Selected quad for the lemma: tradition_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
tradition_n	faith_n	reason_n	scripture_n	2,267	5	6.0519	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77347	Saul and Samuel at Endor, or The new waies of salvation and service, which usually temt [sic] men to Rome, and detain them there Truly represented, and refuted. By Dan. Brevint, D.D. As also a brief account of R.F. his Missale vindicatum, or Vindication of the Roman Mass. By the same author.	Brevint, Daniel, 1616-1695.	1674 (1674)	Wing B4423; ESTC R212267	257,888	438

should say London is all England when the King and the Parliament sit at Westminster the Tribe of Levi all Israel when the High Priest and his Sanhedrin keep their Courts there Which is to say not that all Christendom is contained in the precinct and bosome of Rome but under its hand and power Thus to be the Catholic is not to be the Universal but only the Domineering Church and so far Roman Catholic which many wise men take for a Bull perhaps it sounds better then they are aware of since the Romans love to be Masters and since the Mastering Power hath bin a great while under their hand But there is a reply against all this that no Roman Power or wit can well shift off First this notion of Catholic to signifie commanding or Monarchical is altogether unusual and unheard of among the Fathers especially St Cyprian and St Austin who are all for keeping close to the Catholic Church and Faith and all at the same time for keeping themselves and their Churches free from the Monarchy of Rome Secondly it is tho it were true impertinent to such purposes as the Papists apply it to For suppose Rome hath the Power hath she therefore the Holiness the Infallibity the Promises of being led into all truth by the Spirit Hath she all such other great advantages which are made to the Catholic Universal and not to the Catholic Reigning Church Did Aaron never make an Idol altho he was the Lords high Priest Were either the Scribes ever kept from inventing idle Traditions by being Rulers in Jerusalem or St Peter from cursing himself and denying his own Master by that Jurisdiction they say he had over the rest of the Apostles Is his Holiness for instance John the twelfth or Sylvester the 2d the one less effeminate the other less a sorcerer or either of them more holy for all the power they say they have both over all the Kings of the Earth and over all the Churches of Christ And may not the holy City of Jerusalem be turned both into a Den of Thieves or into a Synagogue of Devils altho you believe her to have a very great and eminent sway over all the Tribes of Israel Therefore it is not the Catholic that is the Monarchical but the Catholic in a better sense that is the Universal Church of Christ that hath the Promises of God and this excellent Privilege which both Papists and others look for of bringing all its truly Catholic Members to Eternal Salvation But admit all what they would have that their Church may be said to be the Catholic because it has dominion over all other Churches whence comes this Catholic Power that can make her as really to be as to be said so It comes they say by lawful succession from Saint Peter who had it and so bequeath'd it to their Popes This is I confess easily said but hardly maintained or understood For first St Paul knew nothing of it when he resisted this Soveraign both publicly and to his Face Galat. 2.11 Nor did the whole College of Apostles when they sent him with John as freely as now the Pope sends his Legats to settle the Church at Cesarea Acts 8.14 Nor the whole Church of Jerusalem when they called him to an account about his behavior with the Gentiles Acts 11.2.3 Nor the holiest Fathers of the Church when they did call his Successors that is their own Soveraigns by the familiar name of Brothers Nor the whole Church of God with them when as it appears c Aen. sylv Epist l. 1. Epist 288. pag. 202. Basil by the very Confession of one who afterwards came to be Pope they took little notice of this sort of Catholicness Ante Nicenam c. that is Before the Nicene Council they regarded little the Roman Church and by the Interpretation of Ruffinus a Roman Priest who lived but few years after it its sixth Canon restrains this pretended Universal Power within the adjacent Towns of Rome I will say more even two hundred Years after Pope Gregory the first was so little acquainted with this pretended Prerogative that he could not suffer the hearing e Greg. Magn. Regist. l. 7. Ind. 1. Ep. 33. ad Eulog of it no not in a Compliment altho bestowed sometimes on others and so little as to this point skilled in Scripture that tho he insists often on these words Thou art Peter c. Feed my Flock and I will give thee the Keies c. the present great Supporters and Demonstrations of Universal Monarchy this blind Doctor could see in them nothing tending to such a Catholic Latitude If Christ had intended any such Power for Saint Peter 't was not a business to be whisper'd privatly d Ruffin Hist l. 1. c. 6. in the Ear as the Treason he told Judas of it was to be proclamed on the House tops and in the hearing of all the World according to the practice of Moses and Elisha when they made choice of their Successors in the face of all Israel Such a public Declaration might have presently both quelled the dangerous and undecided Contention among the Disciples to wit Who should be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven prevented all the Disorders which have ever since troubled the Church for want of knowing this supreme and infallible Governor Then might the Roman Church have spared forging f Binius in Donat Edict Constant Conc. Tom. 1. pag. 313. 