Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	catholic_n	church_n	tradition_n	2,180	5	9.3701	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77347	Saul and Samuel at Endor, or The new waies of salvation and service, which usually temt [sic] men to Rome, and detain them there Truly represented, and refuted. By Dan. Brevint, D.D. As also a brief account of R.F. his Missale vindicatum, or Vindication of the Roman Mass. By the same author.	Brevint, Daniel, 1616-1695.	1674 (1674)	Wing B4423; ESTC R212267	257,888	438

which tho they do not sanctifie Sinners yet overflow them with Pardons I mean the Bulls and Indulgences the Confraternities the Masses upon priviledged Altars Pr●iers before certain Images Stations and Jubilees upon visiting of certain Churches great and extraordinary Powers conferred on certain Priests whensoever occasion requires it for dispensing with ugly things at easie rates poor Protestants I say want altogether all these Blessings and blessed Catholics abound with them And if any of these waies of attaining Salvation seem to some Men inconceivable this very inconceivableness is thought by others a proper Character to set out all for Mysteries And if that do not fully satisfie all Mens Consciences this must namely that their Roman is the undoubted Catholic Church and that the Catholic Church cannot err Such things as these have a great weight with Ignorant and sometimes too with intelligent Sinners who find themselves both loaden with their sins and unwilling to part with them And who could blame poor Creatures for going to Rome for such Pardons as it is certain they can never find among us nor in the Gospel nor in Heaven nor any where else but at Rome Therefore I think it charity to undeceive men in these matters and convince unhappy Saul if his obdurate Heart be not altogether incapable of reasonable Instruction that what he sees or hears at Endor tho perhaps sounding like the Voice and looking like the Appearance of Samuel in the night time will be found in the day light not to be any thing but the Enchantment or Cheat of a poor and silly Witch I will begin with the Catholic Church because it is the first Varnish that they adorn their Errors with and the general Illusion whereby they inveigle both themselves and others CHAP. II. How far and in what sense Papisls may be called Catholics and how the Roman Church is neither the true Catholic nor a truly Catholic Church THE Papists are much pleased with calling themselves Catholics and take it a Bellarm. de Eccles l. 4. c. 4. for the first Mark and Acknowledgment of their Church when sometimes others call them so not considering in the mean while that Titles in all kinds of Tongues do continue most commonly long after the things signified by them are gon and that we may call Rome the Catholic upon the same account that St. Matthew 4.5 calls still Jerusalem the Holy City tho this hath lost her Holiness as that hath depraved her Religion Catholic Doctrine and Service rightly applied and called so is the most essential Jewel and the very Soul of true Churches The first Title they ever had after Christ was gon up to Heaven was to be called Christian the second was after the blessed Apostles had planted them in most Countries to be called Apostolical the third if Churches did keep faithfully that Gospel which had bin Preached by the Apostles every where both such Churches and such Doctrines were entitled Catholic This last Title is the essential Seal and Character of the two other for whatsoever is thus Catholic that is thus grown Universal thro-out all Churches and in all times since the preaching of Christ and his Apostles let it be where it will at Rome or at Jerusalem is both Apostolical and Christian and therefore S. Paul Coloss 1.6 and 23. uses it twice as an infallible evidence to demonstrate that the Doctrine which the Colossians had heard either from him or from Epaphras was the true Gospel of Christ because it was come to them and all the world and was preached to every Creature under Heaven Men may set up small Candles that can fill with light private Rooms and if carried about lead Travellers some part of their way but none but God alone can make such a Light as the Sun is that can in a moment as the Sun doth spread a bright day over the whole world No Philosophers that we know were ever able with all their wit to extend their Opinions beyond their Scholes nor the greatest Kings with their might settle their Laws beyond their Dominions nor the worst Heretics spread their Errors much farther then their several Abodes The true Doctrine of Christ only and all such other holy Precepts Ordinances and Traditions as are proper to his Gospel as they went forth with a divine commission had sutable Power to carry them and to maintain them thro-out all parts and to all Creatures every where whom God would call in the whole world Matth. 