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	time_n	4,041	5	3.7132	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58627	A sermon preached at White-Hall before His Late Majesty / by John Tillotson.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1686 (1686)	Wing S1250A; ESTC R25649	14,978	33

my mother and my brethren He that doth the will of my Father the same is my mother and sister and brother And when the Woman brake forth into that rapture concerning the blessed Mother of our Lord Blessed is the womb● that bare thee and the paps that gave thee suck Our Saviour diverts to another thing Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it Does either our Saviour or his Apostles in all their particular Precepts and Directions concerning Prayer and the manner of it and by whom we are to address our selves to God give the least intimation of praying to the Virgin Mary or making use of her Mediation And can any man believe that if this had been the practice of the Church from the beginning our Saviour and his Apostles would have been so silent about so considerable a part of Religion insomuch that in all the Epistles of the Apostles I do not remember that her Name is so much as once mentioned And yet the worship of her is at this day in the Church of Rome and hath been so for several Ages a main part of their publick worship yea and of their private devotions too in which it is usual with them to say ten Ave Maries for one Pater Noster that is for one Prayer they make to Almighty God they make ten addresses to the blessed Virgin for that is the proportion observed in their Rosaries He that considers this and had never seen the Bible would have been apt to think that there had been more said concerning Her in Scripture than either concerning God or our blessed Saviour and that the New Testament were full from one end to the other of precepts and exhortations to the worshipping of Her and yet when all is done I challenge any man to shew me so much as one sentence in the whole Bible that sounds that way And there is as little in the Christian Writers of the first three hundred years The truth is this practice began to creep in among some superstitious people about the middle of the fourth Century And I remember particularly that Epiphanius who lived about that time calls it the Heresie of the Women And thus I have given you some Instances of several Doctrines and Practices which the Church of Rome have built upon the Foundation of Christianity Much more might have been said of them but from what hath been said any man may easily discern how dangerous they are to the salvation of men I proceed now in the second place II. To consider whether our granting a possibility of salvation tho with great hazard to those in the Communion of the Roman Church and their denying it to us be a sufficient argument and encouragement to any man to quit our Church and go to theirs And there is the more need to consider this because thi● is the great popular argument wherewith th● emissaries and agents of that Church are won● to assault our people Your Church say they grants that a Papist may be saved Ours denies that a Protestant can be saved therefore it is safest to be of our Church in which salvation by the acknowledgment of both sides is possible For answer to this I shall endeavour to shew that this is so far from being a good argument that it is so intolerably weak and sophistica 〈…〉 that any considerate man ought to be asham'd to be catch'd by it For either it is good of it self and sufficient to perswade a man to relinquish our Church and to pass over to theirs without entring into the merits of the cause on either side and without comparing the Doctrines and Practices of both the Churches together or it is not If it be not sufficient of it self to perswade a man to leave our Church without comparing the Doctrines on both sides then it is to no purpose and there is nothing got by it For if upon examination and comparing of Doctrines the one appear to be true and the other false this alone is a sufficient inducement to any man to cleave to that Church where the true Doctrine is found and then there is no need of this argument If it be said that this argument is good in it self without the examination of the Doctrines of both Churches this seems a very strange thing for any man to affirm That it is reason enough to a man to be of any Church whatever her Doctrines and Practices be if she do but damn those that differ from her and if the Church that differs from her do but allow a possibility of salvation in her Communion But they who use this argument pretend that it is sufficient of it self and therefore I shall apply my self to shew as briefly and plainly as I can the miserable weakness and insufficiency of it to satisfie any mans conscience or prudence to change his Religion And to this end I shall 1. Shew the weakness of the principle upon which this argument relies 2. Give some parallel instances by which it will appear that it concludes false 3. I shall take notice of some gross absurdities that follow from it 4. Shew how unfit it is to work upon those to whom it is propounded And 5. How improper it is to be urged by those that make use of it I. I shall shew the weakness of the principle upon which this argument relies And that is this That whatever different parties in Religion agree in is safest to be chosen The true consequence of which principle if it be driven to the head is to perswade men to forsake Christianity and to make them take up in th● principles of natural Religion for in these al● Religions do agree For if this principle b● true and signifie any thing it is dangerous to embrace any thing wherein the several par●ties in Religion differ because that only i● safe and prudent to be chosen wherein all a●gree So that this argument if the foundati●on of it be good will perswade further tha● those who make use of it desire it should do for it will not only make men forsake the Pro●testant Religion but Popery too and which is much more considerable Christianity it self II. I will give some parallel instances by which it will clearly be seen that this argu●ment concludes false The Donatists denied th● Baptism of the Catholicks to be good but th● Catholicks acknowledged the Baptism of th● Donatists to be valid So that both sides wer● agreed that the Baptism of the Donatists wa● good therefore the safest way for St. Austi● and other Catholicks according to this ar●gument was to be Baptized again by th● Donatists because by the acknowledgment o● both sides Baptism among them was valid But to come nearer to the Church of Rome Several in that Church hold the personal In●fallibility of the Pope and the lawfulness of de●posing and killing Kings for Heresie to be d●●●●de that is necessary Articles of Faith and ●onsequently that whoever does

