Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A01281
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Englands sicknes, comparatively conferred with Israels Diuided into two sermons, by Tho: Adams.
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Adams, Thomas, fl. 1612-1653.
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1615
(1615)
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STC 114; ESTC S100411
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68,934
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100
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still an outward faire shew and tincture of golde They demand where was the golde demonstrate the place I answere in that Masse But for the extracting therof and purifying it from drosse God hath giuen vs the true touchstone his sacred Word which can onely manifest the true Church and withall reuerend Bishops and worthy Ministers that haue beene instruments to refine purge it from the drosse of superstitions foule ceremonies and iugling inuentions The Papists brag themselues the true ancient Church and taxe ours of nouelty of heresie But wee iustly tell them that Ecclesâ—â—enomen tenent contra Ecclesiam dimicant that they vsurpe the name of the Church yet persecute it For the truth of our Church wee appeale to the Scriptures Nolo humanis documentis sed diuinis oraculis sanctam Ecclesiam demonstrari It is fit the holy Church should be proued rather by diuine oracles then humane precepts or traditions We stand not vpon numbers which yet wee blesse God are not small but vpon truth You see as the Church of the Iewes so any particular Church may be sicke inwardly To describe these internall diseases I will limite them into 4. 1 Error indeed Heresie cannot possesse a Church but it giues a subuersion to it Errare possum Hereticus esse non Possum sayth that Father I may erre an heretike I cannot be Now Quic quid contra veritatem sapit heresis est etiam vetus consuctudo What is diametrally opposed against the Truth is heresie yea though it be an ancient and long receiued custome But Logicke which is a reasonable discourse of things shewes a great difference betweene diuersae and contraria A Church may bee sicke of errour and yet liue but heresie a wilfull errour against the fundamentall truth violently prosecuted and persisted in kils it Therefore Haeresis potius mors quam morbus Heresie is rather death then sickenesse When the truth of doctrine or rather doctrine of truth hath beene turned to the falshood of Heresie God hath remoued their Candlesticke turned their light into darkenes Error may make it sicke but so that it may be cured The Churches of Corinth Galatia Pergamus had these sicknesses the holy Ghost by Paul and Iohn prescribeth their cures If they had been dead what needed any direction of Physicke If they had not beene sicke to what tended the prescription of their remedy To God alone and to his maiesticall word bee the impossibility of erring That Church that man shall in this erre palpably that will challenge an immunity whosoeuer thinkes he cannot erre doth in this very perswasion erre extreamely I know there is a man on earth a man of earth to say no more that challengeth this priuiledge Let him proue it Giue him a term ad exhibendum and then for want of witnesse ho may write Teste meipso as Kinges doe Witnesse our selfe c. Nay aske his Cardinals Fryers Iesuites This is somewhat to the Prouerbe Aske the sonâ— if the Father be a thiefe But hee cannot erre in his definitiue sentence of Religion Then belike hee hath one spirite in his consistory and another at home and it may in some sort be said of him as Salust of Cicero Alâ—â—d stanâ— aliud sedens de Republica loquitur He is of one opinion sitting of another standing Let God bee true but euerie man a lier One of their owne said Omnis homo errare potest in side etiamsi Papa sit Any man may erre in faith yea though hee were the Pope If they will haue Rome a sanctuary let them take along with them Petrarcha's catachresicall speech calling it a Sanctuary of Errors What particular Church then may not erre now can it erre and be sound Bee the errour small yet the ache of a finger keepes the body from perfect health The greater it is the more dangerous Especially 1. either when it possesseth a vitall part and affecteth infecteth the Rulers of the Church It is ill for the feet when the Head is giddy 2. or when it is infectious and spreading violently communicated from one to another 3. or when it carries a colour of truth The most dangerous vice is that which beares the countenance and weares