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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	according_a	scripture_n	word_n	5,566	5	3.9070	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60205	A confession of faith of James Salgado, a Spaniard, and sometimes a priest in the Church of Rome dedicated to the University of Oxford : with an account of his life and sufferings by the Romish party, since he forsook the Romish religion.	Salgado, James, fl. 1680.	1681 (1681)	Wing S375; ESTC R13433	10,044	21

A CONFESSION OF FAITH OF James Salgado A SPANIARD and sometimes a Priest in the Church of Rome Dedicated to the University of Oxford With an Account of his Life and Sufferings by the Romish Party since he forsook the Romish Religion LONDON Printed for William Marshall at the Bible in Newgate-street 1681. To all and Singular Members of the University of OXFORD To the Reverend and most Excellent Mr. Vicechancellour To the Reverend and Eminent Heads of Colledges And to the Worthy Fellows of the same James Salgado A Spaniard wisheth Felicity both Temporal and Eternal I Should be very Injurious to your bounty Liberally bestowed upon me O ye Men every one famous according to his Title and Degree unless according to the Old Custom of the Romans I should Crown that Fountain with Laurel from whence I drew Water For 't is a great Sign of Inhumanity to receive a benefit and not to return it again The Heliotrope must conform it self according to the Suns motion because as it cannot avoid it's Light so it ought not to decline its influence But this acteth so effectually upon it that it is forced to turn its Head to the Course of the Sun You have relieved my Misery O ye Gentlemen of the University and that so effectually that you have invited me to a Publick acknowledgement of your benevolence toward me which I am now willing to do lest by any longer delay this good purpose of mine should lose its reward This little Book therefore I lay before your Feet expecting what Censure you 'll please to bestow upon it You 'l take my Endeavours I hope in good part and pardon this my temerity If taking a little pains in this exercse as Sylla the Roman Dictator was wont to carry a little Image of Jupiter in his bosom So I presume to bear your Portraicture in my heart and this I will do beyond the reach of all envy and shall account it among the Number of the greatest Vertues to be found guilty of such a fault neither because you have done me a kindness therefore shall it be lawful for me to be ungrateful With Cyrus therefore favourably receive me as a genuin and true Persian and do not disdain to enlighten me with the bright raies of your further Benevolence who desires to borrow some splendor from your shadow Fare ye well most worthy Gentlemen and be entirely favourable to one that admires your dignities and is Your Servant James Salgado A Converted Spaniard A CONFESSION of FAITH IN the Name of GOD Amen After I had been admitted to the Order of Priest-Hood in the Church of Rome and now perceived that I was to look after the Cure of other Mens Souls committed to my Charge as well as my own I very often consider'd with my self how I might safely enter upon the way of Salvation and so provide salutary supplies both for my self and also for the Flock committed to my Custody 'T is very true that the Romanists debar the Common People from reading the Holy Scriptures as from the Food of Life but yet those of the Clergy and that especially in Spain my Native Country as well as other Roman Catholicks are wont more Religiously to exercise themselves in Reading the Sacred Scriptures The same thing happened to me also and while I was Reading Gods Holy Book I lighted upon those words of the Apostle 2 Tim. 3.16 All Scripture is given by Divine Inspiration and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction and for Instruction in Righteousness That the Man of GOD may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good Works In which Words the blessed Apostle seemed to me to have drawn a Presbyter in his lively Colours and not only to have shewn and prescribed a Method of Preaching the Gospel but also to have discover'd the matter and Fountain from whence 't is to be drawn and which is more to have open'd a way which might bring the Man of God that is the Mimister of CHRIST to an undoubted Consummation For he mentions the Scriptures which he acknowledgeth to contain in them the whole Treasure of Gods Divine Will seeing he has both expressed those four Fountains of Christian Morality and also denounced him accursed whosoever shall offer to Preach any other Gospel than that which he Preached and withall Pronounced Peace upon every one that walketh according to this Rule Gal. 1.9 and 6.16 When I had ponder'd these things with my self and perceived such great and Magnificent things