Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	congregation_n	true_a	2,989	5	6.1703	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20673	The practise how to finde ease, rest, repose, content, and happines. Written by a religious man of the congregation of St. Elias the prophet, and the order of our Blessed Lady of mount Carmell, restored by the Blessed mother Teresa. The second part. Containing directions how to end all controuersies, and take away all discontentments, and euils, and attaine vnto true ioy of minde, and content of heart, and all good; Practise how to finde ease, rest, repose, content, and happines. Part 2	Doughty, Thomas, fl. 1618-1638.	1619 (1619)	STC 7072.6; ESTC S106011	123,081	516

finger For graunt me but that God Almightie cannot be forsworne nor violate his Oaths and in euery opinion of Faith and Religion as a creature of God Almighties maintaine in act and deed that he cannot be periured or forsworne and thou caust not be a Protestant of any Sect or sort by any means possible but of necessitie be of that Faith and Religion Protestants call Papistrie As for example the question is whether our Catholike Church or your Protestant Congregation bee the true Church of God Let vs goe to the Oath of God and as creatures of God Almightie let vs in actions and deeds firmely and faithfully beleeue this Oath of God to Abraham to be true and submit our vnderstandings and iudgements vnto it as vnto the most infallible and most certaine truth that can be and as willing to honour God without passion or malice let vs simply seeke whether this Oath of God By my selfe haue I sworne I will blesse thee and will multiply thy Seed as the Starres of Heauen and as the Sand that is by the Sea shoare Thy Seede shall possesse the Gates of his Enemies and in thy Seede shall be blessed all the Nations of the Earth be more verified vpon our Catholike Church or your Protestant Congregation First for Temporall blessings all the Christian Kings and Kingdomes that euer haue beene flourishing vpon the face of the Earth before Henrie the eight were so Catholike that thou canst not name me one who was in Faith and Religion a Protestant and held the Religion Protestants now maintaine For spirituall blessings we haue written in all Ages Bookes and Volumes of the Spirituall blessings and gifts of God the gifts of the holy Ghost bestowed vpon vs Exercises of Spirituall life loue and vnion of heart with God amongst you there is not any one professing such things all denying inherent grace and infused vertues And whether the Seede of Protestants or Seede of Catholikes haue beene multiplied as the Sand that is by the Sea-shore possessing the Gates of their enemies not only all the Chronicles and Histories of Countries and Nations doe beare witnesse for vs but euen Protestants themselues conuinced with truth doe confesse it Perkins vpon the Creede pag. 307. affirmeth That during the space of nine hundreth yeares the Popish Heresie hath spread it selfe ouer the whole Earth Fulke in his Treatise against Stapleton pag. 25. affirmeth That some Protestants haue written that the Pope hath blinded the World these many hundreth yeares some say a thousand some say one thousand two hundred some nine hundred yeares And Napper in his Treatise vpon the Reuelations pag. 68. affirmeth That betweene the yeare of Christ three hundreth and three hundreth and sixteene the Antichristian and Papisticall reigne begun reigning saith he vniuersally and without any debatable contradiction twelue hundred and threescore yeares pag. 145. saith The Pope and his Clergie during all that time possessing the outward visible Church of Christians So these English Protestants And it is a thing of it selfe so manifest that Protestants are not able to name any one Minister or Preacher for one thousand foure hundred yeares together who held and maintained the Doctrine they now teach And to let passe other States Countries and Towns and make instance in the Citie of Venice The Gothes Michele Zappulo in his Historie of Venice afflicting Italy many Catholike Italians flying the fury of those barbarous people did retire themselues into that place of Venice which is now called Riualta before called Lupa which being then not inhabited and vnknowne to the Gothes with the consent of the Senate of Padoa chose three Consuls Alberto Faliero Thomaso Candiano and Canone Dauolo and by their help begun the Foundation of the Citie of Venice vpon the fiue and twentieth day of March in the yeare of our Lord foure hundred twentie and one which hath continued euer since in the Catholike Faith vnion of the Church of GOD dilated ouer the World without alteration or change in Religion or State or hauing beene sacked or spoiled as their Histories and succession of Men from age to age doe abundantly testifie Whereby thou seest that our Catholike Church is so manifestly the true Church that vnlesse thou wilt first affirme in effect and deed that God Almightie is periured and forsworne thou canst not denie it that the Church of the Protestants is so manifestly the false Church that without affirming in effect and deeds that God Almightie may be forsworne it cannot in any one