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
A44810	The true rule, judge, and guide of the true church of God discovered, and borne testimony unto what it is, and wherein it consisteth in opposition to the pretended Catholick Church of Rome her rule, foundation, guide, and judge, being returned in answer to Captain Robert Everrand his book, titled An epistle to all the nonconformists ... / by ... Francis Howgil.	Howgill, Francis, 1618-1669.	1665 (1665)	Wing H3185; ESTC R9586	60,220	70

a man to be no man because he is not so tall as another but I see R. E. and his Catholick would have all Shoos made by their Last though they will not fit every mans feet Faith is the gift of God there are divers degrees and measures according to the mind and good pleasure of the giver so that he that hath received any measure or degree must not be excluded as having no faith though he attain not to that degree that some do enjoy and the Apostles Doctrine was that every one should be perswaded in his own mind and if any was otherwise minded they were to be let alone till God revealed it to them And whatsoever people or Church though they claim infallibility that teaches a contrary Doctrine unto this we have good reason to suspect it to be that hasty driving and overdriving spirit that would force a faith where God hath not given it not to be the infallible spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ of which the Church of Rome hath given a vehement cause of suspition by their cruelty and tortors they have exercised towards them who could not receive their Principles and own their Judgment in all things But R. E. the Lay-Gentleman blinded thy eye when he made thee call into question the truth of Scripture and that it proceeded from the infallible Testimony of Gods spirit and if thou had a certain feeling of the same in thy self and in thy own Conscience to let this go and make this void as an insufficient ground to receive Christianity upon to lean to a prop without thee and to be judged by men who have been as fallible and changable in their Judgments as the Moon which have assumed the name of Catholick Church whose Testimony thy Instructer I perceive told thee ought to be received concerning what as is pretended to be revealed or not revealed by God yet all must be obliged to stand to their Judgment though never so repugnant to the Doctrine of Christ and practice of the Church of Christ in the first Primitive times truly so called yet it is granted that the Church of Christ are the dispersed Members through the World though not of it agreeing in one faith being in the power of God and being led and guided by the Holy Ghost their Judgments ought to be received which cannot as lead by the Spirit fail in giving true Judgment in matters of faith which pertains to Salvation but as men they may fail and as erring from the spirit they may fail and infallibility is not intailed to the persons of any men but as they continue in the grace of God and walk in the spirit and bring forth the fruits thereof nor to any place or City but as they continue in Covenant with God for the promise of God was to Jerusalem and Mount Zion and to many other places and people in divers Cities where the glory of God once appeared but now through their Apostacy and unbelief and disobedience they are desolate as to the presence and power of God and their Sun is set and they are covered as with the shadow of a Cloud but this true Church whereof I have spoken was seen to fly into the Wilderness for time times and a half and that since the Apostles days and then was she not so visible and universal as she had been before and the man child was caught up unto God now if thou reckon the Roman Church to be this true Church shew the time times and half a time wherein she fled into the Wilderness and how long she hath been there and when was the time of her return and if ever she was there how that will hang together with your assertion that she hath been visible and so universal this fiften hundred years and if this could be proved that Rome hath been so whether doth it not rather demonstrate her to be the Whore that sat upon the many waters which waters are Nations Kindreds Tongues and People and what Church instance if thou can doth lay claim to the Nations Kindreds Tongues and People to be yours and to rule over so many Kings of the Earth as you lay claim to be universally of your faith and of your Church which gives us a shrewd character to believe that indeed you are mystery Babylon besides the blood of the Saints that have been shed under the name of Hereticks by this visible Catholick Church among the Nations this twelve 100. years doth give clear evidence that it can be reckoned or imputed unto none but you But I would not grate too hard upon thee being but a new convert but when thy instructer had made thee doubt of thy own state and question the foundation whereupon thou hadst received christianity the next thing he labours to make void is the Spirit of God its Testimony which thou did lay claim too but I feel had little portion in what thou said at last he makes thee doubt of the infallibility of this spirit which thou had spoke on might for ought thou knew be the spirit of error and thou not able to distinguish betwixt the spirit of God in thy self which is infallible and the spirit of error nor to distinguish betwixt their opperations he perswaded thee that all was uncertain and therefore no confidence to be given to any spirit or faith in ones own particular which is the most absurd and ridiculous thing in the world so to judge For if there be no certainty or assurance given to any man or means to every man wherein he may be assured of the certainty of Gods will then whither should any go or upon whom should any lean seeing that no credit can be given to any thing that any man believes and this were but tossing up and down men from mountain to hill that they might never have rest for their souls And as for Jer. 17. and Eccles. 