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	paul_n	pillar_n	3,773	5	10.4418	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61101	A Protestants account of his orthodox holding in matters of religion at this present in difference in the church, and for his own and others better confirmation or rectification in the points treated on : humbly submitted to the censure of the Church of England.	Spelman, Henry, Sir, 1564?-1641.; Spelman, John, Sir, 1594-1643.	1642 (1642)	Wing S4940; ESTC R12772	24,078	35

Body from thence as the Apostle speaks by joynts and bands having nourishment and knit together may encrease with the encrease of God These same things doth our Saviour teach when giving a Rule for governing ones self in private offences betwixt his brother and him he bids him Tell it to the Church Our Saviour meant not that upon every such occasion the Church Catholique should or could be convoked but onely that the offended should complain to the Governours of the Church he lived in the doing whereof is properly to complain to the whole Church yea to the whole Church Catholique as appears by our Saviours adding that if the offender refused to hear the Church he should be as an Heathen man as much as to say That if by refusing to hear his particular Church he refused to hear the whole Chuch Catholique he should then be as an Heathen man cut off from the Communion of the whole Church for it were no just sentence to cut off one from the whole Church for disobeying the particular unlesse that disobedience to the particular were disobeying of the whole Church Every particular Church then hath so farre the authority of the Church Universall that as to her own Members her voyce is the voyce of the Catholique Church and tyes them all in conscience to submit their judgements to hers and to yeeld observance to all her Ordinances that are not against the expresse Word of God nor judgement of the Catholique Church And even in her Ordinances that minister question whether they be Orthodox and agreeable to the Word of God or no her authority is so farre binding as that even those Ordinances● are not to be rejected nor condemned upon the judgement of any of her private Members onely but either by her own review and censure by some more generall Nationall Assembly or if the consequence require it by a full and true Generall Assembly of the Church whose sentence when once it shall be obtained shall be received as the most sacred and most authentique judgement that may be had in that matter and neerest approaching to the judgement of the holy Ghost but shall not be received as infallible as if pronounced by a Judge infallible for what assistance soever God hath promised to his Church it is onely such as agrees with the condition of a Church Militant therefore he hath neither promised it to the single Ministers in every of their Preachings neither yet so to the Church it self as that in every of her Consultations and Decrees she should infallibly produce the sentence of the holy Ghost for then were the Scripture needlesse seeing the Church should be able to pronounce infallibly with authority equall to the very Text and the Church as to errour in knowledge and understanding should not be Militant but Triumphant but every judgement of every Church shall have such a potiority of credit and authority in respect of the judgement of any part or Member thereof as that it must not be rejected nor over-ruled by any other judgement than either her own revisall and censure Assembly of her proper Judges a more generall Nationall Assembly or a full generall Assembly of the Church To conclude then when for avoyding confusion in the Church God hath subjected the spirits of the particular Preachers to the concurrent judgement of all the Preachers for men under pretence of preaching Gods Word to preach their own private judgements in detraction from the authority of their Church and without submitting their opinions to the judgement of their Church this is so farre from honouring God by magnifying of his Word as that contrarily it destroyes the authority of the Scripture by confused and wrong arrogated judgement in interpreting of it it by sects and schismes subverts the peace of the Church and contrary to the Admonition that God hath given in that behalf makes God the author of confusion The assurance of our Orthodox profession depending upon the consideration of these things cannot but occasion a little further examination of them Religion a religando ex vi termini is that which whatsoever it be ought to binde the Professor but of all other Godlinesse which onely is the true Religion must not have that binding power of hers denyed and therefore will-worship as repugnant to Religion is to be rejected Ye shall not saith Moses to the people when they were to enter into the Land and be a setled Church Ye shall not saith he do as we do this day every one that which is good in his own eyes It is impossible for the Professor which followeth his own judgement or conscience onely to avoid disobedience and will-worship for private judgement and conscience are neither sure nor constant observers of Gods Law nor can a man alwayes tell