Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	believe_v	church_n	propose_v	5,333	5	9.4570	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28402	A treatise of the sibyls so highly celebrated, as well by the antient heathens, as the holy fathers of the church : giving an accompt of the names, and number of the sibyls, of their qualities, the form and matter of their verses : as also of the books now extant under their names, and the errours crept into Christian religion, from the impostures contained therein, particularly, concerning the state of the just, and unjust after death / written originally by David Blondel ; Englished by J.D.	Blondel, David, 1591-1655.; Davies, John, 1625-1693.	1661 (1661)	Wing B3220; ESTC R38842	342,398	310

Souls which the Church of Rome pretends to be so confined in her Purgatory that they cannot merit there much less be converted to God He takes for good the Testimony of Origene who believed not any Pains eternal and that of St. Gregory Nyssenus who was lightly led away into that Errour He summons in also Ephraim Deacon of E●…a Diadochus Bishop or Photice Maximus and Oecumenius who speak of no other Fire then that of the last Conflagration Synesius Bishop of Ptolemais in Cyrenaica who Treats of the Pains inflicted by Devils and consequently of those of the damned Procopius of Gaza who proposing to us a Purgative Fire which the Seraphim brings from Heaven to Earth to sanctifie as well the Ministers of the Church as the sinners for whom they pray clearly discovers he never thought on the Romish Purgatory which does not sanctifie any one and which cannot be in Heaven for this very Reason that it is placed in Hell Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople who speaks of the Efficacy of our Saviour's Passion to deliver out of Limbus those whom Antiquity believed to have been there confined in expectation of his coming as also of the Purgatory of those who die daily says nothing to his purpose He makes great ostentation of a Fragment unjustly attributed to Theodoret which is not to be found any where in his Works of Gennadius Scholarius drawn into the Church of Rome's Party by the Caresses and kindnesses of Pope Eugenius the Fourth and of Zagazabo an Abyssine Bishop whom the Portuguez deceitfull Interpreters of his Sentiments made to say what they pleased directly contrary to the common Belief of his Countrey-men He further brings in the Depositions of that Impostour who had in the year 1595. taken upon him the Name of Gabriel Patriarch of the Cofti and who hath been since acknowledged by the Doctours of the Church of Rome to be what he was as also those of Hypatius Arch-Bishop of the Black-Russians who to comply with the King of Poland Father of the last-deceased had submitted to the Church of Rome and in consequence thereof had made such a profession of Faith as she desired he should In a word he shuffles together all he met with of one I know not what Eusebius of Alexandria unknown to Antiquity of Eusebius of Caesarea of the Arabian Canons of Timothy of Alexandria of St. Epiphanius of Palladius of John sirnamed Cassian of Justine Justinian and Leo the Wise Emperours of John sirnamed Climacus of Gregory the Priest of Leontius of Sophronius of Damascene of Anastasius of Simeon Metaphrastes of Constantine sirnamed Manasses of Nicetas of Nicholas Cabasilas of Athanasius of Constantinople of Nicephorus Gregoras of the Greeks deputed to the Councel of Basil of those who reside at Venice and of Jeremy Patriarch of Constantinople not omitting any of the Authours alleged by Cardinal Bellarmine and never minding whether from any one of the Testimonies he draws from this long Catalogue of Witnesses any thing more can be gathered then Prayer for the dead Then turning to the Latine Fathers and bringing in all those whom Cardinal Bellarmine had cited he produces over and above Arnobius who simply says that the Church prays for all both living and dead and Zeno of Verona blaming the VVidows who by their lamentations interrupt the prayers whereby the Souls of their deceased Husbands are recommended to God and shews even in that that he thought they no way deserved those lamentations which yet were but the just and necessary Effects of the compassion of the living if they presupposed with any certainty of their departed Friends that they burn in an Infernal Fire Besides all this he shuffles in the Depositions of Lactantius of Hilarius the Deacon of Eucherius of Lyons of Caesarius of Arles and of Boethius who speaks of the Conflagration of the World at the Last day of Prudentius who speaks of the Hell of the damned of Philip the Priest who Treats Of the Absolution and Remission of Sins which shall be solemnly given to every Believer at the Last day of St. Hilary of Poictiers who discourses Of the Tribulations of this Life of Bacchiarius who to confute those who made any difficulty to allow the peace of the Church to their Brethren that were fallen alledges the care which Saul's Concuhine had taken of the bodies of his children hanged upon occasion of the Gibeonites and that of Judas Maccabaeus for those of his Army who after their Death had been found seized of the prey taken in the Temple of Jamnia of Primasius