Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	authority_n	scripture_n	true_a	1,595	5	4.7953	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85415	Sion-Colledg visited. Or, Some briefe animadversions upon a pamphlet lately published, under the title of, A testimonie to the truth of Jesus Christ, and to our Solemne League and Covenant, &c. Subscribed (as is pretended) by the ministers of Christ within the province of London. Calculated more especially for the vindication of certaine passages cited out of the writings of J.G. in the said pamphlet, with the black brand of infamous and pernicious errors, and which the said ministers pretend (amongst other errors so called) more particularly to abhominate. Wherein the indirect and most un-Christian dealings of the said ministers, in charging & calling manifest and cleere truths, yea such as are consonant to their own principles, by the name of infamous and pernicious errours, are detected and laid open to the kingdome, and the whole world. / By the said John Goodwin, a servant of God and men, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1648 (1648)	Wing G1202; Thomason E425_2; ESTC R202233	27,686	36

Sion-Colledg visited OR Some briefe Animadversions upon a Pamphlet lately published under the title of A Testimonie to the Truth of Jesus Christ and to our Solemne League and Covenant c. Subscribed as is pretended by the Ministers of Christ within the Province of London Calculated more especially for the vindication of certaine passages cited out of the writings of J. G. in the said pamphlet with the blacke brand of Infamous and pernicious Errors and which the said Ministers pretend amongst other errors so called more particularly to abhominate Wherein the indirect and most un-Christian dealings of the said Ministers in charging calling manifest and cleere Truths yea such as are consonant to their own principles by the Name of infamous and pernicious Errours are detected and laid open to the Kingdome and the whole world By the said John Goodwin a servant of God and men in the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST I write not these things to shame you but as my Beloved Brethren I warne you 1 Cor. 4. 14. Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Non sentimus nos p●rire dum perimus in turba Sen. LONDON Printed by M. S. for Henry Overton at the entring out of Lombard-street into Popes head Alley 1648 Sion-Colledge visited IT is a sad Observation but full of truth that Religion never had greater enemies than those of her owne house yea then those who were pretenders in the Highest to her Advancement When a Commoditie is ingrossed and brought into few mens hands it is so much the more like to suffer to be adulterated and imbased It was never well with Christian Religion since the Ministers of the Gospell so called by themselves and so reputed by the generality of men for want of knowing and considering better cunningly vested that priviledge of the Church of being the ground and pillar of Truth in themselves claiming Nebuchadnezzars prerogative amongst men over the Truths of God whom he would he slew and whom he would he kept alive and whom he would he set up and whom he would he put down b There came lately out of the Presse a few papers stiling themselves a testimonie to the truth of Jesus Christ and pretending to a subscription by the Ministers of Christ within the Province of London I wish for these Ministers sake to whom I appeale to him who searcheth my heart and reines I wish nothing but good and for the truths sake also that I could conceive the impudence or boldnesse of any man so great as to present them in print unto the world for the Authors or Subscribers of such a piece of weakenesse to forbeare words of more provocation though of truth without their knowledge or consent I should be enabled by such an apprehension both to maintain in my selfe at least for a time those honourable thoughts of their persons which my witnesse is on high I have alwayes unfeignedly laboured to doe though still opposed by themselves in my way as also to comfort my selfe over that Religion wch they I Joyntly professe that it should not suffer upon any such terms of disadvantage dishonour wch those papers if ever owned by the persons whose names are subscribed to them are like to expose it unto The image and superscription stamp'd upon the piece and the men especially some of them whose Names are affixed if not enforced to it are so unlike and contradictious the one unto the other that being not able to found an act of judgement or conjecture who should be the Author or Authors of it upon both joyntly I am in some streight on which hand to leane whether to judge conclude any of those learned and pious men whose Names are subscribed or those weake and unworthy ones whose image and superscription the piece beareth for the Authors of it But that neither Dr Gouge nor Mr. Calamy nor Mr Case nor Mr. Cranford nor any of those great Names of men which parallel with these were either the Authors or Subscribers of the said Pamphlet these considerations me-thinks should be sufficient demonstrations unto any man 1. The very title it selfe and that in the first and principall part of it contradicts the tenour of the Booke and that in more places than one The title pretendeth thus in the first words of it A testimonie to the Truth of Jesus