Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	age_n	church_n	doctrine_n	1,836	5	6.2209	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25674	A vindication of the Roman Catholicks from the foul aspersions thrown upon them by John Tillotson ... in a sermon preached by him in November, 1687 ...	Antoine.	1688 (1688)	Wing A3517; ESTC R6580	11,687	16

it there But let the Doctor leave Canting and give a solid reason if he can why the Church which declared Authoritatively the Scripture to be the Word of God hath not Authority enough and Knowledge to instruct us in the Will of God if there were no Scripture The Doctor proceeds in the same Page and says the Teachers of the Jewish Church did not proceed so far as to deprive Men of the use of the Holy Scripture in the 2d Page he cannot avoid a Contradiction For he says that the Jewish Teachers did take away the Key of Knowledge from the people which the Doctor insinuates was the Scripture Then they took away the Scripture and did not But suppose they did not take away the Scripture yet the Doctor says they took away the Key of Knowledge then a Man may have the Scripture and yet not have the Key of Knowledge then the Jews might have the Scripture and yet not see Christ in it as in fact did not So may the Vulgar have the New Testament and yet not see the they New Law in it So may a Protestant Cobler have the Bible and yet want the Key of Knowledge and to whom shall he go to for it What if he should go to the Pope For the Doctor owns in his Sermon the Pope had the Key and indeed I cannot tell how the Doctor should come by it unless he stole it Or perhaps it was found in the Ruins of the Monasteries here in the beginning of the reformation which were broke down the Doctor may say to seek for this Key and it was found there all rusty as the Doctor says and they have been rubbing it ever since But to come to my purpose How is it that the Scriptures alone can perfectly instruct us in the Will of God as this Doctor says when a whole multitude may have them and yet not see the Will of God in them as the Jews had the Scripture and yet saw not the Will of God in it Now why may not the Doctors of the Church of England put the Scripture into the Hands of all the Vulgar and yet teach them false Doctrine from their Pulpits and keep the true sense and meaning of the Scripture from the people as well as the Scribes and Pharisees then the people may have the Bible and yet not know the Will of God. Then is the Pastor more necessary for the people than the Bible We see the Quakers Anabaptists Presbyterians Sweet-Singers Lutherans Church of England c. all these differ in Faith and that they are not all of the right Faith. I suppose the Doctor will own all these have the Bible How come it that they do not testifie themselves by it The Doctor must answer that the Teachers of these Men do give the people the Bible but keep from them the Key of Knowledge as the Scribes and Pharisees did And if any one should accuse the Doctor of acting like a Scribe and Pharisee in this Sermon how will he vindicate himself I will undertake to prove him guilty of above 40 false Reflections and above-right lies against his Neighbours in this one Sermon which is more than he can prove upon either Scribe or Pharisee Towards the end of this Page the Doctor says it is a horrible impiety to interpret the Scripture in a wrong sense to the people God forgive the Doctor for it the Roman Catholicks do own it a Crime But he says it is more horrible not to permit the people to read it He thinks this must be taken upon his bare Word for he brings not one thing like a proof for it In the 5th Page the Doctor doth intermix Prayers in an unknown Tongue with the not reading the Scripture and says that the people for these two Errors are sure to perish and surely damned and that the Scripture is necessary to save them and that the Church of Rome in these two points doth contrive the Eternal Ruin and Destruction of the peoples Souls For these uncharitable and extravagant expressions the Doctor brings not any thing like a Proof This I will prove upon the Doctor according to his own Tenent that whatsoever Protestant reads not the Scripture is surely Damned And whatsoever Pastor of the Protestant Church doth not take such care of all and every one of his Flock First That he be instructed to read 2 dly That he have the Bible 3 dly That he read it This Pastor for neglecting his Flock in a thing so necessary to Salvation must be surely Damned also This must follow if the Scripture be necessary to Salvation And if the Protestant Religion had started up before Printing was found out how many poor Protestants would this Doctor have Damned then I ask'd the Doctor why a vigilant Pastor cannot instruct his Flock in all things conducing to Salvation without giving them the Bible Until the Doctor answers I say he may and that it had been done in all Ages and I know not why it may not be done in the Protestant Church unless it be because Truth and the Will of God are not in the Protestant Ministers The Reader may be perhaps desirous to know the truth of the Roman Catholick practice in these two points As to the first to wit The reading the Scripture the Church doth not debar the Laity from it She alloweth it to every one whom the Pastors judge will use it with respect and submission to the Church through the Motive of Piety not Curiosity Where the Scripture may be ill used there it is not generally suffered to be read And what slavery is in this The Vulgar of the Roman Church do believe that they are to be fed by their Pastors neither to feed themselves nor to be fed by Bibles St. Paul saith That Christ appointed Pastors lest his people should stray into Errors The Doctor appoints the Bible The Roman Church appoints the Bible for the Pastor chiefly and the Pastor for the people The Doctor appoints the Bible for the people and the Pastors are useless If an Indian should come into England which would soonest make him of the Protestant Church the Doctor or the Bible If the Doctor then is the Bible not necessary to Salvation If the Bible how comes it that so many Millions of well inventioned people in the World could never see the Protestant there who notwithstanding were no strangers to the Bible This I admire in the Church of England who since the reformation are much more solicitous to get Estates and keep them than those things which belong to the next World and for this I appeal to their Consciences that every one should not claim a right to be Judge of the Laws of the Land to preserve their Estates as well as to be Judge of the Scripture in order to preserve the Soul. In the next place the Doctor brings Scripture for his Tenent If any one shall think any Text he brings to be like a proof if

