Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bishop_n	church_n	council_n	3,236	5	6.7056	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26998	The Protestant religion truely stated and justified by the late Reverend Mr. Richard Baxter ; prepared for the press some time before his death ; whereunto is added, by way of preface, some account of the learned author, by Mr. Danel Williams and Mr. Matthew Sylvester.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Williams, Daniel, 1643?-1716.; Sylvester, Matthew, 1636 or 7-1708.	1692 (1692)	Wing B1359; ESTC R1422	79,512	227

such thing as you falsly charge them with That the Church of Rome is not such a Church that is Is not the Vniversal Church indeed we not only say but think the contrary sitter for a man Drunk than Sober What is Rome all the World Is Abassia America Mesopotamia Muscovy Asia Thrace England Scotland Sweden Denmark no part of the World yea of the Christian World And is not the Christian World the Church Vniversal Reader here is a Controversy worthy the Wits Learning and Honesty of all the Famous Fathers and Doctors and Juglers of the Roman Catholick Church The Question is Which of the Rooms in the House is the whole House One saith that the Kitchin or the Cole-House or the House of Office is the whole House We Protestants say that no one Room is the whole but Hall Parlors Dining-Room and all the Chambers and Closets and Kitchin are the whole and if the Cole-House and House of Office will needs be parts we will not contend with them but we will never grant that they are either the whole or the best part Tho' by Fire and Stink they think to force us to it But the ancient Writers distinguish between the Catholick Church and a Catholick Church By the first is meant the whole Church By the second is meant such a particular Church as is not Schismatical but a true and sound part of the whole But what could these Self-Condemners say more against themselves than thus openly to confess that their Sect claimeth to be the whole Church and so Trayterously unchurcheth two or three parts of the Church of Christ and Damneth most Christians for not being Traytors to Christ as they To confute his base abuse of Scripture is needless and irksome The Tenth point accused That the Churches Vnity is not necessary in al● p●i●ts of Faith Ans This we verily hold for all that God hath revealed in Scripture to be believed are points of Faith if the Word be used intelligibly by these men But all the points of Genealogies Topography Chronology Prophecy in Scripture are revealed to be believed therefore they are points of Faith and if Unity in all these is necessary to the Unity of the Church then no Church on Earth hath Unity Certainly Rome hath not whose Commentators and Doctors disagree about many hundred Texts of Scripture and Sixtus 5th and Clemens 8th Popes about the very Translation of many hundred Texts These men must now say that we are not bound to believe all Gods Word or else they must confess that their Church hath not Unity That which Reformed Catholicks hold is 1. First points of Faith or revealed to be believed are some of them Essential to Christianity and of necessity to Salvation and some but Intergrals if not some Accidents The first all the True Church agreeth in The second not As who is Antichrist or Babylon or the Ten-Horned or Two-Horned Beast in the Revelations What is the Time Times and half a Time with an Hundred such But in general all believe that all Gods Word is true It might convince these men in that it was long before all the Churches received all the Canonical Books of Scripture and yet all received not all their Apocryphal Books And are these out of the Church Or are none of these Books to be believed The Eleventh Point accused That St. Peter was not Ordained by Christ the first Head or Chief among the Apostles and that among the Twelve none was greater or lesser than other Ans Meer Falsehood as undistinguisht The word Head is ambiguous this Writer hath a Head such as it is that other Heads much differ from Reformed Catholicks hold that Peter is called first in numbring them That he was by Christ in many instances preferred before others That he was an Eminent Speaker and worker of Miracles That all the Apostles were not Equal in parts and worth but some herein greater than other What was Judas no lesser than the rest that was a Thief and Traytor John was Eminently the Disciple whom Jesus loved But we hold 1. That as John was not made Lord or Ruler of the rest by being Loved more so Peter's Preheminence made him no Master or Ruler of the rest The twelve Apostles were chosen Relatively to the twelve Tribes Peter as Reuben was the first and denyed Christ and was called Satan with a Get behind me Mat. 16. as Reuben defiled his Fathers Bed But as Levi was the third so was James the first Sanctified Apostle And as Juda the fourth is called the Law-giver from whom the Scepter should not depart c. so John the fourth is the Disciple of Eminent Love and Love is the Everlasting Grace when Faith and Prophesie cease But Christ made no one of them Ruler of the rest Proved 1. No Text speaketh any such thing And the Headship of Governing Power would have been of such grand necessity to be known that Christ and his Apostles must needs have plainly and oft inculcated it 2. Peter never Exercised any such Power what mention is there of any Laws or Mandates of his to the other Apostles 3. The rest never sought to him for Laws or Orders 4. The Schism and Controversies of Christians were never decided by appealing to him as the Judge 5. When some at Corinth would have made him their Head and said I am of Cephas Paul reproveth them as carnal saying of all What are they but Ministers by whom ye believed 6. Paul reproveth him Gal. 2. 