Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n
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A30906
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Universal love considered and established upon its right foundation being a serious enquiry how far charity may and ought to be extended towards persons of different judgments in matters of religion and whose principles among the several sects of Christians do most naturally lead to that due moderation required ... / Robert Barclay.
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Barclay, Robert, 1648-1690.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing B741; ESTC R22018
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31,935
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48
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come to deal with a Heathen or any such against whom they cannot urge any thing from Scripture or Tradition as being Principles not acknowledged by them then they are always forced to recur to an inward innate light in the soul to which they labour to make manifest their Principles albeit they differ about the nature and sufficiency of it yet they are forced to concede that this is God's Love to Man-kind and that in this the Universal Love of God is extended to all so that to every one to whom they come to Preach they may find something by which they may urge or commend their Doctrine of which I shall give one singular example out of the words of Franciscus Xaverius a Jesuit whom that Tribe for the high esteem they have of him term the Apostle of the Indies as it is Recorded in Bernhardus Varenus his Descriptio Regni Japoniae p. 195. cap. 8. where he puts down the words of Francis Xaviers Letter thus p. 247. The Amargurians before they received Baptisme were straitned with an odious and troublesome scruple to wit That God seemed not unto them merciful and benigne who had condemned all the Japonians before our coming to Eternal Punishment especially who ever did not Worship God according as we Preached and therefore they said that He to wit God had wholly neglected the Salvation of all their Predecessors in permitting that these miserable souls should altogether be destitute to their utter ruin of the knowledge of saving Truth This most odious thought did much draw them back from the Worship of the true God but by the help of God this error and scruple was taken from them for we first did demonstrate unto them that the Divine Law was the oldest of all yea before any Law was made by the Antients the Japans knew by the teaching of Nature that it was unlawful to Kill Steal Forswear and other things contained in the ten Divine Laws as was evident in that when any of them committed these Crimes they were tormented by the Pricks of their Consciences that hence Reason it self doth teach to flee the Evil and follow the Good and therefore was implanted in the minds of all Men by Nature so that all have the knowledge of the Divine Law from Nature and of God the Author of Nature before Discipline be added of which were it doubted tryal might be made in some body altogether void of Discipline who has been educated in some Mountain or Wilderness without any knowledge of the Laws of his Country For if such an one thus altogether ignorant and unacquainted with Humane Discipline were asked Whether to Kill a Man to Steal and these other things which the Law of God forbids were sinful or not or if they were not right to forbear these things Truly I say such an one utterly ignorant of Humane Discipline would so answer that it would easily appear that he were not void of the Law of God From whence then shall we judge he has drawn his Notion unless from God himself the Author of Nature If then this be manifest in Barbarous Men how much more in Men civiliz'd and well Educated which being so it necessarily follows that the Divine Law was implanted in Mans heart before all Laws made by Man This Reason was so manifest to them that they were fully satisfied and so being delivered form these snares did easily subject themselves to the sweet Yoak of Christ. Thus far Xaverius Thus it may seem that to satisfie these Japonians that their Fore-fathers were not all necessarily Damned and to shew that the Universal Love of God reached unto them to put them in a capacity of Salvation This cunning Jesuite could not find another way then by asserting this Principle albeit it be no ways Congruous to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome for these Antient Japonians could not be esteemed Members of the Church of Rome and as not being such according to the Romish Principle who say there is no Salvation without the Church that is without the Church of Rome must needs have been Damned Secondly That Notion and definition of a Church which naturally arises from this Principle and is accordingly believed by the Assertors of it doth also both very well agree to and establish this Doctrine of Universal Love for where by vertue of this Seed and Light purchased and extended by Christ unto the hearts of all it being supposed that Men may be truly Converted and consequentially united to Christ it naturally follows that such become Members of the Church else none of Old but the Families of the Patriarchs and of the Jews could have been judged to be saved nor yet any during all the time of the Apostacy which as it is false in it self will be hardly affirmed by any and therefore since such might be saved they must be esteemed Members of the Church without which in this large sence there can be no Salvation as including the whole Body of Christ of which Body who are not are certainly excluded and therefore it is that the Church Catholick or Universal is not so confined to any Sect Form or external Profession as that those that are not initiated in those forms are excluded absolutely from being Members of the Church unless it be upon refusal or resistance of the will of God really manifest to them as drawing them to the practice of particular things for it hath pleased God at several times to require several things both of particular Churches and Persons which he has not of others As to the Jewish Converts to abstain from things Strangled and Blood and to the Churches of the Gentiles not to Circumcise which was permitted to the Christian-Jews for a time and from particular Persons many particular things have been required which albeit they were not general Obligations upon all Christians yet in so far as manifested to and required of them were sufficiently obligatory and their disobedience to them should have been in them a breach of their general obligation of Obedience which we owe to God in all things He requires and consequently pernicious how-ever others to whom they have never been revealed nor required might have been saved without them Thirdly As the asserting of Principles which commend the Love of God and shew the great extent of it to Mankind do most agree with Universal Love so this People in another chief Principle of theirs do greatly shew it for as by the Preaching of this Universal Principle of the Light they shew the extension of God's Love to all so by Preaching that God both doth and is willing to reveal his Will immediately by his own Spirit in the hearts of all those that receive his Light that so they may be guided acted and lead thereby and know the Mind of God thus inwardly immediately in themselves they hold forth the intension of God's Love to all those that follow and obey him so that they neither bind up this being lead
