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	faith_n	revelation_n	1,466	5	9.8611	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15508	Charity mistaken, with the want whereof, Catholickes are vniustly charged for affirming, as they do with grief, that Protestancy vnrepented destroies salvation.	Knott, Edward, 1582-1656.; Matthew, Tobie, Sir, 1577-1655, attributed author.; Potter, Christopher, 1591-1646.; Potter, Christopher, 1591-1646. Want of charitie justly charged.	1630 (1630)	STC 25774; ESTC S102197	54,556	140

seriously censure the Zuinglians and all the Sacramentaries for hereticks and as alienated from the Church of God And I protest before God and the world that I agree not with them nor euer will but will haue my hād cleare from the blood of those sheepe which these hereticks driue from Christ deceaue and kill And againe in the same place Cursed be the Charity and concord of Sacramentaries for euer and euer to all eternity And a litle before his death he protesteth saying I hauing now one of my feete in the graue will carry this testimony and glory to the tribunall of God That I will with all my heart condemne and eschew Carolostadius Zuinglius Oecolampadius their disciples nor will haue familiarity with any of them neither by letter writing words nor deedes accordingly as the Lord hath commaunded Thus he sayth with very much more to the same effect And to make this yet more euident by the like testimonyes of the Zuinglians Caluinists the Tigurine Diuines say thus Nos condemnatam execrabilem vocat sectam c. Luther calls vs a damnable and execrable sect but let him looke that he declare not himselfe an Archheretick since he will not nor cannot haue any society with those that confesse Christ. But how marueilously doth Luther here bewray himselfe with his diuells what filthy words doth he vses such as are replenished with all the diuells in helle For he sayth that the diuell dwelleth both now and euer in the Zuinglians and that they haue a blasphemous brest insathanized persathanized and supersathanized and that they haue besides a most vaine mouth ouer which Sathan beareth rule being infused perfused and transfused into the same Did euer man heare such speeches passe frō a furious diuell himselfe In so much as Zuinglius sayth of him Behould how Sathā doth endeauour wholly to possesse this man And Oecolampadius also forewarnes Luther least being puffed vp by arrogācy pride he be seduced by Sathā Wherunto might be added sūdry other like testimonies This contention betweene Luther and his followers on the one party and the Zuinglians or Caluinists on the other is yet further testified not only by the almost infinite writings of on against an other yet dayly encreasing but also by the knowne mutuall proscription or banishment of ech other from their seuerall territories or dominions So farre were they from reputing one another for members of one and the same Church Thus farre goe the words of the sayd Apoligie where you shall finde the places both of Luther and Zuinglius and Oecolampadius and the Tigurine diuines exactly cited Heare also further what Nicolaus Gallus saith who was an eminent Minister at Ratisbone of the difference amongst the Protestants themselues Non sunt leues c In The sib Hypothes The dissentions which are amongst vs be not light nor cōcerning light matters but about the greatest Articles of of Christian Doctrine of the law and the ghospell of iustification and good workes of the Sacraments and vse of ceremonies Heare also what Conradus Schlussenburgus another famous Lutheran Protestant sayth in the very Title of his booke against the Caluinists Theologiae Caluinisticae libri tres c. Three bookes concerning Caluiniā diuinity wherein it is shewed as in a Table to the eye out of two hundred thre and twenty publicke writers of the Sacramentaries with particular setting downe the pages the words the names of the authours that the said Sacramentaries haue no true belief of almost any Article of Christian Faith This booke was printed at Franckford in the yeare 1594. Reade also but the very Title of two of Grauerus his bookes who was a famous professour of Lutheranisme the one is this Absurda absurdorū absurdissima Caluinistica absurda The absourd most absourd doctrines Caluin c. and the other Bellum Ioannis Caluini Iesu Christi printed 1598. The warre of Iohn Caluin against Iesus Christ. And lastly doe but read this Title of book writtē by Aegidius Hunnius who was a most famous Lutheran and succeeded next to Luther himselfe in possessing his Chaire at Wittenberge The Title is this Aegidij Hunnij Caluinus Iudai ●ans id est c. Caluin playing the Iew that is to say A discouery made by Aegidius Hunnius of the Iewish Interpretations and corruptions whereby Iohn Caluin ●ath not bene afrayde to corrupt after a detestable māner most illustrious places and testimonies of holy Scripture concerning the glorious Trinity the Deity of Christ of the holy Ghost and especially of predictiōs of the Prophets touching the coming of the Messias his Natiuity Passion Resurrection Ascension sitting at the right hād of God Printed at Wittenberge in the yeare 1592. I forbeare both to presse this euidēce