the cloake of vertue 4. or when it is fitted to the humor and seasoned to the rellish of the people Sedition affectation popularity couetousnesse are enough to driue an errour to an heresie So the disease may proue a Gangrene and then enserecidendum ne pars sinceratrabatur no meanes can saue the whole but cutting off the incurable part Pereat vnus potius quam vnitas 2 Ignorance is a sore sicknesse in a Church whether it bee in the superiour or subordinate members Especially when the Priests lippes preserue not knowledge Ill goes is with the body when the 〈◊〉 are blind Deuotion without instruction often windes it selfe into superstition When learnings head is kept vnder Auarices girdle the land growes sicke Experience hath made this conclusion too manifest Our fore-fathers felt the terrour and tyranny of this affliction who had golden Challices and wodden Priests that had either no Art or no hart to teach the people Sing not thou Romane Syrâ—n that Ignorance is the damme of deuotion to breed it it is rather a damme to stifle restraine and choke it vp Blindnesse is plausible to please men not possible to please God Grant that our faults in the light are more hainous then theirs who wanted true knowledge Ex furibus enim leges eos grauius puniunt qui interdiù furantur For the lawes doe punish those theeues most seuerely that feare not euen by day to commit outrages Yet in all reason their sinnes did exceede in number who knew not when they went awry or what was amisle Rome hath by a strange and incredible kinde of doctrine gone about to proue that the health which is indeede the sicknesse of a Church Ignorance Their Cardinal Cusaen faith that Obedientia irrationalis est consummata obedientia perfectissima c. Ignorant obedience wanting reason is the most absolute and perfect obedience Chrysostome giues the reason why they so oppose themselues against reason Haeretici sacerdotes Claudunt ianuas veritatis c. Hereticall Priestes shut vp the gates of Truth For they know that vpon the manifestation of the Truth their Church would be soone forsaken If the light which maketh all things plaine should shine out Tunc hi qui prius decipiebant nequaquaâ— ad populum accodere valebunt post quam se senserint intellectos then they who before cosoned the people could preserue their credits no longer being now smelt out and espied Hence the people aime at Christ but either short or gone and not with a iust Ieuell But Nemo de Christo credat nisi quod Chrâ—stus de se credi voluit Let no man beleeue other thing of Christ then what Christ would haue beleeued of himselfe Non minus est
this Easter Feast of the Resurrection of our Sauiour Iesus ouertake take the Resurrection of all his Saintes Grant this O Father for thy mercies Oh Christ for thy merites Oh blessed Spirite for thy holy names sake To whom three persons in glorious Trinity one onely true and immortall God in vnity be all power prayse maiesty and mercy acknowledged for euer Amen ENGLANDES SICKENES THE Second Lecture IEREM CHAP. 8. VER 22. Why is not the health of the daughter of my people recouered WE haue described the Person the Church of Israel as she is her own as shee is her owners what in regarde of her selfe what in respect of her God It remaines now only to enquire how shee is affected Shee is Sicke which is necessarily implied from Gods complaint Why is not the health of my daughter recouered She was sicke and so sicke that the Prophet complaines Her wound is incurable for it is come euen to the heart vnto Iudah Incurable in regard of her owne misery not of her Sauiours mercy She was low brought in the Babilonish Captiuity Except the Lord of hostes had left vnto vs a very small remnant wee should haue beene as Sodome and like vnto Gomorrah It is of the Lords mercies that wee are not consumed because his compassions though our obedience faile not But her honour lay in the dust when her Apostacie had forfeited her happinesse Superstition taking the vpper hand of Deuotion and the traditions of man getting the start and ascendency of Gods precepts When her disease grew too frenzy and her sicknesse so excluding from it selfe all recouerable hope that shee had slaine her Physitian and killed him that should haue carried her Whence it appeares that a particular visible Church might and may fall away from grace and haue the Candlesticke remooued The Papists bragge of their numerous multitude and promontorious celsitude Rome boasts that their Church stands vpon an hill So it doth on six hilles too many Shee is mounted high enough if this could iustifâ—e her She had better bate of her height