Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	church_n	true_a	2,752	5	4.8734	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86482	Certain queres modestly (though plainly) propounded to such as affect the congregational-way, and specially to Master Samuel Eaton and Mr. Timothy Taylor. With an epistle also directed to them concerning their late book intituled A defence of sundry positions, &c. / By Richard Hollingworth, Mancuniensis.	Hollingworth, Richard, 1607-1656.	1646 (1646)	Wing H2488; Thomason E316_16; ESTC R200531; ESTC R233855	20,720	31

to be submitted to then if they were plainly professed and practised as Institutions of the Church Was not Episcopacy the worse when Jus Divinum was stamped on it Whether profession and practice of humane inventions as a part of Gods Worship or as essential to a Church a Minister or Church-Member was not formerly esteemed and asserted to be and is it not still Antichristian impiety and much liker to procure Gods judgements on the Kingdom then the discovery confutation and opposition of them Whether they which in opposition to Presbyterial Government the Government of the most and best Reformed Churches make Disturbance Divisions Separations pretending their way is the Scriptural-way the onely way must not have as clear yea more clear Scriptures for their way then the other or else be justly accounted enemies to Truth and Peace Doth the Scripture require the new Constitution of any true Churches such as the Reformed Churches are confessed to be and which already by your confession have the essence of Constitution and where doth it require it May not the said Churches be fully reformed according to Gods Word without a new Constitution Doth the Scripture use the phrase gathering the Church in the sense that you use it for the first Constitution or Coalition of a Church By what name or names is thè said Church Constitution so much urged upon tender consciences called in Scripture Did the Apostles or Ministers in those dayes teach or practise to gather or separate one part of this true Church of the Jewish Church I speak not which was then by Gods Commandment to be dissolved and another part of that yea persons which themselves converted not to make out of them all a purer Church Did they sever the godly into bodies distinct from others of the same place professing the same Religion Is it not the Scriptural-way of purging a corrupt Church to cast out the grossest offenders first as the Church of Corinth in which were many Schismatikes Heretikes Fornicators Drunken Communicants was advised to cast out the incestuous person that others may hear and fear c. And so in case of Heresie and Errour Gal. 5. and 6. First the Seducers were to be cut off and they that were overtaken with a fault to be restored with the spirit of meeknesse Doth not the setting up of a Church in a Church and extracting the one out of the other or out of Churches imply the incorrigiblenesse incurablenesse dissolving and disanulling of that Church or Churches out of which it is extracted Doth meer Separation of Members from a confessed true Church and Ministery endeavouring to reform according to her Light without their admonition assistance in the Work of Reformation or so much as intimation to the Ministers or Members free their consciences from the guilt of those corruptions which they judge to be in that Church Is it not a neglect of Christs rule viz. Admonition Tell him his fault c. And the substitution of another in the place viz. Separation which is as it were an Excommunication of the Church and beyond the Rule Whether if seven eight nine ten twenty separating voluntatily yea sinfully as if they turn Brownists Anabaptists Familists Antinomians Arminians from a Congregation of an hundred two hundred or a thousand do by a particular Covenant combine themselves together are presently thereupon exempt from the Jurisdiction of that Church and have as much or more Church power then they had while they were as they ought still to have been Members of the said Church yea do become a distinct Independent sister Church Whether Women at least Widows and Maids that are sui juris be not engaged to-seek the participation of all Gods Ordinances as well as men and bound to joyn in Church-Covenant whether any considerable number of men or any men at all do joyn with them or no Had Paul converted those Women to whom he preached Acts 16.13 which could not be brought into an Organical Congregation can it be conceived that they though Baptized were still without were not their children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy having right to Baptism If it be essential that the Church should be at first made up of visible Saints can a man in Faith joyn to any Church or being joyned bear Office submit to Censures or give any Church respect unto her at the Constitution whereof he was not present nor knoweth the first Members or possibly suspecteth them to be unsound seeing he may well doubt whether the said Church hath all the Essentials of a Church or no Is not that which was once Essential to a true Church ever Essential and is not the matter of a Church visible Saints as necessary in the continuation as in the first constitution of it Was every Member at his admission into the Church in the Apostles times called to give account of the Work of Grace in his heart and how is that proved Was the Congregation to judge and what Congregation in Scripture did so judge whether that work was wrought in his heart or no and consequently whether he were to be admitted or no Did John Baptist which Baptized Jerusalem and all Judel yea those which he calls Generations of Vipers Luke 3.7 with 21. and the Disciples of Christ which Baptized more Disciples then John so much mistake though they were born and lived amongst them as to think every of them a true Saint of God Was this grosse mistake the ground of their Baptizing so many of them Did they prophane or prostitute the Holy Virgin Ordinance of Baptism