Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	canonical_a	church_n	faith_n	2,210	5	5.2063	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A00796	A treatise of faith wherin is briefely, and planly [sic] shewed, a direct way, by which every man may resolue, and settle his minde, in all doubtes, questions, or controuersies, concerning matters of faith.	Fisher, John, 1569-1641.	1605 (1605)	STC 10915.5; ESTC S2122	65,176	166

praedicabunt nisi mittantur How shall they beleeue him whom they haue not heard how shall they heare without a preacher how shall they preach vnlesse they be sent Therefore the true Church which only hath preachers truely sent of God must first be found out that by it we may heare and know which is the true faith Therefore of the two the true Church is rather a marke whereby we may know the true preaching and consequently the true doctrine of faith then contrary that as heretiques say the doctrine should be a marke whereby all men must know which is the true Church Thirdly true faith is included in the true Church and as it were enclosed in her belly as S. Austen saith vpon those words of the Psalme Errauerunt ab vtero ●●quu●i sunt falsa In ventre ecclesiae saith he veritas manet quisquis ab hoc ventre separatus fuerit necesse est vt falsa loquatur Truth remaineth in the belly of the Church whosoeuer is seperated to wit by difference in doctrine frō this belly of the Church must needs speake false Therfore like as if a man had golde in his belly we must first find the man before we can come to see the golde it selfe so we must first by other markes find out the true Church which hath the gold of true faith hidden in her belly before we come to see the gold of true faith it selfe Sith especially we cannot see it vnlesse shee open her mouth and deliuer it vnto vs that we cannot being spiritually blind certainely know it to be true not counterfeite but by giuing credit to her testimony of it According as the same S. Austen saith Euangelio non crederem nisi me ecclesiae authoritas commoueret I should not beleeue the Gospell it selfe vnlesse I were moued by the authority of the Church For if we had not the testimony of the Church how should we haue bin infallibly sure that there were any Gospel at all or how should wee haue knowne that those bookes which beare title of the Gospell according to S. Mathew Marke Luke and Iohn Are true Canonicall Scripture rather then those bookes which are writen in the name of Nicodemus and S. Thomas bearing the same title or inscription of Gospell Fourthly if the true doctrine of faith in all particuler pointes must bee fore knowne as a marke whereby to know the true Church then contrary to that which hath bin proued the authority of the Church should not be a necessarie meanes whereby men must come to the knowledge of the true faith For if before wee come to know which is the true Church we must by other meanes haue knowne which is the true faith what neede then is there for getting true faith already had to seeke or bring in the authority of the same Church Fiftly If before we giue absolute and vndoubted credit to the true Church we must examine and iudge whether euery particuler point of doctrine which it holdeth be the truth with authority to accept that only which we like or which seemeth in our conceipt right and conformable to Scripture to reiect whatsoeuer wee mislike or which in our priuate iudgement seemeth not so right and cōformable then we make our selues examiners and Iudges ouer the Church consequently we preferre our liking or disliking our iudgement and censure of the interpretation sense of Scripture before the iudgement and censure of the Church of God But it is absurd both in reason and religion to preferre the iudgment of any priuate man be he neuer so witty and learned or neuer so strongly perswaded in his owne mind that he is taught by the Spirit before the iudgement definitiue sentence of the Church of God the which is a company of men many of which both are alwaies haue bin vertuous wise and learned which is chiefe is such a company as according to the absolute and infallible promises of our Sauiour hath vndoubtedly the holy Spirit among them guiding them and teaching them all truth and not permitting them to erre as before hath beene proued But you may perhaps say that in Scripture we are willed not to beleeue euery spirit but to try spirits whether they bee of God or no and that therefore we must examine and try the spirit of the Church by looking into euery particuler point of doctrine which it teacheth I answere That in that place of Scripture it is not meant that it belongeth to euery particuler man to try all spirits but in generall the Scripture giueth the Church warning not to accept euery one that boasteth himselfe to haue the Spirit and willeth that they should trie those spirits not that euery simple or priuate man should take vpon him to trie them but that those of the Church to whom the office of trying spirits doth appertaine to wit the Doctors and Pastors which almighty God hath put in his Church of purpose Vt non circumfera●ur omni vento doctrinae that we may not be caried away with euery wind of doctrine and Vt non simus paruuli fluctuantes that we may not be litle ones wauering with euery blast of those that boast themselues to be singulerly taught by the Spirit So that this trying of spirits is only meant of those spirits of which men may well doubt whether they be of God or no thē also this trial belōgeth to the Pastors of the Church But when it is certaine that the spirit is of God we neither need nor ought doubtfully to examine or presūptuously to iudge of it but submitting obediently the iudgement of our owne sense and reason wee must beleeue the teaching of it in euery point Now it is most certaine that the Spirit of the true visible Church is of God as out of holie Scripture hath bin most euidently proued And therefore our only care should be to seeke out those markes by which all men may know which particuler cōpany of mē is the true Church of Christ whose doctrine we neither need nor lawfully may examine and try in doubtfull manner but must obediently and vndoubtfully in all points beleeue as the only assured and infallible truth CHAP. XV. That these foure properties Vna Sancta Catholica Apostolica that is to saie One Holy Catholique Apostolique are good markes by which men may know which is the true Church SITH our Sauiour Christ hath thought good to plant a visible Church vpon earth which he would haue to continue vntill the worlds end for this speciall in●ent and purpose that all men in all ages by meanes of it may learne the doctrine of the true faith the true worship of God the right vse of the Sacraments the holesome lawes of good life and generally all good thinges that appertaine to the glorie of God and the saluatiō of our soules wee haue not any reason to doubte but that the same our Sauiour for the exceeding loue which of his part

