Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	body_n	church_n	mystical_a	1,148	5	10.4023	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01005	The Church conquerant ouer humane wit. Or The Churches authority demonstrated by M. VVilliam Chillingvvorth (the proctour for vvit against her) his perpetual contradictions, in his booke entituled, The religion of Protestants a safe vvay to saluation	Floyd, John, 1572-1649.; Lacey, William, 1584-1673, attributed name.	1638 (1638)	STC 11110; ESTC S102366	121,226	198

violence How different are you from your selfe in diuers places To bring in your new Religion of the Bible and only the Bible you accuse the Ancient Fathers that they are with full consent opposit one to another ages against ages but in your so wisely chosen Religion there is such a perpetual fighting that there is more difference betwixt two of your pages then betwixt all Christian ages 14. I must note in this place to answere a seely calumniation against our Church the only argument in your Booke that may trouble an ignorant Reader because it requires some litle historical erudition to confute it that though you feigne the Church in the dayes of S. Augustine full of great variety of superstitions yet you say that the Donatists did falsely calumniate Catholikes that they did set Images vpon their Altars and (n) Cap. 6. n. 101. S. Austine doth not iustify the Church saying as we would haue done in that case Those pictures were worshipped not for their owne sake but for them who were represented by them but doth abhorre the thing and deny the imputation Behold here a tale of a Tub or of I know not what For cap. 6. n. 16. you acknowledge that S. Augustine makes no mention of any picture but by a Rhetoricall figure calles it I know not what but say you compare him with Optatus and you shall plainly perceaue that this I know not what pretended to be set vpon the Altar was indeed a picture Behold in this your second telling the tale of a Tub or of I know not what you are fallen from pictures to a picture granting that the Donatists did not accuse Catholicks for setting vp all kind of pictures in the Church or vpon the Altar but for a picture I will not stand to note and shew the ridiculous vanity of the inference you tacitly make It was a picture Ergo the picture of Christ or of some Saint but tell the Reader what that picture was and of whome to wit of Constans the Emperour Sonne to Constantine the Great This most pious Christian Emperour as Optatus relates sent two chief noble men of his Court Paulus and Macarius eminent for Christian piety and wisdome in Ambassadge into Africke with (o) Cum elee mosynis quibus subleuata per Ecclesias singulas possit respirare vestiti pasci gaudere paupertas great liberalities to bestow on poore Christians Donatists especially hoping by this courtesy to win their hearts vnto vnity with the Church The Bishops of the Donatists fearing the successe of this Imperial liberality did mightily maligne the two Noblemen especially Macarius whome they somtimes assaulted in his iourneys put him in danger of his life sought to take from him by force that Imperial treasure because in one assault they made some two Donatists were slayne they presently proclaymed them Martyrs (p) Aug. contr liter as Pitil l. 2. c. 39. Macarius a Persecutour a Pagan and called Catholiques Macarians of him Amongst other tales and slanders they gaue out that (q) Falsa opinio omnium populorum aures oppleuerat Dice batur enim venturos Paulum Macarium qui interessent sacrificio vt cum Altaria solemniter aptarentur preferrent illi imaginem sic Sacrificiū offerretur Optat. lib. 3. circa finem 2. Edition pag. 331. lin 9. 2. Edition pag. 322. lin 15. Paulus and Macarius when they were present at the Christian sacrifice vsed to set vp the image of the Emperour on the Altar and that before it sacrifice was offered and the oblations of the people made wherof the Reader may be more fully informed in Baronius Anno 348. Behold the best argument erudition of your Booke what a poore snake it is being brought to light out of the lurking hole of your darke and dimidiate narration of the fact The fifth Conuiction 15. YOu often affirme that the whole Church cānot vtterlyperish nor loose its Essence and Being cap. 3. n. 78. You know we grant must grant that the Church still holdes all necessary truths for it is of the essence of the Church to doe so But pag. 347. l. 21. You fay the cōtrary The Roman Church in particular was forewarned that she also nay the whole Church of the Gentils might fall if they lookt not to ther