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	succession_n	1,709	5	10.1649	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30388	The life of William Bedell D.D., Lord Bishop of Killmore in Ireland written by Gilbert Burnet. To which are subjoyned certain letters which passed betwixt Spain and England in matter of religion, concerning the general motives to the Roman obedience, between Mr. James Waddesworth ... and the said William Bedell ...	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.; Bedell, William, 1571-1642. Copies of certain letters which have passed between Spain & England in matter of religion.; Wadsworth, James, 1604-1656?	1692 (1692)	Wing B5831; ESTC R27239	225,602	545

your Ordination there is no Word said And as little there is in Scripture of your Sacrifice which makes Christ not to be a Priest after the order of Melchisedeck c. with much more to this purpose Where my Defence for your Ministry hath been this That the Form Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins ye remit they are remitted c. doth sufficiently comprehend the Authority of preaching the Gospel Use you the same equity towards us and tell those hot Spirits among you that stand so much upon formalities of Words That to be a Dispenser of the Word of God and his holy Sacraments is all the duty of Priesthood And to you I add further that if you consider well the Words of the Master of the Sentences which I vouched before how that which is consecrated of the Priest is called a Sacrifice and Oblation because it is a Memorial and Representation of the true Sacrifice and holy Offering made on the Altar of the Cross and joyn thereto that of the Apostle that by that one Offering Christ hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified and as he saith in another place through that Blood of his Cross reconciled unto God all things whether in Earth or in Heaven you shall perceive that we do offer Sacrifice for the Quick and Dead remembring representing and mystically offering that sole Sacrifice for the Quick and Dead by the which all their sins are meritoriously expiated and desiring that by the same we and all the Church may obtain remission of sins and all other Benefits of Christs Passion To the Epilogue therefore of this your last Motive I say in short Sith we have no need of Subdeaconship more than the Churches in the Apostles times and in truth those whom we call Clerks and Sextons perform what is necessary in this behalf Sith we have Canonical Bishops and lawful Succession Sith we neither want due intention to depute Men to Ecclesiastical Functions nor matter or Form in giving Priesthood deriving from no Man or Woman the Authority of Ordination but from Christ the Head of the Church you have alledged no sufficient Cause why we should not have true Pastors and consequently a true Church in England CHAP. XII Of the Conclusion Mr. Waddesworth's Agonies and Protestation c. YEt by these you say and many other Arguments you were resolved in your understanding to the contrary It may well be that your Understanding out of its own heedless hast as that of our first Parents while it was at the perfectest was induced into error by resolving too soon out of seeming Arguments and granting too forward assent For surely these which you have mentioned could not convince it if it would have taken the pains to examine them throughly or had the patience to give unpartial hearing to the Motives on the other side But as if you triumphed in your own conquest and captivity you add that which passeth yet all that hitherto you have set down viz. That the Church of Rome was and is the only true Church because it alone is Antient Catholick and Apostolick having Succession Vnity and Visibility in all Ages and Places Is it only antient To omit Ierusalem are not that of Antioch where the Disciples were first called Christians and Alexandria Ephesus Corinth and the rest mentioned in the Scriptures antient also and of Antioch antienter than Rome Is it Catholick and Apostolick only Do not these and many more hold the Catholick Faith received from the Apostles as well as the Church of Rome For that it should be the Vniversal Church is all one as ye would say the part is the whole one City the World Hath it only succession where to set aside the enquiry of Doctrine so many Simoniacks and Intruders have ruled as about fifty of your Popes together were by your own Mens Confession Apostatical rather than Apostolical Or Unity where there have been thirty Schisms and one of them which endured fifty years long and at last grew into three Heads as if they would share among them the triple Crown And as for dissentions in Doctrine I remit you to Master Doctor Halls peace of Rome wherein he scores above three hundred mentioned in Bellarmine alone above three-score in one only head of Penance out of Navarrus As to that addition in all Ages and places I know not what to make of it nor where to refer it Consider I beseech you with your wonted moderation what you say for sure unless you were beguiled I had almost said bewitched you could never have resolved to believe and profess that which all