Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	church_n	infallibility_n	infallible_a	2,696	5	10.1905	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45665	A farewell to popery, in a letter to Dr. Nicholas, vice-chancellor of Oxford, and warden of New-College, from W. H., M. D., lately Fellow of the same college shewing, the true motives that with-drew him to the romish religion, and the reasons of his return to the Church of England : concluding with some short reflections concerning the great duty of charity.	Harris, Walter, 1647-1732.	1679 (1679)	Wing H884; ESTC R9627	22,580	44

his most Innocent Life with the Ignominious Death upon the Cross can we think he designed that any under pretence of being his Vicar should presently hoise above all that is called God and enlarge their Scepter from Rome to the uttermost parts of the world How Prodigious this Doctrine must have been too in its effects How it hath made Christian Princes and the World to tremble our Nation is now grown sufficiently sensible from the frequent Tragedies that have been acted or designed to be acted upon our own Theater without enumerating the many Forreign instances which might be produced That the Pope and Church of Rome have proudly arrogated such intolerable Power over all Princes that come within their reach all such as desire or are capable of being satisfied concerning it may have recourse to a Letter writ lately on the discovery of this Plot wherein this subject is most solidly and fully as well as briefly handled by a most excellent Pen they may also consider those three Treatises formerly mentioned called The Jesuites Loyalty And yet notwithstanding that this charge is as evident as the Sun 't is pleasant shall I say or wonderful to consider that many good well-meaning Popish Women as well as deaf and blind Gentlemen will not yet be perswaded that the Church is guilty of any such Doctrine no seeing it they will not see and knowing it they will not understand The Infallible Guide must not cannot be suspected of doing any harm and the Director of the Conscience shall presently settle any such scruple with a little of his Art either by flatly denying it or softning it or turning the charge into Ridicule And from this Consideration I shall take occasion to urge one most invincible Argument or Demonstration rather against the Pretended Infallibility of the Romish Church 'T is this That Church which teaches Doctrines that destroy Morality may be fairly suspected nay necessarily concluded to teach Errors in matters of Faith But the Church of Rome has taught Doctrines that destroy Morality Therefore it may be concluded to teach Errors in matters of Faith The Major has as much evidence as Reason can possibly desire For supposing any Man or Men guilty of notorious Vices and exhorting us to the same Vices can the reason of a Christian think such a Man or Men infallible in their Councils in a small affair so as to repose absolute Confidence in him or them much less in the greatest concern of this life the eternal concern of Heaven especially if we consider that Christian Religion all along the Gospel and the rest of the holy Scriptures does advance Morality and put the greatest esteem upon it of any Religion in the World Besides the Doctrines of Self-denial therein urged further than any Philosophers ever thought fit it teaches us to love our Neighbours as our selves to live Peaceably with all men to forgive and do good to our very Enemies and recommends Love and Charity so often and so earnestly as if the rest of Religion Faith in Christ c. were things that needed not being exhorted to they would so necessarily follow by the secret workings of Gods grace where so Loving and Good a Disposition takes place in the heart Now the Minor Proposition that the Church of Rome has taught Doctrines which destroy Morality will easily enough appear if the arrogant allowance of a Proud Prelate to dispose of Kingdoms that don't belong to him to Prosecute with Fire and Sword all such poor innocent Souls as refuse to submit their necks to his heavy yoke to Murder and Assassinate such Kings or Persons as resist his dreadful Invasions which he calls Spiritual though diametrically opposite to the spirit of the Gospel the spirit of Meekness and Charity the spirit of Long-suffering and Peace In a word if the allowance of doing Evil that Good may come of it doing any thing cruel or barbarous for the promotion of Religion be Doctrines that destroy Morality as most certainly they are nay and if those Co●neils which did immediately and that often soon follow the perpetration of such Villanies were so far from detesting the facts that they rather confirmed and encouraged the Pope in them at least never mutter'd good Men at what his Holiness had done then the Assumption of this Argument holds good Now as for the Promises in Scripture which the Church of Rome proudly applies to it self for its Infallibility as concerning God's being with his Church to the end of the world c. I can see no reason why that Church should think it belongs to them more than others It is because that Church has escaped those Devastations and