Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	church_n	head_n	visible_a	2,242	5	10.0238	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59901	A vindication of some Protestant principles of Church-unity and Catholick-communion, from the charge of agreement with the Church of Rome in answer to a late pamphlet, intituled, an agreement between the Church of England and the Church of Rome, evinced from the concertation of some of her sons with their brethren the dissenters / by William Sherlock ...	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1688 (1688)	Wing S3372; ESTC R32140	78,758	130

the whole though made up of organized parts But this we must not say for then we spoil his Argument and yet he knows that every one who denies an Universal Pastor set over the whole Church must and does say it So that the sum of his Argument is this If you will allow the whole Church to be an organized Body that is to be under the Government of an Universal Pastor then you must own an Universal Pastor but if you will not own this he has nothing to say to you but that you ought in civility to own it to make good his Argument If men will be so perverse as to own particular National Churches to be Organized Bodies and to deny the Universal Church to be thus Organized as we all do then they may own a National Primate and deny an Oecumenical Pastor and if men own the Universal Church to be such an Organized Body they must own an Universal Pastor whether they own Archbishops and Primates or not and therefore Archbishops and Primates might have been left out of this Argument because they signifie nothing in it and consequently the whole Argument is nothing to his design to prove that those who own Archbishops and Primates must own an Universal Pastor Well but he undertakes for us that we will not grant that the Universal Church is an unorganized Body because it lays a necessary Foundation for particular Co-ordinate Churches Congregational or Presbyterian If he had said Episcopal he had said right and we know no inconvenience in this to say that all Episcopal Churches are Co-ordinate since all Bishops by an original Right are equal But besides if the Catholick Church be considered in its largest acceptation and extent comprehending the Militant and Triumphant Parts the Scripture tells us it 's an Organized Body being called a Body of which the Lord Iesus Christ is the living Head. This is purely his own for his Author had more Wit than to say it The whole Church Militant and Triumphant or the Church in Earth and Heaven is but one Church and this one Church is united to Christ the Head of the Church and this proves that the Church on Earth cannot have any other Head as the Principle of Unity but only Christ For the Head of the Church must be the Head of the whole Church as the Head is the Head of the whole Body And therefore the Church on Earth being part of the Church not the whole for the Church in Heaven is the largest and best part of the Body it cannot have a visible Head on Earth because such a Head cannot be the Head of the whole Body for those who say the Bishop of Rome is the Head of the visible Militant Church on Earth yet never pretended that he is the Head of the invisible Triumphant Church in Heaven now the Church on Earth can never have a Head which is not the Head of the Church in Heaven unless we will say that part of a Body as the Church on Earth is may have a Head by it self which is not Head to the other part of the Body which is a thing that never was heard of in the World before that a Head should be Head only to part of the Body and not to the whole when the Body is but one But what does he mean when he says that the Church Militant and Triumphant is an Organized Body What Organization is there in the Church Triumphant They are all indeed united to Christ and so are his Body but there are no different organical Parts in this Body no differing Ranks and Offices that we know of in the Church in Heaven no distinction between Clergy and Laity Prophets and Apostles Pastors and Teachers there for these Offices cease with the use of them and therefore they are not united to Christ in one organical Body which has different Members and Offices in Heaven and therefore thô the Church on Earth consists of such organized Bodies yet it is not their Organization which unites them to Christ for then this would be necessary in Heaven as well as in Eartth for the same one Body and every part of it must be united to Christ in the same manner and by the same kind of Union and if the Union of the Church on Earth does not consist in its Organization to be sure there is no necessity that the whole Church on Earth should be one organized Body to make it the Body of Christ. The Organization of particular Churches is for the Edification and good Government of all the Members of it not immediately for their Union to Christ and therefore if the whole Church may be edified and well governed by the Organization of particular Churches the Church being called the Body of Christ cannot prove that the whole Church on Earth is one organical Body But if particular Churches be organized it 's most natural