Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	apostle_n	church_n	doctrine_n	4,033	5	6.2595	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76262	A Legacie left to Protestants, containing eighteen controversies, viz. 1. Of the Holy Scriptures. 2. Of Christs Catholick Church, &c. 3. Of the Bishop and Church of Rome, 4. Of traditions needfull, &c.	Bayly, Thomas, d. 1657?,; T. B.	1654 (1654)	Wing B1512; Thomason E1667_2; ESTC R208395	72,275	206

therein of whom Christ said He that heareth Epist 1. c. 4. you heareth me and of whom St. John said He that knoweth God heareth us and ho who knoweth not God heareth us not in this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of errour Christ having before told his Apostles and such no doubt as succeeded them in the government Joan. 15. of his Church I will send unto you the Holy Ghost and he shall give testimony unto me and so shall you c. joyning so together the inward teaching of the Holy Ghost and outward teaching of the Church both to be embraced and obeyed by all her children For albeit saith St. Austin he uttered all Enarrat in Psal 47. these promises to his Apostles cum illis loquebatur no● intelligebat yet speaking to them he meant us also who were to the worlds end to succeed them for whom he prayed and obtained the Holy Ghost of his heavenly Joan. 77. Father not to remain for a time but for ever with them The third Controversie Of the Bishop and Church of Rome NOt as it is the Patriarchial and particular Church of that City but as it is head and chief of all other Churches subjected unto it And I do not here without hearty grief ent●r into this Controversie whilest I consider with my self how violently and virulently our Adversaries have after the accustomed manner of other Hereticks before them by preaching and writing slanderous untruths made not to men and women only but even unto very children the name of Pope Papistry as they call our Catholick Faith hatefull and scarcely with patience to be mentioned amongst them notwithstanding all learned men know that antiently the Church of Rome hath been for the profession of her faith and glory of her Martyrs renowned above other Churches so as thirty three Bishops successors of S. Peter in that Chair were slain in that City for Christ amidst their flocks and innumerable Martyrs with them after the two chief Apostles Peter and Paul had planted by their preaching and watered with their bloud the true Doctrine of Christ therein thus extolled by Calvin himself after many Lib. 4. insti tut c. 6 ● untruths uttered by him I deny not saith he but that th● ancient Fathers do yeeld every where great reverence to the Church of Rome and speak highly of her calling her for honours sake the Apostolical S●e of the West as freer from troubles and more firmly retaining her first Faith than other African or Grecian Churches W●ence it came to passe that holy Bishops injured and driven from their Sees retired thither as unto a Port of Safety and have been from time to time by the Authority of Popes righted and restored to their Churches Others also in questions and doubts of Religion have repaired unto them St. Policarp for example Disciple to John and ordained Bishop of Smyrna by him came to Pope Anicetus about the due observance of Easter a● St. Iren●us Eusebius and St. Hie●●me have left written And St. Irenaeus after him came to Rome as Tertullian recounteth about condemning some Heresies then n●wly rising Origen likewise as St. Hierom testifieth submitted Epist. ad P●machiū Oc●anum himself to Pope Fabian and recanted some doctrines written by him Saint Cyprian in like manner wrote many Epistles to Pope Cornelius about sundry businesses of his Church and the Novations then beginning to be troublesome unto him St. Athanasius and many other Bishops of Aegypt and Libia together addressed themselves by a most humble and earnest Epistle to Pope Foelix the second to crave of him a true Copy of the Nicene Councel which the Arians had in all places burned and suppressed to demand also a restitution to their several Churches and to be redressed in other wrongs done unto them for that the relief of wronged Bishops and other chief businesses of the Church for the eminency of hi● authority over all Churches and Bishops belonged unto him as it had been declared by the Father● of the Nicene Councel at which some of them selves had been present And accordingly he that will read the Epistles of St. Leo and St. Gregory both surnamed great for that high and holy esteem which the Christian world is known to have had of them shall find them as other Popes had done before to have exercised authority over all Eastern and Western Bishops as Causes happ'ned even Patriarchs themselv●s without exception howsoever this certain truth be by Calvin impudently denied Insomuch that the very next Popes to St. Peter so holy in their liv●s and glorious in their Martyrdomes for Christ that it would be an impious temerity for any man to object as some of our Adversaries have done any affectation of Pride and Ambition unto them are known by the prerogative of their Chair to have both claimed and exercised this Universal Authority