and Faustus Religious Men of the Monastery of St. Maurus who are pleased to approve Prayers and Offerings for the dead and to give us good measure when we are to be cheated he cites us a Writing lately Fathered on Pope Sixtus the Third an Homily of the Lord's Supper stuffed with passages out of St. Hilary St. Hierome St. Augustine St. Prosper Isidore of Sevil Bede and Alcuin and consequently unjustly attributed to Saint Eloy deceased the first of December 663. before the birth of Bede who was more antient by Fifty years then Alcuin the Commentary which Sedulius not as he thinks the antient who writ the Opus Paschale but another of the same Nation dressed up since the year 700. out of the Writings and abundance of other Authours of later date whom I forbear to bring into the Accompt out of a consideration that in regard they lived since St. Gregory and have had a great Veneration for the Writings and Authority of that Renowned Prelate it may be they might have some Thoughts of the Purgatory whereof he was the first Founder when they writ what is alledged out of them though they contain not any formal mention thereof So that to make good the Protestant Cause against the Church of Rome it is sufficient if I maintain First That she hath nothing expresly affirmed on the behalf of her Purgatory among the Latines before Gregory the First Secondly That that onely reflection may give the more simple light enough to comprehend that that Point of Doctrine being so new that it was not known for the space of six Ages together even among the Doctours of the Western Church who have not neither any one of them in particular nor all together anything determinate to induce the reception of it and justifie that they had received it can by no means be an Article of Faith Thirdly That such as alledge unto us the Greeks who never believed nor can to this day believe what is proposed to them concerning it by the Church of Rome deal very unhandsomly and are more worthy reproach then refutation which their Supposition doth not deserve And lastly That Coccius who hath made no difficulty to bring in as Witnesses the Greeks sojourning at Venice and Jeremy Patriarch of Constantinople who in those very Places which he cites deny what he pretends to prove did not any way consider what he ought either his own Cause or the sincerity of

Whereby it clearly appears that he and no doubt with him the Councels of Rome and Carthage and Pope Innocent admitted two Canons or Catalogues of the Holy Scriptures one more strict viz. that of the Jews whereto all the Greeks and some of the Latines confined themselves and to which he thought himself obliged particularly to submit holding for a Rule of Faith and Canonical the Books contained therein and another larger proposed as well by him and Pope Innocent as by the Councels of Carthage and Rome as comprehending the Books which in some certain respect viz. the publick reading thereof in the Church and the common Edification arising from them though they were not esteemed to appertain to the Rule of Faith were called Canonical Sacred and Ecclesiastical by the Latines And indeed to make his meaning more obvious to the meaner Capacities he saies that the Church holds the Books of the Maccabees to be Canonical not as absolutely and properly as those comprehended in the Canon of the Jews and Greeks which contained the Rule of Faith but improperly and taking the word Canonical in a larger signification which the better to insinuate he saies They are held to be Canonical propter quorundam Martyrum passiones vehementes atque mirabiles c because of the grievous and miraculous Sufferings of some Martyrs and in the three and twentieth Chapter of his second Book Against Gaudentius that the writing of the Maccabees recepta est ab Ecclesia non inutiliter si sobriè legatur vel audiatur c. is received by the Church not without profit if it be read or heard soberly as if he had said in terminis that she accounted it among the Canonical in a certain respect onely not through an obedience of Faith but out of a desire of Edification and upon that accompt was it to to be read and understood soberly without which caution the admission of it into the Canon or Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Books would not have been profitable Consonantly to this sence Ruffinus after he had proposed Secundùm Traditionem Majorum c. according to the Tradition of our Ancestours the Catalogue of the Books truly and properly Divine and Canonical concludes it in these Terms Haec sunt quae Patres inter Canonem concluserunt ex quibus Fidei nostrae assertiones constare voluerunt These are the Books which the Fathers have comprehended in the Canon out of which they would have the Assertions of our Faith to be made manifest To which he immediately adds Sciendum tamen est quòd alii Libri sunt qui non Canonici sed Ecclesiastici à Majoribus appellati sunt c. quae omnia Legi quidem in Ecclesiis voluerunt non tamen proferri ad authoritatem ex his Fidei confirmandam c. Yet is it to be known that there are also other Books which were called by our Ancestours not Canonical but Ecclesiastical c. all which they were willing should be read in the Churches but not cited to confirm