Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	abundant_a	gracious_a	lord_n	1,650	5	4.2037	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89681	An apology for the discipline of the ancient Church: intended especially for that of our mother the Church of England: in answer to the Admonitory letter lately published. By William Nicolson, archdeacon of Brecon.	Nicholson, William, 1591-1672.	1658 (1658)	Wing N1110; Thomason E959_1; ESTC R203021	282,928	259

which he doth for we obey'd not his voice We have sinned Dan. 9.14 5. 6. and have done wickedly and have rebell'd even by departing from his precepts and from his judgements neither have we hearkened to his servants the Prophets which spake in his Name to our Kings our Princes and our Fathers and to all the people of the Land Yea further that I enter no Apologies no not for them I plead for I set my self now before Gods Tribunal not yours I never read those piercing Scriptures 1. Sam. 2. 3. Jer. 23. Ezek. 33. Hos 4. Mal. 2. I never reflect upon the common conversation in the day of our prosperity and behold Hophni and Phinehas with a flesh-hook in their hand ravening for their fees and wallowing in their lust at the door of the Tabernacle but I find we were highly defective in every duty and thence conclude that our sufferings are not the sufferings of pure Martyrs but of grievous transgressours There is no credit lost by giving glory to God And therefore we shall not stick to acknowledge as much as Cajetan did of the Romish prelates when the Army under Charls the fifth 1527. took Rome He was then upon the interpretation of the 5. chapter of St. Matthew Ver. 13. Ye are the Salt of the earth if the salt have lost his savour what is it then good for but to be cast out c. The Army had then entred the City and had offer'd great abuse to the Clergy in it which he presenting in a Christian meditation inserts these words We Prelates of the Church of Rome do at this time find this truth verified on us in a special measure we who were chosen to be the salt of the earth Evanuimus we are become light persons and unsavoury and therefore by the just judgment of God we are cast out and become a spoile and a prey and Captives not to Infidels but Christians Habes jam confitentes reos and yet I see not what advantage you ever shall be able to make of it no more than Romanists They tell us these miseries are fallen upon us because we departed from them you because we oppose your forms for this you intimate Christ of late years to have borne a loud witnesse against every one of those fire afore-mentioned kinds of deformed Churches But both they and you are mistaken assigning Non causam pro causâ For the cause was not because the Church was either Parochial Cathedral Diocesan Provincial National or a true part of the Oecumenical but that which I have said the abominations that were committed by us our formality and coldnesse in Gods service our ill administration of the keys our not profiting and bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance This hath provoked our God to jealousie This hath moved him to remove for ought yet appears our Candlestick This hath caused him to visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children And for this there be yet those that mourne in Zion and melt in the threns of Jeremy c●ing night and day unto him Joel 2 17. Isa 18. Exod. 34.6 7. saying Spare thy people O Lord and give not thy heritage to reproach wherefore should they say among the people Where is their God And who can tell if the irreversible decree be not past but the merciful Lord will be jealous for his Land and pity his people For he is a merciful and gracious God long-suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquities transgression and sinne I will not despair when I shall see a sincere national humiliation for this national sinne or sins rather but God will return and have mercy on this National Church He that would have spared Sodome upon Abrahams request could ten righteous men have been found in it will yet I hope spare this Church Jer. 14.20.21 Isa 5.30 Isa 1.25.26 27. in which there be hundreds of tens who pour forth their hearts with Jeremy We acknowledge O Lord our wickednesse and the iniquity of our fathers for we have sinned against thee Do not abhor us for the name sake do not disgrace the throne of thy glory remember break not thy Covenant with us And that though now if one look unto the land behold darknesse and sorrow and the light is darkned in the heavens thereof yet these penitent sighs and groans will be so effectual that God will turn his hand upon us and purely purge away our drosse and take away all our tinn and will restore our Judges as at first and our Councellours as at the beginning and that afterward our Church shall be call'd the City of righteousnesse the faithful City Zion shall be redeemed with judgement and her Converts with righteousnesse This was considered before you returned into the land of your Nativity from which I knew not that you were exil'd before but thought you voluntarily departed and shall be consider'd after your return For you appeal to men of conscience and common sense And now also I shall make my appeal to you whether or no it be not a bitter thing to help forward affliction when God is but a little displeased Remember the insultation of Edom and what came of it Men should take small content in being flagellum Dei For Jerusalem shall be a burdensome stone and a cup of trembling to all them that cry down with it Zach. 12.2.3 Isa 10.5.6 7. ver 16.17 Assur was the rod of Gods anger and the staff in his hand was his indignation sent he was against an hypocritical nation and against the people of Gods wrath to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread them down as the mire in the streets howbeit he means not so neither doth his heart think so but his heart is to destroy and to cut off nations not a few c. Therefore shall the Lord the Lord of hosts send among his fat ones leannesse and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire and the light of Israel shall be for a fire and his holy One for a flame and it shall burn and devour his thornes and his bryars in one day c. Compare this with the 14. Chapter and tell me then what comfort any man can have in being the rod of Gods wrath against his people An office which I must plainly tell you I read not any of Gods servants ever imployed in Howbeit we shall patiently submit unto it and kisse the rod For thou Lord hast ordained him for our destruction and established him for correction even for our correction to purifie us sons of Levi from our drosse and by his hand who punisheth us for our sins to put upon us Confessours Robes by that contrivance both chastening and covering our sins as the Persians used their Nobles beating their cloaths and sparing their persons Though by it qui foris est the out-side be scorch't yet qui intus est the

