Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	apostle_n	church_n	let_v	2,627	5	4.5197	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47947	Il cardinalismo di Santa Chiesa, or, The history of the cardinals of the Roman Church from the time of their first creation, to the election of the present Pope, Clement the Ninth, with a full account of his conclave, in three parts / written in Italian by the author of the Nipotismo di Roma ; and faithfully Englished by G.H.; Cardinalismo di Santa Chiesa. English	Leti, Gregorio, 1630-1701.; G. H.	1670 (1670)	Wing L1330; ESTC R2263	502,829	344

St. Mathew Be not in any case called Masters because there is one that is your Master but be as if you were all Brothers Can any thing be more clear can any thing be of greater proof When Christ spake these words to his Apostles St. Peter was present and therefore like but not Superiour to the rest So as what authority is that the present Divines give to St. Peter over the Apostles and by consequence to the Popes over the Cardinals In my judgement both sides are too blame the Popes to usurp and exalt themselves so much and the Cardinals to prostitute and debase themselves These are the errours that occasion if not the greatest part of our Heresies at least the most stubborn and perverse part of them it being most certain that a great part of their Passion and Acrimony against the Church would be taken away could they but see things honestly administred by an equal concurrence both in Cardinals and Pope But to return from this point from which also we have in some measure been forc'd to digress I will speak now of the infallibility of the Church Let us first examine if there be or ever was such a Church in the world to whom God had vouchsaf'd out of his profound Counsels to bestow any such privilege There is no need of studying or using any long and elaborate arguments to prove that all Churches whatsoever have been subject to Errour dayly experience presenting us with continnal examples that they have fallen into errour as great as can be imagin'd by man The Jewish Church that flourish'd so long under their Patriarchs and Prophets that before the coming of our Saviour had the honour to be call'd the only visible Church of God though it was govern'd by pious and experienc'd Pastors Err notwithstanding and was most miserably involv'd in the puddle of Idolatry so as we read in the Chrenicles That for many days together the Israelites had neither God nor Law nor Priest amongst them all to direct them And the Prophet Esau with Tears in his Eyes and Sorrow in his Heart complains That all their Governors were blind And the Prophet Ezechiel tells us that this Idolatry over-spread the Church as well in Egypt as in Israel But we need not trouble our brains for an instance of their erring the Golden Calf the people made to themselves and worshipp'd as a God in spight of Aaron and Moses who went up into the Mount to receive the Tables of the Law is too sad an evidence Jeremiah complains with great anguish of the miseries of Juda that was fallen into that profound and bottomless impiety it was a question whether there were more Cities or Idols in her Dominions And at the time of our Saviours coming into the world he found the Church infected with an infinite number of Heresies and Innovations introduc'd by the false Doctrines disseminated by those very Scribes and Pharisees that govern'd it Let the Scriptures be look'd over never so seriously let the Ecclesiastical Histories be examin'd never so strictly I am sure there is not any particular Church to be found since the time of the Apostles that retains its proper and Primitive Purity and has not deviated by some corruption or other from its first method and form So as St. Paul had very good reason in the beginning of his Epistle to the Romans to exhort them to have a care they did not wander from the truth The Church of Rome notwithstanding all this believes her self infallible or at least some Divines would perswade her so In Genoa there was a Priest called Father Zachary as I remember I am sure he was a Dominican that Preach'd upon that Subject he was a great Orator and had a vast memory he us'd all the arguments were possible to prove it and amongst the rest this one in St. Mathew And the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it which he urg'd with that vehemence that he declar'd that as often and every time the Church did err so often should Christ himself break his promise with the Church The Father being himself both Opponent and Respondent there was no answer given to that position yet it may be very well alleadg d that Christ in those words spake not of any particular Church but only of the Church of his Elect and therefore assures us also in other places that all the Machinations Persecutions and Conspiracres of the three implacable Enemies of mankind united shall not be able to extinguish and irradicate that Church because Gods Foundations are firm and unmoveable and he knows who are his own As it is in the Apostle to Timothy to which may be added those words of our Saviour The Heaven and the Earth shall pass away but my Word shall not fail intending