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
A74986	An antidote against heresy: or a preservative for Protestants against the poyson of Papists, Anabaptists, Arrians, Arminians, &c. and their pestilent errours. Shewing the authors of those errours, their grounds and reasons, the time when and occasion how they did arise; with general answers to their arguments taken out of holy scripture and the ancient fathers. Written to stay the wandering and stablish the weak in these dangerous times of Apostasy. / By Richard Allen, M.A. sometime Fellow of Penbrooke [sic] Colledge in Oxford.	Allen, Richard, b. 1604 or 5.	1648 (1648)	Wing A1045A; Thomason E1168_2; ESTC R208803	57,457	159

is spiritual heavenly and divine The matter of the thing present the Apostle shews plainly 1 Cor. 10.16 But for the manner of presence we have no such evident demonstration To conclude the truth is present with the signs the Holy Spirit with the Sacrament feeding our souls with the truth of Christs body and blood but the invisible working of that Divine Spirit herein is unsearchable the natural man cannot perceive it because it is spiritual Let us firmly beleeve then what we cannot conceive and rest assured in this truth that we receive in the Sacrament the very body and blood of Christ by Faith though we cannot conceive it by sense or reason CHAP. XXVII Of Reformation Truth THere is no particular Church on earth and never was so priviledged but that it may and many have faln into dangerous Errours both of life and doctrine as the examples of all both former and latter times have witnessed so that there is no Church consisting of men that may err but may need Reformation even as a material building doth need often reparation And for as much as many horrible abuses and superstitions were lately brought through the deceitfulness of some into the Church of England to the great dishonor of Almighty God the decay of piety and imminent ruine of the true Protestant Religion therefore this present Reformation was extreamly necessary and is no Innovation but a Restauration only of our Church to its ancient purity of doctrine discipline and divine worship as it was established by the noble Princes K. Edward 6. and Q. Elizabeth of famous memories Although this truth be as clear as the light Errours as shall immediately be made appear and that this present Reformation hath cast out many gross abuses that contrary to the determinations of our Church have been lately put upon us yet there are divers adversaries that either out of malice or ignorance or both do still with all their might oppose it And so I shall reduce them all under three heads The first is of those that do it of pure malice as all lewd and dissolute persons who hate all reformation whatsoever that shal hedg up their extravagant ways and give a check or stop to their loose courses among these we may reckon some Papists and other Sectaries The second is of those that do it of meer ignorance as divers civil Protestants that think no Religion so ancient as that they were bred in and strangely mistaking Church-men for the Church take up most of their religion upon their credit The third sort do it of malice and ignorance both as divers fiery spirits that think there is no way to reform the Church unless they pull it to pieces as if there were no way to cure the head-ache but to knock a mans brains out There be also divers hypocrites that can drive on a reformation for their own ends and advantages and yet are as great enemies to the truth of it as any of the former Antidote I shall endeavor to satisfie the honest Protestant that is engaged against the reformation for want of better information and would soon perhaps imbrace the truth if he were not courted with so many lyes by deceivers that abound in the world The common complaint and cry is for the Religion that was in Queen Elizabeths time again And that we have not now the same Religion The Answer in brief is that we have the same Religion still not a new And that the true Protestant Religion which was then profest is now not altered but settled being restored to its pristine purity and purged from many abuses wherewith it was but lately corrupted As First Many Popish and Arminian tenents were taught and publickly maintained that are contrary to the doctrine of our Church at first established as will appear by comparing them with the 39. Articles and the book of Homilies the nine Articles of Lambeth and other learned writings of our former Bishops Secondly Many Crucifixes Images or Idols were set up in our most eminent Churches and most eminent places of them and that partly by connivence partly by command of men at that time of most eminent place and note whereby Superstition was nourished and Idolatry committed But now these Images are contrary 1. To the Word of God expresly forbidding them 2. To the judgment of the ancient Christians Fathers and Councels with great zeal condemning them And 3. of our own Church of England as in the book of Homilies and 39. Articles may be seen Thirdly The Communion Table was altered both in name and place from a Table to an Altar from the body of the Church to the head or upper end of the Chancel contrary to express order s●t down in the book of Common Prayer before the communion where it is said that the Table shall stand in the body of the Church or in the Chancel and the Priest shall stand at the north side which he cannot do if he stand close