Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	authority_n	church_n	infallible_a	2,008	5	9.8493	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54944	A discourse concerning the trial of spirits wherein inquiry is made into mens pretences to inspiration for publishing doctrines, in the name of God beyond the rules of the sacred scriptures : in opposition to some principles and practices of papists and fanaticks, as they contradict the doctrines of the Church of England, defined in her Articles of Religion, established by her ecclesiastical canons, and confirmed by acts of Parliament / by Thomas Pittis ...	Pittis, Thomas, 1636-1687.	1683 (1683)	Wing P2313; ESTC R33964	135,179	370

my understanding by the testimony of my senses concerning their own proper objects where there is a true medium and a just distance If this which thus seems to me to be Bread and Wine may yet not be so but the substantial Body and Blood of our Lord Then I can have no sufficient evidence that the Christian Doctrine was revealed from Heaven For the proof of this depending upon the certainty of those Miracles which were at the first wrought for the confirmation of it And these depending upon the certainty of their senses who were then eye-witnesse to the Miracles And if the senses of all mankind may together be deceived about this Sacrament the same possibility might make them so when the Miracles were wrought to prove the Gospel And then we have no certainty of our Religion but the whole Gospel may prove a fable and its greatest confirmation be nothing but an imposture This is enough to make the sin against the Holy Ghost to be introduced into the World with pomp and ceremony and to render it authentick by an infallible authority If it be said that in relation to the first confirmation of the Gospel our senses were free and then could not be deceived But that now since the Christian Religion was sufficiently authorized this very Doctrine thus confirmed tyes up our senses since 't is rational to submit them to Divine revelation I Answer That if the New Testament did any where thus impose upon the faculties of men It would 1. Be difficult upon the same grounds for me to believe that mine eyes were not imposed upon when I read the words 2. Supposing that I did read them true And that were sufficiently confirmed that I understood what I read Yet since no other Text can be pleaded for Transubstantiation besides This is my Body Why must I of necessity understand that by these words I am commanded to believe contrary to my senses When by a plain and easie construction agreeable to the usual Sacramental phrases particularly those which were used about the Passeover my senses are still left unto their liberty And no more than saying This is my Body That is This Bread represents or signifies my Body will express the sence and baffle the Objection 'T is so common to parallel this expression with I am the vine the way the door and That Rock was Christ This is my Covenant This Cup is the New Testament c. Where the Verbs are construed by represented signified and the like That I am ashamed we should be put to continued repetitions by the daily appearance of a baffled Adversary Thus we see by these three instances of erroneous determinations of the Church of Rome that if ever they had infallibility they have lost it Unless truth and error are reconciled and infallible falshood be a proper expression Seventhly If notwithstanding all the premisses the Romanists will yet hold the conclusion and affirm themselves to be infallible We must call upon them to prove it by Miracles For this can no way become the priviledge of the Church of Rome but by immediate inspiration to those that pretend it And whoever pretends to inspiration ought to prove it by Miracle when the Scripture does not command us to believe it The Apostles proved their infallibility by Miracles We must demand therefore the same from those that will pretend to the same priviledge Since the promises they challenge to themselves are compleated in the Apostles Nay 't will not be enough to tell stories instead of Miracles Nor to produce something done among them of which the cause being behind the Curtain no natural account can be given But they must be attended with such circumstances as may sufficiently prove them to be Divine And when this is accomplished which is impossible the infallibility pretended must be proved necessary to the Salvation and conduct of men Otherwise we shall doubt of the Miracles themselves because they confirm an unnecessary thing and what supposes the insufficiency of the Scriptures I might add more Heads of Argument but these are sufficient to baffle the strength of this proud Capitol CHAP. VIII HAving in the former Chapter spent a very large Parenthesis upon the Roman Infallibility for fear that I may not be well understood by some whose unthinking honesty may make them jealous of their power and cause them to conclude that I allow not Authority enough to Synods and Councils And that being no more than a private Minister I assume too much judgment to my self in making use of my faculties without leave I answer that I have sufficient leave from the Articles and Canons established in the Protestant Church of England for what I have already wrote concerning this matter Yet I shall farther explain the same thing to shew that I am willing to attribute as much Authority and Honour to the best established Church in the World and the Governours of it as any man can possibly do who does not pluck out his eyes to do them service Therefore notwithstanding what has been said of the Roman Infallibility I readily yield that Fathers and Councils and all Congregations of holy and judicious Christians much more the Bishops and Governours of the Church solemnly assembled to treat concerning the truth or falshood of any Point introduced into Religion are reverently to be attended to Reason urging a regard to those who by the advantage of study or the prospect they have obtained from an higher ground and according to the age in which they live are probably capacitated to assist our judgments and to determine a Controversie better than our selves When persons of learning piety and Authority also in the Church of Christ shall assemble in his name with a real intention to find out the truth of any difficult and disputed Proposition humbly begging the Divine assistance and blessing on their endeavours We have great Reason to incline to their determinations when neither secular interests or a blind passion or the force of others gains their Votes and procures their assent Nay when these are our own lawful Governours though nothing can force our belief we may in an improper sence call their determinations infallible quoad nos Because for the peace and Government of the Church to avoid Schism and to preserve an Ecclesiastical union among us it will be necessary that they bind us not to contradict them publickly by any external solemn act since we our selves have our assent virtually implied in Canons or Laws made by those who publickly represent us Although we are not obliged to believe every Proposition thus determined to be exactly true Unless it be propounded to us with sufficient evidence to convince our judgements if we have abilities to enquire into the Proofs themselves To restrain the external acts and discourses of men when they oppose the publick Sanctions and constitutions of those who are fixed in such places of Authority is plainly necessary to keep peace and order in any

