Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	article_n	church_n	fundamental_a	4,539	5	10.3758	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30394	The mystery of iniquity unvailed in a discourse wherein is held forth the opposition of the doctrine, worship, and practices of the Roman Church to the nature, designs and characters of the Christian faith / by Gilbert Burnet ...	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1673 (1673)	Wing B5838; ESTC R35459	60,599	169

any attempt upon that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free he changeth the authority of the Church into a tyrannical Yoke much more if all the new articles of belief and rules for practice be imposed under the severest certificats But here we are to consider that all these things which that Church hath imposed on all of her Communion for which we withdrew from her are additions to our faith for in this we mainly differ from that Church that whatever we acknowledge they acknowledge likewise but with a great many additions we believe the Scriptures are a rule for Christians and they believe the same but they add traditions and the authority of the Church to the Scriptures We believe that God is to be worshipped spiritually they believe the same but add that he may be worshipped by Images and sensible Figures We believe Christ to be the Mediator betwixt God and Man they believe the same but add to this the intercession of Saints We hold that God and Christ are to be worshipped they hold the same but add Saints and Angels to our worship We believe Heaven and Hell to be the several States of the future life they believe the same but add Purgatory betwixt them to the day of Judgment We believe Baptism and the Lords Supper to be the Sacraments of the new Covenant they believe the same but add five more We believe Christ is spiritually and really present in the Lords Supper this they believe but add the unconceivable Tenent of his corporal presence In a word it might be instanced in many other particulars how they have driven us from their Communion by their additions to the truth and sincerity of the Gospel which they have adulterated by their Inventions and not only have they imposed all these things but thundered out Anathema's on all that question them and have so wreathed all their fopperies with that main and fundamental article of their belief of the infallibility of their Church that it is impossible to hope for their recovery till they renounce that Principle which is so dear to them For if their Church be infallible then in no matter of faith or practice can she decree amiss and therefore the lawfulness and sanctity of all her decrees must be maintained with an equal vigor and zeal for if in one of them she step aside her infallibility is for ever gone And by this we may see to how little purpose it is to treat of accomodating matters with that Church since there is no possibility of our union with them without we turn over entirely to them since they cannot part with one of their errors without they first renounce that which is the dearest of them all to wit the unerring authority of their Church How cruel then is that Church which addeth the severe sanction of an Anathema to all her decrees even about the most trifling matters and about things that are by their Confession of their own natures indifferent And a consectary to this is that cruel opinion they hold that none can be saved out of their Communion pretending there is no Salvation without the true Church which they restrict to these who are under the obedience of the Roman Bishop and this is what they usually frighten all with But it is to be considered what the true notion of the Church is that so we may see through this frightful Vizar The Church then is a Society of Christians united in the same faith for worshipping of God jointly And another definition of a Church cannot be proved from Scripture for the Church being called the Body of Christ its union with him as its head is held forth by the Apostle in these words Col. 2. 19. The head Christ from whom the whole body by joints and bonds having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God From which words we see what constitutes a man a member of the true Church which is first his union to Christ as his head together with a dependance on him for growth and nutriture and next his being knit to all others who are thus united to Christ which is first the inward union of divine Charity by which he loves all who cleave to Christ as their head and next his associating himself with them in outward visible acts of worship which every Christian is bound to do with all that worship God in Spirit and truth But if a Society of Christians do visibly swerve from Christ in many great and signal contradictions to the honour due to his Person and to the obedience due to his Laws and do grossly adulterate the worship so that communion cannot be had with that Church without departing from the head Christ then it can be no departing from the Church to adhere to Christ and his true worship and to separate from the corruptions are brought in upon the Christian religion If then it appear that the Church of Rome hath departed from the truth and simplicity of the Gospel in so many great and main points these who attempted the reforming her to her first purity and finding that not to be hoped for did unite among themselves for serving and worshiping God aright cannot be charged with separation from the true Church But by that cruel Tenent of theirs they breed up all their Children in the greatest uncharitableness imaginable condemning all who cannot believe all their strange Doctrines or concur in their unhallowed worship Thus they are the Schismatiques who have departed from the true Church and who force from their Communion all who adhere to it but this cruelty rests not in uncharitable censures but hath extended it self to as much bloody and barbarous rage as ever sprung from Hell for all the cruelty of the heathen Persecuters cannot match the practices of that Whore that hath been so often drunk with the blood of the Saints and of the Martyrs of Iesus What enraged cruelty appeared against the poor Waldenses for the separating from their Corruption how many of all Sexes and Ages were cruelly butchered down by the procurement of the Rulers of that Church and because the Albigenses lived under the protection of Princes that favoured them how did the Popes depose their Princes and instigate other ambitious invaders to seize on their dominions which to effectuate a Croissade was proclaimed that had been formerly practised against the Enemies of the Christian Faith and heaven was promised to such as went against these poor innocents whereupon they were killed by thousands without all mercy Never was there any who had the zeal or honesty in these dark ages to witness against the apostacy of the Church but the Pope and Clergy used all means to get his zeal rewarded with a faggot And when the time of reformation came with what rage and spite did the Pope by his Letters and Legates instigate all the Princes of Europe to cruelty against them but as these things were not done in corners so

