Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	ancient_a	church_n	holy_a	1,441	5	4.4549	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20605	A sermon preached in Italian, by the most Reuerend father, Marc' Antony de Dominis, Archb. of Spalato, the first Sunday in Aduent, anno 1617. In the Mercers Chappel in London, to the Italians in that city, and many other honorable auditors then assembled. Vpon the 12. verse of the 13. chapter to the Romanes, being part of the Epistle for that day. First published in Italian by the author, and thereout translated into English; Predica fatta da Monsr. Marc' Antonio de Dominis, Arcivo. di Spalato. English	De Dominis, Marco Antonio, 1560-1624.	1617 (1617)	STC 7004; ESTC S109795	31,116	84

wherein the Church Militant is employed tendeth to Spirituall things which are not seene And surely in Sea voyages amidst the maine where no land marke can bee seene for the direction of the shippe the onely certaine meanes of guidance for Nauigation consisteth in the vsing of a good Compasse hauing a Needle well touched with the Loadstone as also in hauing a Ship mans Card or Sea mappe iustly quartered and coasted Hee that without these or with a false Compasse or Mappe saileth out of all sight of shoare may bee saide to wander in vtter darkenesse and midnight though it be at noone-tide And contrary wise hee that is furnished with a true Compasse though hee saile in the deepe of Sea and of night yet hee enioyeth the day and cleareeth his passage at all occasions Now for the difference of the Reformed Shippes and the Romane it is not in the bottome nor in the tackeling but onely in the Compasse The Romane shippe is a good Vessell well built not rotten nor fallen in pieces it is well furnished with Masts with Yards with Cordage with Cables with Anchors it hath an excellent Sea-mappe the passengers and common souldiers in it are all vnder the colours of one and the same Generall our Sauiour Christ And in these there is no difference betweene this Ship and the reformed But I finde one maine difference betweene them whence also arise an innumerable other disparities and it is that the Pilot who sits at the sterne of the Romane ship hauing throwne aside the ordinary Compasse and leauing the vse of the approoued Sea-mappe hath out of his owne capricious conceit deuised a new Card and contriued a new-found Compasse of his owne whose needle hath no aspect toward the Pole or touch at all of the Load-stone Suteable also hereto hath he out of his owne head framed certaine Cardinall windes which serue onely for his Card. Nay which is worse then this hee hath intruded into the possession of gouerning the helmes of all the shippes that roade in his company and from euery of them hee hath taken away the vse of the ordinary Compasse and beating the Marriners and ouer awing them by tyranny who otherwise would doe well and performe their office aright will haue no nay but all those shippes must daunce attendance after his And so for that hee vseth no true Compasse nor Carde hee ringleads them all to wracke and they follow him fast enough without light through the thickest darkenesse For the vnfolding of this Metaphore I say in a word that the Bishoppe of Rome at this present and for many ages past leauing the trauailers true Sea-card the holy Scriptures and the vnmooueable North-Pole the aime at Heauen and heauenly things and propounding to himselfe one onely Port his owne greatnesse and temporall pompe hath in his deuised Compasse quartered out his owne counterfeit windes which must blow for that hauen they are dominion ouer all other Churches mastery ouer the Keyes infallibility of his iudgement and authoritie in things Temporall euen ouer Princes And as for the poore passengers and common souldiers who are transported and blindly clapt vp vnder the hatches in these wandring shippes he hath to amuse them added in his false Card many bastard windes painted out in guilded and flourished lines namely our owne and others merits Inuocation of Saints religious worship of Images the treasure of Indulgences efficacie of Masses and of Priestly absolutions Agnus Dei's hallowed Beads holy Water By these and other such windes neuer found in the ancient true Compasses and whereof the ancient Pilots of the holy Church neuer heard any newes by these blasts will hee haue his followers to saile whereby they are caried headlong into many most important errors The onely cause of all this mischiefe is that Archpilot For if hee were remooued or could bee perswaded to leaue his owne monstrous Chimericall Compasse and to betake himselfe to the vsuall and auncient guide presently defacing all those false windes verily the goodly fleete of the Catholique Church would easily bee set right and holding the safe and sure way as the Reformed Companies haue done would approach to the true hauen of eternall blisse True it is that these Reformed Churches beeing misledde by this wandring guide did sometime follow that vaine and deceitfull Compasse But at length they haue better bethought themselues and casting out that strange intruding Pilot they haue yeelded vp their shippe to bee gouerned by their owne true Steersemen such as God himselfe hath ordayned And so vsing