Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	catholic_n	church_n	creed_n	5,623	5	10.8449	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27017	The saints everlasting rest, or, A treatise of the blessed state of the saints in their enjoyment of God in glory wherein is shewed its excellency and certainty, the misery of those that lose it, the way to attain it, and assurance of it, and how to live in the continual delightful forecasts of it and now published by Richard Baxter ...	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Herbert, George, 1593-1633.	1650 (1650)	Wing B1383; ESTC R17757	797,603	962

dare search no further for fear of being counted a Novellist or Heretick or lest he bear their curse for adding to or taking from the common conceits So that Divinity is become an easier study then heretofore We are already at a Neplus ultra It seemeth vain when we know the opinions in credit to search any further We have then nothing to do but easily to study for popular Sermons nor is it safe so much as to make them our own by looking into and examining their grounds lest in so doing we should be forced to a dissent So that Scholars may easily be drawn to think that it is better to be at a venture of the common belief which may be with ease then to weary and spend themselves in tedious studies when they are sure beforehand of no better reward from men then the reputation of Hereticks Which is the lot of all that go out of the common rode So that who will hereafter look after any more truth then is known and in credit except it be some one that is so taken with admiration of it as to cast all his reputation overboard rather then make shipwrack of his self-prized Merchandize Yet most wonderful is it that my Christian especially so many godly Ministers should arrogate to themselves the high prerogatives of God! viz. to be the Rule and Standard of Truth I know they will say that Scripture is the Rule but when they must be the peremtory Judges of the sense of that Scripture so that in the hardest controversies none must swarve from their sense upon pain of being branded with Heresie or error what is this but to be the Judges themselves and Scripture but their servant The final ful decisive interpretation of Lawes belongeth to none but the Lawmakers themselves For who can know another mans meaning beyond his expressions but himself And yet it increaseth my wondering that these Divines have not forgotten the late arrogancy of the prelates in the same kinde under which some few of themselves did suffer Nor yet how constantly our Divines that write against the Papists do disclaim any such living final decisive Judge of controvesies but make Scripture the only Judg O what mischief hath the Church of Christ suffered by the enlarging of her Creed While it contained but twelve Articles believers were plain and peaceable and honest But a Christian now is not the sam● thing as then Our heads shall swell so big like children that have the rickets that all the body fares the worse for it Every new Article that was added to the Creed was a new engine to stretch the brains of believers and in the issue to ●end out the bowels of the Church It never went so well with the Church since it begun as Erasmus saith of the times of the Nicene counsel re● ing●niosam fore Christianum esse to be a matter of so much wit and cunning to be a Christian. Not but that all our wit should be here imployed and controversies of difficulty may be debated but when the decision of these must be put into our Creed and a man must be of the faith that the Church is of it goes hard Me thinks I could read Aquinas or Scotus or Bellarmine with profit ut Philosophiam et Theologiam liberam but when I most make them all parts of my Creed and subscribe to all they say or else be no Catholick this is hard dealing I know now we have no Spanish inquisition to fire us from the truth But as Cryn●us was wont to say Fontifici Romano Erasmum plus nocuiss● 〈◊〉 quam Lutherum stomachando so some mens reproaches may do more then other mens persecutions And it is not the least aggravation of these mens arrogancie that they are most violent in the points that they have least studyed or which they are most ignorant in Yea and that their cruel reproaches are usually so incessant that where they once fasten they scarce ●ver loose again having learned the old lesson to be sure to accuse boldly for the scarre will remain when the wound is healed Yea some will not spare the same of the dead but when their souls have the happiness of Saints with God their names must have the stain of Heresie with men More ingenuity had Charles the Emperor when the Spanish souldiers would have digged up the bones of Luther Sinite ipsum inquit quiescere ad diem resurrectionis et judicium omnium c. Let him rest saith he till the resurrection and the final Judgment if he were a Heretick he shall have as severe a Judg as you can desire These are the extreams which poor England groaneth under And is there no remedy Besides the God of Peace there is no remedy Peace is fled from mens