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	faith_n	1,854	5	5.2308	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34335	The notion of schism stated according to the antients, and considered with reference to the non-conformists, and the pleas for schismaticks examined being animadversions upon the plea for the non-conformists : with reflections on that famous Tract of schism, written by Mr. Hales in two letters to a very worthy gentleman.	Conold, Robert.	1676 (1676)	Wing C5891; ESTC R11683	38,869	110

to London to receive Consecration from the hands of our English Bishops and so engraft themselves again into the unity of the Catholick Church this they might easily do without being oblig'd to any subscriptions to Papal power or innovations if their omission of this arise from a contempt and abhorrence of Episcopacy I have no Apology for them neither would I be in the communion of those Churches for all the Bank of their East-India Company If any of the forreign Churches be under such unhappy circumstances that they can justly plead a necessity for having no Bishops or Priests of the Apostolick Succession I have great compassion for them and question not but God accepts them for I receive that as an indisputable Maxim That where there is an inevitable necessity there can be no guilt though the fact it self be never so much irregular But as for those Churches in general I have St. Pauls Charity Those that are without let God judge Thirdly Our squeamish Sectaries are offended at the Hierarchy of England because it derives its succession from the Bishops of Rome To which I have a double Answer First That I make not the Chair of Rome the sole Head or Origine of this Catholick succession for the Episcopal or Apostolick power of Government and Ordination was equally conferred upon all the Apostles by the general commission of our High Priest Jesus and therefore a succession of Bishops and Priests from any of these Apostles is enough to assert our unity with the Catholick Church You know the twelve Apostles are made the twelve foundation-stones of the Christian Temple and that part of the Church which in a right line is built upon St. James is as much in the unity and compact of the building as that which stands upon St. Peter Secondly Let us grant it that we claim our succession from the line of Rome this will no way prejudice the Episcopacy of England I hope it was no dishonour to the Holy Jesus that there were some of his Genealogy that had no very good fame in the World it was sufficient that by that line it was made evident our Lord sprung from Judah and it is enough for the Bishops of England to make it evident they sprung from the Apostles and though some of their line were men of impious lives or erroneous opinions that no way lessened their power of propagation nor invalidates the Authority of our succession Thus I have consider'd Schism as a separation from the Bishops and Priests of the Apostolick line and I see no reason to recant this notion And therefore the Appendixer is vastly mistaken pag. 9. when he tells us That if the Parliament did legitimate their Meetings there were an end of the Schism for they might indeed by a Law of Toleration acquit them from all the Temporal penalties of a separation but it would exceed all the Omnipotency of Parliaments to discharge them from the guilt of Schism for they must first compel their Teachers to take Episcopal Orders and bring in all the Conventicles into the communion of the Catholick Church and place them under the Government of their proper Bishops or else they would still be Schismaticks non obstante Statuto Before I conclude I will consider some grand Absurdities that will follow from the denyal of this notion First The profound Fanaticks in England clamour against the whole Hierarchy and will have the whole race of Arch-bishops and Bishops to be Anti-christian Now Sir I 'le appeal to your judgement if this be not blasphemy for then all the holy Bishops that assembled in the first four General Councils that did assert the truth of Christianity against Pagans Jews and Hereticks and those many Bishops of the antient Church that headed the noble Army of Martyrs must be damn'd as limbs of Antichrist Nay I cannot see how to defend Timothy and Titus from being Anti-christian too and if these Propagators of the Christian Faith were Anti-christian where shall we enquire for Christianity Nay this were a sure foundation for Atheism for how can it be reconcil'd to the Providence of a God or the care of Jesus that he should plant a Kingdom upon earth with a promise of his presence and most careful providence and yet to suffer his own Kingdom to be enslav'd under the usurpation of an Anti-christian yoke for sixteen hundred years together if this were true too many wise men would conclude with the fool in the Psalmist That there is no God Secondly If this succession of Bishops and Presbyters be not necessary to preserve our unity with the Catholick Church then the Keys must be thrown away and excommunication is but an idle impertinence for if there be not a certain body or corporation of Christians known by a succession of power and Priesthood from the Apostles how can it be known when a person is cast out of the Church for if the Christian Church be like a Wilderness where every family may pitch their Tent where they please there is no use of Keyes to so wide a desert Thirdly if this succession be not necessary how can any rational man be ever satisfied in the administration of Ministerial Offices as Sacraments and Absolution when there is no certain rule in the world by which he can rationally be assured of the regular Authority of him that ministers To conclude this if this notion of unity be disown'd then every Conventicle is a true Church and every man whom himself or the people fancy inspir'd must be receiv'd for a Prophet and God must lose one of his Titles The God of Order and Confusion must be believ'd to be an Ordinance of Heaven Before I conclude give me leave to reverse the Doctor and make his Front the Rear Sir the phrase may be allow'd for if I mistake not the Author has been a man of War and understands very well the Martial Dialect The Harangue with which the Doctor prefaces his Plea may justly be inverted It was doubtless one of the greatest infelicities that ever befell the whole body of people in these three Nations that when in the year 1662. Religion was so happily setled in Faith Worship and Government according to the pattern of the antient Catholick Church in the first three Centuries and though this Religion was ratified by the very hand of God and the dry bones reviv'd by the Miracle of an unexpected Restitution that yet there should be amongst us so many thousands of such perverse and sullen Tempers as not to be perswaded into the Churches communion neither by Law Reason nor Miracle I cannot discern the Doctors ingenuity in his second Section where he originates the Act of Uniformity in the anger ambition and covetousness of Church-men and allows our Governours not one grain of Prudence or Piety in the composure of that Law He first takes notice of the anger that rested in the bosom of Church-men who had been sufferers Methinks those men who had