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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	believe_v	faith_n	word_n	3,386	5	4.6780	4	true

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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

to those seuerall spirits which our Lord imparts to seueral persons For though any man may be good in any lawfull state of life but especially in some holy Order of Religion yet because men are not only of seuerall constitutions in body but of as seuerall dispositions also in minde and that some are apter for contemplation others for a more actiue life some for corporall austerities others for mentall reflections and mortifications some for catechising preaching and cōfessing others for silence and recollectiō Vt omnis spiritus laudent Dominum it was most agreable to the sweete prouidence of Almighty God to inspire his eminēt seruants with seuerall spirits who might erect seuerall Orders at seuerall times which seuerall natures might affect and so apply themselues to God both more cheerfully more fruitfully therein especially if they conserue that spirit with which the Order was first indued And as wel wisely might Caluin haue cōfest a differēce of Religion amongst thēselues because some men weare gownes others cloakes as to haue argued a disuniō amongst our Religious men because of their differēce in habit or diet either frō other Orders or else from secular people I heare them also make a third obiectiō against our vnity in points of faith in regard of the difference betweene our learned and vnlearned men for in consequence thereof they say that some one of vs belieues incomparably more then an other For the clearing of this point I will open a certaine distinction the subiect whereof they are wont to lay to our chardge as a crime but if they lend me a litle patience the same will serue them for a light to let them see that thēselues are out of the way This distinction is of Explicite and Implicite faith A man is sayd to haue Explicite faith of any Article or doctrine when he hath heard it particularly propounded to him and hath some particular knowledge thereof and giues particular assent thereunto But as for Implicite faith of any Article or doctrine a man is then sayd to haue it when he belieues that concerning it which the Church teaches them explicitly who are capable thereof although for his owne part he haue not perhaps so much as heard of it in particular or if he did he hath forgot it or if he remember it he hath not capacity inough to apprehend or vnderstand it But howsoeuer as I sayd he is resolued to belieue both of that and all things else as the Church teaches wil giue an Explicite consent to it whē he shal be informed hereof be made ab●e to vnderstand it hath this firme resolutiō that he will neuer hold he cōtrary either of that or of any other thing which they Church shal require him to belieue This I say is our doctrine concerning Explicite and Implicite faith and I dare confidently affirme that whosoeuer considers the same indifferently and with a resolution to receaue satisfaction if there be cause and not to be still cauilling whether there because or noe will confesse that not only the doctrine of Explicite and Implicite faith doth not only not impeach our vnity in beliefe in regard that some mē belieue some things more Explicitely ●hen others do but that if it were possible to abo●ish this doctrine which indeed it is impossible to do because it is rather deliuered vs by the voice of nature it selfe which hath ordained a different capacity in the mindes of men it would be wholly impossible to maintaine any Church in any vnity of faith at all For example will any man amōgst them be so absurd as to cōceaue that any plough man or Trades man or silly Woman doth belieue the same things Explicitely concerning Originall sinne or the relation which runnes betweene free will and grace and a hundred other questions of this nature which may be Explicitly belieued by some principall Doctour of diuinity amōgst them who haue particular studied these questions And if they confesse they cannot will they be content that we shall inferre thereby that there is no vnity of faith maintained amongst them Infallibly they will not and therefore it is but reason that they measure as they would be measured to and that they acknowledge that if dissension in point of faith could depend vpon the Explicitenesse or Implicitenesse of a mans belieuing seuerall doctrines there would be in effect as many seuerall faithes amongst vnlearned Christians as there are seuerall capacities For as much as we can hardly finde two such men whereof the one belieues iust as much Explicitely and no more then the other doth because the notice and the attention and the capacity and the memory and the profession is euer in effect more or lesse in one then in another and according to the more or lesse of these circumstance will the Articles Explicitely beleiued be either more or lesse The truth concerning this particular holds not only in the Catholicke Church but in all congregations which professe any Religion whatsoeuer consisting of seuerall Articles parts They who are learned and haue eminent endowments of nature and apply themselues with particular industry must euer belieue Explicitely more points of their Religion whatsoeuer it be and those others who are of contraries qualities must belieue