Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	article_n	church_n	creed_n	1,359	5	10.1652	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47214	Veritas evangelica, or, The Gospel-truth asserted in sixteen useful questions which being seriously searched into, will open the way to find out assuredly the true and saving faith of Christ which is but one, as the apostle affirms / written by T.K. and now published by R.C.	T. K. (Thomas Kemeys)	1687 (1687)	Wing K256; ESTC R13531	80,587	135

and certain Guide in matters of Religion any Infallible Interpreter of his Word p. 24. Question 7. If God hath left no sure and un-erring Interpreter of his Word in matters of Faith how can it be defended that the Holy Scriptures are not unprofitable and even pernicious to Mankind p. 30. Question 8. Whether the State of the great Family City Kingdom and Commonwealth Army of Jesus Christ that is of his Church doth require a Supreme Spiritual Head or no p. 33. Question 9. Whether the way to Salvation be narrow or no p. 40. Question 10. How it can be defended that Jesus was the true Messiah promised in the Old Testament if the Church which he Founded erred so many Ages in her Doctrine of Faith p. 42. Question 11. Did the Church of Christ Err heretofore because Christ could not preserve her from Erring or because he would not p. 63. Question 12. If the Church of Christ did Err for so many Ages How can it be defended that God is truly Good and doth truly desire the Salvation of Mankind p. 65. Question 13. If the Church of Christ did Err from the true Light of the Gospel so many Ages could he find none fit in so many Hundred Years to restore the same till Luther falling out with the Pope and breaking his Vow of Chastity began to teach a new Religion tending to Liberty and Looseness p. 69. Question 14. Whether God by Miracles can draw and incline men to believe a false Religion or no Where it is shew'd that Cod by Miracles did draw our Fore-Fathers at their first Conversion to Christianity to believe Papistry p. 74. Question 15. Out of which Religion the Elect of Christ are to be gather'd at the day of Judgement p. 80. Question 16. Whether Protestants or Catholicks do take the sure way to Eternal Happiness Where it is shewed that Papistry by the Judgement of all Learned Protestants is a saving Religion and consequently a securer way p. 87. An Appendix Whether the Apostles were Protestants or no p. 95. Question I. Where was the Protestant Religion Believ'd and Practis'd the last five hundred years before Luther First I Demand of Protestants where in what Countries Provinces or Cities was the Protestant Church and Religion Extant and Practis'd the last five hundred years immediately before Luther's Revolt from the Roman Church Which he began in the year 1517 First To say that Christ for those five hundred years had no True Church no Saving Faith and Religion upon Earth is flatly against Daniel 2. 44. foretelling that the Kingdom that is the Church of Christ should stand for ever and c. 7. v. 14. That it should Never be Corrupted And against Christ himself assuring us Matth. 16. 18. That the Gates of Hell should never prevail against his Church Moreover out of this Answer it follows that Christ was not the Saviour of the World. For if the World had no means of Salvation from him for those five hundred years Such means it had not from him the next five hundred years which passed before these Which being granted it will be hard if not impossible to prove either by Scripture or Reason that for the space of the next five hundred years which reach up to the times of the Apostles the World from Christ had any true means of Salvation And so by this Answer he will be wholly excluded from being the Saviour of the World as hereafter more clearly shall appear Secondly No understanding Protestant will deny that the World was full of Christians before Luther began his new Preaching or that they then had believ'd and re-cited the CREED of the Apostles If then a Christian in those times had been press'd by a Jew Turk or any other Infidel to deny that Article of his Creed I believe a Holy Catholick Church a Communion of Saints Whether might he with a safe Conscience have deny'd it or no If safely he might have deny'd this Article safely also he might have deny'd the rest In regard that all these Articles so far forth as they are the Object of Faith are of equal Truth and Certainty as is manifest For if one of them be false what certainty is there of the rest But if he might not without damnable Sin and the high offence of God have deny'd this Article as doubtless he might not then this Article as well as the rest is a Divine Truth which we ought to believe with