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

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53667	A brief and impartial account of the nature of the Protestant religion its present state in the world, its strength and weakness, with the wayes and indications of the ruine or continuance of its publick national profession / by a Protestant.	Owen, John, 1616-1683.	1682 (1682)	Wing O716; ESTC R11764	23,846	42

Religion is not capable of nor accompanied withall This is that which guided with an Eye to outward Advancement hath in the last Age lost great numbers of the Nobility of France and Poland and other places from the Profession of the Gospel whose Ancestors were renowned Champions for the Truth of it For to what end should Men entertain a Religion which they find no inward Spiritual Advantage by and are for the Profession of it exposed unto all sorts of outward disadvantages And this sort of Men will at any time greedily embrace such a Reconciliation with the Church of Rome as by the Terms of it may a little shelter their Reputation and make a pretence of Satisfying some Traditiona Convictions of the Truth which they had professed Moreover unless it be diligently watched against weariness is apt to grow on many of the Clergy of that Spiritual Rule and Conduct of the People which according to the Principles of the Protestant Religion is committed unto them For there hath by Vertue thereof so much Light and Knowledge been diffused among the People and such a valuation of their Spiritual Liberty thereon which formerly they knew nothing of that there is an excellent Vertue and Piety with continual care and watchfulness required unto the Rule of them and yet when the best of Men have done their utmost herein also they will meet with that which shall exercise their Wisdom and Patience all their Dayes Neither hath Christ granted any Rule or Office in his Church on any other Terms nor will the state of his Subjects who are all Voluntiers permit it to be otherwise No wonder then if some do Like those Engines of an easie Rule namely Ignorance and blind Devotion in the People and so are Ready to return unto them again For it is a monstrous wearisome thing for Men of Heroick Governing Spirits to be obliged to give conviction from the Scripture unto such Persons as they judge impertinent of what they do much more to order their Conversation with strictness that no offence be taken at them This posture of things Men seem to be weary of and therefore do daily Relinquish them so far as they can pretend any consistency between what they do and the Religion which they profess But the utter shaking off of those Bonds and Manacles unworthy of Men of generous Spirits must needs seem more eligible unto them And if hereon such Terms of Reconciliation be offered as shall not only secure unto them their present Possessions and Dignities but give them also a prospect of farther advancement it is to be feared that many of this sort will judge it better to embrace things so desirable than to die in a Prison or at a Stake Besides all these there is at present a coincidence of Two things that exceedingly encline the Minds of many unto an Ecclesiastical Coalescency with the Church of Rome And these are First An Ignorance or Forgetfulness of what the Papacy was and will again be and then a sence of some provocations given or supposed to be given them by the Protestant Religion or those that profess it Alas what harm hath the Papacy ever done to them It may be they can give instances wherein they have had Advantage by it or by them that belong unto it But every thing which they suppose evil and find inconvenient unto their present inclinations they suspect to proceed from the Principles of the Protestant Religion from whence they have already received many provocations These are some of the Reasons which make it evident that there may be no small danger unto the publick Profession of the Protestant Religion the thing enquired after from the present Design of not a few to make a Reconciliation of the two Religions and to bring all Men into a Coalescency in Faith Worship and Rule with the Church of Rome Now as there is little Hope to prevail with them who are under the Power of these things and considerations or are influenced by them by Arguments Religious and Rational seeing they have all of them their Foundation in such corrupt Affections Inclinations and Interests as are more deaf than an Adder unto such Charms yet for the sake of others not as yet engaged by such Prejudices I shall manifest in a few Instances the folly and Wickedness of Attempting or complying with any Reconciliation with the Church of Rome For in the first place be it on what Terms it will it is a Renunciation of the Fundamental Principle of the Reformation namely that the Church of Rome is that Idolatrous Antichristian State which is foretold in the Scriptures For if it be so the Persons that belong unto it may be converted but the State it self is to be destroyed And to joyn our selves unto or coalesce in that Church State on any Terms whatever that the Lord Christ hath designed to destruction is both foolish in it self and will be ruinous in the issue unto our Souls For it will hence also follow that we interest our selves in the Guilt of all that innocent Blood which hath been shed by the Power of that Church-State for a dissent from it For this Guilt which is next unto that of the Church of the Jews in murdering the Head of the Church and every way Equal unto that of the Pagan World in the Blood shed in their Persecutions for which it was Temporally and Eternally destroyed lies charged on this Church-state and will reach unto all that shall choose an Ecclesiastical Conjunction therein And let such Persons flatter themselves whilst they please and slight these things as those wherein they are not concerned they will find them true to their cost here or hereafter Neither will Men of any Light or Ingenuity easily renounce the whole work of Gods Grace and Power in the Reformation and cast the Guilt of all the Divisions that have been in the World on the part of the Protestants For seeing they have all been on the account of the Church-state of Rome in opposition whereunto the Martyrs laid down their Lives a Coalescency on any Terms in and with that Church-state doth include a condemnation of all that hath been done or suffered in opposition thereunto The preaching of the Gospel hath been but a Fancy the suffering of the Martyrs was the highest Folly the Glory given to God on these accounts little less than Blasphemy is the Language of such a Coalescency The Vanity also of the Terms of Reconciliation which are or may be proposed is obvious unto all that are not wilfully blind For the Church of Rome preserving its essentially constitutive Principles and its Being as such can make no such Condescensions as shall not keep safe and secure the whole Malignity of their Faith and Worship When any thing that hath the shew or Appearance of a Concession as suppose Priests Marriage the Cup unto the Lasty and the Service of the Church in a known Tongue is proposed it is Natural for all Men

