Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	church_n	doctrine_n	err_v	4,912	5	9.7791	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43636	A speech without-doors, or, Some modest inquiries humbly proposed to the right honourable the Convention of Estates, assembled at Westminster, Jan. 22, 1688/9 concerning, I. Bigotism, or religious madness, II. Tests, and the present test in particular, III. Penal laws in matters of religion, IV. The necessity of changing and recanting our opinions in religion, V. Restraint of the press / by Edm. Hickeringill ...	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1689 (1689)	Wing H1827; ESTC R20396	31,636	44

Behaviour not permitting them to stickle with carnal VVeapons against Men of different Opinions in matters of meer Religion but commanding us if possible and as much as lieth in us to live peaceably with all men surely it is possible nay easie in this Case most easie All Yes if they be Men our Brethren as being Sons of Adam though not of our Religion nor of our size and pitch nor of our Features and Complexion though of different Religion or of no Religion yet they are Men and where God makes no Exception how dare we make Exceptions Since we are obliged to have a Charity as Vniversal as Mankind and to live peaceably with all men If this be Gospel what becomes of our Tests and Penal Laws All our Lawyers are agreed that all Statutes are Null and Ipso facto void in themselves if they be contrary to the Laws of God and Laws of Nature or Right Reason And this present Test though Enacted by ten thousand Parliaments is never the more justifiable because it is a prophane Temptation even to Conformists sometimes and to Nonconformists at all times to take their choice chuse them whether either to starve here or at least be kept out of their Birth-rights as men and Christians or else to Eat and Drink it unmeetly to the Holy End Design and Institution of that blessed Sacrament which was not Political Carnal and Worldly but Pure Spiritual Heavenly and Divine and therefore to Eat and Drink for a Political Test and State-Policy is to Eat and Drink it Vnworthily and Vnmeetly and therefore Men so Eating and Drinking it Eat and Drink their own Damnation Away with it for Shame Let it not be such a Scandal to our Holy Protestant Religion SECT III. Of Penal Laws in Matters of meer Religion MAny people cry up the Church of England and drink healths to the Prosperity of the Church of England And yet neither know what makes a true Church of Christ nor who are this same thing of some mens making or marring called the Church What constitutes a true Church but true Doctrine and true Sa●raments according to plain Scriptures The Discipline is left to discretion For I suppose we are all agreed that this or that form of Church Government is not Jure Divino King Charles I. a great Episcopal-man yet denied that Bishops as we have them are Jure Divino other than as Priests or Presbyters and Bishops are one and the same thing and undistinguished in many places of Scripture but yet that wise King held them not to be contra jus Divinum not contrary to Gods Law that is I suppose when they feed the Flocks not Lording it over God's Heritage as if they had Dominion over our Faith which even the Apostles renounc'd imposing what they believe and their attainments upon us to believe whether we can or no or else Anathematize Goal and Imprison them and lot them lye there till they starve and dye What comfort is it with so much strugling to keep out an Italian Bishop Romish cruelty Fire and Faggot that soon dispatches men out of their pain and still to keep something like it Nay a worse if to lye in Prison after Excommunication and there to starve and dye a lingring death like Crucifixion feeling a thousand deaths he and his Family and all this for not paying the Register or taking the Church-wardens Oath or the Holy Sacrament at Easter neither of which the persons durst do for fear of Damnation Then take your choice Death or Damnation a lingring Death Crucifying them and making them and their poor Families feel many deaths And is this amendment I hope our Bishops will now recant these violent and carnal weapons since several of them have done it already promising to be willing to come to a temper in their Petition to the King And thereby confessing that they had been too hot and distempered before and yet even at this day I am afraid that some men are only against Carnal Weapons Prophane-Tests and Penal Laws not because they like them not but because they see they cannot