Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	article_n	church_n	tradition_n	2,712	5	8.9857	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09868	A sermon preached at the consecration of the right Reverend Father in God Barnaby Potter DD. and L. Bishop of Carlisle, at Ely house in Holbourne March 15. 1628. By Christopher Potter D.D. provost of Queenes Colledge in Oxford. Hereunto is added an advertisement touching the history of the quarrels of Pope Paul 5 with the Venetians; penned in Italian by F. Paul, and done into English by the former author	Potter, Christopher, 1591-1646.; Sarpi, Paolo, 1552-1623. Historia particolare delle cose passate tra'l sommo pontefice Paolo V. e la serenissima republica di Venetia. English. Selections.	1629 (1629)	STC 20134; ESTC S114961	32,999	132

preservative against all error this is the ground all other discourses though profitable are but the descants If any dainty palate distast this bread of Angels hee is distempered and worthy to fast Whose heart that hath any compassion bleeds not to see the strange growth of ignorance and infidelity in this age and the poor Church every where miserably labouring under her wofull Schismes and ruptures Certainly the ground of all this calamity is because the old rudiments of pietie the principles of saving truth are every where neglected and new subtle inventions with great vehemency pressed Men are faln from living to disputing and whilst their hands are idle and their heads empty yet their tongues must needs be working And after a while it will bee a matter of great wit to be a Christian for he must be faine every yeare to learne a new Creed Each private opinion must needs bee matter of faith and it contents not many zelotes of each side to injoy their owne conceits they are out of charity with all that are not of their judgement I verily thinke it might bee a happy meanes to settle many unfortunate Controversies and to unite us all in blessed truth and peace if men would give themselves leave without passion rightly to apprehend and consider the diversitie and degrees of divine truth Many truths are profitable very few a Ioh. 17. 3 20. 31. Rom 10. 9. 13. Luke 7. 48. 8. 48. 2● 4● Act 8. ●7 1● 31. necessary As in the practicall part of religion true sanctifying grace hath a wide latitude very strong and vigorous in one very weake and feeble in another yet in both saving So in the intellectuall or dogmaticall part of Christianitie b R●● I●cobus in 〈◊〉 Casaub Epist ad Card P●rron G●●●ve ●spraefat Observ 〈◊〉 Harm confess G●●l●rt observ in H●●min gij Opuscula D. Vsher Serm. of the unity of faith Vi●c Lirin cap 39. Petrus Mol●ntus in Confilio Gallicè scripto all divine verities are not of equall moment and necessity S. Paul hath taught us a distinction betweene foundations and superstructions 1 Cor. 3. and among these latter some border more closely upon the foundation then others Where there is a distinct and explicite assent in all the maine Articles of the Catholique faith and in all conclusions cleerely immediately necessarily issuing from those principles and no poison after mingled with this milke Other truths more subtile may admit an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a non liquet both ignorance and error without danger as being disputable in themselves and happely by plaine Scripture indeterminable To be free from all error and sin is the priviledge of the Church triumphing in this life where there is so great variety of the Spirits illuminatiō so great imbecility of all mens understanding and so many mysteries inscrutable to expect an absolute and generall consent in all particles of truth were a great vanity to exact it a greater tyranny of pernicious consequence in the Church The best of men are but men at the best and if any in this s 〈…〉 e of mortality thinke or hope to reach all incomprehensible Mysteries hee mistakes his measure and forgets that his dwelling is in the dust that he is yet on earth not yet in heaven So long as we are here below on our way ignorance and infirmity will accompany us they will not leave us till we leave the world and be admitted into our heavenly Country When once a 1 Cor. 3. 10 12. 2 Cor 5 7. 1 Ioh. 3. 2. the time of perfection is come then not before shall all defects bee abolished all imperfections perfited then shall our Faith be turned into vision our darke knowledge into cleare comprehension b I●s Scal Ele●c Orat. Chron●● Elias quùm venerit solvet dubia Now those maine Articles whereof we spake the wisdome of the ancient Church contracted out of Scripture into a short Creed which they called the Rule of faith and placed in it the c Mr Brad. ford Mart. conference with Heth a●d Day unity of the Church which d Ire● l●b 1. cap. 2. 