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	holy_a	word_n	2,175	5	3.9389	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61526	An answer to some papers lately printed concerning the authority of the Catholick Church in matters of faith, and the reformation of the Church of England	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1686 (1686)	Wing S5562; ESTC R14199	24,213	73

Object of Holy Worship We must give the Eucharist in both kinds according to Christ's express Institution We must understand our Prayers when St. Paul's words are so clear about it So far at least we have plain and positive Words of Scripture on our side And for Implications and far fetch'd Interpretations commend me to the Pope's Bulls especially when they have a mind to prove their Authority from Scripture which they can do from In the beginning to the end of the Apocalypse But that which seems to be aimed at here is This is my Body wherein the words seem to be plain and positive on their side and our sense to be from Implications or far-fetched Interpretations To which I Answer That there are Expressions in Scripture as plain and positive as this which none think themselves bound to understand in their literal sense For then we must all believe that God hath Eyes and Ears a Face Hands and Feet as firmly as that the Bread was then turned into Christ's Body when he spake those words And I would know whether the Christian Church rejecting the Doctrine of Those who made God to be like to Man was not chargeable with the same resisting the Truth and denying plain and positive Words of Scripture as we are And yet I hope the Christian Church did then believe it self Suppose any should assert That the Rock in the Wilderness was really changed into Christ's Body would not he have the very same Things to say against those who denied it For are not the Words as plain and as positive That Rock was Christ But Sacramental Expressions by the consent of the Christian Church and the very Neture of the Things are of a different sense from Logical Propositions And if this had been intended in the plain and literal sense St. Paul would never have as plainly and positively called it Bread after Consecration nor the Cup be said to be the New Testament in his Blood The Conclusion is Is there any other Foundation of the Protestant Church but that if the Civil Magistrate pleases he may call such of the Clergy as he thinks fit for his turn at that time and turn the Church either to Presbytery or Independency or indeed what he pleases This was the way of our pretended Reformation here in England And by the same Rule and Authority it may be altered into as many Shapes and Forms as there are Fancies in Mens Heads This looks like a very unkind Requital to the Church of England for her Zeal in asserting the Magistrate's Power against a Foreign Jurisdiction to infer from thence that the Magistrate may change the Religion here which way he pleases But although we attribute the Supream Iurisdiction to the King yet we do not question but there are inviolable Rights of the Church which ought to be preserved against the Fancies of some and the Usurpations of others We do by no means make our Religion mutable according to the Magistrate's pleasure For the Rule of our Religion is unalterable being the Holy Scripture but the Exercise of it is under the regulation of the Laws of the Land And as we have cause to be thankful to God when Kings are Nursing Fathers to our Church so we shall never cease to pray for their continuing so and that in all things we may behave our selves towards them as becomes good Christians and Loyal Subjects AN ANSWER TO THE Third Paper THE Third Paper is said to be written by a Great Lady for the satisfaction of her Friends as to the Reasons of Her leaving the Communion of the Church of England and making her self a Member of the Roman Catholick Church If she had written nothing concerning it none could have been a competent Judg of those Reasons or Motives she had for it but her self but since she was pleased to write this Paper to satisfy her Friends and it is thought fit to be published for general Satisfaction all Readers have a right to judg of the strength of them and those of the Church of England an Obligation to vindicate the Honour of it so far as it may be thought to suffer by them I am sensible how nice and tender a thing it is to meddle in a Matter wherein the Memory of so Great a Lady is so nearly concern'd and wherein such Circumstances are mentioned which cannot fully be cleared the Parties themselves having been many Years dead But I shall endeavour to keep within due bounds and consider this Paper with respect to the main Design of it and take notice of other Particulars so far as they are subservient to it The way of her Satisfaction must needs appear very extraordinary for towards the Conclusion she confesses She was not able nor would she enter into Disputes with any Body Now where the Difference between the two Churches lies wholly in Matters of Dispute how any one could be truly satisfied as to the Grounds of leaving one Church and going to the other without entring into matter of Dispute with any body is hard to understand If Persons be resolved before-hand what to do and therefore will hear nothing said against it there is no such way as to declare they will enter into no Dispute about it But what Satisfaction is to be had in this manner of proceeding How could one bred up in the Church of England and so well instructed in the Doctrines of it ever satisfy her self in forsaking the Communion of it without enquiring into and comparing the Doctrines and Practices of both Churches It is possible for Persons of Learning who will take the pains of examining things themselves to do that without entring into Disputes with any Body but this was not to be presumed of a Person of her Condition For many things must fall in her way which she could neither have the leisure to examine nor the Capacity to judg of without the Assistance of such who have made it their business to search into them Had she no Divines of the Church of England about her to have proposed her Scruples to None able and willing to give her their utmost Assistance in a Matter of such Importance before she took up a Resolution of forsaking our Church This cannot be imagined considering not only her great Quality but that just esteem they had for her whilst she continued so zealous and devout in the Communion of our Church But we have more than this to say One of the Bishops who had nearest Relation to her for many Years and who owns in Print That he bred her up in the Principles of the Church of England was both able and willing to have removed any Doubts and Scruples with respect to our Church if she would have been pleased to have communicated them to him And however she endeavoured to conceal her Scruples he tells her in his Letter to her which he since printed for his own vindication That he had heard much Discourse concerning her

