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

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26962	Naked popery, or, The naked falshood of a book called The Catholick naked truth, or, The Puritan convert to apostolical Christianity, written by W.H. opening their fundamental errour of unwritten tradition, and their unjust description of the Puritans, the prelatical Protestant, and the papist, and their differences, and better acquainting the ignorant of the same difference, especially what a Puritan and what a papist is / by Richard Baxter ...	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1677 (1677)	Wing B1315; ESTC R13884	120,987	206

which way and why I must believe it If from Christ can I believe that the Pope hath Power from Christ before I believe that there is a Christ that hath such Power to give And can I believe in Christ and not believe that there is a God that sent him Can I believe that Jesus is the Christ and not believe that he is a Sacrifice for sin or a Mediator between God and Man and came to save his People from their sins And can I believe this and not believe that we are all sinners and that sin deserveth that punishment which Christ came to save us from Is not our Saviour and our Sin and Misery relatives as a Physician or Medicine and a Disease And can we believe that we have sin and desert of Punishment without believing that God is our Governour and gave us that Law which we broke and which obligeth us to Punishment Can we believe in Christ and not believe that he is God and Man that he dyed rose and ascended into Heaven and will judge us at last and that he pardoneth sin reneweth Souls by his Spirit and will give us life hereafter All these are included in believing in Christ as Christ And how must I believe that Christ hath given the Pope this Infallibility or Power By any written word which granteth it or by Oral Tradition If by the written Word then I must believe that that Word is true before I can believe that the Pope is made Pope or Infallible by it If by Oral Tradition whose must that be Then I must believe some bodies Oral Tradition as true and infallible before I believe in the Pope at all If it be the first Hearers of the Apostles then either the Pope was one of those or not If yea and he hath a Negative Voice in the credible report then I must believe him as Infallible before he is proved Infallible in order to my believing that he is Infallible which is a contradiction If Not Then I must believe the Infallibility of other Hearers of the Apostles before I can believe the Pope's And the Question will recur How I shall know them to be Infallible And who they were that were those Infallible Witnesses Whether Pastors only or the People Whether of some one Church or of all the Churches And how I shall prove that they gave such a Testimony So that your pretense of a Necessity of receiving Gods Word or the Christian Faith from the Pope and his Council cometh too late For it seemeth that we must believe it first before it be possible to believe in the Pope and Council as authorised by Christ And if my Implicite Faith be the Belief of this Article Any Church in all the world yea the greater part of all the Churches may err in matters of Faith or Apostatize and only the Pope of Rome and his Council cannot What Proof or whose Tradition doth this rest upon Q. 9. Do not Bellarmine Costerus and many of your Writers profess that the Scriptures contain all things ordinarily necessary to Salvation Yea many Writers that the Creed hath all that is absolutely to be believed Yea some that it hath more than all Yea abundance Cited by Fr. a Sancta Clara that the Belief in Christ is not necessary to all And will you say then that he that believeth Explicitely the whole Bible cannot be saved without believing also your pretended Traditions Q. 10. And do you not hereby instead of the light burden and easie yoak of Christ and his Commands which are not grievous bring Christians under a harder yoak than that which the Jews were not able to bear When it seemed good to the Holy Ghost in the Apostles to impose but a few and necessary things Act. 15. 28. And how large a Law is all the Bible and all your Councils Decrees and Oral Traditions set together Do all your Priests themselves or one of an hundred understand them all or know what they are Q. 11. While you pretend a Necessity of your numerous Ceremonies as Fasting on Frydays and such other named by you do you not lay a snare of perpetual Division in the Churches and do you not make as many inconsistent Churches as there be Societies of Christians that differ and still will differ about any of those Traditions or Ceremonies Q. 12. And do you not lay open your own Church to the accusation of innovation mutability and corruption when it is not to be denyed but in such things as those they have been mutable or innovated Have you not long left the Custom of adoring on the Lords-days without genuflexion though the first great General Council Nic. Can. 20. and the ancient Fathers commonly made it a Tradition