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 teach_v 3,167 5 5.9207 4 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A44476 A tract concerning schism and schismatiqves wherein is briefly discovered the originall causes of all schisme / written by a learned and judicious divine ; together with certain animadversions upon some passages thereof. Hales, John, 1584-1656.; Page, William, 1590-1663. 1642 (1642) Wing H278; ESTC R2860 21,883 35

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

which you desire to be informed thus much in generall evidently appeares that all meetings upon an unnecessary seperation are to be so stiled so that in sense a Conventicle is nothing else but a Congregation of Schismatiques yet Time hath taken leave sometimes to fix this name upon good and honest meetings and that perchance not altogether without good reason for with publique religious meetings thus it fares First it hath been at all times confessed necessary that God requires not only inward and private devotion when men either in their hearts and Closets or within their privaet walls pray prayse confesse and acknowledg but he further requires all those things to be done in publique by troupes and shoales of men and from hence have proceeded publique Temples Altars formes of Service appoynted times and the like which are required for open Assemblies yet whilst men are truely pious all meetings of men for mutuall help of piety devotion wheresoever and by whomsoever celebrated were permitted without exception But when it was espyed that ill affected persons abused private meetings whether Religious or Civill to evill ends Religiousnesse to crosse Impiety as appeares in the Ethnick Elusinia and Bacchanalia and Christian meetings under the Pagan Princes when for feare they durst not come together in open view were charged with foule imputations as by the report of Christians themselves plainely appeares and Civill meetings many times under pretence of friendly and neighbourly visites sheltred treasonable attempts against Princes and Common-weales Hence both Church and State joyned and joyntly gave order for Formes Times Places of Publique meetings whether for Religious or Civill ends and all other meetings whatsoever besides those of which both time and Place are limited they censured for Routs and Riots and unlawfull Assemblies in the State and in the Church for Conventicles So that it is not lawfull no not for prayer ●earing for Conference for any other Religious office whatsoever for people to Assemble otherwise then by publique order is allowed neither may wee complaine of this in times of incorruption for why should men desire to do that suspitiously in private which warrantably may be performed in publique But in times of manifest Corruptions and persecutions wherein Religious Assembling is dangerous private meetings howsoever besides publique order are not only lawfull but they are of necessity and duty else how shall we excuse Meetings of Christians for publique Service in time of danger and persecutions and of our selues in Queene Maries dayes and how will those of the Romane Church amongst us put off the imputation of Conventicling who are knowne amongst us privately to assemble for Religious exercise against all established order both in State and Church For indeed all pious Assemblies in times of persecution and corruption howsoever practised are indeed or rather alone the lawfull Congregations and Publique Assemblies though according to forme of Law are indeed nothing else but Riots and Conventicles if they be stayned with corruption and superstition ANIMADVERSION Eightly and lastly you take away all superiority from Bishop's when you say they doe but abuse themselves and others that would perswade us that Bishops by Christs institution have any superiority over other men further then of reverence Where although you intended onely to speake against the superiority of one Bishop over another yet you seeme to take away not only all power of one Bishop over another but of a Bishop over a Presbyter yea of a Bishop over any other private man I cannot here intending brevity enter upō the dispute about the power of one Bishop ouer another or of the power of a Bishop over a Presbyter The former of which is no doubt confirmed by a long continued Ecclesiasticall power the latter by an Apostolicall But that a Bishop should not have any superiority over an ordinary lay-man seemes strange to mee Certainely our Saviour intended some power and authority unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles when he gave them the keyes and wisht them to open and shut to binde and loose whose successors Bishops are and though some make question whether they succeede them as Bishops yet none doubt but they succeede them as Pastors of the Church and thus have they power over lay-men S. Paul wills Timothy to command and teach 1. Tim. 4. 11. and in another place willeth others to obey those who had the oversight of them Heb. 13. 17. Now where there is commanding on the one side and obeying on the other there must needs be superiority But I could not have imagined this had been your meaning but for your proofes which followe For we have believed him that hath told us that in Christ Iesus there is neither high nor low and that in giving honour every man should be ready to preferre another before himselfe which saying cuts of all claime certainly of superiority by title of Christianity except men thinke that these things were spoken only to poore and private men Where you consider not that you run into an Anabaptisticall humor and take away all superiority in the common-wealth as well as in the Church and entrench upon the Scepter of the King as well as upon the Miter of the Bishop But your proofes are easily satisfied For the first though we finde not those very words in Scripture yet I suppose you aime at that place wherein it is said Wee are all one in Christ Iesus Gal. 3. 28. where the true meaning of the place is that as wee are Christians we are all one that is wee have all equally and alike beene partakers of Christ by baptisme as he saith vers. 27. as many of you as have beene baptized into Christ have put on Christ So that as members of Christ we are all one all make but one body of Christ Yet as amongst the naturall members of our bodies so amongst the mysticall members of Christ though they be all one as members being compared with the head yet being compared one with another S. Paul tels us there are more honourable and lesse honourable members 1. Cor. 12. 23. Your other place that we should in giving honour preferre one another teacheth humility but taketh not away superiority But you go on and tell us that nature and religion agree in this that neither of them hath an hand in this heraldry of Secundum sub supra whereas in it they both joyne hand in hand Nature acknowledgeth this heraldry that shee may avoyd ataxie and confusion And religion also for did not our Lord and Master acknowledge a Caesar and commanded us to give unto him that which belonged unto him to wit obedience subjection And doth not his Apostle S. Paul command that every soule should be subject to the higher power Rom. 13. 1. where you see this heraldry of sub supra is put downe in expresse tearmes and pray let us observe the Apostles reason why wee should thus be subject to the higher powers for saith he there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God How heare I then that all this comes from composition and agreement of men amongst themselves But I spare to prosecute this doctrine any further least I should discover in it a very transcendent crime FINIS Lib. ad Her cap. 39. Artic. 20. Cap. 1. 2.