whether his iudgement or his affection leads his conscience but as obedience is that which our Saviour himself learning sheweth that we all must learn so the power of Godlinesse is to constrain obedience And if there be a question what we shall obey the Scripture tells us the Priests lips should preserve knowledge and we should seek the Law at his mouth And our Saviour tells his disciples He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and bids that he that will not hear the Church be as an Heathen man And St Paul tells us The Church is the pillar and ground of the truth and against private singularities and indecencies in the service of God he obiects that their Church had no such custome neither the Churches of God We are also commanded to submit to all manner of Ordinance of man for the Lords sake And that every soul be subject to the higher power that he that resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God and receiveth to himself damnation The Scripture is abundant to this purpose and among many other places Gen. 27. 6. is remarkable When Jacob or Israel was afraid in the apparell of his elder brother to seek his fathers supreme blessing lest by seeking it in a undue manner he should instead of a blessing get a curse his mother requires his obedience to her voye Israel obeyed her and by it obtained the blessing If this Allegory so much concern us as that we be the Israel the younger brother that want and seek the blessing our Saviour our elder brother in whose clothing we seek it and God our father that gives it who is our directing mother by oheying whose voyce we obtain the blessing but she that is the wife of our father the Church of God By these then and many other Scriptures it appears That in all matters of Religion wheresoever there is a doubt and consesequently use of judgement the iudgement of the Church is to be preferred So Gods Word which must be observed directs so the exigence of things requires the particular man cannot otherwise avoyd will-worship and singularity nor the

A Protestants Account OF HIS Orthodox Holding In Matters of Religion at this present In difference in the CHURCH And For his own and others better confirmation or rectification in the points treated on Humbly submitted to the censure of the Church of England Printed Anno Dom. 1642. Good Reader THE dissentions in our Church about matters of Religion being so great as that there is scarce any thing in practice so well established but is by some or other called in question and the distempers of the State being such as not any man scarcely knows where to make addresse for resolution I do here as I hold it my duty make a publique presentment and submission of the judgement that upon calling my understanding to an account I have been able to make in these matters to the pious censure of our Mother the Church of England to the end that from her sincere admonishment both thou and I may receive as the case shall require either approbation or rectification in our judgements which I heartily wishing rest Thine in all faithfull affections J. S. A Protestants Account of his Orthodox holding in matters of RELIGION WHen in all Controversies about matter of Religion the dictate of the Word of God is principally to be attended and the certainty of that dictate depends upon the assurance of the true sense and interpretation of the Scripture It is necessary that in the first place we have consideration of the assurance one may have of the true and genuine sense thereof For though without controversie the Scripture be a Rule of the highest most absolute and most sacred Authority that may be and such as wheresoever it extends to give Rule bindes and regulates all humane Laws and Constitutions from what authority soever derived and though in many things as namely in the Fundamentalls of Religion in matters of necessary faith and in the expresse Commands of God the truths thereof are so manifest and of so assured receipt as that no authority no not of an Angel from Heaven is to be received to the contrary but every one must of his own illumination embrace and hold them yet are there other truths which may so easily admit dispute as that without the awe of some authorized Moderator men of perverse affections would inevitably subvert the peace of the Church with their infinite dissentions about them It is true that to the great calamities of the Church there is much dissention made about the Morator or Interpreter of the Scripture but that is not so much through error of Judgement as obstinacy of parties among whom the two most adverse and dangerous parties are neither of them so blamelesse but that they are culpable of detracting from the authority of the Scripture by authorizing unwarrantable interpretation of it It is true that in the first place the Church of Rome is the great subverter of the Scripture by assuming to her self the person of the whole Church Catholique and by vertue thereof to have infallibility of judgement in interpretation of Scripture for whilst she as Judge arrogates to her self infallibility she makes that there is no more regard to be had what the Text is than there is heed to be taken what was the