Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	article_n	believe_v	creed_n	2,820	5	10.5298	5	false

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41074	Lex talionis, or, The author of Naked truth stript naked	Fell, Philip, 1632 or 3-1682.; Gunning, Peter, 1614-1684.; Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.	1676 (1676)	Wing F644; ESTC R20137	30,835	44

Scripture under the severest penalties requires the confession of Christ before men it is not sure contrary to Scripture that Persons should be forced to declare their Belief and if so will not be thought unsutable to natural Reason neither But now let us see whether this Assertion of our Author be not contrary to the Law of the Land notwithstanding the assurance we have from him who tells us there is not a word in his discourse against it The Oath of Soveraignty enjoyned by the Statute before mentioned Primo Eliz. commands the Subject to testifie and declare in his conscience that the Kings Majesty is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm and of all other his Highness Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal c. So likewise the other Tertio Iacob I truly and sincerely acknowledge profess testifie and declare in my conscience before God and the World c. And the Act of Uniformity commands the Abjuring of the Covenant and assenting and consenting to every thing contained in the Liturgy And after this let my Author consider with what duty and good manners he concludes Thus you see how impertinent how irrational how impious it is to require a man to believe that is profess his belief of any thing more than is clearly contained in Scripture The truth is we dull as we are do not at all see this impertinence and unreasonableness notwithstanding the beautiful illustrations of the Eye and the Candle the hammer and the beating out the brains St. Paul hath taught us that Heresie is a work of the flesh and we know Pride and Prepossession and Interest are of more concernment therein than want of faculties and apprehension The thing complained of is that men turn away their faces shut their eyes and will not lay their heads to consider what is set before them And if the immorality of error be once cured there will be a speedy account of its misadventures in Speculation and Theory The Will of man has an higher pretence to freedom than the Intellect Tyranny can make me suffer but cannot oblige me to approve much less to chuse and yet it is not impertinent or irrational to require men to will and what is more than that actually to perform their duty Nor can any sufficient cause be rendred why perverse and stubborn men should not be made to learn it and consider it too which plainly is their duty and previous to the performance of it The Scripture indeed commands to speak the truth in love to instruct the Brother in the spirit of meekness and the same Scripture has made the greatest Christian Monarch and his meanest Vassal brethren but notwithstanding that he bears not the Sword in vain and in love and meekness and with the greatest kindness and charity is obliged to cut off the evil doer The question To what purpose is force would indeed do well in the mouth of a Ranter or Anabaptist and I might answer thereto that it is ordained by God to punish the rebellion of such a question by sharp severities but I shall content my self to repeat the Apostles words just now recited The Magistrate bears not the Sword in vain there is a purpose why foâ—ce should be used and all sober men understand it though our Author knows not of it What is added of the Scripture rule of Faith being compleat and full is seriously to be considered But he who straitens the credenda into one short Proposition of the Eunuchs Creed may in likelihood be as blameable in diminishing from it as any can be by adding to it Though by the way our Author is to know that the explication of Faith is not the extending or making new Articles of it And what he says of requiring men to believe with Divine Faith what they add to the Scripture is to make their words equal with Godâ— If this refer to the Church of England first he proceeds on a false supposal that there is somewhat added when there is not any thing added And secondly it is notorious they have never pretended that any thing ought to be believed as Scripture or with Divine Faith but Scripture So that the exaggerations of impertinent irrational and impious fall to the ground unless they may chance to rest upon the head of him who to seditious and uncharitable purposes produces them The next Paragraph desires it may be soberly considered that the Trinity Incarnation Resurrection are things far above the highest reason yet believed because God who cannot lie hath declared them And that it is strange that any one should take upon him to declare one tittle of them more than God hath declared But I desire to be allowed to put in a caveat that men should not be suffered to declare several not tittles but Articles less than God hath declared that our Authors direction concerning the quashing the whole debate of the Omooâ—sios and Omoiousios may not be admitted and for quietness sake we may not be Latitudinarian Arians and Theists pretend to admit the Scripture-Doctrines in our own extravagant sense and therefore to be liable to no controul or farther rendring a reason of the Faith that is in us It is easie to say that the Bishops who contended in this great Controversie were more zealâ—us thâ—n disâ—reâ—t But they who have read the History of those times which it is plain our Author never did know very well that the Orthodox if they were defective in any thing offended in permitting by their lenity Arius to infect the World and form his party before ever they took notice of him And the discreet advice here given by silence to prevent the Malice Rancor Persecution and War which fell upon the Orthodox might as well have been given to the Christians during the ten Persecutions and doubtless might have preserved many thousand lives and damned as many souls The instance here mentioned of the Resurrection falls very pat to the purpose the Scripture hapning to afford a Parallel of what our Author thinks so adviseable The Resurrection he tells us whereby men shall rise with the same body when one body may be eaten and converted into several bodies is far above the highest reason and sharpest understanding yet was believed by Hymeneus and Philetus because God had declared it Yet they by keeping within the bounds which God had declared and referring it to that which was perfectly true the first Resurrection from the death of sin destroyed the faith of some And it is to be hoped that St. Paul was not more zealous than discreet because he was so earnestly concerned against them There is no Arian nor Socinian who professes not to believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God or allows him not to be God but our Author must hold us excâ—sed if we expect farther satisfaction in so weighty a concern and examine how these Gentlemen stand affected to the tenure by which he holds his

