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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	authority_n	church_n	infallible_a	2,260	5	9.5871	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60320	A sermon preached at Christ-Church in Dublin before the Lord Lieutenant and Council, the fifth day of July, 1674 by Mr. Andrew Sall ...	Sall, Andrew, 1612-1682.	1674 (1674)	Wing S392; ESTC R32075	51,081	162

with any that would tell me I did not answer right or that I needed a supply from him to do it My Learned Opposers were wont to say that a man so long time exercised in School debates could hardly want an Answer to Arguments but that they suspected I was not my self satisfied and their suspicion there in was not erroneous I could continue farther giving answer to others but to the serious Proposals of my own judgment in the presence of God in favour of his truth I could not resist and to them I yielded I say Thirdly that many days before my Declaration for the Protestant Church I signified by Letter and Message to such as I thought fit to divulg it of the Romish Clergy and Nobility that although I was forced to come under the protection of the most Reverend Lord Archbishop of Cashell to avoid the popular fury raised against me yet I would not declare against Communion with the Roman Church while any hopes appeared of being satisfied in the Exceptions I took against the present practice of that Church and being they had among them my Writing containing the said Exceptions which in substance are those contained in the ensuing Discourse so long time as may suffice to have Copies of it I desired any that would pretend to resolve me upon those Exceptions should appear and that I would give a willing and unpassionate hearing to his reasons But none appeared for that purpose nor signified to have a mind to do it Neither indeed had I reason to hope that any of them could give me satisfaction having so long time and very carefully studied upon the reasons given by the most Learned Defenders of their cause and found no satisfaction in them and the rather that when my Paper came to their hands containing the exceptions I took against the Romish tenents but without any mention of separation in stead of a charitable conference with my self they stirred the people to fury against me saying I was already made Minister and to preach at the Protestant Church at Cashell the Sunday following which being a fiction of their own I told it was so in a Noblemans house where I had notice of that report without any promise made much less an Oath that I should never become a Protestant which was one of the very false impostures framed against me without fear of God or shame to be found in untruths For certainly I neither said that nor had any Question made to me that would occasion saying it But those stories so enraged the people that from worthy persons who tendered my safety I had notice given me of menaces made to destroy me or convey me where I should not appear speaking against the Romish party As to the former truly I could hardly believe that Christians Countreymen and Kinsmen whom I served and never offended and from whom I had many shews of love and honour should intend to destroy me for following the dictates of my conscience nor that passion should so blind them that being under a Government dissatisfied of their Tenents they should not be contented with the gracious toleration given to them but must insult with violence and malice upon such as following the light of their conscience do embrace the Religion established by the Law and Government which God has put over us As I heartily wish and tender their welfare I earnestly desire they may avoid this foul kind of proceeding withdraw their silly Rythmers Scoulds and Forgers of Calumnies and employ their good wits in examining soberly and seriously for the Glory of God manifestation of Truth and edification of the people the Points I handle in this Discourse and shewing wherein my Arguments against their Tenents are defective or what Arguments they repute of most strength for them and that with Authority of undoubted Canonical Scripture clear reasons grounded upon it or practice uniform of the Primitive Church Not by Hyperbolical expressions of some one or more of Ancient Authours Rhetorical Flourishes and Tropical Applications of Scriptures drawing them from their direct genuine meaning to others different by the help of some Figure At which rate of disputing the Alcoran of Mahomet and the Talmud of the Jews may be defended as plausibly as the Council of Trent The God of Peace and his Son Jesus who bequeathed it for inheritance to his Disciples make us appear to be of them living in peace and charity together in this Life that so we may joyn to praise him in Life everlasting Amen Mr. ANDREW SALL 's Declaration made in the Church of St. John in the City of Cashell the Fourth Sunday after Easter May the Seventeenth present the most Reverend THOMAS Lord Archbishop of Cashell and the Right Reverend HUGH Lord Bishop of Waterford VVHEREAS I Andrew Sall have been born and bred in the Communion of the Roman Catholick Church followed a Religious Life and compleated my Courses of Philosophy and Divinity in Colledges of the Order of JESUS in Spain and was imployed in teaching of the said Faculties many years I acknowledge that since by occasion of this Function I applyed my self to a structer enquiry and examining of matters and by frequent reading of the Holy Scriptures Fathers Councils and Histories of the Church my knowledge was farthered and my judgment ripened I began to doubt of the truth of several Articles introduced by the Vse and Authority of the Roman Church repugnant to human reason and not warranted by Divine Writ as Transubstantiation Indulgences Purgatory Worship of Images c. yet smothered my scruples while I was in Spain partly fearing the severity of that Countrey against Opposers of their Tenents partly amused with a supposition that the Church and Pope of Rome were infallible in their Decrees touching Faith and so may stand with security to their declarations But having arrived to this Countrey disputed often and closely of Religion with several Persons eminent in Learning and Integrity but principally with the most Reverend Father in God and mine truly in Christ his Grace Thomas Lord Archbishop of Cashell present who mindful of the duty of a good Pastor did procure to bring into his Fold this straying sheep with an unspeakable constancy and indefatigable charity suffering for six years of continual battery my obstinate resistance till at last by means of his solid doctrine and of the example of his pious and upright Life to the glory of God be I permitted to say thus much here the Lord was pleased to give me a more clear sight of the errours I was in yet a full assent I delayed to give partly fearing that the weakness I felt might be of my capacity rather than of the cause I maintained partly frighted with the confusions and dangers I conceived might wait upon my deserting of the Romish Communion and so betook my self to a must diligent study of the case leaving no stone unmoved to quiet the trouble of my conscience reading with indifferent eyes the

