Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	believe_v	faith_n	scripture_n	10,448	5	6.7135	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20820	Abjuration of poperie, by Thomas Abernethie: sometime Iesuite, but now penitent sinner, and an unworthie member of the true reformed Church of God in Scotland, at Edinburgh, in the Gray-frier church, the 24. of August, 1638	Abernethie, Thomas, fl. 1638-1641.	1638 (1638)	STC 72; ESTC S100404	27,560	50

worke well according to their owne wayes but they must have a good fat Subject to worke upon and this for the Jesuits policie The second shall bee answered after the third To the third then I have likewise answered before and now answere againe First because I finde the reformed Church of GOD in Scotland to bee furthest from Popish idolatrie and neerest to Apostolicall puritie Secondlie because that I was never am not neither ever God-willing shall bee a lukewarme Laodicean especially seeing that my Saviour Jesus Christ promiseth To him that overcommeth will I grant to sit with mee in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set downe with my Father in His Throne What madnesse I pray you were it in a Mariner for to come out of a sunken ship to enter into another which is sinking and may have a tight one In a prisoner relieved out of a low pit to cast himselfe into free ward having his libertie in his option In a sensible man fled from a pestiferous towne to reteere himselfe to another where the same sicknesse hath taken encrease when hee may have with great ease a palace of pleasure voide of all kinde of suspicion of any infection whatsoever None truely I thinke would bee so madde and destitute of judgement but he who going out of this valley of miserie to the heavenly mansions would stay and take in purgatorie for his winter quarters Yet they say that it were well done to conforme to a middle religion between Protestants and Papists because extremeties are to be avoided and mediocritie embraced To these I answere that if they had studied their Logick as well as their Politicks they had known that of the four logicall oppositions there is one called Contradictoria which will admit no middes Inter propositiones contradictoria● non datur medium such is the state of the matter between us and Rome they say that we are hereticks we deny it they can not prove it seeing we believe the Scriptures which are given by divine iuspiration and are able to make the man of God perfect unto all good workes We say that the Pope is Antichrist they deny it but we can prove it out of the prophet Daniel the Apostles Paul and John and so foorth in all the rest of controversies betwixt them and us so that there can be no composition no more than betwixt light and darknesse God and Beliall For Christ saith plainlie He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad Therefore there is no mediocritie heere And the reason of this is because as the Apostle averreth there is but One Faith in respect of its formall object Gods written word the authoritie whereof is from the Author God himself and so is divine and what is contradictorie to it is not divine nor to be believed to salvation And therefore no meeting nor trysting with Rome If it be said that the Papists believe many points common with us as the Trinitie Incarnation c. and therefore that they must have faith and so faith will not be indivisible I answere that they have a materiall faith as Turks and Jewes likewise have but not a formall faith which depending upon the authoritie of God revealed unto us in his word only and no other faith can be profitable for salvation The second branch of this politick objection is their doubt of my out coming from Rome to wit that it was to stir up diffension betwixt Reformists and CONE-formists for the Papists and Jesuits profite To these I answere first that their Critick spirits proceed more out of Philosophicall and Mathematicall than out of Christian or Thologicall grounds in this their censure of my sincere proceedings Philosophie teacheth them that Quic quid reciptur ad modum recipientis recipitur whatsoever is receaved it is receaved according to the measure of the receaver And Mathematicians in their Opticks teach that the visible speces passing from the object to the organe which receaveth them take upon them the colour of the mids where through they passe which daylie experience confirmeth and therefore according to their dispositions and affections they judge of me as their passions transport them but not as Christian charitie exhorteth them for the Scripture teacheth that it is Christ that justifieth who is he that condemneth Secondlie I answere that as God is my witnesse they wrong me pitifully for as the Lord knoweth I desire one Lord one Faith one Baptisme not only in Britaine but likewise thorow the whole world and that we think alwayes the same till we all come in the unitie of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ That we hencefoorth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every winde of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftinesse whereby they ly in wait to deceave Now to let you see that my conversion is not to make dissension betwixt you I will brieflie let you understand how the Papists ly in wait to deceave you And that it may be seene that I am not partiall I speake to all the three Kingdomes of Scotland England and Ireland minding to show you all three that Papists ly in wait to deceave you by two meanes seminaries and pensions yet it is first to be remarked that the ground of both is that Councell in Rome called Congregatio de propaganda or rather extirpanda fide a congregation of propagating or rather extirpating of Faith This Congregation hath a most sumptuous Palace in Rome and extreme rich the members of it are the Pope as head of the Church his nephew Cardinall Francis Barbarine as his Lieutennant diverse others Cardinals the Generals of severall Orders the great Master of the inquisition and some Doctors all as judges they conveene every fryday or ofter as they please the end of their meetings is to finde out meanes to bring all people and Nations under the popes dominion for thus end they have sundry meanes such as their Seminaries of diverse nations and their pensions The Semenaries are furnished with youths out of their severall Countries by Jesuits who have the care of them These youths are of two sorts the one called Convictores because they pay for their entertainment and these are Noble Barons and Gentlemen Sons sent thither by their popish parents to be brought up for diverse ends The other are called Seminarists and these have their food raiment studies books c. all the time of their studies out of these colleges with condition that after they have stayed three moneths in one of these Colleges they must make a vow to take priesthood upon them and to returne to their severall Countries when they shall be found fit by the Jesuits their Masters to the end they may seduce others as they were seduced themselves And therefore after

