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	faith_n	great_a	4,566	5	3.4495	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53946	The antiquity of the Protestant religion with an answer to Mr. Sclater's reasons, and the collections made by the author of the pamphlet entitled Nubes Testium : in a letter to a person of quality : the first part.	Pelling, Edward, d. 1718.	1687 (1687)	Wing P1072; ESTC R1036	27,540	74

one Will neither Now what was the business of all these zealous Fathers but to confirm the Apostles Creed which had been handed down to them from the beginning They look't upon it to contain all things necessary to be believed they reckoned it the saving and the Only short Rule of Faith the Faith that is Immovable as Ignatius the Martyr call'd it the unmovable and Irreformable Faith as Tertullian the Perfect Faith that unites all Ignat. Ep. ad Smyr Tertul. de veland verg Iren. l. 1. c. 3. Churches throughout the whole World into one body as Irenaeus thought the Right Catholick Faith as Athanasius and the rest of the Ancients did esteem it This was the reason why they were so very industrious and careful to keep Super haec autem iidem in Chalcedone sancti Patres anathematizaverunt eos qui aliud Symbolum tradiderunt aut tradunt praeter hoc quod expositum est a trecentis decem octo sanctis Patribus explanatum a centum quinquaginta sanctis Patribus Justinian in Quintae Synodi Collat. prima Concil Tom. 4. part 2. pag. 47. Edit Bin. the common Creed inviolable So that as Justinain the Emperor tells us the Fathers of the Council at Chalcedon anathematiz'd all those that had delivered or do deliver any other Symbol besides that Creed of the Apostles which was explained by the two first general Councils that at Nice of 318 Fathers and the next at Constantinople consisting of an hundred and fifty I know not what the Men of Trent thought of this heavy Anathema when they Added to the Ancient Creed a great many New Articles of their own as equally Necessary to Salvation But by this Sir you may see that the Apostles Symbol as it was explicated in the first General Councils was that and that only which the Primitive Fathers so zealously contended to maintain which you cannot conceive why it should have been had not they concluded it to be a Perfect Summary And this I note not only to shew their great and most unreasonable uncharitableness who condemn all that stick to this Primitive Creed only But moreover to vindicate our selves who own and teach the very same Articles of Faith and necessary principles of Christianity which was the only thing contended for by the old Catholick Fathers Upon which account we are no more Hereticks than They were our Creed being the very same with Theirs So that there can be no colour of Reason for any to forsake our Communion as if our Faith were unsound or Defective or to be dissatisfied in their minds as if there were any danger of their Happiness if they be but careful to adorn this Faith with a sutable conversation And hence I cannot but look upon it as a strange piece of weakness at least in the Divines of that party that they are so grosly mistaken in their notion of of the Catholick Faith. For they quite over-look the Common Creed as if that were not it whereas in Truth that alone is the Catholick Faith and give that Title to the Trent-confession which is the Roman Faith only and yet whoever denieth any part of that Confession though he owns the Apostles Symbol must be hooted at presently as an Heretick Nor can it be thought any less than strange Inconsideration in Mr. Sclater that he should leave our Church for that of Rome upon an Idea he hath formed in his own fancy of that Churches Vnity in the Faith. For is not our Church in most perfect Vnity as to the Christian Faith Were the Apostles Creed profest only in the Roman Church we might all go thither But is not our Faith the same with Hers in those points wherein 't is truly Primitive and Catholick If Mr. Sclater can shew us wherein we contradict any of those principles of Christianity which so many Ancient councils confirm'd as the One Catholick Faith we will not blame him for thinking that we have broken the Unity thereof But we are so far from offering an hundred Faiths as he unworthily Page 5. insinuates that we teach but One and the same which is Common to all the Churches in the World. Therefore his little quotations out of Ignatius Cyprian and the supposititious Clemens Romanus are nothing at all to his purpose But his Allegation out of Irenaeus pag. 8 is grosly impertinent For Irenaeus evidently speaks of the Apostles Creed and of that alone Pray consult the place and see if Irenaeus doth not expresly and distinctly repeat the substance of that Confession the Articles whereof we repeat daily in our Churches and then he presently subjoyns in the very next Chapter This Doctrine and Faith the Church keeps with all care as if she dwelt in one House although she be disseminated over the whole World. Her Faith is agreeable to these Doctrines as if she had one Soul and one and the same Heart These Articles she doth consonantly preach teach and deliver as if she had but one mouth For though there be different Languages yet the Faith delivered is one and the same Neither do the Churches in Germany believe or teach any other Faith nor do those Churches in Spain nor those in France nor those in the East nor those in Egypt nor those in Lybia nor those in the middle parts of the World But as the Sun is one the same in the whole World so the Doctrine of Truth every where shines and enlightens all men that are willing to come to the knowledge of the Truth He adds too which Mr. Sclater disingenuously conceals that none of the Governours of the Church though never such able men do teach any other Doctrines than these for no man is above his Master nor doth the weakest diminish the Faith delivered But the Creed being one and the same the greatest man doth not add more no doth the meanest man believe less And now Sir what is all this for the advantage of the present Roman Faith which is superadded to the Apostles Symbol This passage is so far from countenancing that it utterly condemns that Addition Or what is all this against Vs who believe teach that very same Faith which all Christian Churches did adhere to in Irenaeus time Or what encouragement is all this for any man to leave our Communion as if we had violated the Vnity of the Faith The truth is Irenaeus the rest of the Ancients said as we do that Christ hath but one Catholick Church on Earth that all Churches make up this Catholick Church that they are all united in one by one common Faith and that the Apostles Creed is that one and only Faith. Now this Faith is uniformly believed by us and therefore Mr. Sclater needed not to say as he doth pag. 10. What would I have once given to have found such Vnity among Protestants Let him but give us our Due and we desire no more and this he cannot deny without denying us our due that in England Scotland

