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
A34212	A missive to His Majesty of Great Britain, King James written divers yeers since by Doctor Carier ; conteining [sic] the motives of his conversion to Catholike religion ; vvith a notable fore-sight of the present distempers both in the church and state of His Majesties dominions, and his advice for the prevention thereof.	Carier, Benjamin, 1566-1614.; Strange, N., 17th cent.; James I, King of England, 1566-1625.	1649 (1649)	Wing C572; ESTC R8830	50,068	94

thing to think upon such exhortations and all one as if a phantasticall fellow finding a herd of young Cattell in a close should first break downe the hedges and then cry loud to the Cattell not to venture to go out nor to seek any fatter pasture for fear they be put into the pound and if they chance to feed where they are because they have no experience of other and to tarry in the Close for an houre or two then the unhappy fellow should run to the owner of the Cattell and tell him what great service 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 own 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 understandings which if they be not prevented by your Majesties giving way to Catholike Religion will in all likelihood spring up in the K. Charles feels the sad effects of this predictiō next generation to the great prejudice and molestation of your Majesty and your posterity So that whether I doe respect heaven or earth my own soule or the service of your Majesty God or your Neighbours or your Subjects my assured hope is that by joyning my selfe to the Catholike Church I neither have done nor ever shall do any ill duty or service unto your Majesty 18. But perhaps there is such opposition both in matter of Doctrine and in matter of State as it is unpossible that ever there should be any reconcilation at all betwixt the Church of England and the Church of Rome of which I humbly pray your Majesty to give me leave to shew you what I have observed 19. It is true the breach hath continued now these many yeares and it is much increased by so long continuance so that it was never greater then it seems to be at this day nor ever more dangerous to deal 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 neverthelesse the greatnesse of the noise ought not to discourage us but rather to give us 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 judgement which is quiet constant and alwaies like it self for if a man ask in cold blood whether a Romane Catholike may be saved the most learned Church-man will not deny it And if a man aske whether a Romane Catholike may be a good Subject the most wise States-man will easily grant it May we be both saved then we are not divided in God May we be both good Subjects then we are not divided in the King What reason is there then that we should be thus hotly and unplacably divided 20. Truly there is no reason at all but only the violence of affection which being in a course cannot without some force be staied The multitude doth seldome or never judge according to truth but according to customes and therefore having of purpose been bred and brought up in the hatred of Spaniards and Papists cannot chuse but think they are bound to hate them still and that whosoever speaks a word in favour of the Church of Rome or of Catholike Religion is their utter enemy And the Puritannicall Preacher who can have no being in charity doth never cease by falsifications and slanders to blow the coales that he may burn them and warm himselfe But if your Majesty shall ever bee pleased to command those make bates to hold their peace a while and to say nothing but what they are able to prove by sufficient authority before those who are able to judge and in the mean time to admit a conference of learned and moderate men on either side the people who are now abused and with the light of the Gospell held in extreme ignorance are not yet so uncapable but they will be glad to heare of the truth when it shall be simply and evidently delivered by honest men and then they will plainly see that their Light of the Gospell which they so much talk of is but a counterfeit light in a Theeves lantern whereby honest mens eyes are dazzled and their Purses robbed And it will also appear that there is not indeed any such irreconcileable opposition betwixt the Church of England and the Church of Rome as they that live by the Schisme do make the world believe there is neither in matter of Doctrine nor matter of State 21. For matter of Doctrine there is no reason that your Majesty or the Kingdome should be molested or burdened for the maintenance of Calvinisme which is as much * Indeed a true Protestant and a Papist are now almost equally odious against the Religion of England as it is against the Religion of Rome and will by necessary consequence overthrow not only the Catholike Church the Communion of Saints and the forgivenesse of sinnes but also all the Articles of the Creed saving only so much as the Turk himselfe will be content to believe which will be easie to prove upon better leisure The Doctrine of England is that which is contained in the Common Prayer Book and Church Catechisme confirmed by Act of Parliament and by your Majesties Edict wherein all English men are Baptized and ought to be confirmed and therefore there is some reason that this should be stood upon But this Doctrine in most of the main points thereof as hath been touched before and requireth a just treatise to set down in particular doth much differ from the current opinions and Catechismes of Calvinisme or doth very neer agree with or at least not contradict the Church of Rome if we list with patience to hear one another And those points of Doctrine wherein we are made to be at warrs with the Church of Rome whether we will or not do rather argue the Corruptions of that state from whence they come then are argued by the grounds of that Religion whereupon they stand and the contradiction of Doctrine hath followed the altera●ion of State and not the alteration of State been grounded upon any truth of Doctrine 22. For when the breach was resolved upon for the personall and particular ease of King Henry the eight and the Children of his later Wives it was necessary to give every part of the Common-wealth contentment for which they might hold out in the heat of affection and study to maintain the breach otherwise it was likely that in the clearnesse of Judgement it would quickly have grown together again and then the Authors thereof must have been excluded and given account of their practise 23. Therefore to the Lords and * In like manner the Members of Parliament and their Adherents have

