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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	apostle_n	church_n	scripture_n	2,161	5	5.9273	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93282	The true church of Christ exposed to the view of all sober Christians, from the Word of God, sound reason, and the ancient fathers / by James Salgado, a Spaniard, a converted priest.	Salgado, James, fl. 1680.	1681 (1681)	Wing S384; ESTC R42935	23,389	69

shunned not to declare the whole Counsel of God professeth that he had said no other things than those which Moses and the Prophets did say should come I quickly concluded that the only mark of the true Church is to be taken from this Fountain That the Church is built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles and the chief Corner-stone is Jesus Christ And I found that Augustine that glorious Light of Antiquity did agree with me writing Contr. Ma. Arian l. 3. Neither will I alledge the Nicene Chuncil to your prejudice nor ought you to alledge the Council of Ariminum to mine Let us not make use of Writings partial to the one or to the other Party but of the holy Scriptures that are impartial Judges of both and compare Cause with Cause Matter with Matter and Reason with Reason And elsewhere writing against Donatus There namely in the Scriptures let us seek for the True Church there let us discuss the point Being now fully confirmed in this general Principle I began to enquire narrowly into the Purity of particular Churches and upon enquiry found that none do so exactly agree with the Scriptures as the Reformed Churches Wherefore I firmly resolved with my self to forsake the Roman Idolatry and associate my self to the Protestants which I accordingly performed in France and having renounced the Romish Superstitions I adjoyned my self to the Reformed Church as being the true Church of Christ which I shall now shortly evince by the following Arguments That is the true Church which 1. Vindicates and maintains the Authority of the Scriptures 2. Teacheth Doctrine agreeable to the Scriptures 3. Because I will not be so Scripturary as to neglect the Testimony of the Fathers and Councils Which agrees also with the Testimony of Ancient Fathers and Councils But the Reformed Church is such Therefore the Reformed is the true Church As for the first the Reformed Church maintains the Authority of the Scriptures against the Papists who affirm That the Scriptures have no Authority as to us at least but from the Church Which distinction was found out by Bellarmine namely that the Authority of the Scripture considered in it self doth not depend upon the Church but only in respect of us But how frivolous is this distinction For all Authority is Relative and therefore it cannot be considered without a relation to us And moreover the Supposition is false that the Scriptures Authority as to us depends upon the Church But before I come to overthrow this Assertion it will not be amiss to observe that the reason which induceth the Papists to defend it is evidently this They know not how to answer the Protestants Arguments from Scripture without wresting the sense and therefore hold that the sense of the Scriptures depends upon the interpretation of the Church which obligeth them to desend that the Authority of the Scriptures depends also upon the Church being that without the Churches Tradition we can have no certainty of the Scriptures themselves nor of their sense In this they imitate exactly the Ancient Hereticks of whom Tertullian says When the Hereticks are confuted from the Scriptures they presently begin to accuse the Scriptures as if they were not of sufficient Authority or were otherwise written than they are cited by the Orthodox and of which there is no certainty without Tradition Where you may see an exact Portraicture of the Modern Papists But to return to our purpose we assert That the Scriptures Authority doth no way depend upon the Authority of the Church but of the Holy Ghost only speaking internally in our hearts and externally in the Scriptures because he is their Author 2 Tim. 3.16 2 Pet. 1.21 and therefore he alone can give them their Authority And as Christ seeks a Testimony from none besides the Father so neither doth his Word need any other which he hath left upon Earth instead of his own Person And as it were very absurd to affirm that the Authority of the Kings Proclamation depends upon the Cryer or a Rule upon the thing ruled or that the Sun borrows his light from his own Orb or Vortex so it is no less ridiculous to affirm that the Authority of the Scriptures depends upon the Church The Church is the Candlestick the Word of God is the Candle Revel 1.20 Luk. 8.16 Now as a Candlestick contributes nothing to the light of the Candle so neither doth the Church to the Authority of the Scriptures We reject not the Ministerial Testimony of the Church in this affair because thereby we come to the knowledge of the Scriptures as the Samaritans came to the knowledge of Christ by the Samaritan Womans Testimony which nevertheless was not the reason or ground of their Faith but the Instrument only The Papists object that the Church is called the Pillar and Ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3.15 And from hence they conclude that the Authority of the Scriptures as to us depends entirely upon the Church But to pass Camero's observation that these words belong to the sixteenth verse where there is a Copulative Particle which otherwise were useless and that the Apostle first compares the Church to a House and then teacheth us what is the chief Pillar of that House viz. God manifest in the Flesh For a House cannot be called a Pillar but a Pillar is in a House In this place Paul means not an Architectonical Pillar that sustains the Authority of the Scriptures but a Political to which the Fdicts of the Supreme Governour are affixed Nor is Bellarmines Exception against this distinction of any weight that the Church may be as well called a Bibliotheck as a Pillar in this sense For we affirm that the Church doth not only keep these Books but also teach and publish the Contents thereof and expose them to the view of the people So then the Testimony of