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	lead_v	1,975	5	7.6771	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B22558	The Popish labyrinth wherein is made manifest, that the Papists are entangled in the fundamental article of their faith, that the church cannot erre / written in Dutch by ... Dr. Simon Episcopius, unto which is added, The life and death of the author ; as also, The life and death of James Arminius, both of them famous defenders of God	Episcopius, Simon, 1583-1643.; Bertius, Petrus, 1565-1629. Oratio in obitum reverendi & clarissimi viri D. Jacobi Arminii. English.; Chardon de Courcelles, Etienne, 1705-1775? Short and compendious history of Simon Episcopius.	1673 (1673)	Wing E3163	56,195	122

lawful if the succeeding Pope had approved of the same But now forsooth it shall be unlawful because the Pope that was made by this Council said not of himself and those like him that he was subject to the Council but on the contrary Lucifer-like maintained that he was above the Council Howbeit it is altogether credible that the Decree of the Council was approved of by Him before he was chosen for Pope Who here sees not a Circle of Absurdities However it be if the Authority of the Council be no more than the Popes it could not depose the Pope and therefore those ungodly Knaves Popes are to be reckoned among the Bishops that lawfully succeed by a continual Succession not interrupted by Reason of their Heresie Atheism Simony Force and Villanies or if there be granted an Interruption there will now forthwith be no Succession at all upon the same Account that Bellarmine denies that the Succession of the Greeks is to be accounted lawful He that seeth not that the Papists are wholly at a loss in all these Things as in an endless Labyrinth of Errours he truly seeing is blind For howsoever the Case stands touching Succession the Question concerning Truth will alwayes remain To what Purpose therefore do they enter into so intricate a Labyrinth and take so great Pains for to prove a Succession One of these must necessarily be concluded either that the Truth is sufficient to constitute a true Church or that it is not If the former be true To what End is Succession by these endless Windings to and fro proved If the latter What doth Truth avail if it do not constitute a true Church It is contrary to the Nature and Propertie of Truth not to constitute a true Church whether those who teach the Truth have it by Tradition from others or no or at least know not the List of their Names from whom they have it delivered to them Gold will be Gold although it have been hid and buried in the Earth a thousand Years But you will say it is requisite that there be some before I know Gold to teach me that that is Gold But say I shall the Church thorowly do this But then there is required some one besides by whom I may be sure that that this Church which doth affirm that this is Gold doth know it most exactly and cannot err therein Who shall that be Here the Papists make a Circle We assert that the Scripture is Truth which the Church of Rome granteth us But yet it is the Prerogative of the Church saith he to tell us that the Scripture is Truth But say I who shall tell me that the Church that affirms this saith true She hath not this Priviledge by Succession unless it clearly appear that she never defected from the Truth This cannot appear unless I know what is Truth If the Church herself assume this she then singeth to us the same Song and so the Church will be both Plantiff and Judge and that in her own proper Cause Here will be no End of contending And that is it which Tertullian meant in that most known Place and commonly in the mouth of all the Papists which they quote in all their Writings with a very perverse wresting of the Sense thereof in his Book of Proscript against Hereticks Chap. 32. Where he thus speaketh But if any Heresies dare insert themselves in the Times of the Apostles that so they may be thought to have been delivered by the Apostles because they were in the Apostles Dayes we may say that is we may in such Case demand of them the Succession of which they boast saying Let them produce the Originals of their Churches turn over the Order of their Bishops so running down by Succession from the Beginning as that first Bishop had some one of the Apostles or Apostolical men who yet continued with the Apostles for his Author and Predecessor c. And a little after Let the Hereticks feign any such Thing which is to be noted as serving our Purpose yet though they shall feign it they shall prevail nothing For their very Doctrine compared with that of the Apostles by its Diversity and Contrariety will aloud declare that it hath neither any Apostle nor Apostolical Man for its Authour For as the Apostles would not have taught Things differing among themselves so also the Apostolical Men would not have published Things contrary to the Apostles except it were those who revolted from the Apostles and taught otherwise According to this Form therefore or Manner note it well shall those Churches appeal which though they can produce none of the Apostles or Apostolick Men as their Authour as being long after and which lastly are daily instituted yet agreeing in the same Faith to wit with the Apostles or Apostolick Men they are not the less deemed Apostolical by Reason of the cousanguinity or nearness of kin of their Doctrine That is according to Tertullians style because they agree with the Apostles in Doctrine These words of Tertullian which the Papists so shamefully abuse and so violently wrest do not obscurely confirm what we have said For Tertullian says three Things First that those Churches which have the Truth agreeable with the Doctrine of the Apostles are no less Apostolical Churches then others although they cannot shew their Succession for that only Cause for that they have the Truth on their side Secondly that those Churches which glory of their Succession and Original derived from the Apostles and cannot demonstrate it are justly to be rejected as those who obtrude upon us that which is false And Thirdly that those Churches which demonstrate their Succession whether lawfully or unlawfully are not to be counted for true Churches unless it appear that their Doctrine is agreeable to the Doctrine of the Apostles What Churches agree therein the same are Apostolical although they be destitute of Succession This is more clear then the Noon-dayes Sun The same affirmeth Augustine in that Place which is also quoted as unfaithfully and contrary to the Meaning of Augustine by the Papists in his Book which he wrote against the fundamental Epistle of Manichee Chap. 4. For when he had said that he clave to the Catholick Church wherein from the See of Peter even to his Time the Succession of Bishops and Priests had been deduced he addes these words which are altogether agreeable with our Judgment With you he speaks of the Manichees where there is none of these to invite and detain me there is onely the noise of the Promise of Truth which indeed were it so manifestly shewed that it could not be questioned were to be preferred before all those Things by Reason whereof I am detained in the Catholick Church What could Augustine have spoken more clear to prove and shew that neither Antiquity nor Succession can avail so as that any one should be able to quit himself of the Labyrinth of Doubts touching the true Church but that the Truth

