Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	apostle_n	call_v	creed_n	2,700	5	10.1197	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40721	The Socinian controversie touching the Son of God reduced, in a brief essay, to prove the Son one in essence with the Father, upon Socinian principles, concessions and reason : concluded with an humble and serious caution to the friends of the Church of England, against the approaches of Socinianism / by F.F. ...	Fullwood, Francis, d. 1693.	1693 (1693)	Wing F2516; ESTC R17950	19,397	38

there is nothing in the Point of our Saviour's Eternal Divinity that is jarring or dissonant to the Reason of Mankind either among Jews Infidels Turks or the Church of God if the Socinian yet say he will not believe it because he cannot apprehend it what remains but that another would be tempted to number him with the last sort of men in the enumeration that is with unreasonable and singular Hereticks IX The Conclusion a Caveat against Socinianism 1. To the Laiety I crave Leave to conclude with some serious Advice to the Friends of our own Church both the Laiety and Clergy that they would beware of entangling themselves in the Socinian tho' seemingly Silken Net I beseech them to consider and take a Prospect of the Consequences whether it s now brisk Efforts obtain or not 1. Suppose it should not prevail among us but dwindle away as it hath hither to done blessed be God yet let our Friends of the Laiety consider the danger they run upon in their own particulars by tampering with this intricate Controversie and tempting God beyond their Calling Methinks you should have deference to the Church wherein you were born baptised and educated and in whose Faith and Worship you may undoubtedly be saved especially in those great and fundamental Points of which She hath kept possession ever since her first Conversion to Christianity and wherein She hath had Communion with the Catholick Church in all Ages Methinks a Gentleman should have a reluctancy and abhor from Novelty in Faith and a Religion that was born but yesterday Besides by prying into Socinian Books you will find a great many Points of our establish'd Faith as well as these we have discoursed of such fundamental things as our Redemption by Christ Santification by the Holy Ghost the Nature and Efficacy of the Christian Sacraments and almost every thing that is Evangelical is struck at undermined and endeavoured to be alter'd yea utterly subverted by Socinian Attacks And if you like not as I know you do not Anabaptism and Independency in others you will be sure to meet these in most of the renowned Socinian Authors who with subtilty and spight enough endeavour to ruine our Ecclesiastical as well as Spiritual state the external form of our Church in Baptism and Episcopacy as well as our internal state which with the whole Catholick Church is founded in the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Deity of our Saviour c. both for Faith and Worship Consider then what Tools you have to deal with before you cut your Fingers and ensnare your Souls What Advantage can you expect to reap by these intricate Disputes They may stagger unsettle disorder your Faith distract and confound your Worship of which you may repent but never recover to a settled and comfortable state as it was before I have no more to add here but to tell you a sad Story which I had from a person of singular Learning and Probity and the Truth of it is not to be doubted 't is this This worthy Gentleman met with his Friend in Paris and observing him to be very melancholy to look sadly and much disorder'd who used before to be of a pleasant and brisk Behaviour ask'd him what was the matter that he found such an Alteration in him besides you were constant at our Prayers heretofore and of late I have found you wanting ' O that Hobs that vile damn'd Hobs said he O that I had never seen his Face He hath so spoil'd my Faith by his Discourses about our Saviour that I am undone as to my former religious course of Life I know not what to do or how to pray what would I give that I could go to Church and say my Prayers as you do and I have done formerly To this purpose that poor Gentleman complain'd of the Mischief he receiv'd from Hobs's Socinian Insinuations Pray God our Gentlemen may escape the Danger by avoiding not running into the Labyrinth 2ly To my Brethren of the Clergy I must speak more plainly Give me leave to admonish you that if you should be so unhappy as to suck in the Socinian Venom and it should not generally diffuse it self as I hope in God it never will yet what a case are you in You have gained Principles contrary to your Obligations and what work will they make both in your Consciences and Practice both as Members and Ministers of this Church 1. Let us reflect a little upon our Obligations as we are Members of the Church of England and the rather because some are bold to say that we are let in and out of this Church at our Baptism and Death only with the single Creed called the Apostle's and are therefore not concern'd in the Faith against