Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	believe_v	church_n	zion_n	21	3	8.9088	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57693	Catholick charitie complaining and maintaining, that Rome is uncharitable to sundry eminent parts of the Catholick Church, and especially to Protestants, and is therefore Uncatholick : and so, a Romish book, called Charitie mistaken, though undertaken by a second, is it selfe a mistaking / by F. Rous.	Rous, Francis, 1579-1659.	1641 (1641)	Wing R2017; ESTC R14076	205,332	412

being his owne and not the Texts onely wee may upon request allow this place and the next of Christs prayer for unity Iohn 17 to intend unity of affections and yet hee will bee short of his unity in all points of Doctrine And it is wel known that if this were meant the present Romists themselves have not that unity neither those who farre excelled them the ancient Martyrs and Fathers And farre more guilty are they against the prayer of Christ in maintaining division of affections towards Patriarchall Sees and many eminent parts of the catholick Church for the Pope is like Ismael his sword against every man that will not submit to his universall Supremacy And according to this dividing Spirit of the Papacie is it this Authors businesse in this worke to make a division in the Church for false proving is making even where there is an unity for is not this his employment in this Chapter and more hereafter in taking away the distinction of points fundamentall to set Christians by the eares and one to damne another for differing in every little point of doctrine For thus hee saith even soone after his former places of unity and hee would faine have Saint Matthew and Saint Mark to say so with him Whosoever should faile of beleeving any one point of Christian doctrine should be as sure of condemnation as if he had beleeved but any one or none A Foundation laid of Babel it selfe even of division and hatred in the Church of God A Position to which I cannot bee silent for Sions sake nor for my brethren and companions sake whom this Position hath often slaine with death temporall and adjudged to death eternall For let it look as smooth as it will doe you breake up the bowels of it and you shall finde it full of bloud division and damnation This even this is it which hath wrought those fearefull Massacres Treasons Excommunications Fires whereof many horrid spectacles in the second Chapter have been presented And how should it bee otherwise but that it should produce such hellish effects when it teacheth Christians for every failing in the beleefe of any one point of Christian that is in their language Romish or Popish doctrine to accompt other Christians in the state of damnation and to hate them more then heathens So that if the Pope say that the Worship of Images Prayer in an unknown tongue without understanding Rats eating the body of Christ and such other errors bee points of Christian doctrine the man that beleeves them not though hee beleeve in Christ yea all other points but one of these hath forfeited his salvation and is fallen into the odious state of a combustible heretick and of a damnable person But this Author might have beene put in minde of more mercy by one of his allegations for though Christ in the place of Matthew by him alledged willeth that all Nations bee taught to observe whatsoever hee hath commanded yet his owne fellow Romists allow that the breach of some of Christs Commands are not damnable I might alledge a Command of Christ in the Lords Supper Drinke yee all of this which as concerning the lay people they have turned into Drinke yee none of this But I will passe to other Commands such as those are which command the keeping of the morall Law Matth. 5.17.28.48 and forbid every idle thought but the breach of these Commands by inordinate thoughts or small deviations the Romists can make not mortall and damnable but veniall How comes it then that they will allow us no veniall errors and failings in small points of doctrine but any one point of Christian that is in his sense Popish doctrine not beleeved is damnably mortall Is there not in this a great piece of Popish leaven even of the wicked mystery that sinnes against Gods Commands of morall obedience may bee veniall but against the Popes Commands in the least point of doctrine are altogether mortall And doth not the reason appeare to bee this That in the breach of a morall Law as that of coveting our neighbours goods God is offended but the Pope is not hurt but by not beleeving any one point which the Pope delivers for Christian doctrine his In●rrability fals to the ground and so his Supremacy And it were better according to the policie of this wicked Mystery that all the world were burned or damned or set at division then that the Papacie should fall But thus doth the Pope set himselfe above God by valuing offences against himselfe of a more damnable nature then sinnes against God But well it is withall that they shew hereby that God is yet farre more mercifull then the Pope for God they say makes little sins veniall whereas the Pope