standing Pag. 338. lin 11. speaking agaynst the priuiledge of infallibility of the Roman Church Me thinks you say S. Paul writing to the Romans could not but haue congratulated this their priuiledge to them bad he acknowledged that their sayth was the rule for all the world for euer But then sure he would haue forborne to put them in feare that they nay the whole Church of the Gentiles if they did not looke to their standing might fall away to infidelity as the Iewes had done Cop. 3. n. 30. in fine It is in the power of she Church to deuiate from this Rule being nothing else but an aggregation of men of which euery one has free will is subiect to passion and errour This your reason conuinceth if your suppositiō be true to wit that the Church is NOTHING else but meere men left to their ntture hauing freewill subiect to passion and errour But for my part I did euer and shall still belieue that no true Christian will be so profane as to thinke that in the Church there is freewill without diuine grace nothing but nature subiect to passion and errour without the spirit of God guiding them into all truth the Church being the mysticall Body animated with his spirit which she shall neuer abandone 16. Nor doth S. Paul fright the whole Church of Rome much lesse the whole Church of the Gentils with possibility of falling away into Infidelity but sayes in the singular number (r) Rom. 11. thou standest by fayth be not high minded but feare to shew that he speaketh of euery single Christian that he may fall away from the faith on the other side he sayth in the plurall nūber (s) Rom. 1.4 Your fayth is declared in the whole world which words the Fathers (t) Hieron Apolog aduers Ruf. Scito Romanam fidem huiusmodi praestigias non recipere Pauliauthoritate munitam non posse mutari vnderstand to signify that the fayth of the Romans shall euer be an infallible rule of Fayth to the rest of the Christian Church But more cleerly afterward in the end of his epistle (u) Rom. 16.17 Note such as make dissensions against the doctrin you haue receaued signifying that the Church of Rome hath the office to note censure all Hereticks that shall rayse discord in the Church agaynst the Roman Tradition of fayth And incontinently he sheweth the priuiledge of Diuine efficacions assistance not to erre in this office saying And the God of peace shal crush Satan vnder your feet with speed What is this but the God of peace hath made the Church of Rome the head and roote of peace and vnity as

4. What you say that they erred and continued in errour through inaduertence and preiudice you contradict els where saying cap. 2. n. 155. that the Apostles in their persons while they were liuing were the only iudges of Controuersies And c. 2. n. 17 you say In matters of Religion none are fit to be iudges but such as are infallible And cap. 4. n. 88. lin 20. It is necessary for the constitution of infallible iudges that though they neglect the meanes of auoiding errour yet certainly they shall not erre Now can you put these propositions togeather in discourse The Apostles were whiles they were liuing the infallible guides iudges of fayth so made and ordained by the comming downe of the holy Ghost vpon them Iudges and guides infallible certainly shall not erre though they through inaduertence or preiudice neglect the meanes of auoyding errour Ergo the Apostles certainly did not erre nor deliuer errour through negligence inaduertence or preiudice And yet more to the same effect you write C. 2. n. 34. The Apostles infallibility was in a more absolute manner the Churches in a more limited sense The Apostles were lead by the Spirit into all truth efficaciter The Church is lead also into all truth sufficienter So that the Apostles and the Church may be fiftly compared to the Starre and the Wisemen The Starre was directed by the fingar of God and could not but goe right to the place where Christ was But the Wisemen were lead by the starre to Christ lead I say not efficaciter or irresistibiliter but sufficienter so that if they would they might follow it if they would not they might choose 5. But you stay not long in this conceyte of their absolute infallibility and being irresistably lead into all truth for within two or three pages you say that the promise of not erring was made them but vpon condition if they were not negligent and if they kept their station And. cap. 3. n. 77. Our Sauiour sayd to his disciples Yea are the salt of the earth not that this quality was inseparable frō their Persons but because it was their office to be so For if they must haue beene so of necessity could not haue beene otherwise in vaine had he put them in feare of that which followes If the salt lose the sauour wherwith shall it be salted Behold how you faulter before they were lead into all truth of necessity efficaciter irresistibiliter now not infallibly not of necessity they were in possibility to erre Neyther yet do you take vp your standing heere (a) Cap. 6. n. 