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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	covenant_n	mouth_n	seed_n	3,950	5	9.5565	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41015	Roma ruens Romes ruine : being a svccinct answer to a popish challenge concerning the antiquity, unity, universality, succession, and perpetuall visibility of the true church even in the most obscure times, when it seemed to be totally eclipsed in the immediate ages before Luther / by Daniel Featley ...	Featley, Daniel, 1582-1645.	1644 (1644)	Wing F592; ESTC R4369	68,281	80

the continuance of our church for we have Gods promise in the old and Christs in the new that the church professing entirely that faith grounded on Gods word shall continue to the end And the redeemer shall come to Sion as for me this is my covenant with them saith the Lord my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed for ever And this is the word of faith which we preach And behold I am with you unto the end of the world Wherefore since all in the end must be brought to this issue whether our church or yours hath kept safe the most precious depositum of the apostolike faith we wish your learned to encounter us principally in this point not but that we will be ready to answer you in all other points whatsoever but because it is to small purpose to contend meerly about the out-works and leave the main forts and castle untouched As for your challenging words If c. I return them upon your self because you speak of all points I say if you can name any that professed the present Romish doctrin in all points within 1000. yeers after Christ let them do it then if we do not disprove them the day is theirs and for the most points of greatest moment shew me any for 600. yeers and let the day be yours Hic rodus hic saltus as for us we are in no danger of your if c. for we say it is needlesse to name any such who in all points taught our doctrin it is sufficient to produce some eminent persons in all ages who endeavoured to stop the inundation of your Romish errours and superstitions as it continually brake into the church especially if they held no substantiall doctrin of faith contrary to that which we now beleeve and teach besides these eminent persons and standard-bearers of the Gospel we doubt not but there were many thousands others both in your Romish church and else-where who never bowed the knee to B●●l nor received any ●●rk of the beast At this last answer of some of our men you ●ibble saying PAR. XVI Of making open profession of faith in time of persecution CHALLENGE Rediculous it is to answer hereunto as some do that there were true beleeving protestants when Luther began but durst not for fear of fire professe their faith this we say is to condemn them to have had no faith at all but to be a dissembling company of such as were neither hot nor cold Christ saying of such He that denyeth me before men I will deny him before my father in heaven Answer Bellarmin upon the by acknowledgeth that the Hussites and Waldenses continued till Luthers time who as appeareth by the rubricks of your own stories signed the faith we now professe not only with ink but with bloud which hath proved so fruitfull seed of the church that if the harvest of the next century be answerable to the last you will be constrained to blot catholike out of the title of your church and leave only Roman Besides many noble standard-bearers of the protestant religion who bad defiance to the whore of Babylon we say and disprove it if you can that there were many thousands who refused her cup of abhominations and in private detested her fornications howsoever they made no open profession of the faith neither will it hence follow that they were hypocrites this is too hard and uncharitable a censure Nicodemus was no hypocrite though he came to Jesus but by night and as it were by stealth Nor Ioseph of Arimathea though he made no open shew of his love to Christ till after his death much lesse were the Disciples hypocrites who according to Christs commandement fled from citie to citie and sought by all means to keep o●t of the eye and walk of their persecutors what publike or open profession of the christian faith made those saints S. Paul and S. Helary speak of who lived and dyed in deserts and hid themselvs in caves and dens of the earth It is the judgement of some of your divines that in the dreadfull and dismall persecution of antichrist the Pope himself shall professe his faith in secret If to make no open profession of faith is to be a luke-warm hypocrite what hypocrites shall the Romish priests be who shall not dare openly to celebrate masse in the great persecution of antichrist toward the end of the world as your Rhemists and Tapperus imply You your self and those of your religion especially priests and Jesuits make no open profession of your faith here in England yet you would not be thought to be hypocrites Be not too rash in your censures lest you slander your own mothers children Those God threatneth to spew out of his mouth who are neither hot nor cold that is those who have no zeal of Gods truth burning in their hearts those deny Christ before men who being called to make a goodprofession as Christ did before Pontius Pilate either directly or indirectly deny the faith as your Jesuited equivocators do renounce their priesthood calling such as deny Christ in this sort we deny them protesting against such protestants who are nothing lesse then what they are named PAR. XVII Of the first conversion of Britains and English to the faith CHALLENGE Or if your men fly this difficulty we will joyn issue with them in the maintenance of that faith and religion unto which we Englishmen were first converted by Austin a monk a man of God sent by Gregory the great bishop of Rome more than a 1000. yeers since Answer The Philosophers contend not more about the head and springs of Nilus than our English antiquaries about the source or rather the golden conduit which first conveyed the water of life into this Island some derive this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} from Simon Zelotes some from S. Paul others from Ioseph of Arimathea and some few from King Lucius whōBeda calleth the founder of the faith among the Britains all fetch it from a higher more noble pipe then you You are the first whom ever I read to affirm that we Englishmen were first converted to the christian faith by monk Austin who when he came first into this Iland found among the Britains an arch-bishop and 7. bishops and 2000. monks in Bangor and what a world of christian people may we think besides Even in Kent it self where he first and most laboured in Gods vineyard he found a christian church bearing the name of S. Martin built to his hand and a way made for him even to the court by Lethardus chaplain to Queen Berta or Aldiberga Greg. himself Austins master doth us this right he acknowdlgeth it thirsted after the water of life before he thought of sending Austin and Melitus to quench this thirst whence was

