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	new_a	scripture_n	2,590	5	5.6645	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15508	Charity mistaken, with the want whereof, Catholickes are vniustly charged for affirming, as they do with grief, that Protestancy vnrepented destroies salvation.	Knott, Edward, 1582-1656.; Matthew, Tobie, Sir, 1577-1655, attributed author.; Potter, Christopher, 1591-1646.; Potter, Christopher, 1591-1646. Want of charitie justly charged.	1630 (1630)	STC 25774; ESTC S102197	54,556	140

extreamely confused what the Church of England in most things belieues so is it as true that they are very carefull that they be not too clearely vnderstood And therefore in many cōtrouersies whereof that booke speakes it comes not at all to the maine difficulty of the question betweene them and vs and especially in those of the Church and Free will For whereas there are two maine Controuersies concerning the Church namely whether the Catholicke Church of our Lord must not euer be visible to the eyes of men though at some times more gloriously then at others and whether the said Church be infallible in the definitiōs of Faith in both which points we hold the affirmatiue and they the negatiue they dare not declare in this publique manner what they hold therein And so also in that of Free Wil Art 10. they only affirme thereof in haec verba The condition of mā after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turne prepare himselfe by his owne naturall strength good workes to faith calling vpō God wherfore we haue no power to do good workes pleasant and acceptable to God without the grace of God preuenting vs that we may haue a good will and working with vs whē we haue that goodwil Now this is true Catholick Doctrine which we belieue better them they But they declare not the while whether or no a man haue freedome of will to do a good worke or not to do it when first he is inspired and moued to it by God Almighties grace which we affirme they deny which is the only knott of our question the point vpō which so many other Catholicke Doctrines depend Soe also do they play at fast and ●oose when in the sixt Article of holy Scripture they enumerate al those books of the old Testament which they allow to be Canonicall wherein by the way they are rather Iewes then Christians for not admitting the bookes of Iudith the Machabees diuers others into the Canon And they trifle also when they tell vs that they vnderstand those only bookes both of the old and newe Testament to be Canonicall of whose authority there was neuer any doubt in the Church For they know as well as we that the Apocalips the Epistle of S. Iames S. Iude and one of S. Peters were not acknowledged till prooffes were made during the space of three or fower hundred yeares after Christ our Lord. And yet these mē haue beene pleased out of their great grace to admit them though the Machabees must be reiected because they speake of prayer for the dead But obserue in the meane time what this booke of Articles sayeth concerning the Canonicall bookes of the new Testament It saith only this All the bookes of new Testament as they are commonly receaued we doe receaue and account them for Canonicall But why doe they not particularly enumerate all the bookes which they acknowledge to be of the new Testament as they had done them of the old but only because they must so haue named those bookes of S. Iames and others for Canonicall which the Lutherans haue cast out of their Canon A mad peece of vnity God wot when these reformers of the Church according forsooth to Scripture if you will take their word cannot so much as agree about the very Canon it selfe of the Scripture But abstracting from all these insincerities wherewith that booke of Articles is full fraught they doe not so much as say that the Articles of Doctrine which they deliuer are fundamentall either all or halfe or any one thereof or that they are necessarily to be belieued by them or the contrary damnable if it be belieued by vs but they are glad to walke in a cloude for the reasons which haue beene already toucht Maister Rogers indeede in the Analysis which he makes of those nyne and thirty Articles speakes lowd inough by way of taxing the doctrine of the Church of Rome as being contrary to that of the Church of England and he giues it as many ill names as his impure spirit can deuise affirmes amongst other things that many Papists and namely the Franciscans blush not to affirme that S. Francis is the holy Ghost Fol. 23. And that Christ is the Sauiour of men but one Mother Iane is the Sauiour of woemen a most execrable of Postellus the Iesuit Fol. 14. with a great deale of such base trash as this And yet his booke is declared to haue beene pervsed and by the lawfull authority of the Church of England permitted to be publicke But yet euen Maister Rogers himselfe is not so valiant as to tell vs in particular which point of their Doctrine is fundamentall to saluation and which is not Much lesse is there any apparance that euer the Church of England should doe it since euen now we haue seene that it dares not in diuerse points soe much as declare in publicke manner that it professes the expresse contrary of what we held Nay we are not likely to see the fūdamental points of Faith whereof they talke so lowd to be auowed by so much as either of the Vniuersities yea or yet by any one Colledge or society of learned men amongst them And the reason of their reseruation in this kind is playne For if when they write ioyntly and in a body they should be conuinced of any absurdity or errour by the testimony either of the ancient Fathers on the one side or the Lutherans on the other their maine cause would receaue a mortall wounde because so their Church o● Vniuersities or Colledges would plainly appeare to be controlled and confuted eitheir by the Fathers or their fellow ghospellers whereas now when they speake or write but in the name or persons of particular men one of them will not thinke that himselfe or his cause is much preiudiced if any other of them be found guylty of errour and in such cases it is vsuall for them to say what care I if Doctour Morton say this or Doctour White say that and the like For this reason it is that I haue heard some Catholickes affirme and that to my thinking with great reason that they would hold it to be no ill worke for them if the pretended Colledge of Chelsy or any other were founded by Protestants expresly for writing bookes of controuersie by common consent But I belieue I shall not see them halt vpon that leg for feare least they should be found to be lame of both On the otherside at times they make eager inuectiues against vs for declaring so many yea and all the Doctrines of our Church to be Fundamentall so far forth as that whosoeuer refuses obstinatly to belieue any one of them doth forfette the saluation of his soule And in the strength of this zeale of theirs Doctour Dunne in a sermon made before his Maiesty at his first happy coming to this Crowne doth bitterly exclame against the Catholicke Romane Church as

