Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	bishop_n	church_n	succession_n	1,636	5	10.2155	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96976	Meditations upon the marks of the true Church of Christ: or, Motives of credibility in behalf of the true religion: and, the easiest way to finde it out. / By H.W.	H. W.; Wilkinson, Henry, 1610-1675,	1655 (1655)	Wing W36A; Thomason E1666_1; ESTC R208388	95,687	283

no temporall Princes power whatsoever Gather out of the premisses First that that Church cannot possibly be Christs Church which wants Bishops Secondly that these are only true Bishops and Priests who are lawfully descended from the Apostles Thirdly that those only are legally descended from the Apostles who have these two things Succession and Consecration both Apostolicke A true Pastor must succeed to some one of the Apostles ether immediatly as Saint Liuus succeeded Saint Peter and as Saint Policarpe succeeded Saint John or else mediatly as S. Ignatius succeeded S. Evodius who was ordained Bishop by S. Peter his Consecration also must be Aposto lick that is this Priest must be consecrated by a Bishop which Bishop must be consecrated by other Bishops and these by others till at length an assent by degrees be made up to the Apostles Fourthly that Spiritual dignity is of a far higher nature than temporal both by reason of its lineal descent and that never interrupted from Christ as also by reason of its Function which is about things Speritual and Divine The second Point To under stand how lawfully the pastors of the Church of Rome are called Consider first that the Protestants doe not stand in denial of this but plainly grant it yea they pretend for the lawfulnes of their own calling no greater argument then that they have their succession from the Church of Rome conscious to wit that there can be no true power either of order or Jurisdiction nor any true legislative power Ecclesiasticall at all but it must descend by succession from Christ and his Apostles and this they acknowledge the Church of Rome to have pretending with all that themselves are united to the same line of Communication in that Apostolick succession Consider secondly this their lawfull calling confirmed by this Negative Argument Christ must have and hath a Visible Church upon earth somewhere this Church must have a Visible succession of Pastors for this is the main thing in which chiefly the visibility of the Church appears since where the succession of Pastors ceaseth there the flock is lest ungoverned unfed exposed to dispersion and perishing and thus the Church would come to faile not onely in visibility but even in its existency Now this Visible succession must be derived from the Apostles and that without ever being interrupted otherwise the Church would not be Apostolick contrary to the scripture and the Nicene Creed nor remain the same unto the end of the world contrary to our Saviours promise and St. Pauls forementioned words And since there is not any sect which either doth or can with any shew of probability pretend to have a See Apostolick or a never interrupted visible succession from the Apostles but onely in the Church of Rome there it must be and consequently their calling yea only theirs lawfull True it is the Greek Church had Apostolick Sees to wit at Hierusalem Antioch and Alexandria each of which had an Apostle or Evangelist for its first Bishop but for the space of these last nine hundred years since the begining of which time the Persians Sarazens and Turks have kept possession of those Countries the succession in these hath been obscure interrupted as good as none And this by the just judgement of God for the Schisme and persidiousnes of the Greek Church as also to make the Roman See Apostolick more clearly to appear to be the Mother and Mistress of all Churches Consider thirdly that the lawfull Calling of Pastors amongst the Roman Catholicks is further positively demonstrable from the succession of their Popes For the better understanding of which note first That the ancient Fathers were most exact in registering the names of the Popes as they succeeded one another so did Saint Ireneus Tertullian Eusebius S. Austin S. Hierom and others the like diligence hath been used by other Roman Catholicks in all succeeding ages even to this present Popes dayes who is called Innocent the 10. and is the two hundred thirty and nine from S. Peter Note secondly that the forementioned holy Fathers used to produce the succession of Popes as an impregnable argument to prove that to be the onely true Religion which had these chief Pastors on its side Now if the succession of twenty or thirty of them were of such force in the judgment of these learned Doctors to convince Hereticks how forcible an argument against these modern Sects must a long Catalogue of 239 make Note thirdly that none were ever acknowledged by the Roman church for true and lawfull Bishops or Priests but such as were ordained either immediately by the Apostles or by their successors now conformablely to these truths here noted this follows and is most certain that from every true Pri●st now living by passing from the Bishops which consecrated them to those that ordained these and so on upward a line of