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

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65715	A sermon in confutation of R. H. the author of The guide in controversies Shewing that his most plausible arguments produced against Protestants, do more effectually conclude for Judaism against Christianity. By Daniel Whitby, D.D. chantor of the church of Sarum.	Whitby, Daniel, 1638-1726.	1679 (1679)	Wing W1736A; ESTC R222007	21,763	39

Numb xi 17. Moreover God promised to the Sanhedrim that he would put the spirit of Moses upon them and in compliance with that promise he came down in a Cloud and took the spirit which was upon Moses and gave it to the seventy Elders so that they Prophesied and did not cease Or 6. Do they argue for their infallibility because the Church is stiled by St. Paul 1 Tim. iii. 15. the pillar and the ground of truth by reason of that truth which is preserved by her Governours Answ God also hath declared touching his Priests Mal. ii 6. Zech. viii 3. that the law of truth was in their mouth and of Jerusalem that she should be called the City of truth And if the Church of Judah hath since failed so also hath the Church of Ephesus of which alone St. Paul affirmeth that it was the pillar and the ground of truth 7. Eph. iv 11 12. Do they conclude that the Church-Guides must be infallible because God hath placed in the Church some Apostles some Prophets some Pastors and some Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine Answ Were not the Jewish Priests placed also for this end for the work of their Ministry the perfecting of their Saints the edifying of their Flocks Were not their lips to preserve that knowledg which should restrain the people from their errors Ezek. xxxiv 4. Were not they appointed to heal that which was sick and bring again that which was strayed Or Lastly Do they triumph in that promise of our Lord Matth. xvi 18. that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against the Church Answ Jer. xxxiii 20 21. God also promised that his Covenant made with his Levites Priests and Ministers should be as certain and perpetual as that of day and night So that I need not add that by this Phrase Essay Chap. 3. Christ only promiseth that pious Christians shall not for ever be detained under the power of the grave which I have elsewhere shewed to be the natural and only import of these words the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church Moreover the plain meaning of the foregoing words viz. Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church is as a Si quia dixerit Petro Dominus Super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam id circo praesumis ad te derivasse solvendi ligandi potestatem qualis es evertens commutans manifestum domini intentionem personaliter N.B. hoc Petro conferentem sic enim exitus docet in ipso Ecclesia exstructa est id est per ipsum ipse primus in Christi Baptismo reseravit aditum caelestis Regni De Pudicitia cap. 21. p. 574. B. Tertullian well informs us only this Thou who hast first of all my Disciples acknowledged me to be the Christ thou shalt first preach this Doctrine to the World and by so doing lay the first foundations of a Christian Church Which he accordingly performed first laying the foundation of a b Acts 2.41 Church among the Jews by the conversion of three thousand souls And after laying the foundation of a Church amongst the Gentiles by the conversion of Cornelius and his friends Christ having to fulfil his promise c Acts 15.7 made choice of him among the rest of the Apostles that the Gentiles by his mouth should hear the word of the Gospel and believe Now to pretend to be St. Peters Successor in this matter is in effect to say that the foundations of a Christian Church are not yet laid If therefore Roman Catholicks conclude from these ambiguous and obscure places for the infallibility of Councils or of the major part of the Church guides concurring with the Pope in any Sentence or Decree although these places do not speak one syllable of any Pope or major part of the Church-Guides and much less of the Romish Prelats and less of their infallible assistance what Ovations and Triumphs would they have made had it been said expresly of their Cardinals and Councils as it is said of Jewish Priests that they were set for judgment and for Controversie had God fixed his glorious presence at Rome as he did at Jerusalem and setled there a seat of Judgment and a continual Court of highest judicature as was that Sanhedrim which in Jerusalem was setled had he dwelt in St. Peters as he dwelt in the Temple had he left with them as he did with the Jewish Priests a standing Oracle a Vrim and a Thummim to consult with on all occasions so that this plea being much stronger for the infallibility of the Superiors of the Jewish Church than for the infallibility of the whole Western Church or any of its Councils the Roman Doctors must acknowledg either that they fallaciously urge it against Protestants or must confess that it stands also good against the Christian and is a confirmation of all