Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	doctrine_n	england_n	exposition_n	3,661	5	11.0376	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A71235	The pamphlet entituled, Speculum ecclesiasticum, or, An ecclestiastical prospective-glass, considered, in its false reasonings and quotations	Wharton, Henry, 1664-1695.	1688 (1688)	Wing W1568; ESTC R1230	19,142	32

Motives to the Roman Obedience 8vo The Decree made at ROME the Second of March 1679. condemning some Opinions of the Jesuits and other Casuists 4 o. A Discourse concerning the Necessity of Reformation with respect to the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome 4 o. First and Second Parts A Discourse concerning the Celebration of Divine Service in an Unknown Tongue 4 o. A Papist not Misrepresented by Protestants Being a Reply to the Reflections upon the Answer to A Papist Misrepresented and Represented 4 o. An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England in the several Articles proposed by the late BISHOP of CONDOM in his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church 4 o. A Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the Exceptions of Mons de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator 4 o. A CATECHISM explaining the Doctrine and Practices of the Church of Rome With an Answer thereunto By a Protestant of the Church of England 8vo A Papist Represented and not Misrepresented being an Answer to the First Second Fifth and Sixth Sheets of the Second Part of the Papist Misrepresented and Represented and for a further Vindication of the CATECHISM truly representing the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome 4 o. The Lay-Christian's Obligation to read the Holy Scriptures 4 o. The Plain Man 's Reply to the Catholick Missionaries 24 o. An Answer to THREE PAPERS lately printed concerning the Authority of the Catholick Church in Matters of Faith and the Reformation of the Church of England 4 o. A Vindication of the Answer to THREE PAPERS concerning the Unity and Authority of the Catholick Church and the Reformation of the Church of England 4 o. Mr. Chillingworth's Book called The Religion of Protestants a safe way to Salvation made more generally useful by omitting Personal Contests but inserting whatsoever concerns the common Cause of Protestants or defends the Church of England with an exact Table of Contents and an Addition of some gennine Pieces of Mr. Chillingworth's never before printed viz. against the Infallibility of the Roman Church Transubstantiation Tradition c. And an Account of what moved the Author to turn Papist with his Confutation of the said Motives The Pillar and Ground of Truth A Treatise shewing that the Roman Church falsly claims to be That Church and the Pillar of That Truth mentioned by S. Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy Chap. 3. Vers 15. 4to The Peoples Right to read the Holy Scripture Asserted 4to A Short Summary of the principal Controversies between the Church of England and the Church of Rome being a Vindication of several Protestant Doctrines in Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled Protestancy destitute of Scripture Proofs 4to Two Discourses Of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead An Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled The Judgment and Doctrine of the Clergy of the Church of England concerning one Special Branch of the King's Prerogative viz. In dispensing with the Penal Laws 4to The Notes of the Church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin examined and confuted 4to Preparation for Death Being a Letter sent to a young Gentlewoman in France in a dangerous Distemper of which she died The Difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome in opposition to a late Book Intituled An Agreement between the Church of England and Church of Rome A PRIVATE PRAYER to be used in Difficult Times A True Account of a Conference held about Religion at London Sept. 29. 1687. between A. Pulton Jesuit and Tho. Tenison D. D. ss also of that which led to it and followed after it 4to The Vindication of A. Cressener Schoolmaster in Long-Acre from the Aspersions of A. Pulton Jesuit Schoolmaster in the Savoy together with some Account of his Discourse with Mr. Meredith A Discourse shewing that Protestants are on the safer side notwithstanding the uncharitable Judgment of their Adversaries and that Their Religion is the surest Way to Heaven 4to Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist wherein is shewed that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation overthrows the Proofs of Christian Religion A Discourse concerning the Pretended Sacrament of Extreme Vnction with an Account of the occasions and beginnings of it in the Western Church In three Parts With a Letter to the Vindicator of the Bishop of Condom The Pamphlet entituled Speculum Ecclesiasticum or an Ecclesiastical Prospective-Glass considered in its False Reasonings and Quotations There are added by way of Preface two further