Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	king_n	law_n	parliament_n	7,328	5	6.6868	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59220	Errour non-plust, or, Dr. Stillingfleet shown to be the man of no principles with an essay how discourses concerning Catholick grounds bear the highest evidence.	Sergeant, John, 1622-1707.	1673 (1673)	Wing S2565; ESTC R18785	126,507	288

neither was it in their dayes accepted by a great portion of the world that Christ was God or his Doctrine truth that so they might receive it transmitted from the foregoing divinely assisted Church that these and these doctrines were His but they were the First that were to propagate this doctrine and publish and make out the Truth of it not could their own testimony avail to the end in●ended for what could they testify That Christ said thus and did such and such miracles to testify the truth of his doctrine or that the H. Ghost inspir'd them The latter was latent and the hearers had but their own words for it the other was patent indeed and so fully Convictive to those who knew and convers'd with them and were acquainted with the Circumstances but to remote nations whither two or three of them were to go and Preach it signifi'd little and depended upon their bare words Hence Miracles were at first and shall till the end of the world in like cases be absolutely necessary to make such unheard of Tenets enter and sink into the hearts of great multitudes how circumstanc't soever But when afterwards a World or vast Body of men were by those Extraordinary Means settled unanimously in a firm beleif that Christ was God or at least that his doctrine was true there could need no more but to know it was continu'd down all along the same to make deserters of his Church against whom we dispute at present accept it and it being visible audible and practical and so subject to sense hence Attestation of the foregoing Age to the Age succeeding was the most Proper way to continue it down and perfectly Certain being now grown so Ample and Vast and the Attesters being Intelligent Persons and having the sense of Christ's Law written in their heart could deliver and explain themselves pertinently to all arising difficulties and clear all possible misunderstandings which the dead Letter could not and so this Living rule is perfectly Intelligible too I omit here the Supernatural assistances which those who comprehend what most effectual means of Sanctity there is in the Doctrine Sacraments and Discipline of the Church and consequently as appears by divers excellent effects of it the Product also of those means or Holiness in great multitudes of the Faithful will see and acknowledge do incomparably strengthen the Authority of the Church in delivering down right Faith Hence appears our D●s unreasonableness intimated to us in this principle That though Connatural and Ordinary means be now laid in the world to continue Christ's doctrine from ou● time forwards and were laid in the first Age to continue it along hitherto Though Common Reason and as I remember St. Austin have taught him that into the place of Miracles succeeded the consent of Countries Nations though Mr. Baxter whom perhaps he holds as Holy a Father as great a Saint and as eminent a Scholar as St. Austin himself have told him in his More Reasons for the Christian Religion c. p. 32. That humane testimony may be so circumstanc't as amounts to a natural infallible certainty instancing in the existence of King Iames and our Laws being made by King and Parliament which how Dr. T. his Schollar will like I know not and so the Churches infallibility in Faith to the end of the world might descend down to us by testimony to have been the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles without needing New miracles done still to evince it Nay though himsel● in correspondency to both these Doctors does in his Rational account p. 205. make Tradition of the same use to us now which our Eyes and Ears had been if we had been actually present when Christ delivered his Doctrine and wrought his miracles and so could as well certify us of the first taught doctrine as if we had seen and heard it and consequently of the Infallibility of the Church in case that were a point of Doctrin taught at first yet now one of his principles must be that no Argument though never so strong and convictive no Tradition how well qualifi'd soever it be nor any Plea in the world though never so legal and evident shall acquit the Church from a most intolerable Usurpation if she challenge Infallibility but down right Miracles full as great observe his ●igour publick and convincing as were those of Christ and his Apostles and wrought by those very persons that challenge this infallibility nay and wrought with a design too for the conviction of those who do not beleeve it How shrewdly sure this Rome●destroying Principle is laid But if one should ask seriously whether a Convincing reason to prove this infallibility I mean such a one as evidently concluded the point might not do without a miracle I know no rational man that ever would deny his assent upon such a condition nor would Dr. St. perhaps in another occasion but here oh here 't is another case His hatred against the Church of Rome's Infallibility is so vigorous that he professes to desy Demonstration it self that is renounce Humane Nature rather than admit it nothing but Miracle with all the nice cautions imaginable shall serve the turn A notable resolution and only parallel to his whom nothing would satisfy of the truth of Christianity but the miraculous appearance of his Angel Guardian but the Miracle not being granted him he dy'd an Atheist In a word if the Church ever usurpt't the pretence of Infallibility I hope she first invaded it at one time or other Now since as long ago as St. Paul's time she we was called by that good man Columna Firmamentum veritatis The Pillar and Ground of Truth which words ill consist with a Fallible proposer of such truths as belong to her sphear o● points of Faith he ought to shew and make out when the Church lost that Title and preheminence otherwise since she is found claiming it now and actually holding and possessing it upon the tenure of Tradition as promis'd her by Christ we have very good reason to hold she never usurp'd it at all but inherited it by a continued line of Succession from the beginning of Christianity to this very day Nor has it ever seem'd Intolerable to any but to those whom nothing would content but new fangled Innovation and altering the long-establish'd doctrine of Christ deliverd down perpetually from his time 17. Nothing can be more absurd then to pretend the necessity of such an infallible Commission and Assistance to assure us of the truth of these writings and to interpret them and at the same time to prove that Commission from those writings from which we are told nothing can be certainly deduc'd such an assurance not being supposed or to pretend that infallibility in a Body of men is not at liable to doubts and disputes as in those books from whence only they derive their Infalliblity The first part of this Principle is granted as to the Absurdity of the