Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	bind_v	church_n	key_n	4,545	5	10.1263	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33231	Animadversions upon a book intituled, Fanaticism fanatically imputed to the Catholick Church, by Dr. Stillingfleet, and the imputation refuted and retorted by S.C. by a person of honour.	Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of, 1609-1674.; Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699. Fanaticism fanatically imputed to the Catholick Church.	1673 (1673)	Wing C4414; ESTC R19554	113,565	270

by taking away the strong supporters which have hitherto upheld it and erecting rotten or mouldering pillars in the place and all this benefit and advantage may be lost or prevented by his fond and unseasonable advertisement if the King and the Bishops have prudence enough to make good use of it by driving away or discountenancing such a perfidious and unskilful champion May they not from hence apprehend that as he came to them upon a sudden and unexpected so that he is upon thoughts of returning to the Church for which he hath so much care and entering into a kind of correspondence with his adversaries by giving good counsel how to behave himself better But how comes it to pass that this miserable Doctor who he yet seems to think may mean well to be so stupidly couzened and deceived that instead of complying with his engagement to defend the Church he hath betrayed her and the whole cause to all the Fanatick Sects which have separated from her and with most horrible cruelty sought her destruction and with her the ruine of Monarchy All this tragical demolishing of foundations consists in this that he allows all sober enquirers to be for themselves judges of the sence of Scripture in necessaries and judges likewise what points are necessary This saying of his hath betrayed the cause of his Church and left her in a most forlorn condition tottering upon foundations and principles which to Mr. Cressy's certain knowledge were not extant at least not known in England thirty years since Let it be in the first place observed and it is sure worthy to be observed that this most pernicious proposition which hath in such an instant brought the Church of England into such a tottering condition is not made use of nor so much as taken notice of by any of those enemies of hers the Presbyterians Anabaptists or Independents who have been so vigilant and industrious so many years to make her totter and yet now the work is so near done to their hands by a secret friend who is the more able to do them good by his not pretending any affection towards them neither of them will put their cause upon that proposition nor apply it to their own designs and therefore it is possible that it may not be altogether so dangerous to the Church as he would have it supposed to be and of which it is probable he would not have given notice if he had in truth thought it to be dangerous In the next place let us examine whether the Doctor himself cannot make another and better interpretation of his own words than his implacable enemy hath done all good Physicians compound their Antidotes according to the nature and malignity of the poyson that their patients have swallowed Now the poyson that Mr. Cressy and his lurking brethren usually bait their traps with and by which they catch most of their prey is Their confident denouncing damnation against those and all those who are not of their mind that is who are not received into the Church of Rome and not intirely submit to all her dictates That the Scripture consists in dumb letters which cannot declare its own meaning and therefore is liable to be misinterpreted by the wit of bold and presumptuous men as the founders of all Heresies have been and therefore they can only be safe who receive and conform themselves to that interpretation of Scripture that the Church in the custody of which it is deposited hath given and declared to be Orthodox That that Church is the Church of Rome where there constantly resides a Supreme Magistrate who in case any new opinions shall start up to the prejudic of Religion which have not been enough convinced by former definitions of the Church hath full authority committed to him by our Saviour to declare and determine what is agreeable or contrary to the sence of the Scripture since it cannot be supposed that our Saviour would constitute an officer and not indue him with all necessary faculties or not qualifie him sufficiently for the discharge of so great a trust and from hence they resolve that the greatest danger of damnation is not from the commission of those sins against which the spirit of God hath so plainly denounced it but in an obstinate presumption in contradicting the opinions or directions of the Catholick Church and refusing to submit to the authority of the Vicar of Christ who hath the unquestionable power to bind and to loose to pardon and to condemn sins having the Keys of Heaven and of Hell and therefore whilst they will depend upon him and put themselves under his protection they cannot but be safe This is the common poyson