Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	christian_a	church_n	jewish_a	1,506	5	9.5679	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58627	A sermon preached at White-Hall before His Late Majesty / by John Tillotson.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1686 (1686)	Wing S1250A; ESTC R25649	14,978	33

A SERMON PREACHED AT White-Hall Before His Late MAJESTY By JOHN TILLOTSON D.D. and Dean of Canterbury LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1686. Price 3 d. A SERMON Preach'd at White-Hall c. 1 Cor. III. 15 But he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire THE Context is thus According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise Master-builder I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid Jesus Christ Now if any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble every mans work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is If any mans work abide which he hath built thereupon he shall receive a reward If any mans work shall be burnt he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire In these Words the Apostle speaks of a sort of persons who held indeed the foundation of Christianity but built upon it such doctrines or practices as would not bear the trial which he expresses to us by wood hay and stubble which are not proof against the fire Such a person the Apostle tells us hath brought himself into a very dangerous state tho he would not deny the possibility of his salvation He himself shall be saved yet so as by fire That by fire here is not meant the fire of Purgatory as some pretend who would be glad of any shadow of a Text of Scripture to countenance their own dreams I shall neither trouble you nor my self to manifest since the particle of similitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plainly shews that the Apostle did not intend an escape out of the fire literally but like to that which men make out of a House or Town that is on fire Especially since very learned persons of the Church of Rome do acknowledg that Purgatory cannot be concluded from this Text nay all that Estius contends for from this place is that it cannot be concluded from hence that there is no Purgatory which we never pretended but only that this Text does not prove it It is very well known that this is a Proverbial phrase used not only in Scripture but in prophane Authors to signifie a narrow escape out of a great danger He shall be saved yet so as by fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the fire Just as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used 1 Pet. 3.20 where the Apostle speaking of the eight persons of Noah's family who escap'd the flood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they escaped out of the water So here this phrase is to be rendred in the Text he himself shall escape yet so as out of the fire The like expression you have Am. 4.11 I have pluckt them as a firebrand out of the fire And Jude 23. Others save with fear plucking them out of the fire All which expressions signifie the greatness of the danger and the difficulty of escaping it as one who when his house at midnight is set on fire and being suddenly wak'd leaps out of his bed and runs naked out of the doors taking nothing that is within along with him but imploying his whole care to save his body from the flames as St. Chrysostom upon another occasion expresseth it And so the Roman Orator who it is likely did not think of Purgatory useth this phrase Quo ex judicio velut ex incendio nudus effugit From which Judgment or Sentence he escaped naked as it were out of a burning And one of the Greek Orators tells us That to save a man out of the fire was a common proverbial speech From the words thus explained the Observation that naturally ariseth is this That men may hold all the Fundamentals of Christian Religion and yet may superadd other things whereby they may greatly endanger their salvation What those things were which some among the Corinthians built upon the foundation of Christianity whereby they endanger'd their Salvation we may probably conjecture by what the Apostle reproves in this Epistle as the tolerating of incestuous marriages communicating in Idol-feasts c. And especially by the doctrine of the false Apostles who at that time did so much disturb the peace of most Christian Churches and who are so often and so severely reflected upon in this Epistle And what their Doctrine was we have an account Act. 15. viz. that they imposed upon the Gentile Christians Circumcision and the observation of the Jewish Law teaching that unless they were circumcised and kept the Law of Moses they could not be saved So that they did not only build these doctrines upon Christianity but they made them equal with the Foundation saying that unless men believed and practised such things they could not be saved In speaking to this Observation I shall reduce my discourse to these two Heads 1. I shall present to you some Doctrines and Practices which have been built upon the Foundation of Christianity to the great hazard and danger of mens salvation And to b● plain I mean particularly the Church of Rome 2. I shall enquire whether our granting possibility of salvation tho with great hazard to those in the Communion of the Rome Church and their denying it to us be a rea●sonable argument and encouragement to an● man to betake himself to that Church And there is the more reason to consider ●hese things when so many seducing Spirits ●re so active and busie to pervert men from ●he truth and when we see every day so many men and their Religion so easily parted ●or this reason these two Considerations shall ●e the subject of the following discourse I. First We will consider some Doctrines and Practices which the Church of Rome hath built upon the foundation of Christianity to the great hazard and danger of mens salvation It is not denied by the most judicious Protestants but that the Church of Rome do hold all the Articles of the Christian Faith which are necessary to salvation But that which we charge upon them as a just ground of our separation from them is the imposing ●f n●w Doctrines and Practices upon Christians as necessary to salvation which were never taught by our Saviour or his Apostles and which are either directly contrary to the doctrine of Christianity or too apparently destructive of a good life And I begin 1. With their Doctrines And because I have no mind to aggravate lesser matters I will single out four or five points of Doctrine which they have added to the Christian Religion and which were neither taught by our Saviour and his Apostles nor own'd in the first Ages of Christianity And the First which I shall mention and which bein● once admitted makes way for