Socinus Sol. But it ought to be well consider'd that we are baptized in the Name i. e. into the Faith Doctrine and Worship of the Trinity in the sence of the Church into which we are admitted by Baptism At our Baptism we vow and promise by our Sureties which when we come of Age we are bound to perform to believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith And in her Exposition of the very same Creed she tells us That we believe in God the Father and in God the Son and in God the Holy Ghost and when we were catechised we profess and say directly that we so believe And as often as we are present at the Prayers of the Church especially upon Sundays and Holy days we either joyn with the Creed and Publick Worship or we do not if we do the Matter is clear if we do not we dissemble with God in our Faith and Prayers and while we openly profess we secretly Renounce our Interest in the COVENANT of GOD. Lastly Though the Articles may be thought only Articles of Peace and Concord to those that Subscribe them yet nothing is more plain than that they are Articles of Religion as they are called and contain and express the Faith of the CHURCH of ENGLAND most emphatically and directly against the Socinians the first positively asserts her Faith in the Holy Divinity the second the Eternal Generation of the Son of God and his being one Substance with the Father the third That the Three Creeds ought throughly to be received and believed because they may be proved by most certain warrant of Holy Scripture Now of whom doth this Church intend these Creeds should be received and believed if not of her own Members Obj. But I know 't is frequently objected that there are such hard and damning Sayings in Athanasius's Creed that we cannot assent to it in Faith or Charity especially in the Conclusion that this is the Catholick Faith which except a man faithfully believe he cannot be saved Answ 'T is true this Sentence seems very severe but may it admit of no Qualification He cannot be saved according to the ordinary terms or way of Salvation because as the Fathers say they are out of the

unaccountable Figments of theirs to avoid Scripture Arguments we cannot imagine either that the Scripture should favour them or they the Scriptures or in plain English that they allow the Holy Scriptures to be the Rule or Foundation of their Faith 2ly As their Belief that our Saviour had not a Being before his Incarnation is without and against the Authority of the Scriptures so they confess and seem to glory that all the Ancient Fathers tho' some of them were contemporary with the Apostles and Councils were against them in this great and fundamental Point Accordingly Socinus enters his Protestation against them all The heap of Authorities and Testimonies out of the Fathers and Councils have no force especially against us that are not diffident to dissent from them 5 Tom. 2 Resp ad 2 C. Wick p. 618. 3ly As for the Catholick Church it in no Age in the Times of or since the Apostles ever received this Opinion That our Saviour did not exist before he was born of the Virgin Mary but hath in all Ages rejected and exploded it as the Madness of Heresie For Fifteen Hundred Years together the Catholick Church stood quiet in the possession of the contrary Truth Indeed the Arrians vex'd Her a considerable time about the Eternal Generation and Consubstantiality of the Son with the Father but at last the truth of those Points by diligent search into the Holy Scriptures was so well settled by Fathers and Councils that the Church continued quiet and free from those Arrian Disputes for Twelve or Thirteen Hundred years together But what was this to our upstart Socinianism The Arrians never dreamt of this Conceit they believed that the Son of God was made a God before and was the great God's Instrument in making the Worlds joyn'd as the Learned Bishop Pearson hath noted with the Orthodox in Council to pass an Anathema against one or two that in that Age vented that Point That our Saviour had no Being before he was born of the Virgin and it being so early knock'd in the Head we never read it took Life or stirred again except one Abelardus hit upon it before Servetus's Time Whence should this new Light spring in Polonia so late to the disturbance of the Church the reproach of the Fathers and Councils and the weakening or nulling the Authority of the Holy Scriptures Who can chuse but reflect hence upon the Presumption Pride Confidence and Impudence of this Novel-Attempt to ridicule the Christian Faith and to subvert the Foundation of the Christian Religion If we have any deferrence to the Word of God to the Primitive Fathers and the whole Church we must conclude Socinianism is intolerable Indeed two Arguments render it hardly Christian 1. That they are gone out of the Catholick or Christian Church which is founded in the Trinity both for her Faith and Worship 2. That it makes another Foundation for her Faith viz. her own corrupted Reason besides and contrary to the only Doctrinal Foundation of the Christian Religion viz. the Holy Scriptures as we