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	word_n	3,787	5	4.0681	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51155	An enquiry into the new opinions, chiefly propagated by the Presbyterians of Scotland together with some animadversions on a late book, entitled, A defence of The vindication of the kirk : in a letter to a friend at Edinburgh / by A.M., D.D.	Monro, Alexander, d. 1715?	1696 (1696)	Wing M2439; ESTC R7	25,403	65

triumphantly Atheism and Impiety lift up their Banners every where Let us endeavour as much as is possible to preserve some Remains of Religion amongst the People Let us assert the ancient Order and Piety that made the Christian Church so beautiful in former Ages The Apostle informs us that the time would come when men could not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves Teachers having itching Ears and they shall turn away their Ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables The great Founder of our Religion sent his Apostles by found Doctrine to enlighten the World and they convey'd this Spiritual Authority unto others who should transmit it by an orderly Succession and as their Mission was Heavenly in its Original so their Doctrine was pure and holy in all its Tendencies They considered themselves as the Ambas adors of Jesus Christ and Delivered their Commission without any Mixture or Hypocrisy They treated the People with all Humility and Tenderness but in the mean time took great care to mortifie their Lusts and their Passions but when they grew wanton and headstrong and thought themselves too wise to be led by their Spiritual Guides and Rulers then they would have teachers of their own Men chosen by themselves such as were taught to calculate their Doctrines to popular Fancies and Humours such as would prostitute the Gospel to promote Error and Delusion and make the Kingdom of Light subservient to that of Darkness and instead of serving our blessed Saviour they became Slaves to the People by whom they were originally employed and because they were so unhappily successful as to gratifie their Lusts they were therefore voted the most edifying teachers The Primitive Ministers of Religion had their immediate Commission from Heaven accordingly they endeavoured by all means to restore the Image of God in the Souls of Men to raise their Thoughts and Designs to that Happiness and Treasure which the World cannot give which God truth promised and made sure by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead The other had their authority from Men and therefore they must needs please the People who sent them They must reconcile the Rules and Morals of the Gospel to the Wicked Practices and designs of the World they must change the strictest Maxims of the Evangel into looser Theorems and the severe Discipline of the Ancient Church unto all Licence and Luxury the true faith that works by love unto airy Notions and Mistakes Thus the People were pleas'd and the Gospel was defeated the Church is ruin'd and God dishonour'd Every Man in his own station is obliged to contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints When the Foundations of Ecclesiastical Unity are shaken loose and the Antient Constitutions trampled upon with great Insolence and Impiety then the hedge of t●●e Religion is not only Invaded but Demolished and without those Sacred Vehicles it must Evaporate into Giddiness and Enthusiasm the Extravagance of these last days is boundless as it Sceptical and Christianity it self is more dangerously wounded by the Delusions of some that are Baptiz'd than by the open Blasphemies of Infidels The last may be assaulted by Reason at least in their more Lucid Intervals but the first are altogether inaccessible we must not presume to instruct them who pretend to extraordinary Illuminations their Errors are made strong by their vanity they plead a Divine Right to every New Opipinion and if we approach them in the ancient Paths of Modesty and Humility they look down upon us with Scorn and Indignation Nay they are inflexible to the plainest and most convincing arguments I have frequently with Grief and Sorrow considered the Decays of Religion and the Difficulties of our Employment We must pull down strong Holds and lofty Imaginations and grapple with the rudest Oppositions the Avenues of Mens Souls are blockaded by passion and prejudices and they are fortified in their Error not only by the Corruption of their Nature but by the artifice of Seducers their itching Ears are pleased their Lusts are gratified their Passions are made more unruly their Envy Hatred and Malice are indulg'd and they are allow'd to distinguish themselves from all others by special Titles of Division and Singularity by which alone they think to make their Calling and Election sure Yet notwithstanding that we are thus resisted by the Multitude of their Follies and Delusions we must not give over by Faintness and Despondency We must plead with them who have left the Unity of the Church by the words of Truth and Soberness and exhort others to continue in that Doctrine that was reveal'd by our Saviour taught by his Apostles and received by all Churches in the first and best Ages that the present Generation may not rise in Judgment against us for our Silence nor Posterity censure our Cowardice We must not be ashamed of the truth even when it is contradicted with all possible Violence and Fury I address this short Treatise to you with a design rather to assert the Truth than to reply to what hath been lately published by the Vindicator of the Kirk of Scotland against a certain Book Entituled Apology for the Clergy c. though I think it necessary to make some of his Mistakes a little more apparent There are certain Practices and Rituals received by the Christian Church in all Ages which are not determin'd expresly in the Holy Scriptures in so many Letters and Syllables yet by the plainest and most undeniable Consequences are agreeable to its general Rules and the Uniform belief of all Christians and they that deny those Usages or the Lawfulness of those Rituals venture upon untrodden Paths and do foolishly condemn the Wisdom of all former Ages The special Providence of God hath so watch'd over the Church that since the first Plantations of Christianity we have preserved to us some Records and Monuments of its Doctrine and Practices The Books of such as have been learn'd in every age do plainly demonstrate that the first Christians were agreed amongst themselves in the great Articles of Religion and in the general Rules of Ecclesiastical Discipline and Order and by this Uniformity of Doctrine and Rituals they strengthened themselves against Infidels and Hereticks There is nothing more opposite to the spirit of true Religion than Stubborness and Petulance and when we despise those Constitutions that have been universally received amongst Christians we overthrow the Foundations of Peace and Charity and consequently we exclude our selves from the visible fellowship of Christ's Houshold and Family When we consider the Schisms and Tumults of particular Churches the confusions of so many Revolutions the shakings of so many Nations the boldness and activity of Hereticks we have reason to adore the Goodness of God that so many Monuments of Ecclesiastical Antiquity are preserv'd and whatever is uniformly determin'd by the Wisest and the best of Christians their learn'dst Bishops and Presbyters

