Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	believe_v	church_n	faith_n	6,736	5	6.2916	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36729	Reflections on the Council of Trent in three discourses / by H.C. de Luzancy.	De Luzancy, H. C. (Hippolyte du Chastelet), d. 1713.	1679 (1679)	Wing D2419; ESTC R27310	76,793	222

by heat or violence an extraordinary and unusual prudence appears in all their Canons they busy not themselves in calling the Pope Antichrist and Rome Babylon but render them the same respect they had ever done They judg themselves without judging others and are content to pray for other Societies without pronouncing either their Salvation or condemnation XX. As they do separate themselves only from the errours of the Church of Rome so they do pretiously preserve what doth not bear that name otherwise 't would not have bin the work of a pious zeal but of a wicked madness None can deny that there are many great and holy rites in the Church of Rome They therefore by a judicious distinction have thrown out those practises which were evil and retain'd the good XXI Having therefore two businesses in hand to wit the reformation of Doctrine and ordering of manners they have made use of the shortest and easiest means They compar'd all to the Scriptures and customes of the first Ages There is no point of their Faith which may not be proved by Scripture nothing in their Discipline which is not conformed to the ceremonies of the first 500 years XXII The Church of England therefore hath the comfort of having her Doctrine founded on the Scriptures so believed by the holy Saints as she beleiv'd it her Canons conformable to the antient Canons her Liturgy like the first Liturgies When she goes about to interpret the Scriptures she exacts not of her Children a blind obedience as doth the Church of Rome She thinks not to make any volume Canonical which was never really so but she follows the tracts of the Saints and of the Councils and hath learnt from the primitive Church which books in the Holy Bible are the grounds of our Faith and which only the object of our Piety XXIII We may say the same thing of all those points which raise the difference betwixt us and the Church of Rome The most considerable one is that of the Eucharist She treats that incomprehensible mystery with the respect due to it She neither presumes nor pretends to comprehend more of it then Christ hath bin pleased to reveal to them and the antient Church understood It is manifest first that Christ instituted the Sacrament of his body and blood Secondly that he is really present in it Thirdly that he abundantly communicates his grace and his holy Spirit to those who before they receive it seriously try themselves as the Apostle speaks and who not only forsake Sin but the very appetite of sinning and labour to order their life by his example But the manner of his being present is uncertain Christ saies nothing of it it appears no● that the primitive Church hath known how That of England receives with thanksgiving what he hath bin pleased to reveal to her and adores with a submissive silence what he hath not bin pleased to let her know We understand nothing of the Lord's Supper but by the Scriptures and the practice of the primitive times and when we limit our selves to that without going any further the manner of expounding it is not difficult The Infinite love of God towards us in that Sacrament destroies not the order which his wisdom hath put in things We leave to Faith all the latitude of it without contradicting the principles of reason But when men pretend to make Evangelists speak as Scholastics or Scholastics as Evangelists and look for Transubstantiation concomitancy and existence of the accidents without their subject c. all seems obscurity and darkness We sacrifice not our reason to faith but we throw aside both of them in saying that God explains himself after a manner con●rary to those principles which he hath established The Church of England is therefore in 〈◊〉 right of supposing as receiv'd what she beleives and the Church of Rome is ob●●ged to prove what she advances The former supposes the miracle which Christ ●ath wrought adding nothing new or ●npossible the other proposeth a thousand things to our beleif of which Christ ●ath said nothing and which are in ●hemselves greater miracles then that about which the two parties differ besides that they draw idolatrous practices XXIV The Church of Eng. doth not only think her self bound to beleive what Christ saies of the sacrament but she administers it ●s he hath given it us She orders the Sacrament under both kinds according ●o the command of Christ and to the pra●tice of the Catholic Church and the whole World know the unchristian grounds upon which an Italian Bishop in the Council of Trent thought it was not to be granted for fear of making an argument against the pretended Infallibility of the Church of Rome XXV It is unreasonable that she do's not permit service to be read in the vulgar tongue and the Bible to be ●ranslated She knows nothing was ever grounded upon a less foundation then that and without looking on the orders of St. Paul which are so exact thereupon is there any thing in the World so contrary to reason as to pray to God in an unknown Tongue which exposeth the Praiers to the scorn and irreverence of those that offer them The Eastern Church did alwaies pray in Greek or in languages used by her divers Nations Whilst the Latin was the language of the West it was fitting that the service should be read in it but by the distraction of the Empire the incursions of Barbarians and the various revolutions we find in history that language having lost its life and given place to the various Idiomes of all Nations it was fitting men should pray in such languages as may be understood but it being more for the interest of the Pope to keep people ignorant he hath opposed so necessary a practice St. Jerome translated the Bible into Dalmatian the language of his own Country there are also to be ●ound manuscripts of the Bible in most languages of the World The more universal and dangerous heresies were the more the holy Saints exhorted the People to look in the Scriptures for those remedies which God hath granted against them XXVI The Church of England hath therefore turn'd the Liturgy into her Mother tongue The Priests and the Congregation there present send the same Praiers to Heaven and to take away all marks of Enthusiasm or novelty she hath composed the admirable Book of common Praier It is nothing but a collection of the most pathetical and instructive places of Scripture That which she hath not from thence are the very words of the Fathers or antient collects which by tradition were receiv'd from the primitive Church All is sound all is holy we address our selves to God in God's own language and we speak to him as he hath spoke to us 'T is a happy obligation for a Christian to pray after such a manner wherein a vain imagination bears no part his mind is enlivened his heart softned by that he can preach to himself and

