Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	according_a	believe_v	faith_n	4,022	5	5.0939	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87434	Le dragon missionaire, or, The dragoon turn'd apostle being a dialaogue between a French Protestant-gentleman, and a French dragoon, wherein the new-way of convverting hereticks by dragoons is very lively and truly represented : to which is annexed a letter of Monsieur Jurieu to a French gentleman of quality, upon his dragonary conversion / translated out of the original French ; suppressed in the the late reign, but now re[pr?]inted ...	Jurieu, Pierre, 1637-1713.	1686 (1686)	Wing J1201; ESTC R43871	21,022	27

according to her Principles I must not believe in God but only upon the Faith and Credit of the Romish Church that is she treats the true God as Pagan Rome was wont to deal with her false ones She makes him depend upon the good-liking of Man Yea what is more she lifts up her self above God for she will be believed upon her word but allows not that God should be believed upon his So that instead of those words which so emphatically preface many passages in the Prophets Thus saith the Lord we must put Thus saith the Church From whence it is apparent that the Church of Rome believes in its self for if the reason why we are to believe any thing be not because God hath said it but because the Church saith so it follows that the Church believes because she wills or commands her self to believe and consequently she must be the Foundation and Rule of her own Faith Another thing very wonderful in this Principle of hers is that when any of the Members of this Communion hath a desire to know what it is that the Church requires him to believe he must content himself and acquiesce in the testimony of one sole person viz. of the Pope a Bishop or his own Curate and when any one of these tell him that this is the Doctrin of the Church he must acquiesce in what he hath said for if he should not there is no way remaining for his satisfaction but one viz. That the Church must be perpetually assembled in an Oecumenical Council for to resolve him what he ought to believe and what not And thus these Gentlemen that won't allow me to believe all the Prophets and Apostles together nay nor God himself speaking to me in the Scriptures yet will have me believe a single Curate or a single Bishop And that this is their plain and full meaning is so apparent that if any particular person should pretend to make any difficulty so to do or to reject the slightest of those Decisions which his Pastor assures him to be the Determinations of the Church they would prosecute him even after his Death and condemn him to the very Torments of Hell And now pray tell me whether any thing can be imagined more Exorbitant than this Tyranny of the Church and Clergy of Rome or any Slavery to be compared with that of her Votaries The Canon beginning with these words Si Papa d. 40. c. 6. Carries this Tyranny and this Slavery to that pitch as to affirm That if the Pope should carry the Souls of men in great flocks to the Devil he must be let alone without presuming to controll or contradict him By vertue of this Authority it is that the Church of Rome doth set up and establish new Mediators which in a manner saith Bellarmin may be called our Redeemers she Ordains an infinite number of new Devotions invents new Mysteries as that of Transubstantiation a new Sacrifice of Propitiation that of the Mass creates a new Ministry that of the Pope and his Cardinals founds new Religions those of the several sorts of Monks makes new Laws those of Tradition institutes new Sacraments viz. Confirmation Auricular Confession Orders Marriage and Extream Vnction She dispenseth with the Laws of God with the Obedience of Children to Parents and of Subjects to their Princes She adds to the Commands af God those of the Church that is her own She takes from the Commands of God viz. the second she allows what God forbids suffering publick Stews and forbids what God permits in forbidding Marriage and Meats yea what is more she commands what God expresly forbids viz. the worshipping of Images and forbids what he expresly commands viz. the Communion under both kinds See here Sir enough to make up a Letter and enough also to convince you of your horrible fall in quitting our Religion and embracing that of Rome I won't make it my task to dispute with your Wit and Reason nor before Men I l'e only dispute with your Conscience and that before God I therefore adjure you by your Conscience and by God who sees all things who must judge you one day to answer me truly to some Questions I shall put to you Are you fully satisfied in the Abjuration you have made Are you throughly perswaded in your heart as your new Religion obligeth you to be that the Religion you have quitted is Heretical Schismatical and Damnable and that on the contrary that of Rome is the onely true and saving Religion Do you believe in good earnest that Jesus Christ hath indeed granted to the Pope all the Authority he boasts of and takes to himself For in case he attributes to himself that which in no wise belongs to him he can be no other than a false Pastor and an Vsurper Do you believe firmly that in the Mass there is made a Transubstantiation viz. a change of the substance of the Bread into that of the Body of Jesus Christ and of the substance of the Wine into that of his Blood and that he is present in Body and Soul in the outward species or appearance of Bread and Wine and that he is to be adored there tho' it be as impossible to be assured that he is there indeed as it is to know the bottom of the heart of the Priest that Officiates upon whose intention this whole Mystery depends and consequently the Faith of those who believe that a Wafer is the true God the Creator and Redeemer of the World Can you possibly be ignorant that the Pope is Antichrist and Rome Babylon and that the Spirit of both the one and the other is the Spirit of Lyes of Cruelty and Impurity That the God of the Church of Rome is the God of the Mass and that that God is no better than an Idol which she worships most religiously together with an infinite number of Idols more That the said Church acknowledges no other Authority besides her own that she exalts her word above that of God and that she exerciseth a tyrannical power over the Consciences of men In a word can you be ignorant that all what that Religion teaches different from ours which are the very things they have particularly oblig'd you to embrace as necessary to Salvation are so far from being contain'd in the Gospel that they are most clearly and strongly condemn'd and forbid there And can you imagine that there is any Salvation for you in the state you are in viz. that of Hypocrisie whilst you p●etend to believe what you do not believe and to worship from your heart and freely when you do not do it but against your will as knowing it to be Idolatry whilst you externally comply with all the Worship of the Church of Rome serving with her by the worship term'd Doulia which is the word in Gal. 4.8 those things which by nature are not Gods Have you so wholly forgot the Gospel that you do not remember that the portion

