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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	believe_v	church_n	tradition_n	3,808	5	9.3936	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59540	A letter writ to an atheistical acquaintance upon his turning papist in his old age by a person of honour.	Shannon, Francis Boyle, Viscount, 1623-1699.	1691 (1691)	Wing S2964; ESTC R38232	15,643	30

of Transubstantiation is far from being Apostolical it was brought into the Roman Church by the Lateran Council under Pope Innocent the Third and with it that Reverend Doctrin of deposing Kings in case of Heresie and absolving their Subjects from their Allegiance These are two Twin-Doctrins that hunted in Couples and for the last tho' they are now asham'd to own it yet the Popes were not formerly shy to practise it Next their worshipping of Images which practice notwithstanding all their subtle Distinctions and Evasions about it is but the very same the Heathens us'd in the same Case and is as point blank against the Second Commandment as wilful Murther is against the Sixth which the Popish Teachers are so sensible of and so afraid the People should be so too that therefore in their ordinary Catechisms and Manuals of Devotion they leave out the Second Commandment and divide the Tenth into two to make up the Number That the Infallible Church of Rome might not appear so fallible as to act so contrary to the Commands of God I shall pass by their taking away the Cup in the Sacrament from the Laity tho' our Saviour ordered it to be given in both kinds and they might as well take away the Bread as the Cup and both as either And for the Papists praying in an unknown Tongue do but read St. Paul on that Subject as to the great Errour of doing it and he will satisfie you tho' he cannot convince them Next let us refiect a little upon that part of the Romish Doctrin of praying to and worshipping of the Virgin Mary which hath been now for some Ages past a principal Part of their Religion for they build Chappels erect Altars and sanctify Holy-days to her in short she makes the greatest Part both of their Publick Worship and private Devotions they praying to her more than either to God or our Saviour the Papist using ten Ave Maries for one Pater Noster Indeed one who considers this and had never read the Bible might well have concluded that there had been more said of her in the New Testament than of God or Christ and that it had been full from one End to the other of Precepts and Exhortations for the worshipping of her yet I defy any Papist to shew me as to this Doctrin of praying to the Virgin Mary where she 's so much as once named by the Apostles in any of their Epistles or where there 's one Verse in the whole Bible that savours in the least of paying Worship to her but rather the contrary our Saviour seeming to take all Occasions to restrain us from it as when they told him Your Mother and your Brethren are without who says he are my Mother and my Brethren he that doth the Will of my Father the same is my Mother my Sister and my Brother And when the Woman broke out in a Rapture concerning the blessed Mother of the Lord blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps that gave thee suck our Saviour diverts it to another thing by saying Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it does our Saviour or his Apostles in any of their particular Directions and Precepts concerning Prayer and the Manner of it and by whom we are to address our selves to God give the least hint or intimation of praying to the Virgin Mary or making use of her Mediation for us or is there one Verse in the whole Bible that orders us in the least to pay her Worship In short did God ever command it did ever our Saviour teach it did ever the Apostles Preach it or did ever the Primitive Christians practise it Nay did any of the Writers of the first three hundred Years ever name any such thing as paying her Worship or making her any part of their Religion Indeed about the middle of the fourth Century it begun to creep in among some superstitious Persons and therefore Epiphanius who lived about that time call'd it the Heresie of Women And since 't is so much taught and commonly practised in the Roman Church without the least Colour of a Command in God's Word for it give me leave a little to reflect on the Infallibility that the Roman Church pretends to because I am sure this is a Doctrin that 's able to bring into her as many Errours as she thinks convenient to receive which is more than a few and yet this infallible Church cannot yet tell where this Infallibility is seated whether in the Pope alone or in a Council alone or in both together or in a diffusive Body of Christians but they are sure they have it tho' they know not where it is Indeed I can't imagin how they or any can think it reasonable that this Infallibility was confirmed on the Church of Rome and that all the primitive Christians did believe it and had recourse to it and yet that this very Roman Church should be still at a loss where 't is and that should make a difference which should be the End of all Differences That not one word should be intimated in all the Bible of this high and peculiar Priviledge above all other Churches and that the Apostles in all their Epistles should give no notice or caution to Christians to appeal to the Bishop of Rome for determining any Difficulties which even in those Times hapned among them and that they should then never speak of it tho' there were so many occasions for it Nor that the Ancient Fathers in all their Disputes with the Hereticks should never appeal to this Judge nay that they should not do it in all Cases of difference it being such a sure and speedy way of ending them all among Christians And so I have done with Doctor Tillotson's Arguments and 't were well for the Papist he had done with their Religion too for his Reasonings and Arguments like skrew'd Guns they carry farther and pierce deeper than any others which are of the ordinary level among us And now by this Infallible Churches leave tho' I pretend not in the least to be a Scholar much less a Divine yet I doubt not without being either to prove the Roman Church since her adding twelve New Articles of Faith to the Old Apostolical Creed which were coyn'd in the Mint of Trent and published by Pope Pius the Fourth to be very false and erroneous in her Principles tho' she does with so much Confidence but no Truth say that she holds at this time the old true Catholick and Apostolical Faith and yet declares her self to believe at the same time the new Trent Creed to be the true Catholick Faith without which no Man can be saved which are the very words in that Creed But before I make any farther Progress on this Subject I will recommend to you two Remarks well worth your Observation on this worthy Council The first is its heedless contradicting and forswearing in the very first Article The

