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	part_n	true_a	3,915	5	5.1797	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87434	Le dragon missionaire, or, The dragoon turn'd apostle being a dialaogue between a French Protestant-gentleman, and a French dragoon, wherein the new-way of convverting hereticks by dragoons is very lively and truly represented : to which is annexed a letter of Monsieur Jurieu to a French gentleman of quality, upon his dragonary conversion / translated out of the original French ; suppressed in the the late reign, but now re[pr?]inted ...	Jurieu, Pierre, 1637-1713.	1686 (1686)	Wing J1201; ESTC R43871	21,022	27

needs be instructed tho' I do not see my self to stand in need of it I find you knowing enough in these matters for me to confer with and the Complement you made me at your first entrance makes me suspect you may be some Monk or Jesuit in the Disguise of a Dragon and that to the end you might not fright us Protestants too much who cannot bear the sight of a Monk in his Cowle without believing him a Devil in Masquerade Those good Fathers you know are Omnis homo they become all to all and put themselves into what Figure or Disguise you please the better to act their part in returning to the Bosom of the Holy Mother Church and reuniting to her the Children she had lost Pray tell me frankly Sir Are not you a counterfeit Dragon but a true Jesuit D. Not in the least tho' to tell you the truth I have been worse than a Jesuit G. How so I pray D. I have been for some years a Proponent or Candidate for the Ministry but having found after a diligent Application of my self to the Study of Controversies that both the Proponentisme and Ministry of the Pretended Reformed Religion were but a meer Vanity and prepossession of Spirit and above all a thing very pernicious to the Church whose Peace they disturb with a thousand frivolous Disputes which destroy the very Essence of Religion viz. Piety and Charity In a word having found that Protestantisme had none of the best Principles I turn'd Catholick and became a Souldier supposing that in this station I should prove more useful to my King and Country than in acting a Preacher and bolstering up the people in an Error This makes me still retain a smatch of those things that formerly were my study and employ G. Since it is so we have no need of Monks nor Priests forasmuch as you cannot but know better than they what the things are which pinch Protestants most and is the very Remora of their Conversion D. It is true what you say Sir only I have forgot to dispute in Mood and Figure as a Sorbonist or Father Jesuit might do G. All the better for that these modal Argumentators and men of Syllogisms confound all with their Sophistry Ergoings and Distinctions And indeed for the most part they are no better than meer Pedants and insupportable to all ingenious men D. Be it so However since you put me upon it I will endeavour to prove that you ought to become a Catholick and that with this Syllogisme If your Ancestors did without just ground separate themselves from the Romish Church then it is your duty to return to her again But your Ancestors have without just grounds separated themselves Therefore c. G. I defie the whole Sorbonne and the Gentlemen of Port Royal to argue more exactly I perceive now it will go very hard with me and that I must prepare my self for a very rude Shock who have to deal with a Dragon and a Proponent converted both at once but Patience in answer to your Syllogisme I say that my Ancestors had great reason to separate themselves from Rome forasmuch as they saw they could not be saved in case they continued in her Communion D. We must never separate our selves from the true Church upon any pretext whatsoever for without the Church here is no Salvation And the Church of Rome is this true Church forasmuch as she alone hath been always visible and the most extended and comprehensive of all others Now it is apparent that the true Church must needs be the most visible and most extended of all others that are called Christian. G. I don't see but that the Greek Church is every whit as comprehensive as the Romish Church and hath in all times-been as visible as it But where have you learnt that the true Church must always be visible and most comprehensive D. Of St. Augustin where he Disputes against the Donatists G. Don't you know that St. Augustin was a man as you and I subject to Error and that he himself elsewhere exhorteth us to give heed to no other Authority besides that of the Divine Scriptures And you who are so ready to jump with him in this Point would you be as willing to believe with him That Infants dying without Baptism and without the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ are damned as much as the Devils themselves and Reprobates D. No surely but however it must be granted that without the Church there is no Salvation and consequently the same must needs be always visible that men in all times may enter into Communion with it and so be saved G. The Scripture no where saith so It is without Jesus Christ that there is no Salvation And as for the Church true it is That we are to enter into Communion with it but that is when we can see and find it and all those whom the true Church doth cast out of her Communion upon just grounds are in a state of damnation D. What Sir Will you suppose then that the Church of God can perish and cease upon Earth G. By no means for Jesus Christ will always have his faithful Ones to the end of the World yet that hinders not but they may be oft hid from the Eyes of men and unknown to them D. How is it possible then that men in all times should be saved G. By means of the Gospel which the Divine Providence will take care shall be preserved upon Earth till the end of the World and by the owning of those Christian Truths in which all Christians do agree D. You are very subtile