those traditions which were condemned by our Saviour and a sufficient plea for all those errors and corruptions which as the Prophets do complain were generally taught and practised by the Church-Guides in the declining Ages of the Jewish Church V. Stillingfl Sermon upon Acts 24.14 p. 39. For if these Arguments be good now they were so then and if they were good then for ought that I can see the High Priest and the major part of the Church Rulers of the Jews were always in the right and Christ and his Apostles with the Holy Prophets must be in the wrong Moreover had we no evidence from Scripture may the Jew say in prosecution of this Argument reason seems very strongly to conclude for this submission of the common people and some few Priests to the concurring judgments of their Church-Guides and of the major part of Jews who joyned with then in condemnation of your Jesus as a Blasphemer and false Prophet and of his followers as Hereticks and Schismaticks or men who worshipped God after that way which by the Jews was called Heresie Acts 24.14 ibid. v. 5. and were Ring-leaders of a Sect. For still to argue after the manner of the Romish Doctors 1. Is it not reasonable to conceive that they who were Gods Ministers appointed for this very thing to judg in controversial matters and to make tryal of such as did pretend to Prophesie as was the Jewish Sanhedrim I say is it not reasonable to conceive that the assistance of the Holy Spirit should be vouchsafed to these Rulers of the Church and Doctors of the Law rather than to those common people who bore no such relation to God had no commission from him to direct others in the meaning of his word but had so many and such express injunctions to seek it at the mouth of their Church-Guides Can we

sighted Person should profess himself certain that an object is white when a multitude of others the most clear sighted that can be found having all the same means of a right sensation as he hath pronounce it black or of another colour V. Rational account disc 2. Chap. 5. §. 42. p. 141. Moreover if these Scriptures or reasons be so clear even to the ignorant and unlearned Jew must they not be as clear to their Church-Guides and may not then their judgments more securely be rely'd upon at least for any thing which is presumed to be clear Disc Chap. 3. §. 37. p. 24. For if Scriptures be maintained so clear in necessaries that every one using a right endeavour cannot mistake in them then shall the Church Governours much rather by reason of this clearness obvious to every Rustick not err in them and so shall the people the more the Rule of faith is proved to be clear the more securely rely on and be referred in them to their direction 4. If you pretend a more sincere endeavour in those few converts to find out the sense of Scripture or search out the truth in these matters which in the case of the Beraeans your Scripture seemeth to assert Answ I Answer still with the same Author Disc Chap. 1. p. 4 5. that since all parties do pretend sincere endeavour in the right understanding of the Scriptures and after it do differ so much in their sense of it it follows that such sincere endeavours being indifferently allowed to all parties the sense of Scripture and the verdict of true reason ought to be pronounced clear if on any on that side as the major part doth apprehend it which certainly was not the Primitive Converts but the unbelieving Jews and their Ecclesiastical Superiors Ibid. p. 24. For surely we have reason to presume that the Chief Guides of the Church in their consults concerning a point necessary to Salvation delivered in Scripture as that of the Messiah was use at least so much endeavour as a plain Rustick doth to understand the meaning of it And whatsoever other thing is supposed necessary besides sincere endeavour or is understood to be included in it as freedom from passion and secular Interest or also a freely professing the truths which their sincere endeavour discovers to them none can rationally imagin but that these supream Church Governours should be as much or more disengaged herein than private men Ibid. p. 145. And that passion and interest blind private men or our selves sooner than General Councils or a major part of the Church See therefore here the wisdom of the unbelieving Jews who to preserve themselves from erring in this matter made use of the securest way that reason could imagine Rat. Account Disc 1. Chap. 7. §. 