Explicitely fewer points And this is also clear that the more points of any Religion which a man belieues Explicitely the fewer doth the leaue himselfe to belieue Implicitely and so on the contrary side the more he belieues Implicitely he reaches so much the fewer with an Explicite faith He may must belieue all the Articles and Doctrines of his Religion with a true entire most certaine and supernatural faith but that he should belieue them all with an Explicite faith is neither necessary nor possible But by belieuing as much as he can with an Explicite faith and what he can not with an Implicite a Cardinal Bellarmine and a Collier nay the simplest Catholicke woman in the whole world and the most glorious Mother of God if she liued still on earth should be absolutely fully of the selfe same Religion faith wi●h one another So that the sw●rd of our aduersaries prooues a buckler to vs and that obiection which they make to disproue our vnity in faith vnder which they would both shelter their weaknes when we iustly obiect their departure from the Church against thē also authorize their malice when they haue a minde to cast the scandall of affected ignorance vpon vs prooues a foundation to vs of that truth which shewes how our vnity is made perfect These are the three obiections which Protestants are wont to make against our vnity in point of faith And now there remaines an allegation or argumt wherby they procure to defend themselues against our obiectiō that they want vnity amongst themselues For in vertue hereof they affirme that they ought not to be held in disunion either with the Fathers of the primitiue Church

or which the Lutherans or such other fellow ghospellers of theirs at this day or indeed euen with vs Catholickes if things as they say may be considered with moderation and all this they take to be secured by distinguishing points of faith into Fundamentall and not Fundamentall and then by saying that they agree both with the Fathers and Lutheranes and sometimes of their curtesie euen with vs in all fundamentall points of faith and that they differ but in points not fūdamentall It is a matter of great momēt that this particular conceit be carefully sifted and discouered and therefore I wil aske leaue that the next Chapter may be spent about it That Protestants haue no reason in alleadging the distinction of fundamentall not fundamētall points or faith as intending to prooue thereby that they are in vnity with the Fathers of the Primitiue Church of their fellow Brethren the Lutherans yea and some times with Catholickes at this day CHAPTER VIII BOth Luther and Caluin their next disciples yea and many Protestants also of these dayes haue familiarly in their sermons and no lesse frequētly in their bookes taken liberty with euery pennefull of incke to dash as it were damnation into our eyes and directly to affirme that they departed frō the Communion of the Church of Rome because forsooth they found it to be the seate of Antichrist the Synagogue of Satan the very Center of superstition and Idolatry and finally that bloody tyrant which exercised all immaginable cruelty against the Saints of God for many ages and which poisoned the world with false prophanes doctrines of extreme dishonour vnto Almighty God And indeede with what collour could certaine single base and filthie men haue presumed to depart frō the visible Catholicke Church of Christ our Lord and to erect their conuenticles as they did if they had not ar least professed that they could not finde saluation there For if they had said that they might haue found it there they could not so much as haue pretended to iustifie their departure from thence But yet neuerthelesse now that many moderne Protestants haue beene taught by time that the straits into which they fall are great by protesting against our saluatiō in that kind they haue been content now and then to desire better quarter at our hands and to affirme that the differences betweene them and vs concerne not the fundamentall points of faith but only such as are not fundamentall that therefore for their parts they hold we may be saued if we leade good liues in our Religion and that they desire the like attestation of vs for them and thas it is but tyranny and cruelty in the Catholicke Romane Church which keepes from allowing it since vpon the matter the Religions of vs both are the same the Churches in effect the same And this is that which lightens as they thinke our chardge of them and still keepes theirs heauy vpon vs as being vncharitable in not allowing them saluation This discourse of theirs and their standing so much vpon fundamentall points of faith in the sense which they vse is a mere Chimera but it is frequented by them through a high kind of craft For though it be most true that some doctrines are in themselues of farre more importance then some others because the knowledge thereof may be necessary for the performance of some duty which is required at our hands or else because they may containe the very heads and first grounds of Christianity more then others doe and therefore do exact a more explicite beliefe at the hands of Christians and consequently may be accounted in some respects more fundamentall yet so on the other side there is no doctrine at all concerning Religiō the beliefe whereof is not fundamentall to my saluation if the Catholicke Church which is the spouse of Christ our Lord propound and