A censure upon certain passages contained in the History of the Royal Society [by Thomas Sprat] as being destructive to the established religion and Church of England / [Henry Stubbe].

Stubbe, Henry, 1632-1676.

Date:: 1671

Credit: A censure upon certain passages contained in the History of the Royal Society [by Thomas Sprat] as being destructive to the established religion and Church of England / [Henry Stubbe]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$(?) hfophy now blamed by him hdtb found among'Jl thofe , whom we call Divides of the Schools , more ufually and properly jfien Doftors of .the Church. A man doth then implicitely believe, rehen he doth not cleerly and difiinfily apprehend. So that he that fpeahs not fo, as to be plainly underfiood,caufes either that nothing which he faith fi.ould be believed, or elfe that itftould be received cos true in the Popifh fafhion , that is he beficws his vote and a [ft ht to be difpojed on by another at pleafure. So that hence you may judge who it is, who draws on a novice in Religion the nearefl towards wrap¬ ping his belief up within the faith of another, whether he who contends for fo much plainnefi , that the things propounded need not to be the fubjefl of dijputation, or rather he who feems profound and wife in his fentences , yet doth fo darken his wifedom with words, that the perfon to be inf rubied hath by this means no other way left but to believe that which he cannot underfiand. Tou produce fome jacred teflimonies to evince a neceffrty of divine illumina¬ tion , yet clo not apply them to the prefent difcourfe of the Authour , which is concerning School Divinity\ but had you meant it of this, I mufi have faid with you that the obfcurity of thofe writings would have made fuch a Reve¬ lation neceffary, had not the fmalnefi of their worth rendred them almofi ufelefi. Jt feems to me but reafonable, that as all theBooks of Chrifiian Religion hope for acceptance , becaufe they profefl to be agreeable to the truths of Scripture fo further if they defgn public],f benefit, they fiould imitate the perfpicuity and opennefi of the Evangelicf Style. There is one argument againfi the Au¬ thour not inconfiderable , to which you have fome reference, ( that is J the ftudy of fuch controverfies, difiinflions, and terms are of great ufe when we have to deal with a Fapifi difputant. Its very true , yet it proves mt any excellency in that knowledge of it felf, but meerly in relation to the ad- verfary *, though we have ftefb infiances of worthy perjons amongfi us , who have with good advantage managed the debate in behalf of our Church againfi that of Rome , without much help from thofe Schools;yet that fort of Learn¬ ings even for this reafvti, may fill be maintained, in the fame manner as tradesmen who lie on the Englijb borders towards Wales, ufually keep a fet vant to jabber Welfb (thouph no learned language J to the Brittains their cufiomers. The next words of the Hifiory R. S. which receive a check, are thefe , The grounds whereon the Church of England proceeds, are different from thofe of the Separates, and alfo of the Church of Rome: and they are no other but the rights of the Civil power , the imitation of the firft uncorrupt Churches, and the Scriptures expounded by reafon. Though 1 cannot find any fuch pafage in thepageto which you fend the Rea¬ der , yet I will take it upon trufi, feeing that you have not till now mifrecited any thing cut of his book > that 'which of ends you is , that he would have the Scripture expounded by reafon. This appears to you like Socinianifme, tut I remember the Calvinifis dir efl to as much as this implies. They fay that we mufi expound particular paffages in Scripture by the main ten¬ dency of the whole difcourfe , that we mufi confider the phrafe , whether literal or figurative , that we mufi obferve alt the circumfiances of perfon, time , place , and what elfe is of any moment, And now ('pray J fay whe¬ ther thefe dir efl ions can be praflifed but by reafon , and if not , whether -he who expounds Scripture by thefe rules D. may not be truly faid to expound it by reafon : he doth not fay that a man fiould not acknowledge Scripture, 'if it teach any thing more then thofe fehtiments which reafon had enter- \ < ' ‘ b ' tained$