77. p. 74. saith R. H. or that Christians are prescribed whilst for the sense of the Scriptures that were controverted in this point of the Messiah they chose not to rely on their own judgments but on that of the Supremest Guides of the Church and Judges of Divine Truth that were afforded them on earth and so if they erred yet took the wisest course to have missed erring that Religion or Reason could dictate To which Guides also the subjects of this former Communion all believed submission of their private judgments to be due and to be commanded from whence also it follows that till they are convinced of error in this point viz. that no submission was due to the Decrees of all these Councils and the concurring judgment of those Spiritual Guides by whom your Jesus was condemned they are not capable of being convinced in any other matter If lastly you affirm that the common people had conviction and demonstration from the Miracles of Christ of the falshood of the Decrees and the Interpretations of their Church Guides in this matter and of the truth of that Christianity which they embraced in opposition to those said Decrees Answ This I confess is a great truth but then the Roman Doctors cannot plead it without rejecting most of their professed Tenets and their strongest pleas for absolute submission to the Major part of their Church Guides For 1. Admit our Saviour and his Apostles wrought true Miracles how did the vulgar perceive them so to be but by their senses and how did they infer from them the truth of Christianity but by their private Reasons Rat. Account Disc 1. Chap. 6. §. 62. p. 63. Now the evidence of sense and reason must be both neglected saith the Romanist when a Divine Revelation declares any thing contrary to them This and this only being their defence of Transubstantiation against the common sense and reason of mankind Now of the certainty of a Divine Revelation or the true sense of Scripture they make the judgment of the Major part of their Church Guides to be sufficient evidences and so there was sufficient evidence according to this Rule that all the Miracles which Christ and his Apostles seemed to work were done in opposition to Divine Revelation or the true sense of Scripture 2. Certain it is that the Rulers of the Jews and the prevailing part of the whole Nation differed from the converted Christians in their apprehensions of these Miracles and judged them all Diabolical Impostures or trials of their Faith c. Rat. Account Disc 4. Cons 2. p. 384. Now this seems necessary to be granted saith R. H. that in what kind of knowledg soever it be whether of our sense or reason in what ever Art or Science one can never rightly assure himself concerning his own knowledg that he is certain of any thing for a truth which all or most others of the same or better abilities for their cognoscitive faculties in all the same external means or grounds of the knowledg thereof do pronounce an error So that where all or most differ from me it seems a strange pride not to imagine this defect in my self rather than them especially when as all the grounds of my science are communicated to them and when as for my own mistakes I cannot know exactly the extent of supernatural delusions According therefore to this Rule it was strange pride in the first Converts to Christianity among the Jews to judg the Miracles of Christ or his Apostles true when most of their own Nation as well as Heathens differed from them in that apprehension and spake so freely every where against the Sect of Christians 3. The truth of the pretences of our Lord and his Apostles depended on two things Stillingfl ibid. p. 42. viz. the fulfilling of Prophesies and the truth of his Miracles Now according to the Roman Principles no man could be certain of the truth of either of these without the Authority of the then present Church For the fulfilling of Prophesies depended on the sense of many obscure places of Scripture of which say they the Major part of the Church-Guides must judg And

for Miracles they tell us that there is no certain way of judging true from false but by the Authority of the Church Now if these things be so what ground could the first Jewish Converts have to believe Christ was the true Messiah or a worker of true Miracles when in believing both these things they must oppose the Authority of the then present Church 4. All that hath been discoursed in answer to the former pleas serves also against this For who shall be judg whether these Miracles were true and were sufficient to confirm the Christian Faith those Persons whose Office it was to judg both of true Prophets and true Miracles or those who had no power or commission so to do Was not the Jewish Sanhedrim and other Rulers of that Church more able Judges of the Truth and the validity of any Miracles pretended to be wrought by Christ and his Apostles than was that Multitude which as experience teacheth may be imposed upon with ease Were not those Guides who were appointed to be Judges in all other matters the proper Judges of this Controversie Have we not reason to believe their judgment was as free from interest and passion and their endeavors to search out the truth of these relations as sincere as was the judgment or endeavours of the Laity When therefore these Church-Guides did notwithstanding those pretended Miracles of Christ and his Apostles conclude unanimously that Christ was a Deceiver was it not absurd to say that what they so universally determined might be discerned by any private judgment to be the clearest falshood that vulgar persons had demonstration in this matter against the judgment of the whole body of their Guides and that their common reason was able to discern