so great acquaintance with the French tongue that he was able not onely to understand it but also to speak French readily and purely In the year 1610 he returned home and found the Ministers of Amsterdam no better affected towards him than before But his verttue and learning which could be no longer hid and which were commended by clear and notable testimonies from the Churches and Universities where he lived break thorow at length all obstacles and so that he was with the consent of the Classis called by the honourable Senate of Rotterdam to the Pastoral office at Bleyswyck and hamlet belonging to their jurisdiction After the death of Arminius they of Calvins perswasion whose notions of God reprobating absolutely the greatest part of the world to make known his power in making his creatures miserable had framed and disposed to fierceness begrn to endeavour the ejection of them out of their places who adher'd to Arminius hereupon these perceiving the designs that were against them did exhibite to the most illustrious Stales of Holland and West-friezland a certtain Remonstrance whence they were afterwards called Remonstrants as their adversaries were called Contra Remonstrants from a paper they had written in opposition and intituled A Contra-Remonstrance in which Remonstrance after they had declared their judgement comprehended in five heads or Articles they humbly petition that they in that belief and perswasion might be protected from the violence and force of their Adversaries that much threatned them Afterwards in the year 1611 was that famous Conference at the Hague where by the appointment and in the presence of the States of Holland and West-Friezland Six Remonstrant and as many Contra-Remonstrant Pastors conferred together about the things now in controversy Forthe determining of these Controversies the Remonstrants then declared themselves for mutual forbearance but their adversaries were for a Synodal Decision as being no way doubtfull of out-voting them in case the Remonstrants were admitted members of the Synod which indeed their adversaries denyed them when they had gotten a Synod and the arm of flesh on their side But the illustrious States of Holland and West-Friezland knowing well that onely the oppression of the contrary party was sought after and that the controversie was obscure and difficult made a decree that both parties should live together in brotherly communion c. which decree had preserved them in peace if might had not then overcome right in casting those peaceable Governours out of their places and substituting those in their rooms who would be ready to doe what the Contra-remonstrants would have But we must return to our Episcopius who was one of the six Remonstrants that managed the Conference at the Hague whereas on a famous Theater he made manifest his great abilities both natural and acquired and gave all men occasion to conclude that his knowledge and skill in the holy Scriptures and in Theological disputations was not ordinary After this the fame of his learning and eloquence spreading in the United Provinces far abroad he was solicited by diverse eminent Cities chiefly Vtrecht to be their Preacher but seeing they of Bleyswyck would by no means be induced to give their consent for his departure he therefore continued in the exercise of his ministry among them Put at length in the year 1612 when he was about 29 years old he was called by the Curators of the University of Leyden to the Professorship of Divinity there in the place of Francis Gomarus who voluntarily had deserted it Now although the modesty of this worthy man Episcopius was so great that he judged himself unmeet for a work so difficult in such d●fficult times yet suffered he himself to be prevailed with and overcome by the judgment of others concerning him and especially by the authority and exhortation of some very great men in the Common-wealth and Church to accept it In this honourable place worthy a man so learned and venerable he lived friendly and peaceably with Dr. Jo. Polyander his Colleague though of an opinion differing from his in the controversy of predestination and most painfully laboured in his Office as even to us is apparent from his Commentaries on some parts of the holy Scriptures then composed and his disputations there which since his death have been exposed to publick view But his Cares were so many and great that they far surmoun●ed all his other labours and did much exceed them For at this time the Controversie about Predestination had swelled over the Academical banks and had filled the pulpits whence as usually it spread as an inundation among the common people threatning a devastation of the Churches unity and to the Common-wealth no less then ruine For the governours themselves who were to have kept the peace were divided among themselves designing variously for their several parties In this evil day and contentious time good Episcopius a man greatly desirous of peace a manstudious laborious and solicitous for the good of others became a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs Now to give a few instances of this mans sufferings may not onely he serviceable to his commendation they being the tryal and an evident proof of his sincerity and that which brought to light his Christian fortitude and patience wherein he greatly excelled they may expect who are of the first in discovering errors that have been long and more generally embraced for truths and for such which men have much gloryed in as a treasure more peculiar to themselves than others and also to let us know what are the usual effects of blind zeal in matters of religion which will appear to be the worst of Guides leading men to most injurious inhumane and barbarous practices We will begin with that which happened at Amsterdam in the second year of his Professorship The story in brief in this Episcopius being at a church in Amsterdam and as they commonly speak standing as a witness with others at the baptizing of his brother Johns Daughter Caspar Heydan who then did officiate asked him and the other witnesses Whether they did confess that to be the true and perfect doctrine of salvation which was contained in the old and new Testament and in the Apostles Creed and which was taught in that church to wit of Amsterdam adding moreover these words What say ye to these thing Episcopius the chief among them answered That he did account whatsoever was taught there according to the word of God and the Ap●stles Creed to be the true and saving doctrine as the words of the usual form out of which the interrogation is made do intend Which answer though mild and modest so moved the spleen of Mr. Heydan that with contempt he called him Young-man and upbraided him as one very audacious and presumptuous in daring to speak so in the Church of God To which Episcopius again replyed saying That he would depart ●f the Preachers would not admit that limitation comprehended in the form of Baptism where