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 scripture_n tradition_n 5,726 5 9.7697 5 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A27169 A discourse shewing that Protestants are on the safer side, notwithstanding the uncharitable judgment of their adversaries and that their religion is the surest way to heaven. Beaulieu, Luke, 1644 or 5-1723. 1687 (1687) Wing B1572; ESTC R20774 24,111 46

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

IMPRIMATUR Septemb. 19. 1687. JO. BATTELY Rmo in Pri. ac Domino Wilhelmo Archiepiscop Cantuar. à Sacris domesticis A DISCOURSE SHEWING That Protestants are on the Safer Side notwithstanding the uncharitable Judgment of their Adversaries AND That THEIR RELIGION is the Surest Way to Heaven LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXVII The PREFACE COming accidentally into a Family always frequented and of late much disturbed by some Roman Catholicks who by fulminating Damnation against all Protestants had terrified some Friends I applied my self to clear their Doubts and to remove those Fears wherewith the Noise and Threats of Hell-fire had affected their Minds This engaged me into a long Debate with one of the Parties who was very positive and earnest in maintaining the utter Impossibility of being saved out of the Church of Rome And upon that it came to be enquired Whether it be their Relation to Rome or their Relation to Christ that Men are to be saved by Whether our State of Eternity depends upon the Talk or Confidence or hard Censures of Men or or upon the Truth of our Religion and our Sincerity in professing of it Whether it be the ever-living God or any mortal Men that make true Religion Whether that be not the Best which best agrees with the Divine Revelation And whether our Saviour had referr'd us to Rome and the Papal Authority for the knowledg of Saving Truth or plainly taught by Himself and by his Apostles all that is requisit and sufficient to Salvation About these we differ'd but yet agreed upon the whole that the great odds in point of safety which they apprehend to be betwixt them and us must be grounded upon the Excellency of their Religion above ours and must therefore appear in their Faith Worship and Morals which are the essential parts of Religion and make it right or wrong according as they are themselves The Talk I then had about this Subject and the occasion of it put me upon writing the ensuing Discourse Wherein my chiefest Aim hath been to fix my Reader upon that which is positive with us and is maintained on all sides that being altogether requisit and of it self sufficient to make a Man a good Christian And then to consider those Points in belief and practice about which we differ and to shew on which side lies the Advantage for means of Grace and certainty of Salvation The INTRODUCTION THE Church of Rome would not only have all her Dictates received as Divine and true but would likewise have nothing received as such but what she delivers insomuch that her Writers would persuade us that we can have no Assurance of the Truth of our common Christianity because we receive it not from the Infallible Chair and rely not on its Authority for the proving of it As if a Man could not know and firmly believe that Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners without so much as having heard any thing of a Roman Church and her Infallibility And as if those great Truths which God hath revealed were not to be embrac'd and assented to because they are his but depended upon the good Pleasure of a Party of Men who can no more add greater Authority to what God hath declared than they can make their own Sayings of an equal Authority with God's We can admit that Church for a joint Witness with other Christian Churches that the Bible is the Word of God and that the Christian Creed is the Catholick Faith But there is no reason to think that any thing is the more true or the more necessary meerly because she saith it That which is equally attested by all Christian Churches who were all Depositories of the Divine Oracles and of the Christian Religion hath a cogent and a clear Evidence But that wherein she stands divided from all the rest and bears witness only to her own Prerogatives is either true because she asserts it which none will dare to say or ought to be proved by the Testimony of the whole Christian Church and of Divine Revelation which she can never do So we have this great Advantage in those things which we assert as Points of Saving Faith that we have the plain and express Words of Holy Scripture and the Concurrence of the whole Church whereas those things which we reject are made a Creed only by one particular Church not above one hundred Years agone and have no Ground in Holy Writ Some may dispute with us about our Rites or Discipline or some abstruse and disputable Points But for that Faith whereon we ground our Hopes of Salvation nothing can be objected against it It is the same wherein every Christian is baptised the same which was before the Reformation and before the Want of it in Times of greatest Purity the same Faith was profest and in the worst of Times under the greatest Corruptions it was still preserved and that not in one Kingdom or only here in the West but in all Patriarchates and in all Christian Churches in the World We have neither added nor diminish'd nor made any Alteration in that Rule of Faith which is the Badge and the Ground of Christianity So that as to this Point our Religion is now as it was long before Luther We have no other Creed than that which was universally profest all along Our Dispute with the Church of Rome is about their new one made since Luther and profest no where else but in her Communion that we cannot embrace It hath neither the same Authority from God nor from Men as hath the Catholick Belief To make this plain here I set the two Creeds at large to be consulted as the Reader finds occasion The Catholick and Apostolick Creed explained by the Nicene and the Athanasian in what concerns our Saviour's Divinity but never enlarged until the Council of Trent I Believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary Suffered und●r Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried He descended into Hell the third Day he arose again from the Dead He ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty From thence he shall come to judg the Duick and the Dead I believe in the Holy Ghost The Holy Catholick Church The Communion of Saints The Forgiveness of Sins The Resurrection of the Body And the Life everlasting The Roman Creed I Most stedfastly admit and embrace the Apostolical and Ecclesiastical Traditions with the rest of the Constitutions and Observations of the Roman Church I also receive the Holy Scripture according to that sense which the Holy Mother Church whose it is to interpret it hath held and doth hold nor will ever understand or interpret it otherwise than acccording to the unanimous Consent of the Fathers I profess also that there are seven true