up to the wall And if it might be placed according to the discretion of the ordinary yet he must have more discretion then ordinary that will make the end of a table the side as one endeavored to do but that his Geometry failed him Fourthly The Bowing used to the Communion Table was a matter of worse consequence then was commonly imagined It is the attendant on Transubstantiation and Consubstantiation It serves to nourish those Errours still in mens minds ushers in many other Popish superstitions and is the occasion of gross Idolatry Fifthly The rails wainscot and traverse courtains before the Table as if it were the Sanctum sanctorum of the Jews or a Chappel intended for private Mass or as if none were holy enough to approach neer it but the Priest also the Tapers Copes Vestments and many other things lately used though they seemed but small matters to some yet they were not the less dangerous for being little for like little thieves they crept in at our Church windows to open doors to the great ones and if these had continued by this time they would have brought in the whole Mass of Popish Idolatry and those that plead for them are but the devils pimps that seduce the people and under the name of things indifferent would lead them a whoring after Idolls Hereunto we may add that horrible abuse of Excommunication the highest censure of the Church that in the Courts Christian was made a messenger to fetch in fees and men were cast out of the Church for not comming into the Court to say no more Lastly They err as much on the other hand and are to be condemned that scornfully or basely abuse the Church and places set apart for the use of Gods Ordinances which is seldom done but in open or secret contempt of the ordinances themselves Let them among other examples remember that of Julian unckle to the Apostate who in contempt pissed against the Communion Table his bowels rotting out he voyded

Serpent through all his turnings and windings from the primitive times to this present to observe the subtile ways and methods he hath used to note by what steps and degrees he hath from time to time insinuated himself into the very bosom of the Church spreading this deadly poyson over all its Members and every point of Doctrine so that the true Religion at this day lays gasping and labouring for life is a work too great for so small a volum The first Instrument he found fit for this purpose was Simon Magus of whom we read Acts 8. how he bewitched the people of Samaria This Sorcerer is the Father of all Hereticks and his Heresie the cursed womb from whence sprang that numerous brood that now covers the face of the earth and hath raised the devil a mighty Kingdom At this day it is divided though not against it self in two main provinces the Mahumetan in the East in the West the Antichristian of the one the Turk is Viceroy of the other the Pope is Vicar Vnder these two Generalissimoes all those enemies of Christ are listed both the enemies of his Person and the enemies of his Office among whom though there be a seeming difference yet indeed there is a secret league like Sampsons Foxes their heads look contrary ways yet they are all Foxes and joyned together by the tails These are the Foxes that spoyl the Lords Vineyard and do more hurt by secret fraud then the wild Boar by open force Baalam a false Prophet did the Israelites more hurt then the Amorites with all their Armies And that Heretick Arrius did the Christian Church more hurt then the Savage Emperours did with all their Legions No marvell then we are so often warned in holy Scripture to beware of these Seducers and false teachers because they creep in unawares Jude 4. They bring in their Heresies privily and insinuate themselves with fained words 1 Pet. 2.1 3. They have a form of godliness 2 Tim. 3.5 And with their fair outsides get within us surprise and lead us captive And therefore we had need be very wary and never more need then now for Seducers wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived 2 Tim. 4. They compass Sea and Land they fill Town and Country and not only creep into houses but up into high places so bold they are grown Now as Iannes and Iambres withstood Moses so do these resist the truth men of corrupt minds of no judgment concerning the Faith 2 Tim. 3.8 But that they proceed no further here are discovered their Errours that being seen they may be shun'd and avoided And though here be not discovered all which is almost impossible yet here are if I mistake not the principal whereunto the rest are but accessory The end of this small work is to furnish the weaker sort with general answers out of Gods own Word to the Arguments of the Adversaries and with plain Reasons if not sufficient to defeat the enemy yet enough I hope to defend themselves that they may be provided for them whensoever they be encountred by them lest being unprepared at unawares they be led away with the Errour of the wicked 2 Pet. 3.17 These are the first fruits of a larger harvest if it be accepted being but a handful taken out of a heap Imprimatur James Cranford March 28. 