Warrant that the holy Ghost had for those things which he hath at any time delivered for he that is infallible pronounces of his own authority and can no more depend or be restrayned to any originall out of himself than infinitenesse can be restrayned to a finite thing or God himself unto a creature wherefore there can be no extrneall Judge of Scripture of infallible authority for that of necessity annulls the Scripture and makes it no other than a dead Letter But in the second place they also destroy the Authority of Scripture who when in word and outward profession they magnifie it above all things do then by subjecting it indifferently to the judgement of every one that takes upon him to interpret it trample under foot the honour that they gave unto it for as infallibility of the Interpreter takes away the Scripture from the hearer so incertainty in the Interpreter takes away the hearer from the Scripture for how can one hear when he may either doubt the judgement or fidelity of the Interpreter or when as it often happens the Interpreters that are authorized one as much as another do make a diverse perhaps an adverse delivery of the Scripture As in the Romish errour the Scripture is made a dead letter so in this it is made a Trumpet of incertain sound which none can with safety hear and receive unlesse you will suppose some hearer also infallible To say truth as in the question whether one God or many it was truely said Dicite plure● dicite null●s so in the Interpreters of Gods Word whereof none can be authentique but with whom the Spirit of God is warrantably to be presumed if in equall degree and authority we make many we make as good as none at all We must therefore finde an especiall Interpreter and that of such potiority of judgement before all others as that we may safely confide therein and yet so confide as that we may not detract ought from the Authority of the Scripture by ascribing infallibility to the Interpreter We are taught negatively That no Prophesie of the Scripture is of private Interpretation We are also told That the Church is the ground and pillar of the truth And we are warned not to adhere to the doctrines of particular men be they never so eminent and famous in the Congregation but to weigh their Doctrines delivered as the Word of God and to see if they have alwayes been so understood and received by the Church for if we finde not authority of our own Church at least for them we are then but cautiously to receive them but if we finde the judgement of the Church Catholique against them we are altogether then to reject them for when the promises of the holy Ghosts assistance were made not to single disciples nor to some in particular but indefinitely to the universality of them I am with you unto the end He that heareth you heareth me He the Spirit of Truth will guide you into all Truth that is not some nor every one of you but generally the Body of you We cannot receive Doctrines with any confident assurance but from the concurrent Judgement of all the Pastors of the whole Church Universall to whom the promise of assistance is properly and in the first place made or in defect thereof from the concurrent Judgement of the Pastors of our particular Church which as to her own Members is to be received as the Judgement of the whole till the Judgement of the whole appeareth to the contrary For as the spirits of the particular Prophets in every Church ought to be heard and received of all the Members thereof untill it appear that their particular spirits and Doctrines recede

Church of God confusion When now there is so great offence taken at divers Ordinances of our Church what is there in any of them so erroneous or corrupt as to discharge ones conscience from the terror of these Precepts and from the obedience that they command Is there any thing in the Ordinances of our Church against the expresse command of God If there be Why do not the offended shew it that they may justifie themselves vindicate Gods Truth and stop the mouthes of all gain-sayers But when instead of things expresly crossing Gods Commadments they finde no exceptions but what at the most are disputable grounded upon inferences and collections and those not generally received nor yet all approved by the judgement of any particular Church but late imaginations of men of a few and them private men whether it be meet in the sight of God upon such grounds to follow men or indeed ones own self rather than God every one may judge And were that granted which indeed cannot be proved nor may be granted that the Ordinances of our Church are superstitious How yet will that warrant the disobeying of them to a conscience that is guided onely by the Word of God For where is superstition by the Word of God forbidden Or where is it there described Though then we grant superstition to be the foulest corruption a Christian Church can be depraved with and neerest approaching to Idolatry yet being a corruption discovered by the judgement of the Church rather than any expresse Word of God With what warrant can any mans conscience against Gods expresse command disobey the Ordinance for fear of superstition when concerning it he hath