7. The Jewish Christians contend against him for Eating with Gentiles Act. 11. whom he satisfieth by proof from God and not by pleading his Supremacy 8. He never once claimed any such Power 9. Paul 1 Cor. 12. tells us of none in the Church greater than Apostles But the rest were Apostles as well as he 10. No such Article was ever put into the Churches Creed We grant that Christ did in instituting the Apostles Office institute a disparity of Ministers in his Church and this to be continued in the Ordinary continued part of their Works but not in the Extraordinary And we grant that in putting Peter first Christ intimated that among men of the same Office there may for Order sake be a Priority as the President of a Synod or Colledge or the Fore-man of a Jury or a Chief-Justice or the Speaker of a Parliament God is not the God of Confusion but of Order as in all the Churches If a Parish or an Independant Church have one grave Pastor with divers young Assistants that were but his Scholars nature will give him some awing Preheminence among them We are not against such a Primacy among Bishops or arch-Arch-Bishops But this is nothing to a Governing Office And if Peter had had such what 's that to the Pope of Rome The Twelfth Point accused That a Woman may be Head or Supreme Governess of the Church in all Causes as the late Queen Elizabeth was Ans A cheat by Confusion and Equivocation

The Church hath two sorts of Government One by the Word of God and the Keys called Ecclesiastical The other by the Sword called Princely or Magistratical We never had King or Queen that claimed the former and none but Enemies of Government deny the latter Queen Elizabeth and all our Kings since have publickly disclaimed the Priest by Office of Words Keys and Sacraments which maketh the Clergy Tryers and Judges what to Preach and whom to Baptize and receive to Church Communion absolve or Excommunicate But ask this Deceiver Must the Church have none to Govern by the Sword All Christians are the Church and so all Christian Princes are deposed because they are Christians Or must the Clergy have no such Government over them Yes the Pope say the Papal Canons he is Sword-bearer over the Clergy So you see what Church-power is come to But I trow few Papist Kings will grant that they have no Sword-Government over the Clergy lest every Priest be Master of their Houses Wives and Lives The King is no Physicain or Philosopher no Architect Shipwright Pilot c. but may he not be King and Ruler of all these He is no Clergy-man or Priest but the Ruler of the Clergy But they say it must not be in Causes Ecclesiastical Ans Causes Ecclesiastical have two sorts of Government in order to two Ends. As if one be accused for Preaching against God or Christ or the Life to come or for Perjury Adultery Murder c. Here the Bishops are Judges and the Church whether this man be Guilty in order to his Communion or Excommunication or admonition But the King and his Judges are to Judge whether he be Guilty and so whether to be Imprisoned Fined Banished c. so far as Causes of Religion or Church are to be punished by the Sword the King is Head or Governour and Judge who would think that a sort of men that deny this should have the Face to say that they are Loyal to Kings or any forcing Government Must Kings Burn or Kill as many Thousands at the Popes command as the Pope will call Hereticks and yet never have power to judge whether they are such and do deserve it O! how much worse than Hangmen would such men make all Kings and Magistrates Was not all the Christian World in a sad case then when the Pope was under the Arrian Goths and the Subject of a Foreign Arian must Rule all Kings and Kingdoms No man of Brains can be ignorant that Popedom or Prelacy do not always make men mortified Saints that oft have been scarce Men much less Christians nor that the Prince hath a great Power both in Choosing and Ruling the Clergy that are his Subjects It fell out happily that Theodorick the Arian and divers Spanish Arian Kings were an honest sort of men but sure they were very mighty Princes at Rome when one Subject of an Arrian Goth was Ruler of all the Kings and Souls on Earth de jure say our Deceivers And if the Turk should possess Rome as he doth C.P. all Kings and Nations must be subject to his Subject And what Power he hath over the four Patriarks of C.P. Alexandria Antioch and Jerusalem is too well known And when Baronius Binnius c. tell us of famous