Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	church_n	err_v	1,967	5	9.6697	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05470	Two sermons viz. 1. A preseruatiue lilie to cure soules. And 2. How to seeke to finde Christ. Preached by that famous and iudicious diuine, Peter Lilie, Doctor of Diuinitie, and sometime fellow of Iesus Colledge in Cambridge.	Lily, Peter, d. 1615.; Lily, Dorothy, d. 1627.	1619 (1619)	STC 15600; ESTC S108559	27,509	75

Sunne vnto the going downe of the same my Name is great among the Gentiles By which is meant the calling of the Gentiles And therefore they are iniurious to binde Christ to Rome and absurd also seeing in their Creede they insert these words I beleeue the Romaine Catholike Church For the Catholike Church is the vniuersall society of all the Faithfull or Elect both of men and Angells the Romaine Church is but a particular Church as the Church of England or France is though to speake the trueth sometimes a flourishing Church Rom. 1.8 of which Saint Paul saith That their Faith was published throughout the whole world One of the originall or mother-churches a Church for her constancie in the Faith reuerenced of other Churches But now the case is altered The faithfull Citie is become a Harlot Iustice Iudgement lodged in her but now those that shined as gold are as blacke as pitch And therefore to seeke after Christ in Rome is not conuenient much lesse to appropriate the truth to the Church of Rome and yet I will not deny but many in the Romaine Church appertaine to Christ who grone vnder that grosse superstition Papisme it selfe is not a totall defection but an aberration from Christ though a grosse one neither is there any cause why they should obiect vnto vs our paucity who neither are so few as they would haue vs to be esteemed and yet if we were we know that trueth is not to be measured by multitude Thou shalt not follow a multitude to doe euill For the most part euill goeth with the multitude And Gregory Nazianzene saith That to esteeme of things according to the multitude were to preferre the dust of the earth before the Stars of Heauen to neglect Pearles and to gather pibble-stones which are infinite I cannot hasting to other matters prosecute this point at full onely this I wish you to take heede of the confused clamours of our Aduersaries in whose mouthes nothing is more frequent then the Temple of the Lord the Church the Faith the ancient and Apostolike Sea the Chaire that cannot erre with a number of like childish vaunts to bring vs backe vnto Rome as if Christ were no where to be found but there where indeede hee is neither so soundly nor sincerely as he ought to be I would also admonish the Schismatikes who according to the praediction of our Sauiour say Heere is Christ and there is Christ and with them is Christ no where else is Christ euerie Sect challenging to themselues the name of Christ and thence excluding the other from any right or title therein But this occasion requireth other matter at my hands and therefore leauing other errours committed in seeking Christ out of due place I come to that which is heere committed by the VVomen and here I must repeate our distinction The errours saith Bernard committed in seeking of Christ are in the time in the manner in the place of which three errors these women committed onely the last for of the former two we must acquit them For how can they be said to erre in the time who so earely come to the Sepulchre to finde Christ Christ was crucified on the Friday the day following was the Sabboath which caused them to rest but the day after before it was yet light neither discouraged with the darknesse nor caring for the VVatch which might well haue amated them they come vnto the Sepulchre to finde Christ Neither may they be said to erre in that manner of seeking which those doe commit that follow Christ in the Desart not for the Miracle but for the Meate Many there are that are like vnto these the Apostle saith Philip. 2.21 Omnes quae sua sunt quaerunt Euery man seekes his owne and not that which is Christs But these holy VVomen when Christ was now dead with the perill of their liues considering the malice of the Iewes with the expence and cost of their goods come earely to the Sepulchre intending to performe their funerall rites vnto Christ And heerein for their zeale and loue though not according to knowledge they deserue if not commendation yet tolleration The errour properly committed by them is their seeking of Christ out of due place Cur quaeritis viuentem inter mortuos Why seeke ye him that liueth among the dead The Sepulchre or Graue is domus mortuorum The house of the dead inhabited of rotten carkasses in which it was vnpossible that Christ should either remaine or putrifie He tolde them That hee would rise the third day which they forgetting or not beleeuing come with their odours to embalme him and to that end doe seeke him among the dead For which cause the Angell doth somewhat taxe them Cur quaeritis viuentem inter mortuos Why seeke yee the liuing among the dead This is their errour about the place and so is it ours to and much more grosse and I now speake of the ordinarie errours committed call them how you will either in the manner of seeking or about the place Christ when they did seeke him was risen but he was not yet ascended but now heis both risen and ascended sitting on the right hand of God Coloss 3.1 where wee ought to seeke him If Christ be risen let vs seeke him where he sits at the right of God But we like wormes lie groueling on the earth whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Conuersation ought to be in heauen If you vnderstand not my meaning I will make it plaine The Apostle taxing certaine persons among other things brandeth them with this title namely Philip. 