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	believe_v	catholic_n	2,841	5	8.1494	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37972	A brief vindication of the fundamental articles of the Christian faith as also of the clergy, universities and publick schools, from Mr. Lock's reflections upon them in his Book of education, &c. : with some animadversions on two other late pamphlets, viz., of Mr. Bold and a nameless Socinian writer / by John Edwards ...	Edwards, John, 1637-1716.	1697 (1697)	Wing E198; ESTC R21772	71,092	137

within the Compass of the four Seas By the same way of Arguing I will prove that the doctrine of the Trinity is no part of Christianity as delivered in the Scripture And so you may saith the Vindicator for I hold there is no such thing as the Trinity in Scripture But I will try again by the same Argument I will prove that the Divine Decrees and the Attributes of God and his Providence are no Part of Christianity because these words Decrees Attributes Providence as it is understood of God are not in Scripture Nor do the Sacraments belong to Christianity because that word occurs no where in the Sacred Writings as Barclay Apol. p. 292. profoundly argues Nay The word Christianity is not to be found in Scripture why then doth this man talk of Christianity as delivered in the Scripture You see by this what strange and inconsistent things he obtrudes upon the Reader He will not allow of Satisfaction because the word is not mention'd in the Bible Is there any reason then to own such a thing as Christianity seeing the word is not found there But he will say the Thing is And the same I say of Satisfaction and so the Vindicator shews himself to be a sorry contemptible Wrangler and lets the World know that he hath dealt so much with Children that he 's of that number himself But afterwards p 157. he pretends to own the Thing and to say it may be collected out of his Reasonableness of Christianity Yet still the Stubborn and Stomachful Man which disposition he observes reigns much in Children Educat p. 121 122. will not buckle to the Word Surely this same word satisfying hath been some way or other very mischievous to him that he so starts back at the naming of it But to come close to the business I appeal to any Impartial Man whether it can in any probability be believ'd that a person own such or such a Truth or Doctrine of the Gospel and yet will not express it by that Word or Name which all the Professors of the Orthodox Faith have agreed to call it by This is the Case of the Vindicator he pretends to allow of the Satisfaction of Christ and yet he absolutely refuses to use the Word But till he can give us any Reason for this refusal we shall believe that the true Cause why he will not admit of the Word is because he disbelieves the Thing it self P. 159 he would be fastning two Properties of a Iesuite as he saith upon me but every one saith they are his Own and therefore I will not injure him by laying claim to them And this I 'll tell him moreover that he hath an Other Property of one of that Order which he hath not named and that is Trudging up and down and having no Home And if a man can be of Loiola's Order and a Mendicant too then I 'm sure he may put in for both What he jabbers p. 163 164. about Satisfaction not being named at the Admission of those of Riper Years to Baptism he might have seen answer'd if he had had two eyes in my Socinianism Unmask'd p. 47. P. 168. he comes to make little Whimsical Remarks on what I had said of the Apostles Creed he raises Trifling Objections he sets up a Phantom a mere Shadow and then encounters it he is wanton and freakish and in brief the Kitling plays with his own Tail He insists upon the terms Abstract and Abridgment p. 173 174. and spends a great many vain words about them but can't for his heart disprove what I asserted viz. that the foresaid Creed is an Abstract or Abridgment of the Christian Faith which is more fully express'd in the Holy Scriptures not only in the Gospel but in the Epistles which our Vindicator cannot endure to hear of At last I am to be the Iesuite again and he is to take Mr. Chillingworth's place and so the Protestant is to confute the Papist and there 's an end of that silly Fantastick Fiction of our Masker not worthy of one of the poor raw Boys that he hath drag'd up in his time Further it is to be noted that after he had banded as fiercely as he could against my notion of Abridgment and to thwart me had produced Chillingworth's sense of the word he confesses that he is ignorant whether what Chillingworth had given be the nature of an Abridgment or no. p. 177. Which shews how fickle and restive he is and that he builds upon precarious hypotheses and is not careful whether there be any Ground for what he saith This would make one doubt whether this Writer be in his right mind or no. Hath not former Thoughtfulness disorder'd his Brain that he thus talks P. 177. he would seem to pay some honour to the Primitive Church and the Church of England though no man believes it no not himself and to vindicate their practise in admitting persons to Baptism upon the Faith contain'd in the Apostles Creed as if no more were to be believ'd by them than what is in express terms in that Form of Confession But the Catechism of our Church may satisfy him that more is comprehended in that Form of Faith than is expresly there mention'd else it would not have been said that we are chiefly to learn in these Articles of our Belief to believe in God the Father in God the Son and in God ●he Holy Ghost He may look long enough into the Creed and never find there these words God the Son and God the Holy Ghost but Our Church lets us know that these terms are really contain'd in that Profession of Faith Whence it follows that when persons are baptized into the Faith of the Apostles Creed they are baptized into the Faith of the Trinity and consequently into more than is in express words mention'd in this Symbol of our Faith Which is the thing that this Quarrelsome Animal objects against but is not able after all his fluttering to effect any thing Besides it is evident that our Church thinks not this Creed to be absolutely Perfect and Compleat because she adds other Creeds to it as the Nicene and Athanasian Which it is probable she would not have done if every thing to be believ'd were in express direct and full words set down in the other Form of Belief And again as to what he saith of the Primitive Practise of admitting persons to Baptism upon the bare confession of the Apostles Creed he betrays his Ignorance having not learnt from several Eminent Writers that this Creed is not exactly the same that it was in the First Ages of Christianity but that some Articles have been added to it But the heedless Masker attends to none of these things but goes on Chattering and loves to hear his Clack move But you must pardon him for he that is used to the Conversation of Nurses and the whole Posse of the Chatting Crew can't be thought to moderate his Intemperate Organ P.

