Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A60563
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A pacifick discourse of the causes and remedies of the differences about religion, which distract the peace of Christendom
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Smith, Thomas, 1638-1710.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing S4226; ESTC R3425
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22,287
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40
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of other communions in defense of their rights The Churches both in the East and South divided into several Patriarchates and Bishopricks vindicated their privileges which they enjoyed according to the decrees of the Council of Nice in their several limits and districts The title of Universal Bishop was not then known or pretended to no one had either the vanity or the ambition to usurp such an unlimited power This honour was reserved for Pope Boniface the third and his Successors as if all the world hence forward were to be included within the walls or Pomoeria of the city of Rome The world was astonished at this procedure and could not with any patience admit and suffer so great an imposition Christian Carthage despised the insults of the Bishop of Rome as much as their Heathen Ancestors did the Senate and although Constantinople unwillingly enough allowed the honour of the first and chief See to Rome yet it ever maintained its own liberty and though now horribly oppressed and sadly groaning under Turkish tyranny is not so forgetful of its ancient honour as basely to submit to the claims of Rome They would very willingly retain communion with her and with all the branches of the Catholick Church if the hinderances of that communion were once removed and that pretended universal authority laid aside in which holy desire we join with them Let the Bishop of Rome be the first of that order provided that he be not lookt upon as the sole universal Bishop and that all others be deemed to be as indeed they are by the constitution of Christ and his Apostles independent and not his Vicars and Deputies and provided also that their rights which rely upon the same Ecclesiastical laws be reserved to them in their full and just extent and that the decrees of the Roman Court be not imposed upon the world with a non obstante to Apostolical constitutions and that its jurisdiction be contained within the limits of the antient Canons If this bar were removed a way would quickly be opened to let peace into the most divided parts of Christendom This all good Christians all but such worldly-minded men whose interest it is to keep up these differences earnestly wish sigh and pray for and would readily unite upon these honest and just conditions if truths necessary to salvation were only proposed to be believed according to the antient forms if all fiery censures and excommunications were utterly condemned and abolished and if superstition were removed from the service of God and the publick offices of Religion Unless this be done we must as in the presence of God and his holy Angels and all mankind lay the schism at the Romanists door and wholly impute it to them that the Catholick Church does not enjoy the great blessing of Ecclesiastical peace In the mean while we of the Church of England are very ready to admit of any conditions of obtaining this most blessed and glorious end provided that by them the peace of our consciences be not violated and disturbed that they do not contradict and thwart the principles and analogy of faith that the Scripture and its best and most genuine interpreter Antiquity be admitted to have the highest and only lawful authority in determining controversies of faith that no prejudice be done to Ecclesiastical Government and lastly that all things be tryed by the rules and canons and customs which were in use in the first ages of Christianity by which the Catholick Church was then governed O happy O blessed O glorious day in which all these confusions which no good man can think of without great disorder of mind shall be removed and all who worship the same crucified Saviour shall unite in brotherly love charity and communion But the wicked lives of Christians and base secular interest will not permit us to expect so great a blessing We must first endeavour to restore the piety the strictness the humility the disinterestedness of the antient Christians before we can pretend to the same hearty unity But alas we degenerate from their examples religion is no longer lookt upon as a rule and institution of life and manners but is turned into an art of disputing and our vices alienate our minds from all thoughts and designs of union pride and malice and naughty affections and love of worldly splendor and greatness shut out all hope of peace It must be the work of Almighty God and the wonderful effect of his Providence and grace to dispose the hearts of the Christian Princes and great Ecclesiasticks of the Roman Communion to set upon this great design of reforming in order to a perfect union and agreement and I doubt not but thousands of that communion especially in the Gallican Church where they have set bounds to the exorbitant power of the Pope by their late decrees in compliance with the antient canons and in vindication of their own privileges and where they begin to be ashamed of several gross errors which have hitherto passed for good wholsome Catholick doctrine as appears by their new Expositions and