but in the mean time you cannot deny but that your Church and Religion are but of Yesterday since they were never heard of in the World before Luther and Calvin G. Pray be pleased to look upon this Book open it and read it D. Why This is the New Testament G. And there Sir you have the Authors of my Church and of my Religion I hold it from Jesus Christ and his Apostles and from their first Successors D. That cannot be Sir for your Ministers came not that way they are without Succession or any lawful Call and they have either made themselves Pastors or have been Ordained by the People G. Not so for the grearest part of them came from the Church of Rome and so preserv'd the Call they received there and the rest were confirmed and approved by them In a word we find that Jesus Christ hath committed to Believers the Authority of the Ministerial Function But you Mr. Dragon who are so sharp upon others from whence pray do you come And from whence do you derive your Mission D. From Father la Chaise and from Monsieur Maimbourg formerly a Jesuit and from the whole Body of the Clergy G. But Sir the persons you name are no Dragons and a Dragon must descend in a right Line from another Dragon as amongst you a Priest derives his Authority

pleaseth A Spirit who when it pleaseth him walks on the Ti●er the Pau and the Thesin goes a Foot rides on Horse-back in a Coach or in a Chariot may be shut up in a Portmantle a Packet of Letters or any thing you please Spirit of Submission of Faith and of Blind Obedience Spirit Roman Catholick enter thou into this Body and Soul possessed by the Devil of Calvinism in the Name of St. Francis of St. Dominick and of the Patriarch Ignatius Loyola G. Ah Sirs cast as much Holy Water as you please upon me but don't beat me with the Sprinkler D. We do this that the Water may the better enter into your Body and extinguish the Fire of Heresy G. Nay if you be resolved to kill me with blows at least let me not languish under your hands but dispatch me forthwith I beg of you D. Not so we are forbid to kill you but we shall so plague you if you be not presently converted that Death will seem sweet to you in comparison of the Sufferings we are prepareing for you They place the Gentleman before agreat Fire and hold his feet to the burning Flames and so burn them by degrees the violence of which Suffering makes him fall from himself bringing him to the fire again they demand of him whither he be willing to go to Mass D. What are not you yet converted and will not you go to Mass G. Ah Sirs how would you have me to go now you have burnt my Feet and Legs D. We will either carry you or cause you to be carryed G. O Lord Jesu have pitty on me and strengthen me D. I find we must once more approach you to the Flame that you may be more enlightned They bring him to the Fire as before and begin again to burn his Feet he faints under the extremity of the Torture and saith G. Take me away and do with my Body whatsoever you please D. What shall we carry you to Mass G. Whither you please to a Mosque if you think good D. Did not I tell you I would do a Miracle here and that I would convert you whither you would or no. The Glory of all be render'd to the Great King of Dragons to his Holy Father Confessor and all other Subordinate Instruments in this Great Work A LETTER OF MONSIEVR JVRIEV To a French GENTLEMAN Upon his Changing his RELIGION SIR I Have been so afflicted and astonished with the stroak of your Fall that tho' I feel my self obliged to reach you my hand for to raise you again yet have I not been at liberty to do it till now I begin only a little to recover my self from my Astonishment but my Affliction still continues and will till you return from whence you have gone astray I know Sir that you have been surprized and that for your overthrow there hath been employed the Name the Orders and Soveraign Power of the King the Ability the Caresses the Instances and the Authority of his greatest Ministers the Numbers the Force the Quartering and Havocking of Souldiers the Disguisements condescention and credit of the most famous Prelates the example of Cities and whole Provinces And last of all the fairest promises and the most terrible threats and that besides all these you have flatter'd your self with many other thoughts not necessary for me to dive into And indeed upon the review of all these it is no more a matter of so great astonishment to me that such a throng of extraordinary Objects have surprized and dasht you out of Countenance a less thing often does it But now that your surprize and terrour ought to have ceased you ought also to recover your self from the disorder into which they have cast you Let us Sir in cold blood and at leisure consider a while and take a view of the Religion you have forsaken and of that which you have newly embraced That which you have forsaken acknowledges no other Father but God nor other Head besides Jesus Christ nor other Spirit but that of the Father and the Eternal Son The onely Object of all its Devotions of its Faith Love Hope and acknowledgment the onely Source and foundation of its Joy and Salvation is the said ever blessed and adorable Trinity It hath no other Rule of its Doctrine Maxims and Conduct but the Holy Scripture Its Ministers attribute no other power to themselves except that of Teaching the Gospel and to press the Observance of it by their Word and Examples as meer Teachers and Directors without pretending to any power over the Consciences Bodies or Estates of their Disciples Nay more than that recommending very carefully to them to examine whatsoever they hold forth to them by the Rule of Holy Scripture and forbidding to believe them any further than they find them conform to the same To this purpose they neither speak themselves nor make God speak to his People but in a known Language and with all their might continually press the reading and study of the