and â—ise in her goodnesse There may be a locall succession but if not in faith and doctrine mole ruit sua her toppe-heauy weight ouerthrowes her May it not be said of her as Ieremie of Egipt Goe vp into Gilead and take balms Oh virgin the daughter of Egipt in vaine shalt thou vse many medicines for thou shalt not be cured It is no wonder then no wrong if we depart from her that hath departed from the truth of the Gospell and faith of Christ. I will not descend into the view of her apostacie though iust occasion may seeme heere offred but turne my selfe and speech to our selues who are sound in doctrine sicke in conversation but I trust not without good hope of recouerie But so soone as the Romish malignancie heares me say wee are sicke they instantly insult reproching our doctrine But doe men try the faith by the persons or the persons by the faith It is a silly argument à moribus ad doctrinam from the life to the doctrine Yet though we desire and striue to haue our owne liues better we feare not to match them with theirs Our sicknesse would be esteemed lesse if we would goe to Rome for a medicine For the Papist may better steale the horse than the Protestant looke on But so long as we haue approoued Phisitions at home what need we walke so farre to a Mountebanke It is a false rumour there is no sound ayre but the Romish Is it not rather true that thence comes all infection And that they who haue forsaken vs to seeke health there haue gone out of Gods blessing into the warme Sunne Our liues trouble them this they obiect this they exprobrate ad nauseam vsque But do they not stumble at our strawes and leape ouer their owne blockes cauill at our motes and forget or iustifie their owne beames The swelling on the Foxes head shall be a horne if the Pope will so iudge it a Catiline Lopus Garnet Faulx an honest man a Catholike a Saint if hee will so interpret so canonize him If I should but pricke this ranke vein how would Rome bleed Would not haec prodidisse be vicisse as Erasmus said of Augustines dealing against the Maniches the very demonstration of these things be a sufficient conuiction Vnnaturall and hideous treasons conspiracies against whole kingdomes deposing dethroning touching with a murderous hand Christos Dei the Annointed of God oathes vncleannesses periuries from whom are they produced by whom practised if not mostly if not onely by Papists They prie search deride censure the forepart of their Wallet wherein they put our iniquities whiles their owne sinnes are ready to breake their neckes behinde them The greatest euils wee haue are theirs father'd by those that will not be mother'd of our Church Haec non ad frument a Christi sed ad eorum paleam pertinent These belong not to Christs wheate but to the châ—ffe of Antichrist These are â—onsters bred of that viperous dam that haue shooke hands with humaâ—ity with ciuility though they reserue the forme of Religion Si quid in his possem facerem sterilescere matrem as one of their owne said It were well if either the children would forsake their kind or the mother become barren Yet must these men be Saints and stand named with red letters in the Popes Calendar red indeed so dyed with the Martyr'd bloud of Gods seruants But I am not delighted to stand vpon comparisons if their exclamations had not put me to them that like blown Pharisies they cry out with ostentation of sanctity God I thanke thee that I am not as other men are or as this Publican What age people Church were euer yet so holy that the Preachers found no cause of reproofe of complaint against it Chrysostome speaketh of his times Christians now are become like Pagans or worse Yet who will say that the Religion of Pagans was better then the Christians The Priest and Leuite had no mercy the Samaritane had yet their Religion was the true and not the Samaritans If some Papists amongst vs and those very few liue in more formall and morall honesty et this commendeth not their whole Church They are now in the time of their persecution as they take it though their prosperity and numbers euince the contrary wee are in our peace and who knowes not that an easie occasion of wantonnesse I deny not that wee haue grieuous offenders wee mourne and pray for them Doe the Papists reioyce at this Woe to him that is glad of Gods dishonour Let them brag their peruersion of some which were ours but such and so affected to viciousnesse If wee had lost more of Atheists sacrilegâ—ous Adulterers lâ—centious hypocrites we had as little reason to complaine as they to be proud We are the fewer they not the better We desire endeauour reproue exhort