to the Church as to the State The Country is ●carce large enough for their ramblings ●nd the City for their visits The factum ●f my Lord Arch-Bishop of Sens one ●f the greatest Prelates of the Church of Rome is a proof of what they can do We spare the Reader the recital of their ●candalous manners But if these Monks ●ave so little care of their reputation as 〈◊〉 say that this is the practice but of one ●articular House we can prove to them ●y a thousand like examples free from all ●xception that it is not in the City of Provins only but in all other they live ●ccordingly It remains that we speak of the Jesu●●s whom all have spoken against ever ●nce the World knew them If the acts ●f the Clergy of France the Writings ●f Sorbon the Decrees of the Parliament ●f Paris may be credited Christianity ●ath never had greater enemies Never ●id people that profess poverty and obe●ience so earnestly affect glory and ●iches The better sort of the Roman Communion in England it self cannot en●ure them And all the World knows a person of eminent Quality most zealous for the Church of Rome who ardently desires its re-establishment but on condition that the Jesuits be for ever excluded the Kingdom XXXV Whence therefore comes it that th● Church of Rome which cannot be ignorant of so palpable disorders preserves the Friers with so much care 'T is a mistery which must be laid open There are two sorts of persons interess'd in their conservation the Pope● and men that are worldly given Th●● latter who would be Christians without submitting to the duties of the Gospel● are very glad to find so easie and indulgent guides who give them pillows to lea●● on Ezech. 13. 18. as speaks the Prophet● that is to sin with less disturbance Now to glory in a great number of followers● 't is enough to entice and allure those● whom a half piety and shadow'd devotion keeps still in their sins The Pope o● the other side supports them not only by acknowledgment as people to whom h● ows a great part of his grandeur but wit● design of making use himself of them upon occasion Before the Court of Rome had invented Privileges and Exemtions the Monks that lived in submission to their Bishops and in an happy ignorance of the disputes of the Schools were but of small use to it they sought after sanctity more then science But when the Pope began to encroach upon the Jurisdiction of Bishops he began by substracting from their autority Monasteries which being weary of the vigilance of their Prelates were wrapt with joy of having none that should examine their actions That they might not seem unworthy of Popes new favor they began to make head against their Bishops to study Decretals aspire to Scholarship and change their ignorance into a demi-science which hath brought so many evils upon the Church And indeed since they have bin extremely faithful to the Pope Of nine Divines which he sent to the Council of Trent seven were Monks The Holy Father requires not them to defend his rights by good arguments by reading the Fathers or studying learned Languages but only to clamor and cry out They are not engaged to prove that those who deny the supremacy and infallibility of the Pope are Heretics but to spread abroad that they are Heretics In the affairs of the five Propositions and the magnificent Formulary of Alexander the Seventh the Jesuits ne're put themselves to the trouble of shewing that the five Propositions were in Jansenius but only clamor'd that they were there They thought not themselves obliged to demonstrate the Pope had power to exact the signature of the Formulary but only bark'd all about that those that subscribed not to it were worse then Arians XXXVI There are in France fifty thousand Monks at least the greater part are Preachers and Confessors that is people that bear relation to all places of the Kingdom Doth any write against Religion or manners maintain the most scandalous Principles in the World and the most opposite to those of the Gospel there is not one that appears to defend either But if any speak against the usurpation of the Pope then the Theaters streets public places private houses and palaces of the Grandees are full of Monks that cry with open mouth that Heresy hath infected the whole World Had Charles the Fifth who aspired to the universal Monarchy used this means he had infallibly succeeded The best policy in the World is to have in all Kingdoms thirty thousand Agents who have influence on an infinite number of Persons and are maintain'd at so small a rate by him that emploies them XXXVII The Church of England is therefore in the right to reject such Friers as they are now King Henry the Eighth knew that with them it was impossible a King could be master of his own Estate and a Bishop rule his Church And these two things being equally necessary to the repose and welfare of a Nation this action of his is not to be condemn'd XXXVIII In banishing Friers the Holy Church of England hath banished at the same time all those novelties wherewith they abused the credulity of People indulgencies reliques fraternities and all that which is commonly taken for a true piety She hath substituted in their place praier reading of the Gospel preaching and generally all that may conduce to the converting the heart Her design in it is not to draw after her a multitude of Women loaden with sins who alwaies learn and are never instructed but to establish in her Sons such things as are solid and durable In primitive times all these waies were unknown true piety decreasing the Friers thought it sufficient to substitute in its stead an appearance of it The holy Church of England beleived she ought to deal quite otherwise for the welfare of Christians and that she was obliged to endeavour to render them like those of the golden age as much as that of Iron wherein we live would permit XXXIX Of all practices of antiquity there is none so venerable as the manner of sanctifying the Lords day The holy Church of England celebrates it with an admirable piety Saint Augustine believed that it was less criminal to till the ground then to dance on this day Both the one and the other is equally forbidden in England Plaies Balls pleasures journies are things not so much as to be mentioned XL. The Church of England limits not its self at the sanctifying of the Lords day She hath divers other daies to excite the piety of her Sons and those are the festivals instituted in honour of the most glorious mother of God and the Saints As this custome is very antient in the Church and a man cannot open the writings of the Fathers without finding marks of it she thought it fit to preserve religiously such observances By this the Church makes to appear the union of her body in what state