Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	church_n	faith_n	truth_n	4,940	5	6.2410	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20606	The rockes of Christian shipwracke, discouered by the holy Church of Christ to her beloued children, that they may keepe aloofe from them. Written in Italian by the most reuerend father, Marc Ant. de Dominis, Archb. of Spalato, and thereout translated into English; Scogli del christiano naufragio, quali va scoprendo la santa chiesa di Christo. English	De Dominis, Marco Antonio, 1560-1624.	1618 (1618)	STC 7005; ESTC S117489	73,138	191

Mat. 28.20 1. Tim. 3.15 to whom the continuall assistance of the Spirit of my Spouse is promised and not to the Romane I that am the pillar and ground of truth yet dare not be so bold as to assure my children that this infolded faith sufficeth them namely to beleeue vnder generall termes whatsoeuer I beleeue How then shee now swarming with errours and falshood and being nothing but ambition and auarice how dares shee bee thus bold My beloued Saint Paul would not haue his Corinthians thinke 2. Cor. 1.24 that hee would beare dominion ouer their faith which hee did sweetly instill into them and not thrust it vpon them by command and domineering But Rome will haue euery man will hee nill hee by all meanes to beleeue and rest in whatsoeuer shee determineth and commandeth and to subscribe his beleefe to all that shee beleeueth and maintaineth or rather to whatsoeuer shee inuenteth and imagineth though indeed herselfe beleeue it not nor hold it for any point of faith but for a matter of state vpō this point of policy she taketh order that those inuentions which shee knoweth to bee no matters of faith but onely to serue her ambition and couetousnesse must be giuen out for points of faith Rome cannot abide that yee my children should bee zelous in seeking to know what it is that yee are to beleeue for by such enquiry you would discouer her trickes and therefore shee telleth you that you are safe if yee haue this enuelopped faith and beleeue all that shee beleeues And if so be any of you make a stand vpon any particular beeing one of those articles which shee in point of policy hath inuented and which shall hereafter be declared by me in my descry of these Rockes then she presently mufleth vp your eyes and blindeth you and sendeth to you her owne attendants the Priests and Friers preachers and confessors who wholly depending on her are all at her deuotion they declare vnto you that Rome hath decided the point to be an article of faith And thus when yee are bound to beleeue all that the Church of Rome beleeueth and maintaineth that is whatsoeuer she teacheth and auoucheth as fit to be held and beleeued ye must needs play at hoodman-blind and being loaden with dangerous scruples stumble vpon the rocke of many an error and fiction and so incurre miserable shipwracke There is indeed a kinde of vnweeting obedience which is holy and good nay necessary but vnfolded which concerneth the fundamentall articles of my faith Such as are the vnitie of the Godhead and Trinitie of persons in one essence and nature the incarnation of the Word with the conioyning of two distinct natures the diuine and humane in the one onely diuine person of my Spouse Christ that he suffered and shed his blood and gaue his life vpon the Crosse for my redemption that he rose againe by his owne power and that hee ascended and is glorified in heauen where he remaineth my true Mediatour and continuall Aduocate with the Father and that he is to bee iudge of all men to giue to euery one according to his owne workes either life or death euerlasting In the beleeuing these and other such Articles euery childe of mine must yeeld his eyes closed vp by obedience without curiositie or recalling them to the principles of humane reason For these are the fundamentals wherein all Catholique Christendome is well resolued and setled with absolute agreement But in many other points either necessary or not necessary to saluation there is danger 2. Cor 21. that ye may be deceiued For oftentimes Satan transformeth himselfe into an Angel of light Therefore euery of you that hath any heart and spirit at all ought to open his eyes and looke well into that which is propounded to him to be beleeued either by implication or expresly and to examine it with Christian and sober diligence whether that which your Preachers and confessors and writers teach you concerning spiritual things who too often vnder the name of my Ministers are wolues in sheepes-cloathing and nothing els but the ministers of humane ambition and auarice be conformable to the holy Scriptures and vnto my refined and throughly-established iudgement mine I say that is of the Vniuersall Church such as I was for the