314. Edit Par. 1636. Donations Decretals to her own shame to assert her Power in Europe And the Popes might have reserved that massy weight of Gold which they gathered from the Christians under the ordinary pretences of Holy War for holier uses then were either g Avent Annal. Bocor l. 7. the arming Turks against such Churches as would not acknowledg his Grandeur or driving distressed Bishops on this account by Persecution h Vid. Quillem Tyrium l. 15. c. 15. c. and hard usage to seek for shelter among the Turks All Nations without either fraud or force might then have learned their duty towards S. Peters Chair at the same time when they heard of S. Peters Gospel and if this pretended Tradition whether written or not written had waited but at a distance on the first Preaching of Christian Faith they would certainly have submitted to it that is to that Universal Empire as they did to Episcopacy Secondly Suppose against all what I have said that St Peter had during his life an Universal Monarchy What sound Reason what clear Text of the holy Scripture or what undoubted Tradition can any one allege to shew he left it to a Successor Did he leave him also his other Gifts and Privileges and among them his Faith of Miracles his Apostolical Rod to strike men with some to the ground as they say he did at Rome Simon Magus and others to their very Graves as he did certainly Ananias and Saphira Did he pass

Holiness and that of the Rosary for instance or S. Francis and twenty more by turning Beads or wearing Frocks or Girdles and by such other new Performances To join and keep all this together the Roman Church submits to two Heads the Son of God in Heaven and his Holiness in Italy and Preaches two different and sometimes contrary words of God which you must embrace both together with the same Devotion and Faith namely the written word of God which you may find in the Holy Scripture and the unwritten Tradition which you must seek in that Churches Breast In this unhappy conjuncture of true Catholic Christianity and of mere Roman Popery that happens which you may observe either in unnatural and beastly Copulations the baser kind spoils the better or in the Dreams of Pharaoh the ugly destroies the well-favor'd We find by sad experiences in these last times of the Gospel what heretofore was typified by Ceremonies and also expressed ever after by unhappy Examples under the Law the Flesh which was consecrated and made holy at Gods Altar had not the same vertue to sanctifie the unclean as the unclean had to defile that which was Holy Nor were the Israelites so powerful to convert the Idolatrous Jebusites to God when Married together as were the Jebusites to seduce them to their Idols and for this consideration the Law forbad such Societies Corrupt Nature we know hath of it self both a strange tendency to frivolous and unlawful and no less aversness from truly good and holy things so tho the power of both were equal as to sanctifying or corrupting our inward Inclinations are more likely to determine us to the worst side Never were Women so ready to part with their choicest Jewels as when 't was to make a Golden Calf nor could ever so many Fathers have bin perswaded to be so cruel as to pass their Children thro the fire had it not bin to serve Molock The Kingdom of Heaven is by our Savior compar'd to Seed now one handful of Tare is enough to poison and over-run a whole Field Hence it is that tho the ten Tribes of Israel retained the Law of Moses as well as the Papists do at this present the Gospel yet the holy Prophets mention no other Religion whether in Dan or Beer sheba but the waies of Jeroboam and the Ordinances of Omry And tho the Samaritans did make profession to serve the Lord God of Israel among the gods of other Nations 2 Kings 17.33 Yet their service to these so immediatly takes up their whole Devotion that in the following Verse you find that they do not fear God at all It is by this fatal prevalency of evil over good and the corrupt readiness of Men to yield to this prevalency that the Roman superstition hath not only over-topped but even over-whelmed the Catholic Faith to that degree as any Christian may both see it if he have Eies and must deplore it too if he have any sense or fear of God What the Blessed Evangelists have set down in the four Gospels and what the Blessed Apostles have Preached upon it thro the whole World is yet at Rome as to its being but as to its condition there it is as miserably buried under the confused heap of other new unchristian services as ever was that Book of the Law 2 Kings 22.8 under the Ruines of the Temple Their Masses Legends Auricular Confessions Bulls Praiers to Saints and the Worshipping of Images fill up the Churches and make the main Bulk of all visible Religion There if some good Praiers to God Almighty appear by chance among the Croud it is as one Pater noster among many Ave Maria's that is one among ten in their Beads and if you take the pains to compare how many Praiers Proses Panegyrics and other expressions of the deepest