Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	body_n	church_n	unity_n	1,412	5	9.5035	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59901	A vindication of some Protestant principles of Church-unity and Catholick-communion, from the charge of agreement with the Church of Rome in answer to a late pamphlet, intituled, an agreement between the Church of England and the Church of Rome, evinced from the concertation of some of her sons with their brethren the dissenters / by William Sherlock ...	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1688 (1688)	Wing S3372; ESTC R32140	78,758	130

And whether they do right or wrong in this their own Consciences must judg in this world and God will judg in the next This is all that can be said or done in such a broken and divided state of the Church as we now see While nothing was called Heresie but the denial of some plain and acknowledged Article of the Christian Faith while there was no dispute who were Hereticks the power of deposing Hereticks was sacred and venerable and had its just authority and effect but since what is Heresie is the Controversie and the world is divided about it tho the power remains still the exercise of it grows very contemptible when a Church first coyns new Articles of Faith and then Excommunicates Censures Deposes those for Hereticks who will not believe them 4ly We are come now to the last Point wherein he says we agree viz. To give to one Bishop a Primacy for the better preserving Catholick Union and also a Superior power of Appeals and exercising some peculiar acts of Discipline under the regulation of Ecclesiastical Canons Now all this indeed I do assert and yet we are very far from agreeing in this matter For though they made no more of the Pope than a meer Primate which I doubt is not good doctrine in Rome yet there is as much difference between our Primates as there is between a National and Oecumenical Primate and consequently as much difference between our Appeals as between Appeals to Rome and to the Archbishop of Canterbury as between Appeals to the Primate of a National Church and Appeals to foreign Bishops I know he disputes very learnedly that such an Oecumenical combination of Churches and an Oecumenical Primate is more for the preservation of Cathol Unity than a National Church or Primate but this he knew I denied and therefore should not have said that I agree with them in it and who has the best reason on their side shall be examined presently By this time I suppose the Reader is satisfied how far we agree in these things I having in express words denied every thing which he has affirmed in these very Books to which he has appealed which I think is no great sign of agreement 2. It is time now to vindicate those passages which he quotes out of my Book and on which he founds this pretence of agreement between us and to do this effectually and plainly I must as I go along briefly explain some of my Principles which our Author either did not understand or did wilfully misrepresent All the sayings he has picked up and brought together from one end of the Book to t'other relate to one of these two Principles The Unity of the Church which is one Communion or the Unity of the Episcopacy 1. As for the first of these The Unity of the Church the whole mystery of it is no more but this That the whole Christian Church by the Institution of our Saviour is but one Church and this one Church is one Communion that is one Body and Society whereof all Christians are members and wherein they have a right to communicate in all Christian Priviledges and have both a right and obligation to Communicate in all Christian Duties This our Author puts in the second place tho it ought to be the first as being the Foundation of all That all Christians and Christian Churches in the world are one Body Society or Church and this is called Catholick Communion for they being all one Body they Communicate with each other in this one Body in all the Duties and Priviledges of it and what advantage he can make make of this I cannot yet guess unless he thinks that the very name Catholick being one of Bellarmin's Notes of the Church Catholick Communion must signifie the Communion of the Catholick Church of Rome My Adversaries hearing this word Communion presently concluded that I placed the Unity of the Church in some meer transient acts of Communion and disputed very earnestly against it as well they might But this mistake I rectified in my Vindication and showed them that one Communion signifies one Body and Society in which all the Members communicate with each other which I explain'd by this familiar comparison Suppose the whole World were one Family or one Kingdom in which every particular man according to his rank and station enjoys equal privileges in this case the necessity of Affairs would require that men should live in distinct houses and distinct Countries as now they do all the World over But yet if every man enjoyed the same Liberty and Priviledges wherever he went as he does now in his own House and Country the whole World would be but one House and Family or Universal Kingdom and whosoever should resolve to live by himself and not receive any others into his Family nor allow them the liberty of his House would be guilty of making a Schism in this great Family of the World And what Nations soever should deny the Rights and Priviledges of natural Subjects to the Inhabitants of other Countries would make a Schism and rent it self from this Universal Kingdom I added Thus it is here The Church of Christ is but one Body one Church one Houshold and Family one Kingdom These words our Author sets in the Front and thinks to make something of them for seeing all know that to make the whole World one Universal Kingdom it 's necessary that it be subjected under one governing Head it unavoidably follows that unless in the Catholick Church there be one Supreme Governing Head it cannot be like to an Universal Kingdom an organized politick Body Very right Had I compared the Catholick Church to an Universal Kingdom with respect to Government the consequence had been good but comparing it only with respect to Communion the consequence is ridiculous and yet this was all I intended in the Comparison as appears from the Application of it And therefore though the necessity of Affairs requires that Neighbour Christians combine themselves into particular Churches particular Congregations as the world is divided into particular Families and Kingdoms which shows that I no more subject the Church to one Governing-head than I do the World to one Universal Monarch now it is divided into particular Kingdoms yet every Christian by virtue of his Christianity hath the same Right and Priviledg and the same Obligation to Communion as occasion serves with all the Churches in the World that he has with that particular Church wherein he lives wherever he removes his dwelling whatever Church he goes to he is still in the same Family the same Kingdom and the same Church Now whether this be a good Consequence that because I make the whole Christian Church one Family and Kingdom with respect to Christian Communion that is that all true Christians have a right to Communion in all true Christian Churches in the World therefore I subject the whole Christian Church to one Supreme Governing

