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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	authority_n	church_n	faith_n	2,630	5	5.8125	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58738	Several weighty considerations humbly recommended to the serious perusal of all, but more especially to the Roman Catholicks of England to which is prefix'd, An epistle from one who was lately of that communion to Dr. Stillingfleet, Dean of St. Pauls, declaring the occasion of the following discourse.	T. S. Epistle from a late Roman Catholick to the Very Reverend Dr. Edward Stillingfleet, Dean of St. Paul's.; Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1679 (1679)	Wing S183; ESTC R16533	49,205	54

precede the Faithful themselves and if the Faithful then must it have Preheminence before the Church it self which is nothing else but the Congregation of the Faithful Thus the Church of Rome will evidently fall short of that Prerogative she so presumptuously arrogates of being both Before and Above the Scripture Again a Rule consisting in Indivisibili as we say i. e. being of that Nature that it is not to be inlarged or diminished how guilty are they who either make Additions to or Substractions from it Both which the Roman Church practiseth as de facio will be manifest in the Sequele of this small Tract In Fine they hold the Word of God written to be that one infallible entire Rule whereby all men Learned and Unlearned may in all necessary and fundamental Points of Faith and Manners be sufficiently instructed what is to be embraced for True and Good That it is a Rule most Certain Plain Universal Impartial not addicted to one Side more than another which neither Pope Conclave nor Councel can so much as pretend to of Power and Authority able to convince the Consciences of such as use it and from which there can be no Appeal And the only Cause why any miss of the True Faith is because they do not sincerely seek and find out this infallible Rule or having found it will not with an obedient Mind captivate their Understanding but have Access to it with Pride Curiosity Prejudice or some other unmortifyed Lust or Impediment More especially the Church of England besides that high Veneration that she her self hath for these sacred Books labours to confirm and root the same in the Hearts of her obedient Children by her Devout Practice For to omit the Frequent Laborious and Judicious Preaching and Expounding of them in this Church she hath so prudently disposed of her publick Liturgy that every day some Part and Portion of both Testaments is appointed to be read The whole Book of Psalms is gone through once a Moneth the Old Testament once and the New thrice every year with other most excellent Exercises of Piety at which even the Romanists themselves can take no just Exception and a very great Author affirms that a modern Pope would have approved the whole Service-Book had his Authority but been acknowledged which discreet Course cannot but afford much heavenly Instruction and Consolation to the constant Attenders on such Blessed Opportunities But what saith the Church of Rome all this while in this Business In her Tridentine Council Sess. 4. Can. 1. She expresly Decrees that unwritten Traditions are of equal Authority with the written Word that they are to be received with the same Reverence and Affection And Cardinal Hosius who was one who in the Popes Name presided at that Council defends that most Blasphemous Speech of Wolfangus Hermannus that the Scripture is of no more Authority than Esop's Fables but for the Churches and Popes Approbation lib. 3. de Authorit Script The Council of Basil would fain perswade us that the Churches Acts and Customs must be to us instead of the Scriptures Instar habeant Sacrarum Scripturarum for that the Scripture and Churches Customs both require the same Affection and Respect Indeed I find the Romish Doctors in nothing more fluent than in degrading and vilifying the Scriptures Our Country man Dr. Stapleton positively affirms that the Church hath Authority to put into the Number of Books of Scripture and to make Canonical the Writings of Hermes and Constitutions of Clemens two famous Counterfeits and that then they would have the same Authority which other Books have canonized by the Apostles themselves Some call them a Nose of Wax to be wrested any way Cardinal Cusanus blushes not to write that the Scriptures are fitted to the time and variously understood the sense thereof being one while this and another while that according as it pleases the Church to change her Judgment Some teach that the Scripture is not simply necessary that God gave it not to the People but to the Doctors and Pastors and that we must live more according to the Dictates of the Church than the Scripture Eckius the great Antagonist of Luther would make us believe that Christ never gave any Command to his Apostles to write any thing Which yet seems very odd when such an express Injunction was lay'd on S. John to write that mystical Book of the Apocalypse which certainly is not more conducing to the Churches Edification than our B. Saviour's Sermon on the Mount and the many other practical Discourses both of himself and his Disciples In a word the most ingenuous and