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	call_v	word_n	4,099	5	3.7386	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85342	Good counsel in bad times, or, A good motion among many bad ones being a discovery of an old way to root out sects and heresies and an earnest desire for a complyance with all men to settle peace with justice : as also a relation of a remarkable piece of justice done by Duke William called the Good : likewise an epistle to the reader / by John Musgrave ...	Musgrave, John, fl. 1654.; Baudouin, François, 1520-1573.	1647 (1647)	Wing G1041A; ESTC R36608	23,472	37

condemne them by the very name and authority of some Councels without alledging the scriptures and reasons of the said Councels were out of reason for they submit themselves to prove that the Councels by the which their doctrine hath beene condemned were but petty Councels assembled and allowed by the tyranny of some who alone have decreed what they pleased against the authority of the scriptures without hearing or admitting of their adverse parties And doubtlesse in the ancient primative Church there were many Bishops which have rejected some Councels as suspect and not lawfull nor grounded upon the authority of the word of God but upon the authoritie of men as we read of Maximus Bishop of Ierusalem and of St Hillary Bishop of Poictiers yea and of St Athanasias Chrisestonie and Photinus so it is not without reason if many ages after them there have been Councels suspected to these men But as for the most Ancient and Received on either side they are content to allow of them so far forth as they prove their sayings by the word of God There resteth then nothing but that their reasons may be heard that the truth may be known and their heresies and errours avoided seeing there is no other means to procure a publick peace and to draw all the subjects to one Religion that if their adversaries as if there were no controversie in this point challenge the name of the Church and without hearing their reasons examined by the scriptures will that all that they shall ordaine or decree shall bee infallibly kept as an ordinance of the Church and so of God as they have done in the last Councel of Trent where the Pope was head and the adverse party not called but to be condemned and judged according to the ordinance of the Church that is to say of the Pope and Prelates or els to recant and then to bee receive into favour Without doubt there will be never any means to draw them from their beliefe seeing this Maxime will alwayes remaine graven in their hearts that they must in all things follow the word of God which alone hath authority to judge all Controversies and to define which is the true and the false Church which Maxime can never be wrested away by the authority of any man much lesse that the Pope and Prelats have any such Credit not by fire nor sword so as if their adversaries would not give them free audience as it is said but use violence they should but impaire their own Cause and make theirs better and more favourable whom they seek to root out Seeing then it is a Maxime or point resolved upon among all men of Judgement that touching the Faith and inward Beliefe no Corporall violence can command and that men must be confuted of errour in their Consciences we must examine the second point which wee have propounded which is Whether it were not possible to hinder the outward exercise of their Religion forbidding them to assemble preach teach nor to make any outward profession of that which they beleeve in heart And first In it were feasible whether it were fit and convenient to do it No religion whatsoever can subsist if it hath not some exterior exercises or ceremonies by the which it may be entertained whereupon the Emperor Gratian was wont to say that it was necessary the people should be maintained in some outward discipline of some Religion whatsoever it were good or bad For as man by nature is enclined to reject the yoke of God it is necessary he should be kept in awe and discipline else hee would bee like an untamed horse rejecting the fear of God and man Being then impossible to root out the Faith which they have in their hearts it were not convenient although it were possible to hinder their exteriour discipline and exercises by the which the people are maintained in their Religion and in the feare of God and of the Magistrate unless whereas in their Assemblies they are taught to be good men and to fear God and honour the King and his officers they will make them wicked Atheists Libertines and seditious perturbers of all good order and policy as we see plainly by daily experience For we see a number which have cast off the yoke of the Romish Church mocking at the Masse and Priests yet fear to lose their goods or honours refuse to apply themselves to discipline and exercise of any other Religion have become very Atheists without faith or law Yet there are no small number of villanous Libertines which make fects of themselves teaching that we must not serve God outwardly with any exterior form or discipline but onely in spirit and under this pretext they give themselves to all villany and abhomination to murthers rapes incests and adulteries holding that the outward things serve to no end so as the heart be cleer as they perswade themselves Yea some have been so audacious as to vaunt themselves to be Christ himself Others the Spirit of God And others Charity To conclude they are prophane people and contemners of God and the Magistrate maintaining that there ought not to be any sword or superiority used among men but that the spirit should rule govern and guide the heart of man as it pleaseth The which groweth through no other occasion but seing the great abuses which have reigned and do still reign in the Church and not being suffered on the other side to joyn themselves to any discipline and exercise of Religion they are grown to that pass as to think that dissimulation is not bad so as the heart be good and so mocking at Religion whereof they make a shew they must needs fall into wicked Atheism And there are none in the world more seditious and greater disturbers of all good order then these people as hath been seen in the Anabaptists of Munster and their like For the rooting out of which there were no better means whoso would consider all things without passion then to suffer them yea to command them expresly that all them which make profession of the Religion which they call Reformed should assemble in view of all the world and keep good discipline fit for the obedience which they owe unto God and the Magistrate correcting vices and excess for although there were no other good yet by this means they should get thus much which is of great importance for the preservation of the publick quiet That whereas we daily see spring up new and abhominable sects full of sedition and mutinies yea and of horrible blasphemies against the Majesty of God when as there should be but two publick kinds of profession in the view of all the world either of them performing the obedience which they owe unto God and the King when as any new one should spring up it would be easie to suppress it by the word of God But forasmuch as this seemeth strange to some to give Hereticks leave to sow their heresies let us

