Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	epistle_n	paul_n	timothy_n	2,910	5	10.4803	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56281	Remarks of A. Pulton, master in the Savoy, upon Dr Tho. Tenison's late narrative with a confutation of the doctors rule of faith, and a reply to A. Chresners pretended Vindication.	Pulton, A. (Andrew), 1654-1710.	1687 (1687)	Wing P4207; ESTC R5578	30,730	54

BOOKS lately printed for Richard Chiswell 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 St. Paul in his First Epistle to Timothy Chap. 3 Vers 15. 4o. 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 Ansswer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled Protestancy destitute of Scripture Proofs 4o. Two Discourses of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead An Answer to a late Pamphlet Intitutled 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 4o. 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 entitutled An Agreement between the Church of England and Church of Rome A PRIVATE PRAYER to be used in Difficult Times 8o. REMARKS OF A PULTON MASTER in the SAVOY UPON Dr Tho. Tenison's LATE NARRATIVE With a Confutation of the Doctors Rule of Faith. AND A REPLY TO A. Chresners pretended Vindication Published by Authority London Printed by Nathaniel Thompson at the Entrance into Old-Spring-Garden near Charing-Cross 1687. To the Parishioners of St. Martins in the Fields and St James Westminster Gentlemen YOur Learned Pastor the Reverend Dr. Tenison having been pleas'd to his printed Account of a Conference had between Him and Me on the 29th of September last in which he has not only notoriously mis-represented the Matter of Fact but also stuff'd his whole Narrative with several false Aspersions reflecting not only on my particular Person but also on the whole Society whereof I am a Member and on our Holy Mother the Catholick Church of which I profess my self an unworthy Son The Dr. I say having been pleas'd to this Account to prefix an Epistle to you fraught with malitious Insinuations and Calumnies You will not I hope think me guilty of too great Presumption if endeavouring to clear my self from the false Accusations brought against me I though a Stranger making Appeal to you before whom the Dr. has laid his Charge and expect from your Judgement and Candor however prepossest with a good Opinion of the Dr and a Prejudice against both my Religion and Order a fair and equitable Hearing The Dr. begins his Epistle to you with a Complaint of many false Reports and Papers industriously spread by some of the less sincere and less generous Romanists Now as I protest an utter Abhorrence of all such unworthy Proceedings so I cannot easily believe any Catholick to have been guilty of them without some more sufficient Testimony than the Dr's Word of whose insincere and disingenuous Actings his Account is a most apparent Evidence And that Letters sent both into the North and West of England bearing date the very day of the Conference and importing that there were at least Eight or Ten Jesuits put to Silence by the force of one Dr's Arguments manifestly shews that the Dr. is not the only person who has Cause to complain of false Reports or Reason to fear That unworthy Ends would be serv'd on the Credulous The Dr. to excuse the Bitterness not to say Scurrility of his Expressions tells you a story of a Person one of whose Names as he Words it was Gubbard who in the time of the Rebellion against King Charles the I. Recommending himself to the Committee at Norwich as a Man Who had a zeal for the same Cause in which they were engag'd took Possession of the Living of Mondesly out of which the Dr's Father was Ejected for his Loyalty That after a few years he Preach'd up Purgatory and other such Points in so open a manner That the Committee turn'd him out again and that in a little time he as it were vanish'd away By this story which the Dr. ushers in with his having a Motive to severe Language towards that sort of men meaning Catholick Priests which few have besides and closes with the Impression it made upon him when he was young and the raising his Suspition and Indignation ever since he would insinuate that this Gubbard was some Jesuit or Catholick Priest which he pretends to prove by his changing his Name his Favour with the Committee and his Preaching of Purgarory Catholick Priests sometimes change their Names thereby the better to shelter themselves from the rigorous Severity of the Sanguinary Laws executed on them by meek-hearted Protestants only in respect of their Function yet if it be consider'd that this is frequently done by other Persons on far different Motives and Occasions it will seem very ridiculous to infer from thence that the Person mention'd by the Dr. was a Priest Nor yet will his Preaching of Purgatory and such other Points evince him to have been a Romanist much less a Priest if it shall be consider'd how many far stranger Opinions were in those days of Liberty vented in the Pulpit and that many years have not pass'd since a very Learned Member of the Church of England Dr. Thorndike Prebend of Westminster and dying in her Communion desir'd an Ora pro animâ to be Engraven on his Tomb. Now to shew how great Favour the Priests and Jesuits found with the Committees of those Times I take the Liberty to inform the World that my Father had six Uncles Jesuits and yet was not only himself committed to Prison by the Rebels for his Religion and his Loyalty to his King but his House was also for a long time possess'd by a Committee Minister and two of his Brethren were for three years Educated in another Committee Ministers house at Kettring in Northamptonshire where they were oblig'd being under Age to go to Schismatical Service though it pleas'd Almighty God of his Infinite Mercy to reduce them afterwards into the Bosom of his Spouse the Catholick Church out of which none of our Family ever dy'd Nor do I believe any one Family in England was more frequently Pillag'd or more severely Sequester'd than Ours yet I bless God I am so far from having my Indignation thereby rais'd against that Party or entertaining any Hatred towards them that I rather glory in our having had occasion to suffer for our King and our Religion I here therefore Challenge the Dr. and his Adherents to make it appear that this or any other Committee Minister was either a Jesuit or Priest of the Roman Church or else must take leave to say that his vending such like scurrilous Suspicions and Surmises at this time of day seem directly to aim at that of which I am unwilling to think him guilty Having return'd this Answer to what is most material in his Epistle I leave you Gentlemen to judge whether he has been so Just or Fair as he pretends or

