Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	christian_a	church_n	true_a	4,006	5	4.8519	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28845	A pastoral letter from the Lord Bishop of Meaux to the new Catholicks of his diocess exhorting them to keep their Easter, and giving them necessary advertisements against the false pastoral letters of their ministers : with reflections upon the pretended persecution / translated out of French, and publish'd with allowance.; Lettre pastorale. English	Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne, 1627-1704.	1686 (1686)	Wing B3787; ESTC R12514	28,012	60

Communicated when he was Dying as St. Cyprian and other Saints Communicated Infants as the Martyrs Communicated in their Houses and the Hermits in their Retreats as many Saints have understood that JESUS CHRIST Communicated the two Disciples at Emaus as our Adversaries themselves Communicate those who have an Aversion to Wine and believe not they deprive them of the Sacrament of JESUS CHRIST tho' they make the whole Vertue of it to consist in the Species How much more ought they to be content with one Kind alone in the Catholick Church where the Efficacy of the Sacrament is plac'd in JESUS CHRIST himself Do you believe the Church that good Mother would deprive Her Children of the Grace of a Sacrament whose Sweets and Vertue she so well knows Or that JESUS CHRIST who hath promis'd to be alwayes with Her would permit it Upon account of this Promise Monsieur Claude acknowledges That there is always a Church which publishes the Faith a Church to which JESUS CHRIST hath given an exteriour Ministry and by consequence a Church which is Plain and Visible He allows That we must acknowledge in Vertue of this Promise a perpetual Subsistence of the Ministry in a State sufficient for the Salvation of God's Elect for the Edifying the Body of Christ and for the bringing of all his Elect and true Faithful Ones to perfection If they want any thing Essential to so great a Sacrament as this of the Communion is the Ministry sufficient to the Salvation and Perfection of the Faithful Is it to be in this State not to receive such a Sacrament but by violating the Commandment of JESUS CHRIST It is a manifest Truth both among us and the Ministers That the Church cannot be where the Sacraments are not If then both Kinds are absolutely necessary to every particular Faithful if the Sacrament do's not subsist but in the Distribution of them both the Ministers must say That so long as but one Kind was given the Church was without the Sacrament of the LORD'S SUPPER Nevertheless they dare not say this They are forc'd to allow that People were sav'd amongst us at least before their Reformation and that the True Church was there They are necessarily bound then to acknowledge the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was there also and that by consequence it subsists in its full perfection being distributed but in one only Kind This is also what Monsieur Claude acknowledges after such a manner that it leaves no doubt to those who will but ●ead him with Attention Behold how he defines the Church The Church is the true Faithful who make Profession of the Truth and of Christian Piety and of true Sanctity under a Ministry which furnisheth them with necessary Food for a Spiritual Life WITHOUT DEPRIVING THEM OF ANY THING OF IT There is nothing more Essential to the Church than what enters into the Definition of it There enters into the Definition of a Church That it be under a Ministry that is to say under Pastors who are to furnish it with all necessary Food for a Spiritual Life without depriving them of any of it This Minister agrees with us in this Foundation and all the Ministers grant it That at least untill the Pretended Reformation People were sav'd under the Ministry of the Latin Pastors and of the Roman Church and that the true Church was there also It was under a Ministry then that furnish'd it with all necessary Food without depriving them of any even tho' they had ceased to give the Cup and the Cup cannot then be reckon'd among those Aliments necessary to a Spiritual Life Come then my dear Brethren come to the Sacred Bancquet of the Church and make not its Perfection to consist in both the Kinds since the Ministers themselves are forc'd to grant they give you under one Kind all the Aliment that is necessary to a Spiritual Life without Depriving you of any of it In effect what ground can you have to doubt It is upon the Faith of the Church you content your self with your Baptism though you receiv'd it in your Infancy without the Authority of Scripture and after a manner if the Letter only be regarded so different from that which JESUS CHRIST ordained that he himself observ'd the first wherein also the Apostles have plac'd the Mysterious representation of our Burial as well as of our Resurrection with JESUS CHRIST You understand well that I speak of the Immersion practis'd in Baptism during so many Ages and comprised in the Words of our Lord Baptize c. that is to say Plunge and dip intirely under Water If upon the Faith of the Church you are at quiet as to your Baptism rely upon the same Faith as to your Communion and deprive not your selves of the whole Sacrament under pretence of desiring a part of it It is the utmost of my wishes to see you at the Holy Table perfecting the Mystery of your Peace and Reconciliation with the Church But least you should there receive your Condemnation and for want of discerning the Body of our LORD render your selves culpable we desire as far as it is possible to prepare you our selves for this Celestial Bancquet and we will go from we must understand I will be always with you Teaching and Baptizing From whence it follows by his Confession That JESUS CHRIST promised to his Church to be with her and to teach with her without interruption even to the end of the World And again There shall always be a Church and JESUS CHRIST will be always in the mid'st of her Baptizing with her and Teaching with her Without doubt it is by the Pastors he will exercise this Ministry 't is with the Pastors then he promised to Baptize and Teach Let them explain to us how those can Baptize ill or Teach ill with whom JESVS CHRIST Baptizes and with whom JESVS CHRIST Teaches Monsieur Claude opposes to us Experience and to shew us that this invincible force which we attribute to the Ecclesiastical Ministry in vertue of the Promises of JESVS CHRIST do's not at all belong to it he brings us many Passages of Heriveus of St. Bernard of Alvares Pelagius and of others who in the foregoing Ages deplored the disorders of the Clergy and desired a Reformation I undertake not here to Examine these Passages You may read them and if you find but only one where these Authors have complained of Transubstantiation or of the Sacrifice or of the Adoration of the Eucharist or finally of any of the points of Doctrine upon which Luther and Calvin have grounded their Reformation I will readily abandon the cause But if on the contrary among so many Passages cull'd out as it were for Ostentation there be not to be found one that regards the least of these things acknowledge that these Pretended Reformers have only taken from these Venerable Men the name of Reformation and have done nothing but abused