thereby the Church where the word of God is preach'd And if it happens at any time that any particular Church deviates from the right way which is the way of truth the only foundation of the Church and upon which our Salvation is built God of his mercy will raise up another to convince that of the errour it is fallen into Amongst all the Churches since the beginning of the world there has not been found that unconstancy and confusion as in the Church of Rome so many Anti-Popes Schisms Heresies Controversies Confusions Suspensions Persecutions so many false Opinions Scandals Tyrannies and Intestine Quarrels as there Several times have they been known to adore two Popes in the same Province at once at another time three of several Nations the very Colledge of Cardinals being divided some of them favouring one side some another and some of them believing neither of them lawfull This I am sure that at the Election of one Pope there grew such Schism in the Church the people were in great perplexity and confusion and not knowing by reason of the difference amongst the Cardinals which was the true Christian Church they were to follow they remain'd not only months but years in that irresolution as if they had belong'd neither to God nor the Devil Is it not too true Their Ecclesiasticks themselves do not only dispute in their Councels but fall out and quarrel with that vehemence and passion they will sooner leave the Councel than their Opinions so pertinaciously proud are they of any thing that is their own though with the greatest scandal to the people who in that uncertainty of the truth forsake not only their fiery and unreasonable Opinions but their Religion it self But what shall I say Are there not Bishops that Preach false Doctrine in their Diocess chaulking out Rules of living to the people contrary to the meaning of the Gospel and what is taught in Rome And have there not been Popes that have been disclaimed by their Clergy From hence it may be easily concluded that their Opinion that hold the Church infallible is false and erroneous and if the Church be fallible much more the Pope who though Governour

the Eastern Church and even that of Rome where Christianity was at first in its greatest Purity and would doubtless be again had not the Corruption of the times brought a scandal upon it even amongst Christians themselves I call it modestly the corruption of the times though I am sensible the introduction of so many idle and Superfluous Ceremonies into the Church has been an occasion of corrupting the times and with them Christianity it self The Jewish Church as I have said being a profess'd Enemy to Christ Preaching and Blaspheming in their Synagogues against the Crucify'd Redeemer and by their false Doctrine debauching and perverting poor Christians from their Faith ought in all equity to be banish'd from the Roman for their perverseness or ignorance be it which you will being invincible They are not to be satisfy'd of the coming of our Saviour or the redemption of the World the only point and ground of our Salvation and therefore unfit not only for Protection at Rome but for any Conversation in Christendom it being nothing else but to make a mixture of Gold and Durt Glory and Blame Praise and Blasphemy The Christian Policy indeed and I wish I could say Humane also of the Spaniards is to be commended in their Dominions they will not allow any Religion but the Catholick it is a Principle with them in a State should be but unus Dominus una Fides which is the reason that the Spaniards are not troubled with those Schisms and Factions in their Church as they are in other States to the confusion of the greatest Doctors who are able to distinguish betwixt good and evil much more of the poor ignorant people who are guided only by the outward appearances which they see in others But because the Interests of Religion are oftentimes overpower'd in the minds of men by sensual passions and worldly interests which should rather be subdu'd by them hence things are brought to a contrary posture and the Jews have greater liberty than the Greeks not in Italy only but in Rome it self the Popes carrying a stricter eye over the Actions and Ceremonies of the Greek Church than over the pernicious Doctrines of the Hebrews For the Jews being of a perverse and refractory humour in matters of Religion are in Humane things so complacent and flexible that by their Tributes and Insinuations they have so wrought themselves into the conversation of the Christians that they are treated by them as the nearest of their Kindred and Friends And I could wish that this were the worst but such is the force and incantation of their money that the very Popes have been perswaded not only to give them Protection in the Dominions of the Church but to suffer them to erect their Temples and Altars to Preach to Celebrate their Paschal with all possible Solemnity and to hold their Synagogues in all places whereas the Grecians wanting that Subtlety and Compliance and not thinking it just to pay Tribute where they are Strangers though in other places they have whole Provinces enough to evince the antiquity of their Rights which are in many things