to have been spoken by the Apostle concerning the Scriptures he being such a one as had affirmed to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus that he had made known unto them the whole Counsel of GOD Act. 20.27 and yet withall that he spake nothing but what Moses and the Prophets had said before him At last I came to this Conclusion That the Holy Scriptures are the only Writings wherein we may be instructed concerning the Method and means of our Salvation and that out of them only we are to instruct the People and to Convince the Gain sayers To this Rule therefore I applyed all those Controversial Questions which usually past between Divines as being very desirous to know the Internal parts of every Profession in Religion that by this means I might the safer adjoyn my self either to this or that party and with a good Conscience worship GOD and his Anointed JESUS CHRIST And truly I could not own any other to be the true Religion which might be weighed in the Ballance of Gods Divine Law and the Promises besides the Reformed Wherefore I made a Covenant with my Soul That I would forthwith adjoyn my self ●o the Reformed Church and forsake the Romish Idolatry which also I did in France and that in the Assembly of CHARENTON and with great joy of my mind I did there unite my self to the Mystical Body of my Saviour But as every Man must live by his own Faith and none can be judged before Gods Tribunal unless it be by his own Conscience there being no Mediator to intercede betwixt that and GOD. So also I might have been one of the Resormed Religion without making any External Profession of my Faith Notwithstanding because of the Commands of my Friends and common Custom so requiring therefore I was the more willing to testify unto the World my intimate and sincere Confession in these following particulars With GODS help therefore I. In the first place I Confess that the Holy Scriptures are sufficient for Salvation and that they are the Supreme Normal Judge of all Controversies 'T is very true that as GOD is the Author of the Scriptures so he is likewise the Supreme Judge of all Controversies but none is to be acknowledged for the subordinate and Normal Judge of them but the Scripture only Neither is the Heresie of the Papists to be admitted who make the Church to be the Supreme Judge of Controversies Which Church as they call it whether it consists

it was disperst over the whole World in every Nation and in every Profession of Christians And although it did not appear outwardly in the sight of men as it did not in Elijahs time who thought himself the only man alive that remained of all the Faithful yet at the same time it was in the world like Wheat in a good quantity of Chaff or as the Lilly among the Thorns For Protestants are not of the same Opinon as Donatists were of old that the Church can be confined to any one Corner of the World as they said it was to Africa but that it is diffused every where throughout the whole World because GOD in every Nation has those that are his Neither are we so cruel as to reject even the Papists themselves though not as such from the Communion of the Church seeing we know very well that though their Church is not a Church in moral sence yet in a Physical or Natural one it is that is to say though she be not a good yet she is a true Church Neither do we deny her a pastoral Office which belongs to Ordination of Ministers or Administration of the Holy Sacraments A Wife does not lose the Title and Denomnation of a true Wise although she be dishonest Now the Church in a Mystical sense is compared to a married Woman For this cause seeing I found the true Church to consist only amongst those of the Reformed Religion and that from those very Notes which are commonly attributed unto such a Church viz. from the purity of Preaching Gods Word and a due administration of the Sacraments although Bellarmine has fifteen other marks more or less I resolved with my self as I did intend before to joyn my self to this Body and have renounced the Romish Conspiracie to betake my self to the true Doctrine of Christ Which now I do here sincerely and Faithfully profess before GOD and Jesus Christ and do most earnestly beseech all my Brethren that they would embrace the same Opinion with me and believe this my confession and that they would receive me as a living Member of our Saviours Body and that they would also add some comfort to one that earnestly longeth for the Salvation of his Soul that they wouldembrace me in their Arms and receive me into their Bosom who have fervently desired with many Prayers to enter into the same Covenant with the Faithful And now O God who hast been pleased to illuminate me by thine Infinite Grace be pleased also to continue me in the same that as I have now made a sincere Profession of thy Truth so I may remain