Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	answer_n	case_n	settle_a	30	3	16.0832	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88693	Suspension reviewed, stated, cleered and setled upon plain scripture-proof. Agreeable to the former and late constitutions of the Protestant Church of England and other reformed churches. Wherein (defending a private sheet occasionally written by the author upon this subject, against a publique pretended refutation of the same, by Mr W. in his book, entituled, Suspension discussed.) Many important points are handled; sundry whereof are shortly mentioned in the following page. Together with a discourse concering private baptisme, inserted in the epistle dedicatory. / By Samuel Langley, R.S. in the county palatine of Chester.	Langley, Samuel, d. 1694.	1658 (1658)	Wing L405; Thomason E1823_2; ESTC R209804	201,826	263

Cap. 12. He supposeth to them that an Idolater should come without renouncing his Idolatry and asks them whether they would admit him to Baptisme though perhaps this case never occurred and thence he argues against their admitting of notorious fornicators without renouncing that their wickednesse before Profectò saith he dicturi sunt homini Templum Dei futurus es cum baptismum acceperis Dicit autem Apostolus Quae compositio Templi Dei cum Idolis Quare ergo non vident similiter dicendum membrum Christi futurus es cum acceperis baptismum non possunt membra Christi esse membra meretricis Cur ergo ad baptismum Idolis servientes non admittimus fornicatores admit tendos putamus Cur his caeteris malis dicat haec quidem suistis sed abluti estis sed sanctificati estis sed justificati estis in nomine Domini Jesu Christi in spiritu Dei nostri Quid igitur causae est ut cum potestas pateat utrumque prohibendi venientem ad baptismum permittam fornicarium permanere non permittam Idolis servientem cum illis his dici audiam haec quidem suistis sed abluti estis It should seeme by the way that those words of 1 Cor. 6.11 were spoken to the baptized which manifests they in those times took all the baptized to be savingly justified persons Thus we see how from a case which perhaps never occurred he argued in reference to a case frequent among them there being the same Reason of both in the thing wherein he compares them Would it not have been a sorry and silly Answer for Caecilianus to have returned to this Argument of Austines Why but none not renouncing their Idolatry do or will desire to be baptized I except against the case supposed All know that the truth or falshood of an hypotheticall proposition depends only on the right or wrong connexion of the parts of it not on the parts themselves whether one or both of them §. 4. 3. Besides the case I supposed was at least possible to occurre yea probable as hath been before shewed and therefore is further removed from the Exception PSALM 119. part 15. P. 113 Perfectly all vaine thoughts I hate But love thy Lawes O Lord 114 Preserv'd under thy sheild I sate I do trust in thy word 115 Part yee from me who evill doe For I 'le keep Gods Lawes just 116 Preserve mee by thy word I so Shall live and boldly trust 117 Propt by thine armes I safe shall bee And still thy precepts eye 118 Pluckt down the lawless are by thee For their fraud is a lye 119 Put back from thee dross-earthlings bee I love thy hests therefore 120 Poor flesh I quake for feare of thee I dread thy Judgements sore CHAP. XVI §. 1. ANd now I shall wait on Mr. W. in his animadversions on the 4th exception I set down against my Argument and my solution thereof The exception was at numb 37. That there is no such instance in our times of a word-renouncer of Christianity when he tenders himselfe to be admitted to the Communion And therfore we need not perplex our selves with forecasting what might be done in such an extraordinary case But the present controversie is concerning such as in word profess to own Christ when they tender themselves to cōmunicate although there be visible testimony that their lives are not hitherto agreeable to their profession My solution hereof was at numb 38 39. c The summe whereof is It s no needlesse point of wisdome to labour to foresee the necessary ill consequents which may ensue upon the receiving a principle although at present there is not opportunity for the existence of them And those evince the principle not sound If suspension then in the case proposed cannot be denied then it must not be universally rejected Now Mr. W. in his reply hereto 1. affixeth on mee as if I owned what was put in the exception viz. that the case supposed was an extraordinary Instance and that the present controversie is concerning such as in words profess Christianity and so he thinkes to beat me with my own concessions Is not this brave disputing that what I brought in as an objection against my argument should be taken for my own assertion Yet this he takes for a confutation of me p. 86 87. and doth so far presume on the silliness of his Readers as to tell them hereupon that I am in a wood and know not which way to get out I came indeed among briars and thornes when I fell into Mr. W. his hands and I shall hardly get out without receiving