which these men carry about them to administer to those who they find most like to be deluded and in the composition of it there are some ingredients according to the humour of the compounder which cannot be according to the Catholick prescription since that Soveraign power of their Supreme Magistrate the Pope is not nor ever will be acknowledged to be an essential part of the Roman Catholick Religion Let us now see what Antidote the Doctor hath provided for the prevention or expulsion of this poyson to confirm men in their absolute confidence and dependence upon the Scripture the force and virtue whereof that poyson would enervate he says That it is repugnant to the nature of the design to the wisdom and goodness of God to give an infallible assurance to persons in writing his will for the benefit of mankind if those writings may not be understood by all persons who sincerely endeavour to know the meaning of them in all such things as are necessary for their Salvation and consequently there can be no necessity supposed of any infallible society of men either to attest or explain those writings amongst Christians and this and no more than this is the sence of that which contains all that confusion which Mr. Cressy thinks must bring confusion upon his own Church as into that of the Roman and from thence the Doctor proceeds to shew how incompetent a Magistrate they have chosen to determine all differences in Religion which he proves by such arguments as are very natural for the proving thereof and for the answering avoiding whereof we shall be compelled anon to take notice of Mr. Cressy's admirable artifice and dexterity Now if the Doctor hath for want of skill in discerning consequences made choice of an improper medium to prove that which he hath a mind to prove God forbid that there should be such Tragical effects to attend that argumentation as the destruction of Church and State and it would be as unreasonable to condemn an argument that he who uses it thinks to his purpose because it was never used till within thirty Years One man says that the Scripture is so very difficult that no man can understand it without repairing to the advice of an adversary who will tell him the interpretation

lewd seditious Books are sold as that none such may be printed And if this kind advertisement of Mr. Cressy hath that operation upon the Magistrates of all sorts both the Printers and Sellers and it may be the Buyers of the multitude of Popish Books which are every day vented with as much freedom as the Book of Common-Prayer they of his own Religion will have new cause to celebrate his prudence and acknowledge the great advantage he hath brought to their cause by his pen as he hath to their persons by his modesty and his manners Mr. Cressy comes at last after very much passion and much more virulence against the poor Protestants than the Doctor hath expressed against the Roman Catholicks to a matter of importance indeed in which he believes which might have kept him from triumphing so soon he is absolute master of the field and that is to peace and unity which he says is more fit to be the subject and argument of writings composed by Ecclesiastical persons that is unity of faith and doctrine pag. 102. and in truth whoever is really an enemy even to that unity of faith and doctrine how hard soever to be attained must be an enemy to mankind but I must tell him too that the writings of Ecclesiastical persons have not hitherto in any age contributed to the production of that unity I mean such who have a pride petulancy of understanding obstinacy of will that will suffer nothing to be called peace and unity but a prostration of all other men to their dictates Mr. Cressy and his Ecclesiastical Friends affect and insolently prescribe a unity that is neither practicable nor desirable and there are other Ecclesiastical persons as humorous who are such enemies to unity that they think it not necessary to peace especially in Ecclesiastical matters that is in matters of Religion all men may think and speak and do what they please and upon the irrationality of these last the former impute all the folly and all the madness that would introduce the most uncontroulable confusion to those who observe order and discipline with more regularity and obedience than any of the pretenders will do It must not therefore be the Ecclesiastical persons who have given each other too ill words to be of one mind who can procure this unity of faith and doctrine that must constitute this peace but it must be the writings and actions of Magistrates who by the execution of those Laws and rules which the wisdom of the State for which they are made have provided for that purpose can infallibly establish that unity and peace that is necessary for it Magistrates who do not pretend any jurisdiction out of their own limits nor will suffer those who live within it to be disobedient much less to revile the Laws which are provided for the publick peace Where there are no Laws confusion is necessary and natural and where the Laws are not executed it is as unavoidable and in some degree necessary So