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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	place_n	time_n	write_v	2,965	5	5.2112	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90720	Sectaries vnmasked and confuted. By the treating upon divers points of doctrine in debate betwixt the Presbyterialists and sectarists, Anabaptists, Independents, and Papists. / By George Palmer wel-wisher to a warrantable uniformity in godly religious exercises.	Palmer, George, b. 1596 or 7.	1647 (1647)	Wing P229; Thomason E396_27; ESTC R201662	58,190	61

have laboured to prove and maintain for truth Fourthly I am ready to receive a confutation in any thing wherein you can with either Scripture or Reason confute mee provided that you doe not argue against Scripture where a Babe may not onely read but as easily conclude what is truth Sixthly perhaps my plainnesse in phrase and method may dislike some that have more learning in the Tongues and other Liberall Arts to display truth with I intreat them to note what my end is in this my paines not to come with excellency of speech if I had it I aime at truth of matter for it is that which we have need of in these times Seventhly I beleeve that they are the vulgar sort of people that have most need of helpe in these Points I treat of for the Learned I hope there are not many of them that doe much miscarry in these things nor will dissent from the substantialls in them Eightly if I chance to come out a second time it may hap I may sore higher then some looke for but I would first appeare to the weakest for they are those that the wolves doe watch to make a prey of chiefly therefore I would endeavour to secure them and then I passe very little to meet with both Fox Wolfe and all the Frogs of Rome And so much I beleeve you will conclude upon when you see their skins so pulled about their eares as in this Booke they lye if a course be but timely taken with them they will rather be gone from us then stay to be so mangled as here they be Ninthly I intreat you to bee advised by mee in this one thing especially viz. when any Point is treated upon in any Booke wherein the Text to prove a Doctrine by is not expressed at large by the Author but the place named by figures onely there take good heed lest you too soone make a conclusion of a supposed truth before you looke in the Text it selfe for many Writers doe not rehearse the sentence it self but name the place and so goe on in argument with it and many times the Reader makes a conclusion as the Author of the booke doe conceive to bee the truth although it bee many times false therefore it were good that all Writers would rehearse the sentence of the Scripture they quote to prove any thing by at least in a matter that is of any great weight as in this Book I doe Another thing I intreat of you which is this that you will read seriously and minde onely that you read free from distraction or trouble of minde as you read and read through a Point from the beginning to the end when you read And when you have a Booke whose matter is sure Divinity and short for memory and plaine for capacity keep that by you to view continually I intreat the Reader to accept of this my good will to doe him good and by his so doing I shall bee well satisfied and bee ready in any way I may or can be able to be Your Servant George Palmer Canterbury June 11. 1647. Sectaries unmasked and confuted NO separation ought to bee in the Church of Christ nor divisions or forsaking the assemblies of our selves together in the publick Ordinances of godly and religious exercises Rom. 16. 17. Mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which yee have learned and avoid them c. 1 Cor. 1. 10. Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that yee all speak the same thing and that there bee no divisions among you but that yee bee perfectly joyned together in the same minde and in the same judgement And in Chap. 3. 3. Yee are yet carnall for whereas there is among you envie and strife and divisions are ye not carnall c. And Heb. 10. 24 25. Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good workes Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is c. 1 Cor. 12. 24 25 26. God hath tempered the body together having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked that there should be no Schisme in the body but that the members should have the same care one of another that they should suffer one with another By all these places of Scriptures it doth appear that the Church should have no divisions viz. Christs body I say it should not have divisions for although at some times it had some divisions yet the Apostles did alwayes endeavour to reclaime them from such divisions as you may see by these texts of Scriptures here now quoted But it is to bee now considered what kind of Divisions those were at least chiefly that the Apostle doth disclaim which was amongst those members hee then did dehort these Corinthians from and how farre he then for the present did condescending to their weaknesse permit them liberty of conscience for as I said hee did endeavour to settle them in one way of religious exercises void of division though for the present hee permitted them some liberty of conscience in some things that were of least concernment and not destructive to the whole Body or indanger it to an absolute confusion And to this end I will first look over the Texts already quoted and produce what I am able from them and after that produce Reasons to shew the inconveniences that comes by the divisions that are amongst Christians in their religious exercises Briefly and also the happines that we may attain unto by a godly unity in affection and next after I will by Arguments endeavour to shew that this unity in affection is much forwarded by a uniformity in religious exercises where it may be attained in a warrantable way and next whether we may not now in these our dayes attain unto these things without offending at least much any good conscience though weak And then I will hang forth some signes or characters by which wee may collect which party is in most fault in their conversations between those that stand for the Presbyterialists government or at least nearest it and those that dissent from it and proceed to the Independent ways which they call Congregationall that so we may by that meanes see our hearts more clearly For doubtlesse many of us that are assured that we have some goodnes in truth in us are not so forward and apt to espy our sinister ends or by-respects and that it is a great tryall to a man who having once interessed himself to maintaine an opinion to undergoe a disgrace by renouncing it afterwards though he be convinced in his judgement And I will briefly note some things that may move us to give God the glory and our selves take some shame seeing wee all deserve it And lastly indeavour to perswade those that stand for the Presbyteriall government to imbrace those that renounce the other wayes or any sins

