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	faith_n	infallible_a	3,589	5	9.5501	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26001	Some generall observations upon Dr. Stillingfleet's book, and way of wrighting with a vindication of St. Ignatius Loyola, and his followers the Iesuits, from the foul aspersions he has lately cast upon them, in his discourse concerning the idolatry, &c. : in four letters, written to A.B.	Ashby, Richard, 1614-1680.	1672 (1672)	Wing A3942; ESTC R7040	65,474	73

please to observe three things the first his severe dealing with Roman-Catholicks the second his Comical and jesting way of expressing himself the third his cunning artifices to deceive his Reader 2. His severity is the more remarkable because contrary to the modern stile of his own party and cross to his own sentiments delivered in his Rational Account p. 1. Ch. 2. p. 3. Ch. 4. p. 54. For there he is so complaisant as to confess with other Protestants that the Roman Church is a true Church yea the very same with theirs and a true way to salvation and that she holds the foundation that is all fundamental or essential points of faith and differs only in certain inferiour truths or pious opinions which no man is bound to believe But now since the Lady left his Congregation he is grown so fierce on a suddain there 's no dealing with him he will ●eeds Unchurch us and by laying Fanaticism and Idolatry at our doors obstruct our way to salvation leaving us no other gate to Heaven but that of ignorance or repentance which lyes open to Turks and Jews as well as Roman Catholicks 3. This makes me call to mind a pleasant passage between Bishop Ferne and a good honest Parson of whom I had it The Parson was ready to publish a moderate Treatise in Grotius his way but the Bishop would by no means suffer it to go to the Press but tould the Author that he was very much mistaken if he thought that was the way to win us he must know that a Papist was a kind of a beast that would not be tamed with stroaking much less with striking said the Parson But the Bishop for all that would not alter his opinion but the book must be suppressed Dr. Stillingfleet is directly of the Bishops mind he will stroake us no more he will not court us into the same Church or flatter us with the hope of salvation as he has done formerly he is now all for dry blows and down right striking and will not be content with any less charge to beat down Popery than that of Fanaticism Idolatry and unavoidable damnation how in consequently to his own maximes you have partly seen already and has been clearly evidenced in that short but smart piece Dr. Stillingfleet against Dr. Stillingfleet where he is made not only to wipe away the dirt which he had cast at the Roman Church but to throw a good part of it in his own face by manifestly proving himself an Idolater by the very same arguments which he brought to prove Catholicks guilty of that crime And the Author had he bin disposed could with as much ease have proved him a Fanatick as an Idolater from the same principle he made use of against Catholicks 4. For why I pray are we Fanaticks in his judgement because forsooth we countenance some private revelations and allow some of our Saints to have had an Enthusiastick way as he calls it in their devotions Now this argument is far short of proving us Fanaticks because we own nothing in this kind but what is approved of by the authority of the Church which is ever watchful and severe in punishing all impostures and will not suffer pretended revelations or any such extraordinary favours of Allmighty God to pass for currant but what have past the test of a rigorous examination For it is well known that all such pretenders are immediately clapt up by the Inquisition and do not easily recover their liberty till they have given a good account of themselves So that none amongst us are permitted to be their own judges in matters of faith or particular ways of devotion but all are obliged to submit to the judgement of the Church and be guided by their lawful Pastors and Superiours which submission effectually destroys the very notion of Fanaticism which is grounded in a private Spirit and independent way of proceeding contrary to authority 5. Yet as to the Doctor the argument comes home to prove him a Fanatick For I argue thus he is a Fanatick that pretends to rule himself in matters of faith by his private spirit revealing the truth unto him but D. Still pretends to rule himself in matters of faith by his private spirit revealing the truth unto him ergo Dr. Stillinfleet is a Fanatick That he that pretends to rule himself in matters of faith by his private spirit revealing the truth unto him is a Fanatick cannot be denyed it contains the very notion of Fanaticism The consequence is evident The only thing I am to prove is that the Doctor pretends to rule himself in matters of faith by his private spirit revealing the truth unto him This I evidence out of the Principles set down by him in the end of his Book Princ. 5. where he says that there can be no other means imagined whereby we are to judge of the truth of Divine Revelation but a faculty in us of discerning truth and flalshood in matters proposed to our belief Princ. 13. That the Scriptures can be understood by all persons who sincerely endeavour to know the meaning of them Princ. 14. And that they contain the whole will of God so plainly revealed that no sober enquirer can miss of what is necessary for Salvation For what I pray can tha● faculty of discerning truth from falshood in matters of faith avail him with all the sincere endeavours and sober enquiry he speaks of unless it be infallibly assisted by some private spirit which inspires and reveals the truth unto him For since it is clear by experience that the same words of Scripture are construed by others after all their endeavours and best enquiry to find out the truth in a quit different sense from that in which the Doctor understands them he must pretend some such private infallible assistance which others have not For example the Doctor understands his commandments so that God has there forbidden all worship of Images Catholicks understand them otherwise so as to hold such worship lawful The Doctor will have This is my body to be taken in a Metaphorical sense and so denies the real presence Catholicks understand it litteraly as it sounds and therefore adore Christ in the Sacrament Again an Arrian denies the Son of God to be equal to his Father and thinks he has clear Scripture for it John 14. 28. The Father is greater than I. An Anabaptist will not allow Infant-baptism because says he the Scripture requires that all be taught before they be baptized Matt. 18. 19. Teach all nations baptizing them and children are not capable to be taught The Doctor reads the same Texts and holds the quite contrary tenets to both The question then is how he comes to see more than his Neighbours if he hit right in all these points wherein he differs from Catholicks and other Sectaries since the same clear light of Scripture is exposed to all be they Catholicks Arrians Anabaptists as well as to the

