Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	catholic_a	church_n	doctrine_n	2,797	4	6.6121	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49336	A letter to Edw. Stillingfleet, D.D. &c. in answer to the epistle dedicatory before his sermon, preached at a publick ordination at St. Peter's Cornhil, March 15, 1684/5 together with some reflections upon certain letters, which Dr. Burnet wrote on the same occasion / by Simon Lowth ...	Lowth, Simon, 1630?-1720.	1687 (1687)	Wing L3328; ESTC R2901	83,769	93

this that treats of the same subject And it may be expected to find some amends here if ever you have made or design'd any because it seems to be added to the Irenicum on purpose to rectifie what appear'd amiss or to supply something wanting in it Now he that duly and seriously considers it will find the whole performance to consist of these two Heads And that you there assert the Church a distinct Society from the State always to subsist by a Charter from Christ in the outward visible profession of Christianity tho' the Powers and Laws of the World are against it and this in opposition to the Leviathan who says That the precepts of the Gospel are not Law till enacted by Civil Authority And your arguments are common but good by which you prove it which he that treats on the same point cannot well omit all agreeing so far that really own Christianity Again you farther assert That our Saviour by a special Charter also hath enabled some of this Society to govern commanding all the Members of it to obey and which comes to the very point now in hand But this Power which is fixed by you on the Pastors of the Church is also limited to the Power of Excommunication as the argument of it answering to the Title speaks but you leave all other Acts and Offices of the Church where you had placed them before in the main Treatise i. e. excepting the Offices of Teaching and Administring the Sacraments in the hands of the Civil Magistrate So that as I said above the Power over Sacred Things is annexed entirely to the Civil Power And the Church Governors are only to administer in the Offices of them without any Power whereby to punish offenders against the Laws of Religion And this is with Dr. Stillingfleet To defend the fundamental Rights of the Church or his asserting the just Power of the Magistrate in Ecclesiasticks as well as Civils in opposition to the extravagances of those who screwed up the Church-Power to so high a peg that it was thought to make perpetual discord with the Commonwealth and others that melted down all Spiritual Power into the Civil State and dissolved the Church into the Commonwealth as you tell us in the entrance to the Treatise And so tho' the discourse as to the main is Sound and Orthodox yet in the present design of it it is a collusion and fallacy put upon the Reader It seems of the same nature with that lye of Ananias and it is to the Holy Ghost whereby as he kept back part of that possession which he sold for the use of the Church and said it was the whole so have you kept back part of the Power of the Church and said you have given in the whole And the reply that Peter gave to Ananias may not unfitly be returned to you also Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine Heart Thou hast not lyed unto Men but unto God. Acts 5.1 2 3 4. The next Treatise that I have made enquiry into for the finding out your after judgment in these points is Your Vindication of Archbishop Laud in which I find little amends for these your Erroneous Irenicum Doctrines but rather an evident confirmation of many of them if not doing worse In your First Part. Cap. 2. Sect. 2 3 4 5 c. your work is to overthrow that Erroneous Assertion in the Church of Rome viz. That the Definitions of the Church are to be believed to be as necessary to Salvation as the Articles of the Creed In order to which you take a most secure and effectual way and assert That the Being of the Church it self is not necessary to Salvation meaning thereby the Church Organical consisting of set Officers as may be gather'd from your following Discourse tho' you ought to have set out the opposition in the entrance of it for want of which the terms in your conclusion are perplexed and involved and you talk of a Church antecedent to a Church and of a true Church out of a true Church without any Specifications for the proving of which you take a great deal of pains to inform us what things are necessary to the Salvation of Men as such or considered in their single and private Capacities or in your own words and sense out of the Church Society or Ecclesiastical Communion And having concluded That believing in Christ and walking in him or an hearty assent to the Doctrine of Christ and a conscientious walking according to the precepts of it are that Faith and Duty indispensably necessary to the Salvation of Private Persons You then add That that which we call the Catholick Church or as you farther speak the being of a Church supposes this antecedent belief in Christians as to these things necessary to Salvation it being only a combination of Men together upon that belief and for the performance of those Acts of Worship which are suitable thereto You go on and say whatever Church owns these things where by a Church you can only mean those which are not a Church but out of the combination and in their private capacities or antecedent to it but you are to look to your terms not I which are antecedently necessary to the being of a Church cannot so long cease to be a true Church where the contradiction recurs and you ought thus to have expressed it That Men in their private and personal capacities believing these necessary things cannot cease to be true Christians tho' out of that Church and Combination for such is your meaning because it retains the foundation of the being of the Catholick Church Again the distinction that you use is equally unintelligible and contradictory viz. Here we must distinguish those things in the Catholique Church which give it its being from those things which are the proper acts of it as the Catholique Church As to this latter the solemn Worship of God in the way prescribed by him is necessary in order to which there must be supposed lawful Officers set in the Church Sacraments duely Administred but these I say are rather the exercise of the Catholique Church than that which gives it its being which is the belief of that Religion whereon its subsistence and unity depends and as long as a Church retains this it keeps its being tho' the integrity and perfection of it depend upon the due exercise of all Acts of Communion in it How these things can be said to be in the Catholick Church and give it its being as Faith c. whose being you told us a little before supposed them and to which they are antecedent you not I are to make out when you can Or how the exercise of Church Communion is the perfection of Faith and good Works I have always learnt the contrary viz. That Faith and good Works are the perfection of Church Communion in attendance to the ordinances You say farther That the Vnion of the Catholique Church depends upon

