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scripture_n believe_v faith_n justification_n 3,844 5 9.3520 5 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A34014 Charity commended, or, A catholick Christian soberly instructed by J.C. Collop, John. 1667 (1667) Wing C5391; ESTC R16883 68,489 162

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God grant I may for futurity learn to doe something rather then hear others talk about nothing which if they bring not into the premunire with the fool in the Psalmist who said in his heart there was no God yet I have said in my heart with the Psalmist all men are lyars and every one deceiveth his neighbour I must believe as in Epiphanius time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pietie or impiety must onely distinguish Orthodox or Pseudodox we glory and are inflated with the names of Churches while we lose the power of godlinesse soul of Religion and prerogative of Christians Christs Legacy Charity Sect 31. Faith may lay a Foundation but wee may hope in vain for that building which is made without hands if charity here laies not her hand to make a superstruction those Babel-builders who think to reach Heaven by another way produce nothing but confusion of languages impenitent confidence will shipwrack in an Ocean of infirmity when penitent despair which expected to bee ingulph'd into an Abysse of miseries wasted with gales of sighes and Seas of tears may arrive at a Port of everlasting security the Scripture saies Heaven is taken by violence but 't is a strange phancy the world takes up that it may be taken with impudence fronti nulla ●ides may admit a double sence though a Judas may veil impiety with kisses yet if a timely repentance prevents not he may break in two and discover his black soul naked I cannot believe that Faith justifies works justifie or both yet we are justified by faith by works by both the conditions not causes of our justification and the conditions not perform'd it is impossible without this righteousnesse to see God I will not say Christ cannot save though the Scripture saies Christ could do no miracles in his own Country not because hee was less potent but they were more incapable where impenitence keeps the door mercy cannot enter it is not materiall whose Communion they boast of or disclaim who have fellowship with the unfruitf●ll works of darknesse since Idolaters drunkards liers Adulterers no dogs and unclean person shall enter into the City of God or be partaker of the benefits of his holy Church Sect 33. Of all graces the Apostle makes the greatest of charity and the world least of that charity which antidates Christs presence here in his members and outdates the other graces in futurity when faith and hope shall bee swallowed up in an abysse of ravishing realties that which was but a Lamp here will be then a star inlightned by the Sun of righteousnesse a Lamp here with the oyl of faith and light of good works converting sinners from the darker waies of iniquity shall shine like the stars in glory hereafter and not such who compass Sea and Land to make a Proselyte and make him worse then themselves who tith mint and annise boggle at trifling formalities and forget the greater mysteries of salvation Sect 34. Self-interest opens the floodgates of dissention to drown the humble vallies of peace men esteem opinions because their own all adore the Chimaera's of their own private brains call light darknesse and darknesse light presume they have the most glorious stars for their Conductors when they are onely ignes fatui which misguide to a precipice of flames Gods fire gave light and burned Hells fire burns without light who leave the light of truth heat of charity to live in flames of contention deserve that fire without light even the best Apostles dissented knowledge nor piety can amputate all differences but wisdom and charity must prevent their prejudices Sect 35. Not every light and aery error in disputable Doctrine and points of curious speculation can be a just cause of separation in that admirable body of Christ his Church or of one member from another He gave his naturall body to be torn on the crosse that his mysticall should be one and as Saint Austin he is no partaker of divine charitie that is enemy to this unity All these divisions are disguises of charity and vizards of factions a pageantry of pompous folly or preposterously inflated knowledg● and though they mask in the names of Papists Protestants Reformists sub-Reformists A●omist Familist Brownist c. the Church of God can have no musick to set out such discords My name is Christian and my sirname is Catholick by the one I am known from Infidells by the other from hereticks and schismatick● the name of Catholick congregates what is homogeneous and dissipates what is heterogeneous both in the Court of heaven and in the Court of the Church He cannot put on the garments of Christ who rends and divides his Church Catholick is every where the same that which is trusted to thee not that● which invented by thee which thou hast received not imagined a matter not of wit but doctrine in which thou art not to be Author but a retainer not to lead but follow that which the whole Church holds not instituted by Councells but retained is rightly believ'd Apostolicall tradition such as the Creed Sacraments c. The antient consent of holy Fathers is not in all questions of Divine Law but onely in the rule of Faith by us with exact study to be sifted out and followed there are some things in which the best defenders of the rule Salva fidei compage agree not but one thinks better and truer then another Every error denies not Christ the foundation or makes Christ deny it and thrust it from the foundation not every error in those things which are of faith is either infidelity or heresie if men differ it is no more then they have done ever pious men even in differences may preserve charity intire ●concord which is the effect of charity est un●o voluntatum non opinionum Some Churches build after the Italian fashion with a flat top others with wide windowes to let in the air and catch the applause of the world some build Babel-like and will have their head reach Heaven and if their confusion of languages impeded not might be near allyed others of the Synagogue fashion will admit nothing but round and limit Heaven in their narrow conventicles it could bee wish'd that all would bee what the Apostle exhores of one mind but it is not to be hoped wh●ile the Church is triumphant over humane fragilities which here hang thick and close about her the want of peace and unity even where Religion is pretended proceeds from men and humours rather then things and errors to be found in them Episcopacy squares with Monarchy Presbyterie with Aristocracy independency with Democracy men made Religion lackey to self-interest and State policy the great Turk walking in his Garden with a Bashaw who wonder'd hee would suffer the Christians distracted in Sects to orespread his Empire asked how he liked his Garden answering it was admirable for the variety reply'd
