Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	build_v	peter_n	rock_n	30,238	5	9.7701	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28845	A pastoral letter from the Lord Bishop of Meaux to the new Catholicks of his diocess exhorting them to keep their Easter, and giving them necessary advertisements against the false pastoral letters of their ministers : with reflections upon the pretended persecution / translated out of French, and publish'd with allowance.; Lettre pastorale. English	Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne, 1627-1704.	1686 (1686)	Wing B3787; ESTC R12514	28,012	60

We can say without fear of being reprehended that they Cannot shew any change in the Catholick Church unless in those matters of Ceremony and Discipline which from the first Ages have been alwayes held for indifferent As for those insensible changes which they accuse us to have introduc'd in Doctrine in that they call them insensible it is enough to convince you that there are none marked out and that they cannot shew an innovation by any one positive matter of Fact But what they cannot shew us we are ready to shew to all those who have forsaken us There has not been any Interruption of the Antient Doctrine in any patt of the Christian World but is known the date of the Innovation and Seperation no Person is ignorant of If there had been such changes among us the Authors would have been named the Spirit of Truth which is in the Church would have noted them and their Names would have been infamous as that of Arius Nestorius Pelagius Dioscorus and Berengarius So that all they have told you of these insensible changes in Doctrine of which they have not produc'd one example in the Christian Church is no other but an empty Accusation without any matter of Fact-to support it and seeing you understand the Doctrine which I declare to you and that which the other Catholick Bishops also declare to you you ought by no means to doubt but that you hear in our Discourse those who first preach'd the Gospel and in them the Apostles and in the Apostles him who said Go Teach and Baptize and behold I am with you even to the end of the World So when your Ministers told you You needed not trouble your selves about the Succession of Chairs and Pastors provided you kept the Right Doctrine and true Understanding of the Scripture they separated that which JESUS CHRIST hath been pleas'd to render inseparable And it is in vain they boasted of understanding the Scriptures when in the mean while they rejected the Means by which it hath pleas'd God to transmit it It was his Will that it should come to us from Pastor to Pastor and from Hand to Hand without the least suspicion or appearance of Innovation By this means we come to know what hath always been Believ'd and by consequence what ought always to be Believ'd It is as I may say in this always that the force of Truth and the Promise is evidenc'd and the whole is lost if an Interruption be found but in one only Point Those things which thou hast heard from me says St. Paul before many witnesses commit thou to faithful men who shall be fit to teach others also To seperate the wholesome Doctrine from this Chain of Succession is to separate the River from the Channel And to vaunt themselves of the Understanding of the Scripture when they acknowledge they have lost the Stream of Tradition in their Pastors is to vaunt of having preserv'd the Waters after the Pipes are broken Do not therefore hearken My Well-beloved to the Word of Falshood and suffer not your selves to be seduc'd by these Pretended Pastoral Letters which they address to you from so many Parts and in such different Forms That which hath for its Title A Pastoral Letter to the Protestants of France who are fallen through Torments is not the better for being full of Words which that great Bishop and Martyr St. Cyprian address'd to the Faithful of Carthage to exhort them to Penitence and Martyrdom Those who dare imitate the True Pastors and who use the Language of St. Cyprian ought to consider whether they can from so good a Title attribute to themselves the Pastoral Authority But let them consult this Holy Martyr he will teach them That the Church is One That Episcopacy is One That to possess it lawfully it is necessary to ascend by One continual Succession even to the Source of Unity that is to say even to the Apostles and even to him to whom only JESUS CHRIST hath said that he might found his Church upon Unity Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I Build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it and I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. and also after his Resurrection Feed my Sheep The same St. Cyprian will teach them That from this Source of the Apostles rising from perfect Unity all the Pastors have issued That from hence Episcopacy is One not only in all Places but also in all Times That the Church like a Sun spreads her Rayes through the Universe but that it is the same Light which extends it self on all Sides That she spreads her Branches and causes her Streams to run through the Earth but that there is but one Source one Chief one Common Beginning one self-same Stock and finally one self-same Mother rich in the Fruits she brings forth from her Fruitful Womb. And least We should imagine some Cases might happen in which it might be Lawful to separate from the Unity of the Church or reform her Doctrine he adds these excellent Words which I beseech you my Brethren to consider The Spouse of JESUS CHRIST can never be an Adultress she cannot be corrupted and her Chastity is inviolable He that separates himself from the Church to joyn himself with an Adulteress thus he treats the Sects that are separated from the Unity of the Church hath no part in the Promises of JESUS CHRIST he is a Stranger he is Profane he is an Enemy He cannot have God for his Father since he has not the Church for his Mother 'T is in vain that he pretends to break the Holy Unity which is founded on the Unity of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And can they believe pursues he that the Vnity which is Built on so firm a Foundation can ever be dissolv'd He that keeps not this Vnity of the Church keeps not the Law of God he hath not the Faith of the Father and the Son he hath not Life and Salvation Do not you perceive My Bretheren how opposite the Method which they use in your pretended Churches is to that of St. Cyprian Your Ministers tell you without ceasing That to believe the Church without examining is without examining to believe Men subjects to Errour and that to know the True Church which one may beleive one must by a discussion of particular Questions know before hand the True Faith taught by the Scriptures But you see that St. Cyprian takes quite another Method To confound by an easie and compendious Argument as he propos'd to himself all Heresies and Schisms he alledges the Authority of the Church He knew nothing more manifest and so far was he from suffering them to inquire after the Church by examining into her Doctrines that he would have them know her first and hold it for certain that they cannot enjoy either the Law of God or Salvation or Life

