Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	council_n	faith_n	trent_n	4,913	5	10.4664	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61711	Sermons and discourses upon several occasions by G. Stradling ... ; together with an account of the author.	Stradling, George, 1621-1688.; Harrington, James, 1664-1693.	1692 (1692)	Wing S5783; ESTC R39104	236,831	593

very proposing of these four Particulars 1. That they so exempt all Ecclesiastical persons from Subjection to Princes as to allow these no co-active but only a directive Power over them 2. That by the Seal of Confession they tye up their Priests from revealing any traiterous Plots of Rebels against their Soveraigns 3. That the Pope by his Authority can when he pleases absolve Subjects from their Oaths of Fidelity to them 4. That 't is not lawfull for Christians to obey an Heretical Prince By which Maximes 't is evident how impossible it is for any Man that believes them to be a good Subject He must be no Papist if he be true to his Prince since he can be so no longer than the Pope will suffer him Whatever such a Man's practice may be as no doubt many noble Gentlemen of that persuasion have been Loyal to their last breath yet his Principles are rebellious and if his natural generosity or some other respect keeps him fast to his King his Religion I am sure does not bind him And when there happens a contest between Honour and Religion 't is odds but the latter will carry it For put the case the Pope should command one thing and the King another I would fain know whether of the two a Papist conceives himself oblig'd to obey If he says His King he can be no good Roman Catholick If the Pope as he must say unless he will renounce his profession 't is impossible for him to be a good Subject since the Pope whom with Bellarmine he acknowledges the Head of the Church one that cannot err and that has power to make Articles of Faith according to the determination of the Council of Trent hath ex Cathedra declared these forenamed Principles of Rebellion to be such Articles of Faith and the denying them to be so no less than Heresie You see the doctrines of these false Prophets of Rome and they have exemplified them all by their practices The Pharisees were great boasters of their Father Abraham and so are these of the Fathers of the Church as if they were their only legitimate offspring and the sole heirs of their learning and piety And these two they have so engross'd to themselves that they look upon all the world besides as bankrupt As to learning 't is so confin'd to the Colleges of Jesuits that if we may believe them it very seldom travels beyond their walls who being the only Rabbi's have appropriated to themselves the swelling Titles of Angelical Seraphical and the like All besides them having but one eye while these like the Chineses have two As to piety and devotion the Catholick-church like the Temple of the Lord among the Jews is ever in their mouths They are the only godly Party the Favorites and Minions of heaven Nothing to be seen in their Churches but miracles and nothing on their Walls but devotion and indeed all their religion is but paint The very habit of a Monk with them is miraculous beyond St. Paul's handkerchief and a Franciscan's frock wrapt about a dying man shall as infallibly make him a Saint as Rablais his gown a Physician All the Pharisee's arts of dawbing and pargetting are but rude and gross and his colours faint to those of a Mendicant View him with his shaven head his long beard and longer beads his ill habit and worse looks prostrating his body to the ground before his woodden god and what Pharisee can compare with him And yet this is the best side of the man and of his religion which like an Egyptian Temple belies and shames its fair frontispiece with some ridiculous Ape within There is no such hypocrisie as that which lurks under a Cowle no pride to that of a feigned and voluntary humility nor any such lewdness as that which is gilded over with devotion Should I lay the dirt of their Cells before you or rake up the bones of buried Infants the prospect would be too nasty and dismal We know what good use they make of their Confessions They who are well acquainted with them find them one thing abroad and another at home one thing at their Altars and another in their Chambers These Pedlers of devotion carry all on their backs abroad while their storehouses lye empty They can appear to the eye of the world like so many Baptists with their Camels hair and leathern girdles which they brag of as Antisthenes of old did of the rents of his garment that served only to let in light to sober Spectators to view the Wearer's vanity And what is all their Tinsel devotion but a Pharisaical will-worship That rabble of insignificant and superstitious ceremonies wherein they out-doe the most hypocritical Pharisees in Crosses Relicks Agnus's Exorcising of devils of their own raising and ridiculous cringings and postures not to be found among the Pharisees whose behaviour was sober and grave in comparison of that antick Mascarading and religious Mummery practised by these Romish Augurs who cannot chuse but laugh sufficiently at themselves for them and do no doubt much more at them who are so silly as to admire them The Pharisees had their superstitious washings 'tis true but they had no holy water to fright away the Devil nor did they wear their Philacteries as these men doe a piece of St. John's Gospel about their necks to charm him Indeed those many Sects of religious orders among Papists derive from them but are far more numerous and ridiculous exceeding them as much in their Crimes as they doe in their Fopperies Did they compass sea and land to gain a Proselyte these will run farther than the Indies to gain Souls that is to extend Empire like subtle Foxes preying far from home or rather going about like roaring Lyons seeking whom they may devour And when they have gained men they make them much more the children of the Devil than themselves being sure when once they have them to keep them fast and tame enough either by a gross ignorance or the consciousness of those sins which they have pickt out from them by Confessions and which they continually nurse up by their Indulgencies Had the Pharisees subtle ways to entrap men these their disciples can out-wit them and a Pharisee is but a Dunce to a Jesuit in his art of Legerdemain spiritual juggling and holy frauds whose fundamental Principle 't is That Gain is Godliness If the Pharisees were covetous these have hearts exercised with all manner of covetous practices Let the Quarry be never so mean these Hauks will stoop to it To say the truth The religion of these men is founded in policy and interest and the whole current of their doctrines and practices run that way as 't is easie for any one to see that well considers them 'T is this that sets the Fryars and Jesuits together by the ears all the quarrel between them being this Who shall bring most grist to their several mills A man can