Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A65532
|
The antapology of the melancholy stander-by in answer to the dean of St. Paul's late book, falsly stiled, An apology for writing against the Socinians, &c.
|
Wettenhall, Edward, 1636-1713.
|
1693
(1693)
|
Wing W1487; ESTC R8064
|
73,692
|
117
|
Substance distinct but not separate Now upon the whole have either of these Words fix'd the Sense of the Scripture so that Hereticks cannot pervert it and have a private Sense of their own touching it May not a Man 1 Own three Hypostases or three Persons that is profess Faith in or under the two most Orthodox Terms that have been found out and none but God and himself know what he means Nay may he not hold to the Words and yet hold Heresy yea Blasphemy and that in divers particular Senses which I have named and which I have declined to name for that the Subject is so tender Again 2 May not a Man use the Words quite contrary to the Forms in which the Fathers generally use them and yet speak Orthodox Truth Did not if Theodoret say Truth the Council of Sardis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodor. Hist lib. 2. cap. 8. say This Catholick Tradition and Confession have we received and taught this do we hold that there is but one Hypostasis meaning thereby one Substance of the Deity Nay lastly must it not be acknowledged that at least one of these Words viz. Hypostasis has given occasion to the Tritheites Heresy as any Man may see who pleases to consult what Photius what Leontius the Byzantine Advocate and what Nicephorus Callistus report of Thiloponus too long here to be inserted Were it not better then to keep to Scripture-Words in which all agree than to take up new ones of humane Invention and contend and damn one another about them when yet it is apparent we may use these however artificial refined Terms and be as far from agreeing in Sense as ever we were nay much further than if we had kept to Scripture-Language Hereticks may here conceal themselves under a larger Latitude of Expression Pag. 8. and spread their Heresies with a traditionary Sense and Comment of their own more exactly and poisonously than the Purity and Simplicity of the Holy Text would have permitted But if any be still fond of the Litigious Ecclesiastical or Scholastical Terms in their Confessions and Articles let them stand for me In the Orthodox Sense and for Peace sake they may be subscribed to only in our Prayers at least wherein a most intire Assent and Consent without doubting or doubling is to be ingaged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us have Scripture and speak to God as he has revealed himself to us What then must we reform the Doctrine of the Trinity out of our Prayers as in his good-natured Fit Mr. Dean expresses it No but put it in there only as God has put it in our Bibles And my Hopes and Desires of seeing this done I take to be no foul Imputation nor at all Pag. 5. likely to cast an ill Reflection on any Design of excellent Persons whatsoever But I must return with my Apologist to the Latitude of Faith which §. 11. he again to use his own Term tragically complains of me for pleading for and demands whether there be any more than one true Christian Faith Pag. 8. and whether Christ and his Apostles intended to teach any more Or whether they did not intend that all Christians should be obliged to believe this one Faith Here are Questions enow and Fallacy enough in them I answer briefly and plainly Faith as Truth can be but one And every Truth which Christ and his Apostles taught ought if it can be without Scruple understood without Scruple to be believed All Christians are obliged to believe to the utmost of their Understandings each Truth by Christ and his Apostles taught But whether a determinate explicite Belief of all the Truths which Christ and his Apostles taught be absolutely necessary to the Salvation of every private Christian or even of every Christian Doctor I take to be a Question worthy of the Dean's Consideration For mine own part I dare not affirm it but judg a Latitude must be allowed and in such Determinations as exceed most Mens Understanding some such Temper as my Notion of a Negative Belief must be admitted Which Term by his good Favour has no more Impropriety or Contradiction in it than that more usual one amongst Divines of a Negative Righteousness whence I trans-sumed it thinking it for a Reason which he may guess at more palatable to some People than an implicite Faith and I having so fully and perspicuously defin'd it it was poor and pedantic in him to carp at the Term. In a word we are to reject nothing as false nor esteem any thing as mean superfluous or unprofitable which our Lord or his Apostles have taught We are to give Diligence to understand and as we can understand explicitely to believe all but there are many Points in Divinity that is in the whole Body of what our Lord and his Apostles have taught whereof perhaps we may not have so clear and determinate a Sense as that we can say this or that is it which our Lord and his Apostles intended to oblige us to believe And here we must either totally suspend our Faith till we can better satisfy our selves in the mean while not contradicting or else we must believe though not without some Tenderness what to us appears the more probable of the several Points in Scruple Now the Belief of the more probable Side cannot be stiled Faith but in a certain Latitude of the Name 'T is sure our Lord and his Apostles full well knew they both spoke and writ to People of very different Capacities and Circumstances and no doubt accordingly accommodated their Doctrine What was necessary to the Salvation of all is by them delivered very plain and I will add 't is short Certa semper sunt in paucis says Tertullian And all learned Protestant Divines have been ever very tender in defining the Number of Fundamentals or what things are necessary by all to be believed to their Salvation Here the Minumum quod sic as we commonly speak is a difficult Point to determine and Dr. Hammond in his Book of Fundamentals has amply shewn there must be as to the Number of them a Latitude allowed according to different States or Circumstances of Men. But his Authority is infinitely greater who said Vnto whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required Consequently of him who knew not or giving honest Diligence to know understood not what is revealed a less measure of Faith shall be expected So that even here I stand to it is a Latitude Suppose a Man to have been baptized to understand competently the Apostles Creed and the common Rules of Christian Duty to profess the Belief hereof to shew his Love to God and Christ by good Works and a Life savouring of Heaven to live in the Communion of such a Church or Society of Christians as will allow such a Person for a Member of Christ though perhaps he may not be admittted for want of great Knowledg and a Faith of deeper Mysteries into
