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_v	church_n	true_a	2,713	5	5.4919	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78034	Vindiciæ veritatis: truth vindicated against calumny. In a briefe answer to Dr. Bastwicks two late books, entituled, Independency not Gods ordinance, with the second part, styled the postscript, &c. / By Henry Burton, one of his quondam-fellow-sufferers.	Burton, Henry, 1578-1648.	1645 (1645)	Wing B6177; Thomason E302_13; ESTC R200279	28,751	40

in your scoffing scurrilous malicious bitter biting yea bloody language in which faculty as facile princeps you do so tripudiate and glory But in your last Book which you style but how justly A just Defence c. you would seem to teach us another rule to walk by which it seems you had not then learned when you writ your Postscript We ought not say you per latus unius totam gentem perstringere you tel the Liev. Colonel that he should not have condemned the whole Councel for a few but should have singled them out and by name have aspersed them And why did not you then rather call me by my name as your brother Burton as our brother Prynne hath done then to hale me out by my great white basket-hilted beard as some hideous Monster or ridiculous spectacle to the world And whereas ibid. you adde that you have written nothing in your books against the Independents wherein you can be convinced of a lie For say you I write nothing in my books against the Independents but what upon my own knowledge I can affirm to be true yea depose it too Now to go no further then this one instance of your dealing with mee aliâs your brother in fathering upon mee such a damnable and diabolicall glosse being the spurious brat of your own brain What say you Do you know it of your own knowledge to be so that because I set that Scripture in the front of my book therefore my meaning was hereby to perswade the people and make them believe that they have good warrant and ground to fight against their Christian brethren for the maintenance of their own Whimsies They be your own words and you may take the whimsies in to boot Now did I ever so perswade the people or make them believe so Nay I will put it to your own conscience as hoping you have so much left whether in your conscience you can so much as once imagine that your brother could ever have the least thought that way or the least word tending thereunto wherein I challenge that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the accuser of the brethren himself whose Scholar I wish not you to be As for that other passage of your said book pag. 39. to let passe many other as touching your Independent-Pastor it is as false as slie do you and your reverend brother try it when you will An Appendix WHerein is touched the main point of difference between the two Parties Classicall or Nationall and Congregationall Our brother Mr. William Pryn whose latter books Truth triumphing c. and A fresh Discovery c. I have meerly God is my record out of tendernesse to the present state of things forborn to answer hath sundry times in those books objected principally those words in my Vindication concerning Christs kingly office over the Churches and consciences of his people as in Truth triumphing pag. 112 113. and in his Fresh Discovery pag. 4. in these words Mr. Henry Burton in his Vindication of Churches commonly called Independent c. The Church is a spirituall kingdome whose only King is Christ and not man it is a spirituall Republique whose only Law-giver is Christ and not man A spirituall house whose only builder and governour is Christ A spirituall Corporation whose only head is Christ and not man No man or power on earth hath a kingly power over this kingdome no earthly Law-giver may give lawes for the government of this Republique no man can or ought to undertake the government of this communion of Saints no humane Power or Law may intermeddle to prescribe rules for the government or form of this spirituall House NOT COVNCELS NOT SENATES This is Christs royall Prerogative which is uncommunicable to ANY TO ALL THE POWERS ON EARTH He addes my words pag. 60 61. Wee challenge you to shew us any Parliament Councel Synod ever since the Apostles that could or can say thus It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us so to determine controversies of Religion to make and impose Canons to bind all men c. shew this to us at this time and wee will obey But if you cannot as you never can never let any man presse upon us that Scripture that Synod Acts 15. which hath no parallel in the whole world and so is no precedent or pattern for any Councels Synods Parliaments Thus our brother sees down the words here and there with capitalls as if so many capitall crimes But the worst of all is that he ranks them under the head of his first Section containing divers seditious scandalous libellous passages against the Authority and Jurisdiction of Parliaments Synods and temporall Magistrates in generall in Ecclesiasticall affaires in the late writings of severall Independent New-lights and Firebrands so runs the Title of the Section under which hee marshals those my words as if Christ could not be sole King Lord and