1648. AN ANTIDOTE Against HERESIE CHAP. I. Of the holy Scriptures THe holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the very Word of God Truth written by holy men as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and contain all things that are necessary to be known or beleeved to eternal salvation being sufficient of themselves to instruct the Church or people of God thereunto By holy Scripture we understand only those books that were anciently accounted and are now received by the Church of England for Canonical Adversaries and Errours Errours that oppose this truth are many but may all be reduced to these three heads 1. Are those that enlarge the Canon of holy Scripture adding many things to it that are not of it 2. Are those that diminish the same denying some parts and taking some books from it 3. There be those that refuse and re●ect the whole debasing and despising the Authority of the holy Scriptures and esteeming no better of them then of humane writings 1. Of this latter sort were anciently Simon Magus Montanus and such deceivers and they are followed at this day by the Anabaptists who call the written Word a dead letter and ground their new doctrines upon revelations dreams and visions whereunto they give such credit that at Sangal a Town of Switzerland one of them cut of his brothers head pretending a revelation or command from heaven so to do Sleidan Comment l. 6. By this art Mahomet brought his damnable religion in credit with the world for having the falling sickness he pretended it was a trance wherein he received revelations fr●m heaven and by the same art Muncer Becold Cnipperdolling and other false Prophets of the Anabaptists in Germany seduced a world of poor miserable people to their own destruction The Papists say the Scriptures are of no more credit and authority then meer Fables without the Testimony and approbation of the Church and take them quite away from the reading of Lay-people as dangerous and hurtful and have burnt not only the books of Scripture but bodies of men too for having them in a known tongue such bitter enemies they are to the Word of God 2. There be others that deny not the whole but diminish only the Canon of holy Scripture refusing some parts and rejecting some books 1. The whole New-Testament as the Jews do Or 2. all the Old Testament as the new Libertines do who affirm it is abrogated the Socinians who say it is unnecessary and may well be spared 3. And there be others that enlarge the Canon of holy Scripture adding many things to it that are not of it so the Papists do not only traditions or unwritten verities as they call them but fabulous legends also and written lyes upon a pretence of want and defect in the Scriptures as not containing all truths necessary to salvation nor sufficient to instruct us thereunto without a supply of Apochryphal books traditions and divers humane inventions Antidote The Scriptures are the only touchstone to try and discern Truth from Error by and are called a Testament because they are testis mentis the witness of Gods most holy will against all adversaries then and their errours we affirm First that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the very Word of God of sufficient authority and credit without the Church or any humane testimony to establish any point of doctrine and decide any controversie of Religion For such as the authority of the author of any writing is such is the authority of the writing it self but God is the Author of holy Scripture therefore the Scriptures are of

house or the place of divine worship It seems to come of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by contraction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords or the Lords house the material temple is Gods house Joh. 2.16 Matth. 23.21 and so are the Saints too 1 Pet. 2.5 Eph. 2.22 But the word that properly signifies the congregation or assembly of the Saints and is so often in the New Testament translated Church is Ecclesia and this also is applied by S. Paul to the place of divine worship or meeting place 1 Cor. 11.18 22. The name of Church then is not so peculiar to the Saints but that it belongs also to the place of their publick meeting and therefore they are much to blame that make such a needless ado about the word in derision calling our Churches Steeplehouses c. But taking the word only for the assembly or company of the faithful we affirm First That there is and ever hath been a Church upon earth the Church continued from Adam in Abel Seth Enoch Noah and their families till Abraham In his posterity to Christ and then the walls of the Church were enlarged by pulling down the partition wall and calling in the Gentiles Matth. 28.19 Acts 2.47 Revel 2. 3. Churches were gathered and confirmed by the Apostles men set apart for the work of the Ministry Acts 11. 13. and those ●lso had authority given them to sepa●ate and ordain others also to the same work Tit. 1.5 and so to continue successively in all ages as it hath done to this day And now where the same Gospel is truly preached the same Sacraments duly administred Beleevers professing the same Faith and submitting to the same ordinances as at this day are in England Scotland c. there is a true Church of Christ as was in the Apostles times Secondly The true Catholick Church is the company of Gods Elect only whereof it is said that Christ gave himself for it Eph. 5.25 This is the Church of the first born who are written in heaven Heb. 12.22 The body of Christ Col. 1.18 The houshold of God Eph. 2.23 In which is no condemnation and out of which is no salvation and of this Church hypocrites or wicked men are not members for what fellowship hath Christ with Belial 2 Cor. 6.16 This Church is both invisible and invincible the gates of hell shall not prevail