Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	field_n	good_a	tare_n	1,044	5	12.5068	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16161	The Protestants evidence taken out of good records; shewing that for fifteene hundred yeares next after Christ, divers worthy guides of Gods Church, have in sundry weightie poynts of religion, taught as the Church of England now doth: distributed into severall centuries, and opened, by Simon Birckbek ...	Birckbek, Simon, 1584-1656.	1635 (1635)	STC 3083; ESTC S102067	458,065	496

●he private Masses and some also must be attributed to the very change of time it selfe as publicke prayers in an unknowne tongue in Italy France and Spaine for there a long time the Latine was commonly understood of all but when afterwards by the invasion of those barbarous nations the Goths and Vandals their speeches degenerated into those vulgar tongues that are now used there then the language not of the Service but of the people was altered so that upon the fall of the Empire learning began to decay and the publicke Service no longer to be understood by reason of the change of the vulgar tongues Lastly wee are able to show as appeares by the eighth Centurie of this treatise when and by whom corruption of doctrine hath beene brought in and how opposition hath beene made from time to time in case of the adversaries violent intrusion for instance sake for the space of sixe hundred yeares and more next after Christ the Catholicke doctrine of the Church of Rome was this that Images were not to be adored and this is witnessed by Gregorie the Great who allowed no use of Images but onely Historical for so he saith They are not set up to be worshipped but onely to instruct the people that be ignorant yea he speakes positively that The worshipping of Images is by all meanes to bee avoided Now this doctrine maintained by Gregorie the first was changed by Gregorie the second and third Adrian the first and second so that here we have taken them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the manner to wit with doctrine novel and differing from their Ancestors and therefore need no farther examination But that the Reader may trace them along we find that this Innovation was resisted by three hundred thirtie eight Bishops at Constantinople in the yeare 754 and though afterwards it got strength at Nice was defended by Rome and at last got to bee a part of the Roman Faith yet was the same disliked denied opposed and resisted by all the good men that lived in that and aftertimes as Charles the Great the councel of Franckford Lewis his sonne the Synod of Paris Alcuinus and the Church of England PA. Will you charge our Religion with novelty can that bee called new which is of so long continuance PRO. Divers points of your Religion are confessed novelties your owne men yeeld that for Above a thousand yeares after Christ the Popes judgement was not esteemed infallible nor his authority above that of a Generall Councell the contrary being decreed in the late Councels of Constance and Basil that Not any one ancient Writer reckons precisely seven Sacraments the first Author that mentioneth that number being Peter Lombard and the first Councell that of Florence that in former ages for thirteene hundred yeares The holy Cup was administred to the Laity that divine service was celebrated for many ages in a knowne and vulgar language understood by the people that Transubstantiation was neither named nor made an Article of faith before the Councell of Lateran which was above twelve hundred yeares after Christ besides many more confessions of this kind which might bee produced Now that a thing may be novell though of long duration may appeare by this our Saviour when he would declare Pharisaicall Traditions to be Novelties did not respect their long continuance in the corrupt estate of the Church but saith Math. 19.8 Ab initio non fuit sic that they were not from the beginning delivered by God or practised by the Church so that if the duration and antiquity of your opinions be but humane that is not Apostolicall neither from Apostolicall grounds they may according to Tertullian be esteemed new and novelties for a point is new in Religion that did not proceed from God and his blessed spirit either intermin●s or by deduction from his word that is the Ancient of dayes whatsoever pretences of duration and continuance may be supposed It remaineth then that that is new in Religion which is not most ancient so that if you cannot derive your Religion further then from some of the Fathers the tradition whereupon it is builded is then but humane and so a new thing even Noveltie it selfe And therefore Tertullian telleth us That is most true which is most ancient that most ancient which was from the beginning that from the beginning which was from the Apostles as if there were no truth in faith that was not from the beginning If Christ was alwayes and before all truth is a thing equally ancient and from all eternitie saith the same Father and therefore whatsoever savor●th against the truth this saith he is Heresie tho●gh it be of long continuance for there