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	unity_n	2,197	5	9.0779	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35528	Of the unity of the church a discourse written a thousand four hundred and thirty years since, in the time of Decius the persecuting emperor / by Cyprian, bishop of Carthage and martyr ; most usefull for allaying the present heats, and reconciling the differences among us.	Cyprian, Saint, Bishop of Carthage.; Fell, John, 1625-1686.	1681 (1681)	Wing C7714; ESTC R29694	19,253	46

what nicer subtilty then that when this enemy found himself discoverd and defeated by Christ's coming into the world after this light appeared to the Gentiles after he broke forth with healing rays for the curing and saving mankind making the deaf hear the words of spiritual grace the blind lift up their eies to2 God the weak recover to everlasting life the lame run into the bosome of the Church the dumb loudly and distinctly pray to God when he beheld the abandoning of his Idols and that his Temples and Houses of superstition were left desolate and emty by the very great numbers that went off from his worship and embrac'd the Faith then to set on foot a new artifice even under the very title and name of Christianity to entrap the unwary He invented Heresies and Schisms to undermine the Faith adulterate the Truth and divide Unity it self Those whom he cannot detain in the darkness of the old way he circumvents by leading them in new and erroneous paths Thus he siezes and takes men out of the Church and while they imagin with themselves that they have made nearer approches to light and left behind them the Night of the world he insensibly involves them anew in thick darkness that not conforming themselves to the Gospel of Christ and the observation of his righteous laws and yet calling themselves Christians and walking in darkness they should notwithstanding perswade themselves that they were illuminated The adversary flattering them in this opinion and so beguiling them who according to the Apostle transforms himself into an Angel of light and dresses up his ministers as if they were the servants of righteousness so that they miscalling night day ruine and destruction safety and salvation obtruding despair under the name of hope pretending infidelity to be faith setting up Antichrist for Christ suggesting false but seeming probabilities frustrate the truth by subtilty This comes to pass my well-beloved Brethren while we have not recourse to the source and original of truth while we seek not for the head and Fountain and are inobservant of our heavenly masters doctrin which if well weighed and examined would supersede long discourses and arguments Truth renders the proof of our faith easie and compendious Our Lord speaking to Peter useth these words And I also say unto thee 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 and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven And he said unto the same person after his resurrection Feed my sheep And altho after his resurrection he invested all the Apostles with equal power and told them all As the Father hath sent me so send I you Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whosesoever sins ye do retain they are retained yet that he might make manifest the Churches Unity his Authority so order'd it that the origination thereof should be expres'd by the mention first of one single Person What Peter was that also were the rest of the Apostles they having a like participation of honor and power yet the narration begins with Unity to signifie that the Church can be but one This Unity of the Church the holy Spirit designes in the Canticles when in the person of our Lord he thus speaks My dove my undefiled is but one she is the only one of her mother she is the choice one of her that bare her Now can he who keeps not this Unity of the Church perswade himself that he holds fast the Faith can he who contends with the Church and opposeth her have the confidence to imagin himself a member of the Church when the blessed Apostle Paul declares and points clearly at the mystery of Unity saying There is one body and one spirit one hope of your calling one Lord one faith one baptism Which unity we Bishops especially who preside in the Church ought firmly to maintain and defend that we may evidence thereby the unity and individualness of Episcopacy it self Let none decieve the brethren with a ly or corrupt the truth of our faith with perfidious prevarication There is but one Episcopacy which tho shared among as many several persons as there are Bishops in the Christian world yet each possesseth the authority entire There is also but one Church however her fruitfulness and growth is such that she spreads and increaseth to a multitude of particular churches As the beams which issue from the Sun are many and yet the light it creates by them is one and the same or as the boughs growing out of a tree are many and yet is it but one stock fastned and fixt to it's place by one tenacious root So too when many rivulets flow from a fountain whereby it seems so encreased as to become many by the plenty of water which is such as to require several channels for it's conveyance yet 't is but one water still because it all rises at and runs from one spring head Intercept a sun-beam from the body of the sun the oness of light will not admit of division If you break a bough from a tree 't will never shoot forth or grow again Cut off a river from it's fountain 't will immediatly dry up In like manner the Church being enlightned by our Lord extends it's beams thro the whole world yet is it the same light that every where appears and is entirely one however scatter'd As a tree she spreads her branches luxuriant in growth and plenteous in fruit And as a river enlarges by her course her swelling streams yet is there but one head one source one stock of all this happy plenty We are all the fruit of the Churches womb nourisht with the milk of her breasts quickned by her spirit The spouse of Christ cannot be deflour'd but continues chast and incorrupt She is acquainted but with one house and by a modest shamefacedness secures the reputation of the marriage bed T is she who preserves us unto God and leads her children to a kingdom Whosoever departs from the Church joins himself to an harlot and forfeits the promises made unto her nor can he attain the rewards of Christ who abandons his Church such a one is an Alien is profane is an Enemy He cannot have God for his Father who disowns the Church for his Mother If any one escaped in the Flood who was out of Noah's ark he may likewise be saved who is out of the pale of the Church Our Lord informs us of this saying He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth He who breaks the peace and agreement of the Church sets himself against Christ He who gathers and makes proselytes