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A66189
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An exposition of the doctrine of the Church of England in the several articles proposed by Monsieur de Meaux, late Bishop of Condom, in his Exposition of the doctrine of the Catholick Church to which is prefix'd a particular account of Monsieur de Meaux's book.
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Wake, William, 1657-1737.
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1686
(1686)
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Wing W243; ESTC R25162
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71,836
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127
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consigned to Writing By which means the Word written and unwritten were not Two different Rules but as to all necessary matters of Faith one and the same And the unwritten Word so far from losing its Authority that it was indeed the more firmly Establish'd by being thus delivered to us by the holy Apostles and Evangelists We receive with the same Veneration whatsoever comes from the Apostles whether by Scripture or Tradition provided that we can be assured that it comes from them And if it can be made appear that any Tradition which the Written Word contains not has been received by All Churches and in All Ages we are ready to embrace it as coming from the Apostles Monsieur de Meaux therefore ought not to charge us as Enemies to Tradition or obstinate to receive what is so delivered Our Church rejects not Tradition but only those things which they pretend to have received by it But which we suppose to be so far from being the Doctrine of the Apostles or of All Churches in All Ages that we are perswaded they are many of them directly contrary to the Written Word which is by Themselves confessed to be the Apostles Doctrine and which the best and purest Ages of the Church adhered to ARTICLE XXV Of the Churches Authority THE Church i. e. The Vniversal Church in All Ages having been Establish'd by God the Guardian of the Holy Scriptures and of Tradition we receive from her the Canonical Books of Scripture It is upon this Authority that we receive principally the Song of Solomon as Canonical and reject other Books as Apochryphal which we might perhaps with as much readiness otherwise receive By this Authority we reverence these Books even before by our own reading of them we perceive the Spirit of God in them And when by our reading them we find all things conformable to so Excellent a Spirit we are yet more confirmed in the belief and reverence we before had of them This Authority therefore we freely allow the Church that by her hands in the succession of the several Ages we have received the Holy Scriptures And if as universal and uncontroverted a Tradition had descended for the Interpretation of the Scriptures as for the receiving of them we should have been as ready to accept of that too Such a declaration of the sense of Holy Scripture as had been received by all Churches and in all Ages the Church of England would never refuse But then as we profess not to receive the Scriptures themselves only or perhaps principally upon the Authority of the Roman Church which has in all Ages made up but a part and that not always the greatest neither of this Tradition so neither can we think it reasonable to receive the sense of them only from her though she profess never so much to invent nothing of her self but only to declare the Divine Revelation made to her by the Holy Ghost which she supposes has been given to her for her direction Whilst we are perswaded that neither has any Promise at all been made to any particular Church of such an infallible direction and have such good cause to believe that this particular Church too often instead of the divine Revelations declares only her own Inventions When the dispute arose about the Ceremonies of the Law Acts 15. the Apostles assembled at Jerusalem for the determination of it When any Doubts arise in the Church now we always esteem it the best Method to decide them after the same manner That the Church has Authority not only in matters of Order and Discipline but even of Faith too we never deny'd But that therefore any Church so assembled can with the same Authority say now as the Apostles did then Acts 15.28 It has seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to Vs This we think not only an unwarrantable presumption for which there is not any sufficient ground in Holy Scripture but evidently in its self untrue seeing that many such Councils are by the Papists themselves confessed to have erred Hence it is that we cannot suppose it reasonable to forbid Men the Examination of the Churches Decisions which may err when the Holy Apostles nay our Saviour Christ himself not only permitted but exhorted their Disciples to search the Truth of their Doctrine which was certainly Infallible Yet if the determination be matter of Order or Government as not to Eat of things offered to Idols c. or of plain and undoubted Precept as to abstain from Fornication and the like Here we fail not after the Example of Paul and Silas to declare to the faithful what her decision has been and instead of permitting them to judg of what has been so resolved teach them throughout all places to keep the Ordinances of the Apostles Acts 16.4 Thus is it that we acquiesce in the judgment of the Church and professing in our Creed a Holy Catholick Church we profess to believe not only that there was a Church planted by our Saviour at the beginning that has hitherto been preserved by him and ever shall be to the end of the World but do by consequence undoubtedly believe too that this Vniversal Church is so secured by the Promises of Christ that there shall always be retain'd so much Truth in it the want of which would argue that there could be no such Church We do not fear that ever the Catholick Church should fall into this entire Infidelity But that any particular Church such as that of Rome may not either by Error lose or by other means prevaricate the Faith even in the necessary Points of it this we suppose not to be at all contrary to the Promise of God Almighty and we wish we had not too great cause to fear that the Church of Rome has in effect done both It is not therefore of the Catholick Church truly such that we either fear this infidelity or complain that she hath endeavoured to render her self Mistress of our Faith But for that particular Communion to which Monsieur de Meaux is pleased to give the Name tho she professes never so much to submit her self to the Holy Scripture and to follow the Tradition of the Fathers in all Ages yet whilst she usurps the absolute Interpretation both of Scripture and Fathers and forbids us to examine whether she does it rightly or no we must needs complain that her Protestations are invalid whilst her Actions speak the contrary For that if this be not to render her self Mistress of our Faith we cannot conceive what is In a word tho we suppose the Scriptures are so clearly written that it can very hardly happen that in the necessary Articles of Faith any one man should be found opposite to the whole Church in his Opinion Yet if such a one were evidently convinced that his Belief was founded upon the undoubted Authority of Gods Holy Word so far would it be from any Horror to support it that it is at this day