branded himself or his See with so many Vgly and Infamous Characters The true account of it therefore seems to be this Some Roman Bishops longed for Superiority over the other Churches and might Hope in time to accomplish their desires But in Gregory's days and somewhat before Rome began mightily to sink by the great Oppression of the Lombards and by the Translation of the Imperial Seat. Constantinople flourisht at a great rate the Court was there the Emperor favour'd it the Patriarch of it had now gotten a very High Title and the Bishops of Rome might fear that Universal Authority would follow by degrees and that their Cause was going apace Therefore they might think it in vain for them to smother and conceal the truth any longer so to be Revenged upon the growing Patriarch they speak at last their thoughts freely In short if these Three Bishops of Rome where sincere in what they said their memory is the more valuable for asserting the Truth if they looked upon any Sinister ends of their own the Glory of Truth is the greater for being justified even by those who were no friends to it You will perhaps wonder now how this Title should go unexpectly and so suddenly from Constantinople to Rome For it was obtained of the Usurper Phocas by Boniface the 3 d. who was the next Successor but one to that Gregory who had condemned the Title with so much bitterness Why thus it was in short Phocas had barbarously Murther'd his Prince Mauritius the Emperour and his Children Cyriacus then Bishop of Constantinople hated and oppos'd him for his execrable Villany Boniface of Rome presently strikes in makes use of this Opportunity sues for the Title of Universal Bishop hoping now to invade the Church by the help of a Tyrant that had invaded the State and Phocas grants his request partly out of Hatred to his enemy Cyriacus partly for fear lest Boniface should raise up some evil against him in the West and partly too because he saw the Bishops of Rome were ready to crouch and sneak to him though a bloudy Vsurper as long as they could gain any thing by their base Submission of which he found a plain experiment in Gregory himself who wrote a flattering Letter to him which begins thus Gloria in excelsis c. Glory to God in the highest and so he goes on Let the Heavens rejoyce and the Greg. Regist Lib. 11. Ep. 38. aa Phocam Earth be glad and let all the People that have hitherto been much afflicted be chearful for your kind actions This he thought might very well Merit something at the hands of Phocas and so Boniface obtain'd the Title of Vniversal Bishop and that too just about the time when Mahomet stept into Christendom then it was that Oppression got into the Church God punishing the Pride and Factions of Christians with Two Scourges at once which ever since have made the Christian World to Smart severely By this account you may see the Rise and Progress of the Popes Supremacy What an Innovation it is and how strongly it was opposed by the Catholick Church in the Primitive times for above 200 years together after it was first pretended to Before I pass from this Topick I shall lay hold on this opportunity to satisfie you touching those Allegations which the Author of the Nubes Testium hath collected to prove if he could that the Bishop of Rome has the Primacy over the whole World and that by Divine Right too and by Commission granted him by Christ himself in the Person of St. Peter Now I observe in general that this Author hath wholly omitted that Historical account which has been now given you because it evidently clears the point against him but instead of that he has pickt up some ends shreds out of some of the Ancients which may seem Specious to Ignorant people but signifies nothing with a man that is rightly acquainted with the Series of the Controversie Whereas he pretends to give us an History of the Donatists of the Gnosticks of Berengarius of the Iconoclasts c. which I shall take notice of hereafter he takes no notice at all of those Fathers and Councils in Africa and the East which resisted the first incroachments that tended to the introduction of an Usurped Supremacy He knew that such an History would burn his Fingers and therefore thought fit not so much as to touch it but throws the whole matter and that very briefly upon the Donatists as if the Pag. 22. Donatists were the onely men that denyed the Popes Supremacy and broke with him upon that account whereas indeed the Donatists were They who gave the Bishop of Rome the first unlucky occasion to claim Juridiction out of their due bounds by their Appeals at Rome and by their running from their proper Judges in Africk witness their Appeals in the Papacy of Melchiades So that it was not those Schismaticks that were the first or the onely men that opposed the Popes Usurpations but the Catholick Fathers who were forced to stand up in defence of their own just priviledges Now it is not imaginable that any of the Fathers would especially during that Controversie say any thing that might really serve to strengthen the unlawful pretences of the Bishops of Rome against themselves and therefore you may very rationally conclude that those passages which are gather'd out of the Fathers in favour of the Popes Supream Authority are forced wrested to a sence which they cannot naturally bear But to examine particulars If you please to peruse for 't is tedious to Transcribe all the Authorities this Man cites you will find that they are concerning Four things 1. Concerning those high Characters which some of the Ancients gave of S. Peter himself 2. Concerning those honourable Titles which they gave to the Bishops and See of Rome 3. Concerning those Applications which were sometimes made to the Bishops of Rome upon emergent occasions 4. Concerning the Acts of the Bishops of Rome upon such Applications And upon a full and impartial consideration of these several things you will easily find what false grounds they go upon who endeavour so eagerly from these Observations to prove the Universal supream power of the Pope especially by Divine Right 1. These Authorities are concerning the high Characters which some of the Ancients gave of S. Peter himself as that he was the Prince the Head of the Apostles and the like Now what doth this mean but that S. Peter was the most Eminent Apostle in respect of his age in respect of his zeal in respect of his couragious Professions of his Constancy and Love to his Master in respect of the Precedency he might have for Order-sake and in respect too of the Honour he had in Founding Christ's Church for the First Converts were made by his Preaching 'T was he that gather'd at once those Three thousand Souls which were call'd The Church Act. 2. 42 and