Old Fashioned Apologetics
I have just begun reading an intriguing book that I picked from a clearance at the Catholic Theological College in Melbourne. It is titled "The Celebrated Answer to the Rev. C Lesley's Case Stated between the Church of Rome and the Church of England" by Rev. R Manning.
Apparently the Rev. Lesley had written a dialogue between a Catholic lord and Protestant gentleman which was nothing but a lampooning of the Catholic Church, prompting the Rev. Manning to respond to the arguments of the Protestant gentleman in a separate work. The book is full of wit and wisdom, quotes from Scripture and Fathers, even a few lessons in Latin and logic.
Catholic Lord: Really, Sir, I am far from presuming to contradict St. Paul, or question his understanding perfectly well his own business, and the extent of his power; yet I am still of opinion, first, that he never either traveled or sent letters into Parthia, Ethiopia, India or Scythia.
Catholic Lord: Sir, when you convince me that there is a multiplicity either of sects or of gods in the communion of the holy Catholic Church, then it will be time enough to provide several heads to govern a body composed of such opposite and jarring members. But as long as there is but one God worshipped, and but one faith professed, one head under Christ is as proper to govern his church, as one high priest under God was to govern the Jewish synagogue.
Catholic Lord: No, Sir! I shall convince you of your mistake. If either the Church of England, or any other sect, had broke off from us upon a principle acknowledged by us, then we should be responsible for their separation. But since we disown and detest any such principle, the guilt of their schism lies at their own doors, and cannot be charged upon the Church of Rome. But the case is not so with you. For you maintain a principle, which cannot but produce sects and divisions. You make the scriptures interpreted by private judgment the rule of your faith: and private judgment is the fruitful mothers of heresies and schisms. And it is the reason, why no heresy ever came into the world without a litter of sects in the belly of it. A rotten dunghill is not so fruitful in breeding vermin, as private judgment interpreting scriptures by its own light is in producing sects.
Apparently the Rev. Lesley had written a dialogue between a Catholic lord and Protestant gentleman which was nothing but a lampooning of the Catholic Church, prompting the Rev. Manning to respond to the arguments of the Protestant gentleman in a separate work. The book is full of wit and wisdom, quotes from Scripture and Fathers, even a few lessons in Latin and logic.
Catholic Lord: Really, Sir, I am far from presuming to contradict St. Paul, or question his understanding perfectly well his own business, and the extent of his power; yet I am still of opinion, first, that he never either traveled or sent letters into Parthia, Ethiopia, India or Scythia.
Catholic Lord: Sir, when you convince me that there is a multiplicity either of sects or of gods in the communion of the holy Catholic Church, then it will be time enough to provide several heads to govern a body composed of such opposite and jarring members. But as long as there is but one God worshipped, and but one faith professed, one head under Christ is as proper to govern his church, as one high priest under God was to govern the Jewish synagogue.
Catholic Lord: No, Sir! I shall convince you of your mistake. If either the Church of England, or any other sect, had broke off from us upon a principle acknowledged by us, then we should be responsible for their separation. But since we disown and detest any such principle, the guilt of their schism lies at their own doors, and cannot be charged upon the Church of Rome. But the case is not so with you. For you maintain a principle, which cannot but produce sects and divisions. You make the scriptures interpreted by private judgment the rule of your faith: and private judgment is the fruitful mothers of heresies and schisms. And it is the reason, why no heresy ever came into the world without a litter of sects in the belly of it. A rotten dunghill is not so fruitful in breeding vermin, as private judgment interpreting scriptures by its own light is in producing sects.
posted by Lactantius at
2:01 pm
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