Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	apostle_n	church_n	hold_v	2,172	5	6.0670	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30338	A discourse wherein is held forth the opposition of the doctrine, worship, and practices of the Roman church to the nature, designs and characters of the Christian faith by Gilbert Burnet.; Mystery of iniquity unveiled	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1688 (1688)	Wing B5779; ESTC R7432	58,858	73

without warrant from Christs Institution who said take eat this is my Body thereby shewing he intended the virtue and benefit of that Ordinance only for those who received it And in a word let any read and compare the Institution of the Lords Supper as it is in the three Gospels and the Epistle to the Corinthians together with the whole office of the Mass as it is in the Roman Church and then let him on his Conscience pass his verdict whether they have adhered to or departed from Christ's Institution in that piece of their worship Finally one great end of all solemn worship being the Communion of Saints in their joint adorations and mutual concurrence in divine services What union can they have with God Or what communion can they hold one with another who perform all their Worship in an unknown Tongue which is the rule and constant practice of that Church beyond Sea tho for the better venting of their sophisticated stuff among us they give the people Books of devotion in their vulgar Language yet continue to say the Office of the Mass in Latin. And thus far I have run a round that great Circle I proposed to my self in the beginning of this Discourse And have examined the chief Designs of the Christian Religion and have found the great and evident contradictions given to them in all their branches by the established and authorised Doctrines and Practises of that Church in which I have fully justified the wise mans observation that he who increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow and have said enough to evince to all rational and considering minds how unsafe it is for any that would keep a good Conscience to hold Communion with them But I have not finished my design till I likewise examine the Characters of the Christian Religion and compare them with these that are to be found in the Synagogue of Rome The first Character of our Faith is That it was delivered to the world by men sent of God and divinely inspired who proved their Mission by Miracles Now these Doctrines about which we differ from that Church can pretend to no such divine original Let them tell us what inspired man did first teach the worship of Images of the Mass of Angels and Saints and of Reliques What man sent of God was the first Author of the belief of the Corporal Presence of the Sacrifice of the Mass of the Pope's Supremacy of Puagatory of Indulgences and of all these innumerable Superstitions of which the Scripture is absolutely silent for if these Doctrines were not the off-spring of Revelations they are none of the Oracles of God nor can we be obliged to believe them as such It is true they vouch Scriptures for proof to some of these but these are so far stretched that their sure Retreat is in the Sanctuary of the Churches Traditions but till a clear Warrant be produced for proving it was impossible that any Falshood could have that way crept into the World we must be excused from believing these Neither is it possible to know what Traditions came from the Apostles for as the Vulgar are not capable of pursuing the Enquiry so the loss of most of the Writings of the first two Ages makes it impossible to know what Traditions came from the Apostles But this I say not that we need fear the Trial for the silence of the first and purest Ages about these things which are controverted among us is evidence enough that they were not known to them especially since in their Apologies which they wrote to the Heathens for their Religion and worship wherein they give an abstract of their Doctrines and a Rubrick of their Worship they never once mention these great Evils for which we now accuse that Church It is true a late ingenious Writer whose sincere zeal and candor had much offended the Roman Court and drawn censures on himself and his Book took a way to repair his Reputation by a new Method of proving the truth of the Opinions held in the Roman Church which was that since the present Church held them that shews that they had them so from their Ancestors and they from theirs till you run backwards to the days of the Apostles alledging that a change in the worship was unpracticable since it could not be done in a corner but in the view of all the World who it is not to be imagined were capable of suffering any great or considerable change to be made in that which was daily in their view and much in their esteem therefore he concludes that every Generation adhered to that belief in which they were born and so no change in any great substantial and visible part of worship could be made It is true he applies this only to the belief of the corporal Presence which he attempts to prove could never have been introduced into the Church had it not been conveyed down from the Apostles He hath indeed set off this with all the beauties of wit and elegancies of stile and much profound reading But with how great and eminent advantages both of reason and learning this pretence hath been baffled I leave it to the judgment of all who have been so happy as to read Mr. Claud his incomparable Writings And the common sense of mankind will prove this but an Imposture how fairly soever adorned for if we find it certain that any Doctrines or main parts of Worship are now received into that Church and if from the undeniable Evidences of History and Writings of Ancients it appear that these things were not received in the ancient Church then it is certain there hath been a change made from what was then to what is now though an ingenious Invention may make it appear very difficult to imagine how and when the change came in especially when it was insensibly and by pieces advanced If then it be proved that the Fathers believed the Elements in the Sacrament were really Bread and Wine and not changed from their own nature but only Types and Figures of the Body of Christ then we are sure a change must have been made though the ignorance of some Ages makes it a hard task to clear all particulars about it It is true the Fathers did highly magnifie this Sacrament with many Expressions which though the vehemence of Divine Rhetorick can well justifie yet will not bear a Logical Examen but when they speak in a cooler stile nothing can be more clear than that they believed not the corporal Presence But may not that reasoning of the impossibility of a change in a worship be as well applied to the taking the Chalice from the People who in reason should be imagined so tenacious of so great a Priviledge that no consideration should have obliged them to part with it And yet we know nor do they deny how it was wrung from them about 250 years ago What may seem less credible than for the People to consent to have their