firm and Divine Faith And consequently there was extant in the World before Luther's rising a Catholick Church and a Communion of Saints That is a common union or conjunction of Sanctify'd People in that Church Otherwise Christian People could not so strictly have been oblig'd to believe that Article For they cannot be oblig'd to believe a Falsehood Christ then in the Ages immediatly before Luther began to Preach and institute the Protestant Church and Religion had on Earth a Catholick Church and a Sanctify'd People therein united together in Faith and Religion and in the participation of his Divine Benefits Which being so What will Protestants Answer to my Question Will they grant as the Truth is that although the Protestant Church and Religion were no where extant and in practice the last five hundred years before Luther Yet Christ had then and in all former Ages a saving Faith and Religion But then I must tell them first That if the Protestant Religion and Church were not then the Catholick Church and saving Religion of Christ it cannot prudently be thought or possibly prov'd to be so now But rather all Discreet and Judicious People must hold it to be a new Invention such as the Arrian or the Nestorian Profession was Secondly I must tell them that That Religion which before Luther's Innovation was a Saving Religion is still a Saving Religion For why should it not it being the same that it was Which being granted the Protestant Profession cannot be a Saving Religion Because there cannot be two Saving Religions extant at the same time opposite and contrary one to another as hereafter more clearly shall appear in regard that one of them must of necessity be a false Religion and proceed as from the prime Suggestor and Author not from God but from the enemy of mankind Who will never invent and set a foot a Religion apt to save men in Thirdly I must tell them that if in all Ages before Luther's time Christ on Earth had a Holy Church and a Saving Religion as most certainly he had The first Protestants did very ill in forsaking her Communion and in raising against Her such Factions and Tumults meerly for Liberty sake as they have done For this breaking off was not to secure their Souls whatsoever they pretended to have some colour of their doing but to enjoy more Carnal Liberty than the long settled Discipline of that Holy Church could bear and allow And as ill do They who still maintain the same breach and impugne the same Holy

Controversies about Faith and Religion now in question amongst Christian People which few I know have leisure or means fewer Capacity to look throughly unto or ability to distinguish always Light from Darkness Truth from Falsehood in them But my Endeavour is to stir you up to a serious consideration of certain general Heads and undenyable Truths which this little Treatise doth present unto you easie to be conceiv'd yet powerful to lay open even to mean Understandings the assured Light of the True Gospel of Christ and the absolute necessity of admitting some sure and un-erring Interpreter of God's Word by him ordained and enabled to deliver the right meaning thereof unto us in all Ages but especially when Controversies about Faith and Religion are raised which Interpreter being once admitted of and agreed upon all other Controversies about points of Belief will quickly be at an end Peace will be restored again to Christians and nothing will remain for the securing of Souls conjoin'd together in the Communion of Saints but a studious care to decline from Evil and to do Good and Industriously to imitate the Blessed Life of Christ But further yet to facilitate this affair be pleased to distinguish in the Belief of Catholicks whom I often call Papists to condescend to the Style of Protestants so terming them for adhering in Religion to the Pope in Latine Papa this word signifying Father as the common Spiritual Father of Christians and supreme Pastor of the Flock of Christ be pleased I say to distinguish in the Belief of Catholicks Divine Faith from Humane Their Articles of Faith from Humane Stories which many distinguishing not and thereupon perswading themselves that Catholicks with equal certainty and obligation believe the one and the other that is their Articles of Faith and the Humane Stories which relate the Lives Actions and Miracles of certain Saints and finding some of these to be very strange and to savour in their conceit of fraudulent Fictions take this to be a sufficient Warrant for them to contemn Papistry as a foolish ungrounded and fabulous Religion and to repute Papists indiscreetly credulous and plainly to be led in darkness and blindness But these do much mistake for the truth is that although