Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
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A27169
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A discourse shewing that Protestants are on the safer side, notwithstanding the uncharitable judgment of their adversaries and that their religion is the surest way to heaven.
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Beaulieu, Luke, 1644 or 5-1723.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing B1572; ESTC R20774
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24,111
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46
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Noise of Damnation dashing against them and therefore I will pursue things no further than to shew That neither the Judgment of our Adversaries nor any thing wherein both Churches disagree any ways endangers our future Happiness But that as to the securing the eternal Welfare of our immortal Souls ours is to be preferred before the Roman Communion A DISCOURSE shewing c. THE Concerns of Eternity being so tremendous and many not so well instructed as they should 't is no wonder if some Men are frighted with the fearful Sentence pronounced against them by the Zealots of the Roman Party To any Man serious or timorous Threats of Damnation are terrible even in the Mouth of a Mortal Creature Though it only betrays the Presumption of any sinful Man that dares sit on the Tribunal of his Almighty Judg yet because some are so tender and so weak in this Point as to be much disordered and dismayed to see themselves adjudged to Hell though it were but a Dream or a melancholy Fancy therefore it may be worth the while briefly to state the Case and consider on what Grounds they proceed that so freely pronounce our Doom And I doubt not but to make it appear that we want only their good Word or also their good Will when for Safety and a sure Foundation we are at least as well as they It may surprize and startle to see one stare and with great Confidence denounce that you are a dead Man that cannot live an Hour but having recovered your self and reflected upon 't you pass by without further Harm and smile at the Humour There is one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy Who art thou that judgest another Our intire dependence is upon God as well for the state of Eternity as for the present We do not fall when we go hence under a new or an unknown Power neither are left to Mens Mercy but the same God by whom we were taken out of our Mother's Womb and to whom we were left when we hang'd yet upon her Breasts he that took care of us and provided for us here upon Earth is still to dispose of us in our future State And we shall be judged by him by whom we were made and redeemed This God whom we now serve and under whose Almighty Dominion we must ever remain is infinitely good He would have all Men to be saved and to come to the knowledg of the Truth Therefore he doth not seek Advantages against them nor lay Snares in their Way nor wrap up his Saving Light in Obscurity but deals with them in much Mercy making that Grace of his which bringeth Salvation appear unto all Men that they may know the Way to Life and clearly see what they must do to obtain Eternal Happiness This God shews Men by that Revelation he hath made of his blessed Will how they ought to walk and to please him Therein all things necessary are very plainly exprest that they may be understood of all And for a further Help and a greater Security to Men of all Capacities a Summary of Divine Truths such as are fundamental and needful was by times made and propagated together with the Christian Religion over all the World So that we have the Word of God and the Apostolick Creed both of them always attested by the whole Christian Church as two firm Pillars whereon to repose our selves That we might be strong and immoveable in the Faith assured that we are not imposed upon by our Guides and that length of Time hath made no Alteration but that we hold now the same things which were taught by Christ and received of his Church and that we make nothing necessary to Salvation which from the Beginning was not so First then The Word of God contained in the Holy Bible is by Consent of all that Saving Truth of God by which we must live and by which we shall be judged so that whatsoever is there written is to be embraced as certain and as coming from God Whether it relates to the Creation and the Government of the World or to the many Wonders which God wrought in former Ages to deliver his People and to confirm and attest his Revelation or to the Fall of Man and the Promise of a Saviour or to his Mission into the World and his accomplishing the great Work of our Redemption or to the Gospel-Promises and Doctrines and Mysteries or to Laws and Rules of Righteousness and Institutions of Divine Worship whatsoever it relates to it is to be embraced with an humble and obedient Faith Nothing is to be questioned that is contained in the Bible all humane Authorities and humane Reasonings must submit to it for the Bible is the Word of God Go into all the World and you shall find all Churches every where assert the same as well as we The Jews concur with us in the Divine Authority of the ancient Oracles before our blessed Lord's Coming But all Christians in every Part and in every Age of the Church embrace and reverence both the Old and New Testament as the Book of God wherein are contained the Declarations of his Will and the Words of eternal Life If you enquire what they thought of it in the first or second Ages after our Saviour or at any other time or if you go to the Eastern or African Churches or any the most remote Place where Christianity is profest you shall find all agreed in this that the Bible contains the Doctrine of eternal Salvation and is the Word of God This is not a thing wherein the Greeks differ from the Latins or Protestants from the Papists but is the firm Belief of all This is a most constant and invariable Tradition which for Extent of Time and Place is universal and therefore of the greatest Credit altogether unquestionable So here is a very great Number of Divine and undoubted Truths agreed upon by all the Christian World even all the plain and clear Propositions contained in Holy Scripture Although they be of things not seen that are past or to come yet being there revealed they are assented to by all And he that should deny any of them would be condemned by Christians of all Communions his refusing to acknowledg the Truth of any Contents of the Bible would be interpreted a Denial of God's Veracity because they are all perswaded that the Bible is the Word of God written by the Guidance and the Inspiration of his Holy Spirit He that rejects this Foundation on which all Christians are grounded ought never to concern himself in the Differences among them nor pretend to be of any Church for by his denying the Truth of that Revelation which they all own to be Divine and whereon they rely he makes himself an Infidel and a Party against them all And yet if we could see to the bottom of Things I doubt not but it would appear that the Disputes and Contentions which are among Christians