the infallible Card of the holy Scriptures and the true Compasse quartered out into the foure auncient Cardinall windes of the foure first generull Councels and seconded with the vnder-windes of the holy Fathers they make an happy voyage and without wandring arriue at the appointed hauen of saluation And this is the miserable night of manifold errours wherein so many poore soules suffer themselues to bee hoodwinked and lulled asleepe from which yet we are rescued by the Almighty hand of God And therefore let vs yeelde him all possible thankes that This night is passed If I should here enlarge my selfe and insist vpon the consideration of these forged misguiding blasts to display all the particular errors which make this cloudie night I might encomber my selfe in a confused Chaos out of which I could not get in many dayes much lesse in the little portion of time allotted to this Exercise Yet I can doe no lesse now then touch some of the most principall and vniuersall of them out of which as from a roote all the particular errors doe spring It is very much behoouefull to the Pope for the mainteining himselfe in the forged greatnesse of his vniuersall Vicarship of Christ to holde the people in the deepest darknesse of ignorance and blindnesse that possibly may be To this purpose one maine article which he causeth to be taught in all the Churches subiect to him stands him in great stead namely that for the sauing of mens soules an implicite faith sufficeth whereby a man beleeueth all to be trueth whatsoeuer the holy Catholique Romane Church beleeueth and mainteineth And by this meane the Pope layeth open a way for himselfe to perswade the silly people already blinded with this credence to beleeue and receiue whatsoeuer hee imposeth on them for his owne aduantage and to make them admit for an article of faith that hee is the onely vicar of Christ that he cannot erre in cathedra iudging out of his chaire that he is the Lord paramount of the whole Church that the keyes and treasure of holy Church are in his hands onely that he hath power to depose Kings from their Thrones and to discharge their subiects of their oath of fealtie and infinite other such fopperies for the maintenance whereof many wretches cast away their soules And by degrees it will come to that passe one day that he will make himselfe to be adored for a God vpon earth By this engine of implicite

they inuite and feast one another And all this vpon the view of the materiall Sun onely Another maner of feast and ioy it is to which the Apostle heere doeth incite and inuite Whilest in a mysticall and spirituall sense he proclaymeth to vs that The night is passed and the day come Where he pointeth at the miseries of the continuall dreadfull and hideous nights then ouerpassed and of the long happie daies brought vnto vs by that Sunne which knowes no going downe Nox praecessit Three kindes of nights are heere vnderstood by Saint Paul whereof he ioyed that they were ouerpassed The first the night of ignorance the second of sinne the third of negligence To these in regard of our selues and these times I will adde a fourth the night of errors So that of these the two first goe before the receiuing of the faith namely the night of blinding ignorance and tyrannizing sinne the other two follow the faith receiued namely stupifying negligence and infecting error Yee haue often reade and many of you considered the strange maner of speech vsed in the holy Scriptures in the distinction of the six dayes of the Creation And the euening and the morning were the first day Euery day hath its night the day goeth before and the night followeth after the morning maketh way for the euening Surely nature requireth that the habite should precede the priuation Whereupon I conceiue not to what purpose Aristotle pusled himselfe and troubled naturall Philosophie by shouldring in after Matter Forme Priuation for a third principle of naturall bodies vnlesse hee meant hereby that whatsoeuer is generated maketh a passage from not beeing vnto beeing But if so yet this not beeing might well bee termed negation rather then priuation Or rather by priuation perhaps the Philosopher would signifie vnto vs the naturall inclination of matter to receiue a new forme which appetite is very improperly called priuation Now as for the text Factum est vespere mane c. It is enough for vs that it being a phrase meerely extraordinary importeth a mystery Too tedious should I bee if I should heere propound all the diuers opinions of the holy Fathers vpon those words But for as much as serueth my purpose I doubt not but that God in his intention was willing to make man wholly diurnall and no whit participating of the night For hee created him right and iust and endued him with such gifts whereby hee might if hee would haue made to himselfe and to all his posterity a perpetuall spirituall day which should neuer haue seene any night at all But God inasmuch as hee foresaw that wretched man would within a few houres after his creation abandon the light and cast himselfe headlong into darknesse mooued with compassion of him in his determination prouided a remedy by destinating for mans sake his owne sonne the true light and sunne of righteousnesse to