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	doctrine_n	false_a	1,796	5	6.6776	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62578	The Protestant religion vindicated, from the charge of singularity & novelty in a sermon preached before the King at White-Hall, April the 2d 1680 / by John Tillotson ...	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1680 (1680)	Wing T1214; ESTC R4634	12,405	35

continue in it for ever And this is that which at first made and still continues the breach and Separation between us of which we are no wise guilty who have only reform'd what was amiss but they who obstinately persist in their errors and will needs impose them upon us and not let us be of their Communion unless we will say they are no Errors II. The other Prejudice against the true Religion is the contrariety of it to the vicious inclinations and practices of Men. It is too heavy a yoke and lays too great a restraint upon humane Nature And this is that which in truth lies at the bottom of all Objections against Religion Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil But this Argument will require a Discourse by it self and therefore I shall not now enter upon it only crave your patience a little longer whilst I make some Reflections upon what hath been already delivered You see what are the Exceptions which Idolatry and Superstition have always made and do at this day still make against the true Religion and how slight and insignificant they are But do we then charge the Church of Rome with Idolatry Our Church most certainly does so and hath always done it from the beginning of the Reformation in her Homilies and Liturgy and Canons and in the Writings of her best and ablest Champions And though I have as impartially as I could consider'd what hath been said on both sides in this Controversy yet I must confess I could never yet see any tolerable defence made by them against this heavy charge And they themselves acknowledg themselves to be greatly under the suspicion of it by saying as Cardinal Perron and others do that the Primitive Christians for some Ages did neither worship Images nor pray to Saints for fear of being thought to approach too near the Heathen Idolatry And which is yet more divers of their most learned men do confess that if Transubstantiation be not true they are as gross Idolaters as any in the World And I hope they do not expect it from us that in complement to them and to acquit them from the charge of Idolatry we should presently deny our senses and believe Transubstantiation and if we do not believe this they grant we have Reason to charge them with Idolatry But we own them to be a true Church which they cannot be if they be guilty of Idolatry This they often urge us withal and there seems at first sight to be something in it And for that reason I shall endeavour to give so clear and satisfactory an answer to it as that we may never more be troubled with it The truth is we would fain hope because they still retain the Essentials of Christianity and profess to believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith that notwithstanding their Corruptions they may still retain the true Essence of a Church as a man may be truly and really a man though he have the plague upon him and for that reason be fit to be avoided by all that wish well to themselves But if this will not do we cannot help it Therefore to push the matter home Are they sure that this is a firm and good consequence That if they be Idolaters they cannot be a true Church Then let them look to it It is they I take it that are concerned to prove themselves a true Church and not we to prove it for them And if they will not understand it of themselves it is fit they should be told that there is a great difference between Concessions of Charity and of Necessity and that a very different use ought to be made of them We are willing to think the best of them but if they dislike our Charity in this point nothing against the hair If they will forgive us this Injury we will not offend them any more But rather than have any further difference with them about this matter we will for quietness sake compound it thus That till they can clearly acquit themselves from being Idolaters they shall never more against their wills be esteemed a true Church And now to draw to a Conclusion If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord and to worship him only to pray to him alone and that only in the name and mediation of Jesus Christ as he hath given us Commandment because there is but one God and one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus If it seem evil unto you to have the liberty to serve God in a Language you can understand and to have the free use of the Holy Scriptures which are able to make men wise unto Salvation and to have the Sacraments of our Religion entirely administred to us as our Lord did institute and appoint And on the other hand if it seem good to us to put our necks once more under that yoke which our Fathers were not able to bear If it be really a Preferment to a Prince to hold the Pope's Stirrup and a Privilege to be deposed by him at his pleasure and a courtesy to be kill'd at his command If to pray without Understanding and to obey without Reason and to believe against sense if Ignorance and implicit Faith and an Inquisition be in good earnest such charming and desirable things Then welcome Popery which wherever thou comest dost infallibly bring all these wonderful Privileges and Blessings along with thee But the Question is not now about the choice but the change of our Religion after we have been so long settled in the quiet possession and enjoyment of it Men are very loth to change even a false Religion Hath a Nation changed their Gods which yet are no Gods And surely there is much more reason why we should be tenacious of the Truth and hold fast that which is good We have the best Religion in the World the very same which the Son of God revealed which the Apostles planted and confirmed by Miracles and which the noble Army of Martyrs sealed with their Blood And we have retrench'd from it all false Doctrines and superstitious Practices which have been added since And I think we may without immodesty say That upon the plain square of Scripture and Reason of the Tradition and Practice of the first and best Ages of the Christian Church we have fully justified Our Religion and made it evident to the World that our Adversaries are put to very hard shifts and upon a perpetual disadvantage in the defence of Theirs I wish it were as easy for us to justify our Lives as our Religion I do not mean in comparison of our Adversaries for that as bad as we are I hope we are yet able to do but in comparison of the Rules of our holy Religion from which we are infinitely swerv'd which I would to God we all seriously consider and lay to heart I say in comparison of the Rules of our Holy Religion which teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present World in expectation of the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost c. FINIS ADVERTISEMENT THere is newly published a Learned Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy To which is added A Discourse concerning the Unity of the Church In quarto By Isaac Barrow D. D. late Master of Trinity-College in Cambridg and one of his Majesty's Chaplains in Ordinary Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the three Pigeons over against the Royal-Exchange in Cornhil I. II. III. IV. Jer. 51. 9.