〈◊〉 you runne into the contrary extreme that the Apostles could not lose the sauour of sanctity or charity and truth because it is certayne they could not haue any worldly or sinister intentiō in their preaching And then agayne to the contrary cap. 2. n. 93. This were to crosse the end of our creation which was to be glorifyed by free obedience To conclude for I am weary with the following of your light-headed guide fetching frisks euery way you iumpe at last vpon a truth the direct contradiction of that you sayd of the Apostles erring for a tyme about the Churches Vniuersality For you say cap. 6. n. 14. The Apostles who preached the Ghospell in the beginning did belieue the Church vniuersal though their preaching in the begining was not so They did belieue the Church vniuersall euen in your sense that is vniuersall de iure though not de facto Thus you Now this proposition The Apostles euen in the beginning before their preaching was vniuersall when they preached to Iewes only did beleeue the Church vniuersall de iure by diuine law is it not a direct contradiction of this The Apostles in the beginning before their preaching was vniuersall did not belieue the Church vniuersall de iure by diuine law yea they erred thinking it was against the diuine law to preach vniuersaly or to any but Iewes It is well that your wit the guide of your fayth doth professe that it can belieue contradictions at once this Heresy and this Truth otherwise it could not be the guide of that Religion you maintayne in your booke The third Conuiction 6. FRom the Apostles you passe to the second age after Christ accusing the vniuersal Tradition of that Primitiue Church as stayned vniuersally with impure and corrupt doctrine Cap. 5. n. 91. lin 41. seeking to answere what Charity Maintayn'd obiects that sundry Protestants acknowledge many of our doctrines to be taught by the ancient Fathers you say No antiquity except it be absolute and primitiue is a certaine signe of true doctrine For if the Church were obnoxious to corruption as we pretend it was who can possibly warrant vs that part of this corruption might not get in and preuaile in the 5. or 4 or 3. or 2. age Especially seing the Apostles assure vs that the mistery of iniquity was working though secretly euen in their times If any man aske how could it become vniuersal in so short a time let him tell me how the errour of the Millenaries and the Communicating of Infants became so soone vniuersal and then he shall acknowledge what was done in some was possible in others Thus you Which you repeate and inculcate more then fourty times at the least wherein you are like to the false witnesses to one of the which Daniel said very well Thou hast spoken falsely against thy owne head for the Angell of God shall deuide thee with a sword in the middes and doe thee away You are false against the spouse of Christ the holy primitiue Church as that witnesse was against Susanna and the same punishment of diuision and contradiction against your selfe is by God's iust sentence fallen on your head 7. You are false in saying so many times that the doctrine of the Millenaries to wit of Christs earthly Kingdome in the earthly Ierusalem full of all earthly felicity for a thousand yeares was deliuered as you say pag. 347. lin 24. as an Apostolicall Tradition that it was vniuersally receaued taught by all the Doctours and Saints and Martyrs of or about that time whose iudgement in this point is any way recorded This to be false is proued by your falsification of S. Iustine Martyr whome you make say that all good and orthodoxe Christians in his time belieued it and only hereticks denied it for his words are I and the Christians who are rightly persuaded in all things belieue the Resurrection of the bodies a thousands yeares in the new Ierusalem It is true all good Christians belieue the Resurrection of the body which you skippe ouer because Socinians do not belieue it in the Christian sense and a thousand yeares of felicity in the new Ierusalem in heauen not vpon earth Yea S. Iustine in that place doth plainly confesse that Many (q) Multos qui purae piaeque sunt Chriistianorum sentētiae hoc non agnoscere tibi significan● who are of the