Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A04767
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Heavenly knowledg directing a Christian to ye assurance of his salvation in this life / written in Latin by Barthol. Keckerm. ; done into English by T.V.
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Keckermann, Bartholomäus, ca. 1571-1608 or 9.; Vicars, Thomas. Treatise written to the glory of gods grace, against free-will.
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1625
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STC 14897; ESTC S1099
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106,438
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362
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of Christ by the Euangelists and Apostles as by his Pen-men or Notaries How is the Scripture diuided in respect of that authority it hath in prouing So it is diuided into the bookes which are Canonicall and those which are not Canonicall but Apocryphall Which doe you call the Canonicall Books Syst Theol. pag. 169. item p. 173. Hi constituūt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Those which are of vndoubted authority in prouing the Articles of Faith or which are the Square and Rule of our faith for Canonicall is deriued from Canon which signifieth as much as a Rule or Square Of what sort are the Canonicall books Of two sortes either of the Old or of the New Testament Which Books of the Old Testament are Canonicall The Canonicall Scripture of the old Testament is diuided into foure rancks Syst The. pag. 182. the first containeth the fiue Bookes of Moses the second those Bookes which are called Historicall as these Joshua Iudges Ruth the two Bookes of Samuel the two Bookes of Kings the two Bookes of the Chronicles the Bookes of Esdras Nehemiah Ester The third Bookes which are written in verse which are called Poeticall as these Job the Psalmes of Dauid the Prouerbs of Salomon Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs the fourth comprehendeth the Prophets which are either greater Prophets in number foure or lesser to wit twelue Which Bookes of the New Testament are Canonicall The Canonicall Scripture of the New Testament is diuided into the History of the Euangelists the Acts of the Apostles the Apostles Epistles and the Prophecy or Reuelation of John Which are called Apocriphall or not Canonicall Syst Theol. pag. 190. Which are not of infallible truth and authority in prouing the Articles of faith and consequently which are not the Rule and Square of our beliefe but containe precepts of life and historicall instructions Which are those Apocryphall Bookes Among the Bookes of the Old Testament as wee haue before said there are some found not to bee Canonicall such as the Booke of Tobias Iudith Wisedome which falsly is ascribed to Salomon Ecclesiasticus or Syracides the third and fourth bookes of Esdras all the Bookes of the Maccabees Baruch with Ieremy his Epistle the Prayer of Manasses the fragments of Ester the additions to Daniel as is the Song of the three Children the Historie of Susanna the Historie of Bell and the Dragon None of all these Bookes are to be found in the Hebrew tongue in which Language onely God would haue the Bookes of the Old Testament to bee written neither were they written by the Prophets or any person immediately called of God Neither doth Christ the Euangelists or the Apostles cite them at any time and to conclude there bee many vntruths in them Wherefore when the Papists vrge any thinge out of these Bookes against vs wee must answer that those Bookes containe not the infallible Word of God and consequently that they haue no firme force or validity in prouing How is the Scripture diuided in respect of the matter it handleth Into the Law and the Gospell for that part of Gods Word is called the Law wherein wee are taught what we ought to doe but the Gospell is that part of Gods Word wherein we are taught what we ought to beleeue and consequently wherein wee haue the remission of our sins promised vs by faith in Christ I haue heard sufficiently touching the diuision of the Word of God J pray you also instruct mee in the proprieties of it That will I willingly doe so I first admonish you that hereafter wee shall alwaies take the holy Scripture for the Canonicall Bookes onely and not at all for the Apocryphall VVhat is the first proprietie of the holy Scripture The first propriety is that it deriues all its authority from God alone Syst Theol. pag. 171. not from the assembly of godly men which is called the Church How proue you this I proue it by these reasons first the testimony of God hath not any authority from men The Scripture is the