Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	church_n	doctrine_n	false_a	3,917	5	6.8146	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52857	An English inquisition for a heretick Or, The punishment due to hereticks. Together with the nature and causes of heresie. Declared in a sermon preached at a visitation at Ware, upon the 19th. of April 1672. By Robert Neville, B.D. late Fellow of Kings-Colledge in Cambridge, and now Rector of Ansty in the county of Hertford.	Neville, Robert, 1640 or 1-1694.	1673 (1673)	Wing N519; ESTC R220263	15,927	31

be called Heresie g Res enim effecta absque judicio intellectus definientis peccatum esse potest Haeresis autem minimè Alphons à Castro lib 1. advers Haeres p. 3. For a thing done without the judgment of the Vnderstanding may be a Sin but not a Heresie sayes Alphonsus à Castro 2ly Heresie as it is an Error of Judgment not of Manners so it hath for its Object a Matter of Faith or the Doctrine of the Gospel There may be great Errors in the Mathematicks in Natural or in Moral Philosophy but those who are entangled in these Errors must not be put into the List and Catalogue of Hereticks for they are only such who have corrupt Judgments in matters of the Christian Faith And as they have Matters of Faith for their Object so 3ly Have they those Points of Faith which are Essentials and Fundamentals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are necessarily and explicitly to be believed by all and therefore Hereticks may be said to be such as Col. 2.19 Hold not the head without which there is no Salvation Hereticks as h Quaest 11. Artic. 2 part 2. 2. Aquinas tells us are such as harbour a false Opinion of those things quae ad Fidem pertinent which belong to Faith to which any thing may belong two ways either directly and principally as do all the Articles of Faith or else indirectly and secondarily as do all those Points to the denying whereof the Corruption of some Fundamental Article is a necessary Consequent 4ly To all these Obstinacy or Contumacy may be superadded which is the Specifical Difference of Heresie the chief Constituent part that makes up this Sin to which we may referr that known saying of St. Augustine i Errare possum Haereticus esse nolo I may erre but I will not be a Heretick for there is always required to Heresie not only an Erroneous Judgment but also an Obstinate Will I shall conclude this particular with those words of St. Augustine against the Manichees k Qui in Ecclesiâ Christi pr●vum aliquid sapiunt si correpti ut sanum rectumque sapíant resistunt contumaciter suaque pestifera Dogma●a defendere persistunt Heretici sunt l 18. de Civ Dei cap. 51. They who savour of or maintain any false or corrupt Doctrine in the Church of Christ if after a rebuke or admonition to forsake their Error and embrace the Truth they shall out of Contumacy stand out and persist to defend their poisonous Doctrines they are Hereticks And thus having shewn what Heresie is I shall proceed to evince 2ly From what Fountain it springs and proceeds Now this Sin of Heresie like the River Nilus hath many Heads many Fountains as namely First Pride l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1 Haeres 75. Edit Petav. Epiphanius tells us of that Arch-heretick Arrius that being high and lofty in his own thoughts he went out of the right way and departed from the Truth And m Euseb Ecclesiast Hist lib 4 cap. 21. Thebulis the first Heretick in the Church of Jerusalem fell into Heresie because he was not permitted to succeed Simeon in that Bishoprick his pride and ambition could not brook the loss and defeat of so high a place in the Church You will find a●l Hereticks perching upon the same Pinnacle the Devil stood the High Pinnacle of Pride the Heretick Aerius if we will believe Epiphanius had n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. Haer. 75. lib. 4. cap. 21. an ambition to be exalted and though he wanted merit to advance him from a Presbyter to a Bishop yet he wanted not arrogance to lessen the Bishop into a Presbyter and this was the bane of Origen a man of as great Learning as ever that Age he lived in gave birth to who in his Comments upon the Scripture conceiving out of the high opinion of his own Wit and Parts strange Meteors and aiery Speculations brought forth those dangerous Errors which drew upon his Person the heaviest o Lamentation of Origen in Euseb lib. 7. Eccles Hist cap. 1. p 122. Censures of the Church and upon Posterity the loss of some of his Writings And p Eccles Hist lib. 7. c. 29. p 140. Eusebius tells us that that blasphemous Heretick Paulus Samosatenus who denied the Divinity of Christ was pufft up with Pride and usurped Secular Dignities and even in the times of the Apostles there was a proud Diotrephes who 3 Epist John 9. loved to have prehentinence among them 2ly Heresie proceeds from Affectation of Novelty whether it be 1. In our Opinions or 2ly In our Words and Phrases 1. Heresie proceeds from Affectation of Novelty in our Opinions The Nature of men especially of such as are Heretically inclined is greedy of Novelty and q Lib. 7. cap. 32 p. 369. Eccl. Hist Socrates observes of the Heretick Nestorius that he scorn'd to peruse the Works of the Antient Fathers preferring himself and his own Novel Opinions before them all That we may therefore stop this Inlet to Heresie