stedfast therein and never turn away mine Eye from thy truth Grant that with Holy David in thy Light I may see Light and at last having finished my Course and kept the Faith I may behold thee in thy Heavenly Kingdom Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly To thy self with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Praise and Glory World without End Amen James Salgado A Spaniard and sometimes Priest of the Church of Rome FINIS AN ACCOUNT OF MY LIFE SUFFERINGS Since I forsook the ROMISH-RELIGION IN A Letter to Dr. H.S. SIR AT your request I shall add to my former Confession an account by what steps I was induced to forsake Popery and withall some small Story of my Life and Troubles for the Reformed Religion The first thing that startled me and made me withdraw from the Covent in which I had lived in Priests Orders three years was the dissention betwixt the Popish Doctors themselves and that in such things as themselves say Salvation depends upon for whilst some of them make it necessary to Salvation to belive that the Church is infallibly govern'd by the Holy Ghost and therefore the ultimate Resolution of Faith must be the Determinations of the Church I found others did doubt of this and dispute against it Whilst I was thus laying things together in my mind under great dissatisfaction I resolved to leave Spain my Native Country and go into France where I hoped for greater freedom of speech for at home I found it was dangerous to move any thing how modestly soover against received Points Coming then to Paris I had many hot Disputes with those of my own Order with as little satisfaction as in Spain But at last I betook my self to some of the Ministers of the Church at Charentin by whom I was very Christianly entertained and amongst them the Reverend Monsieur Drelincourt took great pains to answer my doubts and I came forward to close with the Truths of the Reformed Religion and he was concern'd for my safety and advised me fourthwith to go into the United-Provinces But first I had in their Consistory renounced Popery viz. anno 1666. When I was come to the Hague I had a most courteous reception by that Excellent Person Monsieur Samuel Maretz he used his endeavour to settle me there and for my livelihood put me upon the teaching the Spanish Tongue But when that could not succeed because of my ignorance of the Durch Language though I was well enough able to teach those that understood Latin French or Italian he gave me advice to return to Paris There I was forced to lye privately amongst the Members of the Reformed Church being afraid to be known to others But the Queen of France a Spaniard by Birth had brought over with her many of her Country-men who too well knew me and narrowly enquired after me By their means I was taken sent back into Spain put into the Inquisition in the Province of Estremadura and the City of Clarena there I lay a year and was monthly examined but at last made an escape When I had gone almost a hundred Leagues as far as Origuela I was laid hold on by the Fryers of my own Order and sent by them to Murcia where I lay five years in Prison having neither Books nor Society except of tormenting Priests I was at last brought before the Bishop and other Officers of his Court where for the Scandal as they call'd it I had given I was sentenced to the Galleys When they had publickly read my Crime during which time they made me hold a Black-Candle in my Hand the Sentence was executed upon me In the Galleys for a years space I endured the miseries that attend Slaves at the Oar Chains Nakedness Stripes Thirst Hunger Vermine and Sickness which they termed a Leprosie till at length the Chyrurgion and other Officers of the Galley where I was interceded with the Inquisitor-General for me as a person not only useless but noysome to thom and the other Slaves He hereupon sent me into the Hospital at Murcia after my Cure I stayed some months in the Covent but never returned to my Habit because my Impenitence as they termed it hindered my Absolution From thence I made a second escape into France and after I had stayed about a year at Lion not finding my self safe I came into England what assistance I have had here both to establish me in the Reformed Religion and for my subsistance you well know Other passages Historical which are in my Confession I here omit Likewise what thoughts it pleased God to comfort me with in my distresses what temptations I endured and how through the Grace of God I overcame them I cannot in the narrow room of this Leaf set down neither had thus much of me ever come in Print but at your request and if any doubt be made of these things you or any others that have Correspondent about Murcia may please to satisfie your selves as to a considerable part of them To that then I refer you and am Sir Yours James Salgado FINIS