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	holy_a	5,671	5	4.8590	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30419	A sermon preached on the fast-day, Decemb. 22, 1680 at St. Margarets Westminster before the Honourable House of Commons / by Gilbert Burnet.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1681 (1681)	Wing B5874; ESTC R19858	25,524	46

Power the Infallibility of a General Council the praying to Saints the redeeming souls out of Purgatory Indulgences Pilgrimages with a thousand other additions by whi●h they have vitiated the purity of that holy Doctrine which the Apostles delivered to the world This is the foundation of our whole Religion that we believe all that the Apostles delivered to the Churches and no more so we stand to this appeal in my Text Remember therefore that thou hast received and heard It were easie to instance it in many particulars and to shew you how at first ignorance and superstition let in some Customs and perhaps those who introduced them at first being innocent but weak men meant well in it so to draw the Heathens off from their Idolatry they directed them to call on Saints instead of the gods they had formerly worshipped and to perswade people to receive the Sacrament with great devotion they strained their eloquence and invention to recommend the value of it in high figures Many more might be named but these may suffice afterwards when the Roman Empire was over-run by the incursions of the Barbarous Nations and Civility Religion and Learning were almost driven out of the world then some crafty and aspiring Priests came to graft upon the Customs of the former times new Opinions and still to add new Rites till in the end they swelled up to what they are now at in the Roman Church When these Opinions were first broached Visions and Dreams were given out to support them and if these lesser frauds did not prevail pretended Miracles were not wanting to give them credit till they were received and being once received they were enrolled among the Traditions of the Church and so were no more to be contested or denied if any presumed to do it it was at his peril These Miracles were coined so as to fit not only the Doctrine it self but the way of explaining it and as new ways of explaining were fallen upon new Miracles suitable to these new expositions were at hand When the Doctrine of the Corporal presence was first received in the 9th Century it was believed that the whole Loaf was an entire body of Christ so that he was sliced in pieces and eat up in gobbets and so they continued to understand it near 300 years Then the Miracles to prove it were adjusted to that conceit it was given out that it did sometimes bleed and pieces of it were said to be converted to pieces of slesh but after that the School Divinity came to be in request this way was not found so defensible nor so decent and then it was said Christ was in every Crumb of the Host so that upon the breaking it an entire Christ flew off from the rest which yet remained still as entire as it was notwithstanding that diminution and then as they blessed Wasers instead of a Loaf so the former Miracles were not so much talked of though some ignorant Priests that did not consider that these were contrary to the Doctrine of their Church did in some places continue to act the former cheats but new ones were more generally invented and Christ was said to appear all in rayes over or upon the Host so well practised were they in the arts of jugling as to make their tricks always agree with their Hypothesis In opposition to all these false Doctrines and lying wonders the Reformed have from the first beginning of the Reformation set up the whole strength of their cause upon this single Plea of receiving nothing as a part of their faith but what could be found in the Writings of the Apostles that so all agreeing on a common Umpire their differences might be more easily composed The Church of Rome knows well what the issue must be if this is granted and so have put the strength of their whole cause upon the authority of the Church that is themselves and the certainty of Oral Tradition handed down by such men as themselves are Whether the one or the other seems to be the more ingenuous Principle the more certain method of Trial and the less liable to deceit I leave it to the Consciences of all wise and good men But as we ought to remember what we have thus received and heard so the end of this is not barely for speculation to inform us about some notions or to furnish us with arguments and discourse these things are only necessary for a further end that our minds being well informed and our belief rightly directed we may govern our lives according to what the holy Apostles have left to us It is because their works were not perfect that they are here charged therefore to remember the doctrine that they had received What shall our knowledge our Orthodoxie and soundness of opinion avail us if we do not reduce it to practise unless it be to heighten our condemnation and to intitle us to more stripes and severer judgements Here we will find our duties set before us and from thence we will both know what our sins have been and how to turn from them Oh that there were such a heart in us But as we ought to remember and improve the Doctrine delivered to the Church by the Apostles so we ought to keep it carefully 3. And this is the third particular I am to speak to All who have received this Doctrine ought to preserve it and to conveigh down that sacred trust committed to them to the succeeding generations This is to Hold-fast what we have received and heard The meaning of this considering the circumstances the Church of Sardis was in is either that they should preserve it pure and keep it as it was delivered to them or that if persecutions should arise for the Faith they should not depart from it for the love of this present world or make shipwrack of it but should hold fast the profession of their Faith without wavering There were many Tares sown then in the field of the Church many of the followers of Simon Magus were corrupting the Christian Religion it was necessary on that account to look carefully to that sacred Depositum that was put in their hands There was also a black Cloud gathering a persecution was coming on the Church One storm had passed that had been raised by Nero and they were now in another set on by Domitian therefore it was necessary to put them on their guard and to charge them to keep or Hold fast the Doctrine delivered to them This was all that they could be obliged to but in our circumstances there is somewhat else imported in this Holding fast that we ought not only to keep our Religion pure and to be ready to suffer for it if we are called to it but since we enjoy the protection and security of law and lawful authority we ought to hold that fast and deliver it down to our posterity as we have received it from our Fathers We are to keep it pure from the