first foure or fiue vncorrupted ages and still am also in regard of my selfe but not such as the Romane by vsurping my name doeth disguise and vaunt herselfe to be For if you shall walke on blindfold vnder this enfuddling faith after blinde guids ye shall they and you too hit vpon the rocks and tumble into the infernall pit For these respects which I haue named Rome would faine haue you remaine still muffled vp with this cloudy faith and to keepe you in your spirituall blindnesse she hath depriued you of the vse of holy Scripture shee will not suffer it to be imparted to all the people in the vulgar tongues she prohibites it she hinders it Verily a most horrible crueltie God commanded not onely Moses not Aaron onely and the rest of the Priests not onely the Scribes and doctors of the Law and Pharisees but generally all his people that they should alwayes haue the Scripture before their eyes In this is stored vp your daily bread but in stead of making you abound with this bread those whom you call your spirituall fathers take it from you and so may yee starue for them Nay in stead of this bread they put into your hands either the stones of strange doctrines which are marueilous hard for you to chew as that you are to spend your liues for the maintenance of the Pope's humors or else the scorpions of errors and falshood which bite and sting your very soules or at the most the course browne-bread of their pamphlets concerning Christian doctrine and other manuels which they name spirituall Wherein because they can doe no lesse for then should they appeare to bee open professed wolues there are set downe some good foundations of many good Catholick verities but vnder the crust of this good wheaten-bread the course crumbe is deliuered to you or rather the poison of the manifold errors and superstitions of humane if not diuelish doctrine thereby to cherish in your simple soules such reuerence and obedience to the Pope Prelates Priests and Friers as their ambition and auarice gapeth after As for other bookes which discouer these their iugglings Rome doeth slanderously bruit them to be hereticall and prohibiteth them by vaine and childish terrors of excommunications and all this that ye may not open your eyes but remaine blinde for euer Looke well to this ¶ The fourth Rocke Excommunication IT is a wonderfull or rather miserable deuise and craftie tricke of the Popes for the mainteining their tyrannie ouer your soules and making themselues to be reuerenced feared and held for gods vpon earth that they proiect to beare you in hand that the keyes giuen me by Christ

grantors And yet hereupon my Prelats cary their heads too high and lay claime to exempt from the ciuill Magistrate all Clearkes and Monkes with their very hangbyes and lickspits And this Rocke is very dangerous euen to my Clergy themselues who not onely are heereby emboldened openly to disobey the Magistrate in his ciuill gouerment but also hide vnder this cloake of exemption a foule heape of heynous sins and enormities liuing as they doe debauchedly and without feare either of God or of the ciuill sword the execution of iustice in such cases by my Ministers being either too too gentle slacke and sleepy as it is ordinarily or on the contrary sometimes too cruell bloudy and barbarous This Rocke is so much the more harmefull and dangerous in that the Bishops of Rome cloaking themselues with my mantle thereby make pretension to mount aboue Princes Kings and Emperours and to bee iudges ouer them arrogating to themselues authority to ouerrule them at their pleasure in their ciuill gouerment and in their lawes nay moreouer to depriue them of their kingdomes and free their subiects from their bounden duty and oath of fealty and this not onely in case of heresie but vpon any other occasion which the Popes in their humor shall conclude to be important and sufficient An horrible and abominable pretension and altogether contrary to the law of God This Rocke surely is founded by the Diuell himselfe wherat so many of my children split themselues and for the maintenance of the Pope's ambitions forfeit their goods honours fame liberty life and soule By this hellish pretension rebellions are raysed vp in Kingdomes infamous and execrable murthers of Kings are plotted the peace of the whole world is troubled brutish enormities are committed and all this springeth only from Papall ambition It is most certaine and notorious that by the law of God and of nature expresly confirmed in the holy Scriptures euery one ought in conscience vnder the guilt of most heynous mortall sin to obey his lawfull Prince in matters concerning the ciuill estate whether the same Prince be good or euill Let euery soule bee subiect to the higher powers Rom. 13.1 1. Pet. 2.18 Bee subiect