Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	church_n	doctrine_n	2,019	5	6.0761	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10795	Gods holy house and service according to the primitive and most Christian forme thereof, described by Foulke Robarts, Batchelor of Divinity, and prebendary of Norvvich.	Robartes, Foulke, 1580?-1650.	1639 (1639)	STC 21068; ESTC S121261	55,029	143

Prayer be of equal use and power in all places not as the place but as the Grace of God shall give the blessing What Superstition is it to kneele at the rayle more then at thy stoole or what sinne is it to leane upon the one more then upon the other Only I should thinke that the neerer a man approacheth to that table whereupon he Seeth with his eyes the sacred body blood of his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ layd forth for him to feede upon to everlasting life the more should he find himselfe ravished with devotion not skared with an immagination of Superstition But wee see already in many Churches and do feare that shortly we shall behold the like in all the Communion Table mounted up and elevated diverse stepps or degrees and encloased with rayles But the font which is the laver of regeneration standing at the lower end of the Church and left open to the allyes All this is true and yet ye may be without feare that in all this there is not any Superstition For still here is neither any false God worshiped nor any false manner of worship in all this But whereas the party to be baptized is to be entred or taken into the Congregation the font or laver by the which he must be admitted standeth beneath at the entrance of the Church ready to receive and entertayne him There is he made one of the Company of those which have right and interest in the priviledges of that part of the Church where the font is placed viz. the water of Baptisme to wash away his sinnes the word for his instruction and prayer whereby to Communicate himselfe to almighty God untill he be fitted to be further preferred to the holy Table which is therefore elevated or set downe upon an higher floore then the rest of the pavement to be the more in the eyes and view of the people that so for their edification they may the better behold the behaviour of the Preist Consecrating and setting apart the elements to become a Sacrament And that the very sight of the holy Table at all times may beget in the beholders an hunger and thirst after that blessed food The Table is inclosed with rayles to Preserve it from abuses whereto else it would be subject In which case the Church antiently used to be very carefull And if as in some Churches it is the font were decently with rayles enclosed it were I speake under correction more suteable to the reverence due thereunto But to proceed in our Search Let us looke well about least any nooke yet shrowde some superstition Here are the Kings armes set up not for any matter of divine worship But to professe and testifie the subjection of every soule to the higher power For as the written sentences upon the walls by letters so these Scutchions by their expressions do put us in minde of that Defender of the Faitb and of our duty to him who is next and immediately under God supream governor over al persons and causes as well ecclesiasticall as Temporall in all his Majesties Realmes Dominions And in all this there is no Superstition O but looke sayth one upon the Church windowes and then tell me what meane those images Quest and pictures which are in the glasse They are not there set for any matter of worship of either God Saint or Angell but for history and ornament No Christian so far as I know holdeth Ans it unlawfull to make an image or to use for memoriall Cognisance History or Ornament For if it were utterly unlawfull to make an image there should not have been so many yea any at al in the Temple or Tabernacle Neither would God have taught Aholiah and Bezaliel the making of them For though many things in the Tabernacle and Temple were typicall yet might nothing be there which was against the Morall law or in it selfe evill and unlawfull And many things were there as well for ornament and decency as for typicall signification Images Tert. Bazil Nissen Aug. Cyril Greg. Euseb Chris Justin Orig. Nazian then may be made they have been made and by the Primitive Churches frequently used in their Churches Chalices no word of God prohibiteth the setting of them up in Churches we performe no worship unto them nor to any other by them And therefore their being in our Churches is neither Leviticall nor Superstitious It is too poore a conceit for any to fasten superstition upon our Churches because of that which the Papists do practise in theirs For what is Superstitious among them wee leave unto them And wee performe only that which is lawfull decent and pious The Papists do in many things the same which wee do but we omit many things though not all things which they practice we looke not to the actions of Papists for our direction but to the word of God and practice of antient and Orthodox Christians where the Papist is so guided wee gladly approve him and do as he doth where he innovateth and swarveth from this rule we are sory for him and there leave him We think not the worse of any true Doctrine Christian act or devout demenure for that a Papist doth or maintaine the one or performe the other But we thinke the better of a Papist the neerer he commeth to truth and devotion And the like course we hold with others so long and no longer to hold with them as in Doctrine practice they are devout and Christian If any take exception against any rich furniture and utensill in our Churches and tell us of some Superstition in them I wish that our brethen could as well shew us our Churches so rightly furnished as we can cleare them from being therein Superstitious In most of our Churches besides the bible the Service or Common Prayer booke with the apology the Preists vestments meane inough a pewter flagon and a silver cup what have we else except wee will rekon the bels in the steeple How many meane yomen be there in many parishes in England whose plate and rich stuffe is more worth then all the whol furniture of his Parish church In some great Parishes in rich Corporations as also in divers but not in all Cathedrall Churches there is some better provision to adorne the Church to set out the Service and commend our profession of which though some grudging say which you know who what needeth this waste yet is herein no Superstition For was there any Superstition in them that brought silver gold for the use of the Tabernacle or Onix stone and other pretious stones for the Ephod more then in them that bestowed but Rames skins or goates hayre if any say that these things were for Leviticall worship I must request them to understand that the Leviticalnesse of things of the Tabernacle or Temple consisted not in their materials as gold silver or the like but in their typicall relation to Christ and things in Christ