Christ Whereas the Booke it selfe testifieth against the truth of Jesus Christ viz. by numbring the precious Truths of Jesus Christ amongst infamous and pernicious errours Witnesse 1. page 5. where this assertion that no writing whatsoever whether Translations or Originalls are the foundation of Christian Religion is made an infamous and pernicious errour For is not this a cleer Truth of Iesus Christ and asserted in part in terminis but with fulnesse of evidence otherwise by the great Apostle where he saith that other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Iesus Christ a Except Iesus Christ be transubstantiated into inke and paper no kind of bookes or writings whatsoever neither Translations nor Originals can be in the Apostles sence any foundation of Christian Religion Againe is it not a precious Truth of Iesus Christ that no act of man whatsoever is any foundation of Christian Religon the Apostle affirming as we heard that other foundation can no man lay but Iesus Christ and yet the denyall of the act of man to be a foundation of Christian Religion as viz. the believing of the English Scriptures to be the Word of God is by the said book pag. 5. rank'd amongst infamous and pernicious Errours The Scriptures indeed or the word of God are in a regular sence the foundation of Christian Religion but to believe them to bee this foundation cannot be the foundation it selfe but only a superstructure or building upon it So that it is only the deniall of a superstructure to be the foundation which is charged by this learned Province of Subscribers to be an infamous and pernicious Errour against the Divine Authority of Scriptures More instances of this kind by the light whereof the palpable interfeerings between the Title and the Booke it selfe may be cleerly seen we shall have occasion anon to observe And is it not a very hard piece of beliefe to thinke that learned and pious men should so far forget themselves in the body of their Book as to break the Head and title of it 2. In the latter part of the said title in these words and to our solemne League and Covenant there is too little good sence to answer the worth and parts of the men mentioned For what can reasonably be meant by a testimony to our Solemne League and Covenant Do they meane that in the Booke it selfe they give the same Testimony to their Solemne League and Covenant which they doe to the Truth of Iesus Christ Though the truth is that it is a very poor and empty testimony given to the Truth of Iesus Christ to make infamous pernioious

Priests or Clergy-men gravely met together in the Name and Authority of their sacred Unction to stigmatize what opinions they pleased for Errors and Heresies and so to render them uncleane and not lawfull to be received or beleeved by their blinde Proselites But the Day-spring from on high hath now blessed be God visited this nation and men have put away those childish things from them to beleeve as the Church i. as the Clergy beleeveth to call Error whatsoever 52. Church-men though in conjunction with threescore Church-livings or more shall baptize by the name of Error to build their Faith and soul-provisions for eternity upon the sandy and slippery foundations of the judgements or affections rather of such men who have put the stumbling-block of their iniquity I mean this present world and self-interests before their faces These things considered evident it is that the Architects of the building called A Testimony to the truth of Jesus Christ c. have not laid so much as one stone aright in all this pile for their purpose of extirpating Errors or Heresies Therefore as to this point they have done nothing at all in pursuance of their Covenant but several things as hath been shewed to the violation of it The Covenant bindes them to endeavour the extirpation of Errors and Heresies and they have endeavoured or at least directly acted towards the establishment and further rooting of them Secondly neither have they pursued their Covenant according to the plain and true Grammaticall sense of it in pleading as they doe for Presbyteriall government For first it is the Assertion and Confession of that great Hyperaspistes of this government Mr. Edwards that the Covenant of the Kingdomes doth not tye us to the government of the Church of Scotland a If not so hardly then to Presbyteriall Government And secondly whether he had confessed it or no the truth it selfe hereof had been never the further out of the way For certain it is that there is not so much as any one syllable word clause or sentence in it by which according to the plain and true Grammaticall sense it engageth any man to the contending for or endeavouring of Presbytery Presbyterian Government is but Apochrypha in respect of the Covenant And though with Magisteriall confidence enough they conclude but without premisses pag. 24. that Presbyteriall government truly so called by Presbyteries and Synods is that Government which is most agreeable to the minde of Jesus Christ revealed in the Scripture yet as if their consciences had not taken the expression well at their hands by that time they come to page 34. they abate of their former reckoning halfe in halfe For here speaking of the Government they had declared for which say they we CONCEIVE to be most agreeable to Scripture But upon these termes they that should declare for the Independent