some markes of his sharpnesse But that may seeme to some especially mine Antagonist an extraordinary Instance which is not so Againe I would distinguish a case may be said to be extraordinary in a twofold respect 1. in respect of the rare and seldome occurring of it so of incest or parricide the Instances may be extraordinary Or 2. in respect of the Rule whereby a case is to be discerned and judged of which may differ from the ordinary Rule As the ordinary Rule determines incest unlawfull but an extraordinary temporary Rule made it lawfull for Adams immediate children to marry together And now whereas Mr. W. saith Extraordinary Instances happening in the course of Gods extraordinary providence cannot infringe the truth of a general Rule true in the course of Gods ordinary providence And addes This is a Rule that best Divines walk by notwithstanding your pretended skill in Logick What pretended skill in Logick did I ever boast of What an impotent scoffe is this how iucoherently and abruptly brought in If I might answer Mr. W. in his own way I should say perhaps he may presume of his artificial Logick especially in the first part both of the peripatetick for he is good at such simple termes as mormo mormonize and the like and the Ramistical one would be apt to thinke his Invention is too great by the figments he hath published concerning mee But a little more natural Logick it s humbly conceived would not make him no more then me an overplus For I thinke the Preface he printed before his first Errata Table to this booke argues no overflowing of his discretion the Preface was this Christian Reader my remoteness from London and the miscarriage of my Letters by the Post have caused many oversights to pass in this impression without timely correction And that now I may not be disappointed I have committed my business to honest Randal Foster Carrier of Leek who is sure and trusty though but slow in his motion But to the thing I answer by applying the former distinction and say the Rule mentioned is true being understood in the latter sense not in the former Now our case if it may be called extraordinary it s so only in respect of the seldome occurring of it not in respect of any extraordinary Rule appointed for the

courtesie and therefore that double letter he hath made the character of himselfe in his dealing with mee shall still stand for his name in the discourse following And now Reader thou mayst next peruse a true Copy of my paper which he gave thee depraved with his pretended refutation thereof and then my defence which is Christianly submitted to thy impartial judgement I shall not in the least go about to court my Reader into a complyance with me I wish him not to take one step to accompany me in an errour appearing so to be nor will it be for his advantage to refuse any complyance which the light here offered may rationally require from him I leave the whole intirely before him desiring the Father of lights by his holy Spirit to guide him into and preserve him in the wayes or rather way of peace and truth Suspension Reviewed CLEARED SETLED upon plain Scripture-Proof THe Argument Mr W. impugneth was thus managed in my Manuscript It is said by some that no unregenerate or ignorant and scandalous members in the Church being baptized and of years not excommunicate may be debarred the Lords Supper they expressing their desires to receive and proferring themselves These words Timpson hath in his Answer to Collins p. 2. For the better understanding of this position according to the mind of the Assertors thereof it may be noted That 1. The Question which is at present under consideration reacheth to any course which is effectual for debarring of the foresaid persons whether it be by disswading them from coming or by forcing them in a way of Ecclesiastical censure to keep back Those who defend the forementioned Thesis hold it unlawfull to advice the forementioned persons to forbear as well as to hinder them by juridicall suspension I hold the lawfulness of debarring both waies and the proving of either overthrows the foresaid position according to the minde of them who assert the same 2. Supposing it to be an act of power whereby they are debarr'd yet then the Question is not at present concerning the subject of that power whether it belong to the Eldership and that whether Congregationall or Classical c or to the community of a particular Congregation or to one single person whether a Diocesan Bishop or a Minister 3. Nor yet is the Question what kinde of power that is whereby they may be suspended whether it may be done by vertue of the power of order inherent in a Minister as such or by the power of jurisdiction c. But the Question is only concerning the lawfulnes of the act of suspending the foresaid persons by any person or persons whatsoever in whatsoever capacity they are or by whatsoever kind of power it may be exerted by them or any of them 4. Those who hold the forementioned position do understand the excommunication which they speak of to contain in the essence of it an exclusion from all or divers other publique Ordinances in the Church as well as from the Sacrament So that to them