Answers the First to the Defender of the Speculum the Second to the Half-sheet against the Six Conferences In the Press A Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the new Exceptions of Mons de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator The FIRST PART in which the Account that has been given of the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition is fully Vindicated the Distinction of Old and New Popery Historically asserted and the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in Point of Image-worship more particularly considered 4 o. The Incurable Scepticism of the Church of Rome By the Auther of the Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist 4 o. * Fascic Temp. Perfidia Epist ad Ephes * De Persecut Vandal l. 2. † A prefat ad Reginon a De Script Eccl. cap. 25. b Concil Tom. II. p. 844. a Institut Sacerd. tit de necess Confes Lect. 2. O exterminanda cordis caecatio O perditionis animarum occasio l. 2. c. 8. a Ad an 252. a Hist Eccl. l. 7. c. 2. b Hist Con. Nic. l. 2. c. 30. c Prefat ad Version d L. 4. c. 57. e Adv. Marcion l. 4. c. 40. * De Ecclesiast Hierarch c. 7. * Orat. de SS Bernic Prosdoce * Hom. in Rom. xvi 3. in terra mot Laz. in Paulum c. Hom. ad eos qui scandalizati sunt Hom. de esemos collat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 † Lib. de Pudic. * Alix Dissert de Script Tertul. p. 70. a De initandis cap. 9. a Comm. in Psal 33. Sacramenta praedicabat ‖ De curand affect Graec. Orat. 8.

THE PAMPHLET ENTITULED Speculum Ecclesiasticum OR AN ECCLESIASTICAL PROSPECTIVE-GLASS CONSIDERED In its False REASONINGS AND QUOTATIONS LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVIII IMPRIMATUR Hic Liber cui Titulus The Speculum Ecclesiasticum c. Considered c. Oct. 24. 1687. Hen. Maurice R mo in Christo P. D. Wilhelmo Archiep. Cant. a Sacris THE PAMPHLET ENTITULED SPECULUM ECCLESIASTICUM OR AN Ecclesiastical Prospective-Glass c. THere can be no greater Argument of a baffled and erroneous Cause than when the Assertors of it are forced to maintain it with manifest Impostures The Religion of the Church of Rome is in great measure owing to Legends and Forged Writings With the first they deluded the vulgar and with the second circumvented the wiser part of mankind The Usurpation of the See of Rome was never submitted to nor its Primacy believed in the West till the spurious Decretals of Isidore Mercator were universally received by a blind and ignorant Age and believed to be the genuine Decrees of Ancient Popes No sooner did Learning begin to flourish in the last Age but these Phantasms disappeared were decried and disowned by all learned and ingenuous men To produce them anew upon the stage and urge the Authority of them in this learned age can be no other than the last efforts of a despairing and dying Cause which wanteth both Reason and Truth to uphold it To recur to these Forgeries after the falseness and folly of them hath been detected and demonstrated by learned men of both Communions is an invincible Argument that the Doctrine of the Church of Rome was at first founded on them and cannot now be maintain'd without them It may justly be wondred that men whose office and design it is to uphold the Cause of the Church of Rome and perswade others of the truth of it should make use of such artifices as will infallibly when discovered make all sober men suspect her Cause of falseness and accuse her Agents of dishonesty Yet this hath been lately done by some Gentlemen of the Church of Rome in a little Pamphlet called Speculum Ecclesiasticum or an Ecclesiastical Prospective-Glass wherein all the Ancient Forgeries of the Church of Rome are reproduced and alledged as undoubted Testimonies of Antiquity An Imposture so gross and palpable that if unadvisedly committed the Ignorance of this Author must be deplorable if voluntarily his Fraud must be detestable Such miserable delusions are unfitly calculated for our Age and can serve for no other end than for what they were at first invented to amuse Children and seduce weak people The Author divideth his Prospective-Glass into eight Parts or Columes and in them undertaketh to prove the Doctrines of the Church of Rome from Scripture and the Testimonies of the Fathers of the Church for the first 500 years The proofs of Scripture I shall not consider because they are either wholly impertinent or have been often answered by the Writers of our Church and upon the Testimonies of Antiquity I will only make some few Observations For so idle a Paper deserves not a strict and severe Answer The first Column of our Adversary treateth of the Churches continued Succession and the tradition of all Christian Doctrines through all Ages of the Church This might well have been spared and concerns no more the Church of R●me than it doth any other particular Church In the Church of England we have a Succession of Bishops continued down from the Apostolick times to this day The nomination or particular enumeration of them is neither necessary nor useful None will deny the