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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	catholic_n	church_n	visible_a	2,907	5	9.9387	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61951	A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall, May the seventh, MDCLXXVI by John Svdbvry ...	Sudbury, John, 1604-1684.	1676 (1676)	Wing S6138; ESTC R624	13,718	32

A SERMON PREACHED before the KING AT White-Hall MAY the Seventh MDCLXXVI BY JOHN SVDBVRY D.D. And DEAN of Durham Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY Published by His Majesties special Command In the SAVOY Printed by T. Newcomb and are to be sold by John Herringman next to the Fountain-Tavern in the Strand 1676. 1 TIM 3.15 The Pillar and Ground of the Truth THE care of all the Churches which lay upon St. Paul would neither suffer him to keep a constant residence upon any one of them nor to leave them as Sheep without a Shepherd to have that care of them in his absence which he himself had when he was present with them And therefore having spent some time at Ephesus he departed from thence into Macedonia leaving the care of that Church to Timothy and wrote this Epistle to him to let him know how he ought to behave himself in so excellent and worthy a Province as that was which he had committed to him as he tells him in this and the former Verse These things write I unto thee hoping to come unto thee shortly But if I tarry long that thou mayst know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church of the living God the Pillar and Ground of the Truth In which words he sets before him the Dignity of that Church which he had committed to his care in three excellent Titles The House of God The Church of the living God The Pillar and Ground of the Truth Every one of which is very worthy of a distinct and particular Consideration but this last hath the most need of it because it hath been very much perplex'd with a great deal of work about it to make it serve the pride and ambition of a Church of which there is not so much as any mention throughout the whole Epistle All the Greatness of the Church of Rome the Soveraignty of Power and Jurisdiction which it claims over all other Churches the Infallibility of all her Doctrines and an Immoveable Station in the Truth from which it can never fall are charged upon this Text but how unreasonably we shall see in the Examination of these three Particulars I. The Church which is here called The Pillar and Ground of the Truth II. The Truth of which this Church is The Pillar and Ground III. The importance of these words The Pillar and Ground of the Truth Where it will not be hard to make it clear and evident that this pretended infallible Oracle of Truth is very much mistaken in every one of these Particulars The Church The Truth and The Pillar and Ground For the Church of which St. Paul speaks in these words was not the Church of Rome The Truth of which he speaks was not the Truth of which the Church of Rome takes upon it to be the Pillar and Ground The Pillar and Ground in their sense is not the sense of St. Paul and in the sense of St. Paul there was not any Church in the World to which this Honour of being the Pillar and Ground of the Truth was not more due than it is to the present Church of Rome And first for the Church nothing can be more clear and evident than that the Church of which St. Paul speaks in these words was not the Church of Rome but the Church of Ephesus for Timothy to whom he wrote this Epistle was not the Bishop of Rome but of Ephesus There St. Paul left him when he departed from thence into Macedonia and he left him to abide there and to do the Office of a Bishop there as he tells him at the beginning of this Epistle I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other Doctrine This Church of Ephesus is called the Pillar and Ground of the Truth not as it was the Local Church of Ephesus divided from all other Churches as the City of Ephesus was divided from all other Cities Nor as the Visible Head of them all But as it was one with them all in the Communion of that one Catholick and Apostolick Church of which that and all particular Churches were so many Parts and Members Which one Catholick and Apostolick Church was One not by a corporal assembling together in one place but by an unanimous profession of one and the same Catholick and Apostolick Faith and Doctrine and Discipline which was of more Power and Vertue to make them all one than any distance of place or difference of Laws Languages Customs Manners or any other difference among them could be to make them two Secondly Catholick because it was not limited to any Nation as the Church of the Israelites was confin'd to one Family which was the House of Jacob and all their Sacrifices to one place which was the Temple at Jerusalem but extended to all men every where without any distinction of Jews and Gentiles Barbarians Scythians bond and free male and female Thirdly Apostolick because that one Catholick Faith and Doctrine in which they were all join'd together in one was that which they all had received from the Apostles whose sound was gone out into all the Earth Rom. 10.18 and their words unto the ends of the World Now as that one Catholick and Apostolick Church was the Pillar and Ground of the Truth by their visible profession of that Truth as we shall see afterwards So particular Churches which made a visible profession of the same Catholick and Apostolick Truth were one with it and every one of them might be call'd a Pillar and Ground of the Truth especially such of them as were the most eminent and conspicuous and such was the Church of Ephesus For as the Churches of the East were more numerous and conspicuous when St. Paul wrote this Epistle than the Churches of the West so the Church of Ephesus was of great note and eminence among the Churches of the East It was as eminent a Church for the profession of the Truth of Christian Religion as the City of Ephesus was for Heathenish Idolatry and Superstition when it was a Worshipper of the great Goddess Diana and of the Image which fell down from Jupiter The Preaching of the Gospel had such an influence from that City Act. 19.10 which was the Metropolis of the lesser Asia that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus both Jews and Greeks The Men of Learning who had busied their Wits and spent much of their time in the study of Curious Arts were so taken with it as not only to renounce all further study of those Curious Arts but to shew their resolution never to return to that Study again they brought their Books together and burned them before all men Act. 19.19 20. and they counted the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver so mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed And the Crafts-men of

