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christian_n	church_n	communion_n	particular_a	5,227	5	7.7929	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58738	Several weighty considerations humbly recommended to the serious perusal of all, but more especially to the Roman Catholicks of England to which is prefix'd, An epistle from one who was lately of that communion to Dr. Stillingfleet, Dean of St. Pauls, declaring the occasion of the following discourse.	T. S. Epistle from a late Roman Catholick to the Very Reverend Dr. Edward Stillingfleet, Dean of St. Paul's.; Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1679 (1679)	Wing S183; ESTC R16533	49,205	54

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all Wisdom teaching and admonishing one another Theodoret before cited gives this Account of his Times You shall every where see these Points of our Faith to be known and understood not only by such as are Teachers in the Church but by Smiths Weavers and all kinds of Arcificers yea all our Women not only such as are Book-learned but also by them who get their Living by the Needle Maid servants and Waiting-women and not Citizens only but Husbandmen are very skilful in these things You may hear among us Ditchers and Neat-herds discoursing of the Trinity and the Creation And that the Laity were thus familiar with the Bible may evidently be made out in that Nectarius of a Judge was made Bishop of Constantinople St. Ambrose of a Secular Deputy Bishop of Milan Gregory the Father of Nazianzen of a Lay-man was made a Bishop Origen from a Child was Learned in the Scriptures and to the great Joy of his Father Leonides a Holy Martyr often questioned with him concerning the meaning of difficult places Macrina St. Basil's Nurse taught him the Scriptures when he was very young and Gorgonia the Sister of St. Gregory Nazianzen was rarely well experienced in them I will wind up this Argument with declaring what was St. Jerom's mind in so Weighty a Business He besides his Writing to divers Women as Eustochium Salvina Celantia c. commending their Labours in the Scriptures and encouraging that study speaking of the Noble Roman Lady Paula in the Epitaph he made upon her he extolls her for imposing a daily task of reading the Scriptures on her Companions and Maids But more signally in an Epistle to L●t● he gives her these Directions for the Education of her little Daughter Let the Child be deaf in hearing of light Musical Aires but cause her every day to render a task of the Flowers of Holy Scripture Let her not be sought for in the press of secular People but in the Closet of the Scriptures asking Counsel of the Prophets and Apostles concerning Spiritual Nuptials Let her first learn the Psalter and with those Heavenly Songs wean her self from light Sonnets Then let her be taught to Govern her Life out of Solomons Proverbs and repair to Job for Examples of Vertue and Patience Let her then come to the Evangelists and never lay those Books out of her hands With these she must joyn the Acts of the Apostles c But let her be cautious in Apocryphal Books and if she read them let her understand that they are not those Author's whose Names they carry and that many things faulty are mix'd with them and it is no small Wisdom to fund Gold among Dross To which excellent Advice let me onely subjoyn what I find scattered up and down in S. Augustin viz. To read plain Passages first and heartily to practice what we understand and as for obscure Places Prophecies Genealogies and Mysteries whereof we shall never be demanded an Account at the Day of Judgment let us leave it to the Divine Pleasure either to reveal them to us or reserve them still Concealed since our Saviour told his own Disciples that it was not for them to know the Times and Seasons but plainly informed them that he who did his Will should know of his Doctrine whether he spoke from God or from himself The same Father acquaints us with the admirable Commixture of Plainness and Obscurity in the Holy Scripture that hereby Wanton Wits are wholsomely curbed Weak Wits cherished and Great Wits delighted and that nothing of highest Importance is so perplexedly delivered in one Place but it is as plainly set down in another I have inlarged a little more than I intended on this Theme because I am verily perswaded that if the Sober Judicious Roman Catholicks of this Nation would be induced but for Tryal sake a while to intermit some of those Dry Insipid Devotions which take up so much of their Time and exchange them for a Pious Humble conversing with God's Word they would soon be out of Conceit with what they are now so fond of and discover the sandy Foundation of many of their Principles