Law-giver over his own spirituall Kingdome in the soules and assemblies of his Saints but this doctrine must needs be seditious scandalous and the writers thereof libellous against civill authority yea firebrands and what not How more equall was the Heathen Emperor Domitian though the Author of the second Persecution who though he laboured utterly to extirpate and extinguish all the naturall kindred of Christ because hee heard that Christ was a King fearing thereby the overthrow of his Empire yet understanding afterward by two of Christs neerest kinsmen brought before him being but poor men and who got their living by hard labour in husbandrie how that Christ was a King indeed but his Kingdome was not of this world but heavenly the Emperor hereupon as the Story saith {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ceased the Persecution against the Church by calling in his Imperiall Decree I wish our brother would more seriously consider not only of this famous example of an Heathen Emperour but also upon what sound reason it is grounded as namely upon such a distinct specificall difference between these two Kingdomes the celestiall and the terrestriall as that in no sort they may be confounded or compounded into one terrene kingdome unlesse you will set up a Papall power an Harmophrodite-government with Ecce duo gladii hîc Behold here two swords which the Pope caused to be carryed before him in solemn procession the two first dayes of his new erected Jubilee And for my challenge alledged by him it stands good still till hee can prove those words in the end of his Truth triumphing true where your words are we cannot but in Christian charity expect and believe that all the Assembly and Parliament resolve on may have inscribed on its front IT SEEMED GOOD TO THE HOLY GHOST AND VS And then again you must prove your reason good whereupon you inferre this conclusion namely because there be in the Parliament and Assembly at least some true Nathaniels and Stephens filled with the Holy Ghost

of admittance into Church-fellowship could stand with the deniall but necessarily implies a confession of Christs Kingly office in its highest degree Pag. 116. You tell us that our gathering of Churches hath no example in Scripture and as for Christs Disciples they were all sent to gather in the lost sheep of the house of Israel they went not to gather in converted amongst converted men c. Now wee cannot have a more pregnant and more warrantable example in all Scripture then this which you here alledge against us Christs Disciples gathered Christian Churches out of the Church of the Jews nor can you deny but the Jews were a Church when the Disciples gathered churches out of it Those Churches in Judea Gal. 1. 22. were gathered out of the Church of the Jewes and that Church of the Jewes generally believed that the Messias or Christ was to come And if they were a Church when many being converted were gathered out of it then much more Churches may be gathered out of Nations or Kingdomes of the world though for their generall profession of Christianity every such Nation or Kingdome be respectively called a church though the new Testament knowes no such church and then not of divine constitution as that of the Jews was even when churches Christian were gathered out of it And brother prove unto us that such as you call a Nationall Church is a church of divine institution shew us an example of a Nationall Church in all the new Testament otherwise you do but weave the Spiders web But wee say you gather converted men from among converted men and so pick out of others folds and flocks the best and fattest sheep This you do familiarly cast in our dish and yet it is never the fatter Now in this wee may justly demand of you to prove that those whom you call converted men from among whom wee gather churches be indeed so converted as they should be when as yet they come not up close to the rule of Reformation Gods Word as thereby to endeavour the setting up of Christ without waiting on men as without whom Gods Word is not a sufficient rule and as on whom wee must necessarily depend for the form and law of Reformation And yet wee deny not but many such may be godly though otherwise they are not as yet throughly convinced of this kingly government of Christ which we endeavour after nay let me go a little higher for as much as this is an undeniable yea and prime principle in Divinity that the Scripture is the only rule of faith and of worship and Church-government and this rule is no Monopoly to one man but that all and every man hath a power and priviledge to repair to this Law and Testimony to do all things according to this Word And seeing wee have all bound our selves by solemn Covenant to reform our selves and those under our charge according to the Word of God yea and every one to go before other in this Reformation tell mee now brother were it not a matter worth the while for our reverend and learned Assembly seriously to take it into debate whether the generall tying up of men to wait necessarily on the Synod for its finall resolution about Church-government be not an usurpation upon our Christian liberty and a diminution at least