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	reason_n	2,125	5	5.7482	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31428	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable, the Lord Mayor, Alderman and citizens of London, at S. Mary-le-Bow on the fifth of November, 1680 by William Cave ...	Cave, William, 1637-1713.	1680 (1680)	Wing C1606; ESTC R1491	19,106	42

nor should we stick now to obey your commands did not the laws of Christianity forbid us to worship devils and to approach the polluted Altars of your gods We see you are resolved either to defile us with Idolatry or to terrifie us with a decimation go on Sir as you have begun Know we are all Christians our bodies we subject to your power but we reserve our souls intire for Christ our Saviour Nor is it despair that makes us thus resolute against you we have armes you see and yet make no resistance choosing rather to dye than to overcome and to perish innocent than to live rebellious and revengeful Exasperated with this invincible resolution the Emperour orders a second decimation which doing no good upon them he commanded the whole Army Horse and Foot to break in who cut them off as in a moment And thus they died with their swords in their hands when being so many and so advantageously posted they might have preserved their lives by force of armes or to be sure have sold them at the dearest rate But alas the rising up against their Emperour the propagating the faith by fire and sword the deposing and assassinating Princes for the sake of God and holy Church were practices not more expresly condemned by the doctrine of the Gospel than they were strangers to those innocent and happy times And this brings me to the third thing I propounded to enquire into and that is III. Whether any part of the Christian Church at this day be justly guilty of this charge And here without further preface I lay down the charge at the door of the Church of Rome which in this great instance of Religion has so wofully debaucht the purity and simplicity of the Christian faith that it 's become now quite another thing than what it was when it first came from under the hands of its Author A Church that in this regard looks more like a Council of War or a School of the arts of Treason than the Court of the Prince of peace or the house of the God of order A Church the principles of whose Religion as they have now modelled it if heartily embraced and duly improv'd to their just and natural tendences are plainly inconsistent with the majesty and security of Soveraign Powers the happy government of the Civil State and indeed with the quietness and good order of mankind So true is the determination which the wise King James makes in this matter Speech to both Houses of Parl. p. 11. that as on the one part many-honest men seduc't with some errours of Popery may yet remain good and faithful subjects so on the other part none of those that truly know and believe the whole grounds and School-conclusions of their doctrine can ever prove either good Christians or faithful subjects But that I may not seem without just reason to fasten so heavy a charge upon them I shall as briefly as I can shew these two things First That the principles taught and belived in the Church of Rome are immediately destructive of the safety and authority of Princes and the peace of humane society Secondly That the practices of the men of that Church have been all along agreeable to their principles I. The principles taught and believ'd in the Church of Rome are immediately destructive of the safety and authority of Princes and the peace of humane society And here not to insist upon their doctrine of the Popes absolute Infallibility of the punishment of hereticks whom they devote to the most horrid penalties both in this and the other world their cancelling the most solemn oaths and that they bind no longer if dispenc't with by the Pope or than 't is for the interest of the Catholic cause and declaring that no faith is to be kept with heretics their doctrine of auricular Confession whereby they screw themselves into the secrets of Princes and that the most enormous villanies are to be concealed if delivered under the Seal of Confession Binet Jesuit ap Casaub Epist clxx ad Front Duc. p. 209. vid. p. 206. c. which is not to be broken up say some of them tho the lives of all the Kings in the World lay at stake their exempting the Clergy from the jurisdiction of the Secular Powers whereby infinite frauds murders and villainies are securely committed their doctrine of aequivocation and mental reservation in the most serious and important cases their vows of obedience to their Superiours whereby they are oblig'd to attempt the most horrid and unnatural actions without enquiring into the reason or boggling at the barbarity of them all which and abundant more instances that might be given strike at the very vitals of peace and order among men To pass by also the blasphemous titles and exorbitant preheminences which their Schoolmen and Canonists ascribe to the Pope as that Kings and Emperours are his Slaves and Vassals See multitudes of testimonies to this purpose cited by Dr. Crakanthorp in his Treatise of the Popes temporal Monarchy chap. 1. whom he may command cast down at pleasure that they are inferior to the meanest Priest who is as much above a King as a man is above a beast and that as much as God Almighty excels a Priest so much does a Priest excel a King Besides these they directly maintain and teach that the Government of the whole world both in temporals and spirituals is at least in order to the good of souls committed to the Pope all Regal authority depending on him that he may not only punish but deprive Kings of their Countries and bestow their Kingdoms upon others that if a King be an heretic he forfeits his title to his Crown and dignity yea though he be but negligent to extirpate heresie or to execute justice whereupon the Pope may absolve his Subjects from all duty and allegiance to him in which case they are bound not to obey that this Papal sentence once pass'd he may be expell'd or kill'd by any yea any one of his own sworn subjects may take away his life nay that in some cases the people are not bound to stay for the Popes decree and declaration but may of themselves rise up and dethrone such Princes and that they are obliged to do so in point of conscience and upon pain of their souls and that such proceedings as these are agreeable to Nature Law Scripture and the practices and precepts of holy men and that he that doubts of it wants common sence All which scandalous and damnable propositions and there are infinitely more and some worse perhaps than what I have mentioned are one or more of them in terminis maintained by a Defenssid Cath. l. 3. c. 23. n. 1 16 21. l. 6. c. 4. n. 14 18 19. Suarez b De rep Eccles l. 3. c. 4. § 48 49. Controv Angl. p. 115 133 135. alib saepe Becanus c Comment in 1.2 Aqu. dist 152.