and perhaps at last become of that good Abbots mind who was Unkle to Arch-Bishop Whitgift and was often heard to complain that their Religion must needs at last fail because he found no ground for it in Gods Word Having considered hitherto the great Rule of our Faith and Life we will now descend to that Article of our Creed which makes such a noise in the World I mean the Holy Catholick Church which omitting the various Acceptations of the Word Church as to our present Purpose is nothing else but a Company of People united in the Profession of the True Faith of Christ and due Use of the Sacraments I am not ignorant that the Papists would fain foist in another Requisite to wit Under the Obedience of the Bishop of Rame the only Vicar of Christ upon Earth But to omit many other Absurdities I shall only instance at present in two that hereby they exclude Universality which they put down as an Essential Note of the True Church and Charity which I am sure is a certain Badg of Christ's true Disciples For by this very Clause they very ridiculously obtrude less than a fourth part for the Whole and by excommunicating all the rest from the Pale of the Church as much as in them lies very mercifully Doome greater more antient and better Churches than themselves to everlasting flames To make this good we will take our Measures by the Judicious Observation of Sir Edwyn Sands who in his Survey of Europe assures us that the Greek Church in Number exceeds any other and the Protestants in Multitude and extent of Territory fall very little short of those that are under the Papal Yoke So that here we have two four Parts To which add all the Oriental Christians and those in the Vast Empire of Prester John or the Abyssines who are all out of the Roman Communion and questionless we shall find another fourth Part. And thus we have three to one even in the point of Universality I will put this out of all dispute by a particular Induction In Asia we have Multitudes of Christians who have nothing to do with the Pope Those of Palestine are subject to the Patriarch of Jerusalem the Syrians under him of Antioch the Armenians and Georgians have their own Patriarchs The Circassians and those of the lesser Asia are under him of Constantinople The Jacobites and the Christians of St. Thomas have also their peculiar Patriarchs In Africa where we find any steps of Christianity the Egyptians and Cophtes are under the Patriarch of Alexandria the Ethiopians or Abyssines which are innumerable are under their own Governours Ecclesiastical In Europe the Greeks submit to the Patriarch of Constantinople The spatious Empire of the Russians hath a Patriarch at Mosco The Kingdoms of England

Ecclesiastical Affairs is founded upon and to consider how many Difficulties must be cleared to make it a probable Tale. 1. That S. Peter was Bishop of Rome 2. That he dyed at Rome by the special Command of Christ. 3. That he dyed Invested with such a Supremacy as is now Exercised in that Church 4. That his so dying there is sufficient without a new Revelation from God to make the Succession of the Bishop of Rome of Divine Authority We shall now take a View of that Grand Machine of the Pope's power over Temporal Princes and make it most evident that it is an Article and Doctrin of the Roman Church and being so that this alone were a sufficient Motive to forsake her Communion since She Teaches Justifies and strictly Commands even under the penalty of being accounted no Christians Treason and Rebellion The present Lord Bishop of Lincoln hath written a Learned and Satisfactory Treatise on this Subject and I find his Lordship very faithful in his Citations Wherefore I may be the more sparing However because I heartily desire that Honoured Pious and Loyal Persons may not unwarily ingage their Liberties Estates and Lives for the Maintainance of so Extravagant and Tyrannical a Power which hath in all Ages caused so many disinal Tragedies in the Christian World and is in it self Fatal and Destructive to all Civil Government I shall briefly treat of this Matter to undeceive others especially since I was herein miserably seduced my self till I had Maturely and Exactly Examined the whole Business I shall begin with General Councils whose Decrees if they will not admit I confess I as yet understand not what the Doctrin of the Roman Church is nor do I know where to find it The Third Council of Lateran c. 27. after it had Condemned and Excommunicated many Hereticks and you must know that All Protestants are both accounted so and as such are once every year solemnly accursed by His Holyness in Person on Maundy Thursday It Absolves All that had sworn Fidelity or Homage to them from those Oaths and we know