hold them the Genius of the Nation being universally against such a Wild-fire Church St. Paul defind all carnal Weapons in his Spiritual Warfare The Weapons of our Warfare are not Carnal but Spiritual Indeed he stood up stoutly in defence of the Priviledge of his Birth-Right when that was invaded by Arbitrary Government Tyranny and Oppression and therefore for Remedy St. Paul sent for an honest General and his Army to come to his Rescue and his Excellency Claudius Lycias after St. Paul had given him to understand that he was a Roman and wrong'd of his Birth-right came with an Army and delivered him out of the hands of his Oppressors having understood the matter of wrong Act. 23.27 Act. 22.29 Then good night Church of England if the Jaylor do not help it will some say and so say I good night And happiness to her and long life for the Gates of Hell Hadou of the Grave shall never prevail against the true Church that is the Church shall never have a Grave it shall never dye but to the Worlds end there shall be some always that believe in and confess the Lord Jesus Son of the living God. The Doctrine of the Church of England which is Confirm'd by Act of Parliament is contained in the Comman Prayer-Book and also in the 39 Articles and in the Homilies that are set out or shall be set out by Authority This last is a deep one He must have a wide Swallow that has an implicit Faith and believes as the Church believes when that same Church in whom he doth believe confesseth the truth namely that she may Err or teach what is not truth Now would I in all Humility and Modesty put this sober Query Query 1. How can a Man subscribe to the Doctrine in Homilies that shall be put out except he have a Popish Implicit Faith to believe as the Church believes before he knows what Doctrinal Homilies Authority will put forth And such Authority that has perhaps Err'd in Doctrinal points already put forth by Authority or by their own Confession may Err. as well as the Church of Rome Antioch Jerusalem c. that have Err'd already as the 39 Articles ingeniously and modestly confess Query 2. It is worth a modest Inquiry and now most seasonable to Inquire now I say when things are come to a full stop and in the fairest and most probable way to settle upon a lasting Foundation Is it now high time modestly to Inquire who is the Judge of matters of Faith which all Christian Protestants a new Name only for the old Apostolical and Primitive Christian ought to obey in pain of the Jayle h●re and Damnation hereafter if he persist in his Diss●nt and Non-conformity thereunto though some Bigots call it a wicked Error This is a sawcy Question will some say But I Answer that he that says so is an Impudent Blasphemer

Holy Ghosts Words Scripture Words which if Ambiguous let us leave men to their own Master to stand or fall to their own Judgments to Consent or Dissent and never make these Impositions of Creeds an occasion of Scandal or a Stumbling-Block in our Brothers way to make him fall Will men still urge an Act of Vniformity which they themselves keep not made by a King that this present King has published whatsoever he was in his Life a Papist at his Death and made by a Parliament distinguished by a Name Eternally Infamous the Pensioners Parliament from the multitude of Judas's that sold their and their King and Countreys Consciences betray'd their Master by cheating His Exchequer going S●ips with him in his Revenue and like Ambo-Dexter-Lawyers took Fees on both sides took Money of the Countrey to be faithful to their Interest and then rook'd or robb'd the Exchequer to betray the Countrey that entrusted them O abominable Perfidy Never to be forgotten nor forgiven till a Brand be set upon them to mark them out to all Posterity for an Example of Treachery and till they truly repent which cannot be without Restitution Shall a fellow be hang'd for taking a Purse of Five Pounds value by the High-way And shall they go Vnpunish'd that do not only betray their Trust but rob the King and the Countrey too Learned Lawyers have found Treason in it If they had not been Purified by the House of Peers and well Poiz'd by the honest Patriots in the House of Commons what mischief might they not have done Sometimes we read of the Church of Philippi Ephesus Galatia Thessalonia c. There a National there a City-Church and sometimes we read of the Church in thy House all true Churches both the greater and the lesser So that the Church of England are all the Faithful Christians in England and ought not to be Vn-Church'd though they differ in