Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	church_n	part_n	universal_a	2,451	5	9.1017	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19950	A letter vvritten from Paris, by the Lord Cardinall of Peron, to Monsr. Casaubon in England. Translated out of the French corrected copie, into English.; Lettre de Monseigneur l'illustriss. card. Du Perron. English	Du Perron, Jacques Davy, 1556-1618.; Owen, Thomas, 1557-1618.; Casaubon, Isaac, 1559-1614.	1612 (1612)	STC 6383; ESTC S122259	15,517	56

the Heretikes belieuing those things of God which are false do violate the fayth and the Schismatiks by vnlawfull diuisions doe separate themselues from brotherly charity although they belieue in all things the same with vs. And for this cause neither doth the Heretike appertaine to the Catholik Church for that she loueth God nor the Schismatike for that she loueth her neighbour And in his Booke de vnitate Ecclesiae All those that belieue as hath bene said that our Lord Iesus Christ is come in flesh risen from death in the same flesh in which he was borne and hath suffered and that he is the Sonne of God with God and one with the Father and the onely immutable Word of the Father by whome all thinges were made but doth yet in such sort dissent from his body which is the Church that their communion is not with all them with whome the Catholike Church doth participate but are in some deuided part it is manifest that they are not in the Catholike Church And Prosper his Disciple saith That he who doth cōmunicate with this Vniuersall Church is a Christian and a Catholike and he that doth not cōmunicate is an Heretike and Antichrist By which we see that the ancient Fathers denyed the Title of Catholike to the Donatists because they separated themselues from the Communion of the Church and graunted it to them from whome the Donatists tooke their doctrine because they remayned in the Vnity of one communion The people vnder S. Cyprian his charge saith Saint Pacianus haue neuer bene called otherwise then Catholike And S. Vincentius Lyrinensis O admirable change of things The Authors of one and the same opinion are esteemed Catholikes and their followers are iudged Heretikes And S. Augustine Your dissention saith he and your diuision maketh you Heretikes their peace and vnity made them Catholikes And when as in the fourth Councell of Carthage this Article was put in the examen of those that were to be made Bishops the same was repeated in the Epistle of the Councell by Saint Augustine who was the Secretary in these words Whosoeuer is deuided from the Catholike Church how laudably soeuer he seeme to liue for this only cryme that he is separated frō the Vnity of the Church he shall be excluded from life and the wrath of God shall remayne vpon him And the same was repeated againe by Fulgentius who saith Hold for most certaine and doubt not in any manner that no Heretike or Schismatike baptized in the name of the Father of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost if he be not vnited to the Catholike Church although he giue neuer so great almes and shed his very bloud for the name of Christ yet can he in no wise be saued Thus sayd these Fathers wholy or principally against the Donatists who notwithstanding agreed with the Catholikes in all articles of the Creed and in holy Scripture You accord with vs sayth S. Augustine in Baptisme and in the Creed and in all other Sacraments of our Lord but in the spirit of Vnity in the place of peace lastly in the Catholike Church you are not with vs. And yet they differed only in one poynt of Tradition not expressely contayned in Scripture And S. Augustine himselfe the chief Conquerour of this Heresy doth confesse that it could not be proued by Scripture This saith he lib. de vnitate Ecclesiae neither you nor I do read in expresse wordes And in his first booke contra Cresconium Although no example of this matter be found in holy Scriptures yet do we follow in this the Truth of the Scriptures when we do that which is agreable to the Vniuersall Church cōmended vnto vs by the authority of the same Scriptures And l. 11. de Bapt. cont Donat. And we our selues saith he should not dare to affirm any thing of this matter if we were not warrāted by the most vniforme Authority of the Church And l. 5. The Apostles haue cōmanded nothing concerning this matter but the custome which was alleadged against S. Cypr. is to be thought to haue descended frō their traditiō as diuers other things haue done which the Vniuersall Church doth obserue and are therfore with great reason belieued to haue bene commaunded by the Apostles although they be not written Whence it followeth that it sufficeth not for the obtaining of the Name Catholike to hould or rather to thinke we do hould the self same beliefe of the ancient Fathers if we do not participate with them in the Vnity and Communion of the same Catholike Church with which the same ancient Fathers did communicate and which by succession of persons and as we further pretend by the succession also of doctrine is descended vnto vs. And if she hath lost any part of her greatnes in our Hemisphere she hath gotten as much or more in the other Hemisphere that is vnder vs that so those ancient Prophesies may be fulfilled In thy seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed And In the last dayes the mountayne of the house of our Lord shal be in the top of mountaines and shal be lifted vp aboue the hilles and all nations shall come vnto it The Ghospell of the Kingdome must be preached through the vniuersall world and then shall follow the end and consummation with other the like sentences of holy Scripture By which as Saint Augustine noteth the Church hath obtayned the Title Marke of Catholike The second obseruation is concerning the restriction to things necessary to saluation For besides those that are necessary to saluation there are two other degrees of things the one of such as are profitable to saluation as according to the iudgment of your Ministers is the selling of all that a man hath and giuing it to the poore Likewise to fast in time of afflictiō to appease the indignation of God to pray for the brethren that are of the same faith with vs to pray to Almighty God for our owne necessities The other degree is of things lawfull not repugnant to saluation as to flie in time of persecution and for such as serue the Altar to be maintained by the Altar to put away the wife that is Adultresse and the like For I alleage these as exāples and not for instances Now for entire conformity with the beliefe of the ancient Fathers it is necessary that we belieue all those things which they belieued euery one according to the degree in which they were held by them that is to belieue those things to be necessary to saluation which they reputed necessarie and those things profitable to saluation which they esteemed so and likewise to belieue those things to be lawfull and not repugnant to saluation which they did hold for lawfull not repugnant and that vnder colour that these two last degrees are not of things necessary to saluation but only profitable or lawfull we should not condemne them