A SERMON PREACHED AT White-Hall Before His Late MAJESTY By JOHN TILLOTSON D.D. and Dean of Canterbury LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1686. Price 3 d. A SERMON Preach'd at White-Hall c. 1 Cor. III. 15 But he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire THE Context is thus According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise Master-builder I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid Jesus Christ Now if any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble every mans work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is If any mans work abide which he hath built thereupon he shall receive a reward If any mans work shall be burnt he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire In these Words the Apostle speaks of a sort of persons who held indeed the foundation of Christianity but built upon it such doctrines or practices as would not bear the trial which he expresses to us by wood hay and stubble which are not proof against the fire Such a person the Apostle tells us hath brought himself into a very dangerous state tho he would not deny the possibility of his salvation He himself shall be saved yet so as by fire That by fire here is not meant the fire of Purgatory as some pretend who would be glad of any shadow of a Text of Scripture to countenance their own dreams I shall neither trouble you nor my self to manifest since the particle of similitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plainly shews that the Apostle did not intend an escape out of the fire literally but like to that which men make out of a House or Town that is on fire Especially since very learned persons of the Church of Rome do acknowledg that Purgatory cannot be concluded from this Text nay all that Estius contends for from this place is that it cannot be concluded from hence that there is no Purgatory which we never pretended but only that this Text does not prove it It is very well known that this is a Proverbial phrase used not only in Scripture but in prophane Authors to signifie a narrow escape out of a great danger He shall be saved yet so as by fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the fire Just as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used 1 Pet. 3.20 where the Apostle speaking of the eight persons of Noah's family who escap'd the flood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they escaped out of the water So here this phrase is to be rendred in the Text he himself shall escape yet so as out of the fire The like expression you have Am. 4.11 I have pluckt them as a firebrand out of the fire And Jude 23. Others save with fear plucking them out of the fire All which expressions signifie the greatness of the danger and the difficulty of escaping it as one who when his house at midnight is set on fire and being suddenly wak'd leaps out of his bed and runs naked out of the doors taking nothing that is within along with him but imploying his whole care to save his body from the flames as St. Chrysostom upon another occasion expresseth it And so the Roman Orator who it is likely did not think of Purgatory useth this phrase Quo ex judicio velut ex incendio nudus effugit From which Judgment or Sentence he escaped naked as it were out of a burning And one of the Greek Orators tells us That to save a man out of the fire was a common proverbial speech From the words thus explained the Observation that naturally ariseth is this That men may hold all the Fundamentals of Christian Religion and yet may superadd other things whereby they may greatly endanger their salvation What those things were which some among the Corinthians built upon the foundation of Christianity whereby they endanger'd their Salvation we may probably conjecture by what the Apostle reproves in this Epistle as the tolerating of incestuous marriages communicating in Idol-feasts c. And especially by the doctrine of the false Apostles who at that time did so much disturb the peace of most Christian Churches and who are so often and so severely reflected upon in this Epistle And what their Doctrine was we have an account Act. 15. viz. that they imposed upon the Gentile Christians Circumcision and the observation of the Jewish Law teaching that unless they were circumcised and kept the Law of Moses they could not be saved So that they did not only build these doctrines upon Christianity but they made them equal with the Foundation saying that unless men believed and practised such things they could not be saved In speaking to this Observation I shall reduce my discourse to these two Heads 1. I shall present to you some Doctrines and Practices which have been built upon the Foundation of Christianity to the great hazard and danger of mens salvation And to b● plain I mean particularly the Church of Rome 2. I shall enquire whether our granting possibility of salvation tho with great hazard to those in the Communion of the Rome Church and their denying it to us be a rea●sonable argument and encouragement to an● man to betake himself to that Church And there is the more reason to consider ●hese things when so many seducing Spirits ●re so active and busie to pervert men from ●he truth and when we see every day so many men and their Religion so easily parted ●or this reason these two Considerations shall ●e the subject of the following discourse I. First We will consider some Doctrines and Practices which the Church of Rome hath built upon the foundation of Christianity to the great hazard and danger of mens salvation It is not denied by the most judicious Protestants but that the Church of Rome do hold all the Articles of the Christian Faith which are necessary to salvation But that which we charge upon them as a just ground of our separation from them is the imposing ●f n●w Doctrines and Practices upon Christians as necessary to salvation which were never taught by our Saviour or his Apostles and which are either directly contrary to the doctrine of Christianity or too apparently destructive of a good life And I begin 1. With their Doctrines And because I have no mind to aggravate lesser matters I will single out four or five points of Doctrine which they have added to the Christian Religion and which were neither taught by our Saviour and his Apostles nor own'd in the first Ages of Christianity And the First which I shall mention and which bein● once admitted makes way for