government conceiving it to be most agreeable to the Scripture should pursue their engagement by the Covenant every whit as much as they Therefore in whatsoever they say or plead in their Testimony for Presbyterial government they do nothing at all in any pursuance of their Covenant according to the plain and true Grammaticall sense of it but only in pursuance of such an interpretation or sense of it which lying most commodious for their honour profit and ease hath by the mediation of their affections prepared it selfe a way into their judgements and hath there obtained the preheminence above all others it being very incident to men to suppose as the Apostle expresseth it gain godlinesse a i. in all matters of question and dispute to judge that most agreeable to the minde of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures which is best consisting with worldly ends So that howsoever they flourish in the front of their book as if they meant to give such an high and honorable Testimony to their Solemne league and Covenant and again in the reere as if they had accordingly avouched that Covenant which they have sworn to God b in this piece yet the cleare truth is that their flourish is all their fight they have not struck so much as one stroke with their pen in any legitimate or direct prosecution of their engagement by it And though it had been no great work of super-erogation in case they had done ten times more than now they have of such a tendency and import especially upon such a goodly frontispiece of pretence being also numerous enough if not many to spare and of super-abounding abilities for such a worke yet had they not violated this their Covenant and that ten times over yea and this in the most notorious and shamelesse manner in stead of keeping it they had consulted much better both for their credits and consciences than now they have done The truth is they have made more breaches upon their Covenant in this little piece than can readily be brought to account or ranged into form For how often doe they dissemble and prevaricate with their professions And again after all their shamelesse and most notorious prevarications and unconscionable dealings how doe they in the close wipe their mouthes with you know who professing that all that they had done was in the integrity of their hearts to discharge their dutie conscientiously in appearing for God his Truth and cause of Religion p. 34. But 1o Was it in the integrity of your hearis to discharge your duty conscientiously that you charge him with errors against the divine authority of the Scriptures as you doe page 5. who you cannot but know hath bent himselfe with the uttermost of his endeavoure for the vindication of their Divine Authority yea and who you have reason to judge hath laboured in this argument as much if not more and this with as much faithfulnesse as any of you all How did not your hearts smite yo in drawing up this bloody charge against him lest that very book of his which you had in your hands when you did it and which you cite in your margine should rise up in judgment against you in the great day considering that your consciences could not but tell you that he had dealt faithfully throughly and sincerely in pleading the cause of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures therein Is this your reall Reformation to cry out Midnight when the Sunne shines in his might upon your faces 2. Was it to discharge your duty conscientiously that you cite some of my words barely suppressing craftily my sence and explication of them being neer at hand as you do twice for failing in your wickednesse pag. 5. of your booke Or doe I not plainly cleerly and distinctly enough declare unto the world in my Treatise concerning the Divine Authority of the Scriptures in what sence I hold the Scriptures whether Translations or Originalls to be the word of God and consequently the foundation of Christian Religion and in what not Let the 13th and 15th pages of my said Treatise be look'd upon

piece 7. Whereas the subscribers of the book stile themselves in the title page not partitively some of the Ministers but collectively The Ministers of Christ within the Province of London there being to my knowledge several Ministers of Christ within the Province of London and those not of the abhorred order of Independency neither yet commensurable too both for parts worth with the tallest of the subscribers though not equall it may be to some of them in Church livings by two or three for whom God it seemeth hath provided a better thing than to suffer them to fall into the snare of so unworthy a Subscription I must dispense very farre with my thoughts concerning the goodnesse of the consciences of the men I have named wth their fellows to judge them so much as acquainted with the first page of the book I cannot so farre suspect their skill in Grammar as to suppose them ignorant of the difference between some of the Ministers of Christ and the Ministers of Christ simply nor would I willingly suspect the goodnesse of their consciences so farre as to think they would wittingly and only to ferve a turn as viz. to make the concurrence seeme the greater and more entire in the eyes of their simple ones write the one when as the truth would onely beare the other 8 Whereas they intitle their book A Testimony to our solemne league and covenant and pag. 