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
A45087	The true cavalier examined by his principles and found not guilty of schism or sedition	Hall, John, of Richmond.	1656 (1656)	Wing H361; ESTC R8537	103,240	144

strifes and contentions many times and that about matters of no small importance yea her schisms factions and such other evils whereunto the body of the Church is subject sound and sick remaining both of the same body as long as both parts retain by outward profession that vital substance of Truth which maketh Christian Religion to differ from theirs which acknowledg not our Lord Jesus Christ the blessed Saviour of mankind give no credit to his glorious Gospel and have his Sacraments the seal of eternal life in derision Now the priviledg of the visible Church of God for of that we speak is to be herein like the Ark of Noah for any thing we know to the contrary all without are lost sheep Yet in this was the Ark of Noah priviledged above the Church that whereas none of them which were in the one could perish numbers in the other are cast away because to eternal life our profession is not enough Many things exclude from the Kingdom of God although from the Church they separate not In the Church there arise sundry grievous storms by means whereof whole Kingdoms and Nations professing Christ both have been heretofore and are at this present day divided about Christ During which division and contentions amongst men albeit each part do justifie it self yet the one of necessity must needs erre if there be any contradiction between them be it great or little And what side soever it be that hath the truth the same we must also acknowledg alone to hold with the true Church in that point and consequently reject the other as an enemy in that case fallen away from the true Church Wherefore of hypocrites and dissemblers whose profession at the first was but only from the teeth outward when they afterwards took occasion to oppugn certain principal Articles of Faith the Apostles which defended the truth against them pronounce them gone out from the fellowship of sound and sincere Believers when as yet the Christian religion they had not utterly cast off In like sense and meaning throughout all Ages Heretick● have been justly hated as branches cut off from the body of the true Vine yet only so far forth cut off as their Heresies have extended Both Heresie and many other crimes which wholly sever from God do sever from the Church of God in part only The mysterie of Piety saith the Apostle is without peradventure great GOD hath been manifested in the flesh hath been justified in the Spirit hath been seen of Angels hath been preached to Nations hath been believed on in the world hath been taken up into glory The Church a pillar and foundatiou of this truth which no where is known or profess'd but only within the Church and they all of the Church that profess it In the mean while it cannot be denied that many profess this who are not therfore cleered simply from all either faults or errors which maketh separation between us and the Wel-spring of our happiness Idolatry severed of old the Israelites Iniquity those Scribes and Pharisees from God who notwithstanding were a part of the seed of Abraham a part of that very seed which God did himself acknowledg to be his Church The Church of God may therefore contain both them which indeed are not his yet must be reputed his by us that know not their inward thoughts and them whose apparent wickedness testifieth even in the sight of the whole world that God abhorreth them For to this and no other purpose are meant those Parables which our Saviour in the Gospel hath concerning mixture of Vice with Vertue Light with Darkness Truth with Error as well an openly known and seen as a cunningly cloaked mixture That which therefore separateth utterly that which cutteth off clean from the visible Church of Christ is plain Apostacie direct denial utter rejection of the whole Christian faith as far as the same is professedly different from Infidelity Hereticks as touching those points of Doctrine wherein they fail Schismaticks as touching the quarrels for which or the duties wherein they divide themselves from their brethren Loose licentious and wicked persons as touching their several offences and crimes have all forsaken the true Church of God the Church which is sound and sincere in the doctrine that they corrupt the Church that keepeth the bond of unity which they violate the Church which walketh in the ways of righteousness which they transgress the very true Church of Christ they have left howbeit not altogether left nor forsaken simply the Church upon the main foundations whereof they continue built notwithstanding those breaches whereby they are rent from bottom to top asunder And having largely discoursed on the same argument in the beginning of his third Book he proceeds to reprove such as being then members of this Church would annihilate her being truly a Church and claim an independencie because of some corruptions they conceived in her As there are saith he fol. 86. which make the Church of Rome utterly no Church at all by reason of so many grievous errors in their Doctrine so we have them amongst us who under pretence of imagined corruptions in our Discipline do give even as hard a judgment of the Church of England it self And afterwards f. 88. coming to distinguish the visible Church into parts according to their several jurisdictions to the end that authority thereof might be made useful he farther saith For preservation of Christianity there is not any thing more needful then that such as are of the visible Church have mutual felowship and society one with another In which consideration as in the main body of the Sea being one yet within divers precincts hath divers names so the Catholick Church is in like sort divided into a number of distinct societies every of which is termed a Church within it self In this sense the Church is always a visible society of men not an Assembly but a society For although the name of the Church be given unto Christian assemblies although any multitude of Christian men congregated may be termed by the name of a Church yet Assemblies properly are rather things that belong to a Church Men are assembled for performance of publike actions which actions being ended the Assembly dissolveth it self and is no longer in being whereas the Church which was assembled doth no less continue afterwards then before Where but three are and they of the Laity also saith Tertullian yet there is a Church that is to say a Christian Assembly But a Church as now we are to understand it is a Society that is a number of men belonging unto some Christian fellowship the place and limits whereof are certain That wherein they have communion is the publike exercise of such duties as those mentioned in the Apostles Acts Instruction Breaking of bread Prayers As therefore they that are of the mystical body of Christ have those inward graces and vertues whereby they differ from all others which are not of