who they are to whom Fidelity and Homage strictly speaking is due and they are required in Order to the Remission of their Sins to fight against them And those who dye doing Penance in that manner may undoubtedly expect Indulgence for their Sins with Eternal Rewards Then by the Authority of S. Peter and Paul the Council remits to all who shall rise and fight against them two years penance Here a General Council uses all its Industry to poyson people with Rebellious Doctrin and calls Treason Doing of Penance Not long after Pope Celestin Predecessor to Innocent the Third with more than Luciferian Arrogance sets the Crown on the Head of the Emperour Henry the 6th with his two feet and then kicks it off again And the fact is produced by no meaner a Person than Cardinal Baronius to shew that it is in the Pope's power to Give and Take away Empires But to as much purpose as He produced that Text Rise Peter Kill and Eat to incense Paul the 5th against the Venetians The second Evidence shall be the Fourth Great and as they call it Most General Council of Lateran wherein were assembled 1200 of one sort or other These C. 3. make a Decree That the Aid of Secular Princes should be required for the Rooting out of Hereticks i. e All that are not of the Roman Communion and that when the Temporal Lord required and admonished by the Church shall neglect to purge his Territory from Heretical Wickedness He shall be Excommunicated by the Metropolitan and his Suffragans And if he persist in neglecting to give satisfaction for the space of a year let him be signified to the Pope that he from thenceforth may pronounce his Subjects discharged from their Obedience and expose his Territory to be seized on by Catholicks who having exterminated the Hereticks shall possess it without Contradiction and preserve it in the Purity of the Faith So as no Injury be done to the Right of the Supreme Lord where there is such provided He do not any ways oppose himself And the Law is to take place in them who have no Superiour Lord. Which Last Clause perfectly comprehends Soveraign Princes and so anticipates that Reply which some make That the Decree was only made for Feudatory and Subordinate Princes And whereas some few deny it to be a General Council and that it made any Canons it is a most Impudent Cavil For both the Council and Canons have been and are Universally received by the Roman Church the Council as General and Approved so by Innocent the III. and the Canons as Authentick All their Writers concerning Councils put this down among the General ones ●●●● commonly call it the Great General Council of Lateran and Joverius says he cannot see with what face a Man dare deny it They always put it among those Councils that are Approved by the Church for you must know that some are Reprobated some are partly Approbated and partly Reprobated Their Canon Law so esteems of it The Council of Constance puts it among those General Councils to the Observation whereof the Popes were to swear at their Installment The Council of Trent which I hope none will boggle at Sess 24. C. 5. in express terms calls it a General Council and Confirms one of its Canons To which I may add because it concerns us a Synod at Oxford where this Council was received for England And though some Princes that were deposed out of the Pope's meer Spite and Malice got some Advocates to write for them and Synods of Bishops to Protest against the Pope's Proceedings yet in the case of Pretended Heresie which neerly touches Protestant Princes not one Writer or Bishop appears in Vindication of the Temporal Power A shrewd Sign that this Deposing Heretical Magistrates is in General the Romish Doctrine The General Council of Lions is next It was summoned by Innocent the 4th against the Emperour Frederick the 2d Here the Pope having consulted with the Council Declares the Emperour deprived by God of his Dominions and thereupon they Actually Depose him and Absolve All from their Oaths of Fidelity to him strictly charging All persons to acknowledge him no more for Emperour and denouncing All that did otherwise Excommunicated Ipso facto So we have another whole General Council concurring with the Pope in asserting this Deposing Power and with Candles burning in their hands thundering out Sentence against the poor Emperour In the Council of Constance Sess. 19. we often meet with this Clause That All Breakers of their Privileges whether Emperours Kings or any other Degree were thereby Ipso facto subjected to the Banns Punishments and Censures in the Council of Lateran and Sess. 17. in the Pass they gave to the King of Arragon they decree That whatsoever Person either King Cardinal c. hinder him in his Journey he is Ipso sacto deprived of all Honour Dignity Office

