Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	word_n	worship_v	write_n	13	3	8.2231	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03586	A learned discourse of iustification, workes, and how the foundation of faith is overthrowne. By Richard Hooker, sometimes fellow of Corpus Christi College in Oxford	Hooker, Richard, 1553 or 4-1600.; Jackson, Henry, 1586-1662.; Spenser, John, 1559-1614.	1612 (1612)	STC 13708; ESTC S121045	45,591	98

therefore their faith their beliefe doth not profitte them anye thing at all It is true that they doe indeed ioine other things with Christ but how Not in the worke of redemption it selfe which they graunt that Christ alone hath perfourmed sufficiently for the salvation of the whole world but in the application of this inestimable treasure that it may bee effectual to their salvation how demurely so ever they confesse that they seeke remission of sinnes no other wise then by the blood of Christ vsing humbly the meanes appointed by him to apply the benefite of holy blood they teach indeed so many things pernicious in Christian faith in setting downe the meanes whereof they speake that the very foundation of faith which they hold is thereby plainely overthrowne and the force of the blood of Iesus Christ extinguished Wee may therefore dispute with them vrge them even with as dangerous sequels as the Apostle doth the Galatians But I demand if some of those Galatians hartily imbracing the gospell of Christ sincere and sound in faith this one only errour excepted had ended their liues before they were ever taught how perilous an opinion they held shall we thinke that the damage of this error did so overway the benefit of their faith that the mercy of God might not saue them I graunt they overthrew the very foundatiō of faith by cōsequent doth not that so likewise which the Lutheran Churches doe at this day so stifly and so firmely mainetaine For mine own part I dare not here deny the possibility of their salvation which haue beene the chiefest instruments of ours albeit they caryed to their graue a perswasion so greatly repugnant to the truth Forasmuch therefore as it may be said of the Church of Rome shee hath yet a little strength shee doth not directly denie the foundatiō of Christianity I may I trust without offence perswade my selfe that thousands of our fathers in former times living and dying within her wals haue founde mercy at the hands of God 18 What although they repented not of their errours God forbid that I should open my mouth to gainsay that which Christ himselfe hath spoken Except yee repent yee shall all perish And if they did not repent they perished But withall note that wee haue the benefit of a double repentance the least sinne which wee commit in deed thought or word is death without repentance Yet how manie things do escape vs in everie of these which we do not know how many which we do not obserue to be sins And without the knowledge without the observation of sin there is no actuall repētance It cannot then be chosen but that for as many as hold the foundation and haue all holden sins errors in hatred the blessing of repentance for vnknowne sins and errors is obtained at the hands of God through the gracious mediation of Iesus Christ for such suiters as cry with the Prophet David Purge me O Lord from my secret sinnes 19 But we wash a wall of lome we labor in vaine all this is nothing it doth not proue it cannot iustifie that which we go about to mainetaine Infidels and heathen men are not so godlesse but that they may no doubt cry God mercie and desire in generall to haue their sinnes forgiven them To such as deny the foundation of faith there can be no salvation according to the ordinary course which God doth vse in saving mē without a particular repentance of that error The Galatians thinking that vnlesse they were circūcised they could not be saved overthrew the foundations of faith directly therefore if any of them did die so perswaded whether before or after they told of their errour their end is dreadfull there is no way with them but one death and condemnation For the Apostle speaketh nothing of men departed but saith generally of all If you be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing You are abolished from Christ whosoever are iustified by the law ye are fallen from grace Gal. 5. Of them in the Church of Rome the reason is the same For whom Antichrist hath seduced concerning them did not S. Paul speake long before that they received not the word of truth they might not bee saved therefore God would send them strong delusions to belieue lyes that all they might be damned which beleeved not the truth but had pleasure in vnrighteousnes And S. Iohn All that dwell vpon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the booke of life Apoc. 13. Indeed many in former times as their bookes and writings do yet shew held the foundation to weet salvation by Christ alone therefore might be saved God hath alwaies had a church amongst them which firmly kept his saving truth As for such as hold with the church of Rome that we cannot bee saved by Christ alone without workes they doe not onely by a circle of consequence but directly deny the foundation of faith they hold it not no not so much as by a threed 20 This to my remembraunce being all that hath beene opposed with any countenance or shew of reason I hope if this be answered the cause in question is at an end Concerning generall repentance therefore what a murtherer a blasphemer an vncleane person a Turke a Jew any sinner to escape the wrath of God by a generall repentance God forgiue me Truely it never came within mine hart that a generall repentance doth serue for all sinnes it serveth only for the common oversights of our sinfull life and for the faults which either we do not marke or doe not know that they are faults Our fathers were actually penitent for sins wherein they knew they displeased God or else they fal not within the compasse of my first speech Againe that otherwise they could not be saved then holding the foundation of Christian faith we haue not only affirmed but proved Why is it not then confessed that thousands of our fathers which liued in Popish superstitions might yet by the mercy of God be saved First if they had directly denied the very foūdations of christianity without repenting them particularlie of that sin he which saith there could be no salvation for them according to the ordinary course which God doth vse in saving men granteth plainly or at the least closely insinuateth that an extraordinary priviledge of mercie might deliver their soules from hell which is more thē I required Secondly if the foundation be denied it is denied for feare of some heresie which the church of Rome maintaineth But how many were there amōgst our fathers who being seduced by the common errour of that Church never knew the meaning of her heresies So that although all popish heretiques did perish thousands of them which lived in popish superstitions might bee saved Thirdly seeing all that held popish heresies did not hold all the heresies of the Pope why might not thousands which were infected with other leven liue and die

