Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A33984
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Utrum horum, or, The nine and thirty articles of the Church of England, at large recited, and compared with the doctrines of those commonly called Presbyterians on the one side, and the tenets of the Church of Rome on the other both faithfully quoted from their own most approved authors / by Hen. Care.
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Care, Henry, 1646-1688.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing C535; ESTC R2383
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50,749
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167
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Heresies be suppressed all Corruptions and Abuses in Worship and Discipline prevented or reformed and all the Ordinances of God duly settled administred and observed For the better effecting whereof he hath Power to call Synods to be present at them and to provide that whatsoever is transacted in them be according to the mind of God It is the duty of People to pray for Magistrates to honour their Persons to pay them Tribute and other dues to obey their Lawful Commands and to be subject to their Authority for Conscience sake Infidelity or Indifference in Religion doth not make void the Magistrates Just and Legal Authority nor free the People from their due Obedience to him from which Ecclesiastical Persons are not exempted much less hath the Pope any Power or Jurisdiction over them in their Dominions or over any of their People and least of all to deprive them of their Dominions or Lives if he shall judge them to be Hereticks or upon any other pretence whatsoever If we look into the Word of God it enjoins us not only to be Subject to those Princes who rule Righteonsly and as they ought do discharge their Office towards us But also to all those in whom the Supream Power is vested Though they perform nothing less than that which truly is their Duty For as God has Establisht Magistracy as a principal gift of his Beneficence for the Commodity of Mankind and prescribes to Rulers their Duties so like wise he declares That whatsoever they are they still have their Dominion from him making those who Rule for the publick good true Examples of his Goodness and those who exercise their Authority unjustly and wickedly his Instruments to punish the Iniquities of his People but both of them still endowed with that Majesty wherewith he hath armed all Authority on which score it is that if the publick Power happen to fall into the hands of a Wicked Man and one that in himself appears altogether unworthy of Honour yet we must acknowledge the same Eminent and Divine Power to reside in him which the Lord hath conferr'd by his Word on the Ministers of his Justice and the same Reverence and Honour is to be paid him by his Subjects as to outward Obedience as they ought to pay to the best of Kings If they were so happy as to enjoy him And having proved this by several Instances from Holy Writ especially from that of Jeremy 27. He Concludes thus Let us therefore never entertain such Seditious Thoughts as these that a King ought to be treated according to his Personal Merits or Demerits or that we need not be obedient Subjects to a King that does not again justly discharge his Office towards us Wherefore if by a cruel Prince we are grievously afflicted if by a Covetous or luxurious one we are fleec'd to the Skin and abused If by a slothful voluptuous one the grand Interests of the publick be neglected Nay more if meerly for Righteousness sake by an Ungodly Sacrilegious Tyrant we are persecuted and slaughtered it ought first to put us in mind of our Sins which by such scourges of God are undoubtedly punished In the next place let Humility restrain our Impatience And in the last place Let us consider that it is not our part to Redress these Evils all that we can do is to implore the help of God in whose hands are the Hearts of Kings and the Revolutions of Empires Thus far Calvin And we appeal to Envy it self whether the Doctrine of Loyalty and Obedience can be more expresly or fully delivered by any The Papists Exempt all Clergy-Men from obeying the Laws or submitting to the Jndgments of Temporal Magistrates or to pay them Tribute The Canon Law hath utterly exempted them from it saith Bellarmine de Cler. cap. 1. That the Civil Magistrate hath no Cognizance over the Clergy is Decreed by several Councils as Conc. Later 3. cap. 14. and Conc. Later 2. Can. 15. Because some Lay-Men constrain Ecclesiasticks yea and Bishops themselves to appear before them and to stand to their Judgments Those that henceforth shall presume to do so we Decree That they shall be Excommunicated Pope Gregory the 7th in a Synod at Rome made this Decree We observing the Decrees of our Holy Predecessors by our Aposlolical Authority do Absolve these from their Oath who are bound by their Fealty and Oath to persons Excommunicated and we forbid them by all means That they yield them Obedience The Jurisdiction of the Pope is Vniversal even over the whole World Rhem. Annot. Him upon pain of Damnation all Christians are to obey Bonif. 