3. That they minded earthly things then the which nothing is more opposite to the finding of Christ Christ as he is God filleth all places as hee is Man hee is contained in one place namely in Heauen where is the Kingdome of Glorie where our affections desires and thoughts ought to be For if we seeke him on earth who now raignes in Heauen wee shall neuer finde him Men naturally looke vp-wards to heauen whereas the beast looks downe wards But is it not absurd that with the eyes of our bodies we should looke vp-wards and with the eyes of our hearts looke downe-wards Yet so it is which he saith is to transforme the Image of God into the Image of a Beast and thus speaketh he to him to make him blush for shame For whereas thou art made streight and oughtest to looke vp to heauen thou with the beasts dost creepe on the earth like a brutish creature so art become beastiall in heart in the stowping of thy soule to the earth If hee did thus say vnto them doe not wee stand in need to stirre vp our selues by all meanes to the contemplation of the heauenly life and to shake off this earthlinesse of minde The Prophet speaking to the Iewes begins thus Ierem. 22. Hearken O earth earth earth three times repeated May it not be said to many of vs who are

be baptised In which words diuers things do offer themselues to bee considered and that which I thinke first is necessary is the coniunction of these two namely Faith and Baptisme He that shall beleeue and be baptised must be read without dis-junction and make but one proposition For our Sauiour Christ doth not heere meane that he which is baptised but beleeueth not or that he that beleeueth and is not baptised shall be saued but both are heere ioyned together He that beleeueth and is baptised Betweene these two I meane Faith and Baptisme Christ doth part the causes of Saluation yet let none mis-take me in that I say these are causes of Saluation I doe not say they are principall causes but instrumentall adiuvant secundary inferiour causes which it pleaseth God to vse and sanctifie for the sauing of our soules I doe not say that either both together or any one of them by it selfe is a cause absolutely necessarie to Saluation so that he that wants either one or both must be damned which in the latter member I shall more largely declare but I say they are necessarie in respect of our obedience and necessarie because commanded and therefore if of contempt or grosse or affected negligence we either refuse the one or the other we incurre the displeasure of God and by that meanes eternall damnation In this sence I call them causes and ioyne them both together euen as Christ himselfe doth Hee that beleeueth and is baptised both of them are in their kinde necessary Of the one that is Faith the Apostle sayth Without faith it is vnpossible to please God Hebr. 11.6 Of the other that is Baptisme the Apostle sayth Titus 3.5 it is Lauacrum regenerationis the washing of the new birth and is resembled by Saint Peter 1. Pet. 3.20.21 to the Arke in which Noah and his children were saued The Arke was not a signe onely of the mercy of God but God vsed it as an instrumentall cause to preserue Noah in that great and vniuersall deluge and to it is Baptisme compared The ancient Fathers grounding themselues vpon that and the like places doe speake as becomes them reuerently resembling Baptisme to the red-Sea in which Pharaoh that is the Diuell with all his workes are drowned and the Israelites that is the true Christians regenerate are deliuered from the wrath of God To the Poole of Bethesda into which the Angell descended at a certaine time and stirred the water and who first descended there-into was cured of his infirmitie I say they not onely resemble it but preferre it before this water for that water did onely cure the bodie but this the soule in this water but one could be cured at one time there many are cured into that water the Angell descended at a certayne time and before he had stirred the water it would not worke and therefore it might bee called Fons signatus a Fountaine sealed vp but this water is open and common and floweth plentifully to all Christians according to that prediction of the Prophet Zacharie In that day Zach. 13.1 there shall be a fountaine opened to the house of Dauid and to the house of Ierusalem for sinne and for vncleannesse In that water God did worke by the