Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	age_n	church_n	time_n	2,142	5	3.6322	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64145	The worthy communicant, or, A discourse of the nature, effects, and blessings consequent to the worthy receiving of the Lords Supper and of all the duties required in order to a worthy preparation : together with the cases of conscience occurring in the duty of him that ministers, and of him that communicates : to which are added, devotions fitted to every part of the ministration / by Jeremy Taylor ...	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.	1667 (1667)	Wing T418; ESTC R11473	253,603	430

broken love is like a broken bone set it well and it is the stronger for the fracture When Nicanor railed upon Philip of Macedon he slighted him and he railed still he then reproved him but withal forgave him and still he railed but when he forgave him and g●ve him a donative he sealed Nicanors pardon he confuted his calumny and taught him virtue But this depends not upon the injured person alone but upon the return and repentance of him that did it For no man is the better with God for having sinned against him and no man for having injured his brother can be the better beloved by him But if the sinner double his care in his repentance and if the offending man increase his kindnesse justice and endearments in his returns to friendship then it is the duty of charity so to pardon so to restore as the man deserves that is the sin must not be remembred in anger to lessen the worthinesse of his amends And this is that which our Blessed Saviour says If he shall return and say I repent thou shalt forgive him But the understanding of this great duty will require a little more exactnesse let us therefore inquire more particularly into the practical Questions or Cases of Conscience relating to this duty 1. How far we are bound to forgive our enemy that does repent and how far him that does not 2. How long and how often must we proceed in our pardon to the penitent 3. What indications and signs of repentance are we to require and accept as sufficient 4. Whether after every relapse must the conditions of his pardon be harder than before 5. Whether the injured person be bound to offer peace and seek for reconcilement or whether may he let it alone if the offending party does not seek it 6. Whether the precept of charity and forgivenesse obliges us not to go to Law 7. What charity or forgivenesse the offended Husband or Wife is to give to the other in case of adultery repented of Question I. Whether we are to forgive him that does not repent and how far if he does and how far if he does not If he have done me no wrong there is nothing to be forgiven and if he offers to give me satisfaction he is out of my debt But if he hath been injurious and does not repair me then I have something to pardon But what reason is there in that Religion that requires me to reward a sinner with a gift to take my enemy into my bosome to invite new injuries by suffering and kindly rewarding the old For by this means we may have injuries enough and sin shall live at the charge of the good mans piety and charity shall be the fuel of malice what therefore is our duty in this case I answer That there is a double sort of pardon or forgivenesse The first and least is that which neither exacts revenge our selves nor requires it of God nor delights in it if it happens and this is due to all those very enemies that do not repent that cease not still to persecute you with evil must thus be pardoned whether they care for it or no whether they ask it or ask it not For these we must also pray we must blesse them we must speak as much good of them as occasion and justice do require and we must love them that is do them justice and do them kindnesse and this expresly required of us by our blessed Saviour But there is also another forgivenesse that is a restitution to the first state of trust to love him as well to think as well of him and this is only due to them that repent and ask pardon and make amends as they can for then the proper office of thy charity is to pity thy brothers infirmity to accept his sorrow to entertain his friendship and his amends and to put a period to his repentance for having troubled thee For his satisfaction and restitution hath taken away the material part of the injury and thou art as well as thou wert before or at least he would fain have thee so and then there can be nothing else done but what is done by thy charity and by this thou must bear a share in his sorrow believe his affirmation accept his repentance cancel his guilt take off the remanent obligations remove suspicion from him entertain no jealousies of him but in all things trust him where charity is not imprudent For it is not always safe to imploy a person that hath deceived my trust and done me wrong But if you perceive that he may wisely be trusted and imployed charity must take off the objection of his former sailing If by repentance he hath cut off the evil that he did thee and that evil by which he did it then if you refuse to imploy him because he once did you wrong it is revenge and not prudence If he offended thee by pride by anger by covetousn●sse it is not enough that he say Sir forgive me I will make you amends It is enough to make you pardon him and perfectly to be reconciled to him but unlesse his repentance hath destroyed his covetousnesse his anger or his pride the evil principle remains and he will injure thee again Which thing if wisely and without pretences thou canst really perceive to trust or to imploy him in such instances in which he formerly did thee injury is not prudent nor safe and no charity ties thee to be a fool and to suffer thy self to be tempted Only be careful that you do not mistake jealousie for prudence and so lose the rewards of charity lest when we think our selves wise we become fools Question II. How long and how often must we proceed in our forgiveness and accept of the repentance of injurious persons To this we need no answer but the words of our Blessed Saviour If thy Brother trespasse against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day turn again to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him Now this seven times in a day and seventy times seven times is not a determined number but signifies infinitely Seven times in a day do I praise thee said David From this definite number some Ages of the Church took their pattern for their Canonical hours It was well enough though in the truth of the thing he meant I will praise thee continually and so must our pardoning be For if Christ hath forgiven thee but seventy times seven times saith St. Austin then do thou also stop there let his measure be thine If he denied to spare thee for the next fault do thou so to thy Brother But St. Hierom observes concerning this number That Christ required us to forgive our Brother seventy times seven times in a day that is four hundred and ninety times meaning that we must be ready to forgive him oftner than he can need it Now though he that

