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	pillar_n	1,678	5	10.0870	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51142	The trve Protestant sovldier fighting valiantly under truths banner, and by the glorious light of Gods word overthrowing the strongest bulwarkes, and subtle stratagems of the Church of Rome. By Hamnet Warde.	Monginot, François, 1569-1637.; Ward, Hamnet.	1642 (1642)	Wing M2418; ESTC R27120	26,961	42

THE TRVE PROTESTANT SOVLDIER Fighting valiantly under Truths Banner AND By the glorious light of Gods Word overthrowing the strongest Bulwarkes and subtle Stratagems of the Church of Rome By HAMNET WARDE ANCHORA SPEI LONDON Printed by G. M. for William Lee at the Signe of the Turks-Head in Fleet-street 1642. TO THE HONOVRABLE AND TRVLY VERTVOVS THE LADY BRIDG●T BRIANT all Happinesse in CHRIST IESVS Madam THe true zeale which you have for the maintenance of the Truth together with those many favours which your Ladiship hath been pleased to bestow on me my deceased and surviving friends hath encouraged me or rather inforced me to present this little Manuall being the first fruits of mine endeavours to your Ladiships acceptance In that short stride of the World which I have travelled having found many strong oppositions from our adversaries of the Church of Rome as well at home as beyond Sea touching the Protestant Religion I began somewhat to doubt of the truth thereof But by Gods providence lighting on this short Treatise after the perusall thereof I found the Religion of the Church of Rome if I may so call it so sleightly poasted upon the quicksands of mens frivolous opinions and contrariwise the Protestant Religion so soundly founded on the true and lively rocke of our salvation Christ Iesus that by Gods grace as●isting me neither the bewitching charmes of their devillish temptations nor the fiery darts of their hottest persecutions shall ever be able to divert me from the profession thereof Wherefore having received so great comfort thereby my selfe I have laboured with as much as in me lyeth to translate it verbatim out of French into English that others also may have benefit therby humbly beseeching your Ladiship to accept thereof as a token of my ever bounden duty and your Ladiship shall thereby encourage me to pray for your long and happy life here on earth and your eternall happinesse with God in heaven Madam Your Lad● ps most humble and truly devoted Servant Hamnet Warde To the READER Christian Reader MOnsieur Pierre Monginot a Gentleman as well learned as truly noble forsaking the Church of Rome and turning to the Protestant his friends being much discontented thereat wrote this short Treatise to satisfie them shewing them the causes which moved him to change his Religion Which I have translated for thy good out of French into English take but as much heed in reading it as I did labour in the translating it and God grant thee as much benefit by the Copy as I had comfort by the Originall Thine in Christ Iesus Hamnet Warde CHAPTERS 1. Of the true Church 2. Of the Popes power 3. Of the worshipping of Images 4. Of Prayer and Service in an unknowne tongue 5. Of the Invocation of Angels and Saints departed this life 6. Of Abstinence from Meats 7. Of Abstinence from Marriage 8. Of Purgatory 9. Of Merits and Justification by Works 10. Of works of Super-erogation 11. Of the superaboundant satisfactions of Saints and Monkes which the Pope distributes by Indulgences 12. Of the reall presence of the Lords body in the Sacrament and of Transubstantiation 13. Of the Sacrifice of the Masse 14. Of the taking away the cup in the Sacrament Decemb. 1● 1641. Imprimatur THO. WYKES THE TRVE PROTESTANT SOVLDIER CHAPTER I. Of the true Church THe holy Scripture tels us of diverse kindes of Churches There is that Church which is spoken of in the Creed which the Apostle S. Paul calleth the body of Christ against which saith our Saviour Mat. 16. The gates of Hell shall not prevaile which is the Assembly of the truly faithfull and elect people of God wherof part doe already injoy the heavenly pleasures of Gods kingdome part now live here on Earth among sinfull men and infidels and cannot be discerned by the eyes of man Others not yet borne But besides this Church of Gods elect there is another universall and visible Church which is the Assembly of all such as professe themselves Christians and to believe in Jesus Christ This is that Church which Saint Paul 1 Tim. 3. cals the pillar and ground of the truth as being bound to defend and maintaine the truth against all those who labour to corrupt or suppresse it This universall visible Church is composed of divers particular Churches such as were in the Apostles time the Church of Jerusalem the Church of Corinth the Church of Rome and that of the Galatians c. Of these particular Churches some are puter than others nay and there may be some so corrupted as that it is impossible for them to be saved namely as where Idolatry reigneth and where the benefits of Jesus Christ are abused The Church of Rome is one of these particular Churches wherin reigneth Idolatry First in that they call God a Sacrifice made by men Secondly because the honour appertaining to God is by them attributed to Saints in that they say the Saints know the hearts of all men and because they give them and their reliques and Images a religious worship and adoration Lastly because they call the Virgin Mary Queen of Heaven and Earth for the Soveraigne Royalty of the world is not communicable to the creature Likewise the benefits of Jesus Christ are therin abus'd in that they teach that Jesus Christ by his death delivers us from sinnes committed before Bapisme but as for sinnes committed after Baptisme he hath left us to satisfie Gods justice for them by satisfactory pains as well here as in Purgatory Thus then let it be that the Church of Rome be a particular visible Church and it more corrupt than any other although she terme her selfe the universall Church as if there were no other Church besides whereas indeed the Churches of Syria Greece Armenia and Affrica be more pure and mor● … cient then the Roman and no way subject therunto All th 〈…〉 h the holy Scripture and the Creed attribute to the universall Church of Gods elect or the universall visible Church the Church of Rome by an intolerable abuse and usurpation attributes unto her self as if in the holy Scripture there were no other Church spoken off but the Church of Rome or as if shee alone were the pillar and ground of the truth And when Jesus Christ Mat. 18. sends two Brothers being at strife to the judgement of the Church saying Tell it the Church and if he neglect to heare the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen man and a Publican these Gentlemen would needs make us beleeve that he sends such as doubt in matters of Faith and Doctrin to the judgment of the Church of Rome which they call universall but reade the passage and you shall see that our Saviour speaks not there of doubts touching Religion but of quarrels and broyles which happen betweene man and man and consequently he speaks not of the Church universall but of the Ministers of some particular Church for to appease a quarrell between two Neighbours men doe

