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A61555 Ecclesiastical cases relating to the duties and rights of the parochial clergy stated and resolved according to the principles of conscience and law / by the Right Reverend Father in God, Edward, Lord Bishop of Worcester. Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699. 1698 (1698) Wing S5593; ESTC R33861 132,761 428

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made the Christian Doctrine ridiculous to found its Fundamental Precepts on extravagant Notions and Mystical Contemplations And so for the Love of our Neighbours to allow only a Love of Benevolence and Charity and not of Delight and Complacency is to make Nice Distinctions where God hath made none But to take away the Love of Complacency in Friends and Relations and the Blessings which God gives for the Comfort of Life is to overthrow the due Sense of God's Goodness in giving them and to take away a great Measure of that Gratitude we owe to God for them But when any seem very fond of such Notions and shew so much Self-Complacency in them it is impossible upon such Principles that they should love their Neighbours as themselves 4. If you would understand the New Testament aright fix in your Minds a true Scheme of the State of the Controversies of that Time which will give you more light into the true knowledge of the Scriptures than large Volumes of Commentators or the best Systems of Modern Controversies As what the Iewish Notions of Justification by Works and Expiation of Sin were and of God's Decrees of Election and Reprobation as to themselves And what the Principles of the Judaizing Christians were as to the joyning the Law and the Gospel and the Pythagorean Superstition together And what the Gnosticks who were professed Libertines held as to Grace Redemption Liberty Government c. All which tend very much to the clearing the Sense of the New Testament 5. Where the Sense appears doubtful and Disputes have been raised about it enquire into the Sense of the Christian Church in the first Ages as the best Interpreter of Scripture as whether the Apostles left Bishops or Presbyters to succeed them in the Government of Churches Whether the Apostles appointed the Lords Day to be observed as the Day of Publick Worship Whether Baptism were not to be Administred to Infants as well as Circumcision both being Seals of God's Covenant Whether Divine Worship doth not belong to Christ and were ●o● given to him in the Hymns and Doxologies of the Primitive Church and Whether Divine Worship can be given to any Creature Whether the Form of Baptism was not understood so as to imply a Trinity of Persons and Whether all true Christians were not Baptized into this Faith and consequently Whether denying the Trinity be not renouncing Christian Baptism These and many other such Questions of great Importance receive great Light from the Writings of the first Ages But some Rules may be very useful for right judging the Sense of those Times 1. To distinguish the Genuine and Supposititious Writings of that Time This hath been examined with so much Care by Learned Men of this last Age that it is no hard matter to make a true Judgment about them 2. In those that are Genuine to distingush the Sense of the Church delivered by them from their own particular Opinions the Sense of the Church is best known by Publick Acts as by Creeds Sacraments Hymns Prayers and Censures of such as oppose or contradict them 3. To put a Difference between the Authority of private Persons and of the Bishops and Governours of the Church who may be presumed to understand the Sense of the Church and the Doctrine of the Apostles better than the other And so Clemens Ignatius Polycarp Theophilus and Irenaeus are more to be trusted as to the Sense and Practice of the Christian Church than such as Hermes and Papias and Tatianus who had neither the Judgment nor the Authority of the other 4. That may be justly looked on as the Sense of the Church which is owned both by the Friends and the Enemies of it The Enemies of Christianity charged them with many Things which the Apologists utterly denied Now we find Pliny charging the Christians with singing Hymns to Christ as to God several Christian Writers of that time mention this but never go about to soften or to excuse or deny it And so we find Lucian deriding the Christians for the Doctrine of Three and One which the Apologists of that time are so far from denying that they assert and vindicate it as appears by Athenagoras and others But these things I only touch at to shew how the Sense of the Church is to be taken and how from thence the Sense of the Scriptures may be cleared OF THE Particular Duties OF THE PAROCHIAL CLERGY AT A VISITATION October 27 th 1696. My Brethren AS often as it pleases God in his wise Providence to bring me among you in the ordinary Course of my Visitation I cannot satisfie my self that I do my own Duty unless I put you in mind of doing yours We live in an Age wherein the Contempt of the Clergy is too notorious not to be observed but the true Reasons are not so well considered as they ought to be Some to increase the Contempt of the Clergy have given such Reasons of it as seem to make it a light and jesting matter but truly it is very far from being so For the Contempt of Religion is oft-times both the Cause and the Effect of it It is not at all to be wondred at that those who hate to be reformed should hate those whose Duty and Business it ought to be to endeavour to reform them But when Religion is struck at through our Sides we ought with Patience to bear the Wounds and Reproaches we receive in so good a Cause Wo be to us if those who are Enemies to Religion speak well of us For it is a strong Presumption that they take us to be of their side in our Hearts and that we are distinguished only by our Profession which they look on only as our Trade And we give too much occasion for such Suspicions of us if we do not heartily concern our selves for the Honour and Interest of true Religion in the World whatever we may suffer as to our Reputation for the sake of it It is possible that if we go about to humour such Persons in their Infidelity and Contempt of Religion we may escape some hard Words for the present but they cannot but have the greatest inward Contempt and Hatred of all those who live upon Religion and yet have not the Courage to defend it And what Satisfaction can such have when they reflect upon themselves and think what Occasion they have given to confirm such Persons in their Infidelity and to make them think the worse of Religion for their sakes The best thing we can do to recover the Honour of Religion and to set our Profession above Contempt is to apply our selves seriously and conscientiously to do our Duties For if others find that we are in earnest and make it our great Business to do all the Good we can both in the Pulpit and out of it if we behave our selves with that Gravity Sobriety Meekness and Charity which becomes so holy a Profession we shall raise our selves above the common