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A26149
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An answer to some considerations on the spirit of Martin Luther and the original of the Reformation lately printed at Oxford.
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Atterbury, Francis, 1662-1732.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing A4146; ESTC R4960
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53,756
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88
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by Paragraph as they ly in order And perhaps by that time this is done 't will appear that he mean't neither first nor last appearance but just nothing at all The thing promis'd was to set out some of Ls. Works or Fruits that by them we might pass sentence upon his Doctrines let us see how he performs He entertains us first with a Preamble about the holyness of Martin Ls. life while a Monk in such obliging terms that for a page or two you 'd think him on our side but 't is only a piece of his address a small civility before he open's his busyness in return to 't therefore I am his humble Servant and so if he pleases we 'll come to the Point We find him then § 3. and 6. crying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he has discover'd the main root of the Reformation the first wheel it seems which set all the rest a work was a new Doctrine that Martin while a Monk embrac'd of Iustification by Faith alone Now 't will be found I believe when this is look'd into that he has discover'd just nothing but the depth of his own understanding For 1st I would ask him whether this new Doctrine of Justification be one of those Works which L s. Faith is to be try'd by if not why are we amus'd with it here for a dozen pages together was he serious when he propos'd a method which he quits now the first step he advances But admit the pertinence of the remark I am sure we have a great deal of reason to question the Truth of it For tho we are not at all concern'd where L. first took up this opinion yet 2dly How is it prov'd that he embrac'd it while in the Monastery why by express assertions of this Doctrine in Treatises of his written ten years after he came out on 't A fine discovery indeed and every ways befitting a man of my Author's Sagacity Now should I turn this way of reasoning upon him and prove from what he now writes he must needs have been a Papist 20. years ago he would not I believe admit the argument because there is a scurvy inference hanging at the tail of it Nay 3dly He is so far from fixing the time when this new Doctrine was first hatch'd that he has not prov'd the Doctrine it self to be new tho he attempts it § 6. by citing a decision of the Council of Trent's together with Bellarmin and Cassander's authorities But I would have him remember that the Epocha of that Doctrine he calls new does by his own accompt run at least 30 years higher then the oldest of these so that L. is brought in guilty of Novellism as Strafford was of Treason by a Law made after the fact was done Now to urge the suppos'd perpetuity of their Faith for the validity of this instance is to urge a thing which Protestants deny and therefore any argument grounded upon that maxim can be nothing but a childish petitio Principii a fault which his own Logic whips him for Should I insist upon every failure of this nature I must write Volumes for there is never a step made without a stumble 'T will be more material to observe that 4thly He has not dealt fairly with L s. Doctrine in vid. §. 7. this point insinuating all along that it falls in with the Solifidian and Fiduciary Errors but he wrongs him infinitely for an hundred instances might be brought from his writings where the necessity of good works in order to Salvation is display'd But instead of that I shall leave him to be confuted by Bellarmin's confession a Lutherus docet aliquo modo necessaria esse bona opera cum affirmet veram fidem non esse quae non parit bona opâ—… de Justif. L. 4. C. 1. or if he won't take his word by his own p. 16. where he allows Ls. faith to be such as when true has allways good works joyn'd with it L. teaches indeed that fides sola justificat but not solitaria that faith alone justifies but not the Faith that is alone Good Works are inseparable attendants upon this justifying Faith but they contribute nothing to the act of Justification they make not just but are allwaies with them that are made so This is L s. was the C. of Rome's a Viqe Tho Aqu. Lect. 4. in Gal. 3. and is now the C. of England's Doctrine if he 'll be pleas'd to attacque it as such it shall not want a Defender As to his Quotations on this occasion they are as at other times very trifling To pursue every particular of 'em would be nauseous and unnecessary one general Remarque that I shall leave with the Reader will lead him into the sense of 'em all L. wrote against a sort of men that held good works to be meritorious and rely'd on 'em as of themselves satisfactory without a particular application of faith this was the Doctrine or at least the practice of the cloyster and this L. through all his Writings encounters so that where ever he put 's a slight upon good works 't is as they stand distinct from Faith under the notion that superstitious zeal had then cloath'd 'em with b Thus when he had said Contritio quae paratur per discussionem collectionem detestationem peccati c. facit hypocritam Assert Art 6 he expound's himself afterwards by telling you that the contrition he 's talking of is naturalis impia extra fidem When he tell 's you Assert Art 11. Crede fortiter tâ—… absolutum absolutus vere eris quicquid sit de câ—…tritione what is meant by these last words is not whether you are contrite or no as his sly interpreter has it but without respect to your contrition i. e the contrition you so much rely upon as the article it self when propounded intire and the paraphrase upon it sufficiently evidence And so of the rest I will not say that in the prosecution of this he never went awry he did so in reviving that doubt which was sometime in the primitive Church of St. Iames's Epistle being Canonical because he thought it ran counter to St. Paul but he withdrew this plea of his when better inform'd if quoting from it afterwards as from Scripture be owning it's Authority 'T is plain his followers think so the most rigid of whom and who in every puncttlio would be thought like Luther do yet retain this Epistle in the Canon Indeed in the 1st Edition of his German Bible he call's it straminea not absolutely but in comparison with those of St. Paul But in all the Editions after 1526 't is left out and the arida the Pamphlet talk's of is in none of 'em at all The objection drawn from his calling St. Paul Evangelist in preference to Matthew Mark and Luke is ridiculous for he there tells you what he mean's by Evangelists viz such as preach the glad tidings of that comfortable Doctrine