their Faith and forbearing all outward violence he sought by all policy to hinder their increase wherein he prevailed much more for that some through covetousness others through ambition suffered themselves to be perswaded to that whereunto they could not be forced by any violence or threats I will not compare here this new kind of Doctrine which is now in question with the Pagan Religion for it is not my intention to interpose my censure but I will onely conclude that in that which consisteth in the perswasion of the heart corporal violence prevaileth no more then the vapour of wind that blows to hinder the heat of the fire And daily experience hath taught us The means then to divert them from their opinions is to perswade them that their faith and belief is not conformable to the word of God To effect the which there is no other means then to give them free audience to the end that they may propound their reasons and motives with all liberty and that they be confuted of error and herefie by the Word of God If they remain obstinate yet when this disputation and instruction shall be performed in the eye of the World those that are weak shall by this means be perswaded not to follow their errors for as for the obstinate even as instruction would avail them little or nothing so much less would fire or death turn them from their resolved opinions But on the other side those which behold others to die with such constancy take a delight to seek the opinions and they which by this means came to fall in the like inconveniences should be wholy preserved when they should hear them vanquished by the word of God and by reasons which they cannot contradict If then Prelats and Bishops trust in the bounty of their cause as with all reason they ought There is not in the world a better means to attain unto the Kings intention and to prevent the multiplying of Sects then to confer together publickly that all the world may know that the others do falsly bragg that they have the word of God on their side for it is most certain that when truth is compared with falshood she must of necessity shew her beauty and obtaine the Victory discovering to the eye of all men what is false and counterfeit and by this means a great good shall rise for that they which now know not what to follow in so great a diversity of opinions may settle a firm judgment of the Truth after that they have heard the grounds of either side so as in conference all confusion and disorder all noise and rayling be laid aside As wee have seene in the disputations and conferences which Saint Paul hath made aswell with the Jews as against the Pagans then presently those which sought the truth knew that he had reason and that the other were in errour so in the Councels of Nicene the Arrians were admitted to propound their reasons and grounds with all liberty and being convicted by the word of God of error and heresie were forced for a time to desist from their enterprise but presently after when they presecuted them they had many disciples some moved by pittie some by their false perswasions the which was the cause of great mischiefs and inconveniences in the Church Yea in our time we have seene in all places where the Anabaptists have beene persecuted they have increased infinitely And contrariwise where they have been heard in publique conference and disputation and convicted of errour and heresie by the word of God they have had no more tredit in the world And therefore Mabomet hath so carefully forbidden that they should never dispute upon the points of Religion brought in by him knowing well that the truth being once confronted against his lyes his doctrine of necessity must goe to smoake It s a true marke and a badge of truth that it desires to be known made manifest and debated being like unto the Palm tree the more it is deprest and charged the higher and steighter it growes For this reason the ancients did appoint to hold free and generall Councels every yeare although by the corruption of time many abuses have beene brought in by the ambition and covetousnesse of those that should give their Voyces So it is that the Hereticks and Sectaries feare nothing in the World more then to be made manifest be it by a free and general councel or in any other place where as matters may be freely debated on either side the which we see at this day apparently in the Anabaptists who fly all disputations more then death If then those which desire to root out this new Religion which multiplies so fast are assured of the bounty and truth of their cause and of the falshood of their Adversaries There is no fitter means then to come publickly to field and to give their adversaries free audience and leave to dispute without doubt if they maintaine herefies there shall neede neither fire nor gibbets to hinder the course of their doctrine for that the more manifest it is the more it will decay It will be to no purpose to say that they have been often heard and confuted for admit it were so yet a great multitude of people which are inclined thereunto deserve so much paine as to bee instructed in hearing and examining their reasons but when you have said all they were never heard with patience for when as Luther began to preach this doctrine in Germany it was presently condemned by the Pope and persecuted by all the Kings and Princes of Christendome he was once called to be heard but it was to see if hee would recant or maintaine his writings and his doctrine And he on the other side protested nothing more then the desire hee had to bee better taught and instructed by the holy Scripture The like proceeding was held against Iohannes Husse at the councel of Constance who was never heard in his own defence but assoon as he was arrived there they laid before him certain Articles drawn by some adversary of his out of his books asking him if he would maintain those Articles which were reproved and condemned by the holy Church and thereupon they gave sentence that he was an heretick and damned the which the world sees to be against all right and reason To say that those were condemned by other Councels before is nothing to the purpose for if it be so as they say it will be the more easie to overthrow them now for that the ancients have never condemned any doctrine but that which they held contrary to the word of God the which they have alledged to that effect I say to confute errours and heresies So as now the way shall be traced and they shall need only to quote the same scriptures to confute these for that the word of God remaineth eternally and the scripture hath now as much force and vertue to confute heresies as ever But to