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
a39328	The great mystery of godlinesse opened being an exposition upon the whole ninth chapter of the epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans / by the late pious faithful servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Edward Elton.	Elton, Edward, d. 1624.	1653 (1653)	Wing E651; ESTC R40205	342,638	246

the great Lord and King of heaven and earth and God hath promised to do good to them and to their posterity for many generations Exod. 20.6 To shew mercy unto thousands to them that love him Psal 112.2 The generation of the righteous shall be blessed yea they are his Jewels Mal. 3.16 Vse 1 See then for the Use of this in the first place see I say and take we notice of the great force of true piety of what account it is with the Lord it 's sufficient to get honour not onely to those that have it with all that are able to judge aright but also to their kindred and to their posterity and such as be of kindred or any way allied unto good and godly men may rejoyce in it and after an holy manner boast of it that they are the kinsmen of such worthy servants of God or that they are the children of such godly parents yet so as that by the example of their kindred they be stirred up to tread in their steps and to become holy and religious themselves otherwise that honour will turn to their shame as Solomon saith Prov. 16.31 Age is a crown of glory when it is found in the way of righteousnesse so to be descended of good and godly parents is a crown of glory if it be set on the head of such as are godly and religious otherwise it is a dishonour to them and without Gods mercy shall encrease their condemnation and on this ground let parents learn how they may estate their children in that which may be for their honour and best good namely thus they are to labour to bring themselves within the Covenant of grace and to become holy and religious themselves and then though they cannot derive their holinesse to their children because they beget them not as they be holy men but as men simply by the power and strength of nature yet by vertue of the Covenant God will be good to their children Gen. 26. we read of many blessings promised to Isaac and why because saith the text vers 5. Abraham his father obeyed the voyce of the Lord. Holinesse in the Parents seales up Gods favour not onely to themselves but to their children also This cannot raking and scraping together of wealth do it is a common saying but a wicked and cursed saying Happy is the child whose father goes to the Devil It is rather a comfort to the children when they can remember that their parents are or have been godly and in the favour of God they may then say as Jacob said Gen. 32.9 Lord thou hast been or thou art the God of my father good and gracious to him shew thou mercy to me his child according to thine own sweet promise Last of all Is it an honour and dignity to be of the race or kindred of Vse 2 such as have been holy servants of God and to be the children of good and godly Parents what an honour then is it to be the children of God and to be born of God and to be the adopted sons and daughters of God without question that is the highest degree of honour that can be vouchsafed to any worldly men esteem it a great honour to be of the race or kindred of Noble men and great men in the world but alas it is but a shadow or rather not so much as a shadow compared to the true honour of the least or meanest of Gods Saints They are the adopted sonnes and daughters of God the great Lord and King of heaven and earth they are brethren to Christ heires to the Kingdom of heaven they have Angels for their guard all things for their good and the whole world is theirs and this honour ought to affect our hearts and we are to be ambitious in seeking this honour above all things in the world Now further it is not to be passed by without noting that the Apostle here saith the Jewes who lived in his time at the time when he writ this Epistle were the posterity of the holy Patriarks and no doubt they were then able to fetch their pedegree from those holy Fathers and to prove themselves to be the seed and children of Abraham and to come of his line as they alledge for themselves and brag of it to Christ Joh. 8.33 VVe be Abrahams seed and verse 39. Abraham is our father yea doubtlesse they could then shew a perpetuall succession of their high Priests from Aaron to the time of Christ yet for all this they were rejected and were not the true Church of God the Jewes now rejecting Christ and refusing to imbrace the faith and doctrine of the Gospel are not the true Church of God though they be descended from Abraham and from the holy Patriarks and though they can derive their pedegree from them See then I note it to this purpose the vanity and weaknesse of that argument that is used by our adversaries the Papists that forsooth the continual succession of Bishops is an evident argument of the true visible Church and they will needs have their Romish Synagogue to be the onely true Church because as they say their Pope is the successour of Peter and they have had a continual ordinary succession of Bishops Pastours and Doctors from the time of the Apostles which indeed is a vain brag and can never be proved it is questionable whether Peter ever sate as Bishop at Rome And the Popish Church hath no succession from the Apostles for many hundred yeares after Christ at the least for five or six hundred years And admit they could shew a continued succession of their Bishops from the time of the Apostles without interruption yet that is but a sandy and a weak ground to build the truth of their Church on unlesse they can also shew a continual succession of true doctrine and that their Church hath succeeded the Apostles in truth of doctrine for indeed they cannot be said to succeed them whose doctrine they renounce An outward succession of persons in any place without succession of true doctrine from the Apostles which the Papists cannot shew is nothing worth It helpeth not the Bishop of Rome to have as they say Peter for their predecessour and that they are his successours so long as they swerve from the true Doctrine of Peter and are become such grosse Idolaters that personal succession if they could prove it can nothing avail them It followeth verse 5. and of whom concerning the flesh Christ came that is of which Jews Christ also descended concerning the flesh as touching his humane nature This is also added as further matter of honour and dignity to the Jewes that Christ came of them concerning the flesh as touching his humane nature that he that was the Sonne of God and that from all eternity should have the same Ancestors and Progenitors with them Whence we see then Doctr. That the Jewes are a very Honourable people having many excellent priviledges and prerogatives