Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
enemy_n good_a seed_n tare_n 1,657 5 12.7414 5 true
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
A18100 The ansvvere of Master Isaac Casaubon to the epistle of the most reuerend Cardinall Peron. Translated out of Latin into English. May 18. 1612; Ad epistolam illustr. et reverendiss. Cardinalis Perronii, responsio. English Casaubon, Isaac, 1559-1614. 1612 (1612) STC 4741; ESTC S107683 37,090 54

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

readie at al times as our Sauiour teacheth to scatter tares amongst the good seede And considering in these times wee see with our eyes that this is come to passe and it is so grosse that wee may almost grope it with our hands it is ridiculous and most absurd to dispute whether this thing could heretofore happen or hath now happened Therefore the Church of Rome the Greek Church the Church of Antioch and of Aegypt the Abyssine the Moschouite and many others are members much excelling each other in sinceritie of doctrine and faith yet all members of the Catholike Church whose ioynture in regard of the outward forme was long since broken For which cause his Maiestie doth much wonder when hee considers how some Churches which heretofore were but members of the bodie once entire doe now ingrosse all the right of the whole and appropriate to themselues the name of Catholike excluding from their communion and affirming boldly that they belong not to the Catholike Church whosoeuer doe dissent from them in anything or refuse the yoke of their bondage Neither do you only challenge to your selues this right there are others that do the same For his Maiestie speakes it with griefe there are at this day many priuate Churches which beleeue that they onely are the people peculiar which they call the Church Giue them that strength which the Church of Rome hath and they shall doe the same with her and pronounce of all others as hardly as she doth What shall wee say are there not sundrie sects now adaies which are certainly perswaded that they only haue insight into the Scriptures and as the Poet saith that they only are wise that all others walke like shadowes It is true indeed that in euery age there were conuenticles of sectaries and dissemblies which did boast themselues of the Catholike Church and by this prouocation did allure many vnto them but it is the peculiar and famous calamitie of these latter times that the Catholike Church vnto which of necessitie a man must adhere either really and actually or at the least in will and vow is become lesse manifest then it was of old lesse exposed to the eyes of men more questionable and doubtfull For which cause his excellent Maiestie thinketh that he ought more carefully in such a deluge of variable opinions to betake himselfe to the mountaines of the sacred Scripture and as S. Augustine gaue counsell to the Donatists to seeke the Church of Christ in the words of Christ And so S. Chrysostome both elsewhere and of purpose in his 33. Homilie vpon the Acts of the Apostles handling the question How the true Church might be discerned amongst many Societies which challenge to themselues that name teacheth that there be two meanes of deciding that question first the word of God and secondly antiquitie of doctrine not inuented by any new author but alwaies knowne from the birth and beginning of the Church These two trials the King and Church of England embracing doe auouch that they acknowledge that doctrine onely for true and necessarie to saluation which flowing from the fountaine of sacred Scripture through the consent of the ancient Church as it were a conduit hath been deriued vnto these times Wherefore to make an end of this obseruation his Maiestie answeres that it is faultie many waies and cannot stand with the hypothesis propounded Because saith he the Church of England is so farre from forsaking the ancient Catholike Church which she doth reuerence and admire that she departeth not from the faith of the Church of Rome in any point wherein that Church agreeth with the ancient Catholike If you question the succession of persons behold the names of our Bishops and their continuance from the first without any interruption if the succession of doctrine come make triall let vs haue a free Councell which may not depend vpon the will of one The Church of England is readie to render an account of her faith and by demonstration to euince that the authors of the reformation here had no purpose to erect any new Church as the ignorant and malicious doe cauill but to repaire the ruines of the old according to the best forme and in their iudgement that is best which was deliuered by the Apostles to the Primitiue Church and hath continued in the ages next ensuing His Maiestie grants that his Church hath departed from many points of that doctrine and discipline which the Pope of Rome now stifly defendeth but they doe not thinke this to be a reuolting from the Catholike Church but rather a returning to the ancient Catholike faith which in the Romane Church by new deuices hath been manifoldly and strangely deformed and so a conuersion to Christ the sole Master of his Church Wherefore if any man grounding vpon the doctrine of this obseruation will inferre from it that the Church of England because it reiects some ordinances of the Romane hath therefore departed from the ancient Catholike Church his Maiestie will not grant him this vntill he prooue by sound reasons that all things taught by them of Rome especially those which they will haue to be beleeued as necessarie to saluation were allowed of from the beginning and established by the ancient Catholike Church Now that no man can euer doe this at least neuer yet hath done it his Maiestie and the reuerend Bishops of the English Church doe hold it to be as cleere as when the Sunne shineth at mid-day Lastly his Maiestie thinketh it a great offence to forsake the Church but hee vtterly denieth that hee or his Church are guiltie of this crime For saith his Maiestie we depart not voluntarily but we are driuen away And your Honour well knoweth how many and how excellently learned and godly men for these fiue hundred yeeres at the least haue wished the reformation of the Church both in the head and members What grieuous complaints haue been often heard of worthie Kings and Princes lamenting the estate of the Church in their times But what auailed it for vnto this day we see not any one thing amended of all those which were thought most needfull of reformation Wherefore the Church of England in this separation feareth not any fellowship with the Donatists if the matter be debated by ingenuous men They willingly and without cause left the Catholike Church which at that time the consent of all nations did approue whose doctrine or discipline they could not blame but England being enforced by great necessitie separated her selfe from that Church which innumerable Christian people did not grant to be the true Catholike and vniuersall Church nay more which many of your owne writers haue heretofore ingenuously confessed to haue varied much from the ancient Church in matters of faith and discipline to haue patched many new things to the old and euill to the good which indeed is now better knowne to the vniuersall world then that any man can denie or be ignorant
