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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

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beside those many Pillars upon which Houses and Churches were built there were single Pillars erected by the Heathen to such purposes as do serve very well to express the sense of this Metaphor which the Apostle here useth by way of allusion to them As first There were Pillars which they rear'd up on high with Images of their Gods and Goddesses upon them sitting or standing or in some other posture to attract the eyes of men to look up to them with that Respect and Veneration which is due to Divine things Of such Pillars we read Lev. 26.1 Ye shall make you no Idols nor Graven Image neither rear you up a standing Image or Pillar as it is in the Margin Now as St. Paul saith of the Heathen Rom. 1.25 that they changed the Truth of God into a Lye and the Prophet Habakkuk calleth an Idol a Teacher of Lyes Hab. 2.18 So we may say of those Pillars of Idols they were Pillars of Lyes And in allusion to them the Church which sets up the true Worship of the true God above all the false Worship of all false gods to draw the eyes of all men to look up to it with that Veneration which is due to it may be called the Pillar and Ground of Truth Excelsa Columna according to that which the Prophet Isaiah foretold of it in another Metaphor Isai 2.2 It shall come to pass in the last days that the Mountain of the Lords House shall be established in the top of the Mountains and shall be exalted above the Hills and all Nations shall flow unto it But in this sense the Church of Rome is more like to those Pillars of the Heathen than any other Christian Church For though it doth not set up those Idols and Images of the Heathen to be worshipped it sets up Images and Creatures to be worshipped which are either made Idols or are in so much danger to be made Idols that by the Confession of Bellarmine they that worship God in an Image or in a Creature expose themselves to great peril and are forced to use the most subtil distinctions which learned men do not understand much less the ignorant and unlearned Secondly We read of many Pillars erected by the Heathen with Inscriptions upon them Inscriptions of Historical Narrations of which it may be some were true and some were fabulous and many other Inscriptions of Laws Leagues Covenants Precepts Decrees Mysteries c. in which sense the Metaphor of a Pillar is used Revel 3.12 Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God and I will write upon him the Name of my God and the Name of the City of my God which is the New Jerusalem which cometh down out of Heaven from my God and I will write upon him my new Name In this sense the Catholick and Apostolick Church which exposeth the Scriptures which Ireneus calleth the Pillar and Ground of the Faith of the Church and in which are written the Oracles of God his Laws Covenants Decrees Mysteries of his Will Histories of his Providence and many other Divine Truths to be as legible as Inscriptions upon a Pillar and every particular Church which makes a visible profession of all that Truth which it hath receiv'd from the Apostles and the whole Catholick and Apostolick Church so far forth as it is one with that Catholick and Apostolick Church is a Pillar and Ground of the Truth Inscripta Columna a Pillar bearing those Inscriptions upon it in such Characters as make them legible to all men But in this sense the Church of Rome cannot so well be called a Pillar and Ground of the Truth as other Churches 1. Because other Churches Hebrew Greek Persian Syrian Arabian Ethiopian have expos'd the Scriptures to be read in their Vulgar Tongue But the Church of Rome doth not expose the Scriptures to be read but in a Language which the greatest part of them that are concern'd to know the Truths which are reveal'd in them do not understand by which means they have kept the people in so great ignorance of the Scriptures that at the beginning of the Reformation many of them knew so little of the New Testament as-to believe that it was a Book which had been written by Luther 2. Because they set up unwritten Traditions of which it may be some are true and some are fabulous and make them all of equal Authority with the Scriptures 3. Because they make the Authority of the Scriptures so dependant upon their own Authority that without it they are of no more Authority than Esops Fables as some of them have said and others of them commend the saying 4. Because though they hold the Foundation they have built upon that Foundation such things as St. 1 Cor. 3.12 Paul calleth Wood Hay and Stubble and would make the World believe that they are Gold Silver Precious Stones which is not the part of a Pillar and Ground of Truth But Thirdly The Pillar and Ground of Truth as it is in the Text that is a Pillar set upon a Basis or Foundation which keeps it firm and stedfast is a very good expression of such a profession of the Truth as is without wavering In which sense St. Basil calleth Abraham a Pillar of Faith because when he was tempted with a great temptation He staggered not through Vnbelief Rom. 4.20 but was strong in the Faith And in an Epistle written by the Churches of Vienna and Lyons mentioned by Eusebius the Martyrs who suffer'd a great Persecution for their Faith and were not shaken in it are called Pillars and Atalus one of great note among them is called a Pillar and Ground of the Church And in this sense the Catholick and Apostolick Church may well be called the Pillar and Ground of the Truth Immota Columna a Pillar that stood unmoved upon that Ground on which it was set For though some Local Churches which were but as so many Candlesticks though they were of Gold have been removed the Catholick and Apostolick Church was so well setled upon a sure and strong Foundation that all the means which have been used to overthrow it have served to establish it Great Endeavours were us'd at first to prevent the setting up of this Pillar upon the Ground of it by them whom the Scripture calleth the Builders but the Destruction which they thought to bring upon the Pillar and the Ground fell upon themselves and the Destruction which fell upon themselves serv'd very much to the Edification of that Pillar and Ground of Truth which they sought to destroy No sooner was the Pillar set up upon the Ground but great Force and Violence was used to throw it down The Kings of the Earth were assembled and the Princes took counsel together against it as the Children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem Down with it down with it even to the ground But all the Force and Violence which they used to overthrow it