the authority of Faith Upon which it may be noted that this Sentiment being revived by Cardinal Cajetan was so stiffly maintained in the Councel of Trent that from the two and twentieth of February 1546. to the ninth of March the Assembly continued divided into three Opinions some desiring that the Scriptures might be distinguished into three Classes of different Authority others that they should be disposed into two and the third Party which prevailed on the fifteenth of March requiring that a Catalogue should be drawn up without any Distinction apparent in the Decree By which Decree the Councel intending to thunder-strike at least in appearance the Sentiment of the Protestants though they saw it strongly maintained by many of their own Body declared that they comprehended in the Index of Sacred Books those which the Protestants in imitation of the Greeks and most of the Latine Fathers admitted not into the Canon which might be understood in the sence proposed by Ruffinus and without any derogation from those which the Church ever held properly and absolutely Canonical In the next place the Councel anathematized those who would not receive them for Sacred and Canonical which might also very well be observing the Distinction of Ruffinus and Cajetan which makes nothing against the Protestants And at last they declare their Anathema is discharged to let the World know what Testimonies and Arguments principally they should make use of to confirm Tenents and regulate Morality in the Church insinuating further in favour of the Partizans of Cardinal Cajetan who as to the main Ground agreed with the Protestants the distinction which they had made after Ruffinus of the Books properly Canonical subservient as well to the Confirmation of Faith as restauration of Manners and the improperly and in a certain respect Canonical appointed onely for the restauration of Manners This presupposed it clearly appears that the Fathers who had any knowledg of the second Book of the Maccabees upon this very accompt that they either absolutely denied it or onely half-granted it and upon great Qualifications the Title of Canonical could not any way ground upon the report of it the right which the Church of Rome pretends to at this day for Praying for the dead and that that Report could not be urged any further then to an Attestation that it had really been in use from the Time of the Maccabees And indeed St. Augustine the first who cited it to that purpose and at the very place where he alledged it pretended not to go any further for his Discouse cited by Julian of Toledo runs thus In Maccabeorum libris legimus oblatum pro mortuis sacrificium Sed etsi nusquam in Scripturis veteribus omnino legeretur non parva est universae Ecclesiae quae in hâc consuetudine claret authoritas c. We read in the Book of Maccabees that Sacrifice was offered for the dead but though there should be no such thing any where in the antient Scriptures yet is the authority of the universal Church which shines in that Custom not of little weight Fourthly Besides the precedent Reasons which demonstrate the impossibility of deriving the Original of Oblations and Prayers for departed Christians from the pretended Example of Judas Maccabaeus and the Application which the Abridger of Jason the Cyrenian conceived he ought to make of it this no less considerable then the rest is to be added viz. that the first who undertook the Patronage of such a Custom built very much upon the not-written Tradition onely and by that means acknowledged and professed that neither they nor in their Judgment their Predecessours had any ground to recurr to the Authority of any Scripture either properly or improperly said to be Canonical and consequently that their imagination is absolutely Erroneous who believe that the Antients grounded their Custom on the fourth of Tobit or on the seventh of Ecclesiasticus or lastly on the twelfth of the second of

that we are made partakers of their Dignity that they are to be honoured by way of imitation and not adored upon any religious accompt In a word that neither the Blessed Virgin Mother of our Saviour nor any of the Saints of either Sex can pretend to any part of that religious homage Saint Epiphanius one of the most earnest maintainers of Prayer for the Dead hath left to them and the whole Church of these last times these remarkable Precepts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Indeed the Body of Mary was holy but it was not God the Virgin was indeed a Virgin and honoured but she was not given us to be adored on the contrary she adored him who was begotten of her as to the flesh c. If God will not have the Angels to be adored how much rather will he not that she who was born of Ann should be c. God came from Heaven and the Word was clad in flesh taken from the holy Virgin but the Virgin is not adored c. Let Mary be honoured but let the Father Son and Holy Spirit be adored Let no man adore Mary though Mary be excellent and holy and honoured it is not that she should be adored c. Let Mary be honoured but let the Lord be adored But not to press any further this notorious defect which we finde at present in the Service of the Greeks we are to observe that among them