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A64135
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Treatises of 1. The liberty of prophesying, 2. Prayer ex tempore, 3. Episcopacie : together with a sermon preached at Oxon. on the anniversary of the 5 of November / by Ier. Taylor.
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Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.
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1648
(1648)
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Wing T403; ESTC R24600
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539,220
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854
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quiet and charitable in some dis-agreeings that then and there the inconvenience ceases if they were so in all others where lawfully they might and they may in most Christendome should be no longer rent in pieces but would be redintegrated in a new Pentecost and although the Spirit of God did rest upon us in divided tongues yet so long as those tongues were of fire not to kindle strife but to warme our affections and inflame our charities we should finde that this variety of Opinions in severall persons would be look't upon as an argument only of diversity of operations while the Spirit is the same and that another man believes not so well as I is onely an argument that I have a better and a clearer illumination than he that I have a better gift than he received a speciall grace and favour and excell him in this and am perhaps excelled by him in many more And if we all impartially endeavour to finde a truth since this endeavour and search only is in our power that wee shall finde it being ab extra a gift and an assistance extrinsecall I can see no reason why this pious endeavour to finde out truth shall not be of more force to unite us in the bonds of charity then his misery in missing it shall be to dis-unite us So that since a union of perswasion is impossible to be attain'd if we would attempt the cure by such remedies as are apt to enkindle and encrease charity I am confident wee might see a blessed peace would bee the reward and crown of such endeavours But men are now adayes and indeed alwayes have been since the expiration of the first blessed Ages of Christianity so in love with their own Fancies and Opinions as to think Faith and all Christendome is concernd in their support and maintenance and whoever is not so fond and does not dandle them like themselves it growes up to a quarrell which because it is in materiâ theologiae is made a quarrell in Religion and God is entitled to it and then if you are once thought an enemy to God it is our duty to persecute you even to death we doe God good service in it when if we should examine the matter rightly the Question is either in materiâ non revelata or minus evidenti or non necessariâ either it is not revealed or not so clearely but that wise and honest men may be of different minds or else it is not of the foundation of faith but a remote super-structure or else of meere speculation or perhaps when all comes to all it is a false Opinion or a matter of humane interest that we have so zealously contended for for to one of these heads most of the Disputes of Christendome may be reduc'd so that I believe the present fractions or the most are from the same cause which St Paul observed in the Corinthian Schisme when there are divisions among you are ye not carnall It is not the differing Opinions that is the cause of the present ruptures but want of charity it is not the variety of understandings but the disunion of wills and affections it is not the severall principles but the severall ends that cause our miseries our Opinions commence and are upheld according as our turns are serv'd and our interests are preserv'd and there is no cure for us but Piety and Charity A holy life will make our belief holy if we consult not humanity and its imperfections in the choyce of our Religion but search for truth without designes save only of acquiring heaven and then be as carefull to preserve Charity as we were to get a point of Faith I am much perswaded we should finde out more truths by this meanes or however which is the maine of all we shall be secured though we misse them and then we are well enough For if it be evinced that one heaven shall hold men of severall Opinions if the unity of Faith be not destroyed by that which men call differing Religions and if an unity of Charity be the duty of us all even towards persons that are not perswaded of every proposition we believe then I would faine know to what purpose are all those stirres and great noyses in Christendome those names of faction the severall Names of Churches not distinguish'd by the division of Kingdomes ut Ecclesia sequatur Imperium which was the Primitive * Optat. lib. 3. Rule and Canon but distinguish'd by Names of Sects and men these are all become instruments of hatred thence come Schismes and parting of Communions and then persecutions and then warres and Rebellion and then the dissolutions of all Friendships and Societies All these mischiefes proceed not from this that all men are not of one minde for that is neither necessary nor possible but that every Opinion is made an Article of Faith every Article is a ground of a quarrell every quarrell makes a faction every faction is zealous and all zeale pretends for God and whatsoever is for God cannot be too much we by this time are come to that passe we think we love not God except we hate our Brother and we have not the vertue of Religion unlesse we persecute all Religions but our own for luke-warmnesse is so odious to God and Man that we proceeding furiously upon these mistakes by supposing we preserve the body we destroy the soule of Religion or by being zealous for faith or which is all one for that which we mistake for faith we are cold in charity and so loose the reward of both All these errors and mischiefes must be discovered and cured and that 's the purpose of this Discourse SECTION I. Of the nature of Faith and that its duty is compleated in believing the Articles of the Apostles Creed FIrst then it is of great concernment to know the nature and integrity of faith For there begins our first and great mistake Number 1. for Faith although it be of great excellency yet when it is taken for a habit intellectuall it hath so little roome and so narrow a capacity that it cannot lodge thousands of those Opinions which pretend to be of her Family For although it be necessary for us to believe whatsoever we Numb 2. know to be revealed of God and so every man does that believes there is a God yet it is not necessary concerning many things to know that God hath revealed them that is we may be ignorant of or doubt concerning the propositions and indifferently maintaine either part when the Question is not concerning Gods veracity but whether God hath said so or no That which is of the foundation of Faith that only is necessary and the knowing or not knowing of that the believing or dis-believing it is that only which in genere credendorum is in immediate and necessary order to salvation or damnation Now all the reason and demonstration of the world convinces Numb 3. us that this foundation
