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
A67237	The pretensions of the triple crown examined in thrice three familiar letters ... / written some years ago by Sir Christopher Wyvill ...	Wyvill, Christopher, Sir, 1614-1672?	1672 (1672)	Wing W3787; ESTC R34104	91,353	203

has long since been observed that in the Original there is an apparent Distinction betwixt the name and the person interwoven in Christ's answer Tu es Petrus leads up the Van but then not in te Petrum but super hanc Petram marches next and so that Interpretation which would seem to interess the Pope in the Place is left in some disorder But it may be you are apt to think this a new sence put upon the words I will therefore bring you Doctors ancient enough that were satisfied with this Exposition St. Hillary thus This Faith is the one unmoveable Foundation the alone happy Rock confessed by the mouth of Peter Thou art the Son of the living God And again This is the Foundation of the Church by it the Gates of Hell are made weak against her Ambrose in his Epistles is of the same mind so is Hierom in many Places as upon Psal. 40. Math. 18. and Amos 9. So is St. Augustin on John in his 6th Sermon de Verbo Dom. And having in a certain place slipt into the other acception of the meaning he solemnly retracts the same and notes besides the it seems then usual mistake in singing the Verses of St. Ambrose concerning the Cock The Truth is when any of them seem to favour that sence which we oppose they do it in a certain Rhetorical way whereby they were accustomed to give high applauds to the Bishop of Rome sitting in the then Imperial City and therefore accounted Chief rather than seriously and dogmatically Yet will it not at all disadvantage us to grant that St. Peter was a Rock that is a main Pillar and a Master-builder in the Church of God Nay what would it harm our Cause if we should confess that it was promised to Peter he should become the Founder of an eminent Church And that the Faith he was to Preach should surmount the power of Hell Yea let us further suppose what we will not grant That there is some particular Place or Succession of men whereto by vertue of the Promise made to Peter perpetual Truth were to be affixed Why may not Antioch in Syria within the Verge of his peculiar Charge or Babylon in AEgypt the first Place of his residence amongst the Gentiles put in for a right of Succession to that Grand Privilege rather than Rome since whether ever he came there or no at most whether any otherwise than to suffer is a Controversie not yet decided but that he could sit 26. years Bishop as some of them affirm is a thing utterly impossible if we regard the Computation of times and reflect upon those years he must necessarily have spent in other places Vid. Bunting's Itinerarium totius Scripturae pag. 496. As for that other place weakly enough urged by some I prayed for thee that thy faith fail not It 's clear that was spoken only to fortifie St. Peter against the approaching time wherein Satan had desired to winnow him and cannot with any front be transferred beyond his own person in the Application Next you may I suppose put a Question to me which I have not unfrequently put to my self Where was the Truth if not at Rome Have patience but a little and I hope I shall return you an answer more satisfactory and rational than I could ever have from any of those Papists who make the Decision of all Controversies a Priviledge fitted only to the narrow Dimensions of the Pope's Breast when I have demanded of them what Course they would have taken to have found out Truth in a disputable point if they had then lived when there was sometimes two once three and more than once no Pope at all for many years together a thing evident enough in History Now for the solving of your doubt We willingly do acknowledge That at Rome there was a very early and famous Church her Faith was spoken of through the whole World And when it pleased God by the Conversion of the Emperour Constantine to clear a way for the farther Increment of the Gospel she grew in Eminency and Splendour till overset as it were with the Indulgence and Bounty of him and some of his Successors she began to recoyl and study Grandeur more than Grace We do not imagine that all in one day or year or age she became so infected that it was presently necessary to separate from her But we think the manner of her Defection was well foreshewen and perhaps aimed at in that Parable of the Tares injected by night and hardly discerned in their growth yet increasing still as the Negligence Avarice or Ambition of the Priests and People did serve-in an opportunity Thus the Wisdom of the Primitive Church dispensing her Admonitions her Suspensions Excommunications her Pennances Relaxations Absolutions c. in such manner as the Condition of her refractory or penitent Delinquents might require things conducing meerly to the outward Regiment Discipline of those times degenerated at last into such Conceits as kindled the Fire of Purgatory and gave birth to Pardons and Indulgences prodigally extended to whole Families and their Descendants for many Ages yet to come And by this means were the Purses in a manner of the whole World opened and their owners made inclinable to pour out their Treasure into the Popes Lap. For who would not both easily be perswaded to taste the tempting Sweets of Sin here and to part with a good proportion of his worldly Goods at his death under the Notion of bringing so much health to the Estate of his Soul in the next Life Thus the Stile which the Ancient Fathers thought fit to use when they treated of the Lords Supper wherein they often held to the Tropes and Metaphors of the Institution was at length perverted into the opinion of absolute Transubstantiation a Pyx commanded to be made for a Cover to the Bread and a Bell to ring before it Anno 1215. Adoration of it enjoyned Anno 1226. Corpus Christi Day instituted Anno 1264. and further confirmed in the Council of Vienna Anno 1310. All which served well to settle in the people a greater Veneration towards the Workers of such Miracles the Priests And that such a thing was much in the business may surely seem not improbable to any that will impartially Eye the Posture and Inclination of those times when the Bishop of Rome had his great design on foot to Exalt himself above all Civil Magistracy When I find Erasmus making this return to our Tunstall who had provoked him to write against Luther That he ought to take heed lest he had a Zeal not according to knowledge and that there was a sort of men too tenacious of some things unluckily crept into the Church When I over-hear him complaining to his Freind Stephanus Rhodericus That the Vulgar sort of Divines examined all Scripture by the Text of certain School-disputes attributing very little to

