Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	call_v	ground_n	pillar_n	2,288	5	9.7053	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17036	An ansvvere to Master Cartvvright his letter for ioyning with the English Churches: whereunto the true copie of his sayde letter is annexed.	Browne, Robert, ca. 1550-1633.; Cartwright, Thomas, 1535-1603.; Harrison, Robert, d. 1585?, attributed name.	1585 (1585)	STC 3909; ESTC S109433	77,571	102

disciples and vnder their charge therefore may not we be vnder the dumbe ministers charge to heare them as our teachers and guides in Christ. Another proofe he giueth thus The dumbe ministers haue a calling by the Church as the scribes and Pharisees had therefore wee may lawfully heare them and receiue them as ministers In this proofe wee haue these matters to consider whether our dumbe ministers haue as good a calling as the scribes and Pharisees had Whether the bishops and their officers that call ministers are to be counted the Church whether if the church shoulde appoint and receiue a dumbe minister he had thereby any whit more authoritie or were any whit the rather to be receiued It is certaine that Ezra was a Scribe and a priest also of the sonnes of Aaron as wee may reade in the booke of Ezra and Nehemiah And in other places other Scribes also were mentioned which were both writers and preachers of the Lawe and worde of God And therefore Christ saith that they sure in Moses seate That is as it is in the 8. of Ezra They were chosen being men of vnderstanding to preache and minister to the people as their office required Yea by the Priestes and Elders consent of the Congregation were they chosen But dare Master Cartwright say that our dumbe ministers are thus chosen and called or dare he say that they sit in Moses seate If then he bring it for a good profe That the Scribes Pharises were to be heard because they fate in moses seat then it is also a good or better proofe That these dumbe ministers doe not sit in moses seat and therefore are not to be heard and receiued as ministers In the Church and assemblyes of the Iewes there could be 〈…〉 dumbe ministerie suffered as an ordinarie office and calling For herein consisted their ministerie To teach Iaacob the iudgements of God and Israel his lawes to put incense before his face and the burnt offering vpon the altar And so the dumbe minister can haue no office nor calling in the Church seeing there is no such ministerie nor parte of ministerie as to be a reading minister Furthermore if Master Cartwright saye that the Bishoppes and their officers are the Church and that therefore the dumbe ministers are called by the Church First it is to bee shewed that Master Cartwright can not prooue them to bee the Churche yea it was prooued before that they are not the Churche of God Then also he is against him selfe herein for he confessed before That the dumbe ministers are thrust vpon the Churche and howe then can they bee called by the Churche Thyrdely if they were called and then both the maner of calling bee altogether blasphemous and wicked and the office whereto they are called is none of the church offices and callings of what weight or authoritie shall their calling be Shall wee haue strange offices and ministeries in the Church which God hath not appointed or shall wee giue any authoritie or reuerence vnto them because men account of them shal the blasphemie and wickednesse of a number though they be named the Church make me any whit the more to receiue a dumbe minister because they doe wickedly and blasphemously call and authorize him Nay I ought not to followe a multitude to doe euill For it is not as Master Cartwright would haue it that the moe which sinne in a matter the lesse the sinne is but rather it is the more grieuous and more to be abhorred And Paul giueth this libertie to Tim●thie That though other men euen the Elders and people shoulde choose any vnmeete minister yet hee shoulde not partake with them in their sinne And if in the acte of chusing the authoritie of the church is not to be regarded when it shamefully abuseth her authoritie then also in the wickednesse sinne that is wrought by the choyse it is lesse to be regarded For the reading ministerie is abominable wickednesse and as it first ouerthrewe the Churches of God and brought in Antichrist so it is still the doore and high way to all ignorance dissolutenesse and all wicked practises and customes Wherefore let Master Cartwright laye away his fonde distinction that they are ministers though they be vnlawfull ministers For if the reading ministerie be no office nor calling appointed by christ then is it an office of Antichrist And why then shoulde he sticke so much on the worde minister if they be Antichristian and deuelish ministers And what will he make of the Church It is indeede the house of the liuing God the piller and grounde of trueth But Master Cartwright will haue it to presume aboue Christ and so will make it an Antichrist For if it ordeine strange ministeries and offices in the church which christ and his Apostles neuer coulde doe nor woulde do doeth it not presume aboue Christ Christ and his Apostles coulde not thrust no not lawfull ministers vpon any congregation Neyther coulde he commande any Congregation or Church to receiue vnlawfull ministers and take them for their guydes Yet by Master Cartwrightes saying we may receiue such and if any such be thrust vpon vs we must account their ministery to be sanctified for the Churches sake which calleth them Surely if the Church doe vsurpe and chalenge such a power of ruling and such a holines in sanctifying which christ neuer had it becommeth the church of Antichrist and quite ouerthroweth the kingdom and priesthood of christ But let vs see further what M C. sayeth He pleadeth for the dumbe ministers by comparing them still with the Scribes and Pharises also with the priestes and teachers in the olde lawe with the chiefe Priestes at Christs comming and with vnsufficient and vnable Magistrates He wil haue them to haue as lawfull a calling and ministerie as any of these The Scribes sayth he taught vntruely were deceiued in the chiefe groūds of religion yet were to be heard of the people therefore our dumbe ministers are as lawful ministers as they Likewise he saith of the priests of magistrates that some of the priests were dumbedogs some false teachers and some had not so lawful calling also that some Magistrates are not lawfull sufficient Magistrates and yet neither the Scribes nor the priestes nor the magistrates were to be reiected as no ministers nor Magistrats What true or false doctrine there is in all this we will shew by and by But graunt it true which he sayth of the scribes Priestes and Magistrates namely that they were so euill as he sayeth or taught such false doctrine yet he him selfe hath giuen the answere before to condemne him selfe For he sayde that the Scrybes were not to bee heard but in that they taught trueth and that our dumbe ministers were to be heard and receiued so farre as they can giue vs any thing that is of Christ. Nowe it is shewed that a

