Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A55499
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A Christian caveat to all loyal subjects, or, A looking-glass displaying the foul face of phanaticism ...
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A. P.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing P3; ESTC R14437
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11,685
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pride is not the fruit of their faith but the fault of those men and they must answer for 't But the most intollerable pride of some Phanaticks of the first magnitude and highest elevation among them which I shall mention was approved by their followers and therefore may justly be imputed to them Tim I cannot say but you speak reason go on in your discourse Phil. Did you never hear Tim of John of Leyden that famous Phanatick This monster of mankind at length arriv'd to that height of blasphemous pride and insufferable arrogancy that he took upon him to be Jesus Christ himself and true Saviour of the World and sent abroad from Munster where he had got by pious artifâ—ces and rebellious principles the temporal power into his hands his twelve Apostles to preach his new Gospel unto the World and his crew of followers did maintain him in this proâ—igious pride and blasphemy till at length divine vengeance fell heavy on his and their accursed heads to terrifie others from such antichristian Blasphemies But to come home to our selves In the time of the long Parliament who by no mean pride made themselves Kings by by destroying Monarchy was not one James Naylor for his wonderful seeming Sanctity cry'd up for the Saviour of the World by the Phanatick Rabble and set upon an Ass to ride in triumph on Palm-Sunday as our blessed Saviour did to Jerusalem they using to him the same acclamations and he glorying in their Blasphemies Can any Pride be comparable to this Lucifer's ambition was to be but like to God ero similis altissimo but these Men or rather antichristian Monsters must be no less than Jesus Christ and God himself 'T is true this blasphemous Naylor was afterwards punish't for this prodigious pride but his Followers call'd it a Persecution However let not Phanaticks rail so simply against Popish Pride till they themselves afford some Examples of Humility I know Tim you are no small Scripturist read the third Chapter of the second Epistle to Timothy and you will find a perfect description of these men For are not they boasters of their own ways and holiness prond above measure blasphemers disobedient traitors heady high minded having a form of godliness and denying the power thereof Can this be denied of them And therefore I say to thee Tim what St. Paul there says to us all From such turn away Tim. I think your counsel 's good For 't is time to turn from those whom I see now endeavour to overturn the Christian World with Pride and Blasphemies The Fourth Lesson Of Phanatical Prayers and Devotions Timothy ARE not those strange devotions Phil which the Papists use related in the Protestant Looking-Glass Phil. Yes truely Tim strange and rediculous enough as there related if any Papists be so silly as to use them But take my word for 't if the adversaries of the Church of Rome had no better arguments to confute her devotions they will not be thought the worse of by rational men However if some Papists may be guilty of rediculous devotions I am sure Phanaticks of all men have no reason to lay it to their charge who too often disgrace this principle part of Christian-worship by their extempore effusions in their publick meetings What think you of this Presbyterian Cant among other such stuff by a Scotch Minister before Sermon Lord maintain thine own Cause gu'd Lord maintain our holy Covenant Lord let the Covenant and the Common Prayer Book wrastle gu'd Lord wrastle wrastle I say Lord and I am sure the Covenant will throw the Common Prayer book upon his back Is not this pittiful rediculous Stuff to be made use of in the place of Publick Worship One might fill a book with such canting stuff in Presbyterian prayers and preaching But if you come to Phanaticks of a higher elevation who discover Gospel-verities by a mysterious light which is unintelligible what a Rapsody have you of fine words in themselves which signify nothing as they jumble them together in their nonsensical devotions What strange disorders and confusions are they guilty of by their pretending to the Spirit and Light within fathering their lyes on the Father of Lights with horrid Blasphemies And I have been told by those who have been present