in baptizing so many thousands yea myriads for they could be no lesse amongst whom were so few very few comparatively either real or visible Saints Should they not have prepared the people better then thus and letten them have walked sometime in fellowship with them for approbation of their Conversation for so the very Cells of Satan say some Monasteries and Nunneries do before they admit any into their Society Was not the first if not the onely Church founded by Christ himself domestical in Christ's own Family as the first Jewish Church was in Abraham's Family in which Christ himself the Master of the house who chose the Apostles and not they him was the Priest Prophet and Pastour as also Adam Noah Abraham in their Families and in which the Sacrament was administred and received which we read not in other Families called Churches and to which Christ might have added many formerly converted by himself and others and yet did not and should or may a family of twelve or thirteen be and continue so long an entire Church without adding one Member of any other family though never so fit to be received as Christs Family till it was dissolved by his death did Whether the Church being first Domestical and after Congregational both the one and the other were not accidental to it the Jewish Church having the essence of a Church when it was National as well as while it

of them as of the spirits of the Prophets to the prophets and of Congregational Members though equal one to another be about the minor part where every Elder is left to enjoy the Office of an Elder and each Congregation left to the freedom of the Congregation in what belongs to them and they able to perform where Presbyteries Classes Synods of the same Congregations or their Commissioners in matters of common concernment do strengthen and help particular Congregations walking according to the rule and reduce such as walk not in truth and peace but are leavened with errour and variance and Elders upon a call do teach and rule and perform all Ministrations with reference to and the best advantage of the whole Church of Christ though more specially of those parts of it to which they are most related Also I cannot but observe that there is a difference between your Title-page in which you say indefinitely That the Positions and Scriptures alleaged not some or many of them by me examined are sufficient pertinent and full of power and are manifested yea clearly manifested so to be and some other passages in your Book in which you disclaim the places applyed to Pos 23. as it is by me controverted and are confident they are not found in the Works of any Congregational man d P. 105. And Pos 15. after the Allegation of some Authorities in stead of answering a Text upon which the distinction of Pastors and Teachers is grounded you the one a Teacher and the other Pastor conclude If we do put a false glosse upon the Scripture by mis-interpreting of Ephes 4.11 yet more modest language let any man finde immodestly in that examination if he can had become you brother seeing such Reverend and Learned men whom your self so much honour have gone before us in this Exposition e Pag. 7. ult So Pos 19. do you clearly manifest or so much as assert that the Text Matth. 18. what ever other Texts do doth prove That the Church must be Congregational Pos 20. have you clearly manifested that Matth. 16. proves that the Keys were given to Peter to be used by him for you could not but know that to be the meaning as a Disciple or Beleever not as an Officer f Pa. 93. 1. Pos 12. have you clearly manifested that Col. 4.17 proves the Churches power to censure her Officers when the best Arguments you bring to prove Archippus his faultinesse without which it was no censure amounts but to a strong presumption g Pa. 59. l. 14. and that you know is a weak proof So Pos 2. have you clearly manifested from Adams family that seven eight or nine make a Church when for any thing you Answer Adams family was no more a Church when they were seven or eight then when they were but two or three and do acknowledge notwithstanding your clear manifestation that God hath not precisely determined what number doth make a Church h P. 10. lin 14 33 34. Also methinks you have not manifestly cleared that Revel 8.8 9. is sufficient and full of power against settled endowments in the Church of which Text you say Our brethren present their Exposition as probable they force the Interpretation upon no man And Pos 7. you do not manifestly clear that 2 Cor. 8.5 doth pertinently and powerfully prove that every Member at his admission doth promise to give himself i P. 68. l. 12. to the Church to be guided by them when you say The practice of the Churches of Macedonia by way of allusion is made use of and the Argument is a comparatis k P 44. l. 18. For you know Allusions and Comparisons are not Argumentative And Pos 13. instead of clear manifestation of Ministers maintenance out of the Stock of the Church you say We think we see most warrant for it from the New Testament and as most probable once disputed it but neither then nor now are we peremptory in it l P. 61. l. 5 6 7. Finally to omit more instances when you say We think We conceive it is probable c. or do never so confidently assert any of the several Positions and do not prove the same by the several Texts respectively alleaged nor clear the said Texts from all the Objections made against your Exposition one material Objection unanswered being enough to invalidate the same you afford so many Arguments to any wise Reader that you have not clearly manifested the Positions and Scriptures where such speeches are found to be sufficient c. As for your pretending to prove some Positions and Practises by other Scriptures and Arguments which makes your Book swell so big Suppose you should really so prove them yet that as to mine intent expressed in the Preface is but a by-matter For Positions and Practises may be true and lawful and yet not truely nor lawfully grounded on