26.13 Mark 14.9 Hence come such Doctrines and the Churches on their account to be called Catholic As for all other private Tenets Customes and Traditions whatsoever however intended by their Authors to follow close after them they could never reach half the way they staied behind they wanted breath they had not the Arm of the Lord nor the power of his Spirit which the Gospel had to carry and convey them so far Thus without any exception whatsoever you can find has bin made thus general among Christians from its very beginning and nothing else is Christian and Apostolical and truly Catholic by this infallible token and upon this account because it had the strength and Almighty Spirit of God to make it so and without which it could not be so Thus one may judg of the Catholicness which Romanists brag of and challenge on two accounts the first when they give it to their Church and themselves the honor of being the Catholic Church the second when they give it to their new Doctrines and Traditions and obtrude all as Catholic By the Catholic Church in the first sense nothing else can be understood but an Universal Collection of all the Churches in the world and of all Christians in those Churches which by the same faith join together into one Communion of Christ their Savior and their Head as all the Boughs of a Tree however spread and scattered one from the other unite into one stem as all Rivers into one Sea and as the twelve Tribes of Israel into one Kingdom After this rate if the Pope be the Universal or Catholic Bishop you must needs conclude thence against him as Pope Gregory the great did several b Gregor Magn. l. 4. Indict 13. Ep. 32. item Ep. 36. item l. 7. Ind. 1. Ep. 30. times against the Constantinopolitan Patriarch if one saith he be called the Universal Bishop this one hath all and all the other Bishops have nothing left and thus if Rome be the Catholic Church the other Churches are no Churches Rome alone is the whole World and this Tiber the whole Ocean To this some are pleased to say that the Roman is the Catholic Church not collectively or extensively that is not by being in her self the collective and extended body of all the Churches but virtually and as the eminent Cardinal Du Perron expresses it eminently that is the Roman hath an eminent Power Influence and Empire over other Churches Thus Rome is all Christendom as if one

demonstrated already that St Peters Roial Power was not believed by the Apostles nor in any Apostolical times and made it good out of Acts and Evidences altogether incompatible with destructive of this Belief namely His being rebuked by St. Paul both to the Face and publicly his being called to account by his Brethren his being sent to Cesarea c. Can you think that if at his return they had found him guilty of such a foul miscarriage as would send whole Nations to Hell they had thought it presumtion as the Canon Law saies it is to ask wherefore he did so Was it ever heard among the twelve that besides the general Commission of Preaching Christ St. Peter had another more special and proper Power of degrading all such Princes as would not be ruled by his Bulls And if he had it not Is it likely that the present Roman Popes have more Secular Power from Christ then he for compensation of their having less Holiness To come lower to the holy Fathers read their Epistles to the then Popes and judg whether St. Cyprian St. Basil c. did believe them to be their Monarchs when they call them as commonly they do their Brethren and Fellow-servants Did St. Augustin and his Brethren the worthiest Prelats of that Age submit themselves very modestly to the Roman Papal Power of controlling by their Legats and Officers the African Church Affairs when they called it again and again Secular y Conc. Afric sub Bonif. Ep. ad Bonif. Ep. ad Celest Pride and do the African z Codex Canon Afric Can. 28 sect Item placuit ut Presbyteri Canons the best Ecclesiastical Rules that the Church hath look upon Popes as their lawful supreme Visitors when they do forbid all Church-men under pain of Excommunication in any Church business to appeal to Rome During this long misunderstanding which lasted the