Christendom groans under the sad effects of them and it is a very self-denying humour for those to be most sensible of the want of them who would really suffer the most by them Can there be any Iustice done where the Offenders are their own Iudges and equal Interpreters of the Law with those that are appointed to Admister Iustice And is there any likelihood Justice should be better done in another Country by another Authority and proceeding by such Rules which in the last resort are but the Arbitrary will of a Stranger And must such a one pretending to a Power he hath no right to be Iudge in his own Cause when he is the greatest Offender himself But how is this applied to the Protestants in England This is our Case here in England in matters Spiritual for the Protestants are not of the Church of England as 't is the true Church from whence there can be no Appeal but because the Discipline of that Church is conformable at present to their fancies which as soon as it shall contradict or vary from they are ready to embrace or joyn with the next Congregation of People whose Discipline or Worship agrees with the Opinion of that Time The sense of this Period is not so clear but that one may easily mistake about it That which is aimed at is that we of the Church of England have no tie upon us but that of our own judgments and when that changes we may join with Independents or Presbyterians as we do now with the Church of England And what security can be greater than that of our Judgments If it be said to be nothing but fancy and no true Iudgment we must beg leave to say that we dare Appeal to the World whether we have not made it appear that it is not fancy but Iudgment which hath made us firm to the Church of England Might it not as well have been said that the Protestants of the Church of England adhered to the Crown in the Times of Rebellion out of Fancy and not out of Iudgment And that if their Fancy changed they might as well have joined with the Rebels Will not this way of Reasoning hold as strongly against those of the Church of Rome For why do any adhere to that but because it is agreeable to their Judgment so to do What evidence can they give that it is Iudgment in them and only Fancy in us If Reason must be that which puts the difference we do not question but to make ours appear to be Iudgment and theirs Fancy For what is an infallible Iudge which Christ never appointed but Fancy What is their unwritten Word as a Rule of Faith to be equally received with the Scriptures but Fancy What is giving honour to God by the Worship of Images but Fancy What is making Mediators of Intercession besides the Mediator of Redemption but Fancy What is the Doctrine of Concomitancy to make amends for half the Sacrament but Fancy What is the substantial Change of the Elements into the Body of Christ but Fancy for both Senses and Reason are against it What is the deliverance of Souls out of Purgatory by Masses for the Dead but meer Fancy But I forbear giving any more Instances So that according to this Doctrine there is no other Church nor Interpreter of Scripture but that which lies in every Man 's giddy Brain Let Mens Brains be as giddy as they are said to be for all that I can see they are the best faculties they can make use of for the understanding of Scripture or any thing else And is there any Infallible Church upon Earth which must not be beholding to Mens giddy Brains for believing it And it may be never the less giddy for doing it For God-sake why do any Men take the Church of Rome to be Infallible Is it not because their Understandings tell them they ought so to do So that by this consequence there is no Infallible Church but what lies in every Mans giddy Brain I desire to know therefore of every serious Considerer of these things whether the great Work of our Salvation ought to depend on such a Sandy Foundation as this I thank God I have seriously considered this matter and must declare that I find no Christian Church built on a more sandy Foundation than that which pretends to be setled upon a Rock I mean so far as it imposes the new Faith of Trent as a necessary Condition of Salvation Had we no other reason to embrace Christianity than such as they offer for these New Doctrines I am much afraid Christianity it self to all inquisitive Men would be thought to have but a Sandy Foundation But what is this Sandy Foundation we build upon Every Man 's private judgment in Religion No understanding Man builds upon his own Judgment but no Man of understanding can believe without it For I appeal to any ingenious Man whether he doth not as much build upon his own Judgment who chuseth the Church as he that chuseth Scripture for his Rule And he that chuseth the Church hath many more Difficulties to conquer than the other hath For the Church can never be a Rule without the Scriptures but the Scriptures may without the Church And it is no such easy matter to find the Churches Infallibility in the Scripture But suppose that be found he hath yet a harder Point to get over viz. How the Promises relating to the Church in general came to be appropriated to the Church of Rome Which a Man must have an admirable Faculty at discerning who can find it out either in Scripture or the Records of the Ancient Church The places of Scripture which are brought about Christ's being with his Church to the end of the World about the Power to forgive Sins about the Clergy being God's Labourers Husbandry Building having the Mind of Christ do as effectually prove Infallibility of the Church of England as the Church of Rome for I cannot discern the least inclination in any of them to favour one against the other And pray consider on the other side that those who resist the Truth and will not submit to his Church draw their Arguments from Implications and far-fetch'd Interpretations at the same time that they deny plain and positive Words which is so great a Disingenuity that 't is not almost to be thought that they can believe themselves This is a very heavy Charge To resist the Truth to deny plain and positive Words of Scripture to be guilty of great Disingenuity so as not to believe our selves are faults of so high a nature as must argue not only a bad Cause but a very bad Mind And God forbid that those of the Church of England should ever be found guilty of these things But to come to Particulars Is it resisting Truth or arguing from Implications and denying plain and positive Words of Scripture to say We must not worship Images We must make God alone the