testimony of God alone Ergo. It hath none authority from men yea the most holy men that bee and consequently not from the Church which is nothing else but a company of godly and sanctified men The force and pith of the argument you shall finde 1 Ioh. 5.9 If wee receiue the witnes of men the testymonie of God certainely is greater Secondly that must needs be before the Scripture in naturall order of which the authority of the Scripture dependeth But the Church is not before the Word of God Ergo. The Maior proposition is euident because that which dependeth of another must needs come after that on which it dependeth The Minor is thus prooued That which is gathered gouerned regenerated by the Word or by the Scripture that is in order after the Scripture But the Church Ergo. The Maior is plaine the Minor is prooued by 1 Pet. 1.23 Wee are regenerated and borne anew by the word of God Iames 1.18 He hath begotten vs by the word of truth Ioh. 17.20 Which by their word shall beleeue in me Thirdly the foundation of any building depends not on the roofe or vpper roomes which are built vpon the foundation but contrarily those same vpper roomes and the roofe depend vpon the foundation but the Word of God is the foundation Ergo. The Maior is plaine in it selfe The Minor is confirmed by that Ephes 2.20 You are built vpon the foundation of the Profits and Apostles Obict The Papists obiect to vs that place 1 Tim. 3.15 Where the Church is said to be the pillar and ground of truth Whereto we answer Answ that this argument is sophisticall or a fallacie commonly called a Dicto secundum quid a dictum simpliciter For the Church is not called the piller and ground of truth in regard of it selfe but in regard of Christ the head who is that corner stone And further it is so called in regard it is the keeper of the Scripture Syst Theol pag. 181. forsomuch as God hath made the Church onely to haue to doe with the treasurie of his Word and in the Church as on the piller and doore of his house or pallace he hangeth those holy Tables which euery man must go thither to read No otherwise then the Magistrate hangeth vp on pillars and gates of his Court Tables containing in them his Lawes and Decrees to the end that his Subiects may there reade them as in a publike place Lastly the Church is called the Pillar of Truth in this respect because that God vseth the testimony of the Church as his instrument and meanes for the proposing teaching and expounding of the holy Scriptures vnto men for the Ministers of the Church are the conseruers of truth and the interpreters of the Scriptures yet not so as if the authority of the Scripture did depend on them but because God vseth them as his seruants and Ministers to propound and to beate into the memories of
earth the state of the Church was a most corrupt state so that beside Christ and his Apostles there were very few members of the true Church yea and before Christs birth a little Mary Ioseph Zachary and Elizabeth and a few more which lay so secret that there was no shew of them to any man made vp the true Church Such like vnto these was that estate of the Church those 600 yeares vnder the Papacie of which time there was expresse prediction before Reuel 12.6 that the time to wit should come that the Church should be obscure as it were hid in the wildernesse But therefore can any conclude that there was no Church No surely no more then it doth follow This man is hid therefore hee is not a man There were in that most thicke darkenesse of Poperie and vnder the Kingdome of that Antichrist of Rome Syst Theol. pag. 408. true members of the Church although by reason of that cruell tyranny of the Pope they lay hid neither was there so few of them as the Papists faine which at that very time vnder Popery had the pure doctrine and the Sacramēts but there were very many of them euen whole Countryes that were not defiled by the corrupt Doctrine of the Papists as the Albin genses and the Valdenses and they of Picardie who propagated the holy Truth in Bohemia and Polonia in spite of all the Popes resistance As also a hundred yeares before Luther Et si Papatus non sit ecclesia voluit tamen Deus in Papatu seruare ecclesiam Theod. Beza there were the Hussites Brethren of Bohemia who maintained the true Doctrine of the Gospell as those times would giue them leaue Yea and further in all and euery of those yeares there were by Gods working continually raised vp Witnesses and Teachers who openly and before all shewed their detestation of the Pope and Popish errours which Witnesses of the Truth euen in the time of Papacie they are all gathered together in a Book most worthie the perusing which wee ought alwaies to oppose to the Papists