the City who got their Wealth by making Silver Shrines for Diana were so alarm'd at the success of it as to perceive that the Temple of the great Goddess Diana would be despis'd and her Magnificence destroyed whom all Asia and the World worshipped And which troubled them more their Trade was in great danger to be lost for that was the first Argument which Demetrius us'd to raise them up into an uproar Vers 25. Sirs ye know that by this Craft we have our Wealth The Church of Ephesus had this further Honour not only to be one of the Seven Churches which were presented to St. John in the Vision of Seven Golden Candlesticks and Christ in the midst of them commanding him to write so many Epistles to them which he himself dictated to him but to be the first of them Revel 1.11 and the Character which he gives of that Church is such as might well become a Church which was a Pillar and Ground of the Truth Revel 2.2 3. I know thy works and thy labour and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil And thou hast tryed them which say they are Apostles and are not and hast found them lyars and hast born and hast patience and for my Names sake hast laboured and hast not fainted Now if the Church of Ephesus which had all this Honour had aspir'd to a Supremacy over all other Churches it might have made a fairer Title to it by St. Paul than that which the Church of Rome hath made by St. Peter For St. Gal. 1.15 Paul was separated to his Office from his Mothers Womb. He was called to it in a singular and extraordinary manner by Christ appearing to him in a Vision from Heaven Acts 9.3 He was honour'd by him with this Character Vers 15. He is a chosen Vessel unto me to bear my Name before the Gentiles and Kings and the Children of Israel 2 Cor. 11.5 He was not a whit behind the very chief Apostles 1 Cor. 15.10 He laboured more abundantly than they all 2 Cor. 11.28 The care of all the Churches lay upon him Rom. 15.20 He strived to preach the Gospel not where Christ was named lest he should build upon another mans foundation He conferred not with flesh and blood Gal. 1.16 17 neither went he up to Jerusalem to them that were Apostles before him They who seem'd to be somewhat in conference added nothing to him Gal. 2.6 He was so far from learning any thing of St. Vers 11. Peter and from looking upon him as his Superiour that he withstood him to the face and told him plainly that he and others whom he had misled walked not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel Vers 14. And St. Peter was so far from rebuking him for his insolence as to make an honourable mention of him 2 Pet. 3.15 Our beloved Brother Paul according to the Wisdom given to him St. Paul who was thus highly honour'd had been Preaching the Gospel to the Ephesians for the space of three years Acts 20.31 But there is not so much as any express mention in the Scripture that ever St. Peter was at Rome and we may see they are hard put to prove it when they cannot alledge any one Text for it but that 1 Pet. 5.15 The Church which is at Babylon elect together with you saluteth you It was likewise a singular care which St. Paul had of the Church of Ephesus that in his absence he commended the care of it to Timothy 1 Tim. 1.1 a person indear'd to him by many Names 2 Tim. 1.1 Col. 1.1 Rom. 16.21 His own Son in the Faith His beloved Son His Brother His Work-fellow and wrote two Epistles to him to let him know how he ought to behave himself in so excellent and worthy a Province as that which he calleth The House of God the Church of the living God the Pillar and Ground of the Truth Whereas St. Peter never wrote any one Epistle to the Romans nor do we read of any one whom he left to take care of that Church in his absence though he was so much absent that it is much doubted whether he were ever there For all that the ancient Fathers have written of his being Bishop of Antioch seven years and after that Bishop of Rome twenty and five years and after that crucified under Nero is upon the Testimony of Eusebius of whom Bellarmine saith that he was deceiv'd in some things and we are very well assur'd that he was deceived in this for three years after St. Paul's Conversion he went up not to Rome but to Jerusalem to see Peter Gal 1.18 and there he found him and abode with him fifteen days Gal. 2.1 9. Then fourteen years after he went up again to Jerusalem and there he found him He was present at the Council at Jerusalem as we read Act. 15. which was eighteen years after Christ And in the former Chapters of the Acts of the Apostles we find him there or thereabouts a great way from Rome After that he preach'd the Gospel to those of Pontus Asia Galatia Cappadocia and Bithynia And if after all this time he sate Bishop of Antioch seven years and after that five and twenty years Bishop of Rome he must out-live Nero more years than Nero Reigned and therefore he could not be crucified under him But as St. Paul who knew very well that he was not a whit behind the very chief Apostles 2 Cor. 11.5 did never offer to put himself before and above them all and among the Apostles there were some who in regard of their Personal Excellencies are called Chief and Pillars yet without any Jurisdiction over the rest so among Churches though the Churches of the East were more numerous and of greater note than those of the West they never requir'd any subjection from them and among the Eastern Churches though the Church of Ephesus was of great note and eminence it never assumed any Soveraignty over the other Churches There is no ground in Scripture nor in the Catholick and Apostolick Church that will afford any standing for such a Pillar as that of a Local Church which is to all other Churches as the Head in a Body to all the Members of that Body as a Foundation in a Building to all the Building that stands upon it as a Root in a Tree to all the Branches For though the Church of Rome arrogates to it self all these Titles together with that of the Catholick and Apostolick Church this is so far from being Catholick and Apostolick Truth that it is neither Catholick nor Apostolick nor Truth 1. It is not Catholick for though the City of Rome had that Dominion over the Kings of the Earth for which it was called Caput Orbis the Head of the World the Church of Rome did never claim any such Headship over all other Churches