Whores Marozia and Theodora that made and Ruled and unmade Popes how was the World Governed As it was said by a Lord Mayors Child that he Ruled all London saying my Father Ruleth London and my Mother Ruleth my Father and I Rule my Mother so might it be said these Whores Ruled all the Kings and Nations of Christians on Earth if the Roman claim be Currant for they made and Ruled Popes that claimed the Rule of all the World O! how much greater was a Roman Whore Marozia Theodora c. than Pallas Venus or the great Diana of the Ephesians But the mischief was that they were mutable and could unmake a Pope as well as make him and set the City and Country by the Ears as Aequa Venus Teucris Pallas iuiqua fuit And if all Kings must be Subjects to the Subject or Chaplains of him that can win Rome let us wish that he may not be a Mahometan Pagan or Arian And why said I an Arian when an Anti-arian Pope can Murder Christians by Thousands when a Theodorick would not have hurt them The Thirteenth Point accused That Antichrist shall not be a particular man and the Pope is Antichrist Ans This is Popish Stating Cases Protestants find in the Creed the Name of Christ but not the Name of Antichrist and therefore while they know and trust Christ they think it not necessary to Salvation to know Antichrist But they believe Christ who said that many should come in his Name saying I am Christ and deceive many even before the Destruction of the Jews and rhey believe St. John that said there are many Antichrists already The Fathers and Papists say there is some one Great Antichrist to come towards the end of the World Most Protestants think it is Antichrist that is described in 2 Thes 2. and Rev. 12.13 17. To confute King James Bishop George Downame Dr. Henry More above all Mr. Mede Cluverus Grasserus c. will require more than this Writers Impertinencies There are many Protestants that think it a meer mistake that there will be any one Antichrist so Eminent as to obscure all the rest And they pretend not to judge of Antichrist by the Apocalyps but by the Ten Commandments and all the Gospel And they believe that he is Antichrist that usurpeth Christs Prerogative and yet opposeth his Kingdom And such they think the Eastern Antichrist Mahomet is the most notorious and the Western Antichrist the Pope is his Second in that he claimeth Christs Prerogative of Governing all Nations of the Earth as Vice-Christ and yet by Lies Malice and Blood suppresseth his true Gospel Grace and Kingdom confute this if you can Amending would be your best defence We doubt not but Antichrists past have been Individual men such was Barchocheba and some say Herod and some Dioclesian but undoubtedly Mahomet And if the Pope be the Western Antichrist it is the Individual Popes that are such but many of those Individuals may make a Succession of Antichristian Policy Answer Dr. More and Cluveru● of this if you are able We lay not our opposition to Popery chiefly on the dark Revelation Prophecy or on the question Who is the Antichrist But on the plain Word of God If we find a Succession of men claiming Omnipotency and Christs Prerogative to Govern all Kings and Nations on Earth and this by bare and base Vsurpation and Novelty and find these men set up their numerous false treasonable inhumane Canons and forbid and revile Gods Law and Word and find them turning Gods Worship into unintelligible Mummery and Stage-Shows and Ceremony and find them living at Leeches on Blood yea on the Blood of Thousands of the best Christians and damning and

without teaching and that sound teaching nor by hearkening to Erroneous Deceivers 3. Nor that the Slothfull that will not meditate on it can understand it tho' they have the soundest teachers 4. Nor that Novices can understand as much in a short time and small Study as aged long exercised Students 5. Nor that wicked proud men that forfeit Gods help can savingly understand it without his Grace and Spirit 6. Nor that any man how holy soever perfectly understandeth every word in the Scriptures 7. Nor that a person may not be fallible and deceived that yet knoweth which is the Infallible Rule It maketh not all Infallible that know it 8. Nor that any Church or any Number of Christians on Earth have such a Vnity as consisteth in perfect knowledge and agreement in all matters of Faith that is of Scripture-record from God 9. Nor that God hath tyed this Infallible Regulation to the Bishop of Rome or made him this Rule seeing no such word of God is extant and General Councils have condemned Popes of Heresie Infidelity Ignorance and most brutish lust and wickedness 10. Nor that the Judgment of the major part of Christians or Bishops is the Infallible Rule for 1. The Papal part are but a third part And they will hardly believe that the other two or three parts Abissines Egyptians Syrians Armenians Georgians Circassians Greeks Muscovites Protestants are the Infallible rule 2. And if they met in an equal Council they that are most out of the Council would be the most in it And Ephes 2. and many others now condemned have had the Major part And Chrysostom that thought that few