Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	catholic_n	church_n	particular_a	3,316	5	8.1839	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41624	Reflections upon the Answer to the papist mis-represented directed to the answerer.	Gother, John, d. 1704.	1686 (1686)	Wing G1348; ESTC R35709	11,565	20

with us so many Articles of Faith and are obligatory to all of our Communion Yet not so of every other matter declar'd in such a Council There being many things treated of and resolv'd on in such an Assembly which concern not the Faith of the Church but only some matter of Discipline Government or other more particular Affair And these Constitutions or Decrees are not absolutely Obligatory as is evident even in the Council of Trent as is before hinted whose Decrees of Doctrine are as much acknowledg'd here by Catholicks in England and Germany as within the Walls of Rome it self or the Vatican And yet it 's other Constitutions and Decrees are not universally receiv'd and it may be never will Now Sir altho we allow some Councils have made decrees for deposing in particular Cases yet the Power it self not being declar'd as a Doctrinal Point and the Decrees relating only to matter of Discipline and Government it comes short of being an Article of our Faith and all that in your Answer depends on it falls to the Ground I have no place here to give you a distinct account of the several matters treated of in Councils and of the difference between Decrees of Faith and others which are not so yet because you seem to require some satisfaction in these Points I remit you to such Authors who treat of them at large and most particularly the Considerations upon the Council of Trent Canus Bellarmine and others This that I have here said may be sufficient to evince that in my declaring the deposing Power to be no Article of Faith I have not follow'd my own Private Opinion or meerly the number of Authors but rather the sense of the whole Church Councils and Popes themselves who plainly enough own this in letting so many open and Positive Assertors of the no-deposing Power to pass without any Censure of Heresie It being certain that were this Doctrine any Article of our Faith as likewise that mention'd in the preceeding Paragraph of the Popes Personal Infallibility the obstinate Opposers of them would no more escape without that brand than those that deny other Articles of our Faith as Purgatory and Transubstantiation These Instances I look upon as the most Principal throughout your whole Reply because in them you have made use of a Medium directly opposit to the Intent of my Book and which if it had been effectual would have shew'd that I have not Represented the Faith of the Papist according to the Rule of approv'd General Councils as I pretend but rather according to my own private apprehension or Opinion which I confess would have been a full Answer to it as to such particulars But how far you have fail'd of your endeavours even in this Point I leave now to the Prudent Considerer to judge But the way you take in all other Parts of your Book seems to me not to answer your design nor to agree with the Title of it For whereas I undertake to propose the Faith of a Roman Catholick as he is really taught to believe in Conformity to the Definitions of Oecumenical Councils Bating those Points I have already spoke to in your Answer You either own the Doctrine to be the establish'd Belief of your Church as in part that of the Power of Priestly Absolution Confession of due veneration to the Relicks of Saints of Merit of Satisfaction of the Authority of the Church of General Councils c. Or you shew the Doctrine I have deliver'd not to be the Faith of our Church by appealing from the Definitions of our Councils and sense of our Church to some expressions found in Old Mass books Rituals c. as if this were a serious way of truly Representing the Doctrines of the Church of Rome Can any Religion stand this Test Will not many Expressions in all sorts of Prayers Preaching and Devotions if separated from the sense of the Church prove unjustifiable and Ridiculous Let but an Atheist take this liberty even with the Scripture it self and thus separate infinite number of expressions there and see what will be presently the colour of all Religion and whether Christianity will be better than Turcism And especially whether the allow'd Psalms in Meeter will prove the devotion of men of sence and reason tho all may be reconcileable to Piety and Religion if taken in the sense of the Church Or you appeal again from the Declarations of our Councils and sense of our Church to some external Action as in case of respect shewn to Images and Saints upon which from our external Adoration by construction of the Fact viz kneeling bowing c. you are willing to conclude us guilty of Idolatry As if a true judgment could be made of these Actions without respect to the Intention of the Church that directs them and of the Person that does them As if they were not in themselves Indifferent and capable of being paid to God or to Men. Or as if your measures being follow'd Abigail ought not to come in and share with us in our constructive Idolatry because she fell before David on her face and bow'd her self to the ground and fell at his feet Joshua likewise because he fell on his face to the earth and did worship the Angel And as many who on their knees pay their respects to the King and bow before him As likewise all the Beggers in Lincolns-Inn fields who on their knees with their hands lifted up ask an alms of Passers-by Must not all these by construction of Fact come into the list of your Idolaters Or finally not being willing the Doctrine should pass for ours in the form I have stated it you appeal again from our Councils and Sense of the Church which I follow to the Sentimetns of some of our own Private Authors and so you come often with this French Author says this Vives says that Wicelius says another thing and Lessius another by this method endeavouring to convince your Reader that the Belief of a Papist is much different from what I ahve represented it But Sir this way may do well enough with the unwary but it ill suits with what you pretend The Frontis piece of your Book puts us upon expecting The Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome truly Represented And when we come to peruse it we find several Doctrines propos'd but without any Authority of Church or Councils but this Author says this and that Author says that as if the Sense of every Author were immediately the Doctrine of our Church The Church speaks to us in her approv'd General Councils and from them you might have truly Represented her Belief and Doctrine but from particular Authors some of which may Write upon a Pique others upon a Passion others upon some other Biass nothing more can be Collected besides their own Opinion and with understanding Men it passes for no more So that nothing can be more unjustifiable than to