I will no further seeke to prooue by way of Authority that both Catholicks and Protestants are not sauable as not being to be accounted to be of one and the same Church and Religion no not yet euen the Lutherans and Caluinists For in a word that reason strikes euen at the roote which is drawen from the nature propriety of faith it selfe And euen that alone if it be well considered will vnanswerably conuince not only that they are of differēt faith Church who differ in so many Articles of so great moment as these wherein we professe one selues to disagree but that they also who differ in any one single point which is propounded and commanded by the Catholicke Church yea and more ouer that they who differ not in any points at all if yet they assent not vpon the only true infallible ground which is as hath bene said the reuelation of Almighty God and the Proposition and Direction of the said Catholicke Churh not only haue the selfe same faith with that Church but that they haue no supernaturall and true faith at all euen of those other doctrines which they most earnestly thinke themselues to imbrace and cōsequently that it is wholly impossible for them to be saued if they dye impenitent The reason whereof is excellently deliuered by S. Thomas and many other diuines who vnaunswerably prooue that whosoeuer belieues not the whole corps of Christian Doctrine hath no true supernaturall faith at all and doth not righly belieue any one Article thereof He may haue a kinde of materiall fayth concerning those articles to which he giues assent but not a certaine and true and supernaturall faith vnles he belieue them vpon the right grounde thereof which is The speech or reuelation of Almighty God propounded and commaunded to belieued by the Catholicke Church For example if I should belieue that Christ our Lord dyed for the sins of the world either because I had only read it in some learned booke or in regard that I had ben told so by some friend whom I much esteemed and loued or else because I thought it likely in respect of some cōgruity thereof to other things or finally vpō any other

sees cause or not to belieue any doctrine which is not fundamentall without incuring the sentence of damnation Vpon this it followes that there is nothing in all Christian Religion which according to their groundes it imports a man more exactly to learne then what is fundamentall and what not nor which it more imports the Doctours and guides of the Protestant Church to make knowne to all that people which they pretend to guide in the way of saluation And yet neuerthelesse there is absolutely no one thing which hath beene so frequently importunately desired as that they would giue in some exact list or Catalogue of all and the only fundamentall points of faith and yet is there no one thing wherein we are so litle satisfied and which vpon the matter they doe so absolutely refuse And yet as hath beene here expressed if according to their groundes a man should faile of belieueing any one fundamental point of faith by his not knowing ●hrough their fault that the point which he belieued not was fundamentall he must be sure to perish and that for euer But the Protestants are wise inough in their owne waye and well they know what they do in order to their owne ends both when they frame the distinction of fundamentall and not fundamētall points of faith and when also they refuse to giue in a Catalogue of which is which For by making first the distinction and then by concealing the particulars contained vnder the branches thereof they saue themselues harmeles amongst ignorant people from being cōuinced to be of a different Communion and Religion both from the Fathers of the primitiue Church on the one side and from their fellow sectaries of this age on the other Whereby they gaine a kind of reputation with their vulgar auditours and readers as if th●y maintained a sufficiency of vnity with both Whereas if either they framed not the distinction of fundamentall at all or else would clearly let men know which points alone were fundamentall then this would followe That whensoeuer we should conuince them of any particular doctrine which is denied by them and which yet was belieued by the ancient Fathers they would be obliged to professe that either that point was not fundamentall which would disable them from rayling at vs for belieuing the same or else that the Fathers were of a differēt Religion in fundamentall points from them and that in their opinion those very Fathers could not be saued which would put them to much preiudice another way And so vpon the same reason they would also either be forced to renounce the cōmunion of the Lutherās if they were found to differ from thē in fundamentall points of faith or else to avowe expresly that those points which they belieued differently from them were not fundamentall which would be of no lesse dāger disreputatiō to thē But now when we vrge them for example sake with the doctrine of praying to Saints of prayer for the dead or the like out of the ancient Fathers that once we bring them from denying via facti that the Fathers taught that doctrine which yet they will be sure to confesse as cautelously as they