Bishops or Priests were saved thought not the greater number to be the infallible Rule 11. And Pope and Councils agreeing are not that Infallible rule for two fallibles makes not one infallible nor two Knaves one honest Man Popes and Councils have oft condemned one another yea they have oft agreed in evil as did that at Laterane the 4th under Innocent the 3d. that decreed the deposition of Princes that exterminate not all that renounce not all Senses and Humanity for those that have led into the Churches of the West all the horrid Errors of Rome to pretend yet that they are the Infallible rule of understanding Scripture is Impudency quite beyond that of Satan himself 12. If this Deceiver hold what is contrary to his accused Protestant Opinion he must condemn the Church of Rome that agreeth not of the sense of a thousand Texts of Scripture Horseloads of Commentators and Cartloads of School-contenders contradicting one another And he that will say that all revealed in Scripture is not matter of Faith reproacheth God as revealing that which is not to be believed All matters of Faith are not essential to Christianity but some are only for the perfection of it All is matter of Faith that we are bound to believe as Divine Revelation All the Scripture is such thô the ignorant must have time and help to understand it and explicitely receive it The Popes themselves e. g. Sixtus Quintus and Clem. 8. have differed in many hundred Texts about the very Latine Translation Many hundred Volumes of Controversies among them tell us how far they are from ending Controversies and agreeing in all matters of Faith But in so much as is necessary to Salvation all serious believing Protestants or Reformed Catholicks are agreed Now to trouble the Reader with the proof of any of these twelve particulars would be but to abuse Time and him as to prove that no Man is perfect and he that saith he hath no sin is a Lyar and to prove that the grand Deceivers of the Church are not Infallible and that Gods Word is not unevident and unintelligible and that such Villains as their own Councils and Historians say many Popes were speaks not more intelligibly and wisely than God and that the Volumes of Canons and Priests Writings are not of more evident meaning than Gods Word these need proof to none but those that are uncapable of it What Rule is there for the Infallible understanding the sence of all our Statute Laws none but what I mentioned The intelligible evidence in the words what else are words used for to men duely instructed and studyed The Judges govern by deciding particular causes by the Law but are not an Infallible Rule for all Men to understand the true sence of the Law by while Judges and Parliaments differ from each other as Popes and Councils did The Texts cited by the Deceiver are so vilely abused as if he purposed but to make sport by taking Gods Word in vain Point 2. Accused That in matters of Faith we must not rely on the Judgment of the Church and of her Pastors but only on the written word Ans The Deceiver would Cheat the Ignorant by Confusion and belying the Reformed Catholicks for 1. It 's false that the Reformed hold any of this undistinguishing Assertion They distinguish between humane Faith and Divine And I hope God and Man may be distinguished They say that it must be a Divine Faith that is The Belief of Gods word for the Infallible Veracity of God that must save us and not the belief of Man alone But that a humane Faith is needful in Subserviency to a Divine God hath appointed humane Teachers to the Flocks and Oportet discentem Credere He will never learn that will believe nothing on his Teachers Credit But he must believe Man but as Man an imperfect fallible Creature yet as like to know more than he that chooseth him for his Teacher And that which Man is to teach us is to see the Evidence of Gods own Word that we may believe it for that Evidence as our Teachers themselves must do For if the Teachers do but believe one another and not God or God only for Man's Authority this is not Religion nor Divne Faith but humane such as they had that believed Pythagoras Plato Mahomet c. If Boys learn of their School-Master to understand the Greek or Latin Testament and believe them as to Sence this is not Divine Faith but a help towards it The word of God is Infallible And by the help of fallible Men such as disagreeing Commentators be we are furthered for understanding it But false bloody Usurpers are not the likest to teach us the Truth nor fittest to be trusted His Citations of Scriptures to mistated Controversies are so putidly impertinent that I am ashamed to detect them by words which every Man may do The Third accused Point That the Scriptures are easy to be understood and therefore none are to be restrained from Reading them Ans Meer Cheat to the Ignorant by confusion and falshood 1. We and all Papists with us agree the more is the Guilt of the Deceivers Fraud that some of the Scripture is easy to be understood and is actually understood by all true Christians even all that is essentsal to Christianity and necessary to Salvation Bellarmine Castrus