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	scripture_n	1,852	5	5.7319	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44405	The Church of England free from the imputation of popery	Hooper, George, 1640-1727.	1683 (1683)	Wing H2698; ESTC R17107	25,742	38

off that Humane Right or Usurpation by which their Bishops pretended Authority oyer Ours from a Prescription whose Date we know we us'd then that Liberty too in other matters and both shew'd that we were not under Bondage and that we were in Charity leaving that Church a Pattern for Her to imitate and Usiing towards her a Temper by which she was not needlesly provoked So did the first Reformers discharge their Duty towards the Roman Church by this Conduct giving to the Sober and Well-minded all reason to commend us and taking away from the Rest all occasion to Blaspheme reducing themselves in all Material Points to the Standard of the Primitive Church and in lesser matters taking leave to vary as several Countreys then of the same Ages had us'd to do in hopes that other Nations would by the Grace of God be at last invited by so fair an Example we not proposing our selves so much as the Ancient Church to their Imitation The same Apology might too be Satisfactory to the Greek Church from whom if we differ in Doctrines or Worship it was because we presumed our selves constrained by the Truth so to do but that we affected not wantonly an unnecessary Contrariety they might perceive by our choosing some such Custom as had the general Approbation and by conforming to Antient Usage A Church of another Climat not being to expect that we of the North-West should Agree in all but that it might appear by Common Practice of some things that it was not out of Opposition that we had abstained from the rest Such Respect there was to be to the Roman and Greek Churches there was too a consideration of the Reform'd the Lutheran a chief regard was to be had to her and the upper hand of Fellowship given as to the Elder Sister She first had Protested against the Romish Corruptions stood the dangerous Shock of Papal Tyranny and boldly advanc'd a Reformation which too she Planted wide and Setled in very Powerful Countreys This Noble Example our First Reformers followed from Them they learn'd to cast off all Modern Usurpation and to restore according to the Earlier Pattern not taking our Copy indeed from theirs but from the same antient Original tho' with some difference yet with a near resemblance Our Episcopacy by the Piety of our Princes was left more Entire than with Them in some Places The Doctrine of Consubstantiation which determines the Mode of Christ's Real Presence at the Time of Participation we were not Satisfied in but yet as they condemn'd the Idolatry and Superstitions of the Popish Transubstantistion equally with us so did we equally with them Adore the Mystery of the Holy Sacrament and were ready to Communicate on our Knees After their Example our Churches and Cathedrals were not Neglected the Places where Gods Honour dwells nor His Altars where His Mercy and Love shew themselves forth The Worship of the Soul was Commanded to be express'd in the Posture of the Body The Bowing to the Holy Name of JESUS recommended and a decent Gravity every where kept up tho' with fewer Ceremonies So Serviceable were these Orders of ours in respect of the rest of Christendom and so fit to be retain'd for their Edification in Love the Fruit of which we had the Satisfaction to reap not only from the Approbation of those our Brethren not so well Satisfied elsewhere but from the Confession even of some Romanists themselves They were too as Proper for our own Edification and for the Advancement of Gods Worship here To that Purpose these Rules were as exactly fitted as if it had been the only Design For what could have been better design'd for the Honour of God and Increase of Religion amongst Men then that the People should be Ordered had it not been their Custom before Solemnly to meet to pay their Devotions on certain Days of the Week that there should be Annual Commemorations of the Mysteries of our Redemption and of the Zeal and Doctrines of the Blessed Apostles And how could our Devotions be more Certain and Sufficient more Grave and Regular than under a well consider'd Form If the Minister were then in another Garment did not the very Sight of him Admonish before the Exhortation began that the People were to lay aside their ordinary Thoughts not to meet him there as Abroad but to be a Holy Congregation If they were directed to be on their Knees at Prayers and at the Communion was it more than became their Duty or a Hinderance think we to their Devotion Or was it to be expected that when a Congregation saw a Person admitted into the Number and the Doctrines of the Cross declar'd over him as the Terms of his Reception they should be Offended that it was so evidently set forth and declar'd to the Eye as well as to the Ear and should so far forget its Benefits as rather at that time to think impertinently of an old Superstition that was gone and of Popery that was abolished than to joyn and recognize our Saviours Death and their former Vows and zealously to resolve the Profession of their Holy Faich in despight of all its Enemies But on this Subject I proceed no further to the other unquestionable parts of our Ritual it being plain that even the lesser Appointments have their proper use When therefore the Reformation began for such just Reasons and several Respects to others and to our selves was the present Form Established At that time the other Protestant Church of Calvin's Model that the Reader may not think it forgot above was but just set up in the narrow Territory of Geneva and therefore indeed not much considered by our Reformers only under their general Rule that as they begg'd leave in Indifferent things to use their own Liberty so they impos'd not on other Churches By our leave therefore the Reformers of that place might have us'd fewer Ceremonies and those of their own Invention so they would be pleased not to dictate their Regulations as necessary Rules to us Nay even there where otherwise we might think they had gone too far the necessity of their Circumstances might have pleaded for them provided they prescribed not their Orders and Discipline to foreign Countries Though therefore they had abrogated Episcopacy though Lay Elders and Lay Deacons were Novelties in the Church of Christ though a Liturgy of Prayers was wanting and they seemed in several things to condemn the ancient Church too much yet they were still regarded by us as Brethren their Correspondence desired and Communion with them maintain'd But when the Neighbourhood of Geneva had with the Doctrine of the Reformation carried this peculiar Discipline into France It began thence to come over hither as a Mode and to take it may be the more because it was new And then it was urg'd not as convenient to the Circumstances of a little Town or of a scatter'd distressed People under Popish Bishops but as necessary to all that professed the