Interpretations and Catechisms long to see this happily effected for which purpose it becomes us all to put up incessant prayers to God that all who call and own and profess themselves Christians may remember from whence they are fallen and repent and ever after exercise themselves in the practices of all Christian virtues and in the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness that laying aside all vain jangling about lesser matters they may follow after things which make for peace and mutual edification and that being guided and governed by the good spirit of God they may be led into the way of truth and hold the faith the truly Christian the truly Apostolical the truly Catholick faith in unity of spirit in the bond of peace and in righteousness of life May the God of all mercy and comfort at last restore unity to his Church now labouring under grievous distractions for the merits and intercession of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen FINIS ERRATA PAge 16. line 30. for contributes read contribute l. 31. for difference r. differences Books Printed for Sam. Smith at the Prince's-Arms in St. Pauls Church yard COncio ad Clerum habita coram Academia Cantabrigiensi Junii 11. An. 1687. Pro Gradû Baccalaur in S. Theologia Ubi Vindicatur Vera Valida Cleri Anglicani ineunte Reformatione Ordinatio Cui accessit Concio habita Julii 3. 1687. De Canonicâ Cleri Anglicani Ordinatione Latinè reddita aucta A T. Browne S. T. B. Coll. D. Joh. Evang. Soc. Annexum est Instrumentum Consecrationis Matth. Parker Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis ex MS. C. C. C. Cant. The State of the Church of Rome when the Reformation began as it appears by the Advices givento Paul III. and Julius III. by Creatures of their Own. With a Preface leading to the Matter of the Book Remarks upon the Reflections of the Author of Popery Misrepresented c. on his Answerer particularly as to the Deposing Doctrine In a Letter to the Author of the Reflections Together with some few Animadversions on the same Author's Vindication of his Reflections Jacobi Usserii Archiepiscopi Armachani Opuscula Duo Nunc primùm Latinè Edita Quorum alterum est de Episcoporum Et Metropolitanorum Origine Alterum De Asia Proconsulari Accessit Veteris Ecclesiae Gubernatio Patriarchalis Ab E. B. Descripta Interprete R. R. E. B. P. Praetereà accedit Appendix De Antiquâ Ecclesiae Britannicae Libertate Privilegiis Miracles Work 's above and contrary to Nature Or an Answer to a late Translation out of Spinoza ' s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus Mr. Hobb ' s Leviathan c. Published to undermine the Truth and Authority of Miracles Scripture and Religion in a Treatise Entituled Miracles no Violation of the Laws of Nature The Difference between the Present and Future State of our Bodies considered in a Sermon by Jeremy Collier M. A. The Life of St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi a Carmelite Nunn Newly translated out of Italian by the Reverend Father Lezin de Sainte Scholastique Provincial of the Reformed Carmelites of Touraine At Paris For Sebast. Cramoisy in St. James ' s Street at the Sign of Fame 1670. And now done out of French With a preface concerning the nature causes concomitants and consequences of Ecstasy and Rapture and a brief discourse added about discerning and trying the Spirits whether they be of God. The Vanity of all Pretences for Tolleration wherein the late Pleas for Tolleration are fully Answered and the popular Arguments drawn from the Practice of the United Netherlands are stated at large and shown to be weak fallacious insufficient The Duty of Servants containing First Their Preparation for and choice of a Service Secondly Their Duty in Service Together with Prayers suited to each Duty To this is added a Discourse of the Sacrament suited peculiarly to Servants By the Author of Practical Christianity The History of the Original and Progress of Ecclesiastical Revenues Wherein is handled according to the Laws both Ancient and Modern whatsoever concerns matters Beneficial the Regale Investitures Nominations and other Rights attributed to Princes Written in French by a Learned Priest and now done into English. a Commonitor cap. 32. a V. Salvian de gubernat Dei lib. 5. p. 100. ex editione Baluzii
opinion and ceremony as if nothing less than eternal salvation had been concerned in these niceties whence charity being wholly forgot and lost in these disputes whilst each strove not so much for truth as victory evil suspicions and animosities took place and opened a wide gap for schism to enter Hereupon Altar was erected against Altar and contrary Episcopal Sees established in the same cities and furious and seditious Preachers sounded in the Pulpit an alarum to a holy war as if they had been ready to engage with the professed enemies of Christ in defence of the chief articles of Religion Hence they first lookt upon it as a piece of becoming zeal and as a mark of godliness to abstain from all external communion with each other as if the danger and the guilt had been less to have been present at the Heathen and Jewish assemblies afterwards followed odious crimes laid to each others charge and most abusive and execrable titles and appellations as if there had been a total apostasy and defection from the Christian faith from which most unjust and scandalous censures there arose at last an irreconcileable enmity and hatred which no art no compliance in other matters whilst these evil and perverse opinions were rooted in their minds could