and fit that the Mother Teeming Church should have the most proportionate Adaptation of Parts A Mother that brings forth organized Children is supposed to be organized her self Nihil dat quod non habet Wherefore all other less comprehensive Churches coming out of the Womb of Mother Church and proved to be organized Bodies it 's naturally necessary that she her self should be homogeneous or of same kind otherwise the Mother must be more monstrous than the Daughters Here he forsakes his Guide again and falls into Nonsense Could he find out a Mother Church which is none of the Daughters a Catholick Church which is distinct from all Particulars this would be a notable Argument indeed to prove the Catholick Church to be organized because particular Churches are but if there be no Teeming Mother Church but what is a particular Church it self if no Church brings forth Churches as a Woman brings forth her Daughters nay if Churches are not brought forth but Christians who are afterwards formed into Church-Societies if all this at best be nothing but Metaphor and Allusion and that without any real likeness and similitude too we may safely allow him such kind of Arguments as these for his organized Catholick Church Well but now these particular Churches are transformed from Daughters into integral Parts of the Mother Catholick Church nay are Daughters and integral Parts too which constitute the Mother and then a Body which is made up of Organized Parts is always it self Organized e. g. in all Animals in a Man the head hand legs c. are each organized for the compleating the totality of that part and therefore are becoming Organs to the whole man and hence the man is an Organized Body Now indeed if the whole Church were such a Body as the natural Body of a Man is and did consist of particular Churches which did as much differ in their nature and use and organization as the head and hand and legs do in the natural Body this were a very notable Argument to prove the whole Church to be an organized Body

World acknowledge to be so without the Popes Canonization and the use she makes of Saints needs no Canonization which is only to bless God for them and to excite our selves to an imitation of their Vertues not to build Temples and Altars to them or to Worship them with religious Honours as our Mediators and Advocates This Canonization of Saints was a strange kind of Argument from a pretended Independent and it is such an Argument as I thought at this time of day a Romanist himself would have been ashamed of For pray what Authority has the Church to Canonize Saints and who gave her this Authority Such Consecrations and Canonizations indeed were in practice in Pagan Rome and Tertullian sufficiently scorns them for it He tells us that there was an ancient Decree that the Emperor should not Consecrate any God without the approbation of the Senate for the Emperor in those days was the Pontifex Maximus or the Oecumenick Priest. This the Father says was to make Divinity depend upon human Votes and unless the God pleases Men he shall not be a God how applicable this is to the Canonization of Saints let our Author judge and tell me whether there were any such practice known in the Christian Church in Tertullian's days To Canonize a Saint to be sure is to Vote him into Heaven and if the Oecumenick Pastor has this Authority he is somewhat more than the Head of the visible Church on Earth for his Power extends to the invisible Church too 5ly The necessity of a Catholick composure of Church Prayers i. e. That the same Liturgie should be used in all Christian Churches which never was practised in former Ages and no need it should be We prefer a Liturgie before private and extempore Prayers we think it most Uniform that a National Church should use the same Liturgie but if every Bishop who is the Supream Governour of his own Church should have a Liturgie of his own I see no hurt in it if it be a true Christian Liturgie and neither corrupt the Christian Faith nor Worship When he can give me one wise reason why the whole Christian World must use the same Liturgie and that there must of necessity be an Oecumenick Pastor to compose this Liturgie I will consider it farther His harangue about our charging Dissenters with Schism does not relate to this matter For setting aside the Civil Authority whereby our Liturgie is confirmed their Schism does not consist in using another Liturgie for they use none but in separating from the Communion of their Bishop who has Authority to appoint what Liturgie shall be used in his Church For the Liturgie being agreed on in Convocation makes it an Act of the Church confirmed by the Authority and Consent of all the Bishops besides the concurrent Votes and Suffrages of the inferior Clergy And if every particular Bishop have Authority to appoint what Form of Prayer shall be used in his Church all the Bishops of England may agree in the same Liturgie and those who deny obedience to their Bishops and separate from them upon such accounts are guilty of Schism But where there is no such subjection and obedience owing as there is none between particular Bishops and distinct National Churches