Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
cause_n father_n ghost_n holy_a 5,369 5 5.6194 4 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A18100 The ansvvere of Master Isaac Casaubon to the epistle of the most reuerend Cardinall Peron. Translated out of Latin into English. May 18. 1612; Ad epistolam illustr. et reverendiss. Cardinalis Perronii, responsio. English Casaubon, Isaac, 1559-1614. 1612 (1612) STC 4741; ESTC S107683 37,090 54

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

such chiefe points as are necessarie to saluation For there is but one sauing doctrine there is but one way to heauen They are vnited in coniunction of mindes in true charitie and the duties of charitie especially of mutuall prayers Lastly they are vnited in the communion of one hope and expectation of promised inheritance knowing that before the foundations of the world they were predestinate I speake of the elect to be fellow heires and of the same bodie and partakers of the promise of God in Christ through the Gospell as saith the diuine Apostle Yet his Maiestie addes further that the same Church notwithstanding if any member thereof depart from the rule of faith will more esteeme of the loue of truth then the loue of vnitie He knowes that the supreme lawe in the house of God is the sinceritie of celestiall doctrine which if any man forsake he forsakes Christ which is Truth it selfe hee forsakes the Church which is the pillar and establishment of truth and by this meanes ceaseth to appertaine vnto the body of Christ With such Apostates a true Catholike neither will nor can communicate for what concent betwixt Christ and Belial Wherefore the Church will flie from communion with these and wil say with Greg Nazianzen that disagreement for godlinesse is better then ill affected concord Neither will he doubt if need be to say with the same blessed father that there is a holy contention Now that such a necessarie separation should sometimes be in the Church both wee are taught in other places of holie Scripture and that admonition also of the holie Ghost not without cause giuen to the Church doth openly declare saying Goe out of Babylon my people lest you communicate with her sinnes What that Babylon is whereout the people of God are commanded to depart the King disputes not in this place nor affirmes hee any thing concerning it yet thus much the matter it selfe doth plainly shew that whether some priuate Church be vnderstood in that place by the name of Babylon or the greater part of the whole it was before this a true Church with which the religious might religiously communicate but after it was more depraued the religious are commanded to goe out and to breake off communion Whereby it may be easilie vnderstood that not all communion with those that be called Christians is to bee desired of the faithfull but that only which may stand with the integritie of doctrine reuealed from heauen Now to come neerer to the purpose his Maiestie denies those places of S. Augustine to belong at all to him For he affirmes that all those testimonies doe euince this only that there remaines no token of saluation for them which depart from the faith of the Catholike Church or from communion with the same Church Which thing as I said before the King willingly grants But here his Maiestie desires of you most illustrious Cardinall that you would call to minde and perpend what great difference there is betwixt the times of S. Augustine and these of ours How much the Church now called Catholike differs from the ancient how the face of the Church is changed and the outward forme to say nothing of the inward For then the Church Catholike was like a citie seated vpon an hill which as Christ saith cannot be hid knowne to all conspicuous and certaine whereof no sound minde could make question Which was not as the foolish Donatists prated lying I know not where in the South driuen into some corner of the world but diffused farre and wide thorow the whole earth flourishing vnder the Emperours whose dominion extended from the East to the West and from North to South You might see the Bishops of the East and West daily communicating and when need required assisting one another For that which is written in the Constitutions of Clement that the Catholike Church is the charge of all the Bishops and by that meanes that euery one is an Oecumenicall Bishop we wonder now when we reade it neither can wee beleeue it which then daily practise did shew to be most true and may easily be demonstrated out of historie by infinit examples There were then also in frequent vse literae formate that is demissatie or testimoniall letters by commerce whereof and as it were by tokens communion was held amongst the members of the Church although farre remoued by distance of place Furthermore when it stood in neede they had Councels truly Occumenicall not as since we haue seene Occumenicall in name only but indeed assembled out of some Prouinces of Europe And in those ancient times this was the fastest bond whereby all the members of the Catholike Church were knit together in the ioynture of one bodie which bodie was for that cause very eminent conspicuous and in the faire view of all which no man could chuse but know There was one faith one state one body Catholike frequent mutuall visitation wonderfull consent of all the members a wonderfull sympathie Was any man lapsed by heresie or schisme from the communion of any one Church I speake not of any one of the chiefe which were the seates of the foure Patriarchs but of any one much smaller that man as soone as it was knowne was held to be excluded from the communion of the whole Catholike Church For whereas wee meete with some examples obserued to the contrarie that was not right but vsurpation Was any man bold to corrupt the truth a little by being of another opinion it was easie euen for a child to deprehend him Wherefore such a steale-truth being once discouered all the shepheards of the whole world if need was were raised and were neuer quiet vntill they had rooted out this euill and prouided for the securitie of Christs sheepe By these signes and markes the Church at that time was conspicuous but this happinesse continued not many ages For after that the Empire was ouerturned and the forme of the Common-wealth altered there sprung vp many new states differing as well in manners and language as in ordinances and lawes Then vpon the distraction of the Empire followed the distraction of the Catholike Church and by little and little all those things ceased which had been before of singular vse for the preseruation of vnion and communion in the outward Catholike bodie of the Church From that time the Catholike Church hath not ceased to be for it shall continue euer neither shall the gates of hell at any time preuaile against it seeing it is founded vpon Christ the true rock and vpon the faith of Peter and the rest of the Apostles but it began to be lesse manifest being diuided into many parts which as touching externall communion were quite separated from one another Then which is chiefly to be lamented it came to passe by this dissipation that there was lesse strength in the parts then before in the whole bodie to resist the enemie of mankind who is
