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	rome_n	6,168	5	7.0527	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20953	A letter vnto them of the Romish Church, by Peter du Moulin, minister in the reformed Church at Paris. Together with a true iubile or generall pardon of indulgence by the same author	Du Moulin, Pierre, 1568-1658.; Goring, Richard.	1621 (1621)	STC 7331; ESTC S118715	19,874	66

had in suspicion when there is anie question of their profit or authority Heere my Masters it is easie to shewe you that they lead you in a way by which it is altogether impossible you should bee saved for you are taught simply to beleeve the Church of Rome and without farther enquiry to depend entirely upon her authority and yet you are deprived of all means to know whether this Church whereunto you give credit bee pure and teacheth true doctrine For how should you knowe that should it be by the holy Scriptures yea but this book is not permitted you At Rome and in Spaine to read in it is no lesse than burning at a stake or would you knowe it by the Antients those are greek latin books which the people understand not What knowes an artificer or a woman or an husbandman amongst you whether the Church teacheth conformably unto the Scripture or if their church bee such as it was some 12. or 1500. years since or whether of a long list of Popes pictured the first have beleeved as the last and that the times have altered nothing In briefe you have no other proof of the purity of your church but the witnes of your Church it self whose Prelates vanting themselves that they cannot erre in the meane time deprive you of all means to discern of error from truth by hiding from you the rule of truth which is the holy Scriptures But wherfore should the Roman Church rather have this perfection that the Greek or the Syrian more antient and more pure than the Roman founded by Ies Christ himselfe and by his Apostles and who also brag to have Saint Peters chair Doth the Scripture give unto the Roman Church any prerogative above others or doth it give her the priviledge of not erring From hence doe ensue two things as cleere as the day the one that your faith is grounded onely upon the authority of men and by consequent that your religion is a humane religion and not divine Whosoever saith I beleeve the Gospell and the Word of GOD because the Church ordaineth it maketh the Church more credible than God To doubt of Gods truth is a lesse crime than to make it depend upon men The other is that of all humane witnesses you ground your selves upon the worst and most uncertain for you say your Church is good because shee saith it and so doo make her Iudge in her owne cause not considering that by this word Church you understand not Christian people nor the generality of Pastors but the Pope and some fewe Prelates whose rules are called Church-rules although they tend onely to the profit of the Clergie and the advancement of the Empire of the Bishop of Rome And you poor soules whom God hath framed after his owne Image whom hee hath redeemed with the blood of his Son whom God solliciteth by his Word will you languish alwaies in this captivity will you heap up unto your selves the wrath and indignation of the Lord by rejecting the salvation which is proposed you I confesse that the Roman Chur. in certain points alleageth scripture and that between her and us there is strife about the interpretation but we make use of the Scripture in another manner than those which teach you For first they are afraid the people should read the Scriptures but we exhort men thereunto Secondly they perswade you that the Scripture is obscure and ambiguous but we say all things necessary unto salvation are therein layd downe with much clearness Thirdly they say that the Scripture is an unperfect rule they will needs have another unwritten word and traditions of the Church equall in authority to the Scripture wee on the contrary say that the holie Scripture can make us wise unto salvation 1 Tim. 15. 1 and that wee ought not to bee wise beyond what is written 1 Cor. 6. 4 and that in that which is cleare in the Scriptures and needeth no interpretation are cōtained all the doctrines necessary unto salvation Fourthly when wee alleage the Scripture we alleage it as soveraign Iudge and as it that ruleth the Chur. and giveth her her authority but the Romane Church alleageth the Scripture as a doctrine authorized by the Church and that you ought to receive it because the Church hath ordained it Fiftly when wee interpret the Scriptures wee give not out our interpretations for lawes as doth the Roman Church nor call our selves judges or infallible interpreters of the holy Scriptures Finally when wee interpret the Scriptures wee draw our interpretations from the Scripture it self but the Roman Church draw their interpretations from the unwritten word and from tradition For example wee expound those words This is my body He took the bread gave it c. Do this in remembrance of me By the bread which I give you is the commemoration of my body the which expositiō is found in the text it self of the institution of the sacrament or by these words of the Apostle 1. Cor. 10. 16 The bread which wee break is the communion of the body of Christ Your Teachers do not thus interpret the Scriptures for they draw their interpretations from the unwritten word and from tradition When the Lord said to Peter I have prayed that thy faith fail not they say that by these words Saint Peter and the Popes of Rome his successours were promised the vertue that they could not erre but the Scripture speaketh not of Popes or of Bishops of Rome nor grants unto Saint Peter any successor in his Apostleship So Malachie speaketh of a pure oblation which was to bee made in all places Mal. 1. 11 This oblation according to the interpretation of these Masters is the Masse in which they say the body of Christ is really sacrificed But this interpretation is taken out of the unwritten word for the holy scripture speaketh not of any Masse nor of the sacrifice of the body of Iesus Christ nor establisheth any sacrificers in the Church to sacrifice the Son of God So when the Scripture saith Thou shalt worship one God and shalt serve him alone The interpretations of these Masters is that God forbiddeth onely the worship of Latria but not the adoratiō of Dulia which is an inferiour religious service But the Scripture speaketh not of the adoration of Dulia nor of any other religious service then that which is due unto God These are interpretations which the Romane Church draweth from the unwritten word which is at the discretion of the Romish Church nor can bee learned but from her mouth for I doo not think there is any that ever hath seen all the instructions of this unwritten word reduced into one body Bellar. in Barkl c. 3. He thinkes not rightly of the chur of the chur of Christ that admits nothing but what hee reads expresly to have bin alledged or practised in the old chu as if the Church of later time either ceast to be a chr or hath not