consisting of particular Churches as of integral Parts But now the Apostle makes every particular Church to be such an organized Body consisting of all the integral Parts of a Church a Bishop Presbyters Deacons and faithful People and therefore particular Churches are not properly organized Parts of the Catholick Church as the hands or legs are of a humane Body which is made up of several other members of a different nature but as organized wholes every particular Church being a complete and entire Church not a part of a Church and the Catholick Church is considered as one not so much by uniting all particular Churches considered as particular Churches which is to unite a great many wholes together to make one whole which is perfectly unintelligible but by uniting the several parts of which each particular Church consists into one they being the same in all and this makes one organized Catholick Church of the same nature and constitution the same Officers and Members with every particular organized Church As for instance A particular organized Church as I have now observed consists of a Bishop Presbyters Deacons and faithful People and the whole Catholick Church consists of the same Parts and can have no other and yet there are no Bishops Presbyters Deacons Christian People to make up this Catholick Church but what belong to some particular Churches and yet particular Churches are not Parts of a Church but compleat entire Churches as having all the integral Parts of a perfect Church and therefore particular organiz'd Churches cannot make up a whole Church as the several Parts make a whole Body because they are each of them a whole where then shall we find Bishops Presbyters Deacons People to make up one Catholick Church Now in this case there can be no other Notion of the Catholick Church but the Union of the same Parts of all particular Churches into One and then the Union of all these united Parts into one Body makes the one Catholick Church As to explain this briefly St. Cyprian tells us that there is but one Episcopacy or one Bishoprick as I have already shown and therefore all the Bishops who are now dispersed over all the World and have the Supream Government of their particular Churches must be reckoned but one Bishop for thô their natural Persons are distinct they are but one Ecclesiastical Person their Office Power and Dignity being one and the same not divided into Parts but exercised by all of them in their several Churches with the same fulness and plenitude of Power and thus we have found out one Bishop for the one Catholick Church all the Bishops in the World being but one for thô they are many distinct Persons they are but one Power and exercise the same Office without Division or Multiplication And thus all the Presbyters in the World who are under the Direction and Government of their several Bishops are but one Presbytery of the Catholick Church for if the Episcopacy be but one the Presbytery must be but one also in subordination to this one Episcopacy the like may be said of Deacons and of Christian People that they are but one Body and Communion under one Bishop Where there is but one Bishop there can be but one Church and therefore one Episcopacy unites all Christians into one Body and Communion How this is consistant with the many Schisms and Divisions of the Christian Church shall be accounted for else-where This is a plain intelligible account how all the particular Churches in the World are but one Church because all the Parts and Members which answer to each other in these particular Churches are but one by the Institution of Christ All their Bishops but one Bishop all their Presbyters but one Presbytery all the Christians of particular Churches but one Body and Communion and thus the Catholick Church is an organized Body consisting of the same parts that all particular Churches consist of Just as if Five Thousand Men whose Bodies have all the same Members should by a coalition of corresponding Parts grow up into one Body that all their Heads their Arms their Legs c. should grow into one which would make a kind of Universal organized Body of the same nature with what every single individual Man has And that there can be no other Notion of the Catholick Church as considered in this World Ethink is very plain from this that there is but one Notion of a Church and therefore the Catholick Church and particular Churches must have the very same Nature and integral Parts If a Bishop Presbyters and Christian People make a particular Church there must be the very same parts in the Catholick Church or you must shew us two distinct Notions of a Church and that the Catholick and particular Churches differ in their essential Constitution If the Notion be the same and all particular Churches constitute the Catholick Church then these particular Churches must constitute the Catholick Church just as they are constituted themselves that is of Bishops Presbyters and People and therefore all the Bishops of particular Churches must make but one Catholick Episcopacy all the Presbyters but one Presbytery all the Christian People but one Body and Communion and then the Catholick Church and particular Churches are exactly the same one Body of Bishops Presbyters and People And this utterly destroys all subordination between Bishops for if to the Notion of the Catholick Church all Bishops must be considered as one than every Bishop must be equal for an inferior and superior Bishop cannot be one And if the Notion of the Catholick Church did require one Supream Oecumenical Pastor to whom all particular Bishops are subordinate then the Catholick and particular Churches are not of the same Species for the one has a soveraign the other a subordinate Head and therefore is not a compleat and perfect Church nor of the same kind with the Church which has the soveraign Head. And thus I think I might safely dismiss all our Author's Criticisms about the several kinds of Totums which he has transcribed from the Independent Copy excepting some peculiar Absurdities of his own For the Catholick Church properly speaking is no Totum at all with respect to particular Churches which are not properly Parts of the Catholick Church considered as particular organized Churches but the Catholick Church is one Church by the Union of all the corresponding Parts of particular Churches which we have no example of that I know in Nature nor is it to be expected to find the exemplars of such Mystical Unions in Nature which depend not upon Nature but upon Institution but it may not be amiss briefly to show our Author 's great skill in such matters He takes it for granted that the Church Catholick must be some kind of Totum or whole and therefore undertakes to prove that in all Totums there must be a Subordination of parts and therefore there must be a Supreme Oecumenical Pastor in the Catholick