but I entend brevity Only I cannot omit how you would make us believe that this authority of the Church hath caused those seperations which Arius Nestorius and other Hereticks have raised when you say hence arose those auncient and many separations amongst Christians c. Whereas indeed it was the authority of the Church and Catholick Fathers which hath quelled confuted and silenced all those Heresies and Hereticks which it seems you have a mind to revive for you will not have them called Heresies but Schismes for indeed say you they are but names of Schisme howsoever in the common language of the Fathers they were called Heresies But you must pardon those who thinke it safer and sounder to follow the common language of the Fathers then your own private assertion But you have a reason for it For Heresie say you is an act of the will not of reason whereas indeed it is both For doth not the hereticke first fasten upon a false opinion which is an act of the understanding and corrupted reason and this is the materiall part of heresie And then doth wilfully and stubbornely being convinced of it maintaine the same which is an act of the will and formalizeth heresie And in this sense not in yours is that knowne speech of St. Austine true errare possum haereticus esse nolo that is I may erre and so fall into the materiall part of heresie by apprehending and iudging that to be a good doctrine which is false and erroneous but haereticus esse nolo I will not be an hereticke that is I will not persist in this opinion being lawfully convicted and condemned for it by the Church and governours thereof For then I should be formally and properly an hereticke For howsoever you slight and nullify the authority of the Church yet in the primitive times when the Church was at unity when there was not altare contra altare it was then esteemed to be of great power and authority which authority of that Church hath justly declared not only the Manichees Valentinians and Marcionites but also the Arians Nestorians and Pelagians to be hereticks Howsoever you are willing to distinguish them and make these latter scarce Schismaticks for you will take these rents in the Church to be at the worst but Schismes Then at the best it seemes they are not so much as Schismes Yet I cannot be perswaded so ill of the former as to thinke they knew what they taught was a lye and so went directly against their owne consciences nor yet so well of the latter to excuse them with you from heresie for I am yet to learne that heresie is nothing els but to know that a lye is taught such kinde of wickednesse I shall rather terme open blasphemy then heresie when men go against the light of their owne consciences Sixtly you chalke us out a way wherein we may safely walke not only with the Donatists But with the Arian and all other hereticks And that is to have Liturgies and publique formes of service so framed as that they admitted not of particular and private fancyes but contained onely such things as in which all Christians do agree and then Schismes on opinion were vtterly vanished and thus say you I may go to an Arian Church A pretty fancy indeede But first I thinke you could not prevaile with the Arian party to frame their Creede so as might not give offence to the orthodoxe side for in all Liturgies they use to have a confession of their faith And secondly if you could prevaile with them how could you perswade all our Churches to put that clause out of our Creede I believe in Christ the only begotten sonne of God begotten of his father before all worlds God of God light of light very God of very God begotten not made being of one substance with the father by whome all things were made which was a good illustration of our Creed joyned to it and made a part of it by the fathers of the Nicene Councell against the Arians then and will serve as a sufficient bulwarke against our Sosinians now which Creed hath had the generall applause of the Christian Churches since and hath the honour to be one of the Creeds of the Catholicke Church You must prevaile with them likewise to blot out of Athanasius Creed which though it were made but by one man yet by generall approbation is now also become the Creed of all our Churches I say you must put out of it these clauses there is one person of the Father another of the sonne another of the Holy Ghost but the Godhead of the Father of the sonne and of the Holy Ghost is all one the glory equall the majesty coeternall the Father eternall the sonne eternall and the Holy Ghost eternall the Father is God the sonne is God and the Holy Ghost is God All which do directly overthrow these heresies And do not call these clauses particular and private fancies for they are part of the universall and publique faith of the Church which all the East and West all Popish and Reformed Churches doe unanimously professe and believe It is not a time now to add much lesse to detract from our publique Confessions of faith TRACT The third thing I named for matter of Schisme was Ambition I meane Episcopall Ambition shewing it selfe especially in two heads one concerning Pluralities of Bishops in the same Sea Another concerning the superiority of Bishops in diverse Seas Aristotle tels us that necessity causeth but small faults but Avarice and Ambition were the mother of great Crimes Episcopall Ambition hath made this true for no occasion hath produced more frequent more continuous more sanguineous Schismes than this hath done the Seas of Alexandria of Constantinople of Antioch and above all of Rome doe abundantly shew thus much and all Ecclesiasticall stories witnesse no lesse of which the greatest part consists of factionating and tumultuating of great and potent Bishops Socrates Apologizing for himselfe that professing to write an Ecclesiasticall story he did oft-times interlace the actions of secular Princes and other Civill businesse tels us that he did this to refresh his reader who otherwise were in danger to be cloyd by reading so much of the Acts of unquiet and unruly Bishops {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in which as a man may say they made butter and cheese one of another for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that I may shew you a cast of my old office and open you a mystery in Grammer properly signifies to make butter and cheese and because these are not made without much agitation of the milk hence {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} by a borrowed and translated signification signifies to do things with much agitation and tumult But that I may a little consider of the two heads I but now specified the first I mentioned was the plurality of Bishops in one Sea For the generall practise of the