inconformable with the Roman they are forc'd to be contented with the exercise of some small pittance of their Ceremonies though under the eye of the Bishop of Rome But before we proceed any farther in the particularities of the Church of Rome from whence our Cardinalisme deduces its original to satisfie the curiosity of the Reader and to facilitate his understanding it is fit to consider the Universality of the Church which is particular in the Universal although universal and particular too as the Ecclesiasticks believe The word Church as it has been declar'd by several Learned men and ought to be acknowledg'd by all Christians signifies nothing but an Assembly of many persons and the Scripture uses it in four principal senses In the first it signifies only the Elect and those Blessed Souls that are separated from the Corruption of the world and taken into the fruition of Eternal happiness to wit the Glorify'd Saints or the Church Triumphant which is so much talk'd of in the world and so much aspir'd to by the Righteous Secondly it denotes in general the Universal visible Church comprehending Protestants though the Pope calls them Hereticks as well as the Catholicks and of this Church St. Paul speaks when he writes to Timothy that in a great City there are not only vessels of Gold and of Silver but of Wood also and of Earth by this Rhetorical and Figurative way of speaking insinuating that the Church is compos'd of bad as well as good of those predestinated to Damnation as those decreed to be Saved Yet so it is with the Roman Divines as if they know not what St. Paul had writ or pretended to know more will admit into the Pale of their Church which ought to be Universal only such particulars as can truckle and condescend to the Kissing of the Priests Hand and the Popes Toe Thirdly it signifies the Assembly and Congregation of the Pastors and principal Governours of Christs Flock and in this acceptation it was our Saviour speaking of Brotherly correction admonishes that if the party offending be pertinacious in his fault and worthy of reprehension the party offended should apply himself for reparation to the Church From whence it is plain that our Saviour intended the Congregations and Synods of Bishops and other Rulers in the Church whose office it is to inspect the affairs thereof and negotiate for its benefit and accommodation Though some there are that believe Christ meant by the Word a Compleat and Universal Assembly of the Godly which in my judgement is improbable because the Gospel our principal light declares expresly that the power of Correction was in the Rulers only and not in them By the fourth and last signification of the word Church every particular Congregation of Christians is intended which though it seem in appearance to be separated yet it is indeed a Member joyn'd and fasten'd by an indivisible knot to the intire and universal body of the visible Church And in the Infancy of Christianity when the Apostles writ their Epistles to Corinth Ephesus and Rome those Churches were such And I suppose our Saviour intended no otherwise in those words Where two or three are met together in my name I will be in the midst of them And indeed when two or three are met together either in the Church in Prison in the Streets or elsewhere if it be to read the Scriptures to send up their Prayers to Heaven or for any other action of devotion whether Protestant or Papist they are in my judgement a Church and Christ is in the midst of them for it is not the number of persons but the intention of their meeting which denominates them a Church Otherwise an Assembly of Gamesters would have as much right to that honourable appellation as they But there is one thing very necessary to be determined the Romans

business was the salvation of his Soul In the Primitive Church the Popes as may be seen in their lives did not intermeddle or pry into any bodies actions but for the advantage of the Church that the Bishops might be holy in their conversations as their function was holy and the Sacraments administred with decency In those dayes the Bishops made the Election to vacant Bishopricks and by degrees came in Cardinals who also had the creation of Cardinals There was no discourse then but of the miraculous Sanctity of the Popes No importunity of their Kindred pressing and soliciting them to turn out such a good man and advance a much wickeder to his place It was then the Glory of the Pope to be call'd the head of the Christian Common-wealth and indeed the Counsels Consistories and Synods having the Election of all Officers and the disposal of all Dignities it was no other but a Commonwealth but how the present Writers in their Volumes can call Christendom a Republick I cannot understand whilst it is enslay'd to his Holiness and under the Tyranny of his Arms Excommunications and Inquisitions and forc'd by the irrational opinions of Priests to an adoration of the Pope in Rome as if he were a God in Heaven It were much to be desir'd and would be much to the advantage of the Church if that motu proprio or Arbitrary power of the Pope were taken away Christendome reduc'd again to a Republique and the Church set once