Judgments which the others have so severly felt They have the greater reason to suspect themselves for that for God's People the Israelites did always fall from the true Worship of the Lord and bow'd down to the false Gods of the Gentiles when they flourished most in Prosperity and God was pleased to think that nothing would reclaim 'em but fearful Jugdments such as Plagues War Famine and somtimes Captivities for many years And still upon their return to him he deliver'd them out of all their Afflictions But there and sufficient natural reasons why Italy has less felt the Sword and Power of Foreign Enemies than the other Churches It s Situation defends them from Enemies aboard they have the Ocean on one side the Alps on another and Friends to sustain the brunt on all parts by Land And besides the same reason will plead better for Mahomets Successors as every Age growing more and more Victorious whereas the Empire of the Prelate of Rome has considerably decreased Again That Promise before-mentioned was not made to St. Peter alone but to all the Apostles so that the other Bishops of Apostolical Sees should have deriv'd the same Infallible spirit to their Successors as the Bishop of Rome insolently claims to him and his Church But that other Promise Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church makes the Romanists scorn the rest of the World and look upon themselves as the only Chosen of God St. Peter certainly was a great Apostle Converted many Countries and had the honour to be named first in the Catalogue of the Apostles and so had Priority of Order though in another place he is not numbred for the first Gal. 2.9 But surely if this great Apostle had had a Superior jurisdiction over the rest St. Paul would have been more modest than to have so severely Rebuked him to his Face as he did Gal. 2.11 for a shrewd miscarriage in his charge making the Christian Gentiles to Judaize And St. Paul was so far from encroaching on the Power of St. Peter that he thought himself unworthy of the great Name of an Apostle 1 Cor. 15.9 was so Good that he could have been contented to have been an Anatheina or Accursed for ever for the sake and happiness of his Brethren the Jews Rom. 9.3 Besides St.

Peter was more likely to have chosen Antioch for the Seat of his Successors as being the place where he liv'd most part of his Life and exercised his Episcopal Charge with honour benefit and safety rather than Rome where it is certain he could be but a little while and many with good reason doubt whether ever he was there or no where likewise he was so far from being welcome that it is said he was there very unkindly received and after much opposition Crucified most cruelly He that will needs have a Church to be Infallible I would desire him to consider the condition of the Israelites the Chosen People of God who were brought out of Aegypt with such a mighty Hand so great an attendanee of Miracles and Favours One would think certainly if it were in the Nature of Man not to go astray if any were capable of Worshipping the True God as they should do these should have been the Men above all others And yet though they had a Cloud by day and a Pillar of Fire by night to guide them all along though the Glory of God did often fill the Tabernacle in the sight of them all nay though they were fed with Miracles Manna and Quails and Fountains ran out of dry Rocks yet these same People would be continually falling from their Duty they would be longing after Aegypt nay and making Gods to go before them they were not only guilty of the highest Immoralities and Murmurings at their good God upon every trivial account but were contented absolutely to forsake him and fall into gross Idolatry If after all this so sad a manifestation of the proneness of poor Man-kind to Sin and Error Infallibility can still glibly go down to a considering Man I shall more wonder at him than have any thing to say to him Nay if Men can be supposed to have so clear and undoubted understanding in Spiritual Truths how comes it to pass that all Natural things lie so his and intricate to the conceptions of the wisest Men. A little Knowledge indeed will puff up and be apt to perswade People that they know a great deal but a significant Progress will have a contrary effect and make them humbly acknowledge they know very little if any thing at all The nature of light and colours the plainest things of any remain so obscure and unintelligible that they still occasion new Hypotheses and perhaps will do so to the end of the World To speak one word with Submission to my own Faculty What certain infallible Methods has Physick yet attain'd to 't is much to be doubted whether Beasts by the Instinct of Nature so much undervalued by our Opiniative Reason do not Cure themselves of most distempers much sooner and safer than fanciful Men can yet do with all their Art and so much glorifi'd Reason Besides the Cure of Agues brought now to a kind of absolute certainty by some rightly Educated real Physicians to my certain knowledge as well if not better than by the much Celebrated though Illegitimate Son of this Art what truly specifical Cures can