makes little errors against Popish doctrine deadly and damnable But the truth is to those that are in Christ Jesus God doth make veniall both errors in lesser points of faith which grow by ignorance blindenesse or weaknesse of faith aswell as lesser errors in life by infirmity and weaknesse Christs bloud is a propitiation for all our sinnes aswell sins in the understanding as in the will And to those who attaine to that measure of faith which knits them to Christ Jesus Christ Jesus by his bloud will make other ignorances and unbeliefes in those points of doctrine to which they cannot attain veniall and pardonable and surely our Author is hardly driven to get a shew of proof from Scripture of this doctrine of division and damnation The place of Matthew could not serve for there was only a command to the Apostles to teach all Nations to observe all Christs Commands But we have seene above out of Romists that the breach of some of Christs Commands is not damnable but veniall wherefore another place must be forced to confesse it Accordingly that of Saint Marke is set on the rack but this place speakes not of not beleeving all and every point of doctrine delivered and decreed by the Pope and his adherents but the maine scope of the place is a casting of damnation upon men for the great point of not beleeving in Christ for in the Gospel this is an usuall sense of the word beleeving especially when it stands upon life and death And it seemes this Author can bring no plain place of Scripture to prove that he who beleeves not every small point of doctrine decided by the Pope shall bee damned for if he could these places had not been so unmercifully racked toward it But thus still behold a going on of the Mystery of iniquity Unity unto salvation is urged thereby to make division unto damnation Words are taken from Christ the Head therewith to tear his body into pieces But hereof wee may make this use That when a Papist preacheth to Protestants of unity then let them expect beware of division SECT IIII. The place taken out of the 18. of Matth. is cleared which the Cavalier had perverted to the

the Law and the reigne of the letter should preserve knowledge now under the Gospel and Kingdome of light notwithstanding any grace or power from this Sacrament may leave the people in ignorance and the old complaint under the old may be renewed in the new My people perish for want of knowledge And if thus they perish it is very likely that notwithstanding any grace of this Sacrament it is not charity but uncharitablenesse that kils them Hee proceeds If hee have not spirit for so much as that but resolves to walk on in the broad way of a married life that state is honourable though it be inferiour to the former and shee joynes him to a wife by a Sacrament also conferring grace A strange opposition of things agreeing and a setting at ods of things which God hath set at friendship If hee have not spirit for so much as that saith our Author but resolves to walk on in the broad way of a married life c. as if hee that resolves to bee married may not have so much spirit as that which is fit for the Priesthood I cannot see in any place of Scripture but that the spirit of Priesthood may very well agree with marriage if the spirit of error that forbids marriage did not work in the Papacy to set them at discord yea our Author saith Order gives grace and Matrimony gives grace and I wonder how one of these graces falls out with the other I wonder also with what charity or rather uncharitablenesse Rome can deny Orders to a man that hath a gift of teaching because hee hath not the gift of continency surely shee is either uncharitable to Gods Church in thus denying Orders where God hath given a gift that deserves them or uncharitable to the Minister in tying him to that continency whereof the gift is not given him On the one side if this man want Orders a Congregation that wants him may starve for lack of him on the other side if hee want marriage his soule is tyed to the fire and so is in danger to bee consumed with the flames of it and either way is Rome still uncharitable even in these things by which our Author would prove her charity As for the sacramentality of Marriage and grace conferred by it I must take them but for empty words before I see Christs Institution in the Scriptures to put substance into them A Sacrament as Cassander from Hugo well gathers is a signe instituted by Christ to signifie and convey an inward grace which by some likenesse it representeth Now Marriage indeed representeth the union betweene Christ and his Church but it was not instituted by Christ that this union should be given by it and indeed that such grace is represented and given by Marriage as by a Sacrament wee read not in the Scriptures yea their own Peter Lombard Durand and Cassander deny that marriage giveth grace therefore it remaines onely as a Tridentine and not a divine Sacrament of grace and the gift of a supposititious Sacrament with fained grace is but a fruit of that carnall charitie which giveth stones for bread He goes on If in his last sicknesse hee be