Churches of Ephesus Smyrna and Philadelphia to have enjoyed a continued Series of Bishops from the Apostles times yet are the names of the far greater part of them unknown Neither is the Succession of the Bishops of Rome certain and undoubted The immediate Successors of St. Peter are at this day unknown Linus most probably died before him Cletus and Anacletus were most certainly the same person In succeeding Ages many great and long Schisms happened wherein two and sometimes three Popes together pretended to the Papal Chair whose right was so dubious and uncertain that Wernerus Rolluinck professeth most learned and conscientious men could not discern to which party they ought to adhere And at this day the French and Italian Writers agree not in composing a Catalogue of Popes the first placing divers among the Popes which the second reject as Antipopes No other eminent See of the Catholick Church hath suffered these divisions So that the Succession of the Bishops of Rome is more doubtful and uncertain than any other Succession of Bishops in the World. St. Irenaeus indeed St. Augustin and Optatus alledged by this Writer disputing against the Hereticks object to th●m that they are upstarts men of yesterday who could not deduce their Succession from the Apostles whereas their Catholicks had a visible Succession of Bishops presiding in their Churches from the Apostles times and to prove this produce the Succession of Roman Bishops not as of so many Heads of the Universal Church but as of the Bishops of the most eminent See of the Western Church For the force of their Argument lay not in the particular Succession of the Roman Bishops but in the several Successions of all the Catholick Bishops of the Universal Church of which they produced that of Rome as an example This appears plainly from the words of Irenaeus who prefixeth this Preface to his Catalogue of Roman Bishops Seeing it is too much to reckon up the Succession of all Churches I will instante only in that of Rome As for Succession of Doctrine we may with far greater justice claim that than do our Adversaries For the Church of England admitteth receiveth and believeth all Doctrines which have been universally taught and delivered down by all Churches in all Ages and proposeth none to her Children as necessary to be believed which have not that universal testimony Whereas the Church of Rome commandeth several Doctrines to be believed upon pain of Anathema which were unknown to Antiquity and are at this day denied by the greater part of Christians The Fourth Column of the Unity of the Church is of the same stamp We no less firmly than our Adversaries believe the Catholick Church to be one We willingly allow that there is no hope of Salvation out of the Pale of that Church and have always asserted Schism to be a damnable sin But that the particular Church of Rome or in Communion with the See of Rome is that Universal Church that a small and corrupt member of it is the whole and that all Churches not Communicating with the Bishop of Rome are Schismatical this we neither believe nor can our Adversaries prove Certainly all the testimonies here alledged insinuate no such thing But if Schism be so great a sin if wilful and unnecessary Separation from any part of the Catholick Church be

from day to day but this is free from corruption which whosoever religiously tasts cannot suffer corruption From which words Three several Arguments of a typical sense may be formed For first as Manna was not truly but typically the Bread of Angels So neither is the consecrated Bread truly but typically the Body of Christ Secondly The consecrated elements are as to the matter of them subject to corruption And therefore St. Ambrose believed not the matter of them but only what they represented to be the body of Christ Thirdly He affirms this incorruptible Body of Christ to be received only by the Religious communicant Whereas if Transubstantiation be true it is equally received by the most Irreligious person St. Augustin in the place cited by our Author expresly denieth all natural presence His words are these When our Lord Jesus Christ spoke of his Body He said Whosoever eateth not my flesh and drinketh not my blood shall not have eternal Life For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed His Disciples who followed him were afraid and scandalized at that speech and not truly understanding it thought that our Lord spoke somewhat harsh as if they were to eat that flesh and drink that blood which they saw They could not bear this as if they had said How can this be Error ignorance and folly had possessed them Where he goes on to shew that this aversion of the Apostles proceeded from a misapprehension of our Lord's meaning as if he intended to give them his natural flesh and blood to eat Whereas our Lord knew what he meant he spoke of Sacraments or a sacramental presence This passage sufficiently explains the following Clause cited by our Author unless we can suppose St. Augustin in this obscure sentence to have contradicted