baptised of him yea among the Pharisces there were those that touching the righteousnesse which is in the lawe were vnrebukeable They were as it appeareth most of them Leuites openly called and authorised to preach by the Elders aud people in the Synagognes And surely that it is but a vaine exception which Master Cartwright maketh of the high Priest That he was made a yeerely officer and came in by Simonie into his office For Eleazar was made high priest while Aaron the high Priest yet liued And Zadok was made high Priest and Abiathar and his sonnes put from the priesthoode when as yet the couenant of the priesthoode pertained by the lawe vnto Abiathar and his house But necessities and iust occasions did oftentimes make change of the ceremoniall lawes and yet no corruption nor abuse came thereby Wherefore for aunswere I say that the priesthoode was not made a yeerely office but that by course euery yeere two priestes did execute the office And this seemed to be tollerable by the Lawe seeing that if one priest shoulde be sicke or letted by some greater occafions the other might be in his steade As wee shewed before that Eeleazar was chosen high Priest while Aaron yet liued and Zadok in Abiathars steade and yet were there not two high Priestes in the office at once but onely one at once was to execute the office Also there seemed to be much doubt and controuersie to which of the p●iestes the priesthoode did belong as also we may reade in Iosephus And therefore two chiefely standing for it there were two chosen to it And because the lawe of God did not suffer two at once to bee in the office they did succeede one another in the execution of the office Againe seeing they were of the sonnes of Aaron and called after the order of Aaron no doubt their calling was lawfull and good Otherwise if any at that time had bene lawfull high Priestes and yet not lawfully called as was Aaron then the Apostle woulde not haue set downe this for a generall trueth That no man taketh this honour vnto him selfe but he that is called of God as was Aaron Neither let him here shift off our answere by his fonde distinction of the essence of a priest and of a lawfull priest which before is refuted As for Symonie wherewith he chargeth the high Priestes hee can not prooue it against them For if the Romanes ouerruling them did grieuously exact their tributes and paiments both of Christ himselfe as we may reade in Matth and of the high priestes it was no more Symonie in the priestes then it was in Christ to pay them their exactions For the priesthoode was their right seeing it pertained vnto them being the sonnes of Aaron yet can not Master Cartwright prooue that they payed any monie when they tooke their right or if they did that they thereby bought their right and not rather payed an exaction which the Romanes demanded when they tooke their right But suppose that secretly they gaue bribes to the Romanes delt by Symonie yet that being hidden and not manifest to the people they were to be taken of men as lawfully called to that office For if the Lawe and common tribute exacted monie of them they might pay it as well as Christ. If the officers did exact any besides lawe they did it secretely lest they them selues should be condemned by lawe and so it is manifest that no symonie could be laid to their charge And therefore no maruaile though Christ bad the man shewe him selfe to the high Priest For before the high priestes became open persecuters there was a lawfull communion to be had with them But this communion was afterward broken and made vnlawfull through their open wickednesse Also it is false which Master Cartwright saith that Christ did reuerence the high Priest and gaue him accountes of his doctrine For he gaue him no accountes and answered him so roundly that one of the officers whiche stoode by smote him with a rodde Also his aunswere is false cōcerning that place in Hoshea that the Lord would refuse the priestes for being any more his priestes seeing they were without knowledge of which wordes he sayeth that the prophet rather giueth a rule to be followed in their election or deposition then howe farre they may be vsed Nay the Prophet there speaketh nothing of electing them or deposing them by men but rather of the plague or destruction that shoulde come vpon them yea hee sheweth that through the ignorance of the priestes all wickednesse and idolatrie reigned and therefore he saith that there shal be like people like Priest meaning that they shall haue a like destruction Now Master Cartwright dare not say that all abominable wickednes and Idolatrie reigning and the priests them selues being wicked idolaters I say he dare not affirme that they helde the couenant or were the people or church of God For before he hath said the contrary And howe then dare he say that such priestes were yet priestes vnto God and were not deposed from their priesthoode when as their owne wickednes and idolatrie did depose them For that whole chapter of Hoshea is altogether against their wickednesse and idolatrie And let M. C. knowe that our open grosse sinnes abuses being not curable by the discipline of the Church are as euill as Idolatrie as Samuel the Prophet doeth witnes saying that rebellion is as the sinne of witchcraft and transgression he meaneth trāsgression which is stoode in and wil not be mended is wickednes idolatry But this matter is made manifest before Now followeth the last part of his letter the last matter in controuersie as whether by communicating with a reading minister we do communicate with their impietie establish their ministerie M. C. herein doth more shamefully erre then if he should with the bishops altogether iustifie such reading ministers For he might better say they were lawfull ministers and that their ministerie were lawfull then that he should confesse them to be vnlawfull ministers yet iustifie that we may receiue them as hauing the essence and substance of ministers and partake in their wicked ministerie without impietie or establishing their But he may playnly see except his eies of vnderstanding be vtterly darkened that if any do vsurpe as traitors against her maiesty then they also that come vnder their vsurped rule and gouernment being once free from it are also trayters together with them So likewise those men vsurping a ministery which Christ neuer gaue them neyther sanctified to be in his Church both they doe wickedly and they also that wil come vnder theyr ministery doe establish theyr wicked ministery and partake with them in theyr impiety If a man of the winde sayth the prophet and false fellowe doe he saying I will prophecie vnto you of wine and of strong drinke he shall euen be the prophet of this people Yea why not