that to be manifestly true which the same common reason of their Superiors judged to be manifestly false Thus have we seen that Scripture and Reason do more countenance the Jew pleading against our Lord and the first Christian Converts than they do countenance the Papist pleading against Protestants In the last place the Jew may argue from Tradition thus viz. These Spiritual Guides in making this determination and passing of this judgment concerning Jesus were guided by that Rule Synod Tri● Sess 4. which by the greatest part of Christians I mean the Roman Catholicks is highly magnified and equaled with the Holy Scriptures viz. Tradition acknowledged by the present Church for such And so your Jesus must also upon this account be deemed an Impostor or the pretences and pleadings of the Romanist against the Protestant from the Tradition of the Church must be acknowledged to be vain For 1. It is most certain that the Jews had a Tradition generally received amongst them that their Messiah at his coming should restore the Kingdom to Israel That he should subdue the Nations under them and should erect a Temporal Dominion in the Jewish Nation over all their Enemies Even the Disciples of our Lord did constantly believe this Article till by the Holy Ghosts descent upon them they were better informed Matth. xviii 1. Matth. xx 21. Witness their contests who should be greatest in that Kingdom and the desire of the Sons of Zebedee to sit one at his right hand another at his left hand in it This was our Faith saith Cleopas Luke xxiv 21 we trusted that this Jesus should have Redeemed our Israel And when they were assembled after the Resurrection their first enquiry is this Act. i. 6. Lord wilt thou now restore the Kingdom to Israel It is therefore certain that this was the received Tradition of the whole Jewish Church grounded as they supposed upon the Scriptures which did necessitate them to expect a glorious Messiah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dial. p. 249. B. not such a one saith Trypho as your mean and despised Jesus was 2. It was also a Tradition which generally obtained amongst the Jews that their Elias who was called the This bite was to appear again in person before the advent of the true Messiah Mal. iv 5. so was that place of Malachi Translated by the Seventy three hundred and eighty years before our Saviours coming Behold I send unto you Elias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the great and glorious day of the Lord come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dial. p. 268. A. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark ix 11. All we expect saith Trypho that Christ should be anointed by Elias who is for to come and because this Elias is not come we think your Jesus cannot be the Christ Accordingly the Scribes or the Expounders of the Law did with one voice declare it necessary that Elias should first come 3. It was the general Tradition of the Jews that the Law of Moses should be perpetually obliging to them and that it was to be observed even in the days of the Messiah On this presumption certainly it was that Christs Disciples after his Resurrection were strict observers of the Law of Moses for a considerable time and so were also many thousands of the Jewish Converts St. Peter was so nice in observation of the Jewish customs that till he was informed better by a vision he thought such meat was utterly unlawful as was forbidden by the Law so that when in that vision he was bid to slay and eat he presently cries out as a man tempted to an unlawful act Act. x. 14. Not so Lord for I have never eaten any thing that is unclean St. James gives an account to Paul of the great Zeal that all the Jewish Converts had to the Law of Moses in these words Act. xxi 20. Thou seest Brother how many thousand of Jews there are which believe and they are all zealous of the Law He farther tells him how highly they were all offended with him Verse 21. because they were informed he had taught that they were not obliged to yield obedience to the Constitutions and Customs of the Jewish Law and lastly doth exhort him to do what might be proper to cause these Zealots to believe that he also walked orderly and kept the Law Verse 24. a Chron. 2. St. Jerom and b Lib. 2. c. 45. Sulpicius inform us that fourteen immediate succeeding Bishops with their flocks were all observers of the Law of Moses And by the unbelieving Jews nothing was more abhorred than the thoughts of changing their Mosaick Customs For upon this account St. Stephen was accused of Blasphemy against Moses and the Law Act. vi 11 14. because he said that the Messiah should change the customs which Moses had delivered to them This accusation before the Scribes the Elders and High-Priest was deemed sufficient to prove him guilty of that capital offence of Blasphemy On this account they bring St. Paul before the judgment seat of Gallio because say they he did persuade men to worship God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. xviii 13. against or otherwise than was commanded by the Law of Moses