Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	ancient_a	church_n	doctrine_n	1,896	5	6.2759	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86280	Certamen epistolare, or, The letter-combate. Managed by Peter Heylyn, D.D. with 1. Mr. Baxter of Kederminster. 2. Dr. Barnard of Grays-Inne. 3. Mr. Hickman of Mag. C. Oxon. And 4. J.H. of the city of Westminster Esq; With 5. An appendix to the same, in answer to some passages in Mr. Fullers late Appeal.	Heylyn, Peter, 1600-1662.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Bernard, Nicholas, d. 1661.; Hickman, Henry, d. 1692.; Harrington, James, 1611-1677.	1659 (1659)	Wing H1687; Thomason E1722_1; ESTC R202410	239,292	425

you have attributed to them as far as the effects can shew the heart to others I have before took some pains to let you see how easily men may be mistaken when they behold a man through the spectacles of partiality and defection or take the visible appearances for invisible graces the fraudulent art fi●●s and deceits of men for the coelestial gifts of God And as for that which you have inferred hereupon viz. that if he love them he will scarcely take my dealing well You should first prove the Premises before you venter upon such a strange conclusion and not condemn a Christian brother upon Ifs and Ands. 32. In the next place you please to tell me that you are not an approver of the violence of any of them and that you do not justifie M. Burtons way and that you are not of the mind of the party that I most oppose in all their Discipline as a Book now in the Press will give the world an account In the two first parts of which Character which you have given us of your self as I have great reason to commend your moderation and hope that you will make it good in your future actions so I can say little to the last not having heard any thing before of the Book you speak of nor knowing by what name to call for it when it comes abroad But whereas you tell us in the next that you are sure the Church must have unity and charity in the ancient simplicity of Doctrine Worship and Government or not at all I take you at your word hold there and we shall soon agree together Vnity and charity in the ancient simplicity of Doctrine Worship and Government no man likes better then my self bring but the same affections with you and the wide breach which is between us in some of the causes which we mannage on either side will be suddenly closed but then you must be sure to stand to the word ancient also and not to keep your self to simplicity only if unity and charity will content you in the ancient Doctrine in the simplicity thereof without subsequent mixtures of the Church I know no doctrine in the Church more pure and ancient then that which is publickly held forth by the Church of England in the book of Articles the Homilies and the Chatechism authorized by Law under the head or rubrick of Confirmation Of which I safely may affirm as S. Augustine doth in his Tract or Book Ad Marcellinum if my memory fail not his qui contradicit ●ut à Christi fide alienus est aut est haereticus that is to say he must be either an Infidei or an Heretick who assenteth not to them If unity and charity in the simplicity of Worship be the thing you aim at you must not give every man the liberty of worshiping in what form he pleaseth which destroys all unity nor cursing many times in stead of praying which destroyes all charity the ancient and most simple way of Worship in the Church of God was by regular forms prescribed for the publick use of Gods people in their Congregations and not by unpremeditated indigested prayers which every man makes unto himself as his fancy shall lead him which I hope I have sufficiently proved in my Tract of Liturgies And if Set Forms of Worship are to be retained as I think they be you will not easily meet with any which hath more in it of the ancient simplicity of the Primitive times then that by which we did officiate for the space of fourscore years and more in the Church of England And finally if the ancient simplicity in Government be the point you drive at what Government can you find more pure and ancient then that of Bishops of which I shall only present you with that Character of it which I find in that Petition of the County of Rutland where it is said to be That Government which the Apostles left the Church in that the three ages of Martyrs were governed by that the thirteen ages since have alwayes gloried in by their succession of Bishops from the Apostles proving themselves members of the Catholick and Apostolick Church that our Laws have established so many Kings and Parliaments have protected into which we were baptized as certainly Apostolical as the observation of the Lords day as the distinction of Books Apocryphal from Canonical as that such Books were written by such Evangelists and Apostles as the consecration of the Eucharist by Presbyters c. An ample commendation of Episcopal Government but such as exceedeth not the bounds of truth or modesty Stand to these grounds for keeping unity and charity in the ancient simplicity of Doctrine Worship and Government in the Church of God and you shall see how cheerfully the Regal and Prelatical party whom you most oppose wil join hands with you and embrace you with most dear affections 33. But you begin to shrink already and tell me that if I will have men live in peace as brethren our