that where unity is not as much provided for as is necessary for peace it is the Magistrates fault and not the fault of Ecclesiasticks who can only prosecute it by the ways prescribed by the Laws I say where unity is necessary for nothing is more mistaken or more misapplied than this precious word Unity Who doth not know or hath not had it frequently in his observation that men who have the same end affect several ways which lead to that end and he who goes the farthest way about may possibly come sooner to the end than he that believes he goes more directly to it However if he comes thither later he is liable to no other reproach than being laughed at for being longer upon the way than he needed to have been I knew two Gentlemen of good quality and fortunes one of which I think is still living who were very near neighbours in Berkshire and lived in that good correspondence and conversation as persons of quality and authority in their Country use to do they had both very frequent occasions to ride to London and the house of one of them was the confessed way of the other thither but the difference was whether from thence the nearest way was by Windsor or by Maidenhead and in that they were so great Opiniators that they still parted at the door and one took the one way and the other that which he conceived to be nearest and in twenty years they never made the journey together How light soever the instance seems to be it will be found fit enough to be applied to very many differences of opinion which by the excess of fancy on the one side and the defect of judgment of the other are blown up into a magnitude that dazles the eyes of too many spectators and for the determination of the rest there wants not a submission and obedience to authority the difference only is where that authority is placed to which obedience ought to be paid We of the Church of England hold ours to be due to the King the Church and the Law Mr. Cressy would have us pay it to the Pope which we cannot submit to not because he is fallible but because he is not a Magistrate who hath any jurisdiction over us In matters that concern Religion we resort to the Articles of the Church which we are obliged to conform to He would have us observe the Canons of the Council of Trent which we are forbidden to do and he as an English Catholick is not bound to upon which we shall enlarge hereafter and this election to believe that the Church of England which flourishes at least as much in learned and pious men as any Church of the world can better direct English-men in the way to Heaven than the Church of Rome is the greatest use we make of our reason which is not like to deceive What that union is that was intended certainly by our Saviour when he left his Church established under spiritual Governours will best appear by the rules he prescribed and the directions he gave in order thereunto which we may lawfully believe he never intended for such a unity as Mr. Cressy and his friends dream of and that he foresaw the same could never be and depended more upon what was necessary towards it upon the civil Magistrates than upon the Ecclesiastical power He prescribed the essential principles himself of that Religion which he intended should be established and left persons trusted by him who not only knew his mind but knew all things which are necessary to be known for the accomplishment of it And no temporal or spiritual authority under Heaven hath power to alter any thing that was setled by him or his Apostles who were the only Commentators intrusted by him to explain whatsoever might seem doubtful in what himself had said and they performed their parts with that plainness in what is necessary that there remains no difficulty to men

if it be not to the Popes obedience which is not indeed a condition imposed upon the Protestant proselytes And if he will not allow us the having ever done one miracle he is not of the mind of as great a Catholick Doctor as himself Dr. Harpsfield who in his Ecclesiastical History of England after he hath at large described the miracle wrought by Edward the Confessor in the cure of those noisom swellings which hath since got the name of the Kings Evil He adds Quam strumosos sanandi admirabilem dotem in posteros suos Anglorum Reges ad nostra usque tempora transfudisse perpetuâsse meritò creditur And Mr. Cressy may be informed that no precedent King hath more notoriously cured multitudes of people of both Sexes than the present King hath done both whilst he remained in the parts beyond the Seas and since his return into England Truly Mr. Cressy hath chafed himself into a very tragical heighth of choler when after his passionate and ungrave commination of what the Doctor shall undergo at the day of Judgment he defies him to say pag. 35. publickly or by writing to signifie only his opinion That S. Benedict S. Gregory S. Francis and the rest are now reprobate damned Souls in Hell yet such he says they must be if they were hypocritical Visionaries and false pretenders of Miracles c. and if such be not his opinion nay if he be not assured that they are in a cursed condition