Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	bishop_n	order_n	ordination_n	3,692	5	10.0697	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38514	An epistle of a Catholique to his friend a Protestant touching the doctrine of reall presence. Or, the answer to a question propounded in these tearms What should move you, contrary to the plain testimony of your senses, to believe, that after consecration the bread and wine in the sacrament is become really Christs very body and blood.		1659 (1659)	Wing E3164AA; ESTC R222634	19,912	20

and hold a thing so repugnant and absurd to sense and all humane reason as Sectaries make the Faith of Catholicks in this point seem to be and that the generation of Catholiques should do and believe this from age to age to almost seventeen hundred years and this without any self or by-ends of profit pleasure honour or other interest whatsoever but purely for conscience sake and out of obedience to Gods word and to the Catholique Doctrine of Christianity This certainly may seem no less then a miracle in our eyes we must confess the finger of God and his special Providence to be in it unless we be very partial especially if on the other side we do but consider how every other Sect that hath risen and upon pretence of reforming abuses and errors hath ever persecuted the Mother-Church really for her not complying with them in their greater Errours as for example the Arians in that of the Trinity the Calvinists in that of the Eucharist c. endeavouring still to make the Church forsake her first Faith and comply with them in their following of sense and humane reason contrary unto Faith I say if we do but consider how short-liv'd and how little or nothing prevailing both these and all other Sects have been how they have been able to do nothing but onely to procure disturbance and persecution to good Christians in some particular parts of the Church we must needs more clearly see and acknowledge the hand of God in it and that as it was their intent indeed and endeavour to disturb and destroy so Gods intent and purpose was to purifie his Church thereby and to purge it of Hypocrites and Time-servers and such like dross St. Austin expresseth the evil practices of these men by the similitude of barking Dogs They bark saith he in his Book de Vtilit cred cap. 17. speaking of Heretiques and Sectaries They bark perpetually against the Apostolique Chair but all in vain Th●y effect nothing by their barking Yea he confesseth that even himself was a Barker too all the time that he was a Manichean that is he was one that exercised the patience of true Christians by detraction and other injurious treating of them St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 11.19 There must be Heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest and for that reason God permitteth some Heresies and Sects as it were to reign and carry all before them for a time By false Teachers saith Moses Deut. 13.1 2 3 4. God proveth you whether ye will cleave unto the Lord your God with all your hearts and with all your souls Nevertheless they also in time declining the infallible rule of Faith which is the Authority and Tradition of the Catholique Church and refusing to be obedient and to captivate their understanding to the high mysteries of Faith but following humane reason and their own private sense have vanished and come to nothing All their wit and worldly glory and power and interest and learning could not preserve them from the contempt and violence of some contrary Sect. Witness the late Protestant Church of England How was it it established and secured as to all humane judgement from all danger and from all fear of being so suddenly rooted up How was the Government thereof settled by Bishops confirmed by Law and countenanced by the State Their form of Ordination Articles Sacraments Liturgy and their whole order of Worship so regulated and so ratified both by the Prince and State that nothing could seem to be desired more Yet because it was all of private judgement all differing or contrary to the Tradition of the Catholique Church and done either out of hatred or contempt or contradiction to the Apostolique Sea whose Authority is the root and fountain of all true Christian Ecclesiastical Unity how suddenly is her day come what a strange unexpected unfeared judgement hath taken her away in the height of her worldly glory For non-compliance she persecuted the children of her Mother-Church even to bloud imprisoning multitudes of them unto death but as for her Priests hanging and drawing and quartering them as Traitors and the most infamous of all sorts of Malefactors whatsoever and setting their flesh upon poles to be meat for the fowls of the ayr and permitting none to bury them and taking Two of Three parts of the Lands and goods of the Common people that professed themselves Catholiques But O ye stand now amazed and behold how she is judged She that was thus bottomed strengthned and established in her way of Religion and Church-government she that sate as Queen and said in her heart I shall see no widdow-hood what is become of her where is she to be found in the whole earth in less space then one hundred of years she is both risen and fallen and come to nothing and though her sin in the punishment thereof be even written upon her forehead yet she repents not but like the strange woman in the Proverbs she wipes her mouth and saith I have not sinned I have done no ill I am not either Heretique or Scismatique Our original Ordination was good our compliance with Princes for our safety is warranted by the examples of some other Nations though we have dissented from our mother-Mother-Church and from all the world beside in doctrine in ordination of Priesthood in a Leiturgy and worshipping of God in the Sacraments and Church-government yet all this is nothing so long as our selves being judges we are one in Fundamentals we are neither Schismatiques nor Heretiques how much soever we be outwardly cast down Thus they seem to plead But O miserable Apology how unable is it to justifie or palliate Schisme especially the Schisme of them who for so many years together have laboured the extirpation of that Church which first brought them off from Paganisme to Christianity Consider this I pray ye that are now upon the stage that ye act not against Gods Church Destroy it you cannot persecute it trouble and afflict it you may for a time so long as it pleases God to permit you but you shall sooner destroy your selves then it Remember what befel Pharaoh who thought by oppression to keep Israel low and weak but his wisdom proved folly What became of Jeroboams wisdom 1 Kings 12. though he was made a King of the ten Tribes yet he ought not to have altered Gods worship 'T is true in doing so his policy aimed onely at his own safety but yet that proved his ruine And for you my friends the Catholiques of this Nation who have solemnly in your Baptisme promised and professed to believe the Articles of Christian Religion and the Catholique Church as also to forsake all that appertains to the lust of the flesh to the lust of the eyes and pride of life which are not of the Father but of the Devil 1 John 2.16 in this Covenant be ye faithful to the death The time we have to labour for Eternity is