Devotion are bestowed on the Virgin with what is left for our Savior there you shall find somewhat the same proportion between them two as you may see both in the Images that represent them in their Churches and in the most Authentic Visions which are pretended to shew them together to their Monks where she appears still with all the Pomp that can attend a glorious Queen whil'st Christ her Son is still represented but as a Child Thus Papists have the Common Faith and I wish to God they had no more and their own proper Romanism to the very same or like purpose as the Jews have the Law and the Prophets and the Talmud of their Rabbies and as the Turks have both much of Moses and of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and all the Impieties of Mahomet this latter to choak the former as the Tares in the Parable did the good Seed or to dishonor and abuse it as the Babylonians in Dan. 5. did the holy Vessels of Gods house To make all these sins more sinful and Popery more dangerous these unhappy Superstructures which lie as a heavy Encumbrance upon the holy Foundation of God are now adaies used as so many Snares and Attractives to draw Men to the Church of Rome Protestants have among themselves neither better nor other waies of saving distressed Sinners then by charging them to forsake sin to believe and to live according to the Gospel and with this Faith the use of Divine Ordinances to cast their burden and themselves on the Mercies of God in Christ whereas over and above all this the Papists have a great deal more which others do lay no claim to First they have the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of Compassions who is unknown on this account to the best Churches And this Goddess is represented as such a Tresurer of all Graces and a Favorer of such Persons and upon such good and easie terms as without her it were absolutely vain to expect advantage from the aid even of the whole Trinity In the second place they have millions of Saints who whensoever called upon make it their business to help as much as in them lies every condition sort and profession of Men. There is never a small Parish nor Trade no nor any exigence want or disease but hath some favorable and proper Saint The very Images of Wood and Stone are instrumental to great Blessings their Churches and Altars are consecrated in such a manner that the very coming near them forgives some sins The sound and ringing of Bells if Christned after their way hath much vertue Who knows not how much devout persons are benefited by Holy Water and devout Praiers improved to high Merits by holy Beads It were infinite to say all that is pretended of the Agnus Dei Medals and a numberless store of Relics and how they are working every day up and down the World for believing Catholics more Cures then you can ever imagine The Milk the Hairs the Shift the Shoes but especially the Girdle of the Virgin Mary are to this purpose tried and well known What shall we say of those swelling Streams

demonstrated already that St Peters Roial Power was not believed by the Apostles nor in any Apostolical times and made it good out of Acts and Evidences altogether incompatible with destructive of this Belief namely His being rebuked by St. Paul both to the Face and publicly his being called to account by his Brethren his being sent to Cesarea c. Can you think that if at his return they had found him guilty of such a foul miscarriage as would send whole Nations to Hell they had thought it presumtion as the Canon Law saies it is to ask wherefore he did so Was it ever heard among the twelve that besides the general Commission of Preaching Christ St. Peter had another more special and proper Power of degrading all such Princes as would not be ruled by his Bulls And if he had it not Is it likely that the present Roman Popes have more Secular Power from Christ then he for compensation of their having less Holiness To come lower to the holy Fathers read their Epistles to the then Popes and judg whether St. Cyprian St. Basil c. did believe them to be their Monarchs when they call them as commonly they do their Brethren and Fellow-servants Did St. Augustin and his Brethren the worthiest Prelats of that Age submit themselves very modestly to the Roman Papal Power of controlling by their Legats and Officers the African Church Affairs when they called it again and again Secular y Conc. Afric sub Bonif. Ep. ad Bonif. Ep. ad Celest Pride and do the African z Codex Canon Afric Can. 28 sect Item placuit ut Presbyteri Canons the best Ecclesiastical Rules that the Church hath look upon Popes as their lawful supreme Visitors when they do forbid all Church-men under pain of Excommunication in any Church business to appeal to Rome During this long misunderstanding which lasted the lives of three Popes did Sozimus Boniface and Celestin Learned and Wise Roman Bishops believe that clear Texts of Scripture did sufficiently assert the Papacy when they were afraid of their Cause unless they could help it up better by forging false Nicene Canons And on the other side What meant the honest African Fathers in sending a Concil Afric ibid. to Constantinople to Alexandria and Nicea for true Copies with profession of a readiness of submitting to all the true Nicene Canons if they had thought That feed my flock and Thou art Peter and such other Texts of Scriptures better