Catholike yea many not a Christian His Maiestie at the first thought the strife about those names not to be materiall whilest he held that which was meant by them which his Maiestie desires to doe and fullie trusts in the mercie of God that he doth But because the common sort of men doe thus interpret that to be depriued of such names is all one as to bee depriued of the things vnderstood by those names therefore hee doth not thinke it wisedome to take no notice of this wrong As concerning the name of Christian there is no strife no controuersie betwixt you and him For neither of your Epistles doth deny this title to be due vnto him The question is then concerning the title of Catholike For after that according vnto your excellent eloquence in your first Epistle you had signified that you acknowledged in the King of Great Britaine the perfect and absolute Idea of the greatest Prince in the end you put this exception if vnto the other gifts of his minde the glorious name of Catholike might bee added and when by his Maiesties commandement it was answered that that title could not be denied to him which acknowledged the three Creeds of the Church Catholike and the foure first generall Councels and which beleeued all things that were beleeued as necessarie to saluation in the foure first ages with this answere in your last accurate and subtile letters you appeared not to be so well satisfied Those letters perswade your selfe that they were not read hastily and cursorily for he read them through and examined the waight of your reasons with wonderfull equitie and gentlenes of minde But whereas after the reading of your answere hee departeth not from his former opinion and yet neuerthelesse by the helpe of Gods grace trusteth he is a true Catholike his Maiestie would haue you know what reasons he hath for this resolution Wherefore most illustrious Cardinall receiue this short answere to your last letters which receiuing from his Maiesties owne mouth I was commanded to comprise in words and to send vnto you I will not now request of you that in the reading of these you would vse such equitie as hee did in the reading of yours I know full well your excellent wisedome and moderation worthie of all praise The whole disputation in your last letters consisteth of two parts In the former part are brought fiue reasons which do illustrate and shew the acception of this thesis in what sense you would haue it taken This thesis Catholici appellatio c. The name of Catholike can be denied to none which admits of the three namely the Apostles the Nicene and the Athanasian Creeds and of the foure first generall Councels the Nicene the Constantinopolitane the Ephesine and that of Chalcedon lastly which beleeues all those things that were thought necessarie to be beleeued to saluation in the first foure ages This thesis in the Kings answere hath the place of the maior proposition The second part of your disputation bringeth in foure instances against the hypothesis or assumption THE FIRST OBSERVATION THe name of Catholike doth not simply signifie faith but also a communion with the Catholike Church Therefore the ancients would not haue them called Catholikes which departed from the communion of the Church albeit they retained the same faith For they said there was but one Church Catholike out of which a man might haue the faith and Sacraments but saluation hee could not haue To this purpose you bring many things out of S. Augustine HIS MAIESTIES ANSVVERE TO beleeue the Catholike Church and to beleeue the communion of Saints are set downe in the Apostles Creed distinctly as two diuers things And the former of these two articles seemes to be inserted especially to the end that a difference might bee made betwixt the Iewish Synagogue and the Christian Church Which was not to bee confined within the bounds of one nation as that was but to be scattered farre and wide thorow all the regions of the world Wherefore there is no manifest reason why in the beginning of this obseruation the name of Catholike should be said to signifie communion Indeed these two are very neere ioyned but they are two diuers things as I haue shewed Now his Maiestie beleeues vnfainedlie that there is but one Church of God truly and in name Catholike or vniuersall diffused ouer the whole world out of which he affirmeth also that no saluation is to be hoped for Hee condemneth and detesteth those which either long since or more lately haue either departed from the faith of the Catholike Church and so become heretikes as the Manichies or from communion and so haue become schismatikes as the Donatists against which two sorts of men chiefly al those things were written by S. Augustine which are brought in this obseruation Likewise his Maiestie commends the wisedome of those godly Bishops which in the fourth Councell of Carthage as is here well obserued did adde vnto the forme of examination of Bishops an interrogation concerning this point Neither is the King ignorant that the fathers of the ancient Church did oftentimes many things by way of condescent pro bono pacis as they ysed to say that is for desire of maintaining vnitie and for feare of breaking mutuall communion Whose example he professeth himselfe readie also studiously to imitate and to follow in the steps of those that follow after peace ad aras vsque to the altars that is as farre as he may considering the state of the Church in these daies with the safetie of a good conscience For hee is as much grieued as any man for the distraction of the members of the Church so much abhorred by the holy Fathers and as earnestly desireth to communicate if it were possible with all that are members of the mysticall bodie of our Lord Iesus Christ Neuerthelesse his Maiestie thinketh that he hath most iust cause to dissent from those which simply without any distinction or exception doe perpetually vrge this communion He acknowledgeth it to be very necessarie and one of the proper notes of the Church yet doth not account it for the true forme of the Church and that which the Philosopher calls the essentiall being His Maiestie hath learned by his reading of the holie Scriptures according to the minde of all ancient fathers that the true and essentiall forme of the Church is this that the sheepe of Christ heare the voyce of their shepheard and that the Sacraments be rightly and lawfully administred namely as the Apostles haue giuen example and those which followed neere to the Apostles times Those Churches which are thus instituted they must needes be linked together by a manifold communion They are vnited in Christ their head who is the fountaine of life whereby all live whom the Father hath chosen to be redeemed by his precious blood and to be rewarded with eternall life They are vnited in the vnion of faith and doctrine in