to your Masters not onely to the good and gentle but also to the froward And for certaine I neuer receiued any power to disanull the bond of God's lawes Whence therefore hath the Pope gotten such power that he presumeth to disoblige subiects from that naturall bond which tyeth them to be entirely subiect to their lawfull Prince in ciuill maters and those things which concerne the temporall gouerment It is a meere gull foppery that hee should pretend to depose Kings from their thrones and depriue them of their crownes and in this wise to let loose their subiects from their obedience whenas without all dobut such depriuations and depositions are meere temporall businesses and no power of mine extendeth it selfe beyond spirituals The Pope's arch-flatterers confesse that it followeth hence that he cannot directly depose Kings yet will they haue him enhabled to doe it indirectly namely as such matters are occasion of some spirituall good or euill But this say I is impossible For a thing is said to be done indirectly when it necessarily followeth vpon another thing which is done directly As for example when a thiefe robbeth a trayuailer of his cloathes and he thus left naked dieth with cold this thiefe hath robbed the man directly but killed him indirectly In like maner it should be shewen what spirituall action the Pope doth directly by his spirituall power whereupon necessarily but indirectly the deposition of a King or depriuing him of his temporals doth ensue But it is impossible that any such action should bee shewed For there cannot be any greater spirituall action atchieued by my proper power then Excommunication And who would euer come to that height of absurdity as to say and yet some haue said it and beleeued it that a Prince being excommunicated is held in the same instant to be also depriued of his kingdome and deposed And yet my very nouices know that excommunication medleth not with any temporalls A rich man beeing excommunicated doth not thereby lose his possessions nor a noble man his nobility why then should a King by excommunication lose his crowne Now therefore see what a terrible Rocke this is A toy takes the Pope in the head to beare the people in hand that their Prince is an heretique and excommunicate and so depriued of his kingdome and that they are to rise against him and to call in another to reigne ouer them These simple wretches being misled by the Popes false doctrine will needes disobey God to obey the Pope And thus first they herein sinne mortally and cast away their soules then are they also most iustly punished for traytors as they are and so farewell goods life and all Neither will the matter bee salued vp by that which the Romanists reply saying Obey your Prince and sweare fealty to him in ciuill obedience but when the case so falleth out that the Pope commandeth you otherwise then renounce this obedience Nay but obedience due to Princes is perpetuall absolute and without any reseruation or condition for God so commandeth Act. 5. And wee must obey God rather then men It behooueth therefore by God's law to sweare obedience and fealty in matters concerning the temporall gouernment vnto euery naturall liege Lord without any reseruation and consequently euery subiect ought to declare himselfe when hee is so required that hee sweares and promises perpetuall and absolute obedience any whatsoeuer or whosesoeuer declaration commandement excommunication or sentence to the contrary notwithstanding For in this world there is no power that can disoblige a man frō this perpetuall and absolute obedience commanded by the law of God himselfe And in like manner the deposing or depriuing Soueraigne Princes is to bee attempted by none but God's immediate hand to whom onely it belongeth to translate kingdomes Dan. 4.25 And as for any power of mine especially that cannot in any maner neither direct nor indirect lawfully attempt any such depriuations Let euery one therefore remaine subiect and obedient vnto his owne Prince in things concerning temporall gouernment nor let him thinke that hee euer can bee assoyled by any power on earth though Ecclesiasticall from such his entire obedience ¶ The third Rocke Implicite Faith CRuell and pestilent ambition The Pope to the end that his vsurped tyrannie may not be discouered and that he may be taken for a god vpon earth by simple seduced people or rather that they may be made pliable and capable to admit for good any falshood and forgery which the Pope for the aduancing his owne greatnesse shall propound to them causeth them to be perswaded and taught that in matter of faith it is sufficient for euery of them to beleeue whatsoeuer the holy Catholike Romane mother-mother-Church doth hold and beleeue Verely I that am the vniuersall Church I