Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	accord_v	bring_v	great_a	31	3	2.0652	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88421	Some seasonable and serious queries upon the late act against conventicles tending to discover how much it is against the express word of God, the positive law of the nation, the law & light of nature, and principles of prudence & policy, and therefore adjudged by the law of the land to be void and null ... / by a friend to truth and peace.	Lockyer, Nicholas, 1611-1685.	1670 (1670)	Wing L2801; ESTC R3063	12,344	17

SOME Seasonable and Serious QUERIES Upon the late Act against Conventicles Tending to discover How much it is against the express Word of GOD the positive Law of the Nation the Law Light of Nature and Principles of Prudence Policy And therefore adjudged by the Law of the Land to be Void and Null Viz. Finch p. 3. That no Act of Parliament or Law repugnant to the Law of God is of any force 28 H. 8. That no man of what estate degrée or condition whatsoever hath power to dispence with Gods Law Doct. Stud. That against Scripture Law Prescription Statute nor Custom may avail and if any be brought in against it they be void and against Iustice 42 Ed. 3. It is assented and accorded That the Great Charter be holden and kept in all points and that if any Statute be made to the contrary it shall be held for none By a Friend to Truth and Peace Mat. 24.48 49. And if that evil servant shall say in his heart My Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants and to eat and drink with the drunken c. Acts 9.5 Saul Saul why persecutest thou me It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks Psal 9.16 The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands c. Printed in the year 1670. Some Sober Queries upon the ACT against CONVENTICLES WHether upon a due and serious search this late Law doth not appear to contradict the three Great Laws viz. The Law of God the Law of the Nation and the Law of Nature and is not contrary to the Rules of Prudence and Policy and tending to promote some private and corrupt interest First As to the Law of God 1. Whether in the particulars following relating to Preachers and Hearers the Law of God is not manifestly contradicted and impugned 1. Doth not Gods Law require all men that hear learn and keep it having a Gift from Christ of what Rank Condition or Quality soever high or low should be Teachers and Publishers of it Mat. 5.19 1 Pet. 4.10 2 Tim. 4.2 And accordingly have we not had of high degree preaching Kings Princes Judges and Levites Psal 40.9 Eccles 1.1 12.10 2 Chron. 17.7 8 9. And of low degree mechanick Carpenters Herdsmen Fishermen Tentmakers that have preached and published his Word and Law Mark 6.3 Amos 1.1 Mark 1.16 17. Acts 18.2 And doth not this Law forbid any high or low to preach and publish Gods Law but such as conform to the Traditions and Commands of men viz. By Reading the Common-Prayer Renouncing the Covenant submitting to humane Services Ceremonies and Inventions Mark 7.7 8 9. however otherways fitted by Christ with never such Ministerial Gifts and Attainments 2. Doth not Gods Law say You may all prophesie or preach 1 Cor. 14.1 2. one by one 1 Cor. 14.31 And doth not this Law say You shall not so prophesie no not one 3. Doth not Gods Law pronounce wo to his Preachers if they preach not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.16 And doth not this Law pronounce wo to them if they do 4. Doth not Gods Law give promised Rewards and Blessings to those that teach it to others Mat. 10.41 25.21 5.19 Ja. 5.20 And doth not this Law threaten a 20 l. 40 l. Curse yea utter ruine to those that do 5. Doth not Gods Law admit of preaching in Houses Streets and Fields to great Multitudes with promised mercies to the Owners so receiving his People and Preachers Acts 20.20 28.31 Luke 13.26 Mat. 3 1. 10.40 41.42 And doth not this Law forbid such preaching with threatned ruine to Owners and Hearers as well as Preachers 6. Doth not Gods Law denounce cursing and wrath to the uttermost to those that reject and forbid and that mis-use and abuse his Preachers and beat their fellow-servants 1 Thes 2.16 Mat. 24.48 49 50. And doth not this declare promised Blessings and Rewards to those that shall be most active in pursuing and persecuting the Preacher and prosecuting and vexing the Hearers 7. Doth not Gods Law enjoyn men frequently and stedfastly to assemble together and to maintain and keep up their Fellowships and Meetings Heb. 10.25 3.13 Acts 2.42 Mal. 3.14 16. And doth not this Law not onely forbid but tear and break up such Meetings and Assemblies loading them with heavy Mulcts and Penalties