lives of three Popes did Sozimus Boniface and Celestin Learned and Wise Roman Bishops believe that clear Texts of Scripture did sufficiently assert the Papacy when they were afraid of their Cause unless they could help it up better by forging false Nicene Canons And on the other side What meant the honest African Fathers in sending a Concil Afric ibid. to Constantinople to Alexandria and Nicea for true Copies with profession of a readiness of submitting to all the true Nicene Canons if they had thought That feed my flock and Thou art Peter and such other Texts of Scriptures better worth then all the Councils had so much as nodded the Roman way Or if the Papists say for I know not what they can say else that these places of Scripture which they now mainly stand upon are not so clear to their purpose without the help of Tradition Did St. Augustin and all the rest of Africa not yet know what Tradition was or what it said Was the ancient Tradition of the Universa Church then quite lost among the eighty Nicene Canons which some b Alph. Pisan l. 3. in Conc. Nic. Ep. ad Marcum fondly suppose to have bin burnt by the Arrians Books and Papers indeed may have bin burnt but Christian Faith and Tradition written no where so legibly as in Mens hearts could not be so unless the whole Church had bin burnt also Besides the general Practice whatsoever becomes of Tradition must remain still for you cannot imagin that the Church of Rome could actually exercise an universal Jurisdiction over all the Churches of the World without imagining in these an universal submission to that Power To this purpose tell me I pray Whether and where S. Chrysostom or St. Basil did swear Canonical Obedience to his Holiness when they were consecrated What sums of Money did they send to Rome when they had thence got their Pallium And when or where among a thousand Prelats in the old Times do you find one either subscribing himself or being called by others as now they do and are Arch-Bishops or Bishops of Milan of Constantinople or any other Diocess by the Grace of God and of the Holy Apostolical See fairly acknowledging themselves thereby little better then what they are now meer Suffragans Vicars or Curats of that Universal Bishop I am sure that Pope Gregory abhorred as long as he lived that very Title and much more the Usurpation as c Greg. Magn. Regist l. 4. Ind. 13. Ep. 33. Item l. 5. Indict 14. Epist. 39. a Mark of Antichrist and as a Destruction of the Faith Now it is cherished at Rome not only as a Catholic Doctrine but as the very Fundamental that makes the Catholic Church Thus Knaves grow great upon cheating and Rebels become Kings upon a Murther and Mens Crimes prove sometimes their Pride and Exaltation 2. From the Roman Supremacy go on and look upon the Roman Mass you know what great proportion that Sacrifice has among them Whole Popery depends or tends that way as on its Center and if the Roman Pope is that Churches Head this Roman Service is its Body I say then in the second place that this vast and comprehensive Bulk is nothing less then Catholic Catholic is By all Mens acknowledgment that which hath bin alwaies believ'd if a Doctrine or observed and practiced if a Service since Christian Antiquity in all Christian Churches and Ages Go therefore and seek when and where the twelve Apostles ever offered in Preaching their Savior to men to offer him up and to make him a Victime to God Enquire of all the Holy Fathers when and where they sung any Mass publicly without any Communicants except the Priests When and where they ever solemnly and publicly administred the holy Communion under one kind When and where they ever heard one single syllable of those Unchristian Doctrines that now a daies make the Main Fundamentals of the Romish Religion to wit that Christ offered up himself to God as an Expiatory Sacrifice any where else but on the Cross that the Natural Body of Christ is both in Heaven upon a Throne and on Earth on a thousand Altars that here his Body contracts shrinks it self into the compass of a small Crumb of Bread or any the least drop of Wine that these appearing Crumbs and Drops altho emtied to all Substance and attenuated to meer Accidents can both well subsist by themselves and whithersoever they be driven pull along with them the Flesh of Christ If these and other like Doctrines which now are essential to Roman Mass had in Ancient time bin Preach'd and heard as essential to Christian Faith Where was all the wit of Celsus or the malice of Julian and such Enemies of Christ Jesus when they fell foul upon the Blessed Trinity the Incarnation and Resurrection of Christ and all such other Articles as seemed to them ridiculous to spare both the Mass-Sacrifice and the Transubstantiation that both are and seem to be so Where was either the wisdom or the care of Origen Eusebius St. Augustin and

