Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	open_v	seal_n	seal_v	1,844	5	9.6479	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A14436	The waie home to Christ and truth leadinge from Antichrist and errour, made and set furth in the Latine tongue, by that famous and great clearke Vincent, French man borne, aboue .xi. hundred yeres paste, for the comforte of all true Christian men, against the most pernitious and detestable crafte of heretikes, which in his tyme by all subtell wayes, deuised to obscure and deface the doctrine and religion of the vniuersall churche. And now the same worke is englished, and by the Quenes highnes authorised to be sette furthe for the reliefe fo diuers Englishe menne, which yet stande in doubte, whether they may goe to heauen in the peace and vnitie of Christes vniuersall churche, or to hell in the dissention and confusion of heretikes; Pro catholicae fidei antiquitate libellus. English	Vincent, of Lérins, Saint, d. ca. 450.; Proctor, John, 1521?-1584.	1554 (1554)	STC 24754; ESTC S104650	58,039	228

who in his seconde booke vnto Themperoure Gratian deploringe and lamentinge the cruell bitternes of that tyme writeth in thys wyse O almightie god we haue now sufficientlie purged and cleansed the slaughter of thy confessours the murder of thy ministers the wickednes of soo great impietie with our bloude and with oure destruction Thou hast now sufficiently declared that they cannot be saued whiche haue uiolated broken thy catholike faith Likewise in the thirde booke of the same worke Let us obserue therfore saith S. Ambrose the preceptes of thelders let us beware through presūptuous temeritie to uiolate the seales of oure inheritaunce The fast sealed booke of the prophet nor thi seniours nor the powers nor the Angelles ne Archaungelles durste unseale To Christ onely was the prerogatiue reserued to open the same The boke of Apostolike fathers who of us dare open being sealed by so many confessours and halowed with the bloud of so many godlie martyrs They were holie confessours and martyrs howe maie we dense their faithe whose uictorie we commende Yea playnelye holye S. Ambrose we commende and greatlye alowe thē For who is so mad who so euyl disposed that wisheth not to trace and folowe their steppes all if he cannot ouertake them whom no violence no crueltie no kinde of death coulde terrifie whome no allurementes of worldlie felicitie no hope of life no desire of libertie no flatterie of frendshippe coulde withhold from the defense of the faieth whiche their auncetours had Whom I say our heauenly lord for their cōstancie in the aūcient faieth iudged worthie by whō his diuine maiestie mighte restore his churches beinge greuouslie mangled reuiue and quicken vp the spirites of well disposed people merueilouslye discomforted set vp and restore againe the holye ordre of hys priesthood beinge trode vnder foote and by whom finally his inscrutable prouidence mought with the bloude of so innocente martyrs cleanse the people being pitiouslye defiled with the stinkinge frothe of daungerous heresies And with the plentifull teares of so godlye by shoppes washe cleane awaye and vtterly deface suche newefangled not properly writīges but rather wrestinges of well written verities And so reuoke almoost the whole worlde frome pestilent heresies vnto the most certaine trueth of hys worde from altering noueltie vnto the sounde and constante auncientie from newetangled fantasies vnto the approued iudgment of his catholike Churche But in this heauenly constācie this is to be noted and earnestlie to be considered of vs that in the auncientie of the Church they defēded nat any one singular part but the catholyke that is to witte the vniuersal faith vniuersallie receiued Neither is it leefull to thinke that suche and so many sage and learned fathers would with suche constauncie affirme maintaine and defende the dreaines of one or two persones A rule or would for the fantasticall conspiracie as it were of one smale prouince cōtende euen to deathe But they imbracinge and faithfullye ensuing the decrees censures and definitions of all the ministers of the holye Churche and of the apostolike veritie had rather to deliuer their bodies vnto moost cruell tourmentes then to be deliuered from the auncient beliefe rather to be ouerthrowen by their enemies to death thē to geue ouer their catholike faith whereby they shoulde lose the hope of life at Goddes handes Thus losing al to wyn Christ suffering themselues willingly to be ouercome of al that truth might ouercome by them they haue pourchaced vnto theire name suche inestunable glorie that they be moost rightlye reputed and accompted not onlye confessors but the princes and cheife heades of all other confessors and Martyrs Wherefore this diuine and heauēly example of these blessed fathers ought to be a special president vnto all singular Catholike mē worthie in cōtinual meditation to be recorded who in maner of the seuenfolde candelsticke braushing which the seuēfold light of the heauenly spirit haue foreshowen vnto all their posteritee a verye manifest and cleare forme howe hereafter in al vprores of vaine errours the vnaduised temeritie of fantasticall innouation ought to be repressed vtterly to be suppressed by the authoritie of holy An tiquitie and by the force of the vniuersal consent of Christ his churche This hath not been straunge amonges the fathers of the Churche For euermore the holyer the better disposed any haue been the more ernest prompt and ready he hath been alwayes to withstand newe inuentions Examples hereof are plentie But to auoide tediousnes I wyll passe ouer many only recite one whereby it may be euident vnto all with howe great care studie and contention the blessed succession of the Apostles haue at all tymes defended the integritie of the religion once allowed receyued by the consent of the vniuersall Churche Agrippinus So it was therefore that Agrippinus bishop of Carthage first of all other thought good to be rebaptised contrary to the canon and rule lefte by the Apostles contrarye to the custome or order of the elders contrary to the general consent of the Clergie Which presumption of his raysed vp so much mischiefe that therby was geuen not onelye matter of factious sacrylege to Heretikes but also to certayne catholikes occasion of errour Howe be it on euerye syde eche good man withstod it earnestly Stephen But Stephen of honourable memorie then byshoppe of Rome with certayne other godlye men most vehementlye of all other did resist that fantasye of Agrippinus And in an Epistle sent vnto Affrike vpon that occasion he ordeyned that nothinge ought to be altred or renewed but all thinges to be obserued and kept as thei were by tradition left For that holy and prudent father well perceyued that ther was not the true religion where all thinges are not receyued in lyke faythe of the children as they were lefte of the fathers where we be not led by religion but we lede religion whether we like And this is the propertie of christen sobrutie and grauitie not to deuise new sectes and fashions for his posteritie but with all his power to obserue the old and holsome lawes receyued of antiquitie What was then the ende of that busines raysed by Agrippinus Forsoth the vsuall and tofore obserued the auncient custome was reteyned the newe deuise vtterly refused But ye wyll say perchaunce Note that suche men lacke power and learninge to defende theyr new deuised opinions Yea they were so excellent in wit so stowing in eloquence and so many in numbre agayne they had so greate likelyhode of trueth and brought so many sentences of the scriptures for their purpose but wrongfully vnderstanded that assuredlye they coulde by no meanes haue been ouermated had not their matters quailed in them selues as moost vntrue and contrarye to the will of God To be shorte what shall I saye of the decrees passed in the counsell kepte by certain in Affrica Howe did God fauour the same Were not all thynges therein done accōpted as dreames abolyshed as fables abrogated and vtterlye