Selected quad for the lemma: country_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
country_n	courage_n	disperse_v	great_a	21	3	2.0960	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61606	A sermon preached November V, 1673, at St. Margarets Westminst by Edward Stillingfleet ...	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1674 (1674)	Wing S5645; ESTC R7707	26,239	53

pervert the Gospel of Christ. Now I desire it may be considered whether any thing doth more effectually pervert the design of the Gospel than the setting up a Kingdom in this world under the pretence of it that should be paramount to all Princes and Potentates and to which they owe subjection and obedience And yet this hath been the open and avowed design of the prevailing Faction in the Church of Rome for the last six hundred years I do not deny but there were some tendencies to it before and wise men might easily guess what it would come to if the design came once to be managed by a man of Spirit and courage as it was by Gregory the Seventh who in a Council at Rome published his famous Dictates viz. That there is but one Name in the World viz. that of the Pope that it was in his power to depose Emperours and absolve Subjects from obedience to their Princes Now the grand design breaking out all other things were contrived and carried on which were thought necessary to accomplish it and there being two things needful for the maintenance of such a pretended Monarchy viz. sufficient numbers of men whose interest should lye in upholding it and great revenues to support the dignity of it These two were taken care of with all the art and industry imaginable For the first it was necessary to disengage them from all Civil interests and yet to preserve their honour and reputation with the people The former could not be done while the Clergy gave hostages of their fidelity to the Civil Government by the interest of their Families and Children therefore this Pope did most severely forbid all Clergy mens marrying that as the old Roman Souldiers were forbidden marriage while they received pay lest their domestick interests should abate their courage so the Celibate of the Clergy was strictly enjoyned to make them more useful and hearty for this design But lest the number of these should not be thought sufficient great swarms of Monks and Friers were encouraged and dispersed in all Countreys and to make them more faithful to this interest because Princes might oblige particular Bishops who might curb and restrain these spiritual Ianizaries therefore they were exempt from their jurisdiction and kept in immediate dependence on the Pope To give yet further encouragement to both Orders the Doctrine of Ecclesiastical Liberty was set on foot not a liberty from the Law of Moses or the power of Sin or the dominion of Satan which is all the Liberty the Gospel speaks of but an exemption from the power of the Civil Magistrate in so much that the Popish Casuists determine that Rebellion in a Clergy-man is no Treason because he is not subject to the Civil power And this doctrine of Liberty is no invention of the Iesuits but it is determined by the famous Councils of Constance Lateran and Trent that Lay persons have no Iurisdiction over Ecclesiastical But besides this the Pope hath other tyes upon them every Bishop is at this day sworn to obey the Pope at his Consecration all the Regular Clergy are under a Vow of blind obedience to their Superiours who are more immediately influenced by the Court of Rome Now such an infinite number of persons being made thus sure to the Papal Interest it must be so ordered that these persons may preserve their reputation among the people to this end they are told that they must depend wholly upon the Priesthood for matters of faith and salvation and it is of mighty concernment to them to have the good will of the Priests for that upon their good or bad intention depends the making or marring of their Sacraments But that no designs might be carried on which they should not understand never was there such an invention to that purpose as Auricular Confession and yet that the people may have greater reverence to their Priests they are told that they can make their God at any time by pronouncing the Five Words of Consecration And what cannot they do as one of them bravely said while they have their God in their hands and their Prince on his knees And both these doctrines of Confession and Transubstantiation were defined by the same Pope Innocent the third a man of the same spirit and undertakings with Gregory the seventh And lastly that no supplies should be wanting to support the Grandeur of the Papal See besides the pretended Donations and Concessions of Princes all arts imaginable were used to drain money out of all Countreys in subjection to the Pope and to empty it into the Popes Treasury This very Kingdom of ours was a remarkable instance of this during its Vassallage under the Popes Tyranny For an account being taken in Henry the Eighths time it was found that in the compass of forty years foregoing no less a sum than 160000 l. was carried to Rome upon the sole account of Investiture of Bishops besides the vast summs that were raised by Peter-pence Dispensations and Indulgences which were a kind of Contribution upon the sins of the People Thus we see how the design was laid and managed for an Universal Monarchy in the Church But some will say that the world is grown wiser now I heartily wish it were so for nothing would be more prejudicial to the Papal Interest than its being so But let us not deceive our selves the pretensions are as high and as great at Rome to this Monarchy as ever they were And what ever some vainly distinguish of the Court and Church of Rome in this matter it is certain those of the Court of Rome not only assert but prove it too that this doctrine hath been the doctrine of the Roman Church for six hundred years and they produce for it besides a great number of Authors no fewer than ten Councils whereof two are allowed by them to be general viz. those of Lyons and Lateran But this is not all but they contend for it not as a probable opinion but as a thing certain and of faith and that not barely at Rome but even in France For in the memory of many yet alive after a hot debate in a general Assembly of the three Estates at Paris the Popes Power of deposing Princes was assented to by all the Nobility and Clergy of that Kingdom Some particular persons among them may and do oppose it of late but they are excommunicated at Rome for doing it and thereby declared as much as they can be not to be members of their Church for daring to oppose so Orthodox and Catholick a Doctrine as the Popes power of deposing Princes Nay Cardinal Perron saith in his eloquent Oration to the third Estate at Paris who opposed this Doctrine That unless it were approved it followed that the Church of Rome for many Ages hath been the Kingdom of Antichrist and Synagogue of Satan and King Iames tells us That the Pope in his Letter of thanks to the Nobility