considered together brings the promise of the Spirit and infallibility to the Apostles under determinate restraints and limitations But 2. This will further appear if we compare the promise of guiding into all truth with that other relating to the Holy Ghost Joh. 14.26 where the Apostles are told that he should teach them all things more plainly those which our Saviour had delivered and bring those things to their memory which they might forget though before declared He shall teach you all things sayes he and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you So that it appears that the Apostles had not the Spirit without measure though they may be said to be filled with the Holy Ghost And that this promise of infallibility to them was made in a limited and restrained sense Secondly Supposing the promises of Infallibility were made in never so enlarged a sense yet they are to be restrained to the persons to whom they were at first made as to the unerring conduct and I might easily make it appear that they cannot in their full sence concern any but the Apostles themselves and the first Preachers of the Christian Religion Because the end of this extraordinary inspiration was to make them capable of prescribing to us an infallible and unerring rule Which being accomplished there is no farther occasion of an infallible inspiration For to what end should this be continued to one or a certain number of men unless they were upon new emergencies to deliver new Doctrine to the world If it be necessary to the understanding of what has been already prescribed the Laws of the Gospel will not only want one of the most excellent qualifications of a Law that it be plain and easily intelligible But the same necessity will argue infallibility useful to all which renders it thus necessary unto some For if it be therefore necessary to some that they may become Guides to others Since their conduct in relation unto others must consist in advice and declaring that sence of the Law which could not be understood without them all which must be expressed by word or writing every man has as much need of infallibility that he may not misunderstand the interpretation as any have to prevent their misapprehensions of the Law if there can be no peace without infallibility Now that all men have not infallibility is as readily yielded as it is to be proved that the Pope has none Thirdly If there were now this infallibility amongst men there must be a perpetual revelation For if the perfection of the humane nature could here render any men infallible we may well conjecture that many might have been in every age that might have been Directors to the rest Or if it had been founded in humane nature why should not an equal perfection render all mankind infallible Either of them being granted will invalidate the necessity of a Divine Revelation and turn the word of God into a story and do despight to the spirit of grace if rendering it useless and a fable will do it For to what end should any men be inspired when they were before infallible in themselves The infallibility therefore which we discourse of must proceed from a strong and certain inspiration And whatever is delivered by vertue of this is of equal authority with the Scriptures themselves And then none can be safe in his life or fortunes when ever any inspired man makes it his pleasure to take them away Nay if we are conscientious we must yield them up upon demand lest haply we may be found fighters against God And this appears in the Romanists themselves as well as others taught by them The more conscientious any of them are the more readily do they yield to the impositions of their superiours and they have reason for it if they think them to be absolutely infallible For no private evidence of a thing must subvert their faith in the Churches determination and so much the more triumphant is their faith by how much the more it captivates their understandings As it is so much the more meritorious by how much the less it has of evidence So the greater the Objections are that meet and encounter the Churches determinations their faith is rendered the more glorious and full of victory Let the Doctrine then be never so wicked in it self or consequences the conscientious believer of the point of Roman Infallibility must neither see the one nor the other But renounce all the evidence of his reason and if occasion be as there is sometimes of his senses too For what evidence can reasonably be attended to that bears a testimony against that which is infallible This then must be a ready method to change the nature of good and evil and the eternal Law instamp'd upon our minds if the mutation proceeds from the Roman Chair Nay the nature of things need not be changed if the Pope please to change their names Men may borrow then and never pay if he pleases to cancell the debt Ruining families and overturning Kingdoms will become noble and a glorious exploit Nay religious acts when he is at leisure to adopt them into the number Burning Cities and murdering Princes shall be accounted means of propagating the Gospel if he please once to determine that we may do evil that good may come of it And blowing up the Estates of Kingdoms is presently holy if he will but sanctifie the Powder and Canonize the man that has the courage to attempt it So powerful is this Doctrine of Roman Infallibility that it can change the Devil into an Angel of Light And let the Pope himself be never so wicked his determinations are all true and good and he may remain his Holiness still He may subvert by degrees or all at once the whole Doctrine of Christianity though from thence he receives his pretensions of authority if he pleases to declare it a Fable when it shall no longer comport with his advantage Nay he has already so blended it with the Religion of the Jews and practice of the Heathens that Christianity is so buried in an heap of rubbish that 't is an hard matter to gather it up out of such a great confusion of ruines The substance is lost in the midst of Ceremony internal devotion is interrupted by a pompous Scene of Pageantry and Shew and yet the evidence of our senses must be rejected in the Doctrine which they so much applaud in practice And yet Fourthly Notwithstanding all the Roman pretences to Infallibility If there are any promises made of it they do as well concern other Churches as themselves For if these promises were made to the Apostles in general as is very plain from the circumstances of their delivery if they were not terminated in them but reached also the whole succession of those by vertue of whom Christs promise was made good of being with the Apostles alwayes to the end of the world Then either