civil among their Writers think they have pay'd all due Respect to Holy writ when they term it a Dumb Judge Dead Ink or Ink shaped into various Forms and Characters Notwithstanding which I humbly conceive that let an Indifferent Person open the Bible and the Canons of the Council of Trent together and he will receive at least as clear and full Satisfaction from the Bible as from the other unless we will impiously deny Almighty God the Faculty of expressing his holy Will and Pleasure as intelligibly as frail Men can theirs or without any shew of Reason affirm with a late Divine that Religion it self was never fully setled till that upstart Conventicle Conformable to the Sentiments are the Practices of that Church in keeping the Bible lock'd up in an Unknown Tongue from the Use of the Vulgar Clement the Eighth very strictly orders all Vulgar Translations to be put into the Index of Prohibited Books And in Italy and Spain and wherever the Inquisition hath the least Jurisdiction the very keeping of them is a Crime no less than Capital It is true where the Reformation hath got any footing Faculties are sometimes granted to read a Translation but clog'd with so many Proviso's and various Cautions and their Spiritual Guides give so small Encouragement to it that it seems rather a Trick to stop the Mouthes of their Adversaries when they Object the Prohibition of Reading Scripture than any real Intention of Promoting so Pious an Exercise among their Devotes Besides their other Forms of Devotion Rosaries or saying over the Beads after divers Methods our Ladies Office Prayers for the Dead Manuals the long Litanies of Saints hearing of Masses reading of Legends c. are in so great Vogue and take up so considerable a Time that I scarce see how any can be allotted for that contemned Employment of studying Gods Word which ought to be the Meditation of every good Christian Day and Night Indeed this neglect to say no worse of Holy Scripture is so notorious among and so peculiar to those of that Way and the Ignorance not only of the Laity but of divers of the Clergy in that kind of Learning especially is so gross that it would be a Work of Supererogation to attempt the proof of it Their Doctors generally pretending Translations of Scripture to be the cause of all Heresies

For either S. Peter named his Successor or he was chosen by the Clergy alone or else by the Clergy and People and then confirmed by the Emperour But now he is chosen by a pack of Cardinals a sort of Clergy altogether unheard of in primitive Ages all created by Popes themselves some in Favour to their Kindred others in Faction and to curry Kindness with some Christian Princes especially those of France and the House of Austria who alwayes have their Creatures very busie in the Conclave most of them as fit for Clergy-men as S. Peter was for a Courtier as my Lord of Hereford speaks in his Legacy a Spruce Delicate Effeminate Clergy and the World talks far worse things of them very fit persons for the Choice of S. Peters infallible Successor The truth is this boasted succession is so weak a support to the Roman Cause that their most confident Champions could never so much as pretend the very shadow of Divine Authority for it Alphonsus à Castro and others very frankly acknowledge it is not De fide a matter of Faith that this or that or the present Pope is S. Peter's Successor But of this more by and by Nor is there the least agreement in Ecclesiastical History concerning the Immediate Successor of S. Peter Some put Linus next some Clemens some Cletus And it is a most miserable Shift that Bellarmin is put to and below his great Wit to affirm the business may be thus Composed That S. Peter left his Episcopal Seat to Clement but Clement when S. Peter was dead out of his Humility would not ascend the Chair as long as Linus and Cletus were living who had been the Coadjuters of S. Peter in his Episcopal Function so Linus succeeded S. Peter Cletus to Linus and Clemens to Cletus But if S. Peter left his Chair to Clement how comes this Apostolical constitution to be abolished and why do not the Popes now design their Successors but leave a matter of so high Consequence to the factious Canvassing of the Haughty Ambitious Cardinals How durst Clement refuse the Charge intrusted to him by so great an Apostle and that only out of a Compliment A Man that duly ponders this Circumstance might very well conclude it to be a most remarkable Providence of God and intended for the humbling of that proud Church that when they come to make good their claim to that Exorbitant unlimited Authority they at this day Exercise in the Christian World they should stumble at the very Threshold as we say and fail in the very first name of their Vaunted Catalogue In a Word all things here are dark and in a Riddle and afford not sufficient matter even to ground an Implicit Faith upon But what shall we think of those long and frequent Vacations in that See for some years together and Schisms for 30 nay 70 years Which was a long Vacation indeed for it is Bellarmin's Rule An uncertain Pope is accounted for none at all Nay many and great Authors have put a Woman into the Succession many of their Bishops have been Hereticks and this makes another Interruption