Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A10111
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An exposition, and observations upon Saint Paul to the Galathians togither with incident quæstions debated, and motiues remoued, by Iohn Prime.
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Prime, John, 1550-1596.
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1587
(1587)
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STC 20369; ESTC S101192
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171,068
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326
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had thought that the name of Protestants had not beene so ancient and we gesse the books of Chronicles were not written in Latine so expresly to hit vpon the name of Protestantes and we take that the matter you alleadge is a flat story of the present fact not a fore-prophesieng of a future euent And we tel you and by occasion of your falsifieng master Pointes we tell the woorld you haue told a tale of a tub of the man in the Moon and of Protestants of your owne making How and when the Name of Protestantes came first vp May it please you brethren to bear with me and in a woord I shall shew you both why we are named Protestants and what the name of Protestants meaneth in that place of the scripture For Master Points is quite beside the Text. In the yeare of our Lorde * Sleid. Com. lib. 6. 1529 after sundry debateings precedent for the reformation of things amisse and some agreement accorded vpon in that respect yet it was put in the head of the Emperour how to deuise for a contrary course to be taken in a meeting at Spiers Whereupon the Princes of Germany were constrained to frame did frame out their lawful ProtestatioÌ A thing vsual and known in euery common court to protest against the iniquity or nullity of proceeding So did these Pieres Princes Nobles of Germany others associating themselues in so iust a cause concerning the honor of God and glory of his name Whereupon the name of Protesting and Protestantes was not vnwillingly accepted of al who misliked disorders And so it became a common appellation vnto this day And this is the true original or short and plaine narration to the demaund and motiue for the name of Protestants Now for the allegation of Points his Scripture and so may I cal it for the scripture it selfe is to another sense and if his grammer woulde serue him but to conster the woordes he would soone haue seene his palpable error Verily the meaning is that God sent his Prophets and his Prophets went and protesteth the wrath of God but there were not Protestants but there were that would not giue eare to the protestations of the Prophets quos Protestantes illi audire nolebant There were that woulde not hear the Protestants and these Protestants were Gods Prophets Religion goeth not by Names And hence if we would trifle in names we might make a faire shew by the name whence foolishly he seeketh our vtter shame But it is too vaine a labor to argue of names good or bad the one way or the other But backe againe to our purpose what euer we are called by you or otherwise are you called the catholick Church Who calleth you so Your selues We doe not But suppose you were so called Thinges goe not by names For then as the country-man saith we should haue no Wood-hens for all the birds of that kind are named and called Wood-cockes And were he not then a proper wise man that woulde ground his reason vpon common speach This were good for your Popes who hauing ill fauored faces and wriemouthes and woorse maners and yet when they can gette and clammer vp into the Papacy they change their names into words of flattering signification But you see names are not forceable proofes neither against others nor for themselues either for the goodnesse of their verie Popes or for the Catholicknesse and Motherdome of their Church The Rhomish dame is too ceremonious to be the free Mother 2 Secondly as the Romane Church being at the most when she was best but a Church and therefore not the Catholique whole Church so Rome as she is now she is too seruile a dame to be the Mother of those who are free and freed in christ She is too Ceremonious too Slauish too Peeuish in her Ceremonies and God which hath abolished his owne rites must needes abhor her trinkets which seeme to some faire and greatly adorning and gracifieng all like the Iuy about the Tree which in the ende will be the death of the tree it embraceth What are hir Duckings Beckings Fiskings vp and downe apish Illusions infinit endlesse and purposelesse Obseruations with terror of Conscience and trouble of mind onely occupied and set on woorke with friuolous wil-worships and fond conceats in euery thing to draw men from a solid and sound vnderstanding of the substantial points of true deuotion Col. 2. Touch not Tast not Handle not Eate not Marry not now but when we appoint not you but you whom we permit and al vpon pain of damnation peril of saluation in as many as misse the heauenly hestes of holy Rome Is this the spirit of Christ pacifieng our minds or rather intangling our soules with so many wind-laces The true worshippers Iohn 4.23 worship in spirite and truth And what spirit is there in these and these like toyes There is no substaunce no truth no graine but all chaffe in these eares in these filly-follies Reply to D.F. Pag. 119. No maruel if Bristow require in Christians not the spirit of truth but the spirite of obedience but of what Obedience To what And whom If men were but meanly directed by the truth it were impossible they shoulde so obediently delue and dig and so grouelingly serue in the mines and misteries of slauery it selfe Wherfore because Rome is not Catholicke because Rome is too too be-spanged and set about with Ceremonies vnfruitfully therefore she is none of our Mother nor we her children 3 The Catholick Church is not locally tied to any territory The motiue of the visibility of the Church Both for the consideration of Catholicisme and also for that shee descendeth FROM ABOVE and is by grace and holdeth not of any place and looketh vpward and seeketh those things which are aboue and setteth hir affections on heauenly things There is much adoe about the VISIBILITY of the Catholicke Church May I tary you now in sifting somewhat more that question a while Paul describeth the Church to be from aboue spiritually by speciall fauour and reflecting againe vpward in inward hartines and requisite dueties Our aduersaries seeke hir on earth and require hir to be liable to the ey and locally visible and that in Rome as Hierusalem was in Iurie where God for a time was best known We speak of the catholique Church * The Catholick Church property taken what it meaneth which is the society or company of all the Saints of God of al times and places the whole body whereof cannot bee seene nay the meanes whereby any part of the Church is made a part and continueth a part thereof is secret inward and inuisible and the certainty thereof is an article of faith and not obiect of the ey sight Credo Ecclesiam not Video Ecclesiam I beleeue that God hath a chosen Church and that the Lord knoweth who are his though I discerne it not by sense For the glory