marks And so the Act goes on prescribing still greater punishments for the second and third offences by way of mulct to the Queen and her Successors 34. But now what if her Successors come to enact against the use of it and be themselves Compellers and Threateners may we not then conclude that they may lawfully interrupt or at least the other be excused for being interrupted where before in a Subject it was unlawful to interrupt or let any Parson in the doing what was by the then Law established So that by this very Act as I conceive such as have a reverend esteem and willingness to use it are not only freed foro interno but by the Clause following enacting That no person shall be at any time hereafter impeached or molested of or for any of the offences above-mentioned hereafter to be committed or done contrary to this Act unless he or they so offending be thereof indicted at the next General Sessions to be holden before any such Justices of Oyer and Determiner or Justices of Assise next after any offence committed or done contrary to the tenor of this Act we may conlude he is freed foro externo also and may for ought I can find rest free from all danger while obedient to the Queens Successory she dying without an Heir 35. And if by reason of any Oath or Obligation received at Ordination or taking degrees some should think themselves farther bound They are also to consider that as neither any derived power can go beyond that which impowers it so are they also to presume that their intentions are alike even to maintain Peace and Order by Uniformity to what is enjoyned and not to raise disturbance by opposition And surely if Oaths Vows or the like were to be held of force in such a case I see not how any Jesuite or Priest could in reason no nor in Conscience be perswaded to recede in any thing from their obedience and conformity to the Papall Sea and Ceremony when as their Promises are not only more strict but confirmed by Laws more ancient and general and which are still in the same force 36. It is also farther to be considered that when after in the Preface to our Bibles it is set down That where heretofore there hath been great diversity in saying and singing in Churches within this Realm some following Salisbury use some Hereford use some the use of Bangor some of York and some of Lincoln now from henceforth all the whole Realm shall have but one use And when in the directions following that Preface it is set down That all Priests and Deacons should be bound daily to say the Morning and Evening Prayer either privately or openly except they be let by preaching studying of Divinity or some other urgent cause We are still to conceive that both Uniformity was aimed at and that the duty of Preaching was in the first place held necessary 37. And if we go to experience in their practise of this precept of reading of the Service Book then we shall find it apprehended as an injunction that did onely bind them ad semper velle but not ad semper agere as Mr. Hooker elsewhere speaks of Gods affirmative Precepts as Pray continually and the like and that thereupon few could give account of their daily use of it even when the hindrance of preaching studying or the like could not well be alledged as before noted And therefore if in a time when it was commanded the use of it might be forborn rather then preaching be omitted what may we think of them that in a time it is taken away will yet rather omit preaching then it to the great discouragement and scandall of many a man in his Christian obedience and Communion and to the great detriment of the nation in generall who in a time of scarcity are much wanting of that instruction which might be had from men of their abilities In which respect as I am my self a true lover of many of them for their learning and gifts in that kinde so hath the sence of mine own losse as well as that of others now made me thus large in this particular 38. But besides this and the want of satisfaction how they can in this condition uphold the Church of England in her former sentence against non conformity if upon the same score they shall slight her authority themselves They are next to consider what answer for their present Recusancy they can bring which on the other side shall not withall justifie the Recusants themselves in their separation from our Communion also For plain it is as I said before that as the drift of all the arguments brought formerly by the Papists against our Churches authority was in respect of usurpation in our Princes and want of succession lawfull ordination and the like in our Priests so was the sum of all their Doctrine that wrote in defence of what was done by us brought to this issue That these things were not essentiall to Salvation or to the being of a Church That each Christian Church having as heretofore set down a power within it self for ordering its own affairs had as well power to abbreviate or abrogate what was in former times or by other Churches instituted before as to institute that which was new so that the casting out from our Service Book and leaving out of our publike Forms of Worship all such Prayers Ceremonies and Observations as in the opinion of those that then had power in the Church had on the one side little or no footing in Scripture and which had on the other side greatest Superstition cast towards them was then held lawfull as by that Declaration annexed to our Bibles concerning Ceremonies why some be abolished and some retained may appear And if it was then held agreeable and the Church thought a fit Judge wherein Superstition was most to be feared and what was the best way of Reformation how can we now change our Principle unlesse we joyn with the adversary to d●●●de the fact as done by the Civil power and Magistrate and with them neither own England for a Church nor him for head thereof Let us hear a little what Father Not the Jesuite in his Book called Charity maintained doth to this purpose alledge in his answer to Doctor Potter after some dispute Chap. 6. about the truth of our Ministery for want of Succession visibly derived from the Pope and Church of Rome he saith at last Sect. 20. But grant their first Bishops had such Authority from the Church of Rome after the decease of those men who gave authority to their pretended Successors The Primate of England but from whom had he such authority And after his decease who shall confer authority upon his Successors The temporall Magistrate King Henry neither a Catholique nor a Protestant King Edward a child Queen Elizabeth a woman an Infant of one houres age is true King in case of his Predecessors decease