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

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B03688	An account of Mr. Edward Sclater's return to the communion of the Church of England and of the recantation he made at the Church of St. Mary Savoy, the fifth of May, 1689. Dr. Burnet, Bishop of Sarum, preaching the sermon there that forenoon. / By Anthony Horneck D.D.	Horneck, Anthony, 1641-1697.	1689 (1689)	Wing H2816; ESTC R178249	11,650	15

overtaken in a Fault ye which are Spiritual restore such a one in the Spirit of Meekness considering thy self least thou also be tempted Gal. 6 1. This was the Rule the Apostle gave to Churches of Galatia and it would look very strange in us if we should not follow that direction especially when our great Master hath charged us Take heed to your selves it thy Brother trespass against thee rebuke him and if he repent forgive him and if he trespass against thee 7 times in a day and 7 times in a day turn again to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him Luk. 17. 3. Were it so that the Ancient Discipline especially that of the African Church had been kept up the Penitent who appears before you have submitted to a far more more rigorous Task even the Religious Hardships of some years before he could have been admitted to the Holy Eucharist but the reviving of these Ancient Severities being rather an Object of our pious Wishes than a thing practicable in this Iron Age a publick Retractation Confession Acknowledgment Declaration and Protestation before an All-seing Eye and in the Face of a whole Congregation is as much as can be rationally desired And now Mr. Sclater having thus told your Case to the Congregation I do intreat desire and admonish you to confirm what I have said by your own free deliberat and considerate Profession before many witnesses Mr. Sclater the degrees of your Sin ought to be answered by the degrees of your Sorrow and Contrition your Apostacy hath been publick and your Repentance ought to be so too And may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who sent his Son into the World to save Sinners and to call them to Repentance give you a Repentance never to be repented of that your future Conversation and blameless Life may do as much good in the World as your former example hath done harm After this Preliminary Discourse Mr. Sclater read in the hearing of the whole Assembly this following Retractation I Edward Sclater late Curate of Putney being unfeignedly sorrowful for the Sin I have committed and the Scandal I have given by my late shameful forsaking of the Communion of the Church of England and joyning myself to that of Rome and having made my most earnest and repealed suplications to the most Reverend Father in God the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury for his Permission to make the best reparation I am able for the great injuries done to the Church by that my Scandalous Defection in hopes of being again admitted to Communion in her Holy Offices Do here in the presence of the All-seeing God and under most serious Apprehensions of Judgment to come heartily and freely make the following Acknowledgement First As to the Romish Doctrines concerning the Infallibility and Supremacy of the Pope or Church of Rome and that Salvation cannot be had out of that Communion I do utterly Renounce them as contrary to the Word and Truth of God. And I do unfeignedly Assent to the Doctrine of the Church of England set forth in her 39 Articles of Religion Moreover I utterly Disown all those many false and scandalous passages contained in that unhappy Book which I styled Consensus veterum heartily wishing I had never published it More particularly I Renounce those disparaging and false Expressions concerning the Rule of Faith and the Use of it in the Church of England For whereas I there wrote That the Canon of Scripture in the Church of England was no other but what her own Members were pleased to allow that the Private Spirit was the Support of the Protestant Faith and that I myself whilst in that Church might have Choice of an hundred Faiths in Her. I am now fully convinced That the Church of England does receive the very same Canon of Scripture and the same Creeds which have in all Ages of the Church been most Universally received as containing all things Necessary to Salvation And that She has due recourse to the Ancient Fathers and the Authority of the Church as the most effectual Means for repressing the Extravagancies of each Man 's private Spirit and for the maintaining of Truth and Peace and good Order in the Church And having now more seriously considered these Things I sincerely think the Testimonies of the first six Centuries to be most fairly interpreted by the Divines of the Church of England and must own That I myself did alledge them very partially and corruptly in behalf of Transubstantiation and other Errors of the Church of Rome Secondly Whereas the usual Boastings of the Romish Emissaries had made me hope to find an Eminent Piety in that Communion I most freely profess and I speak it from my own Observation of two years and upwards that That Religion has approved it self to me utterly contrary to my Expectations My own Devotion was so effectually checked that altho' Mass was said most days in the Week in my House yet I did not Receive for several Months together nor found any I clination to do it Because I could never believe that there was neither Bread nor Wine remaining after Consecration Nay the oftner I saw the Elements after Consecration the less I could believe it tho' I confess I strove my utmost My whole Family frequently complained that they were nothing bettered by the Service it being performed in Latin. And do I what I could they could not understand what was meant nor what themselves were to do while the Priests were to Officiate I found the Priests very zealous for gaining Proselytes but very negligent of their proper Charge They would spend hours every day upon Wavering Protestants But scarce Catechise Children once a fortnight and then too not above half a quarter of an hour and without any Exposition I found what I did not believe before that Confession was practised by them as a means to gain Awe and Authority over the Laity the Priests pretending a Right to know every thing that was said or done in the Family And yet it was neglected by themselves For they would celebrate Mass without it altho' to my knowledge they were guilty of very heinous Sins So that my Expectations of an extraordinary Piety in that Communion were very far from being answered Thirdly I do sorrowfully and with Shame acknowledge That my seeking and accepting a Royal Dispensation to receive the Profits of Ecclesiastical Perferments when I knew my self incapable by Law and was perswaded in my Judgement that I ought not to Officiate and yet at the same time paid another for doing what I thought He ought not to have done was a just occasion of very great Scandal and might have proved fatal to the Church and Kingdom if many had followed my wicked example My best Pleais if I may mention any That I did not then discern the secret Intrigues of that mischievous Faction But I hope no Pious and charitable Heart will conceive I can now be so blind as not

