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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A61826 A discourse concerning the church ... by the Right Reverend Father in God, Robert Sanderson ... Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. 1688 (1688) Wing S597; ESTC R2316 6,874 34

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Degrees Visibility applyed to the Church and the Members thereof may be consider'd in a Fourfold Respect First Of the Men themselves Secondly Of their general Profession of Christianity Thirdly Of their particular different Tenents from other Men or Churches Fourthly Of the truth of their particular Tenents Theses First the Church in the first and most proper Signification viz. the Church of Gods Elect is wholly and altogether Invisible But of this the present Question is not Secondly The Universal Christian Church upon Earth hath never failed from the whole Faith nor ever shall fail to the Worlds end in such sort but that still in some Part or other of it it hath been is and shall be visible more or less and that externally in the first or second Degree of Visibility both in the first and second Respects Thirdly Whence it follows that understanding Truth in the First sense there never hath wanted doth or shall want upon Earth a true and distinct Particular Church in some Place or other externally visible more or less in the Degrees and Respects above specified Fourthly Every Particular visible Church may fail not only from the Purity of Faith but also from the whole Faith it self and so may cease to be a true Christian Church even so much as in the First Sense and may become no Church Fifthly The Universal Christian Church consisting of all Particular visible Churches together and at once may by the prevailing of Heresy and Idolatry be brought to such a general Defection in the outward Face of it though not from the whole Faith yet from the Purity of Faith both in Doctrine and Worship that for a long time together there may not be found upon Earth taking Church in the second Sense any true Particular Church visibly distinct from the rest by their outward Freedom from the common Corruptions so much as in the second much less in the first Degree of Visibility either in the third or fourth Respects And this is that Part of the Church especially under Antichrist Sixthly That even in the Times of the greatest and most general Defection there have been always particular Men and those eminent either for Number Place Learning or Godliness who though living in the midst of Corrupt Churches and in the Communion and visible Profession thereof have yet according to the measure of their Grace and Knowledg and the exigence of Times and Occasions either First Openly resisted the Errors Superstitions and Corruptions of their Times Or secondly Noted the Corruptions as they grew and complained of them and desired Reformation Or thirdly In private dissented from them in the Explication of the most dangerous Doctrines and kept themselves free from the foulest Corruptions though carried with the Stream of the common Apostacy to embrace the rest Whereof we are to presume they repented either Explicitely if God gave them to see their Errors or at least wise Implicitely in the Mass of their ignorant and unknown Sins Seventhly Although such particular Men were not always so locally and generally seperated from the rest as to make a visible distinct particular Church by themselves in the first Degree of Visibility yet in these Men did the Succession of the true Church taking it comparatively and in the second Sense especially consist and the Visibility of it continue in the Time of universal Defection In which Men the true Church continues visible always and perpetually without interruption and that ever in the fourth Respect viz. in regard of the acknowledg'd Truth of their Doctrine in the third Degree of Visibility viz. in an inward Estate and to themselves and sometimes also though perhaps not always visible externally and to their very Enemies more or less in the second Degree of Visibility and in the Three first Respects Concerning the CHURCH of ROME THE Church of Rome or Roman Church is taken in a Threefold Latitude First Respectively to the Place for that Church which is in the City or Territory or Diocess of Rome As we say the Church of Geneva or the Church of Venice And so St. Paul wrote an Epistle to the Church of Rome as he did to the Churches of Corinth Ephesus and other particular Cities Secondly Respectively to the State of the Empire for the whole Latine or Western Churches as they are distinguished from the Greek and Eastern Churches and from the African and Southern Churches Because by reason of the Empire these Churches had a nearer Communion among themselves then with other Churches and acknowledg the Bishop of Rome as primae sedis Episcopum or the Patriarch of the West as other Bishops were of the Greek Asian and African Churches Thirdly Respectively to the Faith for all particular Churches aggregatim that acknowledg Subjection to the present See of Rome and entirely Communicate with that Church in the present Doctrine and Worship of it and namely and especially as to our purpose as 't is comprised in the Council of Trent In which last Sense taking the Church of Rome it may be consider'd either First Materialiter as 't is a Church professing the Faith of Christ as we also do in the common Points of Agreement Secondly Formaliter and in regard of that we call Popery viz. the Point of Difference whether concerning the Doctrine or Worship wherein we charge her to have added to the substance of Faith her own Inventions Thirdly Conjunction pro toto aggregato taking both together As in any unfound Body we may consider the Body by it self the Disease by it self and the Body and the Disease both together as they make a Diseased Body Theses FIrst the Church of Rome which of the Three ways soever taken is not the Universal Christian Church but only a Part thereof or a Particular Church or Churches Secondly The Church of Rome ever since the first Plantation of it hath continued a true Church taking Truth in the first Sense and considering the Church of Rome Materially as it is a Church But so hath the Church of England also and many other Churches Thirdly The Church of Rome hath no special Promise or Privilege above other Particular Churches of Immunity from falling either from the Purity of Faith or the whole Faith it self Fourthly The Church of Rome which way soever taken hath long since failed from the Purity of Faith both in the Doctrine and Worship of it And so consider'd formally in regard of those Points which are properly of Popery is become a False and Corrupt Church and is indeed an Antichristian Synagogue and not a true Christian Church Taking Truth in the second Sense Fifthly The Doctrinal Errors of the Church of Rome do not directly and immediately overthrow the Foundation of Faith as the Heresy of the Arrian Churches did but mediately and by necessary Consequence they do As in the Points of Merits Mass Transubstantiation c. Sixthly The bare Teaching even ex Cathedrâ of the Doctrinal Errors of the Church of Rome in as much as