the Office of the Dead is full of Prayers whereby is desired as in the Latine Service the mercy of God the remission of the sins of the deceased his absolution his blessed resurrection his introduction into rest into Abraham ' s Bosom into the Mansion of the blessed into refreshment into Paradise into the Tabernacle of God into his Kingdom glory light to the right hand of the great Judge into the Society of the Saints and Angels all which Expressions according to the Hypotheses of Antiquity may be applied to the Spirits already received into glory Which is so much the more evident for that the particular Office which concerns the Obsequies of Children is full of these Prayers that God would number the deceased among the Children to whom he hath promised his Kingdom that he would place him among the just who are acceptable in his sight that he would make him partaker of the good things which are above this World that he would let him enter into the joys of the Saints that in his holy Mountain he would gratifie him with celestial goods that he would write his name in the Book of those who shall be saved that he would make his face to shine upon him that he would lodge him in Abraham ' s Bosom that he would grant him the enjoyment of his Kingdom c. Yet were not these Desires made without a presupposition of his Beatitude as First when it is said to him He who hath taken thee from the Earth and gives thee place among his Saints shew● that thou O truly blessed Childe art a Citizen of Paradise The Sword of Death falling on thee hath cut thee off as a tender Branch O blessed art thou who hast made no tryal of worldly pleasures but behold Christ opening the Gates of Heaven to thee numbring thee● out of his great goodness among the Elect● Secondly When he is brought in making this Discourse Why do you bewail me a Childe translated out of the World for I am not a Subject to be bewailed The joy of all the just is required for those Children who have not done works worthy Tears Thirdly When he acknowledges that Death is a freedom to Children that they are thereby exempted from the miseries of life and that they are gone to rest that they rejoyce in Abraham ' s Bosom in the divine Quires of Blessed Children and assuredly dance because their departure hence was a deliverance from the corruption which loves sin If then the Ritual of the Creeks be full of Prayers for the Children whom they unanimously acknowledge to be among the Blessed what inconvenience can there be to attribute to them that they had the same apprehension for persons of age of whose felicity they no way doubted But though reason should not lead us to think so yet does their formal confession obliges us to believe as much for there is not any deceased person for whom they say not to God Mercifully receive the faithfull person departed who hath holily quitted this life and is O Lord passed towards thee and whose Funeral Solemnities they do not conclude saying to him three several times Our Brother worthy to be ever blessed and always remembred thy memory is eternal To every Monk without any exception they address these words Brother thè way thou art in is that of bliss for that a place of rest is prepared for thee adding to that purpose the sixteenth Verse of the one hundred and sixteenth Psalm Return unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt kindly with thee and a little after He who is taken hence hath passed through the ever-troubled Sea of Life and by Faith is arrived at his Port conduct him O Christ with the Saints into thy tranquillity and ever-living pleasures In like manner to every Priest Thou hast piously signalized thy self in Faith Charity Hope Gentleness Purity of life and in the Sacerdotal dignity and therefore O Brother of eternal memory God who is before all Ages whom thou hast served will himself dispose thy Spirit into a place full of light and pleasure where the just are in rest and will make thee obtain of Christ at the day of Judgment pardon and great mercy And the deceased Person is introduced using these words I am now at rest and have found great favour for that I have been transferred from the corruption of life glory be to thee O Lord c. Thy divine Servant Deified in his Transportation by thy now-enlivening Mystery is come towards thee To every Woman departed Detain not any longer O malicious Hell the Souls of the Elect in the condemnation of the Transgression for all being now made assuredly conformable to Christ instead of Death receive divine life In a word she is made to say the same words as had been attributed to the Priest I am now at rest c. All these Confessions grounded on the Lessons of Scripture which for the most part contain assurances of the Love of God towards those who serve him and promises of their future Beatitude and glorious Resurrection demonstratively prove that the first Compilers of the Greek Office agreeing in what is most substantial with the Protestants believed that whoever dies in the Faith of the Lord does from the moment of his Death enjoy rest and glory in him and with him But for as much as from time to time the purity of belief and worship receiving adulteration among them there rose up a sort of people apt to feign any