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
A31765	The Charitable Samaritan, or, A short and impartial account of that eminent and publick-spirited citizen Mr. Tho. Firmin who departed this life on Monday Dec. 20, 1697 / by a gentleman of his acquaintance.	Gentleman of his acquaintance.	1698 (1698)	Wing C2067; ESTC R25982	20,066	27

upon them by that most admirable Man the present Bishop of Worcester he lamented it as an unsurmountable Obstacle to the Conversion both of the Jews and Mahometans The Doctors of the Roman Church indeed by their subtile Distinctions of two Greek Words endeavour to mince the matter but after all their pains to wash the Blackamoor Idolatry is no better nor worse than Idolatry and will be so to the end of the Chapter If we look into their Rituals and judge of their Belief by their Practice we shall find that they pay to a whole Almanack full of Saints of their own making the same Ceremonies in the very same words accompanied with the same Prostrations as they do to God Almighty They directly offer their Prayers make Vows and Consecrate Temples to them nay what is more for Superstition has no Bounds they offer our Blessed Lord and Saviour to them and yet they think to come off with their Terminative and Relative These new made Free-men of the Calendar are Worshipt from Lapland to Japan are invoked in a thousand places at once and the Beatific Looking-Glass must solve all this the Dream of some idle Sot of a Schoolman without the least warrant from Scripture or Reason They pretend good manners for this and tell us that God Almighty must not be rudely approached but that the Petition must be delivered in by some Favourite I wonder that these Gentlemen that Pray thus by Proxy shou'd not manage every thing else after this wise rate and when they are to take Physick that they don't employ a Friend to take the Dose of Pills or Electuary in their stead He was for a plain intelligible Theology such as our Saviour and the Apostles left it behind them and such as it continued for some time till the Jewish and Grecian Converts but especially the Philosophers for different ends Debauch'd it with Ceremonies and Muffled it up in Mystery And since Religion was Calculated for reasonable Creatures he thought that Conviction and not Authority ought to influence Mankind for this Reason he looked upon those Men to have no small share of Vanity Laziness or Weakness in their Composition that suffer themselves tamely to be imposed upon by magnificent Souuds and numerous Citations Plutarch in Solon's Life tell us That that famous Legislator inserted a Verse into Homer to prove That the Island of Salamis belonged of right to the Athenians and who knows what strange Interpolations have been made in the Ecclesiastical Monuments by Men that valued the Interest of their Party more then the Truth especially if we consider that before the invention of Printng few Copies of Books cou'd be Published at a time and those fell into few hands and might easily be supprest or corruptted to which Temptation I cou'd heartily wish those we call the purest Ages of the Church had never been exposed An unintelligible or absur'd Proposition is to be never the more respected for its having travel'd far or wearing the Venerable Badge of Antiquity That former Ages were so prodigiously cautious and honest as neither to be imposed upon themselves nor suffer any Errors to be transmitted to their Posterity is a Metaphysical Contemplation with which superstitious People may amuse or delight themselves in their Closets but is never to be urged to such Persons that have examined these matters with more impartiality and care This naturally leads me to that part of his Character which I confess I would conceal from the rest of the World if it lay in my Power as it does not since it is no Secret to those that knew him but as I have pretended to give an impartial Account of our Friend I find my self obliged to take some notice of it before I conclude He was then and I wish once more I cou'd conceal it he was not so Orthodox as I cou'd have wished he had been in his Opinion about the Holy Trinity and the satisfaction of our Saviour according to the common Explications I don't pretend in the least to Vindicate him in either only give me leave to add that as few Men in the World have been without their Errors I cou'd instance if I pleas'd in some of the best and learnedest Fathers of the Church so I think a charitable Construction ought to be given of them where the Person mistaking was of no Obstinate refractory Temper but show'd in the whole Tenour of his Life that he aim'd at nothing more than to find out the Truth so that if he mist it in the pursuit it should only be ascribed to humane Imbecillity from which the greatest Men are not exempt It ought to be consider'd too that when he first appear'd in the World he found the Nation involved in a Bloody Civil War and the Church divided by several Schisms as the state was distracted by different Factions The Laity at that time looked upon themselves to be ill used by the Leaders of both Churches who did not seem to contend for the purity of Religion so much as they did who should have the Rod in their hands to jerk the poor People that were under their Power and as it is natural for Men to run out of one extream into another they imagin'd a cheat put upon them even where there was no reason to suspect one He was naturally inquisitive and devoted as much time to Reading as a life so taken up as his but generally employ'd in the service of others would well permit He had observed how inconsistent with themselves and how different from us the Fathers of the Church were before the Nicene Council in their Explications of the Trinity which extorted this Confession from the Learned Grotius Constat mihi Patres in explicatione harum rerum plurimum dissensisse etiamsi vocum quarumdam sono inter se conveniunt That to give an instance or two of their strange confusion or uufairness Theophilus Antiochenus speaking of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the second Person of the Trinity calls him the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Holy Ghost which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 descended upon the Prophets that Hermas a Writer in the Apostolical Times uses the word Spiritus Sanctus in the same sense with Mens Humana that St. Barnabas or some body under his Name Cap. 12. quotes Isaias for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christo meo Domino instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyro as the LXX and we have rightly Translated it that it is often difficult to know whether a word is to be taken in the figurative or proper sense as the Word Elohim so much used in this controversy among the Jews in its primary meaning signifies the Supream and only God but that it is frequently applied in Holy Writ to Angels and Princes that as for the famous passage in St. John Cap. 5. v. 7 8. which our Bibles after the Manuscripts of a more modern date read thus There are three that bear Record in Heaven the