the Church may be one Motive to induce us to believe the Divine Authority of the Scriptures but cannot beget in our minds a firm and certain perswasion of it which is the work of the Holy Ghost only whom God joyns with his Word Isa 59.21 My Spirit which is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth c. Augustine speaks well to this purpose in his Confessions But how shall I know that these are thy words Moses said so indeed but Moses is gone and if he were present and should speak Hebrew I could not understand him but if he spoke Latin and I understood him how could I be certain that he spoke the truth The Truth it self which is neither Greck Latin Hebrew nor Barbarian without any sound of the tongue or noise of Syllables would say unto me inwardly in the Cabinet of my heart he speaketh truth You see Christian Readers how Augustine was perswaded of the Divinity of the Scriptures not by the Authority of the Church nor of Moses and the Prophets but by the Internal Truth

from a custom frequent among them in the Celecration of this Sacrament The reason why they affirm it is because they hold that Infants departing without Baptism cannot be saved but go into the Limbus Infantum a kind of Hole prepared to put Children into where they suffer paenam damni but not paenam seasus that is they are deprived of the Beatifick Vision of God though they are not under any sensible torment If then their Election which is unchangeable and their being under the Covenant of Grace which belongeth to them as well as to their Parents be not sufficient to save them because they were not baptized surely Baptism which maketh them capable to demand Heaven must by a physical vertue work those Graces whereby they may attain unto Salvation 2. They hold that none can be saved without the Bosom of the Church and that none can be reputed Members of the Church except such as have been baptized Moreover their Custom is to admit of the Baptism of Women providing the Form be observed in case of necessity which shews how absolutely necessary they esteem Baptism unto Salvation Having proved the Charge I shall demonstrate the Errour And first it is as certain That all Infants departing without Baptism are not deprived of the beatifick Vision as that David was saved who after death was to go to his Child that died without Circumcision 1 Sam. 12.18 23. in place whereof Baptism succeeded as appears from Coll. 2.11 12. And as certain as that the promise of Eternal Life doth belong to Infants which Argument is of the same force against the Anabaptists that deny the Seal to Infants to whom the promise belongs for which reason Peter did willingly confer Baptism upon some Converts Act. 2.38 39 as against the Papsts that deny Eternal Life to Children dying without Baptism although they be under the promise and Covenant of Grace for he that is under the Covenant of Grace or the Promises is in Christ and he that is in Christ will certainly be saved Therefore Children being under the Covenant of Grace and the Promise of Life will certainly be saved Acts 2.39 Eph. 2.12 But they object this Scripture Except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3. ● whence they conclude that none can be saved without Baptism But I answer that nothing else is meant by this water and spirit but the holy Ghost himself who is compared to water because he washeth away our sins There is another expression like unto this in Mat. 3.11 He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire that is the Holy Ghost shall purge you as fire doth Gold seven times refined So that these Expressions are Metaphorical and Figurative Virgil hath the like expression Pateris libamus auro We drink out of Cups and Gold that is out of Golden Cups so to be baptized with the Spirit and with fire is nothing else but to be baptized with a fiery Spirit and the same way are Christ's words concerning water and spirit to be understood wherefore what he saith here figuratively by way of Hendiadis he expressed in the third Verse in proper words except a man be born again he can not see the Kingdom of God So that it clearly appears from Christs own exposition that here is understood spiritual Regeneration and not the external washing with water in Baptism 2. We utterly deny that Baptism by women is valid and not to be reiterated They can only alledge the example of Zipporah that Circumcised her Son whence they argue that a Woman may as lawfully Baptize as Circumcise I shall not give the answer that is usual amongst some Divines viz. that Zipporah sinned in so doing for God never blesseth men for any sin as such but he did bless Moses for this action of Zipporah But I answer thus that Circumcision in the Old Testament was indifferently administred by any person by reason it was not so strictly joyned with the Ministerial Office of Preaching as Baptism is in the New Testament Go and teach all Nations baptizing them c. Mat. 28.19 So that now it is unlawful for any to administer Baptism but such as are ordained for the Ministery Now we shall proceed to speak of the other Sacrament without regarding the rest of their five Sacraments that have no ground in the Scriptures nor the Fathers which is the Lords Supper According to sound Doctrine the Lords Supper is nothing else but a visible sign of an invisible Grace wherein by receiving of Bread and Wine is signified our receiving of the Body and Blood of Christ as a Seal of the Covenant of Crace tending to our Salvation We deny not that the Body and Blood of Christ is really present in this holy Sacrament but we deny 1. That it is corporally present because it is circumscriptive and in Heaven and therefore cannot be every where 2. We deny that the Lords Supper is a Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead which point I shall chiefly insist upon As to the first the Papists do very much urge their Transubstantiation by which they understand nothing else but the Corporal presence of the Body and Blood of our Saviour under the appearance and accidents of Bread and Wine imagining that the substance of the Bread and Wine is turned to the first nothing out of which it was created and the accidents only do remain which affect our senses of