Physicians yet boast of The cause of this slow advancement I take to be that Men will impute the failures of their Remedies and Methods rather to Nature than their own Conduct Let never so many men dye unhappily of such or such a distemper long-practising Physicians will never suspect themselves but think all was done by them as well as it might have been done whereas if they took their Indications from what does sensible good or ill and from judicious observations did all their might to correct the failures of their Practice and would but once impute these failures to their own ignorance and want of sufficient skill there seems to me to be hopes God would then bless their endeavours for the Body as he does humble Divines on behalf of the Soul The gift of Healing was once the gift of God as all good things most certainly are still and if Men would sometimes look up to the Fountain of all Goodness as as well as into Books we might then expect to find Learned Ingenious Physicians do as much if not more than mean ignorant People and weak Women are often found to do But there are God be thanked some Physicians among us who have pleased to be of this Christian Opinion and do work no few real Cures in the most dangerous Distempers by mild and innocent ways such as will at last be acknowledged most agreeable to Nature when truth and moderation shall have gainst the Victory over Envy and Passion One word more and I pass from this subject The Fathers of the 4th General Council had no such deference then for the Bishop of Rome as he now claims for his inherent right They did give the Bishop of Rome Can. 28. Aequalia Privilegia equal or the very same privileges as they did to the Bishop of Constantinople Their reason they said was Quod ●rbs illa imperare● because that was the Imperial Seat the Empire was then divided and Old Rome was the Seat of the Western Empire as New Rome or Constantinople was the Imperial Seat of the East It was not for any derivation from St. Peter but in honour of the Emperour that they were pleased to allow him equal privileges And this they did not lightly irregularly or Uncanonically but jure they said they did it justly what they ought to do and no more Then again the Legates of the Roman Bishop had no Authority allowed them to speak any thing in the Council no more than the rest without leave first granted them from the Emperors Officers who sate there in his place and stead The Legates of Pope Leo spake to him thus Si Imperat Magnificentia vestra habemus quoedam referre vobis Gloriosissimi judices dixerunt Quod vultis edicite If your Highness will give us leave commands us to speak we have somthing to say to you The most noble Judges answered Speak what you please Now whether the World is not strangely changed since those Primitive days whether the Popes Supremacy over Emperors Kings and that very Bishop of Constantinople be right and just and whether his calling all Schismaticks If not Hereticks that will not own his Universal-spreading Supremacy ought to frighten and scare people I leave you and all Men calmly to judge And now to return again to the more immediate design of this Letter which is not intended to be an angry Child of Controversie but mildly and truly to give an Historical account for my self and some of my own thoughts which shook and chill'd my Roman Zeal a good considerable time before the late Hellish devices made every innocent soul to tremble The first was a strange and proposterous influence that Religion has on all its Proselytes wholly to neglect if not slight the holy Scriptures Let a Man have used himself never so much to the reading that Holy Book and let him have received never so

was Printed an excellent Book of Devotion called Devotion by way of Offices a Book so full of the Divine Spirit solid sense and good English that I can hardly remember to have seen the like unless it be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our late Incomparable Soveraign 'T was a work so free from exception that paring a way the Ave Mary a Hymn to our Lady at the conclusion of the Office and very little or nothing more it might serve as well for the use of Protestants as Papists 'T was writ by a Lay-Gentleman a man of a most exemplary life and so ingenious that all who knew him or heard of him or had any inward respect for true Learning or Virtue coveted his acquaintance so far that they made his House the Center of all their meetings And yet the Jesuits will not bestow one kind word on this Man or Book The Gentleman they condemn for a Blackloist that is as they will have it a worse Heretick than a Protestant though he declar'd himself with never so much submission to the Catholick Church The Book they disswade all People from using for no manner of reason but because it is not stufft with those Litanies and Prayers to Saints the Manual abounds with or that it will do their souls too much real good or because it was written by a Lay-man no ways Jesuited There 's one thing more I can't but observe And that is that all the Convents of Nuns let them be never so Ignorant must be forc'd to say and sing the Office of the Church in Latin for Morning