Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	catholic_n	church_n	visible_a	2,907	5	9.9387	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13707	The trying out of the truth begunn and prosequuted in certayn letters and passages between Iohn Aynsworth and Henry Aynsworth; the one pleading for, the other against the present religion of the Church of Rome. The chief things to be handled, are. 1. Of Gods word and Scriptures, whither they be a sufficient rule of our faith. 2. Of the Scriptures expounded by the Church; and of unwritten traditions. 3. Of the Church of Rome, whither it be the true Catholike Church, and her sentence to be received, as the certayn truth.	Ainsworth, John, fl. 1609-1613.; Ainsworth, Henry, 1571-1622? aut	1615 (1615)	STC 240; ESTC S100498	226,493	192

at his mouth If he wrest the law and teach false doctrine men should let him alone as a blind guide least they fal with him into the ditch But herein you misse proportion in making many common weales and but one church wheras there be also many churches For though there be but one catholik or vniversall church which is invisible comprehending the whole familie in heaven and in earth yet are there many particular churches visible as in Galatia in Asia and other partes of the world Now you imagine one visible catholik or vniversal church having visible officers and a visible head the Pope invested as praesident Vrbiet Orbi all the world over and all particular churches with their Bishops to be under the guidance of that visible head This is neyther according to God who appointed no such order nor according to man for is ther any one Monarch over all the world unto whom all nations vvith their governours doo obey Your conclusion is vvorst of all For by Peters successor you mean the Bishop of Rome onely Wheras Peter being an Apostle had no successor in his Apostleship as he vvas Bishop or Pastor all Bishops in all churches are his successors and not onely the Bishop of Rome 1 Pet. 5. 1. 2. Act. 20. 28. Againe you vveen that your Pope is necessarily indued with the holy ghost vvheras the starr of the Roman church as vvel as of any other church may fall from heaven and may have the key of the bottomlesse pitt And vvhy Rome should have preeminence above all other cities in the vvorld I cannot tell unlesse because ● by her policie our Lord Christ was crucified For which above all other cities she deserves the visible curse And if God in justice hath wasted Ierusalem for this syn how can we think that he hath blessed Rome which hath spilt the blood of Christ and of may other his Saincts The book of the Apocalyps shewes plainly the contrary Apoc. 17. 18. Agayn you would lay an intollerable burden upon the churches for every synner is to be judged and excommunicated if he repent not by that particular church wherof he is a member as is Christs playn rule Mat. 18. 15. 16. 17. compared with 1 Cor. 5. 4. 5. 12. 13. but you applying Christs rule to Rome onely would constreyn al men al over the world when they deal with their brethren for syn and folow them to excommunicatio they not repenting to come to Rome before the Pope which is unpossible Oth●rweise by what rule from Christ cite you men thither Wherfore you conclude that which your premisses no way do prove beg the question to gayn the time But you are angrie that I Ieav your supplie of later Doctors wheras I told you playnly at the first that I would trie and be tried in religion by the holy scriptures onely as being the undoubted rule of truth If you would not thus have dealt why began you the battel I have far greater cause to except against them then you can have against my records of the Prophets Apostles for your fathers are but children in respect of thē nothing so ancient nothing so authentik in any comparison nothing so playn nothing so constant but contrary one to an other contrary some times unto the truth contrary to themselves Example by Augustine plainly averring with me you bring him retracting or leaving indifferent How then should we trust him that trusteth not himself So I told you Doctors mought be alleged against Doctors you marvel at it Nay marvell at them at your self that allege them You quote Chrysostom homil 55 in Mat. and there though these be not the words you mean he savth vpon this rock wil I build my Church that is faith and confession whither this make more for you or for me let indifferent men judge You cite Origen homil 5. in Exodū wheras if you would read him on Matthew you may find how he counteth al Christians Peters which the Pope wil not allow You produce Ambrose serm 47. wheras the same man upon Ephes. 2. sayth vpon this rock wil I build my church that is in this confession of the catholik faith I appoint the faithfull unto life Thus if I would weary my self and my reader in your wilde●nes I could send you up and down from one father to an other from the same father in one place to himself in another as for Hillarie whom you quote I may cite ●yssenus in testimon ex vet Test. de Trinitate and from Cyril l. 2. c. 1● comment in Ioan. as you alledge him I can direct you to the same Cyril de Trinitat l. 4. And when now shal we get out of this wood But wander you there alone if you wil I mean not so to toyl in vayn Yet cōdemn I not the men but reverence their labours how ●eit I reverence Gods word more As for me I would not have you or any rest upon my words but upon the proofs which I bring from the book of God which though it be litle yet they that eat it may prophesie among people and nations and tongues and to many kings And me thinks you need not be offended that I refuse to fight with dead men and doo deal vvith you by the scriptures onely for you have as you may think the advantage vvho besides my weapon that single two edged sword of Gods vvord which you may use also as you can have likevveise to help you the arrovves of the Fathers the halberds of the Councils the bullets of your schole men the canons of your Canonists vvith the panoplie of your Popes frō vvhom all Bishops as a Byshop sayth doe grovv as members grow from the head and of whose fulnes they doe all receiv that if my cause be not very good you must needs drive me out of the feild Vse therefore if you please the reasons of all or any of these and I vvil ansvver them to you not to the dead but if you muster their bare names onely be sure you shal neyther fray nor hurt me Next you retire to the place of Iohn 21. feed my sheep I told you al the Apostles had that charge Mat. 28. 19. 20 Iohn 20. 21. The contrary you say is manifest since he sayd onely to him feed my flock to whō he said before lovest thou me more then they in which words he excludeth al the other Think you in good sooth that the former charge layd upō all vvas taken from them novv layd vpon Peter onely because upon special occasion he vvas spoken to alone Why then Peter also vvas himself discharged vvhen after this Christ spake to Paul alone sending him to the gentils to open their eyes c. to preach the gospel But it is a strange collection of you that vvhen a company of men are sent vvith one commission and one of them