his Apostles or to have been practised ordinarily and directly by the most Primitive Christians Or lastly but to be no way injurious to the excellent Goodness of that Intercessor who has so kindly invited and even conjured us to come to Him in all our needs Then will we not fail to joyn our Ora pro Nobis with them But till then we must beg leave to conclude with a Charity and Moderation which we suppose they themselves cannot but approve in us That it is a fond thing vainly invented and grounded upon no warrant of Holy Scripture but rather indeed contrary thereunto And what we have now said of their Prayers we must in the next place apply to their Sacrifices too To mention the Names of the Holy Saints departed in the Communion this we look upon to be a Practice as innocent as 't is ancient So far are we from condemning it in them that we practise it our selves We name them at our Altars we give God thanks for their Excellencies and pray to him for Grace to follow their Examples But as we allow thus much to their Memories so we cannot but condemn that Practice which Monsieur de Meaux seems to have omitted tho yet the chief thing that offends us that they recommend the Offerings which they make to God through the Merits of their Saints which they commemorate and desire that by their Merits they may become available to the Churches needs As if Christ himself whom they suppose to be the Sacrifice needed the Assistance of St. Bathildis or Potentiana to recommend him to his Father Or that the Merits of an Offering which they tell us is the very same with that of the Cross should desire the joynt Deserts of a St. Martin to obtain our Forgiveness They who shall consider these things as they ought will we doubt not confess that we have some reason to complain both that they derogate herein from Christ's Merits and attribute to their Saints more than they ought to do If this Paactice be reformed our Complaint as to this point ceaseth If it be not in vain does Monsieur de Meaux endeavour to perswade us that they only name their Saints to give God thanks for their Excellencies whilst their publick Practice avows that they desire both the pardon of their Sins and even the acceptance of their very Sacrifices themselves by their Mediation ARTICLE IV. Of Images and Relicks VVHat the Opinion of the Church of England is concerning the Worship of Images and Relicks will need no long Declaration to shew they being joyn'd by her in the same Article with that of the Invocation of Saints before-mentioned Artic. XXII and by consequence submitted by her to the same Censure But then as we before complained that both the Practice of their Church in the publick Liturgies of it and the approved Doctrine of their most reputed Writers should so far contradict what Monsieur de Meaux would have us think is their only design in that Service so we cannot but repeat the same Complaints in this That if all the use their Church would have made of Images and Relicks be only to excite the more lively in their Minds the remembrance of the Originals not only the People should be suffered to fall into such gross Mistakes as 't is undeniably evident they do in their Worship of them but even their Teachers be permitted without any Reproof to confirm them in their Errors Has St. Thomas and his Followers nay and even their Pontifical it self ever yet been censured by them for maintaining in plain terms that the Image of the Cross ought to be worshipped with the same Worship as that Saviour who suffered on it Have the Jesuits been condemned for teaching Men to swear by it Does not their whole Church upon Good-friday yet address her self to it in these very dangerous words Behold the Wood of the Cross Come let us adore it And do not their Actions agree with their Expressions and the whole Solemnity of that day's Service plainly shew that they do adore it in the utmost propriety of the Phrase Does she not pray to it that in this time of the Passion it would strengthen the Righteous and give Pardon to the Guilty Is the Hymn for the day of the Invention corrected wherein they profess that the Cross heals their Sicknesses ties up the Devil and gives them Newness of Life and thereupon desire it to save its Assembly gathered together in its honour Is the manner of consecrating them changed in which they intreat God to bless the Image of the Cross which they there sanctify that it may be for the establishment of their Faith an increase of their good Works the Redemption of their Souls and their Protection against the cruel Darts of the Enemy That Christ would embrace this Cross over which they pray as he did that upon which he suffer'd That as by that he delivered the whole World from its Guilt so by the Merits of this they who dedicate it may receive remission of their Sins In a word that as many as bow down before it may find health both of their Souls and Bodies by it And is all this in good earnest no more than to excite more lively in our minds the remembrance of Him that loved us and delivered himself to the Death for us and to testifie by some outward marks our acknowledgment of that favour by humbling our selves in presence of the Cross to declare thereby our submission to Him that was crucified Is not this rather if not absolutely to fall into yet certainly too nearly to approach to that which Monsieur de Meaux himself confesses to be Idolatry viz. to trust in the Images as if there were some divinity or virtue joyned to them and for which they not only shew all imaginable marks of outward Worship by Kissings Prostrations and the like Ceremonies but make as formal Addresses to them and that in the publick Service of the Church as to God himself How this allow'd practice can be reconciled with the prohibition of the Council of Trent Not to believe any Divinity or Virtue tied to their Images for which they ought to be adored nor to demand any Grace of them nor place any Trust or Confidence in them Monsieur de Meaux may please to expound to us In the mean time as we are so far from condemning the making of all sorts of Images that we think it not any Crime to have the Histories of the Gospel carved or painted in our very Churches which the Walls and Windows of several of them do declare As we publickly use the sign of the Cross in one of our very Sacraments and censure no Man for practising it only without Superstition on any other occasion so we cannot but avow the Scandal that is given us by those Doctrines and Practices before mentioned and that we think that Worship justly to be abolished which the Primitive Church abhorred and which at this