Union must be Law or Ceremonies or indifferent Forms This is a pretty speculation I must needs confesse but such as would not passe for practicable in any well-governed Common-wealth unless it be in the Old Vtopia or the New Atlantis or the last discovered Oceana For how can men possibly live in peace as brethren where there is no Law to limit their desires or direct their actions Take away Law and every man will be a Law unto himself and do whatsoever seemeth best in his own eyes without control then Lust will be a law for one Felony will be a law for another Perjury shall be held no crime nor shall any Treason or Rebellion receive their punishments for where there is no law there is no transgression and where there is no transgression there can be no punishment punishments being only due for the breach of Laws Thus is it also in the service and worship of Almighty God which by the hedge of Ceremonies is preserved from lying open to all prophaneness and by Set Forms be they as indifferent as they will is kept from breaking out into open confusion God as S. Paul hath told us is the God of Order not of Confusion in the Churches If therefore we desire to avoid confusion let us keep some order and if we would keep order we must have some forms it being impossible that men should live in peace as brethren in the house of God where we find not both David hath told us in the Psalms that Jerusalem is like a City which is at unity in it self and in Jerusalem there were not only solemn Sacrifices set Forms of blessing and some significant Ceremonies prescribed by God but Musical Instruments and Singers and linnen vestures for those Singers and certain hymns and several times and places for them ordained by David Had every Ward in that City and every Street in that Ward and every Family in that Street and perhaps every

this Realm have continued in force and so many Parliaments since the first Reformation have left unquestioned 49. Your Letter now draws towards an end in which you professe some seeming gladnesse that I whom you call the Primipilus amongst the defenders of the late turgid and persecuting sort of Prelacy I like your words so well that I must needs bring them to a repetition do so freely disclaim the Grotian Religion which you say you never charged me with and thereupon conceive some confident hopes that the rest of the Prelatical Clergie will disown it also How far the most of the Prelatical Clergie shall think fit to disown the Grotian Religion as you have described it in your book I am not able to determine Aetatem habent they are all old enough to answer for themselves if you put them to it But if you have no better hopes of their disowning then you have assurances from me of my disclaiming that Religion you may cry out O spe● inanes frustra cogitationes meae without help or remedy For tell me I beseech you where is it that I have so freely disclaimed the Grotian Religion as you say I have Not in my letter I am sure there is no such matter All that I say in that is no more then this that I could have wished you had spared my name in that Preface of yours unlesse you could have proved me to have been one of that Religion as I think you cannot Which notwithstanding I may be one of that Religion and yet may warrantably think that you cannot prove it you being so great a stranger to my private discourses and finding nothing to that purpose in publick writings But whether I positively am or really am not of the Grotian Religion that is to say of that Religion of Hugh Grotius of which M. Baxter hath given us a description by his opinions I am not bound to tell you now finding my self unwilling by such an unnecessary declaration to engage my self with fresh disputes with any one of either party who finds himself unsatisfied with it may involve me in But so farr I assure you I am of the Religion of Hugh Grotius that I wish as heartily as he did that the breaches in the walls of Jerusalem were well closed up that the Puritans submitting to the Church of England and the Church of England being reconciled with the Church of Rome we might unite and center in those sacred truths those undeniable principles and established Doctrines which have been universally received in the Church of Christ and in which all parties doe agree and then I little doubt but that the Lutheran Churches in Germany Denmark Sweden and Norway and the Calvinian party in their several Countries would not unwillingly take the benefit of a publick peace leaving all doubtful disputations to be managed in the publick Schools not prest with so much heat and with so little edification to the weak in faith in the common pulpits This I am certain is no more then what is taught us in the prayer for the good estate of Christs Church militant here upon the earth In which we do beseech the Divine Majesty to inspire continually the universal Church with the spirit of truth unity and concord and to grant that all they which do confesse his holy name may agree in the truth of his holy word and live in unity and godly love which godly and most Christian prayer I do most heartily recommend to your consideration and not unto your consideration only but your practice also as I do you and all that do delight in the spirit of unity to his heavenly blessings who is the Author of Peace and the Lover of Concord And this I do with that affection which becometh Your very humble Servant and Christian Brother in Jesus Christ to be commanded Peter Heylyn Lacies Court in Abingdon Decemb. 