purposing with my self that if I could be well I would go from thence to Heydelberg and spend this winter there But when I was gone from the Spa to Aquisgrane and so to Colein I found my self rather worse then better then I was before And therefore I resolved with my self that it was high time for me to settle my thoughts upon another world And seeing I was out of hope to enjoy the health of my body at the last to look to the health of my soule from whence both Art and experience teach me that all my bodily infirmities have their beginning For if I could by any study have proved Catholike Religion to be false or by any means have professed it to be true in England I doubt not but the contentment of my soule would have much helped the health of my body But the more I studied the Scriptures and most ancient Fathers to confute it the more I was compelled to see the truth thereof And the more I laboured to reconcile the Religion of England thereunto the more I was disliked suspected and condemned as a common enemy And if I would have been either ignorant or silent I might perhaps with the pleasures and commodities of my preferments have in time cast off the care of Religion But seeing my study forced me to know and my place compelled me to preach I had no way to avoid my grief nor any means to indure it I have therefore apprehended the opportunity of my Licence to travell that I may withdraw my self for a while from the sight and offence of those in England who hate Catholike Religion and freely and fully enioy the presence of our B. Saviour in the Unity of his Catholike Church wherein I will never forget at the daily Oblation of his most B. Body and Blood to lift up my heart unto him and to pray for the admission of your Majesty thereunto And in the meane time I have thought it my duty to write this short Treatise with my own hand wherein before I publish my self to the world I desire to shew to your Majesty these two things 1. The means of my conversion unto Catholike Religion 2. The hopes I have to do your Majesty no ill service therein I humbly crave your Majesties pardon and will rest ever Your Majesties faithfull and truly devoted Servant B. Carier Liege Decemb. 12. 1613. CHAP. I. The meanes of my Conversion to the Catholike Religion I Must confesse to Gods honour and my owne shame that if it had been in my power to choose I would never have been a Catholike I was born and brought up in Schisme and was taught to abhor a Papist as much as any Puritan in England doth I had ever a great desire to justifie the Religion of the State and had great hope to advance my self thereby Neither was my hope ever so great as by your Majesties favour it was at the very instant of my resolution for Catholike Religion and the preferment I had together with the honour of your Majesties service was greater by much then without your Majesties favour I look for in this world But though I was as ambitious of your Maiesties favour and as desirous of the honours and pleasures of my Countrey as any man that is therein yet seeing that I was not like any long while to injoy them and if I should for my private commodity speak or write or do any thing against the honour of Christ his Church and against the evidence of my owne conscience I must shortly appeare before the same Christ in the presence of the same his Church to give an account thereof Therfore I neither durst any further pursue my own desire of honour nor hazard my soule any farther in the justification of that Religion which I saw was impossible to be justified by any such reason as at the day of Judgement would go for payment and that it may appeare that I have not respected any thing so much in this world as my duty to your Majestie and my love to my friends and Countrey I humbly beseech your Majesty to give me leave as briefly as I can to recount unto you the whole course of my studies and indeavours in this kind even from the beginning of my life untill this present 2. I was born in the Year 1566. being the son of Ant. Carier a learned and devout man who although he were a Protestant and a Preacher yet he did so season me with the Principles of Piety and Devotion as I could not choose but ever since be very zealous in matters of Religion Of him I learned that all false Religions in the world were but Policies invented of men for the temporall service of Princes and States and therefore that they were divers and alwaies changeable according to the divers reasons and occasions of State But true Christian Religion was a truth revealed of God for the eternall salvation of soules and therefore was like to God alwaies one and the same So that all the Princes and States in the world never have been nor shall be able to overthrow that Religion This to me seemed an excellent ground for the finding out of that Religion wherein a man might find rest for his soule which cannot be satisfied with any thing but eternall truth 3. My next care then was after I came to years of discretion by all the best meanes I could to informe my selfe whether the Religion of England were indeed the very same which being prefigured and prophesied in the Old Testament was perfected by our B. Saviour and delivered to his Apostles and Disciples to continue by perpetuall succession in his visible Church untill his coming againe or whether it were a new one for private purposes of Statesmen invented and by humane Lawes established Of this I could not chuse but make some doubt because I heard men talk much in those dayes of the change of Religion which was then lately made in the beginning of Q. Elizabeths Reign 4. I was sorry 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 old 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 leave the Church of Rome and to reform it self and for this purpose I did at my leisure and best oportunity as I came to more judgment read over the Chronicles of England and observed all the alterations of Religion that I could find therein But when I found there that the present Religion of England was a plain * What then is it now change and change upon change and that there was no cause at all of the first but onely that K. Henry 8. was desirous to change his