and Evening Prayers and the other Canonical hours So it seems they separate themselves from the World to a good purpose and must needs make strange advancements in Devotion to God when they thus spend their time at Church and in numbring long Catalogues of Ave Maries 'T is much if they don't repent their first Zeal when they have liv'd long enough there to grow sober and consider True Devotion consists in those means that raise the heart to the love of God above all things and which conduce to make us live Honestly and Charitably with all Men and not in a toothless Lip service where the heart is not cannot be concern'd A third thing that must touch sensibly upon the Conscience of any one that was ever a Protestant is the Prayers to Saints and especially those continual Supplications that are made in the highest manner to the Ever-blessed Virgin He may indeed comply a little following the general rule of Believing as the Church Believes and practising as the Church practises but he can never force out of his mind his dependence on God Almighty and heartily quit his natural refuge to God to make Applications to this or that Saint The Worship of Images so flat against the 2d Commandment and the putting out the 2d Commandment so plain against the Worship of Images the Adoration of Reliques Agnus Dei's and other Consecrated Bawbles will make the Conscience of a Protestant grumble somtimes let him do what he will and declare himself never so much for that Church Concerning Reliques I observed that when they were exposed on great days to the view of all comers there was a Priest to gard'em who would take it very unkindly if any body presumed to kiss the Case they were kept in without depositing some Mite into the Dish just by So that poor People must only look on and devoutly admire the Reliques and the rich Case together without profaning it with an empty too near an approach And again some Images and Altars have a much greater virtue in 'em than others His Holiness has bestowed most liberal Indulgences to some above others that is he has favoured more particularly such or such a Monastery and granted them a means to make Fools stocks thither more abundantly and confer their Charity with a freer hand to the disposal of a pack of Covetous Insatiable Wretches Now 't is most certain and plain that the Worship of God without an Image is lawful beyond dispute with an Image 't is dangerous at least to say no worse To Pray to the God that made us is safe beyond scruple Prayers to Saints may make God Jealous of his Honour To say such Prayers as affect the heart cannot but be very acceptable to him but a dry insipid Lip-service ought much to be suspected To Receive the Blessed-Sacrament as our Saviour did himself Institute it cannot but he effectual to a soul duly prepared but the mincing this great Sacrament the taking it by halfs is not what he intended if we will follow his own example or believe his own words In a word to believe the three Creeds the foundation of Christianity and imitate the Primitive the best purest times is very rational for a good Christian but to take in all the idle Superstructures that Politick or Zealous or Ignorant Men have since raised either for self-ends or through weakness or the wilfulness of Opiniators gives too great a Latitude to the Enemy of Man-kind who watches all opportunities to withdraw us from our duty 'T is not the Title and Name of Catholick which Roman Catholicks do so uncharitably appropriate to themselves that should frighten us into a better opinion of them than they deserve I know not why an English Catholick should not sound full as well as a Roman Catholick but in their sense 't is a meer Solecism as much as a Particular-general 'T is not the Name but the Thing that must do our business hereafter And a most uncharitable exclusion of all Man-kind from Salvation besides those that are Cross'd with that Title on their Fore-heads will help but little to forward our future happiness let Zealous fiery Priests urge it till their hearts ake But that nobody may be scar'd from doing their duty in England upon the consideration that no Salvation can be had out of the Roman Catholick Church I shall here declare that I have often talkt with some of the most judicious and knowing Priests among them concerning this point and they have seriously agreed with me that neither they nor the Church do think so Vncharitably Paltry Priests will say so to frighten Women and weak persons but they do not cannot in their Conscience think so if they have but the least grain of wit I could add a great many other things to those already said though for several years I have not so much as lookt into any Book of Controversie having had somthing else to do and being persuaded that Controversie is the Mother of far more Harm than Good as turning Practical Religion out of doors and spending the true spirit of Religion in talk and noise which rather consists in Peace and Action But I must remember I am writing a Letter not a Treatise Do to others as you would be done unto is a greater and more substantial part of Christianity than we are commonly aware And he that would