Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	apostolical_a	faith_n	tradition_n	2,256	5	9.3848	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45426	Of schisme a defence of the Church of England against the exceptions of the Romanists / by H. Hammond ...	Hammond, Henry, 1605-1660.	1653 (1653)	Wing H562A; ESTC R40938	74,279	194

unity of the Faith which was once delivered to the saints under that head also comprehending the institutions of Christ of his Apostles and of the Vniversal Church of the first and purest ages whether in Government or other the like observances and practises The second is an offence against external peace and Communion Ecclesiastical The third and last is the want of that charity which is due from every Christian to every Christian Beside these I cannot foresee any other species of schisme and therefore the vindicating our Reformation from all grounds of charge of any of these three will be the absolving the whole task undertaken in these sheets § 3. 1. A departure from the Unity of Doctrines or Traditions Apostolical For the first it may be considered either in the Bullion or in the coyn in the grosse or in the retail either as it is a departure from those rules appointed by Christ for the founding and upholding his truth in the Church this Vnity of Doctrine c. or else as it is the asserting any particular branch of Doctrine contrary to Christs and the Apostolical pure Churches establishment § 4. Our Church vindicated from this in two branches And here it is first suggested by the Romanist that by casting out the authority of the Bishop of Rome we have cast off the head of all Christian Vnity and so must needs be guilty of Schisme in this first respect To which the answer is obvious 1. In the first Christs Rules for upholding the truth that that Bishop of Rome was never appointed by Christ to be the head of all Christian unity or that Church to be the conservatory for ever of all Christian truth any more then any other Bishop or Church of the Apostles ordaining or planting and whatever can be pretended for the contrary will be easily answered from the grounds already laid and cleared in the former part of this discourse concerning the Vniversal Pastorship of S. Peter's successors which must not be here so unnecessarily repeated § 5. 2 dly That the way provided by Christ and his Apostles for the preserving the unity of the faith c. in the Church is fully acknowledged by us and no way supplanted by our Reformation That way is made up of two acts of Apostolical providence First their resolving upon some few heads of special force and efficacie to the planting of Christian life through the world and preaching and depositing them in every Church of their plantation 2. Their establishing an excellent subordination of all inferior officers of the Church to the Bishop in every city of the Bishops in every Province to their Metropolitanes of the Metropolitanes in every region or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Patriarchs or Primates allowing also among these such a Primacie of Order or dignity as might be proportionable to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the scripture and agreeable to what is by the antient Canons allowed to the Bishop of Rome And this standing subordination sufficient for all ordinary uses and when there should be need of extraordinary remedies there was then a supply to be had by congregating Councels Provincial Patriarchal General as hath formerly been shewed And all this it is most certain asserted and acknowledged by every true son of the Church of England as zealously as is pretended by any Romanist And from hence by the way that speech of the learned and excellent Hugo Grotius which I discern to be made use of by the Romanists and look'd on with jealousie by others will I suppose receive its due importance and interpretation in his Rivet Apologet Discuss p. 255. Restitutionem Christianorum in unum idémque corpus c. § 6. As for the subjection and dependence of this Church to the Monarchick power of the Bishop of Rome this will never be likely to tend to the unity of the whole body unlesse first all other Churches of Christians paid that subjection too and were obliged and so by duty morally ascertain'd alwaies to continue it which it is evident the Eastern Churches had not done long before the time of our pretended departure and 2. unlesse the Bishop of Rome were in probability able to administer that vast Province so as would be most to the advantage of the whole body For which whether he be fitly qualified or no as it is not demonstrable in the causes so is it to be looked on as a Politick Probleme the truth of which belongs to prudent persons and and such as are by God intrusted with the Flock to judge of i. e. to the Princes the nursing Fathers of every Church who are prudentially and fatherly to determine for themselves and those that are under them what is most ordinable to that end and cannot be obliged to conclude farther then the motives or premises will bear to decree what they doe not reasonably and cordially believe § 7. In the Second Particular doctrines Lastly for the particular doctrines wherein we are affirmed by the Romanists to depart from the Vnity of the Faith and so by departing from the unity to be schismatical as heretical by departing from the faith this must be contested by a strict survey of the particular doctrines wherein as we make no doubt to approve our selves to any that will judge of the Apostolical doctrine and traditions by the Scriptures and consent of the first 300 years or the four General Councels The Church of Englands temper in respect of particular doctrines the most competent witnesses of Apostolical traditions so we shall secure our selves of our innocence in this behalf by that principle acknowledged in our Church and owned as the rule by which we are concluded in any debate or controversie That whatever is contrary to the doctrine or practises of those first and purest ages shall by us assoon as it thus appears be renounced and disclaimed also Which resolution of rulinesse and obedience will I suppose conserve us in the unity of the Faith and render us approveable to God though our ignorance thus unaffected should betray us to some misunderstandings of those first times and be an instrument much more probable to lead us into all truth then the supposed infallibility of the Church of Rome can be imagined to be which as it leaves the proudest presumer really as liable to error as him that acknowledgeth himself most fallible so it ascertains him to persevere incorrigible whether in the least or greatest error which by fault or frailty he shall be guilty of § 8. This consideration of the humble docible temper of our Church together with our professed appeal to those first and purest times to stand or fall as by those evidences we shall be adjudged as it necessarily renders it our infelicity not our crime if in judging of Christ's truth we should be deemed to erre so may it reasonably supersede that larger trouble of the Reader in this place which the view and examination of the severals would cost him