Principles and Judgments and therefore it is a stranger to their Affections and practises no wonder then if it be a stranger in the Land both in Church and State If either of the forementioned extreams be the way to Peace we may have it or else where is the man that seeketh after it But I remember Luthers Oracle and fear it is now to be verified H●c perdent Religionem Christianam 1. Oblivio beneficiorum ab Evangelio acceptorum 2. Securitas quae jam passim ubique regnat 3. Sapientia mundi quae vult omnia redigere in ordinem impiis mediis Ecclesiae paci consulere Three things will destroy the Christian Religion First Forgetfulness of the benefits we received by the Gospel Secondly Security Thirdly The wisdom of the world which will needs reduce all into Order and look to the Churches peace by ungodly means The zeal of my spirit after Peace hath made me digress here further then I intended But the sum and scope of all my speech is this Let every conscionable Minister study equally for Peace and Truth as knowing that they dwell both together in the golden mean and not at such a distance as most Hotspurs do imagine and let them believe that they are like to see no more success of their labors then they are so studious of Peace and that all wounds will let out both blood and spirits and both Truth and Godliness is ready to run out at every breach that shall be made among the people or themselves and that the time for the Pastures of Profession to be green and for the Field of true Godliness to grow ripe for the Harvest and for the Rose of Devotion and Heavenliness to be fragrant and flourish it is not in the blustering stormy tempestuous Winter but in the calm delightful Summer of Peace O what abundance of excellent hopeful fruits of Godliness have I seen blown down before they were ripe by the impetuous windes of wars and other contentions and so have layen troden under foot by Libertinism and sensuality as meat for Swine who else might have been their Masters deligh In a word I never yet saw the Work of the Gospel

veterem Apostolorum Traditionem ne in conceptionem quidem mentis admittunt quodcunque Haereticorum portentiloquium est I have been the larger in proving an Immortal Life after this because I finde none doubt of the Authority of Scripture but they doubt of the Immortality of the Soul too among us This joyned with the Evident Vanity of all other Religions is an excellent medium to confirm us in the Christian Religion For if we must be happy or miserable for ever sure there is some true Religion teaching the way to Happiness That all other Religions are false any man that lives out of the dust and smoke of prejudice may see with one eye That there is a future Happiness or Misery is evident to Nature or else how would all Nations so universally acknowledg it The Ancient Barbarians beleeved the Immortality of the Soul as of the Getae Herodotus witnesseth Lib. 4. And of the Egyptians Diodorus Siculus l. 1. Biblioth numb 93. The very Inhabitants of Guiny Virginia Guiana Peru Chyna Mexico c. do beleeve a happiness and misery hereafter As Descrip. Reg. Afric Guineae cap. 21.44 Acosta lib. 5. c. 7 8. Hug. Linscot part 1. cap. 25. Jo. Lerius cap. 16. Sir Walter Rawleigh c. witness What Poet speaks not De Tartaro Campis Elisiis manibus And Philosophers of best note except Galen Epicurus Plinius c. As for Pythagoras and his Master Pherecides the Druides the Indian Brachmanes Socrates Plato Cicero Seneca they all acknowledg it Lege Marsil Ficinum de Immort Animae Yea Aristotle himself as is evident De anima lib. 1. context 65 66. Lib. 2. context 21. Lib. 3. context 4 6 7 19 20. Yet we must not take the same course with all men to convince them of Scripture Authority We must first deal with an Atheist In habitu Philosophico before we plead or directly prove Scripture Authority of which see learned Ludovicus Crocius Syntagm l. 1. p. 126. The validity of that Humane Testimony which here we have most use for dependeth not on any Authority thereto conferred from God as Romanists fondly imagine but on men as sensible rational and of common honesty The Testimony of the enemies is more strong then of friends Strabo witnesseth Lib. 16. Geogra of Moses and the ancient Israelites That they were truly righteous and godly men So doth Josephus testifie of John Baptist and James And Pliny of the Primitive Christians Lib. 10. Epist. 