second is the want of Christian Charity by damning all the Churches before Trent Council Two foul Crimes very unbecoming a General Council whose business is not to perform but reform Sin Now you must first know that the Observance of the twelve Trent Articles of Faith are bound upon all by Oath and in the very first Article they declare to embrace the Apostolical and Ecclesiastical Tradition and yet at the very same time swear to observe all that 's decreed by that Council which orders that the Holy Communion shall be administred to the Laity but in one kind when for above a thousand Years after Christ it was given to them in both in all the Christian Churches over the whole World and the Roman Church cannot deny but that it was our Saviour's Command as well as all the Churches practice for so many years Nay in the fourth Article of the Trent Creed they use these very words That they receive and approve the Rites of the Catholick Church in the solemn Administration of the Sacraments and yet tho' the receiving it in both kinds is both Apostolical Tradition and Ecclesiactical Practice yet they positively forbid it to the Laity The Conclusion makes it self My second Observation is how uncharitable this Council is and all its Disciples in their condemning all other Churches for surely these Trent Creed-makers have not so much Impudence tho' I know they have a great deal as to pretend to follow our Blessed Saviour's charitable Doctrin who commands us to pray for our Enemies but this worthy Council is so very far from praying for their Enemies as they damn their very Friends the old Roman Church with all the Christian Churches dispersed over the Face of the whole Earth for she no more than the rest did ever hear before the Council of Trent that its twelve New Articles was the old true Catholick and Apostolical Faith without which no Man can be saved all I shall say to this is that as Charity covers many Faults so the want of it discovers many Vices which is apparent in the Church of Rome more than all because she shews less Charity than any My next business is to shew you that from the days of the Apostles to the Time of the Trent Council among the many Creeds named by Athanasius Eusebius and others none of them ever made the least attempt of altering or much less of adding any one new Article of Faith but only explain'd the Old esteeming the Apostles Creed to be fully sufficient being as Tertullian elegantly stiles it A Little Body of great Truths The Rule of Faith instituted by Christ and transmitted from him to his Apostles I could here for the Confirmation of this Truth produce you the Testimonies of all the Eminent Fathers of all Ages of the Christian Church but that would not only tire your Patience but swell this Letter above the moderate Bounds of one to prevent which I shall only quote you some few of the many which will be enough to justifie that all acknowledged this great known Truth that there was never added any new Article of Faith to the old Apostolical Creed before the Trent Council Therefore I shall only here name you the first four General Councils those of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon And as to the first of these Councils when the Nicene Fathers met to settle the Controversie about the Son of God they were so far from making any new Creed or adding any New Article to the Old that they expounded only the meaning of one of the Articles the Sense of which the Arians had perverted and had therefore little Design of changing or adding to the Christian Faith contain'd in the Apostles Creed when at their meeting they read no other Creed but it And St. Austin before he began his Explication on the first Book of Genesis sets down what the Catholick Faith is which he says is nothing else but what is contain'd in the Nicene Creed But what need I alledge more than the words of the great Athanasius on this Subject in the Letter which he and some other Bishops with him writ to the Emperour Jovian where they tell him that the Faith professed by the Nicene Fathers was the very same which was Preach'd from the beginning and unto which all the Churches every where consented to whether in Greece Africk Spain France Italy c. with all the Churches of the East a few Arians excepted and then setting down the Nicene Creed they conclude in this Faith 't is necessary for all to remain as being Divine and Apostolical and therefore not to be changed which is a most plain Declaration by the Council of Trens's leave that the Faith contained in this Creed is not at all defective and short as the Trentonians did believe it was by their adding more to it And Irenaeus says that the true Church throughout all the World hath but one and the same Faith she had from the beginning which I 'm sure plainly concludes that the now Roman Church cannot be the true Church because it holds not the same Faith now she did in the beginning having enlarg'd her Creed by twelve new Articles of Faith coyn'd in the Council of Trent and never heard of in any Christian Church in the whole World before that late worthy Council For the second general Council of Constantinople I shall not need name here since it contain'd the same of the first general Council of Nice And for the third general Council assembl'd at Ephesus all the Fathers of it were so fast united together in this Perswasion that the Apostles Creed contain'd all things necessary to be believ'd as that Council decreed that it should not be lawful for any to write compose offer or produce any other Article of Faith than those defined by the Nicene Council and if any were so bold as to dare the doing of it if they were-Lay-men they should be Anathematiz'd and if they were Clergymen or Bishops they should be deposed which plainly informs us what would become of the present Pope and his Clergy if he and they had attempted then what they profess to do now which is to add no less than twelve new Articles of Faith as if the old Apostolical Creed was not sufficient and compleat enough to make up the new Romish Church Faith without the new Trent Addition And for the fourth general Council of Chalcedon it renewed this Canon of the Council of Ephesus decreeing in a manner the very same words only with this difference to Lay-men is added Monks against whom the Synod decreed an Anathema if they pretended to teach any other Faith I could also here name the fifth general Council held at Constantinople under the Emperour Justinian which Council professed in their third Session that they embraced the same Faith with the four foregoing Councils of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon and so did all the other general Councils sing the same Note that