3. Iren●us saies admits neither addition nor diminution being common to small and great And e Te●tul de Virg Vel. c. 1. Vide et●●m Ambros Ser 38 de Iejun Quadr. in fine Rufi● in Ex●os Symb. in p●aefat August d● Temp. Ser. 115. 119 181. in praef Leon. Epist 13. ad fin Tertullian to the same purpose Regula fidei una omnino est immobilis irr●formabilis then after a briefe repetition of it hee addes Hâc lege fidei manente caetera admittunt novitatem correctionis But above all the rest f Naz orat 3. de pace num 14. 26. Vinc. Lirin Iud. 3 Gregorie Nazianzene most excellently and judiciously handles this argument in his 14 Oration and his 26 which he entitles de moderatione in disputationibus servandâ This was the faith once given to the Saints for which those ancient Worthies contended so stoutly even unto blood And which they did all so diligently inculcate unto their auditors as it appeares by lustine Martyr his Exposition of the faith S. Basil his Treatise or Homily de verâ fide Athanasius in his Creed Epiphanius in his Ancoratus S. Augustine his Enchiridion and the Bookes de Doctrinâ Christianâ Gregory Nyssen and Cyrill of Ierusalem in their Catecheticall Orations c. upon this evidence they convicted and condemned all ancient heresies and I am confident were they now alive they would all side with us in our necessary separation from the abominations idolatry and tyranny of the Papacy with which no good Christian can hold any union in faith any communion in charitie Now for our Controversies first let me professe I favour not I rather suspect any new inventions for ab Antiquitate non recedo nisi invitus especially renouncing all such as any way favour or flatter the depraved nature and will of man which I constantly beleeve to be free onely to evill and of it selfe to have no power at all meerely none to any act or thing spiritually good Most heartily embracing that doctrine which most amply commends the riches of Gods free grace which I acknowledge to bee the whole and sole cause of our predestination conversion and salvation abhorring all damned doctrines of the Pelagians Semipelagians Iesuites Socinians and of their ragges and reliques which helpe onely to pride and pricke up corrupt nature humbly confessing in the words of S. g Test ad Qui● lib. 3. c. 4. Cyprian so often repeated by that worthy champion of grace S. a Cont. du●s Epist Pel●g l. 4. cap. 9. Austine in nullo gloriandum est quandoquidèm nostrum nihilest It is God that worketh in us both the will and the deed and therefore let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. But for the points in question they might sure bee debated with lesse edge and stomach as they are at this day

they medled yet onely with the keyes not with the swords and confessed all the power they had or challenged to be meerely purely spirituall for the conduct and benefit of soules nothing at all directly or indirectly temporall And to fortifie all this claime whatsoever it was they were content to found it upon the majestie of their Sea being the peerlesse Imperiall Citie upon the Charters and Patents of Princes upon the pietie and sound faith of their Predecessors upon the generall and just consent of Christendome which had assigned them a prime place among other Patriarches in all Synods and Assemblies But their foreheads were yet too soft to plead any Scriptures for their pretensions or to derive their primacy from divine institution They beganne indeed to lay too violent hands and to put upon the racke those passages Tues Petrus and Dabo tibi claves and this Pasce oves in my Text but it was featfully and with reluctation of conscience with no purpose or with no hope to wring from them those horrible consequences which in succeeding times they were forced to countenance But when once the Prince of darknesse had overwhelmed all Europe with a blacke night of fatall ignorance when he had banished all good letters learning and languages when hee had silenced the Scriptures and hood-winkt the world then his work of darknesse went on apace and the mystery of iniquity was quickly advanced to that formidable height which at this day we see and lament Then began his Vicar at Rome to Pope it in earnest and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to appeare in his colours in his triple Crowne his two keyes in the one hand his two swords in the other and who but He He must now be saluted Head and Spouse of the Church universall a * See M. ●●d●l against Wadesworth cap. 4. p. 77 c Vice-God upon earth his judgement is infallible his jurisdiction infinite and his Monarchy boundlesse inclosing all Churches and Kingdomes all Bishops are but his