particuler is bound actually to do As to professe the name of Christ to pardon receaued iniuries to restore the goods of others vniustly detayned Necessity of approbation is of those things which euery one in particuler is not bound actually to execute but he is bound not to contradict or condemne those that do them nor the Church which doth approue them nor for any dislike of them to separate themselues from the Church vnder paine of being excluded from euerlasting saluation Of this sort is the choice of liuing a chast and single life and other the like Of all which kindes of Necessitie the ancient Fathers held many things ech one in his degree differently necessary to saluation as we will shew in those particulers which shal be presented to be examined Now if we hold the points of doctrine or of action which the Fathers esteemed necessary for saluation according to some of these necessities and do reiect the rest we cannot for this be said to agree in beliefe with the ancient Fathers but it is further needfull to hold and esteeme all those things necessary to saluation which the ancient Fathers did esteeme to be necessary euery one in the degree and according to the kind of necessity as they were esteemed by them The fourth Obseruation is about the word Ancient which some when they should come to performe their promise of submitting their iudgment to Antiquity do restraine to the first or second Age immediatly after the Apostles not for that they hope to find within that space any ancient Father that doth fauour them but for that the Church being then oppressed with persecutions left vs but few writings of that Date and those for the most part against such persons about such matters as do so little appertaine to the questiōs now in cōtrouersy as the face of the anciēt doctrine the practise of the Church in those dayes cannot be fully represented vnto vs knowne But reason and equity requireth that if we wil confer the estate of the Sects of this age which would chalenge to themselues the Title of the Catholike Church with the estate of the ancient Church we should take a time wherin not only our Competitours do agree with vs that the Church of that age was the true Church the true Spouse of Iesus Christ and that she had lawfull authority to iudge and determine the Cōtrouersies in matters of Religiō but also it behoueth vs to take such a tyme of which we haue sufficient Monuments and Records to shew cleerly vnto vs the doctrine obobseruatiōs of that Church which cannot in any sort be better found then in the tymes of the foure first Councels that is from the tyme of Constantine the Great who was the first Emperour that publikly professed Christian Religion to the tyme of the Emperour Martian And it seemeth his Maiesty doth liberally accord not onely to this but to much more in some of his writings hauing extended the continuance of the true Church to the whole space of the fiue first ages For besides that the freedome from the yoke of seruitude of the Pagans gaue place to the Church then to speake with more liberty and to haue more free communication with all the parts belonging vnto it dispersed in diuers Countreys and Kingdomes and to flourish in a greater multitude of learned and excellent Writers which hath bene the cause that we haue at this present without comparison many more testimonyes of those ages to discouer the entire and perfect forme of the ancient Christian Religion then we haue of the other ages which went before Besides this I say our Aduersaryes cannot deny but that Church which was nourished with the brests of the first Christian Emperours and which destroyed the Temples abolished the seruice and honour done to false Gods and exercised the soueraigne Tribunall of spirituall authority on earth by the sentence of condemnation which she pronoūced against the foure most famous Heresies in the foure first generall Councells which were the foure first generall Assemblyes and Parlaments of Estate of the Kingdome of Christ was that Church of whom it was fortould that she should suck the brests of Kings and that Nations should walke in her light and Kings in the brightnesse of her orient that all attempts against her should be destroyed that she should iudge euery tongue that resisted in iudgement that God had put watchmen vpon her walles who should not be silent day or night for all eternity that the gates of Hell should not preuaile against her and whosoeuer refused to heare her should be esteemed as a Publicane and Heathen and briefly that she was the pillar and firmament of truth Shall we doubt saith Saint Augustine to put our selues in the bosome of that Church which by succession of Bishops from the Seat of the Apostles to the vniuersall confession of mankind the Heretikes barking on all sides and condemned partly by the iudgement of the very people and partly by the Maiesty of miracles hath obtained the highest degree of authority which not to obey and acknowledge is an act of extreme impiety or precipitous arrogancie And againe The Catholike Church resisting all Heretikes may be impugned but neuer ouercome al heresies haue come out of her as vnprofitable branches cut off from the vine but she remaineth still in her roote in her vine in her charity That doctrine therefore shall truly be sayd to be ancient and marked with the character of the primitiue Church which shal be found to haue bene belieued and practised vniuersally by the Fathers who liued in the time of the foure first Generall Councells and principally when it shall appeare that the things affirmed by the authors of those ages were not held by them as doctrines and obseruations of their owne but as doctrines and obseruations perpetually practised by the Church in all ages from the time of the Apostles although perhaps there cannot be found so many expresse testimonies of euery one of those things within the compasse of the precedent ages as may within the time of the foure first Councells by reason of the small store of writings which the Persecution of those times suffered to come to our hands For it sufficeth to assure vs of the perpetuall practice of those matters that the Fathers who liued in the time of the foure first Councells and knew better then we what passed in the ages that went before them do testify that they were belieued and practised not as things instituted in their age but as things which had bene practised in all times in the Church were come by cōtinuall and successiue obseruation from the Apostles vnto them and that in the Authors of the precedent ages no repugnant testimonie can be foūd but wholy to the contrary when any occasion of speaking of those things is offered they alwaies affoard cōformable and fauourable testimonies which is in few words to say That