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	receive_v	1,639	5	4.9836	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

will not recede so much as a fingers breadth from the Opinion they have undertaken to maintain is all one as by Arguments to perswade him the Sun shines who shuts his eyes against the Light thereof and refuseth to see its Light Indeed for their sakes who continually fasten on such kind of Questions as when they be fully discust do yet nevertheless not convince Consciences of the principal Truth to spend much pains and to weary ones self with continual disputing is nothing else but to draw water with a sieve which if one take up out of the water immediately it appeareth empty and void of that Humour or Moysture which it abundantly drew CHAP. II. Of that kind of Papists who will not be taught better Amongst the most of Christians especially the Papists or by which title they love to be called the Catholicks when any Dispute is had with them we ordinarily meet with these two sorts of Men. The first Sort is twofold Some fear not roundly and with full mouth to affirme that they will not be taught better but that they will tooth and nayl and obstinately stick to their own Opinion Insomuch that though they should see with their eyes that the Wall is white yet nevertheless they would believe their Church so believing and judging that it is black because being forced by necessity they find that they must so speak Whereupon although they find by all their Senses that is see smell taste feel hear that the bread in the Eucharist is nothing but bread yet notwithstanding they ought to be willing to believe that it is not bread but only the accident of Bread which cannot be tasted touch'd or smelt Not considering that themselves do by this means give very many cause to doubt of every thing and so to call in question the chief Foundation of the whole Christian Religion that is the Truth of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead which is built on this Foundation that the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ and amongst these Thomas otherwise not over-credulous perceived Jesus Christ with all their senses saw handled heard and veiwed him near to them judging that that very thing ought to be an irrefragable Argument to themselves and to the whole world for to believe that Christ rose from the dead not in shew and appearance but really in his proper body And they indeed call this very thing mens believing those things which they do not see who yet do quite contrary here whilest they do not believe that very thing which they see touch smell hear and taste He that seeth not that this is a great Efficacy of errour he seeth nothing at all and if Thomas had followed this Rule he might by the same Parity of Right have believed that it was not Christ himself whom he beheld before him into whose side he thrust his Hand and his Finger into the Prints of the Nails CHAP. III Of some Papists that cleave so stifly to their own Opinion that they will not give place to any Reason THere are others who seem not on set purpose to be willing or to dare roundly and openly to profess that they will not be taught better yea who protest to the contrary deeming that too gross and rustick a Saying and yet nevertheless they do not obscurely declare when they see their Forces reduced to Straits that they neither can nor ought to yield to a better Opinion much less receive any Information from those whom their Church counts Hereticks and although they perceive themselves in such sort wrapped in that they can give no reason of their Belief or Opinion neither from the Sacred Scriptures nor Councils nor Fathers and that their own Reasons are so solidly and strongly refuted that they may as it were feel with their hands that their Exceptions to the contrary are of no Weight or Force at all yet they defend or maintain their own so obstinately that they will rather perswade themselves that those Arguments though they seem solid and altogether Achillean are more brittle than Glass and do onely deceive under a shew of Reason which others more skilful than themselves would easily and with no trouble solve or answer and so being blinded with a prejudicate Opinion and also led with a Love and Reverence of their Mother the Church they count them meer Sophisms by this means indeed confessing on the one hand their own weakness and on the other hand shewing their singular Constancy or Obstinacy in the Faith of their Church contrary Arguments notwithstanding which press their minds and force them to doubt of their fore-going Belief yea to believe to the contrary We may easily observe that these two Sorts of Men do not seek the Truth with a pious and honest Mind but that they onely hunt after vain Glory and the Praise of Victory gotten by any means whatsoever deeming they have alwayes sufficient Causes of glorying whilest they dare affirm they are not satisfied That the case so stands daily Experience sheweth Nor is it to be wondred at The first and chiefest Article of the Papists is this That their Church cannot err consequently that of all other Churches that differ from their Church we are to conclude that they err and that as long as they persist in their Errour are liable to eternal destruction damnation With whom this foundation doth not remain wholly fixt and unshaken he cannot be a true Papist but if any hold it tooth and nail he openly professeth that he is not willing to be taught better although he shall be convinced of his Errour or if he make shew of some desire to learn yet doth he with his whole Strength and Might maintain his Opinion although the Truth be proposed to him as clearly and resplendently as the Sun-beams are wont to be when the weather is fair and clear This Foundation being laid it necessarily follows that to dispute with a true Papist is fruitless and endless and that it cannot be hoped that such an one should be taken off from his resolution or by Arguments be reduced into the right Way Furthermore a true Papist as he renders himself unmeet to embrace the Truth and to acknowledge his own Errour so doth he unadvisedly cast himself into a Labyrinth or Maze of inextricable absurdities out of which he is utterly unable to extricate or free himself as it frequently useth to befal them who receive not the Love of the Truth that they might be saved as Paul shews 2 Thes 2.10 And this appears more clear than the Noon-dayes Light when any Dispute is undertaken with them even concerning any Point whatsoever of the Christian Religion nor is it necessary in many words to prove it CHAP. IIII. That the Papists cannot show which is that true Church which cannot err THis chief and fundamental Point which they have alwayes in their mouth and on which they chiefly build That the Church of Rome cannot err is a Labyrinth out