spiritual pedegree uninterruptedly ascends to the very Apostles This orderly series or scale of succession proves evidently the Pastors of the Roman Religion to be lawfully called and sent Here 's solidity here 's security those that will get out of their labyrinths of errours doubts or fears must do it by the conduct of this line begin go on this is your way to the Apostles and Christ The third Point Consider now how the case stands with other Sects in point of lawfull calling and first for Luther the ringleader of all modern sects that his calling was not extraordinary it is certain for he could never shew his extraordinary Commission to wit Miracles the gist of Prophecy or these other supernatuall endowments which God alwayes gave to his Prophets and Apostles whom he sent extraordinarily and that this exacting of Miracles in this case is most just and reasonable it is hence proved if some new upstart should pretend he were immediately sent by God to preach against such or such a Sect the onely means that Sect could use for silencing and confuting such an one were to demand Miracles of him and if some new impostor should pretend he were Christ or urge his being sent extraordinarily to Preach against Christ or any other mystery of Faith which were believed by all Christians as the mystery of the Incarnation or Passion the reality of supernatural Faith and divine grace or the like against such a fictitious pretender not onely Roman Catholicks but all other Sects amongst Christians also ought to bid him shew his Commission sealed with Miracles As for Luthers ordinary calling true it is he was lawfully ordained Priest by the Church of Rome but a Priest cannot ordain other Priests much lesse Bishops so that no succession could be propagated by him It is true also that he had jurisdiction which must flow from the spring head of all true ecclesiasticall jurisdiction Christ and his Vicar and was lawfully sent after his being consecrated to govern and seed souls but his faculties or commission were given him with these limits and conditions which not only the

one is that the Church of Rome hath been apparently visible in all ages An other that since Christ must have a true Church upon earth and since one of the marks of it is appears by the scriptures conversion of Nations by the doctrine and since no other Sect hath this mark the Church of Rome which hath alwayes had it must be and is Christs true Church a third that when any are converted to the Roman church from insidelity or heresie they amend their lives and live more vertuously than before But those that were Roman Catholicks when they fall and betake themselves to any other Sect they grow worse and worse as we see it sals out by experience in almost every one that revolts from the Catholicks to any other Sect and the reason of this is clear because liberty and temporall ends are their motive not any quarrel they have against the probability and truth of the Catholick Tenents If I stay with the Catholicks I must not onely confesse my sins and be truly sorry for them but I must also seriously purpose amendment of my life and repair what soever dammages my neighbours same or fortune have suffered by my malignant tongue or fraudulent dealing Wave these obligations and go once to Church and by this I may evade the misery of sequestration and live free from sears siding with the Sect most countenanced and cryed up will secure me and mine With such thoughts the wicked spirits inveagle those fraile ones which like unto Fishes at first sight lay hold on the bait but mind not the hook no efficacy of doctrine moves such men But thou Rationalist be thou led with motives grounded upon eternity and let that doctrine which all Nations have experienced to be efficacious finde no resistance in thee and thou heavenly Physician who said that the healthfull had no need of such artists but the sick onely look upon the distempers of this distracted Nation in point of Religion England that when time was lent Evangelical light to so many others sits now in darknesse and in the shadow of death but thou who art the way make her walk in thee thou that art the truth make her believe in thee that since thou art life she may live in thee till all Nations meet in the Unity of Faith AMEN Of the uninterrupted and Apostolical succession of the Pastors of the Church The first Point COnsider first that as Christ our Saviour founded the Catholick Church so as that it should last to the end of the world so also he ordained that in it there should be lawfull Pastors succeeding one another so long as the Church was to continue this the scripture teacheth in expresse terms He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and other some Evangelists and other some Pastors and Doctors to the consummation of the Saints unto the work of the ministery unto the edifying of the body of Christ until we meet al in the unity of faith Consider secondly that this continued succession was to be propagated by a legall descent from Christs Apostles both scripture and reason proves this truth for if all true members of the Church must like living stones be built upon the foundation of the Apostles to the end that all the building fitly framed together may grow unto