10. 1658. 50. When I had finished this Answer and found it to amount to a greater bulk then was first desired I was in some conflict with my self by what means it might so come to M. Baxter that it might also be communicated to such others as had took notice of the injury done me and might expect to have some notice also of the right I had done my self I had some reason to believe that M. Baxter had imparted the Contents of his Letter to some or other of his friends before it was dispatcht to me to the end that they might see and know and relate to others of that party to what a sad reckoning he had called me And how unable I must prove to render an account of those several charges which he had justly laid upon me And I had reason to suspect that when he had perused my answer and seen how little he had gotten by the Provocation it might be secretly kept by him or perhaps committed to the fire for the greater security that on the one side he might be held to be invincible by those who look upon him as the Atlas which supports the cause and on the other side I might be condemned for an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by my silence had declared my self guilty of a self conviction There was somewhat also to be done in reference to the conformable clergy and the Prelatical Divines as also to the turgid and persecuting sort of Prelates who otherwise could not but admire that I who had been so active in vindicating the fame and reputation of other men should be so lame and negligent in preserving my own And other way I could find none to satisfie all parties and right my self then to publish these passages betwixt M. Baxter and my self and so to publish them that coming from the presse as M. Baxters first provocation had done before it might be universally dispersed over most parts of the Land If any shall conceive my Answer to be too long he shall conceive no otherwise of it then I do my self But I was willing to take some pains with him to satisfie him word by word and line by line where I found any thing considerable in it self or capable of receiving satisfaction from me And to say truth I have been the more punctual and exact in all particulars that M. Baxter having sufficient measure pressed down if not running over also might rest himself contented with that satisfaction and supercede all further troubles to himself or me And being he hath pleased to conclude his Letter with a complemental desire of pardon for the displeasing plainnesse of it I shall also conclude this discourse between us with an assurance to him of my kind acceptance of that Letter there being nothing which can be more agreeable to me then an honest plainnesse And as for pardon there needs none where there is no injury complained of as by me there is not And therefore I shall shut up all in these words of S. Jerome to S. Augustine on the like entercourse between them viz. Non

who had taken up the information or vulgar Hear-s●y without inquiring into the falsity or malice of the first Report if Mr. Hickman would have had the patience to have stayd so long 4. But long I had not lain in this quiet slumber when I was rouzed by your Letter of March 8. informing me of a second Edition of that Book in which I did not bear a part in the Prologue only as in that before nor was made one of the Actors only in the body Tragi-Comedy but that the matter of the whole Epilogue was of my mistakings All which I could have slept out also if the same Letter had not directed me to page 23 24. where I should find a passage to this effect viz. That Dr. Holland had turned Dr. Laud the most Renowned Arch-Bishop of Canterbury out of the Schools with disgrace for but endeavouring to maintain that Bishops differed in order not only in Degree from inferiour Presbyters A son of Craesus which was dumb from his very birth could find a tongue when he perceived his Father in danger of death whom no extremity of his own might possibly have forced on so great a Miracle And therefore I conceive that it will not be looked upon in me as a matter of Prodigie that the Dishonour done to so great a Prelate who in his time was one of the Fathers of this Church and the chief amongst them should put me to a Resolution of breaking those bonds of silence which had before restrain'd me from advocating in my own behalfe I was not willing howsoever to engage my self too rashly with an unknown Adversary without endeavouring further to inform my self in his Grounds or Reasons In which respect I thought it most agreeable to the ingenuity which I had shown to Mr. Baxter on the like occasions to let him see how sensible I was of the injury done unto my self and the indignity offered to the fame of so great a Person before I would endeavour the righting of my self or the vindicating of his honour in a publique way To which end I addrest unto him these ensuing Lines Dr Heylyn's first Letter to Mr. Hickman SIR 5. YOur Book of the Justification of the Father● c. was not long since put into my hands w th a direction to a passage in the Preface of it It was not long before I consulted the place in which I found mention that a Book of mine had received the desert of its bitterness in being burnt by the hand of the publique Hangman It seems you were so zealous in laying a Reproach