of the authority and sufficiency of Scripture and so consequently be not a trenching upon a fundamentall heresie as also an inhibition restraining every man in his place Ministers Masters c. from setting upon the work of Reformation and so necessitating a violation of our Covenant or a dangerous retarding of the work bringing in a sleepy carelesnesse upon mens spirits to inquire at Gods Oracle and so preparing a way for blind obedience I leave to the consideration of the wisest But in the interim to return to your Converts Do you hold all them to be converts from among whom churches are gathered Do you not allow of a difference to be put Are there not a number of both ignorant and scandalous that are not fit to come to the Lords Table See the Directory Or do you take the greatest number in England to be godly and truly converted Or are there not trow you many Parishes in England where perhaps but a few true converts are to be found And how few in comparison truly godly and faithfull Ministers are to be found for every Parish under who●e Pastorall charge two or three sheep may safely and comfortably feed among so many Goats yea perhaps Wolves Or do you make every parish to be a Church You may do well herein to deal plainly with us whether you would have so many inhabitants as are in every Parish to be so many communicants For so it seems you would have it For pag. 117. you say in the Churches of Corinth Galatia Colosse were many that walked disorderly taught false doctrine and heresies and made Schismes yet the Apostles did not bid the Christians to separate themselves from the communion and assemblies of the Saints and from the Ordinances for these mens causes c. But you may know those churches though in part accidentally corrupt yet were essentially and in their originall constitution pure and holy churches and so were never your Parochiall churches they never had a right divine constitution but meerly humane and politicall And therefore all your argumentation a dispari falls to ground and beats it self into a meer spume But pag. 118. you plead such Ministers and Churches to be true where the truth of Christ is preached received and professed If you mean the whole truth of Christ it is well But do not you know that there are three speciall visible marks of a true visible Church The Gospel purely preached the Sacraments duly administred and Discipline rightly practised all which marks together the Church of England for ought I know is yet to seek For to speak nothing here of the materialls of a true particular visible Church as visible Saints nor of the form of it so many members united into one Church-body and fellowship according to the Gospel which you can handly shew us in any of your Parochiall Congregations I will only ask you What particular visible Church you are a member of you may choose what Parish you please in England Next I ask you What Discipline you have in that your church and whether a man complaining of you to your Congregation or to your Minister for wrongs done by you and for your scandalous walking he shall find so much Discipline there as to convent you before them and justly charging you for walking scandalously to the great offence and shame of the very name of Christian Religion you shall thereupon be brought under Ecclesiasticall censure so as to have the scandall removed and the offence satisfied Good now tell me what church either Parochiall or Classicall I should go unto For suppose I have a complaint against you for which I demand

Vindiciae veritatis TRUTH VINDICATED AGAINST CALUMNY IN A BRIEFE ANSWER to Dr. Bastwicks two late Books entituled Independency not Gods Ordinance with the second Part styled The Postscript c. By HENRY BURTON one of his quondam-fellow-sufferers LEVIT. 19. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer sinne upon him 1 TIM. 5. 20. Them that sin rebuke before all that others also may feare And Tit. 1. 13. Rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith ZACH. 8. 19. Love the Truth and Peace LONDON Printed by M. S. for Gyles Calvert and are to be sold at his Shop at the West end of Pauls 1645. ❧ To the ingenuous Reader CHRISTIAN READER THi● Answer was long agoe so conceived and formed in the wombe as the slow birth may seeme to have outgone its due time It waited for the Postscript Which comming forth proved such a strange creature as some friends would not have mee foul my fingers with it Hezekiah's word to his people was in such a case Answer him not But finding that he still pursued me with his incessant provocations in more Books since I thought of Salomons Counsell Answer not and yet Answer For I perceived that no Answer coming a tumor began to grow which needed timely lancing to prevent some extreame inflamation hastening to a head while the humour flowed in so fast Therefore I hastened at length as fast as before I was slow if possible to recover our Brother So as if I be quick and short with him it is to saye him with feare plucking him out of the fine I am plaine and that 's all Farewell A BRIEFE ANSWER TO Dr. BASTWICKS two late Bookes intituled Independency not Gods Ordinance c. First and second part or Postscript By one