Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A35885
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The salvation of Protestants asserted and defended in opposition to the rash and uncharitable sentence of their eternal damnation pronounc'd against them by the Romish Church / by J.H. Dalhusius ... ; newly done into English.
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Dalhusius, Johannes H. (Johannes Hermanus)
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1689
(1689)
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Wing D132; ESTC R1473
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51,117
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84
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and Friend YOur Reverend Mr. Prior in the late absence of your Lordship sent me a sharp Letter full of thundrings of Eternal Damnation against me and all those who forsaking your Church embrace ours Truly I trembl'd at so rash a Judgment of a prudent Man. But in regard it is lawful at all times and in all places to repel Force by Force to resist an unjust Aggressor and to Answer modestly to one that proposes a hard Question Nay since it is our Duty to convince Gainsayers Tit. 1. 9. I could not think it a piece of Injustice to oppose the foresaid Mr. Prior with the Treatise annex'd that he may be certainly assur'd that he has judg'd of our Differences as a Blind Man doth of Colours or as the Shoemaker did of the Picture drawn by Apelles All that I beg of your Reverend Worship is this That you will be pleas'd so to order the Matter that this necessary Answer may be deliver'd to his hands by which he may understand that it is the part of a Fool to Triumph before the Victory and of one that is far from a Christian to Judge so prepost'rously of the Salvation of his Neighbor I had Answer'd sooner had I not bin hinder'd by my public Duties and Transcribing a Copy of this Original Writing which I intend shall shortly wear a German Cloak to the end that all People may understand it Farewel and continue your Favour to The most faithful Observer of your Lordship in all good Offices J. H. Dalhusius In the mean time the Lord Abbot having Intelligence of my Design that he might remove the impending Burd'n from his Prior the strength of whose Shoulders he did not well understand was at first unwilling to receive this Answer of mine till tyr'd with the Importunity of the Messenger he took it and retir'd into the next Room Where he did not keep it long but by his Servant sent it me back the same day with these words upon the outside Paper BY reason of Strangers that are with me and other necessary Occasions I have not leisure to Answer the Enclosed as it ought to be be pleased therefore to receive back again what you have thought good to write but what is not convenient for us to read So may the Reverend Inspector live to the years of Nestor Your Brother Charles Abbot of Rommersdorff But the Lord Abbot was not so fearful to keep the Answer as an Abbot of the same Order of the neighbouring Abbey of Seinen Gulichius was daring to accept it with a cheerful Mind and willing Hand after I had address'd him in the following short Oration writing after this manner Most Reverend most Famous and most Learned Lord Abbot my most esteemed Favourer and Friend TOward the beginning of the Year I found my self involv'd in new Contentions of which the Author and Beginning is the Worshipful Prior in Rommersdorff whose Name is John Casper Baldem who in Answer to a Writing which ought to have bin instead of a pleasing New-Years-Gift gave me to understand That my self more especially and all those whom you unjustly call Vncatholic are unavoidably subjected to Eternal Damnation It was but just therefore that I should Answer him according to the Matter which such a rash Judgment requir'd Presently I did that which is just and this day took care that the Original Writing at my urgent Request might be deliver'd to the Prior himself by the Lord Prelate Charles Wirtzius in hopes the Lord Abbot as my singular Friend would have bin so favourable and sincere as to have deliver'd him the Original Copy which I sent But Right Reverend Abbot seeing the Consideration of your most Exquisite Learning and the Justice of your Friendship contracted four years since may seem to demand so much that I should inform you at least by a Copy of your business in some measure importing the Honour of your Order and that you should not remain Ignorant according to the Greek Proverb in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what Good or Ill is done within our Houses I thought it necessary to impart to you the Nature of our Quarrel In the mean time by the love of Jesus Christ I conjure you that laying aside inveterate Prejudices you would peruse this present Treatise and afterwards with an Answer first to be communicated to the Brothers in Rommersdorff to oblige the longing Expectations of him who am was and will be to the end of my Life Heddesdorff Jan. 14. 