commande me to belieue it For there is no errour in faith which may not be made damnable by the manner of holding it when it is done so obstinately as that in defence thereof a man denies the authority of the Catholicke Church This is vnanswereably prooued by the meere Catalogues of heresies which haue been made by seuerall Fathers of the primitiue Church and especially by S. Austin in his treatise ad Quod vult Deū which I haue toucht before and which I earnestly exhort my reader to peruse at large For therein he noteth diuerse which consist but of single erroneous doctrines and they of litle importance in themselues as was declared in a former chapter But yet for as much as they were obstinately imbraced they were there declared to be so fundamentall as that he was noe Christian Catholicke who belieued any one of them yea or who should afterward belieue any other which might chaunce to be condemned by the Catholicke Church Looke backe vpon the example of S. Cyprian in the 6. chapter for there you will find that the selfe same doctrine of Rebaptization which was not fundamētall to him in regard that the Church had not then defined it the same I say was fundamentall afterward to the Donatistes and made them Heretickes because then it was defined and yet still maintained by them Looke backe to see in the same place what the nature of true faith is which is not only that it be absolutely entire in itselfe but that the meanes of propounding the Articles thereof be also both certaine and absolutely infallible or else there will be no faith at all See also in the same Chapter where the forme and spirit of heresie is found to consist in the pride and disobedience wherewith any doctrine or discipline of the Church is disobeyed and then withall cast an eye vpon that which you may find in the fifte Chapter of this discourse about the iudgment which is pronounced there both by Scriptures Fathers about the vnsaueablenes of any soule which is guilty of the least heresie or schisme and separation from the one and only true Church of Christ our Lord. For by this meanes it will appeare most euidently that the distinction of Faith into Fundamentall and not Fundamentall points to the purpose of permitting it in a mans liberty to leaue any one of them vnbelieued wirhout preiudice to saluation is both friuolous dangerous and vtterly false and so I shall be excused frō growing into length by making vnnecessary repetitions which I am most carefull to auoid But in the meane time I should be glad to know of the authours of this distinctiō what points of their faith which are controuerted eitheir betweene them or vs or betweene the Lutherans and them are fundamentall and which are not fundamentall The very nature of the words seeme to shewe that a fundamentall point of faith is such an one as is most necessarily to be belieued and that whosoeuer belieues it not cannot be saued And that so also on the other side a man may take his liberty either to belieue as he

haeretici c. De fide Symb cap. 10. both Heretickes Schismatickes are wont to call their congregations by the name of Churches Heretickes violate Fayth by belieuing false things of God and Schismatickes though they belieue the same things with vs doe yet fly from fraternall Charity by their wicked diuisions And therefore neither doth the Hereticke belong to the Catholicke Church because he loueth not God nor the Schismaticke because he loueth not his neighbour For how saith these Sainte elwhere shall the Schismaticke be esteemed to be in Charity with his neighbour who is out of Charity or Communion with the whole body of Christ which is his Church Epist ad Dam. Saint Hierome writing to Pope Damasus saith not only of the Catholicke Church indifinitely but denoting that to be the Romane that that Church is the Arke out of which whosoeuer liueth shal be drowned in the deluge and that that Church is the house out of which whosoeuer should eate the lambe were a prophane person Lactantius also sayth thus Lib. 4. cap. 30. Sola Ecclesia Catholica est c. It is the Catholicke Church alone which preserues the true worship of God this is the fountaine of truth this the house of faith this the Temple of God if any man either enter not into it or depart out of it Ibid. he shall be depriued of the hope of saluation and eternall life No man must flatter himselfe with an obstinate kind of contention for the questions here about saluation and life which if it be not watchfully and diligently prouided for it will be extinct and lost Saint Fulgentius hath this dreadfull saying wherewith I will conclude this point Firmissimè tene c. be most firmely persuaded and haue not doubt at all but that euery Hereticke or Schismaticke baptised in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost if withall he be not a member of the Catholicke Church can by no meanes be saued how great Almes soeuer he shall giue yea and though he should shed his bloode for the name of Christ For so long as the sinne either of Heresie or Schisme which drawes men downe to death shall remaine in any man neither Baptisme nor Almes nor death endured for the name of Christ can be of any benefit towards his saluation who houlds not fast the vnity of the Catholicke Church And now by this we see what the holy Scriptures and what the Fathers of the most primitiue time affirme concerning the vnsaueablenesse of any man who is not a member of that Church which