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	pillar_n	3,742	5	10.1590	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49123	Mr. Hales's treatise of schism examined and censured by Thomas Long ... ; to which are added, Mr. Baxter's arguments for conformity, wherein the most material passages of the treatise of schism are answered.	Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Mr. Baxter's arguments for conformity against separation.	1678 (1678)	Wing L2974; ESTC R10056	119,450	354

lines to be complete Schismaticks first for choosing a Bishop in opposition to the former secondly for erecting new places for the dividing party to meet in publickly I wonder with what confidence he could deny that S. Augustine had done so much in so many writings and disputations But when I consider how palpably this Author contradicts himself I cease to wonder that he should oppose and contemn that Great man For p. 208. he seems with some passion to interrogate Why might it not be lawful to go to Church with the Donatists and p. 215. why may I not go if occasion require to an Arrian Church when p. 229. he says expresly that it is not lawful no not for prayer hearing conference c. to assemble otherwise than by publick order is allowed And if our Author knew not that as well the Schism of the Donatists as the heresie of the Arrians was often condemned and forbidden by the Emperors and Councils of that age he was very ignorant indeed But the reason which our Author gives why S. Augustine said nothing to the question is as strange as any thing else S. Augustine saith our Author brought nothing to prove that the Orthodox were the true Church or the Donatists were Schismaticks For the Church may be in any number in any place country or nation it may be in all and for ought I know it may be in none without prejudice to the definition of a Church or the Truth of the Gospel He might as well have told us of a Church in Utopia which is the same with a Church in no place country or nation What Idea of the Church our Author conceived I cannot imagine but that which he expresseth concerning it is as contrary to the truth of all the Prophecies of the Old Testament as well as the description of it in the New from whence the definition is taken as light is to darkness For Acts 2. 41. ad finem the Church is described to be a number of men not all nor none called out of the world by the preaching of the Apostles and joyning themselves to their Spiritual guides by Baptism and breaking of Bread by publick Prayers and hearing the Word These in verse 47. are expresly called the Church and to this Church the Lord added daily such as should be saved Now such Churches were by Christ's commissions to be planted in all Nations which we believe was really effected and the truth thereof is still apparent that God hath given his Son the heathen for his inheritance and the utmost parts of the earth for hs possession and therefore to say that a Church may be in none either number or place for I suppose the Author intends both because if it may exist in no place it must not consist of any number nor so much as admit of one as contrary to sense and Reason as to the Truth of the Gospel And is such a fancy as that of Mrs. Trask who having shifted from one Conventicle to another in New-England and at last on pretence of impurity in their ordinances and members separated from them all affirmed that she alone was the Church and Spouse of Christ But I think Mr. Hales himself sufficiently refutes this fancy of our Author Page 185 186. of his Golden Remains he tells us that to prove the existence of our Church before Luther all that is necessary to be proved in the case is nothing else but this that there hath been from the Apostles times a perpetual succession of the Ministry to preach and to baptize of which by the providence of God there remains very good evidence to the world and shall remain Having told us that the Church may be in no place that is in effect that there may be no Church he doth with the more confidence affirm p. 213. That Church Authority is none and tradition for the most part but figment Answ As to traditions in general I defend them not nor can any man else but for such as bear the Characters which Vincentius Lirinensis describes quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus we have all reason imaginable to inforce the imbracing of such traditions as have been received and delivered to us by all the Churches of Christ in all ages and in all places unless we were of the Authors opinion that Church authority is none and this can never be made good but by proof of our Authors fiction of a Church in Utopia For if our Saviour did out of mankind redeem a Church by his own bloud if he planted it by his Apostles and promised his presence with it to the end of the world if he made it the ground and Pillar of Truth and promised to hear her prayers and to bind in heaven what they bound on earth and that the gates of Hell i.e. neither persecutions nor heresies nor schisms should prevail against it doubtless there is a Church and that Church hath some authority granted to her by her dear Redeemer to defend that peace and unity as well as those truths which he bequeathed to her Did our Saviour take care for the Church of the Jews only or did he not also mind the Christian Church when Matt. 18. 17. he enjoyns us even in private differences among our selves much more in those which concern the publick peace of the Church as in the case of scandals mentioned in the context v. 7. to go tell the Church and if any should neglect to hear the Church that he should be unto us as an heathen man and a Publican i.e. Excommunicate from that holy Society which punishment being spiritual doth clearly evince that the causes submitted to the judgment of the Church were spiritual also But I demand farther did the Apostles usurp more authority than was given them when they assembled together Acts 15. 6. about the case of Circumcision and after the difference had been fully debated by Peter Paul Barnabas and S. James in the presence of the Elders and the multitude they all agreed and that by the approbation of the Holy Ghost v. 28. to impose upon the Churches certain constitutions as necessary to be observed at that time for the peace of the Church If they did not then the Church had some authority And so when S. Paul pleaded the custom of the Churches of God against contentious persons in the Church of Corinth 1 Epist c. 11. v. 16. And doth not the same Apostle tell us that when our Saviour ascended up on high Eph. 4. 11. he placed rulers and governors in his Church whose care it should be to provide that the people should not be thenceforth as children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive v. 14. If Church authority be none to what end did S. Paul injoyn Timothy to see that women should keep silence in the Church 1 Tim. 2. 12. not only