can they then tell vs streight that those Fathers were but men and had their errours We aske them then if those errours depriue them of saluation They say noe because those points forsooth were not fundamentall and thus as hath bene said they will seeme to keepe a kinde of quarter with the Fathers In the selfe same manner when we vrge them in the name of Lutherans with the Reall Presence of of the body of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar or with their casting the Epistle of S. Iames and diuerse others out of the Canon of holy Scripture by their forbearing to avowe and declare that these points of Religion are fundamentall they goe inuisible to the eyes of simple people and still make a shift to seeme to be in vnity with the Lutherans when yet the world knowes and we haue seene that Luther himselfe declared them directly to be heretickes Not only doth this distinction of their doctrines into fundamentall and not fundamentall saue their credits amongst weake mē by making them belieue that they ioyne in vnity of faith both with the Fathers of the primitiue Church and Lutherans but they enable themselues also thereby to affirme with some very litle shewe of colour though it haue no truth at all that they haue had a continuall visible Church in all the ages since Christ our Lord without being so easily detected to the contrary And their way is this When they are prest by vs to shew a continuall visible Church of their Religion which they know well inough that they are not able to produce those aduersaryes of ours who are of any ingenuity at all are wont clearely to confesse that indeede they haue had no continuall visible Church But so also they declare that there is no necessity at all that the Church must haue beene continually visible to the eyes of men The rest who see how absurde this doctrine is say that indeede there must alwayes haue bene a visible Church but then againe they subdiuide themselues in that opinion For some fewe of them affirme when they are vrged by vs to shewe that visible Church of theirs that theirs and ours do make but one true Church and so in shewing the visibity of ours they doe withall as they say shewe their owne to haue beene visible And these men treade in this way because they well know that no other Church but ours can indeed be shewed to haue beene visible through all ages since Christ our Lord. But a third sort of men there is who pretend to shewe a Church distinct from ours which hath continually been visible in the profession and practise of the Protestant Religion Wherein Fox hath shewed the way to the gees who follow him For in fine when they are put to name their particular professours of former ages they doe but muster vp those seuerall single false doctrines which haue been held by other heretickes by retayle during tenne or twelue ages since Christ our Lord many of which Doctrines together themselues doe now professe in grosse For what other men of former times did they euer or can they euer name as men of their Religion but such as belieued some one or two of those hereticall doctrines which now themselues embrace and wherein they are contrary to vs But by that reason our aduersaries might say as well that both they and we yea and all those others also are of one and the same Religion because we all agree together in many points though we differ in many more and though we be excommu●i●ated by one an other And if their belief may be examined whom our aduersaries cite out of former times as men to whose communion in Religiō they now lay claime it will be found as hath aboundantly beene prooued that

or which the Lutherans or such other fellow ghospellers of theirs at this day or indeed euen with vs Catholickes if things as they say may be considered with moderation and all this they take to be secured by distinguishing points of faith into Fundamentall and not Fundamentall and then by saying that they agree both with the Fathers and Lutheranes and sometimes of their curtesie euen with vs in all fundamentall points of faith and that they differ but in points not fūdamentall It is a matter of great momēt that this particular conceit be carefully sifted and discouered and therefore I wil aske leaue that the next Chapter may be spent about it That Protestants haue no reason in alleadging the distinction of fundamentall not fundamētall points or faith as intending to prooue thereby that they are in vnity with the Fathers of the Primitiue Church of their fellow Brethren the Lutherans yea and some times with Catholickes at this day CHAPTER VIII BOth Luther and Caluin their next disciples yea and many Protestants also of these dayes haue familiarly in their sermons and no lesse frequētly in their bookes taken liberty with euery pennefull of incke to dash as it were damnation into our eyes and directly to affirme that they departed frō the Communion of the Church of Rome because forsooth they found it to be the seate of Antichrist the Synagogue of Satan the very Center of superstition and Idolatry and finally that bloody tyrant which exercised all immaginable cruelty against the Saints of God for many ages and which poisoned the world with false prophanes