smaller Ceremonies or greater Matters for in the Church of Corinth some denied the greatest Fundamental in Divinity 1 Cor. 15.12 13 14 15. without which all Preaching Praying Sacraments c. are Null Vold and of no Effect viz. The Resurrection of the Dead and yet they were in the Church and no Apostolical Decree to Excommunicate them or Cast them out How Unjustifiable then is it to Excommunicate a Believer because he Refuses to Take the Church-Wardens Oath or Sacrament or for not Conforming to some Imposition of Trivial Concern Are not they that thus Excommunicate the Schismaticks by laying a Scandal in their Brothers way to make him fall Rom. 15.13 and then by an Unchristian Capias to Imprison him till Iris Purse help him out And a Protestants Absolution after all costs Ten times more Money then is demanded by the Popish-Priests in their Authentick and Printed Table of Fees for Adultery or Incest c. So that what Ease is it to a Protestant that lies starving in a Goal after he has stood Excommunicated 40 days that it is not the Common Enemy has undone him but a Protestant-Friend Not the Brishop of Rome but one at home If my Purse my Liberty or my Goods be taken from me 't is a Cold Comfort to ease my Heart with this Melancholy Contemplation that my Country-man a Protestant did it and not an Italian Priest or to escape the Romish-Fire and Faggot or Bloody M●ss●cres that soon puts us out of Pain and yet be Crucified alive in a J●yle a Man and his House Never do we read in Holy Scripture of a Convocation of Clergy-men that took upon themselves an Authority to make Canons and lay Impositions upon the L●●…ity no not when even all the Chief Apostles were met in Synod at that only Synod that holy Scripture speaks of at Jerusalem without the consent of the Lay-Brothers Acts 15.23 And even there were not an innumerable company of Impositions and Canons Not so much as one Imposition of Creeds to be believed Nor any one Anathema or Curse or Penal Law denounced against Dissenters Yet they had the presence of the Infallable Spirit of Truth which the Church of England does not in the least pretend to and even then also enjoyned only a few necessary things Act● 15.28 And if either Church of Rome or Church of England had not a Bigoted and Priest-ridden Arm of Flesh wherewith to Fight Non-conformity and would be content with such Weapons as Christ and his holy Apostles thought sufficient they might Anathamize and Curse till their Hearts should ake before any Wise and Rational Christian would believe as they believe only because they believed it Who gave them Dominion over our Faith and Consciences What Authority have they to Lord it over Gods Heritage the Layity There 1 Pet. 5.3 called Gods Clergy especially since as shall be shown hereafter they have Erred already both in Doctrine and Discipline That late Doctrine of Passive Obedience they now Smile at and some of them together with all English Protestants have Actually Recanted Repented of and Forsaken or else we had sin'd against the great Law of Nature Self-Preservation Must we Pray against Arbitrary Government and Oppression and not use the means May we not pay men in their own Coyn and give them as good as they bring May we not repell vim vi Force with Force This Doctrine of Passive Obedience is poyut-blanck against the 39 Articles of the Church of England which Curses all that dares deny That it is Lawful to serve in the Wars And if any War be Lawful a Defensive War in defending Ours or our Neighbours Lives Houses Goods or Rights as Men and Christians is by all agreed to be the most Lawful War because it is of absolute necessity For what has God and Nature furnished Men with Eyes and Couragious Hearts and strong Arms To keep our Arms in our Pockets till our Throats be Cut We beg your Pardon Mr. Passiv● Obedience Or if you will not give us Pardon sell it to us as you do other Absolutions SECT IV. Of the Necessity of Changing and Recanting our Opinions in Religion IF any man Pope or Mahomet say he has no Sin he is a Liar and the Truth is not in him saith St. John Then how is it possible for a Man to go to Heaven except he Recant and R●pent for Heaven is fill'd with ●0 glorified Saints except R●canters No Book in the World is Faultless and Infallible except the Holy Bible for either Matter or Manner of Expression or du● Taming the thing or some other Circumstance it has some Errors or Faults in it And if this be true then every Author that writes a Book ought to Recant the same if he be a true Christian I mean the Errors committed therein for I never heard of any Christian Man as yet that ever was so like the Father of Lies as 〈◊〉 desire that any Body would Recant the Truth 's contained in his Ways Books or Works The Truth will shift for its self in spight of all Opposition at long