of Images c. if they could endure their Superstitious Rites they would not stick at what might remain of a little Ancient Order and receiv'd Decency and were that all would as soon return to Rome as we Nothing can make an honest man suspect our Church of Popery but his Ignorance what Popery is He may take all that to be Popish which the Papists do and believe and presume those guilty of their Superstitions who do not dissent to their whole Creed and are not Nonconformists to their whole Practice and in his opinion the purest Church of the Reformation must be that which is most opposite to the Church of Rome But he forgets then that the Church of Rome is Christian still though abominably corrupted that to run contrary to her in all things must be to deny our God and Saviour that by this Rule we must lay aside their Scripture as well as their Traditions and neither give alms fast nor pray because it is the practice of that Church He considers not that such an Anti-Papist is in a much worse condition than the Papist himself and that if we take what the Pope proposes in gross and together it is infinitely more dangerous to reject all than to admit it By Popery therefore can be meant nothing but the Corruptions that Church has suffer'd and the Usurpations it has advanc'd For the Faith of that Church was once as far spoken of as now its Errors are and had she continued in that Purity we ought to have been of her Communion and now we are to depart from her no otherwise than she shall be found to have departed from herself to have varied from the Truth and to have corrupted the Doctrine that was once deliver'd from the Saints Now the Test whereby these Doctrines are to be examin'd whether they are Popish that is Corrupt or no is this Whether or no they are Consonant to the Holy Scriptures This being the Common Principle and Touch-stone with all Protestants That nothing is to be Believ'd or Practic'd as Necessary to Salvation but what is contain'd in the Scripture and that nothing is to be Believ'd or Practic'd in any manner whatsoever that is contrariant to it A Principle this is deliver'd to us with the New Testament by the first Ages that Receiv'd and Transmitted it By this Test their Additional Traditionary Doctrines fall their Infallibility proves the greatest Falsity and their Illimited Jurisdiction is cut off the number of the Sacraments is retrench'd their Worship of the Host of Images Prayers to Saints for those in Purgatory or in an unknown Tongue are taken away whatever was impos'd as necessary to Salvation and had no warrant from God's Word or was otherwise propos'd and yet repugnant to it Such errors and corruptions you will find mark'd out in our Book of Articles and there distinctly condemn'd But tho' nothing is to be enjoyn'd as necessary to Salvation but what God himself the Author of our Salvation has declar'd yet we are not to think that no circumstance is to be us'd in his service that he has not distinctly commanded This being no Protestant Doctrine but the greatest Falsity For then no Action that is even of necessity to be perform'd could be perform'd had not God prescrib'd the Circumstance too Whereas on the contrary there cannot be a plainer Truth than this in the World that he who orders an Action to be perform'd and orders no Circumstance must be suppos'd therefore to leave the choice of the Circumstance to Discretion And it is as clear that in such Cases where in private we are left to our private choice there in publick we are to be directed by the publick Discretion the Election of the Superiours Provided always that in both Cases no circumstance be us'd that is contrary to the Intention of the Action and the Will of God It was therefore in the Power of our Spiritual Governours after they had retrench'd what they were constrain'd to take away all that was unlawfully believ'd or practis'd Idolatrous Superstitious or Erroneous to retain or reject as they should see cause all indifferent circumstantial things Which as they were not commanded by God so neither were they forbidden by him Innumerable Ceremonies therefore they cut off Some inseparable Companions of the falsities and superstitions they had abolish'd some impertinent to the main action others choking or incumbring it And some too they left so few that they rather expected to be ask'd why no more and those the freest from offence and the fittest to be retain'd For they consider'd that an innocent useful Ceremony which had either been laudably us'd before Popery came in or was not proper to the superstition to which it had been annexed when purg'd of that superstition was restor'd to its Innocence and Indifference and might be us'd as lawfully now as in its first state And therefore though they took the liberty to leave off several rites however in themselves innocent and in use before Popery began because they were of little Edification yet they kept up others which appear'd more necessary to the Church and which at the same time might shew both their Temper and Moderation towards the Modern Roman which they were forc't to leave and their respect to the Primitive which they desir'd to imitate And with such a view as this if you will look upon the particulars for which we are accus'd you will see how little of Popery that is Corruption or Superstition there is to be found The Particulars in which we chiefly differ are these Government by Bishops a Liturgy of some Ancient Prayers Kneeling at the Communion the Cross at Baptism the Surplice and the Observation of some Christian Fasts and Feasts 1. First then as to Government by Bishops had it been a thing purely indifferent we might have lawfully retain'd it and our Church might have taken leave to have chosen a sort of Aristocracy as others have been pleas'd with a kind of Democracy But take it as it is intimated in the writings of the Apostles and manifestly of their Institution we then had been oblig'd to reduce it if the Roman Government had been Presbyterian When we found it therefore there what reason had we to abolish it Shall we allow the Pope so much Power as to make that unlawful by his Use which the Apostles and their Disciples have recommended to us by theirs 2. For our Liturgy of some Ancient Prayers is it Popish as a set form or as a form of those Prayers A set form is so expedient and necessary to the Church if but for the sake of the People that they may be sure to have no other Petitions suggested than what are fit that their Devotion may not suffer by the weakness or indiscretion of the Minister that they may know beforehand how to prepare their thoughts what frame of Spirit is to be brought to Church that I may take leave to say had a set form been us'd