against it Mat. 16. Thirdly many are in the Church that are not of it outwardly called not inwardly from whence ariseth that distinction of the visible and invisible Church The invisible are the Elect only so called because their faith whereby and the body whereinto they are incorporate are both invisible The visible Church is the whole company of those that joyn in one outward league and profession The ground of this distinction is laid by our Saviour Mat. 20 16 and hereunto belongs that parable of the tares Mat. 13. whereby we are warned that although tares may grow i. wicked men or hypocrites may live in a visible Church yet not to condemn it or separate our selves as the manner of some is lest we forsake and condemn a company of Gods chosen but to esteem it for all that as a true Church for the better or more principal part i. the Elect that are in it even as S. Paul calls the Church of Corinth a Church of God though there were Hereticks Fornicators and incestuous persons among them Fourthly As the Church is the body of Christ so Christ is the head of the Church Col. 1.18 Eph. 5.23 And there can be none other because none else can give life sense and motion to that body and so the Pope cannot be head of the Church Not a temporal or secular head because the kingdom of Christ that is his Church is not of this world Not a spiritual head because he cannot give spiritual life and grace Nor a ministerial head because he cannot minister the Word and Sacraments to all Churches in the world neither doth it to his own pastoral charge and there can be no other reason why he should be called a ministerial head but for this ministry He cannot be the L●eutenant General or Vicar of Christ for a Lieutenant supposeth the absence of him whose place he holdeth but Christ is always present with his Church himself and so there is no room for the Popes Vicarage Fifthly The Churches of Asia and Judea who are now faln and become no Churches are sufficient witnesses to this truth that no Church on earth is priviledged or freed from errour Not the Church of Rome specially being guided by such a head as the Pope is who being but a man may err that man of sin and cannot but err most of their Popes for many hundred of years have erred both in matter of Faith and manners their own Histories testifie that they have been Negromancers Conjuers Blasphemers Hereticks Athiests Adulterers Murderers incestuous persons c. They have done and do sti● deny Christ persecute his Church condemn his truth deride his Gospel tu● his holy ordinances into ridiculou● Mock-shews and therefore the Churc● of Rome can no longer juggle and hide her abominable errours under the pretended infallibility of such a miscrea●● 2. Although Christ hath and ever had 〈◊〉 Church visible upon earth some companies of Beleevers making profession of the same common Faith yet it hat● and may come to pass that either through the infirmity of some that cannot discern it the malice of others that will not acknowledge it or throug● persecution being driven into corners the Church may lie hidden as it did i● the days of Elias 1 King 19.10 th●● it may not be visible to every eye 〈◊〉 the Papists ask then where was the tru●● Church before Luther and Calvin 〈◊〉 the Roman Church were not it We answer it was in the wilderness and yet in those darkest times of Popery it was not so over-shadowed but that the very flames of persecution did discover what and where it was plainly discerning the true sheep of Christ from those hellish wolves 3. The marks or notes of the true Church are the same whereby it was at first called and gathered sc the preaching of the Word and administration of the Sacraments those 15. substituted in their place by the Romanists are uncertain and may most of them agree with a Synagogue of Satan as well as a Church of Christ as Antiquity Multitude Miracles c. For that old Serpent had a Synagogue from the beginning and the primitive Church was a true Church though not ancient Christs Church is a little flock and Antichrist come shal with lying wonders c. Sixthly The Church is a spiritual Commonwealth and the communion of Saints is spiritual not temporal in levelling the mounds of private possessions and laying all things common Object It is said Act. 4.32 they had all things in common Sol. It is answered Act. 5.4 whiles it remained was it not thine own and after

the yeare 1215 and this is now the opinion of the Papists followed with many Blasphemies Idolatries and ridiculous Mummeries The second is of Consubstantiation invented by some who to shun the absurdities of the former opinion fell into worse affirming That the substance of bread and wine and of the body and blood of Christ are joyntly or both together bodily present and eaten in the Sacrament the body of Christ being in with and under the bread The first Author of this opinion and the time when it began is uncertainly reported and although it were long before Luther yet it was taken up in haste by him about the year 1525. is still maintained by his followers and gave occasion to continue that bowing and cringing that was lately used to the Communion Table The third is of bare figure and only signification affirming That in the Sacrament there is nothing but bread and wine bare signs and no other presence of Christs body but only in figure and signification so that the faithful receive nothing but naked and bare signs The foundation of this Errour was layd about four