Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
death_n conscience_n life_n sin_n 4,202 5 4.3704 3 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A02483 An ansvvere to a treatise vvritten by Dr. Carier, by way of a letter to his Maiestie vvherein he layeth downe sundry politike considerations; by which hee pretendeth himselfe was moued, and endeuoureth to moue others to be reconciled to the Church of Rome, and imbrace that religion, which he calleth catholike. By George Hakewil, Doctour of Diuinity, and chapleine to the Prince his Highnesse. Hakewill, George, 1578-1649.; Carier, Benjamin, 1566-1614. Treatise written by Mr. Doctour Carier.; Carier, Benjamin, 1566-1614. Copy of a letter, written by M. Doctor Carier beyond seas, to some particular friends in England. 1616 (1616) STC 12610; ESTC S103612 283,628 378

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

shallow as proceeding rather from affection then iudgement is this because if a man aske you say in cold blood whether a Roman Catholike may be saued the most learned Church-man will not denie it Wherein if we be more charitable to you then you are to vs in passing censures of damnation it should in my iudgement rather argue the goodnesse of that Religion from whence such charity flowes towards mens persons then be vrged as a proofe for the approbation of that erronious doctrine which in it selfe it condemns The Turke is too liberall in admitting all Religions to the hope of saluation and on the other side you are too niggardly and sparing in shutting out all from the hope thereof which receiue not the marke of the beast in their foreheads or hands We desiring to runne a middle course betwixt both extremes as we shut out all such who directly deny the merits of CHRIST so doe wee passe a fauourable censure on those who deny him not of malice but of ignorance and that not directly but by consequence It is true that S. Paul hath in the fifth to the Galatians If yee be circumcised CHRIST shall profit you nothing That is if a man put his trust in Circumcision or in any thing else beside Christ though with Christ in the matter of iustification he is abolished from Christ and the merite of his death and Passion Now what confidence the Romanists put in their owne satisfaction for veniall sinnes and temporall punishment either in this life or in Purgatorie due to mortall their writings testifie but yet our assurance is that many of them when they come to make their last account betwixt God and their owne Conscience and throughly consider of the weakenesse and corruption of their owne nature for the vncertaintie of their owne proper righteousnesse and for the auoiding of vaineglory according to Bellarmins aduise they rest wholly in the alone mercie and goodnesse of God renouncing in particular that merite of worke which their Church in generall for her owne aduantage maintaineth and teacheth them to maintaine Or lastly God of his Graciousnesse may accept of their repentance for vnknowen sins and consequently for their erronious opinons which by reason of their education they vnwittingly imbrace yet this charitable construction of ours can bee no sufficient warrant for vs either to shut our eyes against a knowen trueth or to open our eares to hearken to any motion of reconcilement to a knowen errour Now whether a Romane Catholike may bee a good subiect wholly submitting himselfe to Romish positions I referre the reader to his Maiesties speech in Parliament in the yeere 1605 who should know what belongs to his owne state and to mine answere to the 12. Sect. of this Chapter a part of his Maiesties very words in that speech are these I therefore doe thus conclude this point that as vpon the one part many honest men seduced with some errors of Popery may yet remaine good faithfull subiects so vpon the other part none of those that truely knowe and beleeue the whole grounds and schoole conclusions of their doctrine can euer prooue good Christians or faithfull subiects If then we bee so farre diuided both in God and in the king how can we but be vtterly diuided in our selues B. C. 20. Truely there is no reason at all but onely the violence of affection which being in a course cannot without some force be stayed The multitude doth seldome or neuer iudge according vnto trueth but according vnto customes and therefore hauing beene bred and brought vp in the hatred of Spaniards and Papists cannot chuse but thinke they are bound to hate them still and that whosoeuer speaketh a word in fauour of the Church of Rome or of Catholike religion is their vtter enemy and the Puritanicall Preacher who can haue no being in charity doth neuer cease by falsifications and slanders to blow the coales that hee may burne them and warme himselfe But if your Maiesty shall euer bee pleased to commaund those make-bates to hold their peace a while and to say nothing but that they are able to proue by sufficient authority before those that are able to iudge and in the mean time to admit a conference of learned and moderate men on either side the people who are now abused and with the light of the Gospel held in extreme ignorance are not yet so vncapable but they will be glad to heare of the trueth when it shall be simply and euidently deliuered by honest men and then they will plainely see that their light of the Gospel which they so much talke of is but a counterfeit light in a theeues lanterne wherby honest mens eyes are dazeled and their purses robbed and it will also appeare that there is not indeed any such irreconciliable opposition betwixt the Church of England and the Church as they that liue by the schisme doe make the world beleeue there is neither in matter of doctrine nor in matter of State G. H. 20. You farther endeuour to prooue in the entrance of this Section that the diuision of the Church of England from the Church of Rome ariseth rather from affection then iudgement in as much as the multitude doth seldome or neuer iudge according to trueth but according vnto customes Now whether it be the Church of England or the Church of Rome that stands vpon multitude and that multitude vpon custome the Bishop of Rome himselfe shall be the iudge nay not onely your multitude but the chiefest pillars of your Church stand most vpon it if you had but looked into your great Cardinals notes of your Church you should haue found antiquity or custome to haue beene the second howbeit both Acosta and Xauerius in their seueral writings made the Indians standing vpon their customes the chiefe difficulty of their conuersion to CHRIST It was Symmachus the Pagans argument in his Epistle to Theodosius the Emperour recorded by S. Ambrose Seruanda est tot saeculis fides nostra sequendi sunt maiores nostri qui secuti sunt foeliciter suos Our religion which hath now continued so many yeeres is still to bee retained and our ancestours are to bee followed by vs who happily traced the steps of their forefathers and is not this Mr. Doctors owne argument to perswade his Maiesty to the Romish religion in the 2. and 10. Sect. of this Chapter how comes it then to passe that in this place he findes fault with those that iudge according to custome and makes it a popular errour teach that a while and indeed we may be brought to shake handes with Rome she standing vpon a pretended truth of antiquity but we vpon the antiquity of trueth in as much as our Sauiour said not I am antiquity but I am trueth And S. Cyprian his blessed Martyr Antiquity without truth is nothing els but ancient errour Now the reason you giue that our
