Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	call_v	church_n	name_n	2,831	5	5.3453	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92921	An examination of Dr. Balyes five waies whereby he endeavours to prove the Church of Rome to be the only church of Christ wherein salvation is to be had, and the Church of England to be no true church. By Robert Seppens rector of Hingham in Norfolk.	Seppens, Robert.	1679 (1679)	Wing S2558A; ESTC R229928	13,895	37

AN EXAMINATION OF Dr. Balyes Five Waies WHEREBY He endeavours to prove the Church of Rome to be the only Church of Christ wherein Salvation is to be had and the Church of England to be no True Church BY ROBERT SEPPENS Rector of Hingham in Norfolk LONDON Printed by M. C. for William Oliver Bookseller in the Market-Place in Norwich 1679. TO THE READER WHen King CHARLES the First that glorious Martyr of ever blessed memory was by his inhuman and unnatural Subjects most barbarously Murdered there were Missionaries from Rome employed in all parts of the Kingdom to disaffect the people to the Monarchy and the Hierarchy to the Religion and the Government of the Kingdom Established by Law Amongst the rest one came to a Gentlewoman not far from me when I lived at Bradenham and presented her with a Book Stiled An End to all Controversies of which Doctor Baly was the Author Now Doctor Baly you must know was revolted from the Church of England and was had in great esteem for two famous Books formerly Published by him One was a Romance Dedicated to the Lady Crane of Suffolk Entituled Herba Parietis or the Wall Flower the other was A Narrative of the Conference betwixt King Charles the First and the Marquess of Worcester at Ragland Castle It is not my present business to enquire how well he discharged himself in those his undertakings But certainly the last Book he Published viz. An End to all Controversies and that indeed which was given to the foremention'd Gentlewoman in order to some further design upon her was palmarium opus the most worthy of the three The Gentlewoman after the perusal of it brought it to me with an earnest desire to hear my judgment of it to satisfie therefore her request I Read it over and in the Reading of it I observed it consisted of these two parts especially A Calumnious invective against the Church of England then a Polemick Discourse wherein the Doctor by Five Arguments had there endeavoured to prove the Church of Rome to be the only true Church wherein Life and Salvation was to be had and the Church of England to be no true Church The Gentlewoman soon perceived what dangerous Consequence this Book might be of and so was not infected with any of those pernicious Principles contained in it But I fearing lest through the weakness of her Sex though indeed she was Prudent Vertuous and in matters of Religion of understanding above her Sex she might have been prevail'd upon by those Arguments and being very much concern'd to deliver her from the danger and poyson of them I thought my self oblig'd to commend an Antidote to her to prevent infection To effect which I passed by the Railing invective part of his Discourse and made it my business to Answer the Polemick part of it wherein though he very confidently boasts of his Arguments as unanswerable and invincible yet after a strict enquiry and examination of them I neither found Hector nor Achilles in them This Discourse I Penned long since and immediately after delivered it my self to the forementioned Person who liv'd to see the happy Restoration of His Majesty and then dyed in the Communion of the Church of England I long expected some Answer to this but hearing of none I have now ventur'd to make it publick not out of any desire to appear again in publick but partly to vindicate my self from the suspicion of Popery which I have been traduc'd for partly by way of caution to others Such as it is I willingly submit to the Judgments of unprejudiced Readers and that it may prove effectual for the vindication of our Church from the false accusations of its adversaries is the hearty Prayers as well as desires of R. S. Sacraments of the Lord. Augustine Psalm xxxii Epist 48. and 164. c. The peevish Schismaticks took advantage upon this their Concession to conclude themselves to be the only Church and to exclude all others If it be so say they Communio nostra est Ecclesia Christi Our Communion is the Church of Christ alone Aug. de Bapt. de cont Donat. lib. 1. cap. 10. And Petilianus dixit Petilian saith Come to the Church O people and fly from the Traditors if you will not perish that you may know they are guilty they judg rightly of our Faith c. Contra lit Pelit lib. 2. cap. 1.8 If this reasoning of Petilianus was good then the Roman Church it self was excluded if it was not why does the Romanist use it against us We must not do that to others we would not have others do to us For that Argument the Doctor frames out of our Concessions towards the end of that Chapter 'T is very fallacious The Church of God is but one The Church of Rome is the True Church The Church of England is opposite to that Church Therefore the Church of England is no True Church But not to trouble you with the vitiosity of his Logicks I shall answer it as it lies When we say the Church of God is but one we mean the Universal Church we speak not Emphatically or Exclusively as if she were the whole or the only Church but we mean she is a True particular Church When we say the Church of England is opposite to the Roman Church we mean Secundum quid in some things not simpliciter not simply in the Essentials of a Church but in some Doctrins and Observations In which respect some Church may be opposite to the Roman Church and yet be a True Church still as long as she retains all the Fundamentals As for example one Doctor in the Roman Church may be opposite to another in some Opinions and Observations of Discipline and yet be a True Catholick still as well as the other A Second way whereby he pretends to end all Controversies and prove the Roman Church to be the one Holy Catholick Church where Remission of sins is only c. Is by reference to a third party as Umpire in the business and so he saith Protestants are cast in their own Cause by the Arbitrement of St. Augustine who being the Monarch of the Fathers is Appealed to by both Parties as a competent Judg. Cap. 26. 