at the Meetings of some Phanaticks that they have seen such absurd Impieties and Abominations as are not once to be named among Christians And yet all these will needs be Saints and being strongly deluded by Satan think all the World in a Error besides themselves If I should descend to Particulars there would be no end Tim. I have enough of them and am resolv'd to be no longer deluded by them Phil. Let me also tell thee Tim That what the Protestant Looking-glass speaks of Popish Pardons and Penances c. is such jeering scurrilous stuff fill'd with such abominable Lies and unchristian Censures that if the Author had any sense of Christianity he would blush to abuse the World with such Railaries I am not one who will Patronize ridiculous Penances but this I am sure of that a Religion which enjoyns Penances for Crimes committed is more agreeable to the Practice of primitive Christians than that which has none at all and laughs at such Devotions Tim. For my part I shall not trouble my self to know what the Primitive Christians did I am for the Purity of the Gospel which holy Scripture declares unto us The Fifth Lesson Of Phanatical Miracles Phil. IT is evident from Sacred Writ That the Christian Faith was confirm'd by innumerable Miracles from Heaven that both Jews and Gentiles might by such Divine Attestations believe in Jesus Christ and save their Souls The Acts of the Apostles declare this sufficiently without dispute And that in after ages God did work many Miracles in his Church for the manifestation of Truth and conversion of Unbelievers cannot be denied by rational men Now if besides such as cannot rationally be doubted of in unquestionable Records some foolish wicked men have counterfeited Miracles for politick ends their faults are not to be imputed to the Church of Rome who severely punishes such Impostors Tim. Methinks Phil you incline too much to the Romish side Though your Discourse has brought me to dislike Phanaticism yet I hate Popery as much as ever Phil. And I love any one who is a Loyal Subject to his Soveraign My aim Tim is to make you a good Subject which Phanaticks neither are nor can be by their Principles But pr'ythee Tim if all Miracles are ceas'd in the Christian Church and must no longer attest to supernatural Truths why did Calvin so endeavour by a counterfeited Miracle to confirm his Doctrin Tim. Why you jest Phil did he so Phil. 'T is a well known story related of him by good Authors That compacting with a Zealous Sister and her Husband he was to counterfeit himself dead and the Wife to come running out crying in the Streets That her Husband died suddenly at
their Religion and Liberty when he becomes a Tyrant and opposes the Truths of Jesus Christ Phil. How Tim lawful Then farwel Peace and Truth and Liberty and Property and Order and Government and all goodness to make way for Rebellion War and Bloodshed Anarchy and Confusion to Reign among us For those who say this is lawful make themselves likewise Judges to give Sentence when their Soveraign turns Tyrant and persecutes the true Professors of the Gospel But how comes it to pass Tim that you lay such Positions to the Jesuits charge to make them odious as Devils and teach the same horrid Doctrins among your selves and notwithstanding must be reputed Saints Tim. I see Phil you live in ignorance and are not acquainted with the Priviledge of the Saints Know you not that there 's no Law to them that are in Christ Jesus But let that pass Though I askt you the Question about the lawfulness of such Risings to hear what you would say I will not believe the Presbyterians and the rest of the Godly Party maintain such Principles and Doctrins against Kingly Government However let the Jesuits say what they will to clear themselves believe them we will not 't is not for our interest Phil. Neither is it for your interest to own such rebellious Doctrins though undeniably evident from the printed Books of those you call the Godly Party that they maintain such Principles and put them in practice when arm'd with power Tim. I 'l not take your word let me see the Authors Phil. I question not but you have heard of Zuinglius that martial Phanatick hot and furious as well in his Writings as in the Camp Kings says he may be Depos'd by the Votes and Suffrages of the Multitude when they Rule not according to the Law of Christ and 't is a Work well pleasing to God Tom. 1. Art 42 43. And l. 4. p. 868. tells Caesar plainly That they will obey him if he will be Directed by them otherwise they will take a course with him to the purpose Which is the same course should have been taken with our gracious Soveraign