received no command from God especially when disobedience being like the sinnes of Witchcraft and Idolatry he commits a sin that is equall to them and onely to avoid superstition which is lesse than either Nay that is not all but while he disturbs his duty with false apprehenhensions of superstition he with his disobedience commits the superstition which he fears for when superstition properly is an over-strict religious insisting upon the doing or not doing of that which in it self is but indifferent his own scrupulousnesse not to kneel not to bow not to stand up not to be uncovered not to answer c. according to the use of the Church is not onely disobedience but very superstition it self placing Religion in that wherein there is no Religion to be placed and teaching the conscience more to fear pollution from without by things externally enioyned than to fear it within from the haughtinesse stubbornnesse or self-conceitednesse of the heart than which nothing doth sooner defile the actions of a man and make his Religion vain But will he say His conscience cannot be satisfied but that the Ordinance of the Church in some things is superstitious so as he may not submit unto it We must answer Let him use the liberty of his consci●nce but let him withall take heed he use it not for a cloke of maliciousnesse for if through weaknesse of conscience he takes offence at the Ordinance of the Church as superstitious which otherwise he knows himself tyed to reverence and observe let him in true humiliation of his soul behave himself like one afflicted that laments the breach between the Church and him let him labor for satisfaction by the help of those whose integrity in that behalf shall not by any aversenesse to the Ordinance be suspected let him forbear rayling language on Governours and contemptuous behaviour towards the Ordinance that so though he cannot be conformable he may not yet become refractory but may be piously embraced of the Church till in the spirit of meeknesse he be at last restored to his strength But if he will not do thus but will contend hold his own opinion sufficient to oppose against the Judgement of the Church adde contempt to his non-conformity seek to poss●sse others with his opinions glory in their association and towards the Governors of the Church be as one of those that controll the Priest yea that controll the whole Priest-hood that man in pretending conscience lyeth unto the holy Ghost he is not prest with conscience but a lift up heart self conceited and affecting singularity hath seduced him and makes him maintain an affected scruple of his own before the iudgement yea and the peace of the whole Church From these generalls we come somewhat more particularly to consider that which some affirm that for remedy of the corruptions of the Church any Assembly representative of the whole Body of any State seeing it implicitely comprehends all Orders Degrees and Conditions that are parts of the State have full power and authority of doing whatsoever any order or part of the State may do and that therefore they as well as the Clergie may in that State determine what form of Ecclesiasticall Government what discipline what Ceremonies are most fit for the Church and most agreeable to the Word of God Who knows not but that by the same reason they may as well determine what Doctrines are most agreeable to the Word of God but we shun captiousnesse and seek our own and every ones clear satisfaction It is true a Body representative of the whole State hath the power of the whole State to do whatsoever the whole Body of the State if it could be all assembled could do but the whole State if it were gathered together in one and the whole Clergie in it could not by their promiscuous Vote determine of any thing that God hath subjected to the judgement of the Clergie onely Some argue That the whole State be Christians and every true Christian a spirituall man The Spirituall man judgeth all things And it is true but that judgement is onely as to himself to discern and judge for his own right governance but not to binde others therewith he may exercise such judgement as grace administreth but cannot exercise directive judgement for that is not to be practised but by especiall Commission of Authority It was the ground of Corah's fearfull sinne that because all the Congregation were holy every one of them and the Lord among them that therefore Levites and Lay-men might offer Incense as well as the Priests one without lawfull authority may not more meddle with decreeing the suppression of vice and encouragement of vertue in a way that belongs onely to the Jurisdiction of another then might the sonnes of Sceva use the authority of Christs Name to casting out of devills Therefore particular men must have expresse Warrant before they can decree any thing And were it granted that they if known might in this life exercise directive judgement in Ecclesiastique affairs yet being so small a number in respect of worldlings and it being impossible in this world to distinguish them or to avoyd but that while they vote together with worldlings their votes will be over-ruled by worldlings for these causes the being inwardly a