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	time_n	2,142	5	3.6322	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A18100	The ansvvere of Master Isaac Casaubon to the epistle of the most reuerend Cardinall Peron. Translated out of Latin into English. May 18. 1612; Ad epistolam illustr. et reverendiss. Cardinalis Perronii, responsio. English	Casaubon, Isaac, 1559-1614.	1612 (1612)	STC 4741; ESTC S107683	37,090	54

such chiefe points as are necessarie to saluation For there is but one sauing doctrine there is but one way to heauen They are vnited in coniunction of mindes in true charitie and the duties of charitie especially of mutuall prayers Lastly they are vnited in the communion of one hope and expectation of promised inheritance knowing that before the foundations of the world they were predestinate I speake of the elect to be fellow heires and of the same bodie and partakers of the promise of God in Christ through the Gospell as saith the diuine Apostle Yet his Maiestie addes further that the same Church notwithstanding if any member thereof depart from the rule of faith will more esteeme of the loue of truth then the loue of vnitie He knowes that the supreme lawe in the house of God is the sinceritie of celestiall doctrine which if any man forsake he forsakes Christ which is Truth it selfe hee forsakes the Church which is the pillar and establishment of truth and by this meanes ceaseth to appertaine vnto the body of Christ With such Apostates a true Catholike neither will nor can communicate for what concent betwixt Christ and Belial Wherefore the Church will flie from communion with these and wil say with Greg Nazianzen that disagreement for godlinesse is better then ill affected concord Neither will he doubt if need be to say with the same blessed father that there is a holy contention Now that such a necessarie separation should sometimes be in the Church both wee are taught in other places of holie Scripture and that admonition also of the holie Ghost not without cause giuen to the Church doth openly declare saying Goe out of Babylon my people lest you communicate with her sinnes What that Babylon is whereout the people of God are commanded to depart the King disputes not in this place nor affirmes hee any thing concerning it yet thus much the matter it selfe doth plainly shew that whether some priuate Church be vnderstood in that place by the name of Babylon or the greater part of the whole it was before this a true Church with which the religious might religiously communicate but after it was more depraued the religious are commanded to goe out and to breake off communion Whereby it may be easilie vnderstood that not all communion with those that be called Christians is to bee desired of the faithfull but that only which may stand with the integritie of doctrine reuealed from heauen Now to come neerer to the purpose his Maiestie denies those places of S. Augustine to belong at all to him For he affirmes that all those testimonies doe euince this only that there remaines no token of saluation for them which depart from the faith of the Catholike Church or from communion with the same Church Which thing as I said before the King willingly grants But here his Maiestie desires of you most illustrious Cardinall that you would call to minde and perpend what great difference there is betwixt the times of S. Augustine and these of ours How much the Church now called Catholike differs from the ancient how the face of the Church is changed and the outward forme to say nothing of the inward For then the Church Catholike was like a citie seated vpon an hill which as Christ saith cannot be hid knowne to all conspicuous and certaine whereof no sound minde could make question Which was not as the foolish Donatists prated lying I know not where in the South driuen into some corner of the world but diffused farre and wide thorow the whole earth flourishing vnder the Emperours whose dominion extended from the East to the West and from North to South You might see the Bishops of the East and West daily communicating and when need required assisting one another For that which is written in the Constitutions of Clement that the Catholike Church is the charge of all the Bishops and by that meanes that euery one is an Oecumenicall Bishop we wonder now when we reade it neither can wee beleeue it which then daily practise did shew to be most true and may easily be demonstrated out of historie by infinit examples There were then also in frequent vse literae formate that is demissatie or testimoniall letters by commerce whereof and as it were by tokens communion was held amongst the members of the Church although farre remoued by distance of place Furthermore when it stood in neede they had Councels truly Occumenicall not as since we haue seene Occumenicall in name only but indeed assembled out of some Prouinces of Europe And in those ancient times this was the fastest bond whereby all the members of the Catholike Church were knit together in the ioynture of one bodie which bodie was for that cause very eminent conspicuous and in the faire view of all which no man could chuse but know There was one faith one state one body Catholike frequent mutuall visitation wonderfull consent of all the members a wonderfull sympathie Was any man lapsed by heresie or schisme from the communion of any one Church I speake not of any one of the chiefe which were the seates of the foure Patriarchs but of any one much smaller that man as soone as it was knowne was held to be excluded from the communion of the whole Catholike Church For whereas wee meete with some examples obserued to the contrarie that was not right but vsurpation Was any man bold to corrupt the truth a little by being of another opinion it was easie euen for a child to deprehend him Wherefore such a steale-steale-truth being once discouered all the shepheards of the whole world if need was were raised and were neuer quiet vntill they had rooted out this euill and prouided for the securitie of Christs sheepe By these signes and markes the Church at that time was conspicuous but this happinesse continued not many ages For after that the Empire was ouerturned and the forme of the Common-wealth altered there sprung vp many new states differing as well in manners and language as in ordinances and lawes Then vpon the distraction of the Empire followed the distraction of the Catholike Church and by little and little all those things ceased which had been before of singular vse for the preseruation of vnion and communion in the outward Catholike bodie of the Church From that time the Catholike Church hath not ceased to be for it shall continue euer neither shall the gates of hell at any time preuaile against it seeing it is founded vpon Christ the true rock and vpon the faith of Peter and the rest of the Apostles but it began to be lesse manifest being diuided into many parts which as touching externall communion were quite separated from one another Then which is chiefly to be lamented it came to passe by this dissipation that there was lesse strength in the parts then before in the whole bodie to resist the enemie of mankind who is