namely in Renouncing the Pope and all his Evil Works by the Oath of Supremacy which our present King King James II. by his Dispensing Power vacated in the first place as being a Long-approved and sufficient Bar and Bulwark to keep out Popery in the four last preceding Reigns It is also as true that as he left no stone unturn'd that lay in the way of bringing in Popery so he was necessitatid therefore also to set aside and disponce with this New Test which did inflict grievous Penalties upon them that durst or did venture in without taking it But they had all been kept out to this day and were kept out an hundred years before and could not therefore need his Dispensing Power until he let them in two years before by Dispensing with the Oath of Supremacy A Test that perhaps had been still thought sufficient if this Test had not jumpt right with some men's Malice that hated Protestant Dissenters as much if not more than Papists Indeed I grant That the King by that Gracious Indulgence gain'd the Dissenters and thereby lost the Love of High-Church-men who were as quiet and gentle as Lambs and Loyal as Heart could wish when he dispenc'd with that great and approved Test the Oath of Supremacy for two long years together whilst he permitted them and maintain'd them and their Penal Laws against Dissenters But when he put out his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience the Magna Charta that God the only King of Consciences has given to all Mankind would some Men so much as read the Indulgence which His Majesty the best Act that ever he did in his Life both in Piety and Policy too for it has been the Life of Trade in Holland and the Penal Laws or Inquisition their Dis-peopling and Destruction of Trade and Riches in Flanders as God's Deputy Re-inforc'd and Ordain'd No no! Though expresly enjoyn'd in the Rubrick of the Common-Prayer-Books What Combination What Bandying against it And perhaps for good Reasons But have they scrupled to read and make Prayers for worse things that I say not Impostures Or was it because it was Evil as to the Matter None had the Face to say so But Evil as to the Form of Dispensing because not done in Form of Law namely not Repealed by the same Power that Enacted it which Reason perhaps is a good Reason but how could it be more a Reason now in this Case then it was when he Dispenc'd with the Oath of Supremacy Which was as much against Law as this Dispensation and yet whilst he maintain'd the Church of England to Prosecute Dissenters with their Excommunications Capias's Fines and Imprisonments they were hush'd and Serene and as loyal as could be Preaching up Passive Obedience Prayers and Tears as the only Weapons of a Christian Groaning under the Oppression of Superiours during all the long time that they were uppermost and felt no Smart The Patriarch of Constantinople is as great an Enemy to Popery as any Prelate or Lay-man amongst us yet he holds more ridiculous and unaccountable Errors than the Papists and enslaves the poor Greeks as tyrannically as the Pope does enslave his Italian Papists What are the poor Greeks the better for this Bulwark against the Pope and Popery The Patriarch scornes to kiss the Pope's Toe and to be Tenant at will to the Pope or to hold his Patriarchate of him or under him and Preaches and Writes against Popish Errors but holds the poor Greeks to as bad Errors And is not the Pope on the other side the Water as Fierce Dogmatical and Pragmatical a Bigot in forcing the poor Greeks to believe as he believes and to be as Vniformable and Conformable to his Trinckets and Ceremonies as the Pope with his Inquisition in Italy What good does Graecia get by such a Bulwark against Popery when Pope and Popery cannot possibly make their Condition much worse then it is A true Christian Protestant should protest against and abominate Popery of the New as well as of the Old Edition and should keep close to the Apostolical and Primitive Rule of Charity in ease of Nonconformity There were Dissenters in the Church of Philippi as now amongst us so many Men to many different Minds so many Men so many different Features perhaps in doubtful Matters of Faith and some had better Eyes and Brains Hearts and Legs than others and therefore had different Apprehensions Opinions and Attainments Now What shall be done in