Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	authority_n	believe_v	infallibility_n	2,951	5	11.3667	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62609	A sermon preached before the King and Queen at White-Hall, the 27th of October being the day appointed for a publick thanksgiving to Almighty God, for the signal victory at sea, for the preservation of His Majesty's Sacred Person, and for his safe return to his people / by John, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1692 (1692)	Wing T1246; ESTC R17994	15,618	38

and disposition are most contrary to God who is the Rule and Pattern of all perfection I shall only make two Observations and Inferences from what hath been said and then apply the whole Discourse to the great Occasion of this Day And they are these First That the wisest and surest Reasonings in Religion are grounded upon the unquestionable Perfections of the Divine Nature Secondly That the Nature of God is the true Idea and Pattern of Perfection and Happiness First That the wisest and surest Reasonings in Religion are grounded upon the unquestionable Perfections of the Divine Nature Upon those more especially which to us are most easie and intelligible such as are those mentioned in the Text. And this makes the knowledge of God and of these Perfections to be so useful and so valuable Because all Religion is founded in right notions of God and of his Perfections Insomuch that Divine Revelation it self does suppose these for its foundation and can signify nothing to us unless these be first known and believed For unless we be first firmly persuaded of the Providence of God and of his particular care of Mankind why should we suppose that he makes any Revelation of his Will to us Unless it be first naturally known that God is a God of truth what ground is there for the belief of his Word So that the Principles of Natural Religion are the foundation of that which is Reveal'd And therefore nothing can in Reason be admitted to be a Revelation from God which does plainly contradict his essential Perfections Upon this Principle a great many Doctrines are without more ado to be rejected because they do plainly and at first sight contradict the Divine Nature and Perfections I will give a few Instances instead of many that might be given In vertue of this Principle I cannot believe upon the pretended Authority or Infallibility of any Person or Church that Force is a fit Argument to produce Faith No man shall ever persuade me no not the Bishop of Meaux with all his Eloquence that Prisons and Tortures Dragoons and the Galleys are proper means to convince the Understanding and either Christian or Human methods of converting men to the true Religion For the same Reason I cannot believe that God would not have men to understand their publick Prayers nor the Lessons of Scripture which are read to them Because a Lesson is something that is to be learnt and therefore a Lesson that is not to be understood is nonsense for if it be not understood how can it be learnt As little can I believe that God who caused the Holy Scriptures to be written for the instruction of mankind did ever intend that they should be lock'd up and concealed from the People in an unknown Tongue Least of all can I believe that Doctrine of the Council of Trent That the saving efficacy of the Sacraments doth depend upon the intention of the Priest that administers them Which is to say that though the People believe and live never so well yet they may be damn'd by shoals and whole Parishes together at the pleasure of the Priest And this for no other reason but because the Priest is so cross and so cruel that he will not intend to save them Now can any man believe this that hath any tolerable notion either of the Goodness or Justice of God May we not appeal to God in this as Abraham did in another Case Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked That be far from thee to do after this manner Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right Much more to destroy the righteous for the wicked and that righteous and innocent People should lye at the mercy and will of a wicked and perverse Priest to be sav'd or damn'd by him as he thinks fit That be far from thee Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right For to drive the argument to the head if this be to do right there is no possibility of doing wrong Thus in things which are more obscure we should govern all our Reasonings concerning God and Religion by that which is clear and unquestionable and should with Moses lay down this for a certain Principle All his wayes are judgment a God of truth and without iniquity just and right is He And say with St. Paul Is there then unrighteousness with God God forbid And again We know that the Judgment of God is according to truth 2 ly The other Inference is this That the Nature of God is the true Idea and Pattern of Perfection and Happiness And therefore nothing but our conformity to it can make us happy And for this reason to understand and know God is our great excellency and glory because it is necessary to our imtation of Him who is the best and happiest Being And so far as we are from resembling God so far are we distant from Happiness and the true temper of the Blessed For Goodness is an essential ingredient of Happiness and as without Goodness there can be no true Majesty and Greatness so neither any true Felicity and Blessedness Now Goodness is a generous disposition of mind to diffuse and communicate it self by making others to partake of our Happiness in such degrees as they are capable For no Being is so happy as it might be that hath not the power and the pleasure to make others happy This surely is the highest pleasure I had almost said pride of a great Mind In vain therefore do we dream of Happiness in any thing without us Happiness must be within us the foundation of it must be laid in the inward frame and disposition of our spirits And the very same causes and ingredients which make up the Happiness of God must be found in us though in a much inferiour degree or we can not be happy They understand not the nature of Happiness who hope for it upon any other termes He who is the Author and fountain of Happiness can not convey it to us by any other way than by planting in us such dispositions of mind as are in truth a kind of participation of the Divine Nature and by enduing us with such qualities as are the necessary materials of Happiness And a man may assoon be well without Health as happy without Goodness If a wicked man were taken up into Heaven yet if he still continue the same bad man that he was before coelum non animum mutavit he may have chang'd the Climate and be gone into a far Countrey but because he carries himself still along with him he will still be miserable from himself Because the mans mind is not chang'd all the while which would signifie a thousand times more to his happiness than change of place or of any outward circumstances whatsoever For a bad man hath a Fiend in his own Brest and the fewel of Hell in his guilty Conscience There is a certain kind of temper and disposition which is necessary and