Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	answer_v	word_n	write_v	1,797	5	5.2534	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45831	Rome is no rule, or, An answer to an epistle published by a Roman Catholic who stiles himself Cap. Robert Everard and may serve for an answer to two Popish treatises, the one entituled The question of questions, and the other Fiat lux, out of which books the arguments urged in the said epistle against the authority of the Scriptures and the infallibility of the Roman Church are collected : in which answer, the authority of the Scriptures is vindicated and the arguments for the Roman infallibility refuted / by J.I.	Ives, Jeremiah, fl. 1653-1674.	1664 (1664)	Wing I1103B; ESTC R41015	38,546	134

the sense of the Councels by which you understand what Doctrines are Catholick and what Expositions of Scripture are true and what are false then I demand Fourthly How do you believe with a Divine Faith that what this private Priest teacheth is according to the Infallible Doctrine of the Church since he is a Man and may err and so teach his own private Opinion for the Infallible Doctrine of the Church Fifthly Whether you may not be more subject to mis-understand the Scriptures either by the errour of the Priest in Preaching or the frailty of your understanding in hearing then others are in the reading of the Holy Scriptures And if so why should you say the Scriptures are no guide because they may be mis-interpreted For shame forbear to blame the use of a thing because of the abuse of it What if some are to blame in that they have wrested the Scriptures to serve their own interests Are not you more to blame to wound these men through the sides of the Scripture What if as one well observes That some are blind and miss their way and others are drunk and stagger out of it Must we all conspire to wish the Sun out of the Firmament that we might follow a Will with a Wisp And yet this is your kind of reasoning that because some are perverse and froward and others are full of darkness prejudice and corrupt affections by which they cannot perfectly and infallibly judge of every truth that is contained in the Scripture therefore they must throw away the blessed word of God from being their rule and guide You proceed in p. 18. and tell us That the third Reason which you thought was forcible was that those who are thus far for sole Scripture do not say that one or any particular number of the Books of Scripture but all Scriptures written by inspiration of God do being joyned together make up this Rule and Judge Hence you say you concluded that if any of these Books were lost this Rule was not perfect Now that many of these Books were lost you say you proved from those that remain Num. 21.14 The Book of the Wars of the Lord and this you say is lost It is said of Solomon 1 King 4.3 2. that he spoke 3000 Proverbs and his Songs were 1000 and 5 You conceive you say that upon a just reckoning some of these will be wanting We finde named 2 Chron. 9.29 The Book of Nathan the Prophet the Prophesie of Ahijah and the Visions of Iddo these you say are lost as also those named 1 Chron. 29.29 The Book of Samuel the Book of Nathan the Book of Goda and it is clear from Mat. 27.9 That part of Jeremy is lost So also from Mat. 2.23 Where it was foretold that Christ should be called a Nazaren and 1 Cor. 5.9 Tells us that the Epistle which our Canon calls St. Pauls First Epistle was not truly his first for there he sayeth I wrote to you in an Epistle not to keep company with Fornicatours St. Paul also wrote an Epistle from Laodicea and yet you say you do not finde this Epistle In Answer hereunto I cannot but take notice that you say you THOUGHT this Answer was forcible but where was your Mother that she did not inable you to say you were SURE it was forcible But let us see wherein this force lyeth you say Protestants do not believe a certain number of Books to be their guide but all the Scriptures written by Inspiration from God make up this Rule and Guide and many of these Books are lost therefore this Rule is not perfect I Answer First That the Law of the Lord is perfect and every word of God is pure and therefore there can be no imperfections in the word of God but Secondly How doth it appear that any of those Books which you say were lost had a Divine Image and Superscription upon them or that they that did write them we●e inspired by the Holy Ghost in the writing of those particular Books For it is very possible that they wrote many things upon particular occasions as Hezekiah wrote to Ephraim and that sometimes their writings were of no more inspiration from Heaven then Davids Letters were that he sent to Joab by Uriah or then Peters practise for which Paul withstood him to the face But Thirdly What Infallible reason have you to prove that these sayings recited out of these Scriptures may not refer to the Books of Samuel and the Kings which we have extant rather then to any Books that are lost Fourthly How do you know that those writings however the Pen-men were inspired were intended by God for the perpetual