ministerie of an Angell heere he worketh by the ministery of sinfull men yet is the effect wonderfull neither doth our humility derogate from the power and operation of it I might repeate many other their similitudes to this purpose many speeches they haue which some thinke to be Hyperbolicall and beyond the truth but indeed they are no more then the Scripture teacheth A man may as well ascribe too little as too much to the Sacrament and as the Papists haue erred in Superstition so some perhaps in Prophanenesse to which these our times do too much incline A meane may be held betweene both that is to thinke of these as they are in effect causes and instruments by which Christ doth deriue into our soules the efficacie of his precious bloud He that beleeueth and is baptised shall be saued And this is the first thing I thought meete to be obserued I meane the coniunction of these two Faith and Baptisme But is nothing else will some say required to Saluation Is it sufficient to beleeue and be baptised VVill these two without good-workes bring them that are come to yeares of discretion to heauen God forbid any should think so yet some in former times haue beene of that minde who held that Faith without Workes was sufficient to Saluation and against that heresie Saint Augustine hath written a whole Booke very learnedly Our Aduersaries of the Church of Rome doe ascribe vnto vs this errour and say that we haue reuiued this Heresie wherein their conscience tells them they doe vs wrong It may be you haue heard some say that Faith onely is necessary to Iustification and that is very true but did you euer heare any say that onely Faith was necessary to Saluation I suppose there was neuer any so madde as once to thinke it Bellarmine in this poynt doth vs right who sayth That both they and wee doe hold a necessity of workes though in a diuers sence They hold in workes necessitatem efficientiae a necessitie of the efficacie of workes we holde necessitatem praesentiae a necessitie of the presence of workes In plaine termes the Question betweene vs is not of the necessitie of workes but of the merit and dignity of workes in which there is some difference betweene vs but the necessity of workes is held of both and therefore there is no need to refuse the words he is supposed to be in the wrong which taketh away the necessity of a vertuous life it rather requireth a reall refutation For although it is confessed on both sides I meane of Protestants and Papists that good workes are necessary to saluation yet in eyther Religion many there are who ouerthrow the confession of their faith with the notorious sins of their liues professing they know God but denying him with their workes Tit. 1.16 as the Apostle saith and that is a kinde of indirect and implicite Atheisme How true this is the times doe testifie and I shall easily make knowne yet not without griefe as one that taketh small delight in this discourse and yet not without profit for I see a profitable vse of it I will beginne then with our Aduersaries who in contention do iustify themselues and lay heauy imputations vpon others but as the old saying is Hee that condemnes another ought not himselfe to be faultie Let vs consider then their demeanour Bellarmine amongst other notes of the Church saith that Sanctitas doctrinae Purenesse of doctrine both concerning Faith and Manners is a speciall one and another is Sanctitas vitae Holinesse of life at the least in the authors and founders of their seuerall Orders But if you should measure truth either by some of their doctrine taught or by

which humane frailtie cannot auoyd and taketh vs for his children till by our hainous and grosse sinnes and by our obstinate persisting in them wee fall from sinne to Sathan renounce our profession and leaue our standing and yet when by repentance we returne againe hee receiueth vs. Two things haue I now dispatched I haue shewed the necessarie coniunction of Faith and Baptisme and that vnder those two Good workes are comprehended and now some would thinke that I might conclude this first member but I cannot yet leaue it There is a mystery of Iniquity which was long since begot in the time of Ignorance and brought vp a long time in darkenesse and neuer saw the Sunne but now it is crept out of corners and aduaunceth it selfe with impudencie in the open sight of the world it is a thing which men call Equiuocation or Mentall Reseruation which some would haue husht and thinke meete it were supprest in silence but we know the world hath taken notice of it and it is lippis tonsoribus notum it is talked of euen in the Barbers shoppe and therefore we may say Publish it in Ashkelon and proclaime it in the streets of Gath Howbeit I would not deale with it at this time were I not in some sort enforced thereunto for a speciall Patron of it is the Iesuite which peruerteth many Scriptures to this purpose and doth not spare this that I now intreate of Qui crediderit baptizatus fuerit saluabitur Hee that shall beleeue and bee baptized shall bee saued that is if hee liue well so saith he Is not heere a mentall