distinction that he still retains Unity As he is One so we call him GOD the Deity the Divine Nature and other Names of the same signification as he is distinguished so we call him Trinity Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost In this Trinity there is One Essence Two Emanations Three Persons or Relations Four Properties Five Notions A Notion is that by which any Person is known or signified The One Essence is GOD which with this relation that it doth generate or beget makes the Person of the Father The same Essence with this Relation that it is begotten makes the Person of the Son The same Essence with this relation that it proceedeth maketh the Person of the Holy Ghost The Two Emanations are to be begotten and to proceed or to be breathed out The Four Properties are First Innascibility and Inemanability the second is to generate these belong to the Father the third is to be begotten this belongs to the Son the fourth is to proceed or to be breathed out this belongs to the Holy Spirit The five Notions are first Innascibility the second is to beget the third is to be begotten the fourth Spiratio passiva to be breathed out the fifth Spiratio activa or to breath and this Notion belongs to the Father and the Son alike for Pater filius spirant Spiritum sanctum Hence it evidently follows that he who acknowledgeth thus much can never possibly scruple the Eternal Deity of the Son of God And then he ingenuously concludes If any Man think this Confession to be defective for I can conceive no more in this point necessary to be known let him supply what he conceives deficient and I shall thank him for his labour But to proceed The confutation of this Treatise of Schism will appear to be necessary not only to wipe off the aspersions of the Papists but to silence the Objections of Factious Persons who often take Arguments from it to defend themselves in their separation as will appear by that which followeth Mr. Hales had said p. 207. That the Church might be in any number more or less in any place Country or Nation it may be in all and for ought I know it may be in none without prejudice to the Definition of the Church or the truth of the Gospel This strange notion is contrary to what Mr. Hales delivers in his Golden Remains p. 260. When we appeal saith he to the Churches Testimony we content not our selves with any part of the Church actually existent but add unto it the perpetually successive testimony of the Church in all Ages since the Apostles time And p. 186. This succession of the Church is sufficient to prove where our Church was before Luther This strange notion I say That the Church visible may totally decay prevailed too far with Mr. Chillingworth who saith p. 239. It is not certain that the truth of the Article of the Holy Catholick Church depends upon the Actual existence of a Catholick Church but rather upon the right that the Church of Christ or rather to speak properly that the Gospel of Christ hath to be universally believed and therefore the Article may be true though there were no Church in the World Now though this were only a probleme which Mr. Chillingworth defends not but in the 14. p. of his Preface overthroweth saying I believe that our Saviour ever since his Ascension hath had in some place or other a visible true Church on Earth and that there will be such a Church to the Worlds end yet his Adversary p. 779. of Infidelity Unmasked falls heavily on him and tells him that this notion is not only against the Scripture Eph. 4. 11. but against all Protestants and all Christians and sends him to Calvin 's Institutions l. 4. c. 1. and to Volkelius whom he calls his Socinian Brother de verâ Rel. l. 6. c. 5. who prove a Succession of Pastors and Doctors to have been always in the Church Remansit Doctorum Pastorúmque officium nec non alia quaedam And indeed Dr. Potter whom Mr. Chillingworth defended had said truly That it was an error in the nature and matter of it properly Heretical to say the Church remained only in the party of Donatus and that it was much worse to say she remained no where for this were to overthrow the Article of the Catholick Church and is little less than blasphemy saith Arch-bishop Laud. Again Mr. Hales p. 218. said It is alike unlawful to make profession of known or suspected falshoods as to put in practice unlawful or suspected actions This argument Mr. Chillingworth improveth p. penult of his Preface to Charity maintained If a Church says he supposed to want nothing necessary require me to profess against my Conscience that I believe some error though never so small and innocent which I do not believe and will not allow me her communion but upon this condition in this case the Church for requiring this condition is Schismatical and not I for separating from the Church Mr. Baxter speaks much more like a Conformist in this case than either Mr. Hales or Mr. Chillingworth If a Church saith he p. 464. of Reasons for Christ Relig. S. 15. which in all other respects is purest and best will impose any sin upon all that will have any local communion with it though we must not separate from that Church as no Church yet must we not commit that sin but patiently suffer them to exclude us from their communion And I think it is more rational peaceably to dissent until we are actually excluded than presently to pronounce that Church Schismatical which requires such conditions of our communion For if that which I believe to be an error being if an error but small and innocent be required of me by a Church which maintaineth all necessary things I ought rather to submit to or at least peaceably with-hold my communion from that Church than to violate its communion by my separation because that Church which GOD hath preserved in all necessary truths may probably know that which I believe to be an error and but a small one if an error to be an important truth or if she be mistaken in such small things it is not schismatical in her to require my profession who may well be resolved of my doubt when so many wiser and better than my self after mature deliberation think fit to require it For as Mr. Hooker saith p. 100. In all right and equity that which the Church hath so long received and held for good that which publick approbation hath ratified must carry the benefit of presumption with it to be accounted meet and convenient And p. 55. This Opinion That the Authority of Man affirmatively in matters Divine is nothing worth being once inserted into the minds of the vulgar sort GOD knows what it may grow unto Thus much we see It hath already made Thousands so head-strong even in gross and palpable Errors that a Man