Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	apostle_n	authority_n	gospel_n	2,686	5	6.1605	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62640	Six sermons I. Stedfastness in religion. II. Family-religion. III. IV. V. Education of children. VI. The advantages of an early piety : preached in the church of St. Lawrence Jury in London / by ... John Lord Archbishop of Canterbury.; Sermons. Selections	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1694 (1694)	Wing T1268A; ESTC R218939	82,517	218

the opposition of it and laugh at or rather pity the rest of the World that could be so servilely blind as seemingly to conspire in the belief of so monstrous an Absurdity And in like manner if any Church should declare that Images are to be worshipped or that the Worship of God is to be performed in an unknown Tongue and that the H. Scriptures which contain the Word and Will of God and teach men what they are to believe and do in order to their eternal Salvation are to be lock'd up and kept concealed from the People in a Language which they do not understand lest if they were permitted the free use of them in their Mother Tongue they should know more of the Mind and Will of God than is convenient for the common People to know whose Devotion and Obedience to the Church does mainly depend upon their Ignorance Or should declare that the Sacrifice of Christ was not offer'd once for all but is and ought to be repeated ten Millions of times every Day And that the People ought to receive the Communion in one kind only and the Cup by no means to be trusted with them for fear the Profane Beards of the Laity should drink of it And that the saving efficacy of the Sacraments doth depend upon the intention of the Priest without which the Receiver can have no benefit by them These are all of them so plainly contrary to Scripture and most of them in Reason so absurd that the Authority of no Church whatsoever can oblige a man to the belief of them Nay I go yet further that being evidently contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospel though an Apostle or an Angel from Heaven should declare them we ought to reject them And for this I have St. Paul's authority and warrant who speaking of some that perverted the Gospel of Christ by teaching things contrary to it Though we says he or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed As we said before so say I now again though an Apostle though an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which ye have received let him be accursed Gal. 1. 7 8 9. You see he repeats it over again to express not only his own confident assurance but the certainty of the thing And here is an Anathema with a witness which we may confidently oppose to all the Anathema's which the Council of Trent hath so liberally denounced against all those who shall presume to gainsay these New Doctrines of their Church which are in truth another Gospel than that which our B. Saviour and his Apostles taught And yet on their Side there is neither an Apostle nor an Angel from Heaven in the Case To give but one Instance more If Bellarmin shall tell me as he expresly does That if the Pope should declare Virtue to be Vice and Vice to be Virtue I were bound to believe him unless I would sin against Conscience And if all the World should say the same that Bellarmin does namely that this Infallible Declarer of Virtue and Vice were to be believed and followed yet I could not possibly be of their mind for this plain and undeniable Reason because if Virtue and Vice be all one then Religion is nothing since the main Design of Religion is to teach men the difference between Virtue and Vice and to oblige them to practise the one and to refrain from the other And if Religion be nothing then Heaven and Hell are nothing And if Heaven be nothing then an infallible Guide thither is of no use and to no manner of purpose because he is a Guide no whither and so his great Office ceases and falls of it self And now lest any should think me singular in this Assertion and that thereby I give a great deal too much to the single Judgment of private Persons and too little to the Authority of a Church I will produce the deliberate Judgment of a very Learned Man and a great Assertor of the Church's Authority concerning the matter I am now speaking of I mean Mr. Hooker in his deservedly admired Book of Ecclesiastical Policy His words are these I grant says he that Proof derived from the Authority of Man's Judgment is not able to work that Assurance which doth grow by a stronger proof and therefore although ten thousand General Councils should set down one and the same Definitive Sentence concerning any Point of Religion whatsoever yet one Demonstrative Reason alledged or one Testimony cited from the Word of God himself to the contrary could not chuse but oversway them all In as much as for them to be deceived it is not so impossible as it is that Demonstrative Reason or Divine Testimony should deceive And again For men says he to be tyed and led by Authority as it were with a kind of Captivity of Judgment and though there be Reason to the contrary not to listen to it but follow like Beasts the first in the Herd this were Brutish Again That the Authority of Men should prevail with Men either against or above Reason is no part of OUR Belief Companies of Learned Men though they be never so great and Reverend are to yield unto Reason the weight whereof is no whit prejudiced by the simplicity of the Person which doth alledge it but being found to be sound and good the bare Opinion of men to the contrary must of necessity stoop and give place And this he delivers not only as his own particular Judgment but that which he apprehended to be the Judgment of the Church of England I have produced these clear and positive Testimonies of so learned and judicious a Person and of so great esteem in our Church on purpose to prevent any misapprehension as if by this Discourse I intended to derogate from the Authority of the Church and her just and reasonable Determinations in things no wise contrary to plain Reason or the Word of God And beyond this pitch no judicious Protestant that I know of ever strain'd the Authority of the Church I proceed now in the Second place to vindicate the Reasonableness of this Resolution from the Objections to which this singular and peremptory kind of Resolution may seem liable as Obj. 1. First it may very speciously be said that this does not seem modest for a man to set up his own private Judgment against the general Suffrage and Vote And it is very true as I said before that about things indifferent a man should not be stiff and singular and in things doubtful and obscure a man should not be over-confident of his own Judgment and insist peremptorily upon it against the general Opinion But in things that are plain and evident either from Scripture or Reason it is neither immodesty nor a culpable singularity for a man to stand alone in the defence of the Truth Because in such a Case a man

