Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	authority_n	church_n	faith_n	3,863	5	5.1916	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03857	The advise of a sonne, novv professing the religion established in the present Church of England, to his deare mother, yet a Roman Catholike	Hungerford, Anthony, Sir, 1564-1627.	1616 (1616)	STC 13971.5; ESTC S115241	23,830	40

sometimes affords to her zealous children if my masters of ſ Rhem annot in Lue cap. 23. v. 24. Rhemes bee not deceived Shee that teacheth vs to doe good workes wil make vs beleeue they are t The heaven'y blessednes which the Scripture calleth the reward of the iust is not give them of God gratis and freely but is due to their workes yet God hath set forth heaven to sale for our workes Andraed Orthodox expl ● lib. 6. meritorious ex condigno and so turne our Christiā duties into glorious sins Shee that teacheth vs that Gods written Word is true will haue vs beleeue withall That it containes u Can loc l. 3. c. 3. not all the doctrine of our salvation and commaunds vs not to x Index libit proh Pij quarti Reg. 4. reade it without her leaue nor vnderstande it but according to the sence y No man may giue other exposition of the Scriptures there such as might agree with the doctrine of the Church of Rome Concil Trid Sess 4. she giues vs. So that if we marke it well shee doth no more then the enemy of mankind is observed to doe who many times for a vantage vtters truth that after he may finde the fairer passage to delude with error And if the grosse absurdities now currant in the Roman Church apart from these formes of truth were laide open to the view of all men I am perswaded in my conscience there is not so simple a Christian living at this day that makes any care of his dutie to God but would abhorre them But herein my masters of Rome declare themselues ingenious in their craft who wel foreseeing that this coine cannot passe for currant in the light vent it ever in the darke so that of many thousands that receiue it scarse any one doth vnderstand it in particular and if any Lay-person more curious then others come by chance to know it yet admitting the principles which he must learne withal it is no more possible for him to judge of it thē for any man in the darke to discerne of colors for as the eye of the body is not vseful at al but in the light no more is our vnderstanding enabled to distinguish betweene truth and errour in the doctrine of christianity but in the glorious light of the holy Scriptures The ignorance of these is assigned by Christ our Saviour z Mat. 22.29 to be a reason of error and we are taught by the Prophet David That the a Psal 119. vers 130. enterance of Gods word giueth light that it giueth vnderstanding to the simple With him the blessed Apostle accords b Tim. 3.15 and tels vs that the holy Scriptures are able to make vs wise vnto salvation This wisedome my masters of Rome approue not in the Laytie they like best that scholler that soonest learnes and contents himselfe with the c Recorded and commended by Staphylus Hosius and others Colliars Creede To beleeue in grosse as doth their Church without being able to render a reason of any article of the religion hee professeth It is gravely delivered by the Rhemists in their annotations vpon Saint Lukes Gospell d Rhem annot on Luk 12.11 That if a Catholike man being called before the commission answere that he is a Catholike man and that he will liue and die in that faith which the Catholike Church teacheth and that this Church can giue them a reason of al the things which they demand of him hee answeres enough and defends himselfe sufficiently Now the better to prepare the Laytie to this sufficiencie they permit them not to reade the Scriptures but with licence and never but with this caution to admit no other sence of what they reade in them but such as these my masters vnder the name of the Catholike Church shall recommend vnto them By which wily sleight they deprive them of al vse of their judgement in the matter of their salvation and of the Scriptures both at once and in place thereof leave them furnished only to maintain the doctrine they haue embraced with the pretended name and authoritie of the Catholike Church For instance in this giue me leave deare Mother without your offence to appeale to your selfe if it were demanded of you by what warrant you hold it lawfull to pray to Saints to worship Images to pray for foules departed and the like your answere I presume would be that herein you follow the doctrine of the Catholike Church which being ever directed by the holy Ghost cannot deceive vs. I must confesse the authority of the Catholike Church rightly vnderstood ought much to moue vs consisting in a generall sence of all that cōpany which in all ages places of the world haue joyned in profession of al the principles of the true religion But if to chalenge to our selues the name of the Church were of it selfe enough without question it would follow that God should haue as many Churches as there haue bin heresies in the world For never haue there been any authors of those impieties but haue endeavoured to giue them countenance vnder the shadow name of the Catholike Church I wil not enter here into any discussion of the doctrine mainetained at this day in the Roman Church which were but to weede in a field of tares the absurdity of it is made visible to the world by the learned labours of many reverent and worthy Pastors of our Church I will only in this place declare in what sence my masters of Rome vnderstand the Catholike Church with the sound whereof they continually fill your eares as being the maine supporters of al they teach you And first this principle is worthy to be noted well which we learne from the most eminent writer of the Papacie at this day e Bellarm de effect sacram lab 2. cap. 25. That the truth of all ancient Councels and of all points of faith dependeth vpon the authoritie of the present Church where if we desire to know what he meanes by the Church the Cardinals interpreter plainely tels vs f Gretser defens Bellarm com 1. pag. 1450. B. That when they affirme the Church to be iudge of al controversies of faith by the Church they vnderstand the Bishop of Rome who for the time governes the shippe of the militant Church and by liuely voice doth clearely and expressely expound his iudgement to them that seeke to him To this purpose another great Rabbin amongst them delivereth plainely g Gregor de Valent. in Tho. 22. tom 3. Disput 1. punct 7. q 5. That the Apostolike Church is therefore faid to be infallible because he is over it who by himselfe hath infallible authority And if wee would knowe who that He is that hath this infallible authoritie we may learne from the Jesuite Swares h Suares in 3. Thom. tom 1. disput 44. sect 1. pag. 677. That it is the Pope whose determinatiō he affirmes to be the