a holy Temple in the Lord much more necessarily must the Pastors be built upon them and as that family ceases is extinguished when once the line of descendents from the first of that family is by death interrupted so the lineal but morall or politick descent of Pastors from the Apostles ceases and is extinct when such an interruption is made as that Pastors cease to have their spirituall birth to their Functions by that legitimate consecration and jurisdiction which is derived from the Apostles the want of which also in the first of a new Episcopal See illegitimate him and all his descendents now that this descent from the Apostles be legall it requires a calling from God or Vocation No man takes to himself this honour but he that is called of God as Aaron was this vocation is the door in at which every shepherd that is a true one must enter in to the sheepfold of Christs Church for he that entreth not by the door into the sheepfold but climbeth up some other may the same is a thief a robber saies the good shepherd Christ a severe césure for such as are not true Priests and get into the Office of Pastors onely by self-intrusion or by the deputation only of some secular power devoid of all Ecclesiastical jurisdiction Consider thirdly the manner of this legall Calling which Saint Paul sayes must be from God as Aaron was divine calling or vocation is twofold extraordinary and ordinary the former is when God by himself immediately cals one as he did the Prophets Moses and the rest and this extraordinary manner of calling was absolutely necessary in the first plantation of the Church For the first Pastors to wit the Apostles could not be called otherwise because they were the very first themselves The Ordinary calling is also from God but not done by him immediatly but by the concurrance of others The first of the line of those which were ordinarily called was called after the extraordinary manner by God immediately so was Aaron called but Aarons successors were ordained by others so the Apostles who were called extraordinarily ordained other Bishops and Priests and these Bishops afterwards made others according to the order prescribed by Christ to be held in his Church and thus both vocations were truly from God Now to understand the better what the lawfull calling of a true Bishop or Priest is and by this means to be able the better to distinguish who are lawfull Pastors and who not Consider these things first the Election or designation of the Person and this belongs properly to Church men though the People or secular Princes have been sometimes permitted to depute and propose to the Church such persons as they desired thought sit but this makes not a man either Bishop or Priest the next thing after Election or Approbation is Consecration or Ordination and this act is to be performed onely by Bishops this act is it which makes a true Bishop or Priest and without this consecration all the Princes of the world by any their deputation of persons to Episcopall or Priestly Function can never make them true Bishops or Priests The third thing is Jurisdiction which is given by a Superiour Prelate to the Consecrated person and this is called Mission for he is sent with faculties to govern souls and feed them with the holy Sacraments and the word of God These faculties for so they are called are the Priests Commission and the giving of them with lesser or greater limits as also the assigning him these subjects in particular and not others is only in the hands of Spiritual Prelats and in

Ecclesiastical Prelat but even sense and reason requires to wit that he should use that power for the edification and not to the destruction of that Church which gave him it that he should Preach and Teach her doctrine that he should administer her Sacraments but he went beyond his Commission yea quite contrary to it he preached doctrine contradictory to that of the Church he taught her doctrine was false in many of the mainest points and that her Sacraments were not so many and so efficacious causes of grace as they were he could have no commission for this yea his revolt and rebellion against the Church quite annull'd his former Commission and devested him of all the faculties which had been delegated formerly to him as for Episcopacy though some of his clients stiled him Bishop of Wittenberg as Oecolampadius whose Grave stone expresseth him the first Bishop of Basil and Zuinglius of Tigur and Calvin of Geneva yet neither he nor these other ever gave out or pretended they had Episeopall Consecration or jurisdiction from the Roman Church or from any precedent Bishops so that what they acted in this kinde was by a usurped power and invalid Consider secondly the calling of the English Ministry the Protestant titular Bishops urged alwayes against their Catholick Antagonists that they were true Bishops their proof was because they were consecrated by the old Catholick Bishops Mark here for your comfort Catholicks that your Bishops and by consequence your Priests are acknowledged for true and lawfull even by their adversaries But you Protestants mark in order to your amendment that this very means and the onely argument by which they must prove themselves lawful Bishops which they make use of to