28. acknowledge that neither is this nor any other Oath otherwise to be interpreted than according to the common plain and true Grammaticall sense of it confident I am that according to such an interpretation as this of the said Covenant they have not done any thing at all in a regular and due pursuance of it in this piece but severall things most notoriously and palpably against it and with the violation and breach of it First all they can with any tolerable colour pretend to be here done in pursuance of their Covenant may be recall'd to these two heads 1. That which is pretended to be done in order to the extirpation of Errors Heresies c. 2. Their pleading for Presbyterian government Now for the first that here is nothing done in any regular or due way for the extirpation of Errors Heresies c. is evident For what is it they doe in order hereunto To scrapple together a few sayings or passages out of severall mens books here and there without taking any notice or giving any account of their true sense and meaning in them yea and some of these as faire cleare obvious Truths as ever themselves delivered any yea sometimes to falsifie their sayings by leaving out some materiall words in the bodies of them and onely to clamor and cry out upon them and call them horrid and prodigious opinions as pag. 23. infamous and pernitious errors as pag. 5. the very dregges and spawn of those old accursed heresies c. pag. 4. Antiscripturisme Popery Arrianisme Socinianisme Arminianisme c. as pag. 33. I say onely to poure out floods of such reproachfull and foule language as this upon mens sayings or opinions without so much as levying one word of an argument against them to convince the Assertors or maintainers of them or without answering so much as any one reason or ground upon which they build such assertions is a course and practice not onely irrelative altogether to the extirpation of Errors and Heresies but very pertinent proper for the further propagation and radication of them For when men shall speak evill of that as an Error or Heresie against which they have nothing of moment or which is solid to oppose the Assertors may very reasonably suppose that they speak this evil of it not out of judgment as knowing it to be an error but out of affection only not being willing it should be owned for a Truth In which case they cannot lightly but be further confirmed in their error if error it be than before Again 2o when men shall rend or teare a parcell of words out of the body of a large and entire Discourse which may probably carry some face or appearance of an hard or unsound saying which notwithstanding by the Authors explication is reconciled made fully and fairly consistent with the Truth without so much as mentioning or intimating the Authors explication of himselfe in these words and then to insult and stamp with the foot and cry out Error Heresie Blasphemy Anti-scripturisme Arminianisme and I know not what will any man call this a way method or means for the extirpation of Error and Heresie and not rather a direct course to harden and strengthen men in both 3. When men for want of such sayings which are erroneous and hereticall indeed in the writings of such men whom their carnall interests call upon them to expose to the uttermost of their power to the publick infamy and reproach of being counted Erroneous and Hereticall shall pitch upon such passages and sayings for their purpose not which are ambiguous or of a doubtfull interpretation and so capable of a sinister or erroneous sense as well as of a good but which are pergnant and generally acknowledged truths yea and fairly consistent with their own principles I referre to the judgements and consciences of all men who lye not under the sad judgement of selfe-condemnation whether there be any thing regular or of any probable tendency in this for the extirpation of Errors and Heresies and not rather much which directly tends to the further radication of them They acknowledge and professe unto the world pag. 28. that they still stand as firmly engaged to the reall performance of their covenant with their uttermost endeavours as at the first taking of it I appeale to their own consciences let these judge whether barely to cite a few mens sayings and severall of these rationall orthodox and sound according to their Authors sense and explication without so much as shewing or pointing where or in what part of these sayings the supposed error should lye be the utmost of their endeavours for the extirpation of Errors and Heresies If it be then are they most unworthy their places in the Ministery if it be not then are they covenant-breakers by their owne confession And whether the Authors of the Subscribed piece now under examination have therein done any more than what hath been now mentioned in order to the extirpation of errors heresies I am freely willing to make themselves Judges The night is too farre spent for them to think that men even of ordinary judgement or consideration will now measure or judge of Error and Truth onely by their Magisteriall votes or imperious decisions either because they are a multitude or because they lay claim to Moses Chaire calling themselves the Ministers of Christ Indeed when it was midnight the grosse darknesse of Popish ignorance and superstition as yet spread upon the face of the nation it was enough for a Province of