noted before Have they Doubting or something like Faith in this Matter why do they not follow the Apostle's Rule and keep it to themselves They do not think that all are in a damnable state that are not of their Opinions Is there then no Regard to be had to Peace I fear neither their Charity nor Prudence is better than their Faith Why must the World feel that they are Firebrands as well as Hereticks If we may judge by their modern Writing as they exceed their Fathers the Arrians in their Principles so they succeed them in their Fierceness VIII Faith intelligible Obj. But I must not neglect the great Obstacle They say they are against Mysteries and things unintelligible God hath given us Faculties of Reason and Understandings and by these only we conceive and judge of things to be believed and God cannot expect we should believe without Reason or act beyond our proper Sphere or believe we know not what or what we cannot conceive or apprehend Sol. I am not against Aquinas's Description of Faith Fides est actus animae rationalis quatenus rationalis I know Reason is the Form of Man and the very Principle of Human Actions as such and we must in some measure conceive and apprehend by our Reason both what and why we believe But tho' Ratio be Judex Scriptura est Norma and the Scripture as the Rule of Faith presents us with due Objects to be apprehended by our Understanding and with sufficient reason from God's own Word why we should believe them Hence let us take occasion to enquire what it is these Gentlemen mean when they say they cannot conceive or apprehend the Objects of our Faith Do they not understand the state of the Controversie Do they not know themselves what we would have them and what they refuse to consent to Could any man more distinctly and plainly express the Orthodox Faith about the Son of God than Socinus himself to this purpose All the Fathers dissent from them saith he as they would have Christ exist of the Substance of his Father before the World was made and That he often appeared to the Fathers under the Old Testament yea and the One God his Father made the World and all things by him and whatever he would have us know he hath revealed by him Now did not Socinus understand and conceive what he wrote Did he not then know what we believe And is yet this great Object of our Faith an unconceivable Mystery Again the Rule of our Faith is as conceivable as the Matter of it If the Text propose such a thing to be believed these men of Apprehension are sagacious enough to search into the meaning of the Words and the coherence with the Context and to conceive the true Sence and how to avoid it as any men living And thus also they may understand why we believe as well as what What 's the matter then Where lies the Mystery O they cannot apprehend how it should be that the Son of God should be eternally begotten of and One in Essence with the Father And what if they cannot I think it 's no great matter as to their Salvation whether they do or not believe what is revealed and leave the Mystery some Objects of Faith here are reserved for Objects of Vision hereafter If we are to believe nothing but what we know of the manner of their Being or Working we must be Infidels in Nature as well as in Religion But to come a little closer to them there are two unconceivable Points they say which cannot go down with them the Trinity and the Vnity of our Saviour or his having the same Essence with the Father I shall consider both of them As for the Trinity what is there in it that they cannot conceive either as to the Object or the Rule of our Faith about it Cannot they conceive what the Scripture reveals That there is the

Catholick Faith not but that they may be within the Mercy of God in some secret or extraordinary way I see no reason to take the Sentence so strictly whatever Athanasius thought as to damn every one that believes not every word in his Creed There is a large and lax-sence that may be admitted to save the Charity of our Church from denouncing Damnation against the Greek Church for want of the word Filioque He that doth not believe faithfully he doth not say literally or every Word or Saying in 't but rather the Substance of our Christian Faith touching the Trinity and the Incarnation of the Son of God This seems to be better allow'd us because though it bear the Name of Athanasius's Creed yet 't is no formal Creed as the other Creeds are which begin thus I believe c. but only a Declaration or Exposition of those two great Articles In which sence our Church may be supposed to say this Creed may be proved by the Holy Scripture In this large sence I doubt not but as we are bound to repeat it so we ought to believe it 2dly As Ministers Let it be well considered that Socinian Principles being once suck'd in how trouble some and uneasie they will be and what inward Gripes they will cause as so much Poyson in our Bowels as inconsistent and repugnant to the Obligations that lye upon us Not here to insist upon the 39 Articles which we have read before our People and subscribed ex animo which some take