they use none but the Apostles Creed and to make them Members of Christ and of his Church and Heirs of his Kingdom oblige them to the Profession of no other Articles but those that are the ancient Confession of Faith common to all Christian Churches Nay more whilst they live in that Communion in all Acts of Worship and when they die in it and are to make the last Confession of that Saving Faith of which they soon expect the End and Consummation they use none but the three Catholick Creeds the Roman serves only to tie all Power and Government to St. Peter's Chair and to persecute Hereticks withal So that this Roman Creed being for Temporal Advantages being not contain'd in the Word of God nor proved by the Testimony nor by the Miracles of the Primitive Church nor received by former Ages nor by any Church but the Roman nor by that but very lately and only in some cases profest we have great reason to believe that it is in no wise necessary to Salvation The Christian and universal Creed having been esteemed sufficient without any other for more than fifteen hundred Years ought to be so esteemed still without this Addition which is proved but by very unlikely and uncertain Miracles and by the Attestation of but that one particular Church for whose Wealth and Grandeur it so intirely makes These things considered we ought no ways to be dismayed with the frightful Words or Countenance of any that pronounce us accurs'd and damn'd because we hold not nor can believe what Pius the 4th did lately declare to be de Fide requisite to Salvation We shall find saving Instructions and Comfort enough in the Christian Creed which God's Word expresly confirms and the whole Church hath ever own'd if we embrace and study more and more the Divine and invariable Truths it contains and sincerely endeavour to lead our Lives accordingly II. What I have affirmed of the Roman Faith is to be understood also of the Roman Worship That Part of it which is not approved by us is very bad palliated or reproved by the cunningest or wisest of their Church or however no ways necessary which is all I am at present concerned in Indeed as to the Essentials of Divine Worship all Christians are agreed That God should have our Prayers and Praises in the Name of Jesus Christ our Mediator even the matter of our Requests is fixt and uniform amongst all that own the Lord's Prayer so far the Church of Rome hath many excellent and ancient Composures very unlike those new ones we reject That part of their publick or private Worship which is grounded upon the Christian Creed is very good and if they went no further we might as lawfully joyn with them as they might with us We have inserted nothing doubtful or controverted in our Offices of Religion nothing but what as to the sense is used and approved by all Churches Had they done so and extended their Worship no further than could be justified by that Christian Belief which is common to all the Differences betwixt them and other Christians had been much less and more reconcileable But they have turned all the Points of their new Creed into Exercises of publick Religion and these we do not think to be acceptable to God nor requisite to acquit us of that Adoration and Service which we ow to his Divine Majesty We are persuaded that without making or worshipping Images of God we may pay him that Homage which he requires of us that if we devoutly commemorate our Saviour's Passion and with thankful Hearts put our Trust in the Merits of it we shall not need to worship the Figure of his Cross and that if we lift up our Hearts to Heaven to adore him on the Right Hand of God we need not worship the Host here on Earth which many Christians believe to be only the Sacrament of his Death and none can be sure to be the Substance of his natural Body no not according to the Tenents of the Church of Rome Likewise that Part of their Worship which relates to Creatures the solemn Blessing or consecrating Images that being hallowed they may be fit to be set up to receive Incense and Oblations and many Honours and to excite their Devotion to Saints and Angels their manifold Pilgrimages and Prayers to those beatified Creatures The great dependence they express to have upon their Intercession their Merit and their Power The many Miracles and Mercies they are said to receive from them And the high Celebrations and Returns of religious Gratitude which they render to them All these which make too great a Part of their publick and private Devotions we have great reason to believe to be inconsistent with God's revealed Will and with our Duty and Obligations to him or however no ways necessary I appeal to them that have either read the New Testament or learned the Creed the Lord's Prayer and the ten Commandments which all Churches teach to be the Principles of the Christian Religion whether our calling upon him in whom we believe and serving him alone that hath declared himself jealous of his Honour and using no Images in our Addresses to him that hath forbid them and approaching to God by that one Mediator whom he hath appointed and who died and merited all for us and bad us come to him and use his Name alone in all our Requests Whether this Worship which is paid to God amongst us be not more conformable to his holy Word and to the Grounds of our common Christianity than that which is established in the Church of Rome Whatever they may think of us where the Inquisition reigns and under it blind Ignorance and a terrible Aversion against them that are called Hereticks yet elsewhere Men of better Sense and greater Instruction though of the same Church can hardly pronounce us to be God's Enemies and the Objects of his Wrath because we are afraid to give his Glory to others and to transgress his Laws or however their Thoughts will not alter the case and can do us no Harm we having a Rule of God's own prescribing to believe and to worship by and whilst we render to God the things that are God's we need not fear the rash Censures of uncharitable Men. We have the Warrant of Holy Scripture and the Concurrence and Approbation of all Christian Churches for the Worship establish'd in our Church if accordingly we serve God with Sincerity and Devotion we shall have the Reward of them that diligently seek him however we transgress no Law of his and we run no Risk But if the worshipping of Saints and Images should prove unacceptable the Papists run a great Danger they having neither Antiquity nor Scripture for the same whilst the Admonitions of their Fellow Christians and some Divine Prohibitions are point-blank against it III. As for the Necessity of a good Life our Church recommends it at least as much as the Roman All