of his quondam-fellow-sufferers BRother Bastwicke I had resolved for a time at least as I have done to have been silent in these controversies though provoked not a little But now your two Books you lately sent me as also your late triumphing at Westminster that the man in Friday-street had not yet answered your Booke as was given out provoked me afresh in arenam descendere to take them both to taske and so Vna fidelia duos parietes And if the perusall of them be not enough in lieu of thankes I have returned you a compendious Answer wherein you have bound me by a double ingagement the one for the Cause the other for my Person But you will say you have not named me in either of your two Books 'T is true indeed But give me leave to tell you you have vellicated me plucked me by the very beard I will not say as Joab tooke Amasa by the beard and withall smote him in the fift rib What Use a Brother so And a quondam-fellow-sufferer too Yea to take him so disgracefully by his white beard too that with a scurrilous Epithet calling it * a great white ba●ket-hilted beard Parcius ista {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as said the old Poet pittying his white head and his white chin And the wise man saith The beauty of old men is the gray head yea a crowne of glory being found-in the way of righteousnesse I remember when the G●●●es by force entred Rome-gates where they found the grave Senators sitting in the gate in their senatorian robes And their white staves in their hands thinking thereby to strike some reverence into those harbarous Gaules and one of them redely taking one of the Senators by his white beard the good old Senator though in that condition not brooking such an affront struck the Gaul over the pate with his white rod though this cost him and the rest their lives the barbarians instantly falling a butchering of them But for all your provocations throughout your Books Brother you shall not finde with me so much as a white staffe to lift up against you though you charge us but how justly we have the sword in our hands Nor doe I purpose to retort or retaliate your little expected and lesse deserved calumnies lest I should therein be like unto you but I shall answer you in the words of truth and sobernesse and in the spirit of meeknesse and love But how comes it to passe that my two fellow-sufferers and my selfe should fall at this odds Was it by any divine providence ominated or presaged by your two standings on one Pillary and mine alone in the other that wee should now come upon one Theatre to become spectacles to the world by mutuall digladiations as if the one Pillary should contend with the other Or did the distance of the two Pillaries boad any such distance in our present judgements But yet O! O never be such a distance in our affections But herein at least ever be we a threefold coard not easily broken But the will of the Lord be done who is onely wise and will cause all things to co-operate for good to them that love him But Brothers we expected that according to your own words pag. 7. you would have acted the part of a Moderator between us But instead thereof we find you a Judge and that a severe one too but how justly I leave to others to judge For in your promised or rather menaced Postscript which to forestall your Readers with a prejudicate opinion of us and old piece of Rhetoricke as that of Tertullus before Felix telling him of Paul Wee have found this man a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition c. which he was not able to prove his best rhetoricall argument being Calumnidre audacter aliquid haerebit Calumniate boldly some thing will sticke you both prefix and for surenesse affix to your Booke you fasten upon us uncharitable dealing fraud and jugglings of many of our Pastors and Ministers as misleaders and troublers of Church and State c. all which * {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} hard and harsh termes wee can no lesse then spread before the Lord the righteous Judge I now come to your first Booke And first for those two Scriptures which you face your frontispice withall I desire it may appeare to all men in the conclusion whether you or I have the better right to them 2 Cor. 13. 8. and 1 Thes. 5. 21. Pag. 6. Brother that which you intreat of us you shall finde of your Brother onely give us leave in your owne words to intreat you to lay aside all passion and all vaine-glory and bitternesse which not onely this your Booke but your threatned Postscript breaths out against us Pag. 7. You methodize and modell your Booke into two Questions First Concerning the Government of the Church whether it be Presbyterian Dependent or Presbyterian Independent Secondly Concerning gathering of Churches Now for the first of these before wee come to your Arguments give me leave to except against your Termes Dependent and Independent whereupon