1681. The sincere Observer of Your Worship in all good Offices Here we stopt most Worthy Reader proceeding no farther for the Reverend Abbot of Seinen Gulichius has hitherto left me nothing but the desire of a future Answer But to the end the Church of the Protestants so often nay daily after the manner of Baldem in the Desks and Pulpits of the Monks abandon'd to the Infernal Devils may be furnish'd with farther Arms against such a Customary Damnation and that the Innocence and Eternal Salvation of it may be more and more asserted and established with Triumphant Arguments and Reasons we thought it worth our while to publish this Orthodox Answer wrested and extorted from us by the Force of a Fire-breathing Quill and drawn out of the dark shades of my Study I will not here meddle with any Man besides the Prior my Antagonist who because he has spoken what he pleas'd shall hear perhaps what he will not like so well I shall only speak of Errors I shall spare Persons and which is the chiefest thing of all I shall examin and correct all things by the Rule of Christian Charity and Invincible Truth In the mean time Reader make use of this necessary Answer to the Advancement of God's Glory the Establishment of thy own Faih and the Encrease of the true Catholic Church May it please the God of Peace to heal these Divisions that so Christians being recal'd to Truth and Charity may once more constitute one Sheepfold under one Shepherd Christ Not Antichrist Amen To the Right Reverend the BISHOPS The Reverend and Learned PASTORS And To All and Singular the MEMBERS Of the Reformed English Church The AUTHOR wishes The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ The Love of God the Father And the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost Most Honoured Lords and Dearly Beloved Brethren in Christ IN like manner as the Jews of old when they past their little Children through the Fire in Honour of Moloch that they might not be mov'd with their pitiful Outcries and Lamentations endeavour'd to deafen and silence those doleful and ruthful Moans and Shrieks of the distressed Infants with variety of Sounds and Noises loud and shrill such are the labours of the Followers of the Church of Rome to leave no Stone unturn'd to stop the Mouths of the Detectors of their False Doctrins And in regard they are not able to compass their Ends by the way of Truth they not only rage with Fire and Sword against the Orthodox but persecute
of our Faith and all the most solid and necessary Points of Christian Religion but also in common Protestancy against the Idolatry Tyranny and foul Errors of the Church of Rome both Sides impugning the Adoration of the Bread Transubstantiation Sacrifice of the Mass Communion under One Kind Justification by Works Traditions not written Purgatory Worship of Images Infallibility of the Pope c. So that it would be much better for us to arm our selves with mutual and brotherly forbearance against the continual Conspiracies of Antichrist then to lay our Sides open to them through our unhappy Discords and Wars by which neither side can hope for Triumph Far more absurd it would be to upbraid the Protestants with their small Number or to infer their Damnation from that For much more numerous is the Number of Christians under the four Patriarchs in the East and the Great Duke of Muscovy and Russia then of those who in the West adhere to the See of Rome Without question the Number of the Orthodox was very small at what time as St. Jerom testifies The whole World groan'd and admir'd to see it self all Arian Scarcity makes things valuable we are not to adhere to a multitude in Evil nor is the broad Way to be trod but the narrow Path which leads to Life not pervious to many If we must be excluded from Salvation for the smallness of our Number By the same reason the Pharisees of old might have damn'd the Apostles and the Heathens the Christians In the mean time they who reproach us with our small Number and glory in their own Multitude when they come to view the face of Europe are compell'd to talk after another rate Bellarmin praefat in Tom. 1. Controver cannot restrain his fury Who is ignorant saith he of that same Lutheran Pest for Truth was a Plague to the Seat of Pestilence as Christ was the Death of Death and a Pest to Hell that sprung up not long since in Saxony and soon after over-ran almost all Germany then spreading to the North and East delug'd all Denmark Sweadland Norway Gothland Pannonia Hungary and then with equal rapidness shooting to the West and South poyson'd all England France and Scotland flourishing Kingdoms once and at last crossing the Alps extended it self even as far as Italy Nor are we to be condemn'd because we call our selves Reformed or Protestants rather then Catholics For we were first call'd Protestants in the public Dyet at Spire Anno Dom. 1529. because our Electors and Princes there protested against the Errors and Superstitions of the Romish Church plainly in the fame sense as in the old Old Version of the 2 Chron. 