formerly hath beene so cleerely proued to be but One Nor will I so much distrust either the attentiō or discretiō of my reader as to thinke that I neede presse this point any further Soe that now in the next place it will only remaine to be considered and resolued whether or no both the Catholickes the Protestāts cā be truly said to be parts mēbers of this One and the selfe same Church for if they can not the case in question is already iudged and there will be no colour of reason why either of vs should hereafter be charged with want of Charity for affirming that the other is not saueable without repentance of his Religion CHAPTER VI. That both Catholickes and Protestants can not possibly be accounted to be of one and the same Religion Fayth and Church HItherto I haue insisted vpō the former part of this maine discourse wherein I vndertooke to shew and doe conceaue my selfe to haue cōplyed with my word that there is but one true Religion one true Church out of which there is no saluation It will now remaine that I prooue the second part of my vndertaking which is that both the Catholickes Protestāts can by noe meanes account themselues to be professours of that one true Religion and obedient Children to that one true Church whichsoeuer be that true Church by the addresse cōduct wherof men may hope to saue their soules For cleare demonstration whereof it will be fit in the first place to shew what that is which makes a diuersity in Religion and without which men may still be of the same Religlon though there be difference of opinion betweene them The very name of a Christian Religiō whereby Almighty God is to be worshiped implyes a doctrine which must be beleiued Sacraments which must be receaued discipline which must be embraced Prelates or Gouernours which must be obeyed therefore that which make a Religiō to be entire is the beliefe of the same doctrine and the participating of the same Sacraments and obedience to the same discipline and Prelates or Gouernours so farre as men doe not obstinately reiect any part thereof or refuse to submit thereunto Whosoeuer doth this and cōformes his interiour by way of beliefe to the same doctrine and Sacramēts and his exteriour by way of obedience to the sayd Prelates and discipline may iustly be held to be one of the same Religion and whosoeuer refuseth to do this fayles of that But so also on the other side whensoeuer the Church hath not decided propounded and commaunded a doctrine to be belieued by her children and hath not enioyned such a part of discipline to be embraced a man so that he commit no scandall in the manner of it may varie both in the one and in the other from other men and may thinke and do as he sees cause without offending the vnity of Church or incurring thereby the crime either of heresie or schisme as I shall shew more at large afterwards vpon an other occasion It must therefore be considered whether Catholicks and Protestants be of one Church or not or rather it is to be seene for indeed in this case men haue not so much neede of their wits as of their eyes for the resoluing of the question But yet still to the end that euen the weakest stomackes may be made strong inough to digest that morsell which is coming toward it I will shew by seuerall arguments that we are farre from all possibility of passing for professours of the same Religion for members of the same Church so longe as we continue as we are For who perceaues not at the first sight that we resolutely differ from one another in the prime and maine points of Christian Religion We embrace not all the same Scriptures we differ about no fewer then fiue Sacraments of seauen which Catholickes belieue with all reuerence and they reiect withall contēpt Yea and euen concerning those two in the receiuing whereof we both agree namely the Sacrament Baptisme of the Cōmunion there are so many differences and debates amongst vs about the necessity of of the one and the reall presence of our Lord in the other that vpon the matter we can be thought but to agree in words We differ about the authority of all traditiōs vnwrittē which is the very foūdation of our

sees cause or not to belieue any doctrine which is not fundamentall without incuring the sentence of damnation Vpon this it followes that there is nothing in all Christian Religion which according to their groundes it imports a man more exactly to learne then what is fundamentall and what not nor which it more imports the Doctours and guides of the Protestant Church to make knowne to all that people which they pretend to guide in the way of saluation And yet neuerthelesse there is absolutely no one thing which hath beene so frequently importunately desired as that they would giue in some exact list or Catalogue of all and the only fundamentall points of faith and yet is there no one thing wherein we are so litle satisfied and which vpon the matter they doe so absolutely refuse And yet as hath beene here expressed if according to their groundes a man should faile of belieueing any one fundamental point of faith by his not knowing ●hrough their fault that the point which he belieued not was fundamentall he must be sure to perish and that for euer But the Protestants are wise inough in their owne waye and well they know what they do in order to their owne ends both when they frame the distinction of fundamentall and not fundamētall points of faith and when also they refuse