Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	church_n	infallibility_n	infallible_a	2,069	5	10.4830	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31766	The Charity and loyalty of some of our clergy in a short view of Dr. M's sermon before their Majesties at Hampton-Court, July the 14th, 1689 : where-in he still charges the Protestant dissenters with schism : with some occasional remarks upon a clergy-mans considerations for taking the Oath of allegiance to King William and Queen Mary, and upon the history of passive obedience since the Reformation.		1689 (1689)	Wing C2068; ESTC R23924	20,585	36

contend no Man can be of the Catholick who is not of the particular Church where he lives if that be a true Church or such an one in which he may serve God acceptably and finally save his Soul Then such a Church requiring other Articles of Belief or in other words than Christ or his Apostles required makes those Articles necessary to Salvation and if they who are shut out of one true Church ought not to be admitted into any other without Letters Commendatory from the Church of which he had been or de jure was a Member then at least there may be a total Exclusion from the Catholick Church for such terms as Christ or his Apostles never required and thus Men may become Schismaticks for Doctrinals as well as Ceremonies which they honestly scruple They who hold this would do well to preach up St. Zavierus his new Gospel Vid. Dr. Stillingfleets Fanaticism of the Church of Rome invented with the like pious Intention But when they talk of these things for the Peace of the Church I cannot but apply the old observation solitudinem faeiunt pacem vocant but for certain how merciful soever God Almighty may be hereafter you must believe as the Church where you live believes if you would have Peace here But if there ought to be a Catholick Communion on Earth and they who are deprived of one Churches Communion ought to be of all this shews how necessary it is that Communion should be upon terms truly Catholick The contrary to the other Notion shines methinks with native Light in an excellent Discourse of my learned Friend Dr. Bringhurst who adorned his Doctrine by a steady Adherence to it in the worst of times We says he Vid. Dr. Bringhursts Sermon before the Lord Mayor May 26 1689. Page 24. make this Yoke and Burden uneasier than Christ has made it to one another when we impose as necessary Articles of our Faith either what it is certain our Saviour and his Aposties never imposed or uncertain whether they did or no. Articles of Faith necessary to Salvation can derive Authority from none but God he only can tell us what will be acceptable to himself so that the Scriptures only of the Old and New Testament by all Protestants being the Revelation that God hath given of his Will in this case to us Whatever is made necessary that is not here must be a very uneasy Yoke and heavy Burden for 't is not in a Mans Power to believe as Men would have him we cannot believe beyond our Evidence and our Evidence must be as we can understand it so that what is necessary must be supposed to be intelligibly revealed to all concerned in the Belief of it Vid. P. 8. Wherever the Scripture it self does imprint a Character of necessity either for Faith or Practice we cannot speak plainer to one another than that doth to us And if any thing be revealed which we cannot comprehend as for Instance the Article of the Trinity yet the Revelation is plain and in all matters of Revelation we are to believe no more than is revealed and no otherwise of it than as it is revealed c. This hath often made me think that we should be easier to one another were the Articles of our Faith given us in the very words of the Scripture I am sure that both the Orthodox and the Arians in the Council of Nice concurred in this that all the Mischiefs in the Church of God were caused by bringing in words into the Creeds of the Church which were not in the Scriptures Consequences indeed are as sure as the express terms of the Scriptures but Infallibility in these Consequences seems to be necessary for Articles of Faith because infallible Authority only can create them Certainty may satisfy a Man's Conscience for his own sense and Compliance but for terms of Communion that may not be sufficient because that is so according to Mens different Capacities and Apprehensions c. We are to believe no more than the Word of God declares to us and also as it declares it and if we desire more of one another we make Christ's Yoke more uneasy and his Burden heavier than he hath made it As all Men are presumed to have some end in what they do unless where they act in passion without Consideration It were worth enquiring to what end this Sermon which for the sake of my Country I cannot but disrobe was preach dat this time Was it to convince the Dissenters Then since he could not expect that such should be his Hearers it must have been preach'd to be printed Which may take off Mens Surprize at such a Command more likely to be obtained than given ex mero motu Unless it should proceed from Dislike and be intended as it has proved a gentle enjoyning of publick Penance which all must agree to be suitable to his Majesties great Judgment and Clemency However there was small reason to believe that they were thus to be brought over now who persisted in their Dissent when they could not serve God in publick without being made Rioters And to be a Diffenter was counted not only a Dividing from God's Church but the being of a Faction against the State. And in all respects both themselves and all who wish'd well to them suffered accordingly Was it to induce his Majesty to withdraw his Protection and Favour from such as being shut out from God's care and not worthy of his Majesties But surely 't is not to be supposed that his Majesty who had reason to believe that he serv'd God acceptably in Holland where there was no National Church should be perswaded of the Necessity of being a Member of such a particular Church that one may be a Member of the Catholick Was it to raise a Contempt of the Protestant Dissenters in the Generality of the Hearers and thence to animate a party for the Church This may with better ground be look'd on as the encouraging a Faction against the State at a time when the Union of Protestants is little less than essential to its being Whoever goes to make the King a King of one party of Protestants under a pretence of advancing the Interest of the Church of England would certainly have a Reward according to his Merit if the late King should be the Advantages such put into his Hands come again to be its Defender Such must understand that though the greater part of the Nation have fewer Scruples than the Dissenters have yet as they are united with them in the same Profession of Faith and Affection to the present Government they cannot but desire to live with them as Men who must stand or fall by the same common Interest And if they who are otherwise minded are not guilty of making a Schism in the State I am sure they who refuse to swear Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary are And this more truly answers the Apostles Notion

