Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	church_n	faith_n	holy_a	2,665	5	4.7089	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59540	A letter writ to an atheistical acquaintance upon his turning papist in his old age by a person of honour.	Shannon, Francis Boyle, Viscount, 1623-1699.	1691 (1691)	Wing S2964; ESTC R38232	15,643	30

no new Article of Faith should be added to the old Apostolical Creed Yet the late pretended general Council of Trent added no less than twelve new Articles which was but a declaring that they esteem'd the Apostles Creed defective and light by twelve Grains or else surely they would never have added that Number to make it weight as they thought and pretended to do by which that Council does in effect declare themselves to be more knowing in what is necessary to true Faith than the first four General Councils and the very Holy inspir'd Apostles themselves And this that Council says but with great impudence and falseness is the true old Catholick and Apostolick Faith without which no Man can be saved for 't is the very words of Pius the Fourth's Creed This is indeed a princely Doctrin fit for such a princely Pope of whom I must beg leave or else I shall be so bold as to take it to let slip a Lease of Popes and four General Councils against his twelve new Articles of Faith The First Pope shall be Pius the Second against Pius the Fourth for this Pius the Second confesseth that before the Time of the Nicene Council little regard was had of the Roman Church which is a plain contradiction to Pope Pius the Fourth and all Popes since that she is the Mother of all the Churches for sure all the Churches did know the Duty they owed their Mother so well as not to have neglected the paying it if they had believ'd it truly due to her but it appears by their not paying they esteem'd it not truly due My Second Pope is Gregory the Great whose Character is That he was the worst Bishop that ever went before him and the best that ever came after him sure it cannot be upon the Account of upholding or inlarging the Power of the Court of Rome for I am very confident and I believe my Confidence is grounded upon this good Reason that had Pope Gregory liv'd in the Time of Pope Pius the Fourth and had been assur'd that he had taken upon him to add twelve new Articles to the old Apostolical Creed he would have said the very same of him as he did of John the Patriarch of Constantinople when he was told he had taken upon him the Title of Universal Patriarch or Bishop That whosoever should usurp to himself that Title was a forerunner of Anti Christ And for his part he pretended to no other Title than that of being a Servant to the Servants of God tho' he was not only then Bishop of but Resident in Rome But Pope Boniface who soon after succeeded him in the Papacy tho' he had a less humble Christian Mind yet he had a much higher Papal Spirit for he presently chang'd that Note and swallowd greedily that sweet tempting Bit of Universal Bishop choosing rather the great Power of being the Head and Master of all the Bishops on Earth than the humble Character of being Servant to the Servants of the great God of Heaven By which he shewed the Pride of a bad Pope but not at all the Humility of a good Christian by esteeming the Office of a Pope more perfect freedom than that of God's Service But this Title of Universal Bishop is attended with such great Dignity and accompanied with such a large Revenue that all Pope Boniface's Successors would never since abandon that proud Usurpation for tho' the doing it may be a Sin yet that 's nothing to the Pope for he that has Power to forgive other Mens Sins may easily absolve himself of his own and indeed I believe he has as full Power to pardon his own Sins as much as any others But now to return to the Point I was about this Pope Gregory concurr'd in his Opinion with the first four General Councils that no new Articles of Faith were to be admitted but what were professed by them And in his giving an account of his Faith as the Custom was for every Pope upon the Advancement to his Papal Dignity he speaks of the first four General Councils in so high a Stile as he professed to receive and reverence them as the four Books of the Holy Gospel How vastly differing was the Faith of this Pope Gregory from that of Pope Pius the Fourth and the now Roman Church who tho' we Protestants embrace all the Doctrins of our Saviour contain'd in the Apostles Creed and confirmed by the first four General Councils yet the Church of Rome will not allow that the Performance of these with a strict vertuous Life can afford us so much as a Possibility of Salvation To which unchristian and uncharitable Doctrin of theirs I shall only answer That the Papists by this plainly shew that they forget that Charity is an essential Mark of true Christianity and what the Apostle saith of particular Christians is as true of whole Churches That tho' they have all Faith yet if they have no Charity they are nothing The third Pope I shall here produce is Pelagius who being elected to the Papacy was demanded if he held the Definitions of the Council of Chalcedon which contain'd that of Nice Constantinople and the Ephesine Creed To which he made answer in a Letter which is in the Body of the Canon Law that he received the Definitions of the first four General Councils concerning the Catholick Faith and then beginning to rehearse his Creed as the fashion was upon being made Pope he repeated the Apostles Creed This is my Faith said he and the Hope that is in me by the Gift of God's Mercy of what St. Peter commands us to be ready to answer every one who asketh us a Reason and an Account of it Of which I am sure the Trentonian Fathers with their twelve new additional Articles can give no good Account out of Scripture because there 's not a word mention'd of them in it Therefore I shall conclude with St. Austin Since the Just live by Faith the greater care must be taken that Faith be not corrupted and then adds Now the Catholick Faith is made known to the faithful in the Apostles Creed which plainly argues that since the Trent Articles are in no part of the Apostles Creed or in God's Word they can be no part of the Catholick Faith And now to conclude this Point I shall leave it to the Popes for a Memorandum the Example of their Brother Pope Honorius who was condemned by two Councils as an Heretick and also anathematized by Pope Leo the Second And pray why was this great Scandal and heavy Punishment laid upon his Holiness the reason Pope Leo tells us was because he consented to violate the Rule of Apostolical Tradition meaning as it was contain'd in the Apostles Creed And surely if declaring a Defect in this Creed be a Violation of it then certainly nothing can be more plain than that Pope Pius the Fourth and the Council of Trent have defiled the Apostolical Creed for they have declared