Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	believe_v	church_n	infallible_a	3,076	5	10.3460	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29039	A brief enquiry into the grounds and reasons, whereupon the infallibility of the Pope and the Church of Rome is said to be founded by Edward Bagshawe ...	Bagshaw, Edward, 1629-1671.	1662 (1662)	Wing B404; ESTC R9275	31,865	56

their present peaceableness may justly be attributed meerly to their want of strength which Bellarmine is not ashamed to say was the sole cause why the Primitive Christians were coment to suffer without Resistance from which Position what can follow but that it concerns the wisdome and policy of every State to keep those under whom as to tempor all Subjection it cannot confide in But could our Papists in England give sufficient evidence of their hearty disowning such an irreligious Tenet yet there is another thing practised by them which makes it highly questionable whether a Kingdome professing Christianity ought to tolerate them in and that is their Worship of Images which is a sinne so contrary to the express letter of the divine Law and so repugnant to the common sense and reason of all sober men that God punished it severely even in the Heathen Caldeans Jer. 50.38 as well as in his own people the Jews But bating these two indefensible Crimes rather than Errours their other opinions of Merit Purgatory Transubstantiation c. may for ought I see be charitably born with since in themselves they create no prejudice to the publick Peace which even Christian Magistrates so far as they are Magistrates ought principally if not solely to provide for If any think that such Indulgence like warm Aire will ripen these monstrous Births too fast and prove the ready way to encrease Popery they are utterly ignorant either how that Religion first began or by what Arts it is still upheld For till the world was asleepe in sensuality and blinded with Ignorance the Enemy could not sow these Tares and had they not afterwards maintained by force what they gained by fraud those Tares could never have prospered into so large an Harvest In opposition therefore to that conspiracy of Ignorance and Malice which goes to compound the Roman Religion I shall not scruple to say that if his Majesty whom God I doubt not hath designed for some such great and generous worke as now I mention be pleased still to continue to countenance the free Preaching and Reading of the Scripture and to disalow the imposing of any thing which either is contrary to or besides it It will then be as impossible for Popery to prevail as for dust to resist the Wind or for Airy Clouds to Eclipse the Sun The Errors of Popery for want of Divine Warrant have in them such a Fundamentall and Inherent weaknesse that unlesse they are upheld by a Coercive power they will sinke and fall of themselves as thinne and emty vapours if they have but roome enough in the Aire will disperse themselves without the help of any wind to scatter them To endeavour therefore the weakning of Popery by any thing which looks like Persecution doth indeed give it strength and Reputation as if it had reason on its side and therefore stood in need of force to suppresse it And besides it onely fills the Church with Hypocrites insteed of Converts who by mingling with and masking themselves under the Name of Protestants doe what they can secretly to dispirit and undermine our Religion the power of which they never felt since they were onely frighted to the Embracing of it But perhaps I need not plead so zealously for the not persecuting of Popery when too many of our unwary Gentry begin already to be taken with the outward Pompe of it and some that yet professe themselves to be of our Church and those of good Note too are not afraid to plead for something more then its Toleration Mr Thorndike Just Weights and Measures Since by telling us in Print that the Pope is not Anti-christ that Papists are not Idolaters nay by affirming that All are Schismatickes who upon that score do refuse Communion with them They not onely blemish the Virtue and Piety of our first Reformers who all built upon that Foundation but likewise show how willing they are upon any Termes how wretched and unworthy soever to returne into Egypt and bring us to our Bricke and Bondage again If this be not the intent of some I cannot imagine what meanes the crying up of that great Diana of the Papists the Churches Authority and making that the sole Interpreter of Scripture The Preaching up of Lent Dr Gunning upon Mat. 9. the Lent Fast Eliz. 5. Mr Thorndike ut suprà and other Politicall Fish-dayes as Religious Fasts and of Apostolicall Institution quite contrary both to expresse Scripture and an Act of Parliament The insinuating that we may Lawfully pray for the Dead and likwise expect some benefit by their Prayers which in time may easily be improved to our Praying unto them These with some other Opinions of the like nature so farre degenerating from our Primitive Protestancy doe show that if the Age is willing to be deceived there are not wanting Learned men who are willing enough to deceive them The designe therefore of this small Treatise is not only to depose the Pope from his usurped Title of Infallibility but to keep all persons else whether Churches or Church Rulers from taking the Chaire and succeeding into his room For since our Lord Christ hath given every Believer Reason to judge with and a Rule to judge by since over and above he hath promised his spirit to all that ask it which serves to assist the one and to explain the other he hath thereby appointed every man in matters of Faith and Godlinesse to be a Judge for himself though not of another And he who useth those meanes which our Saviour hath left and seekes to him in them may Infallibly be assured that though in some things he may Erre as a man yet he shall never finally miscarry Whereas he that leanes upon a Church of what denomination soever cannot be sure that he shall not be deceived since any number of men are as fallible in their Judgement as one especially when they are all sworne as in the Papacy to uphold the Authority and to defend the dictates of one This consideration alone will I hope prevaile with all Impartiall and disinteressed persons to take the safest side and with David to chuse to fall into the hands of God whose word duely searched into never deceived any rather then to fall into the hands of men who being Blind themselves do first take care to Blind their Followers and then lead them into a Ditch Edward Bagshaw Drury-Lane Aprill 16. 1662. THE GREAT QUESTION ABOUT The Infallibility of the Pope AND Church of Rome Quest Whether there be any sufficient Ground from Scripture or Reason to believe the Pope and Church of Rome to be Infallible FOr the better understanding and clearer stating of this Great Question I will premise these three things 1. By the Pope I mean the Bishop of Rome not in his Personall capacity as he is a Man for so the prodigious and monstrous Lives of many of their Popes which are obvious in Story Multi Pontifices fuerunt