of Antiquity or ever consecrated them in Churches where they are now u Alex. Alens 3. Part. q. 3. a. ult Tho. 3. part q 25. q. 3. Cajet ibid. Bell. l. 2. de Imag. proper means to serve Saints by and fit Objects to have for themselves a considerable part of this service That one Hanging with St. Epiphanius x Epist ad Johan Hierosol apud Hieron Tom. 1. Ep. 6. p. 449. Edit Paris 1643. tore to pieces because it represented a Saint at the entring into a Church might well serve for a winding sheet to wrap up all such Images and to bury them out of the precincts of Gods Church 7. All other Tools and impliments of Popery as Rosaries Beads holy Medals Agnus Dei's Blessed Grains Privileged Altars Christening of Bells all the three sorts of holy water and such Furnitures of the Roman Church may very well go the same way as rather the dirt then the Doctrine of any true Catholic Church r Ibid. 8. Auricular Confession that is the continual work of Priests and People is not much better and as it is sometimes practised is a great deal worse Of all their more sober and intelligent writers y Gratian. de Poenit. Dist 1. Sect. Quib. Authoritatib Nicol. de Othel. 4. Sect. Sent. Dict. 17. Gab. Biel. ibid. some doubt much whether it be a Catholic Practice and others adventure to say z Panormit C. Omnis utriusque Sexus Beat. Rhenanus in Tertul de Poenit. that it is not The Eastern Churches where the Gospel was first preached * Gloss de Poenit. Dict. 15. Theod. Gent. apud Gratian. de Paenit Dict. 1. Sect. Quidam deo never had it and it came among the Romans † Beat. Rhenan Sup. when public Confessions and other good customes grew out of date I forbear to bring more instances because these being the chief materials which compose this Roman Body may suffice to shew what it is As a dry skin filled with straw can never make a true Lion nor the hollow bark of an Oak stuffed up never so industriously with moss and dirt ever make a fruitful Tree so neither can now the Church of Rome to what bigness soever it swells or what face soever it may put on make with these pitiful Ingredients a Catholic much less the true Catholic Church Let Papists try by these undeniable Characters namely Christian Antiquity of Beginning Continuance of Duration and Universality of reception what is properly Catholic and then turn out of their doors what is not so you shall presently see Rome without Popes Churches without Image-worship and Mass service all new Doctrines and old Idols will fall immediately down to the ground and the manifest novelty of what they brag of and give out as old shall soon betray the Imposture I confess that Popery wants not as much Age and Antiquity as may deceive ignorant men their Doctrine of Purgatory is as old as Homer himself who lived many years afore Christ and their worshipping of Images as old among the Christians as is Simon the sorcerer who both had and adored them and therefore * S. Iren. adv Haeres l. 1. c. 24. is branded for it in the very Apostles times only some difference may be that Simon had his from Pilates Brush and Rome had theirs as they do think from St. Nicodemus or St. Lukes hand There was a worshipping of Angels as bad it may be as as the Popish is at this day of no lesser date then all the writings of S. Paul a B. Theodoret. Coloss 2. Coloss 2.18 and condemned † Concil Laodic Can. 35. by the Ancient Fathers Transubstantiation is not so new as many think for Marcus an old Enchanter endeavored somewhat like it by b Iren. cont Haeres l. 1. c. 19. turning the Wine into Blood which he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somthing like Transubstantiation That the same Body might be and was at the same time in several places was a Doctrine plainly taught by the Manichees c August cont Faust. l. 20. c. 6. many hundred years before all the Councils of Lateran or Trent Those Laws forced on mens Consciences since Christ and his Apostles had left them to their Liberty concerning Meats and Marrying are not less Ancient then d Theodor. Haeret. Fabul l. 5. c. 24. Cerdon Marcion Tatian and the Encratites who were very Ancient Heretics Extreme Unction bestowed by the Mass Priests on dying persons was prescribed by e S. August cont Haereses