rent with his owne arguments shall he not dare to encounter you out of the slender scrip of his owne reason and with pebbles drawn from a brooke of clearer testimonies aime at your forehead that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pontificiall infallibility in the head of your Church and then amputate it by the two edg'd sword of verity and the whole host of delusion your Catholique body of error cui fumus pro fundamento shall evaporate yet by wrinkling and shrinking truth I shall not bring the Church in that narrow compasse to give private spirits leave to ruffle her or make her lesse Catholick or not infallible which could she be she might cease to be holy nor could I be perswaded that the pontificiall robes carried holiness to the Lord that Vrim and Thuminim perfection and light were relative to the Miter and the lips of that high Priest onely carried knowledge I could fly the bosom of the common mother but since from distemper'd parents we exuge poyson not nutriment you must give leave to decline those breasts which flow not with the sincere milk of the word and believe the body distemper'd and of a richetty constitution whose head so exceeds the proportion had infallibilitie a tie above the intention of a Priest in Collation of orders to the proof of which though I cannot expresse the exactnesse of pedantism in quotation yet I shall not be warp'd from that may expresse ingenuity and satisfie a pretender to it in a rural retirement having no book but one of an imperfect edition forc'd to read my self ubi multa desiderantur à desunt nonnulla but nothing that may inform of truth though I can make use onely of some confus'd notes for the engraphical part of memory yet in the agraphical part I shall not show so great a deficiency in the Mnenon●cal Art as may render truth suspected truth shal be my aim I may fly high rove yet never farre from the mark and perhaps escape the fa●lts of most Polemicks who resemble a piece of Arras where there is much in representation and nothing in reality or Plutarchs heartlesse fish with a sword assimilating body want both vigor and acutenesse the discourses of umbraticall Doctors on all sides like bodies bred in the shade cannot endure the Sun or a shower in their more serious retirements affecting nothing beyond Domitians humour of catching of flies which I shall without torture inforce them to confesse Could you but dispossesse your self of prejudicacy truth is a garment that time can wear who pretend to grey-headed error rather d●scredit it then patronize it Lay aside those great names of Seraphick and Angelick Doctors look not on any Religion through the opticks of blear-ey'd prejudice as I am confident you make not yours squint to self-interest I have neither giv'n up my name to regall or papall supremacy neither protested covenanted or ingag'd to any faction hee who aims at truth by the Roman or any other bias wi●l never come nere the mark the fire of self-love as it is kindled by the breath of the Father of lies so it partaketh of the quality of his flames to be without light since it keepeth us in darknesse to our selves an imperception of the true dimensions of others This liking or disliking of others is but the spurious issue of philautie which undervalues al meets not in a compliance with the humour some natures as Seneca observes are so shady as they think every thing turbulent and stormy that is even in a meridian l●ght Some like to old rusticks are content to meet in the Church porch of tradition to talk of mundan a affairs which care not to enter into the Church to serve God in his Ordinances others resemble young Novices which creep into the Church by holes to angle and ring the bells backward neglecting the key of trad●tion others by curious inquiries are put into a whee● and are circled so long betwixt proving the Scripture by tradition and tradition by Scripture till the Devill find a means to dispute them into infidelity and make them believe neither Most mens lips and pens open wide like to a monilesse purse nothing comes out of this and what is worth nothing out of them yet this nothing must be plac'd in competition with nothing lesse then salvation the tradition of the Church must be a satisfactory proof to believe by Divine faith if we may believe a Papist Scripture Gods word If wee ask why we must believe it is replied because the Church is infallibly govern'd by the holy Ghost if we inquire how they run to revelation guilty of enthusiasm which they object to others or if they offer to prove it by Scripture as most do it is an acknowledgement that the Scripture is of higher proof then the Churches tradition thus these impertinents touch ne●ther Heaven nor Earth in their discourses they open an entry into a room but shut it presently Some elate tradition above Divinity the principles of any conclusion must be of more cred●● then the conclusion it self the Articles of Faith the Trinity Resurrection and Communion if the conclusions by which they are proveable is Ecclesiastical trad●tion it must follow that the Churches tradition is of more credit when the Faith of the Articles must be finally resolv'd into the veracity of the Churches testimony Others depresse tradition even below humanity are so far from equalizing it with rational d●scourses as they prefer the dreams of phanaticks before the Churches tradition without which a rayling Song thrust upon an evil air is not worse musick then the confused notes which some intitle the harmony of Scriptures and if they know Gods Law by heart they have no heart to his Law and after all these pretences of Knowledge and illumination like to the Egyptian sages can produce nothing but frogs and blood Nor doe the Exotique Seminaries furnish us better then the weeds which the ranknesse of our own soil hath cast up Apostolicall pruging-hookes are exchang'd for Sanguinary instruments involving the world in blood and staining their own lives at the●r deaths leaving nothing behind but a memorial of some hideous impietie while with styles solemnly religious and even Seraphical devotions we find more principl'd in Caesar Borgia and Nicholas the Florentine then Elemented in Religion not erecting a Spiritual Kingdome for Christ but a temporal for the Pope which he honest good man solemnly vows and protests against for all the Bishops of Rome at their Creation make a solemn vow and confess to observe inviolably all Ordinances made in the first eight generall Councells in which is provided that all Causes be determined by the Bishop of the same Province where they are begun This might check the exorbitancy of the Roman See and confine Tibur within her own limits if sober men having neither the inebriations of passion or self-interest might be judges Neither might that impertinent question of triflers