afflicted by those sharpest arrowes of his invisible enemy shee annoints him towards the combat and enables him by that extreme Unction and by the benedictions and prayers which accompany it to resist and conquer those adverse powers Behold a Romish Unction different from the ancient Unction even by the confession of Romists themselves for this Unction is given us as our Author tels us in his last sicknesse But the ancient Unction was given of purpose that it might not be his last sicknesse that was given to heale this because hee is condemned to death and thought past healing Saint Mark saith that the twelve did annoint with oyle many that were sick and healed them and S. Iames Let them pray over the sick annoynting him oyle and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up So wee see that healing or raising up is expected as a fruit of this ancient Annointing but death is expected as a follower of Romish Annointing for even Bellarmine's proofe of this Sacrament is drawne from the desperate and dying state of the sicke That since Sacraments were provided for our helpe in our ingresse into the Church and our progresse in the Church it is not to be beleeved that there should want one at our egresse See here that the Unction which anciently was used for our regresse is now used by Romists for our egresse And therefore it is not the same Unction yea it is not the same if wee beleeve their Cardinall Cajetane saying that Saint James his Unction agreeing with the Apostles Unction doth not agree with extreme Unction in word nor effect and indeed the effect of S. Iames his Unction was health but the expected consequence of Romish Unction is death Wherefore let them joine health to their Oyle which was anciently joyned to it and then wee will think they give that Unction which was the ancient Unction and a fruit of charity But if they give Oyle without health the signe without the thing what charity is there to give an empty signe in stead of a reality Yea how doe they abuse that Oyle aswell as the Receivers in misgiving it as a Sacrament of death which in the true use of it was appointed for a meanes of life SECT IV. Monasteries and other Romish works bearing a shew of charitie are proved to bee contrary to it BUt Romish charity seemes not to leave men when they bee dead but then followes them even dead men with dead prayers issuing from a blinde and therefore a dead charity For is it not a dead charity that in her prayers for the dead is not animated by a true and lively faith the want whereof turnes all things and ther●fore both the shewes of charity and prayers into sinne And can there be any faith without the Word of God and doth the Word of God any where shew Purgatory so evidently that faith may assuredly beleeve it and thereupon offer up prayers for the deliverance of the dead from it A Work ascribed to S. Augustine plainly saith The catholick faith by divine Authority beleeves a first place The kingdome of Heaven it also beleeves a second which is Hell a third wee wholly know not yea wee finde that it is not in the holy Scriptures Now if it bee not in the holy Scriptures it is no matter of faith and if Purgatory be not of faith then the prayers for soules to bee freed from that Purgatory whereof there is no faith are prayers not of a true that is a beleeving and seeing charity but rather of blinde infidelity As for this Authors praying for the dead to the worlds end I wonder why he should speak of it when he should not be ignorant that if the living friends

and expressing of other Articles so it is said by the Councell of Chalcedon that the Additions in the Creeds of Constantinople concerning the holy Ghost was onely that the Essence and God-head of the holy Ghost might thereby bee more cleared and expounded And Ruffinus speakes to the like effect A second reason of this variety might be the various measure of capacities Some measures of understanding and faith are small and it is not to bee denied but that some Articles which are now necessary to be particularly knowne and beleeved were then knowne onely and beleeved in grosse without danger of salvation And that there is now no toleration of lesse degrees in this kind for weaknesse of faith or shallownesse of capacity I thinke wise men scarce dare to affirme A third reason of this variety may be the various affection and intention of the designers of these heads For one perchance would be sure not to exclude any man from salvation that hath any true though never so little interest in it by the knowledge of never so few fundamentalls and therefore this man contracteth them Another hee feares lest by the lessening of them thereby to include the salvation of some others may bee excluded from salvation by not knowing or not beleeving those points which are lessened and therefore enlargeth them Now these reasons being given to defend this Authour and his fellowes against himselfe I will adde essayes of some certainty upon this variety A first That certainly so much must bee knowne and beleeved of God in Christ Jesus as may unite us to him and so make us partakers