to be fulfilled Againe was it Superstition in the wisemen of the East to bring out of their treasures and to Matt. 26. 7. present unto Christ Gold Frankincence and Myrhe more then if they had bestowed on him some cheaper commodity was it Superstition in the woman to power on the head of our blessed Saviour a box ful of very pretious oyntment or in her that annoyntted his John 12. 13. feete with costly Spicknard more then if she had bathed them in faire water No. But as devout and godly people they expressed their love and good affection The like we say of them that embalmed his dead body And so of them which are at cost in adorning and beautifying the house of God and enriching the place where his honour dwelleth or in being at charge with those things which belong to his worship wherein we place no superstition or merit but only acknowledge and endevor our duty and thankfulnesse our respect and devotion to almighty God according to the measure wherewith God hath enabled us It is true that S. Jerome seemeth something sharp against the adorning of Churches But withall the truth is he doth not condemne the thing it self for Ep. 8. ad Demetr so he saith of it non ab nuo non reprehendo I disclaime it not I reprehend it not But the Fathers heate is against such men as pleased themselves with the only wals and outward splendor of Churches having Es 1. 11 12. c. in the meane time neither faith nor charity As when almighty God disclaimeth the externall glorious doings of Hypocrites wanting true piety sincerity Ep. 3. ad Helid and common honesty For that S. Jerome did not dislike the adorning and beautifying of Churches appeareth in that he commendeth Nepotian for being carefull Si niteret altare templi parietes essent absque fuligine pavimenta tersa quod basilicas diversis floribus arborum comis atque vitium pampinis adumbrabat i. That the Altar might be kept neat the wals faire the floore cleane and for that he did set forth the Churches with various flowers boughs of trees and vine branches Gregory Nazianzen commendeth Gorgonias quod sumptuosis donariis templa exornaverat i. that he had bestowed costly gifts upon Orat. in Lan. Gorg. the adorning of Churches Optatus reporteth that even in the dayes of Maxentius there were very many ornaments for the Churches of Africa And he commendeth the Emperour Constans for that when he sent almes into Africa for the poore he sent thither l. 1. ad parm l. 3. also ornaments for the Churches So his piety and his charity went hand in hand Shall wee imagine that God enriching the world with silver and gold and pretious stones hath destined Hooker l. 5. sect 15. these only to set out secular pomp and state will have none but the basest of his creatures to be imployed in his own service as Mr. Hooker observeth and other learned countrimen of ours lately an swering an accusation of the Papists who would have the world beleeve that we waver in our Religion and leane to Popery because of the cost now more then of late bestowed in beautifying of our Churches hath a passage so apt to this our purpose Chillin hic relig of protest in prefac as I thinke fit to transcribe it at full in these words What if out of devotion towards God and a desire that he should be worshiped as in Spirit and in Truth in the first place so also in the beauty of holynesse What if out of feare that too much simplicity and nakednesse in the publique worship of God may beget in the ordinary sort of men a dull and stupide irreverence and out of hope that the outward state and glory of it being well disposed and wisely moderated may ingender quicken increase and nourish the inward reverence respect and devotion which is due unto Gods Soveraigne Majesty and power What if out of a perswasion and desire that Papists may be wonne over to us the sooner by the removing of this scandall out of their way and out of an holy Jelousie that the weaker sort of Protestantes might be the easier seduced unto thē by the magnificence and pompe of their Church Service in case it were not removed I say what if out of these considerations the Governours of our Church of late more then formerly have set themselves to adorn and beautifie the places where Gods Honour dwelleth and to make them as heavenly as they can with outward ornaments Is this a signe that they are warping towards Poperie Is this devotion in the Church of England an argument that she is comming over to the Church of Rome Sr Edwyn Sandys I presume further saith the author every man will grant had no inclination that way yet he 40 yeares since commended this part of de votion in Papists and makes no scruple of proposing it to the imitation of Protestantes His words are This one thing I cannot but highly commend in that Survay of Religion imit sort and order they spare nothing which either cost can performe in enriching or skill in adorning the Temple of God or to set out his service with the greatest pompe magificence that can be devised And although for the most part much basnesse and childishnesse is predominant in the Masters and contrivers of those ceremonies yet this outward state and glory being well disposed doth ingender quicken increase and nourish the inward reverence respect and devotion which is due unto Soveraigne Majesty and Power And although I am not ignorant that many men well reputed have embraced the thirsty opinion of that disciple who thought all to be wasted that was bestowed upon Christ in that sorte and that it were much better bestowed on him in the poore yet with an eye perhappes that themselves would be his quarter Almoners Notwithstanding I must confesse it will never sinke into my heart that in proportion of reason the allowance for furnishing out the Service of God should be measured by the scant and strickt rule of meere necessity a proportion so low that nature to other most bountifull in matter of necessity hath not failed no not the most ignoble creatures of the world and that for our selves no measure of heaping but the most we can set No rule of expence but to the utmost pompe we list Or that God himselfe had so enriched the lower partes of the world with such wounderfull variety of beauty glory that they might serve only to the pampering of mortall man in his pride and that in the Service of the high Creator Lord and giver the outward glory of whose higher palace may appeare by the very Lampes that we see so farre off burning gloriously in it only the simpler baser cheaper lesse noble lesse beautifull lesse glorious things should be imployed Especially seeing as in princes courtes so in the Service of God also this outward state and glory being