AN EPISTLE OF A CATHOLIQUE To his Friend A PROTESTANT Touching the Doctrine of Reall Presence OR The Answer to a Question propounded in these Tearms What should move you contrary to the plain Testimony of your Senses to believe that after Consecration the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament is become REALLY Christs very Body and Blood Matth. 22.29 Ye doe erre not KNOWING the Scriptures nor the POWER of God It is a manifest signe of an VNBELIEVING Heart in the Works of God to ask HOW This or That can be St. Basil lib. 5. contr Eunom Printed in the Year 1659. An Epistle of a Catholique to his Friend a Protestant touching the Doctrine of Real Presence SIR YOu having desired me to give you some probable Reasons which did or do perswade me to believe that after the words of Consecration the Bread contrary to the Senses of Seeing and Feeling and Tasting is Christs very Body and the Wine his Blood in answer to your demand I shall according to my weak Capacity tell you truly by what Reasons I am chiefly so perswaded First the Holy Scriptures unanimously in expresse tearms say That it is his Body and that it is his Blood the places in the Evangelists are so manifest and well known that it may seem needless to name them however for the importance of the matter I quote them to you Mat. 26.26 28. Mark 14.22 24. Luke 22.19 20. Secondly the Ancient Fathers did never understand those places otherwise then in their literal and proper sense as appeareth by their Works left in writing which are too numerous here to insert and is acknowledged by many of the most eminent Protestants themselves as namely Philip Melancthon the Centurists Bucer Peter Martyr Calvin and others as you may see in the Book called The Progeny of Catholiques and Protestants lib. 2. cap. 8. pag. 35 36 37. lib. 5. cap. 3. pag. 13. Thirdly it was the unanimous Doctrine of the Councels not one of them ever determining the contrary though at some times moved so to have done by some few private persons that Heretically opposed the Doctrine and many of the said Councels having expresly determined for it Fourthly it was ever the constant Belief and Practice of the universall Church throughout the world and whensoever any did oppose it they were presently judged condemned and cast out by the Church of that Age as Heretiques and in all after ages so likewise esteemed namely Heretiques and their memory held abominable stinking like to those Carcases Esay 66.24 which it is not improbable the Prophet in Spirit might principally mean when he said that the Carcases of the men that had transgressed being cast out shall be an abhorring to all flesh For so indeed most commonly are the memories of all Heretiques they are an abhorring not onely to the Catholique Church but to all flesh for the latter Heretiques do in one kinde or other usually condemn the former as much as Catholiques do Fifthly the Divisions and Differences which are among those whose opinions in this matter be contrary to the Church are so many and manifold that it is not easie to reckon them and do clearly convince that there can be no certainty of Truth in any of their said different opinions Luther in his time observed Eight several Expositions of those words Hoc est corpus meum This is my Body all contrary one to another and coming as he saith not from the Spirit of God but from the mouth of Devils and not long after him Claudius de Sainctes a learned Bishop of the Catholique Church in his Book of the Eucharist reckoned no less then fourscore different Expositions of the said words of Institution This is my Body c. and this is my Blood c. all earnestly maintained by learned Protestants with rejection of the contrary sense So that we see once out of the way of true expounding of Scripture and there 's no end of erring Luther speaking of Carolstadius Zuinglius and Oecolampadius all three Sacramentarians as he calls them saith Cursed be their Charity and Concord for ever and ever signifying that he would have nothing to do with them in the matter of this Sacrament He said moreover that they expounded the words This is my Body as absurdly as if one should expound that Text in the Book of Genesis In the beginning God made heaven and earth thus The Cuckow did eat up the Tittling or Hedge-Sparrow bones and all and as for that Passage of Saint John Chap 1. v. 14. of his Gospel The word was made flesh their Exposition saith Luther is as good as to say A crooked staff is made a Kite Thus did Luther not without cause set out and deride the Sacramentarians expounding of Scripture as you may see more at large noted pag. 22. of the Answer to Mr. Charks Preface called The Triall of Spirits Sixthly if the words This is my Body be to be expounded thus This is a figure or This is a sign of my Body then is there no hard mystery no hard saying at all in those words nor in those other which our Saviour spake John 6.53 Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood ye have no life in you which were utterly contrary not onely to the speeches language and confessions of all Writers and of all Records of Antiquity which acknowledge a great difficulty and hardness in this Mystery and a great irreconcileable repugnancy to carnal sense and Reason that the Eucharist or Sacrament should be verily and truly Christs Body and Blood but contrary to the whole purport of our Lords Answer to the Capernaites whose great stumbling question was how Christ could give them his flesh to eat This both They and also some of his Disciples called an hard saying they could not understand how it should be done nor yet by the Answer which our Saviour gave them did they or indeed could they in reason understand it as the Sacramentarians now do to wit that the Bread in a Spiritual sense is onely a figure of his Body and not his very Body indeed For what hardness had there been then to conceive and comprehend the full nature of the Mystery especially how could his Saying have been thought so hard that it should move many of Christs own Disciples to leave him and to walk no longer with him And surely a sad parting it was seeing our Lord presently upon it said as it were mournfully to the Twelve and will ye also go away And yet notwithstanding though it were for their satisfaction and to keep them from going away with the rest our Saviour even he who is so great a lover of souls thought fit to make them no other answer but this Doth this offend you what if you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before John 6.62 as much as if he had said though I do ascend and leave you yet of necessity my flesh must be eaten