and discovered their forgery had any such been But many of the Miracles of Rome are not heard of till some Ages at least Years be past whereby they are secure from the after-game of a discovery and he were a stout man that would adventure to question the verity of these pretences at Rome where it is the interest of that Church to have them all believed without once questioning them But how comes it that in Heretical Countreys as they call them where there is more need of those Miracles and where they might be more irrefragably proved if true since the Examiners of them were not to be suspected yet none of these mighty works do shew themselves forth Certainly that they are to this day so rife in Italy and Spain and so scant in Britain is a shrewd ground to apprehend Legerdemain and forgery in the accounts we get of their later Saints And indeed the Contrivers of these Stories have not managed their design by half so well as need was for they have bestowed as many of them on one person as might have Sainted the half of an Order But the gain that is made by new Saints and new Reliques is well enough known not to speak of the general advantage that Church pretends to draw from it In end though some things among them did seem to surpass the known powers of Nature these ought not to prevail upon us for departing from the truth since though an Angel from Heaven Preached another Gospel he is to be accursed Gal. 1. 8. If then they have so changed the Christian Doctrine by their Additions and Inventions that it is become thereby as another Gospel none of the seemingly Seraphical appearances they may have among them though true ought to reconcile us to it and that the rather since we were expresly guarded against this Imposture by St. Paul who gave it as an Indication of the Son of Perdition that his coming was after the power of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteouseness 2 Thess. 2. 9 10. And it is a part of their curse that they are given up to strong delusions to believe lies the Beast also that appeared to St. John Rev. 13. 13. did great wonders so that he made Fire come down from Heaven in the sight of men and deceived many that dwelt on the Earth by these Miracles which he had power to do But to conclude this my greatest quarrel at these forgeries of Miracles is that the people being taught to believe them and the Miracles of the Gospel with an equal certainty since they have the Testimony of the Church for both and they seeing such evident Characters of fraud and forgery on these supposed miracles whereby they are convinced of their falshood are thereby in danger of suspecting all the Miracles of the Gospel as the tricks of subdolous and crafty men whereby they run head-long to an Atheistical disbelieving the truth of all alike And thus far we have found how opposite that Church is to the Spouse of Christ since her Doctrines are so ill founded and look so like cunningly devised fables without the authority of divine inspiration or the proof of true Miracles The next Character of our Faith is its perspicuity and simplicity all being called to the clear light of the day in it and every part of it being so genuine that it is apparent it was not the contrivance of designing men that by the belief of it they might obtain the power and possess the riches of the World And therefore there are no secret Doctrines in our Faith which must be kept up from the Vulgar whereby the Pastors of Christendom may have dominion over their souls But what must we conclude of them who by all means study to keep all of their Communion ignorant as if devotion were thereby nourished and allow them not the use of the Scriptures in their Mother-tongue nor a worship which they can understand whereby it is that they who occupy the room of unlearned cannot say Amen at the giving of thanks since they understand not what is said To this might be added their implicite Faith to all the Doctrines of the Church without further inquiries and their blind obedience to the Confessarius be 〈◊〉 never so ignorant and carnal These are certainly darkening opinions and practises and far different from the methods of the Apostles in preaching the Gospel who with-held from the people nothing of the Counsel of God and studied the enlightening their understandings as well as the enlivening of their wills But further how much of interest appears in the Doctrines of Rome which tend to the exalting or enriching the Papacy and inferiour Clergy for it is visible what a trade they drive by them and all the contrivances all the projectours in Europe ever fell upon for enriching their Masters Treasury falls short of the projects of Purgatory the Treasure of the Church Indulgences and the Popes absolute authority in making abrogating and dispencing with all Positive Laws Neither is there more of design to be found in the Alcoran than in the Mysteries of that Caliph of the Spiritual Babylon And we may guess of their concernedness in these matters since a gentler censure may be hoped for upon the violation of the greatest of the Laws of God than upon the least contradiction to their idolized Interests The one is the constant subject of their Studies and Sermons whereas the other is seldom minded The third Character of our Faith is that it is rational and suitable to our Souls God having fitted it and framed them so harmoniously that they are congenial one to another It is true the Mysteries about God and Christ are exalted above the reach of our faculties but even reason it self teacheth that it must be so since if there be a God he must be infinite and incomprehensible and therefore it is not to be wondered if the Scriptures offer some Mysteries to us about God and Christ which choak and stifle the impressions we are apt to take of things But in these it is visible that the Object is so disproportioned to our faculties that it is impossible we can reach or comprehend it but as for the other parts of Religion they are all so distinctly plain that the reasonableness as well as the authority of them serve to commend them to us but how void are they of this who have made one of the chief Articles of their Faith and the greatest matter of their worship that which is not only beyond but contrary to the most common impressions of Nature which teacheth us to believe our senses when under no lesion and duly applied to a proper object For indeed in that case we cannot really doubt but things are as they appear to us for we cannot believe it mid-night when we clearly see the Sun in the Meridian nay and our Faith rests on the evidences our senses give since we