Saints and Angels is here looked upon as at least very Dangerous and not having any President in the Old or New Testament S. Paul hath imparted his mind to us in this matter Coloss. 2. 18. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen The Doctrines of Merit Indulgences Purgatory c. are presumptuous at best and full of Abuses contrived more for the Priests profit than the Penitents comfort All which considered together with the small grounds for the belief of them they are worthily disowned by the Church of England Nor was Bellarmin when out of the heat of School Disputes of a Different Judgment l. 5. de Justif. c. 7. Propter incertitudinem c. By reason of the Uncertainty of our own Justice and the Danger of Vain Glory Tutissimum est c. It is the safest course to repose all our Confidence in the alone Mercy and Benignity of God In short you will find that the Church of England in her Reformation which was most Regular and by the Supreme Authority of the Whole Nation retains all the Essentials of Christianity and onely Rectified such things as She found and the whole World complained were some Ridiculous some Impious Others Sensual and Cruel Such are the Innumerable Crossings Repetitions of Names Kissings of the Pax and Images Offering up of Incense and Candles Impertinent Pilgrimages c. and a Thousand the like absurdities Such as teach men to put their Confidence in Bless'd Beads and Medals Counterfeit Relicks Confraternities Sodalities to trust to Mundayes Prayers for the Dead and our Ladie 's Litanies and Ascribe to pieces of Wax called Agnus Dei's Divine power and Efficacy even as much as is due only to the Pretious Blood of the Son of God Nor is this the belief and practice onely of a few Old Wives but the Authentick Book of the Sacred Ceremonies of the Roman Church tells us how Urban V. sent three Agnus Dei's to the Greek Emperor with most Blasphemous Rythmes annexed concerning their Virtue Amongst others this is Verbatim set down Peccatum frangit ut Christi sanguis et angit that it Destroys Sin as the Blood of Christ doth And this was not the Practice of one Phantastical Pope alone but according to the foresaid Book l. 1. Every Pope in blessing these Agnus Dei's uses this Prayer That it would please thee O God to bless these things which we purpose to pour into this Vessel of Water prepared for thy Name so as by the Worship and Honour of them we thy Servants may have our heinous offences done away the blemishes of our Sins wiped off and thereby we may obtain pardon c. No Meaner a Person than the Angelical Doctor S. Thomas Aquinas attributes the same Virtue of taking away Venial Sins to Holy Water And likewise 3. qu. 25. a. 3. in c. most Orthodoxly defends That Stocks and Stones I mean Images are to be worshipped with Latria the same Honour that is due to the Creator Suarez and Vasquez teach the same To Conclude this Discourse In the Church of England You will meet with all that is Good and Warrantable in the Church of Rome what ever is Necessary to Salvation and that by the Confession of the Learnedest Romans Let Bellarmin speak for all l. 4. de Verbo Dei c. 11. The Apostles themselves never used to Preach openly to the people much less propounded as Articles of Faith other things than the Articles of the Apostles Creed the Ten Commandments and some few of the Sacraments because saies he These are simply Necessary and Profitable for All Men the Rest besides are Such as that a Man may be Saved without them This made Antonius de Dominis Archbishop of Spalatto even at his Return to Rome to acknowledg the English Church to be a True Apostolical Church And Father Fulgentio the Venetian Companion to Father Paul the Famous Compiler of the History of the Council of Trent had a most High value and Tender Respect for this Church as having in it all the Requisites for Faith Manners and Discipline And that Incomparable Man Hugo Grotius had so Venerable an Affection for her above all other Reformed Churches that he told our Embassador in France That he Intended after his Return from Swedland whither he was designed Embassador from the States General to transport himself with his whole Family hither on purpose to dye in the Bosome of the English Church In such Repute is She even with Foreigners And to speak one word to the Roman Catholicks of England even in their own Language By their own Concessions the Church of England is safer to Communicate with than that of Rome For To Believe onely what is in the Scripture is as much as is necessary as Bellarmin Confesses To worship God without an Image is acknowledged by all both safe and acceptable To pray immediately to God and use the Lord's Prayer without Repeating so many Ave Maria's to perform the best works we can and not stand on the point of Merit c. and so of the other matters in Controversie is by both Sides granted secure Whereas the other Things in debate are strongly disputed by very Learned and Pious Men. Now what would a Man require more than what all acknowledge to be in the Church of England viz. Means effectually conducing and sufficient to Believe Well to Pray Well to Live Well and to Dye Well It remains onely that the Truly Devout and Loyal Persons in our Nation that are of the Roman Persuasion will but vouchsafe to take the Courage and Pains following Our Blessed Saviour's Advice John 5. 