Doctor But oh says the Doctor I have a faculty in me of discerning truth from falshood I seriously endeavour and soberly enquire into the truth They reply they are rational creatures as well as he and consequently have the same discerning faculties they have also souls to be saved as well as he and are therefore as much concerned to be sober and serious in enquiring out that true faith which is necessary to Salvation they have the same promises made them of being assisted in their endeavours where then is the difference or how come they all to erre more than the Doctor will you know the mystery 't is this The faculty which the Doctor hath of discerning truth from falshood with his sober and serious enquiry has an extraordinary private assistance which others want and this directs him so infallibly that he cannot miss What 's this in plain English but to rely upon I know not what infallible private spirit or to pretend to an Enthusiastick way of expounding the Scriptures when the sense is in dispute Is not this to make himself and every Protestant more then Pope Is it not a degree of Enthusiasm equal to the spirit of discerning which the greatest Fanatick or Quaker ever pretended and after this me thinks he should leave of clamouring so much against new revelations since he has them at his command 6. But do you not wonder Sir why the Doctor has so little charity as to engross and monopolize this enthusiastick guift of discovering the true faith to himself and a handful of Protestants Bishop Taylour was a greater latitudinarian then so when he granted the liberty of prophecying to all Christians And he was as charitable in clearing us from Idolatry though the Doctor observes well that else where he was of another opinion that is contradicted himself which he thinks a very sufficient way of answering his arguments and possibly he may use the same method to defend himself by shewing us that in another book he taught otherwise I can assure you Sir it were to be wished that the Dr. had that which Momus found wanting in the bull viz. an eye upon his horn for he strikes at no aime and never minds whether the blow may not light upon himself 7. I have done with his severity onely I cannot but take notice how he labours in his Preface to justisie it at least for as much as concerns his charge of Idolatry layed against us by producing other Protestant Doctors who managed it against us with as much heat in Q. Elizabeths and King James his days for what is all this to the purpose but onely to tell us that Protestants clash with one another in this point as well as in others and that for his part he is resolved to side with those that are the most rigid and puritanical such as Dr. Downham whom he rancks in his list of Authors and scorns to be less zealous so that you may probably expect that his next work will be to prove the Pope Antichrist But since he leans so much upon the credit of his Protestant Predecessours I hope he will find a time also to vindicate them from playing the Fanaticks or false Prophets in pretending to foretel the down sall of Popery in the year 666. from the number of the beast in the Apocalyps And least Protestants should also be taken for visionairs he may do well to give us his opinion of his great grand-father Luthers black familiar Luth. to 7. Witt. fol. 228. Hospin hist Sacram. p. ult fol. 131. who in a long conference related by himself gave him several reasons for the abolishing of the Masse and of Zuinglius Zuing. to 2. fol. 249. his private admonisher who as he confesses gave him the same counsel though he did not well remember whither he were white or black 8. I come now to his comical strain of writing which I little dreamt to have met with after such a sober declaration in his Preface that nothing shall proceed from him but what becomes a fair and ingenious adversary that he does not think it such a mighty matter to throw dirt in a mans face and then to laugh at him or any great skill to make things appear ridiculous or dark That it shews far more art and ingenuity to give them their due colours and set them in their clearest light That smartness of expression seems to be like throwing of vinegar upon hot coals which gives a quick scent for the present but vanishes immediately into smoake and air And lastly that though men cannot command their judgements they may and ought to do their expressions I say after all these affected promises of writing soberly in the Preface who would have imagined to have found either so much bitterness or so much drollery in the following Discourse or so much confidence in the man as to bind them up both together in the same Book It is a folly to bring instances the whole work is stuffed with flirts and jeers which do well in Hu●●bras but are nothing becoming a person of his calling or one that professes himself a fair and ingenious adversary This appears chiefly in his fourth Chapter where he is so far from commanding his expressions that he makes it his whole business to throw dirt and make all things ridiculous not sparing the very Saints themselves for whom the greatest part of Christendom has so much veneration but making them pass for the veriest Idiots and Fanaticks in the World This is not such a mighty matter to brag of ther 's no great skill in it for nothing is so holy but may be easily profaned by a loose libertine pen. How ridiculous might he make the lives of the Prophets or of St. John Baptist or of Christ himself would he but employ his talent in writing them with as much smartness and picquancy as he has done the lives of some of our renowned