Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
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A36614
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A defence of the papers written by the late king of blessed memory, and Duchess of York, against the answer made to them
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Dryden, John, 1631-1700.
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1686
(1686)
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Wing D2261; ESTC R22072
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76,147
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138
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would have any Man shew me says the King where the Power of deciding Matters of Faith is given to every particular Man He distinguishes and says The Power of Deciding so as to oblige others is not given to every particular Man the Power of Deciding so as to satisfie the particular Decider is Denial is a fair Answer and this seems to deny what His Majesty says and yet in truth says nothing to it Deciding of particular Men being our own Iudges following our own Fancy or private Spirit believing as we please and the like Expressions signifie all the same And the King as Men use to do who mind Sense more than Words and have Language at will takes now one now another as they come in His way As it could not scape an â ye less piercing than His that he judges every jot as much who believes upon the Authority of the Church as he who believes upon his own Fancy of Scripture and that every Assent is a Judgment and so the Assent of Faith as well as the rest it cannot be imagin'd that He would have Men not judge at all But He meant as all the World means by those Phrases that they should not judge unreasonably For as they are blamed who will be their own Judges and no body blames another for doing well and Judging is of it self a good thing an Exercise of a Faculty planted in us by God there is nothing to be blamed but the ill use of that Faculty by suffering Passion to ãâã it which should only be guided by Reason That Men ãâã mean thus by those Expressions we see by the ãâã to which they apply them He who being ãâã by ãâã or Conceit of ãâ¦ã ãâ¦ã the Advice of his unpassionate and ãâ¦ã or he who has no skill in Physic or ãâ¦ã will commence and prosecute Suits ãâ¦ã against the Advice of able Lawyers and Doctors is said to be his own Judge He is not who understanding Jewels or Pictures buys them at his own Rate tho' never so many of less ãâã than himself persuade him to the contrary ãâ¦ã is said to be his Judge Now the King ãâã because Christ taught his Apostles and ãâã who with those that believ'd his Doctrine ãâ¦ã Preaching and their Successors through ãâ¦ã are called the Church that he could not ãâã reasonably who would pretend to find out that Doctrine by his own Wit or Study or any ãâã but by learning it of the Church which ãâ¦ã at first from Christ and preserv'd it ever ãâã And this unreasonable Judgment made on their own Heads or Fancy against the Judgment of those whose Profession it is His several Expressions strike at The Answerer reflected not on the meaning of them but would persuade us That to say particular Men must be satisfied of the Reasons why they believe is an Answer to the Question Whether there be indeed any Reasons why they should believe besides the Authority of the Church To go forward Christ says his Maââ sty left his Power to his Church even to forgive Sins in Heaven and left his Spirit with them which they exerââââ d after his Resurruction He answers as if he were at ãâã purposes where then was the Roman ãâ¦ã What has where was she to do ãâ¦ã left to her 'T is a strange Quâ stion ãâã and he I believe the first who ever ask'd where a Church was before she was The Roman was a part of the Catholic as soon as she was a Church till then she was where all the Churches ãâã the World besides were except that of â ierusalem and where the Church of â ierusalem too was before Christ was born in the order of Providenââ But how can it be hence inferr'd that these Powerâ are now in the Church of Rome ãâã Roman Cathââââ Church I suppose he means exclusive to all others unless it be made appear that it was Heir-General to all the Apostles As if there needed Logic to infer that Powers left for the Salvation of Mankind remain in being as long as there remains a Manââââ to be saved or Powers left to the Church of Christ are in the Church of Christ and those exclâ ded from the Powers who are not inclâ ded â n the Church or to make appear She is Heir-General to all the Apostles who as visibly as that the Sâ ripture is in Print is the One Churâ h ãâ¦ã he could be content to be ãâ¦ã Point but since his Majesty ãâ¦ã purpose to do more than barely mention it I ãâã it not to mine to stray from the Papers I ãâã In the process of his Discourse he would ãâã the ordinary Power of the Keys out of the ãâã and shall with all my heart so he remove it not out of the Church For since it was with the ãâã given only to her I do not see what ãâ¦ã Title there can be to it but ãâ¦ã Her He is by his good favour ãâ¦ã removing Miraculous Power out of the ãâ¦ã God who slights not the Roman ãâ¦ã so much as he continues ãâ¦ã her And would he be content to ãâ¦ã ãâã on Miracles I would be content to undertake the Proof But alas I fear there needs a Miracle to make People willing that Differences of Religion should have any Issue He would have it question'd What part of the Promise of the Infallible Spirit was to expire with the Apostles what to be continued to the Church in all Ages And how fâ r that Promise extends Strange Questions for Christians to dispute after they have been answer'd by Christ himself When Christ has extended the Assistance of that Spirit to All his Doctrine and All Time for us to ask which part of that Assistance shall cease or to ãâã is to ask Which is the Part of Christ's Promise which he will not perform Neither indeed are these Questions with his Distinction between Sin and Errour and subtle Speculations upon it for any thing but to bring in Deposing Doctrine a Comâ on-place bang'd in every Book of late It is a Theme than which as much as it is ãâã upon I do not think a worse can be taken ãâã an Invective against Infallible Assistance pick aâ d chuse through the whole Bundle When I conâââ er what has past and reflect there wanted neither Power nor Propension in Men and nevertheless that the Persuasions about Deposing were never settled as those in other Matters which displease the Answerer what he takes for an Argument against Infallible ââââ tance I take for a strong Argument for it For ãâã else could be the Cause of that Effect but that ãâã Power even of willing Men was directed by an ãâã Assistance of the Divine Spirit He may ãâ¦ã shew he pleases with the Errours of ãâã who will not reflect they never exercis'd the Power of Church-Guidââ upon ãâã Errours or in his Language so as to ãâ¦ã which yet he knows very well no Council of ãâã he had in his eye ever did As the Church
