Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	believe_v	faith_n	fundamental_a	3,198	5	10.0998	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70260	Several tracts, by the ever memorable Mr. John Hales of Eaton Coll. &c. Viz. I. Of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. II. Paraphrase on St. Matthew's Gospel. III. Of the power of the keys. IV. Of schism and schismaticks, (never before printed by the original copy.) V. Miscellanies	Hales, John, 1584-1656.; Hales, John, 1584-1656. Tract concerning sin against the Holy Ghost.; Hales, John, 1584-1656. Tract concerning schisme.	1677 (1677)	Wing H276A; Wing H280; ESTC R14263	61,040	260

private Persons Churches may err in Fundamentals if they list for they may be heretical for Churches may be wicked they may be Idolaters and why then not heretical Is Heresy a more dangerous thing than Idolatry For whereas it is pleaded that Churches cannot fall into Heresie because of that promise of our Saviour That the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church is but out of mistake of the meaning of that place and indeed I have often mused how so plain a place could so long and so generally be misconstrued To secure you therefore that you be not abused with these words hereafter for they are often quoted to prove the Churches Infallibility I shall indeavour to give you the natural meaning of them for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gates of Hell is an Hebraisme for in the Hebrew Expression the Gates of a thing signifies the thing it self as the gates of Sion Sion it self and by the same proportion the gates of Hell signifies Hell it self Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we English Hell as in no place of Scripture it signifies Heresie so very frequently in Scripture it signifies Death or rather the state of the dead and indifferently applied to good and bad Let us then take the Word in that meaning for what greater means can we have to warrant the signification of a Scripture word than the general meaning of it in Scripture So that when our Saviour spake these words he made no promise to the Church of persevering in the Truth but to those that did persevere in the Truth he made a promise of victory against death and hell And what he there says sounds to no other purpose but this that those who shall continue his although they dy yet death shall not have the Dominion over them but the time shall come that the bands of Death shall be broken and as Christ is risen so shall they that are his rise again to Immortality For any help therefore that this Text affords Churches may err in Fundamentals But to speak the Truth I much wonder not only how any Churches but how any private man that is careful to know and follow the Truth can err in Fundamentals For since it is most certain that the Scripture contains at least the Fundamental Parts of Christian Faith how is it possible that any Man that is careful to study and believe the Scripture should be ignorant of any necessary part of his Faith Now whether the Church of Rome err in Fundamentals yea or no To answer this I must crave leave to use this Distinction To err in Fundamentals is either to be ignorant of or deny something to be fundamental that is or to entertain something for Fundamental which is not In the first sense the Church of Rome entertaining the Scriptures as she doth cannot possibly be ignorant of any principal part of Christian Faith all her error is in entertaining in her self and obtruding upon others a multitude of things for Fundamentals which no way concern our Faith at all Now how dangerous it is thus to do except I know whether she did this willingly or wittingly yea or no is not easy to define If willingly she doth it it is certainly high and damnable presumption if ignorantly I know not what mercies God hath in store for them that sin not out of malitious wickedness Now concerning the merriment newly started I mean the requiring of a Catalogue of Fundamentals I need to answer no more but what Abraham tells the rich man in Hell Habent Mosen Prophetas They have Moses and the Prophets the Apostles and the Evangelists let them seek them there for if they find them not there in vain shall they seek them in all the World besides But yet to come a little nearer to the Particulars If the Church of Rome would needs know what is Fundamental in our conceit and what not the Answer as far as my self in Person am concerned in the Business shall be no other than this Let her observe what Points they are wherein we agree with her and let her think if she please that we account of them as Fundamentals especially if they be in the Scriptures and on the other hand let her mark in what Points we refuse Communion with her and let her assure her self we esteem those as no Fundamentals If she desire a List and Catalogue made of all those she is at leisure enough for ought I know to do it her self Last of all Concerning the imputation of Rebellion and Schism against Church-Authority with which your Catholick Disputant meant to affright you all that is but meerly Powder without Shot and can never hurt you