101. But I pass these as not intending a full handling of this subject The best that I know already extant on it is Grotius and Du Plessis and I would some able man would do yet more For my own part I have had so many rare convincing experiences of the fulfilling of Promises to me and answering Prayers by wonders of unusual Providences That serve mightily to conform me by seconding my Arguments And were it fit to speak so much of my own matters I would produce them for the confirming of others Were it not to digress I should here express my admiration That so many learned men should lean towards Rome meerly upon a conceit That there is a flat necessity of some Vltimately Decisive Judicial Expounder of Scripture and that must needs be their Church For they think it abominable that every man should be Judg. At present I would but know of them First Whether they speak of Fundamental plain places of Scripture or of more obscure and of less moment For the former First Where there is such Plainness there needs a Teacher to the Ignorant but not a Judg Among Christians Fundamentals are no Controversies Secondly And if the Judg mistake in Fundamentals if we obey him we must renounce our Faith Secondly If the Pope or his Councel of Prelates be Judg how shall all people in the Kingdoms of the World know what Exposition they give Hear their voices they cannot If by their written Canons who shall expound them to the people If another Pope or Councel who shall expound their Exposition and so in Infinitum I do not see but God speaks as plainly as the Councel of Trent and as easie to be understood Thirdly Doth the Pope and Prelates know the meaning of Scripture by rational means or by Euthusiasm or by some Superior Judg If by rational means why may not as learned Doctors know it as well by the same If by some other Judg Who is it If they beleeve Scripture or the Sense of it upon their own Authority who will regard such self idolizing wretches Fourthly If there be a means left of God for a true deciding all Controversies and resolving all difficulties in Scripture then why are not all resolved and why are we not perfect in knowledg The plain Truth is Christ is the onely proper Judg himself and hath left us his Laws and Magistrates to see that we obey them and Ministers to teach us the meaning of them Every man of these is bound to judg rightly of the Sense of these Laws every particular man that he may obey them And if he mistake he sineth and must answer it to God and in some cases to Magistrates and Overseers The Magistrate is to judg rightly when any is punishable and if he erre he must answer it to the Supream and he to God The Ministers are to judg rightly of the Sense of Scripture that they may teach them others and admonish and censure accordingly and if they mistake they are in Synods to consult for Information and in cases of difficulty beyond their own reach to obey the Decrees of such a lawful Synod But to expect a final decisive Judgment of all Controversies on Earth is vain And that Synods should be too bold in determining what God hath left doubtful and utterly uncertain is destructive to the Vnitie and Peace of the Church rather then conducible And for men to beleeve any of their Conclusions or obey any of their Canons when we are sure That they are contrary to the Word of God this were to change our Master and take them for Christ the Prophet who are but his Ambassadors and Vshers in his School When we have disputed and contended our selves aweary and wrangled the Church into flames and ashes yet that which God hath spoken obscurely and so left difficult in it self will remain obscure and difficult still And that which is difficult through the weakness and incapacity of the Readers will be far better cleared by a rational Explication then by a ●are Canon O when will the Lord once perswade his Churches ●o take his Scripture Laws for the onely Canon of their Faith ●nd that in their own naked Simplicity and Evidence without ●he Canons and Comments of men which are no parts of our Creed but helps to our understandings and bounds to our practice 〈◊〉 matters circumstantial which God hath left to mans determina●ion When will the Lord perswade us not to be wise above what 〈◊〉 written but to acknowledg that to be beyond

go on well in Wars nor the business of mens salvation succeed among dissentions but if one have in such times proved a gainer multitudes have bin losers The same God is the God both of Truth and Peace the same Christ is the Prince of Peace and Author of Salvation the same Word is the Gospel of Peace and Salvation both have the same causes both are wrought and carried on by the same Spirit the same Persons are the Sons of Peace and Salvation so inseparably do they go hand in hand together O therefore let us be the Ministers and helpers of our peoples peace as ever we desire to be helpers of their Salvation And how impossible is it for Ministers to maintain peace among their people if they maintain not peace among themselves O what a staggering is it to the faith of the weak when they see their Teachers and Leaders at such odds It makes them ready to throw away all Religion when they see scarce two or three of the most learned and godly Divines of one minde but like the bitterest enemies disgracing and vilifying one another and all because the Articles of our faith must be so unlimited voluminous and almost infinite so that no man well knows when he may call himself an Orthodox Christian. When our Creed is swelled to the bigness of a National Confession one would think that he that subscribeth to that Confession should be Orthodox and yet if he jump not just with the Times in expounding every Article of that Confession and run not with the stream in every other Point that is in