beliefe of the holy Scripture it selfe and consequently of all the other greatest points We differ about the Primacie of S. Peter and his successours yea and about the infallibility of generall Councells and so therefore about the supreme iudge on earth of all our controuersies in Religion We differ about the iustification of soules and the value which the death and grace of Christ our Lord hath imparted to the workes of the children of God We differ in a world of particulars about the article of holy Catholicke Church and namely whether it must alwayes be visible or noe euen to the eyes of men and whether it must alwayes be free frō errour and fallibility We differ about the Communion of Saincts whether we may either pray for thē who are in Purgatory or to thē who are in heauen And we differ not only about these and many other most importāt points as mē who ar ready to relinquish their opiniōs if they be cōmāded but we ar on both sides resolued to persist though both the Catholicke Church in her counsells and the Protestants in their seuerall Confessions haue declared that their owne opinions are true and the contrary false and though we on the one side haue cast excommunication vpon the new deniers of those doctrines of ours which we haue receaued frō Christ our Lord his Apostles and they on the other haue filled their parts of the world which scurrill blasphemous inuectiues against those sayd Doctrines of ours and haue taken vpon themselues to be the reformers of the Church though without either ordinary mission or miracles and to be true publishers of the ghospell and euen the very illuminatours of the world And now therefore let that be considered once for all which hath formerly ben shewed about the stile of holy Scripture Fathers which speake those said things of Heresies and Hereticks without specifying in particular what they are And let it also be called to minde what Catalogues the Fathers of the Primitiue Church haue made of heresies whereof many abstracting frō the pride and disobedience which thereby is committed against the Church are neither of so great importance in themselues or at least not great at all in respect of those many most important Articles which ar mutually affirmed or denied betwene the Protestants and vs. For what imported it all that some were so foolish as to hold al men bound by Scripture to put of their shoes when they prayed yet S. Augustine cited them for heretickes in his Catalogue But the pride wherewith they presumed to abuse Scripture and to impose such a fond law vpon mēs cōsciences a resolutiō not to leaue it when they were commaunded by the Church was that which made it heresy in them Or what Article of the Creede or what book of Scripture or what sacramēt of the Church did the Quartodecimani deny or what errour did they introduce but only the celebrating of Easter at another time then was ordained by the Church and yet for this doth S. Austin inroll them in the rancke of heretickes the same I might exemplifie in many other particulars Presumption and pride which is expressed by choosing obstinatly maintaining of any doctrine or discipline cōtrary to the iudgment and commaundement of the Catholicke Church and by refusing to submit therein to the same Church is that wherein the very life spirit of Schisme and Heresie doth consist And the question is not here whether the point vpon which the Schisme or heresie is grounded be in it selfe of so great importance yea or no but whether there be in the hearte of any priuate man or men such a diabolicall degree of obstinacy and pride as to preferre their owne sence and Iudgment in things belonging to the faith and worship of our Lord God before the resolution and direction of his holy Catholicke Church which is his spouse his kingdome his house his Sanctuary and his citty which was made the treasure house of grace the foundation and pillar of truth the depositary of the holy Ghost and the heire of most faithfull and firme promises that euen the gates and power of Hell it selfe should neuer be able to preuaile against it And now I say if there be found such a sinne as this in the soule of man as to preferre his owne poore dictamens before the decrees of this Church it is so very enormous so barbarous so wholy out of the way of al Religion of reason of nature and euen of common sence it sauours of such a spirituall and infernall presumption so much the more cordially to be first lamented and then detested because it is cloaked vnder the collour of the ghospell and Christian liberty and I know not what of that kind that really it can deserue no other place or degree of punishment then Hell it selfe And now that all this is true namely that heresie cōsistes not in the material beliefe of a false doctrine for the contrary thereof perhaps was not sufficiently propounded to be belieued but in the disobedience to the Church after it is propoūded that famous exāple of S. Cyprian and the Donatistes may serue for prooffe For S. Cypriā was of the first who fel vpō the doctrine of rebaptization of such as had beene baptized by Hereticks and the Donatists afterward succeeded in the same But in S. Cyprian it was but errour because the Church of his time had not absolutely condemned it but growing after to condemned in the Donatists time it was Heresie in them not to forsake it Which drew Vincentius Lirinensis to make this exclamation O admirable change of things the authours of an opinion are held Catholicks and the followers of the selfe same are iudged hereticks And S. Cyprian himselfe declares the same in substance vpō a like occasion concerning others For when one inquired of him what that erroneous doctrine was which Nouatianus the schismatick had taught his answere to his friend was directly this Thou must know that we should not be curious what that doctrine is which he teaches since he is out of the Church teachinge clearly therby that not the quality of the doctrine but the pride of the man is that which makes the hereticke And in deede if this were not the rule whereby heresies and schismes must be knowne it were impossible to conclude what were an heresie or a schisme and so also there should fall out to be no heresie in effect at all which might not be compatible with saluation Now this opinion is not only contrary to the current of holy Scriptures and Fathers and to the beliefe and practise of the Catholicke Church of all ages but euen of the Protestants themselues who condemne not only vs but one an another also as is abundantly shewed the Authour of the Protestants Apologie c. for the Roman Church and especially in the place cited in the Margine fol. 408. where he cites Luther expresly saying thus We