Curates and all Kings his vassals and in few words all Nations must worship this Idoll For of him was meant that in Ieremie Gens regnum quod non servierit Ier. 27. illi eradicabitur The people or nation that will not serve him must be rooted out And good reason for he is Dominus Deus noster Papa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no more a mortall And the better to set out this Pageant unto the people not onely some shapes and shadowes of old Fathers and Councils but the Scripture it selfe our Lord Christ and S. Peter are brought upon the stage and forced to doe reverence unto the Pope For since Hildebrand and Boniface 8. this Papall Monarchy is no longer a likely opinion or a disputable probleme or an ancient tradition or prescription but t is now an indubitable article of the Creed a fundamentall point of religion nay * Bell. 〈…〉 de R P. Summa rei Christianae the onely necessary truth and Subesse Rom. Pontifici est de necessitate salutis Whosoever beleeves not in Iesus Christ and in the Pope cannot be saved That our poore Forefathers in the times of ignorance should be abused and amased with these holy frauds we wonder not but we pitie them rather For alas though they wanted not eies yet they wanted light to discover these impostures and tromperies But it exceeds all marvell that yet at this day in this age of light and learning these horrible Paradoxes should be still obtruded upon the Christian World and which exceeds all impietie the Scripture it selfe abused to guild this Idoll to colour this monstrous domination of the Pope and so the God of truth the word of truth constrained to countenance a thicke and palpable lie For you know how Baronius Bellarmine and the rest of that bran now plead for this Monarchie not any longer out of the Decretall Epistles or Constantines donation old Knights of the Post that were wont to depose for the Pope but out of the sacred Tables of holy Writ Wherein though there bee not one word or ●●llable to or fro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nec vola nec vestigiū of the Pope or his power ●ave onely as hee is Antichrist yet these men with rare wit and skill have observed many new Mysteries in the New Testament and plainly a thing unknowne to all former generations see the Pope in many passages of the Text which I dare sweare the holy Euangelists and Apostles never saw nor intended They discourse with much learning of S. Peter and of his prerogatives how our Lord appointed him soveraigne Bishop of the Catholique Church and left him his Lieutenant upon earth planting in him a transcendent supereminent power of binding losing feeding c. which power other Bishops have not immediately from Christ but from S. Peter and by his delegation Well grant all this to be as true as it is all false but what followes Iam dic ●osthume de tribus capellis What 's all this to the Pope Why yes S. ●eter was Bishop of Rome and there he died and bequeathed all this soveraignty all these priviledges to the Bishops of Rome his Successors So then they talke much of S. Peter but they meane the Pope Gregory Nazianzene quotes a witty proverbe out of Herodotus which fits our purpose Vestem hanc Histiaeus Orat. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 n●mero 4. quidèm consuit induit autèm Aristagoras Peter must make this coat but the Pope must weare it As he in the Orator extolled eloquence to the heavens that himselfe might bee advanced with it so here all these praises of S. Peter are intended for the Pope the businesse is his though Peter must beare the name Here is nothing sowne or reaped I wis for Peter unlesse onely this He that lived and died a poore Apostle is after his death crowned a Monarch but the Crowne fits the Popes head better then his and t is therefore set upon him onely by way of ceremony and hee comes in onely as a mute person upon the stage to make roome for the Pope and solemnly to lead him in by the hand And here all the passages betweene Christ and Peter all the words of the one all the actions of the other are examined with a curious scrupulosity and all at length by the helpe of two or three syllogismes make clearly for the Popes advantage I need not tell you what good stuffe these good wits have extracted out of those other words Dabo tibi claves and Oravi pro te Petre not to goe farre my Text is a most memorable example of their singular wit and dexteritie in abusing of Scripture Mirth is unseasonable in discourses of moment and for a Christian to laugh at blasphemy is to approve it it beseemes him much better to lament it with teares of bloud My Text I confesse is very rich and plentifull in the sense and as by and by we shall see will readily offer us much