Imatges de pàgina
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1686-94. abound among us. I am sure they have been at great charges to support the expenses of legal proceedings, and to defend constables from being maliciously and falsely prosecuted, and to make them some reparation for the unreasonable abuses they have met with upon such occasions; though they who have lost their lives in discharge of their oath and duty, by endeavouring to detect and suppress vice and immorality, as it is certain some have done, must expect their reward at a higher tribunal. It is true indeed, that by the blessing of God upon their vigorous proceedings, great numbers of lewd persons have been brought to legal punishment, and others have been forced to abscond, in order to escape the terror of the laws; by which means, several sinners have been recovered to a sense of their follies, and reclaimed from their wicked practices; at least bad examples have been removed out of sight, and public scandals have not been so frequent. Which is sufficient to entitle all those, who labour in this difficult province, to the prayers and good wishes and substantial encouragement of all those who are concerned for the welfare of their country, and have . the honour of God at heart.

1694.

cium Ec

LXVI. In the year 1694, Dr. Bull, while rector His Judi- of Avening, published his Judicium Ecclesiæ Caclesia Catholicæ, &c. which was printed at Oxford, and writtholicæ ten in defence of the Anathema, as his former book gainst Epi- had been of the Faith, pronounced at the first

scopius.

council of Nice. The occasion of writing this treatise was, that in his reading the 34th chapter of the fourth book of the Institutions of Episcopius, where he treateth concerning the necessity of be

lieving the manner of the divine filiation of Jesus 1694. Christ, and putteth this question, "Whether the "fifth (and highest) manner of Christ's being the "Son of God be necessary to be known and be

66

lieved, and whether they who deny the same are "to be excommunicated and anathematized?" he made some remarks hereupon for his own private use, and drew up an answer to the arguments of that learned writer, whereby he was persuaded, that the primitive catholics did not refuse communion with those that received not the article of the divine generation or filiation of Jesus Christ, if they acknowleged him to be the Son of God, by his miraculous conception of the Holy Ghost, by virtue of his mediatorial office, by his resurrection from the dead, and by his exaltation to sit at the right hand of God the Father.

ter of Epi

his motives

Episcopius, as our author hath observed, was a His characman of great natural parts, and more than commonly scopius, and learned in many things; but he was one who very to write little consulted or cared for the writings of the an-against him. cient Fathers; yea, plainly despised them. Whence, writing against Wading the Jesuit, who made a mighty boast of the Fathers and councils, as if they were all generally on his side against the protestants, he took him up short, telling him once for all, that he was mistaken in thinking to draw him into such an endless maze and labour, at which he must work like a mill-horse, for the sake only of an empty name: and that he did not envy those, who had a mind to be always roving and fluctuating in that ocean of councils and Fathers, and to be laying out upon them all their time and pains, the glory of being esteemed for their vast reading and

1694. capacious memory: for that he had no ambition in him after a fame for that, which cost so dear and signified so little. Wherefore he gave the Jesuit to understand, that he would deal with him with other sort of weapons, than those which he brought and that because he did not think any great stress was to be laid upon the Fathers and councils, in the points controverted betwixt them, since they were equally challenged by both sides, he had resolved not to be at much pains about them, nor to purchase with so much sweat, that which he might afterwards come to repent of. But it were much to have been wished, that he had here excepted at least the Fathers and writers of the three first centuries of the church. For most certainly, as our author hath well noted hereupon, had he expended more of his time and study in reading of these, he would herein have taken pains not to be repented of, either by himself or the church of Christ. For it is his judgment, that so learned and good a man would never have undertaken so far the patronage of the Arians and Socinians, as to excuse their doctrine concerning the person of our Saviour, by the pretended judgment and authority of the primitive church, as if it were but erroneous only and not heretical also. This Dr. Bull could no ways bear to hear of, who is positive, that it may be demonstrated from the present remains which we have of church antiquity, that all those churches in the most early ages, which are in this case appealed to, did agree to condemn the same, as a most pernicious and deadly heresy, and that the Fathers of the council of Nice did no more than declare herein the sentiment of the whole catholic and apostolic church, or of all

the several particular churches from which they came, and which they represented, by that damnatory clause, which was added by them to their confession of faith.

1694.

thema of

defended

and others.

The form of the anathema pronounced in that The anacouncil, which seemed too harsh and uncharitable to the council Episcopius, but which Dr. Bull hath vindicated from of Nice all the objections and prejudices raised against it, is against him this; "Them that say, that there was a time "when he was not, or that before he was born he "was not, or that he was made out of things that "are not, or that he is of another substance or es"sence; and them that maintain, that the Son of "God is created, or convertible, or changeable; all "these doth the catholic and apostolical church ana"thematize." But this answer of Dr. Bull to Episcopius, in defence of the said anathema of the council, as the judgment of the whole catholic church in the purest ages of it, was not written and published so much against Episcopius himself, or against his disciple Curcellæus, who hath written a P dissertation also much to the same purpose, or against any of the learned abroad, whether Remonstrants or Unitarians; as against some at home among us, to whom Dr. Bull giveth the name of mediators, for joining together two extremes; who in their writings have made use of the arguments of Episcopius, Curcellæus, and even of Socinus himself for this end. Against such modern reconcilers as these, who stood

· Τοὺς δὲ λέγοντας, ἦν ποτε, ὅτε οὐκ ἦν, καὶ πρὶν γεννηθῆναι οὐκ ἦν, καὶ ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων ἐγένετο, ἢ ἐξ ἑτέρας ὑποστάσεως ἢ οὐσίας φάσκοντας εἶναι, ἢ κτιστὸν ἢ τρεπτὶν ἢ ἀλλοιωτὸν τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, τούτους ἀναθεματίζει ἡ καθολικὴ καὶ ἀποστολικὴ ἐκκλησία.

P De Necessitate Cognitionis Christi.

1694. indifferent for the truth, and were strangers to the principles of catholic communion, it appeareth, that this treatise was principally levelled by the author. Which he designed should serve for a supplement to his Defence of the Faith declared in the council of Nice. And so indeed it is, and a vindication of that Defence to that purpose.

The main occasion

and design

ing this

book.

It containeth the judgment of the catholic church of the three first centuries, concerning the necessity of publish of believing, that our Lord Jesus Christ is true God. In his premonition to the reader, the author hath given us an account, as hath been hinted, of the oc casion and design of his engaging against that learned writer in this present treatise. Which he hath done after so clear and distinct a manner, as very little more, besides what I have already taken notice of, need be said upon it. I shall only therefore here observe, that about the same time, and for some few years before, there were certain discourses and pamphlets printed in English, which, under the plausible pretences of moderation and charity, were for breaking down all the fences of orthodox and catholic communion and so for leaving the most fundamental articles of the Christian faith perfectly indifferent, according as every one shall be inclined to believe more or less.

With this design, a book, called The Naked Gospel, was printed at Oxford in 1690, the main subject whereof was, the simplicity of the Gospel, which our Lord and his apostles preached, as necessary to be believed; with some account of the alterations or additions, which after-ages either made, or are pretended to have made in it; and of the advantages and damages which have thereupon ensued to the

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