For others I shall be incurious because the number of them that honour you is the same with them that honour Learning and Piety and they are the best Theatre and the best judges amongst which the world must needs take notice of my ambition to be ascribed by my publike pretence to be what I am in all heartinesse of Devotion and for all the reason of the world My Honour'd Lord Your Lordships most faithfull and most affectionate servant J. TAYLOR The Contents of the Sections SECTION I. OF the Nature of Faith and that its duty is compleated in believing the Articles of the Apostles Creed Pag. 5. SECT II. Of Heresy and the nature of it and that it is to be accounted according to the strict capacity of Christian Faith and not in Opinions speculative nor ever to pious persons pag. 18. SECT III. Of the difficulty and uncertainty of Arguments from Scripture in Questions not simply necessary not literally determined pag. 59. SECT IV. Of the difficulty of Expounding Scripture pag. 73. SECT V. Of the insufficiency and uncertainty of Tradition to expound Scripture or determine Questions pag. 83. SECT VI. Of the uncertainty and insufficiency of Councels Ecclesiasticall to the same purpose pag. 101. SECT VII Of the fallibility of the Pope and the uncertainty of his Expounding Scripture and resolving Questions pag. 125. SECT VIII Of the disability of Fathers or Writers Ecclesiasticall to determine our Questions with certainty and Truth pag. 151. SECT IX Of the incompetency of the Church in its diffusive capacity to be Iudge of Controversies and the impertinency of that pretence of the Spirit pag. 161. SECT X. Of the authority of Reason and that it proceeding upon the best grounds is the best judge pag. 165. SECT XI Of some causes of Errour in the exercise of Reason which are inculpate in themselves pag. 171. SECT XII Of the innocency of Errour in opinion in a pious person pag. 184. SECT XIII Of the deportment to be used towards persons disagreeing and the reasons why they are not to be punished with death c. pag. 189. SECT XIIII Of the practice of Christian Churches towards persons disagreeing and when Persecution first came in pag. 203. SECT XV. How farre the Church or Governours may act to the restraining false or differing opinions pag. 210. SECT XVI Whether it be lawfull for a Prince to give toleration to severall Religions pag. 213. SECT XVII Of compliance with disagreeing persons or weak Consciences in generall pag. 217. SECT XVIII A particular consideration of the Opinions of the Anabaptists pag. 223 SECT XIX That there may be no Toleration of Doctrines inconsistent with piety or the publique good pag. 246. SECT XX. How farre the Religion of the Church of Rome is Tolerable pag. 249. SECT XXI Of the duty of particular Churches in allowing Communion pag. 262. SECT XXII That particular men may communicate with Churches of different perswasions and how farre they may doe it pag. 264. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OF THE LIBERTY OF PROPHESYING THe infinite variety of Opinions in matters of Religion as they have troubled Christendome with interests factions and partialities so have they caused great divisions of the heart and variety of thoughts and designes amongst pious and prudent men For they all seeing the inconveniences which the dis-union of perswasions and Opinions have produced directly or accidentally have thought themselves obliged to stop this inundation of mischiefes and have made attempts accordingly But it hath hapned to most of them as to a mistaken Physitian who gives excellent physick but mis-applies it and so misses of his cure so have these men their attempts have therefore been ineffectuall for they put their help to a wrong part or they have endeavoured to cure the symptomes and have let the disease alone till it seem'd incurable Some have endeavoured to re-unite these fractions by propounding such a Guide which they were all bound to follow hoping that the Unity of a Guide would have perswaded unity of mindes but who this Guide should be at last became such a Question that it was made part of the fire that was to be quenched so farre was it from extinguishing any part of the flame Others thought of a Rule and this must be the meanes of Union or nothing could doe it But supposing all the World had been agreed of this Rule yet the interpretation of it was so full of variety that this also became part of the disease for which the cure was pretended All men resolv'd upon this that though they yet had not hit upon the right yet some way must be thought upon to reconcile differences in Opinion thinking so long as this variety should last Christ's Kingdome was not advanced and the work of the Gospel went on but slowly Few men in the mean time considered that so long as men had such variety of principles such severall constitutions educations tempers and distempers hopes interests and weaknesses degrees of light and degrees of understanding it was impossible all should be of one minde And what is impossible to be done is not necessary it should be done And therefore although variety of Opinions was impossible to be cured and they who attempted it did like him who claps his shoulder to the ground to stop an earth-quake yet the inconveniences arising from it might possibly be cured not by uniting their beliefes that was to be dispaird of but by curing that which caus'd these mischiefes and accidentall inconveniences of their disagreeings For although these inconveniences which every man sees and feeles were consequent to this diversity of perswasions yet it was but accidentally and by chance in as much as wee see that in many things and they of great concernment men alow to themselves and to each other a liberty of disagreeing and no hurt neither And certainely if diversity of Opinions were of it selfe the cause of mischiefes it would be so ever that is regularly and universally but that we see it is not For there are disputes in Christendome concerning matters of greater concernment then most of those Opinions that distinguish Sects and make factions and yet because men are permitted to differ in those great matters such evills are not consequent to such differences as are to the uncharitable managing of smaller and more inconsiderable Questions It is of greater consequence to believe right in the Question of the validity or invalidity of a death-bed repentance then to believe aright in the Question of Purgatory and the consequences of the Doctrine of Predetermination are of deeper and more materiall consideration then the products of the beliefe of the lawfulnesse or unlawfulnesse of private Masses and yet these great concernments where a liberty of Prophecying in these Questions hath been permitted hath made no distinct Communion no sects of Christians and the others have and so have these too in those places where they have peremptorily been determind on either side Since then if men are