Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	aaron_n	error_n	sincerity_n	14	3	9.6346	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89003	The difference about church government ended: by taking away the distinction of government into ecclesiasticall and civill: and proving the government of the civill magistrate onely sufficient in a Christian kingdom. / Written by one that by making peace, prefers to be called a blessed childe of God, before preeminence in this world. J.M. D. D. Published according to order.	Mayne, Jasper, 1604-1672.	1646 (1646)	Wing M1470; Thomason E339_8; ESTC R200855	12,314	20

this I shall add that as it is lawfull for the civill Magistrate to take all the gove●nment into his hands even in things Eclesiasticall as hath been said so it is most expedient for us of the Ministry that they should so doe because being exempt from this trouble we shall be the more free to prayer reading meditation preaching and other holy offices properly belonging to our function That thus we ought to bee appears from the reason given by the Apostles why they would have Deacons chosen to be over matters concerning the poor viz. that they might wholy give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word Act. 6. 4. For if the preacher must not be troubled about matters of charity to gather and to distribute collections amongst the poor but some others of the congregation must have this office how much lesse ought he to be troubled by keeping Cour●s at set times and hearing and censuring sins complained of there 1 Tim. 4. 13 15. he must give himselfe wh●ly to reading prayer exhortation and Doctrine and in so doing hee shall save himselfe and those that heare him 2 We shall be lesse liable to the emnity of the wicked who cannot be without a grudge against such as punish them as experience hath taught in some other Church wherein a ruling power is committed to Ministers amongst others It is true indeed that a faithfull Preacher cannot avoid the hatred of the wicked for they hated Christ aad therefore will hate them yet because they can lesse end●re to be censured by them whom they know by birth to be meaner then themselves especially some of them it is more convenient that for this they should be dealt with by men of eminencie in outward respects that their prejudice against the Preacher may be the lesse and so he may be in more possibility by his teaching to doe their souls good And for the like reason no godly man of mean quality in any congregation can conveniently be set up as a Ruler over others because so he shall become more subject to conterupt and derision and be made lesse able to doe good amongst his neighbours in private by stirring them up to love and good works as hath been already said 3 We are Embassadours of Christ 2 Cor. 5. 20. and therefore not to exercise power by censuring in anothers Kingdom such as the world of the wicked is for they are under the Prince of the Ayre and therefore by us to be dealt with not by punishment but by entreaty 4 The Preacher being but a man and yesterday as it were but a Boy and the contemptible son of a man of low degree and every Preacher not having grace judgment gravity fit for government if he be invested with power is apt hereby to be puft up and in using it not to serve Christ but his own lusts and passions and therefore to avoid this inconvenience it is better for us to be without this power then to have it that we may be kept humble and so the more gracious and have our Auditours the more ready to hearken to us For being in this ruling office the best shall hardly escape the imputation of pride and although it be falsly yet the power of our teaching will be much hereby weakned sith pride is contemptible both to God and man And here do not I beseeth you my Brethren 〈◊〉 out upon me and say I deal unnaturally thus to seek to pull down and bring under all my fellow servants and to transfer the honour of dominion from them to the Magistrate even in things pertayning to their calling For ye shall still have the highest honour in the world higher then Judges for all men shall be judged according to your Gospel then Nobles for their greatest honour is to be sent Embassadours by earthly Kings but yours that ye are Embassadours of Christ theirs that they may be the Kings Privy Counsellors yours that God makes you of his counsell for the Lord will do nothing but he reveals it to his servants the Prophets and again theirs that they are Generals of Armies to subdue Rebels and to quell Enemies yours that ye have weapons and strength committed to you to overthrow strong holds 2 Cor. 10. 4. and to root out and destroy Kingdoms and Nations that be rebellious against God Jer. 1. 10. Lastly higher then Kings for their greatest honour is that they rule over the outward man yours that ye rule and have power in the conscience in such as have a conscience theirs that they bear the secular sword yours that ye manage the spirituall which is sharper then any two-edged sword theirs that they can terrifie by threatning corporal death yours that ye threaten eternall and lastly theirs that they are over all other men in things pertaining to men yours that ye are over all other men them also in things pertayning to God and to their everlasting welfare to teach guide and direct them and to blesse them whereby they may be furthered thereunto and if yet ye would have more take this as the greatest perfection of blessednesse that in the regeneration ye shall sit upon thrones and so come to the honour of judging and reigning with Christ for ever And if this be your honour though no rulling power be given unto you here complain not of being trodden down but rather joy that the government should be in such hands as in whose of right it ought to be and it is most expedient for you that it be and help what ye are able to bring it to this as every one that prefers the truth before his own advancement ought to do And ye Magistrates and Rulers of the world be entreated to use this your power aright in Gods way to beat down errours and notorious sins in every place and as the seminary of errours private preachings by such as intrude themselves into this office beig never called thereunto as was Aaron to encourage to learning piety to constancy in the truth as being set up to rule in all things not for your selves but for God who hath of singular mercy thus highly honoured you If any shalthink this to be written for slattery not in syncerity he shal do me great wrong who as God knows have none other end but to bring the truth of which I am perswaded to light as seeing none other way to appease the terrible tempest of contrary winds of doctrine so dangerously tossing the ship of the Church that it is ready otherwise to sink in this State which God forbid and therefore make every Brother that shall read me not an high-spirited Diotrephes who loveth preeminence but a lowly minded Apollo who submitted himself to learne the truth more perfectly even of Priscilla and Aquila although he were a man mighty in the Word and they but Tent-makers how-ever more versed at that time then he in the doctrine of the Gospel But if any one being unsatisfied with that which hath 〈◊〉 sayd shall have a mind to contend let me intreat him not to do it with words comming from a pen dipt in gall and vinegar but with solid Argument according to that of Augustine Sacrae Scripturae authoritate res cum re causa cum causâ ratio cum ratione concer●et FINIS