which hath for its Title Catalogus testium veritatis that is A Catalogue of the Witnesses of the Truth The third Note the Papists doe make vniuersality Obiect because forsooth the Church dispersed ouer all the world Syst Theol. pag. 404. ought to be Catholike I answer That the Papists here doe contradict themselues when they say the Church of God must be Catholicke and yet the Romish Church must bee that Church of God which is all one as if I should say the Church must be the vniuersall Dantiscan Church or the vniuersall Cracouiun Church or a particular vniuersall Church for to be the Romish Church and to bee a particular one is all one Againe wee answer that we do not denie that the Church ought to bee Catholike in that sense wherein the word is vsed in the Creed as afterwards it shall be made plaine And we say that our Church hath alwaies beene and now also is Catholike because that after the Apostles had gathered the Church out of all Nations there did alwaies from time to time remaine some reliques of the true Church in all Nations although those reliques were hid and obscured as that book Catalogus testium veritatis which we haue a little before cited doth testifie that in the very time of Poperie there was alwaies in Greece Italy Spaine Germany Bohemia Polonia some found that opposed and resisted the Pope But whereas the Iesuites obiect vnto vs that in America and in the East Indies there are no Protestant Preachers of the Gospell as yet but all Papists and especially Iesuites labouring the conuersion of the people I answer them first that the Pharisies also did runne about both by Sea and Land to draw men vnto their faith and yet for all that their Religion was not true Secondly I say that the Papists haue slaine moe in the Jndies then they haue conuerted as you may see by a place which I haue cited in my Politiques l. 1. c. 4. that in a very short time a hundred and fortie thousand men were murdered by them Thirdly I am sure the Diuell also goes a compassing the whole world and seduceth many yet is he for that neuer a whit the better Fourthly I auerre that our Ministers also haue taught the true Gospell in America inasmuch as Caluin sent thither two Ministers of the Church from Geneua the one whereof was Joannes Lerius who committed that story to writing And at this day there are Orthodoxe Ministers in the East Jndies which doe publikely preach the true doctrine of the Gospell carried ouer thither by the Merchants of the Low-Countryes And doubtlesse toward the end of this world the true Religion shall be in America as God now is preparing the way for it by the English and Low-Countrie Merchants that that of Christ may bee fulfilled Matth. 24.14 The Gospell shall bee preached throughout the whole World that it may bee a witnes to all Nations For GOD in in all his workes is wont to effect a thing successiuely and therefore first hee sends vnto those Nations some light of his Essence and his Truth by the Papists and afterward will make these things shine more cleerely vnto them by the true and faithfull Ministers of the Gospel Obiect The fourth note the Papists say is vnitie and good agreement Solut. I answer Vt est ecclesia Dei vna sic est Diaboli vna Babylō Aug. Consent and vnitie is but so farre a marke of the Church as the consent is in truth and goodnesse and not in euill and falsehood for such an agreement in euill and falsitie is among the very Deuills and what greater agreement and consent then among robbers so also among the Turkes there is very great consent so that Mahometisme is farre and heare by them propagated yet doth it not hence follow that Mahometisme is the true Church Secondly I answer that in our Church there is great consent in the truth for howsoeuer after Luthers time there arose many Churches the Diuell being alwaies busie to cast his plots against the true Church and to stirre vp in it diuers Sects yet the Orthodoxe Professours are at good agreement about the Articles of Faith as that excellent Booke called the Harmony of Cōfessions doth testifie wherein it is manifestly prooued that there is exceeding great consent betwixt the Churches of France England Scotland Bohemia and those which are in Germany neere vnto Rhene and in other Provinces For that disagreement which is betwixt the Lutherans and the Orthodoxe Professours doth not straight way quite dissolue the vnity which is betwixt the members of the true Church Thirdly I deny that there is so great agreement in the Romish Church as they boast of for it can bee easily showne that the Popish Writers agree not in any one Article among themselues as it doth appeare out of Bellarmine who ordinarily disputeth against other Papists alleageth