to giue in a Catalogue of which is which For by making first the distinction and then by concealing the particulars contained vnder the branches thereof they saue themselues harmeles amongst ignorant people from being cōuinced to be of a different Communion and Religion both from the Fathers of the primitiue Church on the one side and from their fellow sectaries of this age on the other Whereby they gaine a kind of reputation with their vulgar auditours and readers as if th●y maintained a sufficiency of vnity with both Whereas if either they framed not the distinction of fundamentall at all or else would clearly let men know which points alone were fundamentall then this would followe That whensoeuer we should conuince them of any particular doctrine which is denied by them and which yet was belieued by the ancient Fathers they would be obliged to professe that either that point was not fundamentall which would disable them from rayling at vs for belieuing the same or else that the Fathers were of a differēt Religion in fundamentall points from them and that in their opinion those very Fathers could not be saued which would put them to much preiudice another way And so vpon the same reason they would also either be forced to renounce the cōmunion of the Lutherās if they were found to differ from thē in fundamentall points of faith or else to avowe expresly that those points which they belieued differently from them were not fundamentall which would be of no lesse dāger disreputatiō to thē But now when we vrge them for example sake with the doctrine of praying to Saints of prayer for the dead or the like out of the ancient Fathers that once we bring them from denying via facti that the Fathers taught that doctrine which yet they will be sure to confesse as cautelously as they can they then tell vs streight that those Fathers were but men and had their errours We aske them then if those errours depriue them of saluation They say noe because those points forsooth were not fundamentall and thus as hath bene said they will seeme to keepe a kinde of quarter with the Fathers In the selfe same manner when we vrge them in the name of Lutherans with the Reall Presence of of the body of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar or with their casting the Epistle of S. Iames and diuerse others out of the Canon of holy Scripture by their forbearing to avowe and declare that these points of Religion are fundamentall they goe inuisible to the eyes of simple people and still make a shift to seeme to be in vnity with the Lutherans when yet the world knowes and we haue seene that Luther himselfe declared them directly to be heretickes Not only doth this distinction of their doctrines into fundamentall and not fundamentall saue their credits amongst weake mē by making them belieue that they ioyne in vnity of faith both with the Fathers of the primitiue Church and Lutherans but they enable themselues also thereby to affirme with some very litle shewe of colour though it haue no truth at all that they haue had a continuall visible Church in all the ages since Christ our Lord without being so easily detected to the contrary And their way is this When they are prest by vs to shew a continuall visible Church of their Religion which they know well inough that they are not able to produce those aduersaryes of ours who are of any ingenuity at all are wont clearely to confesse that indeede they haue had no continuall visible Church But so also they declare that there is no necessity at all that the Church must haue beene continually visible to the eyes of men The rest who see how absurde this doctrine is say that indeede there must alwayes haue bene a visible Church but then againe they subdiuide themselues in that opinion For some fewe of them affirme when they are vrged by vs to shewe that visible Church of theirs that theirs and ours do make but one true Church and so in shewing the visibity of ours they doe withall as they say shewe their owne to haue beene visible And these men treade in this way because they well know that no other Church but ours can indeed be shewed to haue beene visible through all ages since Christ our Lord. But a third sort of men there is who pretend to shewe a Church distinct from ours which hath continually been visible in the profession and practise of the Protestant Religion Wherein Fox hath shewed the way to the gees who follow him For in fine when they are put to name their particular professours of former ages they doe but muster vp those seuerall single false doctrines which haue been held by other heretickes by retayle during tenne or twelue ages since Christ our Lord many of which Doctrines together themselues doe now professe in grosse For what other men of former times did they euer or can they euer name as men of their Religion but such as belieued some one or two of those hereticall doctrines which now themselues embrace and wherein they are contrary to vs But by that reason our aduersaries might say as well that both they and we yea and all those others also are of one and the same Religion because we all agree together in many points though we differ in many more and though we be excommu●i●ated by one an other And if their belief may be examined whom our aduersaries cite out of former times as men to whose communion in Religiō they now lay claime it will be found as hath aboundantly beene prooued that