Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	true_a	visible_a	7,129	5	9.3865	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37308	The religion of Mar. Luther, neither Catholick nor Protestant prov'd from his own works with some reflections in answer to the Vindication of Mar. Luther's spirit, printed at the Theater in Oxon ; his vindication being another argument of the schism of the Church of England.	Deane, Thomas, 1651-1735.	1688 (1688)	Wing D499; ESTC R13868	16,941	25

Zuinglius the Vindicator calls an ordinary Dream as if he himself had had many such But does he not at the same time deny the Testimonies of Zuinglius and Luther And he that will give the Lye to his own Party even those he pretends to Vindicate what Arguments can be sufficient to convince him If such a clear Discovery of the variety and subtilty of Satan's temptations and wiles as the Considerer consonant to the Word of God has made which all good men thankfully receive is therefore rejected because it condemns the principal Reformers out of their own Works and Confessions what wise man that consults his eternal good will not rather abominate such Reformers than deny the Truth 14. To the Resemblance of Luther's Change of Religion in several particulars with that of Mahomet's the Vindicator replies That he was almost tempted to return the kindness with a Parallel between some body and Judas Intimating that every one that leaves the Church of England and becomes a Catholick must be a Judas And consequently that the Greatest and most Excellent Person in the Nation must be so too and yet at the same time remain the Supreme Head of the Church of England But he not daring to speak out what he meant by some body chuses rather to asperse Pope Boniface as if he had begun a new Kingdom in the Church about fifteen years before Mahomet For the proof of which he gives us no Argument and yet he would have us believe it tho at the same time Demonstration on our side will not convince Protestants of Luther's beginning a new Kingdom As to the Book he mentions call'd Turco-Papismus if he means by it that Roman Catholicks are Turks I suppose the Church of England will not bear him out in it Unless such as lamented the taking of Buda and wish'd less prosperous success to the Christian Arms. But upon the whole matter the Vindicator thinks the Parallel childish and the Considerer not skill'd in hitting features Let us see then Did not Luther resemble Mahomet in those particulars urg'd by the Considerer As 1. In rejecting the Sense and Exposition of Scripture receiv'd in former times This Innovator urging that the Sense and Meaning of the Scriptures as the other that the Words and Writings thereof were falsified And was it not Luther that said That he scorn'd to submit himself or his Doctrine to the Judgment of Bishops the Fathers of the Church and that the World had been long enough guilty of such a foolish Humility And did Mahomet ever say any thing more rebellious 2. Did not Luther resemble Mahomet in the manner of his Coming Neither of them working Miracles yet pretending to an extraordinary Authority in Reforming the World. Both of them destitute of the Virtues of the Holy Spirit temperance meekness c. propagating their Principles the one by his Railing Tongue the other by his Sword. Some of Luther's own Brood said of him That he had much of the Evil Spirit in all his Reproofs very little of the meek amicable Spirit of God. Even his Friend Melancthon said little less when he wrote to Calvin That for twenty years he had expected Banishment from Luther upon the account of some difference between them concerning the Bread-Worship of some of Luther's Followers 3. Did not Luther resemble Mahomet in Sensuality and the indulging his Appetites pleading much for the Necessity of Marriage scouting the Counsels of Perfection and of a stricter Life as Celibacy Monastical Poverty Obedience c. Dispensing with his own Vows The Vindicator's Argument pag. 23. That Luther might Dispence with his own Vows without having recourse to the Judgment of the Church is new Divinity for tho it be true that no Power in the Church can Dispense where the cause is not just yet it is as true that the Votary v. g. Mart. Luther is incapable of judging of the justness of the cause or taking upon him Authority of Dispensing in his own case And therefore the Reasons that Luther and his Vindicator seem to offer that his Vow was not binding ought to have been weigh'd in the Sanctuary and have pass'd the Judgment of the Church His own private thinking his Vows null not being sufficient to make them so unless his pretended extraordinary Mission could also give him an extraordinary power of Dispensation The Vindicator's darling reason of Luther's picking out Bora for the making the President he was going to set the more conspicuous and the declaring openly that the Quarrel between him and