upon me that you cared not whether it were true or false It was thought a sufficient warrant to you that you were informed so without any further enquiring after it Which pains if you would please to take you might have learned that though such a thing was much endeavoured yet it was not effected i. e. that it went no further then noise and fame which served to some instead of all other proofs I was advertised yesterday by several Letters that the Book is come to a second Edition in which you have not only made bold with me which I can easily contemn but have laid a fouler Reproach on the Late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in being disgracefully turn'd out of the Schools by Dr. Holland But Sir however you may please to deal with such a poor fellow as I am you ought to have carried a greater Reverence towards a Prelate of such eminent Parts and Place whose Memory is more precious amongst all that love the Church of England then to suffer it to be so defamed and by such a person You pretend Information for the ground of your other errour but for this I believe you would be troubled to produce your Authors And if there be no more truth in the other parts of your Book in which you deliver points of Doctrine then you have shown in these two passages in which you relate to matters of fact you had need pray to meet with none but ignorant Readers such as are fit to be abus'd and not with any knowing and intelligent man Excuse me if my love to truth and my tenderness to a name which I so much honour have extorted from me these few lines which are most heartily recommended to your consideration as you are to the grace and blessings of Almighty God by Your very affectionate friend and Christian Brother Peter Heylyn Abingdon March 19. 1658. 6. By this time I had got the Book which I caused to be read over to me till I came to page 38. where I found my self as much concerned as before in the Preface and the integrity of Dr. Burlow once Dean of Chester and afterwards successively Bishop of Rochester and Lincoln to be more decryed then Dr. Laud the late Arch-Bishops was dishonoured in the former passage This put me to a present stand and I resolved to go no further till I had certified the Author of my second Grievance which I did accordingly I had waited somewhat more then a week since I had writ my other Letter without receiving any answer The shooting of a second Arrow after the first might possibly procure a return to both and so it proved in the event But take my second Letter first and then we may expect his answer unto both together Now the second Letter was as followeth Dr. Heylyn's second Letter to Mr. Hickman SIR 7. SInce the writing of my former Letter the last Edition of your Book hath been brought unto me In which I find p. 23. that you ground your self upon the Testimony of some who are still alive for Laud's being disgracefully turned out of the Dinity Schools by Dr. Holland I find also p. 38. that Dr. Burlow did upon his death-bed with grief complain of the wrong he had done to Dr. Reynolds and those who joyned with him in mis-reporting some of their Answers and certain passages therein contained And of the truth of this you say that you are able to give a satisfactory account to any person of ingenuity who shall desire it Sir I am not ashamed of having so much of a Suffenus as to entitle my self to some ingenuity and therefore think it not amiss to claim your promise and to desire a more satisfactory account in that particular then your bare affirmation This with your nomination of the parties who are still alive and able to testifie to the truth of the other I desire you would please to let me have with the first conveniency If no speedy opportunity doth present it self you may send to me by the Preacher who comes hither on Sunday I expected that my former Letter would have been gratified with an answer but if you send me none to this I sha●l think you cannot And so commending you and your Studies so far forth as they shall co-operate to the peace of the Church to God's heavenly Blessing I subscribe my self Your very affectionate Friend to serve you Peter

no other issue could be expected then the curse of God in making a perpetual rent and destruction in the whole body of the state pag. 39. was not because they were so in and of themselves but for other Reasons which our great Masters in the Schools of policy called Reason of State That King had said as much as this comes too of the Puritans of Scotland whom in the second Book of his Basilicon Doron he calls the very pests of a Common-wealth whom no deserts can oblige neither Oaths nor Promises bind breathing nothing but sedition and calumny c. Advising his Son Prince Henry then Heir of the Kingdom not to suffer the Principles of them to brook his Land if he list to sit at rest except he would keep them for trying his patience as Socrates did an evil wise And yet I trow your adversary will not grant upon these expressions though he might more warrantably do it in this case then he doth in the other that Puritans are not to be suffered in a State or Nation especially in such a State which hath any mixture in it of Monarchical Government Now the Reason of State which moved King James to so much harshness against the Remonstrants or Arminians call them which you will was because they had put themselves under the Patronage of John Olden