Toties Quoties as often as they so meet 8. Doth not Gods Law admit of Popular Meetings the assembling of great numbers to worship him and attend his Ordinances five thousand and eight thousand at a time Joh. 6.10 Act. 4.4 2.41 yea the more the better without any limitation or scandal of sedititon in so doing But doth not this Law limit those that must so worship and hear the Word to four persons onely beside the Family unless they will be reputed seditious and dealt with accordingly Q. II. Whether if it appears that indeed this New Law and Word of Man doth contradict the Old Law and Word of God the People of God ought any more to regard it now than the three Children and Daniel did the Persian Law in like Case Dan. 3.16 17. 6.10 in those days or the Disciples Acts 4. did the Edicts Threatnings and Prohibitions of the Council then And whether if God be God he ought not to be followed and obeyed rather than man though Goods be spoyled Liberties infringed and Lives-hazarded in so doing Q. III. Whether in case the Maxims of our English Laws in favour of the Word and Law of God be of force this Law is not to be deemed void and null Which do assert for good Law sound Doctrine Reason and truth That no Act of Parliament or Law repugnant to the Law of God is of any force Finch p. 3. And that no man of what Estate Degree or Condition whatsoever hath power to dispence with Gods Law as all the Clergy of the Realm and most of the Vniversittes of Christendom and we also affirm 28 H. 8. And that against Scripture Law Prescription Statute nor Custom may avail and if any be brought in against it they be void and against Justice Doct. Stud. Secondly As to the Law of the Land I. Whether the said Act is not expresly contrary to the known ancient fundamental Laws of this Nation especially that of Magna Charta which as the great Bulwark of the English Liberty has been confirmed by about forty Parliaments For doth not that Great Charter assure and confirm That no Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or dis-seised of his Free-hold or Liberties or free Customs or be outlawed or exiled or any otherways destroyed or passed upon or condemned but by the lawful Iudgment of his Peers or * Viz. By due process of the Common or old Law of England See 2d part Cooks Inst ch 29. fo 50. so explained also by 37 E. 3. ch 8. Law of the Land And that Iustice shall neither be sold denied or deferred And

severity upon our selves that must necessarily wound and weaken if not destroy the Trade of the Nation Cannot the Bankers Clothiers Silk-men Bailders Farmers c. tell you what a sad influence the rumour of this Act hath already had What then will the Execution of it produce It may be when you see the Shops shut up the great Traders and the ingenious Heads and Hands removed with their Stocks to your Neighbour Countreys proffering them already the liberty of their Consciences the many thousand ruined Conformable Families depending upon the Nonconformists at you Doors for Bread and confusion in your Streets and a Foreigner invited by your distractions in your Gate you may be better convinced and find it may be when it is too late the direful Consequences of such evil Counsels and precipitate Actings Qu. IV. Whether it doth not bespeak much imprudence to be making fresh attempts in fruitless Undertakings that neither have had nor rationally may have a tendency to accomplish promised ends Phanatiques must be persecuted vext fined rendred Sectaries Seditious Rebellious and threatned with utter ruine and wherefore Viz. To discourage weaken divide to deliver them from their Heresies and reduce them to Canonical Obedience But is this a rational way to effect it No by no means for has not Experience that Mistriss of Fools taught us the quite contrary For not to mention what happened in other Nations and former Generations Let it but be remembred Whether the Bishops cruel Courts Impositions Suspensions the high Commissions Pillories Imprisonments Finings Banishments c. Backing the Common-Prayer with Armies Convinced weakned divided destroyed the Puritanical Faction and rooted confirmed and advanced Episcopacy and preserved the publick Peace and Safety in those days And whether the several attempts the ten years last past no whit inferior to former times have had or are like to have any better success than theirs Or not much like Pharaoh's of old who the better to reduce his Phanatique Subjects from their gadding giddy humours about Worship sets cruel Task-Masters over them to humble and chastize them But to what effect the Text informs us Exod. 1.11 That the more they were afflicted the more they multiplied and grew And so may it not