God for the truth thereof And were it so that the Saints knew all things then were they equall with God Almighty in wisedome and knowledge But the Scripture saith that the Saints know not the day of judgement Mat. 24. and Mar. 13. And the wise man in the ninth Ecclesiastes excludeth the dead from any knowledge of earthly things The dead saith he know not any thing neither have they any more a portion in any thing that is done under the Sunne And Job Chapter 14. speaking of a diseased father his children saith he come to honour and he knoweth it not and they are brought low but he perceiveth it not of them Their ordinary excuse is that they goe to God by Saints as men goe to the King by his officers But the case is not alike For a King cannot be every where neither doth he know all things and it is not possible that every one should have accesse to him Likewise be hath need to be informed of the truth of things by persons put in trust therefore It is not thus with God for he knoweth all things and doth see and behold all the creatures in the world at once and knoweth and understandeth all mens prayers not needing either Saints or Angels to informe him thereof And although this comparison were allowable yet if a King cals any one unto him certainly he will not be well pleased if that person should goe to any of his officers before he come to him Thus God invites us saying Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will refresh you Mat. 11. He doth not bid us goe to Saint Vrselin Saint Margarite or any other such like solicitors Nay more God cals us his children and therefore if we should not goe unto him in all our necessities when he cals us we should shew our selves very undutifull and unworthy of so high a calling Moreover we have one only Advocate with the Father namely the Sonne of God our Lord Jesus and there is none other The Apostle Saint Paul in the 1 Tim. chap. 2. saith thus There is one God and one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus As therefore there is but one God so there is but one Mediator And Saint John in his 1. Epistle chap. 2. We have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins And in the 14. Chapter of Saint Johns Gospell I saith our Saviour am the way the truth and the life no man commeth unto the Father but by me Their greatest abuse is yet behind which is that they doe not onely make the Saints our Mediators but also our Redeemers For in the Masse the Priests pray for salvation through their merits For they say that the Saints undergoe more punishment and paines then their siunes deserve Hence they gather their superabundant satisfactions which the Pope hoordeth up in the treasury of the Church and distributes them by Indulgences so that any one that hath money may goe to the Pope and purchase as many merits as will satisfie Gods justice for all the sins that he commits all his life long let him sinne as much as he can This also is a tricke which serves very well for the Popes profit and to exalt his dignity and is founded on the unwritten word that is to say on their owne hellish Inventions CHAP. VI. Of fasting and abstinence from certainements THe grand enemy of our salvation hath laboured with might and maine for the accomplishment of the prophecye of the Apostle S. Paul in the 1 Tim. 4. chap. where he speaketh thus Now the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils forbidding to marry and commanding to abstaine from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which beleeve and know the truth for every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanks giving This prophecye of the Apostle is long agoe accomplished in the Doctors of the Church of Rome For doe not they both forbid marriage and command to abstaine from meats which abstinence is also flatly condemned by the same Apostle in the tenth Chapter of the 1. to the Corinthians Whatsoever saith he is sold in the shambles that eat asking no question for conscience sake for the earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof If any of them that beleeve not bid you to a feast and ye be disposed to goe whatsoever is set before you that eat asking no question for conscience sake And in the second Chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians he condemneth those who say touch not taste not handle not And to the end that we might not thinke that he speaks only of those who abstaine from meats which they conceive filthy in their owne nature he declareth plainly that he speaketh of such as abslaine themselves in humility and in voluntary devotion punishing their owne bodies not sparing their flesh which doctrines saith he have indeed a shew of wisedome in will worship and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh The Church of Rome is full of these observations there being above five moneths in the yeare wherein some abstaine from some kind of meat or other Observations which we cannot find that they were ever practised by our Saviour or his Apostles These abstinences they give unto God in part of payment and their fastings they account for satisfactions as if a man should thinke to pay his debts by fasting presuming that his Creditors will abate him somewhat because that such a day he did eat nothing but fish for his dinner Nay the abuse is now come so farre as that one man may fast for another and so satisfie for him and that a man to whom the Priest hath set certaine fasts for pennance may for a peece of money buy them out Sobriety and abstinence of themselves are indeed good and holy duties so as they be not abused by superstition and by thinking to merit any thing unto our selves thereby for so that which is in it selfe an exercise of humility is changed into an efficient cause of pride and that which should serve to lay open our sinnes before God is made a covert for our hypocrifie This is also another device whereby the Pope increaseth his dignity and gathers vast summes of money to his treasury CHAP. VII Of abstinence from Marriage AS for forbidding to marry Saint Paul telleth us that it is the doctrine of devils In the Apostles time marriage was permitted unto the Ministers of the Church witnesse the same Apostle 1 Tim. chap. 3. A Bishop saith he must be blamelesse the husband of one wife ruling well his owne house having his children in subiection with all gravity and a little after Let the Deacons be the husbands of one wife