even Occult Heresie rendering the Pope ipso sacto none Let Cardinal Baronius a Man of undoubted Authority with them serve instead of a thousand Witnesses He treating of the year of our Lord 912 thus represents the wretched deformed Face of that Church How filthy a time was it when Whores bare all the sway at Rome At their pleasure Sees were changed Bishopricks disposed of and which is most horrible and scarce to be uttered their Gallants were thrust into the Seat of Peter We find no where any mention of Clergy choosing or giving Consent all Canons were put to silence the Pontifical Decrees were choaked Antient Traditions proscribed and all Sacred Rites extinguished Thus had Lust gotten every thing into its own hand Where did this Uninterrupted Succession sleep all this While Well near 200 years together saies the same Annalist did these monstrous abuses continue Certainly if Discontinuance of Time or Illegal Entry can marr a succession this of the Romish Church is sufficiently spoiled Benedict the 9th was a Boy of 10 years old John the 13th a Hectoring Lad not above 18. John the 11th was set up by that Infamous Strumpet Theodora and her Daughter Marozia by force of Arms deposed him John the 12th was Bastard to Sergius by Marozia and was violently intruded into the Popedome by his Mother It is not so much the wickedness of these Popes Lives as the manner of their Creation that we urge to invalidate the Succession Above 50 Popes were thus installed successively for those 200 years besides many other occasions frequently occurring in History wherein this applauded Succession hath been very notably disturbed To which if we adjoin the 30 Schisms wherein 2 and 3 Popes have been set up in opposition to one another the matter will be out of all Controversie One of these Schisms viz. that between Clement and Urban lasted for 70 years till the Duke of Savoy was Elected Pope by the Council of Basil to put a period to that fatal Tragedy And many of these Competitors had such Learned Advocates and Patrons that Bellarmin cannot assign which was the true Pope pudet haec opprobria vobis Et dici potuisse et non potuisse reselli Their Unity is no less bragg'd of than their Universality and Succession and with as little Justice for Unity without Truth and sincere Charity is but a Conspiracy or Confederation I find Revel 17. 13. that in the Kingdome of Anti-Christ they are of one mind and make War with the Lamb. And the Devils themselves in the possess'd person could unite into a Legion And if we a little better consider this pretended Roman Unity it will soon be discovered to be purely slavish and enforced an Unity of Fear more than of Affection a product of the Inquisition rather than of Charity Bellarmin seems to intimate as much They cannot think otherwise saith he because they have subjugated their sence to the sence of another meaning the Pope Nor yet is this their Unity let the Quality of it be what it will so compleat as they would make us believe How do the Jansenists and Jesuits at this day hug one another The large Order of the Dominicans look upon the Jesuits as no better then Semi-Pelagians in the Doctrine of Grace and Free Will and the Jesuits to requite them call them Calvinists The Seculars and Regulars how Unanimous they are appears by their continual Clashing And those who are throughly acquainted with their Customs may easily perceive that there are as many Sects and Factions in point of Opinion as there are Religious Orders in that Church and in point of Charity and Affection as many parties as there are Religious Houses But as for that real Unity which according to Dominie Bannes in 2. 2. q. 1. a. 10. consists in having one God and Christ for our King in being governed by the

Church That a Council kept by the Roman Bishop and those only who are subject to him excluding others is but a particular Council That a General Council may be celebrated though the Pope refuse to concurr by his Presence and Consent That All that meet in Councils ought to have free Liberty orderly to declare and Determin Maters in question That whatever must oblige as Divine ought to be confirmed by the Authority of Holy Scripture That no Councils are Legitimate where private Respects are managed under pretext of Faith and Religion That the Roman Bishop hath not that power which many flatterers attribute to him viz. That he alone is to Determine and Others only to Consult and Advise That a General Council is Superiour to the rest of the Patriarchs and also to the Roman Bishop That a General Council may be deficient and that de facto Councils lawfully assembled have erred And since they have failed and have contradicted one another as appears in the Second Council of Nice and that of Constance among many others the one Decreeing the Worship of Images the other prohibiting Communion in both Kinds against the express words of Scripture the Councils of Lateran in Deposing Kings the Council of Frankfort opposite to that of Nice in the Business of Images the Council of Florence against those of Basil and Constance in the point of the Pope's Superiority over a Council It is certain that Councils are to be Regulated and Examined by God's Word and to be Received or Rejected as Conformable to or Disagreeing