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	speak_v	word_n	2,632	5	4.2165	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43631	The naked truth. The second part in several inquiries concerning the canons and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, canonical obedience, convocations, procurations, synodals and visitations : also of the Church of England and church-wardens and the oath of church-wardens and of sacriledge.	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1681 (1681)	Wing H1822; ESTC R43249	69,524	40

The Naked Truth The Second Part. In Several INQUIRIES Concerning the CANONS AND Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Canonical Obedience Convocations Procurations Synodals and Visitations ALSO OF THE Church of England AND Church-wardens AND The Oath of Church-wardens AND OF SACRILEDGE The Second Edition Corrected and Amended Blanditur Cathedra Speculaest Inde denique superintendis Sonans tibi Episcopi nomine non Dominum sed officium Alta sedens non alta sapiens sed humilia de te Sentiens humilibusque consentiens Praesis ut prosis debitor non Dominator Bernard lib. 2. de Consideratione London Printed for Francis Smith and are to be Sold at his Shop at the Elephant and Castle near the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1681. THE EPISTLE TO THE READERS Courteous Reader NO man does more Reverence Good Bishops than my self nor does any man less dread them with a slavish fear I admire them at my distance but I do not Idolize them I honour them but I do not fall down and worship them I can say My Lord and yet not add My God Nor will you find in this ensuing Inquiry the least Tang of Bitterness or yellow Choler No nor so much as one tart or harsh Expression being so far from justly disgusting any that I shall not so much as set their Teeth on Edge so insipid and simple an humour have I cherisht all along through this whole Discourse for fear of any Satyrical mixtures that I doubt you will scarce find any Salt Savour or Smacky Rellish here 't will scarce bite the Tongue of a Sinner Solomon sayes Prov. 17.27 That men of understanding are of excellent Spirits To render the words litterally from the Original Men of understanding are long-nos'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Septuagint Translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is A man of understanding is Long-breasted metaphorically put for Patient His heart is not near his month he is not easily Provoked and therefore men will neither shew their Wit nor Grace to be angry without a cause without a good and honest cause at what is here Writ Let us rather say with that good German Emperor We ought to be angry with our Sins not with our Friends that tell us of them Yet I cannot say in truth that I have concealed my name because I have no skill nor strength to bear good and evil report with Equanimity For I bless Almighty God that as his Providence has exercised me with both in no small measure so I have found by long and large experience His strength in my weakness that I can say without vain boasting I walk without much concern by Honour and Dishonour by evil Report and good Report Nor is it because I am afraid or ashamed at any thing here writ that I thus appear on the publick Stage in Masquerade in such Disguise to walk Incognito But the Subject of my Inquiries leads me necessarily to rake in a Nest of Wasps and Hornetts peevish by nature more enraged by Interest thus to be disturbed of a warm nest and therefore would certainly buzze about my Ears if I were not thus muffled and Hooded up Yet I hope I have here disarmed them of their Weapons by taking the Sting out of their Tails at least the Venom that though they may yet make a Humming Noise yet they shall be as Stingless as Drones Besides I am neither of the Race of the Decii nor of the Curtii to sacrifice all my quiet to the Publick good in this thankless Age wherein many men are of so currish a disposition and so used to the Collar about their Necks that they are ready to snap at those Fingers that would pull it off But however in short what wise man would be content to be a Butt to be shot at though Armed Cap-a-pee with Armour of Proof The inconvenience for it wants not some of allowing to the Press this Liberty so natural and agreeable to our English Complexion and Constitution and the Common-mother of the Naked Truth which is usually begot betwixt this bandying Pro and Con cannot possibly equal that of making a Monopoly of the Press taking in the Common and confining it to a certain set of men that would seem to keep the Key of Knowledge and the Press and they neither enter in themselves and they that would enter in they hinder like surly Porters that usually keep out better men than they let in Magistrates and good Bishops should say with St. Paul We can do nothing against the Truth 2 Cor. 3.8 but for the Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is We have no power as the Original imports to do any thing against the Truth but for the Truth Nor have all the Bishops in England any power over us although they had as lawful a Commission for their Spiritual Courts and Jurisdiction as once they had more than St. Paul had over those Corinthians which he confesses in the Tenth Verse was for Edification not for Destruction 2 Cor. 13.10 A good Magistrate may do a man good so may a good Bishop but neither of them have power any lawful Power given them to do harm or wrong And if they chance to find me out notwithstanding my Disguise I 'le answer for every tittle here declared with the words of our Blessed Redeemer If I have spoken Evil bear witness of the Evil but if Well Why smitest thou me And I am sure what is here pretended has no design in the world but purely in all Humility and Love to Truth the Publick-weal And if in any thing I be mistaken my Errors shall never be Heresies none shall upon a rational Conviction more readily and willingly retract them than my self One would wonder a little at first at that Passage 1 Tim. 6.17 1 