one not excommunicate and one not excluded from or warned to depart the publique Ordinances of hearing and praying and singing in the Church are of equal importance Whence it manifestly follows that if I prove some persons scandalously wicked who are not kept from all other publique Ordinances may be suspended from the Lords Supper they must acknowledge their assertion fully overthrown 5. They also intend by excommunicat such as are fully and compleatly with solemnity excommunicate For they cannot be ignorant that our Divines who hold suspension when it is a censure take it to be a degree of excommunication and therefore call it excommunicatio minor And it is exclusio sive suspensio vel abstinentia a coenâ Domini quâ interdicitur peccator ad tempus coenae participatione as Trelcatius Trelca Instit l. 2. Bucan loc com 44. qu. 10. 16. Polan Syntag. Theol. l. 7. c. 18. To the like sense speaks Amesius med Theol. l. 1. c. 37 de conscientiâ l. 4. c. 29. Bucanus Polanus and others express it Neither doth Aretius deny this for ought I can finde I know in his common places he saith Excommunication is larger then Suspension from the Communion of the Lords Supper according to the Scriptures But I suppose he saith not any where there I am sure he doth not nor I think in his Commentaries that its unlawfull to inflict the censure of excommunication by degrees Unless therefore our Admissionists do take excommunicate for fully excommunicate they trifle egregiously For then the meaning of their Assertion would be no wicked Church members not excommunicate may be excommunicated and that because they are not excommunicate But rather they deny all gradual proceedings in excommunication and so reject the distinction of major and minor If therefore I prove that it is lawfull to begin excommunication in suspension for a time and to stay there some time before there be a proceeding to a more solemne curting off in the face of the publique Congregation and with their consent I suppose my Antagonists will acknowledge this a lawfull manner of combat against their free admission pleaded for 6. That passage in Amesius I judge very remarkable in this Question which he hath in his de conscientiâ lib. 4. c. 29. Suspensio ab usu coenae similibus ecclesiae privilegijs nihil aliud est quam gradus excommunicationis ideo vocari solct A Multis excommunicatio minor quamvis non ex singulari Christi instiruto ex aequitate tamen et rei ipsius naturâ praecedere debet aliquandiu continuari ubi scandali ratio ferre potest moram I wish some who have written for suspension had observed this passage and if they had attended to it I thinke they would have defended their Province never a jot the worse then they have done 7. It is not necessary in opposition to my Antagonists Assertion that I should say all unregenerate ignorant or scandalous members baptized c. may be debarred or suspended the Lords Supper But it is sufficient to overthrow their opinion if I prove that some may For their tenent in reference to baptized persons of years not excommunicate is an universall negative that none such may be debarr'd Now one particular affirmative destroys a universall negative It belongs not to the present disquisition for what or how many sins or in how many and what cases any person qualified as aforesaid may be debarred but whether in any case for any sin he may be debarred For if in any case it may be lawfull to suspend a person not fully excommunicate and that is according to the sense of my Antagonists here excluded from all publique service in the Church then that cannot be freed from untruth which they assert viz. that there is no such ordinance of suspension in the Church approved by Christ This caution is not more plaine in it selfe and what can be plainer then it is

signe of Sauls disobedience then his word-profession of obedience was to the contrary Was not Judas his betraying Christ into the hands of the Jewes a more credible signifier of his treason then his good words haile Master at the same time was of his dutiful submission And were it any uncharitablenesse in judging concerning Judas at this time to take in the cross-witnesse of his deeds against his words One would thinke this matter were so plaine there should be no need of arguments or Instances to prove it 3. If some deeds of wickednesse committed after the profession of godliness do evince that profession to have been false and so now not credible then some deeds of wickedness committed and visibly continued in at the time of the said profession do much more invalidate it and render it non-credibly significative of the mind of the speaker But the former is true The Prophet thus convinceth the Jewes of their falshood and dissimulation Jerem. 42.20 21. Ye have dissembled in your hearts when ye sent mee unto the Lord your God saying Pray for us and according to all the Lord shall say we will doe And now I have declared it unto you but ye have not obeyed c. §. 4. 