by all such Malefactors themselves I know not if one of a hundred thousand can be excepted and the punishment of such is justifiable as all generally acknowledge but to kill sober honest good Men meerly for their Conscience is quite contrary to the Doctrine of Christ as has been elsewhere upon other occasions largely demonstrated This being premised I shall briefly apply the same to the several sorts of Christians that thence may be observed whose Principles do most exactly agree with and lead to that Universal Love and Charity so much in words commended by all and for the want of which every sort take so much liberty to judge and condemn each other There are many other particulars by which the several Sects may be tryed in this respect but these two fore-mentioned being the principal I shall chiefly insist upon them in this present application To begin then with the Papists there is nothing more commonly acknowledged and assented to among them then that Maxim Extra Ecclesiam nulla Salus without the Church there is no Salvation which Maxim in a sence I confess to be true as shall hereafter appear but according as it is understood among them it does utterly destroy this Universal Love and Charity for by this Church without which there is no Salvation they precisely understand the Church of Rome reckoning that whosoever are not of her Fellowship are not saved and this must needs necessarily follow upon their Principles seeing they make the Ceremonial Imbodying in this Church so necessarity to Salvation that they exclude from it the very Children begotten and brought forth by their own Members unless formally received by the Sprinkling or Baptisme of Water And Albeit they have a certain place more tolerable than Hell for these Unbaptized Infants yet hence is manifest how small their Charity is and how much it is confined to their particular Ceremonies and forms since if they think Children born among them for want of this Circumstance are excluded from Heaven Albeit never guilty of actual Transgression they must needs judge that such as both want it and also are guilty of many sins as they believe all men are who are come to age especially such as are not in the Church go without remedy to Hell Secondly All Dissenters and Seperatists from the Church Infidels Turks and Heriticks which in short are all that profess not fellowship and Communion with the Church of Rome and own her not as their Mother are in a most solemn manner yearly Excommunicated by the Pope and it were a most gross inconsistency to suppose that such as are so Cursed and Excommunicated and given over to the Devil by the Father and chief Bishop of the Church can in the judgment of the Members be saved especially while they think he is approved of God and led by an Infallible Spirit in his so Excommunicating them And lastly To suppose any such Universal Love or Charity as extending to Persons either without the compass of their own Society or dissenting and separating from them so as to reckon them in a capacity or possibility of Salvation were to destroy and overturn the very Bassis and Foundation of the Roman Church which stands in acknowledging the Superiority and Precedency of Peter and his Successors and in believing that Infallibility is annexed thereunto Now such as are not of the Roman Society cannot do this and those that do not thus are such to whom the Church of Rome can have no Charity but must look upon them as without the Church and consequently as uncapable of Salvation while there abiding If it be objected that the Church of Rome professeth Charity to the Greek Armenian and Ethiopian Churches Albeit vastly differing in many things from them I Answer that whatsoever Charity the Church of Rome either doth or ever hath professed to any of these shall be found to be always upon a supposed acknowledgment made by them to the See of Rome as the Mother-Church and Apostolick Seat from thence seeking the Confirmation and Authority of their Patriarches at least as the Romanists have sought to make the World believe how true is not my present business to enquire and all these differences of Ceremonies that are betwixt them are only approved by the Romanists as such which are indulged to them by the Pope who pretends out of a Fatherly care and compassion to yield these things unto them which if it be true is done by him rather to uphold the shew of his Authority and because distance of place and other incommodities hinders him from pressing more upon them since in places nearer hand and where fitter opportunities hath been presented he hath shewn himself very Zealous and Violent to bring all to a ready obedience to the least of his Commands as by many examples could be largely proved yet some are of the mind that all these Stories and pretended acknowledgments of Patriarchs to the Romish Sea are but the meer effects of the Policy of that Court to uphold their Grandure and nothing better but pretty Comedies to amuse the Vulgar and Credulous and augment their Reverence towards the Pope and his Clergy but what-ever be in this it is abundantly manifest that there can be nothing more contrary to this Universal Love and Charity than Romish Principles and that no man of that Religion without deserting his Principles can pretend to it As to the other Principle of Persecution how much it is Preached and practised in the Church of Rome will need no great Probation Those that are acquainted with or have heard of the Spanish Inquisition of the many Inhumain Butcheries and Massacres committed both in France and the Netherlands upon Men meerly for the matter of their Consciences the many Plots Consultations Combinings and Wars contrived fomented and carryed on by the Bishops of Rome themselves and the chief of their Clergy yielding large and voluntary Contributions thereto for to ruin and root out the Dissenters from the Romish Society after Luther appeared cannot but see how natural and consequential it is to Romish Principles so to do And thence also observe how contrary and opposite these things are to Universal Love and Charity and how much they act the Hypocrite when they pretend Christian Charity to any that differ from them And this manifestly appears in these two which none of them that has understanding to know or honesty to confess their Principles can deny I might also add a third which Albeit by some Popish Doctors in some Nations it be denyed yet is no less firmly believed and contended for by other eminent Persons among them especially Bellarmine and approved by the Pope himself to wit the Popes power to depose Princes in case of Heresie and give their Kingdoms to others allowing them upon that account to fight against them and accounting their so purchaseing of them lawful Small offences heretofore would have provoked to this Sentence as appeared in the example of Hildebrand and others