Selected quad for the lemma: opinion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
opinion_n	church_n	faith_n	private_a	2,339	5	7.8530	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56411	The fire's continued at Oxford, or, The decree of the convocation for burning the Naked gospel, considered in a letter to a person of honour	Parkinson, James, 1653-1722.	1690 (1690)	Wing P494; ESTC R1197	18,231	16

danger of Blasphemy in Examining the Silly Question as he calls it concerning the Eternity of the Godhead of Christ Answ It 's call'd a Silly Question in following Constantine's Letter which calls it Silly some of whose Words are cited immediately before We ought says he to restrain our selves from talking lest when we cannot sufficiently explain the Question or our Hearers cannot sufficiently understand our meaning either way the People be driven upon a necessity of Blasphemy or Contention Ib. 53. ' This is a second Danger That we have no firm ground to go upon This is not in the Second Impression But did not the Author give sufficient Reasons for it viz. That all are challenged by either Party with equal assurance Scriptures Antiquity and Councils too as the Emperors chanced to influence them Does not Bishop Taylor say as much Liberty of Proph. ' Pag. 54. The only advantage of the Catholicks is long Possession and that after Sentence They have indeed so handled matters as to hide much and varnish all yet even so we may pick out enough to justify an Appeal by observing how that Possession was first obtained then continued and at last setled The Sentence which first determined the Controversy in the Council of Nice was not by the merit of the Cause but Interest of the Parties Answ This also is not in the Second Impression And why if the Sentence which first determin'd the Controversy in the Council of Nice was by the Merit of the Cause and not by the Interest of the Parties Why did the Catholicks in after-Ages and at this Day impose another sense upon the Nicene Sentence than what was manifestly their meaning What is this but to make a Nose of Wax of that Council as the Papists do of Scripture ' Pag. 56. This long and mischievous Controversy was at last settled by Theodosius who having received his Instructions and Baptism from a Consubstantialist required all his Subjects to conform to that Religion which Peter the Prince of the Apostles from the beginning had delivered to the Romans and which at that time Damasus Bishop of Rome and Peter Bishop of Alexandria held and that Church only should be esteemed Catholick which worshipped the Divine Trinity with equal Honour and those which held the other should be called Hereticks made Infamous and Punished ' This therefore we may call setling the Controversy because thenceforth all succeeding Emperors and Bishops wrote after this Copy and both the Parties have ever worn these Titles which the Emperor by his Imperial Power as the unquestionable Fountain of Honour was pleased to bestow upon them Behold now the Ground upon which one of our Fundamental Articles of Faith is built behold the Justice of that Plea which from such a possession would prescribe to our Belief Answ This is not in the Second Impression As it is in the First the Historian that affirms it is to answer for it and not our Author As for those words Behold now the Ground upon which one of our Fundamental Articles of Faith is built behold the Justice of that Plea which from such a possession would prescribe to our Belief I know not what that Author would say to it but I say that the Catholicks do by receding from the Sense of those Ages in that Article acknowledg it to be weakly grounded ' Pag. 57. of the Interpolated Edition What more ridiculously silly than to build so weighty a Doctrine upon Implicit Faith in two Bishops partial to their own Sees whereof the One gave it Birth and the Other Maintenance and what more odious than to prosecute as Hereticks and Malefactors all such as should refuse to be so grosly imposed upon Answ This is plainly to be understood of the Doctrine controverted in those Times as impos'd on us as necessary to Salvation to be believed in a modern and unintelligible Sense though in old equivocal Terms Pag. 57. of the first Edition Certainly ' whosoever shall carefully observe how the now established Doctrine was from first to last advanced by gross partiality of the most guilty kind and at last imposed by a Novice Emperor upon Implicit Faith of two Bishops of whose Sees the one brought it into the World and the other maintain'd it and a new coin'd Tradition lately obtruded by the guiltier of those Sees but unpleaded because unheard of in those former long and miserable times which it might and ought to have delivered from the Convulsions they suffered Whoever I say shall Carefully observe this and withal what foul Tricks the Church of Rome used in the West and with what ill Success in the East whose Churches did at last more Universally embrace Arius's Opinion than at first they condemned it may be tempted to number the Athanasian among the Roman Doctrines and cannot but think it fairly dealt with if its boasted Possession pardoned it be left upon the same level with the Arian equally unworthy not only of our Faith but of our Study Answ The same Answer I gave to the former will serve to this Is it not equal that those Doctrines whether Arian or Athanasian that consist of infinite Subtilities and Niceties which the common Christians never could nor can understand which have been conceiv'd brought forth and nursed in such a way of Policy Ambition and Persecution as Histories inform us Is it not equal they should be left upon the same Level equally unworthy not only of the Faith but also of the Study of those that heartily believe whatsoever they find in Holy Scriptures plain Things in the plain Sense and obscure Texts in the best Sense they can in consonancy to plain and clear Ones ' Pag. 57. If further we consider what the Historian expresly declareth that at the rise of this Controversy most of the Bishops understood not it's meaning we cannot think it necessary to Salvation that every private Christian should believe that as an Article of Faith which the best Ages of the Church thought no worth knowing This upon second thoughts is thus express'd in a 2d Edition An Opinion which so many wise and good Men as lived within 300 Years after Christ were so far from believing matter of Faith that they did not receive it as matter of Certainty nor perhaps of Credibility pag. 59. ' The Athanasians abhor Polytheism no less than do the Arians If their Positions seem to infer it they deny the consequence if this contradict the Rules of reasoning they avow it for they allow Reason no hearing in Mysteries of Faith if this make them Hereticks it is not in Religion but in Logick ' On the other side the Arians profess to believe of Christ whatever himself or his Apostles have spoken and where one expression in Scripture seemeth to contradict another they take such a Course to reconcile them as the Laws and Customs of all the World direct It is very frequent for Rhethorick to exceed but never to diminish the Grammatical Character of a Person