such chiefe points as are necessarie to saluation For there is but one sauing doctrine there is but one way to heauen They are vnited in coniunction of mindes in true charitie and the duties of charitie especially of mutuall prayers Lastly they are vnited in the communion of one hope and expectation of promised inheritance knowing that before the foundations of the world they were predestinate I speake of the elect to be fellow heires and of the same bodie and partakers of the promise of God in Christ through the Gospell as saith the diuine Apostle Yet his Maiestie addes further that the same Church notwithstanding if any member thereof depart from the rule of faith will more esteeme of the loue of truth then the loue of vnitie He knowes that the supreme lawe in the house of God is the sinceritie of celestiall doctrine which if any man forsake he forsakes Christ which is Truth it selfe hee forsakes the Church which is the pillar and establishment of truth and by this meanes ceaseth to appertaine vnto the body of Christ With such Apostates a true Catholike neither will nor can communicate for what concent betwixt Christ and Belial Wherefore the Church will flie from communion with these and wil say with Greg Nazianzen that disagreement for godlinesse is better then ill affected concord Neither will he doubt if need be to say with the same blessed father that there is a holy contention Now that such a necessarie separation should sometimes be in the Church both wee are taught in other places of holie Scripture and that admonition also of the holie Ghost not without cause giuen to the Church doth openly declare saying Goe out of Babylon my people lest you communicate with her sinnes What that Babylon is whereout the people of God are commanded to depart the King disputes not in this place nor affirmes hee any thing concerning it yet thus much the matter it selfe doth plainly shew that whether some priuate Church be vnderstood in that place by the name of Babylon or the greater part of the whole it was before this a true Church with which the religious might religiously communicate but after it was more depraued the religious are commanded to goe out and to breake off communion Whereby it may be easilie vnderstood that not all communion with those that be called Christians is to bee desired of the faithfull but that only which may stand with the integritie of doctrine reuealed from heauen Now to come neerer to the purpose his Maiestie denies those places of S. Augustine to belong at all to him For he affirmes that all those testimonies doe euince this only that there remaines no token of saluation for them which depart from the faith of the Catholike Church or from communion with the same Church Which thing as I said before the King willingly grants But here his Maiestie desires of you most illustrious Cardinall that you would call to minde and perpend what great difference there is betwixt the times of S. Augustine and these of ours How much the Church now called Catholike differs from the ancient how the face of the Church is changed and the outward forme to say nothing of the inward For then the Church Catholike was like a citie seated vpon an hill which as Christ saith cannot be hid knowne to all conspicuous and certaine whereof no sound minde could make question Which was not as the foolish Donatists prated lying I know not where in the South driuen into some corner of the world but diffused farre and wide thorow the whole earth flourishing vnder the Emperours whose dominion extended from the East to the West and from North to South You might see the Bishops of the East and West daily communicating and when need required assisting one another For that which is written in the Constitutions of Clement that the Catholike Church is the charge of all the Bishops and by that meanes that euery one is an Oecumenicall Bishop we wonder now when we reade it neither can wee beleeue it which then daily practise did shew to be most true and may easily be demonstrated out of historie by infinit examples There were then also in frequent vse literae formate that is demissatie or testimoniall letters by commerce whereof and as it were by tokens communion was held amongst the members of the Church although farre remoued by distance of place Furthermore when it stood in neede they had Councels truly Occumenicall not as since we haue seene Occumenicall in name only but indeed assembled out of some Prouinces of Europe And in those ancient times this was the fastest bond whereby all the members of the Catholike Church were knit together in the ioynture of one bodie which bodie was for that cause very eminent conspicuous and in the faire view of all which no man could chuse but know There was one faith one state one body Catholike frequent mutuall visitation wonderfull consent of all the members a wonderfull sympathie Was any man lapsed by heresie or schisme from the communion of any one Church I speake not of any one of the chiefe which were the seates of the foure Patriarchs but of any one much smaller that man as soone as it was knowne was held to be excluded from the communion of the whole Catholike Church For whereas wee meete with some examples obserued to the contrarie that was not right but vsurpation Was any man bold to corrupt the truth a little by being of another opinion it was easie euen for a child to deprehend him Wherefore such a steale-truth being once discouered all the shepheards of the whole world if need was were raised and were neuer quiet vntill they had rooted out this euill and prouided for the securitie of Christs sheepe By these signes and markes the Church at that time was conspicuous but this happinesse continued not many ages For after that the Empire was ouerturned and the forme of the Common-wealth altered there sprung vp many new states differing as well in manners and language as in ordinances and lawes Then vpon the distraction of the Empire followed the distraction of the Catholike Church and by little and little all those things ceased which had been before of singular vse for the preseruation of vnion and communion in the outward Catholike bodie of the Church From that time the Catholike Church hath not ceased to be for it shall continue euer neither shall the gates of hell at any time preuaile against it seeing it is founded vpon Christ the true rock and vpon the faith of Peter and the rest of the Apostles but it began to be lesse manifest being diuided into many parts which as touching externall communion were quite separated from one another Then which is chiefly to be lamented it came to passe by this dissipation that there was lesse strength in the parts then before in the whole bodie to resist the enemie of mankind who is