is no prescription of time that will hold plea against the Ancient of dayes and his truth I know that Pamelius in his notes upon Tertullian would ward off these testimonies by saying that Tertullian spoke thus When hee began to fall into the fancie of Montanus but be it so yet hee delivered some truths after hee lapsed into Montanisme besides Bellarmine for proofe of Monasticall vowes and veiling of Nunnes alleadgeth divers places out of the same treatise of Tertullians de Virginibus velandis of veiling of virgins and then belike Tertullian was no Montanist when Bellarmine for his advantage alleadged him PA. Our Religion Mr. Brerely is that good seed which Christ the good husbandman first sowed in his field Math. 13.24 yours is like the Tares which the enemy afterwards came and sowed among the wheate PRO. A great part of your Religion specially that which is controverted betwixt you and us and namely your Trent additionals and Traditionals was not sowne by the good husbandmen Christ and his Apostles but by the envious man by the craft of the man of sinne and his complices the sinnes of Christian men so requiring for as it is already observed erroneous doctrine it may be antiqua ancient but it cannot be prima that one truth and faith Ephes. 4.5 Which was once delivered to the Saints as S. Inde speakes and therefore is Christ the Husbandman first presented in the Parable as Seminans sowing good seed in his field before the Enemy is produced Reseminans resowing the same Acres with unprofitable graine Besides Religion is one thing and Reformation another the one presupposeth the other our reformation is of a later date our Religion is the old Religion coevall with the Primitive and Apostolike howsoever you taxe us with noveltie But the Disciple is not above his Master the Iewes could say to our Saviour What new doctrine is this and the Grecians to S. Paul May we not know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is but wee say in our just defence it is not wee that aff●ct noveltie but it is you that counterfeit the face of Antiquity as the Gibeonites dealt with Ioshua deceiving him

the Protestants PRO. Master Bedel answereth Master Wadesworth that had it pleased God to have opened his eyes as hee did Elisha's servants hee might have seene that there were more on our side than against us Besides as Master Bedel saith the Romane Doctors may bring in whole armies of witnesses on their side when they change the question and prove what no body denyes as when the question is whether the Pope have a monarchy over all Christians an uncontrollable jurisdiction and infallibility of judgement Bellarmine alleadgeth a number of Fathers Greek and Latine to prove onely that Saint Peter had a primacie of honour and authority which is farre short of that supremacie which the Popes now claime and which is the question So also to prove the verity of Christs body and blood in the Lords Supper Bellarmine spends the whole booke in citing the Fathers of severall Ages To what purpose when the question is not of the truth of the presence but of the manner whether it bee to the teeth or belly which hee in a manner denyes or to the soule and faith of the receiver So also Bellarmine for the proofe of Purgatory alleadgeth a number of Fathers as Ambrose Hilarie Origen Basil Lactantius Ierome but farre from the purpose of the question and quite beside their meaning for they spake of the fire at the end of the world as Sixtus Senensis saith and Bellarmine cites them for the fire of Purgatory before the end In like sort for proofe of Saintly invocation Bellarmine musters up thirty Fathers of the Greeke and Latine Church now here is an army of ancients able to fright some untrained souldiers but it is but like the army that troubled the Burgundians Who lying neere to Paris and looking for the battaile supposed great Thistles to have beene Launces held upright or like those souldiers mentioned by Plutarch in the life of Agesilaus who bombasted and embossed out their coates with great quarters to make them seeme bigge and terrible to the enemy but after they were overthrowne and slaine in the field Agesilaus caused them to be stript and bid his souldiers behold their slender and weerish bodies of which they stood so much in feare whiles they looked so big upon their enemies the like may be sayd of Bellarmine's forces they keepe a great quarter but when they come to joyne issue for it they are soone defeated For of the Fathers alleadged by Bellarmine th●re be as is already showne in the fifth Age seven of the thirty which bee no Fathers but post-nati punies to primitive Antiquity Eight of them bee justly suspected not to bee men of that credite as that their depositions may bee taken Two or three of them are wrong cited by a writ of errour being either ignorantly or wilfully mis-translated Seven others of them speake like Poets Oratours Panegyrists not dogmatically but figuratively with rhetoricall compellations expressing their votes and desires The other sixe that remaine they speake of Intercession in generall not of Invocation in pa●ticular of some few p●oples private