the carrying on that work purposely set true Christian Piety is almost justled out of the Nation For that they may to most advantage put off that sort of Ware no end is made of crying up those Bulls ascribing thereto a wonderful and unutterable power of pardoning sins not only past and to come unto the living but also unto the dead who are as they call it in the fire of Purgatory yet not unless something jingle from the fist By these mercenary Indulgences not only our Country is drayn'd of Treasure but the fear of God extinguished when every one must needs frame to himself a perswasion that he has purchased a secure liberty of sinning Hence are Whoredoms Adulteries Perjuries Slaughters Thefts Rapines Extortions and the whole kennel of such-like wickedness For who will any more be aw'd from evil when once he is brought to think that for money he may have a license to sin here and impunity in the world to come Especially add they our Germans who are behind none in forwardness to imbrace any thing that has the countenance of Piety 4. But they assure him The people are now grown by use so knowing of those deceipts since they discern the Corn goes to the wrong Mill that now when there is really a need of their aid they will not part with it Next is represented how particular Causes are referred to Rome it self and there if the just have no money he cannot be quit if the unjust have he may return home not freed from censure but fenced with a Dispensation for the future and then what cares he how flagitiously he live since every Hedge-Priest has power by the already procured Indulgence to absolve him Then they follow another sort of Indulgence-mongers their Stationary Preachers of them through all sorts of Villages and Habitations of men standing amazed to hear how confidently they bear the vulgar in hand that it will make highly for the thriving of their Families if they give somewhat yearly to such a Saint whose prayer they set forth suppose St. Valentine St. Hubert c. but this Pension must go through the hands of those Priests Again they inroll every one of these poor men for a reward under the protection of some Saint making them believe an immunity from some disease or other which would for the year be the consequent thereof In all which there is no greater design than to exhaust their wealth This custom taking its rise from St. Anthony has now got an universal influence upon all maladies for you cannot name one over which these Stationaries do not assign some such Saint to superintend by this sucking the very heart-bloud from these credulous persons and eating the very bread out of their Childrens mouths Then they lay open all the practices of another sort of begging-Fryars Terminarii who play their pranks too and put in for a share of the Peoples sustenance Next they travel forward into a large Field fruitful beyond measure in Enormities of various kinds as abuse of Church-Censures Multitude of holy days c. At length bringing us to the sight of one which though I had formerly heard of from Authors of unquestionable credit yet could not take root with me till I viewed it irrefragably made out by this authentick Copy of so solemn and great a Transaction viz. That the Church of Rome for it 's not to be considered singly as a prevarication in the managements of some private persons could suffer a Weed of so vile and poysonous nature to spread its branches so far and so thick We see it full blown and bearing fruit too where their complaint is thus renewed 75. Furthermore the Officials drawn with infamous and insatiable thirst after Gold not only not discountenance Usury and unlawful Gain but do every where advance it They suffer Clergy-men and Religious of all sorts for money still freely to enjoy Concubines Whores Strumpets and on them to beget Children But 91. This Grievance is superadded That in most places even chaste Priests such as had no intent to use Concubines are nevertheless compelled to pay the Rate that such Dispensation would come to and then let them chuse whether they will take it out or no. These are Corruptions that naturally and almost necessarily flow from the Doctrines of Indulgences Pardons Dispensations of Catholick I mean Universal practice amongst the Pontificians for with us in England we find Grants of the same frame nay worse if worse can be Two Towns in Essex given to the Church of Ely by Leofwin to expiate and satisfie for the murther of his Mother Cambd. fol. 440. of the large English Edition And Alfrid the relict of King Edgar founded a Nunnery near Ambersbury having made away Edward who was by the former Wife that her Son might succeed Cambd. fol. 254. These are deeds of darkness acted in the light And must we have the Gate of Heaven shut against us because we cannot but believe That the Pope who interdicteth marriage to men in Orders and yet by a Law establisheth the Iniquity of Concubination who winked at such things as these might at length fall asleep and give the envious Man large opportunities to sow Tares Matth. 13. and 25. or because we cannot swear to all the words of that most imperious Master Let us now crave or if that will not be granted take lieve to examine how well they have stated this business amongst themselves how or whether at all they agree therein Some would have us to think for so 't is often proposed in gross and so the greatest part of their own especially Laicks understand it That the high-Priest of Rome is no way subject to mistake But that 's not to be defended Then they inform us That in Matters of Faith he cannot err When they are driven by the Testimony of their best Historians in the examples of Liberius Honorius and many others to confess that this has come to pass Then Not when he undertakes to teach the Church Which likewise being demonstrated by the instance of John 22. who both believed and proposed to others a notable Error about the Souls of the departed And of John 23. who publickly taught that there was no life after this Oh then Not in a General Council But where is then their always visible easily to be consulted continually necessary Judge of Controversies for under these Notions they commonly infer the reasonableness of their Tenent The 300 years next to the Apostolick times knew no such thing as an Oecumenical Assembly the first that ever was would not if all truth had been to be fetch'd if all power had been to be derived from Rome by their quadripartite division of Jurisdiction have limited Sylvester as well as the other three to his proper bounds The third of Carthage would not have made a Decree to the contrary Nor that of Milevetum have denounced Excommunication against all such as should appeal beyond their Sees Neither would the