Saints What can be written in a graver style then the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola is done by Orlandinus Maffeius and Ribadeneira and yet by his legerdemain he has so metamorphos'd it that it appears to be a kind of Romantick story Take but off his dress and unmask it give but things their due colours and set them in their clear light and you 'l find him still a glorious Saint though painted by the Doctor like an errant Fanatick To shew this shall be the subject of my next Letter where to use his own comparison you shall see that all the vinegar he has cast upon hot coals vanishes immediately into smoake and air 9. The third thing I observe in his way of writing controversies is his cunning shuffling to deceave the world for never Mountebank had more devices to bring about his ends then this man has tricks to cozen his Reader either by misconstruing his Authors meaning or by foisting in words of his own coyning in the same character with the Text to make it speak his pleasure

submit their judgments to the judgment of the Church when ever she pleases to deliver the truth If this had been well considered by the Dr. he would not have taken so much pains to prove so great a Paradox as that there is as much union amongst Protestants as Roman-Catholicks In the interim the Church is careful to prevent all inconveniences which arise sometimes out of the heat of such eager disputes by severely forbidding both Parties to presume to censure one anothers Tenets and this under pain of excommunication and other penalties for this amongst obedient Children is sufficient to keep them in Peace and Unity for whatsoever they hold of the Popes infallibility they all agree that obedience and submission is due to his Authority upon pain of being accounted Schismaticks for not yielding obedience to the common Pastor and Head of the Church Protestants have no such way either to suspend or end their disputes but must of necessity wrangle it out to the Worlds end for want of a living Judge of Controversies What the Dr. adds of the Jesuits holding a strange opinion of the Popes infallibility in matters of Fact is most false for they differ not from any other Catholick Divines as I have often told you Lastly for their perswading the People to defend the immaculate Conception with Fire and Sword and with their Blood with which he concludes his 5th Chapter it needs no Answer his Author has no credit as having been burnt at Paris for a Libel by the Kings order as I have told you And now I promise you I will tire you no more with my long Letters having clearly and freely given you my sentiments concerning all the Drs. slaunders and objections against the Jesuits Farewel Postscript SIR I have yet a Word or two to add upon the Receipt Perusal of two Books since the writing of this Letter The first is a compendious Account of the mission of China given at Rome this very Year 1672. to the sacred Congregation de propagandà fide by Father Prosper Intercetta the Jesuits Procurator from that Kingdom By this it appears that the Jesuits do not alwayes find that commodious entertainment in China which the Dr. dreams of for this Author witnesses that they commonly beg their sustenance of Neighbouring Europeans and have not been without their Persecutions For Anno Dom. 1664 four of them were clapt up close Prisoners with three Chains a piece tyed to their Necks three to their Hands and three to their Feet the cheif of these F. Adam was sentenc'd to a cruel death though the Execution was hinder'd by a terrible Earthquake and other dreadful signs from Heaven which made the People cry out great is the God of Christians the other three were condemned to have 40 Bastinadoes and all the rest were forc'd out of their 41 Residences and 159 Churches and banished ●nto Cantons and there kept Prisoners nor have we yet news of their Releasement though the last Letters from Pekin of the 23 Novemb. 1670. give great hopes of more liberty then ever to Preach our Christian Faith since the honourable Reception of the Portugal Embassadour in that Court It also appears to be false what the Dr. affirms of other Religious being kept out of the Kingdom by the Iesuits for the same Author tells us that before the late persecution the Dominicans had 21 Churches and 11 Residences and the Franciscans 3 Churches and 1 Residence Lastly this Author reckons up 254980 converted by the Iesuits alone from the Year 1581. to 1667. not from Laces and Ribbands but from Idolatry to the worship of Christ crucified The other Book I mentioned contains a second Answer to the imfamous pretended Letter of the Bishop of Angelopolis drawn out of his Annotations upon St. Teresa's spiritual instructions translated out of Spanish by Francis Pellicot Almoner and Confessour in the Queens Court and Printed in Paris by George Josse at the Crown of Thornes For there the Translator who professes an intimate acquaintance with the said Bishop in his Preface does not only deny him to have been Author of that scandalous Letter to the Pope but produces three other Letters of his written some Years after his contest with the Iesuits highly in their commendation as you may see when you please And farther in the Bishops life he shews how he retracted what he had unadvisedly done against them in opposing their Priviledges out of the Bishops own words which here follow We are often so wedded to Palafox Annotat to the 56 Ep. of St. Teresa false perswasions which self Love suggests to maintain a bad Cause that it is hard to root them out of our imagination and reduce our selves to the truth This evil is very familiar with us and I dayly experience it in my self and particularly in a certain Cause for why should I not publickly acknowledge my Errour since I offended in the sight of the whole World I say it happened in a thing of this nature that I found certain Reasons to oppose my Adversaries the Iesuits which seem'd to me good and holy but really were not so but the effects of a vain and presumptuous Spirit For I found afterwards with the help of divine light that the thing which I believed was from God was quite contrary to his service And this false belief of mine sprung from my self love my passion my pride my vanity and my presumption What better Apology can be made for the Iesuits than this humble Confession and Retractation of the Bishop FINIS