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
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A42631 A description of the present state of Samos, Nicaria, Patmos, and Mount Athos by Joseph Georgirenes ... ; translated by one that knew the author in Constantinople.; Perigraphē tēs parousēs katastaseōs tēs Samou, Ikarias, Patmou, kai Athōnos. English Geōrgarinēs, Iōsēph, 17th cent.; Denton, Henry, 1633?-1681. 1678 (1678) Wing G536; ESTC R7929 42,183 134

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

searchers into Brittish Antiquity do strain hard to make the Cassiterides or the Scilly and Man and Anglesey put in for a claim But the Poets have been more accurate in maintaining the Character of an earthly Paradise and describing a felicity of state beyond that of a Platonick or Utopian Commonwealth than in directing us by any rules of Geography where it is to be found And as they have left it indifferent to the Reader to fix the Local Situation of such Islands where they will so they have left it impossible to any Reader to find such a place in the whole World Indeed it is the high prerogative of great and lasting Wits to affix an esteem and veneration upon those places they make the Stage of their Stories be they true or false But in this point of credit the Islands of the Archipelago do far surpass any other in the World And this is true not only of the licentious and extravagant Fables of their Romantick Mythologie but also in the graver and more creditable Records of sober History They did heretofore in a manner engross the Monopoly of all the Wit and Fancy both of Greece and Rome Insomuch that 't is hardly possible for a man well vers'd in the Greek and Latin Tongues to be a stranger to the antient Geography of these Places And Pliny who was in nothing less erroneous than in this part of his natural History of these Islands does honour the Bay wherein they are situate with the Title of Sinus claritatis literarum A large Encomium and such as no other aggregate body of Islands had equal right to The Japan Philippine and Molucco Islands in the Oriental Ocean are far beyond these for number but the only thing they are sought for is some natural products peculiar to their Soil and Climate in which commendation they do not exceed the late discoveries in the American Ocean but we find not that the World was ever beholding to the one or the other for the Propagation of Learning or Civility Nor is it only famous for the early rise of Humane Learning and civil Culture in the days of Gentilism but also for the early appearance of the more glorious Sun-shine of the Heavenly Doctrin of the Gospel St. John the Divine honoured in the Oracles of God with the peculiar Title of the Disciple whom Jesus loved was once an Inhabitant of these Islands where he founded the Christian Religion and writ that Divine and Mysterious Book which was indeed to him Apocalypse but to all future ages Apocrypha St. Paul that great Apostle of the Gentiles did often cross this Sea to plant the Doctrin of Salvation in all the neighbouring Shores of Europe and Asia And in future ages when the Divine Providence raised up a Christian Emperour to protect his Church from persecution these Islands were the very centre of once the most Orthodox and learned Church in the World To whom we owe not only the transmitting the Holy Scriptures to our knowledge but also the digesting the Doctrin of them into Articles of Faith the defence of Truth against all invasion of Errour the faithful Records of most pure and primitive Tradition the clear Exposition of many obscure passages which without their direction might have been at this day unintelligible and the great advantage of many bearned and elaborate Volumes of Orthodox Divinity both Polemical and Practick And of all those many different Sects of Christianity in the East they have to this day most firmly retain'd the ancient Truths and made the least Deviation into Errour If that ignorance which those barbarous extinguishers of learning the Turks keep them in renders that afflicted Nation obnoxious to be impos'd upon and incapable of knowing better it deserves rather our pity than our contempt and scorn It is rather a Miracle of Gods gracious Providence that under such tyrannous Masters and such proud and contemptuous enemies of the common name of Christianity the light of Evangelical Truth is not only dim'd but utterly extinct as it has hapned in the Latin Church in Africa once inferiour to none for purity of Doctrin and piety and learning in their Professours Yet this cannot be deny'd them but that they accord with us in many things wherein we differ from the Romish Church I may add this more that in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the Greek Church doth not bear that conformity or similitude with the Romish Church as the great Champions for Popery would affix upon them And that will easily appear in these particulars 1. They use not the Elevation of the Host 2. No carrying it in Procession 3. The People stand when they receive it 4. They give it in both kinds to all 5. The bread is of a common sort before Consecration It is besides the business of this Preface to enlarge upon the present State of the Greek Church which the reverend Author hath in some measure done in his account of Samos and Mount Athos And that subject is more largely handl'd by a late learned Author in the Latin and English Tongues All that I shall add is that scarce any part of Greece has less intermixture with the Turks than these Isles where the Greek Language and Religion is less intrench'd upon There are no less than twenty Bishops in the Archipelago some with the Title of Metropolite as Metelyn and Methymia others with the Title of Arch-Bishop as Samos and Andros and some with the bare Title of Bishop as Sciathus Yet neither of the two first differ from the last in any thing but in Title or priority of Place Their jurisdiction is alike it being ordinary here for a Metropolite and an Arch-Bishop to be without a Suffragan The reason is because of the great Revolutions many of the old Bishopricks are lost and the ancient frame of Ecclesiastical Polity much alter'd The Patriarch continues the Title of Metropolite upon all the places that formerly were so and the litle of Arch-Bishop upon those that depend immediately upon the Patriarch without any subjection to a Metropolite although they have no Bishop under their jurisdiction The following Treatise giveth an account of three Islands of the Archipelago and Mount Athos the Great Academy for the Greek Clergy In all these places he liv'd and writes nothing but what he saw or what he receiv'd from the constant Tradition of the places So that as to matters of fact he may be better rely'd upon than those that write of places to which they are great strangers For the Truth of what is related is the main Postulatum of an History A DESCRIPTION Of the ISLE of SAMOS AND Of its present State at this Day SAmos is one of the greatest and most remarkable Islands of the Archipelago situate near the Continent of Asia It is well known that this was the Country of Pythagoras and once was Govern'd by Kings of her own and has made stout resistance against Athens what time they both liv'd