the World knows to be as false I had well nigh said as God is true touching the extent of the Romish Church to all Ages and places Concerning the agonies you passed I will say only thus much if being resolved though erroneously that was truth you were withholden from professing it with worldly respects you did well to break through them all But if besides these there were doubt of the contrary as methinks needs must be unless you could satisfie your self touching those many and known Exceptions against the Court of Rome which you could not be ignorant of take heed lest the rest insuing these agonies were not like Sampsons sleeping on Dalilahs knees while the Locks of his Strength were shaven whereupon the Lord departing from him he was taken by the Philistins had his Eyes put out and was made to grind in the Prison But I do not despair but your former resolutions shall grow again And as I do believe your religious asseveration that for very fear of damnation you forsook us which makes me to have the better hope and opinion of you for that I see you do so seriously mind that which is the end of our whole life so I desire from my Heart the good hope of salvation you have in your present way may be as happy as your fear I am perswaded was causeless For my part I call God to record against mine own Soul that both before my going into Italy and since I have still endeavoured to find and follow the truth in the Points controverted between us without any earthly respect in the World Neither wanted I fair opportunity had I seen it on that side easily and with hope of good entertainment to have adjoyned my self to the Church of Rome after your example But to use your words as I shall answer at the dreadful day of judgement I never saw heard or read any thing which did convince me nay which did not finally confirm me daily more and more in the perswasion that in these differences it rests on our part Wherein I have not followlowed humane conjectures from foreign and outward things as by your leave methinks you do in these your motives whereby I protest to you in the sight of God I am also much comforted and assured in the possession of the truth but the undoubted Voice of God in his Word which is more

if an unmeasured ambition had not much defaced his other great abilities and excellent qualities The old degraded Bishop Adair was quickly restored to another Bishoprick which came to be vacant upon a dismal account which I would gladly pass over if I could for the thing is but too well known One Adderton Bishop of Waterford who as was believed had by a Symoniacal compact p●ocured such favour that he was recommended to that Bishoprick and had covered his own unworthiness as all wicked Men are apt to do by seeming very zealous in every thing that is acceptable to those who govern and had been in particular very severe on Bishop Adair came to be accused and convicted of a crime not to be named that God punished with fire from Heaven and suffered publickly for it He expressed so great a repentance that Dr. Bernard who preached his funeral Sermon and had waited on him in his Imprisonment had a very charitable opinion of the state in which he dyed Upon this Adair's Case was so represented to the King that he was provided with that Bishoprick From which it may appear That he was not censured so much for any guilt as to strike a terrour in all that might express the least kindness to the Scotch Covenanters But our Bishop thought the degrading of a Bishop was too sacred a thing to be done meerly upon politick Considerations Bishop Bedell was exactly conformable to the Forms and Rules of the Church he went constantly to Common Prayer in his Cathedral and often read it himself and assisted in it always with great reverence and affection He took care to have the Publick Service performed strictly according to the Rubrick so that a Curate of another Parish being imployed to read Prayers in the Cathedral that added somewhat to the Collects the Bishop observing he did this once or twice went from his place to the Reader 's Pew and took the book out of his Hand and in the hearing of the Congregation suspended him for his presumption and read the rest of the Office himself He preached constantly twice a Sunday in his Cathedral on the Epistles and Gospels for the Day and catechised alwayes in the Afternoon before Sermon and he preached always twice a Year before the Judges when they made the Circuit His Voice was low and mournful but as his matter was excellent so there was a gravity in his looks and behaviour that struck his Auditors He observed the Rubrick so nicely that he would do nothing but according to it so that in the reading the Psalms and the Anthems he did not observe the common custome of the Minister and the People reading the Verses by turns for he read all himself because the other was not enjoyned by the Rubrick As for the placing of the Communion Table by the East wall and the bowing to it he never would depart from the Rule of observing the Conformity prescribed by Law for he said That they were as much Nonconformists who added of their own as they that came short of what was