be able to remove or mollify But alas so far are these dreadful and fatal heats with which the Church for so many ages has been enflamed from being abated that upon the addition of fresh matter they have burst out with greater violence which is almost irresistible Who is there so far forsaken and devoid of good nature mercy and pity who is not filled with horror when he reflects upon those horrid tumults and distractions with which Christendom is torn asunder at this very day I do not mean those distractions the natural effects of war wherein thousands are daily sacrificed to ambition and other brutal passions but such as different opinions about matters of religion have brought upon the world in which no mercy and charity are shewed to the souls of the adverse party which as far as furious zeal takes place are consigned over to hell by peremptory sentences of excommunication it being accounted a very godly and justifiable pretension to think and judge amiss of those who differ from them in lesser matters In the mean time whilst every one doth foolishly indulge to his ambition same and wit whilst they most partially favour that side which either chance has cast them upon or prejudice education and interest have recommended to their choice whilst the love of the world and a fear arising thence lest there should be any abatement and diminution of their secular pomp and advantage shut out truth and whilst perversness and obstinacy of mind set a bar against mutual forbearance and condescension altho out of modesty each may pretend to wish that an happy end were put to these disputes and endeavour with great earnestness to wipe off the envy of such a charge yet it is too too evident that they are kept up and maintained by pride and peevishness and base interest whilst they do not follow according to the excellent and wise advice of St. Paul after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edify another Romans 14. 19. It is the design of this paper briefly to enquire first into the reasons and causes of these differences arising about Religion which are still maintained with so great heat to the great scandal of so holy and venerable a Profession and how it comes to pass that the mild the sweet the merciful temper and genius which Christianity inspires her true Votaries with seems utterly lost amidst the noise and fury of those hot debates that prevail between parties of different communions and then secondly into the proper remedies of these horrid confusions and distractions and see if there be any just reason and ground to hope for the restoring of Ecclesiastical peace and unity to the divided countries of Christendom As to what concerns the first part of my enquiry I shall comprehend the original and causes of the divisions among Christians and which hinder them from uniting in the same common worship and service of God under these four following heads all others being of lesser moment or else easily reducible to one of them The first and principal is this a manifest and great departure from the simplicity of faith In the first beginnings of Christianity when the Apostles every of them in their distinct provinces declared to the world the revelation of God our Saviour it was not as to what concerns the doctrine of faith any great matter of difficulty nor required any great study or deep research to be a Christian. The mysteries of it as to their number were but few as is evident from the Creed which contains a brief form of words clearly and nakedly proposed without any perplexity or ambiguity of expression so that although the matter of some of them do transcend the utmost strength and force of humane understanding and cannot be comprehended by the most sublime and subtle wit whatever yet persons of the meanest capacities and most ordinary understanding cannot complain that they were neglected Now this doctrine of faith was at first one the same every where even in the most distant countries which had no commerce one with another At that time they believed no otherwise at Rome Ephesus Alexandria or Corinth than at Jerusalem The Apostles being guided by the same infallible spirit taught the same necessary articles of faith every where whence arose that admirable concent and harmony of doctrine as if that great work of the conversion of the world to the faith of Christ had not been done apart but had been jointly carried on by the common advice and direction of the College of Apostles remaining in a fixed place For then those here in Britain agreed in judgment with those who were in India when there was no passage through the great and vast ocean known or so much as attempted the polarity of the magnet being then unknown and undiscovered And the like is to be said of the other parts of the world as Irenaeus shews in his first book against heresies chap. 3. where being about to evince the truth of the Catholick faith from the agreement of so many nations differing in language and manners and customs of living so many seas running between he adds that there is the same force of tradition notwithstanding this great variety of language and that the Churches in Germany Spain Gaule in the East in Egypt and Lybia neither believed nor delivered down contrary doctrines but as the Sun the creature of God is one and the same in the universe so the light and doctrine of truth shines every where and enlightens all men who are willing to come to the knowledge of it So that all being admitted by the Sacrament of baptism to the profession of the same faith if chance or