worth then all the Councils had so much as nodded the Roman way Or if the Papists say for I know not what they can say else that these places of Scripture which they now mainly stand upon are not so clear to their purpose without the help of Tradition Did St. Augustin and all the rest of Africa not yet know what Tradition was or what it said Was the ancient Tradition of the Universa Church then quite lost among the eighty Nicene Canons which some b Alph. Pisan l. 3. in Conc. Nic. Ep. ad Marcum fondly suppose to have bin burnt by the Arrians Books and Papers indeed may have bin burnt but Christian Faith and Tradition written no where so legibly as in Mens hearts could not be so unless the whole Church had bin burnt also Besides the general Practice whatsoever becomes of Tradition must remain still for you cannot imagin that the Church of Rome could actually exercise an universal Jurisdiction over all the Churches of the World without imagining in these an universal submission to that Power To this purpose tell me I pray Whether and where S. Chrysostom or St. Basil did swear Canonical Obedience to his Holiness when they were consecrated What sums of Money did they send to Rome when they had thence got their Pallium And when or where among a thousand Prelats in the old Times do you find one either subscribing himself or being called by others as now they do and are Arch-Bishops or Bishops of Milan of Constantinople or any other Diocess by the Grace of God and of the Holy Apostolical See fairly acknowledging themselves thereby little better then what they are now meer Suffragans Vicars or Curats of that Universal Bishop I am sure that Pope Gregory abhorred as long as he lived that very Title and much more the Usurpation as c Greg. Magn. Regist l. 4. Ind. 13. Ep. 33. Item l. 5. Indict 14. Epist. 39. a Mark of Antichrist and as a Destruction of the Faith Now it is cherished at Rome not only as a Catholic Doctrine but as the very Fundamental that makes the Catholic Church Thus Knaves grow great upon cheating and Rebels become Kings upon a Murther and Mens Crimes prove sometimes their Pride and Exaltation 2. From the Roman Supremacy go on and look upon the Roman Mass you know what great proportion that Sacrifice has among them Whole Popery depends or tends that way as on its Center and if the Roman Pope is that Churches Head this Roman Service is its Body I say then in the second place that this vast and comprehensive Bulk is nothing less then Catholic Catholic is By all Mens acknowledgment that which hath bin alwaies believ'd if a Doctrine or observed and practiced if a Service since Christian Antiquity in all Christian Churches and Ages Go therefore and seek when and where the twelve Apostles ever offered in Preaching their Savior to men to offer him up and to make him a Victime to God Enquire of all the Holy Fathers when and where they sung any Mass publicly without any Communicants except the Priests When and where they ever solemnly and publicly administred the holy Communion under one kind When and where they ever heard one single syllable of those Unchristian Doctrines that now a daies make the Main Fundamentals of the Romish Religion to wit that Christ offered up himself to God as an Expiatory Sacrifice any where else but on the Cross that the Natural Body of Christ is both in Heaven upon a Throne and on Earth on a thousand Altars that here his Body contracts shrinks it self into the compass of a small Crumb of Bread or any the least drop of Wine that these appearing Crumbs and Drops altho emtied to all Substance and attenuated to meer Accidents can both well subsist by themselves and whithersoever they be driven pull along with them the Flesh of Christ If these and other like Doctrines which now are essential to Roman Mass had in Ancient time bin Preach'd and heard as essential to Christian Faith Where was all the wit of Celsus or the malice of Julian and such Enemies of Christ Jesus when they fell foul upon the Blessed Trinity the Incarnation and Resurrection of Christ and all such other Articles as seemed to them ridiculous to spare both the Mass-Sacrifice and the Transubstantiation that both are and seem to be so Where was either the wisdom or the care of Origen Eusebius St. Augustin and

of Antiquity or ever consecrated them in Churches where they are now u Alex. Alens 3. Part. q. 3. a. ult Tho. 3. part q 25. q. 3. Cajet ibid. Bell. l. 2. de Imag. proper means to serve Saints by and fit Objects to have for themselves a considerable part of this service That one Hanging with St. Epiphanius x Epist ad Johan Hierosol apud Hieron Tom. 1. Ep. 6. p. 449. Edit Paris 1643. tore to pieces because it represented a Saint at the entring into a Church might well serve for a winding sheet to wrap up all such Images and to bury them out of the precincts of Gods Church 7. All other Tools and impliments of Popery as Rosaries Beads holy Medals Agnus Dei's Blessed Grains Privileged Altars Christening of Bells all the three sorts of holy water and such Furnitures of the Roman Church may very well go the same way as rather the dirt then the Doctrine of any true Catholic Church r Ibid. 8. Auricular Confession that is the continual work of Priests and People is not much better and as it is sometimes practised is a great deal worse Of all their more sober and intelligent writers y Gratian. de Poenit. Dist 1. Sect. Quib. Authoritatib Nicol. de Othel. 