AN ACCOUNT Of Mr. EDWARD SCLATER's RETURN to the Communion of the Church of ENGLAND And of the RECANTATION he made at the Church of St. Mary Savoy the Fifth of May 1689. Dr. BURNET Bishop of Sarum Preaching the Sermon there that Forenoon By ANTHONY HORNECK D. D. THose who have Power and Authority to command me thinking it requisite that Mr. Sclater's Return and Reconciliation to the Church of England should be made publick in Obedience to their Order I shall impartially set down the Beginning Progress and the Publick Declaration he made of his Outward Repentance I say Outward for the Church judges not of things Occult and Inward and by that means give the Reader an Opportunity to exercise his Charity It was about the beginning of April last that Mr. Sclater sent a Friend of his to me to desire me to admit him to the Communion at the Savoy and the Motive alledged was That he had not only given my Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Satisfaction in the Sincerity of his Repentance but was ready to make a free and formal Retractation of his former Errors before me and to assure me that nothing but Conviction and Evidence and a clearer sight of the Truth had wrought this Conversion in him the Reason he said why he chose to Receive the Eucharist at the Savoy was because he intended to live thereabout in a House of his own and there to betake himself to such an Employment as he should be capable of The News of his Repentance though the juncture of Time was Temptation enough to suggest some Idea's which might incline me to a Smile yet I entertained with all the Gravity and Seriousness as became a Divine and a Christian that ought to be pleased with the coming back of a straying Sheep and much more of a Shepherd who had lost his way But the Admission of such a Person tho' neverso penitent appearing to me a matter of more than ordinary Consequence I soon resolved not to determine anything till I had consulted with my Diocesan the Lord Bishop of London I was willing enough in the mean while to hear the Reasons and Motives of this intended Change which upon Enquiry I found to be these That he had been mistaken deceived and deluded with plausible Arguments and specious Pretences and hopes of finding greater Truth and Piety and Severity of Life in the Romish Church than in our Communion which mistaks he was now so sensible of that he was ready to retract any thing he had said or writ against the Doctrine of the Church of England And when hereupon I acquainted my Lord Bishop of London with these his Confessions and Protestations his Lordship was pleased to refer the whole matters to his Grace the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury under whose Jurisdiction he had lived a great part of his time and to whose Cognisance and Determination the Difficulties attending his Re-admission into the Church did more immediatly belong After this his Grace being importuned and earnestly intreated to declare his final Resolution and to order the way and manner of a publick Acknowledgment of his Faults his Lordship was pleased to desire Mr. Gee to gather out of Mr. Sclatter's Book the most Offensive Passages with an Intent to have them inserted in his Recantation and Mr. Needham his Grace's Chaplain at the same time was ordered to take notice of such Consessions and Penitential Acknowledgements as Mr. Sclater had made in his Letters and Addresses to his Lordship in order to make his Retractation full and comprehensive and Satisfactory to the Auditors and Spectators before whom it was to be read and pronounc'd and in the framing of this form of Revoking his Erroneous Doctrines I was commanded to assist which I was very ready to do It being very agreeable to my Inclination to promote and wish well to all Acts of Christian Charity This being done and dispatch'd on Saturday the Fourth of May and Mr. Sclater giving his Consent to the Retractation we had drawn up and his Grace approved of Mr. Sclater accordingly appeared next day at the Savoy and after the Morning Service was ended just before the Psalm was sung in a very full Auditory and in the presence of a very great Throng of people and in the Hearing of my Lord Bishop of Salisbury who did me the Favour to Preach that Morning with a Loud and Audible Voice and with Tears flowing from his Eyes Read Pronounced and Repeated the Recantation which you have at the end of this Relation An Acknowledgment of this Nature I thought could not but be surprizing to a Congregation who had no Notice of it aforehand and therefore to prepare them for the Retractation I spake to them in the words following Beloved Hearers By Order and Direction of my Superiors I am to acquaint you That there is a Person in this Congregation who having some time since deserted the Communion of the Church of England and gone over to that of Rome and now detesting what he hath done sensible of the Errors of his Ways doth earnestly desire to be re-admitted into the Bosom of that Church which he hath forsaken The Person thus penitent and sensible is Mr. Edward Sclater late Vicat and Minister of Putney Touch'd with a sense of the Offence and Scandal he hath given to the Church both to the Clergy and Laity and all the Members of the Church of England he chuses to appear this day before this Congregation publickly to profess his unfeigned sorrow for that great Offence to make some Reparation for the Scandal It was about Christmas last when he made his first Application to the Lord Arch Bishop of Canterbury and adress'd to him several Letters Declaring his abhorence of the Popish Doctrines in general and those particularly which he had offered to defend in a Book published to that purpose together with the Motives that oblidged him to think of forsaking that Erroneous and Idolatrous Church into which through mistake of their pretended Piety and Ignorance of the Danger of their Doctrines he had been drawn and enticed His Grace after due Consideration of his Protestations and Promises was at last content he should be admitted to Lay-Communion injoyning withal since he had reproached calumniated abused offended and scandalized the Church of England to make a publick Recantation of his former Erroneous Tenets and Opinions which Pennance if a Duty may be called so he is ready to perform this day before you all It 's very probable there may be found abundance of persons who will be loath to extend their Charity to a Belief of the Reality and Sincerity of his Return but to such I must crave leave to say that as it is not for us to usurp the Authority of God who alone is the Searcher of all Hearts so till we see manifest Proofs to the contrary our Religion binds us to believe the best and to forgive and receive him as a Brother Brethren If a Man be