4. Our Saviour shews the mans unwillingnesse to goe and work in the Vineyard though he said readily I go sir in that he went not Math. 21. therefore his not going was a more certaine signification of his unwillingness to goe then his verbal profession that he would go was of willingness to goe So the Psalmist from the transgression of the wicked what ever they may professe to the contrary concludes the feare of God is not before them Psal 36.1 Therefore its evident what the learned Mr. Baxter hath 3. disput about right to the Sacraments p. 277. viz. That verbal profession if it be not a probable signe of the thing professed it s not to be taken for a valid profession But words contradicted by the notorious tenour of the life are no probable signes but these workes are a more certaine signe of the contrary If an affirmation presently contradicted by words as express and certaine be not to be taken for a valid profession then much lesse is an affirmation more certainly contradicted by the tenour of the life yea and too oft by professed impenitency so he If Mr. W. be entertained to officiate to a people upon their promising him an honourable maintenance I would willingly know whether he will continue his pains among them upon condition of their promising him his salary though they do not pay it or upon the condition of their performing what they promised If their deed non-payment be not to prevail against their word-paiment or verball promise of payment an easie thing will content him But I am of opinion if they should so abuse him he would tell them as well he might that their word-payment stands for nothing when contradicted by their non-payment in deed he would not take their being positively his pay-masters sufficient to engage him whiles they are negatively no pay-masters to him if I may so use the distinction he layes so much weight upon in this Controversie of positively believers which should enright them to the Sacraments though they are negatively unbelievers that is engaged to believe though they do not I will conclude this with a passage of Salvian de gubern Dei l. 4. p. mihi 143. where speaking how Pagans are scandalized by the wicked lives of such as professe themselves Christians he adds Et cur hoc ita Cur utique nisi ob eos qui Christiani esse dicuntur non sunt qui per flagitia as turpitudines suas nomen religionis infamant qui ut scriptum est Ore fatentur se nosse Deum factis autem negant cum sint abominabiles increduli ad omne autem opus bonum reprobi per quos ut legimus via veritatis blasphematur c. PSALM 119. Part. 18. S. 137 Surely thou right'ous art O Lord Upright thy judgements are 138 So are the Statutes of thy Word all faithfull right and rare 139 Sharp zeal consum'd and cut me sore when foes thy word forget 140 Solely pure is thy word therefore my soul so loveth it 141 Small though I am and scorn'd I cast not thy will out of mind 142 Stable thy Righteousnesse doth last Thy Law the Truth I find 143 Surpriz'd I am with grief and pain Thy Commands me delight 144 Setled thy just Lawes aye remain Give me Truth 's living light CHAP. XIX §. 1. ANother Reason my paper added at numb 46. which Mr. W. sets down p. 108. and it was thus Furthermore if the deed-rejecting of Christ were not of as certain credible signification concerning a persons unbelief as the word-rejecting is then no person who denies not Christ in words may be fully excommunicated especially if he desire to communicate and that earnestly which these men say is a testimony of his seriousness which we may not refuse in his profession to believe And doubtless c. the rest see at numb 47 48. This Mr W. designes to answer and confute p. 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116. In all which if neither vain confidence his primum secundum and tertium nor calumniating falshoods nor impertinent digressions may serve for reasons against me I doubt not my present argumentation will remain safe enough for ought Mr. W. hath to produce against it Indeed if a Disputation were to be managed in the passionate mood and the Crab'd Figure such as the Pythagoreans accounted the number 2. he is hard enough for any man I know unlesse the Quakers might go neer to match him I must confess I dare not vie scoffs Irony's I can digest well enough nor foul language nor falshoods with him If this be the victory he seeks he may take it for me But it may be the Reader who hath not seen his Book will hardly believe so many pages should be blotted with such stuff but will expect I should give him a more particular account of them I am sorry so to spend time yet if it will not be helpt I must be content and he also 1. At p. 109. he tells us in 8 or 9 lines 4 or 5 times over that his cause is good and mine bad In all this saith he there 's little afforded considerable that hath not been before answered Here 's no convincing new evidence that any wayes disproves our position The imbecillity of all your Allegations against us and the miserable shifts you are put to in colouring ever your own confirm us the more strongly in what we hold and against what you pretend to And the longer you argue the more apparently do we see your imbecillity and the goodnesse of our own cause Oh expedite and cleaver confutation But Reader I am afraid he suspects thou wilt scarce believe his tale once told that he tells it thee so many times over and that altogether too