Holy Word In a word the Religion you have renounced is nothing else but the sincere and true Profession of the Gospel That which you have now embraced is quite of another Nature for to give you a Draught of it in little It is a Religion of which the Pope is Father and Head and Rome the Mother and Nurse Concupiscence its Spirit and Heart a Wafer its God the Worship of Creatures its Devotion it s own Authority the highest Law whose Ministers are Lords and absolute Princes and its Votaries so many Slaves which are continued in Slavery by hiding the Law of God from them by speaking to them in a Barbarous Tongue by prescribing to them a superstitious Worship and frighting them with the Fantasmes of this World and that which is to come And to speak to you more frankly and to call things by their own Names the Father Bridegroom and Head of the Church of Rome is the Antichrist her Mother is Babylon and her Spirit is the Spirit of Lyes of Murder and impure Lusts her God is an Idol her Worship Idolatry her Soveraign Power Tyranny her Ministers Tyrants and her Votaries so many unhappy Wretches whose Liberty Repose Estates yea Bodies and Souls are sacrificed to that Cruel and Insatiable Beast of the Revelation The Bounds I have set my self of keeping within the narrow compass of a Letter will not allow me to enter upon any ample Demonstrations and large Deductions of what I have just now in few words hinted yet they leave me room enough to convince you if any love of Truth or desire of your own Salvation be left with you I take or granted as an avowed Truth that the Pope is the Head and Father of the Church of Rome wherefore nothing remains for me to prove but that He is the Antichrist and this I 'le endeavour with this one Argument which contains as many more as it consists of Parts and is of unquestionable Truth If the Characters which

she puts upon her new Converts The same Spirit is the Author of so many horrible Slanders wherewith they blacken the Church of God and his faithful Servants It is he hath establisht that Maxim That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks that Equivocations and mental Reservations are lawful and that the Pope hath power to dispense with the most inviolable Oaths that may be From the same Source have been derived all those Perfidious dealings with the Protestants in France by Repealing the most solemnly sworn and ratified Edicts and by publishing others quite contrary to them Neither is the Spirit of Cruelty and Murther less in vogue in the said Church Who can enumerate all the Barbarous Cruelties committed by the Holy Office of the Inquisition as they are not ashamed to call it the bloody Wars Massacres Poysonings Assassinations and Butcheries which that Religion hath and still doth put in practice in the four parts of the World or those only she hath been the Author of in Germany Bohemia Hungaria France the Low Countries England Scotland Ireland and Italy The Protestants of France formerly have been and are now at present a most sad and convincing Instance of this Truth The Cruelty of this Religion appears also by her condemning to Hell universally all other Christian Communions whatsoever and in that there is not the least Article she professes to which she hath not annexed an Eternal Anathema against all those who shall dare to contradict or deny it And for the Spirit of Impurity it hath so perfectly got the Mastery and Dominion over that Churche that it even reigns in those places which one would believe should be the Refuge of shamefac'dness and Chastity I mean even in Rome the Holy and throughout the whole Patrimony of the Church in their places for Confession in their Mon asteries of the one as well as the other Sex in the habitations of their Clergy throughout whole Spain which is so Emphatically Catholick and throughout whole Italy which one would think should not approve nor tolerate any such filthiness as being the own Country and Seat of the Holy Father and his Holy Court. And that no man may here alledge that these Disorders are not Authorized nor approved of it is most notorious that the Pope draws a yearly Revenue from the Publick Stews which are solemnly established in all the Cities of his Dominion that the Casuists even the most famous and of greatest Authority with that Communion do favour the practice of the most detestable and unnatural filthiness which the Spirit of Uncleanness can possibly suggest to men yea all the Popish Divines do declare with a loud voice that it is better for their Clergy to burn in the fire of all sorts of Uncleanness than to be Married But this Communion is not only guilty of Corporal filthiness and impurity but also of that which is Spiritual that is Idolatry For according to what was said before the very God of that Religion is an Idol What God is it which she serves and to the Worship of which she will compel and force the whole Earth To whom doth she Erect her Altars Consecrate her Festivals her Offerings her Vows and Prayers To whom doth she betake her self upon all occasions whether Ordinary or Extraordinary To whom doth she address her most solemn Adorations Is it not to the God of the Mass even to a God which the Priest makes every day of a little Water and Flower after he hath mumbled four or five Latin words over it and which he devours after he hath made it And this God can it be supposed ought else but an Idol And must not a man be deprived of the light of Sense and of Reason and of Faith before he can in the least doubt of it But to convince the most prepossed of this Truth from their own Principles is it not agreed upon by all that the Object of the Worship of true Religion cannot be doubtful or uncertain For they are false Religions which worship that which they know not as our Lord said of that of the Samaritans and is it not true and incontestable that the Object of the Worship of the Roman Church is uncertain