Tom. 1. Conciliorum Epis 3. Saint Anacletus for example the fourth Pope after S. Peter hath these words This holy and Apostolical Church of Rome hath obtained not from the Apostles but from our Saviour himself a Supream and eminent power over all Churches and the whole flock of Christ when he said unto the most blessed Apostle Thou art a rock and upon this rock I will build my Church c. S. Victor likewise so claimed this power and exercised the same over other Churches as he excommunicated all Bishops of the lesser Asia for their Judaical and obstinate observance of Easter for which S. Irenaeus blamed him not because he wanted authority but for that he had used therein overmuch severity S. Calixtus in his Epistle ad Benedictum expresly affirmed the Church of Rome needfully to be obeyed and followed by all Churches as Head and chief of them The like authority was challenged and exercised by all these holy Popes living within the first 300. years after Christ Antherus Fabian Lucius Dionysius Foelix the first Marcellus and others Neither were holy Fathers in that time lesse earnest in defending the Supream and Universal Authority of the Roman Church than Popes themselves S. Irenaeus for example calleth Lib. 3. c. 3. the Church of Rome the great●st most antient and best known Church founded by the two most blessed Apostles Peter and Paul c. Whereunto for her more powerfull principality all other Churches were to be conformed in the doctrine of Faith and practice of Religion naming Popes untill this Li. de pudicitia time succeeding each other Tertullian likewise from the succession of Bishops in that See numbred by him prescribeth against Hereticks the truth of Christian Doctrine calling the Bishop of that Church Episcopum Episcoporum Bishop of Bishops and Father of the Catholick Church S. Cyprian in a like manner after he had declared how Christ promised to build his Church on S. Peter and commended the government Lib. de unitat Eccles of his flock unto him saith that albeit all the Apost●es received

Saints as S. Justine Apolog. 2. ad Anteninum witnesseth in these words we are call●d saith he athiests because we worship not your Gods it is true we acknowledge no such Gods but one true God alone c. and his only Son who came from him and taught us to se●ve him we reverence the whole Army of his angels and blessed Spirits of the Prophets c. which honour yielded unto Saints is by St. Deunis in his celestial and Ecclesiastical Hierarchies by St. Ignatius in his Epistles and in all ancient Liturgies peculiarly expressed and in this we believe communion between them and us that as we rejoyce in their felicity and greatnes so they secure now for themselves saith St. Cyprian are sollicitous for us and the higher they are now in their own Heavenly glory and greatnesse the more clearly do they know our necessities and are ready from their divine Lord and ours to obtain remedies for them And if whilst they lived here on earth they might lawfully pray for us why may they not now do the same in their happier estate not hindering but increasing their Charity towards us sithence especially their locall remotenesse from us hindereth not their hearing of our prayers directed unto them no otherwise than angells know by the testimony of our Mat. 22. Lucae 10. Saviour himself the secretest conversions here of sinners and rejoyce in them Saints being in their blessed estate like and equall unto them and those who together behold the Charity of their heavenly Lord in whom Morali 14. lib. 4 Dialog all things are contained can be ignorant of nothing saith St. Gregory belonging unto them in which sense St Paul telleth us that we are come to Mount Sion heavenly Jerusalem and City of the living God to the frequency of millions of Angells and the Church of those who were first conscribed amongst them c. so gone before us as we are hopefull to arrive unto them and become as now they are fully united unto him qui est caput super omnem Ecclesiam who is head of his whole Church so as they and we belong to one body and have some communion as fellow members under one and the same head together Calvin therefore without book and out of his own hereticall fancy affirmed the Saints of heaven to be secluded from having any commerce at all with us and that they pray in generall but not in particular for us because forsooth they cannot hear us for how saith he hath it been revealed unto any man that Saints have ears so long as to reach down from heaven unto us whilst we pray unto them Which Question had been better made by some Infidel than any Christian Authour of learning or judgement proposed for who knoweth not that pure Spirits such as are souls separated from bodies have a spiritual manner both of hearing and speaking without ears tongue or other corporall senses so as it would be no absurd thing if I should tell Calvin that Lucifer in hell knew him very well and such Heresies as were to the ruine of souls broached by him albeit he had no eyes to view his papers or ears to hear his Doctrines preached by the naturall light of his understanding in absence also penetrated by him which is as ears and eys unto him whose substance