establish your cause destroys it and with all confirms that the Roman Catholicks are the onely true Church For since that main thing which Christ gave his Church to wit power to ordain Bishops and Priests and to send them to seed souls with the word of God and the Sacraments is granted to be in the Church of Rome it follows evidently that it is the true Church of Christ and that its doctrine and Sacraments are onely true for Christ could not give that Church commission to Preach doctrin contrary to his nor could the Church which confessedly hath this power ordain others and give them commission to Preach against it self Hence also it followeth if these supposed Protestant Bishops were ordained by the old Catholick ones by going against their commission and preaching and acting against that Church which gave them their power first that their former true commission ceased and was annulled Secondly that Protestants and their Bishops were and still are guilty of Schisme by not holding communion with the Church of Rome and thirdly that they are guilty of heresie these Bishops and ministers to wit in believing and teaching Doctrine contrary to the Roman Church which they say gave them their power Fourthly that they incurred the Ecclesiasticall censures for the forementioned reasons and consequently could not give orders lawfully so that their Successors were not lawfully ordained Fifthly that since the Protestant Bishops neither used the true form nor matter in the consecration of their later Bishops and Ministers with which the first of them was supposed to have been consecrated with by the old Catholick Bishops even upon this score the later were no true Bishops nor Priests Sixthly that since none can lawfully succeed in a Bishoprick unlesse the former Bishop be either dead or canonically deposed even upon this ground all the first of the Protestant Prelates were unlawfull because the old Bishops were living and not deposed when the later usurped their Sees or were intruded by others But the truth is these first Protestants took to themselves that Ecclesiastical honour without being called by God as Aaron was and took upon them the Office of preaching without being sent contrary to the words of Saint Paul It must not be presumed but positively proved by them that they were consecrated by the old true Bishops and that they succeeded them legally they must be able to prove when where and by what Catholick Bishops they were consecrated and what faculties and commission they had All other Catholick Priests can demonstrate in behalf of their Apostolical calling all these particular circumstances but the Protestants could never yet prove their lawful calling thus and yet are obliged to do it otherwise they are to be looked upon as having got into the sheepfold not by entring in at the doore but by elimbing up another way And indeed the Catholicks urge which they are not liged to do very positive and probable arguments to convince the Protestants unlawful calling and that they had not any consecration or jurisdiction from them For first the Catholick Bishops all of them absolutely refused to consecrate any of the Protestants who seeing this and not hoping to obtain it of them by proceeding in a fair way aimed at the getting of it by underhand dealing but that good old and infirm Bishop of whom they thought to have taken orders without discovering that they were Protestants having got some hints of their designe rejected them their next plot was the producing of a Register in which were set down the names of divers Protestants ordained Bishops by such and such Catholick Prelates but the forging and fraud of this Register was soon laid open by the Catholick party and so that attempt ceased The next Machine they moved was by an Order from the Court that so many Divines and Lawyers should enter into consultation and resolve whether some new form of making Clergy-men might not be found out without dependence of the Church of Rome but the ridiculousnesse of this adynaton soon made that conventicle desist from proceeding further in that way at length therefore they resolved to ordain each other without more ado which seven or eight of them ventured upon all on one day not after the ancient Catholick manner publickly and solemnly in the Church at high masse and in the eyes of many hundreds of people but privately in an Inne and without any witnesses And lastly Queen Elisabeth and the Parliament ordained that all who had the Queens Letters Patents for to be Bishops should by the people be acknowledged for true Bishops notwithstanding what soever defect might have happened in the consecration of them Now these instances and particularly the last plainly intimate that all was not well with these Protestant Bishops in point of lawfull calling The fourth Point Out of the precedent points many fruitful consequences may be gathered and first that that Sect which wants Pastors lawfully called cannot possibly be the true Church of Christ 2. That none can be lawfully called unlesse they be consecrated by Bishops lineally descended from the Apostles 3. That since there must be a See Apostolick somewhere for otherwise Apostolical succession cannot be derived down from age to age till the world