9. Rev. 3. The heart of man is deceitful c. No man knows love or hatred c. And because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing c. These Scriptures was brought unto thee to make thee more blind the first is spoken of the degenerated estate where deceit bears rule and not truth the second is spoken of visible enjoyments which are common to all and the third was spoken to one who had erred from the spirit and was exalted in pride because of external performances but having lost the power was miserable c. But what of all this doth this any whit at all detract from the certainty and assurance of the Spirit of God in them that hath it what shall we reason thus because some have been led aside and are deceived by their own hearts lusts that therefore all may be deceived even them that have the spirit of God God forbid and we have some what more to answer an Arian a Jew or a Turk if they should urge the like knowledg and feeling

world further then by preaching repentance in it for the Apostle saith what have we to do to judge them that are without and this Church as in God was secure to relie upon for she had the Oracles of God committed unto her and every one may relie upon this pillar if they dare trust it which I see R. E. dare not because he likes not to be tyed to their Doctrine declared of in the Scriptures but would have all to take what they say for granted without the Scripture or the Apostle example or spirit and is not this unreasonable in thee that would have the Church to be believed or that which calls it self so by name when she teacheth not conformable to Scriptures and to the faith which was once delivered among the Saints and would thou have a Church reckoned infallible and to be believed when she doth not her duty the Churches privileges is in speaking truth and judging righteously and the Devil was a lyer from the beginning and is out of the truth and where hath thou read that he teaches conformable to Scripture and so may be believed is not the promise of God to his Disciples as they continued to the end and as they kept his Commandements and were they not known to be the Church of God and Disciples of Christ by this and was not the promise to them that hungred and thirsted after Righteousness and to them that did overcome and was not the exhortation to the Church of Philadelphia hold fast that which thou hast that none take thy Crown Rev. 3. 11 12. Was there not a possibility of leting go that which they had and of loosing the Crown or else why is the exhortation But I see R. E. would lay claim to promises and privileges without all condition and will not be tyed to keep the commands of Christ nor would not have the Church tyed to follow the Doctrine of the Primitive Church nor will not admit of any possibility or probability of failing or erring nay not so much as a mistake but as to infallibility and certainty I have said enough before and the confidence or rather the impudence of R. E. is easily seen and to make up all he concludes the Apostles as Men were subject to error in their private affaires yet were they by the assistance of Gods Spirit infallible in delivering matters of faith I say as they were assisted by the holy Spirit of God they neither erred in private affaires nor matters of faith but as they were not assisted by this they were subject to err for in this stood their only ability to teach instruct exhort and judge and as they were guided by this Spirit they were infallible and so R. E. saith that the Prelats of the holy Catholick Church as Men they are fallible in their own private actions and affairs yet when they are assembled in a general Council with their supream Pastor they are still made infallible in determining matters of Faith It is well that R. E. will grant that there is any possibility for their Prelats to fail either publick or private but I say he that is not faithful in his own actions and affaires can never be faithful in the Lords but it seems a General Council cannot fail when the supream Pastor the Pope is there but if he be not it seems by E's discourse it is more doubtful the like he also judges if the eleven Disciples and the seventy too with the Brethren and Elders if they had all been to define matters of Faith if Peter had been wanting which this Catholick Church calls the Prince of the Apostles there had been some doubt of their infallibility in point of faith as though the promise of God and the Spirit of God had not been with the rest of the Apostles as well as Peter but a word or two and more hereafter of the infallibility of General Councils the Nicean Council decreed flat Idolatry about Worshipping of Images the Council at Constantinople condemned their Proceedings and made void their Decrees yet both these in E's account must needs be infallible the Council at Basil as Albertus Phigious saith decreed against all reason and against Scriptures the Council of Calcedon which was one of the four that Gregory the great compares to the four Gospels that their Decrees were as certain and infallible yet Pope Leo did not stick to condemn it and all them as unadvised Stephanius Bishop of Rome made void the Decrees of Formosus and Sabinian the Pope commanded that Pope Gregory's Mass and all his Writings should be burned Leo the fourth abrogated and made void the Acts of Adrian the Basil Council determined that the Council of Bishops was above the Pope but the Latterine Council under Leo determined that the Pope was above the Council and they decreed also that he that should think otherwise should be held for a