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	word_n	2,678	5	4.0797	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17962	A treatise, vvritten by M. doctor Carier, vvherein hee layeth downe sundry learned and pithy considerations by which he was moued, to forsake the Protestant congregation, and to betake himselfe to the Catholke Apostolike Roman Church. Agreeing verbatim with the written copye, addressed by the sayd doctor to the King his most excellent Maiestie.	Carier, Benjamin, 1566-1614.	1614 (1614)	STC 4623.5; ESTC S115898	33,947	58

should perswade the garrison that they might surrender the castle vnto him well enough and keepe the base towne to themselues But when the Diuell hath preuailed so farre as by false opinions in matters of the first truth that is of Religion to get the vnderstanding in possession which is the castle as it were watch-tower of both the soule and body and state and all he will peraduenture dissemble his purpose for a while and by slandering of the truth and pleasing them with the trifles of the world which by Gods permission are in his power make men beleeue that the world is amended for Nemorepentè fit pessimus but shortly after when he seeth his time he will out of his Arsenale of false apprehensions in vnderstanding send forth such distorted engines of life and actions as will easily subdue both body and goods and states and all to his deuotion 16 The Caluinisticall Preacher when he hath gotten his honest abused and misguided flock about him will cry out against me for this Popish collection and cal God and them to witnes that he doth daily in his Sermons exhort men to good workes and to obedience vnto the Kings Maiesty and am not I and my brethren saith he and our flocks as honest and as ciuill men as any Papist of them all For mine owne part I will not accuse any Caluinist though I could neither can I excuse all Papists though I would Iliacos inter muros peccator extra But I must neuer forget that most true and wise obseruation which the Noble and learned Sir FRANCIS BACON maketh in one of his first Essayes vz. that all Schismatikes vtterly failing in the Precepts of the first Table concerning the religion and worship of God haue Necessity in Policie to make a good shew of the second Table by their ciuill and demure conuersation towards men For otherwise they should at the first appeare to be as afterwards they shew themselues to be altogether out of their ten Commandements and so men would be as much ashamed to follow them at the first as they are at the last It is a sure rule of Policie that in euery mutation of State the Authors of the Change will for a while shew themselues honest rather of spite then of conscience that they may disgrace those whom they haue suppressed but it doth neuer hold in the next generation You shall scarce heare of a Puritan father but his sonne proues either a Catholike or an Atheist Mutinous souldiers whilest the enemy is in the field will be orderly not for loue of their Generall but for feare of the enemie but if they be not held in the ancient discipline of warres they will vpon the least truce or cessation quickly shew themselues 17 And as for their exhortations to obedience to your Maiesty when they haue first infected the vnderstanding of your subiects with such principles of rebellion as haue disturbed and ouerthrowne all other States where they had their will it is a ridiculous thing to thinke vpon such exhortations and all one as if a phantasticall fellow finding a herd of yong cattell in a close should first breake downe the hedges and then cry alowd to the cattell they do not venture to go out nor to seeke any fatter pasture for feare they be put into the pound and if they chance to feed where they are because they haue no experience of other and to tary in the close for an houre or two then the vnhappy fellow should runne to the owner of the cattell and tell him what great seruice he had done him and how he had kept his cattell in the close by his goodly charmes and exhortations Let them say what they list of their owne honesty and of their exhortations to obedience as long as they do freely infect the peoples soules with such false opinions in Religion they do certainly sow the seeds of disobedience and Rebellion in mens vnderstandings which if they be not preuented by your Maiesties giuing way to Catholike Religion will in all likelihood spring vp in the next generation to the great preiudice and molestation of your Maiesty and your posterity So that whether I do respect heauen or earth mine owne soule or the seruice of your Maiesty God or your Neighbours or your subiects my assured hope is that by ioyning my selfe to the Catholike Church I neither haue done nor euer shall do any ill duty or seruice vnto your Maiesty 18 But perhaps there is such opposition both in matter of doctrine and in matter of State as it is impossible that euer there should be any reconciliation in at all betwixt the Church of England and the Church of Rome of which I humbly pray your Maiesty to giue me leaue to shew to you what I haue obserued 19 It is true the breach hath continued now these many years and it is much increased by so long continuance so that it was neuer greater then it seems to be at this day nor neuer more dangerous to deale withall for if a man do but go about to stop it there ariseth presently a great and fearfull noise and roaring of the waters against him but yet neuerthelesse the greatnes of the noise ought not to discourage vs but rather to giue vs hope that although it be wide yet it is but shallow and not far from the bottome as proceeding from affection which is sudden and violent and not from iudgement which is quiet constant and alwayes like it selfe for if a man aske in cold bloud whether a Roman Catholike may be saued the most learned Church-man will not deny it And if a man aske whether a Roman Catholike may be a good subiect the most wise Statesman will easily grant it May we be both saued then we are not diuided in God May we be both good subiects then we are not diuided in the King What reason is there then that we should be thus hotly and vnplacably diuided 20 Truely there is no reason at all but only the violence of affection which being in a course cannot without some force be stayed The multitude doth seldome or neuer iudge according vnto truth but according vnto customes And therefore hauing been bred and brought vp in the hatred of Spaniards and Papists cannot choose but thinke they are bound to hate them still and that whosoeuer speaketh a word in fauour of the Church of Rome or of Catholike Religion is their vtter enemy And the Puritanicall Preacher who can haue no being in charity doth neuer cease by falsifications and slanders to blow the coales that he may burne them and warme himselfe But if your Maiesty shall euer be pleased to command those make-bates to hold their peace a while and to say nothing but that they are able to proue by sufficient authority before those that are able to iudge and in the meane time to admit a conference of learned and moderate men on either side the people who are now abused and