not believe ●hem cannot be saved But a great many Pa●ists tho they believe these things to be no matters of Faith yet they think those that ●old them may be saved and they are gene●ally very favourable towards them But now ●ccording to this argument they ought all to ●e of their opinion in these points because ●oth sides are agreed that they that hold them may be saved but one side positively says that men cannot be saved if they do not hold them But my Text furnisheth me with as good ●n instance to this purpose as can be desired St. Paul here in the Text acknowledgeth the possibility of the salvation of those who built ●ay and stubble upon the foundation of Christianity that they might be saved tho with great difficulty and as it were out of the fire But now among those builders with hay and stubble there were those who denied the possibility of St. Paul's salvation and of those who were of his mind We are told of some who built the Jewish Ceremonies and Observances upon the foundation of Christianity and said that unless men were Circumcised and kept the Law of Moses they could not be saved So that by this argument St. Paul and his followers ought to have gone over to those Judaizing Christians because it was acknowledged on both sides that they might be saved But these Judaizing Christians were as unchari●●●ble to St. Paul and other Christians as t● Church of Rome is now to us for they sa● positively that they could not be saved But 〈◊〉 any man think that St. Paul would have be●● moved by this argument to leave a safe an● certain way of salvation for that which w● only possible and that with great difficult and hazard The argument you see is the v●●ry same and yet it concludes the wrong way● which plainly shews that it is a contingent arg●●ment and concludes uncertainly and by chance and therefore no man ought to be moved by i● III. I shall take notice of some gross absurd●●ties that follow from it I shall mention bu● these two 1. According to this principle it is alway● safest to be on the uncharitable side And yet uncharitableness is as bad an evidence either of a true Christian or a true Church as a man would wish Charity is one of the most essential marks of Christianity and what the Apostle saith of particular Christians is as true of whole Churches that tho they have all Faith yet if they have not Charity they are nothing I grant that no Charity teacheth men to see others damned and not to tell them the danger of their condition But it is to be consider'd that the damning of men is a very hard thing and therefore whenever we do it the case must be wonderfully plain And is ●t so in this matter They of the Church of Rome cannot deny but that we embrace all ●he Doctrines of our Saviour contain'd in the Apostles Creed and determined by the four ●●rst General Councils And yet they will ●ot allow this and a good life to put us with●n a possibility of salvation because we will ●ot submit to all the innovations they would ●mpose upon us And yet I think there is scarce ●ny Doctrine or Practice in difference between ●hem and us which some or other of their most learned Writers have not acknowledged ●ither not to be sufficiently contained in Scrip●ure or not to have been held and practised ●y the primitive Church so that nothing an excuse their uncharitableness towards us ●nd they pay dear for the little advantage ●hey get by this argument for they do what 〈◊〉 them lies to make themselves no Christians ●hat they may prove themselves the truer and more Christian Church A medium which ●e do not desire to make use of 2. If this argument were good then by this ●ick a man may bring over all the world to ●gree with him in an error which another ●oes not account damnable whatever it be ●rovided he do but damn all those that do ●ot hold it and there wants nothing but ●●nfidence and uncharitableness to do this But 〈◊〉 there any sence that another mans bold●ess and want of charity should be an argument to move me to be of his opinion cannot illustrate this better than by the di●●ference between a skilful Physician and 〈◊〉 Mountebank A learned and skilful Physicia● is modest and speaks justly of things H● says that such a method of cure which h● hath directed is safe and withall that tha● which the Mountebank prescribes may possibly do the work but there is great hazard and danger in it But the Mountebank who neve● talks of any thing less than infallible cures and always the more Mountebank the strong●er pretence to infallibiliiy he is positive tha● that method which the Physician prescribe● will destroy the Patient but his receipt is infallible and never fails Is there any reason in this case that this man should carry it meerly by his confidence And yet if this argument be good the safest way is to reject the Physicians advice and to stick to the Mountebanks For both sides are agreed that there is a possibility of cure in the Mountebank's method but not in the Physicians and so the whole force of the argument lies in the confidence of an ignorant man IV. This argument is very unfit to work upon those to whom it is propounded For either they believe we say true in this or not If they think we do not they have no reason to be moved by what we say If they think we do why do they not take in all that we say in this matter Namely ●at tho it be possible for some in the com●union of the Roman Church to be saved ●et it is very hazardous and that they are 〈◊〉 a safe condition already in our Church And ●hy then should a bare possibility accompa●'d with infinite and apparent hazard be an ●rgument to any man to run into that danger Lastly This argument is very improper to ●e urged by those who make use of it Half ●f the strength of it lies in this that we Pro●estants acknowledg that it is possible a Papist ●ay be saved But why should they lay any ●●ress upon this What matter is it what we Hereticks say who are so damnably mistaken ●n all other things Methinks if there were ●o other reason yet because we say it it should ●eem to them to be unlikely to be true But I ●erceive when it serves for their purpose we ●ave some little credit and authority among ●hem By this time I hope every one is in some measure satisfied of the weakness of this argument which is so transparent that no wise man ●an honestly use it and he must have a very ●dd understanding that can be cheated by it The truth is it is a casual and contingent argument and sometimes it concludes right and ●ftner wrong and therefore no prudent man ●an be moved by it except only