practice but not of the Chu●ches Office Agend or Doctrine generally taught practised and established Besides as Master Moulin saith among so many Authours as might fill a house it is an easie matter to finde somewhat to wrest to a mans owne advantage and never to bee perceived because few men have these bookes and of them that have them few doe reade them and of those that reade them fewest of all doe understand them But that wee may the better conceive the meaning of the testimonies and allegations of the Fathers let us observe such cautions as the learned have set downe for our helpe herein The Fathers writings bee either Dogmaticall Polemicall or Popular In their Dogmaticall and Doctrinall wherein they set downe positive Divinity they are usually very circumspect in their Polemickes and Agonistickes earnest and resolute in their Homilies and popular discourse free and plaine In their con●roversall writings it fall's out sometimes that through heat of disputation whiles they oppose one errour they sl●p in●o the opposite like one that labouring to make a crooked thing straight bends it the quite contrary way thus Hierome wh●les he affronts such a● impugn'd virginity himselfe quarrels at lawfull Matrimony otherwise the Fathers in their Polemiques whiles they keepe themselves close to the question in hand their tenets are ever most sound and direct In their Homilies and exhortations to the people they st●ive to move affections so that they runne forth into figu●es of Rhetorick and keepe not themselves close to points of doctrine Of this kind of speech Sixtus Senensis gives a good Rule to wit that Their sayings are not to be urged in the rigour because that Orator like they speake Hyperbolically and in excesse and he gives instance in Chysostome as well he might for in the point of the Sacrament he used such Rhetoricall straines as hath beene noted in the fifth Centurie and Hierome saith of himselfe I have played the Oratour in manner of a declamation to wit by way of amplification and exaggeration Saint Hierome observes That before that Southerne Devill Arius arose at Alexandria the ancients spake certaine things in simplicitie and not so warily Saint Austine makes the like observation touching Pelagius how that the Fathers ante mota certamina Pelagiana extended the power of Free-will above measure having then no cause to feare there being no Pelagius then risen up in the world an enemie of grace and advancer of nature Vntill the Pelagians beganne to wrangle the Fathers saith Saint Austine and he gives instance in Saint Chrysostome tooke lesse h●ed to their speeches to wit in the poynt of Originall sinne and free-will but after that the Pelagian heresie arose it made us saith the same Austine Multò vigilantiores diligentioresque much more diligent and vigilant in scanning of this point In like sort the Doctors that lived in the middle ages what time Popery was not yet growne to his height they spoke not so warily in the poynt of justification and grace yet they left not the truth of God without a witnesse 1 Tim. 6.12 We must not take up such customes as were sometim●s used in the Church and make presidents of them as if they had beene warranted by the Church and the Fa●hers then living for the Fathers being taken up wi●h weightier matters winked at other faults and were driven to beare with what they could not redresse Saint Austine complaineth of the superstition of certaine Christians that in Church yards did kneele before the Tombes of the Martyrs and before the painted Histories of their sufferings I know many saith he who worship Sepulchers and Pictures I know many who drinke most excessively over the dead The good Bishops saw these malladies in their flocks and desired to reforme them but they feared lest the rude people should hinder

by the shew of old sacks old bottles old shoes old bread that was mouldie as if they had come a farre off whereas they dwelt but hard by in like sort you put on a visour of antiquity but once search the ground thereof and draw aside this maske and then your tenets appeare to be but noveltie in comparison of primitive antiquity for as Tertullian saith That is true which is first and that false which is later In a word we are no Innovators but Reformers we doe not professe any Religion new made but a religion reformed and refined so that wee may say with the Christian Poet Haec novitas non est novitas sed vera vetustas Relligio et Pietas Patrum instaurata resurgit Quod tua corrupit levitas et nota tuorum Segnities igitur si quis labentia tecta Erigat et sterilem qui mansuefecerit agrum Iudice te damnandus erit It is no novell thing wee preach But such as ancient Fathers teach The truth which former Popes conceal'd Doth now begin to be reveal'd Must he be blamed that repaires The ruin'd Church and weed's out tares And thus have our Reformers done And they for this must be undone It is true then that the good seed was first fowne by the Apostles and fructified in the Church generally for 60. yeares afterwards the Enemie sup●r-seminavit zizania he resowed the tares which in part were weeded out by Waldo Wickliffe and