man say you desire to haue issue Againe soone after when you declare the necessitie of approbation you reckon the choice of liuing in virginitie or single life which things when his Maiestie read he disallowed them not yet he thought that vnto both examples something might conueniently be added for vpon the former it seemes to follow that there is no other necessarie cause of mariage saue hope of issue But the Apostle S. Paul doth teach vs in expresse tearmes that they also are bound to prouide for mariage which want the gift of continence If they containe not saith he let them marrie This addition is of no small moment For who knoweth not what occasion is daily ministred in the Church of Rome of many and horrible crimes through the contempt of this Apostolike rule through the neglect of this necessarie remedie Wherefore in continent persons his Maiestie exceedingly commenceth the liuing in the estate of virginitie or single life and being by the singular mercie of God more familiarly acquainted with the sacred Scripture then most Princes are bee knoweth S. Pauls sentence of the whole matter and the examples extant in both Testaments and the rewards proposed to them that containe But wheras your Diuices doe commonly teach especially the Doctors of the Canon Law that fornication whoredome and other foule sinnes not to be named are more tollerable in Ministers of the Church then lawfull mariage and the bed vndefiled that his Maiestie accounteth a most detestable crime and most worthie of the hatred of God and men His Maiestie opposeth against all the cauils of Sophisters yea against all humane authoritie whatsoeuer that oracle of the holy Spirit pronounced by the mouth of the Apostle It is better to marrie then to burne For as a wise Captaine ought to be more afraid of receiuing ouerthrow or losse to himself then of weakning his enemie so in the election of a mans life whether he would lead it maried or single his Maiestie thinks that godly men ought in the first place to decline the transgression of Gods law and then on Gods name if any man haue the power let him vse that benefit of nature It is a thredbare cauill that England is not a lawfull Church because here wanteth the practise of such vowes But what can the want of vow hinder as long as wee are not destitute of that which is vowed For here are many Bishops and other Pastors of the Church who without ostentation of vow do abstaine from mariage and yet leade their liues chastly and saintly without any taint of common sinister report Moreouer for the Monasteries themselues his Maiestie as he is most earnestly affected vnto pietie and goodnesse would not haue dissolued them or not all of them as I haue heard him often protest if he had found them vncorrupted and obseruing the Canons of their first institution But his excellent Maiestie often wisheth that the Tridentine Fathers which could not bee drawne by the entreaties of great Kings and Princes to prouide for publike honestie on this behalfe would consider with themselues from what fountaine this doctrine did flow For whereas at the first single life was placed amongst profitable orders and counsels afterwards vowes were annexed at length men came to this absolute necessitie which now raigneth amongst you the law of God being abandoned and most vilely disgraced Now whereas in the end of this obseruation it is added that they which allow of some and reiect other of those things which the ancient Church beleeued as necessarie to saluation although vnder diuers kindes of necessitie haue no reason to affirme that they retaine the same faith and discipline with the ancient Catholike Church his Maiestie well enough perceiueth the drift of that speech He answereth therefore that he wil not extol his own Church by comparing it to a glasse without spot or to a face perfectly faire without wrinkle or blemish he leaueth such Pharasaisme to others Yet that this he knoweth euidently that if question be made concerning the essentiall markes of the Church or if you looke at those things which are plainly necessarie to saluation or respect order and decencie in the Church you shall not finde a Church in the whole world God be praised for it more approching to the faith and fashion of the ancient Catholike His Maiestie excepts none no not the Church of Rome which by new inuentions deuised for increase of superstition and for the establishing of her dominion ouer Princes and people hath manifestly turned and changed the faith and discipline of the ancient Catholike and swarued infinitly in many things from the puritie and simplicitie of the primitiue Church THE FOVRTH OBSERVATION WHen question is made touching the faith of the ancient Church there be same which doe limit antiquitie within one or two ages after the Church was founded but it standeth with equitie for examination of the controuersies of these daies to insist vpon that time wherein al parties grant that the Church was not only a true Church but then also most florishing and possessed of that glory brightnes which the oracles of so many Prophets had promised And that is the time wherein the foure first generall Councels are included from Constantine the Emperour vnto Marcion And there is the more equitie in this because there be so few monuments extant of the former ages but very many of this time wherein the Church florished So that the faith and discipline of the ancient Catholike may easily be knowne out of the writings of the Fathers of that age HIS MAIESTIES ANSVVERE THis condition will seeme vnreasonable to them which would haue the vniuersall historie of the primitiue Church concluded within the Acts of the Apostles which is but one little though most sacred and diuine book The most equall and prudent King is farre from this opinion who in his Monitorie Epistle hath ingenuously declared how highly he esteemeth of the Fathers which liued in the fourth and fifth age Neither doth his Maiestie doubt to pronounce with S. August that look what the Church hath duly obserued from her first originall vnto those times and for any man to offer to reiect that as impious it is a point of most insolent madnes For his Maiestie heretofore hath vnfainedly protested that hee approoueth of those markes of truth giuen by Vincentius Lirinensis à principio vbique semper that is from the beginning euery where and euer Wherefore the King and the Church of England in that they admit of the foure first generall Councels therein they sufficiently declare that they conclude not the time of the true and lawfull Church within the compasse of one or two ages but that they extend it much further comprising the time of Marcion the Emperor vnder whom the Councell of Chalcedon was kept But whereas in this obseruatiō you more esteeme the times after Constantine then the times going before that his Maiestie thinketh somewhat strange and indeed