by the godly Associates if God had not prevented their Designs Calvin that furious Zealot in his Commentaries upon Daniel Cap. 6. V. 22. tells Kings boldly That they lose all Authority when they rise against God and that men had better spit in their Faces than yield obedience to their Commands when they grow so insolent as to rob God of his right And all this depends upon Calvin's magisterial word he no sooner says so but they cease to be Kings and every proud Presbyterian may spit in their Face And I am sure when once they begin to spit in their Soveraigns Face 't will not be long before they cut off his Head Thus taught Calvin and thus our Phanaticks dealt with Charles the First of pious Memory to make good his Doctrin by their Practice Beza treads in the same steps animating Subjects to rise in Arms against their Soveraign in his Vind. cont Tyran by surprising his Towns and Castles opposing his Forces yea to kill their Kings if they oppose the Truths of Jesus Christ That is if they profess and maintain any Religion but what these Men fancy to be Gospel truths Paraeus a great Zealot in his Comm. upon the 13th of the Romans teaches the same seditious rebellious Doctrin with Gracerus Aretius and Geskenius who were the fatal Firebrands to put the World in Flames about Religion Tim. Hold Phil enough of these But I must tell you these are Foreigners and therefore nothing to us Do the godly Party of our Kingdoms maintain these Principles Phil. Yes doubtless they are something to you if you follow their Doctrins but your Masters in our Kingdoms are as guilty of such horrid Principles as any Foreigners Knox that furious Zealot all Fire and Quicksilver who first began to inflame all Scotland teaches magisteriously That Princes may be Deposed by the People if they prove Tyrants and act against God and his Truth and in such cases all Subjects are free from their Oaths of Allegiance and Obedience l. ad Nob. pop Scotiae And to encourage any desperate Phanatick to murder his Prince in a furious zeal he is not asham'd to say That it were very good that Rewards were publickly appointed by the People for such as kill Tyrants as well as for those who kill ravenous Beasts In Hist Scot. p. 372. No Jesuit is comparable to this Fury Yet Goodman is as bad as he who in his Book of Obedience in Exod. 17. excepts neither King nor Queen nor Emperour but tells the People They must seize upon Princes who would seduce them from God that is their Phanatical Novelties and tarry them away to the Gallows and hang them up Buchanan's zeal is no less fiery and furious for p. 61. de jure Reg. Scot. he tells the People That they are above the King for the good of the Kirk and holy Cause may Arraign him Depose him Execute him and Dispose of the Crown as they please What think you Tim Are not these rare Fellows to make Apostles Can such Men as these be sent from God or have any of the Spirit of Jesus Christ Is it possible for Presbyterians and other Phanaticks while they maintain such Principles and Doctrines to be at the same time Phanaticks and good Subjects Can they at the same time endeavour to Depose and Murder their King and yet be true and faithful to him and his Government Tim. Say your say out and then I 'l tell you what I think on 't Phil. The Presbyterians and other Phanaticks here in England learn'd this Lesson perfectly and followed it exactly In the time of the late horrid Rebellion it was publickly Preach'd by Phanatical Zealots in all places where the Rebels prevail'd to the utter ruin for a time of King and Government And according to the Doctrin of these Bellows of Sedition the House of Commons Voted That the Supreme Power of the Nation was in the People and consequently in them their Representatives Or words to this effect And what sad Consequences ensued thereupon I shall tell you when from these horrid Principles I come to declare their bloody Cruelties And now at present did not the Lord Russel die with this Persuasion That 't is lawful to raise Arms against our Soveraign in the case of Religion And would not Mr. Sydney needs be thought to die a Martyr for this good Old Cause And this is the true reason why they in a manner justifie themselves at their death without any open repentance of the Crimes for which they suffer that those of their Faction whom they leave behind them may still attempt what they could not bring to pass by theirendeavours And hence it proceeds that whatever tends to advance among them the good Old Cause must be sanctified so that Lies Perjuries Sacriledges Treasons Sham-Plots real Conspiracies against King and Government Seditions Rebellions