all Catholicks be strictly bound to believe those points of Doctrine which their Church doth propose for Articles of Faith contained in the written word of God or in the perpetual Tradition of the Church or deduced by General Councils or by the Pastors of the Church out of God's Word when Heresies are condemned yet they are not bound to believe the Relations of particular Authors concerning the Actions and Miracles of Saints or other like things farther then discreet Prudence and Christian Piety doth lead them every Man being at liberty to weigh the worth and honesty of the Relator and the probability of the thing related and then to believe or not to believe as Reason and Piety shall dictate unto him Yet not forgetting that God is admirable in his Saints That His Wisdom Power Justice Mercy and Sweetness in Governing the World and in contriving and ordering the Affairs of Man's Salvation is far above the reach of our weak Understanding That frequently there is less danger in believing too much than in believing too little and that there are some as strange things related in the Holy Scriptures at which Atheists do stumble as are in the approved Histories of the Church Neither do Catholicks believe these Stories and their Articles of Faith with one and the same certainty for these Stories they believe meerly with Humane Faith for the Authority of the Relators who may Err mistake or deceive But their Articles of Faith they believe with Divine Faith for God's Authority speaking in his Word and by the ordinary Doctors and Pastors of his Church being bound under pain of forfeiting the Name of Catholicks and of incurring damnable Sin not to disbelieve wittingly any one of these Articles all of them being Divine Verities warranted for Truth by the Holy Ghost who continually guideth and directeth the Church in her Doctrine of Faith as is hereafter shewed out of Gods Word And so by disbelieving stubbornly the Articles of Faith which the Church professeth Heresie is incurred which is not incurred by disbelieving her Stories Furthermore if hereafter I affirm not for want of Charity but forced by unanswerable Arguments drawn from the word of God that the Followers of the Protestant Religion so dying are not sav'd take me to speak of those who culpably prefer this Religion before the Catholick or culpably dye therein being thereby destitute of that Faith and Charity which is of necessity required to Salvation and not of those who being truly Baptiz'd and brought up among Protestants have excusable Ignorance of the Catholick Faith and Church by reason either of their tender Years or of their weak Capacities or else of their mean and rude Education for such are secret Members of the Catholick Church and therefore if they depart this Life cloathed with those Garments of Christ with which he adorned them in the Sacrament of Baptism not having fallen into mortal Sin they shall certainly inherit the Kingdom of Heaven In which happiness none shall be Sharers that pass out of this Life destitute of Divine Faith which is the Gift of God of which more hereafter or defiled with Mortal Sin which is so called because it destroys the supernatural life of the Soul received by Regeneration in Baptism consisting in Divine Faith and other Celestial Virtues but especially in Sanctifying Grace and divine Charity without which Divine Charity nothing doth avail to Salvation as the Apostle teaches 1 Cor. 1. 13. Lastly because divers Protestant Teachers endeavour to make their Followers believe That the Fathers of the Primitive Church were Protestants seeking thereby to Illustrate the Protestant Religion that the greatness and boldness of this Imposture pardon the Word for I know not how otherwise to express truly the dealing of these Men may clearly appear I humbly intreat all understanding Protestants which know it not to take notice That those ancient Worthies and Lights of the Church of Christ were either Monks or Founders of Monastical Discipline or at least Approvers and Praisers of the same St. Anthony was a Monk and St. Athanasius his Praiser St. Basil the Great a Monk and the Founder of a Monastical Institute which in the Eastern part of the World is yet practised St. Gregory the Divine was a Monk St. Chrysostom a Monk St. Hierom a Monk the Great St. Augustine the Founder of a Monastical course of Life St. Martin a Monk St. Benedict a Monk and Founder of the Famous Order of Benedictine Monks which does yet flourish in the Western Church St. Gregory the Great was a Monk and by the Labours of Fourty Monks did first plant Christianity amongst the English Let any Man judge how likely or how true it is that these men were Protestants Secondly take notice that