when they are out of her Unity This great Man hath alwayes follow'd the same Method For when Antonian one of his Colleagues in the Episcopal Dignity was loath to condemn Novatian and would first be infirm'd of his Doctrine St. Cyprian makes him this grave Answer As for that which concerns the Person of Novatian since you desire to be inform'd what Heresy he has introduc'd you must know my dear Brother before all things that we need not curiously enquire what he has taught since he hath taught out of the Church let it be what it will it is not Christian since it is not in the Church of JESUS CHRIST So when Men separate themselves from the Unity and after the Example of Novatian send new Apostels to establish their new Institutions and their new Doctrines in a word to build a new Church tho' they vaunt like him of Reforming the Church and of reducing it as well to a Purer Doctrine as to a more Regular Discipline they are so far from being admitted to prove theirs to be the True Church because of the True Doctrine which they pretend to teach that on the contrary they are convinc'd that they cannot have the True Doctrine when they are not in the True Church and when they would Build a new one Let these False Pastors who boast of their being extraordinarily sent to Build the Church anew fallen into Ruine and Desolation hear St. Cyprian Let them remember on what Maxims he founded his Episcopacy And since they cannot shew us a Mission like his let them cease to imitate the Language of so great a Bishop and to assume to themselves his Authority You have often heard them say That you need not trouble your selves where the Church was since JESUS CHRIST hath pronounced That in whatsoever place two or three Persons shall meet together in Name he is there in the midst of them It is a long time that the Hereticks and the Schismaticks have abused this Passage They serve themselves of the times of St. Cyprian to Authorize the Assemblies which they hold a part But this Holy Martyr confounds them by the foregoing Words where JESUS CHRIST speaks in this manner If two of you shall agree together on Earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven where at first sight it is manifest that these two who agree together ought to be in the Body and Christian Unity in Common Fraternity If two says he of you that is as St. Cyprian understands If two or three Children of the Church two or three who are together in Communion shall Assemble themselves in the Name of JESUS CHRIST he will be in the midst of them and will hear their Prayers Secondly says this Holy Doctor It is necessary that these two or three be united And continues he how can they unite themselves with any one when they are not united with the Body of the Church and with all the Fraternity How can two or three be Assembled in the Name of JESUS CHRIST if it be apparent at the same time that they are separated from JESUS CHRIST and from his Gospel FOR WE HAVE NOT SEPARATED OUR SELVES FROM THEM BUT THEY HAVE SEPARATED THEMSELVES FROM US And since that Heresies and Schisms are alwayes posteriour to the Church as they have formed different Conventicles and diverse Assemblies they have forsaken the Head and the Origine of Truth Lend an Ear my Brethren to this Decision of St. Cyprian He points at those who came after those who separate themselves from the Church which they found Established those who make themselves New Assemblies who upon that account are incapable of Assembling in the Name of JESUS CHRIST and so far are they from being permitted to justifie their Separation and their New Assemblies upon this ground because they Preach the Gospel and because JESUS CHRIST is with them that it is manifest on the contrary according to the Doctrine of St. Cyprian That they are separated from JESUS CHRIST and from the Gospel in as much as they separate themselves from the Church and account themselves obliged to form a new one And to the end they may the better understand of what Church this Holy Martyr would speak it is of the Church which acknowledges at Rome the Head of her Communion and in the place of Peter the Eminent Degree of the Sacerdotal Chair which there acknowledges the Chair of Peter and the Principal Church from which the Sacerdotal Vnity hath taken its Original Finally which there acknowledges a Bishop endow'd with so Eminent a Priest-Hood that the Emperour who assumed among his other Titles that of Pontifex Maximus or High Priest could no more endure him in Rome then he could a Caesar in the Armies disputing the Empire with him Why do not these Coyners of Pastoral Letters who to adorn their deceitful Discourses catch up Fragments of St. Cyprian take all his Doctrine intire Why do not they tell you with him That there can be no Martyr out of the Church that since they are separated from its Vnity it is in vain they shed their Blood for the Confession of the Name of JESUS CHRIST that the stain of Schism cannot be washed out by Blood nor the crime expiated by Martyrdom That there can be no Charity out of the Church and so whatsoever Torments they endure out of Her Bosom they are of that kind of which St. Paul said If I deliver my Body even to be burned if I have not Charity all this will avail me nothing If then these pretended Pastors will speak the Language and attribute to themselves the Authority of the true Pastors let them shew us the Original of their Ministry and like St. Cyprian and the other Orthodox Bishops let them make us see that they are descended from any Apostle let them shew us the Eminent Chair where all the Churches preserve the Unity where principally shines the Concord and Succession of Episcopacy Open your selves my Brethren the Books which you call your Ecclesiastical History 't is Beza that has Composed it Open the History of these salse Martyrs whose unhappy number they would have you to augment you will find that the first who model'd the Churches in France which you call Reform'd were of Laicks made Pastors by the Laicks and by consequence alwayes Lay-men who dar'd at all times to take the Law of God in their Mouth and without Power Administer the Holy Sacraments Call to your Remembrance Pierre le Clerc a Wooll-Carder I do not speak it in scorn of his Profession or to revile an Honest Trade but to tax the Ignorance the Presumption and the Schism of a Man who without having Predecessor or Pastor to ordain him bolts out of his Shop to preside in the Church It is He who carved out the Pretended Reform'd Church of Meaux the first hatch'd in this Kingdom