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
A58738	Several weighty considerations humbly recommended to the serious perusal of all, but more especially to the Roman Catholicks of England to which is prefix'd, An epistle from one who was lately of that communion to Dr. Stillingfleet, Dean of St. Pauls, declaring the occasion of the following discourse.	T. S. Epistle from a late Roman Catholick to the Very Reverend Dr. Edward Stillingfleet, Dean of St. Paul's.; Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1679 (1679)	Wing S183; ESTC R16533	49,205	54

Scotland and Ireland Denmark Swedeland and the far greatest part of the United Netherlands Switzerland Germany and Hungaria are subject to Bishops and Church-Officers of their own without any dependance upon Him at Rome Even in Bohemia Poland France Transylvania some Countreys of Italy there are multitudes of Reformed Churches which have nothing to do with the Popes Jurisdiction And thus that Large Universality of Power that the Old Gentleman at Rome brags of is at last shrunk away into Spain part of France Italy and Poland some of the Cantons of Switzerland some of the Low Countreys and Germany And here you have a Map of the Papal Universality They boast indeed much of their New Acquisitions in the Indies but not to Examine by what Right they Invaded those Countreys after such a brutish manner were those Conversions made driving the poor Natives to Baptisme like Herds of Beasts to Watering that their own Writers blush at Recording it And when all comes to all it will appear that they Butcher'd more than they Baptiz'd Bartholomaeus Casa a Bishop that lived in those Countreys and Acosta the Jesuit are sufficient Witnesses in this matter And since We are entred upon this much cryed up Universality of the Roman Church it will not be amiss to glance a little at those other Claims and Pretensions whereby she would Impose her self on the World for the Onely Immaculate Spouse of our Blessed Saviour Antiquity is much talked of and it is a kind of Universality in regard of Time as that before mentioned was of Place and Persons But how groundlesly the Roman Church appropriates and ingrosses it to her self is too apparent from the Novel Tridentine Constitutions and Articles And besides it can be no Discriminating Note in as much as it is applicable to things prophane as well as Sacred even to Paganism it self and to Heresies many of which are as Antient as the first Century as well as to Orthodox Doctrine And if we come down to Practice we shall find it far more feasible to discover the True Church here or there at present than to discern where it was in the constant Series of many Ages History being one of the most obscure intricate tedious and fallacious Principles in this case whereon we can possibly proceed Nor could any particular Church or the Catholick Church it self at the Beginning lay any Claim to the Title of being ancient Besides the Characteristical of Truth is not so much to be Antiqua Old as Prima from the Beginning from Christ and his Apostles and such Antiquity the Church of England is very willing to be tryed by in every one of her Articles So that here are two Conditions deficient Soli Semper Antiquity belongs not only to the True Church nor is it alwayes competible to it To this is reducible their Duration or Continuance but this is rejected in the same manner as their Antiquity is to which it is so near allyed And here by the way we have a most Satisfactory Reply to that thred-bare Demand Where was your Religion before Luther I will not at present use his Answer though very good That it was in the Bible where their 's never was Nor will I demand where theirs was before the late Assembly at Trent some years after Luther But I say it was by wonderful Providence preserved all along down from the Apostles dayes to ours and so will be to the Consummation of the World So we need not turn over all the Immense Volumes of Antiquity to give in a Catalogue of visible Professors of the Reformation and yet this may and hath been sufficiently done but our only Task is to prove our Religion the same which was taught by the Blessed Jesus and his Apostles which can only be done by appealing to the Sacred Records of the Gospel and as for the Professors we have his Promise that he will preserve a Select Company though sometimes living in a corrupt visible Church as Wheat among Tares or the seven thousand in Elisha's time that had not bowed their Knees to Baal 1 Kings 19. 18. to his second Coming though he hath not told us where to find them in every year And therefore such as go about to demonstrate that such Professors were not in Being do but attempt to enervate our Saviours Promise and render themselves and Christianity equally ridiculous The Multitude Extent and Variety of their own Professors is indeed Matter of great Ostentation and it hath in part been adverted to in the Business of Universality But in Truth it is so far from being a certain Argument of the Truth of their Church that it rather concludes the Contrary Fear not little Flock sayes our Saviour and strive to enter in at the Straight Gate What shall we think of that time S. Jerome speaks of Cum ingemuit Orbis Mirabatur se factum Arianum when as Vincentius Lyrinensis speaks in a manner all the Latin Bishops partly by Force and partly by Fraud were deluded into Arianisme It is indeed a Note of Anti-Christ Revel 17. That the Whore shall sit upon many Waters which Waters are People and Nations and Tongues As for the Name Catholick so often objected we know that Names have little Weight with wise men that there were some Hereticks who called themselves Apostolical Men that S. John in his Apocalypse tells us there were such as had a Name to live but were dead and that Bellarmine himself acknowledges that if one only Province should retain the True Faith yet might it be called Catholick The Succession of Bishops from the Apostles times is another very plausible Topick on which they much Descant and I confess it bore great Sway with me for a long time especially as to the Validity of Holy Orders Yet upon Mature Deliberation I found more of Pomp than real Solidity in this Pageant though our Ears are continually filled with Clamour about it For neither doth it agree only with the true Church since themselves acknowledge it among the Greeks as in the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Alexandria the former whereof derives from S. Mark the other down successively from S. Andrew to this day nor if you will credit S. Ambrese de paenit l. 1. c. 6. is Succession of Persons so much to be heeded as Succession of Doctrin Non habent haereditatem Petri qui fidem Petri non habent Wherefore if the present Roman Church want the Life and Soul of True Apostolical Succession to wit Apostolical Doctrine a meer local and titular Succession is little worth But the Mischief is that the visible Succession of Bishops in that Sea is not so Glorious and Uninterrupted as is pretended And this is notorious in all Monuments of History and Antiquity that it hath been fouly stained by Simoniacal and Violent Entries upon the Popedom by Schismatical Intrusions and by a perfect Alteration of the very Form and Substance of Election appointed by the Apostles and practised in the primitive Church