sins frequently and repents frequently gives great reason to believe that his repentances are but pretended and that such repentances before God signifie nothing yet that is nothing to us it may be they are rendred ineff●ctual by the relapse and that they were good for the present as Ahabs was but whether they be or be not yet if he be not ashamed to repent so often we must think it no shame and no imprudence to forgive him and to forgive him so that he be restored intirely to his former state of good things that is there must be no let in thy charity if there be in prudence that 's another consideration But his second repentance must be accepted as well as his first and his tenth as well as his fifth And if any man think it hard so often to be tied to accept his repentance let him understand that it is because himself hath not yet been called to judgment he hath not heard the voice of the exactor he hath not yet been delivered to the tormentors nor summed up his own accounts nor beheld with amazement the vast number of his sins He that hath in deepest apprehension placed himself before the dreadful Tribunal of God or felt the smart of conscience or hath been affrighted with the fears of hell or remembers how often he hath been spared from an horrible damnation will not be ready to strangle his Brother and afflict him for a trifle because he considers his own dangers of perishing for a sum which can never be paid if it never be forgiven Question III. What indications and signs of repentance are we to require and to accept as sufficient I answer that for this circumstance there is as proper an use and exercise of our charity as in the direct forgiveness We are not to exact securities and demonstrations Mathematical nor to demand the extremity of things If thy enemy be willing to make an amends accept of his very willingnesse for some part and his amends for the other Let every good act be forwardly entertained and persuade you heartily that all is well within If you can reasonably think so you are bound to think so for after all the signs of repentance in the world he may deceive you and whether his heart be right or not you can never know but by the judgment of charity and that you may better use betimes For when ever your returning enemy saies he does repent that is gives humane and probable indications of his repentance you cannot tell but that he saies true and therefore you must forgive The words of Christ are plain if he returns saying I do repent then it is a duty and we can stay no longer for he that confesses his sin and praies for pardon hath done great violence and mortification to himself he hath punished his fault and then there is nothing left to be done by the offended party but to return to mercy and charity But in this affair it is remarkable what we are commanded by our blessed Lord Agree with thine adversary quickly c. l●ft thou be constrained to pay the utmost farthing Plainly intimating that in reconcilements and returns of friendship there is supposed alwaies something to be abated something clearly forgiven for if he pay thee to the utmost farthing thou hast forgiven nothing It is merchandise and not forgivenesse to restore him that does as much as you can require Be not over righteous saith Solomon that is let charity do something of thy work allow to her place and powers and opportunity It was an excellent saying of St. Bernard God is never called the God of revenges but the Father of mercies because the original of his revenges he takes from us and our sins but the original and the causes of his forgivenesse he takes from himself and so should we that we restore him that did us wrong to our love again let it not be wholly because he hath done all that can be required but something upon our own account let our mercy have a share in it that is let us accept him readily receive him quickly believe him easiy expound all things to the better sense take his word and receive his repentance and forgive him at the beginning of it not to interrupt his repentance but to incourage it and that 's the proper work of charity in the present Article Question IV. Whether after every relapse must the conditions of his pardon be harder than before I answer that I find no difference in the expression of our blessed Saviour It is all one after seven times and after seventy times and after seventy times seven times If he shall return saying I repent that 's all is here required But then because by saying I repent is not meant only the speaking it but also doing it must at least be probable that he does so as well as say so therefore although as soon as he does so so soon you must forgive him yet 1. After the first forgivenesse and at the second and third offence we are not obliged so readily to believe his saying as after the first offence at which time although he did violence to justice and charity yet he had not broken his faith as now he hath and therefore the oftner he hath relapsed the more significations he ought to give of the truth of his repentance He that is pardoned and sins again cannot expect so easily to be acquitted the third time as at the first saith S Basil. At the first fault we must believe his saying because we know nothing to the contrary but when he hath often said so and it is seen so often that he did not say true he that is forgiven and then relapses is obliged to do more the next time he pretends repentance 2. Alt●ough we ●re bound to forgive him intirely even after a thousand injuries if he does truly repent yet this person cannot expect to be imployed or to be returned to all his former capacities of good because it is plain he hath not cured the evil principle the malicious heart or the evil eye the slanderous tongue or the unjust hand his covetous desire and his peevish anger and then though we must be ready in heart to receive him to all the degrees of his former condition when he shall be capable and is the same man that ought to be imployed yet till he be so or appears so in prudent and reasonable indications he must be pardoned heartily and prayed for charitably but he must be handled cautiously It must not be harder for thee to pardon him after ten thousand relapses and returns but after so much variety of folly and weak instances it will be much harder for him to say and prove he does repent But in this our charity must neither be credulous nor morose too easie nor too difficult but it is secure if it pardons him and prayes for him whether he repents or no. 3.