Rome was irreconcilable is the publishing his own and Luther's shame And what he says against Celibacy one of our Lord's Counsels of Perfection that many that made profession of it liv'd wicked lives may as fitly be apply'd against Matrimony one of the Holy Sacraments and Sodom and Gomorrah as easily there be found for I do not read that any in those Cities profess'd a single Life and yet both Celibacy and Matrimony remain Holy Institutions in the Church of Christ for bringing Souls to Heaven 4. Did not Luther resemble Mahomet in his attempting to degrade the formerly receiv'd Head of the Church upon Earth as Mahomet did the Head thereof in Heaven pronouncing the Chief Pastor of Christ's Flock Antichrist and the Church of God his Spouse applying to him all the Marks of that great false Prophet whose steps Luther himself notoriously follow'd The Considerer gives more Instances of the Parallel But I remember what the Vindicator answers to the Considerer's pressing Luther's preferring Turcism to Christianity the Alcoran to the Bible and Mahomet to Christ That here his fancy had made a Gyant of a Windmill The Considerer had no thought of Windmills but the Vindicator it seems had which made him slip as he phrases it from one Paragraph to another without answering the Arguments of any of them Lastly To the Considerer's Sentence upon Martin Luther according to our Saviour's Rule by their fruits you shall know them That it was easie to discern this Person Martin Luther not to have been possess'd with the Good but the Bad Spirit the Vindicator seems to answer That one that teacheth true Doctrine may be a bad man and that the Doctrine of the Apostles and the Primitive Church is ne'r the worse for such men's Preaching it But he should have observ'd That Luther was no ordinary Preacher but the Beginner of a new Church and therefore his Life should have been like that of the Apostles To prove that it was so the Vindicator parallels him with St. Paul p. 25. in wrestling against Principalities and Powers c. there enumerating the greatest part of that Apostles Virtues adding I could not forbear setting down this Panoply of St. Paul wherewith Luther compleatly arm'd himself in his Spiritual Warfare and I do not know whether this Description belongs so justly to any man as him since the days of the Apostles And in the Conclusion of his Book he is more extravagant in the Praise of this monstrous Reformer Such absurdities need no Reflections The few Instances given in this Paper more largely insisted on by the Judicious Considerer are I think sufficient to satisfie any unprejudic'd Reader That Luther was not a St. Paul or indeed any Saint or good Christian but on the contrary a Sacrilegious Insolent Opposer of the Catholick Religion that under the shew of Reformation divided the Church of Christ If therefore what is said in the Considerations of the Spirit of Martin Luther be true the Church of England in her Vindicating and Abetting so notorious a Schismatick in the very Act of Separating himself from the Whole True Visible Hierarchical Church of Christ must be Schismatical And that what is said in the Considerations c. is true evidently appears from the preceding Reflections wherein is briefly and plainly shew'n That the Oxford Vindicator has prov'd nothing to the contrary FINIS

THE RELIGION OF Mar. Luther NEITHER CATHOLICK NOR PROTESTANT Prov'd from his own Works With some REFLECTIONS In ANSWER to the Vindication of Mar. Luther's Spirit Printed at the Theater in Oxon. His Vindication being another Argument of the Schism of the Church of England OXON Printed by Henry Cruttenden One of His Majesty's Printers MDCLXXXVIII The Religion of M. LUTHER neither Catholick nor Protestant Prov'd from his own Writings I. LUTHER's Religion not Catholick in Eight Instances Inst 1. BEgin we first with his impious Doctrine concerning the Blessed Trinity of which he thus speaks The Divinity is threefold as the three Persons are c. And from hence the reason may well be why Luther expunges out of the Litany this Verse Holy Trinity one very God have mercy on us And hereupon he is not afraid to say that the word Trinity is but an Human Invention and sounds coldly And then further adds that his Soul hates the word Homousion or Consubstantial for thus he writes Anima mea odit Homousion optime exigerunt Ariani ne vocem illam prophanam novam regulis fidei statuiliceret My very Soul hates the word Homousion or Consubstantial and the Arians not without reason requir'd that it should not be lawful to put this prophane and new Word among the Rules of Faith. Luther's Blasphemy against the B. Trinity was such and so odious that even Zuinglius did purposely write against Luther about this very point So relates Zuing. of Luth. tom 2. in resp ad confut Luth. fol. 474. Luth. in Ench. praecum ann 1543. Luth. in postil majori Basiliae apud Hervagium in Enarrat