of the canon law flat repugnant one to the other but others have done it to my hand and saved me this labour PAR III. Concerning the immutability of divine faith CHALLINGE This one true faith generally preached through the world was not to cease with the Apostles and their immediate hearers but was by Christs promise to continue unchanged to the worlds end For so it is said Mat. 28. 20. I am with you alway unto the end of the world Joh. 14. 26. the comforter whom the father will send in my name he shall teach you all things Answer Neither of these places commeth home to prove that which you intend viz. that the christian faith is to continue unchanged and may not by any addition or detraction be altered Why did you not produce to that purpose Rev. 22. 18 19. I testifie to every man that heareth the words of the prophesic of this book if any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book and Gal. 1. 8 9. but though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you then that which you have received let him be accursed Upon which words S. Austin thus paraphraseth whether it be saith he concerning Christor the Church or any thing else which belongeth to faith and our life I will not say if w● who are not to be compared to him that said it but if an angel from heaven preach unto you any thing besides that which you have received in the scriptures of the law and the gospel let him be accursed With whom accord St. Hilary St. Cyrill St. Theophilus of Alexandria St. Basil and S. Athanasius St. Hilary I admire thee in this my lord Constantine that thou requirest of us that our faith be restrained to scriptures only S. Cyril of Jerusalem we may not determin or appoint any thing no not the least without the authority of scriptures St. Theophilus of Alexandria it comes from a di●ellish instinct to follow the sophisms of me●s wits and to conceive any thing to be divine without the authority of scriptures St. Basil the great it is a manifest falling away from faith to bring in to our christian beleef any thing that it not written And S. Athanasius what exceeding folly is it in you to speak things that are not written It is the manner of Marcion and other hereticks not to walk within the bounds of the gospel but to speak out of their private fancies and you Sabellians walking in their steps go about to pervert the unstable by speaking things that are not written But you thought fit to balk those texts of scripture with the fathers glosses upon them and deductions from them though very pertinent to prove the immutability of our christian faith because they have no good meaning to your unwritten traditions As for the two texts you here alledge of Saint Matthew and Saint Iohn they are to singular purpose but not to yours they are two deep wells of salvation out of which we may draw abundance of water of comfort for if Christ be always with us we are always sure of protection if his spirit will reach us all things we shall be sure of instruction But what is this to the imimmutability of our faith or unvariablenesse of the doctrine and sacraments of the church God was always with the chosen of Israel under the law and his spirit taught them all things needfull to salvation yet was the priesthood thereof changed and the law also and a new covenant made upon new conditions and with new promises so it might be also under the gospel if God in his word revealed in scripture had not declared the contrary namely Psal. 1104. the Lord sware and will not repent thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck whence the apostle inferreth Heb. 7. 24. this man because he continueth over bath an unchangeable priesthood and 1 Cor. 11. 26. as oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye shall shew the death of the lord till he come that is the second time to wit to judge the quick the dead the lords supper therefore shall continue till we are bid to the marriage supper of the lamb in heaven and Apoc. 14. 6. I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people if the gospel preached unto us be everlasting no new gospel shall succeed it and if no new gospel no new faith The celestiall lights often turn their shadows and give to the inhabitants of the earth divers denominations of per●scii amphiscii and heteroscii but with the father of light● there is no shadow of change Jam. 1. 17. It was true before all time and shall be after all time when heaven and earth shall passe away when the whole world shall be changed into a second chaos and that chaos shall be re-changed into a new world ego Deus non mutor Mal. 3. 6. I am the Lord I change not As God is so it his essence and as his essence is so are his attributes and as his attributes are so is his word and as his word so is our faith grounded upon it immutable Nothing is more unsteady than the needle in a dyall or compasse shaking and quivering continually yet if it be touched with a loadstone and set to the north it resteth unmoveable in like manner though nothing be more variable and unsteady than our assent to mysteries above reason and nature yet if it be touched by the spirit and fixed to the word of God it remaineth unmoveable and the church of Christ ever holding and embracing this faith may truly use the motto of the Phoenix of her age Queen Elizabeth semper eadem always the same PARAG. IV. Concerning the propagation of the christian faith to all ages by pastors and teachers lawfully sent CHALLENGE This divine truth once established to the cud it might continne was to be derived to posteritie not by angels sent to teach particular persons nor by illuminated brethren of Amsterdam still pretending new light but by a continued succession of known visible pastours and bishops lawfully ordained and sent to preach it perpetually in desp●ght of all new sectaries and novellers whatsoever Answer Of angels sent to particular persons since the time of the apostles and the fathers of the primitive church I read no where but in your golden Legend and for fanatick and phantastick spirits at Amsterdam if any of that mad brood still remain you well know that we build our faith no more upon these illuminated brethren of Amsterdam pretending speciall revelation than upon your inspired fathers of Rome pretending infallible direction and a kind of appropriation of the holy Ghost The differences of the two o●●●les both bragging of infallible assistance is this they are