to be only Articles of Peace and Concord though that Consideration should be a Bridle to the loose and extravagant Railery of some among us Did not we declare our unfeigned assent and consent to the use of every thing contained in the Book of Common Prayer at our Institution Were we not admitted into our Office and unto the Profits of our Places upon these Terms Is not the Common Prayer the Rule and Measure of our publick Duties Now let it be considered how agreeable such Principles as we have discours'd of are with our necessary publick Offices in the Book of Common Prayer how a Socinian can satisfie himself with so frequent a Repetition of Gloria Patri c. how he can in Conscience say the Nicene Creed which he if a Minister of our Church is bound to do every Lord's-day c. how he can then also with any Peace in himself say the Letany wherein he is to call upon God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as Three Persons and One God how he can give Thanks upon Trinity-Sunday for Grace by confession of a true Faith to acknowledge the Glory of the Eternal Trinity and to worship the Vnity and pray that God would keep us stedfast in this Faith or administer the Holy Communion upon that day when we are commanded to say Everlasting God who art one God one Lord not one only Person but three Persons in one Substance c. Besides I have noted above Twenty Collects that occur to us in their proper turns that conclude with express mention and Honour of the Holy Trinity that we are bound to read as they come in their courses Yea lastly how shall such Principles suffer us to do our Duty to Children whom we are bound to teach that by the Common Creed they believe in God the Father and in God the Son and in God the Holy Ghost Now my Brethren if we are or hereafter shall be tainted with such Principles as are light with our Offices and Obligations we see our Case for while we continue in our Places and under the Obligations of our Ministry we must either read the Creeds Catechise our People according to the Form prescribed and say the Prayers according to the Rubricks or we must refuse to do so If we refuse I do not here censure many mens too frequent Omissions of some parts of our Service for which they think they have some necessity but if we constantly refuse to discharge our Duty upon Principle especially in the great Parts or Members of it as we have instanced before I must pronounce this is a plain Neglect of our Duty a horrid Schism in our Church a great Scandal and Temptation to our People and Neighbourhood and an unaccountable breach of our Trust and the Vows Promises and Obligations formally made by us and resulting from the nature of our Offices a forfeiture of all the Profits of our Places into which we were inducted upon Conditions of Conformity and cannot consist with a quiet or good Conscience On the other side if we do continue to perform all the Offices of our Ministry outwardly contrary to our inward Principles we prevaricate with Heaven We cannot justifie what some men dare to say that we read the Service as we would read an Act of Parliament or as the Burden of our Places for we are at our Devotion in solemn Applications and Addresses to the Divine Majesty and God and Angels and Men are Witnesses of our Hypocrisie and Dissimulation Thus we are entangled in a Snare and how we should break it and deliver our selves I know not but either by a voluntary leaving our Places or by being deprived of them by Authority as Criminals Dissenters Apostates or Nonconformists Hitherto we have proceeded to caution you upon a Supposition that the Attempts of Socinians may prove ineffectual or not gain much ground among us but if they should which the good God avert the Consequences thereof give a sad Prospect to all the true Friends of this Church though Her Enemies may please themselves with the premeditation of it What Alterations Distractions Confusions would Socinianism bring with it This duly pondered I hope will provoke all good men to Watch and Guard against all approaches of it Who sees not as this Novel-Heresie advances our Faith our Worship and Ecclesiastical Government is in danger If this prevail we must have new Articles of Religion new Creeds and our Prayers and Common Service must be almost all new and our Church must be quite another thing than now it is if it shall then deserve that Name when its Pillars are shaken and its Foundation rased which is laid in the Doctrine of the Trinity upon which it stood firm in Communion with the Catholick as before I observed ever since it was a Christian Church But that Good GOD who by his wise and watchful Providence hath hitherto so wonderfully preserved this Church of Ours from all the subtile Designs and violent Attacks of Her other Enemies and doth yet preserve it I hope will never suffer us to be swallowed up in the bottomless Gulph of Socinianism for the sake of his Dear Son and our Blessed Saviour JESUS CHRIST to whom with thee O Father and the H. Ghost Three Persons and One God be Honour and Glory in all the Churches World without End FINIS