Heretick but the Council of Basil aforesaid decreed that they that judged that the Council was not above the Pope they were Hereticks Innumerable more instances I might give but that I will not trouble my Reader with such unprofitable stories and all these Popes said they were Peters Successors and had the keys of binding and loosing and all these Councils and many more which were of the Roman faith which in E's account could not err but must needs be infallible and yet are as contradictory one to another as light is to darkness and black to white and looks with their faces several ways like Samsons Foxes and therefore let not R. E. nor none of his Catholicks think that the Church of Christ now coming out of the Wilderness again can receive all their contradictory Decrees and invented fopperies and constitutions of Men for infallible the day is broken the light hath taken hold of the ends of the Earth the Sun is risen which shall make all the foggy mists of darkness and clouds of ignorance to fly away But R. E. ceases not here but heapes up one peece of darkness upon another till blackness of darkness appear and he tells of a visible Church Mat. 16. which is builded upon Peter that visible Rock for that Rock there spoken of is not Christ saith he but Peter for immediately after he names Peter whereas saith he if he had meaned himself or Peters confession for that saith he is too remote or mediate and anticedent for if Christ had meaned himself or Peters confession he should have spoken according to the Grammer Rule and Construction Vpon that Rock or upon this Rock I have build I do build and not I will build in the 63. page and in the 64. page he tells of a Church visible having two heads of an Independent Head and a Dependent Head and in the 66. page he saith he hopes that it will appear clear to all as it did to him that the visible Church is that Rule and Judge appointed by God and all upon pain of damnation are to submit unto

Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles was nay blush for shame they brought in the Prophets for the peoples sake to prove that they had testified of the same before and had declared the coming of the just one besides they commended themselves to the witness of God in every mans conscience and upon waiting upon the Lord and in the measure of his spirit they found the things even so and by searching the Scripture as the Bareans did and found the things even so as had been declared of but upon due consideration we find not these foresaid Doctrines so propounded as to have the Testimony of the Prophets and Apostles neither doth your Doctrine and worship answer the Witness of God in every Man's Conscience and so to deny you is not to make God a lyer but God true the Prophets and Apostles and the witness of God true and you lyers who contradicts them and their Testimony and the power of God and would assume it to your selves though you be erred from the spirit and would put all under the name of infallibility and by such heavenly arguments as R. E. calls them to wit the Miracles aforesaid by which you have deceived the Nations and blinded the eyes of the people but the time is come and Light and Life is broken forth that the skirts of the Whore must be discovered and her nakedness must appear and her fornications and adulteries shall be manifest unto all so that you shall not proceed much further And I hope by this time in E's words it will appear evident to all whose eyes God in any measure hath opened that this Catholick Church so called is manifest in what hath been said to R. E. not to be the Church of Christ neither their Doctrines and practice devinely propounded neither she taken from henceforth as the only infallible judge rule and directer in all matters of faith which all are to receive upon pain of damnation as R. E. saith though she sit as a Queen and hath known no sorrow but on the contrary she to be a blind guide that hath bewitched the Kings of the Earth and the Nations which are waters which is the universality R.E. boasts of with her inchantments and sorceries which from henceforth shall not be taken as infallible but fallible and as that Church that hath not conveyed the true faith which was once delivered to the Saints but rather hath spread abroad error and false Doctrine and the traditions and inventions of Men instead of the Doctrine of Christ and would put off all this under the name of Authority and power from God and sufficiently propounded and infallibility and under the penalty of the highest curse upon not receiving it but the Sun is risen which hath discovered all your deceit lay down your carnal weapons Cain's weapons and your humane power by which you have prevailed more by force and cruelty upon the Nations then by found Doctrine or that plea of being Peters successors I say come forth with your spiritual weapons which the Church of God had in the Primitive times and prevail as far as you can but oh you want these and therefore you are necessitated to take up force and violence the Dragons power to compell all to come to your Church Further R. E. in his Postscript hath been confident of what he hath declared that it is of such force what he hath said for the Roman Catholick Church so called that he believes what he hath said cannot be answered and he saith his confidence doth not misbecome him and that it is improbable to be answered and that he hath not yet done his All neither in his first nor second Edition but hath somewhat more yet of great moment to speak as to prove the Church of Rome this only and infallible guide Unto whom I say it had been good not to have boasted when he put on his armor but when he puts it off and methinks having been so unstable and unsetled as he hath been formerly he should not have been so confident