Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	answer_v	know_v	word_n	2,215	5	4.1186	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48813	An answer to the Bishop of Oxford's reasons for abrogating the test impos'd on all members of Parliament anno 1678, Octob. 30 in these words, I, A.B., do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, profess, testifie, and declare, that I do believe that in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ at, or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever, and that the invocation of adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the Dais, as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous / by a person of quality.	Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.	1688 (1688)	Wing L2673; ESTC R977	35,814	60

Ministery of Angels or by immediate Inspiration given to Holy Men Prophets and Apostles and consigned by them into the Holy Writings we call Scriptures All which after Revelations are to be tryed and Tested by their compare with and Agreement to former Revelations as is most manifest in all parts of Scripture and by the constant and continual Appeal of the Old Testament to the New So that this prerogativ'd Legislative Church that is pleaded into so high and rampant a Power that All-seeming wavings of its Authority must be an Invasion of Christ's Kingdom a Deposing of Him an affronting his Commission smells strong of the Pride and Ambition of that City which first as a City and then as a Church hath always aspir'd to have a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth as also of the Luciferian Ascent of the Beast that carries it with and upon which I doubt not the Sacriledge and Blasphemy will be found Who exalts himself above all that is called God or worshipped who sitteth in the Temple of God shewing Himself that he is God. But to us there is but one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy One Father who is in Heaven One Master who is Christ and all we are Brethren One Legislative-Lord and the chiefest in his Church are Servants Ministring his Word in the Scriptures the onely law of Divine verities And therefore in this Prerogative-sense dare not receive the title of Masters or Fathers nor can those who receive the Law of Christ made evident from the Scriptures to be his Law by their Ministry upon such Ministration yield them therefore the Names of Masters or Fathers in a Legislative sense For they know they ought to Preach Christ the Lord and themselves onely Servants for Christ's sake that they have no Dominion over the Faith of Christians who are however called the Laity yet are Christ's Clerus but only are Ensamples of the Flock who attends the motion of the Chief Shepherd the Lamb Christ Jesus whithersoever he goes and will not follow Strangers Princes and States by Light offer'd them by the Ministerial labours and services of the Bishops and Elders of the Church who labour in the word and Doctrine are to direct their Power according to that Light they receive by such Ministrations but together and not without their own search into Scriptures and constant meditation therein And the People are to obey in Agreement with that Law and word of Christ which they are to know for themselves in that Light diffus'd by the preaching of the word to them in season and out of season which I say they are to know for themselves and not others for them by the deep research of their own minds into Scripture to see whether those things are so or not For wisedom hath written to them even to them as may be seen by all the Epistles of the Apostles that they might know the certainty of the words of truth and have their trust in the Lord and not an Implicit Faith in Men and might be able by Apologies for the hope that is in them to answer the words of Truth to those who send to them either in a way of advice or challenge Whatever is contrary to this undoubted evidence of the Word of God and sound Reason seeing every one must give an account of himself to God as well as those who are set over them who by faithfull Offers of Truth discharge themselves whatever I say is so propos'd as by a Catholick Church and its prerogative I affirm savours of that intoxicating Cup of Abominations in the hand of that Sorceress that calls her self the Mistress of Churches and would Sit the Lady of the Christian World and of the power that bears it who under pretence of the Kingdom of Christ undermines it and hath in the unsearchable Judgment of God delay'd thus long its appearance to all the World and is the Baalam lofty Prophet of that Romish Pergamus 2. The pretended practice of the Church of God in all Ages can give no presidency in this Case beyond what is thus asserted For in the times of the Old Testament Religious Princes did by the general advice and Doctrine of the Prophets and of those Priests who kept their Faith to the Law of God themselves govern and reform according to that of which each King was to have a Copy Written by himself which was to be with him and he was to read it all the days of his Life That he might Learn to fear the Lord his God and to keep his Laws And whereas in that precedent Law enquiry of the Priest in the place God should choose was commended it plainly insinuates the divine Responses God gave at that time by the Vrim and Thummim immediately from himself were intended but yet all was to be founded in the Written Law there all was to be shown and from thence to be learnt or not to be receiv'd no not under a power of seeming Miiracles Deut. 12. In the first times of Christianity for three hundred years there were no Christian Magistrates who would wait for the Churches Oracle's But for the Determination of the Church without a Lay-Concurrence it is most apparently opposite to that grand instance of the first Council wherein the people if any distinguishingly styl'd the Church and who made most manifestly one of the Estates if I may so express it in the whole Conciliary management The Apostles the Elders the Brethren and the whole Consultation and Determination mov'd upon the Poles of express Scripture as will be most visible to any enquirer into those Conciliary Acts For he that runs may read Acts 15. In the days of that first and most Religious Emperour Constantine although he as all pious Princes and Christians would receiv'd light from the Ministers of sacred truth yet so that he us'd his own Judgment together with it deploring the weaknesses he observ'd among these who seem'd to be pillars of light but yet it must be acknowledg'd that that Apostasie the Mystery of iniquity that began to work in the Apostles days was well grown up and advanc'd and a Legislative Church was Towring up its Power in the Christian World at that very time But it is undoubted There is nothing so Ancient as Divine Truth in the Law and in the Testimony consenting with that Law of Reason Engraven in man's Heart and to these we must goe Fot whatsoever speaks not according to these there is no Morning to it nor from it but a Night even to a Midnight ensues upon it what Antiquity soever it pretends to 3. That I may yet give a more direct Answer to this Reason the Test-Act is not a Law of an Ecclesiastick Nature For it is onely an Exploration and Touch upon Persons whether they are Romanists or not it is no Canonical Determination of the Point of Transubstantiation it binds no Decree with a Spiritual or Ecclesiastick Anathema or Excommunication which are of