For since it hath been sufficiently evidenced unto us that the Church of Rome hath adulterated the Truth of God by mixing with it sundry Inventions of her own it was the Conscience of our duty to God that made us to separate For where the Truth of God doth once suffer there Union is Conspiracy Authority is but Tyranny Churches are but Routs And suppose we that we mistook and made our Separation upon Error the Church of Rome being right in all her Waies though we think otherwise yet could not this much prejudice us For it is Schism upon wilfulness that brings danger with it Schism upon mistake and Schism upon just occasion hath in it self little hurt if any at all SIR I Return you more than I thought or you expected yet less than the Argument requir'd If you shall favour me so much as to carefully read what I have carefully written you shall find at least in those Points you occasioned me to touch upon sufficient ground to plant your self strongly against all Discourse of the Romish Corner-creepers which they use for the Seducing of unstable Souls Be it much or little that I have done I require no other reward than the continuance of your good Affection to Your SERVANT whom you know A PARAPHRASE ON S. Matthew's Gospel By the ever Memorable Mr. JOHN HALES of Eaton-Colledge c. Printed 1677. A PARAPHRASE on St. Matthews Gospel CHAP. XII Scholar SIR I Thank you for the pains you have taken in facilitating to my Understanding the scope and purpose of the XI of St. Matthew If I might not be too troublesome to you I would also desire you to take the like pains with me in the Twelfth Master I shall with all my heart provided that you will make your Objections as they rise within you for peradventure I may think you understand that which you do not and not understand that which you do and so lose my Labour Scholar I shall obey you readily and therefore to begin with the beginning of the Chapter I pray Sir how is it said 1. that At that time Jesus went through the Corn with his Disciples when in the very next Chapter before it is said That he sent all his Disciples away from him Master By these Words at that time

of the action Now all these Mistakes and Errors have risen upon some ungrounded and fond practices crept long since God knows how into the Church and as yet not sufficiently purged out I will be bold to inform you what it is which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the main fundamental fallacy whence all these abuses have sprung There hath been a fancy of long subsistance in the Churches that in the Communion there is something given besides Bread and Wine of which the Numerality given men have not yet agreed Some say it is the Body of God into which the Bread is transubstantiated Some say it is the same Body with which the Bread is consubstantiated Some that the Bread remaining what it was there passes with it to the Soul the real Body of God in a secret unknown manner Some that a further degree of Faith is supplied us Others that some degree of Gods grace whatever it be is exhibited which otherwise would be wanting All which variety of conceits must needs fall out as having no other ground but conjecture weakly founded To settle you therefore in your Judgment both of the thing it self and of the true use of it I will commend to your consideration these few Propositions First In the Communion there is nothing given but Bread and Wine Secondly The Bread and Wine are signs indeed but not of any thing there exhibited but of somewhat given long fince even of Christ given for us upon the Cross sixteen hundred years ago and more Thirdly Jesus Christ is eaten at the Communion Table in no sence neither Spiritually by virtue of any thing done there nor really neither Metaphorically nor Literally Indeed that which is eaten I mean the Bread is called Christ by a Metaphor but it is eaten truly and properly Fourthly The Spiritual eating of Christ is common to all places as well as the Lord's Table Last of all The Uses and Ends of the Lord's Supper can be no more than such as are mentioned in the Scriptures and they are but two First The commemoration of the Death and Passion of the Son of God specified by himself at the Institution of the Ceremony Secondly To testify our Union with Christ and Communion one with another which end St. Paul hath taught us In these few Conclusions the whole Doctrine and Use of the Lord's Supper is fully set down and whoso leadeth you beyond this doth but abuse you Quicquid ultra quaeritur non intelligitur The proof of these Propositions would require more than the Limits of a Letter will admit of and I see my self already to have exceeded these Bounds I will therefore pass away to consider the second part of your Letter In this second Part I would you had pleased to have done as in the first you did That is not only set down the Proposition of the Catholick but some Answer of the Protestant by which we might have discovered his Judgement I might perchance have used the same Liberty as I have done before namely discovered the misstakes of both parties for I suspect that as there they did so here they would have given me