sight feeling and taste The falshood and absurdity of this imagination I thus demonstrate 1. Neither the Word nor the thing is to be found in Scripture for after the Consecration it is called the Bread of which we are partakers 1 Cor. 10.17 Now if the Bread were annihilated how could we be partakers of it And moreover no Papist will allow that it be called Bread after Consecration which yet we see the Scripture doth 2. The Word it self is new and was never heard of before the Lateran Council when Berengarius was forced to recant the Truth and fall into a most abominable Errour namely that Christs Body is bruised by the Teeth and let down into the Belly c. 3. The Word is no way adapted to the thing yea Creation may be as well called Annihilation as this may be called Transubstantiation for Transubstantiation is nothing else but a mutation or turning of one substance into another as in Cana of Galilee Wine was turned into Water but the Papists say that in this case one substance is not turned into another but that the one namely the Bread and Wine is annihilated and the other namely the Body and Blood of Christ is induced under the appearance and accidents of Bread and Wine although they have a thousand distinctions here about the introducing of the Body and Blood of Christ under these accidents which I shall pass over so that it ought rather to be called an Annihilation of one substance and Introduction

the Living and the Dead and by consequence no Transubstantiation uppon which this Sacrifice is builded And here their Purgatory falls to the Ground for besides that it is contrary to Scriptures to Reason to the Antient Fathers and injurious to the satisfaction and merits of Christ moreover if there be no Sacrifice there can be no Mass and by consequence no money for the delivery of Souls out of Purgatory Here also falls to the ground their Doctrine of Concomitancy for the sake whereof as Gelatius one of their Popes Intimates they have committed Sacriledg in the Cup from the Laity which although the Council of Constance confesseth to be contrary to the Primitive Institution of Christ and Custom of the Antient Church yet for some ridiculous reasons such as That some persons hands do shake that some have deformed Whiskers and Beards pronouncing an Anathema against him that will contradict it And I have many times wondred why by the same Doctrine of Concomitancy they may not as well give the Cup and take away the Bread or take away the Cup from the Clergy as well as the Laity Why it is a fufilling of the Law to abstain from the one and a sin yea a mortal sin to abstain from the other There is neither reason nor Scripture to countenance it in the least So that the Reformed Churches teach sound Doctrine both as to the Nature and the Integrity of this Sacrament The last Point I shall touch upon is the worshipping of Saints The Protestants agree herein with the Scriptures and the Ancient Fathers that the Saints are to be honoured by imitation but not to be religiously adored and that for these three Reasons 1. We cannot believe in Saints therefore we cannot worship them how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed Rom. 10.14 2. We are severely forbidden to worship any but God Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve Mat. 4.10 3. The Saints do not know our thoughts nor can they hear our Prayers Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledgeth us not Isa 63.16 Hence Aquinas saith To know the thoughts of the heart is the property of God and elsewhere The Angels know not the secrets of the heart And again to know the particular thoughts and actions of men is above the perfection of a create understanding And Durandus denies that the glorified Saints do know our thoughts Finally Augustin saith that the dead know not what is done here God onely knoweth the hearts of the Children of Men 1 Kings 8.39 Peter the Apostle though a Saint would not suffer Cornelius to worship him saying I my self also am a man Acts 10.26 nor would the Angel suffer John to prestrate himself to him worship God saith he Rev. 19.20 Yea a Heathen Poet could tell that God onely is to be worshipped Nec D●a sum dixit nec sacro thuris honore Humanum dignare capu● Their distinction betwixt latria and dulia and hyperdulia hath been abundantly refuted by many of the Reformed Writers I shall onely conclude that if Papists cannot be accused of formal Idolatry yet they are certainly guilty of material Idolatry Having demonstrated that the Protestant Churches do defend the Holy Scriptures and conform their Doctrine thereunto in the most weighty points I justly infer that the Protestant Church is a true faithful and sincere Church I shall shut up all with this Observation that the Papists perceiving that they cannot prevail against the Protestants in disputing of their Doctrine They question the Protestant Minestery as not Legitimate But besides that their own Scholasticks as Bannes Canus c. do allow that the power of Ordaining is not lost by Heresy their own practice doth evidently confute them for these that have been ordained in our Churches are not reordained by them as to the substantial part of Ordination And it is certain enough That a bad Governour or Governours of the Church may send good Labourers into Christ's Vineyard yea Antichrist himself being under the Cloak of Christs Vicar may distribute the Offices of Christs Temporal and Earthly Court to good men that are willing to serve Christ So when Christ was upon Earth the Church was very much corrupted and yet they sent good Workmen into the Lords Vineyard such as Joseph Nicodemus and othes I shall conclude all with thanks to Almighty God for that he hath been pleased to open mine eyes to see the way of truth and prayers to him to confirm me therein and my hearty wishes that every one may reject the way of abomination and be rooted and built up in Christ and established in the faith lest he be spoiled by vain deceit after the Tradition of Men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ Come out of Babylon my People lest ye be partakers of her sins Embrace the true Protestant Religion which is pure in Doctrine holy in Manners and faithful to God and the King FINIS