Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	divine_a	faith_n	revelation_n	3,458	5	9.7228	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A00726	A learned sermon preached before the King at VVhitehall, on Friday the 16 of March: by M. Doctor Field: Chaplaine to his Maiestie; Learned sermon preached before the King at Whitehall, on Friday the 16 of March.	Field, Richard, 1561-1616.	1604 (1604)	STC 10855; ESTC S115098	14,831	44

they find amongst vs they obserue wherin each man is most likely to excell and imploy him accordingly some in writing some in reading some in preaching some in disputing they haue some for Schoole diuinitie some for positiue ●ome for the studie of the Fathers and courses of antiquitie But with vs all the● things are neglected and therefore 〈◊〉 goe before vs not in the goodnes of 〈◊〉 cause but in the good and wise managing of an euill cause For I dare vndertake that if a choyce be made and me● may haue those helps encouragemen● that are fit for men so imployed this nationall Church will yeeld men more th●● matchable with the greatest of the aduerse faction in all those courses of learning wherein they seeme most to excell But to returne to the words of the Apostle we must contend not for thinge● indifferent not mistaking one another but for the maintenaunce of the fayth A●● the name of hope sometimes signifieth the things we hope for as when the Apostle saith If we had hope onely in this life we were of all men the most miserable sometime the desire and expectation of the same thinges so the name of fayt● sometimes signifieth the act or habite of beleeuing sometimes that sum of Christian doctrine the conclusions wherea● are not demonstrable by reason but 〈◊〉 he belieued by faith This doctrine of fayth least we mistake it is described by two circumstances It was once deliuered and it was deliuered to the Saints It is said to haue been once deliuered to expresse the difference betweene the manner of the diuine reuelation formely and since Christ appeared For before the heauenly truth was reuealed not all at once but in diuers sorts and degrees according as the time wherein the reuelation vvas made was neerer or more remote from the appearing of Christ but in the last times God spake by his owne sonne and b● him at once deliuered all that that shal be knowne concerning himselfe till the ends of the world So that we which are Christians must be●●eue nothing but that which was deliuered at the first beginning of Christianitie So that the error of the Montanists is to be reiected which imagined that Christ reuealed not all the mysteries of his kingdome to Peter on whom he promised to build his Church to Iohn the disciple he ●o deerely loued which leaned on his breast at the mysticall supper and to the rest of that blessed company but reserued many things till the spirit descended vppon Montanus and his prophetesses as also the phrensie of those heretickes in Fraunce which affirmed that as the Father was author of the old Testament the Sonne of the New so the holy Ghost in the last times must be the author of a third which is a law of loue which because it is the last to continue for euer to haue none after it may as they suppose be rightly termed the eternall Gospell so abusing the place of the reuelations of Saint Iohn But passing by these errors of phanaticall and vaine men in that the faith is said to haue beene once deliuered we obserue two things the f●rst that that onelie is true which was deliuered at the first For howsoeuer many things be more fullie distinctly and expresly knowne in latter times then they were formerly yet they were deliuered at the first infolded in generalities out of which they are afterwards more distinctly and expresly deduced euen as a child when it is first borne hath all those parts of body that euer after it hath though not expressed and enlarged as afterwards they are as Vincentius Lerinensis most aptly noteth Secondly we may obserue that vvhatsoeuer may be proued to be most auncient is vndoubtedly true as being immediatly inspired from the spirit of truth Quod primum verissimum the truth is before the counterfeite the thing before the imitation of the thing the habite before priuation and good before euill the good seede was first sowed and then the enuious man came et superseminauit zizania and sowed tares where the good seede was before We deny not therefore but most willingly graunt vnto our aduersaries that Antiquitie is a note of the true Church not as if that Church were alwaies purest and most vncorrupt which first re●eiued the fayth and hath longest conti●ued in the profession of it for then the Aethiopian and Asian Churches would proue themselues as pure or purer then ●ny Churches in the world but because ●hat is the truest and purest Church which holdeth that doctrine and discipline that was first deliuered The Romanists are wont to stand much vppon this note of Antiquitie but hovv wil they proue they haue the faith which was first deliuered They proue it because they once had it and it cannot be shewed when they departed from it For aunswer wherevnto we say that in many things we can shew when the alteration beganne For who knoweth not that Charles the Emperour with threates and punishments forced all the Clergie in the Prouinces subiect vnto him to forsake the ancient formes of diuine seruice publique administration they had formerly vsed and to receiue the Romane order and that the Spanyards as beeing most stiffe in all theyr courses held their owne rites till in the time of Gregory the seauenth they were forced by Alphonsus the sixt to leaue them which they did not without great sorrow expressed with teares And though we could not preciselie note the time when theyr errors abuses entered into the Church yet the consequent were not good that therefore they haue not departed from the first and originall puritie For there are and haue beene many errors in the Church not onely so iudged by vs but confessed to be so by them the precise time of the beginning whereof is not knowne The opinion of the necessitie of giuing the Sacrament of the Lords body vnto infants and the practice of the same continued in the Latine Church as Maldonatus confesseth sixe hundred yeeres and is retained in all the Orientall Churches to this day This was an error and yet neyther the time when it began nor the author of it knowne The opinion that none shall see GOD nor enter into heauen till the resurrection was the error of many of the auncient yet the author of it the time when it beganne is vnknowne The opinion of two resurrections the one of the iust the other of the wicked there beeing betweene the one and the other aboue a thousand yeres was an error amongst the auncient the Author of ●t and the time when it beganne is not ●nowne To leaue these things that were auncient and to come to the things now priuayling in the Church of Rome it vvas the old custome that the Sacrament of the Lords body and blood was giuen to all that were present at the time of the mysticall blessing consecration and operation all the Catech●meni poenitents not communicants missis et exclusis being