they may make Liturgies and Forms of Prayer for themselves and are accountable to no Body else for it 6thly His last necessity for an Oecumenick Pastor is for calling convening and dissolving Oecumenical Councils Now if there be no such absolute necessity of Oecumenical Councils if they may and have been called by Emperors if they may meet together of themselves by Mutual Agreement then there is no necessity of an Oecumenical Pastor for this purpose But such an Assembly he says must be a Church Assembly or else it can claim no Power in the Church and all Church Assemblies are of right convened by the Pastor of the said Church in which it is as in a Diocess the Clergy is convened by the Authoritative Call of the Bishop This is the force of his whole Argument wherein there are two things supposed which we desire him to prove 1. That an Oecumenical Council is not for Mutual Advice but for direct Acts of Authority and Government 2. That a Council receives its Authority from an Authoritative Call when he has proved these two Propositions his Argument may deserve a new Consideration AN ANSWER To SECTION II. CONCERNING The Agreement between the Two Churches about some of their Imposed Terms of Communion their Ministry Ceremonies and Image-Worship 1. The MINISTRY HAving answered all their Pretences of Agreement between the Church of England and the Church of Rome concerning one Supream Oecumenical Pastor what remains will give me no great trouble and I shall give my self and my Readers no more than needs must 1. The first Agreement is about the Ministry unto which all are required to submit which is the same with that of Roman-Catholicks and maintained by the same Arguments that is concerning the Divine Institution of Bishops and subject Presbyters Now this charge we own that we do acknowledge the Divine Right of Episcopacy and that Presbyters by the Institution of their Office are subject to Bishops and if the Roman-Catholicks own this we agree with them in it and so we will in any thing else that is true and think it no injury to our cause for we do not think our selves bound to renounce what is true only that we may differ from Roman-Catholicks and yet the mischief is that in despight of his Title and design he will not suffer us to agree with them here but endeavour to prove that we do not agree with them Thus he tells us 1. Touching the difference there is between a Bishop and a Presbyter as amongst the Papists some held that they were of the same order differing only in degree and others that they were of distinct Orders so among our Clergy I perceive our Author has a mind to be a Protestant at last by his crying our Clergy there were some who in King James the First days asserted that Bishops and Presbyters were of the same Order but now it is carried for their being of two distinct Orders but what is this to the Agreement of the two Churches that there are Divines in each Church which differ about this Point If neither Church have determined this then they agree onely in not determining it but if it were the Currant Doctrine in the Council of Basil that Bishops and Priests are of the same Order and it be the avowed Doctrine of the Church of England that Bishops are a distinct and superior Order then I think the two Churches do not agree about this Point And our Author himself takes care to prove that we are not agreed For the Romanists he says do not so much stick to the Divine Right of the Episcopal Order as to hold that without a Violation of the Divine Law a Presbyter cannot

no sooner said it but he unsays it again For says he It 's true that those who are for the divine Right of the Supream Jurisdiction of the Pope over the whole Catholick Church visible do hold the divine Right to be but mediate mediante Papa but the Followers of the Councils of Constance and Basil are against the Supream uncontroulable Power of the Pope and for the immediate divine Right of Episcopacy And it 's notorious from the Debates in the Council of Trent that the French Spanish and many other Roman-Catholicks stuck to their immediate Divine Right too and the great reason why opposition was made in the Court of Rome against the immediate divine Right of Bishops was an Opinion that the Supremacy of the Pope could not be secured on the granting it But Dr. Sherlock has found out a Notion which will be of great use to them for the divine Right of a Primacy is a great step to the Supremacy and this the Doctor doth establish consistently enough with the divine Right of Bishops As for my own Notion I have sufficiently vindicated that already from doing any Service to the Pope's Supremacy and see no occasion to add any thing more here But I wonder he should pitch upon this instance of the divine right of Episcopacy to show the Agreement between the two Churches when he himself is forced to acknowledge what fierce Debates there were in the Council of Trent about this matter He says indeed and that very truly that the French and Spanish Bishops in the Council did dispute very vehemently for the divine Institution of Episcopacy and he knows what a prevailing opposition was made against it The Pope sent express Orders