Tim. 6.17 where the Apostle gives the Charge to Rich men that they be not high-minded since Poor and Proud is true to a Proverb The Latines by one and the same word expresse a man humble in mind and humbled with afflictions they are so near a Kin and the way God usually takes to make a man humble is to humble him as he did Nebuchadnezzar by afflictions For Prosperity puffeth up and swells a man naturally and if through Grace a Rich man be not high-minded he had need keep a constant Watch and Ward over his mind for height will tempt his mind to be high-minded and proud as Lucifer Thus have I seen a man stretch and stand on tip-toe and stalk in High Shooes upon a Church-Steeple and look with scorn on all below and yet if he had stood on even ground and measured fair with those Inferiors he despis'd as Pigmies he would not be able to reach their heads In climbing Masons and Carpenters well observe whilst men look upwards they cannot be giddy crown'd vertiginous and turn-sick but if they look down 't is odds but their Brains turn round till they fall 'T is most true in Morals and in Divinity whilst men

greater Barn By vertue whereof Eusebius Pamphilius that writ the Ecclesiastical History refused to remove from the little Bishoprick of Caesarea to be the great Bishop of Constantinople proffer'd to him by the Emperor Constantine the Great But Constantinople in those days no nor yet Rome had an Arch Bishop that name was not yet in Fashion And for this modesty of Eusebius as one that was Proof against Pride and filthy lucre Constantine declared he was fit to be Bishop of the whole world But I must reclaim my Pen for if I go on in instances of this nature and at this rate what will become of me if some men happen to discover who I am and see through my Concealment for it is a known adage of old confirm'd by every mans daily experience Obsequium amicos veritas odium parit I know a Tyger is not more enrag'd nor more revengeful than a Proud and Covetous man when he is told those plain Truths that gaul him especially if he be a man of much Power and little Grace Not a word more therefore at present especially and the rather because the subject of my Discourse will lead me to name some honest Canons hereafter that will cut some men to the very heart that are mightily for the Canon Law and yet practise it not in any thing that thwarts their Pride and avarice But I shall do it in hopes that those Canons may do some good upon them for really I believe some of these imposers of Canons upon others never heard of some that I shall name by and by for all their vaunting of Canons Canons 't is probable they have ply'd their Guns and such Canons more than ply'd their Books or else they could not be so ignorant as I perceive some of them are upon Discourse But I cannot fully handle this Argument of the Canons except I enquire in the second place Quer. 2 Query II. What kind of Canons were in use in the Apostles dayes and Primitive times and who the first Inventers or Founders of Canons GAnon is the Greek word for a Carpenters-Rule it is a word of Architecture signifying the Rule that directs men in building Answ Whence it is that the Holy Scriptures are called a Canon as in Gal. 6.16 Phil. 3.16 and in several other places Canons therefore are nothing else but Ecclesiastical Rules or By-Laws made by the Church for its better edification The first Synod say some or rather private Conventicle of Christians after our Blessed Saviours Resurrection we read of Acts 1. Synod 1. Acts 1. and they met about the choice of an Apostle to succeed Judas and take his place St. Peter being the Prolocutor when the whole number of names was 120. To these Brethren St. Peter makes a Speech and not he but they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Statuerunt made a Statute or a Canon publicè totius Collegii suffragiis the most Votes carried it The second was called Acts 9. to make new Officers in the Church Synod 2. called Overseers for the poor or Deacons which last word in the Original only signifies Your humble Servant or a ready and vigilant Minister Therefore sometimes the Magistrates are called Deacons Rom. 13.4 Sometimes women are so called Rom. 16.1 Sometimes St. Paul is called a Deacon Col. 1.23.25 2 Cor. 2.6 and so is Timothy 1 Tim. 4.6 Sometimes all Believers are called Deacons by Christ himself John 12.26 And at this meeting the Principal Electors that chose these seven Deacons were the People the multitude of Disciples Acts 6.2 5. when they were pleased Then they the multitude chose Stephen The third was a Conventicle of the believers of Jerusalem Synod 3. And from this of all other in Holy Writ all the Councils in after Ages derive their Authority as well as Platform For this was the first that made Canons or Decrees to bind the absent but what Burdens or obligations only a very few and very easie and under no penalty upon those that disobeyed yet in this Council where not only the holy Apostles but the Holy Ghost was present and president yet for all that those few and harmless Canons there made were not like the Laws of the Medes and Persians unalterable and irrefragable For at the next Council held in the same Town and by the same men St. James and the rest of the Presbyters Acts 21.18 were of another opinion as aforesaid concerning the observation of Mosaical Ceremonies particularly Circumcision But the Canons of the same third Synod we find in Acts 15.28 29. only two verses Acts 15.28 29. not a Book of Canons and those Canons or rather one single Canon short full modest and charitable namely It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burthen they were not wanton in their Impositions but how tender and loth to load men than these necessary not trivial things That ye abstain from meats offered to Idols and from blood and from things strangled and from Fornication from which if ye keep your selves ye shall do well Fare ye well Ye shall do well fare ye well why that 's well said and honestly and Christian like That 's a great deal better and more