Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	day_n	lord_n	sabbath_n	1,964	5	9.6405	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30391	A modest survey of the most considerable things in a discourse lately published, entituled Naked truth written in a letter to a friend.; Selections. 1685	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1676 (1676)	Wing B5835; ESTC R16335	27,965	32

thousand years that were represented to him in his Visions they might have thought that had a literal meaning But in a matter of Government we cannot fancy how such mistakes could have been taken up 2. In things that were external and related to Government there were many concerned and so an innovation could not be easily brought about The people all looked on and were obliged to know to whom they owed obedience in things sacred the Clergy we may reasonably think were not so meek as to have submitted to any unwarranted Authority over them And if they had known they were equal to their Bishōps in order we cannot think but either out of a just zeal for asserting their freedom or out of an indignation at the miscarriages and insolence of some Bishops or out of an unwillingness to submit and obey which is natural to most people they had asserted their equality 3. Where different Churches among whom we see no commerce especially in the times of persecution do agree in any constitution we must suppose that came to them from some persons from whom they received common instruction This is an argument thought very convincing against Atheists when we show many things wherein all mankind agree which we cannot imagine how it should have been brought about if they had not common Parents who had derived these things to all their Posterity So how can it be imagined that from the Churches of Armenia and Persia in the East to those of Spain in the West from the African Churches in the South to our Brittish Churches in the North that had little or no correspondence together this constitution of the Church should have been Universally received and submitted to This was when no General Council could meet to appoint it and there was no Secular Prince to set it forward upon any Political account Now it cannot be imagined how this could have been brought about if their common Spiritual Fathers the Apostles had not agreed upon it when they first scattered to go over the World For we have no reason to think they did ever meet all together again 4. No Men do an ill thing or desire a change but upon some advantage or at least the Prospect and Hope of it And if the worst of men are to be measured by this I except Hectors in vice what must we judge of those whom we ought justly to pronounce the best of Men. Their being Bishops exposed them to the sharpest fury of their Persecutors they were but poor and mean excepting the Bishops of the great Cities they commonly were begun with in every new storm that was raised against the Church their labours were great for the care of the flock lay on them and they were unwearied in the discharge of their Pastoral care Can we think any Man would be fond of such a station to that degree as to violate the institution of Christ to arrive at it But with what face can any man suspect those Ages of such foul dealing upon whom the impressions of the lowliness of their Great Master were so deep and who were daily looking for a Cross and some cruel death with what assurance could they have prepared for such trials if out of pride and ambition they had been invading the rights of the other Churches and aspiring to an unjust domination over their Brethren 5. Suppose we could be prevailed on to think the whole Church was so abandoned the Bishops to their pride and the Priests to an heedless simplicity yet how can we reasonably think none of her enemies were so sharp-sighted as to discern and object this to them they had malice enough and if the Orders of Bishop and Presbyter were one at first but afterwards the Episcopal ambition had subdued the Priests under them some memory of it had been certainly preserved otherwise how should St. Ierome and the pretended Ambrose be supposed to have heard of it But if any such thing had been known is it possible to imagine that among all the Hereticks and Schismaticks that were in those Ages none should have charged it on the Church but on the contrary all of them had Bishops of their own and in the end when one arose that did condemn the order he had very few to follow him nor did his own party the Arians receive this at his hands Therefore we have all reason to conclude that there was no such change made after the Apostles days for St. Ierome himself acknowledges the Apostles set this order up though he seems to insinuate it was not in the beginning of their planting the Church And it is very clear that Pseudo Ambrose gives us his own imaginations for Canonical Histories So from all these things put together I dare appeal to any man to say upon his Conscience if he is not perswaded the Episcopal Authority over the flock and the Clergy is clearly derived from the Apostles All this I have said more fully than perhaps seemed at first view needful but when I consider that though this Authour does confess the Episcopal Function to be of Apostolical institution yet over his whole Discourse there are many things said that do very much detract from that very acknowledgement which the force and evidence of truth drew from him in the beginning of that Chapter So that some suspect these words were only set down that upon such an introduction he might seem a friend and so wound both more securely and more mortally since also many who read and magnifie that discourse do with open mouth declame against this order I hope none will judge it impertinent if I have taken some pains to lay such things before them as may give new and fresh impressions of the Divine and Apostolical Origine of this holy Office All that remains yet to be considered is what answers to make to the Objections that Authour lays in our way His first objection is from the silence of the Scriptures to which the answer will be easily gathered from what has been said for if what I do suggest about the sence of Deacons in St. Paul's Epistles be true then the case is most clear but besides that there are manifest hints of a disparity or superiority in Scripture and these are expounded by so authentical and clear a Tradition that we are not more sure of the Change of the Iewish Sabbath into the Christian Lords day or of the Baptism of Infants or of the Canon of the Scripture than we are of this Apostolical institution It was necessary that all super natural revealed truths should have been clearly and fully expressed in Scripture and none of these left to the mistakes and misrepresentation of every Age but for matters of Government it was enough if general rules were given which the platform of the Churches then gathered did so explain that we have no reason to have scruples about it though a full and formal account of it be not left us The second objection is