the Texts alleaged and if I answer them and you produce other new ones we shall contend in infinitum and not come to any issue I could wish we might keep close to the Scriptures and Positions alleaged till they be one way or other cleared and then we may more safely and orderly proceed to other Scriptures and Arguments If the Positions and Scriptures be so clearly sufficient why do you not directly Answer the Examination but obliquely and evadingly in sundry places For instance in the very first words of your first Reply when I alleage one thing viz. That the Apostles never taught or practisied to gather or separate one part of this true Church and another part of that especially persons which themselves converted not to make a purer Church You answer of another thing which was never denyed viz. The Apostles both taught and practised the separating of some Jews from other Jews and gathered them into a Christian Church while yet the Jewish Church you say was not dissolved but was a Church of God But suppose you did solidly prove that the Church of the Jews was then a true Church Yet first it was not a Christian Church nor are the Reformed Churches and Ministers to be compared to the then Jewish Church and the Priests thereof and you should prove Separation from a Christian Church Secondly It was but one Church and you should shew gathering out of several Churches Thirdly It was onely of those Jews which they converted to Christianity from unconverted Jews and you should shew the gathering of Christians converted by others from other Christians converted as well as they and possibly from those persons by whom they were converted Fourthly That Church was then by Gods Commandment to be dissolved and many Churches to be built upon its ruines and therefore doth no more warrant the building of one Christian Church upon the ruine of other true Christian Churches then the Parliaments Commission if there were such a one to the Inhabitants of Derby Hundred to take down Latham house to build them houses

chiefly so that no Christians though never so syncere and holy have Christ for their King except they be Church-members and also within the Congregational Covenant or at least none so much as they And if it be not so applied in Scripture do not they wrong Christ his Kingdom and people that presume so to apply it Did not New England-men well and warrantably when their hopes began to languish of reducing the erroneous by private means or by preaching and conference to hold an Assembly of the Churches for discovery and confutation of them Had the General Court Civil in New-England a lawful power when Opinions grew on and experience discovered the danger to make a Law that Churches should not be set up in N. E. without the consent of the Magistrates and Churches there And hath not the Civil power in Old England from whence theirs is derived seeing the Word of God doth not alter with Climates the same power when there is the same or greater occasion And ought not obedience by yeelded here as well as there Would not they that now plead for Liberty of Conscience and Toleration in the Kingdom were they able to root out Presbyterians and their Way and could Civil Authority enclinable to put forth coercive power against it tell the Magistrate that he might if not he ought represse it with a strong hand at least under the notion of being prejudicial to the Civil peace if it could not otherwise be suppressed Did not the Magistrates of N. E. when they saw that neither preaching conference nor Assembly of the Churches did work the cure of their Distractions but the erroneous went on in their former course not onely to disturb the Churches but miserably also to interrupt the Civil Peace to convent them and to disfranchise some fine others and banish others Is it true or no that sundry speak and some write that our N.E. Brethren would not tolerate a few Presbyterians notwithstanding the now-pretended smalnesse of the difference which were persecuted for Nonconformity in any corner of their Countrey no not so much as in that which was next to the Barbarians Whether they which hold Episcopal Government to be Antichristian Babylonish to be destroyed by fire and sword and also Presbyterian Government to be Antichristian as bad or worse then Episcopal be not bound by their principles to root out Presbyterial Government and the resolute abbettors of it with fire and sword if they can get ability and opportunity for such a designe Whether they which have solemnly sworn to endeavour the Reformation of Religion in Doctrine Discipline Worship and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches and to endeavour the Vniformity of the Churches in the three Kingdoms and the extirpation of Popery Prelacy Superstition Heresie Schisin c. as all Parliament men the Assembly and the best affected in the Kingdom have done can with good conscience allow or tolerate Popery Prelacy Superstition Herefie Schism and why may they not for any obligation lying upon them by this Covenant tolerate Popery Prelacy and Superstition as well as Heresie and Schism Whether the Parliament can perform those promises they have made in the first Remonstrance and since wherein the Kingdom hath much confided If they loose the golden reins of Discipline and leave private men or particular Congregations to take up what form of Divine Service they please without requiring conformity to that Order which the Laws enjoyn according to Gods Word Have our Brethren expressed all their present opinions and desires or kept some for a reserve and what may be the reason of such a reserve Are they fully perswaded in their own mindes of the truth of all that which they expresse themselves to hold or onely take them up for the present waiting for further light May not the Presbyterian-Way for ought they certainly know howbeit they at present think not so be the Way of God and most agreeable to his Word And have not expressions to this purpose proceeded from their Tongues or Pens FINIS