when they were called to give their last Testimony to it But what is all this to us Are we living under the influences of that love do our hearts burn with the sense of it what reverence have we for the person or what obedience pay we to the Doctrine of our Crucified Saviour If any of this remain it is much spent at least and ready to dye The second thing charged on these Churches was their being apt to be carried away by the cunning slight of those who lay in wait to deceive and their being too easily disposed to vitiate Christianity with the mixtures of Judaism or Hethenism or other errors Our vices have taken us off from the practice of the plain and indispensable duties of our holy Religion and then it is no wonder we find no pleasure in that Doctrine which can give no true comfort to such as continue in their sins This disposes people to seek that elsewhere which they cannot have among us and therefore a Religion made up of pomp and shew wherein God and his Saints were offered to be bribed in which they knew the rares of sin and the price of Heaven found us but too well prepared to become Profylites to it Our sins have been also so visible and scandalous that they have made our Communion grow loathsom to many well disposed but weak minds and have tempted them to separate from our Assemblies when they saw such mixed multitudes among us so that they have run into Sects that had the appearance of greater gravity and strictness 3. And we are no less faulty in the third particular of contending out of measure for things that are no way essential to salvation Things of so indifferent a nature that succeeding ages will wonder how men could manage such long and eager contests about them We have fallen into passions concerning them these have grown up to a hatred which hath broken out into most violent and dismal effects and seems now setled into a formed rent and separation Where is that charitable healing and compassionate temper which becomes Christians and reformed Christians especially when they are as it were strugling for life Oh shall nothing make us wiser shall neither the advantages our enemies take nor the prejudices Religion suffers by our contests dispose us to bear with one anothers infirmities and to manage our differences if we cannot entirely bury them with a more Christian and decent temper There have been extreams on all hands neither side can free themselves from being too much exasperated The resentment for what has been done in the several turns of affairs has gone too far with us It is not so much our differences that divide us one from another as our alienation one from another which widens our differences and makes them appear to be greater than indeed they are So on all accounts we must acknowledge that when our works are weighed in those just ballances they cannot be found perfect before God I hope we are all in some measure convinced of this The thing is alas too visible What is then to be done but to set about a real Reformation with all possible seriousness and sincerity And in order to this and to direct us in it here is a rule and standard given by which we may govern our selves in the means or methods to it and that is the second thing I proposed to speak to 2. The Rule by which are to examine our selves and by which God will judge us is the Doctrine which the Churches received from the Apostles Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard Here is a certain fixed rule we are neither left to the heats of our own fancies nor to the uncertainties of Tradation nor to the impostures of such as may pretend to the government of our Consciences but are conducted by a more certain thread It is true in the Apostles days this Doctrine was at first preached and received before it was written There was no great danger as long as they lived who might be appealed to in any difficulty which could arise concerning their Doctrine so it is a vain way of arguing to infer from the mention of Tradition in the Epistles that we after so many ages are past and so many impostures have been discovered should be obliged to receive what may be obtruded on us as Apostolical Tradition Tradition while the Apostles lived was what the Scripture is now And indeed so uncertain a conveyance is Oral Tradition that in the very Apostles days or soon after when there were no advantages to be made by such cheats and so there was less to tempt men to them yet many false Gospels were given out and false Doctrines were infused into some weaker people We know how unfaithful a conveyor Tradition was of Natural Religion among the Gentile Nations The Gospel tells us how the Jews doted on the Traditions of their Fathers and by them made the Commandments of God of none effect The uncertainty of Tradition where it was not put in writing appeared within an age after the Apostles in the contests concerning the observation of Easter both sides vouching the practice of the Apostles and that even while some were alive that had seen them and had lived with them But after that wealth and greatness had corrupted the Church and this holy Religion was made an Engine to advance the ambition and interests of designing men then what a swarm of supposititious writings appeared every where to support some opinions or designs many of these were discovered and branded but others passed without a censure so that it was long before Criticks in this and the former age could find out what was genuine and what was counterfeit The most advantagious Imposture was coined and received in the 9th Century a whole Volume of the Epistiles of the first Bishops of Rome from the Apostles days downwards was pretended to be found in which they were represented as governing the Church in the former ages with the same fulness of power that their Successors have pretended to since This was rejected by some in that age but kindly entertained by those that were more concerned for their own greatness than for Truth and by the Presidents in these Epistles they justified what they did till their Tyranie came to be generally submitted to And now when these Epistles are found to be spurious they have been forced to throw them away but stand upon possession and prescription tho it began at first upon this and some other impostures not unlike it such as the Donation of Constantine and many more They well know that their cause cannot be defended if the Scriptures are appealed to these in many points are directly against them as in the worship of Images and Angels the praying in an unknown tongue and the denying the Chalice or saying that Christs body which is now in Heaven is in the Sacrament in other things they are silent such as the Popes