I may be worthy to know it I will readily answer it Then he brings Fathers If the Doctor will be so kind as to let me know out of what part of their Writings he took his Quotations I will readily answer him Then follows his Bold Challenge to his Adversaries to bring him any Father who discourages the Vulgar from reading the Scripture I answer his Challenge producing these following The whole Epistle to the Romans wants interpretation and is involved in so great abscurities that we want the aid of the H. Ghost to understand it The same Father confesses that in Scripture he never trusted to his own knowledge nor believed upon his own strength but where he thought he knew yet there he asked the learned This Saint had no Protestant spirit St. Augustin saith That the Exposition of the Holy Scripture is to be asked of those who profess themselves Doctors St. Epiphanius commits the scrutiny of the Scriptures to the Learned St. Gregory saith the Word of God abhors carnal and rude Men and that the Law is partly manifest and partly hidden To the Weak Faithful we ought to open those things which are more perfect and when they are become proficients and have clear sight then to put the light before them The reasons why Heresies are is the obscurity of the Divine Scriptures The unlearned ought not to presume to read the Holy Scriptures before they have despised and cast off the pomp of the World. I conclude with St. Hierome When there is no one Art that any of Vulgar can say they know yet this the knowledge of the Scriptures every old prating Woman every old doting Fellow every talking Sophister pretends to know They tear the Scripture and teach it before they have learnd it I could have given farther testimony out of the Fathers if it had been needful but these will suffice to vindicate the Roman Catholick Practice in contradiction to the Doctor who so boldly affirmed that we had not one rag of Antiquity to cover our Nakedness in this point I assure the Doctor that some would have been glad of such Rags to have made the Church of Englands Wedding Garments The Roman Catholick Practice in the second point which the Doctor calls Prayers in an unknown Tongue is thus The chief part of the Roman Liturgie is the Mass the substance of which is an Action to wit An Offering to God of the Body and Blood of his Son under the form of Bread and Wine by the Hands of the Priest A Sacrifice commemorative and applicative of the great Sacrifice of the Cross The Doctor dares not deny us Antiquity and Universality as to the truth of this Doctrine The rest of the Roman Liturgie is subservient to this That part of the Liturgie which the Vulgar do frequent is the Mass as Morning Prayer Even-song Compline and Litanies as Evening Prayers The rest of the Liturgie is said by Church-Men at Mid-night or at three four or five of the Clock in the Morning or at such hours as the Vulgar is seldom present and perhaps the Doctor would not leave his warm Bed and Wife to hear it although he pretends to understand Latin. Now that part of the Liturgie which the Vulgar do frequent they do understand as well as the Vulgar in the Protestant Church do their Common-Prayer for the Mass I told the Doctor it was an Action and Seeing is their most proper sense for it and the Vulgar may have as good Eyes as the Doctor As to that part which is properly Prayer it is Translated into the Vulgar Tongue and they have it in their Prayer-Books and being obliged to Church-Service every Sunday and Holy day they understand it as well as their daily Prayers The Epistles and Gospels of the Mass are likewise in the Vulgar Tongue with the meaning of every Circumstance And as to the understanding of every word of the Mass which the Doctor was pleased to reflect upon I answer that the greatest part of the Words of the Mass are the Priest's secret Prayers to God for himself and the people There is moreover daily Preaching and Catechising in the Church by which there is enough given to the weakest Capacitie to let him understand what he ought to believe and do in order to Salvation To the Question Must the Vulgar be acquainted with every thing which is done in and belongs to the Church before they can or will be satisfied edified or no If they must then the Church of England Edifieth not the greatest part of her Children in her Cathedrals where when they sing Musically few understand them neither are the Vulgar satisfied and edified in the Protestant Ceremonies neither am I edified that the Doctor should so much extoll Knowledge when not one in ten thousand ever read the Protestant Profession of Faith Nor one in the like Number knows how much he is obliged to believe So that when we rightly examine things we shall find ignorance a Protestant Vertue And is it not to stumble at a Straw and leap over a Block to Damn the people if they read not the Scripture but let the Tenents of those who read it be ever so perverse so they protest against Popery they are Members of Crist's Church as the Bishop of Bath and Wells called the French Hugonots in his Pastoral-Letter and go to Heaven And is not this Pharisaical in the Doctor to Damn people for not reading the Scripture a Protestant Tradition and not Condemn them for their Schismatical and Heretical Opinions things Condemned by God his Son his Apostles and his Church in all Ages I argue farther thus It is not necessary that the Vulgar understand explicitly all and every thing that is believed in the Church as such decrees of the four first General Councils as are de Fide or the Thirty Nine Articles in the Protestant Church destinctly If the Doctor denys this Proposition he must Condemn most of the Ministers and Laity of his Church so by parity of Reason a Man may be a true Worshiper and yet not understand distinctly and verbatim every Word which is spoken in the Church Farther the Doctor cannot shew any Divine precept or decree of any General Council which contradicts the practice of the Roman Church in this point which he should have done if he had spoken Doctor like before he had pronounced Damnation upon the people Now where there is no precept contradicted the Church is to be obeyed These reasons I give the Doctor for the Latin Church Liturgy being every where in Latin. 1 st That the Governours of the Church may have a certain knowledge of the true practice of it which they could not conveniently have if it were in every petty Speech 2 dly To avoid danger of the nullity of the Sacraments which would happen if the Priest should not pronounce the Words rightly of which there is danger when the Priest is not perfect in the Language 3 dly