Affectation of Novelty let us call to mind the advice of the Prophet Jer. 6.16 Stand ye in the wayes and see and ask for the old paths the Old way is the Safe way In Christianity there can be no Concerning Truth which is not Antient and whatsoever is truly new is certainly false Look then for Purity in the Fountain and strive to embrace the first Faith There are but few things so little or so great either in Art or Nature which are not willing to take advantage from the meer credit of their Antiquity in Religion also the case is clear That which is first is truest as r Id verius quod prius Tertul. advers Marc. lib. 4. cap. 5 Tertullian well observes And as Heresie sometimes proceeds from Affectation of Novelty in our Opinions so 2ly Doth it proceed from Affectation of Novelty in our Words and Phrases An unusual and new Form or Mode of speaking in the Doctrine of Faith opens a Window if not a Door to Heresie A Solecisme in Words sometimes turns to a Solecisme in Doctrine The Heretick Nestorius as ſ Eccles Hist lib 7. cap 32. Socrates tells us because he would not allow the Virgin Mary to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mother of God but quarrell'd with that form of speech which the Practice and Custom of the Church had stampt for currant chose rather to deny the Unity of Christs Person in his Theanthropy than to speak in the Phrase and Language of the Antient Church 3ly Heresie sometimes proceeds from Weakness and Ignorance simple and unlearned Souls train'd up by men of Contentious Spirits have had strength enough to be the Authors of dangerous Heresies t Euseb Ecclesiast Hist lib 5 cap. 13. Priscilla and Maximilla two silly women laden with iniquity were the chief Ring-leaders in the Error of the Montanists what one said of Civil Contentions holds true also of

impressions of their own wild Fancies and cause the Sheaf of Scripture to bow to their Sheaf these Enthusiasts with almost all other Sectaries may very fitly be put in the number if not of Hereticks yet of those that are in a fair way to Heresie there being scarce any Sect among them which may not derive its Pedigree from some antient Heretick the h Euseb Feel Hist l 3 c. 5. Millenaries from Papias the i Irenaeus l. 1 c. 24 p. 79. Excus 1570. Ranters from Carpocrates whose Doctrine it was that there was no other way of appeasing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Princes of this World but by paying them their dues by all their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unnatural filthiness the Anabaptists may derive their Sect from Agrippinus as k Contra Donatist Tom 7. lib. 2. p. 369. Edit Basil St. Augustine clearly demonstrates the l Epiph. Haer. 75 p. 904. Tom 1. Edit Petav. Anti-episcopal Disciplinarians from the Heretick Aerius the m Epiph Haer. 62 p. 513. Socinians bear date from Sabellius the n Irenaeus l 1. c. 10 p. 48 c. Irrespective Reprobatarian from Simon Magus and the Manichees as we may see in Iraeneus so that having traced our Modern Sectaries to their first Parents the antient Hereticks I have made my way easier to demonstrate to you that many times Hereticks and Schismaticks hunt in Couples and though of disagreeing and different Principles yet they agree and combine in their wicked designs against the Church the one to corrupt her Doctrine the other to break her Unity which that I may evince I shall shew you that Schism flows from the same Fountains that I have already proved Heresie does amongst which I shall at present instance only in these three First Pride Secondly Affectation of Novelty in Words and Phrases Thirdly Bold Ignorance And 1. Schism flows from the same Fountain of Pride that Heresie does so that what St. Hierom said of Hereticks is also true of Schismaticks o Matrem habent iniquitatis sue superbiam dum in Ecclesiae contumeliam debacchantur Hicronym Comment in Hos vers 5. they have pride the mother of their iniquity whilst they rage to the contumely and reproach of the Church and this made Iraeneus joyn them together who calls them p Scindentes elatos sibi placentes Iren. adversus Haeres lib. 4. cap. 3. Schismatical proud and self-pleasing men who out of a high opinion of their own gifts and perfections undertake to dictate to Church-Governours and teach those Captains of the Church Militant their several Postures in the Service of the Lord of Hosts Cynthius aurem vellit admonuit their Spiritual Pride makes them pretend to Inspiration and like the Pea in Mahomets ear brings the Dove the Holy Dove to whisper to them what is most fit and convenient And as I told you Heresie did so also 2ly Does Schism flow from Affectation of Novelty in Words and Phrases O how happy and peaceable had the affairs of Christendom been if men had not too much affected new Words and Phrases and too nicely sifted and winnow'd Divinity by not contenting themselves with the general forms and ways of expressing the Truth and hath not this our Age been acquainted with many who that they might make the Church look more like Joseph's party-colour'd Coat than our Lord and Saviours which had neither Seam nor Rent in it make use of Canting Phrases calculated for the Climate of their Exotick Divinity and obtruded upon the world in lieu of better They speak the language of Ashdod rather than that of Canaan and separate from us in their very words and