Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A61497
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The English case, exactly set down by Hezekiah's reformation in a court sermon at Paris / Dr. Steward ...
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Steward, Richard, 1593?-1651.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing S5521; ESTC R3486
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21,870
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37
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to the Romans in the 11th chap. verse 21. Be not high minded but fear for if God spar'd not the natural branches take heed lest he spare not thee And that this Text implies the Christian Gentiles may be all cut off quite from Christ is here the Conclusion of Stapleton and of the Remists Notes on that Text and of divers of their way And to say the plain truth that Text I named can well bear no other comment unless we 'l fondly affirm that St. Paul warns the Gentiles to take heed of that mischance which yet indeed could not possibly fall out And then I beseech you observe if that same Church which boasts most of strength may yet run in Non Ecclesiam may become no Church at all she may much more run in Corruptam Ecclesiam into a Church so corrupt in her Publick Worship that she may now need a Reformation I say she may run into a corrupt Church and do but consider her new claim of Infallibility and you 'l easily yield 't is a Victory to prove that Rome may be conquered to make this appear She may err is enough to convince her of no little part of her Errors If you ask me to shew more I shall beg leave to reply That ' t is an Argument I affect not for I had much rather be employed in discourses of good life than in these of controversies as holding that in all kind of Contentions to be the most fit Christian Prayer Give peace in our time O Lord. Yet since I here meet with such Disputes and Waverings in some I 'le think out of Conscience in others either out of Vanity to entertain their time or that under pretence of searching Christian Truths they may indeed drive a Trade I must hence hold it a Duty I owe unto most of those that now hear me yea a Duty I owe to that venerable Church that baptiz'd us all though our now poor afflicted Mother to keep the Fruit of her own Womb from thus trampling on her to keep them as much as in me lies from being gull'd and cheated from her Unity and withal from communicating too deeply in sin with those who have now cast her on the ground If you ask then for the corruptions of the Western Church suppose I instance but in one alone She took the Cup from the People An Abuse set up against as clear Text as e're the High Places were Drink ye all of this saith our Saviour St. Mat. 26. And again as they interpret that Text Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood ye have no life in you in that 6th chap. â—o St. Iohn Mark ye have no life in you I know they defend this and make no question at all but some witty Scribe might have been as well able to defend the Iews who for ought I know might have said as they do That the Hebrew Church had power over the Sacraments and Sacrifices are no more or by their new Doctrine of Concomitance they might maintain much more probably that their High Places and Altars were but only us'd as Parts as Appurtenances as Concomitants of the Tabernacle than these that Shed-blood lies in the Host. For Shed-blood it must be This is my very Blood which is shed for you So that to tell us of Blood in the Body of Blood running in the Veins is indeed to shew forth the Lord's Life but not as he commands to shew forth his death till he comes Nay admit the Doctrine of Concomitance which yet in this point is but a meer perfect fiction yet Christ enjoyns Drink ye all of this And I appeal to your own Sences themselves whether to eat Christ's Blood be to drink it Their Publick Service in an unknown Tongue is it not as clearly against the Doctrine of St. Paul 1 Cor. 14. How saith he shall the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks seeing he understands not what thou say'st in the 16th verse of that chapter Two things you see the Apostle there takes for granted first that the unlearned ought to say Amen at God's Publick Service Secondly they cannot joyn that consent of theirs but to those words they understand I might instance in many more particulars as in the Adoration of Images of Saints of the Eucharist in the Doctrine of Purgatory and those other Articles of the New Creed of Trent whereof some are of dangerous practise nay as Learned men amongst themselves have confess'd Gerson Espensaeus and many others they are of practice among the Vulgar at least some doubt not to add and among the Learned too no less than Idololatrical Others again are made Articles of Faith which yet for ought appears either in the Text or in Antiquity are indeed not so much as probable Opinions So that to say truth there are store of men who have not Ignorance enough to believe such Articles And yet the Western Church has forced many Souls into the Faith of this New Creed both by the Prison and the Stake And in this Tyranny hath shewed her self far worse than e're old Iudah did For though we read of no visible conspicuous number that did avoid the High Places yet in Charity we may think there were some few that did so and yet in this regard we read not so much as one either punished or disgraced by an Hebrew Magistrate 'T is true then that God's Church yea his Christian Church may be stained with some gross foul Corruptions But what Because she may thus err shall each giddy Brain be allow'd to controul or each private Hand to reform her Admit this Disorder once and let a Church be indeed most Apostolick yet you may be assured she shall ne're want Reformers if she have either Sons to be employ'd in Rebellion or Lands to be enjoyed by Sacriledge A Corah then will dare to tell Moses to his face That all the Congregation is holy as holy as himself or the best employ'd in the Tabernacle all Kings and Priests then and all this stir is rais'd not so much that he dislikes the Order of Aaron but that indeed he likes his Revenue And therefore in my Text there 's care had of this A Reformation follows but you 'l find it brought in by no less than by the Power Royal whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away and hath said to Iudah c. This part affords Varieties and I must therefore divide it Here 's then first the Prime Agent in this Reformation I nam'd Hezekiah the King. Secondly the Extent of the Reformation 't was only brought into his own Territories Iudah and Ierusalem Thirdly the manner how he setled it 't was done as well by teaching truth as by reforming corruptions He took away the High Places and he said Ye shall worship before this altar at Ierusalem First of the Prime Agent Hezekiah the King. But to remove these Abuses here did not this Prince first abuse