IMPRIMATUR Septemb. 19. 1687. JO. BATTELY Rmo in Pri. ac Domino Wilhelmo Archiepiscop Cantuar. Ã Sacris domesticis A DISCOURSE SHEWING That Protestants are on the Safer Side notwithstanding the uncharitable Judgment of their Adversaries AND That THEIR RELIGION is the Surest Way to Heaven LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXVII The PREFACE COming accidentally into a Family always frequented and of late much disturbed by some Roman Catholicks who by fulminating Damnation against all Protestants had terrified some Friends I applied my self to clear their Doubts and to remove those Fears wherewith the Noise and Threats of Hell-fire had affected their Minds This engaged me into a long Debate with one of the Parties who was very positive and earnest in maintaining the utter Impossibility of being saved out of the Church of Rome And upon that it came to be enquired Whether it be their Relation to Rome or their Relation to Christ that Men are to be saved by Whether our State of Eternity depends upon the Talk or Confidence or hard Censures of Men or or upon the Truth of our Religion and our Sincerity in professing of it Whether it be the ever-living God or any mortal Men that make true Religion Whether that be not the Best which best agrees with the Divine Revelation And whether our Saviour had referr'd us to Rome and the Papal Authority for the knowledg of Saving Truth or plainly taught by Himself and by his Apostles all that is requisit and sufficient to Salvation About these we differ'd but yet agreed upon the whole that the great odds in point of safety which they apprehend to be betwixt them and us must be grounded upon the Excellency of their Religion above ours and must therefore appear in their Faith Worship and Morals which are the essential parts of Religion and make it right or wrong according as they are themselves The Talk I then had about this Subject and the occasion of it put me upon writing the ensuing Discourse Wherein my chiefest Aim hath been to fix my Reader upon that which is positive with us and is maintained on all sides that being altogether requisit and of it self sufficient to make a Man a good Christian And then to consider those Points in belief and practice about which we differ and to shew on which side lies the Advantage for means of Grace and certainty of Salvation The INTRODUCTION THE Church of Rome would not only have all her Dictates received as Divine and true but would likewise have nothing received as such but what she delivers insomuch that her Writers would persuade us that we can have no Assurance of the Truth of our common Christianity because we receive it not from the Infallible Chair and rely not on its Authority for the proving of it As if a Man could not know and firmly believe that Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners without so much as having heard any thing of a Roman Church and her Infallibility And as if those great Truths which God hath revealed were not to be embrac'd and assented to because they are his but depended upon the good Pleasure of a Party of Men who can no more add greater Authority to what God hath declared than they can make their own Sayings of an equal Authority with God's We can admit that Church for a joint Witness with other Christian Churches that the Bible is the Word of God and that the Christian Creed is the Catholick Faith But there is no reason to think that any thing is the more true or the more necessary meerly because she saith it That which is equally attested by all Christian Churches who were all Depositories of the Divine Oracles and of the Christian Religion hath a cogent and a clear Evidence But that wherein she stands divided from all the rest and bears witness only to her own Prerogatives is either true because she asserts it which none will dare to say or ought to be proved by the Testimony of the whole Christian Church and of Divine Revelation which she can never do So we have this great Advantage in those things which we assert as Points of Saving Faith that we have the plain and express Words of Holy Scripture and the Concurrence of the whole Church whereas those things which we reject are made a Creed only by one particular Church not above one hundred Years agone and have no Ground in Holy Writ Some may dispute with us about our Rites or Discipline or some abstruse and disputable Points But for that Faith whereon we ground our Hopes of Salvation nothing can be objected against it It is the same wherein every Christian is baptised the same which was before the Reformation and before the Want of it in Times of greatest Purity the same Faith was profest and in the worst of Times under the greatest Corruptions it was still preserved and that not in one Kingdom or only here in the West but in all Patriarchates and in all Christian Churches in the World We have neither added nor diminish'd nor made any Alteration in that Rule of Faith which is the Badge and the Ground of Christianity So that as to this Point our Religion is now as it was long before Luther We have no other Creed than that which was universally profest all along Our Dispute with the Church of Rome is about their new one made since Luther and profest no where else but in her Communion that we cannot embrace It hath neither the same Authority from God nor from Men as hath the Catholick Belief To make this plain here I set the two Creeds at large to be consulted as the Reader finds occasion The Catholick and Apostolick Creed explained by the Nicene and the Athanasian in what concerns our Saviour's Divinity but never enlarged until the Council of Trent I Believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary Suffered undâ—r Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried He descended into Hell the third Day he arose again from the Dead He ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty From thence he shall come to judg the Duick and the Dead I believe in the Holy Ghost The Holy Catholick Church The Communion of Saints The Forgiveness of Sins The Resurrection of the Body And the Life everlasting The Roman Creed I Most stedfastly admit and embrace the Apostolical and Ecclesiastical Traditions with the rest of the Constitutions and Observations of the Roman Church I also receive the Holy Scripture according to that sense which the Holy Mother Church whose it is to interpret it hath held and doth hold nor will ever understand or interpret it otherwise than acccording to the unanimous Consent of the Fathers I profess also that there are seven true