of his death and resurrection unto remission of sinnes and regeneration And therefore ordinarily his Incarnation Death and Resurrection are certainly to be knowne and beleeved Secondly That so many Heads and Articles as conduce to this union may be called Fundamentall because they knit and unite us to Christ the foundation Accordingly more of these points being knowne to one then to another and the more points working the union in one and the fewer in the other the more may be called Fundamentall to the one and the fewer to the other so a great house built on a rocke and by more stones knit unto the rocke then a lesser may bee said to have more fundamentalls then the lesser yet both have as true an union with the rocke each as other Thirdly it is good in teaching to enlarge the points as much as may be so to give a full measure of fundamentals for the largest measure of knowledge and capacity that no measure may want his fulnesse But in censuring to damnation it is good to contract the measure as much as truth will possibly give way to charity that the least measure of saving knowledge and faith be not damned Fourthly as the Teacher should enlarge his teaching so let not the Learner voluntarily shut or contract his learning knowing nor beleeving the grounds of Christianity but goe on as farre as his measure will give him leave untill hee have found Christ Jesus dwelling in his soule by his Spirit and by that Spirit witnessing to his soule that he is a Sonne of God even an heire annexed with Christ For then and onely then shalt thou have a comfortable certainty of the sufficiency of thy fundamentalls when thou feelest thy selfe an habitation of God by the Spirit Besides if God intend to lay in thee the foundations of a palace do not thou contract them into the foundations of a cottage CHAP. XI In opposition to the Cavaliers ninth Chapter containing a vaine Challenge of Protestants for not daring to declare their Fundamentalls divided into three Sections SECT I. Wherein are confuted his Cavills against the Apostles Creed as not containing all points Fundamentall THe title of this Chapter and the Chapter it selfe are at some discord For the title saith That the Protestants neither doe nor dare declare what are their fundamentall points of Faith and the Chapter even in the first words saith this It is usuall with many to affirme that the Apostles Creed containes all fundamentall points of Faith So it seemes that Protestants doe declare and doe not declare their fundamentall points and the Title beats them for not declaring and the Chapter beats them for declaring Thus the Protestants must bee beaten howsoever not indeed for declaring or for not declaring but because they are Protestants A right marke of faction which commonly makes an ill construction of all even of the good actions of those against whom it is factious But let us see how hee chastiseth us for our declaring These men when they are pressed grow soone ashamed of that opinion when they are told that in the Creed there is no mention made at all either of the Canon in holy Scripture or of the number or nature yea or so much as the name of Sacraments But let this Authour consider whether hee ought not to be ashamed who thus casting shame on Protestants casts it also on the Fathers For doe the Fathers in their rules of Faith make mention of the Canon of Scripture or the number or of the name of the Sacraments Let him survey them in Irenaeus Tertullian c. and hee shall see that they doe not And yet Tertullian saith of the rule of Faith Nihil ultra scire est omnia scire Againe doe you not thus cast shame on your own fellowes For do not many of your owne Doctors in their Explicites called by your selfe more fundamentall leave out the Canon of Scriptures and the number yea the nature and name of Sacraments If therefore they do say that it is a mortall sinne not to know explicitely these important points which are more fundamentall then may they bee ashamed to leave their Disciples in mortall sinne by not naming the Canon or number of the Sacraments explicitely to be beleeved And if you cleare them you shall cleare us also But withall give me leave to aske even in defence of these your fellowes Doe you thinke that no man can be saved that doth not know the number of Canonical Books if he beleeve the fundamentall points contained in those Books Or doe you thinke that one who was baptized in his infancy not knowing then the vertue and use of the Sacrament of Baptisme and dying before he come to the knowledge of the use of the Eucharist may not bee saved by beleeving in Christ and being regenerate by this faith Your owne Jesuite Becanus may stop your mouth when he saith That Faith is not so stirred up by the Sacraments that it is the effect of them and that otherwise the Sacraments would not profit children So till you answer him doe not require of us to bring in Sacraments as fundamentalls of that faith which is denied by your owne to be an effect of them But you are soone weary and I hope ashamed of this point and therefore wander to another not much more of kinne to