he asks Whether his Tongue or Pen was not set on fire of Hell whilst he uttered such blasphemies against them as a perpetual monument of his rage till the day of Iudgment I cannot imagine what storm hath raised this tempest of words where is this rage where was this blasphemy Mr. Cressy will have too great an advantage against those who differ from him in opinion if they must be obliged to condemn all those whose words which they are said to have spoken they do not believe nor those actions which are imputed to them to be damned in Hell Such fury may possess Mr. Cressy and some others I hope not many of his Religion but our Church allows no such presumption in her Children Many melancholick and fanciful men have believed that they have had visions and illuminations which have been but the effects of their fancy and melancholy Others have believed men to have wrought miracles which they never did work and some things to have been miracles which were not miracles and no sober men will condemn either of those to damnation Nay if any pious persons out of their zeal to Christianity have believed it necessary to the promotion thereof to devise miracles and perswade others to believe them as many such frauds have been imputed to the ancient Monks by Catholick writers God forbid that we should believe that those Souls are therefore in Hell Mr. Cressy hath a credulity towards miracles greater than most Catholicks it may be than any one other learned Catholick and yet it is possible that he may not believe that vision or illumination which S. Francis relates of himself that when he had made his first Rule many thought it too hard and desired that he would lessen the rigour of it whereupon he went up into a mountain called Palombo and after many prayers and tears to God and long fasting upon Bread and Water Spiritu sancto suggerente Christo dictante he writ those Rules which still are pretended to be observed and which upon this ground were confirmed by Pope Honorius the third notwithstanding all which his own Friers of Assissium remained still unsatisfied with the severity and rigour of those his second Rules and obliged their Superiour to accompany them to S. Francis who seeing them coming called to them and asked them what they came for to which they resolutely answered that his new rule was too sharp and that they would not be bound to observe it he should make it for himself but not for them upon which S. Francis turned his face to Heaven and said to our Saviour Lord did not I tell thee that these men would not believe me Tune audierunt omnes vocem Christi respondentem in aere Francisce Nihil est in regula de tuo sed meum est quicquid est ibi volo quod regula sic observetur ad literam ad literam ad literam sine glossa sine glossa sine glossa and added Ego scio quantum potest humana fragilitas quantum volo juvare eos qui hanc regulam amplectentur qui ergo nolunt observare eam exeant de ordine upon which he pacified his Friers and thought his Rules to be as much dictated to him by our Saviour as the Law was by God to Moses upon the Mount Sinai all this is printed with his Rule and with the Popes Bulls and the testimony of S. Bonaventure If Mr. Cressy doth believe this he doth believe more than any learned Capuchin or Franciscan Frier doth pretend to believe and if he doth not believe it he rejects S. Francis his own evidence which is better than hath been given for any one miracle that is imputed to him Certainly whatsoever a man is not bound to believe he may very lawfully disbelieve so that I know not where the Doctor 's fault is by Mr. Cressy's own judgment for he says no man is obliged to believe them After all which I cannot enough admire and pity the strange extasie into which Mr. Cressy's passion hath transported him that he should reprove the Doctor for not giving the same credit to the Visions and Dreams and Revelations of S. Benedict S. Francis as he is bound to do to the prescription of diet which God himself gave to the Prophet Ezekiel and the command he gave to the Prophet Isaiah to go naked and barefoot or to the injunction our Saviour laid upon his Disciples in an extraordinary mission not to salute any man they met that is because he believes the word of God which every Christian professes to do he should likewise believe those visions and miracles which few wise men think to be true and they who do confess that they are not bound to think so and therefore it is the office of a Friend to desire Mr. Cressy once more to revolve the three last pages of his second Chapter and seriously consider whether there be not more wrath and clamour and evil speaking and even prophaneness if not blasphemy than all put together in the Doctors Book can possibly amount to in any candid interpretation I doubt he will have as ill luck in his third Chapter and the worse because the subject of it Prayer and Contemplation hath not at all mollified his spirit or reduced his passion to any sobriety Must a man be thought to be averse to a contemplative life or to be an enemy to or a derider of the Prayer of contemplation because he is not much affected with