phrases you may know them by their Thou and Thee in their ordinary discourses as the Gileadites might distinguish their Enemies from their Friends by the pronouncing of Shibboleth And then 3ly Schism as well as Heresie proceeds from Bold Ignorance because these ignorant Zealots have not Light proportionable to their Heat and want Knowledge to hold a Candle to them they become Schismatical St. Paul indeed tells us Gal. 4.18 that 't is good to be zealously affected but it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a good thing and not only so for he speaks of some who had the best of zeals the zeal of God and yet in them too there was something wanting they had it not according to knowledge Rom. 10.2 I will take a step into St. Augustines path and add a third possible defect and that is in the Qualification or Condition of the persons according to which as he observes zeal will admit of a directly opposite Specification in bonitate malitiâ and therefore he commends it as good in David who was a wise King when he said the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up but on the other side condemns it as bad and mis-beseeming the ignorant multitude the Arm of whose discretion and judgment was not able to weild a weapon of that size when 't is said of them q Zelus occupavit plebem ineruditam Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 20. c. 12. Zeal hath possess'd an ignorant people I have read of the Embassadors of the Sarmatae that attending r Hist of the Roman Emp. vita V lentin p. 341. Valentinian the First and telling him that as basely clad as they were they were the prime men of that Nation he fell into such a Passion for waging War with so base a people that he dyed suddenly So if Religion in these dayes did but view well the Grandees of Schism in their Mechanick Habits and seriously consider with what a Ragged Regiment of ignorance and impudence she hath so long encountred she would leave and forsake us out of indignation And thus having too clearly demonstrated how nearly related and allied Schismaticks and Hereticks are as being derived from the same Fountains I shall make my humble address to those who have power to inflict that punishment my Text appropriates to such offenders in those words which Tully spake of Catiline's Conspiracy ſ Orat. 2. in Catilina ● Lenitati jam non est locus severitatem res ipsa flagitat there is no place left for lenity and gentleness Severity is now a necessary piece of Justice for he is a bad Chirurgeon that out of pity spares the part corrupted till the Gangrene spread and all the body perish He who is mercifull to the bad is cruel to the good the keys of Ecclesiastical Censures must therefore always be in your Hands and not only hang at your Girdles they must not lye rusting by you but be kept bright by constant use for tame mercy is the Breast that suckles Schism and Heresie till Hydra-like they multiply their heads and become insuperable 't is therefore incumbent upon all who are intrusted with this power to see that such Offenders be soundly scourg'd with the Pastoral Rod that they be cut off from the body of the Church with the Spiritual Sword of Excommunication of which I may say the same that David did of Goliah's Sword there is none like it and that especially because it does not cut a member off from the Inward Communion but from the Outward only and that to the end he may be brought in again delivering only to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 5.5 this weapon this blow hurteth not but where it meets with a stiff neck it drives out Offenders that it may draw them in it Anathematizes that it may Canonize it puts them to shame that they may be asham'd to stay out but return again into the Bosom of the Church To this purpose God of his mercy dispose the minds of all that have lived in Error to the entertainment of the Truth that so we may at last with one consent with one heart and voice send up to God this Petition of our Litany with which I shall conclude From all false Doctrine Heresie and Schism Good Lord deliver us FINIS

AN English Inquisition FOR A HERETICK OR The Punishment due to Hereticks Together with the Nature and Causes of Heresie Declared in a SERMON Preached at a Visitation at WARE Upon the 19th of April 1672. By Robert Neville B. D. late Fellow of Kings-Colledge in Cambridge and now Rector of Ansty in the County of Hertford LONDON Printed by S. and B. G. for Benj. Tooke and are to be sold at the Ship in St. Pauls Church-yard 1673. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL My Noble and Worthy Patron Sr ROWLAND LYTTON Of Knebworth in the County of HERTFORD Right Worshipfull Sir WHen I first put on Resolutions of making this Discourse Publick I found no Dispute within my self to whom the Dedication of it was a just Debt the Sense of my many Obligations to you soon put me in mind that the Discourse and the Author might deservedly Own the same Patron the chief Errand upon which it came abroad being to make my gratefull Resentments of them as well known to the World as those great Endearments and noble Vsages you have past upon me have been to all both our Clergy and Gentry on this side of the County of Hertford 'T is by your Donation that I enjoy a Comfortable Subsistence 't is you alone that have been the Author of the most visible Contentment