and Practice of the whole Church and it was Decreed to be so used by all Abundance of such Instances may be given Q. 13. You do very injuriously to your own Sect and Cause here to pretend Tradition as coming down from the Apostles for such things as your own Doctors plead but your Churches later Institution for It 's fully proved by Daleus de jejuniis that the Lent Fast was long but for a short time before it came to fourty days And it 's an odd thing if you will pretend Tradition from the Apostles for the Holy-days or the Vigil Fasts of those Saints that were born many hundred years after the Apostles death We confess our Faith is not so big as yours We have many score Texts of Scripture that promise Salvation to them that believe much less than the Bible it self containeth Yet we profess our selves ready to believe as much more as you shall ever prove to us to have been delivered by the Apostles to the Church to be believed II. And for the second that we receive not our Faith the way that you do that is from the Authority of the Pope and Papists and from your Tradition We crave your consideration of these Questions 1. When the Apostles and Disciples Act. 8. were scattered and preached the Gospel to many Nations Were they not true Christians and saved that received the Gospel from any one of them or from any Person whatsoever If Aquila or Priscilla Converted a Sinner such a one saved a Soul from Death though Peter did it not nor his Authority was known to such a one 2. Do you believe that if the Roman Bishop or Churches Revelation or Proposal were necessary to true Faith and to Salvation that Christ would never have told Men so Nor any of his Apostles have left it us on Record When there were Heresies and Schismes so wofully troubling the Churches as we find in Paul's Epistles to the Cor. Gal. Col. and in the Rev. 2. and 3. ch should we never have found one word for this speedy way of decision to appeal to the Church of Rome Would Paul have rebuked them for saying I am of Cephas and made him but a Minister by whom they believed without ever mentioning his

Massacres as were in France of Thirty Thousand or Forty Thousand or in Ireland of Two Hundred Thousand hath made them think your Power inconsistent with their safety 3. And you must remember that the Positive Additions of the Church of Rome are in the Judgment of the Puritans very great sins But you have truly no charge against the Puritans for any one Article of their Religion but only for not receiving and for protesting against your Additions 4. But I perceive p. 5. your Instances of their defectiveness are that they are not for fasting days particular Garments for Priests set Forms Christmas-day Good-Friday Ascension Whitsuntide c. which they take for meer Humane inventions and Will-worship Because they think that the New Testament was written to instruct us Christians in the whold Body of Gospel-worship c. But you are best prove this only by telling us that you know some persons of that mind And when you have done I will demand your Proof that those Persons are no more than Puritans They have oft told you that their judgment is that for all that substance of God's Worship which is of Universal necessity to the Church and is of Divine Institution the holy Scripture is a sufficient Rule But that very many Circumstances and outward Acts have in Scripture but a General Law that they be all done to edification decently orderly in Concord c. and it is left to Humane Prudence to order them by such Rules We condemn no one that useth holy Fasts or Feasts but think them needful We judge not those that celebrate the Memorial of God's great Mercies to his Church by giving him thanks for the holy Life and Doctrine of his Eminent Saints c. But will you plainly have our judgment We think Saint Paul was in the right that taught the Church of Rome it self both the Rulers and the Flocks that they must neither judge nor despise each other for differences about Meats and Days but receive each other to Communion notwithstanding such differences as Christ received us Rom. 14. and 15. And we will not believe your Grand-Father nor Great-Grand-Father if they told us that the Apostles by Tradition did institute Holy-days and Vigils for St. Tecla or St. Bridgit or St. Thomas Becket or any that were not born till they were dead And any one Day or Order which you truly prove to us that the Apostles by Tradition ordained for the Universal Church we profess our selves ready and resolved to obey But if you plead not Tradition for any of these things but the Churches Commands as you must do or be singular or ashamed here you come to the quick of our difference 1. We know not of any Universal Vicarious Law-giver under Christ that hath any power to make Laws to the Universal Church throughout the World and we dare not own any such Usurper lest we be guilty of Treason against the only Head of the whole Church 2. We know not of any power that the chief Bishop in the Roman Empire hath over other Empires Kingdomes or Churches 3. But to our own true Pastors which