bring them from darkenesse to light from night to day And therefore it ioyes my heart to thinke how God ordayned that besides other mysterious interpretations euen for the shadowing out this then hidden mystery the Scripture describing the beginning of the world should speake in this wise Factum est vespere mane intimating first the euening or night of mans misery and then the morning or day of his redemption following For as for his first estate of integrity and light it was so short that it is not to bee accounted for a day in this kinde And so S. Paul here not varying frō this our contemplation reioyceth that that night is passed and this day arriued saying Nox praecessit dies autem appropinquauit The night is past the day is at hand By the first of these nights I meane ignorance or small knowledge of things concerning God But heere it may bee obiected if S. Paul had written this Epistle to the conuerted Gentiles onely well might he vnderstand by this night ignorance but writing also to the Iewes then in Rome conuerted to Christianity it seemeth that they could not then be taken to liue in darkenesse and in the night of ignorance Psal 76.1 For Notus in Iudaea Deus In Iurie is God knowne his name is great in Israel Iuda was his Sanctuary Psal 114.2 and Israel his dominion Which also was signified in Egypt Exod. 10. when there was palpable darknesse thorowout all that land but in the land of Goshen where the children of Israel dwelt there was cleere light Isai 9.2 The Prophet Isay spake onely of the Gentiles when he sayd The people that walked in darkenesse haue seene a great light and they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death vpon them hath the light shined The Iewes had the Law Cap. 3. and the Prophets To them as Saint Paul witnesseth in this epistle were committed the oracles of God Yet notwithstanding seeing that S. Paul hath made no such separation nor distinction betweene Iew and Gentile but hath expresly proclaimed that the Gospell is the power of God vnto saluation to euery beleeuer Rom 1. to the Iew first and then to the Greeke For by it the righteousnes of God is reuecled from faith to faith He intendeth therefore that aswell the Iew as Gentile by the meanes of the Gospel only hath attained the true and perfect knowledge of God So then the Gospell being this light and day for certaine Nox praecessit The night is passed not to the Gentiles onely but also to the Iewes For if wee consider the knowledge which was to be found either in Iurie or among the Gentiles before the comming of Christ that in respect of the knowledge of God and of heauenly things was very small and shallow whereupon it might worthily be called night in comparison of the cleare day of the Gospell As for the Law who knowes not that it was Vmbra futurorum Heb. 10.1 The shadow of things to come as S. Paul calleth it And if it were a shadow it did partake of the nature of night In the Old Testament the mystery of the Trinity is very obscurely alluded vnto And as for that of the Incarnation if it had beene ordinarily vnderstood of the Iewes they would not haue made such resistance against Christ Now therefore because both Iew Gentile before the comming of Christ were very weake and wanted the perfect knowledge of God S. Paul heere sayeth to them both Nox praecessit The night is gone The Prophet Isai foretelleth it and the Euangelist S. Matthew confirmeth it what was the measure of the true knowledge of God as well among the Iewes as Gentiles at the time when the Redeemer came into the world Matth. 12.20 A bruised reede shall hee not breake and the smoaking flaxe shall he not quench Our Sauiour Christ did finde Iudaea to bee a broken reede wherby is insinuated according to the exposition of my countryman Saint Hierome that the Iew was not at that time so loudly

sounding in setting forth the glory of God as formerly they were And in truth that people then as also at this day farre more miserably was more guided by the superstitious traditions of their vaine Rabbines then by the holy Scriptures Wherewith our Sauiour also vpbraided them saying Why doe ye by your traditions transgresse Gods Commandement And the very same now adayes is to bee found vnder the Papacie where much more accompt is made of the Popes commandements then of Gods The committing of adultery being reputed galantery but the eating of flesh vpon a Friday a sacriledge worthy of fagot and fire As for the Gentiles Christ found them to be linum fumigans smothering flaxe not altogether put out but somwhat smoaking by reason of that small and weake knowledge of God which the glimpse of the Law of Nature affoorded them And therefore in conclusion an vniuersall and common night did ouerspread all both Iew and Gentile And if Zachary the father of the great Baptist had not acknowledged the nightly darkenesse wherein both himselfe and the rest of that people remained hee would not hauesung that Christ was the day spring from on High To giue light to them that sit in darkenesse and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace Surely that Iob 36.32 which we read in the booke of Iob may be truely vnderstood as well of Iudaisme as of Gentilisme And this it is In manibus abscondit lucem praecepit