as we conceive not so is the spiritual manner of his understanding things hidden wholy from us wherein Angels and Saints in heaven do far no doubt exceed him because they have a purer and higher light to wit of glory communicated by God unto them and according to his absurd question of long ears for Saints to hear our prayers directed unto them a man may well conceive him to have scarcely believed that our Saviour as Man according to his humane and glorified soul heareth the prayers of men here on earth directed unto him or knoweth their actions according to which notwithstanding he shall judge them Calvin in the mean time could not but know when he impugned our invocation of Saints that we in our addresses unto them intend nothing else but to obtain more easily at Gods hands by their intercession blessings and benefits needfull for us For if the joynt Prayers of two or three here on earth be more gratefull to God than of one alone and more effectuall to obtain what we ask of him how can it be but profitable for us to have with our own prayers the suffrages of Angels and Saints holily conjoyned we of our selves b●ing sinful wretches and wholy unworthy to obtain any thing of him Wherefore as Malefactors here on earth think themselves happy when any favourite of their Prince will be pleased to sollicite their pardon for crimes committed against him so are we in a like manner humble suiters unto these Courtiers of heaven to become unto their divine Lord and ours Mediators and Intercessors for us Neither doth this Mediation of Saints derogate any thing at all from the mediation of Christ For that he immediately by himself and in the right of his own merits advocateth and obtaineth at his fathers hands what graces he will himself and blessings for us Whereas Saints in a mediate and subalternate way of Mediation by him to wit and his merits who redeemed them and us also become intercessors for us And this custome of praying in this manner unto Saints hath been so anciently used in Christs Church as all Greek and Latine Fathers almost whose works are now extant have approved and practiced it Angels saith S. Ambrose are to be Lib. de Vidu●● invoked to our help the Martyrs are to be sought unto whose bodies we keep as pledges of their love towards us And S. Hierome disputeth thus against cap. 3. Vigilantius as now I may doe against Calvin or any other Protestant Thou sayest in thy Book that whilest we live we may pray for each other but not after death But I tell thee that if the Apostles and Martyrs living here in bodies could pray for others when they cared for themselves how much more may they now do that after their Crowns and victories So that if our Adversaries would admit any true Church or pr●ctice of Religion before them they could not but acknowledge this doctrine and custome taught and practiced in our Church to have ever been truly Christian and Catholick but as their heretical Conventicles are newly raised so will they have a new Religion believed and practised in them The eighth Controversie Of reverencing of Saints Reliques AS we yeeld not unto Saints themselves now in heaven a divine honor but onely a reverend respect infinitely inferiour unto it so likewise their Reliques are not but by the same reverenced by us And our Adversaries sencelesly abuse words when they accuse us of Idolatry for yeelding this reverence unto them these Reliques being not false Gods or things belonging unto them but Reliques and parts of their bodies who were Gods true Servants and either

like Authority from Christ yet that Peter was ordained chief of them and that all faith was from his Chair chiefly to be received saying That no Heresi●s would rise in the Church if this one Priests Authority were duly acknowledged and obeyed as it ought to be S. Hilary having praised S. Peter for Can. in Mat. 16. his Confession of Christ cryeth out Oh happy foundation of the Church designed by that new name Cepha● a rock imposed on him worthy of that building which shall stand firmly against Hell gates c. Saint Chrysostome in more than ten several Hom. 87 in J● ad populum Antioch 39 42 49. 80. 87. places plainly acknowledgeth the pre●minency of the Roman Church and Bishop above other Churches and Bishops by the dignity of Peters Chaire therein continued S. Hierome professed himself albeit he lived in the East under other Patriarcks to be a sheep of Peters flock and to be conjoyned Epist. 