are set over us according to Christ's order and his Apostles recorded in Scripture we Puritanes will submit in all such Circumstantials as aforesaid which are left to their prudent determination not putting us on any sin But 4. We detest making such things as you here name to be taken for the Characters of distinct Religions or distinct Churches as if we might not with Love Peace and Christian Communion differ about a Garment a Holy-day Fast or Vigil Thus far then you seem not to know what a meer Puritan is II. But Sir I have much more than all these little things against your Description of a Puritane I plainly perceive in your greatest praises of him that you know not what his very Religion it self is or else you would never describe him as only taken up with fears and cares and good desires to be better having yet greedy desires of the things of the World without any mention of the Love of God above all and of his Neighbour and a holy and heavenly Mind and Life with self-denyal mortification of the Flesh c. Either you judge of a Puritane by what you were your self or by what your acquaintance were or by what they commonly profess to be their Religion For the first you have no reason It followeth not that they have no better a Religion because you had no better For the second you had no reason For it 's ten to one you knew not the hearts of your acquaintance so well as to be able to know that they had not the Love of God c. And if you were so unhappy in your acquaintance what 's that to other Men Thirdly Therefore as you look that your own Religion should be described not as we find it in this or that man but as your Church professeth it so do we And I have told you before what our Religion is I have the more boldness in speaking the sense of others as I said both because I am as aforesaid stigmatized for a total Puritan and because the generality of all of them of my acquaintance as far as I can discern are of this mind A Puritan then as the Word is commonly taken by the Rabble is a serious Christian Protestant who truly believeth and practiseth what he doth profess and doth not mortifie that Profession which should help to mortifie his Sin His Religion is to be understandingly and sincerely devoted in the Sacramental Covenant to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost renouncing the Vanities of the World the Lusts of the Flesh and the Delusions of the Devil He believeth that all that truly consent to this Covenant have a right and part in and to the Love of God the Father the Grace of the Son and the Communion of the Holy Chost and that he that hath the Son hath Life Pardon Adoption Justification and Right to Life Eternal and that this Right is continued he performing his Covenant and continuing in that Faith which worketh by Love and not living impenitently in sin but sincerely obeying God his Father Saviour and Sanctifier He taketh the fear of Gods Justi●● ●nd godly Sorrow to be but the lower steps of Holiness but that the Kingdom of God is not Meats and Days but Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost and that the Spirit of Christ without which none are his is not the Spirit of Bondage but of Power Love and a sound Mind even a Spirit of holy LIFE LIGHT and LOVE which are the Essentials of true Holiness and the Spirit of Adoption and Supplication causeth us with Love to cry to God and trust him as a Father They take Christ to be the only Mediator between God and Man whose sufficient Sacrifice for Sin and perfect Righteousness Habitual Active and Passive as called advanced in dignity by the Divine Nature is the Meritorious cause of

all their Mercies to Body and Soul Remission Justification Holiness and Glory They put up all their Services as into and by the Hand of Christ and from his Mediatory Hand they expect all mercies They take the Holy Ghost within them to be Christ's Advocate and Witness to them of his Truth and Love and their Witness Earnest Seal Pledge and first Fruits of endless Life They take Eternal Glory for their full Felicity and this World and Flesh Pleasure Riches and Honour to be so far useful as they signifie Gods Love and further our Love and Service to him but to be Vanity as separated from God in our Hearts and Enmity or Mischief as Competitors or as against him In a word Faith working by Supream Love and Obedience to God and Brotherly Love to Man by Honour to our Superiours Justice to all and by all the good that we can do in the World and by Repentance for our Sins patience in sufferings and by a Heavenly Mind and Life is the Sum of their Religion or plainlier as is said at first The Gospel-Covenant as expounded in the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue as the Summary of things to be believed desired and practised and the holy Scriptures as the full and comprehensive Records of the Doctrine Promises and Laws of God containing the Essentials Integrals and necessary Accidentals of Religion This is the Christian Religion and the Puritan in question is but the SERIOUS CHRISTIAN distinct from the HYPOCRITE