c. 16. Heracleon about an hundred and ten years after Christ Not to multiply instances the very source and fountain whence all errors were derived to Rome namely the magnifying f Hieron ad Dametam an unwritten Tradition and the vilifying the Holy Scripture g Iren. l. 1. c. 24. l. 3. c. 2. for an uncertain and obscure Rule hath no later Authors then the Scribes were long before Christ and the Gnostics soon after him Thus the Papists are not without Antiquity such as it is for I may say in general and prove too by many Instances that Jews Gentils and old Heretics scarce ever had any famous and general Abuse among them but Rome woud have somewhat of it But as for truly Christian and Apostolical Antiquity such as can be the only Root and essential Character of Catholic Doctrine I may safely defie the best of them to name me any one Article proper to their own Roman Faith that is ancient in this sense And as to those Articles of Christian Faith which they have in common with us and are truly Apostolical and Catholic it is most pitiful to think how shamefully they abuse and poison them by the mixture of their own peculiar Roman ones Therefore if you take this mixt and confused Body together that is the Roman Church at the best side as it holds yet the fundamental Ground of Christianity which we profess thus far I grant it is a true Church and if you take it at the worst as to its proper Roman Doctrines wherein it differs no more from us then from all true Catholic and Apostolical Antiquity thus far it is if a Church at all a most corrupt and desperately infected one But if you come to huddle up these two heterogeneous and incompatible Parts together in order to an absolute estimate and denomination of the whole as at the great day of the Lord one shall not appear without the other then it were most unreasonable that the lesser and weaker part should give the Title and that the Cities of Sodoma Gomorrha Admah and Zeboim should be called holy Cities because they have one Lot among them The Mountain that has many Grains of Gold lying under it is rock or sand nevertheless the Ocean is still salt water tho some Rivers and some Shipwracks mix with it other liquors Thus Papists are ridiculously vain who brag as they do of our acknowledging their Church to

have the Essentials of Christian Religion For these essentials are not saving but where they have the Prevalency and they can but aggravate sin and leave it more inexcusable where they are baffled and opprest Can any man think that Pilats Judgment Hall becomes a Church for having Christ standing there to be condemned or that Dagons Temple becomes Gods house for having the Ark there shut up No wise man looks for any Harvest from a few handfulls of Wheat choaked with all manner of weeds nor takes it to be good Pasture which he sees to be overgrown with Thorns No sincere Israelite can ever think of being saved by the Religion of Dan and Bethel because it keeps still Moses his Law nor by the Samaritan Religion because they serve God as well as Baal Mixt and corrupt Religions are not to be valued so much in what is trodden under mens feet as by what is predominant and set upon their high Altars The great Building raised at Jerusalem by Adrian did not cease to be Jupiters Temple for being raised upon holy Foundations and the best Altars of the Lord can procure no Atonement tho they be kept in good repair when they serve for burning Swines Flesh Thus what expect you from the whole Bible while what is in it is but a Pedestal to hundeeds of false Superstitions or from the Preaching of Christ and himself crucified the chiefest learnin of S. Paul and the Salvation of Jews and Gentiles as long as it is made a Foundation for an abominable Mass Service In the mean while if Papists will still bless themselves and think that all is safe at home because they are called Catholics abroad and for my part I can but wonder to find here Bellarmin so weak let them remember that in the ancient times Men as erroneous as they are were called Gnostics Apostolics and Angelics that is Sublime and Angelical Christians and thus the very Turks may bless themselves whensoever we call them Musulmans that is Men of true saving Faith The Papists may give to themselves such Titles as they are best pleased with but when Protestants call them Catholics it is either out of ignorance for many are not acquainted with the true signification of that Word or a ciuil Complement or a meer Jest and Mockery 〈…〉 as to the truth it self the Roman Church 〈…〉 the true