4. Sect. Sent. Dict. 17. Gab. Biel. ibid. some doubt much whether it be a Catholic Practice and others adventure to say z Panormit C. Omnis utriusque Sexus Beat. Rhenanus in Tertul de Poenit. that it is not The Eastern Churches where the Gospel was first preached * Gloss de Poenit. Dict. 15. Theod. Gent. apud Gratian. de Paenit Dict. 1. Sect. Quidam deo never had it and it came among the Romans † Beat. Rhenan Sup. when public Confessions and other good customes grew out of date I forbear to bring more instances because these being the chief materials which compose this Roman Body may suffice to shew what it is As a dry skin filled with straw can never make a true Lion nor the hollow bark of an Oak stuffed up never so industriously with moss and dirt ever make a fruitful Tree so neither can now the Church of Rome to what bigness soever it swells or what face soever it may put on make with these pitiful Ingredients a Catholic much less the true Catholic Church Let Papists try by these undeniable Characters namely Christian Antiquity of Beginning Continuance of Duration and Universality of reception what is properly Catholic and then turn out of their doors what is not so you shall presently see Rome without Popes Churches without Image-worship and Mass service all new Doctrines and old Idols will fall immediately down to the ground and the manifest novelty of what they brag of and give out as old shall soon betray the Imposture I confess that Popery wants not as much Age and Antiquity as may deceive ignorant men their Doctrine of Purgatory is as old as Homer himself who lived many years afore Christ and their worshipping of Images as old among the Christians as is Simon the sorcerer who both had and adored them and therefore * S. Iren. adv Haeres l. 1. c. 24. is branded for it in the very Apostles times only some difference may be that Simon had his from Pilates Brush and Rome had theirs as they do think from St. Nicodemus or St. Lukes hand There was a worshipping of Angels as bad it may be as as the Popish is at this day of no lesser date then all the writings of S. Paul a B. Theodoret. Coloss 2. Coloss 2.18 and condemned † Concil Laodic Can. 35. by the Ancient Fathers Transubstantiation is not so new as many think for Marcus an old Enchanter endeavored somewhat like it by b Iren. cont Haeres l. 1. c. 19. turning the Wine into Blood which he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somthing like Transubstantiation That the same Body might be and was at the same time in several places was a Doctrine plainly taught by the Manichees c August cont Faust. l. 20. c. 6. many hundred years before all the Councils of Lateran or Trent Those Laws forced on mens Consciences since Christ and his Apostles had left them to their Liberty concerning Meats and Marrying are not less Ancient then d Theodor. Haeret. Fabul l. 5. c. 24. Cerdon Marcion Tatian and the Encratites who were very Ancient Heretics Extreme Unction bestowed by the Mass Priests on dying persons was prescribed by e S. August cont Haereses c. 16. Heracleon about an hundred and ten years after Christ Not to multiply instances the very source and fountain whence all errors were derived to Rome namely the magnifying f Hieron ad Dametam an unwritten Tradition and the vilifying the Holy Scripture g Iren. l. 1. c. 24. l. 3. c. 2. for an uncertain and obscure Rule hath no later Authors then the Scribes were long before Christ and the Gnostics soon after him Thus the Papists are not without Antiquity such as it is for I may say in general and prove too by many Instances that Jews Gentils and old Heretics scarce ever had any famous and general Abuse among them but Rome woud have somewhat of it But as for truly Christian and Apostolical Antiquity such as can be the only Root and essential Character of Catholic Doctrine I may safely defie the best of them to name me any one Article proper to their own Roman Faith that is ancient in this sense And as to those Articles of Christian Faith which they have in common with us and are truly Apostolical and Catholic it is most pitiful to think how shamefully they abuse and poison them by the mixture of their own peculiar Roman ones Therefore if you take this mixt and confused Body together that is the Roman Church at the best side as it holds yet the fundamental Ground of Christianity which we profess thus far I grant it is a true Church and if you take it at the worst as to its proper Roman Doctrines wherein it differs no more from us then from all true Catholic and Apostolical Antiquity thus far it is if a Church at all a most corrupt and desperately infected one But if you come to huddle up these two heterogeneous and incompatible Parts together in order to an absolute estimate and denomination of the whole as at the great day of the Lord one shall not appear without the other then it were most unreasonable that the lesser and weaker part should give the Title and that the Cities of Sodoma Gomorrha Admah and Zeboim should be called holy Cities because they have one Lot among them The Mountain that has many Grains of Gold lying under it is rock or sand nevertheless the Ocean is still salt water tho some Rivers and some Shipwracks mix with it other liquors Thus Papists are ridiculously vain who brag as they do of our acknowledging their Church to