Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	ancient_a	church_n	doctrine_n	1,896	5	6.2759	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03752	Dendrologia Dodona's grove, or, the vocall forrest. By I.H. Esqr.	Howell, James, 1594?-1666.; Merian, Matthaeus, 1593-1650, engraver.	1640 (1640)	STC 13872; ESTC S119170	97,161	190

to dart at Petropolis No I reverence her from my very Soule for the first ancient Mother Church but it hath beene the practice of the common Enemie That where Truth erecteth her Church he helpes Error to reare up a Chappell hard by I firmely subscribe and submit my selfe to whatsoever was ordaind and acted in her the first foure Centurie of yeares for nothing makes more for the confirmation of my Faith then her Doctrine and practise then For in those Ages a great many of her blessed Arch-Flamins creeping lowly upon the ground yeelded themselves to be made Bonefires for the maintenance of Truth and out of their ashes sprung up more and more innumerable holy Plants which did wonderfully propagate and they were all indued with the vertue of the Palme the more they were oppressd and overset with the weight of Persecution the faster stronger and streighter they grew up In those dayes the light of Divine Knowledge did streame from Petropolis in beames of Innocencie Simplenesse and Humilitie but afterwards helas it came to be offuscated and halfe choakd up with Fogges of humane Fancies Some presume to affirme that if the Almightie would assume a visible externe shape it should be compounded of Light and Truth they are so essentiall unto him Petropolis was once adornd with both these but long since the one hath beene shrewdly dimmd the other depravd though neither quite extinguishd as some affirme in her So that I beleeve Druina had never forsaken Petropolis had Petropolis stood firme to her selfe and not swervd from her first grounds But I find that all the Devices and Crochets of new Inventions which crept into her tended either to enrich or enlarge the Ivie The Barke of the Prime Apostle was imployed to Pyracie and his Keyes to unlock the Treasuries of Princes and where they could not doe the Sword should breake them open But for his imaginarie Exchequer wherein were hoorded the redundancie of good workes nothing must open that but Keyes of massie Gold Arguments were turnd to Armes and Miters to Helmets which made the World in stead of being rectified to run headlong into strange obliquities of Schisme and Confusion As much if not more affiance and conceit of comfort began to be had in them who once were sinners and but yet supposed Saints then in the Saviour himselfe Vowes and Orisons were made to them that knew nothing of the heart and amongst such a number of pettie Deities God was halfe forgotten Dignities in Heaven were disposd of on Earth and to one of their Moderne Saints that place is given which Lucifer lost And the blessedst of mortall Wights that ever breathd the Ayre of this lower Region now questionlesse the highest Saint in the Celestiall Hierarchie began to be so impertinently importund that a great part of Divine Liturgie was addressd solely to her in such a way that she questionlesse detests They came so farre in this point that to make a perfect Salve for a sick Soule they held there must be a mixture and compound made of Milke and Bloud and that they are both of equall vertue Traditions and the Ivies Decretalls were made of equall force and as authenticall as the sacred Charter it selfe and as much obliging the Conscience and his Commands observd with more terror then those which were delivered by the Voice of the Almightie in Thunder and Lightning It came to passe that it grew a common thing for one to plant a Tree and with one part to heat his Oven with the other to roast his Meat and to make his God of the third And whereas at the beginning Man was made after Gods image which must be understood of the interne graces of the Soule it grew a common practise to make God after mans image in externe grosse corporeall shapes whereas the incomprehensible Majestie of the Almighty can neither bee circumscribd in place nor represented in Picture but darkely describd by an aggregation of his Attributes And whereas Hee being a Spirit ought to bee servd in spirit and chiefely with interne worship and ingraven onely in the Tables of the heart most of His service came now to bee externe in shewes and representations His Temples being filled with certaine kindes of Antique faces and great Puppets in every corner so that Petropolis became as a little after her first foundation she was a meere Grove of Idolls Moreover the minde was caried away with such a fond conceipt that Heaven and that eternall weight of glory which is reserved there for the Blessed might be over-merited by surplusage of works Whereas there was never any proportion yet twixt infinity and things finite nor was this Earth ever held but an indivisible point and a thing of no dimension at all in respect of the Heavens and there should be alwayes a kind of proportion twixt the worke and the reward Thus they thought to climbe up to Heaven upon the Tree of their owne Merits whereas they should have observed that the Publican was bid to come downe the Tree before Grace could descend upon him After this unlucky brood of errors there crept in odde Philosophicall subtilties and forc'd termes of Art which did much puzzle Sacred Theologie and threw as it were dirt in her face with their classicall distinctions cavills quiddities and so transformd her to a meere kinde of sophistry and logomachy Yet all this cannot deprive Petropolis of the Character of a true Church I cannot say adverbially true and God is a lover of adverbs she still hath the essentiall grounds with the externe profession and exercise of saving knowledge Though Tares repullulat there is Wheate still left in the Field the Foundation is good though some odde Superstructures have been raisd upon the first story And he that pries into her with impartiall eyes will find that shee is not so corrupt in her positions as in her practise for many who have beene allured by her Bookes have beene averted againe by her Churches and the sight of her ceremonies and antique formes which in some places are such that whereas Divinity should goe clad like a Grave Venerable Matron shee may bee sayd to bee accoutred rather like a Courtisane But some there are who doe prosecute Petropolis with such a blacke irreconcileable malice that whatsoever hath beene once practised in her though arbitrary and indifferent in it selfe tending happily to decency and externe Ornament onely they hold it to be flat Idolatry They thinke they can never fly farre enough from her whereby many of them striving to fly from superstition fall into flat prophanesse holding this hatred of Petropolis to bee a poynt of holinesse so that they may bee sayd to hate her Religion rather then the corruption which depraves it Nay such is their malignancy in this kind that it extends to the very inanimat Creatures of Stone Wood and Glasse so farre that had they their wills there should not a Roofe Wall or Window stand which was once consecrated by