8th in Extrav The eight and thirtieth Article of the Church of England Of Christian Mens Goods which are not Common THE Riches and Goods of Christians are not Common as touching the Right Title and Profession of the same as certain Anabaptists do falsly boast Notwithstanding every Man ought of such as he possesseth liberally to give Alms to the Poor according to his Ability The Presbyterians The Communion which Christians have one with another as Saints doth not take away or infringe the Title or Propreity which each Man hath in his Goods and Possessions The Papists Do not deny this Article yet conceit their Monasticks who have all things in Common to be in a State of greater perfection than other Christians The nine and thirtieth Article of the Church of England Of a Christian Mans Oath AS we confess That vain and rash swearing is forbidden Christian Men by our Lord Jesus Christ and James his Apostle so we Judge that Christian Religion doth not prohibite but that a man may swear when the Magistrate requireth in a cause of Faith and Charity so it be done according to the Prophets teaching in Justice Judgment and Truth The Presbyterians A Lawful Oaths is a part of Religious Worship wherein upon just occasion the Person swearing solemnly calleth God to Witness what he asserteth or promiseth and to judge him according to the Truth or Falshood of what he sweareth The name of God only is that by which Men ought to swear and therein is to be used with all Holy Fear and Reverence Therefore to swear vainly and rashly by that glorious and dreadful Name or by any other thing is sinful and to be abhorred Yet as in matters of weight and Moment an Oath is Warranted by the Word of God under the New Testament as well as under the Old so that a Lawful Oath being imposed by Lawful Authority in such matters ought to be taken Whosoever taketh an Oath ought duly to consider the weightiness of so solemn an Act and therein to avouch nothing but what he is fully perswaded is Truth Neither may any Man bind himself by Oath to any thing but what is good and Just and what he believeth so to be and what he is able and resolved to perform yet it is a Sin to refuse an Oath touching any thing that is Good and Just being impos'd
no longer they may remain in an Implicite Faith but read Consider and with understanding embrace what they before out of Compliance or Custom rather than Judgment seem'd to own and adhere to 2. There are many too That in words detest Popery yet not being throughly grounded in the Doctrines of the Church of England nor acquainted with those of the Church of Rome may be in danger of mistaking the one for the other and by Jacob's voice be deluded into Esau's hands and imbibe Poison unawares unless fortified against it by some such discriminating Antithesis 3. Hereby will appear the malice and falshood of these suggestions That the Dissenters stand at as great a distance from and are as much opposite to the legally Established Church of England as the Papists a mischievous conceit promoted by the Jesuites and other Factors for the See of Rome on purpose to divide and weaken us and consequently thereby to accomplish at last their own ends which are utterly to subvert and destroy all the Professors of the Reformed Religion whether Episcopal Presbyterial or under what ever other Denomination 4. I know not what could better tend to uniting us at least in affection amongst our selves than this demonstration That in the main and all essential Doctrinal points we are already agreed and since the other matters in Controversie are acknowledged to be indifferent what occasion is there for all this heat and violence unless the lesser our differences are the greater still must be our Animosities and Contentions about them 5. I do not despair but this small Treatise may be profitable to weak Capacities for instructing them in Fundamentals of Christian Religion since it contains a general Systeme of Faith rendered the more intelligible by the variety of Expressions though concurrent Sense of the Church-men and Protestant-Dissenters on the one side and the apparent Contradictions of the Papists on the other For Contraria juxta se posita magis Elucescunt contraries aptly compared illustrate each other Thus much for the End and general Intention of this Work As to the manner how it is perform'd I