Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A56280
|
A full and clear exposition of the Protestant rule of faith with an excellent dialogue laying forth the large extent of true Protestant charity against the uncharitable papists.
|
Pulton, A. (Andrew), 1654-1710.
|
1688
(1688)
|
Wing P4205; ESTC R7815
|
18,771
|
21
|
will all not only say but swear also that they have omitted no endeavours of Diligence or Pious means They are all in their own conceits sure they are in the right and that those who differ from them are deluded blinded with Passion byas'd by Interest or the like Give me Sir an Infallible Rule whereby I may know which of them have the Spirit of Truth which the contrary Phil. I tell you once again let GOD Judge them I meddle with none of them 't is not my Affair I am certain I am in the right Eu. Under favour Sir I think this a Demonstration that every Protestant Church is at the same time according to your own Principles both in the true Church and out of the true Church and consequently neither in nor out which is a meer Chimera I thus prove my Assertion Every Protestant Church is a true Church because her Members of sound judgment are fit Judges in Controversies of Faith by Scripture which alone they follow and which is clear in all things necessary to Salvation Every Protestant Church is also a false Church because those Churches which are by Members of sound judgement governing themselves by Scripture judg'd Heretical Blasphemers Anti-christian and Diabolical must needs be false Churches But as I have shewn above there is no particular Protestant Church which has not by some other particular Protestant Church been so call'd represented and believ'd therefore every Protestant Church is false Thus is every Protestant Church both true and false and consequently Church and no Church which as I said before is a meer Chimera Phil. Hold Sir not so fast I have let you ramble long enough 't is now time to take you up You have Sir I perceive forgot what I told you in the beginning of our Discourse that the Point concerning which the difference is may perhaps be of such a Nature that there is no necessity of believing it with Divine Faith that is it may perhaps be none of the Essentials or Fundamentals of Faith. Eu. There may therefore be Heretical Blasphemous anti-Anti-christian and Diabolical Doctrines taught by sound Christians remaining in the Communion of the H. Catholick Church because all these Characters are consistent with the Fundamentals of Christianity oblige me therefore so far as to give me aList of these all-saving Fundamentals Phil. That Sir is not so easy as you imagin for by reason of Mens different Capacities and Apprehension that may be necessary to one Person which is not so to another so that to require such a List of me is to bid me shape a Coat for the Moon which she being never at a stay but always either increasing or decreasing is utterly impossible This only you may rely on as a certain truth that nothing can be a Fundamental or Essential Point of Faith which is not clearly deliver'd in Holy Writ Nor can there be any greater Evidence of a Points being clearly taught in Scripture than that Learned and Pious Men after a diligent search and the use of due means differ not about it Eu. I see then Sir by this your Doctrine that a Man may without endangering his Salvation deny all these Articles I have hitherto been taught to be the principal Points of Christianity Phil. Sir what you may have been taught I know not but since you press me so close give me leave to tell you with the Learned Mr. Chillingworth that if you mean by Fundamental what is necessary to be explicitly believed by every one for the obtaining of Eternal Life there is perhaps nothing so but that there is a GOD and that JESUS CHRIST came to save finners and that whoever holding this Foundation shall be ready to submit his Belief to all that he shall find reveal'd in Scripture taken in such sense as he himself shall after the use of due means Judge to be true can never err damnably nor consequently cease to be a Member of that Church out of which there is no Salvation Eu. I must confess Sir that your Charity is of a very vast extent For by this your Doctrine all those who were by the Fathers in the Primitive Church and the first General Councils condemned as notorious Hereticks ought not to be excluded the Pale of the Church But pray Sir what would you say to one who having read the Holy Scripture with all possible Diligence and consider'd not only the many Contradictory Opinions held by Men pretending to no other Rule but also the possitive Assertion of Protestants that all visible Churches for a thousand years have been Erroneous and False and that all the Signs Prodigies and Miracles wrought by pretended Catholicks as you are pleas'd to call us were nothing but Imposters and Cheats that there was no true Holiness in all our Saints nor any Faith to be given to our Fathers How far Sir I say would your Charity extend to one who after a thorow Consideration of all this should with the Turks remain perswaded that as Moses's Law was abolisht by the coming of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST so the Christian Law was to have an end at the coming of Mahomet who was according to their Doctrine a Prophet sent by God to that purpose and as far exceeded CHRIST as CHRIST did Moses and being thus perswaded should follow the Example of Adam Neuserus a most Learned Protestant and chief Pastor of Heidelberg Osiand Cant. p. 16. who became a Mahometan and was Circumcis'd at Constantinople with many of his Flock Phil. Since I am Sir as I have already told you to judge of my Neighbour with Charity I find no reason why I may not allow Salvation to such a Man acting sincerely especially seeing he holds the Foundation that there is a GOD and that IESVS CHRIST came to save sinners Eu. I see then Sir that he was not altogether mistaken who affirm'd Protestancy and Turcism to be very near of kin What would you think of another who believing the Alcoran to be as indeed it is nothing but the Dreams of a Blasphemous Impostor and hearing your Opinion of the Miracles wrought during the last ten Ages should from thence and from the many seeming Contradictions not easily reconcil'd between the Old Testament and the New between Gospel and Gospel really in his Conscience believe all Christianity to be a Cheat and the Four Evangelists Four Impostors and should therefore as befel the Learned Protestant Allemannus judge it his safest course to embrace Judaism This Man is of a sound Judgment reads Scripture examins diligently and Schlusselberg de Theol. Cal. fol. 9. sincerely according to his Judgment of Scripture believes all Christians either Cheats or Fools animated by your example who believe the same of the last Ten Ages Phil. If this case be possible I see not how I can in Charity pronounce such a Man condemn'd to Eternal Torments Eu Once more Sir what would you say of another that should after all private diligence