A DISCOURSE Wherein is held forth The Opposition of the DOCTRINE WORSHIP and PRACTICES OF THE Roman Church To the NATURE DESIGNS and CHARACTERS of the Christian Faith. By GILBERT BURNET D. D. LONDON Printed for J. Watts at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVIII Of the Doctrine Worship and Practices of the Roman Church c. HE that increaseth Knowledg increaseth Sorrow is an Observation which holdeth true of no part of Knowledg so much as of the Knowledg of Mankind It is some relief to him who knows nothing of foreign Wickedness to hope there are other Nations wherein Vertue is honoured and Religion is in esteem which allays his Regrates when he sees Vice and Impiety abound in his Country but if by travelling or reading he enlarge his Horizon and know Mankind better his Regrates will grow when he finds the whole World lies in Wickedness It argues a cruel and inhumane Temper to delight in beholding Scenes of Horror and Misery and certainly none who either honours his Maker and Redeemer or is a lover of Mankind can without sorrow look on and see the Indignities done to God and his Son Christ and see the Enemy of the humane Race triumphing over the World with such absolute Authority and so much enraged Cruelty and that not only in the dark Regions of it which the Sun of Righteousness hath not yet visited with his Gospel but that where Christ should have a Throne Satans Seat should also be is justly surprising and astonishng That almost all Christendom hath fallen from their first Love is what none whose Eyes are open can deny and it is little less evident that the greater part of it hath made shipwrack and erred from the Faith and that the Church whose Faith was once spoken of throughout the World is now become the Mother of the Fornications of the Earth It is true the Scriptures warned us of a falling away of a Mystery of Iniquity of an Antichrist to be revealed in due time and of a Babylonish Rome which should bewitch the Earth with her Sorceries but should be varnished over with fair Colours and specious Pretences so that Mystery should be on her Forehead Being then warned of so much danger to the Christian Religion it is a necessary though painful enquiry to see if this Antichrist be yet come or if we must look for another But because some have stretched the Notion of Antichristianism so far that things harmeless and innocent come within its compass and others have so much contracted it that they might scape free we are to take a view of the Nature and Designs of the Christian Religion and to conclude from that what must be Antichristianism It being not only a bare contradiction to some branches or parts of the Gospel for then every Error or Heresy were Antichristianism but a Design and entire Complex of such Opinions and Practices as are contradictory to and subversive of the Power and Life of Christianity And if we find any such thing to be broached and received in the World we may with the least hazard of uncharitableness pronounce it be Antichristianism and if it be acted or animated by any Head he may be concluded Antichrist The Designs of the Christian Religion run betwixt these four Heads The first is to give us right apprehensions of the Nature and Attributes of God that we may conceive aright of him and adore him sutably to his Nature and according to his Will and thereby be admitted to a free converse with him and become partakers of the Divine Nature How little of God was known by the twinkling's of Nature's Light even to the better and wiser part of the World Tully's Books of the Nature of the Gods do sufficiently inform us But if the Philosophers were so much to seek in it what shall we expect from the Vulgar And indeed Homer's Iliads and Ovid's Metamorphosis were wretched Systems of Divinity and yet such and such-like were the Sentiments of the Nations about the Godhead It is true the Seed of Abraham were delivered from that Darkness and knew God by his Name Jehovah and had Laws and Ordinances given them by God yet their Worship was so carnal and did so strike upon and affect the Senses that we will be soon satisfied it was not so sublime and free as became the Spirituality of the Divine Nature and so was only fitted for the Infancy of the People of God but by Christ the Mystery that lay hid from Ages and Generations was revealed for he declared the Father and revealed him and taught us to renounce Idols and Vanities and to serve the living God commanding all Men every where to repent the Times of Ignorance wherein God winked at Idolatry being then over That so Mankind being God's Off-spring might feel after him and not worship him any more in the blinding grossness of Idolatry but in a pure spiritual manner and whereas the Law came by Moses by Christ came Grace and Truth Grace in opposition to the Severity of the Law and Truth as opposed not to Falshood but to the Figures and Shadows of Moses his Law and therefore God is to be worshipped in Spirit and Truth in opposition to the Carnal Ordinances and Typical Rites which shadowed out the Truth in the Law. The second Branch of the Christian Religion is to hold forth the Method of Man's Reconciliation with his Maker For the Sense of all Mankind agrees in this that Sin is an Indignity done God which deserveth Punishment and cannot be expiated by any Service Man can do It was therefore necessary there should be a mean found for incouraging Sinners to imbrace a Religious Life of which all had reason to despair without Pardon were offered to Penitents upon the change of their Lives Now this was that the Heathen could not dream how to procure It is true the Jews had Sacrifices for expiating of Sin but these could never quiet their Consciences since the common Sense of Mankind tells that the Blood of Beasts cannot appease God. The Mystery therefore of the Reconciliation of Sinners to God is the proper Character of the Christian Religion which holds forth to us how the Eternal Word was made Man and endured unspeakable Sufferings for the Sins of Men even to the Death of the Cross and was raised up by God and carried to Heaven where he is vested with all Power and Authority and by the Merits of his Death hath a right to grant Pardon give Grace and confer Eternal Life on all that believe on him by whom God conveys all things to us and through whom we are to offer up all our Worship to God he being the Mediator betwixt God and Man. The third Head of the Christian Religion is to teach the perfectest clearest and most Divine Rules for advancing of the Souls of Men to the highest perfection of their Natures It is true noble pieces of Morality were acknowledged and taught by the Heathen Philosophers and