in him to which every Man may attain by his personal Capacity antecedent to the being of a Church and Church-Governors Or in the words of Mr. Hales made your own by citing of them in your Irenicum pag. 108. Schism is but a Theological Scar-crow set up by such as hold a Party in Religion And by consequence the Church of England is upon the same terms in respect of the Church of Rome as the Dissenters are in respect of the Church of England The Impositions of both are alike Anti-Christian which is again the very Doctrine of the Irenicum Your Answer to several Treatises c. is the next of your Writings that I have pitcht upon whence to inform my self and others of your particular Judgment in these points of Church-Power and its Obligation And that which I hence report will be so much more satisfactory because in your Answer to Mr. Cressy's Epistle Apologetical c. you refer him hither from pag 260. to pag. 291. as those Pages in which you maintain as much Authority in the Church of England as ever the Church of England challenged to her self But here you have left the Church in the same condition you had placed her in before and altogether without Power to make her Declarations Law whether in Council or out of it and the Office assigned by you to her Pastors is to Teach Instruct Propose and Recommend engaging them in Toil and Labour enough in order to the search of Truth but they are no where vested with an Authority to oblige the whole Body of Christians or the Church diffusive Each Private Man is left at Liberty to receive or reject according to his Eye-sight and as he apprehends the Reasons Motives Tradition Context Criticism or inward Revelation of that which is delivered And you say withal That the ancient Church did not pretend to more Authority as is to be seen in the Pages foregoing As for that branch of Authority you assign her in making Rules and Canons about matters of Order and Decency in the Church it is no more than in effect you had said before in your Irenicum and accordingly you refer to it in the point in the Preface to the Vnreasonableness of Separation where notwithstanding you contend with all might and main sometimes against the Laws themselves as Anti-Christian sometimes against the execution of them that they be not imposed upon doubtful Consciences as I have already shew'd And you have since been engaged for a Toleration or Non-execution of Church-Laws in the said Preface pag. 83 84 85. then when you had Preached but a little before against Separation and this is the last and all the account that I can give of you in this affair He that is most favourable to you must yield that you are wavering and unfixed in your Judgment And did you really believe that there is an advantage on the side of Authority which ought to over-rule the Practice of such who are the Members of that Church where the Authority is exercised as you speak you would also be so kind to Dissenters as to urge with more constancy upon them their duty in obeying as a Private Man you ought to propose nothing less unto them Tho' I cannot see why we should less doubt of your good will to them and their Cause when you drew up those Terms and Articles of Toleration than of Coleman's kindness to the Papists when he drew up his Declaration for Dissolving the Long Parliament in order to a Toleration also And it will be difficult to determine which of the two was more presumptuous I know what course the Ancient Church would have taken with a Private Presbyter who after a full debate in Council seconded with a Church Sanction and confirmed by the Imperial Constitution should have dared to have made Proposals or draw up Rules and Limitations and make them publick in opposition thereunto and yet this was not your first attempt of this nature your good will to Comprehension Latitudinarian Principles hath all along been manifest and notorious Those many Meetings which you and your Church of England and Mr. Baxter and his Church of England had were not so private but that some took notice of them where you made Proposals for altering the Church Government setled and confirmed by all that is sacred in Church and State. And the reason is plain why those Men afterwards dealt so severely with you of which you complain in the above-mentioned Preface upon that Sermon which was Preached before my Lord Mayor because after your healing Condescensions in private you appear'd a Revolter and Apostate and they were to deal with you as one that had broken his Faith. If some other had Preached that Sermon they might possibly have born with him he acting according to his principles when you were not to be endured tu Brute their Friend with whom they took sweet Council together concerning the House of God. I add farther 1. That in your Treatise of the Vnreasonableness of Separation you no where that I could take notice of have pressed Christians to Obedience as they are a Corporation imbodied under Governors and Laws of their own which is the original and fundamental Obligation to submission and conformity arising from the nature of that Kingdom which Christ erected by the promulgation of the Gospel of which Kingdom every true Christian is a Subject I do not deny but that your performance is competently well done upon your principles and so far as it reacheth You have abundantly set forth the reasonableness of our Book of Common-Prayer in the Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies and urged Obedience thereunto from the destructive consequences that must inevitably follow in that Church or Society of Christians which retains not an Vniformity of Worship and more especially this reasonable one that we have in our Church of England But all is left still as matter of Dispute like the Corporation it self as Arbitrary and at the pleasure of its Subjects to retain or reject them and he that sees not with your Eyes by your own principles hath no Obligation for Obedience and Conformity to any one Rubrick Law or Injunction therein contained And it is observable in your Epistle Dedicatory that you beg pardon indeed of your Superiors for going beyond your bounds in your projects of accommodation But it is not for any one reason relating to them as your Governors or because you have been injurious thereby to their Power and Government in the Church of God which you in so doing had inroaded and invaded But because forsooth the Dissenters would not come up to you and their untractableness rendred your Project useless admit you had jump'd together and united in the project What then Why you had never begged their pardon And it was success not design was wanting by your own confession The very case of Coleman Besides is not this a delicate Apology for your self After