Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	catholic_n	church_n	communion_n	2,927	5	9.4030	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49338	Mercy triumphant, the kingdom of Christ enlarged beyond the narrow bounds which have been wont to be set unto it by Edward Lane, minister of the Gospel ; being an antidote against a book lately come out, of Doctor DuMoulin's, called Moral reflections upon the number of the elect, wherein the said author will prove by Scripture, that not one in a hundred thousand (nay probably not one in a million) from Adam down to our times shall be saved.	Lane, Edward, 1605-1685.	1680 (1680)	Wing L333; ESTC R17029	54,157	64

and Holy Bishop Sanderson hath written in his third Sermon ad Aulam against this Pharisaical Arrogancy viz. these assume to themselves the Terms of Brotherhood of Professors or Christianity the Communion of Saints the Godly party as if none but they were to be owned either as Brethren or Professours or Christians or Saints or Godly Men. Such an abhorrency hath this destructive Opinion wrought in the Minds of pious men that have been before us And as it is destructive to the eternal Estate of many precious Souls so may it especially by keeping up these separating Distinctions tend to the overthrow of Nations and Kingdomes we here in this Nation have reason so to account of it Sure I am the said good Bishop did so long agone being about fourty Years past foretel in a manner the dismal Breaches which have since arisen among us thereby his Words are these viz. Who knoweth of what ill Consequence the Usage of such Appropriating and distinctive Titles may prove and what evil Effects they may produce in future Times But such hath been our Misery we may now say who knoweth it not the Experience that we have had hath taught us sufficiently to know it And we cannot but know that the same dividing Spirit still haunteth us in this Nation as if we had known nothing or at least as if we had forgotten the woful effects which this Spirit of Division and Delusion hath produced But that I may not doe them wrong these are not the only chief upholders of this Opinion there is another sort also that joyn with them that is the Romanishs both which as the same Reverend Bishop hath compared them are like Sampsons Foxes tied together by the Tailes to set all on Fire though their Faces look quite contrary wayes and albeit the former sort be too Phantastical and selfconceited yet may these latter likewise well be adjudged as they have been too Fanatical Do not these make their Church the only Suburbs of Heaven maintaining expresly that none can enter therein but only those that will pass through their Gates which in truth are too narrow for any yea for themselves to enter They contrary to all Truth and Reason make the Roman and the Catholick Church Termes convertible exacting eternal Communion with them and Subjection to their Bishop as a condition so essentially requisite for the qualifying any Person to be a Member of that Church of Christ out of which there is no Salvation as that they have inserted a Clause to that purpose into the very definition of a Church viz. Ecclesia est coetus hominum sub regimine Legitimo●um Pastorum ac praecipue unius christi Vicarii Romani pontificis Whereby they do in effect adjudge all that are not under the Popes Jurisdiction and Government to everlasting Perdition And now I beseech you are not both these sorts of People miserably deluded by Satan that whereas they speak of the Strait Gate and narrow Way that leadeth unto Life and that they have found it yea that they are the only Guides to all others that desire to find it they themselves both one and the other are extreamly mistaken in their way which without Repentance they will undoubtedly find in the end to their everlasting Confusion This Opinion therefore having such Authors and Abettors and producing such pernicious Effects to the overthrow not only of Christian Charity but of Humanity also yea to the lessening if not utter annulling of Gods infinite Goodness for besides what Papists foolishly boast of the Church of Rome that there can be no Salvation out of it I have heard a prime Leader among our Nonconformists Preaching in his Pulpit before a great Congregation in this manner what cares God if he throwes the greatest part of the World into Hell and being as it appears without any express Warrant from Holy Writ it should to speak modestly be the less regarded by us though it hath been and still is countenanced by those that have been and are at this day of good esteem among us A second Caution shall be this let no man mistake so far as to imagine that this preceding Discourse doth aim at any wider way that leadeth to Life than the Holy Scripture and the Church following the Rule of it will allow The way is plain which is set before us viz. Jesus Christ and he whosoever he be Christian or Heathen that will with Faith and Repentance keep stedfastly in this way looking upon Jesus to the last Gasp he shall undoubtedly be saved but no other of what Nation Rank or Condition or Perswasion soever he be shall ever be interessed in this Mercy Should I here maintain as an eminent Author of late hath Pablished in a Book called Theologia Veterum that the Heathen by the light of Nature without Christ may attain to such a Knowledge of God as is enough for their Salvation or as some of the Antients even in the primitive Times of the Church as our Bishop Mountague reports of them in his Acts and Monuments of the Church before Christs Incarnation Cap. 1. S●ct 86. have held that the Heathen by following only the Rules of Philosophy may be saved or by Ethica Justitia and that Philosophy was necessary to Justification not alone antecedently by way of Allistance in promoting or furthering saving Knowledge but properly Primarily and of it self these are the Words of my Author the said Bishop or should I say Dr. Montague as others in these times that the sweet Disposition of good humoured men worthy indeed of all to be beloved is enough to commend and approve them unto God and bring them to Heaven I may justly fall under the premised Censure though my adherence to such Opinions would have added some Strength to my premised Position But for my part the Sense of my good Mother the Holy Church of England shall next to the Holy Scripture be my Guide herein and she in the eighteenth Article of our Confession entitled to eternal Salvation only by the Name of Christ thus beleiveth They are to be held as Cursed who presume to say every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth so that he be diligent to frame his Life according to that Law and the Light of Nature for the Holy Scripture doth set out unto us onely the Name of Jesus Christ whereby men must be saved Thus hath the Church given Judgment in this case and thus do I hereupon affirm that where there is nothing of Christ no Interest in him by Faith nor no Influence from him by his Spirit there can be no Salvation St. Austin is very punctual herein Serm. de verb. dom cap. 4. Qui cuiquam promittit salutem sine Christo nescio utrum ipse salutem habere possit in Christum i e whosoever he be that promiseth Salvation to any without Christ I question whether he himself may ever be saved by Christ A modern Divine renders