or dead Formalist But if you add Non-conformity to the sense of the Word and to his Character so I need not tell you what the Impositions are which some deny Conformity to as to Oaths New-Covenants Subscriptions Declarations Practices c. which he protesteth that he would never deny Conformity to if after his best enquiry he did not believe that God forbiddeth it As you may see at large in their Savoy Petition for Peace to the Bishops These two it seems you join together and what their Objective Religion is I have better told you than you have told your Relations But as to the clearness of their Judgment in it and the measure of their Practice of it there are I think as various Degrees as there are Persons no two Men in the World being in all things just of the same Degree And now Sir give me leave patiently to ask you these two Questions 1. Why would you by temerity go about to deceive your Relations and other Readers by talking to them against that which you did not understand Even then when you blame others as dealing so by the Papists And why do you dishonour your own Relations so as to make so bad a Description of them Are they such as have no Love to God as God no delight in Holiness no Heavenly Minds nothing almost but fear and its effects Have they still the Flames of Concupiscence and greedy desires of Money and the things of this Life c. If it be not so you should not have told the World so of them If it be so I am sorry for them I suppose it is contrary to their profest Religion and you may have the greater hopes to make them Papists II. What wonder is it that you that were no better a Puritan than you describe are turned Papist You that profess you were a Puritan must needs be judged to tell us what a one you were your self when you tell us what they are Alas poor Man How came you to be so false to your own Profession against your Baptismal Vows as to keep so much of the World at your Heart in greedy desires after Money and to have no more Love to God and Man no more Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Could you think that a Man could be saved without Love and good works Were you deluded by such Antinomian conceits as you describe and took that for Puritanisme How else did you quiet your Conscience in such a state of Hypocrisie If God and Holiness had not your chief Love as well as Fear you were but an Hypocrite And here give me leave to repeat what I have oft written What wonder is it at any Mans turning Papist when according to your own Principles no Protestant Puritan or other Christian turneth Papist that doth not thereby declare that he was a false-hearted Hypocrite before and had no true Love to God in his Heart And was not this your case For 1. You affirm that all Men that have true prevalent Love to God are in a state of Grace and have right to Salvation till they lose it 2. You affirm that none of us are in a state of Grace and Salvation that are not of your Church that is the Subjects of the King or Pope of Rome 3. Therefore it followeth that you take none but such Subjects or Members of your Church to have the true prevalent Love of God But you know that in our Christian Covenant and Profession we all take God for our God the infinite and most amiable Good our Father in Christ and Love it self and that Faith working by Love is our Religion And if any Man saith Saint Paul love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha And he that loveth the World the Love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2. 15. So that by turning Papist you confess that before you were no true Christian nor had any true Love to God and Godliness nor to Jesus Christ And if so you were a false-hearted Hypocrite For as a Christian you profest and Covenanted it And what wonder then if God forsook you and gave you up to strong delusions when you would not receive the Truth in the Love of it that you might be saved 2 Thes 2. And note here that if any Man know that he truly loveth God and Goodness you tell him that he is none of those that you perswade to Popery For you perswade none to it but those that are ungodly Hypocrites having no true Love of God within them But can you think Sir in good earnest that Popery tendeth more to fill Men with the Love of God than our simple Christianity doth Is not Popery a Religion of Bondage and Servitude consisting mainly in Terrour and its superstitious effects What are most of your Tasks of Pilgrimages Penances and abundance such but the effects of servile fear The best of Religion next Heaven should be that which is nearest to Heaven And do you think you can love God better in the Fire of Purgatory Torments than if he took you unto Christ in Paradise Could you love God better in this Life if he tormented you in the Fire than if he give you comfort by his mercies You say that the Puritan is made negligent by his trust in Christ to adorn his Soul with Piety Charity Meekness Patience Humility and other Christian Vertues partly thinking them impossible to be attained partly deeming there is no absolute necessity of them