where commanded in Scripture either as to the Obligation or Time of its Celebration as now practic'd by the Church Baptism is necessary to Children for Salvation We are bound to believe that the Son is Consubstantial to the Father that the second Person was Really Physically and Substantially united to our Humane Nature and not Morally only that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son. What plain Texts of Scripture prove these Tenets so as the Arian Eutychian Anabaptist c. shall be oblig'd to submit being convinc'd by the Evidence thereof A. P. therefore asserts that an Infallible Church is requisite to expound Holy Writ to us and by her Traditions which are the living Word of GOD instruct us in necessary Doctrines That which the Dr. appeals to for Judge to wit The written Word of GOD is no other than what has been the Appeal of all Hereticks from CHRIST's time Which consequently cannot be the Rule of one True Church that is Essentially different from an Heretical one And certainly no man of Sense and Judgment can say that a guilty Person will ever appeal to that Judge by whom he is evidently and sufficiently condemn'd but all Hereticks are guilty Persons and yet boldly appeal to Holy Scripture Therefore Holy Scripture is not the Judge by whom Hereticks are evidently and sufficiently condemn'd Whence is clearly made out that there must be some other living Judge by whose Authority Hereticks may be clearly convinc'd and all necessary Points of Doctrine taught and deliver'd to us Would not that be the worst constituted Government in the World in which there should be no living Judge or Explicator of the Law but every one should be permitted to Expound it so as his own Capricio or private Judgment suggests or as it may most make for his own Interest What Malefactor at this rate would not find a Plea for his own Defence and a Salvo for the most Enormous Crimes Now if this in Humane Laws would be esteem'd highly derogotary to the Prudence of the Law-giver shall those be deem'd to have the Spirit of GOD who presume to affirm the same of his Divine Majesty and so far to call in question his Infinite Wisdom and Goodness as to think that in the establishment of his Church he would omit That without which no State or Government could long subsist But here the Dr. may reply what he afterwards says that every one is not left to Expound this Rule at Discretion but must Vse the help of all Ministerial Guides possible that is he must Consult his Confer p. 18. Minister and if one satisfy him not advise with another and so to the end of the Chapter Now what shall we say if this Man prudently distrusts the Mission of his pretended Ministers as every one may that of the Church of England being grounded on meer Humane Authority What if he distrust his Ministers Sincerity Learning Vertue What if he question his having us'd Pious Means in humility of Soul Of which no Body can be assur'd What if Consulting many one tells him one thing another as it usually happens quite contrary What Means are there left to quiet this dubious mind You will say He is then left to his own Conscience Now being so left A. P. desires to know whether this Mans Conscience may be Erronous and actually err in things necessary to Salvation If so then his Religion may prove a meer Fancy if more an Opinion but at most a private Judgement and wholly void of Divine Faith. If he cannot err then each one must be allow'd to be Infallible in his own Perswasion and so the Dr. must grant that to each particular Member which he denies to the whole But that each one may err after all his Endeavours if we allow no living Judge to whom we are bound to submit is manifest from daily Experience by which we see that thousands having made use of all Ministerial Guides possible cease not to dissent amongst themselves and disagree even to Contradiction in things of the greatest moment And against the Dr. ad hominem Roman Catholicks use all the means Protestants can prescribe and many more in humility of Soul and have an undoubted assurance of being in the true way Which being so A. P. would be satisfy'd with what Conscience the Church of England can Prosecute men by Sanguinary Laws who follow her own Rule with the greatest Perfection One word to the Dr. and A. P. will go on to the other Parts of the Dr's Rule That can't be the only true Rule of Faith without which a true Church did subsist But without a compil'd Canon of Scripture assign'd by the Church of England as the only true Rule of Faith a true Church did subsist Therefore a compil'd Canon of Scripture can't be the only true Rule of Faith. The first Proposition is evident for a Church can t subsist without its Essentials one whereof questionless is a Rule of Faith. The second is prov'd thus The Primitive Christians made a true Church But this Church subsisted many years without a compil'd Canon of Scripture as is evident For several years after CARIST's Death pass'd without any written Gospels or Epistles more before they were divulg'd and some Ages before they were compil'd into a Canon Therefore a true Church subsisted without a compil'd Canon of Scripture Therefore that can't be the only true Rule of Faith. The Dr. goes on and asserts that they had the same Proofs for their Bible with the Roman Catholicks viz. The Testimony of the Vniversal Church Conf●r p. 9. of all Ages Which is manifestly false For neither the Universal Church nor any part of it deliver'd them the Bible as the Protestants have it Whether you consider the Number of Books Conformity of Texts or what is most Material the Sense and Meaning thereof For although the * Note This was only a National Council and of no General Obligation Council of Laodicea approv'd of no more Books than those which the Church of England now allows to be Canonical nor indeed of all those the Apocalypse not being then receiv'd yet that Council rejected not the other Books as Apocryphal But the Church then beginning to examine Holy Scripture approv'd for the present only the above-mention'd Canon neither rejecting nor admitting the other pieces Now in the Council of Carthage held in the year 397. the other parts of Holy Writ being brought under Examination were found to be of equal Authority and consequently receiv'd into the Canon St. Augustin subscribing thereto And this was confirm'd by Pope Innocent the first in the year 402. who giving an Account what Books were receiv'd and directing himself by the Rule of Tradition viz. Quid custodita Series temporum demonstraret sets down these very Books the Epist 3 cap. 7. Roman Catholicks now still allow of And St. Augustine was of the same Judgment as also Pope Gelasius August de Doctr. Christ cap. 8.