We can say without fear of being reprehended that they Cannot shew any change in the Catholick Church unless in those matters of Ceremony and Discipline which from the first Ages have been alwayes held for indifferent As for those insensible changes which they accuse us to have introduc'd in Doctrine in that they call them insensible it is enough to convince you that there are none marked out and that they cannot shew an innovation by any one positive matter of Fact But what they cannot shew us we are ready to shew to all those who have forsaken us There has not been any Interruption of the Antient Doctrine in any patt of the Christian World but is known the date of the Innovation and Seperation no Person is ignorant of If there had been such changes among us the Authors would have been named the Spirit of Truth which is in the Church would have noted them and their Names would have been infamous as that of Arius Nestorius Pelagius Dioscorus and Berengarius So that all they have told you of these insensible changes in Doctrine of which they have not produc'd one example in the Christian Church is no other but an empty Accusation without any matter of Fact-to support it and seeing you understand the Doctrine which I declare to you and that which the other Catholick Bishops also declare to you you ought by no means to doubt but that you hear in our Discourse those who first preach'd the Gospel and in them the Apostles and in the Apostles him who said Go Teach and Baptize and behold I am with you even to the end of the World So when your Ministers told you You needed not trouble your selves about the Succession of Chairs and Pastors provided you kept the Right Doctrine and true Understanding of the Scripture they separated that which JESUS CHRIST hath been pleas'd to render inseparable And it is in vain they boasted of understanding the Scriptures when in the mean while they rejected the Means by which it hath pleas'd God to transmit it It was his Will that it should come to us from Pastor to Pastor and from Hand to Hand without the least suspicion or appearance of Innovation By this means we come to know what hath always been Believ'd and by consequence what ought always to be Believ'd It is as I may say in this always that the force of Truth and the Promise is evidenc'd and the whole is lost if an Interruption be found but in one only Point Those things which thou hast heard from me says St. Paul before many witnesses commit thou to faithful men who shall be fit to teach others also To seperate the wholesome Doctrine from this Chain of Succession is to separate the River from the Channel And to vaunt themselves of the Understanding of the Scripture when they acknowledge they have lost the Stream of Tradition in their Pastors is to vaunt of having preserv'd the Waters after the Pipes are broken Do not therefore hearken My Well-beloved to the Word of Falshood and suffer not your selves to be seduc'd by these Pretended Pastoral Letters which they address to you from so many Parts and in such different Forms That which hath for its Title A Pastoral Letter to the Protestants of France who are fallen through Torments is not the better for being full of Words which that great Bishop and Martyr St. Cyprian address'd to the Faithful of Carthage to exhort them to Penitence and Martyrdom Those who dare imitate the True Pastors and who use the Language of St. Cyprian ought to consider whether they can from so good a Title attribute to themselves the Pastoral Authority But let them consult this Holy Martyr he will teach them That the Church is One That Episcopacy is One That to possess it lawfully it is necessary to ascend by One continual Succession even to the Source of Unity that is to say even to the Apostles and even to him to whom only JESUS CHRIST hath said that he might found his Church upon Unity Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I Build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it and I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. and also after his Resurrection Feed my Sheep The same St. Cyprian will teach them That from this Source of the Apostles rising from perfect Unity all the Pastors have issued That from hence Episcopacy is One not only in all Places but also in all Times That the Church like a Sun spreads her Rayes through the Universe but that it is the same Light which extends it self on all Sides That she spreads her Branches and causes her Streams to run through the Earth but that there is but one Source one Chief one Common Beginning one self-same Stock and finally one self-same Mother rich in the Fruits she brings forth from her Fruitful Womb. And least We should imagine some Cases might happen in which it might be Lawful to separate from the Unity of the Church or reform her Doctrine he adds these excellent Words which I beseech you my Brethren to consider The Spouse of JESUS CHRIST can never be an Adultress she cannot be corrupted and her Chastity is inviolable He that separates himself from the Church to joyn himself with an Adulteress thus he treats the Sects that are separated from the Unity of the Church hath no part in the Promises of JESUS CHRIST he is a Stranger he is Profane he is an Enemy He cannot have God for his Father since he has not the Church for his Mother 'T is in vain that he pretends to break the Holy Unity which is founded on the Unity of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And can they believe pursues he that the Vnity which is Built on so firm a Foundation can ever be dissolv'd He that keeps not this Vnity of the Church keeps not the Law of God he hath not the Faith of the Father and the Son he hath not Life and Salvation Do not you perceive My Bretheren how opposite the Method which they use in your pretended Churches is to that of St. Cyprian Your Ministers tell you without ceasing That to believe the Church without examining is without examining to believe Men subjects to Errour and that to know the True Church which one may beleive one must by a discussion of particular Questions know before hand the True Faith taught by the Scriptures But you see that St. Cyprian takes quite another Method To confound by an easie and compendious Argument as he propos'd to himself all Heresies and Schisms he alledges the Authority of the Church He knew nothing more manifest and so far was he from suffering them to inquire after the Church by examining into her Doctrines that he would have them know her first and hold it for certain that they cannot enjoy either the Law of God or Salvation or Life