Laws For by declaring themselves free from all other obligations they give us fair warning what we are to expect at their hands and how far we may trust them Religion is the strongest band of humane Society and God so necessary to the welfare and happiness of mankind as if the Being of God himself had been purposely designed and contrived for no other end but the benefit and advantage of men So that very well may it be taken for granted that a Nation must be of some Religion or other Secondly Though Religion be a matter of our choice yet it is neither a thing indifferent in it self nor to a good Governour what Religion his people are of Notwithstanding the supposition of the Text Joshua doth not leave them at liberty whether they will serve God or Idols but by a very Rhetorical Scheme of Speech endeavours to engage them more firmly to the worship of the true God To countenance and support the true Religion and to take care that the people be instructed in it and that none be permitted to debauch and seduce men from it properly belongs to the Civil Magistrate This power the Kings of Israel always exercised not only with allowance but with great approbation and commendation from God himself And the case is not altered since Christianity The better the Religion is the better it deserves the countenance and support of the Civil Authority And this Power of the Civil Magistrate in matters of Religion was never called in question but by the Enthusiasts of these later times And yet among these every Father and Master of a Family claims this Power over his Children and Servants at the same time that they deny it to the Magistrate over his Subjects But I would fain know where the difference lyes Hath a Master of a Family more power over those under his Government than the Magistrate hath No man ever pretended it Nay so far is it from that that the natural Authority of a Father may be and often is limited and restrained by the Laws of the Civil Magistrate And why then may not a Magistrate exercise the same power over his Subjects in matters of Religion which every Master challengeth to himself in his own Family that is to establish the true worship of God in such manner and with such circumstances as he thinks best and to permit none to affront it or to seduce from it those that are under his care And to prevent all misunderstandings in this matter I do not hereby ascribe any thing to the Magistrate that can possibly give him any pretence of right to reject Gods true Religion or to declare what he pleases to be so and what Books he pleases to be Canonical and the Word of God and consequently to make a false Religion so currant by the stamp of his Authority as to oblige his Subjects to the profession of it Because he who acknowledgeth himself to derive all his Authority from God can pretend to none against Him But if a false Religion be established by Law the case here is the same as in all other Laws that are sinful in the matter of them but yet made by a lawful Authority in this case the Subject is not bound to profess a false Religion but patiently to suffer for the constant profession of the true And to speak freely in this matter I cannot think till I be better inform'd which I am always ready to be that any pretence of Conscience warrants any man that is not extraordinarily commission'd as the Apostles and first Publishers of the Gospel were and cannot justifie that Commission by Miracles as they did to affront the establish'd Religion of a Nation though it be false and openly to draw men off from the profession of it in contempt of the Magistrate and the Law All that persons of a different Religion can in such a case reasonably pretend to is to enjoy the private liberty and exercise of their own Conscience and Religion for which they ought to be very thankful and to forbear the open making of Proselytes to their own Religion though they be never so sure that they are in the right till they have either an extraordinary Commission from God to that purpose or the Providence of God make way for it by the permission of the Magistrate And that they are guilty however of gross Hypocrisie who pretend a further obligation of Conscience in this matter I shall give this plain Demonstration which relies upon Concessions generally made on all hands and by all Parties No Protestant that I know of holds himself obliged to go and Preach up his Religion and make Converts in Spain or Italy Nor do either the Protestant Ministers or Popish Priests think themselves bound in conscience to Preach the Gospel in Turky to convert the Mahometans And what is the Reason because of the severity of the Inquisition in Popish Countreys and of the Laws in Turky But doth the danger then alter the obligation of Conscience No certainly but it makes men throw off the false pretence and disguise of it But where there is a real obligation of Conscience danger should not deter men from their Duty as it did not the Apostles which shews their case to be different from ours and that probably this matter was stated right at first So that whatever is pretended this is certain that the Priests and Jesuits of the Church of Rome have in truth no more obligation of conscience to make Converts here in England than in Sueden or Turky where it seems the evident danger of the attempt hath for these many years given them a perfect discharge from their duty in this particular I shall joyn the Third and Fourth Observations together That though the true Religion may have several prejudices and objections against it yet upon examination there will be found those real advantages on its side that it may safely be referred to any considerate mans choice If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom you will serve If it seem evil unto you Intimating that to some persons and upon some accounts it may appear so But when the matter is truly represented the choice is not difficult nor requires any long deliberation Chuse you this day whom you will serve Let but the Cause be fully and impartially heard and a wise man may determine himself upon the spot and give his Verdict without ever going from the Bar. The true Religion hath always layen under some prejudices with partial and inconsiderate men which commonly spring from one of these two Causes either the Prepossessions of a contrary Religion or the contrariety of the true Religion to the vicious inclinations and practises of men which usually lyes at the bottom of all prejudice against Religion Religion is an enemy to mens beloved lusts and therefore they are enemies to Religion I begin with the first which is as much as I shall be