to the Legates that whatever they did they should not suffer that to pass Laynez the Jesuit was appointed by the Legates and Papalins to make an elaborate Lecture against it Wherein he asserts that Christ built his Church upon Peter whose Name signifies a Stone in the Hebrew and Syriack and therefore according to the most Catholick exposition Peter himself is that Rock whereon Christ built his Church that the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven were given to Peter only and by consequence Power to bring in and to shut out which is Jurisdiction So that the whole Jurisdiction of the Church is committed to Peter only and his Successors And if the Bishops had received any Jurisdiction from Christ it would be equal in all and no difference between Patriarchs Archbishops and Bishops neither could the Pope meddle with that Authority to diminish or take it all away as he cannot do in the Power of Order which is from God. That to make the Institution of Bishops de jure divino takes away the Hierarchy and introduces an Oligarchy or rather an Anarchy That according to the Order Instituted by Christ the Apostles were ordained Bishops not by Christ but by St Peter receiving Jurisdiction from him only or if they were ordained by Christ Christ only prevented St. Peter's Office for that one time That the Bishops are Ordinaries because by the Pope's Law they are made a Dignity of perpetual Succession in the Church That Councils themselves had no Authority but from the Pope for if every particular Bishop in Council may Err it cannot be denyed that they may all Err together and if the Authority of the Council proceeded from the Authority of Bishops it could never be called General because the number of the Assistants is always incomparably less than that of the Absent With much more to this purpose which is all full and home to the point which as the Bishop of Paris observed in his Censure of it makes but one Bishop Instituted by Christ and the others not to have any Authority but dependant from him which is as much as to say that there is but one Bishop and the others are his Vicars to be removed at his pleasure Whatever Opposition was made against this in the Council of Trent it could never prevail The Popes Supremacy was advanced in that Council to its greatest height and glory but the Divine Institution of Episcopacy was dropt though the whole Council was satisfied that the Divine Right of Supremacy and the Divine Institution of Episcopacy were inconsistent For this Reason the Pope and Legates and Italian Bishops opposed the Divine Institution of the Episcopacy and for the same Reason the other Party so vehemently contended for it and then I will leave any man to judge which of these two Opinions must pass for the Sense of the Council and Church of Rome We wish with all our Hearts the Church of Rome did agree with us in the Divine Institution of Episcopacy which was the Sense of the Primitive Church but unless all Parties in the Council of Trent were very much mistaken the Supremacy of the Pope as it is Taught by that Council does utterly overthrow the Divine Institution of Bishops and make them onely the Pope's Creatures and Dependants 3. As for his third Head of Agreement about the Hierarchy which is made up of Archbishops Bishops Deans Prebends Canons Arch-Deacons Chancellors Officials Priests Deacons c. This is onely an Ecclesiastical Body of human Institution for the good Government and Discipline of such Combined Churches and alterable again as the necessities of the Church requires and yet there is an Essential Difference between such Protestant National Combinations of Churches and the Popish Hierarchy The first is Independent on any Forreign Powers is perfect and entire in it self The second has an Oecumenick Pastor for it's Head and derives its Power and Authority from him and this is enough to be said about our Agreement in the Ministry II. The CEREMONIES OR EXTERNAL WORSHIP THIS is the next instance of Agreement between the Church of England and the Church of Rome and any man who considers the matter must needs be very much surprized at it For if the two Churches were so very well agreed about Ceremonies it is very strange that the Church of England from the beginning of the Reformation to this day has rejected such a vast number of Ceremonies as were then and still are in use in the Church of Rome And for my part it is my desire and prayer that they may always agree so while the Church of Rome maintains and practises such a corrupt Worship To make this out he says Our first Reformers opposed the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome upon the same Principles that our Dissenters now oppose the Ceremonies of the Church of England viz. by this Argument All Uninstituted Worship is False Superstitious and Idolatrous Worship But the Romish Ceremonious Worship is Uninstituted Ergo. And if our Author can shew me any such Argument urged by our first Reformers against Ceremonies that are meerly for Decency and Order and external Solemnity of Worship I will grant they argued very ill and did much worse to retain any such Ceremonies But if he cannot shew this as