doctrines of extreme dishonour vnto Almighty God And indeede with what collour could certaine single base and filthie men haue presumed to depart frō the visible Catholicke Church of Christ our Lord and to erect their conuenticles as they did if they had not ar least professed that they could not finde saluation there For if they had said that they might haue found it there they could not so much as haue pretended to iustifie their departure from thence But yet neuerthelesse now that many moderne Protestants haue beene taught by time that the straits into which they fall are great by protesting against our saluatiō in that kind they haue been content now and then to desire better quarter at our hands and to affirme that the differences betweene them and vs concerne not the fundamentall points of faith but only such as are not fundamentall that therefore for their parts they hold we may be saued if we leade good liues in our Religion and that they desire the like attestation of vs for them and thas it is but tyranny and cruelty in the Catholicke Romane Church which keepes from allowing it since vpon the matter the Religions of vs both are the same the Churches in effect the same And this is that which lightens as they thinke our chardge of them and still keepes theirs heauy vpon vs as being vncharitable in not allowing them saluation This discourse of theirs and their standing so much vpon fundamentall points of faith in the sense which they vse is a mere Chimera but it is frequented by them through a high kind of craft For though it be most true that some doctrines are in themselues of farre more importance then some others because the knowledge thereof may be necessary for the performance of some duty which is required at our hands or else because they may containe the very heads and first grounds of Christianity more then others doe and therefore do exact a more explicite beliefe at the hands of Christians and consequently may be accounted in some respects more fundamentall yet so on the other side there is no doctrine at all concerning Religiō the beliefe whereof is not fundamentall to my saluation if the Catholicke Church which is the spouse of Christ our Lord propound and commande me to belieue it For there is no errour in faith which may not be made damnable by the manner of holding it when it is done so obstinately as that in defence thereof a man denies the authority of the Catholicke Church This is vnanswereably prooued by the meere Catalogues of heresies which haue been made by seuerall Fathers of the primitiue Church and especially by S. Austin in his treatise ad Quod vult Deū which I haue toucht before and which I earnestly exhort my reader to peruse at large For therein he noteth diuerse which consist but of single erroneous doctrines and they of litle importance in themselues as was declared in a former chapter But yet for as much as they were obstinately imbraced they were there declared to be so fundamentall as that he was noe Christian Catholicke who belieued any one of them yea or who should afterward belieue any other which might chaunce to be condemned by the Catholicke Church Looke backe vpon the example of S. Cyprian in the 6. chapter for there you will find that the selfe same doctrine of Rebaptization which was not fundamētall to him in regard that the Church had not then defined it the same I say was fundamentall afterward to the Donatistes and made them Heretickes because then it was defined and yet still maintained by them Looke backe to see in the same place what the nature of true faith is which is not only that it be absolutely entire in itselfe but that the meanes of propounding the Articles thereof be also both certaine and absolutely infallible or else there will be no faith at all See also in the same Chapter where the forme and spirit of heresie is found to consist in the pride and disobedience wherewith any doctrine or discipline of the Church is disobeyed and then withall cast an eye vpon that which you may find in the fifte Chapter of this discourse about the iudgment which is pronounced there both by Scriptures Fathers about the vnsaueablenes of any soule which is guilty of the least heresie or schisme and separation from the one and only true Church of Christ our Lord. For by this meanes it will appeare most euidently that the distinction of Faith into Fundamentall and not Fundamentall points to the purpose of permitting it in a mans liberty to leaue any one of them vnbelieued wirhout preiudice to saluation is both friuolous dangerous and vtterly false and so I shall be excused frō growing into length by making vnnecessary repetitions which I am most carefull to auoid But in the meane time I should be glad to know of the authours of this distinctiō what points of their faith which are controuerted eitheir betweene them or vs or betweene the Lutherans and them are fundamentall and which are not fundamentall The very nature of the words seeme to shewe that a fundamentall point of faith is such an one as is most necessarily to be belieued and that whosoeuer belieues it not cannot be saued And that so also on the other side a man may take his liberty either to belieue as he