Article bee defended And the same thou shalt finde in any other question as for example thou wouldest examine whether Catholike Priests that offer to God the Sacrifice of the Masse or Protestant Ministers who haue no externall Sacrifice be true Christian Priests admit but of the Oathes of God for true without malice and passion and the Controuersie is ended and it is as manifest vnto thee by both the Oathes of God that Massing Priests are true Christian Priests as it is manifest that God Almightie cannot be forsworne Of the first Oath we haue spoken before The second Oath is Ps 109. Heb. 7. Our Lord hath sworne and it shall not repent him thou art a Priest for euer according to the Order of Melchisedeck First of Protestant Ministers there were none for many hundreth yeares together visibly knowne in the World as they confesse so this eternall Priesthood of Christ could not be verified in them as in his Priests or Ministers Secondly they haue no externall Sacrifice That Catholike Priests haue beene these many hundreth yeares offering to God as Ministers of his Sonne his Bodie and Bloud vnder the formes of Bread Wine according to the Order of Melchisedeck as they doe now that Protestants confesse as wee haue immediatly before set downe So do but admit that God Almightie is not forsworne in both these Oathes and of necessitie thou must defend that Massing Priests are true Christian Priests and Protestant Ministers false And in all other Questions Controuersies firmely beleeue the Oaths of God which are the most certaine and infallible truths that may be and such as wherevpon all the rest of the Scriptures depend and honour God Almightie by maintaining them in words and deeds and thinke that thy Vnderstanding Wit and Iudgement may deceiue thee as they many times doe but the Oathes of God cannot and thou canst not but be a Roman Catholike or Papist So manifest it is that our Catholike Faith is founded vpon the Oathes of God and Protestantisme of all Sects and sorts is founded vpon Publike profession in acts and deeds that God Almightie is periured and forsworne that if passion and malice doe not blinde the light of reason in thee thou canst not but see it and confesse it Thus hauing laid the foundation of our Ease Content and Rest vpon the surest foundations which are to be found in Heauen or Earth the Oathes of God hoping thou desirest to finde that

found out by the light of Reason is most Simple One Actus purus without composition so must his Faith and Religion be one most simple and without composition of diuers Faiths as Saint Paul sayth One God Eph. 4. 5 one Faith Againe God Almightie is One and of infinite Goodnesse without Malice or Diuision and so could not plant a Faith or Religion that should diuide Men into Sects Dissentions and Diuisions in Faith because it is contrarie to his Goodnesse and Vnitie in himselfe he being God 1. Cor. 14. 33. of Vnitie and Peace and not of Dissention So that Faith and Religion by all reason must be his which can endure no Dis-vnion or Disparities in matters of Faith vvhich all men see to be our Catholike Faith which with such zeale maintaineth her vnitie that shee reiecteth all that differ from her in matters of Faith as Heretikes and Schismatikes and refuseth to make composition of her Faith with any other in any the least thing vpon any condition or benefit whatsoeuer Insomuch as that the vnitie of our Catholike Faith is one as Punctum a point Vnum one or Indiuisibile that which cannot be diuided vnto which you can neither adde nor abstract any thing but they passe either into nothing or into things of another nature as to be a line a number or a bodie So to our Catholike Faith if either you adde any Opinion or take away any Article it is no more Catholike Faith but humane opinion Schisme or Heresie As for example if you take away the Reall Presence of the Body and Bloud of our Lord in the Communion and affirme that it is but a signe then it is Zwinglianisme of Zwinglius who was the first Author of this Opinion Againe if you adde any thing vnto it and say that both the Bodie Bloud of our Lord is there really and also the Bread then it is Lutheranisme and so forth of any other Article of our Catholike Faith And if any oppose and say that some esteemed Catholikes haue or doe obstinately maintaine anie one point of Doctrine contrarie to the Catholike Faith held and receiued ouer the World and would not nor will not submit his or their iudgements to the Catholike Church and her Superiors I answere that hee or they were and be Schismatikes or Heretikes and haue or are to perish euerlastingly According to the Article of our Creede which sayth Whosoeuer Athana Creede will be saued it is needfull before all things that he hold the Catholike Faith the which vnlesse each one shall keepe whole and inuiolate hee shall without doubt eternally perish Insomuch as that it is impossible for any one of our Catholike Church to dissent obstinately from our Catholike Church since hee is bound by his Faith to beleeue inuiolately and before all things all the Articles of our Catholike Faith and if hee obstinately faile herein in any one point of Faith hee is bound to beleeue that hee shall