use of his Church in all Ages Fifthly How do you Infallibly know that all the Canons or your Church even of those which you say are necessary to Salvation are preserved and that some very material things are not lost Sixthly If you say there is none lost then whether you do not make God in his wise providence more carefull to preserve intire and unmaimed the Canons of your Councels then he hath been to preserve the Writings of his Holy Prophets and Apostles And if you suppose any of the Decrees of your Councels hath been lost or maimed then how do you know Infallibly whether some that are lost are not as material as those you have Thus the edge of your sword is turned against your self But Seventhly If any of the Books of the Old Testament were lost that were by God intended for the perpetual use of that Church to whom his Oracles were committed how then can you say that the Church of the Old Testament was infallible since she failed in that trust that was committed to her viz. the keeping of the Scripture And if this was not a failing in her in that she lost part of the Scriptures then she had not failed if she had lost all and then it followeth that the Scriptures are so far from being a sole Guide that they are no guide at all for if they are a guide and a directer in any sense or if they are of any divine use then it must be an errour either of ignorance or wilfullnesse to suffer them to be lost or maimed Eighthly Whereas you say that the Epistle of St. Paul which your Canon calls the first to the Corinthians was not TRULY his first I Answer then your Canon doth falsely call it the first and then how shall we believe when your Canons are true You had best tell your Mother she lyes as soon as you can speak and then shew a reason for it by telling her That St. Paul saith he writ to the Corinthians an Epistle before Ergo there is an Epistle before that which your Canon calls the first But Chrysostome understands it of the words going before wherein he had charged them to deliver the incestious person to Satan and to purge out the old leaven And that you may see how little cause you have

merchandize of you and that you may so do shall be the Prayers and Desires of thy Friend J. I. Rome is no Rule OR An Answer to an Epistle published by a Roman Catholick who stiles himself Cap. ROBERT EVERARD BEfore I shall engage against the main body of this discourse I shall take a view of its Front and Rear I mean the Title and Post-script In the Title you have the superscription of An Epistle to the several Congregations of Non-conformists Here I would gladly be informed who you mean by this term of discrimination Non-Conformists either you mean all that Conform not to the Church of Rome or all that Conform not to the Church of England if you mean all that Conform not to the Church of Rome then the Church of England is concerned in this Epistle and reckoned by you among all other Sects and Hereticks but if by Non-Conformists you would discriminate all that Conform not to the Church of England then your Mother the pretended Holy Catholick Church is concerned in your Epistle they being Non-Conformists to the Church of England as well or rather as ill as others and good reason she should be concerned since she hath furnished you with all your Weapons for this Warfare out of here Armoury and it is but a piece of gratitude to direct that to her which you so lately received from from her for he that hath a hand to take and not a tongue to return thanks deserves for the future to be both lame and dumb Having viewed the Superscription I come to the Subscriber and he is no less then a Captain Captain Robert Everard But where was he a Captain and whom did he command Let him speak for himself he is old enough He tells us he was at the head of a Troop in the rebellious Army See his Post-script p. 40. But what a shame is this that this Honour was not laid in the dust rather then prefixed in the Title of a Book Surely had you been truly humbled for that Rebellion as you pretend you would have said of all the honour that you acquired thereby as Ephraim said of his Idols What have I to do any more with you In the next place I cannot but observe the place where this Epistle was printed and if you will believe it it was printed at Paris I see you have learned one if not all the the three things which a learned man observes Children soon learn of their Mothers Pride Revenge and Lying this last appears in that you have made a Lye your refuge by saying your Epistle was printed at Paris But let me ask you the Question which you ask your Reader p. 20. who will adventure say you to make oath the Scriptures we have agree with the Originals So say I Who will adventure to make oath that this Epistle was printed at Paris Surely we are like to meet with little truth in the House when a Lye in Capitals and a Capital Lye is inscribed on the Porch as a London Printer will witnes to your ●ace if occasion serve I come now to the Post-script ●herein you caution your Respondent p. 39. to set down your own words as they lye intirely without maintaining them