owne conscience I must shortly appeare before the same Christ in the presence of the same his Church to giue an account thereof Therefore I neither durst any further to pursue my owne desire of honor nor to hazard my soule any farther in the iustification of that religion which I saw was impossible to be iustified by any such reason as at the day of Iudgement would goe for payment and that it may appeare that I haue not respected any thing so much in this world as my dutie to your Maiestie and my loue to my friends and Country I humbly beseech you giue me leaue as briefely as I can to recount vnto you the whole course of my studies and endeuours in this kinde euen from the beginning of my life vntill this ptesent 2 I was borne in the yeare 1566. being the sonne of ANTY CARIER a learned and deuout man who although he were a Protestant and a Preacher yet he did so season me with the principles of pietie and deuotion as I could not chuse but euer since be very zealous in matters of Religion Of him I learned that all false religions in the world were but policies inuented of men for the temporall seruice of Princes and States and therefore that they were diuers and alwayes changeable according to the diuers reasons and occasions of State But true Christian religion was a truth reuealed of God for the eternall saluation of soules and therefore was like to God alwayes one and the same so that all the Princes and States in the world neuer haue beene nor shall be able to ouerthrow that Religion This to mee seemed an excellent ground for the finding out of that religion wherein a man might finde rest vnto his soule which cannot be satisfied with any thing but eternall truth 3 My next care then was after I came to yeares of discretion by all the best means I could to informe my selfe whether the Religion of England were indeed the very same which being prefigured and prophecied in the old Testament was perfected by our blessed Sauiour and deliuerd to his Apostles and Disciples to continue by perpetuall succession in his visible Church vntill his comming againe or whether it were a new one for priuate purposes of Statesmen inuented and by humane lawes established Of this I could not chuse but make some doubt because I heard men talke much of those dayes of the change of religion which was then lately made in the beginning of Queene ELIZABETHS raigne 4 I was sorie to heare of change and of a new Religion seeing me thought in reason if true religion were Eternall then new religion could not be true But yet I hoped that the religion of England was not a change or new religion but a restitution of the olde and that the change was in the Church of Rome which in processe of time might perhaps grow to be superstitious and Idolatrous and therefore that England had done well to leaue the Church of Rome and to reforme it selfe and for this purpose I did at my leasure and best oportunitie as I came to more iudgement read ouer the Chronicles of England and obserued all the alterations of religion that I could find therein but when I found there that the present religion of England was a plaine change and change vpon change and that there was no cause of the change at all of the first but only that King HENRY the eight was desirous to change his old Bed-fellow that he might leaue some heires male behind him for belike hee feared that females would not be able to withstand the Title of Scotland and that the change was continued and increased by the posterity of his latter wiues I could not choose but suspect something but yet the loue of the world and hope of preferment would not suffer me to beleeue but that all was well and as it ought to be 5 This I satisfied my selfe at schoole and studied the Artes and Philosophie and other humane learning vntill being Master of Artes and Fellow of Corpus Christi Colledge in Cambridge I was at the last by the Statutes of that house called to the studie of Diuinitie and bound to take vpon me the order of Priest-hood then I thought it my duty for the better satisfaction of mine owne soule and the sauing of other mens to looke as farre into the matter as possibly I could that I might find out the truth And hauing the oportunity of a very good Library in that Colledge I resolued with my selfe to studie hard and s●tting aside all respect of men then aliue or of Writers that had moued or maintained controuersies further then to vnderstand the question which was betwixt them I fell to my praiers and betooke my selfe wholy to the reading of the Church historie and of the ancient Fathers which had no interest in either side and especially I made choise of Saint AVGVSTINE because I hoped to finde most comfort in him for the confirming of our Religion and the confuting of the Church of Rome 6 In this sort I spent my time continually for many yeares and noted downe whatsoeuer I could gather or rather snatch either from the Scriptures or the Fathers to serue my turne But when after all my paines and desire to serue my selfe of antiquitie I found the doctrine of the Church of Rome to be euery where confirmed and by most profound demonstrations out of holy Scripture made most agreeable to the truth of Christs Gospell and most conformable to all Christian soules and saw the current opinions of our great Preachers to bee euery where confuted either in plaine termes or by most vnanswerable consequence although my vnderstanding was thereby greatly edified for which I had great cause to render immortall thankes to our blessed Sauiour who by these meanes had vouchsafed to shew himselfe vnto me yet my heart was much grieued that I must be faine either not to preach at all or else to crosse and varie from the doctrine which I saw was commonly receiued 7 Being thus perplexed with my selfe what course I were best to take I reflected back again vpon the Church of England and because the most of those Preachers which drew the people after them in those dayes were Puritans and had grounded their Diuinitie vpon CALVINS Institutions I thought peraduenture that they hauing gotten the multitude on their side might wrong the Church of England in her doctrine as well as they desired to doe in her Discipline which indeed vpon due search I found to be most true for I found the Common-prayer-booke and the Catechisme therein contained to hold no point of doctrine expressely contrarie to antiquitie but only that it was very defectiue and contained not enough And that for the doctrine of Predestination Sacraments Grace Free-will Sinne c. the new Catechismes and Sermons of those Preachers did run wholly against the Common-prayer book and Catechismes therin and did make as little account of the Doctrine