is as good as an other which is the prevailing doctrine of these days Therefore Mr. Bold one whom I shall afterwards account with was much mistaken when he said he never hardly appear'd on a fashionable subject Rep. p. 3. for this Opinion and that One religion is as good as another is the Modish doctrine every where This Country Gentleman is in the Fashion and doth not know it And thence you may judge of the Truth of what Mr. Lock saith of him that he takes not up his Opinions from Fashion Pref. to his Vindicat. Now this is a fair step towards Rome for if one Religion be equivalent to an other and our Salvation is not concerned in the belief of the Necessary Articles of our Faith then we are at liberty to embrace what Form and Model of Articles we please and those of the Church of Rome will perhaps be thought as good as any There is a strange passage in this Writer p. 217 218. which speaks his favourable opinion of the Pontifician way I have often wondred saith he to hear men of several Churches so heartily exclaim against the Implicit Faith of the Church of Rome when the same Implicit Faith is as much practis'd and required in their own though not so openly profess'd and ingeniously own'd there First he lets us know that from that Converse which he hath had with persons of several Churches whether of the Communion of the Church of England or those of the Dissenters he finds that they are against the Church of Rome Secondly that though they are against the doctrine of Implicit Faith in the Church of Rome yet they like it well enough in their own Thirdly they not only like it but practise it yea the very same Implicit Faith Fourthly they not only practise but require it they command and enjoyn those of their Communion to believe all they say with an Implicit Faith But fifthly they do not this with so good a grace as those of the Roman Church do For those latter are very open and ingenuous in their profession and practise of implicit Faith but the former are not so Protestants have not that Candor and Fairness which are to be seen in Papists they neither so openly profess nor so ingenuously own this doctrine but yet as strictly practise it and require the practise of it as they do I leave it with the Reader to determine from the Premises which of these two those of the Roman or of the Reform'd Churches have the happiness to be most in favour with this Gentleman In the known stile of the Roman Priests and Writers he declares that the Scripture serves but like a Nose of Wax p 213. And as the Heads of the Church of Rome deny the Bible to the Common people so he is advancing towards this apace for he lops off three of the Evangelists for one he saith will suffice and all the Epistles And further to shew his good will to the Roman Catholicks and to their Beloved Notion of Transubstantiation he tells us p. 408 409. that if a man understands those words of our Saviour's Institution This is my body and This is my blood in a Literal sense he must believe the Bread and Wine in the Lords Supper are changed really into his Body and Blood though he knows not how And afterwards he saith He is obliged to belive it to be true and to assent to it And presently afterwards To deny assent to this as true would be to deny our Saviour's Veracity and consequently his being the Messiah sent from God Here he lets us know that his One Article is quite renounced if Transubstantition be not admitted You see what his making of Iesus is the Messias to be the Sole Article of Christian Faith comes to But this doctrine of Transubstantiation is so grateful to him that he brings it over again p 413 414. assuring us that the Old Gentleman at Rome who hath an Antient Title to Infallibility may make Transubstantia●on a Fundamental Article necessarily to be believ'd as well as I make the Divinity of Christ and his Satisfaction c. for these he means by the Sense of any Disputed Texts of Scripture because the Texts concerning these Points are disputable with him Fundamental Articles necessarily to be believ'd It is brought to this issue it seems that Transubstantiation is as Fundamental an Article of the Christian Faith as any that can be nam'd besides Iesus's being the Messias Thus by the Over-ruling Providence of Heaven this sort of Writers discover the inward bent of their thoughts and inclinations though they labour to hide them from the world This Gentleman would be thought to have no kindness for Rome and yet his own words confu●● him As I observ'd before that he stoutly Rails whilest he is remonstrating against that practice so here he stiffly patronizes Popery even when he had pretended to shew himself displeas'd at my charging him with it And I could produce several other passages out of his Writings which makes it appear that our Prester Iohn is inclined to receive the Roman Missionaries I could make it evident that he is Indifferent as to the Reform'd Religion and the Doctrines professed by the Owners of it and that he inspires mens minds with a dis-esteem of those Articles which the Christian Churches since the Reformation have unanimously asserted and vindicated and that he represents them as Ridiculous You must not saith he give ear to what the Preachers and Pulpit Orators of these Churches tell you about more Articles than One as necessary to be known and believed in order to making you Christians If you assent to this Single Proposition Iesus is the Messias I declare to you that you are as to matter of Faith as Good Christians as St. Peter and St. Paul were When your Parish-Priests endeavour in their Popular Harangues to perswade you that this is not the sum Total of the Christian Faith but that there are other Necessary and Fundamental Doctrines which are of the Essence of Christianity you must roundly tell them from me that the Catalogue of Fundamentals every one alone can make for himself no body can collect or prescribe it to an other but this is according as God hath dealt to every one the measure of light and faith and hath open'd each mans understanding that he may understand the Scripture These are the express words of our Vindicator p. 85. and from them it undeniably follows that though no body must be a Creed-maker yet every one may be a Fundamental-maker Mr. Hobbs was pleased to give this power to the King only but this Gentleman is more liberal and grants it to every Subject He may make what Catalogue of Fundamentals he pleases and put this into it among the rest that the Pope is Infallible and that the Religion of the Church of Rome is to be prefer'd to that of the Reformed Fundamentals depend not upon the Scriptures but upon mens Understandings and