and doubtful Is any one assured nay is it possible that any one should be so that J. C. is really present in the Species of the Eucharist since that depends upon the intention of the Priest that celibrates Mass according to the express decision of the Council of Trent And who can be certain that this or that Prie●t had the intention of fixing him there or that he had it not and supposing he had the intention who can be assured that his intention is acomplished and that our Saviour in obedience to the same hath indeed hid himself under the Species of Bread and Wine And if this Object be thus uncertain the Religion of Rome must needs be so likewise Again if this Object be doubtful it can never be the Object of Faith nor of true Devotion it cannot be the Deity nor indeed any thing else but a meer Idol But alas this is not the alone Idol which Rome Adores she hath as many more of the number as there are Angels yea Saints and Saintesses in Heaven and as there are Popes Crosses Images and Relicks upon earth for she bestows Religious Worship upon all these in the sight and ken of the whole World and consequently she cannot but be guilty of Idolatry and that in so high a degree that she may justly boast of worshipping the vainest of all Idols for never were any more vain than her Wafers are and of having raised Idolatry to that pitch beyond which no farther advance can be expected for there is no Instance in all the Records of Time of a more transported and besotted Dovotion than that which she hath for that piece of Paste Now tho' all this be indeed prodigious and amazing yet behold here another Instance which is no less surprizing and unaccountable which is That the Romish Church hath erected her self for an Idol and Object of her own Adoration and which she imposeth upon others to worship as God For she attributes to her self Infallibility and a Soveraign Independence and Authority Characters which are the Propriety of God alone She imposeth her Decisions as so many Divine Oracles and will have them received for this sole reason because they seem good in her Eyes She hath the boldness to maintain That all the Articles of Faith depend upon her Authority that it is from her we hold the Greatest Mysteries of our Christian Religion as that of the Trinity of the Incarnation Grace c. She raiseth her Authority so far above that of the Holy Scriptures that she maintains the Holy Scriptures to have no other Authority but what she gives to them and that without Her we are no more obliged to believe the Word of God than that of Mahomet which is Bellarmins own Comparison In a word

of the fearful and of those who l●ve or make a lye of Idlaters and Apostates is in the Lake of fire Rev. 22.15 Matth. 10.38 Mark 8.38 Do not deceive your self by seeking out sig-leaves and pretences in abjuring our Religion you have abjured true Christianity the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ for our Religion is nothing else You have grieved the holy Spirit God grant you have not quite extinguisht it you have weakned the Kingdom of God up●n earth and strengthned that of his Enemy you have afflicted scandalized and made a rent in the Church of God and you have fortified the Synagogue of Satan and made it to rejoyce By becoming a Papist you have condemned your Teachers and Preachers for Schismaticks and Hereticks and have judg'd them worthy of all the fires of this world and of that of Hell to boot You are entred into Communion with those who but an Age ago washed their hands in the blood of your Fathers and who daily do the same in the blood of your Brothers You have left the Communion of Christ and are gone over to that of Antichrist from the Church to Babylon from the Spirit of God to the unclean Spirit from the worship of God to that of a Wafer and many other Idols You have rejected the Authority of Holy Scripture for to subject your self to that of Papacy and from a Child of God which you were are become the Slave of men Tremble at the thought of the sin you have committed and by no means excuse it you have to do with a God who cannot be deceived neither will he be mocked who is jealous of his Truth and of his Glory and who will not endure his Truth to be detain'd in unrighteousness nor his Glory to be given to graven Images I am surpriz'd with horrour when I consider the deplorable state to which you have reduc'd your self I see you destitute of your true Brethren and faithful Pastors and encompassed with false Brethren and devouring Wolves observ'd and beset by the World which every where lays her snares for you and enchants you with her delusions betray'd by your own heart tortur'd and wrackt by your Conscience if a Lethargy hath not seiz'd it domineer'd over by your own vanity your avarice sensuality and infirmity tyranniz'd over by Clergy by the Souldiers by Officers of Justice and all your Superiours loaden with all the Chains of Popery and fast lockt and taken in the snares of the Devil I see you in the very way to the sin against the Holy Ghost upon the brink of the Grave and Hell And had it not been better to have suffered a thousand Deaths for the Cause of God than cowardly to cast your self headlong into this miserable condition by your Apostacy And is it not better for you to expose your self yet to all sorts of dangers and miseries than to truckle any longer under this insupportable burden of Evils We offer up Day and Night most ardent Prayers to God that he will be pleas'd to snatch you thence and be not you wanting to employ your utmost endeavours to get loose and give your self no rest till you have given glory to God edified his Church and return'd your Conscience to that happy state in which you wish that the Eternal Judge might find it when you shall be obliged to appear before his Tribunal Let this be your great and onely Work Jan. 1. 1686. I am SIR Your most humble Servant and most Sincere Friend FINIS