in opposition to Wisdom as to give such a challenge and make such a vapour of as that it is improbable to be answered and it is more then any of you or all of you can answer as his own words are page the 89. these words are not becoming a man indeed who saith he hath learned meekness and humility of heart and hath such great bowels of Charity as he professeth he hath page the 86. The substance of what he hath said or written which he reckons so profound and unanswerable and to be more then any or all the Nonconformists can answer they have been answered over and over again before R. E. was born by many Learned sufficient and good Men whose Reasons and weighty Arguments about the Premisses have not been made void unto this day but hath prevailed with many not only to the convincing but also to the turning of many from that usurped Authority of the Roman Church and hath discovered the errors false Doctrine and evil practices notwithstanding their pretended infallibility which R. E. will not be able to answer if particulars should be descended unto and though R. E. may reckon the reasons that he hath laid down which he hath the most what taken at the gainest and reckon them as impregnable yet I hope they will not appear so to an understanding eye which is enlightened by the spirit of the Lord nor to them who are of a sound Judgment what others have done to answer his bold Challenge I know not because I am shut up in a corner for the Testimony of Jesus and for the word of God but methinks them that are concerned should not let such boasts go unreproved neither such false Doctrine nor false suggestions as R. E. hath made to villifie and debase and set at nought all things and every thing that seems contrary unto the judgment of this pretended Catholick Church and seeing that he shuts out all Nonconformists as to be Members of the Church of God and to be without all Rule all Order all Government and to come under the great penalty of damnation by not submitting unto whatsoever this pretended Catholick Church doth impose how repugnant soever it be unto the Doctrine of Christ and how contrary soever it be unto the Spirit of God yet all must be received without question though it be that which the Spirit of God sometimes called the Doctrine of Devils but now it must become holy and of divine authority and sufficiently propounded and so received because as R. E. saith this Church cannot err I say unto him and unto all men and to the witness of God in every man either the Church in the Apostles days did err and teach false Doctrine or this pretended Catholick Church because they teach contrary one to the other and do walk by a contrary rule and as R. E. saith infallibility cannot contradict it self and he hath granted that the Apostles and Primitive Christians had an infallible spirit and did not err then let R. E. and all take a view of the Roman Doctrine and compare it with theirs and they shall find it as far wide one from the other as the Heavens is from Earth or light from darkness so that for the truths sake and for the Doctrine and faith sake that was once delivered among the Saints and for the Nonconformists sake who cannot bow their knee to Baal neither snbmit to the injunctions of changable men instead of the Doctrines of Christ. I could not do less then give Answer unto the substance of R. E. his Epistle which he boasted of to be more then any could answer and to reprove his false Doctrine and error which he would perswade all unto and not to question because the Church of Rome hath propounded it as infallible most of all those Doctrines are denyed and I cannot but give my Testimony against them as to be false and that which leads people into error and let R. E. when he brings forth his all prove to us that Infallibility as intailed to the Pope by succession and Prayer for the Dead worshipping of Angels worshipping Relicts worshipping Images Transubstantiation Purgatory sprinkling of Infants prove to us from the Scripture in thy next that these were Apostolical and Infallible Doctrines delivered and taught by the Church of Christ in the Apostles time or in the first hundred years after Christ and thou will not only gain me but many more to receive and imbrace the Catholick Church of Rome for an absolute rule and guide unto which all on earth ought to be subject unto which if thou do not we will take it for granted thou dare not least thou ingage thy self in such a Controversie as thou never ingaged in yet by which thy and your folly will more and more appear unto all I shall not trouble neither my self nor the Reader any further in traducing R. E. in his multiplicity of words although the main and weighty Arguments and reasons as R. E. looks upon them is answered which I commend unto thee and to the witness of God in every Man's Conscience to try and search out where the difference and weight lies and the truth and as the measure of Gods Spirit in every Man's Conscience doth close with or against if it can what I have said about R. E. his Epistle for unto that I dare stand to the judgment of and in it as every one believes and walks I bid my Reader Farewell F. H. Westmerland this 18. of the Fifth Moneth 1665. THE END Faults that have escaped the Press through the negligence of the Printer the Friendly Reader is desired to pass by or correct Some of which are these PAge first line 28 29. for Nonformists read Nonconformists p. 2. l. 3. for and read as l. 7. the point or stop should be after over p 3. l. 16. the point should be after the word Director and not after unto l. 37. for fanedness read fainedness p. 6. l. 34. for Christian read Christians p. 19. l. 24 for minds read mind p. 31 l. 35. for legable read legible p. 44. l. 35. for habitants read habitations p. 57. l. 28. for 9th read nine