was to charge some that were already the Preachers of the gospel that they should teach no other doctrine then that which they had received c. from the which some had already then swarved and turned aside to vaine janglings as many doe now amongst us in these dayes and in 2 Tim. 2. 14. you may read the like these are those words Charge them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit but to the subverting of the hearers these men to whom this charge was to be given by Timothy are those men that are deciphered in ver 2. of this Chapter that is to say to those that were already in the ministry of the Gospel this authority the Apostle sent to Timothy to exercise towards those Preachers and did not send it unto those Preachers directly this power to give the charge was seated in Timothy by the authority of the Apostle and truly if it may not bee somewhat like it now at the least in some degree we shall be in great danger to bee distorted upon all occasions though I can well wish that some choise men from among the people may bee joyned with them too in this superintendency for it will give the people great satisfaction from their feares of an unjust compulsion This one thing more I will note as the great cause of our distractions yea the greatest of all next the peoples sins in generall and that is the allowing of men and ordaining them to be Ministers of the Gospel before they were fitted for that great employment Alas I have seen some in the Pulpit that have thought a sentence in Latin would have given such a box on the eare that it would make an opposer of truth to have the staggers and if he brought in a phrase of Greek it must needs beat him to the earth but if hee produced some scraps of Hebrew that would beat him into the earth so deep as that he could never rise more untill the generall day of resurrection although the matter bee poore and un●ound Divinity and his method as bad I am not against the knowledge in the tongues and other Liberall Arts but honor the learning of the same but if they are not better grounded or at least as well in Divinity what should then the Pulpit doe with them Poore silly ignorant people come to learn matter wherby they may be saved and if the Teacher be not well grounded in Divinity how can hee defend the ignorant from sophisticall and knavish Foxes and devouring Wolves The next point which the Separatists pretend to be unwarrantable in our Ministers for to ordaine Preachers of the Gospel is That they are of the Popes order and receive their owne ordinations from him it being first and primarily received of him and therefore he being the maintainer of Idolatry from whom they had their ordination they cannot be the lawfull Preachers of the Word of God and therefore ought not to bee the ordainers of the Preachers of the Gospel This objection is like a Remora who turns his belly upward as is said opens his legs or some such parts of his body claspeth about this goodly Ship of ours viz the Church to the hindering of us from arriving pleasingly and safely to our heavenly Haven But I will knock him off thus first you cannot prove that if in case they have their ordination from the Pope the Pope at first was absolutely an Idolater but that he then held the fundamentalls of the true Gospel though he then was received as the universall head of those that subjected themselves unto him That this may appear a truth to you I pray you take a view of a Book called the Apology of the Protestants written about the time of the massacre in France dedicated to the King of Navarre in which you may see the Canons of the Pope and Popes at first and also those that had been made by succeeding Popes since untill that time and there you may observe that those Canons that were made by the former Popes are so much different from those that have been made since as that if he would hold himself to those first Canons of those first Popes hee must then renounce his Antichristianity and Idolatry and so joyn with us and walk together to heaven although it was a sin in him to assume that universall stile and power But secondly put case it had been so yet this makes little for you for if they see the evill that he persisted in and yet themselves hold the fundamentall truths of the Gospel of Christ though perhaps tainted in some particulars and so part from him to hold to Christ what is or may be objected against them for their so doing shal we condemn them for their forsaking the badnes of the Pope and adhering to the goodnes of the truth of Christ God forbid Nay I will say more in their behalf they have converted instrumentally many thousands to the true faith by their Ministery and built them up in it also which is a sign that they were true Ministers of the Gospel of Christ and thus much the Apostle avoucheth in these words in one of his Epistles 1 Cor. 9. 2. If I am not an Apostle to others yet doubtlesse I am unto you for the seale of our Apostleship are yee in the Lord c. It seems there were some such Jesuiticall tricks in some of his adversaries at that time who were subtle prevaricators or dangerous Sectaries from such cunning foxes and barking dogs good Lord deliver us I condemn not all there may be honest men but yet deluders must needs bee there And so much for this Point with this conclusion viz. Where we had one was bad before If this remain you 'l have a score Now seeing I have found out a Church according to the Rule the Apostle hath left us to esteeme and judge the Church by for secret things belong unto the Lord And also who are fittest to feed or to be the Preachers of the Word of God to it and who are to ordaine those that ought to be their Preachers at least chiefly and ordinarily with other Points as younger sisters to those chief Points Now it follows in the next place for me to view out a habitation for them viz. where it is fittest they should dwell or in what order manner or fit accommodation they should be in I shall be very briefe in this especially if I doe not meet with some ravening wolves in the way who perhaps will think that I am labouring to prevent them of their prey In brief thus they ought to live neare together both shepheard and sheep for conveniency that so in the first place they may have more familiar acquaintance one with the other thereby performing neighbourly duties each to other knowing thereby so much the better each others wants and accordingly accommodating themselves the better together in the more frequent exercise of edifying