Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	hear_v	word_n	write_v	3,062	5	5.4531	4	true

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

errors of what opinions assertions Truths they please without any manner of conviction To cry out It is not meet that such or such opinions should live or be tolerated as if life and toleration were an heritage appropriate and belonging of right to their opinions only how inconsistent soever either with reason or with Truth is little better testimony to the Truth of Iesus Christ than that deportment of the Jewes was unto Moses when they cryed out with a loud voyce stopping their eares and ran upon Stephen with one accord to cast him out of the Citie and stone him Acts 7. 57. But I trust their meaning is not that they intend by their Booke as solemn and Sacred a testimonie to their League and Covenant as they doe to the Truth of Jesus Christ 1. To assert the worth excellency of it with as high an hand with as much zeale vigour and vehemency of spirit as they intend to the Great Truths of Jesus Christ though they make no difference in words between the one and the other For otherwise the solemne Covenant they speake of being onely matter of engagement not of assertion or opinion I know not what testimony it is capable of unlesse they will call a regular full and through observation of it a testimony unto it which is a testimony if testimony it be unpossible to be rendered unto it in this or in any other booke or writing whatsoever the best part of this testimony consisting in going before one another in a reall not verball reformation But what it is they meane or would have others to conceive they should meane by calling their piece a testimony unto our Solemne League and Covenant I solemnly and seriously professe is above the reach of my understanding or learning reasonably to imagine Have I not then reason to doubt whether any of those men of renowne and not rather some petty Scribe was the Compiler of it 3. Whereas to amplifie and enrich their Title they adde over and above the former expressions of a Testimony to the truth of Jesus Christ and And to our Solemne League and Covenant these words As also against the Errours Heresies and Blasphemies of these times the Toleration of them I submissively demand of them whether there be any thing more any further matter of consequence held forth in these words above what was contained in those first words A testimony to the Truth of Jesus Christ If so I desire to know where or in what part of the booke they give testimony unto the Truth of Jesus Christ and again where and in what other part of it they give testimony against Errours and Heresies I can finde no other Testimony given in it to the Truth of Jesus Christ but onely that which I confesse is very unproperly so called which stands in a citation of certaine passages or sayings out of other mens writings imperiously sentenced for Errours and Heresies as if the Chaire of Papall infallibility were of late translated from Rome to Sion-Colledge If not they shall doe honestly and well in the next Impression of the booke though it had been more honesty to have done it in the first to leave out of their Title the false flourish of A testimony to the Truth of Iesus Christ as also those words And to our solemne League and Covenant there being no such thing in all the booke as any testimony thereunto and content themselves onely with calling it A Testimony against Errors and Heresies onely mollifying it with this soft and Christian explication as we count and call Errors and Heresies For certainly there are in these papers that are so called Errors many and Heresies many which yet have nothing of the nature but onely the names of both So then these words in the Title As also against errors c. being so meerly and broadly tautologicall and empty are a ground of conjecture unto me that the men prenamed with their compeeres are wholly innocent from the offence committed in making the book 4. Whereas the Title is yet further extended by the addition of these words And the Toleration of them which is a meere non-ens a thing not in being I cannot conceive that the judgements or parts of the said persons should so farre faile them as to appeare in print and that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with a testimony in their pens against that of which God made the world I mean nothing or that which is not I might further adde nor is ever like to be For if a captious pen had the expression in hand it would finde no difficulty at all in carrying it into such a sense which would import a calumniating insinuation against the Parliament as if they were so inclinable to grant an universall Toleration of all Errors Heresies and Blasphemies that unlesse they were counterbalanced with the feare of displeasing these mens zeale burning so vehemently in opposition thereunto there were no other means under heaven to take them off from it yea it may not without some ground of probability be conceived that the Authours of these papers proclaime so loud their enmity against Toleration to make the friendship of all lukewarme and formall professors round about them being the great bulk of the Kingdome who know not what to doe what shift to make for a Religion if the State be not mercifull unto them in providing one or other for them But as farre as yet I have understood or doe for the present apprehend the Genius or temper of the Parliament in reference to an universall Toleration I have reason to judge them by many degrees further from it than to stand in need of the importune heat of these men to quench their inclinations to it 5. The Book it selfe being every whit as capable of bearing the Title of A testimony against Truth sound and orthodox opinions as against Errors and Heresies as hath already in part and will more fully appeare hereafter it is a peece of Incredibility to me that men of that note and interest of which the persons named with severall others of the same line are known to be should so prevanicate with their respective reputations as to prefix a single-coloured title before a parti-coloured book 6. Whereas all the Errors mustered together in the book are said in the title page to be collected out of their Authours own books alledged in the margine and yet in faire and full contradiction hereunto are said page 2. to be the very dregges and spawn of those old accursed Heresies which have been already condemned dead buried and rotten in their graves long agoe and are now by evill men and seducers raked out and revived by which this present generation however is fairly acquitted from being the authours of them Revivers being no Authours I cannot so farre undervalue the worth of the persons named as to judge them conscious of so grosse an oversight or consequently interessed in the composure of the