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
A33458	Notes upon Mr. Dryden's poems in four letters / by M. Clifford .... ; to which are annexed some Reflections upon the Hind and panther, by another hand.	Clifford, M. (Martin), d. 1677.; Brown, Thomas, 1663-1704. Reflections on the Hind and panther.	1687 (1687)	Wing C4706; ESTC R1883	19,057	36

alass 't is her fear all and another way of crying the Hawk Mercy and to the end that the Hawk finding nothing but Feathers to strike at she may so perhaps shelter her Body It is very fit indeed you should have a Guide and a Keeper too but Men in their Wits do believe that God made Man a reasonable Creature who feels as much Pleasure when he can give himself a good Account of his Actions as one that sees does perceive in comparison to a blind Man who is led about and therefore they think that the same merciful God would not contrive his Religion to be dark nor place it beyond the reach of their Faculties when he designed it to perfect their Natures and to raise them to the utmost heights they are capable of Fourthly the next Charge is Novelty and Schism thus expressed p. 66. We can point out each Period of the Time When they began and who begat the Crime Can Calculate how long the Eclipse endur'd Who interpos'd what Digits were obscur'd Mr. Bayes you must know was always good at Eclipses as when he made the Sun Moon and Earth act one in a Dance But I must say that this is a new way of writing Controversie to run us down with Whimsies instead of true Reasoning as He hath been used to astonish the Spectators in the Play-House with Scenes Clothes and Dances instead of giving Mankind a Picture of themselves and thereby making Virtue belov'd Vice abhor'd and the little Irregularities of Men's Tempers call'd Humours exposed to Laughter But seeing He is so exact at the Calculation of Time I would have him inform us how old these following Doctrines are Transubstantiation Purgatory the Merit of Works Invocation of Saints the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome the Authority of the Councils and the Infallibility of the Pope these being the chief Causes for which we dissent from Rome Surely in the beginning these things were not so For according to our Account Infallibility goes no higher than the Scholars of Marcus in Irenaeus or the Gnosticks in Epiphanius Purgatory comes from Origen or at the furthest from Tertullian who had it from Montanus The Denial of Marriage to the Priesthood is derived from Pope Calixtus Transubstantiation is from the Lateran Council The Half-Communion is no older than the time of Aquinas Praying in an unknown Tongue may be fetcht as far as from Gregory the Great St. Austin denies the Invocation of Saints departed to have been in his Days and the Supremacy of the Pope began in Boniface the Third Against Transubstantiation Aquinas argues Oper. Tom. 12. as a novel and an impossible thing for one Body to be locally in more places than one and in all at once The witholding the Cup from the Laity is against our Saviours Institution who hath commanded all Men to drink of this Cup Matth. 26. 27. From the beginning the Holy Scriptures were perused by the People witness the Traditores in the Persecution of Dioclesian who were called so from their delivering up of their Bibles which before they were forced to the contrary they made daily use of therefore the Hebrew Text was read Weekly to the Iews and the New Testament was written in Greek because that Tongue was most known to the Eastern World and to pray in an unknown Tongue is against the plain Sense of the 14th Chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians Priests also were permitted to have Wives both in the Old and New Testaments and many of the Blessed Apostles were Married Men And St. Paul asserts his Liberty to carry a Wife along with him as well as Cephas These and many more Corruptions which I could mention in point of Practice and Doctrine too awaken'd the Christian World to look out for a Reformation to enquire for the old paths and to walk therein and to reform what was amiss by what had been the Belief and Practice of the Christian Church from the beginning In this Search are discovered the Rise and Progress of all the new-invented Doctrines in the Church of Rome by what Degrees her several Errours have been brought in For to go no further back than the Council of Trent we find new Articles of Faith such as the Sacrifice of the Mass the Doctrine of Purgatory the Invocation of Saints the Worship of Images and the like were enjoyned under the Pain of Damnation And in the Canon of the Fourth Session of that Council Unwritten Traditions are decreed to be of equal Authority with the Scriptures Upon this our first Reformers consulted the Scriptures and the Primitive Fathers of the Church that they might see how things stood from the beginning and only separated from them who had parted with the old and the true Religion Therefore it is in vain for Mr. Bayes to scorn or to complain of us for leaving the Church of Rome unless He can convince us that we have forsaken the Word of God the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles the uncorrupted Primitive Church the Four First General Councils or the Antient Creeds This is old Standard Faith Mr. Bayes and these the first plantations of the Truth of the Gospel from the Profession whereof we are no Schismaticks for Schism must needs be theirs who give the cause of Separation not theirs who do but separate when the Cause is given and we have departed from Rome for this Reason because she hath in many Instances departed from the Faith of Christ Nay had not the Pope affected a Supremacy over all other Churches besides his own we never had cast off a Yoak which had never been put on our Necks and so it is plain that the Vsurper did make the Schism It is indeed a Glorious Design to reconcile all Churches to one Doctrine and Communion but then it must not be done by such Tyranny as the Popes have practised to fetter Men streighter under the Bondage of fictitious Articles of Faith but Unity from this kind of Force is rather to be prayed against than wish'd for God only in his own time and by the inscrutable Methods of his Providence is able to range his whole Church scattered over the Face of the Earth into primitive Unity and Christian Order In the mean time Mr. Bayes should lay aside his Projects of Pillories Rods Gibbets and Inquisitions to make us acquiesce in his Judgment whatever be our private Opinion In some parts of his allegorical Poem one would verily believe that the Poet himself was turned into a Wolfe for his Speech is all howling yelling and barking that you would imagin He would presently pull out the Throats and suck the Bloud of all the Protestant Sheep who are always ready to suffer rather than commit that Errour against their Consciences which must render them Hypocrites to God and Knaves amongst Men. Therefore notwithstanding Mr. Bayes hath thought fit to pass over from one perswasion of Religion to another yet he might forbear to spit thrice at every