hundred years after Christ by some Hereticks that came as short of this mystery as the Capernaites went too far making no account of this Sacrament saying that it did neither good nor hurt This Errour was set on foot again by Carolostadius a rash-brained man about the year 1524. and is now followed by the Anabaptists Antidote The doctrin of our Church Art 28. is the same that the Apostle delivers 1 Cor. 10.16 To all the three Adversaries together we say If there be nothing in the Sacrament but bare signs why doth our Saviour say of the elements This is my body and this is my blood And S. Paul The bread which we break is the communion of the body of Christ If his body and blood be not there at all And if his body and blood be there corporally and carnally present even whole Christ why then doth our Saviour say Do this in remembrance of me And St. Paul Ye shew forth the Lords death till he come 1 Cor. 10. And St. Peter That the heavens shall receive him to the end of the world Acts 3.21 Refusing then and denying both Transubstantiation and Consubstantiation as more then our Saviour intended in these words This is my body c. And also bare signification as a great deal less we admit and acknowledg Transmutation or a change and that great and marvellous in the use of the Elements not in substance but in vertue power and operation The sanctified signs are in substance creatures in signification mysteries in operation the things themselves whose names they bear the change is in their operation and use and therefore also in their names For Christ hath honoured the Symboles with the names or appellation of his body and blood not changeing their nature but adding grace unto nature Theodoret in Dial. In the Sacrament then there must needs be more then bare signs or naked Elements for how should earthly bread be an Instrument of heavenly grace and life to quicken and strengthen the soul but by some great and marvellous change which change is not in the substance of the creatures but in their vertue power and operation and such vertue power and operation could not be unless the very body and blood of Christ were truly present truly given and truly received in the Sacrament And yet the body and blood of Christ is not present given or received corporally and carnally the bread and wine being turned into the body and blood of Christ as the Papists affirm For 1. It is contrary to the Scripture 1 Cor. 11.28 Where after consecration they are called bread and wine 2. It overthrows the nature of a Sacrament for where is no Element there can be no Sacrament 3. It is contrary to nature it self that an accident should be without its subject 4. Experience dayly shews that the Elements by continuance corrupt by eating nourish the body go down into the belly c. which cannot be said of accidents or of the body and blood of Christ 5. A carnal eating is unavailable to salvation by the Papists own confession unless it be done by Faith but receiving by Faith without carnal eating is available Concil Trident. Sess 13. c. 8. et Cat. Rom. Why then is it contended for Lastly It is contrary to their own Canon taken out of St. Augustine Can. Vt Quid. Object But Christ himself said This is my body the night before he dyed no time to utter dark Parables but plain words Sol. He took the cup also and said This is my blood Mark 14.23.24 If you understand it litterally then the cup and not the wine must be turned into blood but if here be a plain figure their subtilest Doctours cannot tell how to avoyd it then why not a time to speak in figures Why not This is my body a figure too But when our Saviour says This is my body he doth not intend to shew what the bread is but what his body is not that the bread is turned into his flesh but that his body is food for our souls even as bread is for our bodies It shews not any conversion of one substance into another but only the relation that is between them He which before called his body bread John 6. doth now call the bread his body that by this cha●ge of names we might understand and beleeve the change that is made by grace and not so much heed the things we see as mind the the things we see not Theod. Dialog 1. Why dost thou prepare thy teeth and thy belly This is no meat for the belly but for the mind beleeve and thou hast eaten Augustine in Joan. Tract 25. ad cap. 6. 2. Consubstantiation is farther from the truth then Transubstantiation neither so possible nor probable It is not so likely or agreeable to our Saviours words who says This is my body and not my body is in with or under the bread And yet they are both gross Errours and the occasions of gross Idolatry They are both far from our blessed Saviours meaning when he spake the words This is my body from the Apostles sense 1 Cor. 11. From the Judgment of the Ancient Fathers who call the elements signs figures types c. of the body and blood of Christ and particularly St. Augustine says the words this is my body are to be understood in a figurative not a litteral sense l. 3. de Doct. Christ And besides they are impossible in nature But setting aside that barren opinion of bare sign and figure the question between us and the rest is not about the substance of the thing for we confess That the very body and blood of Christ is given and received all the question is about the manner they say it is corporally and carnally we grant indeed it is really if by really you understand truly and indeed but yet that it