to prove as you would hence inferr But you so mangle in propounding the reasons that I do onely point out that they might seeme not to prove that which they intend For you leave out the force of the argument as the circumstances of the promise vnto S. Peter by our Saviour and the prerogatives and priviledge given vnto S. Peter that he is named first amongst the Apostles That he alone walked with our Saviour on the water Of the sundry promises of our Saviour made unto him that hell gates should not prevayle against him that he being confirmed should confirme his brethren that our Saviour washed S. Peters feet first that S. Peter onely of all the rest should receive a reveled promise of his particular Martyrdom of the cross That he after infusion of the holy ghost first promi● 〈…〉 the Gospell That the first miracle in confirmation of our faith is made by S. Peter That he as a supreame judge did condemne the hypocrisie of Ananias and Saphiras that he first discovered Symon Magus and condemned him All which and other circumstances concurring onely in S. Peter showes manifestly that S. Peter had preeminence above all the other Apostles that he is the rock and head of the Church that Cephas so particularly pointed out by the holy Ghost calling him first by the name given him at his nativitie Simon by the name of his father Bar Ionae and by his new imposed name Cephas that no cavil might be took at a legacie so strongly and particularly confirmed unto S. Peter Now all that you bring or can alleage against this belike is that the name Cephas was interpreted Petros which in Greek eyther signifies a rock or a stone I answer it avayleth nothing since Petros signifyes eyther a rock or a stone now if you ask why he is called Petros and not Petra I answer in that the masculine gender best fitted the name of a man And that S. Peter is the rock plainely appeareth out of the very text For it is sayd in the Caldei tongue super hoc Cepha and in the vulgar super hanc Petram where our Saviour signifies the rock of which he had spoken of before the which according to your grāmaticall construction you seeme not much to deny since you confess that Cephas signifies indifferently a rocke or a stone now your private spirits interpretatiō would onely limit it vnto a stone though against S. Hier most slit●full in languages and tongues in c. 2. epist. ad Gal. where he sayes it signifies a rocke Optatus lib. 2. contra Parmen sayes that in Greek it signifies a head As Christ is called the head Isa. 8 28. Daniel 2. Psal. 117. Math. 21. Rom. 9 1. Cor. 10. Ephes. 2 ● so after a kind of a measured proportion S. Peter by the delegatiō of our Saviour is his Vicegerent in earth a visible head of a visible Church But to that which you object that S. Peter answered as the mouth of the Apostles and therfore had not these promises made unto him alone makes much against you for to be the spokesman of all the rest the Masterspring of all their judgments seemes to graunt him superioritie and preeminence And though S. Peter was the mouth of the rest I graunt all but not onely the mouth but also the head And if S. Peter could not have the prerogative of place given unto him in that he represented the Church No more could the sonnes of Abraham be two sonnes in that they represented two nations And whereas you object that all the other Apostles were foundations A●oc 21. 14. I graunt they were but not the principall Neyther both the headship of S. Peter derogate from Christ Jesus our head since S. Peter is but subordinated to Christ Jesus and onely of his free institution and if that place 1. Cor. 3. be understood absolutely Other foundation can no man lay then that which is layd which is Jesus Christ then is that of S. Pa 2. Ephes. false where he bidds us build upō the foundatiō of the Apostles so that you see a less principall foundation or roch may wel agree with the absolute most perfect rock and foundation Christ Jesus and that the Apostles may be a foundation though S. Peter be chiefe And that no man might reply that this doctrine of the Popes supremacie is but a late doctrine see Carthw lib. 2 pag. 507. 50. lib. 2 pag. 97. Fullie against Saunders rocke pag. 248. 271. vpon the ●hemis● restament where he affirming that the fathers of the councell of Nice began the foundation of the Popes supremacie which was one of the first 4. generall counsells so many yeares agoe And that this poinet of the Popes supremacie doth not lack force of reason to confirme it I will onely alleage one generall reason is prove it The ecclesiasticall Hierarchie is no worse governed then any temporall regiment and government And therefore Math. 25. It to compared unto a kingdome that is governed by one King and Heb. 3. to a familie well governed Caut. 6. to a Campe well ordered But in all wel ordered common wealthes there is ever required some visible judge besides the written law since there must be a supreme judge to know and take notice of the cōtroversies when they arise and to ponder well and examine the reasons of both 2. there must be one to erplicate the sense of the law to pronounce sentence in the behalf of one partie when it shal be necessary And lastly there must be one to compell those that refuse to due observation thereof Now since the church of God is as wel ordered as any other goverment and that there ariseth the like difficults in her lawes explication as can happen in any temporall and politicall government It is against the providence of God and love to his spouse the church to denie her those helpes which necessarily must be graunted to all well governed common wealthes Therefore as the sentence of a supreme judge in explicating the sence of the low is to be followed so by a greater reason S. Peters successor guided by the holy Ghost in all difficults of momēt is to be sought vnto for counsel is to be heard with obedience when he counselleth is to be obeyed whē he proceeds with his powrfull jurisdiction Now when you are come to my supplie of later Doctors branding the most ancient and venerable Fathers of the Church with noveltie and onely you please your self with this answer that you account them all as insufficient I wonder how any man can say or think this but I wonder more how you can averr that you could cite in this point Father for Father Doctor for Doctor with vs although you cite S. August 11. de verbo Dei sec. 12. where he sayes that Christ was the roche and not S. Peter I answer first he doth not manifestly contrary vs. For though 1. lib. retract c. 23. he doth approve rather of that opinion