is ordered that it shall be brought to the Church where the remainder of the Office is to be solemnly perform'd I know that of late years since our unhappy Confusions this Sacrament hath very frequently been administred in private And Ministers have been in a manner and to avoid the greater mischief of Separation necessitated to comply with the obstinacy of the greater and more powerful of their Parishioners who for their ease or humour or for the convenience of a pompous Christening will either have their Children baptized at home by their Minister or if he refuse will get some other Minister to do it which is very irregular Now I would intreat such persons calmly to consider how contrary to Reason and to the plain design of the institution of this Sacrament this perverse custom and their obstinate resolution in it is For is there any Civil Society or Corporation into which persons are admitted without some kind of Solemnity And is the Privilege of being admitted Members of the Christian Church and Heirs of the great and glorious Promises and Blessings of the New Covenant of the Gospel less considerable and fit to be conferr'd with less Solemnity I speak to Christians and they who are so in good earnest will without my using more words about it consider what I ●●y in this Particular III. Another and very necessary Part of the good Education of Children is by degrees to inform and carefully to instruct them in the whole compass of their Duty to God their Neighbour and Themselves That so they may be taught how to behave themselves in all the steps of their Life from their first capacity of Reason till they arrive at the more perfect use and exercise of that Faculty when if at first they be well instructed they will be better able to direct and govern themselves afterwards This Duty God does expresly and very particularly charge upon his own peculiar People the People of Israel speaking of the Laws which he had given them Duet 6. 7 Thou shalt says He teach them diligently unto thy Children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way when thou liest down and when thou risest up And this God long before promised that Abraham the Father of the faithful would do Gen. 18. 19. I know Abraham says He that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord. This Work ought to be begun very early upon the first budding and appearance of Reason and Understanding in Children So the Prophet directs Isa 28. 9 10. Whom shall he teach knowledge Whom shall he make to understand doctrine Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts For precept must be upon precept c. To this end we must by such degrees as they are capable bring them acquainted with God and themselves And in the first place we must inform them that there is such a Being as God whom we ought to honour and reverence above all things And then that we are all his Creatures and the work of his hands that it is He that hath made us and not we our selves That He continually preserves us and gives us all the good things that we enjoy and therefore we ought to ask every thing of Him by Prayer because this is an acknowledgment of our dependance upon Him and to return thanks to Him for all that we have and hope for because this is a just and easy Tribute and all that we can render to Him for his numberless favours and benefits And after this they are to be instructed more particularly in their Duty to God and Men as I shall shew more fully afterwards And because Fear and Hope are the two Passions which do chiefly sway and govern Human Nature and the main springs and Principles of action therefore Children are to be carefully inform'd that there is a Life after Death wherein men shall receive from God a mighty and eternal Reward or a terrible and endless Punishment according as they have done or neglected their Duty in this Life That God will love and reward those who do his will and keep his commandments but will execute a dreadful punishment upon the workers of iniquity and the wilful transgressors of his Laws And according as they are capable they are to be made sensible of the great degeneracy and corruption of Human Nature derived to us by the Fall and wilful transgression of our first Parents and of the way of our Recovery out of this miserable state by Jesus Christ whom God hath sent in our Nature to purchase and accomplish the Redemption and Salvation of Mankind from the Captivity of Sin and Satan and from the Damnation of Hell IV. The good Education of Children consists not only in informing their Minds in the knowledge of God and their Duty but more especially in endeavouring with the greatest care and prudence to form their Lives and Manners to Religion and Virtue And this must be done by training them up to the exercise of the following Graces and Virtues First To Obedience and Modesty to Diligence and Sincerity and to Tenderness and Pity as the general dispositions to Religion and Virtue Secondly To the good government of their Passions and of their Tongue and particularly to speak truth and to hate Lying as a base and vile quality these being as it were the foundations of Religion and Virtue Thirdly To Piety and Devotion towards God to Sobriety and Chastity with regard to themselves and to Justice and Charity towards all men as the principal and essential Parts of Religion and Virtue First As the general dispositions to Religion and Virtue we must train them up 1 st To Obedience Parents must take great care to maintain their Authority over their Children otherwise they will neither regard their Commands nor hearken to and follow their Instructions If they once get head and grow stubborn and disobedient there is very little hope left of doing any great good upon them 2 dly To Modesty which is a fear of Shame and Disgrace This disposition which is proper to Children is a marvellous advantage to all good purposes They are modest says Aristotle who are afraid to offend and they are afraid to offend who are most apt to do it as Children are because they are much under the power of their Passions without a proportionable strength of Reason to govern them and keep them under Now Modesty is not properly a Virtue but it is a very good Sign of a tractable and towardly Disposition and a great preservative and security against Sin and Vice And those Children who are much under the restraint of Modesty we look upon as most hopeful and likely to prove good Whereas Immodesty is a vicious temper broke loose and got free from all restraint So that there is nothing left to keep an impudent person from Sin when fear of Shame is gone