that more perfect Scheme that was to continue until the coming of the Messiah This is certain that before the Apostles left the World they established such an Ecclesiastical Government as ought to continue in the Church until the second coming of our Savioar But let us suppose that where we meet with such Dichetomies in other Authors such a Parity as is intended by the Presbyterians may be understood yet when we view the Text of St. Clement more narrowly we must not presume to make any such Inference for the very same St. Clement Dichotomizies the Jewish Clergy who are known to have had their High Priest Chief Priests Priests and Levites yet he comprehends them all in this short and Bipartite Division For speaking of Jacob he hath these Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And must we from hence conclude that there was a Parity amongst the Priests of the Old Testament because they are thus distinguish'd from the Laity without mentioning the several Gradations of the Hierarchy amongst themselves Nay so little do our Adversaries gain by straining the Language of St. Clement contrary to the Latitude and Simplicity of the Apostolical Age that the same Author comprehends all Ministers of Religion under one general Word whether Prophets Apostles Bishops Presbyters or Deacons and not only does he thus speak of the Priests of the true Religion but also of the * Egyptian Priests who are known to have had their several subordinations But that which is most material to our purpose is that the same St. Clement when he exhorts the Corinthians to Christian Order and Harmony sets before them the beautiful Subordinations under the Temple-Service how the High Priest Priests and Levites were distinguished by their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and immediatly recommends to the Corinthians that every one of them should continue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now when we consider the Primitive method of Reasoning from Jewish Precedents St. Clement had never talked at this rate if the Jurisdiction of one over many Priests had been abolish'd under the New Testament and Jerome himself on whose Writings M. Blondel endeavours to establish his Opinion in his Epistle to Evagrius gives light to this place of St. Clements Et ut sciamus traditiones Apostolicas sumptas de veteri testamento quod Aaron filii ejus atque Levitae in templo fuerunt hoc sibi Episcopi Presbyteri Diaconi vendicent in Ecclesia For without all Controversie those traditions descended from the Jewish Church to the Christian as their true inheritance Nay St. Clement himself expresly distinguishes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the last may signifie Office and Age both together Nor can it be an Objection of any weight that the first who were there Spiritual Governors are mentioned in the plural Number since this was an Encyclical Epistle Address'd to Corinth as the principal City and from thence transmitted to its dependencies How considerable the City of Corinth was in those Days every body knows and S. Chrysostom informs us that it was Populous and magnificent in regard of its Riches and Wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So far was S. Clement from intending a Parity of Priests by his promiscuous use of words that he himself distinguishes plainly the spiritual Governors from the body of subordinate Presbyters and it is surprising to observe how much Men may be blinded with prejudice contrary to the Universal suffrage of the Ancients who place S. Clement so early in the Apostolical Succession of the Chair of Rome the Reader may see them all in one view prefixt to Junius his Edition of his Epistle to the Corinthians A second Witness made to appear an evidence for Parity is the venerable S. Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna who by Ireneus Bishop of Lions is said to have been taught by the Apostles to have convers'd with many who had seen our Saviour and that he himself saw him in his younger Days and that he knew him to have been constituted Bishop of Smyrna by the Apostles This is he who by S. Jerome is called totius Asiae princeps One would think that when they name S. Polycarp they had discovered some clear Testimony in his Writings to build their Hypothesis upon but instead of this nothing but a wretched consequence founded upon the Bipartite Division of the Clergy mentioned in his Epistle to the Philippians And yet the Epigraphe of S. Polycarp's Epistle clearly distinguishes him from his Presbyters who were then with him which runs thus Polycarp and the Presbyters that are with him to the Church of God which is at Philippi And if he had not been vested with Episcopal Jurisdiction and Eminence amongst those Presbyters how was it agreeable to the primitive Modesty and self Denial to have named himself only in the frontispiece of this Epistle and to mention none of his Brethern save only by the general name of Presbyters This is mighty uneasie to Blondel and the evidence of Truth forces from him the following words id tamen in S. Martyris epistola peculiare apparet quod eam pr. vatim suo Presbyterorum nomine ad philippensium fraternitatem dedit ac sibi quandam supra Presbyteros 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reservasse videtur ut jam tum in Episcopali apice constitutum reliquos Smyrnensium Presbyteros gradu superasse conjicere liceat There are two things that baffle this shadow of an Argument brought from the Epistle of S. Polycarp The first is that Irenaeus who was intimately acquainted with him and knew him to have been taught by S. John the Apostle and by him ordained Bishop of Smyrna does refute the Heresies of the Valentintans from the unanimous Doctrine preserv'd amongst the single successors of S. Polycarp downwards to that very Period in which he wrote For if the Ecclesiastical Power of the Church of Smyrna had been equally lodg'd in the College of Presbyters his Argument against the Hereticks from the Succession of single Persons teaching the same Doctrine first delivered by S. John and convey'd by S. Polycarp to the following Bishops I say such an Argument so manag'd could have no force nor was it possible for Irenaeus to have us'd it The next is this that in the same Epistle of S. Polycarp to the Philippians the Epistles of S. Ignatius are zealously recommended and we need not inform the Reader how much the Divine Institution Power and Jurisdiction of Bishops above Presbyters is asserted in those Epistles of which I am to speak in due time The Question then concerning S. Polycarp is whether we are to believe S. Irenaeus Bishop of Lions who was fully acquainted with the manner of his Education Apostolical Doctrine and promotion to the See of Smyrna rather than the dark and groundless conjectures of later Ages And from this single Instance alone we see how inflexible and Stubborn the Power of prejudice is how far it