an evasion is a palpable error is apparent from the institution of our Saviour as recorded by all the Evangelists that mention it in all the Gospels where this is repeated For as the essential parts are always set down so we have prescribed Bread and Wine which by a solemn consecration are blessed and separated from common uses to signifie Christs Body and Blood and in a separate manner to represent Christ dead and not united under one Symbol And to whomsoever he gave the Body represented by the Bread the same person received the Blood signified by the Wine contained in the Cup As it appears upon the view of Christs own institution If it be Objected upon the grant of this which none can deny that the Apostles then only received And that the Romanists themselves allow it to the Priests It may from thence with a greater colour be argued that the whole Sacrament ought only to be continued to the Clergy And that the Laity should not receive so much as a part And then the argument will sooner deprive them of all than any one part of it But that I may totally invalidate this scruple and at the same time prove the Papists to be erroneous Let us view the institution as repeated by S. Paul who has in this proved Rome to have err'd and clearly frees us from their imposture Though S. Peter sayes nothing of it 1 Cor. 11.23 I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said Take eat this is my Body which is broken for you this do for a remembrance of me After the same manner also he took the Cup when he had supped saying This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me Now the whole design of this repetition of the first Institution is to rebuke those disorderly practices of the whole body of the Church of Corinth and to regulate all by the Institution of our Saviour And all together as well people as Clergy are told that as often as they eat this Bread and drink this Cup they shew forth the Lords death till he come If this then is to be continued in the Church as a Memorial of Christs Death till his coming again to judge the World which the Church of Rome will not deny It must be an error thus to depart from the first Institution of Christ and the succeeding practice of his blessed Apostles to say nothing of other Ages of the Church to give to the people an half Communion which the Priests will not be contented with themselves and to deliver them only a part of the Sacrament This certainly is such an error as does not only void their infallibility but a crime too Unless the greatest Sacriledge be a vertue And in plain language it certainly concludes that either the Scriptures or the the Romanists are not infallible Secondly I instance in their Prayer in an unknown tongue I mean a language unknown to the people I cannot but wonder if we had no directions in the Book of God concerning this matter that any persons should be so stupid as to petition from God they know not what and to offer that under the notion of a reasonable service which they do not understand For how can that be presented with Faith which they know not whether it be such as God will accept and as becomes them to offer The Priest here may curse the people in the name of the Devil when they think they are bless'd in the name of God But not to prosecute any absurdities consequential to this irrational practice besides what the Scriptures mention designing not at present to handle these things at large 'T is a direct contradiction to that of S. Paul 1 Cor. 14. Chap. 14 15. and 16 Verses For the Apostle having laid down this general direction that all things in the publick Worship should be done to edification He affirms that praying and blessing in unknown tongues did not accomplish this end vers the 12 th and 17 th 1. Because he that prayes in an unknown tongue though he understands it himself becomes unprofitable unto others v. the 14. 2. Because no man that understands not can give his assent or breath forth a wish by saying Amen to a Prayer or Blessing in an unknown tongue ver the 16 th And the Apostle from the whole inferrs this as a rule unto himself That when he prays with the Spirit i. e. in an unknown tongue which was then an immediate gift of the Spirit he would pray with understanding also i. e. so as he understanding it himself might become fruitful unto others by giving them its just interpretation that they who understood not divers languages might be able to say Amen when they were rendered into their own So that it must be an error in the Church of Rome to enjoyn their publick Prayers to be made in an unknown tongue Unless they will invalidate the Scriptures of S. Paul by a blind and unwritten authority from S. Peter Lastly They have lost their pretended infallibility by determining that monstrous and absurd Doctrine of Transubstantiation It cannot be expected when I introduce this point as a proof of another that I should expatiate upon all the absurdities that attend so prodigious a determination As that the same Body may be in a thousand places at once that there may be admitted a penetration of dimensions That a Body may be somewhere where it was not before without changing its place That the whole Body of Christ may be contain'd within the small compass nay in every little part of a Wafer That it may be eat every day yet remain the same still That an irrational creature a Mouse for example may feed upon the Body of our Lord That one thing may be chang'd into another thing which did exist before That a Body may be in a place after the manner of a Spirit Nay that Christ may give his own Body to be eaten by his Disciples whilst yet he remained alive and entire at the Table These and such like are the absurd consequences of Transubstantiation which men must swallow with the substantial Body and Blood of Christ in the Roman Sacrament of the Lords Supper And they require too large a discourse for me to expatiate upon each severally and apart I shall therefore instance in one absurdity or rather a foundation of great impiety such as destroys the authority of the Gospel if this Doctrine of Transubstantiation proves true and is not an error And that is That it destroyes all the certainty of our senses For if that which has the colour and appearance of Bread That which my taste informs is such That which by touching and handling of it seems to be Bread by as great an evidence as can appear to