without doubt eternally perish according to our Creede So that the words which S. Ireneus who liued so neere the Apostles times that hee affirmed to haue seene S. Policarpe who was S. Iohn the Euangelists Scholler vsed against the diuers Sects of Heretikes in his time wee may vse now without exchange The Church sowne throughout the World doth diligently keepeth is preaching which it hath receiued and this Faith as wee haue said as it were dwelling in one house and doth beleeue them as if it were hauing one soule and one heart and consonantly doth preach teach and deliuer these things as if it had but one mouth For although in the world there are different Languages yet the vertue of Tradition is one and the same So that neither the Churches which are founded in Germanie doe beleeue otherwise neither otherwise doe deliuer these which are in Spaine neither those which are in Aragon neither those which are in the East neither those which are in Egypt nor those which are in Libia nor those which are founded in the middest of the world So Saint Ireneus in his first Booke and second Chapter against Heresies and we with him Protestants though they haue but few affirmatiue Articles which in the same words and sense they defend as matters of Faith and are but few in number in respect of Catholikes yet are they in them few Articles first generally diuided into many Sects as into Elizabethians Lutherans and Caluinists and many more lesser Sects as Anabaptists Brownists Desperates Pig-Recusants or Trasquites c. The Elizabethians defend that a woman may be Head of the Church and hold the Supremacie in all causes and ouer all Ecclesiasticall persons whosoeuer and put those to death as Traitors who refuse to swear it as true and giue Authoritie to Parliaments to alter formes of Religion Lutherans and Caluinists denie both Caluinists denie the Authoritie of Bishops and Ordination of Ministers by Bishops Lutherans and Elizabethians defend both The Lutherans defend Consubstantiation in their Supper which they esteeme a Sacrament both Caluinists and Elizabethians denie it And secondly besides this Diuision into generall Sects they are all so particularly diuided one from all and all from euerie one that there cannot be found anie two of them which agree in vnitie of Faith one to beleeue the same Faith in the same words and sense that his companion doth beleeue to Saluation All beleeuing that the whole The English Creed art 19. et 2● Church and generall Councels may erre yet euerie one beleeueth of himselfe in particular that he is assured to be saued and that he cannot erre So that Faith which one Protestant beleeueth to be saued by all the rest doubt whether it be true or no And no other else will beleeue that which his companion beleeueth for an Article of Faith videlicet That Titius is assured to be saued and cannot erre Whereby they are diuided into as manie Sects as Men. So that supposed that vnitie of Faith in the same sense and meaning were necessarie to Saluation Content and Happinesse as it is and that any one Faith professed by any one Protestant man could saue and bring to Content and Happinesse yet of all the Protestants that are or euer were or shall be one only can be saued and happie since onely one agreeth with himselfe in vnitie of faith and with none of his companions Protestants whosoeuer Secondly it is manifest by reason taken from the goodnesse of God Almightie that our Catholike Faith is the Faith of God planted by our Sauiour for that God Almightie is of infinite goodnesse and vertue and so could not plant a Faith or Religion wherby men might be saued and attaine to all goodnesse content and happinesse but it must consist of all vertues because hee cannot doe contrarie to his will which is alwaies to will good vertue which is our Catholike Faith which teacheth that it is not possible for any man to be saued or enter into Heauen

or enioy God or haue anie true content that hath anie vice or iniquitie in his soule as S. Paul sayth If any man 1. Tim. 6. 3. consent not to that doctrine which is according to pietie he is proud knowing nothing because all men may and ought to know that God Almightie is of infinite pietie and so cannot plant a Faith or Religion which is not pious and teaching all vertues as necessarie to saluation and vnion of heart with him their happinesse Thirdly that Faith and Religion in all reason must be the Faith and Religion planted by God which teacheth and sheweth men the most and best meanes how to loue God this being an Argument in Nature and Grace That euerie one loueth his owne 3. Reg. 3. 26. Ioh. 5. 19. Whereby is manifest that our Catholike Religion is the true Faith for that it teacheth vs how to loue God with all our hearts and how to obtaine Saluation and Happinesse by louing God VVhereas Protestants doe teach Saluation by onely Faith and that it is impossible to loue God or keepe the Commaundements And can there be a more vile and wicked Religion inuented then to teach that it is impossible to loue God Almightie with all our hearts Fourthly by generall consent of all People and Nations though of different Religions who all generally say and affirme That Catholikes liuing according to their Faith and Religion may be saued and haue a sparing as some tearme it sauing Faith And the consent of all People and Sects and Nations cannot erre in Reason CHAP. VII That it is as certaine that our Catholike Faith which Protestants call Papistrie is the Faith of God planted by our Sauiour as it is certaine that God Almightie cannot lye or be forsworne and how easily to end and determine all Controuersies by maintaining the Oath of God as true BY my own selfe haue I sworne Gen. 22. 