an offence against that charity due from every Christian to every Christian examined § 1. Contrary to charity due from all to all LAstly as Schism is an offence against that charity which is due from every Christian to every Christian so it will be best distributed according to what we see noted by by the Apostle Rom. 14. in the Jewish and Gentile Christians 1. Judging 2. Despising into the judging and the despising of others either of which was if not formally Schism yet soon improveable into it when it would not be repressed by the Apostles admonitions Separating the effect of both The Jewish Christians we know judged and damned all that would not observe the Mosaical law and would not associate or communicate with the Gentiles and the like height Diotrephes and some of the Gentile believers who began with the other branch that of vilifying the weak Jew at last arrived to not receiving forbidding to receive and casting out the brethren 3 Joh. 10. And whether the Romanists or we are thus guilty will soon be discernible § 2. Of Judging separating the Romanists guilty ex Confesso For the former that of judging and so separating from their brethren if yet we may be allowed that title it is evident by their own acknowledgment how guilty they are and how guiltlesse we § 3. It hath been a special motive and argument to gain proselytes to their party for some years that by our Confession there is salvation to be had among them but in their judgment no possible hope of it for us This weapon of their's used so studiously against us to anticipate and prejudge in general whatsoever can be particularly said to assert our doctrines and practises will certainly be as usefull in our hands as Goliah's sword in David's to give this wound I wish it may not prove as fatal to our vaunting enemies For certainly if there be any truth in that motive then are they professedly the men that judge their brethren and as confessedly we the men that doe not judge them And if S. Cyprian's rule be true who had as well considered the nature of Schism and as diligently armed the Christians of his age against it and given us as sure rules to judge by in this matter as any that they that maintain any difference in opinion against other Christians must if they will avoid the evil of schism manage it with this temper neminem damnantes neminem à communione nostrâ arcentes never condemn any or forbid them our communion then is the schism because the uncharitableness on their parts not on ours And it is not the saying we are Hereticks and so certainly excluded salvation Schismaticks and so out of the Church the way to salvation that can give this sanguinarie judgment any meeker a title For that we are such being as much denied as any thing and that negative offered to be proved and vindicated by all those evidences by which any matter of doctrine from whence this question depends can duly be cleared this unproved affirmation that we are such is certainly a petitio principii a begging of the question a supposing that in the debate which they know we are as farre from confessing as they from having proved and that is the most certain proof that such judging is uncharitable I wish there were not many other as pregnant indications of it § 4. And for that of despising or setting at nought the brother which is the Ap Of despising We are guiltlesse of it ostles argument also that they walk not charitably and the effect whereof is evident the casting them out of the Church if the cause may be concluded by the effect the guilt lies on the Romanists side not on ours as hath formerly appeared And truly we are so sensible of the many prepossessions and strong prejudices which by the advantage of education the prescribed credulity to all that the Church shall propose the doctrine of infallibility the shutting up the scriptures in an unknown language the impossibility that the multitude should search or examine tradition with their own eyes the prosperous flourishing estate of the Roman Church and the persecutions and calamities and expressions of God's displeasure on the Church of England the literal sound of Hoc est corpus meum for their principal espoused doctrine of Transubstantiation and som other the like means are infused into the multitude of men and women that are brought up without any knowledge of ours in a firm belief of all their pretensions that we are as farre from setting them at nought or despising them as from that which by their doing it first is made impossible for us to be guilty of the casting them out of the Church § 5. I foresee not any objection which may give me temptation or excuse farther to enlarge on this matter And professe not to know any other branch of Schism or colour of fastening that guilt upon our Church made use of by any which hath not been either prevented in the grounds of this discourse or distinctly taken notice of and competently vindicated as farre as the design'd brevity would permit CHAP. XI Concerning the present Persecution of the Church of England and the advantages sought from thence § 1. OUr Establishment being thus freed from Schism I shall not now entertain my self with any fear that the Persecution which we are under will involve us in it The Romanists argument frō our present condition of Persecution Yet can I not but take notice of the style that some Romanists have in these last years on this occasion chosen to make use of calling us the late Church of England The interpretation whereof is to my understanding this that the calamities under which now we suffer have made us cease to be a Church And therefore having learned and abundantly experimented what scandal the Crosse hath alwaies carried along with it how willing enemies are to take advantage and ground arguments on afflictions and how ordinary it is for friends to take impressions from such sensible carnal motives and being secured by the storie of the Antient Gnosticks that it is neither scandalous excesse of fear nor want of charity to think it possible that this as other antient heresies may now as in a Platonick year if not carefully warded return on us as in a revolution I shall therefore conclude this paper with an attempt to remove this prejudice The utmost whereof being formed into an objection is this that it is absolutely necessary to communicate with some one visible Church that now the Church of England is not such and consequently that it must be cast off and the Roman Church so illustriously visible be taken up in stead of it § 2. Answered To this reserve I shall make my returns by these degrees First that by the making this objection or drawing any argument against any member of the Church of England from the present 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or improsperous