nor a truly Catholic Church 〈…〉 the true Catholic Church for this 〈…〉 pretend to but upon the account of 〈…〉 Jurisdiction over all the Churches of 〈◊〉 which Pretension where it prevails is a Sacrilegious Encroachment and where it doth not is a meer Fable Nor is she truly Catholic either by her own proper Doctrines Laws and Worship which all are new as to Christian Antiquity Local and unapostolical or by the common Principles of Christianity that she detains since she detains them in Unrighteousness over-whelmed oppressed and groaning under many heavy massy Burthens of Superstitions and Abuses beneath which she kept them and that not like the Oracles of God in a Church but as Captives in a Dungeon There both God in his Law and Jesus Christ in his Gospel are in a manner close Prisoners under a cruel Band of Soldiers not one Commandment among the ten few if any of the twelve Articles of the Creed but there are in the Church of Rome some special Errors and Impieties wickedly set to abuse them And this is both the Sanctuary that Rome opens for Salvation and the first fundamental Allurement she serves men with to entice them to Popery CHAP. III. Concerning the second Inducement to Popery The Roman Miracles NExt to the pretended Catholic Church Roman Miracles are the main Pride of Popery and its strange Wonders such as they be of Lauretta Montserrat and other places give as much countenance to the Roman as Delphi Delos Dodona and such other Seats of Heathenish Gods did to the Heathenish Religion The truth is Miracles will carry a great weight both with the unlearned and Learned Men when they are right and therefore it much concerns every one that hath no mind to be cheated well to know the right from the wrong All true Christian Miracles are supernatural or extraordinary Works wrought for a time either by the immediate Hand of God or by the Mediation of Men and Angels when moved or strengthned thereto by him for the farther authorizing and confirming true Catholic and Christian Truth especially among Infidels First I say true Christian Miracles not only to oppose them to all Cheating and Fabulous but also to distinguish them from other more common supernatural Effects which God is pleased sometimes to shew promiscuously among all sorts of Nations for the asserting of his Power Justice Mercy or more generally his Divine Being in the course of his Providence There is not a Nation in the whole World but may find if they will search many such admirable Passages in their Chronicles nor scarce any private Man but may observe somwhat of these as he calls them strange Accidents in his own time It is most certain that God sent his Angels and with them his great Judgments and Powers among the Persians and Greeks called Javan Dan. 10. as well as among the Israelites and besides what either the Earth or the Heavens can do by their proper Influence and what Man-kind can add unto it by their own good or bad conduct in the ordinary course of things the miraculous Hand of God often times over-rules so visibly that no sober man can doubt of his interposition and guidance Of this kind are the stupendous and unexpected rises and falls of great Estates the slaughters of many thousands mention'd in divers Histories by an inconsiderable handful of men the raising of Princes among Pagans to an extraordinary pitch of Moral Vertue and Heroical Courage the terrible Prodigies Blazing-stars and Predictions before great Desolations and Plagues somtimes Curses somtimes Blessings fastned as it were to some Houses c. No judicious Man will fancy that Cyrus for example or Alexander either would undertake or could perform their vast Designs amidst their Disadvantages without some singular influence and help from above and whosoever will consider what Plato was and what he makes a Plato in Apolog. Socrat. Socrates say before his death can hardly forbear thinking but that this Heroical Pagan had commonly the Assistance of a good Angel These and other such great Examples taken notice of by all sorts of Historians confirm the truth of Gods special care about the conservation of Societies and signifie nothing at all about their true or untrue Religion in Churches or Temples If they did where is that pitiful Sect or Country but might allege sundry Miracles to justifie its own Pagan or Heretical Perswasion The Emperors Vespatian and Adrian might have authorized by this means the Worshipping of Roman Eagles for both are said b Corn. Tacitus Hist. l. 4. to have restor'd sight to blind men the Vestal in