Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	faith_n	religion_n	true_a	4,659	5	4.8297	4	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

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

we may no more for respect of persons be they Popes or whatsoever call good evill or evill good then we may for respect of persons break the Commandments of God Nor is it more to be abhorred as a popish corruption to use the Ordinances of Popes which are not wicked Ordinances in themselves than blessing the people of in the words wherewith Balaam blessed them is to be abhorred as a Balaamish corruption for when by the names of Popish Jewish Heathenish c. we condemne any thing we all intend that the thing condemned is of the nature of those things wherein they were especially corrupt and not of the nature of their doings which were neither good nor evill and much lesse of the nature of those wherein they excelled So as to be popish simply being no argument of necessary faultinesse we must see whether our Liturgie partakes of any popish corruption or no To come readily to the matter when in all the whole Frame of our Liturgie there is no Worship nor Innovation but of the true God onely neither is he worshipped any other way than by the sole and immediate mediation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ there first can be no Idolatrous corruption in the Liturgie Secondly It cannot be Antichristian because that contrary to the proper work of Antichrist which is to deny the Son and the Father and as God in the Temple of God to exalt himself above all that is called God the Liturgie thorowout the whole course thereof makes an exact acknowledgement adoration and exaltation above all things whatsoever and as it acknowledges them in profession so there is not any thing in it whereby they are denyed in practice So as to call it Antichristian is a malicious slander against the clear truth examined by the Light and Rule of Gods Word Lastly It cannot be superstitious neither for howsoever in the performance of it there may be some few Ceremonies brought in which rightly weighed do perhaps conduce more to worldly solemnity and ostentation in Religion than to true and necessary religious decency and reverence and therefore would be laid down yet being things otherwise indifferent introduced for decency onely and not pressed as things of any other necessity they can at the worst be but errours of Judgement mistaking what is decent and orderly they cannot be superstitious seeing they are not made matters of Religion but of decency and order without which nothing ought to be done When then according to true understanding and intention nothing is meant popish but what partakes of the superstitious corruptions of the Popes the Liturgy of the English Church must needs be acquit and discharged not onely of the infamous calumny of being Idolatrous Antichristian and suspicious but even also of that malicious aspersion of popish And then it will follow That the censures of those sinners against their own souls who in and for these things do falsly judge censure and condemn their Mother Church and renounce obedience to her and communion with her because as they suppose she is popish superstitious idolatrous Antichristian their unjust censures I say will prove the condemnation of themselves both of uncharitablenesse of self-conceit and of insolent exalting themselves against the Church of God at least if not of Antichristian persecution of it also and the more for this That while they promise liberty and freedome from superstition they themselves become slaves unto superstition making a matter of Religion not to obey the Ordinance of their Church in things indifferent and where the Word of God doth not forbid obedience but command it This briefly touching the generall exceptions Popish Superstitious Idolatrous Antichristian As for the particular exception That in our Liturgy all prayer praise and thanksgiving is in a set Form a device of mans not the command of God a muzling of the Ministers spirit a nurse of idlenesse and means of neglecting the gifts and graces of God c. We must consider 1. That there is not any expresse Scripture against set Forms of prayer and therefore the use of it is not against any expresse command of God 2. All Christian Churches thorowout the world as well the Greek and Eastern where Popery never raigned as these our Western Churches when once they attained a setled Government have in all ages served God in set Forms of Divine Service yea even the reformed Churches beyond Sea use some set Forms And for our set Liturgy if any man lift to be contentious against it we can truely say It is the Custome of our Church and also of the Churches of God and then the depravers of it will prove to be despisers of Authority and advancers of their own private judgement against the Universall Judgment of the Church Catholique 3 Under the Law there were set Forms of publike Confessions Thanksgivings Blessings c. which being no part of the Ceremoniall is warrant enough for Christians to use the like 4. The Psalms of David which as they abound with all those necessary parts of Gods publike service confession of sins prayers Praise and Thanksgiving so especially with Prayer many of them having that Title A Prayer they were not onely used publikely by both the Jewes Church and the Christians but were penned to that end and dedicated to the Priests that had the Office of praising God and were most excellent in those kindes of Musick to which they were set and the most excellent passages of praise and prayer in them had the word Selah added to them to the end that in the publike use of them those passages might be iterated and said or sung over again Also our Saviour himself having given us one Form of set Prayer which he bids When ye pray Say and not at all forbidden the use of set Forms makes it out of question that to pray in a given Form is lawfull so the Form be good And what doubt we but when John Baptist taught his Disciples to pray he did it by giving them some Form which our Saviours Apostles liking desired to have the like from him and our Saviour we see did not so much give them Precepts and Rules instructing them how to make prayers of their own though his Prayer hath that office too but gave them a perfect prayer in an exact conceived Form how much should men fear that their conscience offended at the use of set prayer without the Light of Gods Word declaring it to be unlawfull are consciences blinded with superstition afraid where no fear is and their consciences not onely darkened but their hearts also seduced with self-conceit and singularity unto perverse and affected contention with the Church 5. While they pretend to be free Ministers from a supposed restraint put upon their spirits by the use of set Forms they lay a reall restraint upon the spirits of all Congregations who being always perfect in the Contents and use of their set prayers do with prepared hearts