"Look unto the rock": Bramhall and the appeal to the Church catholic and apostolic

From Bramhall's Discourse III: A Reply to the Bishop of Chalcedon (1656), a response to a work by the Roman titular Bishop of Chalcedon, a fine rejoinder to the Roman apologist invoking the words of the prophet Isaiah to urge obedience to the Roman See:

To conclude; the same advice which he giveth unto me, I return unto himself. Attendite ad petram unde excisi estis - "Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn". Look unto the Church of Hierusalem, and remember, that "the Law came out of Zion, and the Word of the Lord out of Hierusalem". Look unto the Church of Antioch, where "the disciples were first called Christians". Look unto the other Eastern Churches, in whose regions the Sun of Righteousness did shine, when the Day of Christianity did but begin to dawn in your coasts. Look to the primitive Church of Rome itself, whose "Faith was spoken of throughout the whole world", and needed not the supplemental articles of Pius the Fourth. Lastly, look unto the true Catholic oecumenical Church, whose privileges you have usurped, and seek not to exclude so many millions of Christians from the hope of salvation and the benefit of Christ's Passion, in whom "all the nations of the world" were "to be blessed". This indeed is the only secure way both to unity and salvation, to keep that entire form of doctrine, without addition or diminution, which was sufficient to save the holy Apostles; which was by them contracted into a summary, and deposited with the Churches, to be the true badge and cognizance of all Christians in all succeeding ages; more than which the primitive Fathers, or rather the representative Church of Christ, did forbid to be exacted of any person that was converted from Judaism or Paganism to Christianity.

From The Works of The Most Reverend Father in God, John Bramhall, Volume II.

Comments

Popular Posts