she puts upon her new Converts The same Spirit is the Author of so many horrible Slanders wherewith they blacken the Church of God and his faithful Servants It is he hath establisht that Maxim That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks that Equivocations and mental Reservations are lawful and that the Pope hath power to dispense with the most inviolable Oaths that may be From the same Source have been derived all those Perfidious dealings with the Protestants in France by Repealing the most solemnly sworn and ratified Edicts and by publishing others quite contrary to them Neither is the Spirit of Cruelty and Murther less in vogue in the said Church Who can enumerate all the Barbarous Cruelties committed by the Holy Office of the Inquisition as they are not ashamed to call it the bloody Wars Massacres Poysonings Assassinations and Butcheries which that Religion hath and still doth put in practice in the four parts of the World or those only she hath been the Author of in Germany Bohemia Hungaria France the Low Countries England Scotland Ireland and Italy The Protestants of France formerly have been and are now at present a most sad and convincing Instance of this Truth The Cruelty of this Religion appears also by her condemning to Hell universally all other Christian Communions whatsoever and in that there is not the least Article she professes to which she hath not annexed an Eternal Anathema against all those who shall dare to contradict or deny it And for the Spirit of Impurity it hath so perfectly got the Mastery and Dominion over that Churche that it even reigns in those places which one would believe should be the Refuge of shamefac'dness and Chastity I mean even in Rome the Holy and throughout the whole Patrimony of the Church in their places for Confession in their Mon asteries of the one as well as the other Sex in the habitations of their Clergy throughout whole Spain which is so Emphatically Catholick and throughout whole Italy which one would think should not approve nor tolerate any such filthiness as being the own Country and Seat of the Holy Father and his Holy Court. And that no man may here alledge that these Disorders are not Authorized nor approved of it is most notorious that the Pope draws a yearly Revenue from the Publick Stews which are solemnly established in all the Cities of his Dominion that the Casuists even the most famous and of greatest Authority with that Communion do favour the practice of the most detestable and unnatural filthiness which the Spirit of Uncleanness can possibly suggest to men yea all the Popish Divines do declare with a loud voice that it is better for their Clergy to burn in the fire of all sorts of Uncleanness than to be Married But this Communion is not only guilty of Corporal filthiness and impurity but also of that which is Spiritual that is Idolatry For according to what was said before the very God of that Religion is an Idol What God is it which she serves and to the Worship of which she will compel and force the whole Earth To whom doth she Erect her Altars Consecrate her Festivals her Offerings her Vows and Prayers To whom doth she betake her self upon all occasions whether Ordinary or Extraordinary To whom doth she address her most solemn Adorations Is it not to the God of the Mass even to a God which the Priest makes every day of a little Water and Flower after he hath mumbled four or five Latin words over it and which he devours after he hath made it And this God can it be supposed ought else but an Idol And must not a man be deprived of the light of Sense and of Reason and of Faith before he can in the least doubt of it But to convince the most prepossed of this Truth from their own Principles is it not agreed upon by all that the Object of the Worship of true Religion cannot be doubtful or uncertain For they are false Religions which worship that which they know not as our Lord said of that of the Samaritans and is it not true and incontestable that the Object of the Worship of the Roman Church is uncertain and doubtful Is any one assured nay is it possible that any one should be so that J. C. is really present in the Species of the Eucharist since that depends upon the intention of the Priest that celibrates Mass according to the express decision of the Council of Trent And who can be certain that this or that Prie●t had the intention of fixing him there or that he had it not and supposing he had the intention who can be assured that his intention is acomplished and that our Saviour in obedience to the same hath indeed hid himself under the Species of Bread and Wine And if this Object be thus uncertain the Religion of Rome must needs be so likewise Again if this Object be doubtful it can never be the Object of Faith nor of true Devotion it cannot be the Deity nor indeed any thing else but a meer Idol But alas this is not the alone Idol which Rome Adores she hath as many more of the number as there are Angels yea Saints and Saintesses in Heaven and as there are Popes Crosses Images and Relicks upon earth for she bestows Religious Worship upon all these in the sight and ken of the whole World and consequently she cannot but be guilty of Idolatry and that in so high a degree that she may justly boast of worshipping the vainest of all Idols for never were any more vain than her Wafers are and of having raised Idolatry to that pitch beyond which no farther advance can be expected for there is no Instance in all the Records of Time of a more transported and besotted Dovotion than that which she hath for that piece of Paste Now tho' all this be indeed prodigious and amazing yet behold here another Instance which is no less surprizing and unaccountable which is That the Romish Church hath erected her self for an Idol and Object of her own Adoration and which she imposeth upon others to worship as God For she attributes to her self Infallibility and a Soveraign Independence and Authority Characters which are the Propriety of God alone She imposeth her Decisions as so many Divine Oracles and will have them received for this sole reason because they seem good in her Eyes She hath the boldness to maintain That all the Articles of Faith depend upon her Authority that it is from her we hold the Greatest Mysteries of our Christian Religion as that of the Trinity of the Incarnation Grace c. She raiseth her Authority so far above that of the Holy Scriptures that she maintains the Holy Scriptures to have no other Authority but what she gives to them and that without Her we are no more obliged to believe the Word of God than that of Mahomet which is Bellarmins own Comparison In a word