continued against it as in all heresies that haue spronge vp of new we can doe If there could not a little ceremonie be added to the Masse but that it was set downe in history when and by whom how could the whole substance of the Masse which consisteth in consecration oblation and consumption of the sacred Hoast be newly inuented and no mention made when or by whom or that euer there was any such new inuention at all If also historiographers were not afraide to note personall and priuate vices of the Popes themselues which they might well think Popes would not willingly haue made open to the world why should they haue feared to haue recorded any alteration in religion Which if it had beene had beene a thing done publikely in the view of the whole world or if there were any feare or flattery which might tye the tongues and pennes of those that liued neare hand that they durst not or would not mention such a matter yet doubtlesse others which liued in places further off should not haue had those causes and consequently would not haue kept secret such an open and important a thing as this If lastly the histories which make mention of these priuate vices of Popes and other Christian Princes could not onely first come out but also continue without touch till these latter times what reason can any haue to doubte or dreame but that the like would haue beene set out about the alteration of religion if it had happened and that if any such history reporting any true accident of alteration or change of religion had come out it should partly by Gods prouidence partly by humane diligence haue bin preserued till these our daies especially cōsidering that such records had beene so requisite for discerning the ancient vnchanged true Christian religion from vpstart nouelty which must needes bee false So that we may well conclude that if Christian religion had since the Apostles time altered in Rome it would haue bin recorded in histories as other things and especially such notable alterations are recorded and those histories would haue beene preserued till this day as other Christian monuments haue beene preserued euen in time of persecution yea euen then when the persecutors made particuler enquiry for Christian bookes to burne or consume them But in those auncient histories there is no mention made of any such alteration of religion in Rome Wherefore it followeth that there was no such alteration or change at all No such alteration being made it is euident that the same faith and religion which was in Saint Paules time hath alwaies continued is there now That which was there then was the true faith and religion as appeareth by that high commendation which Saint Paule hath left written of it Therefore that which is there now must needes bee the onely true holy and Catholique faith and that company which professeth it must needes bee the Onely true Holy and Catholique Church Neither can I see what answere can with any probability be forged against this reason For to say that the errours of the Church of Rome crept in by little and little and so for the littlenes of the thing or for the negligence of the Pastors were not espied is an Idle fiction already refuted For first those matters which the Protestantes call errours in the Romane Church be not so little matters but that lesse euen in the like kinde are ordinarily recorded in stories Nay some of them are in the Protestants conceipts consequently if men of olde time had beene Protestants they would haue beene also in their conceipts as grosse superstition as Paganisme it selfe namely to adore Christ our Sauiour as being really and substantially present in the Blessed Sacrament the which Sacrament Protestants hold to be really and substantially but a bare peece of bread Also the Protestants account the vse of the Images to be Idolatry and say very ignorantly or maliciously that wee adore stockes and stones as the Panims did The which thinges could not so haue crept in by little and little but they must needes be espied Neither could the Pastours of the Church at any time be so simple and ignorant so sleepy and negligent but they must needes haue seene and seeing must needes in some sort haue resisted as before I haue said For to imagine all the Pastours of any one age to haue beene in such a deepe Lethargicall and deadlie sleepe that they could not onely not perceiue when the enemy should ouer sow Cockle in the harts of some but also when this Cockle of false beliefe should grow to outward action and especially to publike practise the which could not be but most apparant to imagine I say all the Pastors to be so simple and sleepy not then to marke or not to resist is rather the dreame of a proud man in his sleepe who is apte to thinke all men fooles beside himselfe then a iudiciall conceipte of a waking man of any vnderstanding who ought to thinke of things past either according to the verity recorded in stories or when this faileth by comparing the likelihood of that which hee thinketh was done by men of that time with that which most men of their quality would do in like case Finally if these were so and that the Church did by this meanes for so long space in such important matters vniuersally erre neglexerit Officium Spiritus Sanctus as Tertullian speaketh refuting the like cauill of heretiques the holy Ghost should haue neglected his office which is as I haue proued before out of Scripture not to permit the vniuersall Church to fall into errour but to suggest vnto it all things that Christ said vnto it and to teach it all truth §. IIII. That the Romane Church onely is Apostolique FOurthly I finde that the Protestants Church is not Apostolique Because they can not deriue the Pedegree of their preachers lineally without interruption from the Apostles but are forced to acknowledge some other as Luther or Caluin or some such for their first founders in this their new faith from whome they may perhaps shew some succession of the preachers of their faith but they can neuer shew that Luther or Caluin themselues wsto liued within this hundred yeares did either lawfully succeede or was lawfully sent to teach this new faith by any Apostolique Bishop or Pastour Nay Luther himselfe doth not onely confesse but also bragge that he was the first preacher of this new found faith Christum à nobis primo vulgatum audemns gloriari saieth hee we darre boast that Christ was first published by vs. For which his glorious boasting me thinkes hee deserueth well that title which Optatus giueth vnto Victor the first Bishop of the Donatists to wit to be called filius sine patre Discipulus sine magistro a sonne without a father a disciple without a maister On the cōtrary side the Romane Church can shew a lineall succession of their Bishops