the compasse of this written law this charge is giuen f Deut. 4.2 That wee put nothing to the Word which hee commands vs nor take ought therefrom that wee may keepe the Commandements of the Lord our God which are commanded And although the Prophesies were penned after at sundrie times by men vndoubtedly directed by the holy Ghost yet shal we find no new article of doctrine delivered in them but they serue many times to explaine the law They Prophesie of Christ to come the accomplisher of the law and generally they are all Gods Heraulds to denounce his iudgements and heavie wrath against the transgressors of the law of Moses But in the fulnesse of time when Christ came into the world of whome Moses and the Prophets wrote the Gospell was published which was no other but a cleare declaration of the prophesies and the law whereof a learned Father aptly giues this note g August de Carichisand Rud. That in the olde testament the New is hidden and in the new is the manifestation of the olde And this Gospel was first preached but after as one other of the Ancients observeth well h Iren. advers haeres l. 3. c. 1. was by the will of God delivered in the Scriptures to be the pillar and foundation of our faith And in this sacred booke is wonderfully set foorth vnto vs the infinite wisdome of the supreame Law-maker of the world for as in the civill government of earthly Kingdomes those lawes are ever commended most that leave least to the discretion of the Iudge and never hath any common-weale had laws so exactly framed but with time they haue bin sound sensibly defectiue in this point so certainely this perfection is peculiar only to the written laws of the Lord of heaven so farre foorth that for the ministers of this law to adde or alter any one thing respecting the religious dutie and service wee owe to God though but in offering strange fire before the Lord as did Nadab and Abihu the sonnes of Aaron makes them liable to his wrath and malediction for their presumption This moued Saint Augustine that reverend Father alluding to the words of the blessed Apostle confidently to pronounce i Contra Lit. Petilian lib. 3. cap. 6. That whether concerning Christ or concerning the Church of Christ or concerning any thing that pertaineth to our faith and life we will not say if we but if an Angell from heaven shall preach vnto you but what you haue received in the Scriptures of the Law and the Gospell accursed be hee The consideration of this gaue me occasion to forsake my communion with the Church of Rome in whose bosome I receiued the first instruction for matter of my salvation as you your selfe deare Mother can well remember But after divers yeares when by accident this principle had taken impression in me k Rom. 10 1● That faith commeth by hearing of the word of God and then calling to mind that many points of the religion I haue embraced were not to bee found within the volume of Gods sacred booke I began to question with my masters of that Church whom I did then reverence and admire as men wholly composed to devotion and sinceritie by what authority they could approve thē where after many paffages with the relation wherof I thinke not fit to trouble you their resolution was That a great portion of Gods word was not l Little of Gods word is committed to writing the greatest part of it is come to vs by tradition Hosius Confess Polon pag 383. contained within the holy Scriptures but delivered in safe custodie to passe from hand to hand by tradition for the truth and certainty whereof they tolde me I must depend vp●n the credit of their m Alphons 2 Castro advers haeres l. 1. c. 5. Church the which after much debate they resolved at the last into the bosome of the n Mater Ecclesia per os● summi pontificis loquens Bellar. Apol. contra praef monito serenissi Reg. Iac. pag. 78. Romane Bishop when I considered this and perceiued in the end the weaknesse of the grounds that must warrant the truth of these vnwritten verities as they style them I thought it no longer safe-to commit my selfe for direction to those guides my masiers I meane of the Church of Rome of whom in my conscience we may complain as the Prophet Ieremy did of the false teachers in his dayes o Ierem. 8.9 They haue reiected the word of the Lord and what wisedome is then in them For although it cānot be denied but they reteine and publish some principles of our Christian profession according to the truth of Gods holy word yet even those truths they recommend vnto vs vpon as perillous false a ground as if a man should therfore beleeue Christ Jesus to be the Sonne of the living God because the Divell did confesse it To this purpose deare Mother I beseech you to note that whereas Gods sacred word is left vnto vs to be the rule and foundation of our faith and religion my masters of Rome intending to build a new thinke it proper first to lay a new foundation in place of the holy Scriptures to be the rule direction of our faith they advāce their Church the which neverthelesse being rightly vnderstood holds no resemblāce with the Church in truth And the rather to invite vs to pin our faith vpon this their Church they tender vs some formes of truth the which when wee haue embraced vpon their Churches authority shee will not leaue vs so but this Church that teacheth vs to worship God by like authority wil then require vs to worship p Seeing Christ is to be adored with divine worship his Image also is to be adored with the same adoration Tho Aquin part 3. q. 25. art 3. Images Shee that teacheth vs to pray to God wil command vs likewise to pray trourblessed Ladie and the q The new Creed published by Pope Pius the fourth Saints Shee that teacheth vs that Christ by one offring of his body once made in sacrifice vpon the Crosse hath purchased remission for our sinnes requireth vs likewise to beleene that she offers dayly vnto God the same reall body of Christ in sacrifice which himselfe offered vpon the Crosse as a r I consesse that in the Masse is offered to God a true proper and propitiatory sacrifice for the quicke and the dead ibid. propitiation for the sinnes of the quicke and the dead She that teacheth vs that Christ hath madesatisfaction for his sin by blood-shedding and bitter passion will teach vs withall that our selues must make satisfaction for some sort of our sins by our workes of penance the which if wee neglect that then wee must satisfie Gods justice for them after this life by suffering paines in a purgatory fire vnlesse this holy Mother out of compassion shall free vs by her indulgence á favour she