and more then must be granted by vs it reaching to the deposition of Princes from their thrones and the disposition of their Crownes when his Holinesse shall iudge it fit for the vnity of the Church as well appeared in his Buls both against King Henry the father and Queene Elizabeth the daughter And thus farre Cardinall Perron that peaceable man and your great Patron expressed himselfe in the last assemblie of the three estates of France for which the Pope gaue him and the rest of the Clergy who stucke to him in that businesse as great thankes as if they had saued Saint Peters shippe from sinking both the Cardinall and the Pope supposing as it seemes that those sparkes flew into France from the fire of England howsoeuer sure it is they were quenched by the water of Tyber B. C. 15. So that whereas my hope was that by finding out the corruptions of the Church of Rome I should grow further in loue with the Church of England and ioyfully returne home and by inueighing against the Papists both enioy my present preferments and obtaine more and more I saw the matte● was like to fall out cleane contrary It is true indeed that there are many corruptions● in all States God hath not his wheat field in this world wherein the deuill hath no tares growing and there are not tares more ranke then those that grow among the wheat for optimi corruptio pessima and where grace aboundeth if it be contemned there sinne aboundeth much more But seeing my reading and experience hath now taught me that the trueth of Christian Religion taught and practised at this day in the Church of Rome and all the obedient members thereof is the very same in substance which was pre●igured and prophesied from the beginning of the world perfected by CHRIST himselfe deliuered to his Apostles and by them and their Successours perpetually and vniuersally practised vntill this day without any W substantiall alteration and that the new religion in X England wherein it doth differ hath no ground but either the pleasure of the Prince and Parliament or the common crie and voyce of the people nor no constancie or agreement with it selfe what should I now doe It is not in my power not to know that which I doe know nor to doubt of that which I haue spent so much time and taken so much paines and bestowed so much cost and made so many trials to find And I know if I should yeeld to be reconciled to the Church I should be in this world in all likelihood vtterly vndone and which grieued me more I should bee reiected of your Maiestie my most redoubted Lord and Master and despised by all my deare friends and louers in England G. H. 15. W The Church of Rome holds indeed the substance of Christian Religion in profession but yet by consequence shakes the foundation of it as it holds the death of Christ to be satisfactory for sinne and yet adding thereunto her owne meritorious satisfaction consequently by the latter she ouerthrowes the former for If righteousnesse be by the Law then Christ died without a cause and in reason impossible it is if traditions be held of equall valew with the Scriptures for the constituting of substantiall points but that in short time there should ensue a substantiall alteration and he that knowes not that the Church of Rome holds many things now as parts of the Catholike faith which it helds not in former ages knowes little what hath bene anciently held or now is X If by the religion of England you vnderstand that which is by Law established as in cōmon construction you cannot otherwise be vnderstood you cōdemne your selfe out of your owne mouth in as much as you acknowledge before that the religion established by law in England was the same saue onely it was somewhat defectiue which now is and euer had beene held in the Catholike Church and yet here you say it hath no ground but the pleasure of the Prince and Parliament wheras in trueth we build vpon the Rocke of the Scriptures but you vpon the sand of traditions and which of vs hath the sounder foundation I appeale no farther then reason it selfe to iudge You as though you were not yet dead from the ordinances of the world burden your selues with traditions as touch not taste not handle not which all perish with the vsing and are after the commandements and doctrines of men but we haue a most sure word of the Prophets taking heede thereto according to S. Peters counsell as to a light that shineth in a darke place and as our ground is sure so is our agreement constant and vniforme in all points materiall and necessary to saluation whereas in the building of your tower of Babel such diuersitie of languages is heard that there is hardly any exposition of Scripture or point in controuersie which hath not bene or is called into question either directly or by consequent by some that liued and died in that Church which you call Catholike as will easily appeare to him who shall turne ouer the volumes of of Cardinall Bellarmine which is the true reason as I suppose that his workes are not allowed to bee read of all but of publike professours and such others as haue speciall permission from their Superiours B. C. 16. These were my thoughts at the Spaw which did so vexe and afflict my soule as that the waters could doe my body no good at all but rather much hurt neuerthelesse I auoided the company of Catholikes abstained from the Church and did both dispute and write against the Church of Rome as occasion was offered I still hoped that time would giue better counsell and therefore resolued to goe from the Spaw to Heidelberge to doe my duetie there in the meane time I thought with my selfe it may be God hath mooued his Maiesties heart to peace and reconciliation I knowe his disposition was so in the beginning and I remember M. Casaubon told me when I brought him out of France that his errand was nothing else but to mediate peace betweene the Church of Rome and the church of England Therefore I thought before I would submit my selfe to the Church of Rome I would write vnto M. Casaubon such a letter as he might shew vnto your Maiestie containing such conditions as I thought might satisfie your Maiestie if they were performed by the Church of Rome The copie of which letter is too long here to set down But when M. Casaubon answered me that he knew your Maiestie was resolued to haue no societie with the Church of Rome vpon any condition what soeuer and that it would be my vndoing if those my letters should come to your Maiesties hands or of those that bare the sway I began to despaire of my returne into England vnlesse I would ouerthrow both the health of my bodie and the quiet of my