Church of Rome for the Catholic Church and is too trite a subject to be here insisted on But Truth and Holyness Error and Vice have a necessary Connexion §. 59. What then Luther we have prov'd an holy man and therefore this do's not touch us in the sense he would have it Yet truth and holyness Error and Vice are not it seem's so necessarily link'd together but that a Teacher of something false may bring forth the fruits of a good life and contrary the Teacher of Truth the fruits of a bad for these are his words in this very paragraph So that Necessary and Contingent are the same in this man's Logic. Agen he proves that where more corrupt Doctrines are §. 60. believ'd and taught there for the general are more corrupt lives Agreed but are Luther's Doctrines of such a stamp Indeed in his gross way of delivering 'em they may have such an appearance The 4 main heads are he says 1. The §. 61. Nullity and Antichristianism of the former Clergy and the non-obligation of their Laws But I have made out from the Smalcald Articles that Luther held no nullity in this case tho' in points fundamental he allow'd not the Authority of councils as depending merely on revelation for them yet in things indifferent I have shew'd that he was as willing to be concluded by their sanctions as any man 2. The inutility of works pennance mortifications c. This is all a slander he decry'd not the use but the merit of them 3. The servitude of Man's will and inability to do good even in the regenerate Ls. Doctrine of free will is when fairly expounded the same with the Church of Englands as such we own it and shall defend it 4. The sole sufficiency of Faith in us for our Iustification We have told him that Luther held good works as necessary to Salvation as any Papist of 'em all tho' he did not think they were the cause of justification That they follow'd upon it as heat attends the light of the Sun he own'd but then as heat do's not enlighten however close join'd with that which do's so neither do they justify If then ' t was out of these three latter points that a great dissoluteness of Life Covetousness Oppression c. grew 't is to be hop'd the crimes imputed are but a fiction and that the Reform'd are not so bad as they are represented since those three points when truly stated have a quite different air we see from what he has bestow'd upon ' em The Parragraph referr'd to I 'me sure proves no such thing § 7. there are two or three expressions from Erasmus Calvin and Musculus which represent some of the Reform'd as worse then while they were Papists And will he take the advantage of this so far as to say that the Reformation do's of it self make men worse If he will 't is plain he 's resolv'd to make all the spiteful inferences he can without troubling himself whether they are just or no. He proceeds to reflect on the many Sects that sprung § 62. up after the Reformation But a late Apologetical Vindicator of the Church of England has so fully clear'd this objection that the most partial must be satisfy'd I can add nothing to what that worthy Author has done and shall therefore spare my self the trouble of transcribing I shall only take notice of something the Considerer relates on this occasion By reason of these Sects he says following the Reformation so close at the heels c Lr. often foretold that the true Religion should not long continue after his death He bring 's not a Letter from Lr. to confirm this report which is an evident sign that he cannot for upon lesser occasions he do's not spare his Latin Indeed Luther was so far from any diffidence of this nature that his Adversaries have blam'd him for a too great presumption on t'other side particularly Bellarmin in his 12th Note urges against him a prophecy of his that in two years the Papal Kingdome should be destroy'd Tho' this too be a falsity and was broach'd by Cochleus a venemous writer and one so careless of truth or falshood that Sanders himself is not more But my Author has a great knack at Remarks i' the end of this Paragraph he makes another about our refining in the points of Controversy and coming nearer and nearer still to the Church of Rome Now let any man compare Bellarmin's bold truths with the softnings of the Bishop of Condom and the Representer and then tell me on which side this imputation lyes 'T will appear I believe upon this search that Old Popery and New Popery agree no more then the two styles We are come now to the last stage of the Pamphlet §. 63. where we may see how much art is requisite to manage circumstances well Nothing is less obnoxious to censure then the story of Ls. death when intirely told Yet as passages are here pick'd out and wrested it makes no good appearance This we have the more reason to take ill of him because he there quotes Iustus Ionas his account the most authentic extant and yet takes but a single circumstance from him in the whole relation The truth is no other account bear's any credit with us This was compil'd by Eye-witnesses Ionas Caelius and Aurifaber who solemnly invoke God to witness that they have related all things with exact fidelity and who indeed durst not have done otherwise since Count Mansfeld and several other persons of Quality were present also and could have confuted 'em had they been faulty in any thing Sleidan has contracted the story from them and in his words I shall give it you Vide marg a Prius quam Islebium perveniret quod erat sub exitum Januarii valetudine utebatur tenuiori sed tamen causam agebat propter quam erat vocatus aliquoties in templo docebat percepta quoque caena Domini 17. vero die Februarii coepit aegrotare gravius ex pectore Erant cum eo filii tres Joannes Martinus Paulus alii quidam familiares in his etiam Justus Jonas Ecclesiae Hallensis Minister quanquam erat imbecillus prandit tamen cum reliquis atque coenavit inter coenandum variis de rebus locutus hoc etiam inter caetera rogavit Num in illa sempiterna vita simus alter alterum recognituri cumque illi ex ipso averent scire quid inquit accidit Adamo c. A coena quum divertisset precandi causa sicuti consuevit coepit augeri dolor pectoris Ibi monitu quorundam usus est cornu monocerotis ex vino post in minori lectulo hypocausti per unam alteram horam suaviter dormit Cum evigilasset in cubiculum ingreditur ad quietem iterum se componit salutatis amicis qui aderant orate inquit Deum ut Evangelii doctrinam nobis conservet