enjoyned as he that adds an Inch to a measure disowns it for a Rule as much as he that cuts an Inch from it and as he was severe to him that added Words of his own to the Collect so he thought it was no less censurable to add Rites to those that were prescribed When he came within the Church it appeared in the composedness of his behaviour that he observed the Rule given by the Preacher of Keeping his Feet when he went into the House of God but he was not to be wrought on by the greatness of any Man or by the Authority of any persons example to go out of his own way though he could not but know that such things were then much observed and measures were taken of Men by these little distinctions in which it was thought that the zeal of Conformity discovered it self There is so full an account of the tenderness with which he advised all Men but Churchmen in particular to treat those that differed from them in a Sermon that he preached on those Words of Christ Learn of me for I am meek and lowly that I am assured the Reader will well bear with the length of it It was preached soon after some heats that had been in the House of Commons in the Parliament of Ireland in which there were many Papists and in it the sense he had of the way of treating all differences in Religion whether great or small is so well laid down that I hope it will be looked on as no ordinary nor useless piece of Instruction IS it not a shame that our two Bodies the Church and Commonwealth should exercise mortal hatreds or immortal rather and being so near in place should be so far asunder in affection it will be said by each that other are in fault and perhaps it may truly be ●aid that both are the one in that they cannot endure with patience the lawful superiority of the worthier Body the other in that they take no care so to govern that the governed may find it to be for their best behoof to obey until which time it will never be but there will be repining and troubles and brangles between us This will be done in my Opinion not by bolstering out and maintaining the errours and unruliness of the lower Officers or Members of our body but by severely punishing them and on both sides must be avoided such Men for Magistrates and Ministers as seek to dash us one against another all they may And would to God this were all but is it not a shame of shames that Mens emulations and contentions cannot stay themselves in matters of this sort but the holy profession of Divinity is made fuel to a publick fire and that when we had well hoped all had been either quenched or raked up it should afresh be kindled and blown up with bitter and biting Words God help us we had need to attend to this Lesson of Christ Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in Heart or to that of the Apostle It behoves the servant of God not to contend but to be meek towards all instructing with lenity those that be contrary affected waiting if at any time God will give them a better mind to see the truth 2 Tim. 2.25 And here give me leave R. W. and beloved Brethren and Sisters to speak freely my mind unto you I know right well that I shall incur the reproof of divers yet I will never the more for that spare to utter my Conscience I hope wise Men will assent or shew me better For my part I have been long of this mind that many in their Sermons and Writings are to blame for their manner of dealing with the adversaries of their Opinions when they give Reins to their Tongues and Pens to railing and reproachful Speeches and think they have done well when they exceed or equal them in this Trade wherein to

sith you required a full Answer and the delay it self had need to bring you some interest for the forbearance And because you mention the vehemency of discreet Lawyers although methinks we are rather the Clients themselves that contend since our Faith is our own and our best Freehold let me entreat of you this ingenuity which I protest in the sight of God I bring my self Let us not make head against evident Reason for our own credit or fashion and factions sake as Lawyers sometimes are wont Neither let us think we lose the Victory when Truth overcomes We shall have part of it rather and the better part since errour the common enemy to us both is to us more dangerous For Truth is secure and impregnable we if our Errour be not conquered must remain Servants to corruption It is the first Praise saith S. Augustine to hold the true Opinion the next to forsake the false And surely that is no hard mastery to do when both are set before us if we will not be either retchless or obstinate From both which our Lord of his mercy evermore help us and bring us to his everlasting Kingdom Amen Your very loving Brother W. Bedell Horningshearth Octob. 22. 