and also if he answers by Paragraphs to set down your whole Paragraphs Sir give me leave to tell you that you require a thing impossible for there is in your Epistle so little of you as any one may perceive by your own words and by comparing it with the Book Entituled The Question of Questions and Fiat Lux that it is hard to say whether any thing by yours besides these three words CAPTAIN ROBERT EVERARD and therefore if you would have had a distinct Answer to all your Arguments you should have distinguished what had been yours from what was other mens by a different Character as is usual in such cases You go on in your Post-script and forewarn your Respondent that be set not up a Puppit of his own in stead of Answering If he doth set up a Puppit of his own he hath done more then you who have scarce set up any thing of your own besides your name But what if be set up a Puppit of his own and call it yours you say he will not make your Arguments but his own ridiculous Truly he may possibly make his own but he cannot make your Arguments ridiculous because he knows not any one that is yours in all the Epistle The next thing you caution your Respondent is That he would forbear all reproaches and slanders against the Catholick Church or Catholicks in general or in particular which say you is a fault Protestants are too much in general addicted to Sir I perceive this Counsel is easier given then taken else why do you reflect reproach upon Protestants in general in the same breath in which you invite them to forbear reproaches Again You say That the Presbyterians and Independents do by the Catholicks as they did by his late Majesty of glorious memory and with our most dread Soveraign that now is and their Party viz. to impute crimes to them without end and errours innumerable without taking care to examine whether what they charged was true or false Sir I have four or five things to ask you 1 Whether you did use to do so by the Kings Majesty when you were an Independent and at the head of your Rebellious Troop 2 Whether you believe the Kings Majesty hath pardoned you and all that were so wickedly minded 3 Whether since you were pardoned you would have any to upbraid you with those pardoned Crimes If not then 4 Why do you that pretend to so much Charity do that to others you would not be done unto Lastly Why do you violate the Law of your Soveraign who hath forbidden upon a penalty that those things should be remembred against any that he hath been pleased to bury in Oblivion But Sir if you were not a Novice in the Catholick Way you might know that the people you are now fallen in with have been the most guilty in speaking evil of and doing evil to men in Authority of any that ever mentioned the Name of Christ witness their traducing King Henry 8. for that ever to be admired and to be remembred work of his in throwing off the Popes Supremacy how have the Romanists reported it as a Consequent of his Lust and Levity How then can they have any regard to the present Rulers who daily revile their Predecessors wherein any of them have acted against their Interests witness both the Gunpowder Treason and the Irish Rebellion And what good Allegiance can his Majesty that now is expect from you Who forsaking a People that destroyed one King and pretending repentance for that go and joyne with a people whose Principle is to Depose and Destroy Kings Passing from your Title and Post-Script I now come to Encounter with the main Body of your Epistle In the Front whereof You place a Text

out of the great St. Austine against Manicheus whose Words are these If thou shalt find any one who doth not as yet believe the Gospel what wilt thou do when he shall say unto thee I do not believe But neither had I believed the Gospel unless I had been thereunto moved by the Authority of the Catholick Church Those therefore to whom I submitted when they required me to believe the Gospel why should I not yield Obedience to them when they perswade me not to believe Manicheus Thus speaks Austine and more to the same purpose lo which I Answer That this Text out of Austine may be applyed to any Church as well as to yours And if the Church of England shall perswade any one that is a Jew to turn and become a Christian may he not say he did well to believe them when they perswaded him to believe the Gospel Why therefore should he not believe them when they perswade him not to turn Roman Catholick But to this Text I shall subjoyne Two Texts more out of the same Authour against the Donatists The Question saith he between Us and the Donatists is where is the Church This is the Question between the Protestants and the Romanists He Answers Let not these Speeches be heard among you This I say and this thou sayest but let us hear what the Lord sayes There are certain Books of God unto whose Authority we both consent There let us try our Cause There let us seek the Church And again in the Scriptures have we learned Christ In the Scriptures have we learned the Church Ep. 166. ad Donatift Whosoever shall compare these Texts out of Austine may easily satisfie himself What his