Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	authority_n	church_n	infallibility_n	4,945	5	11.7584	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60223	The reasons of the conversion of Mr. John Sidway from the Romish to the Protestant religion together with what usage he hath since received in the Church of England : as also a brief account of his travails / humbly communicated to the high court of Parliament.	Sidway, John.	1681 (1681)	Wing S3770A; ESTC R25150	50,639	86

to Protestants to whom I was altogether unknown I might be hardly looked upon and perhaps too when I came dislike their Practice changing my resolution I resolved to continue in the Church of Rome From Naples therefore crossing the Countrey to Barlet and so taking Ship for Venetia and from thence going to Birgamo getting some Letters of Recommendation to the Bishop there he preferred me into a Cannos Place and made me a Deacon And now I gave my self seriously to the study of the Holy Scriptures in which I had before made a considerable Progress wheresoever I found they did not agree with the Faith Practice of the Roman Church I noted them down in a little Book All which I found afterward did agree with what I had before observed in the Fathers And revealing the same to my Ghostly Father in Confession hoping thereby to receive satisfaction he gave me such weak and absurd Answers that I thereby became the farther dissatisfied And now I again lamenting my hard Fate that it was my Lot to have been brought up in the Church of Rome had a great desire to see the Practice of some Protestant Church and therefore pretending a Journey to Lyons in France to see a Kinsman who was lately arrived there from Ireland furnishing my self with what Money and other necessaries I could for my Journey I went for Geneva purposely to see the practice and discourse with them of the Geneva Church And to the end I might do it the more securely I again put my self into a Secular Habit in which appearing at Geneva and being an English Man the Clergy there never mistrusted but that I was a Protestant and I being not fully resolved what to do told them no other but that I having been and then being much among Papists they continually pressed upon me to be of their Church And relating to them the several Arguments of the Church of Rome which at any time before had served me to retain me therein I desired their Instructions how I might so answer them as to defend my self against them The first thing I desired of them to make me capable thus to answer was the Popes Infallibility and lest that should not do 2dly The Infallibility of the Roman Church 3dly The Authority the Roman Church pretends to have over the Scriptures in Abolishing and making void part thereof at Her Pleasure And 4thly Her practising many things which were never mentioned in the Holy Scripture for which She pretends Tradition All which several of them answered so rationally rationally learnedly and discreetly that I was exceeding well satisfied therewith and returning them innumerable thanks I desired also to know of them what was the difference betwixt their own Church and the Church of England They answered me the difference betwixt Them and the Church of England was very little The greatest matter they said was only Episcopacy and certain Ceremonies This made me whilst I stayed there which was for the space of a week or such a matter seriously reflect with my self what to do And considering that their Service consisted most in Preaching of which I was there very uncapable in regard of my deficiency for the same in the French Tongue I resolved for England not doubting but I might do God as good Service there since the difference was so small betwixt them as here at Geneva the which I should immediately be capable of in regard of my English Tongue I was no sooner setting out from thence towards Paris designing for England but hearing I was near the Armies and that in my direct way to Paris I must upon necessity pass them which would be very dangerous I was forced to retire to Lyons where I was much further from Paris then I was at Geneva Being at Lyons having not sufficiently left for my charge into England my stock of moneys growing very low I again began to alter my resolution or at leastwise determined for a time till I was in a condition for my Journey to continue in the Church of Rome hoping Almighty God might accept of what I there did since thus constrained thereunto and so putting my self again into a Clerks Habit I hoped e're long to get an Employ I had been there but a short time but Mr. Chapman an English Gentleman of Avinion and Monsieur Fargue a French Man a Person of very good Quality recommended me to the Arch-Bishop the Arch-Bishop was pleased upon their recommendation to give me a Living and to the end I might be the better qualified for the same made me Priest I now began to be in care how to defray the charges of my Institution and Induction and other present charge and expences And writing to a Friend at Birgamo acqainting him that I had a Grant of a good Living in France but wanting Money for my Institution Induction and other Necessaries was willing upon reasonable Terms to resign my Canons Place there and therefore desiring him to help me to some Man that might take it of me I had not expected long but I received his Answer in which he acquainted me that if I would apply to one Monsieur Petite who was a Shopkeeper in Lyons he had received order to agree with me for it And coming to the said Monsieur Petite he gave me Twenty Lewie Dores for my Resignation And now I was in greater care than ever sometimes I thought to leave my present hopes and to go for England sometimes again fearing that if I were there I might have some dislike or at least should be altogether a stranger and hearing that there was little or no Provision for Men who had commonly done thus but that divers who had turned to the Chruch of England had been forced to turn from it again meerly for a bare subsistance whereupon to live I was quite off it but at length considering the Celebration of Mass was the dayly and in a manner only Practice of the Roman Clergy I betook my self seriously to read over the Mass-Book verily believing that if my Conscience could but dispense with that as for my Belief I might the better dissemble it When I thus seriously read over the Mass-Book I found first that some things therein were false as the Introibo ad Altare Dei for their Altar is not the Altar of God but a meer Fiction of Men. And the First and Ninth Part of the Canon which say the Priest Kneeleth when he Kneeleth not as also the Satiasti Domine familiam tuam c. wherein the Priest giveth us to understand that the People have nothing at all 2dly That othersome were foolish as the Memento for the Dead wherein is prayed that God would remember such as are gone before with the Sign of Faith and sleep in the sleep of Peace to grant them a place of comfort of light and peace And the Amen said after the Secrets adjoyned with the Per omnia Secula Seculorum's for how can the People say Amen