and controversies of religion to be grounded upon the principles of humane philosophie O base and sandie ground for articles of faith and matters of salvation O wise philosophers or rather foolish ignorants Know yee not that other foundation can no man lay then that is laide which is Jesus Christ And that the wisdome of the world is foolishnesse with GOD for it is written He taketh the wise in their owne craftinesse And againe the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vaine Now if any man ask me wherefore I left Papistrie I answere before my GOD as the Lord shall save me in that great day when all secret thoughts shall be revealed that no carnall thought or worldly rentation did move me to take this resolution but only that after serious examination and reading of Gods word by conference with Jesuits in Pole and Ministers in diverse countries although neither of them knew me to have beene a Jesuite I found that Papistrie was built upon this sandie foundation of Philosophie sophistrie traditions and the rudiments of the world and not upon that invincible rock Christ Jesus And therefore I resolved to come out of Babylon that I should not be partaker of her sins and that I should not receave of her plagues And hid my self in the clift of this rocke that is in the wounds of my deare and only Saviour Christ Jesus denying all other meane of salvation but that which is written in his holy word adjoining my self to the true reformed Church of God in Scotland Whereof if any man aske the reason of adjoining my selfe to the Church of God in Scotland rather then to another church as England or Germanie I answere them that I minde to use a part of the Physitians counsell who give for a singular antidote against the pest of the body three things to observe that is citò longè tardè which is somuch as whosoever will bee free of the bodily pest let him go soone away from the place infected next go far away and thirdly to stay long away that the place be well cleansed before he returne so say I whosoever will be free of that spirituall pest of Antichrist let him use three things citò longè nunquam that is let him go soone away from it next far away and thirdly never to return back againe to it And because the Church of God in Scotland observeth best this infallible rule of any of them all being farrest from all popish superstition and neerest to apostolicall puritie therefore I have adhered thereto and not to any of the rest And because reading of the Scripture was the occasion and instrumentall cause of this my recovered health I exhort by the tender mercies of Christ that every man take some paines every day to read a portion of Scripture especially yee blinded papists to whom it is a mortall sin to read it more than the Alcoran except yee have a dispensation for both are alike forbidden read the Scriptures often and yee shall surely finde comfort to your souls so that yee read them with prayer and humilitie and not for contention as wee used to read them For all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousnesse that the man of God may be perfect througly furnished unto all good works An other reason which did confirme me in this my godly resolution was I could finde no warrand in Scripture for poperie and yet I preased to strain the Scripture and throw it to my purpose but could never satisfie mine owne conscience As for example that fundamentall point of their tyrannous hierarchie of Peters being at Rome by what right the popes serve themselves heire to Peter more than the Churches of Antioch and Alexandria which are more ancient Churches then that of Rome that Peters succession is tyed to the towne of Rome jure divino as I was taught by them that of the popes infallibilitie notwithstanding their contradictions one to another in fundamentall things his usurped authoritie upon Gods Scriptures and mens consciences and all their traditionall trash have no true warrand in Gods word Yea I wonder that learned men who know this silence of their opinions in Gods word should remaine in Babylon any longer for we are commanded to search the Scriptures as they which testifie of Christ. The Apostle Peter sayeth That we have a more sure word of prophecie whereunto yee do well that yee take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place untill the day dawne and the Day-star arise in your hearts O poore soules that ly caught in these snares and you conformists who run post to them know yee not that praestat obedire Deo quàm hominibus Wee ought to obey GOD rather then man And Peter and John answered and said unto them Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you then unto God judge yee That is as much to say as when the obedience towards God and that towards man not altogether conforme to that of Gods are put in ballance against other that there is no question which of them we should make choice of God commands thee to search the Scriptures and the pope commands thee not to read them under the paine of mortall sin God ordaineth thee to take the cup at the Communion the pope commands the contrarie GOD commands thee that thou shalt not make any graven images c. the pope commands thee to have use and worship them GOD sets thee at Christian libertie from the ceremoniall law and rudiments of the world the pope binds thee with that infinite number of his tyrannous lawes For they the pope and his councel binde heavie burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on mens shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers Look about thee and consider the miserable estate thou art in be not terrified with boasting to declare thee an heretick or a rebell resolve thy self constantly and say with the Apostle I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth And in another place But this I confesse unto thee that after the way which they call heresie so worship I the GOD of my Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets And heerein do I exercise my self to have alwayes a conscience void of offence towards GOD and towards men I speak nothing of their brutish and Sodomitish life worse then that of the Pagans described by the Apostle which although it be not universall thorow all the popes dominions yet it is common and notorious in the privie chamber that is Italie of that Babylonish whoore as is known to the world by relation and to me by auricular confession Neither touch I that superstitious and hypocriticall