commit some mistakess through Inadvertency or Forgetfulness but it could never enter into his Thoughts that any one should think it worth their while to injure him taking a Standard of the Integrity of all Mankind from that which he so nicely followed himself He had observed with that rancour and bitterness of Spirit People of different Parties in his time had all along labour'd to blacken one another and if the Trade of Calumniating he said could be so successfully and generally carried on in so Inlightened an Age as this is and in so small a Spot of Ground as England when by the Invention of Printing it is so easie a thing to find out and discover the Truth He thought a Man in common Discretion should not be too forward to pass a rigid Censure upon several of those Persons who in the Writings of Epiphanius and other Ancient Authors are Branded for Hereticks and loaded with such execrable and horrid Crimes that Humane Nature one would hope could never be capable of What helped to confirm him in this Opinion is a famous Passage in Socrates the Historian who L. 2. C. 18 ingenuously tells the Reader That it was a common Custom with the Bishops to Accuse those Persons who were turned out of their places to pronounce them to be Impious and the like without giving themselves the trouble to justifie the Particulars of that Impiety they charged them with Thus we have a frank Confession of what was commonly Practised in those Ages of the Church and whoever doubts whether the same Methods were not carried on afterwards let him but read what a Monstrous Account the Popish Writers have given of Wickliff and the Lollards as they call'd them how hideously the Monks have blackned those Princes that were not in their Interests what abominable Stories the Jesuits have reported of Luther and Calvin let him I say but turn over Sanders's History of the Reformation the Catalogues of Bale and Pits Fox's Martyrs and to come down to our own times White 's Centuries of Scandalous Divines Edward's Gangrena the several Mercuries in the late Civil Wars the Querela Cantabrigiensis the Histories of F. Maimbourg and Varillas the Packets of Advice and the Observators the Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence and the Answer to it with a Million of other Anonymous Pamphlets and Secret Histories and if this don't convince him I don't know what will He was a hearty Assertor of the Liberties of his Native Country and looked with Indignation and Contempt on those Citizens who in a strain of Flattery scarcely to be matched in the servile Reigns of Tiberius and Domitian most humbly Addressed King Charles II. that he would be graciously pleased to put Chains and Fetters on them and thus prostituted those Rights and Immunities which their Ancestors had taken such care to Transmit safely to a most unworthy Generation He thought that the perpetual Bellowing of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance from the Pulpits did not a little contribute to fix these Slavish Impressions upon People's minds Admit these Doctrines were as certain as any in the New-Testament why should they as it were in preference to the rest be everlastingly inculcated to all Congregations Or where was the Policy to tell the King and his Officers that they might strip the People of all they possess'd in the World and yet they were in Conscience bound not lift up a finger against them What Man of sense that desires to keep his Wife honest would be always ratling in her Ear Pawn my Plate and injure my Bed as often as thou wilt for my Religion teaches me to bear all patiently Princes are naturally ambitious of Power and don't need Instructors to tell them that if they please they may Govern their Subjects Despotically and then quote them Texts of Scripture for it But he often used to say As long as Deaneries and good Preferments were to be got by Preaching this absurd stuff so long the Church wou'd stand by it but that if ever the Court came to put matters home to these Passive Gentlemen and pinch the Retailers of this monstrous Hypothesis they would as certainly leave it in the lurch as they would a starving Curacy in the Hundreds for a rich Parsonage in a better Air. The event has confirmed the truth of what he said for no sooner did K. James and his Priests begin to pull one of their Tythe-Pigs by the Ear but all the Pulpits from the Lands-end to Berwick upon Tweed rung of Persecution and Tyranny and since His present Majesty's accession to the Crown the Laity has had the satisfaction of seeing their Teachers face about and declare for the quite contrary Doctrine or at least restrain it except a few whom either the real belief of a Principle early received or the shame of being thought Turn-Coats or Obstinacy or Interest and other By-ends have hindred from taking the Oaths to the Government What was remarkable in a Person of his Private Condition who had not the advantage of a Learned Education or of an ample Fortune and Wealth to Support him he was honoured with the Acquaintance of the most Illustrious Men that this Age has produced This he obtained by the Simplicity of his Manners the Uniformity of his Life by his Judgment naturally Solid and well Determin'd and his active Genius that was capable of the greatest Undertakings Not to mention several worthy Citizens of the most distinguish'd Rank he was particularly Esteemd by the equally Learned and Pious Dr. Wilkins Bishop of Chester by the Honourable Mr. Boyle the great Restorer of Natural and Christian Philosophy by that Eminent Oracle of the Law Sir Matthew Hale and what will be the most lasting Elogy to our Friend that I or any other Hand can give him he was happy in the Friendship of the most Excellent Prelate that ever filled the Archiepiscopal Chair the Incomparable Dr. Tillotson Having presumed to mention that great Name which will be Sacred to all Posterity in so worthless a Paper as this is I hope Sir you 'l give me leave to make a short Digression You know the Arch-Bishop has been Maliciously Represented in some Libels as a Betrayer of the Church and an Enemy to the Christian Faith because when he was advanced to that Dignity which he the best deserved of any of his Function he was pleased to suffer a Visit now and then from his old Acquaintance Mr. Firmin All the Impartial World I believe is satisfied that Dr. Tillotson was far from being a Socinian His own Works sufficiently testifie it to the everlasting Infamy of those that laid it to his Charge and yet an innocent Correspondence with a Person whose Unhappiness and not Fault it was to Dissent from us in some disputed Points must be improved into the blackest Sin imaginable as if it were impossible to shew common Civilities to our Neighbour without being of his Opinion Even the Church of Rome which by virtue of its Infalliblity has the