1620. THE COPIES OF Certain Letters c. Salutem in Christo Iesu. CHAP. I. Of the Preamble The Titles Catholick Papist Traytor Idolater SIR I Do first return you hearty thanks for the truth and constancy of your love and those best effects of it your wishing me as well as to your self and rejoycing in my safe return out of Italy For indeed further I was not though reported to have been both at Constantinople and Ierusalem by reason of the nearness of my name to one Mr. William Bidulph the Minister of our Merchants at Aleppo who visited both those places I thank you also that your ancient love towards me hath to use that Word of the Apostle now flourished again in that after so many Years you have found opportunity to accomplish your promise of writing to me though not as ye undertook of the state of Religion there yet which I confess I no less desired the Motives of the forsaking that you had professed here Whereof since it hath pleased you as ye write now to give me an account and by me to Mr. Dr. Hall with some expectation also as it appears of reply from one of us I will use the liberty which you give me and as directly as I can for the matter and in Christian terms for the manner shew you mine opinion of them wherein I shall endeavour to observe that Precept of the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether it be to be interpreted loving sincerely or seeking truth lovingly Neither soothing untruth for the dearness of your person nor breaking charity for diversity of Opinion With this entrance my loving Friend and if you refuse not that old Catholick name my dear Brother I come to your Letter Wherein though I might well let pass that part which concerns your quarrel with Mr. Dr. Hall with aetatem habet yet thus much out of the common presumption of charity which thinks not evil give me leave to say for him I am verily perswaded he never meant to charge you with Apostasie in so horrible a sense as you count viz. A total falling from Christian Religion like that of Julian an obstinate pertinacy in denying the Principles of the Faith necessary to salvation or a renouncing your Baptism The term Apostasie as you know doth not always sound so hainously A Monk forsaking his Order or a Clerk his Habit is in the Decretals stiled an Apostata Granatensis saith not untruly That every deadly sin is a kind of Apostasie The Apostle S. Paul speaking of Antichrists time saith There must come an Apostasie before Christs second coming and how this shall be he shews elsewhere Men shall give heed to spirits of Error and Doctrines of Devils and such as speak falshood in hypocrisie Whereby it seems that Antichrist himself shall not professedly renounce Christ and his Baptism His Kingdom is a mystery of iniquity a revolt therefore not from the outward profession but inward sincerity and power of the Gospel This kind of Apostasie might be that which Mr. Hall was sorry to find in you whom he thought fallen from the Truth though not in the Principles of Christian Doctrine yet in sundry Conclusions which the reformed Churches truly out of them maintain He remembred our common education in the same Colledge our common Oath against Popery our common Calling to the same sacred Function of the Ministery he could not imagine upon what reasons you should reverse these beginnings And certainly how weighty and sufficient soever they be we are not taught by our Catholick Religion to revenge our selves and render reproach for reproach with personal terms much less to debase and avile the excellent Gifts of God as is Poesie the honour of David and Solomon by the Testimony of the Holy Ghost himself These courses are forbidden us when we are railed upon and calumniated how much more when as S. Peter speaks We are beaten for our faults as it falls out in your case if these Motives of yours be weak and insufficient which we shall anon consider You say you are become Catholick Were you not then so before The Creed whereinto you were baptized is it not the Catholick Faith The conclusion certes of Athanasius's Creed which is but a declaration thereof saith Haec est Fides Catholica Or is not he a Catholick that holds the Catholick Faith That which was once answered touching the present Church of England to one in a Stationers Shop in Venice that would needs know what was the difference betwixt us and the Catholicks It was told him none for we accounted our selves good Catholicks When he unwilling to be put off in his answer for lack of due form in his Question pressed to know what was the difference betwixt us and them there He was answered This That we believed the Catholick Faith contained in the Creed but did not believe the Thirteenth Article which the Pope had put to it When he knew not of any such Article the Extravagance of Pope Boniface was brought where he defines it to be altogether of necessity to salva●●on to every humane creature to be under the Bishop of Rome This thirteenth Article of the thirteenth Apostle good Mr. Waddesworth it seems you have learned and so are become as some now speak and write Catholick Roman That is in true interpretation Vniversal-particular which because they cannot be equalled the one restraining and cutting off from the other take heed that by straitning your Faith to Rome you have not altered it and by becoming Roman left off to be Catholick Thus if you say our Ancestors were all till of late Years Excuse me Sir whether you call our Ancestors the first Christian Inhabitants of this Isle or the ancient Christians of the Primitive Church neither those