whatever of which kind of Citations I have collected many and observed more in the ancient Writers especially before Constantines time yet I purposely omitted them because 1. In Questions wherein the Right of any thing is controverted to call in Witnesses is altogether impertinent 2. No Authority of man ought to prevail unless it hath the Authority of God and the consent of mankind i.e. Scripture or Right Reason to back it 3. Many Writers of our own as Mounsieur Daillee Chillingworth the Lord Falkland the Lord Digby now Earl of Bristow c. have already shewed the vanity and uselesness of such Allegations and because it is possible that the example of the last Honourable Person I named may be urged against me since his present practice doth contradict his former principles I will only adde this that since his Book is not yet answered by himself I hope he thinks it unanswerable and will not long continue in communion with that Church whose Foundations he hath so well overthrown 4. This way of writing by Quotations makes every Controversie uncertain dilatory and endless for as the possessed person said to the Exorcists Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are ye so may the common Reader say of Authorities and Fathers Scripture I know and Reason I know but who are ye for any farther than they speak according to the Dictates of the two former these latter must not be heard much less believed or followed That this little Treatise thus curtailed of all Authorities and deplumed of those Sentences from Fathers with which others do not think they stuff but rather adorn their Writings is like to be little read and less esteemed by the men of a contrary perswasion I easily foresee but yet the Question is so very usefull that I could not omit to handle it For 1. If it shall appear that the Church and Pope of Rome are not Infallible then I hope all those who have unwarily embraced their Errours upon the account of their unerring Authority will be induced to shake off their laziness and address themselves strictly to enquire into the Grounds of what they Believe and according to the advice of the Apostle Paul who was undoubtedly Infallible in that direction Prove all things and then hold fast that which is good The greatest Truth while it is untried may for ought we know be an Errour and all that while if we entertain it we fall upon our Religion onely by chance and serve God as the Samaritans did for which our Saviour blames them we know not why 2. If the Pope and Church of Rome be not Infallible in their Judgment about Religious matters then it follows that they ought not to impose upon the Judgment of others there being nothing more unreasonable then this that they should Lord it over the Faith or Consciencious Perswasion of other men who are not certain but they may Erre and be deceived themselves This last Consideration how far it may be improved to moderate the great Fiercenesse and Rigor of too many among our selves who in things of so poore so triviall so needlesse and so unmanly a nature will have their will to be a Law I mention only it being too sad a Theme to insist long upon But if Religion which is in it selfe the firmest lye if the Law of Christ which is a Law of Love cannot make us agree and live together as Brethren yet let feare of the common Enemy prevent our separation When Abraham and Lot fell out about their Pastures and I wish much of our Church-quarells now were not of the same nature the spirit of God remarks upon it the Canaanits and the Perizzites were then in the Land Hereby intimating that it was a most unseasonable time for them to disagree and to divide from each other in when they were surrounded in the midst of Enemies This passage perfectly agrees with our Case and on the very same motive bespeakes a mutuall Reconcilement for certainly the Canaanites are in the Land the Philistines are if not upon yet Among us who watch our Halting and hate Conformists and Non-conformists if these must be once more the Unhappy Termes to distinguish us both alike the one they hate for going so farre from the other for not comming neerer to them If God in just Judgment upon our unchristian Animosities should make us a Prey to those Incircumcised Philistines Polyphemus courtesie to Ulisses of devouring him last would be the greatest favour that he can expect whoever he be that is now most eager in denying his weake but yet Christian Brother that Liberty which he thinks Christ hath purchased and none but Antichrist will seeke utterly to bereave us of Should we ever fall into the Papists hands again I cannot expect they should use us more mildly then their predecessours did Samson i.e. put out our eyes and make us grind in their Mills Or as they afterwards served the Israelites take away our Weapows of Warre our Scripture and the best if not the onely Interpreter of it Enligtned Reason and so leave us Naked and Defencelesse to the Assaules of Ignorance first and if that will not prevaile to the Fury of a Mercilesse Inquisition Which last will be found the strongest and most forcible Engine rather then Argument by which they defend their Infallibillity But how ill an opinion soever I have both of the Papists Religion and of the unchristian wayes they take to propagate it yet farre be it from me to wish that amongst us they may suffer the same hard measure which I know by their principles they are alwayes ready to inflict For so much doe I desire their Conversion which can never be sincere unlesse it be voluntary and unconstrained and so little feare their Power of seducing since their greatest strength lies in the Ignorance of their followers rather then in the cunning of their Guides that I heartily wish all Penall Lawes against them were utterly taken away For I never yet saw any Argument that could clearly evince why any sort of men who would professe a peaceable subjection unto the Civill Government might not in all their Civill Rights be protected by it I must confess there are two things which do much difference the case of the Papists from that of any other Religious Sect this day in the World and which renders the toleration of them very unsafe if not unwarrantable One is their depending upon and owning of a forreign Power and that such a Power too which according to the Opinion of their Teachers can when he pleaseth dispense with them for and release them from their most sacred Engagements so that a State can have no security but that whenever they have opportunity they will endeavour a Change Lib. 5. de Pontif Rom. c. 7. Quod si Christiani non deposuerunt Neronem similes id fuit quia deerant vires temporales nam alioqui jure id poter an t facere c. and