could indeed have wisht it might have come from some abler Hand whose Skill might have rendered it more useful and his Name more acceptable to the publick But rather a Mite than no Offering at all for the Churches Peace I have done what my small Reading and interrupted Leisure would permit and need only Advertise the Reader that here he shall find 1. The Nine and Thirty Articles of the Church of England agreed upon and Establisht Anno 1562. and never since altered but required by Law to be subscribed unto by all Ministers of our Church faithfully recited Verbatim and Printed in a different Letter 2. The Doctrines of those commonly called Presbyterians comprehending the Body of our Dissenters produc'd from the Confession of Faith agreed upon by the Assembly of Divines in the late Times and their Catechism and the Institutions of Mr. John Calvin 3. The Tenets of the Church of Rome delivered either in the Words of the Council of Trent or those of their great Champion Cardinal Bellarmine and the Annotations of their Colledge of Rhemes on the New Testament Other of their Authors sometimes but sparingly are Cited and never any but what are allowed by them and known to speak according to the common Dictates of that Church I knew not where to seek more Authentick Testimonies of each Parties Sentiments and can without Injury to Truth aver That I have not wilfully baulk'd added to detracted from or in any kind perverted the Sense of either side but fairly stated their Doctrines in their own words And generally without Reflections or Animadversions unless only where the matter is such that it could not justly be omitted Some may expect to have had added in a Fourth Comparison certain Notions advanc'd of late years by some Divines amongst us that seem to thwart these Articles of their Mother-Church which at their Ordination they solemnly subscribed But as the same have in part been already noted by others so my desire is rather to bring Balm than Vinegar to the too gaping wounds of the Church and without giving any such Exasperation shall hope That those Gentlemen will see and repent of such their Mistakes At least since Rectum est Index sui Obliqui A streight Line is the measure both of it self and of that too which is crooked I cannot despair but when once People are brought throughly to understand the Doctrines of the Church of England grounded on the Holy Scriptures without or contrary to which no Church in the World has any power to impose any Articles of Faith They will easily be able to discover such Aberrations and refuse them with a just Abhorrence though never so speciously obtruded But because there is such a noise raised and such heaps of Durt continually thrown on the memory of poor Mr. Calvin and those called Presbyterians whereby they would inflame us both to hardships towards dissenting Protestants at home and set us at odds with most of the Reformed Churches abroad I shall for the Information of the Vulgar Reader give a brief account here what esteem our Ancestors of the Church of England heretofore had both of John Calvin and those Neighbouring Churches and the Testimonies I shall avouch shall be of undoubted Authority both for Dignity and Learning The Reverend and Pious Dr. George Carleton Bishop of Chichester in a Book Intituled An Examination of those things wherein the Author of the late APPEAL holdeth the Doctrines of the Pelagians and Arminians to be the Doctrines of the Church of England Printed anno 1626 and Dedicated to King Charles the First p. 217 hath these Words Though the Church of England be the best Reformed Church yet it is not the only Reformed Church and it might seem no good Providence in us to stand so by our selves as to reject and disdain the Consent of other Churches though they do not agree with us in Discipline It is observed by Eusebius That Polycrates and Irenaeus did both reprove Victor because for matters of Ceremonies he was too much offended with other Churches which otherwise agreed with him in Doctrine Irenaeus doth admonish him That the ancient Bishops of Rome before Victor did keep Unity and Consent with the Eastern Bishops though in Ceremonies there was difference between them Omnes isti cum in Observantia vararierent inter semetipsos nobiscum semper pacifici fuerant Euseb l. 5. cap. 24. All those that varied in Observances yet were always peaceable both amongst themselves and with us He saith there also That the Dissonance in Ceremonies need not break the Consonance in Faith with those Churches which do not agree with us in Ceremonies if we seek the peace of the Churches that profess the same Doctrine or strugling as more like one sleeping than dying leaving with that noble Roman Aemilius Poverty with Honour to his Friends his Library and