not say either the one or the other but amuses us with his Descant upon the Metaphor never touching the Plain-song Question Subordinate Judges may be as true Judges and Appeals do as much harm as they will Justice too may be as well administred at home as abroad for any thing we are the wiser or the better For what is it to us what becomes of those Matters We can inform our selves time enough of Lawyers and those who understand Government how they go when it imports us to know At present let the Answerer tell us whether Controversies can or cannot be ended Whether we can be secure that we are in the right way to Heaven or must live on at a venture never knowing whether we live as we should till we come into the next World and find perhaps by a sad Experience how we have liv'd in this We are all Travellers to the Country of Happâââ and as a wrong way can never lead right it imports us as much as Happiness imports to travel in tââ right Road. He who undertakes to assist us in the âââficulties started by these Papers acquits himself by taking an Allegorical Expression in a Literal sense and then by shewing Erudition upon it turning our Thoughts from the Moral For while we are entertain'd with literally true Judges and Appeals and Justice unless we think of two things at once there is no minding Differences in Religion So that the Assistance which it seems he meant was his Assistance to remove those Difficulties out of sight and the Danger he apprehended the Danger lest people should once perceive how 't is with those who are out of the Catholic Church that they have no accountable Means to end a Controversie or satisfie a Difficulty save by cleanly conveying it out of the way if it become importunate But for any Assistance towards the only difficulty which imports Whether People be in the right way to Heaven or no Whether Controversies can or cannot be ended we have none from the Answerer but may guess from his silence he either thinks They cannot or wishes They would not He asks again Whether such a one pretending to a Power he has no right to must be Iudge in his own Cause when he is the greatest Offender This Such a one if he take it as in all reaâ on he should as His Majesty do's signifies Him or Those who are appointed to administer Iustice. Do's such a one in his conceit pretend without right to the Power of Administring Justice And if they be appointed to administer it in all Causes must they not administer it in their own Pray turn this Doctrine to another Subject and suppose a Question started in England about the king's Prerogative By what Authority should or could this Question be judg'd but the king's As much his own Cause as it is we must not have another Authority set up in His Kingdom to judge of Differences belonging to His Kingdom For deciding Differences being one Part of the Kingly Office it would be to set up another King It is palpable that to apply the Exception of ones own Cause to Supreme Powers is to make them not Supreme and yet as irrational and as destructive as it is People take the confidence to do it But if the Answerer mean by his Such a one a Stranger proceeding by his arbitrary Will there neither is nor can be such a one No Member of the Church can be more a Stranger in the Church than an Englishman in England And for arbitrary Will in our Case there cannot be a wilder Fancy Christ commanded his Apostles to teach his Doctrine to all Nations They obey'd his Command and their sound is gone forth through the whole earth Can the arbitrary Will of any Mortal stretch it to the utmost extent of Imagination alter or conceal or disguise a Doctrine known and practis'd by a great many Nations some very remote and those which are Neighbours agreeing in few things besides that Doctrine Then as the king would have his Appeal for Justice made to the Catholic Church so many Millions as make up that Church are a very pleasant arbitrary such a one This says His Majesty is our Case here in England in matters Spiritual For the Protestants are not of the Church of England as 't is the true Church from whence there can be no Appeal but because tââ Discipline of that Church is conformable at that present to their Fancies which as soon as it shall contradict or vary from They are really he out of an uncorrect Copy says ready to imbrace or joyn with the next Congregation of People whose Discipline and Worship agrees with their Opinion at that time His Copy has whose Discipline or Worship agrees with the Opinion of that time Here is the Moral of the Allegory which we find by Iustice to be done understood deciding differences in Matters Spiritual that is in Faith By those who are to administer Iustice the Church from which there is no Appeal Because Protestants do not think themselves concluded by the Decisions of the Church of England but adhere to her because they like them at present The king infers there is no Authoritative deciding of Spiritual Differences in England no thrusting out the Heresies crept in but every one in consequence of his Principles is to leave the Church of England as often as she decides against his Perswasions and take up with the next Congregation which is more to his humour What says the Answerer to this Why that the Sense of this Period is not so clear but that one may easily mistake about it Very easily without question For there is not an easier thing in the World than to mistake when one will give his mind to it He is the first tho' I believe who thought his late Majesty did not speak intelligible English But the Answerer will help him out and tell us what is aim'd at As if what a Man says and what he aims at by saying it were not two things as difâ ereâ t as End and Means But let him set the Cart before the Horse for me and tell us what was aim'd at That we of the Church of England have no ãâã upon us but that of our own Iudgments â nd when that changes we may joyn with Independents or Presbyterians as we do now with the Church of England For one half His Majesty I believe did think the Church of England as things go has no tie upon her Members but his aim was she might and it depends on her self whether she will or no. The other half was not only aim'd at but directly said and more that who adhere to Day to the Church of England in vertue of their own Fancies not only may but ought quit her for the next Congregation which is more agreeable to those Fancies How do's the Answerer avoid that Consequence Why truly by talking of another Matter For he asks What security can be greater