the Doctrine by him plainly delivered in the precedent Words The Sixth Column corncerns Sacramental Confession Priestly Absolution and Penance and in all respects is wholly impertinent as may appear by these few considerations First Then the Church of England retaineth and adviseth to her Children Confession Absolution and Penance But then she maketh not the first absolutely necessary to Salvation nor the Second a judicial but only declaratory act nor the Third properly satisfactory for sins Nor do any of the Testimonies produced by our Author prove these positions Secondly The Confession used in the ancient Church was not Auricular but publick not lodged in the breast of the Priest but made before the whole Congregation And when afterwards about the time of the Decian Persecution these confessions became so numerous that the Church could not hear them all a Paenitentiarius was chosen out of the Presbyters to receive them he did not keep them secret to himself but only pass judgment which were fit to be made known to the whole Church and to be performed in the publick Congregation and which not 3. Absolution of the Priest was not believed to be judicial or authoritative and immediately to absolve before God but only declaratory of the promises of pardon made by God to all penitent sinners and to have no other necessary effect than the restoring of the penitents to the peace of the Church This may be proved by that very passage of St. Hierom which our Author citeth where he compareth the Priestly absolution to the cleansing of Lepers by the Priests under the old Law a comparison very frequent with the Fathers For as the Jewish Priests made not the Lepers clean but only declared them so to be and supposed them to be clean before their declaration otherwise the declaration would not in the least have contributed to their cleansing So a sacerdotal Absolution remits not the guilt of sins but supposeth them to have been before remitted by God and declareth so to be otherwise the absolution of a Priest will avail the sinner nothing nor set him right in the Court of Heaven 4. Penance in the ancient Church was chiefly intended not as a satisfaction to God for the violation of his Laws but as a satisfaction to the Church for the scandal given to others and reproach drawn upon the whole Church by the former crimes or irregular practice of the penitents And therefore was ever augmented or relaxed according to the various exigencies or necessities of times 5. In the ancient Church Penance ever preceded Absolution and was the means of obtaining it Whereas in the Church of Rome the Penitent is first absolv'd and then some subsequent Penance is imposed on him Which takes away the very nature of Penance Confession and Absolution as they were used and designed the ancient Christians and tends only to the interests of the Priest and delusion of private souls The Seventh Column undertaketh to prove the lawfulness of Invocation or Prayer to Saints and that they pray for us the latter we need not deny but maintain that that will not warrant the former So that when all the spurious Testimonies those which we have already answered and those which prove only that the departed Saints pray for us be expunged there remain no more than one of St. Ambrose for that of St. Hierom is a plain historical Apostrophe and one of Theodoret. As for the first I might justly oppose the authority of some learned men who maintain this Book de Viduis whence the passage is taken to be supposititious But I will content my self to say That our Author hath falsely translated the place by rendring Obsecrandi sunt Angeli pro nobis ut c. Obsecrandi sunt Martyres We are to desire the assistance of the Angels we are to pray to the Martyrs Whereas the words do not in the least insinuate an Exhortation of Prayer to be made to them by us but only a wish that they would pray for us and that we should gratefully accept their charitable kindness in so doing The Passage of Theodoret as cited by our Author is a plain forgery For Theodoret speaks not one Syllable of praying to the Martys and what our Author translates beseech them as Holy men to intercede to God for them is no more in the Greek than this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We honour or reverence them as holy men The last Column treateth of Purgatory and Prayer for the dead The first we believe to be a Fable and to have no ground either in Scripture or Antiquity The second our Church doth not condemn only hath prudently omitted it in the publick Service because it is a thing dubious in it self and not approved by Scripture The use of it in the Ancient Church doth not in the least prove the belief of Purgatory For they anciently prayed for all Saints departed whatsoever even for the blessed Virgin Apostles Martyrs and Confessors and their Prayers respected not alleviation of freedom from any internal Punishment but only the day of Judgment that God would hasten it and when that comes receive all departed Souls into the beatifical Vision which