'T is well the Doctor will acknowledg any Umpire in the cause but the Pope or the Roman Church Surely this is a work of Supererogation which he now does in a Bravado to shew what abundant ways he hath of confuting the poor Church of England but he was not the Authour of this device Ieronymus Torrensis a Jesuite many years ago abbreviated all St. Augustines Works and Published them in honour of his Church by the name of Augustinina Confessio Augustines Confession And Brerely a Priest contracted his Doctrine into a lesser Model after him and call'd it St. Augustines Religion How much the Doctor is beholden to his two forerunners for their Collections the world must not know and 't is no matter whether they

sign of the Cross now nothing of these is determined by Christ Alexander Ales saith it was Ordained in the Councel of Melden Durandus denyes Matrimony to be a True and Proper Sacrament of the new Law because it neither confers Grace to him that hath it not nor augments it in him that hath it Cajetan upon the fifth Chapter of St. James verse 14. saith that there is nothing at all spoken there for the Sacrament of Extream Unction And seeing some of these Sacraments according to their own Doctors want Divine Institution some Divine Efficacy to Sanctifie some matter and form Essential to Sacraments 't is clear they are not of that excellency and perfection that Baptism and the Eucharist are and therefore what Heresie is it in the Church of England to receive them as more chiefly and generally necessary to Salvation so long as she acknowledgeth the other to be Sacraments in that sense the Antient Church call'd them so vid. Lyran. in explic visionis c. The fifth and last way whereby he pretends to put an end to Controversies is by Combat by answering the Challenge which some of the Learned of the Church of England have made to them of the Roman Church to be tryed by the Testimony of the Fathers that lived within the time of the first six hundred years of Christ This Challenge was made saith he by Bishop Jewel in a Sermon at Pauls Cross and by Dr. Whitaker in his Reasons against Campian Though we of the Church of England are no ways bound to defend what every private Doctor shall Preach in a Sermon or let fall from his Pen in heat of Controversie yet I believe verily a man may become a Second to these Champions in this Duel and yet come off without broken Bones though for my part I confess my self altogether unable for such an undertaking yet out of my little Learning I am able to discover a great deal of foul play the Doctor useth at the first which makes me think that he himself is not very able to hold up the Bucklers in this quarrel neither For in stating the quarrel betwixt the two Combatants he reckons up three and twenty points of Divinity as Controverted betwixt them whereas eighteen of these are not Controverted by the Church of England For the first we maintain no Free-Will 2. We hold that Free-Will Cooperates with Grace 3. That Good Works do in some kind Merit 4. We maintain the Fast of Lent to be very Antient Good and requisite to be observed 5. Concerning Original sin we receive all that is determined by Antient Church against the Pelagians 6. We teach Good Works are required to Justification 7. That a man ought to be sure of his Predestination is no Doctrine of the Church of England 8. We teach that a man fall away after Baptism 9. Concerning Christ the Mediatour we hold as the Roman Church that he was Mediatour in both his Natures but suffered only in his human 10. We believe Christ descended into Hell 11. We teach that Christs Law and Precepts are possible to be kept 12. Concerning Veneration of Reliques if we had any which we were sure were genuine we would not doubt to give some Veneration towards them 13. We allow Prayer for the dead in respect of the Resurrection In a word we deny not Church Traditions that are genuine nor the Efficacy of the Sacraments nor the necessity of Baptism nor Confession and Absolution nor the Sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist And for those other five points wherein we profess to recede from the Roman Church we declare unto the World if they were received in the Roman Church only in that degree of credibility they were taught by the Antients we should not look upon them as such Terriculaments as we do when the Antients taught them only as probable Opinions and the Roman Church hath now made them Articles of Faith Can. 7. we think 't is time for us to remember that Canon of the great Council of Ephesus which pronounceth Anathema against all those that shall compose any other Creed besides the Nicene Which of the Antients in the first six hundred years did receive or teach Purgatory or Invocation of Saints as Articles of their Creed Another piece of foul play I observe in this Disputer is this that in stating of the quarrel betwixt the Roman Church and the Church of England he does not only shuffle in many things which were never in question but does also leave out all those things which make up the Wall of Separation betwixt us As first the unlimited Supremacy of the Pope 2. The Infallibility of the Roman Church 3. The Worship of Images 4. The Sacrament in one kind 5. Prayer in an unknown Tongue c. These are the Gravamina we complain of these are the Rocks of Offence we stumble at which unless he can prove by the Testimony of the Antients as well at the other he doth but fight with his own shadow and as they say fingere stolidum adversarium and then sugillare make to himself a foolish Adversary and then beat him I shall end with that Counsel St. Augustine gives the Donatist Auferte perditam simulationem si de moribus non vultis saltem de literis vestris take away the wicked dissimulation if ye will not from your manners do it at least from your writings FINIS