I receive in this World and not then to have paid you the just Tribute of my Duty and Thanks in the Dedication of this Discourse had been a palpable Contradiction to it and made the Author himself a Heretick at least in Morals and an unpardonable Schismatick and Separatist both from Gratitude and Civility for which he might have justly been Excommunicated from your good thoughts which next to that dreadfull Excommunication from the Church would in his eye be the greatest misfortune that could befall him What title this Sermon had to a Visitation it held from you in Capite for it was by your means that the Author of it was admitted I will not so lessen your kindness as to say a Member to be the Head and Rector of the Church of Ansty it was you alone that preserv'd him I cannot say from Schism or Separation from the Church of England for be ever resolv'd to live and dye a dutifull Son to that indulgent Mother but from a Separation from the Church of Ansty I am not ignorant how unfit a Present this Trifle is to be offered to such a Personage as Sir R. L. nor do I swell so much in my own conceit as to think it any part of a just Return I only desire it may pass as a small acknowledgment of those many great favours you have heaped upon me in the same manner as of old a pair of Doves were accepted from those whose abilities could not reach to a Lamb and unless that great God who was pleased to imploy you as a great Minister of his Providence to me and mine shall enable me beyond either my deservings or expectancies to pay my great Debt I owe you I must run further upon the Score with you and in the deepest sense of duty and affection court and grasp all opportunities of owning how much I am Your obliged and indebted Orator and humble Servant R. NEVILLE From my Study at Ansty this 20th day of December 1672. AN English Inquisition FOR A HERETICK Tit. 3. Vers 10. A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject THE Spirit of God did not without good reason resemble the Church to a Lilly among Thorns Cant. 2.2 as being made up of good and bad a Compound of both and this truth may be demonstrated from the first Infancy of the world from the early time of our Father Adam and those dayes wherein the Church was confined within the narrow bounds and limits of the Families of the Patriarchs a wicked Cain was to be found in it as well as a good Abel a profane Esau might have been seen under the same roof with religious Jacob This truth is also further confirmed to us by that famous Type of the Church Noahs Ark in which were Creatures of all kinds Beasts both clean and unclean Gods Church hath in all ages had Chaff as well as good Corn and in the very College of the Apostles Christ's College which at its being first Founded had but twelve Scholars twelve Disciples there was one Judas one Traytor one Devil John 6.70 and the Churches of Corinth Galatia Ephesus Sardis and Laodicea were over-run with Errors and Heresies And in the Church of Crete of which Titus to whom St. Paul wrote this Epistle was Archbishop there was such a nest of Hereticks known by the name of Gnosticks who imployed themselves in compiling a new Model of Divinity made up of foolish Disputes and Heathen notions of Poetical Genealogies and contentions about observing the Mosaical Law that St. Paul was forced to write to Titus that it was his Office as a Bishop first to admonish him who made any such Division in the Church or taught any Doctrine contrary to that which was delivered by Christ and his Apostles and if after the first and second admonition there was no amendment then to proceed to Ecclesiastical Censures to which he is prompted and excited in these words of my Text A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject In which words are these two General parts First A Punishment to be inflicted namely the Censures of the Church or Excommunication for sayes the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 avoid or reject after the first and second admonition i. e. Excommunicate and proceed to Censures against him Secondly The Offender upon whom these heavy Censures were to be laid A man that is an Heretick First on the first or the Punishment to be inflicted namely the Censures of the Church or Excommunication for sayes the Text after the first and second admonition reject that is Excommunicate and proceed to Censures against him for by these words after the first and second admonition St. Paul referrs to the method prescribed by Christ in proceeding against Christian Offenders Mat. 18.5 but in some circumstances differs from it for in that forecited place of St. Matthew there is mention made of a threefold admonition one by the injur'd person alone a second by two or three taken with him a third by the Church but here in my Text is only mention of a First and Second admonition the Cause of this difference is to be taken from the Quality of the Person to whom this was spoken namely his being a Bishop whereas in St. Matthew the speech was address'd to every private Christian Here in the Text the first admonition of the Bishop carries with it an Authority far above that of the private person and the two or three with him and so may well supply the place of both those and then the second admonition here in the Text will be parallel to the third admonition St. Matthew speaks