chapter of St. Luke who having lavished away his substance with riotous living in a forreign countrey Luke 15.15 he joyned himself to a Citizen who employed him in feeding his swine and he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat How so that delicate youth who loathed the plentiful fare of his Fathers house now fancy the husks that swine did eat Is that a proper food for a man and such a man no but the company of swine made him put off his own nature and wear theirs And when he came to himself so followeth the Text. What did he leave himself yes saith ingenious Peter Chrysologus à se migrat transit in bestiam Chrysol Ser. 2. living with beasts he left himself and turned beast That is the ordinary effect of bad company to turn into its own condition the nature of such as adhere to it To presume the contrary is to pretend to a miracle and tempt God It were indeed a miracle and a singular one that a person living in a bad company should not conform to it Our Saviour to confirm his Doctrine with an uncontrolable miracle against the obstinate Jews who condemned as Sorceries his other miraculous works got innocent children to blaze his glory in the Temple of Jerusalem according to the Prophet David Mat. 21.16 in the eighth Psalm Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise This miracle wrought deeply upon the Jews and confirmed them in the belief of the others preceding as St. Matthew relates St. Mat. ●● 19. And when the chief Priests and Scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying in the Temple saying Hosanna to the Son of David they were sore displeased What made them take more notice of these innocent Elegies of the children than of the other wonders he wrought 〈…〉 Euthymius gl●ssing upon this passage answers that in other occasions they suspected Christ might have deluded their eyes with appearances of things not really existing but that their own children bred by themselves and living among them should break out into Elogies of one they saw ever contemned and reviled by them was a miracle they knew not how to controll That ears continually beaten with calumnies and opprebries against Christ should entertain any favourable opinion of him was a wonder which malice and envy it self could not suspect So strange it is that any should not act according to the temper of the company he lives in A wonder passing all wonders Such is the influence bad company hath over minds adhering to it And herewith I conclude the first Point of my Discourse how justly our Saviour in the words of our Text was so earnest in exhorting his Disciples to shun the Abominations of Jerusalem given over to corruption and reprobate obstinacy that they might not be perverted by them and that if we should see any of those three Abominations declared by the three Opinions of Interpreters related in the opening of our Text that is to say Idolatry Cruelty or Impiety or all three practised in a Church or Congregation we are to shun it with all speed and diligence Now I will proceed to the Second Point proposed of my discourse which is to declare how I saw and by what means God was pleased to let me see that all these three abominations are generally practised in the Roman Church as it stands at present to wit Idolatrie in their Manner of Worship Cruelty in their conduct of Souls and Antichristian Impiety in extolling men above God That so my receding from the Communion of It may be justified as no more nor other than a dutiful obedience to the Councel of Christ declared in our Text. But before I enter into this Point I desire my judicious hearers not to conceive I come here to scold or Insult upon my former Brethren of the Roman Communion I may not hate Them without hating my self my flesh and blood and dearest friends being among them with tender compassion I lament their Errour I could not in piety abandon the Mother at whose brest I sucked the Belief of a Christian if with tears or sweat I could hope to wash away the stains which corruption of time has cast upon her face once fair and glorious but seeing her disease appears both incurable and contagious I was forced to a divorce Mean faults could not give a just cause to it they must be grievous ones which I cannot declare without giving them their own names the same our Text and declaration of it puts into my mouth for just cause of the like seperation Idolatrie Cruelty Impiety How I came to perceive the present Practise of the Roman Church to be guilty of these faults I will endeavour to declare with the brevity and sincerity duty requires being to speak in so Illustrious an Auditory Gods Providence leading me in my younger years to the Schools of greatest credit in Spain and disposing so that having compleated in them my courses of Philosophy and Divinity I should be imployed many years in teaching the same Faculties The exercise of those Reasoning Sciences joyned with my own Genius not fit for Pythagoras his School where ipse dixit was the rule and knowledge must be taken upon credit of the Master got me a habit of demanding reason for the belief of Doctrines proposed This assisted by frequent reading of Holy Scriptures Fathers Councels and Histories of the Church made me doubt of the Truth of several Tenents introduced by the use or Authority of the Roman Church repugnant in my esteem to common reason and not warranted by Divine testimony to captivate my understanding to the belief of them Of the Truth of Holy Scriptures of the Apostles Creed of that of Nice and Athanasius I never doubted Therein I acknowledged the Heavenly gift of Faith received in the Holy Sacrament of Baptism and lifting my heart and eyes to Heaven gave thanks to God for this Soveraign benefit in those words of the Psalm Psal 4. v. 6. Signatum est super nos lumen vultûs tui Domine Thou hast lifted upon us O Lord and printed in our hearts the light of thy countenance Without which certainly an understanding accustomed to search exactly into the nature of things their Essential constitutes the proportion of causes with effects and to measure by these rules the credibility of them would never give so free and easie assent to the ineffable mysteries of Trinity and Unity in the Divine nature of the Incarnation Resurrection Ascention of Christ our Saviour of the Descent of the Holy Ghost in tongues of fire upon the Apostles and other mysteries contained in Holy Scripture and the Creeds On the other side the reluctancy I found in assenting to those Tenents of the Roman Church as opposite to other Christian Congregations was to me an occasion of suspecting they might not be grounded upon Divine institution all my understanding