cause enough Now I content my self barely to speak to the Question The Question is Whether the Church may Err in Fundamentals By the Church I will not trifle as your Catholick doth and mean only the Protestant Party as he professeth he doth only the Roman Faction But I shall understand all Factions in Christianity All that entitle themselves to Christ wheresoever dispersed all the World over First I Answer That every Christian may err that will for if men might not err willfully then there could be no Heresie Heresie being nothing else but wilful Error For if we account mistakes befalling us through humane Frailties to be Heresies then it will follow That every man since the Apostles time was an Heretick for never yet was there any Christian the Apostles only excepted which did not in something concerning the Christian Faith mistake himself either by addition or omission or misinterpretation of something An evident sign of this Truth you may see in this by the Providence of God the Writings of many learned Christians from the Spring of Christianity have been left unto posterity and amongst all those scarcely any is to be found who is not confest on all hands to have mistaken some things and those mistakes for the most part stand upon Record by some who purposely observed them Neither let this I beseech you beget in you a conceit as if I meant to disgrace those whose Labours have been and are of infinite benefit in the Church For if Aristotle and Aphrodiseus and Galen and the rest of those Excellent men whom God had indued with extraordinary portions of natural Knowledge have with all thankful and ingenious men throughout all Generations retained their Credit entire notwithstanding it is acknowledged that they have all of them in many things swerved from the Truth Then why should not Christians express the same ingenuity to those who have laboured before us in the Exposition of the Christian Faith and highly esteem them for their Works sake their many infirmities notwithstanding You will say that for private persons it is confest they may and daily do err But can Christians err by whole Shoals by Armies meeting for defence of the Truth in Synods and Councils especially General which are countenanced by the great Fable of all the World the Bishop of Rome I answer To say that Councils may not err though private persons may at first sight is a merry speech as if a man should say That every single Souldier indeed may run away but a whole Army cannot especially having Hannibal for their Captain and since it is confest that all single persons not only may but do err it will prove a very hard matter to gather out of these a multitude of whom being gathered together we may be secured they cannot err I must for mine own part confess that Councils and Synods not only may and have erred but considering the means how they are managed it were a great marvel if they did not err For what men are they of whom those great Meetings do consist are they the best the most learned the most vertuous the most likely to walk uprightly No the greatest the most ambitious and many times men neither of Judgment nor Learning such are they of whom these Bodies do consist and are these men in common equity likely to determine for Truth Qui ut in vita sic in causis spes quoque improbas alunt as Quintilian speaks Again when such persons are thus met their way to proceed to conclusion is not by weight of Reason but by multitude of Votes and Suffrages as if it were a maxim in nature that the greater part must needs be the better whereas our common experience shews That Nunquam ita bene agitur cum rebus humanis ut plures sint meliores It was never heard

Exercise against all established order both in State and Church For indeed all pious Assemblies in times of persecution and corruptions howsoever practised are indeed or rather alone the lawful Congregations and publick Assemblies though according to form of Law are indeed nothing else but Riots and Conventicles if they be stained with Corruption and Superstition FINIS Miscellanies WRITTEN By the ever Memorable Mr. JOHN HALES of Eaton-Colledge c. Printed 1677. Miscellanies How to know the Church MArks and Notes to know the Church there are none except we will make True Profession which is the Form and Essence of the Church to be a Mark. And as there are none so is it not necessary there should be For to what purpose should they serve That I might go seek and find out some Company to mark This is no way necessary For glorious Things are in the Scriptures spoken of the Church not that I should run up and down the World to find the persons of the Professors but that I should make my self of it This I do by taking upon me the Profession of Christianity and submitting my self to the Rules of Belief and Practice delivered in the Gospel though besides my self I knew no other Professor in the World If this were not the Authors end in proposal of the Title it is but a meer Vanity To the Description of the Church The Church as it imports a visible Company in Earth is nothing else but the Company of Professors of Christianity wheresoever disperst in the