question amongst them though he had subscribed to the whole Harmony of Confessions he is never the neerer the estimation of Orthodox Were we all bound together by a Confession or Subscription of the true Fundamentals and those other Points that are next to Fundamentals onely and there took up our Christianity and Unity yielding each other a freedom of differing in smaller or more difficult Points or in expressing our selves in different tearms and so did live peaceably and lovingly together notwithstanding such differences as men that all knew the mysteriousness of Divinity and the imperfection of their own understandings and that here we know but in part and therefore shall most certainly err and d●ffer in part what a world of mischiefs might this course prevent I oft think on the examples of Luther and Melancthon It was not a few things that they differed in nor such as would now be accounted small besides the imperious harshness of Luthers disposition as Carolostadius could witness and yet how sweetly and p●aceably and lovingly did they live together without any breach or disagreement considerable As Mel. Adamus saith of them Et si tempora fuerunt ad distractiones proclivia hominumque levitas dissidiorum cupida tamen cum alter alterius vitia nosset nunquam inter eos simultas extitit ex qua animorum alienatio subsecuta sit so that their agreement arose not hence that either was free from faults or errors but knowing each others faults they did more easily bear them Certainly if every difference in Judgment in matters of Religion should seem intolerable or make a breach in affection then no two men on earth must live together or tolerate each other but every man must resolve to live by himself for no two on earth but differ in one thing or other except such as take all their faith upon trust and explicitly believe nothing at all God hath not made our Judgments all of a complexion no more then our faces nor our Knowledg all of a size any more then our bodies and methinks men that be not resolved to be any thing in Religion should be afraid of making the Articles of their Faith so numerous lest they should shortly become Hereticks themselves by disagreeing from themselves and they should be afraid of making too strict Laws for those that differ in Judgment in controvertible Points lest they should shortly change their Judgments and so make a Rod for their own Backs for how know they in difficult disputable Cases but within this twelve months themselves may be of another minde except they are resolved never to change for fear of incurring the reproach of Novelty and Mutability and then they were best resolve to study no more nor ever to be wiser I would we knew just as what Age a man must receive this principle against changing his Judgment I am afraid lest at last they should teach it their children and lest many Divines did learn it too young and if any besides besides Christ and his Apostles must be the Standard and Foundation of our faith I would we could certainly tell who they are for I have heard yet none but the Pope or his General Councel expresly lay claim to the Prerogative of infallibility and I think there is few that have appeared more fallible for my own part I admire the gifts of God in our first Reformers Luther Melancthon Calvin c. And I know no man since the Apostles days whom I value and honor more then Calvin and whose Judgment in all things one with another I more esteem and come neerer too Though I may speed as Amiraldus to be thought to defend him but for a defence to his own errors but yet if I thought we must needs be in all things of his minde and know no more in any one Point then he did I should heartily wish that he had lived one fifty years longer that he might have increased and multiplied his knowledg before he died and then succeeding Ages might have had leave to have grown wiser till they had attained to know as much as he Some men can tell what to say in point of Ceremonies Common Prayer c. when they are prest with the Examples and Judgments of our first Reformers but in matters of Doctrine they forget their own Answers as if they had been perfect here and not in the other or as if Doctrinals were not much fuller of Mysteries and difficulties then Worship So far am I from speaking all this for the security of my self in my differing from others that if God would dispense with me for my Ministerial Services without any loss to his people I should leap as lightly as Bishop Ridley when he was stript of his Pontificalia and say as Paedaretus the Laconian when he was not chosen In numerum trecentorum Gratias habeo tibi O Deus quod tot homines meliores me huic Civitati dedisti But I must stop and again apologize for this tediousness though it be true as Zeno saith Verbis multis non eget veritas yet Respiciendum etiam quibus egent lectores And as Plato to Antisthenes Orationis modus est non penes dicentem sed penes audientem I conclude not with a Laconism but a Christianism as hoping my Brethren will at lest hear their Master Marke 9.50 Have salt in your selves and have peace