2. ad Damasum with his Chair and succession of Roman Pastors therein as knowing Lib. 2. c. 51. Christs Church on this Rock to have been raised And S. Austine demanded of Petelian a chief Donatist why dost thou call this Apostolical Chaire the Chair of Pestilence as now our Adversaries do the Seat of Antichrist the Beast of seven heads whereon the Whore of Babylon is said to have ridden not distinguishing between that City and Church therein ever most holy and renowned whilest that City Mistresse of the world when S. John wrote his Apocalips persecuted the same for 300. years together purpled her self with the bloud of Martyrs making all Nations of the earth drunk with the poysonous cup of her Superstitions so as Rome was to the Church of Christ in that City and other places as Babylon was an●i●ntly to the Jewish Temple a powerfull and hatefull Enemy and is called therefore Babylon by S. Peter in the end of his Epistle when he wrote The Church which is in Babylon saluteth you Which is so clearly acknowledged in her supream and Universal Authority by S. Austine S. Optatus S. Ambrose and a multitude of other Fathers as I could produce here a double Jury of them Wherefore Calvin dissembled and lied notably when in his Epistle to Cardinal Sodalet he pretended to ayme at no other reformation of our Church but to reduce it to that belief and practice of Religion which was in the Greek Church whilest Basil Chrysostome and the Fathers of that time lived and used in the Latine Church whilest Ambrose Austine and Hierome were in it Whereas he rejecteth in innumerable places the cōfessed doctrine both of these and more ancient Fathers and many times with plain con●umelies and reproaches vented against them as will appear af●erwards in each Controversie When also he professed no lesse fraudulently and falsely to believe and admit of all doctrines and practices embraced in the Church of Rome during the first 500 years after Christ he meant nothing lesse for that when the Belief and practice of the Church in the three first Ages is objected against him and new points of his Doctrine his answer is that even then the Church of Rome was not so pure as it might in all doctrines and practices of Religion be securely followed With the same fraud also he maketh Lib. 4. instit c. 9. num 8. profession to embrace the first four generall Councels as teaching and decreeing nothing but conformable to Scripture Yet wher● it is urged against him even in this very Controversie that in all these four Councels the Popes supream and universal authority is plainly acknowledged Chastity injoyned to Priests Vows taught to binde in Conscience and the like points of Catholick doctrine proved out of them he rejecteth their authority farther than it is by Gods word warranted unto him and not onely deni●th what they teach of the Popes authority but most impudently averreth many notorious falshoods For example he denith Saint Peters having been at Rome no lesse testified by antient Authors and monuments than that Augustus once raigned in that City and despairing to make good such an impudent assertion he denieth him at least to have been Bishop of that City for 25 years together against the clear testimony of S. Hierom following Eusebius writing In Cronic Anno 44. thus long before him Peter a Galilean by his country the chief Bishop of Christians after he had founded the Church of An●ioch went to Rome where having preached the Gospel as Bishop of that City for twenty five years was crucified there under Nero with his head downwards because himself desired to die so Serm. de SS Petro Paulo And S. Leo of S. Peters first coming to Rome m●keth this speech unto him Thou hadst already most blessed Apostle established the Church of Ant●och and by thy evangelical p●eaching converted unto Christs law Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithania when thou broughtest the Trophy of Christs crosse into the Roman arches whether by divine ordination the honour of power and glory of thy passion went before thee that the faith of Christ might there chiefly flourish where the Devils Tyranny had chiefly raged extending from thence thy spirituall Power into more kingdomes and Countries than formerly the Roman Captains by their many conquests had Ser. 3. de ass●m ej●s ad Pontific obtained Christ having especially chosen thee to govern all Nations converted unto him and preferred thee before the other Apostles and governours of his Church when he thrice committed the feeding and government of his flock unto thee and promised to build his Church firmly upon thee Which high Office and Power was no doubt to be extended to all true and lawfull Successors of him For as Christs Church and Flock was still to continue as hath been already proved to the worlds end so were the Governours and government thereof to be in the same manner still continued and not during S. Peters time onely whose authority given by Christ differed in this from that which his fellow Apostles received likewise from him that theirs was delegated onely and to end with their Persons whereas his was ordinary and to be derived so farre as the government of the Church required to his Successors after him which whosoever denieth proudly unto them saith S. Leo he damneth himself but lesseneth not that authority which is given by Christ unto them And that which was uttered by our Savior and understood chiefly of himself may be truly applied unto S. Peter and all lawful Successors of him Vicarial heads and secondary foundations of his Church established on them wherefore he that falleth on this Rock shall be bruised and on whom it falleth it shall crush him For that all such as have at any time heretofore forsaken the unity of this Church and refused obedience to S. Peters Successors in that Chair departing from the faith thereof have dashed themselves against this Rock and onely foamed out their own confusions