this Case was the Question All prest forward towards the Mark of the Prize of the High-Calling of God in Christ Jesus Phil. 3.14 But some lagg'd behind as is usual in a Race to which the Apostle aludes Ver. 13. Now the Question is VVhat should be done with these that lagg'd behind and cannot come up so near the Mark as we Burn them Consume them with Fire from Heaven or Earth says zealous James and John and the Papists Or shall we spur them up with Penal Laws or Excommunicate them and then Goal them No Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of saith Christ And St. Paul in the 15th verse of that 3d Chapter of the Philippians If any Man be otherwise minded or be a Dissenter of another Opinion then make use of what Remedy Of your VVrath Your Passion Your Penal Laws and Tests No no wait God's Leisure make use of your Charity rather than Wrath of your Patience rather than Passion leave him to the King to whom alone Conscience belongs for if any man be a Nonconformist or otherwise minded God shall Reveal even this unto him He did not bid them do as some spiritual Watchmen now do call the Corporal call the Constable So that indeed Antichristian weapons and Christ's weapons are vastly different quite of another Shape Form and Fashion and made of quite contrary Stuff and Matter Christ and his Holy Apostles converted the World not with Earthly Carnal and Political Tests and Penal Laws and are we Wiser than they Did they borrow any of the Magistrates Weapons or Weapons like Mabomet from the Arms of Flesh No they are purely Spiritual Heavenly and Divine God did forbid in the Old Law the wearing of Lindsey-Wolsey or the yoaking of an Ox and an Ass together not without a Mystery Almighty God and Christ under the Gospel especially hating the Chaos of mingling Heaven and Earth together jumbling carnal and spiritual Tools in Hodge-podge they will not mingle will they cannot possibly Incorporate nor carry on one main End and one onely Design For if ye have bitter Envying and Strife in your Hearts striving with carnal Tools carnal VVeapons carnal Laws and carnal Tests this VVisdom descendeth not from above but is fetch'd from Hell and is therefore Earthly Sensual Devilish But the Wisdom that is from above is first pure so should the Holy Sacraments be pure and unmix'd with carnal Polices then Peaceable Gentle and easie to be intreated c. binding men to the Peace and good

against the holy Ghost whom I only Eccho for the holy Ghost by the holy Apostle St. Paul puts this very Question Rom. 14.4 Who art thou that Judgest another Man's Servant To his own Master he standeth or falleth Yea he shall be holden up for God is able to make him stand Then from that 4th Verse the Apostle proceeds to state some cases wherein Christians were not Vniform neither needed to be Uniform as being therein a Royal Priesthood and Priviledged Kings exempt from humane Punishment Judgment Impositions Correction or Condemnation as being accountable for their Opinions finally to God only Rom. 14.11 Whence he Concludes with this Apostolical Canon that to all intents and purposes repeals makes void and disanulls all humane Canons Impositions or Acts of Uniformity in matters of Faith or in Imposing their own Attainments and Creeds upon all others saying Let us not therefore Judge one another any more but judge rather that no man put a Stumbling-Block Scandal or occasion to fall in his Brothers way Rom. 15.1 But let the Strong bear the Infirmities of the Weak and not please themselves with their own Bigoted Notions laying heavy burdens and grievous to be born which they themselves in their Sins of Commission without Rule Wilfull Idle and unaccountable Ceremonies will not touch with one of their Fingers But is there any Conscience that the Weak should bear the Infirmities of the strong In Defiance and Rancounter to that said Text Rom. 15.1 From all which Premises does it not clearly follow and may we not Conclude Conclusion I. 1. That God is the only King of Consciences as King Charles I. of Pious Memory concludes saying Who am I Eik Basil that I should Invade God's Throne the only King of Consciences Wherefore did Lucifer become a Devil He aspir'd to God's Throne and would be like him Wherefore is that Wicked Wretch in 2 Thess 2. that must and shall fall called the Man of Sin But because he attempts God's Throne sitting in the Temple of God imposing his own Faith Opinions Creeds and Canons tail'd with a Fire-brand an Anathema a Curse against all Nonconformists when he himself also is the greatest Nonconformist but keep