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	know_v	8,213	5	4.2899	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51427	The presentment of a schismaticke by Thomas, Lord Bishop of Dvrham ; in his sermon preached at the cathedrall church of Saint Pauls the 19 of Iune, 1642.	Morton, Thomas, 1564-1659.	1642 (1642)	Wing M2846; ESTC R22069	15,026	30

felonious or trayterous intention Let us but opening our eyes and we shall easily see their slanderous lying also for behold our Church in her service Booke doth make knowne to all the world that shee doth detest the superstition of the Romish Ceremonies by condemning their superstitious opinions First in making them necessary parts of Gods worship Secondly in ascribing an efficacious sanctitie unto them Thirdly by arrogating a meritorious condignity from them unto themselves Yea and besides she instructeth her Reader that she hath professedly purged her Liturgie of all those Lees and dregges of superstitious opinion of Papists which makes this their slander farre more slanderous Yet notwithstanding they persist in condemning the said Ceremonies as having bin either used or abused in Popery stil bewraying their ignorances for even this our Apostle did make use of the saying of Poets Menander Aratus and Epimenides all Heathens And shall therefore such Divine sentences be called Heathenish I cannot omit the peece of Prayer in our Liturgie which is That God will accept of our bounden duetie not weighing our merits but pardoning our offences the same hath been continually used in the Romish Masse beseeching God that hee would admit of them and their devotions Non tanquam aestimater meriti sed tanquam veniae largitor Not as an esteemer of merit but as a giver of pardon wherein the Romish will they nill they disclaime all conceipt of merit in their publike Liturgie which is a condignity of a work by the exact Law of Gods justice deserving an eternall reward which merit notwithstanding they maintaine in their new Romish Creed and bookes of controversies as an Article of their faith howbeit This sentence was that which brought the great Cardinall Bellarmine upon his knees when after his long and large dispute about justification by perfection of workes hee was inforced at last to cast Anchor absolutely upon the mercies of God as for so hee saith Tutissimum The most safe refuge of mans soule this being granted the same sentence serveth us both for a testification of this our saving truth to our selves as also for a confutation of the Popish error of merits which is a judging out of his owne mouth Wee demand then ought our Church to have used this sentence or not if so then is not this prayer therefore to be called Popish because used in Popery but ought she not Then doe they fondly affirme shee ought not use a forme of prayer which is both wholsome for him that prayeth and usefull to convince the Romish Church of Error in her superstitious opinion of merit But our Saviour hath taught us a more Divine lesson saying Wisdom is justified of her Children to let us understand that truth is truth wheresoever it soundeth even as a Pearle is a Pearle of price although it be taken out of the head of a toade I have insisted on this point because it may justifie our whole Liturgy against the censuring of a rite Popish for that it was used in that popish Church But there next blow is harder condemning such rites because abused by Papist● albeit not ignorant that herein wee can justly appeale not onely to the custome of ancient Churches of Christ but even to their owne schismaticall assemblies for the Primitive Fathers at the first dawing of publike peace in the Church began to convert the Temples of Pagans although they had beene the brothell houses of devils into the Houses of God consecreated to his worship And our opposites themselves can sometimes bee contented to use these Churches wherein was professed and practised that Popish Liturgy which they and justly inveighed against as indeed Idolatrous which is the blackest brand that can bee put upon any worshippers and which these opposites cast upon our Church as their last filth and dung This they do because of two kind of kneelings one at the administration of the holy Communion the other of bowing at the hearing of the name of Jesus To the first our answer is that Papists will not approach to our Sacraments Or if any doe yet it is in opinion that our consecration doth not operate their faigned transubstantiation and also the professed Protestants believing that there is therein no corporall presence of Christ cannot adore that as Christ which they know is not Christ and therefore can as impossible bee Idolatrous as the Papists in the worshipping their breaden God cannot possibly but be our reason is that that was an Article of Faith in the Primitive Churches of God whereunto we may justly appeale in a doctrine never to be repealed It is this That it is impossible for any Creature to be in two places at once not excepting the sacred body of Christ which their Catholike doctrine they professed for two causes one to avouch the prerogative of God to whom the existence in diverse places at one time is properly essentiall and this they grounded upon that divine foundation the Scripture of God Psalme 39.6 wherein the Psalmist in professing the Diety of the spirit of God saith Whether shall I goe from thy spirit if I goe up to Heaven thou art there if downe to Hell thou art there also and if to the outermost part of the Sea thither shall thy hand lead me The Argument thus The spirit of God is here and there and yonder therefore it is in diverse places at one time and consequently GOD because by the same essentiall property hee is as well in three Millians of places and indeed every where as hee is in any three or two and this they confirme by two circumstances First that the spirit of God was at one time in diverse Prophets Jeremie in Judea Daniell in Babylon Ezechiel in Chobar this in the Old Testament accordingly in the New the same spirit of God at one and the same time was in the Apostles when they were dispersed in diverse nations in the world for preaching the Gospell of Christ There second reason of this their dispute was to preserve the integrity of the body and humanity of Christ According to that caution of Augustine Cavendum est ut ita divinitatem Christi astruamus ne humanitatem ejus auferamus Wee are so to defend the divine nature of Christ that we destroy not his bodily and humane nature And therefore they distinguish both natures in respect of locall existence arguing thus Although the Deity be in Heaven yet is it then on Earth also and if on Earth then is it in Heaven but the humane Nature of Christ if it be on Earth it is not in Heaven and when in Heaven then is it not on Earth This was the Catholique Faith in those perfects and purest times of Christianity and that this was believed of them as an Article of Faith is as plaine Because they maintained that Truth against the Hereticks of their time who impugned the essential properties of Christs body with one Article of ancient Faith doth strangle more all the virall parts of

