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A51283 Annotations upon the two foregoing treatises, Lux orientalis, or, An enquiry into the opinion of the Eastern sages concerning the prae-existence of souls, and the Discourse of truth written for the more fully clearing and further confirming the main doctrines in each treatise / by one not unexercized in these kinds of speculation. More, Henry, 1614-1687. 1682 (1682) Wing M2638; ESTC R24397 134,070 312

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for his own support and Edification For thus every one laying firm hold on that handle that is best sitted for his own grasp the Article will carry all these three sorts of believers safe up to Heaven they living accordingly whenas two sorts of them would have more slippery or uncertain hold if they had no handle ossered to them but those which are less suitable to their grasp and Genius Which shews the Prudence Care and Accuracy of Judgment in the Church of England that as in other things so in this she has made no such needless and indeed hurtful Decisions but left the modes of conceiving things of the greatest moment to every ones self to take it that way that he can lay the fastest hold of it and it will lie the most easily in his mind without doubt and wavering And therefore there being no one of these handles but what may be useful to some or other for the more easie and undoubted holding that there is in us an Immaterial and Immortal Soul or Spirit my having taken this small pains to wipe off the soil and further the usefulness of one of them by these Annotations if it may not merit thanks it must I hope at least deserve excuse with all those that are not of too sowre and tetrick a Genius and prefer their own humours and sentiments before the real benefit of others But now if any one shall invidiously object that I prefer the Christian Discretion of my own Church the Church of England before the Judgment and Wisdom of a General Council namely the fisth Oecumenical Council held at Constantinople in Justinians time under the Patriarch Eutychius who succeeded Menas lately deceased to whom Justinian sent that Discourse of his against Origen and his errours amongst which Pre-existence is reckoned one In answer to this several things are to be considered that right may be done our Mother First What number of Bishops make a general Council so that from their Numerosity we may rely upon their Authority and infallibility that they will not conclude what is false Secondly Whether in whatsoever matters of debate though nothing to the Salvation of mens souls but of curious Speculation fitter for the Schools of Philosophers than Articles of Faith for the edification of the people whose memory and conscience ought to be charged with no notions that are not subservient to the rightly and duly honouring God and his onely begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ and to the faithful discharging their duty to man the assistance of the Spirit of God can rationally be expected or onely in such things as are necessary to be professed by the people and very useful for the promoting of Life and Godliness And as Moses has circumscribed his Narrative of the Creation within the limits of Mundus Plebeiorum and also the Chronology of time according to Scripture is bounded from the first Adam to the coming again of the second to Judgment and Sentencing the wicked to everlasting punishment and the righteous to life everlasting so whether the Decisions of the Church are not the most safely contained within these bounds and they faithfully discharge themselves in the conduct of Souls if they do but instruct them in such truths only as are within this compass revealed in sacred Scripture And whether it does not make for the Interest and Dignity of the Church to decline the medling with other things as unprofitable and unnecessary to be decided Thirdly Whether if a General Council meet not together in via Spiritus Sancti but some stickling imbitter'd Grandees of the Church out of a pique that they have taken against some persons get through their interest a General Council called whether is the assistance of the Holy Ghost to be expected in such a meeting so that they shall conclude nothing against truth Fourthly Whether the Authority of such General Councils as Providence by some notable prodigie may seem to have intimated a dislike of be not thereby justly suspected and not easily to be admitted as infallible deciders Fifthly Whether a General Council that is found mistaken in one point anathematizing that for an Heresie which is a truth forfeits not its Authority in other points which then whether falshoods or truths are not to be deemed so from the Authority of that Council but from other Topicks Sixthly Since there can be no commerce betwixt God and man nor he communicate his mind and will to us but by supposition That our senses rightly circumstantiated are true That there is skill in us to understand words and Grammar and schemes of speech as also common notions and clear inferences of Reason whether if a General Council conclude any thing plainly repugnant to these is the Conclusion of such a Council true and valid and whether the indeleble Notices of truth in our mind that all Mankind is possessed of whether Logical Moral or Metaphysical be not more the dictates of God than those of any Council that are against them Seventhly If a Council as general as any has been called had in the very midnight of the Churches Apostasie and ignorance met and concluded all those Corruptions that now are obtruded by the Church of Rome as Transubstantiation Invocation of Saints Worshipping of Images and the like whether the Decisions of such a Council could be held infallible or valid What our own excellently well Reformed Church holds in this case is evident out of her Articles For Eighthly The Church of England plainly declares That General Councils when they be gathered together forasmuch as they be an Assembly of men whereof all are not governed with the Spirit and Word of God they may err and sometimes have erred even in things pertaining to God Wherefore saith she things ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture Artic. 21. Ninthly And again Artic. 20. where she allows the Church to have power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith but with this restriction That it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods Word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another she concludes Wherefore although the Church be a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same so besides the same ought it not to inforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation What then does she null the Authority of all the General Councils and have no deference for any thing but the mere Word of God to convince men of Heresie No such matter What her sense of these things is you will find in 1 Eliz. cap. 1. Wherefore Tenthly and lastly What General Councils the Church of England allows of for the conviction of Hereticks you may understand out of these words of the Statute They shall not