24. 19. they who after the Death of Jehoiada oppos'd themselves against Idolatry were mark'd out and differenc'd by the same Name but those Idolaters would by no means give ear to the Protesters So that there being no Satisfaction given to our Consciences upon that Protestation deservedly we deserted that Communion which we believ'd to be pernicious to our Salvation Nor are we therefore to be thought to have deserted the Church For as St. Chrysostom says very remarkably Hom. 46. in Mat. He does not separate from the Church who separates Corporeally but he who Spiritually relinquishes the fundamental Truths of the Church We have left them Locally They have forsaken us in Point of Faith We in departing from them have left the Foundation of the Walls They in forsaking us have forsak'n the Foundations of Scripture We are call'd Reformed not because we reform'd the Religion deliver'd us by Christ and the rest of his Apostles but because we cleans'd it from the Rust of Abuses and Corruptions which that holy Religion had contracted through length of time the Subtilty of Satan and the Vices of Men. And this Reformation the People the Princes and Magistrates and those not a few most earnestly and importunately long'd for all over Europe So that the Tridentine Fathers to satisfie the public Demands at least in outward shew were compell'd to add something of Reformation to every one of their Dogmatical Sessions However we do not renounce these Names of Catholic Protestants Reformed or Lutherans seeing that addition of Catholic belongs of right rather to Us then to you Romanists for that the Doctrin which we profess is the Sincere Orthodox and Catholic Doctrin of the Christian Church as the Apostles deliver'd it from the Beginning Reformed we are in reference to the rejecting Abuses and human Inventions but Catholics as we retain the fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion Nor can this Name suit with them from whom we have departed in any other respect then as they retain some fundamental Truths which as yet are common both to them and us but not in respect of their Additions and Traditions in which we dissent from them In vain do you glory against us of retaining this Name by Force For as Salvian of Marseilles says lib. 4. de Provid What is a holy Name without Merit but an Ornament in the Dirt All the particular Assemblies of Heretics says Lactantius lib. 4. Divin Institut cap. ult believe themselves to be the chiefest Christians and their Church to be the Catholic The very Turks would be called Musselmanni that is the Faithful or Catholic but it suffices us to be really Catholics Good leave therefore have you from us O Romanists to usurp this Name as we call the Saracens Mahumetans who nevertheless derive not their Original from Sarah as Sons of the Promise but from Agar the Egyptian Bond-woman Thus all the Prejudices and Foundations of your precipitate Judgment being repell'd and remov'd Venerable Mr. Prior you constitute at length the only Foundation of your Opinion upon this That in regard that Ours is a new Religion it is impossible we should gain Salvation by the Profession But those things which now are old were formerly new The Christian Religion is at this day New to the Chineses and Japanners nevertheless they ought not to reject it for that Reason For this very sake of Novelty the Heathens refus'd Christianity but in vain There is nothing more Ancient then Truth which beheld the true World in its Infancy But false Religion the Older it is so much is it the more Mischievous True it is the Reformation which we profess is New and newly done but the Rule of it which is comprehended in the Word of God is of great Antiquity according to which whatever was added of Human Invention is separated from the Orthodox and Catholic Doctrin to the end that true and refin'd Antiquity might be retain'd Hence the famous Peter Moulin a Frenchman in a large Treatise against Cardinal Perron has more then sufficiently demonstrated the Novelty of Popery and the Antiquity of the Reformed Religion Therefore our Religion cannot be call'd New since that alone propounds to us things to be believ'd which were believ'd by all Men and every where from the Time of the Apostles according