from that And for this we have the Authority of the Great S. Augustin contra Maxim Arian l. 3. c. 14. Nec ego Nicenum c. Neither ought I to produce the Nicen nor Thou the Ariminum Council as having already prejudged or absolutely Determined the Cause beyond all Appeal For I am not bound up by the Authority of this nor Thou by the Decree of that but let us regard the Authority of the Holy Scripture witnesses not partial or appropriated to either party but common to both A speech worthy the Gravity Learning and Piety of S. Augustin As for the Councils of the Later Centuries they neither have been General nor hath either their Assimbling or Proceeding been Lawful and they have most Industriously thwarted the Canons of the most Pure and Antient Councils Their Assembling hath not been Legal in that the Modern Popes have Usurped the whole Right and Authority of Convocating Councils contrary to the Primitive Custom and Practice of the Church The first Nicene Council was called by Constantine the Great the first Constantinopolitan which is the second General Council by Theodosius that of Ephesus by Theodosius Junior that of Chalcedon by Martianus the fifth by Justinian c. All which are such evident Proofs that the Cardinals Cusanus Jacobatius and Zabarella confess that in the first Ages of the Church the Right of Calling Councils belonged to the Emperour Nor are Their Proceedings any better For the Popes admit no Assessours or Judges in Councils but their own Faction Men beforehand enslaved by a Solemn Oath which all Bishops of that Communion take at their Consecration to maintain the Regalia Petri all the Usurpations of that See The Pope is the only Authentick Judge in All matters Approving and Refusing whatever He pleases Their own Histories afford us Examples enough to confirm this I shall instance but in the Sleights and Wiles of the Late so much cryed up Trent-Council Wherein to make sure work on the Pope's side there were more Italian Bishops than of all the World beside And most ridiculously to dazle the eyes of the People some of these subscribe themselves Eastern Patriarchs as of Jerusalem c. and Others as if they were Greek Prelates Some had the Titles of Archbishops who had neither Church nor Diocess as Upsalensis and Armachanus who were Created on purpose to fill up the Number And when the Pope on a certain Occasion wanted Voices to sway the cause He sent a fresh supply of 40 Bishops newly made And this was part of that Leigerdemain which an Eminent French Bishop Claud Espenc one of those vvho sat in the Council calls the Great Helena which of late Ruled All at Trent in Ep. ad Tit. c. 1. All the Oriental and Greek Patriarchs and Bishops were Excluded None out of England Scotland Ireland Danemark Swedland few out of France and Spain fewer out of Germany it self were admitted When the Protestants required Audience they could not be hearken'd to upon any tolerable terms It was long before they could get a Safe-Conduct and when it was procured it was clogg'd with this Clause That it should belong to none but such as would Repent and Return to the Bosom of the Roman Church This Partiality and Jugling when the Princes of Europe saw they sent their Protestations against the Council as being Insufficient to Resorm Religion In Trying and Deciding Controversies they adhered more to Tradition than Scripture and pass'd nothing till the Pope with his Consistory had seen it at home and approved it and then he transmitted it to his Legats So that as One said the Holy Ghost was continually posted in Cloakbags between Rome and Trent Though by the way their own Doctors teach that the Assistance of the Holy Ghost is a personal Privilege and cannot be Delegated While the Divines were formally Disputing at Trent the Pope was as busie in Ingrossing Canons at Rome and sending them to the Council to be published Thus they proceeded sometimes by a wrong Rule sometimes by none at all In the 4th Session they Decree That none should give any other Exposition of Scripture than such as might agree with the Doctrine of the Church of Rome And yet this very Doctrine was the Thing questioned and the Scriptures were to have been the Touchstone to try it by Take this whole Affair in the Words of Andraeas Dudithius a Bishop in the Roman Church and an Eminent Member of this Council He thus writes in an Epistle to the Emperour Maximilian the 2d what good could be done in that Council where voices were taken by Number and not by Weight The Pope was able to set an 100 of his against every one of ours and if an 100 were not sufficient he could on a sudden have created a thousand to succour those that were ready to faint We might every day see hungry and needy Bishops and those for the most part Beardless Youngsters come in Flocks to Trent hired to give their Voice according to the Pope's humour unlearned indeed and foolish but of good Use to him for their Audaciousness and Impudency The Holy Ghost had nothing to do with that Conventicle All things were carried by Humane Policy which was wholly employed in Maintaining the Immoderate and indeed most Shameless Lordship and Domineering of the Pope From thence were Answers waited for as from the Oracles of Delphos or Dodona From thence the Holy Ghost who as