and so many armies of prayers in the Spirit daily sent up to heaven to bring down that Spirit of truth upon them But can a few at least some Nathaniels among so many carry the matters by vote if they be many that contra-vote You know things go sometimes in Councels rather by number then weight rather by tale then truth I doubt whether if the true Nathaniels and zealous Stephens should bear the sway it would not well please at least our brother Bastwicks palate who altogether condemneth Gamaliel and his counsell whereby hee perswaded and swayed the whole Synedrion to refrain from Peter and John for peaching Christ saving only that they escaped not a scourging For further answer to my dear brother I shall forbeare till a fitter season In the mean time I shall conclude with the words of my brother Bastwick which hee delivers as the confession of the faith of the Church of England concerning Christs kingly office and so consequently of his own faith That Jesus Christ is the only and sole King and Governour of the whole universe to whom all power in heaven and earth is given Matth. 28. but more especially of his Church who by God himselfe was set King over his holy mountain Psal. 2. 6. And that hee is King of righteousnesse Hebr. 7. The King eternall Isai. 9. The King of kings and Lord of lords Apoc. 17. and that he doth by his mighty power and wisdome uphold and govern all things but with a more peculiar care and a more speciall manner preserve and defend his Church 1 Tim. 4. 10. as that which hee hath purchased with his precious blood and by his power redeemed out of the captivity and slavery of Satan and that he is the head of his Church which is the body who infuseth life into it righteousnesse peace joy happinesse and all the graces of wisdome and knowledge of God with certainty and assurance of his love and that his Kingdome and Empire is a spirituall and heavenly Kingdome no terrene and fading Monarchy Joh. 18. 38. Luke 1. 33. and is upheld and governed ONLY by the Scepter of his Spirit and Word and not by the authority vertue or wisdome of any humane power Thus Dr. Bastwick and that after all his bitter reproaches cast upon his Independents who hang all that which he calls Independency upon this sole hinge namely That Christs Kingdome and Empire is a spirituall and heavenly Kingdome no terrene and fading Monarchy and is upheld and governed ONLY by the Scepter of his Spirit and Word and not by the authority vertue or wisdome of any humane power Now if Dr. Bastwick will hold to his words and writing he must needs confesse that Christ is no titular or Pageant Prince as before but reall and indeed And therefore his Kingdome is not to be governed according to the various and variable laws and customes of earthly Kingdomes Common-wealths Countries but by the Only Scepter of his Spirit and Word Otherwise the spirituall Kingdome and the temporall must be confounded together and become one kingdome and then must either the spirituall become terrene and transitory or else the temporall become eternall and so make up one Babylan Roma aetern● confusion and blasphemy And for a close to satisfie my brother Prynnes Question What I mean by so much asserting Christs Kingly office as sole Head Governour Law-giver of his Churches I mean hee is the sole immediate King And the proofs are from solid Scripture the sole rule of faith As Isai. 8. 20. and 29. 13. Hos. 5. 11. Matth. 15. 6 7 8 9. Mar. 7. 7. And our brother confesseth these Scriptures but in part by joyning thereto the laws and customes of Kingdoms and Common-weals as a partiall rule if not rather paramount to the sacred Canon as Rome acknowledgeth the Scripture to be the rule of faith but partiall joyning thereto her own traditions and so ● thereby as the Pharisees of old make the Word of God of no effect through humane Traditions Lawes Decrees Customes Manners of men Prince and People Protestants and Papists as well under Queen Mary and her Parliament as under Queen Elizabeth and hers and so Regis ad exemplum as the Prince and Pope or State is affected well or ill Christs Kingdome must Chameleon-like change both complexion and constitution And if this satisfie not my brother let him be pleased to reade over my Vindication once again wherein he may cleerly see how the Scripture all along sets up Christ as the only Governour and Law-giver of his Church excluding all humane Wisdome and Power from intermeddling in the regulating of his Kingdome by mans Lesbian Rule FINIS 2 Sam. 20. 9 10. * See the Postscript pag. 44. Prov. 20. 29. 16. 31. * Jude 5. Rev. 12. 1. Pag. 16. Pag. 18. Cicer. Orat. pro L. Murena Act. 24. 25 26 Joh. 18. 28. Mat. 10. 17 18 Pag. 8. 1 Cor. 14. 33 Platina in vita Bonifacii 3. * 1. Cor. 12. Page 98. To the second Question Page 14. Psal. 18. Acts 3. 22 Acts 2. Esa. 56. 3. Turpius ejicitur quàm non admittitur bospes Page 100 1 Cor. 1. 2. Page 105. Acts 10. Page 115. Homily second Sermon for Whitsunday Page 118. * 1 Cor. 5. 4. 1 Sam. 19. Acts 19. 2. * Act. 5. 28. Ibid. * Page 139. * Page 144. * Page 149. Page 149. * Isa. 58. 2. Postsc Page 68. Ibid. pag. 68. Ibid. Ibid. Psal. 57. 4. Jer. 18. 18. Gal. 4. * Relation of a Conference Epist. Dedic. Ibid. Defence pag 4. * Postsc 41. * Postsc 12. 32. 34. 36. 38. Page 54. Ibid. 58. Defence p. 30 Postsc 61. Pag. 66. 69. Pag. 43 44 45. Page 21. Page ibid. Postscript pag. 43 44. Rev. 12. 10. Eusebius Eccles. Hist. Bon face 8. Acts 15. D. B. In his Independency not Gods Ordinance p. 149. Acts 5. 38 39 40 31.