ei vt rursus adueniat He bideth the light in his hands and commandeth it to come againe Whereby is giuen vs to vnderstand that God before that hee sent the Light of his owne Sonne into the world did hold the light of the knowledge of God clasped vp in his hand so that howsoeuersome glimmering beames darted foorth through the clifts from betweene the fingers yet he did reserue the wyde opening of his hand till the fulnesse of time and therefore then he commanded this light vtrursus adueniat to come againe at that time when S. Paul should shortly after proclaime Nox praecessit But if by this night wee will vnderstand the true and totall darkenesse of Infidelity then are wee to say that the Apostle doeth not heere meane the ancient by-past times before the comming of Christ but rather the very time wherein our Sauiour liued in his flesh vpon the earth and when the Gospel was first published by the Apostles In a word heere is especially to bee vnderstood that estate wherein the new Christians of Rome aswell Iewes as Gentiles were immediatly before their conuersion to the Gospel which was indeed an vtter darknesse of night What els were the Gētiles of that time in Rome and throughout the whole world but Idolaters And as for the Iewes had not they then crucified our Lord and Sauiour Had not they then reiected their Messias Did not they thē remain with the veile ouer their hearts 2. Cor. 3. And what greater infidelitie then not to receiue Christ Nay to persecute him in his members Euen in this night S. Paul accounted himselfe to haue bin And worthily For he testifieth of himselfe that he was formerly a blasphemer 2. Tim. 1. Galat. 1. and a persecuter and iniunious and that hee persecuted the Church of God beyond measure and wasted it Out of the lumpe of these hardened and blinded Iewes came the remnant of these which embraced the Christian religion And therefore with good reason of these as so of himselfe S. Paul said Nox praecessit To vs and in speciall to me the night is passed The second night whereof S. Paul would here be vnderstood is the night of reigning sinne and this was most common both among the Iewes and Gentiles How heinous and filthy the enormities of the Gentiles were especially in Rome may appeare by the particular and euen loathsome catalogue recorded by S. Paul in this Epistle Wherefore God gaue them vp to their hearts lusts Rom. 1. vnto vncleannes to defile their owne bodies betweene themselues who turned the trueth of God into a lye and worshipped and serued the creature Wherefore God gaue them vp to vile affections of most abominable sinnes And deliuered them vp to a reprobate minde to doe those things which are not conuenient Being filled with all vnrighteousnes formcation wickednes couetousnes maliciousnes full of enuy murther debate deceit malignity whisperers backbiters haters of God despitefull proud boasters inuenters of euil things disobedient to parents without vnderstanding couenant breakers without naturall affection implacable vnmercifull Surely either S. Paul prophetically describeth the enormous sinnes and most corrupt maners of Rome as it stands in our times Or els Rome as now it is and hath bene for some ages past hath vndertaken to be in all points like to heathenish Rome as it was in S. Pauls time The manifold wickednesses of the now Rome could not bee more exactly pencelled and drawen out to life then by that which the Apostle here particularizeth O dreadfull night ô palpable darknesse ô vntollerable blindnesse Verely such impieties and impurities conclude that as yet the first night of the want of the knowledge of God remaineth there Inasmuch as so hidious sinnes are proper to the Heathen as the same Apostle witnesseth Sicut Gentes As the Gentiles 2. Thess 4.5 Ephes 4.17 which know not God Non ambuletis sicut Gentes c. That ye walke not as the Gentiles walke in the vanity of their minds hauing the vnderstanding darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their heart Who being past feeling haue giuen themselues ouer vnto lassciuiousnesse to worke all vncleannes with greedines Certainly such life and maners which are very ordinary and common in the Court of Rome yet I except whatsoeuer good men are there doe inferre that according to the Apostles intimation the knowledge of God and hope of euerlasting life is not to be found among them Edamus bibamus cras moriemur Let vs eat and drinke to day for we shall die to morrow And yet they most of all should open their eyes and mend their maners Thus therefore to the Gentiles made Christians Nox praecessit The night of grieuous offences is past Neither yet were the Iewes out of the shade of this night Qui alios doces teipsum non doces Rom. 2. Thou which teachest another teachest thou not thy selfe Thou that preachest a man should not steale doest thou steale Thou that sayst a man should not commit adultery doest thou commit adultery Thou that abhorrest idols doest thou commit sacriledge Thou that makest thy boast of the Law through breaking the Law dishonourest thou God For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you There is no difference Rom. 3. for all haue sinned and come short of the glory of God All therfore were ouer clouded with this night of most