16. saith the Lord to Abraham because thou hast done this thing and hast not spared thy onely begotten sonne for my sake I will blesse thee and I will multiply thy Seed as the starres of Heauen and as the sand that is by the Sea shoare thy Seed shall possesse the gates of his enemies and in thy Seed shall be blessed all the Nations of the Earth because thou hast obeyed my voice Againe our Lord promised to Isaack saying In thy Seed Gen. 26. 4. shall be blessed all the Nations of the Earth for because Abraham obeyed my voice Againe our Lord promised to Iacob Thy Seed shall be as Gen. 28. the dust of the Earth thou shalt be dilated to the West and to the East and to the North and to the South and in thee and thy Seed all the Tribes of the Earth shall be blessed Of these Promises the Prophet Esay speaketh saying Israel shall flourish and spring Isa 27. 5. and they shall fill the face of the world with Seed Againe I Isa 61. 8. the Lord that loue Iudgement and hate Robberie in Holocaust And I will giue their worke in truth and make a perpetuall Couenant with them And they shall know their Seed in the Gentiles and their Budde in the middest of Peoples All that shall see them shall know them that those are the Seed which the Lord hath blessed And of this Oath the same Prophet speaking sayth As in the dayes of Noe is this thing Isa 54 9. to me to whom I sware that I will no more bring the Waters of Noe vpon the Earth so haue I sworne not to be angrie with thee and not to rebuke thee for the Mountaines shall be moued and the little Hills shall tremble before the Day of Iudgement but my Mercie shall not depart from thee and the Couenant of my Peace shall not be remoued said our Lord thy Miserator Of this Oath the Prophet Daniel in the Captiuitie of Babylon maketh mention saying Take not away thy Dan. 3. 35. Mercie from vs for Abraham thy beloued and Isaack thy seruant and Israel thy holy one to whom thou hast spoken promising that thou wouldest multiplie their Seed as the starres of Heauen and as the Sand that is in the Sea shoare Of this Oath the Prophet Dauid speaking sayth I will Ps 88. 28 put him the first begotten high aboue all the Kings of the Earth I will keepe my Mercie vnto him for euer and my Testament faithfull vnto him I will put his Seed for euer and euer and his Throne as the dayes of Heauen But if his children shall forsake my Law and will not walke in my Iudgements if they shall prophane my Mercies and not keepe my Commaundements I will visit their Iniquitie with a Rod and their sinnes with stripes But my mercies I will not take away from him neither will I hurt in my Truth Neither will I prophane my Testament violate his Oath Againe speaking of this Oath and these Promises hee sayth He hath beene Ps 104. mindfull for euer of his Testament of the Word which he commaunded vnto thousand of Generations which he disposed to Abraham and his Oath to Isaac and he appointed it to Iacob for a Precept and to Israel for an eternall Testament That this Oath of God and Promises to the Patriarkes were to be fulfilled in Christ Iesu and in Christians maintaining and professing the Faith of God planted by our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ the Scriptures abundantly do testifie Our Lord expounding the Parable of the Cockle of the field sayth He that Mat. 13. 37. soweth the good Seed is the Sonne of Man and the Field is the World and the good Seed those are the Children of the Kingdome dispersed ouer the World according to the Oath of God to Abraham Againe our Lord sayth Doe Mat. 5. 18. not thinke that I come to breake the Law or the Prophets I am not come to breake but to fulfill Againe All things must needes Luc. 24. be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moyses and the Prophets and the Psalmes of me Our Blessed Ladie speaking of the fulfilling of this Oath in our Sauiour and his Seede the Christians saith Hee hath receiued Israel his Luc. ● 54. Child being mindfull of his mercie as he spake to our Fathers to Abraham and his Seede for euer And Zacharie replenished with the Holy Ghost prophecied saying Blessed be Luc. 1. 68. our Lord God of Israel because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people as he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets that are from the beginning to remember his holy Testament the Oath which he sware to Abraham our Father Of the fulfilling of this Oath and these Promises in our Sauiour and Christians S. Peter speaketh saying You are the Children of the Act. 31. 24. Prophets and of the Testament which God made to our Fathers saying to Abraham And in thy Seed shall all the Families of the Earth be blessed That this Oath of God