reseruation saith he and shall I intreating of this Text suffer it so to be depraued and shewing out of this place the necessitie of a good life suffer the Text to be wrested to the defence of false dealing and dissembling No I may not and therefore I must needes say that neither in this place nor in any other place of Scripture is there any mentall reseruation to be found Christ it was that spake these words and that he vsed any mentall reseruation is most false Saint Mathew repeates this charge or doctrine of our Sauiours more largely Mat. 28.19 Goe teach sayth our Sauiour all Nations baptising them in the name of the Father the Sonne and the Holy-ghost and he addeth Commaunding them to obserue all things that I haue commanded you which word Nations Saint Marke omitteth but Mathew plainely vttereth speaking of the fulfilling of Gods will for that Christ commanded therefore it is plaine that heere is no mentall reseruation vsed The question heere is whether the Euangelist which repeated not all the words of Christ vsed any mentall reseruation No for that which is necessarily to bee vnderstood by the whole drift of the Author and coherence of matter is not reserued although it bee not expressed with so many words which euen Boyes doe know quod necessariò subintelligitur non deest that which is necessarily vnderstood is not wanting or reserued but all one as if it were expressed I heere appeale to one of their owne authors who writing vpon this place saith that this very speech of our Samours Hee which belcoueth and is baptized shall be saued And that of the Prophet Ioel Whosoeuer calles on the Name of the Lord shall be saued And that of our Sauiour Euery one that asketh receiueth and in a word all such generall Sentences haue a condition annexed vnto them and that necessarily to be vnderstood which conditions because they are both in other places of Scripture clearely expressed and that Christian men are supposed at their very entrance to beleeue them for he that commeth to him must beleeue that he is a rewarder of such as seeke him cannot be sayd to be reserued They I meane our Aduersaries speake one thing and think another or reserue some thing to their owne meaning which is vnpossible for any man else to know what it is But the Scripture setteth downe plainely all things necessary to saluation for either they are there expressed or no way and therefore to cloake their dissimulation before men with pretence of Scripture is to condemne the Scripture of insufficiencie to wrest them to the defence of Heresie and to open a doore to Anabaptisme For if the letter of the Scriptures doe not containe the things appertaining to saluation if out of the words wee can not gather their meaning then the interpretation must be left to particular reuelations without the VVord and to this doth this assertion tend which by no meanes may be endured I remember sometimes there was a controuersie betweene Ierome and Austen two as famous men as euer the Latine-Church had it was about an interpretation of a saying of S. Paules where he saith That he withstood Peter to his face Galat. 2.11 which S. Ierome thinkes he did not and that in saying so he vsed a kind of dispensation and thus doth Jerome say to stoppe the mouth of Porphiry But S. Augustine writing to Ierome tells him that Paul in that very Epistle maketh this protestation Galat. 1.20 that he witnessed before God that the things he wrote vnto them he lied not and if he when he sweares he lies not shall be beleeued then must we thinke he withstood Peter and then plainely telling he did reprehend Peter and yet did not then did hee abrogate this and shew that he could not be beleeued in any thing and that if this gappe were left open the authority of the Scriptures must needes fall and that no place though neuer so euident but might be deluded VVho were he now aliue and should see Christ the Author of Truth in whose mouth there was no guile and the holy Scriptures the oracles of truth wrested to the defence of deceit how would he exclaime at such dealing But if any shall say that some places are darke obscure I grant it and say that notwithstanding it is so for Ad edomandum labore superbiam ad intellectum à fastidio reuocandum cui inuestigata pleraque vilescunt To tame the pride of man to make him better esteeme of the truth when he hath it God hath wrapped vp some places of Scripture in difficulty yet if we will speake truly the darknes is not so much in the Scriptures as in our harts Senecaes wife had a she-foole who being blind would yet not acknowledge it but sayd the house was darke and therefore she could not see Such a foole S. Ierome saith himselfe was who for a long time could not relish the scriptures but delighted more in the workes of Orators and Philosophers and when I was blinde and sawe not the light saith he I thought the fault was not in me but in the Sunne And such fooles are they who when they should condemne the hardnes of their hearts lay all the fault vpon the hardnes of the Scriptures For as Master Luther saith In some respects all things are hard darke in