be said That for one Phanatick ten years since by the vertue of Persecution and Imposition there is now ten if not twenty in these Nations The onely way to make an interest considerable is to persecute and oppress it For what so riveted Protestantism and rooted out Popery in these Nations but such cruel Mediums the Papists took to establish themselves and destroy the Nonconforming Phanaticks of the day even to the rendring that Interest an Abomination Stink and Loathing to this day And are others like to fare better walking in their steps But would it not be a better way to appoint some learned sober men to deal with these men of Conscience in a conscientious way and speedily apply to answer those learned unanswered Treatises about Indulgence and Liberty of Conscience that so by sound Doctrine and the force of Reason they may stop the mouths of gain-sayers and reduce them to obedience as the more hopeful way to effect it rather than by Fines and Imprisonments Qu. V. Whether it had not been more prudential and better becoming the Wisdom and Gravity of the State and the true Ordinance of Magistracy that bears not the Sword in vain to have made some vigorous Act to have inforc'd that first wholsome Proclamation to suppress Health Drinking swinish Drunkenness prophane Swearing and abominable Whoredoms that so fearfully abound and are wink'd at tolerated and encouraged in the Land and to suppress Stage Plays those Nurseries of all manner of Vice and Wickedness so numberless and to which there are such great assembling and flocking of all sorts A good Ruler scatters wickedness with his Eyes Prov. 20.8 26. Draws the Sword against the evil not the well-doer Rom. 13.4 5. And whether a due enquiry into the illegal † Pluralities Non-Residents and Simonists the sordid Ignorance Vide Ichabod's Complaint a son of the Church Pride Sloth Debauchery and Covetousness of the Clergy as one great ground why their Publick Assemblies are so quitted and the Conventicles so numerously frequented which foresaid Crimes in the Clergy the Overseers of the Church the Bishops so wink at and tolerate might not have been a more successful Remedy Qu. VI. Whether for a Parent that hath Children of different Judgments yet by his fatherly Eye keeps peace in the Family for him to joyn with the most ambitious and malicious to force and club the rest of them into a Unity and Conformity to the disturbing the quiet of the Family and the hazarding his own perpetual peace and comfort can be without great imprudence if not Solomon's just censure Prov. 14.1 11.29 Qu. VII Whether there can be greater imprudence than to slight or disregard the Voice of Gods Judgments by persisting in ways that have met with often and eminent Rebukes from him And whether it is not an undeniable great Truth That upon all the great Persecutions that have of late years been stirred up in these Nations they have not been met with either by War Plague Fire Invasion Insurrection Poverty or Discontent And whether upon relaxing the same by Indulgence greater Peace Quiet and Blessing hath not visibly attended And was there ever any that hardned themselves against God and prospered Job 9.4 Prov. 29.1 Isa 46.10 And whether it is not for our better instruction that those Nations are most prosperous and under greatest Blessings that give Liberty of Conscience and those Kingdoms most declining that abound in Persecution Witness that of Spain now so low that they can neither defend themselves nor succour their Allies Qu. VIII Whether it is not expresly against the Kings printed Declarations and Promises for Indulgence as well as his private frequent Conferences wherein he hath so freely and fully expressed how much it is agreeable to his Conscience Reason and Resolution to indulge Tender Consciences as most conducing to the peace and quiet of these Nations and suitable to the Rules of Honesty and Prudence And therefore whether it must not be rationally concluded That He is as well imposed upon hereby and his Honour impaired as the Laws broken and the Peoples Ruine threatned Fifthly As for advancing some private corrupt Interest hereby Qu. I. Whether it is not manifest that this Law was meerly contrived and brought forth to serve some private corrupt Interest and not for publick good and advantage 1. Because it is in it self so opposite to the Laws of God and Man as well as to the Publick Promises and Declarations 2. By its undue forming and bringing forth carried on by such a heady violent Faction by strength of Vote against all the force of Unanswered Reason given them both within doors and without the Votes of the House as observed therein going one way and the Reason of the