LEX TALIONIS OR THE AUTHOR OF Naked Truth STRIPT NAKED LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun at the West End of St. Pauls MDCLXXVI Imprimatur G. Jane R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. Ã Sacris Domesticis LEX TALIONIS OR The Author of Naked Truth stript naked To the Chapter concerning the Articles of Faith I Have perused the Pamphlet which you sent of Naked Truth and whereas you require me to give you my opinion of it though I might refer you to the Printed Discourse of that worthy Person who has animadverted upon it yet because this would look like an Artificial excusing of pains and seem only more civilly to disobey I will trouble you with the cursory reflections which I made upon a hasty view of the aforesaid Book wherein I shall chiefly aim at two things not particularly designed in the Printed Answer First to shew that this humble Moderator as he stiles himself who pretends in his Title to give the true state of the Primitive Church is utterly ignorant of Ecclesiastical Antiquity and grosly mistaken in the representations he makes thereof And then secondly whereas he boldly avers to the Lords and Commons to whom he has the confidence to dedicate his Libel that there is nothing therein contained which is contrary to the known Laws of the Land I shall evidence that several things therein contained are as contrary to the known Laws as his Printing without Licence confestly was and that the Book is pernicious and tending to the disturbance of the establish'd constitution of the Church and State As to the Book considered in the gross my first reflexion about it was whether it could be the work of the same person several things being so well and more so very ill said Therefore if it hapned to have one single Author it either seem'd the exercise of Wit of some Sceptic and Atheistical derider of Religion who desired to make sport with holy things and say pro and contra all that occurr'd to his mind Or else that it was wrote in the different intervals of a craz'd Enthusiast and therefore not unseasonably introduced by a declaration of being the product of Fasting and Prayer and seeking of God venerable words which have not left off to abuse the World Or lastly which seems most probable that it was wrote by some ambitious discontented Person of the Church of England who not preferred according to his merit or what may be greater than that his expectation his mind being leaven'd with spite and anger cavils at the present Constitution of the Church and he having in ill humour left off studying writes out of memory imperfect shreds of Antiquity and yet not able to cast away at once the Principles formerly imbib'd sometimes speaks in favour to Conformity and quarrels the disobedience of Dissenters But to pass from Conjectures to that which is more certainly before us At the first setting out our Author tells us That the Primitive Church received the Apostles Creed as the sum total of Faith necessary to Salvation And then disputes Why is it not now so Which involving an intimation that in the Church of England it is not thought so can only tend to sedition being an odious suggestion and absolutely false And it is known that scarcely any thing is more particularly insisted on by our Church against the Papists than their making new Articles to the Creed But it seems the fault will rather lie upon us that with the Primitive Church we think the whole Creed necessary For we are bid remember and observe That the Treasurer to Candace his Creed was only I believe that Iesus Christ is the Son of God and no more that this purchâ—sed the Kingdom of Heaven c. That is the Articles of the Death of our Saviour his Resurrection and Ascension at least those of the Catholick Church the Communion of Saints the Forgiveness of Sins and Resurrection of the Body are if not superfluous yet unnecessary speculations How well this sutes with the close of the Athanasian Creed our Author would do well to consider If it shocks it then he must confess that he has said something contrary to the known Laws of the Land The Liturgy of which that makes a part being confirmed by several Acts of Parliament and in particular the late one of Uniformity Moreover the Statute of Primo Eliz. which established the Oath of Supremacy determining the limits of Heresie to be not only what has been ordered or judged to be so by the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures but also by the first four General Councils or any of them he may bethink himself whether the System of what is to be held de fide by the Law of the Land is so narrow as is here pretended But our Author says Philip required no more â—of the Eunuch than this short Confession that I believe that Iesus Christ is the Son of God and that there is no assurance nor great probability that he was more fully instructed which is plainly to contradict the Text of S. Luke who tells us that Philip from the place of Isaiah which the Eunuch was reading began at the same Scripture and preached unto him Jesus which certainly expresses a greater compass of particularities than is in the short System here proposed Yet farther it would be considered whether our Authors Argument be good Philip required no more but baptized him on this and had the Eunuch departed this life in the same instant that Philip parted from him I believe I have better assurance that thiâ— Faith would have saved the Eunuch than any man hath that he was ever taught more therefore that Confession here required is a sufficient Summary of Faith For sure there is more required as necessary to be known of a Man than of a Child in Christ. Such a knowledge as perswades to the undertaking the Covenant and duties of the Gospel may entitle unto Baptism but yet neither involves the knowledge of the whole Gospel nor supersedes the necessity of it As to the Event of the Eunuchs condition had he departed this life immediately after Baptism it is as much to the purpose as if one should say that if an Infant immediately after Baptism should depart this life he would be saved even without the Eunuchs Creed therefore even that may well be spared But after a complaint of the mischiefs arising from the establishment of new and many Articles of Faith and requiring all to assent unto them which let them who are guilty of doing answer for it the Author goes on to say That for his part he thinks nothing can be more clearly deduced from Scripture nothing more fully expressed in Scripture nothing more sutable to natural Reason than that no man should be forced to believe Whereby he means or else he can mean nothing for what appears not is as if it were not that no man should be forced to declare his belief of any thing Now since the

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