not onely say that the Britains had so mean an opinion of the Romans Lib. 2. cap. 4. and their Disciples but likewise that the Scots or Irish had the same For where he gives us part of the Letter that Laurentius Mellitus and Justus sent to the Scots He says that when they had tried the Britains they thought the Scots might be better Cognoscentes Brittones Scottos meliores putavimus but yet they found both alike For Dagamus their Bishop would neither eat at the same Table nor in the same House with them Dagamus Episcopus ad nos veniens non solùm cibum nobiscum sed nec in eodem Hospitio quo vescebamur sumere voluit In the same page he says that Laurentius and the rest wrote to the Britains too Sed quantum haec agendo profecerit adhuc praesentia tempora declarant That is that the present opposition which the Britains made against the Romanists in Bede's days sufficiently sheweth that Laurentius his Letter had no effect upon them and that is the same thing which we had before usque hodie that from Augustine the Monk down to Bede's days the Britains had no regard for the Romans teaching of Faith or Religion so far as it differ'd from their own From these two Passages Henry of Huntingdon made the remark which he has lib. 3. Hist Nec Britannos Henr. Huntingd Hist lib. 3. nec Scotos velle communicare cum Anglis eorum Episcopo sancto Augustino magis quam Paganis This is sufficient to shew our Authour's presumption in alledging Bede to patronize his vain Opinations concerning the Britains if we give credit to him the Britains did not receive either so many or so great points of Faith from Augustine the Monk for they received none at all And therefore his Consequence which he draws from thence is like his Premisses good for nought That is this That the Doctrines these two Points excepted their Asiatick Errour and the difference about Baptism which Augustine taught the Saxons had been delivered to the Britains from the Apostles For seeing we have an acknowledged difference in these two Points in Augustin's days and other differences as I shall shew brake out afterwards and we find no manner of agreement between Augustine and the Britains and no communication between his Followers and them for an hundred years after but an extreme aversion and abhorrence of them and their ways he can no more argue for the truth of Augustine's Doctrines from the consent of the Britains than he may for the truth of all the Doctrines which the present Church of Rome teaches from the consent of the present Church of England we oppose them and so did they we and they too reject their Novelties their unjust Usurpations their unreasonable Impositions And though the terms of Communion which they would lay upon us are much harder than those which Augustine offered to the Britains yet we thank God our charity continues towards them we call them Christians and treat them as Christians which the old Britains would not do and with meekness and humility we endeavour to shew them their Errours This is enough to the Case of Augustine and of Bede's Relation of it And enough to the First Part of this Authour July 26. 1687. Sir I am Yours A brief Account of Augustine and the Conversion of the English taken out of Bede 's Ecclesiastical History AVgustine after he had been received gratiously by King Ethelbert knew not what he had to doe He was sent to preach plain Christianity to those that were willing to learn it But he had a mind to doe something else Bede lib. 1. cap. 27. and therefore soon sent to Pope Gregory for his resolution of certain Questions most of which our modern Historians censure as Legal and Levitical and think them all excepting three to be of little use Two of these are remarkable the first concerning his own power which he would have extended not onely over Britain but to France in this latter he was repressed and told that the Pope could not nor ought to grant it because his Predecessours had before setled it on the Bishop of Arles yet over the Bishops of Britain he gives him all the power which he could wish Omnes Episcopos Britanniarum tuae fraternitati committimus Bede lib. 1. cap 27. Resp 9. ut indocti doceantur infirmi persuasione roborentur perversi autoritate corrigantur Now it was unreasonable in Augustine to ask this and injustice in Gregory to grant it For both must needs know that this was an invasion of the Rights of Bishops against the Canons of the Church against the Sixth of the Nicene Council and the Eighth of the Ephesine which says expresly that if the Rites of Churches are taken away and that by any Patriarch whatsoever that Fact should be null and invalid Barnesius Cath-Rom Pacif. p. 60. This Father Barne says gave just cause and reason to the British Bishops to withstand Austin quia videbatur Augustinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agere cum iis cogendo eos ut reciperent eum pro Archiepiscopo mandatis exterorum se subderent Cum antiqui mores Ecclesiae suae postularent ut omnia inter se Synodicè agerent tum pro Episcoporum ordinationibus tum pro aliis negotiis Ecclesiasticis The second considerable Query of Augustine was concerning Rituals Bede lib. 1. cap. 27. Inter. 3. Forms of Worship Missals or Liturgies in this he propos'd how it