the Essence of Ecclesiastick Laws as they have been always Solemniz'd and Ratified in the Christian-Antichristianizing World upon light occasions But this Test presumes Two Things suppos'd before to be sufficiently certain 1. That no Romanist will deny his Transubstantiation nor consent that his Invocation of the Virgin Mary and of other Saints and that the Sacrifice of the Mass is Superstitious and Idolatrous The Test does not determine nor pretend Canonically to Define of these Things it onely proposes this as a certain Discovery of the Votaries of a Foreign Church nor does it mind to decide the Truth of those Matters It is enough to it to know who do or who do not assent to their presumed Truth and thereby to discover Men not to Decree points of Faith. 2. Nor is it Ecclesiastick but purely Civil and pertaining to the State onely whom it will judg safe to commit the Affairs of this Nation unto and into what Hands to entrust its Interests and having by more than a hundred years experience deemed it not safe for a Protestant Nation to be overgrown by a Papal Power it hath thus Resolved and Enacted not at that Time enquiring after the Truth of the Things concern'd in the Test but satisfied with the Assurance that a Roman Catholick as he is call'd will not assent to them as they are there laid Which are here onely taken notice of as matters of State and their Doctrinal Truth it supposes elsewhere to have been sufficiently Ascertain'd as shall be afterward consider'd 4. For indeed the Church of England hath both in Convocation in continual printed manifestations of its sense in daily preachings and ministrations of the Truth of the word of God abundantly and beyond all Controversie open'd explained and asserted concerning these things out of and according to Scripture so that not in a Humane Light or Determination but in the very Beams of Scripture and Divine Truth which are plainly to be seen streaming from the fountain of light the word of God there is warranty enough without any Invasion upon Christ's Kingdom or the Rights of the Officers of it supposing them what we can suppose rhem for a Parliament safely to proceed as it did supported by as many Assurances as it could desire that if the Lips of the Ministry of the Church of England preserv'd knowledge and that the Law was to be enquired at its mouth the Resolution of that Church in all those cases was sufficiently known and no injury could be done to it 5. Of this the presence of the Bishops in Parliament not Remonstrating nor Protesting against this Law his consenting however the Author judges it to their shame are security enough That they understood the Test-Law to be no Invasion of the Rights of the Church but according to the whole Doctrine and Government of it as by Law established For seeing as hath been before argued every Body nor Estate of Men in Parliament knew so quick and feelingly for themselves and specially such a Body as the Episcopacy of a Nation it can never be suppos'd they would as by a common Conspiracy agree to betray their own Rights and Priviledges having at hand always that freedom of entring their Protestations of Dissent So that although it is acknowledg'd they sit in Parliament by the Grace of the King and by the Constitution of English Parliaments and not by Power deriv'd from Christ nor as a Convocation according to the Laws of England in that case yet it is always to be forethought that they sit with their Understandings with their Consciences with their Senses with their Sentiments of Self-preservation about them and that therefore they would not be Felones de se by consenting to the Destruction of their noblest Rights and on account of which they are judg'd worthy to sit as an Estate and to vote in Parliament viz. as Bishops of the Church of Jesus Christ. 6. But lastly it can never be understood but that according to the Bishops own limitation if that be the Standard of Church-Power and Praerogative or his setting up another Power and Praerogative to mute it the Parliament have well done in this Test-Law For seeing the Civil Power may restrain the Exer●ise of Ecclesiastical Praerogative as they shall judg meet for the ends of Peace and the Interest of the Commonwealth and may punish it too at their own discretion if it shall at any time intrench upon the Prerogative of the State and that it may praevent or correct Abuses who can determine whether the States have not done according to what they might and ought to do in preventing and correcting Abuses For if they may prevent and correct Abuses they must be able to judg of them they must determine when they ly they must judge also of the best means to prevent them And what more lyable to such judgment of Abuses and to undergo the best and most effectual methods of Praevention than the things to be declar'd against in the Test as shall be manifestly prov'd in the following Reason And seeing that upon these very accounts it is notorious that even in this Nation Church Power and Prerogative hath swoln beyond all bounds and entrench'd with a vengeance upon the Power of the State why then may not the State continue the correction and punishment of it by After Acts seeing the Bishop allows these punishments at their own discretion and restrain and lock down men Certainly all the Avenues to such an Exercise and Notions again of that Power that they hav found in all Ages so destructive to the Peace and Interest of the Commonwealth And here I cannot but reflect upon the strange Irreconcileableness of the Bishop's Church-Prerogative and of the Civil Power as he hath stated it For that such a Seeing Judging Prerogative and Legislative Power that can alter make Decrees concerning Divine Verities should not know how to keep within its own bounds nor so to learn its Power but that it must be restrain'd for the Ends of Peace and the Interest of the Commonwealth and be punish'd too at discretion for its aptness to praesume and to intrench upon the Power of the State nay and beyond all this to be so extravagant that its Abuses may have need to be praevented and corrected Who can imagine Jesus Christ should be so nearly concern'd in such a Prerogative and Legislative Power as to be disown'd neglected affronted if that he be Christ risen and that the usurpation of it should lie so near Sacriledge and Blasphemy as that his Kingdom should be invaded and Himself deposed and on such an account that it should be such a Seeing and Holy Catholick Church and yet that this Civil Power that is suppos'd to know so little in Divine Verities may bind its hands punish praevent correct its Abuses What must Christ so closely importuned in it suffer in the mean time What kind of Kingdom and Power is here allow'd in the mean time What Governour would accept such