Barnevelt a man of principal authority in the Common-wealth whom the King looked upon as the profess'd Adversary of the Prince of Orange his dear Confederate and Ally who on the other side had made himself the Patron and Protector of the Rigid Calvinists In favour of which Prince that King did not only press the States to take heed of such infected persons as he stiles them which of necessiry would by little and little bring them to utter ruine if wisely and in time they did not provide against it but sent such of his Divines to the Synod of Dort as he was sure would be sufficiently active in their condemnation By which means having served his own turn secured that Prince and quieted his neighbouring provinces from the present distemper he became every day more willing then other to open his eyes unto the truths which were offered to him and to look more carefully into the dangers and ill consequence of the opposite Doctrines destructive in their own nature of Monarchial Government a matter not unknown to any who had acquaintance with the Court in the last times of the King No● makes it any thing against you that his Majesties repeating the Articles of the Creed two or three days before his death should say with a kind of sprightfulness and vivacity that he believed them all in that sense which was given by the Church of England and that whatsoever he had written of this faith in his life he was now ready to seal with his death For first the Creed may be believed in every part and article of it according as it is expounded in the Church of England without reflecting on the Doctrine of Predestination and the points depending thereupon And secondly I hope your Adversary doth not think that all the bitter speeches and sharp invectives which that King made against Remonstrants were to be reckoned amongst those Articles of his faith which he had writ of in his life and was resolved to seal with his death no more then those reproachful speeches which he gives to those of the Puritan Faction in the conference at Hampton Court the Basilicon Doron for which consult my answer to Mr. Baxter neer 29. and elsewhere passim in his Writings 44. The greatest part of his Historical Arguments being thus passed over we will next see what he hath to say of his Late Majesties Declaration printed before the Articles An. 1628. and then proceed unto the rest He tells us of that Declaration how he had learned long since that it was never intended to be a two edged Sword nor procured out of any charitable design to setle the Peace of the Church but out of a Politique design to stop the mouths of the Orthodox who were sure to be censured if at any time they declared their minds whilst the new upstart Arminians were suffered to preach and print their Heterodox Notions without controul And for the proof hereof he voucheth the Authority of the Late Lord Faulkland as he finds it in a Speech of his delivered in the House of Commons Anno 1640. In which he tells us of these Doctrines that though they were not contrary to Law yet they were contrary to custome that for a long time were no ofter preached then recanted Next he observes that in the Recantation made by Mr. Thorne Mr. Hodges and Mr. Ford it is not charged upon them that they had preached any thing contrary to the Doctrine of the Church according to the ancient Form of the like Recantations enjoyned by the ancient Protestants as he calls them but onely for their going against the Kings Declaration which but only determined not having commanded silence in those points Thirdly that the Prelatical oppressions were so great in pressing this Declaration and the other about lawful Sports as were sufficient in themselves to make wise men mad 45. For answer to these Arguments if they may be called so I must first tell you that the man and his Oratour both have been much mistaken in saying that his Majesties Declaration was no two edged sword or that it tyed up the one side and let loose the other for if it wounded Mr. Thorn and his companions on the one side it smote as sharply on the other against Dr. Rainford whose Recantation he may find in the Book called Canterbury's Doome out of which he hath filched a great part of his store He is mistaken secondly in saying that this Declaration determined nothing for it determineth that no man shall put his own sence or Comment to be the meaning of the Article but should take it in the Literal and Grammatical sense which Rule if the Calvinians would be pleased to observe we should soon come to an agreement Thirdly if the supposition be true as I think it be that the Doctrines which they call Arminianism be not against the Law but contrary to custome only then is the Law on our side and nothing but custome on theirs and I think no man will affirm that Custome should be heard or kept when it is against Law But fourthly if the noble Oratour were mistaken in the supposition I am sure he is much more mistaken in the proposition these Doctrines being preach'd by Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooper in King Edwards time by Dr. Harsnet and Peter Baroe in Queen Elizabeths time by Dr. Howson and Dr. Laud in King James his time none of which ever were subjected to the infamy of a Recantation Fiftly if the Recantation made by Mr. Thorn and his companions imported not a retracting of their opinions as he saith they did not it is a strong argument of the