the most of them especially for some Ages have been Persons wicked ignorant proud sensual and brutish in their Lives This then is the Foundation of the Protestant Religion in that it is built on those Principles which are every way suited unto the Divine Nature and Goodness as also satisfactory unto Humane Reason with a refusal of them which are unworthy of infinite Wisdom to give and the ordinary Reason of men to admit or receive Secondly as the name Protestant is distinctive with respect unto some other pretended profession of Christian Religion so it derives this denomination from them who in all Ages after the Apostasie of the Church of Rome came to be expresly Antichristian departed from the Communion of it opposed it reformed themselves and set up the true Worship of God according unto the Degrees and measures of Gospel Light which they had received This was done successively in a long tract of Time through sundry Ages until by an Accession of Multitudes Princes and People unto the same Profession they openly testified and Protested against the Papal Apostasie and Tyranny whence they became to be commonly called Protestants And the Principles whereon they all of them proceeded from first to last which constitute their Religion as Protestant were these that follow 1. That there are in the Scripture Prophesies Predictions and Warnings especially in the Book of the Revelation and the Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians that there should be a great Apostasie or Defection in the visible Church from the Faith Worship and Holiness of the Gospel and in Opposition unto what was appointed of Christ the Erection of a worldly Carnal Antichristian Church-state composed of Tyranny Idolatry and Persecution which should for a long time Oppress the true Worshippers of Christ with Bloody Cruelty and at last be it self consumed with the Spirit of his Mouth and destroyed by the Brightness of his coming This Defection was so plainly foretold as also the beginning of it in a Mystery of Iniquity designed even in the dayes of the Apostles that Believers in all Ages did expect the accomplishment of it by the Introduction of an Antichristian State and Power though the manner of it was hidden from them until it was really fulfilled I say from the dayes of the Apostles and the giving out of those Prophesies and Predictions of the coming of Antichrist and an Apostate Church State with him all Christians in all Ages did believe and expect that it should come until it 's real coming in a way and manner unexpected confounded their apprehensions about it 2. Their second Principle as Protestants was that this Defection and Antichristian Church State so plainly foretold by the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures was openly and visibly accomplished in the Church of Rome with the Nations that had Subjected themselves unto the Yoke thereof Therein they found and saw all that Tyranny and Oppression all that Pride and self Exaltation above every thing that hath the Name of God upon it all that Idolatry and false Worship all that departure from the Faith of the Gospel all that contempt of Evangelical Obedience which were foretold to come in under and constitute the fatal Apostasie 3. Hereon their third Principle was that as they valued the Glory of God the Honour of Christ and the Gospel their own Salvation and the Good of the Souls of others they were obliged to forsake and renounce all Communion with that Apostate Church though they saw that their so doing would cost many of them their dearest Blood or Lives 4. They were convinced hereon that it was their Duty publickly to Protest against all those Abominations to Reform themselves as unto Faith Worship and Conversation according unto the Rules before laid down as those that are Fundamental unto Christian Religion These were the Principles whereon Christian Religion as it is Protestant was reintroduced into the World after it had been not only obscured but almost excluded out of it as unto it's publick Profession And these Principles are avowed by all true Protestants as those whereon they are ready at all times to put their Cause and Profession on the Trial. The Way whereby the Profession of this Protestant Religion was introduced on these Principles and made publick in the World under the Antichristian Apostasie was the same whereby Christian Religion entred the World under Paganisme Namely by the Prayers Preaching Writings Sufferings and Holiness of Life of them who embraced it and were called to promote it And herein their Sufferings for the number of them that suffered and variety of all Cruel Preparations of Death are inexpressible It is capable of a full Demonstration that those who were Slain by the Sword and otherwise destroyed for their Testimony unto Christ and the Gospel in opposition unto the Papal Apostasie and Idolatry did far exceed the number of them that Suffered for the Christian Religion in all the Pagan Persecutions of Old A Plant so soaked and Watered with the Blood of the Martyrs will not be so easily plucked up as some Imagine Nay it is probable it will not go out without more blood of sufferers I mean than it was introduced by which yet no man knows how to conceive or express But it had no sooner fixed its Profession in some Nations but it was loaden with all manner of Reproaches charged with all the Evils that fell out in the World after its entrance and by all sorts of Arts and pretences rendred suspected and hateful unto Princes and Potentates Whatever is Evil in or unto Mankind especially unto the Interest of great men was with great Noise and Clamour charged on it For so it was in the first entrance of the Christian Religion under Paganisme There was neither Plague nor Famine nor Earthquake nor Inundation of Water nor War nor Invasion by Enemies but all was charged on that New Religion And the Reason hereof was not only the Hatred of the Truth through the Love of Sin and Unrighteousness and an ingrafted power of Superstition through blind Devotion but Principally because for a long Tract of Time the whole of the Profession of Religion had been suited unto the Secular Interests of men supplying them under various pretences with Power Domination Territories Titles Revenues Wealth Ease Grandeur and Honour with an Insinuation into and power over the Consciences of all sorts of Persons a thing very desirable to men of corrupt Minds and easily turned into an Engine unto very bad and pernicious Ends. That the whole Complex and all it's parts in their various motions and Operations of the Christian Religion in the Papacy is framed and fitted unto these Ends so as to give satisfaction unto all corrupt and Ambitious desires in men is palpable unto all that are not wilfully blind But this Protestant Religion so introduced stated the Interest of Christian Religion in a way and design utterly inconsistent herewith and destructive of it And this was to