Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	acknowledge_v	church_n	true_a	2,198	5	5.3927	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50252	A defence of the Protestant Christian religion against popery: in answer to A discourse of a Roman Catholick Wherein the manifold apostaties, heresies, and schisms of the chruch of Rome, as also, the weakness of her pretensions from the scriptures and the fathers, are briefly laid open: by an English Protestant.	Mather, Samuel, 1626-1671.	1672 (1672)	Wing M1278; ESTC R217670	45,074	64

Gospel Ministers and Gospel Churches both the one and the other may be called in a safe sense the pillar and ground of truth But what is this to the Church of Rome How ridiculous a reason were it saith Mr. Cartwright for the Apostle to exhort Timothy to walk circumspectly in the Church of Ephesus Cartwr in locum because the Church of Rome is thepillar and stablement of truth The Papists saith Calvin dum ad se transferunt hoc encomium improbe faciunt alienis se plumis vestiendo Nam ut evehatur Ecclesia supra tertium Coelum nego id totum ad eos ullomodo pertinere Calvin in loc Quinetiam locum presentem adversus eos retorqueo nam si Ecclesia columna est veritatis sequitur non esse apud eos Ecclesiam ubi non modo sepulta jacet veritas sed horrendum in modum diruta eversa sub pedibus calcatur When the Papists transfer this glory to themselves they do wickedly cloathing themselves with the feathers of other Birds For suppose the Church be extolled and lifted up above the Third Heavens I deny that any thing of all this excellency belongs in the least to them yea further I retort this place against them For if the Church be the Pillar of Truth then it follows that the Church is not amongst them where the Truth doth not only lie buried but is torn down and overthrown and trampled under foot in a fearful manner An hoc est vel aeuigma vel cavillum Paulus Ecclesiam non vult agnosci nisi in qua excelsa conspicua stat Dei veritas in Papatu nihil tale apparet sed disiectio tantùm ruinae ergo genuina Ecclesiae nota illic non extat Is there any difficulty or any cavilling in this Paul will not have any Church acknowledged but such as wherein the Truth of God stands on high conspicuous to the view of all men But there is no such thing to be seen in the Papacy but the overthrow and ruines of the Truth therefore there is no true note or mark of the Church to be found there The plain Truth is That Apostate Church and the Head thereof that is Babylon and Antichrist hath no right to any one promise in the Book of God but stands directly under all the Threatnings and Curses written therein because they have both added thereto and taken from it Revel 22.18 19. Indeed those Churches and those Souls have the best right to the promises that prize them most Therefore the Protestant Churches have a better right to them than the Church of Rome By the Protestant Churches I intend all that do subject themselves to the Scripture as the Rule of Faith and Life And by the Church of Rome all those that suffer the Pope to have dominion over their Faith for we do not judge every Individual in the external communion of that Church but onely such of them as have drunk down her deadly poyson What have they to do with the promises What have they to do with God to take his Covenant into their mouths Who do believe in a man that can lye and in a Church of men who may deceive and be deceived How much better and safer would it be for your eternal peace to cleave to the Scriptures which are the voyce of God and so to bottom and ground your Faith upon the truth and faithfulness of him that cannot lye then thus to ground it upon a man that shall dye and upon the sons of men that shall be made as grass For all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass The grass withereth and the flower thereof fadeth away but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you CHAP. VII Of Humane Testimonies for and against the See of Rome THat which remains of your Discourse is partly Quotations without so much as attempting to prove your interest in them of some parallel Texts with those before answered partly repetitions of those impertinent Queries Whether did the Roman Church go from any other known Church c Answered also before under the Head of Schism partly Humane Testimonies for the See of Rome for so you phrase it the Body of your Discourse having run upon this expression the Church of Rome the Title being the Roman Faith To your Humane Testimonies I would humbly offer three things to your serious consideration which I suppose may suffice to all you say or can say from the Fathers in whom you seem to repose your greatest confidence for the defence of your cause Consid 1. That you know we do not own the Fathers but the Scriptures onely as the Supreme Judge of Controversies Though we honour them as blessed Instruments in their Generation yet we know they were but men and not Apostles infallibly inspired and assisted by the Holy Ghost Yea we do ingenuously acknowledge That the darkness and inadvertency of the Fathers in some points did contribute and make way for the rise and growth of Popery They had their hands so full of other work partly from without in all their Conflicts both with Jews and Pagans both by writing and suffering while the Christian Princes also in the mean time were not idle but had their hands full in the Wars of Michael against the Dragon against the persecuting Pagan Emperors during that fourth Century And partly from within by those intestine mischiefs which through the malice and craft of Sathan were bred within the Churches own bowels such as Arrianism with all the Errors and Blasphemies accompanying and flowing from it against the Person and Natures of Christ and against his blessed Spirit As also Pelagianism wretchedly undermining the work of his Grace and Spirit in the effectual application of Christ and his redeeming Love to the Souls of his Elect. Donatism likewise at the same time dreadfully disturbing the peace and order and fellowship of the Gospel by dischurching and disbaptising all other Christians and re-baptising themselves whil'st othres in the mean time wereas much too large and loose as they too rigid The faithful Servants of Christ were thus assaulted in those dayes on every side over and beside the daily work of Teaching and Governing their respective Flocks and Churches All which did so severely call upon them for their deepest intentions and endeavours that as it rendred the work heavy upon the shoulders of the faithful Ministry in those conflicting times so truly to my narrow capacity it is no wonder if in the mean time the deep and subtile workings of the mystery of Iniquity in the Papacy did in a great measure escape their observation And the rather if we consider the disadvantage they were under both for want of Printing and of well regulated and formed Universities and Schools of the Prophets The Monastick Institutions at first as some have thought coming nearest and seeming to