be overborne shal they be compast about by the wicked But the Prophet doth not only complaine Lorde how commeth it to passe that thou handlest vs so hardly of whom thy name is called and bearest with the heathen nations that dispise thee No he breaketh out through extremity of griefe and inferreth violently This procesding is perverse the righteous are thus handled therefore perverse iudgement doth proceede 9 Which illation containeth many things whereof it were better much both for you to heare me to speake if necessity did not draw me to an other taske Paule and Barnabas being requested to preach the same things againe which once they had preached thought it their dueties to satisfie the godly desires of men sincerely affected to the truth Nor may it seeme burdenous to me or for yee vnprofitable that I follow their example for the like occasiō vnto theirs being offered me When we had last the Epistle of S. Paule to the Hebrewes in hand and of that Epistle these words In these last daies he hath spoken vnto vs by his Sonne After we had thēce collected the nature of the visible Church of Christ had defined it to be a community of men a sanctified through the profession of the truth which God hath taught the world by his Son and had declared that the scope of Christian doctrine is the comfort of them whose harts are overcharged with the burden of sin and had proved that the doctrine professed in the Church of Rome doth bereaue men of comfort both in their liues and in their deathes the conclusion in the end wherevnto we came was this the church of Rome being in faith so corrupted as shee is and refusing to be reformed as shee doth we are to sever our selues from her The example of our fathers may not retaine vs in communion with that church vnder hope that we so continuing may be saved as well as they God I doubte not was mercifull to saue thousands of them though they lived in Popish superstitions in asmuch as they sinned ignorantly But the truth is now laide before our eies The former part of this last sentence namely these wordes I doubt not but God was mercifull to saue thousands of our fathers living in popish superstitions in as much as they sinned ignorantly this sentence I beseech you to marke and to sift it with the severity of austere iudgement that if it be found to be golde it may be sutable to the precious foundation whereon it was then laid for I protest that if it bee hay or stubble my owne hand shall set fire to it Two questions haue risen by reason of this speech before alleaged The one whether our fathers infected with Popish errors and superstitions may be saved The other whether their ignorance be a reasonable inducement to make vs thinke they might We are then to examine first what possibility then what probability there is that God might be mercifull vnto so many of our fathers 10 So many of our fathers living in popish superstitions yet by the mercie of God to be saved No this could not be God hath spoken by his angell from heaven vnto his people concerning Babilon by Babilon we vnderstand the church of Rome Go out of her my people that you be not pertaker of her plagues For answere wherevnto first I doe not take the words to bee meant only of temporall plagues of the corporal death sorrow famine fire wherevnto God in his wrath hath condemned Babilon and that to saue his chosen people from these plagues he saith Go out with like intent as in the Gospel speaking of Hierusalems desolations he saith Let thē that are in Iudaea fly vnto the mountaines and them that are in the midst thereof depart out or as in the former times to Lot Arise take thy wife thy daughters which are there lest thou be destroied in the punishment of the Cittie but for as much as here it is said Go out of Babilon we doubt their everlasting destruction which are partakers therein is either principally meant or necessarily implied in this sentence How then was it possible for so many of our fathers to bee saved sith they were so far from departing out of Babylon that they tooke her for their mother and in her bosome yeelded vp the ghost 11 First for the plagues being threatned vnto thē that are partakers in the sinnes of Babylon wee can define nothing concerning our fathers out of this sentence vnlesse we shew what the sinnes of Babylon bee and what they bee which are such partakers of them that their everlasting plagues are inevitable The sinnes which may bee common both to them of the Church of Rome and to others departed thence must bee severed from this question He which saith Depart out of Babylon least you be partakers of her sinnes sheweth plainly that he meaneth such sinnes as except we separate our selues we haue no power in the world to avoid such impieties as by the law they haue established wherevnto all that are among them either doe indeed assent or else are by powerable meanes forced in shew and apparance to subiect themselues As for example in the Church of Rome it is maintained that the same credit and reverence that wee giue to the Scriptures of God ought also to be given to vnwritten verities that the Pope is supreame head ministeriall over the vniversall Church militant that the bread in the Eucharist is transubstantiated into Christ that it is to be adored to be offered vp vnto God as a sacrifice propitiatorie for quicke and dead that Images are to bee worshipped Saints to be called vpon as intercessors and such like Now because some heresies doe concerne things only beleeved as the transubstantiation of the sacramentall elements in the Eucharist some concerne things which are practised and put in vre as the adoration of the elements transubstantiated wee must note that erroniously the practise of that is sometime received whereof the doctrine that teacheth it is not heretically maintained They are all partakers in the maintenance of heresies who by worde or deed allow them knowing them although not knowing them to be heresies as also they and that most dangerously of all others who knowing heresie to bee heresie do notwithstanding in worldly respects make semblance of allowing that which in hart iudgment they condemne but heresie is heretically maintained by such as obstinately hold it after holesome admonition Of the last sort as of the next before I make no doubt but that their condemnation without an actual repentāce is inevitable Least any mantherefore should think that in speaking of our fathers I should speak indifferently of them all let my words I beseech you bee wel marked I doubt not but God was merciful to saue thousands of our fathers which thing I will now by Gods assistance set more plainely before your eies 12 Many are partakers of the error which