Judgment was in the Question between You and Us viz. whether we should learn Christ and the Scriptures from the Church or whether we should learn Christ and the Church from the Scriptures To this purpose Epiphanius speaking of a Heritick Saith This Man is found differing from the HOLY SCRIPTURES as will appear to all Men that Read attentively If he then dissent from them he is altogether an Alien to the Holy Catholick Church Epiphanius Tom. 1. lib. 2. haer 48. It seems in his time all men were permitted to read the Scriptures attentively to inform iheir minds in the Truth whatever is now a dayes pretended to the contrary I proceed now to the Epistle it self In the beginning whereof Page 1. You give an account of the Reasons of its Publication which are To Answer Expectation to prevent the World from censuring and to manifest your charity to your late dear Brethren from whom you have received returns of Assection I did expect that among those Motives that prevailed with you to publish the grounds of your change I should have found you saying that the Glory of God had been the chief moving Cause But I finde not a word of that and therefore however you may have Answered the Expectations of others I am sure you have not answered mine But further you say you published your Epistle To prevent the World from censuring Sir whatever you promised your selfe in the beginning of your Book your heart failed for fear of obtaining when you had finished it And therefore you are forced to Ride Post after your Reader and pray him That he would not up-braid you As if you had some private ends of your own in your present change See the Post-Script in Page 40. Which plainly shews that you had some mis-givings of heart that all you had spoken throughout your Book would not Answer your end Viz. Keep the World from censuring And as for that other end which you pretend in the publishing of your Book Namely Charity to your late Brethren Truly whatever you pretend they will scarce believe you because in your Post-Script you uncharitably impute the Calumnies and Slanders that were cast upon his late Majesty and his Majesty that now is to the Presbiterians and Independens Indefinitly without exception Is this Charity And this uncharitableness of yours is grievously aggravated First Because it is basely remembred by you who were in the same Condemnation with others And Secondly Because it is mentioned after it hath been pardoned by the Kings Majesty And is this your gratefull return for that love which your late Brethren have manifested to you If so surely the charity of a Catholick and the mercies of the wicked are alike cruel You proceed like a Romane Catholick and in the latter end of page the 1. Sound a Trumpet in your own praise by saying That your carriage was alwaies such while you was in Communion with them meaning your late Brethren As gave them sufficient reason to believe that you was not Byassed by world interests and selfish considerations But if any body believes so they may erre because they do not believe as the Church believes In the Second Page you tell us how you came to be acquainted with a Lay Gentle-Man of the Catholick perswasion and how he interrogated you about the grounds of Christian Religion The substance of his Questions was to this purpose Whether you were sure the Christian Religion in General was more true then the Religion of Turks Jews or any others c The Reason he gave for this question was that if neither your self nor those that taught you that Christianity was the only safe way to Salvation was infallibly certain or were capable of any mistakes or errour in this thing Then it followed that Christianity was but probable and not certain From Page second to the eighth you recite what Arguments your Catholick Friend used to prove these things to you Viz. That we could not convince a Turk or a Jew of the certainty of Christianity but by the Churches Infallibility Which I forbear to make a reply unto partly because it is but a Narrative of a private Conference between you and that Catholick Gentle-Man And chiefly because I shall have occasion to speake to the very same things in my following Answers to your Arguments to which I refer the Reader You come in the latter end of the 8. Page to tell us what Effects this Conference had upon your understanding as that thereupon You resolved to have Recourse to Almighty God by Prayer for his Divine assistance and to make it your businesse according to your skill and understanding to take a full view of the Catholick Faith and of Christianity and laying aside all Prejudices Pride and Humours You Resolved to embrace by the assstance of God whatsoever you should understand to agree to his most Holy Will and Pleasure Hereupon let me aske you a few questions First how are you sure you had a Divine Assistance in this choice as an Answer to your Prayers since when you made these Prayers you were not a member of your pretended Catholick Church Secondly How are you sure since the heart of Man is deceitfull that your heart did not deceive you when it inclined you to Popery Thirdly