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church_n authority_n believe_v infallible_a 7,464 5 9.9342 5 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A58399 The reformed papist, or high-church-man. Characterized in reflections on his principles and designs. 1681 (1681) Wing R746; ESTC R222741 6,428 6

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to vouch it as that is to be plain the true Protestant gives this reason why he is a Christian because God's word the Scripture instructs him so to be and he believes the Scriptures to be God's word because it appears by its Heavenly Doctrine to be so because his conscience and spirit are strangely convinced that it is so by a particular light God has assisted his reasoning withal in the reading it becaue the Doctrine it contains though contrary to Flesh and Blood has most strangely overcome all the difficulties which both They and the Devil put in its way and has been propagated down through all Ages over the face of the whole Earth the History of all times baring witness to its Doctrine to have been then what we see it now and this is the sure and only Basis and Foundation the Christian has to rest his Fatith on But now the High-Church-Man tells you that the Faith of the unlearned cannot rely upon any other Principle then the Authority of their Pastors expounding to them the substance of a Christians duty Page 100. of the Original of all Plots The immediate reason that you must give of the hope that is in you why you believe and are a Christian is because the Church meaning the Clergy tells you so and why are the Clergy to be relied on in this case is it only matter of Prudence because they are the honestest and Larnedest Men or because whether they are so or no they are invested with Authority and Jurisdiction to propose to the People what they ought to believe and these are obliged in Conscience to believe what they propose this is the very reason says the High-Church-Man All the Articles of Faith and all the necessary rules of Government are so clearly decided that is by the Authority of the Church that there is no room left for farther doubt about them did Men but think it their duty to submit to the Churches That is the Clergy's Authority as is most certain they ought to do Page 108. and again since God has been so gracious as to continue likewise a constant Succession and Authority in his Church for our direction that is in matters of Faith why should we not pay that duty which we once to it and make use of such remedies as the wisdom of God has ordained to quiet our dissentions Id pag. 110. Here is plain dealing God has left Authority in the Clergy to direct us in matters of Faith what we must believe and what we must not believe and why should not we rely on the Clergy's determinations on this Judge in Controversies so necessary in the Church for determining Questions says the Guide in Controversies that God could not in wisdom but ordain such a standing Oracle for quieting our dissentions says the High-Church-Man How near a Neighbour this Opinion is to that of the Papists resolving their Faith into the Authority of the Church and implicit believing needs no Guide in Controversie to determine I only remark that what he first asserted cautiously to be only the duty and obligation of the Vnlearned to rely upon the Authority of their Pastors he next picks up courage enough to say indefinitely that 't is most certainly Mens duty to submit to the Churches Authority and last of all sticks not to say Why should We not pay that duty c. which Word We including himself must needs now be extended to the Learned themselves and lay on them also the same Obligation as on the meerest Fools In the next place the High-Church-Man is not so unwise as to believe God's Wisdom should oblidge him to settle an ordinary Judge in the Church and engage us to obey that Judge a●d yet fail him so fouly in this as to leave this Judge in a capacity of Erring and yet in full Authority to impose his Errors that cannot be The Judge that is the Church or Clergy must needs therefore be infallible and this Doctrine of Infallibility I only infer by consequence I quote not the High-Church-Man for it though perhaps it were no difficult matter so to do but assert it to be the genuine proper and immediate consequence of the former Principle and so much for Infallibility But now you wonder perhaps what is become of the Scriptures all this while into which I resolve my Faith why I suppose says the High-Church-Man no Man will say that the Principle of the Scriptures sufficiency and perspicuity does infer that every Man at what time of his life he pleases meerly by reading the Bible can find out of his own aecord all things necessary to Salvation id pag. 100. If he can read it I question not but he may if he cannot he may as well trust a Lay-Man reading it to him as a Clergy-Man or the Testimony of all Lay-Men as well as of all the Clergy but says the High-Church-Man I will not say absolutely with the Papist that the Scriptures are not perspicuous nor sufficient instructions to Salvation but that they are not perspicuous enough nor sufficient to All Men so that Any One can by reading find out all things necessary to Salvation but this is enough to disrcedit the Scripture as defective and insufficient the better to bolster up the Authority of the Church-Men and their Traditions Next from this last Principle I infer the needlesness of Reading them by the most ignorant sort for if they cannot of their own accord find out all things necessary to Salvation they must trust the Church-Men for some and if for some they had as good trust them for all since 't is alike dangerous to Err in one point necessary as in all and so they may e'ne lay by their Bibles The Church being possest of so ample an Authority in the great Affairs of Religion and in necessary Articles of Faith it will next be pertinent to inquire whether the circumstances of Religion are determinable by any other but it self and whether the accidental appendages of forms and manners in ordine ad Spiritualia may be Ordered and Appointed by any other why no sayes the High-Church-Man for that Modern contrivance of some State Flatterers who leave it to the Power of the Civil Magistrate to prescribe the form and manner of Church Government will not be any means to quiet but the ready way to promote dissensions in the Church He asserts 't is the ready way to give Birth and Original to a Plot for the civil Magistrate to suffer himself to be flattered into an Opinion that he may appoint what Church-Government he pleases that is a thing forsooth without his verg and cognizance the very form Model and Pattern of it is de jure divino unalterable and 't is the sin of the Holy Ghost with the High-Church-Man to dislike and dissent from it much more to put it down and set up another and therefore let not the Prince says he meddle with what he has nothing to do withal He indeed