Evang. Dom. Trin. Contra Jacobum Latomum tom 2. Wittemb latine edit ann 1551. Zuing. tom 2. in respons ad Confess Luth. Inst 2. Concerning the event of things Luther holds That all things come to pass through a certain Stoical and Fatal necessity for he defending this Heresie thus writes Nullius est in manu c. It is in no man's power to think good or evil but all things as Wickliff's Article condemn'd at Constance did rightly teach proceed from absolute Necesssity And again fate or articulum c. I do confess Wickliff's Article of all things coming to pass by Necessity to have been falsly condemn'd in the Conventicle of Constance In assert damnat per Leonem art 36. Luth. de servo arbitrio c. 32. Inst 3. To the dishonour of Christ's Passion and also to the Merit of his Redemption he teaches that Christ not only suffer'd in Body but likewise his Divinity suffer'd too for thus he writes Cum credo quod sola humana Natura pro me passa est Christus vilis nec magni praetii salvator est c. If I believe that only the Human Nature of Christ suffer'd for me then is Christ a Saviour but of a base and small worth and himself needeth a Saviour And Luther speaking of this point in another place thus reprehends the Zuinglians The Zuinglians did contend against me most pertinaciously that the Divinity of Christ could not suffer A Doctrine so Blasphemous as that it was refuted not only by the Zuinglians in Luther's days but even by Beza too Luth. in Conf. Majore in Coena Domini Vide In Concil part 2. Ep. Theol. c. epist 60. Inst 4. Concerning the Administration of the Word and Sacraments Luther teaches that all men and women also have authority and power to administer These are his own words The first Office of a Priest is to preach the Word c. But this is common to all Next to baptize and this also all may do even women c. The third Office is to Consecrate Bread and Wine But this also is common to all no less than Priests And this I avouch by the Authority of Christ himself saying Do this in remembrance of me Christ speaking to all then present and to come afterwards If that then which is greatest of all is given indifferently to all Men and Women I mean the word and Baptism then that which is less I mean to consecrate the Supper is also given to them Thus Luther Nay Luther proceeded so far herein that as Dr. Covel witnesses in his Defence of Mr. Hooker art 15. p. 101. he was not afraid to affirm that the Sacraments were effectual tho administred by Satan himself With Dr. Cavel agrees the Protestant Hospinian thus writing Lutherus eo usque progreditur c. Luther proceeds so far herein that he maintains the Sacrament to be a true Sacrament etiamsi a Diabolo conficeretur tho it were to be Consecrated by the Devil Luth. tom 2. lib. de Min. Eccl. instit fol. 368 369. Vide lib. de abrog Missa privata tom 2. fol. 249. lib. de captivit Babilon c. de ordine In hist Sacr. par altera fol. 14. Inst 5. For absolute denial of Temporal Magistrates an Heresie indifferently condemn'd both by Catholicks and Protestants we find Luther thus to write Among Christians no man can or ought to be a Magistrate But every one is to other equally subject c. And again As Christ cannot suffer himself to be tyed and bound by Laws c. So also ought not the Conscience of a Christian to suffer them Luth. de seculari potest in tom 6. Germ. Luth. in tom 7. Wittenb fol. 327. Inst 6. Concerning Luther's denial of certain Books of Scripture And first the Epistle of St. James is call'd by Luther Contentious swelling strawy and unworthy an Apostolical Spirit The Book of the Apocalyps is also rejected by Luther by the acknowledgment of Bullinger for which he says good and learned Men were offended with him I will add Luther's contempt of Moses and some of the Apostles against Moses he thus writes Habuit Moyses insecunda labia irata c. And again Moyses habuit labia diffusa felle ira Of St. Peter he says St. Peter did live and teach extra Verbum Dei contrary to the Word of God. Luth. praefat in Jac. edit 4. Ienensi Tom. 3. Wittenberg in psal 45. fol. 423. In ep ad Gal. c. 1. tom 5. Wittenb ann 1554. fol. 290. Inst 7. Luther also taught an Heresie whereby the Propagation of Christian Religion is much endanger'd to wit That it was not lawful to wage War against the Turks his words are these Praeliari contra Turcas est repugnare Deo visitanti iniquitates nostras per illos To wage War against the Turks is to resist God visiting our sins by them Of which Erasmus thus writes Many of the Saxons following herein that first Doctrine of Luther deny'd to Caesar and K. Ferdinand Aid against the Turks c. declaring they had rather fight for a Turk not Baptized than for a Turk Baptized Luth. in tom 2. Witt. In assert damnat per Leonem decimum assert 34. In ep ad fratres Inferioris Germaniae Inst 8. Concerning Faith and good Works Luther taught an Heresie disallow'd by all learned Protestants He says