more at Liberty I mean if the Election of Cardinals were performed as secretly as possible in the Consistory by the Cardinals themselves and so that of Bishops by a Provincial Synod to be call'd upon the death or translation of any of them or if that should be too expensive by the Consistory of Cardinals and not left to the single disposition of the Pope who regards nothing but the interest and satisfaction of his Family When Judas his place amongst the Apostles became void St. Peter from whom the Popes derive the power of the Keys proceeded not to the nomination of another himself or declar'd his Successor without more adoe but he call'd the Colledge of Apostles together by whose Lots St. Mathew was chosen to succeed him without any mention of St. Peter or of any bodyes Preceedency there The Apostles were all first and all last without any difference of priority But this Chapter is left out of their Bibles they will read nothing but for their own advantage And this is manifest because when a Cardinal dyes the Pope calls not the Colledge of Cardinals together to create a Successor but in spight of the example of the Apostles in spight of all Justice and Equity he chooses one himself and declares him Cardinal usurping in this manner the right of the Cardinals who are Successors to the Apostles also and to whom that right of Election doth belong This inconvenience seems at first sight very hard to be remedyed but upon serious consideration it will be easie For in the vacancy of the Chair when they are Absolute and Supream when the Church is a kind of Republick and all the Jurisdiction is in their hands what should hinder them if they had any regard to their lawfull and just Privileges from resuming that power which they have been robb'd of and constraining his Holiness to confirm it Would the Cardinals but once undertake this those Princes that have any zeal for the liberty of the Church would not fail to undertake it too and second them with Arms upon occasion as the Emperours both of the East and West have formerly done then they might new model the Laws settle the preceedency of the Synods and Consistories before the Pope as it was in the Primitive dayes renounce the Popes Decrees and establish their own declare him as an Apostle indeed amongst the rest of the Apostles but not as a God and in short clip the wings of his Authority so as to leave him Head only of a Commonwealth Nor indeed were this well executed would the Popes have any reason to complain for what can they pretend but that they be allow'd as much Authority as St. Peter had and why should not the Cardinals have as much as the rest of the Apostles whose true Heirs they are if the Pope therefore be as St. Peter why should not they be as the rest of the Apostles I have said before that to fill up the vacancy that was made by the Treason of Judas St. Peter did not by his Papal Authority make Election of another but by the Prayers and Assembly of the rest of the Apostles who were as it were the Pilots and Steers-men in the Ship of the Church Moreover Christ being dead St. Peter could not hope for any greater Authority than he had left him in these words What thou bindest on Earth shall be bound in Heaven so as from that time he had power to exercise his authority which say they was to preside in Elections to command in their Assemblies and to exercise over the Apostles the same authority which the Popes do now over the Cardinals But in those dayes things were well manag'd however they go now Then the Church was truly Apostolical and obedient exactly to the Laws of the Apostles now it is Roman and conformable only to the Interest or Capriccio of the Pope St. Peter then had no money to distribute nor no offices to bestow and therefore there were no books nor no Authors to be found that flatter'd him or attributed more to him than Christ had given him now they are so rich and have so many preferments to bestow that they can debauch their Divines and make them write as they please In that age there was nothing but poverty and piety in this there is nothing but craftiness and wealth then there was nothing but Christ in the thoughts of St. Peter and the Apostles and now in the Popes minds there is nothing but their Nephews It is not to be found in any place of the Scripture that St. Peter commanded the rest of the Apostles or that they acknowledg'd him head of the Church or Superior to themselves Whereas on the contrary 't is to be seen in the Acts of the Apostles that Peter was sent by the rest of the Apostles in the company of St. John to preach the Gospel in Samaria and St. Paul not only writes that he was not esteem'd inferiour to the best of the Apostles but he went up and down ordering all things as he thought necessary for the advantage of the Church without communicating any thing with St. Peter of what he judg'd convenient to do Things being so upon what grounds is it that the Popes keep the Cardinals at that distance Christ recommended his Church to the Apostles in general without any exception as appears by those words in St. John As my Father sent me so have I also sent you and whose sins soever you pardon shall be pardon'd and again in