whole Gospel In a word the condition required of us is faith hope charity self-denial repentance a careful and industrious husbanding of Gods grace daily prayer for daily encrease and attending diligently to the means of grace To strengthen the faith of Abraham and his seed in the assurance of what was promised and for a memorial of what was to be performed it pleased God to have a seal set in his flesh and in the flesh of his seed for that time which was circumcision To this seal all the males of the Jews had a right and this seal was cut into them yea and as many Proselytes also who were content to become proselytae foederis Proselytes of the Covenant The other whom they call'd the Proselytes of their gates they entred them into the Covenant and bound them to the observation of the seven Commandments of Noah by a kinde of purification by water and the blood of oblation in the same kinde as they admitted their women The Covenant is the self-same under the Gospel that then God made with Abraham on the same conditions of the same extent only it hath another seal theirs was circumcision and ours baptisme the cutting of the flesh gave entrance to them the washing by water gives an entrance and admission to us And about this the question is whether it be to be with-held from the children of any who bear the name of Christians And it is observable how this question fi●st grew and what progresse it had At first some good-minded men set it on foot being occasioned by the children of professed Pahists living among them whom they conceived to be Idolatrous and consequently out of Covenant this caused Farel to write to Calvin about it Calvin Ep. 149. whose answer to him is this but not sound Where both the parents are Popish we think it an absurd thing for us to baptize them which are not members of our body and sith Papists children are such we see not how it should be lawful for us to administer Baptisme unto them But sounder by much is that answer of the Ecclesiastical Colledge of Geneva unto Knox who scrupled at the same and grew more rigid and wrote to them that he held it not only unlawful to baptize the children of Idolaters but even Bastards Ep. 283. and excommunicate persons till reconciled to the Church To whom they returned this sentence that wheresoever the profession of Christianity hath not utterly perished and been extinct Ep. 285. infants are beguiled of their right if the common seal be denied them which conclusion as I will by and by prove is sound But I go on for the mistake staid not here for when it came to Mr. Cartwright Anvil he beat it broader for he asserted that none might receive the Sacrament of Baptisme but they whose Parents at least the one of them are by the soundnesse of their Religion and by their vertuous demeanours known to be men of God Hook lib. 5. pag. 155. and by this rule the children of those they called Hereticks Misbelievers and Profane livers also came to be excluded Next the Brownist took it up and conveyed it over to you of the Combinational Church both imparting Baptisme to very few infants Burtons vindication pag. 62. viz. to those alone whose immediate Parents are members of their Congregation Out of you arise the Anabaptists and they peremptorily deny the Baptisme of all infants born to the members of the Combination or to any other till they are able to give an accompt of their faith and enter into a Church Covenant for themselves At last the Shaker comes upon the Stage and gives out of his Cup of trembling a vomit to all Ordinances these are outward Rites Baptisme the Eucharist needlesse seals to any old or young since he and his company are inwardly sealed by the Spirit This was the stratageme of that old Serpent for had he presented this bewitching position to the world at fi●st in the last ugly shape it now appears he knew that all men would have with honour heard it therefore he insinuated it and caused it to be taken down by certain gulps steps and degrees that the potion might be swallowed and the poyson not at all perceived Now this errour that I call it no worse in some hath been nourished in that they have not fully weighed the purport of this distinction of the mystical and visible body of Christ This is but one and we usually call it the Church which contains in it two sorts of people either outward Professours or true inward believers These last belong to the mystical body of Christ which therefore is called mystical because the mystery of their conjunction is altogether removed from sense in these their love is sound and sincere and comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned and they no doubt do and shall obtain whatsoever was made over by the second Covenant Those outward professours who either before Christs coming or since his appearing in the flesh have been called by the name of Christians we call the visible body because being Jews or Gentiles they are incorporated into one body have but one Lord whose servants they professe themselves to be have one faith which they all acknowledge one Baptisme by which they are all initiated For although we know the Christian Faith and allow it we are then but entring entred we are not into this visible Church till our admittance by the dore of Baptisme and who they are that enter that way is very well known even to the eye whence we usually call these the visible Church which is not so to be understood as if those of the invisible Church were not visible Christians also For both moleties whether mystical or visible as touching their profession are the object of the eye easie it is for any man to say this man is a Christian that man a Heathen But this distinction ariseth from the sincerity or unsincerity of the professours because we are never able to see and discern who they are that sincerely professe the Truth therefore we call these invisible but because we are easily able to judge of the men who enter by Baptisme therefore the whole is called a visible Church In whomsoever therefore is found the profession of one Lord one Faith one Baptisme those the Church doth acknowledge for her children and all those none of hers in whom they are not found as Jews Turks Heathens c. Others for their external profession are Christians and are of the visible Church of Christ And among these there are some who professe the Truth but not wholly and entirely and these are Hereticks some that professe the whole saving Truth but not in unity and these are Schismaticks some that professe the whole saving Truth in unity but not in sincerity and sanctity and these are hypocrites and profane persons others that professe the whole saving Truth in unity