most unjustly and unsufferably both false Weights and false Measures one to buy by and another to s●…ll by as shall be shewn unanswerably by and by May we not therefore without any the least Suspition of Sawciness put this sober Question again Who art thou that judgest another Man's Servant What is thy Name Is it Lucifer Is it Antichrist or Man of Sin Is that thy Name Thou that like another God sittest there Domineering over Men's Faith Lording it over God's Heritage God's Dominion who is the only Kardiagnostos or Searcher of Hearts Consciences where thou canst take no Cognizance if thou wouldst judge Who art thou I say Art thou a God commanding the Waves and saying Hitherto shalt thou go and no further and here shall thy Proud Waves be stay'd Art thou the Hercules-Pillars or Hercules with his Club Art thou the Ne Plus ultra in Religion In Nomine Domini What art thou And where is thy Commission thy Authority And who gave thee this Authority to do these Things Our blessed Saviour commands us to call no Man Father no Man Master upon Earth that is not implicitely jurare in Verba Magistri to believe just as our Masters our Fathers believe because Faith is not the Gift of a Synod of a Convocation of a Council but is the Gift of God And never was there Peace in the Christian Church since Councils and Synods and Bishops and Parliaments and Kings took upon them to make Acts of Vniformity Impositions of Faith and Creeds Cursing and Imprisoning and sometimes Burning and Starving all Gain sayers but by what Commission Is not this as irrational as that Cannon and Decree of the Egyptian Priests commanding all men on Pain of Fine and Imprisonment to Believe that their two Gods Isis and Osyris never had been Men when all the Countrey knew to the contrary And some of them well remembred them and had Eat and Drank with them Most Excellent Bigotism The first general Council of Nice had shamefully err'd but for Paphnutius a poor Dissenter a One-ey'd Man that saw more than they all and fet them to rights and brought all the Bishops to a better Sight and Understanding The greatest General Council that ever was in the Christian World was call'd and convocated at Ariminum seven hundred and odd Bishops twice as many Laun-sleeves as was at Constantine's first great Council And they all unanimously concluded against the Divinity of the second Person of the Holy Trinity Goodly Sleeves for a Man to pin his Faith upon Athanasins that was such a Stickler with his Creed that now bears his Name in the Common-Prayer-Book Begining and Ending with an Anathema to all that do not believe just as he does what got he by this Dogmatical Imposition of his Faith upon all other Christians A Nick-name the Age he liv'd in very ungratefully some say called him Sathanasius Is it not enough for us to believe as our blessed Saviour says that his Father is greater than he and yet that he is one with his Father God in Christ and Christ in God and Christ in Believers that they also may be one with both But where do we read in Scripture that Christ is God of God very God of very God What language is this The Father Vncreate the Son Vncreate the Holy Ghost Vncreate and yet they are not Three Vncreate but One Vncreate We are not Arrians but surely the Holy Ghost in Scripture has found sufficient Words and the Holy Scripture and Apostles Creed is a sufficient Rule of Faith and surely was sufficient to carry a man to Heaven three hundred years before Athanasius was born and three hundred years before the Nicene and Constantinopolitan-Creed was invented and 1400 years before that Packt Convention at Trent patch'd up with Nominal Lord Bishops that were Shepherds without a Flock yet had as good a Vote as the best Is it not sad that men must starve and die because they obey not such frothy Men like Froth and Scum because uppermost Is it not a Lamentation and shall be for a Lamentation that all Christian Men must be forc'd to see with other men's Eyes and to believe by Proxy and obey Blindfold and also swallow like Cramm'd Capons all that is put down their Throats Is not this Mahomet-like who carried his Bible his Alcoran in one Hand and his Sword in the other saying if the first will not do the other shall We are all as good Church-of-England-Men as the uppermost Men we hope Is it not enough for us Church-of England Men to be Humble Seekers and confess with the 39 Articles that we mar err and consequently it is unaccountable to impose our Errors on others and then back our Errors with Penal Laws or to impose Creeds in other Words than the