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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	catholic_n	church_n	communion_n	5,870	5	9.6775	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25228	Some queries to Protestants answered and an explanation of the Roman Catholick's belief in four great points considered : I. concerning their church, II. their worship, III. justification, IV. civil government.	Altham, Michael, 1633-1705.	1686 (1686)	Wing A2934; ESTC R8650	37,328	44

suspect my own than theirs yet whatsoever Testimonies and Decrees are propounded by the Church they are propounded to rational men and it must necessarily be supposed that men ought to exercise that reason which God hath endowed them withall in judging of the evidence upon which those Testimonies and Decrees are built which evidences if they do not prove convincing and satisfactory they cannot command their own belief much less can any Power or Authority do it For to act by an implicit faith in that case were to act more like Brutes than Men. And therefore though we willingly own that there is as much credit due to them as to Civil Magistrates in the like case yet can we not grant any more Or if their Testimonies and Decrees concern matters of Fact wherein our Obedience is required i. e. matters of Discipline which respect the order and decency of Religion we grant that obedience is due to them and as much obedience as is due to Civil Magistrates in the like case yet still a Judgment of discretion is to be allowed to the Subject how far he can with a safe Conscience actively obey and when and where he is to exercise his passive obedience But this caution ought to be observed by every private Christian that by an imprudent management of his different Sentiments he do not disturb the Peace nor break the Order and Unity of the Church Qu. 11. Or hath Christ left such liberty to all succeeding Christians that they need not believe credit or obey any the Testimonies Laws Interpretations or Sentences given by any supreme Legal Governours Civil or Ecclesiastical in their respective Councils further than every particular person in his private Judgment shall like chuse and accept of Ans This Query I take to be fully answered in the Answer to that immediately preceding wherein the case is plainly stated How far the Credit and Obedience of Inferiours is due to the Sentences and Determinations of their Superiours whether Civil or Ecclesiastical And therefore without saying the same things over again or enlarging thereupon I shall refer you thereunto Qu. 12. Whether a few particular persons or some few of the Magistrates Civil or Ecclesiastical for discontent or differing in Judgment from the united body of the rest may under pretence of Conscience or Reformation separate themselves from the United body and society and make new translations and interpretations of written Laws different from the former and by force and perswasion draw People from their old Society Unity and Obedience to new Congregations Institutions and Rules of their framing opposite and destructive to the former Ans This Query consists of several parts and therefore to give a direct and apposite Answer thereunto I shall endeavour to obviate the several parts thereof by these Propositions following Viz. 1. That no person or number of men whether they be private Persons or Magistrates Civil or Ecclesiastical ought to separate themselves on any pretence whatsoever from the body of the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church 2. That discontent or differing in Judgment only are no sufficient grounds of separation from any particular Church whereof we are Members 3. That a bare pretence of Conscience and Reformation will not justifie a Schism nor excuse those who are guilty of a Schismatical separation either in Church or State For the peace of the whole Community is far more valuable than any private man's satisfaction and ought not to be laid open to the attempts of any Schismatical pretenders whatsoever 4. That the written and established Laws of God or his Vicegerents upon Earth are not reversible nor alterable by any man or number of men Because they cannot pretend to that Authority by which at first they were established and without that they cannot be altered For if we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed saith St. Paul Gal. 1.8 5. That it is not lawfull for any person or persons who are Members of an established Church either by force or perswasion to draw People from the Communion of that Church and so break the Unity and disturb the Peace thereof or by any Artifices whatsoever either to undermine or batter down the Ramparts i. e. the established Laws and Constitutions of that Church These Propositions put together may suffice as a general Answer to this Query but now to apply them to the matter in hand i. e. the difference between us and the Church of Rome for on that account was the Query propounded And this I shall now do in these following particulars 1. That the Church of Rome though she mightily pretend to it is not that One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church That she is a Member of the Catholick Church we grant though we can scarce allow her to be a sound Member thereof but that she should pretend to be the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church either diffusive or representative we cannot consent nor hath she ever yet or ever will be able to make goad her claim thereunto 2. That the present Church of Rome is guilty of a sinfull and schismatical Separation from the United Body of the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church we affirm And that for these reasons 1. Because she usurps an higher place and power in the Body Ecclesiastical than of right is due unto her thereby breaking the Union and disturbing the Peace of the Church 2. Because she hath voluntarily divided the Catholick Church both in Faith Worship and Government by her innovations 3. By separating both by her Doctrines and Censures three parts of the Christian World from her Communion and as much as in her lyes from the Communion of Christ 4. By rebelling against general Councils and usurping an Authority over them 5. By breaking or taking away all the lines of Apostolical Succession except their own and appropriating all Original Jurisdiction to themselves 6. By challenging a temporal power over Princes either directly or indirectly which hath been a great occasion not only of Schism in the Church but of Sedition and Rebellion in the State All which instances have been charged upon and made good against the Church of Rome by our Writers and may be so again whenever we are called to it 3. It is not therefore we that have separated from them but they from us whilst we adhere to the united Body of the Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church which they have forsaken 4. Nor is it we but they who have altered the written and established Laws of God and his Church by adding new Articles of Faith such as were never delivered by Christ or his Apostles nor taught by the primitive Church nor comprised in any of those Creeds received by the Church and making them necessary Conditions of their Communion As the Doctrines of Supremacy and Infallibility of Indulgences and Purgatory of Transubstantiation c. 5. It is they therefore and