39. Search the Scriptures and S. Paul's 1 Thess. 5. 21. Prove all things 2 Cor. 13. 5. And examine your selves whether you be in the Faith A POST-SCRIPT To the Roman Catholicks of my Acquaintance Ever Honoured and still Respected Friends HAving thus fairly and ingènuously unbosomed to you the very thoughts of my Heart I beseech You not to take with the Left Hand what I offer with the Right Many of You I know to be Truly Vertuous Noble and Loyal to Many I have most Endearing Obligations and I think none can contradict me if I affirm That my Converse among You was repay'd with Love and Esteem and I take Heaven and Earth to witness that I still value you as tenderly as I do my own Soul God onely knowes how many Throes and Struglings I had to part with those whom I so Earnestly affected But Truth at least as it seems to me is Great and will prevail My Request to You All is That You would not let us break in point of Charity though our Opinions are not altogether Coincident That You would for the removing any scruples that may arise believe me as I shall answer at the Last Tribunal That I was not onely Sincere but Zealous while I remained among You and that whatever I performed was with the perfect Intention of and Compliance with the Roman Church and as Validly done as any Actions of that nature are capable of admitting Lastly I desire for God's Religion's and Your own sake that we may refrain from All Contumelious Reflexions on one another In that Long Converse and Great Familiarity I had with you it is impossible but Failings and Imperfections must be discovered on both sides Let All be concealed Under the Mantle of that Charity which hides a multitude of Sins still think of me as you ever found One that sought not Yours but You an honest plain down-right meaning Person And as for my present Proceedings Leave me to stand or fall to that Great Judge to whose and his Churche's Censure I with the most profound Obedience Submit whatever I Write or Do. And Once more I recommend to your most impartial and serious Consideration this Important Quaery Whether it be not Sufficient Ground to withdraw from the Communion of a Church when She is convinced publickly to Teach Practise and Command Treason and Rebellion to its Members Sicut Reputari cupiunt Haberi Fideles as the Lateran Council Thunders it out as they desire to be Accounted and Treated as Christians As to the Traiterous and Monstrous Plot now in Question What Mr. Oats and Mr. Bedlow with the rest of the Informers Evidences are I know not nor am I much Inquisitive His Sacred Majesty and his Great Council are Judges of that But of this I am as sure as I can be of any humane Transaction That the Roman Church Teaches and Commands such Practices That they have been frequently put in Execution abroad and especially at Home And that consequece to such Doctrines Mr. Colem●● by his own Confession and Letters which he did not deny was very Busie in attempting to Dissolve the Parliament and in procuring Assistance from the French King by the interposition of Monsieur le Chese the Jesuit who was that King's Confessor to use his own words To Carry on the Mighty Work in their hands no less than the Conversion of Three Kingdoms and the Utter Subduing of a Pestilential Heresie which hath Domineer'd over a great part of this Northern World a long time and that there never was such hopes of success since the days of their Q. Mury as now in These days And I am sure that a most Worthy Justice of Peace was Barbarously Murder'd who took the Examinations upon that occasion and that many other Insolent Actions were committed by that Party Nor can it be any satisfaction to the Nation for well-minded Persons to say they Disclaim and Detest such Actions unless they Kenounce the Principles and Disown the Authority which have promoted and still are ready to prompt men to such Desperate Practices God Almighty grant Us All his Grace to Consider in This Our Day the Things that Belong to Our Peace before they be Hid from Our Eyes Amen FINIS