Earth To define it thus by Monarchy under one visible Head is of novelty crept up since men began to change the spiritual Kingdom of Christ to secular Pride and Tyranny and a thing never heard of either in the Scriptures or in the Writings of the Ancients Government whether by one or many or howsoever if it be one of the Churches contingent Attributes it is all certainly it is no necessary Property much less comes it into the Definition and Essence of it I mean outward Government for as for inward Government by which Christ reigns in the Hearts of his Elect and vindicates them from spiritual Enemies I have no occasion to speak neither see I any reference to it in all your Authors Animadversions How Christ is the Head of the Church From the Worlds beginning till the last hour of it the Church is essentially one and the same howsoever perchance in Garment and outward Ceremony it admits of Difference And as it was from the beginning of the World so was it Christian there being no other difference betwixt the Fathers before Christ and us but this As we believe in Christ that is Come so they believed in Christ that was to Come Jesus Christ yesterday and to day and the same for ever Reference unto Christ is the very Essence of the Church and there neither is nor ever was any Church but Christ's and therefore the Church amongst the Jews was properly and truly Christian quoad rem as we are Now as this Church at all times is Christ's Body so is Christ the Head of it For it is as impossible for the Church as for the Body to be without its Head it is not therefore as your Author dreams Christ came not to found a New Church or to profess a Visible Headship of it That Relation to this Church which we express when we call him the Head of it is one and the same from the Beginning to all Eternity neither receives it any alteration in this respect because the Person in whom this Relation is founded is sometimes Visible sometimes not 'T is true indeed the Head of the Church sometimes became Visible but this is but contingent and by Concomitancy For Christ the second Person in the Trinity becoming Man to Redeem this Church and manifest the way of Truth unto it It so fell out that the Head of the Church became Visible Of this Visibility he left no Successor no Doctrine no Use as being a thing meerly accidental I ask Had the Church before Christ any Visible Head if it had then was not Christ the first as here our Teacher tells us If it had none why then should the Church more require a Visible Head than it did from the Beginning To speak the Truth at once All these Questions concerning the Notes the Visibility the Government of the Church if we look upon the Substance and Nature of the Church they are meerly Idle and Impertinent If upon the End why Learned Men do handle them it is nothing else but Faction Of Peter's Ministerial Headship of the Church In your Authors Paragraphs concerning the visible Encrease or Succession of the Church there is no Difference betwixt us As for the Proofs of Peters Ministerial Headship this first concerning his being the Rock of the Church that cannot prove it For Peter was the Rock then when our Saviour spake but then could he not be the visible Head for Christ himself then was living and by our Teachers Doctrine supplied that room himself Peter therefore howsoever or in what sence soever he were the Rock yet could he not be the visible Head except we will grant the Church to have had two visible Heads at once Secondly The Keys of Heaven committed to Peter and Command to feed his Sheep import no more than that common Duty laid upon all the Disciples To teach all Nations for this Duty in several respects is exprest by several Metaphors Teaching as it signifies the opening of the way to life so is it called by the name of Keys but as it signifies the Strengthning of the Soul of Man by the Word which is the Souls spiritual Food so is it called Feeding Thus much is seen by the Defenders of the Church of Rome and therefore they fly for refuge to a Circumstance It is observed that our Saviour delivered this Doctrine to Peter alone as indeed sometimes he did in this it is supposed that some great Mystery rests For why should our Saviour thus single out Peter and commend a common Duty to him if there were not something extraordinary in it which concerned Him above the rest This they interpret a Preeminence that Peter had in his Business of Teaching which they say is a Primacy and Headship inforcing thus much that all the rest were to depend from Him and from Him receive what they were to preach For Answer Grant me there were some great Mystery in it yet whence is it proved that this is that Mystery For if our Saviour did not manifest it then might there be a thousand Causes which Mans Conjecture may easily miss It is great boldness out of Causes concealed to pick so great Consequences and to found Matters of so great weight upon meer Conjectures Thirdly The Prayer for Confirmation of Peters Faith whence it came the Course of the Story set down in the Text doth shew It was our Saviours Prevision of Peters danger to relapse which danger he had certainly run