had been impossible for a Man who held several Knights Fees to have discharged the Duty of his tenure Even where there was no Knight's Service antiently and since its being taken away all Men have been and yet are oblig'd to provide Arms and the Bodies of Men either their own or others for the Defence of the Kingdom according to their Estates real or personal Nor have the Clergy any Exemption for this Neither do the Acts establishing a Militia discharge any Man from this which is a Duty at Common Law of which the Confessors Law and the Statute of Winchester are declaratory But what ever Exemption Clergy-men have it is because of their Attendance in their Ministerial Office upon which account the dissenting Ministers have the like Exemption by the late Statute What then if any of our Clergy decline swearing Allegiance till the time of Deprivation incurs may and will they still exercise their Function If they may and will why might not they as well who were turn'd out by the Bartholomew Act If they may not or will not what Exemption can they claim more than Lay-men If they say still their Character is indelible Is no Duty annexed to the Character But is not this fine Doctrine to be insinuated now as if no Man were obliged to endeavour by Arms to keep our King in his Station Or if other Men are at least not Clergy-men But that if you resist him by Arms nothing but want of Success can make it criminal Sure I am that egregious Pattern of Christian fortitude Mr. Johnson on whom this Author reflects was degraded by his Brethren and delivered over to the secular scourge for less than this When I consider how earnestly this Man presses taking the Oaths I cannot but think of the Advice said to be given by the late King to his Friends here That as many of them as can should get into Offices And we may hence observe what is to be expected from those Clergy-Men who take the Oath of Allegiance with a Protestation that they do it barely as to a King de facto their Loyalty may vie with St. Beckets who was for swearing to the King with a salvo jure to the Pope whether such ought to be suffer'd to spread their Doctrines with a Face of Authority and what Punishments they deserve who accept of such Protestations I submit to my Superiors But sure I am this will not be enough in Law to keep their Livings unless they are favour'd by an undue entry upon Record Yet who can chuse but wonder how from the same Text a Clergy Man should enforce the Obligation of submitting to a Tyrant in the exercise of Power upon pain of Damnation and yet make the Penalty less in the case of resisting one who is really God's ordinance as he is a Minister of Good but in his opinion wants Title though the Law be on his side This can be for no other Reason but that whatsoever becomes of the State Vid. pag. 41 without condemning the Doctrine of Non-resistance Church-Men must not recede from their darling-Notion of Non-resistance And rather than they should be thought Ecclesiastical Weather-cocks the State must be turn'd round again into Confusion Nor do they care how much they reflect upon those noble Patriots who invited this King when he was Prince Ibid. and appeared in Arms with him for the Protestant Cause If they can but free their Coat from the necessity of retracting those Slavish Doctrines Vid. Jovoan In all soveraign Governments the Subjects are and ought to be slaves if if the King pleases which though many of them have renounced in their Actions they would still justify in Principle And as it is to be presum'd that every Man will act according to his Principle when he has an inviting Opportunity I leave it to all impartial Men to consider which are most likely to be true to the present Government they who believe the Soveraign Power inseparable from the Person of the late King that they were in a State of Damnation who offered to resist his Arbitrary Usurpations that themselves are exempted from assisting this Government with their Persons or their Arms in the utmost Extremity and may resist when they are likely to escape temporal Judgment Or they who are ready to hold to the Death that our present King has as good a Title as ever King of England had Which has already been evinced in some Measure And did the Men of Scruples vouchsafe to produce any colourable Objection History of Passive Obedience considered Vid. Preface should be farther Indeed a certain injudicious Author has with a plain evil Design against the present Settlement heapt up Numbers of Quotations to prove that it is a Truth as eternal and unalterable as any Doctrine of Christianity that a Superior is not in Things unlawful to be resisted upon any pretence whatsoever in the utmost extent of which Assertion Ibid no sort of Superior Justice of the Peace or other is to be resisted even where he acts without colour of his Office. But what he drives at is that Men ought to be unalterably true to their Oaths and suppos'd Duty to the late King at leasthe will allow of no discharge in Law sufficient Hist pag. 54. unless the late King give an express release and according to his Quotation out of Dr. Hammond's practical Catechism History pag. 54. will have the Duty of Allegiance to continue where the suppos'd legal Soveraign doth still claim his Right to his Kingdoms and to the Allegiance of his Subjects no way acquitting them from their Oaths or laying down his Pretentions though for the present he be overpower'd This I am sure he will never prove to be the steady Doctrine of that Church Preface which he calls poor and despised and of whose Interests he pretends to the deepest sense while he would render it such by keeping it too firmly attach'd to the Interest of the late misguided and unfortunate King let him if he can squeez this sense out of its Articles or Homilies Certain it is he is far from bringing a cloud of Witnesses to his imaginary eternal verity Few of the passages which he cites enforce more than Obedience to lawful Authority some indeed and chiefly Persons now alive let fall expressions through inadvertency or prevalence of strong Temptations which 't is to be hoped that many of them have repented of since their later Discourses and Practices notoriously contradict them and surely little proof of the steady Doctrine of a Church can be had from such Inconstancy I must own that this Collection is to one purpose very useful for some of them wanted to be thus Admonish'd of their frailty and 't will be happy for them if this Humiliation can expiate for that poison which has infected many beyond Remedy from the Antidote they now yield while out of the Eater comes forth Meat and themselves pull down that