Husse but more universally and publikely by Luther Calvine and others so that wee have not sowne any tares upon the Churches gleabe land but onely weeded out such as were sowne by others in the dead of the night in the time of ignorance not whilst the Husbandman himselfe slept For hee which keepeth Israel neither slumbereth nor sleepeth but cum dormirent homines whiles men slept that is the overseers of the Vineyard grew carelesse and negligent And thus might tares be sowne though the time and ●eedsman were not knowne for it is confessed by your Trent-●athers That many things through the fault of times or the negligence and wickednesse of men have seemed to have crept in to the Masse which are repugnant to the dignity of so great a sacrifice and yet they cannot t●ll when these abuses crept in nor by whose default And thus by Gods assistance I have finished the taske which I undertooke having named out of good Au●hors a Catalogue of such professours as taught for substance as the Church of England doth and withall cleered the Catalogue of our professours from such exceptions as the adversarie hath made against them and in producing this evidence I have as hee speakes in Iob 8.8 enquired of the former ages and made search of their Fathers and have dealt as Ioseph's steward did when he made search for his masters Cup He began at the eldest and left at the youngest and the Cup was found in Benjamin's Sacke Gen. 44.12 we have begun with the former ages passed along the middle and descended unto Benjamin's even to the later ages abutting on Martin Luther's time and have found even with these younger ages the Cup that wee sought for to wit A Protestants Church visible and conspicuous And now having I hope satisfied your demand Where was our Church before Luther I would require the like of you namely to show if you can out of good Authours I will not say any Empire or Kingdome but any Citie Parish or Hamlet within five hundred yeares next after Christ in which there was any visible assembly of Christians to be named maintaining and defending either your Trent Creed in generall or these points of Poperie in speciall to wit 1. That there is a treasurie of Saints Merits and super-abundant sati●factions at the Popes disposing 2. That the Laitie are not commanded by Christs Institution to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in both kinds 3. That the publicke Service of God in the Church ought or may be celebrated in an unknowne tongue 4. That private Masses wherein the Priest saith Edite bibite ex hoc omnes eate and drinke ye all of this and yet eateth and drinketh himselfe onely bee according to Christs Institution 5. That popes pardons are requisite or us●full to release soules out of purgatorie 6. That extreame unction is a Sacrament properly so called 7. That we may worship God by an Image 8. That the pope cannot erre in matters of Faith Shew us now if you can or any Papist in the world that these points above named which are maine points with you inasmuch as you account the denyers thereof Hereticks shew us I say that they were generally and constantly held for Catholick Church tenets in the first five hundred yeares next after Christ which is the very flower of primitive antiquitie But of these matters since this present conference is enlarged beyond my expectation at our next meeting if you please Meane time and ever the Lord of his mercie direct us in his owne wayes In the old way which is the god way as the prophet cals it Ierem. 6.16 and call home such as wilfully or by ig●orance have gone astray that at length they may be brought to that One Shepherd and that One Sheepe fold of Christ Iesus to whom with his Father and the blessed Spirit be praise for evermore Amen FINIS Approbatio Censoris PErlegi hunc Librum cui titulus The Protestants Evidence c. Quem quoniàm doctum judico et in palaestrâ Theologiae versatis utilissimum typis mandari permitto THO WEEKES D. P. D. Episc. Lond. Cap. Domest Gen●s●● 3.34 Ierem. 6 1● a Hosea 7.8 b Popula● Israel non solum f●it inf●ctu● Idololatriâ Ieroboam sed Idololatrijs Gentilium existentiū circa populum Israel Lyra in loc Galath 2.9 2 Sam. 3 39. Prov. 27. v. 6. Iudg 14.18 1 Sam. 13.10 * ●ardius enascitur seris umbram factura N●potibus Cupressus a Prot. Apolog. Tract 3. chap. 2. sect 2. p. 330. b Testes res omnes reculae nullam in orbe religionem nisi nostram imis unquam radicibus insedisse Camp rat 10. c Seculis omninò quindecim non oppidum non villam non domum reperiunt imbutam doctrin● suâ id rat 3. d Constat manifestè neminē to●o o●be mortalium ante M. Lutherum hoc est an●e annū 1517 〈◊〉 qui eam fidem ten●r●t Coster E●ch●●id Co●trovers cap. 2. c Bristowes Motiv●s Presat Motive 45. f Romani●ellarm ●ellarm lib. 3. de E●cle● cap. 2. g In Sole id est● in mani●estatione Aug. t●m 7. cont lit● Petil. l. 2. cap 32. h So●t po●uit taberna●al●m in eis id est in ci●ti● Hie●on i● Psal. 18. to ● i Ecce●●ia non apparebit impi●s tunc persecuto●ibu● v●tra modum savientibus Aug. epist. 80. tom 2. k Math. 5.15.16 l Chrysost. in Math● c. 5. hom 10. tom 2. * Montem ●on vide●● n●lo mireris oculos non habent August tract 1.