down to me a false sense of Holy Scripture yet I must by no means question but that now at last an English Parliament has hit upon the right You may as rationally oblige a Man his eyes being wide open not to see at mid-day but I must believe or away to Prison and undergo the severe Penalties of the Law This goes hard I would fain Conform if it stood with my Conscience Let us therefore try for once whether I can't in Prudence and Christian Sincerity secure my Soul by a Conformity to so advantagious a Judgment I find therefore in Henry VIII's time an English Parliament crying down the Pope and placing his Majesty of England in his room and yet I see the same Men persecute as Hereticks those who in other Points joyn'd with the Transmarin Innovators In Edward VI's days I find the same Men declare that Doctrine to be most damnable Heresy which themselves had all along during the Reign of Henry VIII profess'd as Catholick Queen Mary being seated on the Throne I find them Recanting and Condemning themselves and censuring all the Points of Protestancy as Wicked and Heretical and within six years after I see them again pass the same Censure on the Roman Catholick Doctrine to which they had so lately and solemnly been reconcil'd Now give me leave Christian Reader to ask you can I with a safe Conscience leave a Church whose General Councils Lawfully Assembled and approv'd by which I govern my self have not in 1600 years produc'd as I can find any one contradiction in matters of Faith to depend upon Parliamentary Creeds four times wholly inverted in sixteen years Can I in Prudence and Conscience renounce the former to embrace the latter Give me but one pregnant Reason for this and I engage to become your Proselite If you tell me one Parliament was guided by Passion another by Interest but that 't was Queen Elizabeths Parliament which consisted of Men according to the Spirit of GOD Is not this again a manifest begging of the Question Where does the Bible for at present as a good Protestant I admit of no other Rule where I say does the Bible tell me that the Parliament of Queen Elizabeth should be guided by the Holy Spirit and not that of King Henry VIII c. If you shall return to your old Evasion that you are sure on 't because you find that Parliament agree with your own Judgment those who liv'd in King Henry's days will on the same ground of pure Scripture tell me quite another story How then can I be satisfied which of your Judgments is true You will answer me I must judge for my self What therefore if according to my sense of Holy Scripture I judge in my Conscience as in the presence of Almighty GOD I truly do that King Henry VIII's Parliament was Schismatical Queen Elizabeth's Heretical and this as indeed it falls out after a serious long calm dis-interess'd Examen am I still a True Protestant You must grant me to be one because I follow the Protestant Rule which is as you say Holy Scripture as every one after the use of due means does in his own proper judgment understand it What can be more ridiculous than this I am a True Protestant at least in my Principles tho' by those very Principles I judge the Protestant Church to be Schismatical and Heretical The Great Extent of Protestant Charity Or a Dialogue between Eudoxius and Philautus concerning the Protestant Rule of Faith shewing it to be an in-let not only to all Heresy but even to Turcism Judaism and Atheism it self Eudoxius I Shall not Sir I hope offend you by proposing you a few Doubts concerning your Protestant Rule of Faith which is holy Scripture as understood by every sound judgment Philautus So far from it Sir that on the contrary you will very much oblige me Eu. Reading lately Sir the Works publish'd by the first Lights of your pretended Reformation who all give us the same Rule of Faith I discover'd in them a wonderful Spirit of Contradiction and found that they not only differ'd the one from the other in matters of Faith but that the same Men dissented from themselves now teaching one Doctrine then another Phil. When you shall have prov'd your Assertion I will return you a satisfactory Answer Eu. Luther in his Book De Potestate Papae teaches that there are seven Sacraments De Captivitate Babylonica that there are only three ad Waldenses only two and again de Captivitate Babylonica that according to Holy Scripture there is but one In his Sermon of the Eucharist he tells us that in the Sacrament of the Altar there is neither Bread nor Wine but only the Species or appearance of them yet in his Book against the King of England he asserts That he is wicked and a Blasphemer who says The Bread is changed into the substance of CHRIST's Body Concerning the Popes Power he affirms in his Book de Potestate Papae That if it were not Jure Divino and from GOD it could never have subsisted so long and yet in his Treatise de Captivitate Babylonica he often repeats That he is certain the Power of the Pope is the Kingdom of Babylon In Disputatione Lipsiensi he says I do not only believe but certainly know that there is a Purgatory and yet de Abrogandâ Missâ he tells us 'T is more secure to deny Purgatory I have Sir to the number of threescore such Contradictions out of this one Author the first and greatest Light of the Reformation and near as many out of Calvin Beza c. Now I desire to know how I may be assur'd which part of the Contradiction is conformable to Divine Revelation which otherwise Phil. Of contradictory Doctrines you may safely hold that to be true which after a serious and due examin appears to you agreeable to holy Scripture Eu. But what if another be convinc'd of the opposite Phil. He is bound to believe as he comprehends it however different his belief may be from yours Eu. And shall each of us be assured he has Divine Faith relating to such a Mystery tho' we evidently contradict one another Phil. I do not say you shall each of you have Divine Faith concerning that particular point in which you differ but that each of you may safely hold that side of the Contradiction which he verily believes to be true provided you both proceed with sincerity and are neither of you blinded with Passion For the Article may perhaps be of such a Nature that there will be no necessity for either of you to believe it with Divine Faith. Eu. What then say you of a Quaker who grounding himself on his own sense of Holy Scripture believes Baptism as impertinent and superstitious as you do the use of Holy Water Phil. I say the Quaker so believing proceeds not with Sincerity and without Passion Eu. How will you make it appear that you are the only Men