on whose decisions they so much depend hath a quite different Notion of Justification and Merit That Council after some Months debate upon the Point of Justification at last came to a decision and declared That the only formal Cause of our Justification is God's Justice not by which he himself is just but by which he makes us just wherewith being endowed by him we are renewed in the Spirit of our Minds and are not only reputed but are made truly just receiving every man his own measure of justice which the Holy Ghost divides to him according to each mans predisposition of himself and co-operation And withall denounceth a flat Anathema to all those who shall dare to say that we are formally justified by Christ's righteousness or by the sole imputation of that righteousness or by the sole remission of our sins and not by our inherent grace diffused into our hearts by the Holy Ghost Sess 6. Can. 10 11. And the same Council speaking of the Merit of good Works saith If any man shall say that the good Works of a justified Person do not truly merit the increase of Grace and eternal Life let him be Anathema Sess 6 Can. 32. Now one would think the choice were very easie which of these to believe whether the Council of Trent or this Explainer The accounts they give are too different to be both believed and can there be any question which of them is most authoritative Certainly our Expla●ner must be a very bold Person who in defiance of such a celebrated Council durst deliver what he hath done for the belief of Roman Catholicks in this point and he must look upon his Persons of Quality to whom he presents it as a parcel of unthinking and inconsiderate Animals who would swallow any thing without Examination Either he was in earnest or he had a mind to put a cheat upon them if the latter he plainly discovers how good a Christian and how true a Catholick he is If the former surely he did not well consider how fatal the Consequences of that Doctrine would be to the Church of Rome For 1. If this be really the Faith of Roman Catholicks then What becomes of that gainful Trade of Indulgences which is wholly founded upon the Treasure of the Church wherein are heaped up piles of satisfactions of Saints of which the Pope only keeps the Keys and hath power to dispense them where he lists There was a time indeed when Indulgences were look'd upon to be nothing else but a Mitigation or Relaxation upon just Causes of Canonical Penances which are or may be enjoyned by the Pastors of the Church on penitent Sinners according to their several Degrees of Demerits But this is a Doctrine out of date with the present Church of Rome insomuch that Greg. de Valentia saith That this Opinion differs not from that of the Hereticks and makes Indulgences to be useless and dangerous things de Indulg c. 2. And their great Champion Bellarmine among several other Arguments against this Doctrine brings this for one That if this were so there would be no need of the Treasure of the Church which he takes a great deal of pains to prove to be the Foundation of Indulgences But 2. What will become of the profitable Doctrine of Purgatory which is built upon Indulgences and they upon the Treasure of the Church wherein the Merits of Saints are kept to be dispensed by the Pope for the delivery of Souls out of Purgatory But 3. What will become of the Pope's Coffers which being once emptied and this Spring dried up which should have supplied them can have no prospect of any other so effectual way to replenish them again Had our Explainer well considered these ill Consequences of his Explanation he would certainly have thought of it more than once before he had exposed it I cannot imagine what should perswade him to such an Explanation unless he had obtained a dispensation to guild his Bait the more easily to catch what he angled for And if this be it is it not a great Argument of the Candour and Ingenuity of our Explainer and a mighty motive to his Persons of Quality to swallow all that shall be propounded by him And now we are come to the last point which he undertakes to explain and shall examine whether he be more ingenuous in that than he hath been in the other The EXPLAINER 4. We firmly believe and highly reverence the Moral Law being so solemnly delivered to Moses upon the Mount Exodus 20. Matth. 19. Eccles 12 13. so expresly confirmed by our Saviour in the Gospel and containing in it self so perfect an Abridgment of our whole Duty both to God and Man Which Moral Law we believe obliges all men to proceed with faithfulness and sincerity in their mutual Contracts one towards another and therefore our constant profession is That we are most strictly and absolutely bound to the exact and intire performance of our promises made to any Persons of what Religion soever much more to the Magistrates and Civil Powers under whose Protection we live whom we are taught by the Word of God to obey not only for fear but Conscience sake and to whom we will most faithfully observe our Promises of Duty and Obedience notwithstanding any Dispensation Absolution or other proceedings of any foreign Power or Authority whatsoever Wherefore we utterly deny and renounce that false and scandalous Position That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks as most uncharitably imputed to our Practices and most unjustly pinned upon our Religion These we sincerely and solemnly profess as in the sight of God the searcher of all hearts taking the words plainly and simply in their usual and familiar sense without any Equivocation or Mental Reservation whatsoever The ANIMADVERTER Our Explainer would have the World believe that those of his Communion do highly reverence and have a mighty regard for the Moral Law We do the same but we know and believe the Second Commandment to be part of that Law and therefore dare not be guilty of Image-Worship which perhaps the Explainer did not think of He further tells us that they believe that this Law doth contain in it self a perfect Abridgment of our whole Duty both to God and Man We believe the same and we do further believe that whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all James 2.10 And therefore we dare not worship Images nor give divine Honour to any Creatures nor disobey Magistrates nor deal falsly with our Neighbours under any pretence whatsoever nor do any thing that is there forbidden nor leave undone any thing that is there commanded Whether the Explainer thought of all this I know not but he cannot but know that the Practices of those of his Communion are not correspondent thereunto But the two great things that he would have the World believe of them upon the Credit of his Explanation are these