the Romish Masse worship When we speak of impossibility of this or that you are not to imagine that we thereby derogate any thing from the Omnipotence of God God forbid no but that which we say of Impossibility is truly for the dignifying of his Power as when we say of the God of Truth It is Impossible that he should lye Heb. 17. or for the Lord of Life and in himselfe Immortall that he should dye I would not have brought disputes into the Pulpit if the importunity of this our unseasonable Season had not exacted it of me The next and last brand falleth upon the Reverence given to Christ at the hearing of the name of him our Saviour Jesus and therefore Iesus because our Saviour which they call ô black tongue Idolatrous Beloved Brethren I appeale to every Conscience of Man when I heare mention of my Saviour my heart is inwardly lift up to reverence the person of Christ in my soule now on the Throne of Majesty shall it not then be lawfull for me to expresse the same prayse of him which my body who hath redeemed me both body and soule for his prayse But reasons will not down with these men except such as may seem to be Divine We shall offer them not an only seeming but even a convincing reason from God himselfe who to preserve his people from Idolatry least they might make any Image of him the high way to an Idolatrous worship commanded them to remember that when he manifested his presence among them you saw no shape said hee how then did they perceive his presence he tells them you heard only a voyce as if God had said unto them pinge sonum Let your Painters picture a voyce or any man adore a voyce if hee can how impossible this is you may know by this my every voyce which while I utter is transient past and flowne before you can fasten your thoughts upon it and yet in despite of truth it selfe they will have us Idolaters Before I can end the point of kneeling I cannot silence my griefe to see all gesture of kneeling almost shut out of the Church And yet wee all know that kneeling in prayer time was the Decorum practised by Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and Christ Himselfe now what gout it is that hindereth whether of prid or lasinesse or perversnesse I know not This I know that take away the outward forme of Devotion the inward will sooner coole hetherto we have beene exercised in the first consequence of this Text which is the confutation of the errors of the Schismaticall faction Our second remaineth which is the condemnation of their practises yet before I can enter upon it I would gladly be understood concerning the premises namely that I have not so pleaded for Ceremonies and Litturgy as to prejudice the wisdome of them who by just Ecclesiasticall Order shall so regulate these matters as may be most conducible for peace unanimity and uniformity in the Church In the interim it cannot be offensive that the Child after so much vile ugly aspersions cast upon our Mother should vindicate her honour by whom through the blessing and mercy of GOD hee hath his soules spirituall birth and breeding And now I hasten to our last passage whereunto we have been induced by the same Text Wee have no such Custome nor the Churches of God These words necessarily implying that they who are contentious against the Customes of the Apostles and Churches of God doe by their separation from her make themselves Advesaries against the Church against her members against God and against their owne soules these foure For the Church is thereby left to a vexatious destruction breach of Christian libertie loade of infamy and lurch of spirituall maintenance as much as can possibly bee wrought First The very separation it selfe is to the Church as a rupture in the body of Man which did make Chrysostome to burst out into this hyperbole These that raise contentions in the Church are worse than they who pierced the sides of Christ In which figure there is this truth That Christ who gave his naturall body for His Mysticall body which is his Church will require a severe accompt of them who shall rent the peace of the Church The liberty of the Church by the confession of all Christian Churches none excepted is a power in GODS Church to order things indifferent according to the Apostolicall rules of Decencie order and edification whereupon wee make bold to call these contentious men for their contrary opinion of judging this liberty of Gods Church unlawfull superstitions strange will some say They who enveigh against superstitions so bitterly and in that pretence fall into separation from the Church to bee termed superstitious Yes Beloved and we need not to straine a gnat in proving it That Admirable Man of God and Pastor in the Church of God in Geneva whom without preface of honour I cannot name to wit Calv. upon the words of Deutronomie wherein Gods People were forbid to make any compacts with the Heathen which being no morrall but onely a judiciall Law and therefore was not to bee exacted now of Christians reflecting upon the libertie of Christians in their use of Ecclesiasticall rites gave this caution that none urge to vehemently this against Ceremonies according unto the Apostles doctrine wherein condemning them who tooke away the Christian libertie of eating meates by these and their contrary prescripts Eate not taste not handle not which is all one with moove not reade not and other cases of indifferency Are not then these men fit objectors of superstition against the Churches Ordinances who are themselves so grosly superstitious pardon us for who is their in these times that will not stand zealously upon his right of libertie Infamy is after mortall the most grievoust of persecutions which they have multiplyd outragiously by their infamously famous Libels and Pamphlets beside the slanders which as have bin alleadged by imputing Idolatry the vilest of Adulteries unto her as if cursed children should call their mother whore whereas our Apostle held it necessary to admonish all Christians to take heed they give no scandall to the Church of God 1 Cor. 10. bee this spoken to the Sectarists who make themselves scandalous against the Church rather than endure any the least of this which they call the scandalls in the Church The injuries to the members of the Church are the next mischiefes of separation the first is the breach of Unitie O how many obligations did our Apostle put upon his Ephesians for preserving of Unitie in the Church the first is because it is one body second one spirit which is the spirit of Union third one hope of our calling that is to say the hope of one heavenly inheritance after followeth one Lord which is our Head Christ and one faith the soule of our soules and one Baptisme the Seale of the said Faith and last and chiefest one Father of