runs with this abatement He walkt in the ways of David his Father but the High Places were not taken away the People still offer'd Sacrifice in the tops of the High Places It 's thus said of no less than Seven Solomon and Asa Iehosaphat Iehoash Amaziah Azariah and Iothan Cardinal Cajetan thinks this gross Corruption was as general as if the Iews resolv'd to make null Moses Law by an Hebrew Custom to the contrary and they had don 't without doubt were our Sins as well able to abrogate a Law as we well know they are to break it This is plain that the Cardinal conceiv'd this Abuse was grown into a Custom National which had there spread it self over all sorts and kind of Persons So that it found no open no constant Opposition at all from any body of men then considerable Had it 't is clear enough That Customs thus oppos'd can put Humane Laws in no danger But I need not quote such Authorities the very word there us'd where the Text speaks of those Kings infers this Truth strongly enough But the High places were not taken away the People still offer'd Sacrifice in the High Places For that Word the People when it 's put singly and without opposition implies without doubt the whole Nation which it points at Thus when God commands Moses Speak now in the ears of the people Or in those Words to Pharaoh Let my people go No doubt but that Word did point at each several Iew and though sometime it may well bear a sence less general yet it then implies so much the far greater Number that commonly what remains is neither a part eminent nor considerable Nay to go no farther than my Text 't is plain enough from these Words of Rabshakeh who having taken so many Cities had now spent some good time in Iewry that this Corruption was so universally spread without any visible any noted part to oppose it that he conceived it the only true Service of the God of Israel With what Face else could He have told the Iews They had no hopes in their God because their King had quite overturned his Religion Had there indeed been any Number of Note that had oppos'd this Corruption is 't at all probable it would have been conceal'd in these Hebrew Histories Their Pen men we know were all Zealous enough to preserve the Honour of Iudea and yet in this particular we find a still total silence And if any man will needs hold the contrary they who call so much for Catalogue of Names might in Justice demand of this grand Undertaker to shew a List of those Iews who from Age to Age whilst this Corruption held did not at all worship in High Places But you 'l demand perhaps For how long a time was the Hebrew Church thus corrupted And indeed Learned Men differ here Some think this abuse began in the times of Othoniel and Ehud Judges Others plac'd it in the days of Gideon admit either of these conjectures and 't will be plain in Chronology that this forbidden worship held no less than six hundred Years for all agree Hezekiah was the first who durst be so good in those bad times as to reform this corruption But grant we do abate of this since great Clerks conceive that from the time that the Ark was parted from the Tabernacle which was no less than ninety years from the days of Eli the Priest when the Ark went Captive to Philistia until they both met again in the Temple of Solomon 't was lawful to sacrifice at more than one only altar because God had promised his more immediate Presence as well before the Ark as before the Tabernacle For this reason I say though perhaps it hold not grant we abate of that time what I find established by common consent will prove large enough to support all my whole intention For no man dares deny the Text is so plain in that Catalogue of Kings I related that this corruption held from the days of Solomon unto the Reign of King Hezekiah and so no less than upon the Point of three hundred years as is plain by the computation of Arias Montanus and by the most exact in Chronology So then three things are here very considerable first the Nature of this Corruption 't was in the Censure of Gods Law no less than the sin of Murther and in the Censure of the Iews it deserved no less than the Revenge of a plain Civil War. Secondly the Extent of this Corruption it had spread it self throughout the whole face of Iudea so that all that was at that time God's Visible Church was at once involv'd in this Error For I need not now speak of the Ten Tribes their high places were made waste as is plain enough from the Calves of Dan and of Bethel Thirdly the Continuance of this Corruption it held probably for six but no man can deny that it remained in the Church of Iewry upon the point of three Centuries of years Hence 't will follow clearly the whole Visible Church may be so far corrupted that though she forsake not God and so run in Non Ecclesiam to be no Church at all yet for a long time she may do Publick Worship in a most gross forbidden manner and this kind of Abuse may be so dangerous that upon its full discovery both Prince and People may be in conscience bound to embrace Reformation Has God's Church of the Law been so foully blemished and may that of the Gosyel boast of a more constant Beauty Are the Promises of this kind more large to us than they were to that Church wherein God's own Son was born She in as plain Terms was then call'd the Spouse of God I will betroath thee unto me for ever saith the Lord Hos. 2. His People and his Flock We are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hands Psal. 95. Yea his Sons and his Daughters Thou shalt call me my Father saith the Lord and shalt not depart from me Jer. 3. 19. True the Gates of Hell shall not so prevail but Christ will still have a Church and could the Gates of Hell prevail against her that was betrothed God's own Spouse for ever That is at least till Christ came No they could not prevail to make her run in non Ecclesiam to become no true Church at all and yet they might prevail to make her run in Corruptam Ecclesiam into a Church so much corrupt in her Publick Worship that she might much need a Reformation And indeed 't is a strange thing that any Christian Church which God has plac't among Gentiles should be so puffed up with a thought of her own strength that she cannot fail in this particular For 't is a Truth clear in the Text that there 's no Church of Gentiles but like a Branch from the Vine it may be quite cut from Christianity And which is worth observing St. Paul has indited this self-same Truth