Which my Author says is contrary to the Doctrine of Greg. Naz. the great Divine Niceph. Callist Hist lib. 18. cap. 48. Philoponus I must confess I know not what is I do not say the Dean believes three Gods God forbid I should but I do avow he has said what necessarily infers three Gods I hope therefore according to his Promise p. 11. he will thankfully correct this Absurdity and not blush to recant an Error § 4. After this my general Vindication I am now to descend to the Particulars I am charged with And first he charges me in Effect in his Title-page but more expresly in Pag. 2. and in other Places that I desired no Body would write against Socinians Whatsoever my Intent was of which I think he wants the Gift of discerning Spirits to capacitate him for being a Judg I am sure he can never prove this Charge from my Paper in which the only Controversy mentioned was that of the Trinity and possibly some of its Subdivisions Now it is notorious 1 That the Socinians are not the only Persons Heterodox in these Points 2 That these are not the only Points in which they are Heterodox There are also divers others in which I believe in my Conscience they grievously err The Doctor then might have written against the Socinians and not meddle with the Doctrine of the Trinity Therefore when I desired the Controversy of the Trinity might for the present be sorborn I did not desire that no Body should write against the Socinians The next Touch at me which I will remark is if I am a Divine of Apol. pag. 2. the Church of England why should I profess he means stile my self a Stander-by I answer perhaps I was not so conceited of my Skill at the Weapon as others are But admit I had been must every one that thinks he has found out some new Pass or Guard draw presently upon the next Man he meets begirt with a Sword Should all of the Doctor 's Degree or mine have written on that Subject where had been the End of Books I was therefore on this Account as well as in the Sense before mentioned a Stander-by and on how many Scores melancholy it is too long and too sad to recount I heartily pray neither Mr. Dean nor any other Christian may have like Reason But he is always very jealous of Men who are so tender of the wrong Side It is evident indeed to any who reads my Paper I have express'd therein a Tenderness 1 For the Church of England and the Nicene Faith 2 For the Credit of the Reformation 3 For Peace and Holiness Is any or are all these the wrong Side As to his Observation which he tells us he has made and which he subjoins touching Mens Tenderness being due to their Inclinations he may keep these his profound politick Notes for better Purpose I own my Inclination to the three Points mentioned and wish the same both in him and in all Members of our Church As to his perverting my peaceable Assertions and making them what he pleases by odious That is's in the two next Paragraphs and a multitude of other Places These are such open disingenuous Arts that I will only note them and having told my Reader that this is his common way of dealing with me to the end he may cast Reproach and a publick Hate upon me I will concern my self to answer only to the more material Points or to the Gross of the Res substrata which he imputes to me I confess my self an Enemy to such open Disputes between Protestants §. 5. as only publish to the common Enemies the Divisions of the Protestants Nor do I find the Reformers to have been whatever Mr. Dean says for such Disputings nor that the voluntary Disputings of unauthorized Persons have ever suppressed but rather revived old Heresies How I would have those who should write in this Controversy authorized I will anon set down In the mean time I come to that Latitude and Simplicity wherein I suppose Christian Faith was delivered and wherein I would have Pag. 3 c. it left which Mr. Dean will not understand And first he would gladly know what I mean by the Latitude of Faith Now because he seems to be at a great deal of Pains here to mistake me another Man would have said to blunder I will tell him that Latitude here is a metaphorical Term and I will not be so exact as to suppose it translated to our purpose either from Astronomy or Geography but taking it meerly for one of the triple Dimensions of Bodies apply it by way of Similitude to that Extent of Signification which Terms of any Proposition may naturally both in themselves and in their Dependance on Precedents and Subsequents admit All Men who have read and considered do know that the same Words may carry with them different Notions and that the Compass of those different Notions though it be bounded by the common Import of the Words yet does often times include divers Specialties in it And this I affirm as to the Propositions of Faith both in Holy Scripture and even in the Apostles Creed it self As to the latter I instance in that Clause He descended into Hell our Divines have told us it admits three or four Though it be a Christian's Duty to believe every Article of this Creed I conceive the agreeing upon some one Sense wherein to interpret every Article of it is not so absolutely necessary but that some one of them may be taken in a LATITVDE and either not determined to any one Interpretation or resolved to be capable of more Practic Cat. lib. 5. §. 2. Senses Dr. Hammond himself allows two and whosoever understands and believes it in either of those Senses though he should haply doubt or distrust the other of them is not guilty either of Heresy or Unbelief No nor supposing that by Contention he divide not the Church or himself from it is he to be taxed with Schism Now to leave Faith in the Latitude in which it was delivered is to impose no Determinations of such Words or Expressions as necessary to Salvation but to allow each Person to believe the Matter propounded in one of those Senses whatever it be which the Words naturally bear and which in his Conscience he judges the truest And this Allowance I particularly demand as to the Point in hand as set down 1 John 5. 7. And such Allowance in this as well as in other disputed Points would I say soon reduce Controversies amongst Protestants to a very small Compass at least the Heats in managing them would cease Then as to what I mean by Simplicity he says I leave it to guess Is this then a Word of Difficulty or is this Phrase the Simplicity of Faith unusual and uncertain But when no Exception else could be found Nodus in scirpo must be pretended Take then good Mr. Dean the Simplicity of Faith in what