your selves Your very Council of Trent though approved by the Pope yet is rejected by the French Papists unto this day This is your peace and unity amongst your selves whereof you use to boast so much Nothing forsooth but Mufick and Harmony made up of Discords Secondly As to other Churches There be Churches both elder and younger and contemporary with the Roman and some of her own sounder Members with all which she hath broke communion And they are not fugitivi but fugati it is not they but she that hath made the breach because she doth impose such conditions of communion upon them as they cannot lawfully submit unto viz. To receive all her Errors and submit their Consciences to her and her Head as Infallible and Supreme If we look back to the first times of your Apostasie there were first all the Churches and Christians without the bounds of the Roman Empire as in India Perfia c. Secondly the Grecian Churches which were one half of that Empire one Leg of Daniels Image Dan. 2. which took the Alarum very early and refused the primacy of Rome and stood upon their guard against her Thirdly the African Churches did the same Fourthly All those suffering Churches and Christians that were oppressed under and by the Papacy as living within the reach of the Popes power Or if we consider the present state of things at this day and in this Age wherein we live there be very many with whom the Church of Rome hath broke communion As for instance All the Christians in Asia and Africa except some late Colonies of Papists All the Grecian Churches in Europe All those that are under the Patriarchs of Constantinople Antioch Alexandria Jerusalem Russia and Muscovia Also the Protesant Churches and Kingdoms and many that lie hid under the Dominions of Popish Princes who sigh and mourn and groan under the Abominations of the Papacy Sir Edwin Sands Sir E S. Europae Speculum or view of the state of Religion in Western parts pag. 76. 187. who was a great Traveller and a very intelligent person his computation in Q. Elizabeths time was That about one half of the Popes Dominions were fallen from him and become Protestants five of the Ten horns have begun to hate the Whore And you know how that since those dayes you have not been gaining but rather losing ground insomuch that when all Accompts are cast up both of those who were never subject to the Pope and those who have shaken off his yoke it will be found That the Church of Rome is not a third part of the Christian world All these Companies she hath left and gone out from all these Bodies and Societies of Christians hence therefore 1. It is a strange Question for you to ask Whose Company she hath left For you cannot but know if you know any thing at all of these matters that there is a far greater number of Christians out of her Communion and Jurisdiction than are within it 2. This renders her assuming and monopolizing to her self the name and title of the Catholick Church in opposition to all other Churches out of her Communion not only false but extreamly vain and in plain terms ridiculous For is she the whole Catholick Church who is not a third part of it Or rather is not this a piece of Schismatical pride and arrogance in her the very same with the Donatists of old who did unchurch all others but themselves and so do you which is not the Spirit of the Gospel but rather an evidence against you that you have neither part nor lot in this matter and that your hearts are not right in the fight of God which are so full of the gall of bitterness and sharp censoriousness Ravn 6. Concluso Concl 5. pa. 687. It further confirms that which hath been long ago demonstrated unto you by that Learned Raynolds That the Church of Rome is not the Catholick Church nor yet a sound Member of the Catholick Church And so much for the Apostasies Heresies and Schisms of your Church The next thing in your paper is this CHAP. VI. Some places of Scripture for the Inerrability of the Church of Rome Answered DISCOURSE THe usual colour of believing more or less than the Church allows is vain and erroneous inasmuch as that very Christ that stored her with knowledge of Gods revealed Truth and with power to convey the same hath also endued her with Inerrability to convey the same justly without danger of miscarrying against Ignorance To you it is given to know the mysteries of heaven Matt. 13.11 Against darkness Ye are the light of the world Matt. 5.14 Against error and falshood I will send unto you the Spirit of truth to remain with you for ever John 14.16 Against weakness She is the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3. Hell-gates shall not prevail against her Matt. 16.18 c. ANSWER Now to examine the Contexture of this Discourse though something might be said both to the Grammar and Logick of it nor the soundness and sense of those distinctions you seem to make between Ignorance and Darkness for what is moral Darkness but Ignorance and Error and Falshood c. Your Scope is to assert the Authority and Inerrability of your Church as the supreme Rule of Faith and Obedience But what you mean by the Church whether Popes or General Councils you say not you know your Writers are divided about it But to the Scriptures you alledge we need not as you say we must but through the help of his grace we will not impeach either the power or faithfulness of Christ but there be three other things which we may truly and fitly say to you concerning those Scriptures 1. That you do not shew particularly where their pertinency lies or how you would apply them to the point you aim at they being in their plain and genuine sense most remote from it 2. That they do not prove Inerrability in those to whom they were spoken and intended for they are as applicable to every other Church yea to every true Believer as to the Church of Rome For every true Believer hath the Spirit of Grace and Truth dwelling in him and is inlightned thereby to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven but yet it doth not follow nor will you affirm That every true Believer that every godly Man and every godly Woman is infallible 3. We answer further That these Promises and Scriptures were not given to the Pope and Church of Rome there is no pretence nor colour for it How ill doth it become you who do deny the perseverance of true Believers to claim to your selves an interest in such promises that the Spirit shall remain with you for ever It was never said to the Pope Ye are the light of the world For he is indeed the Angel of Death the Messenger and Instrument of Darkness a Star fallen from Heaven who hath opened the bottomless pit and