like good Christians than to conclude their Canons with Curses and Anathema's and take them Satan but modestly and piously not the language of Hectors but the language of the Holy Ghost ye shall do well Fare ye well But that 's not all the Remarks I make upon this Synod and Canon it begins It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us In which Stile run all the Canons and Decrees of Councils ever since but how Apish how mimical how false many times The Holy Ghost did indeed in the Primitives times come frequently not only upon the Apostles but upon every Christian in the gifts of Miracles Tongues c. that they might well say and truly too It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us But for men that are only Apes nay that cannot so much as shew any signs of the Holy Ghost than as it is brought from Rome c. in a Cloak-bag for them to Preface at the Primitive Rate It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Oh Confidence and Forehead This third Synod was Celebrated at Jerusalem about fourteen years after our Saviours Resurrection in the 4th Claudii Imp. Caesaris There when St. Peter St. Paul St. Barnabas and St. James had made their Speeches The people were very well pleas'd Acts 15.22 Had the Apostles the gifts of the Holy Ghost so had the people all the Assembly Acts 2.1 2 7 8. Did the Holy Ghost descend upon the Apostles so did he upon all the people Acts 2.38 39. upon all that repented and were Baptized were the Apostles filled with the Holy Ghost so was all the Assembly Acts 4.31 so was Stephen before he was chosen Deacon Acts 6.5 so at Samaria all believers received the Holy Ghost Acts 8.14 15

Parliament in these words Noverint universi Quòd Dominus H. Rex Angliae illustris Anno. 37. H. 3. R. Comes Norff. Marescallus Anglin H. comes Hereford Essex I comes de Warewico Petrus de Sabbaudia Caeterique Magnaces Anglia consenserunt in sentiam Excommunicationis generaliter latam apud Westm Tertio decimo die Muii Anno Regni Regis Pradicte in hàc formà scilices Quod vinculo Praefacae sententiae ligenter omnes venientes contra libertates contentas in chartis communium libertatum Angliae de Foresta c. Dominus Rex praedicti Magnates omnes Communitas Populi protestantur publitè c. by Communitus Populi there I understand the Honse of Commons though it had not the form in those days which now it puts on and decently wears By which it appears that the King and his Lay-people would not trust the Clergy in those days with making Sentences of excommunication nor with declaring causes of Excommunication much less without the Privity of King and Parliament as some have presumed But matchless is the Malice of those men that are angry with all Lay-men that dare be so bold as to see their own way with their own and not with Clergy eyes and Prospectives The Conclusion THus have I stared these Quaries so needful to be discuss'd And prov'd That all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction like all other Jurisdictions must be deriv'd from the King or the Pope To assert the latter Incurs a Praemunire or to pretend any old ordinary Jurisdiction originally granted them from the Pope in their first creation and his Majesty has oblig'd himself never to Empower them by Commission any more By the Statutes of Hen. 8. all those ordinary Jurisdictions Ecclesiastical were cut off and they left without any in Queen Maries time as the Synod did confess as aforesaid But in King Edward's time their Ecclesiastical Proceedings were revived but with condition that all Citations Processes c. should be in the Name of the King the Head of the Church as in Original and Judicial Writs at the Common Law He being also Head of the State And in due acknowledgment also of this Supremacy The Seals of their Spiritual-Courts should have engraven in them The Kings Arms. Great very great Reason there is and there was for such a Statute as that 1 Edw. 6. But oh this Hierarchy this Power how sweet could the Bishops ever be brought to this I 'le warrant some of them would keep no Courts at all first but who cares For cui bono cui fini should be the question every man puts in all his affairs so here cui bono cui fini what are the Spiritual Courts good for at this day as they are managed I protest I cannot tell and yet no man in England has more reason to know their virtue than I nor scarce any has had more experience of them and in them and still as I said before I have an Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of mine own For except a little money I should say a great deal of money ungedly money wickedly got by the Extortions of Registers I 'le prove what I say and shamefully against Law and money money from the poor Clergy the Inferiour Clergy and silly Churchwardens against the Common-Law Statute-Law Canon-Law Civil-Law Equity Conscience Reason and Humane Compassion all condemning this unnatural and Unkind Rapaeity Except these be good things I know not what they are good for not by what Authority they dare send out Citations without the King's Name Title and Seal against the King's Liege-People or how a Writ de Excummunicato Capiendo can legally be awarded the ground whereof being a Significavii under Seal a legal Seal unless the Kings Arms be engraven in the Seal of the Significavit and the Process on which it is founded also run in the King's Name c. Tell not me for I know it That the opinion of the Judges was ask't about this as in the said Proclamation But when was it It was when the High-Commission-Courts were in being no man durst speak any thing in these days against their Placet's It would be his ruine if he did But now since that Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. is repealed I for my part know not by what Authority we do these things And I write this as much for my own satisfaction and more than for any man 's else And that too in a discourse here such as it is neither Polite nor neatly dres't I have neither Will nor Leisure to write it over again and sleek it and polish it and make it Fine 't is now most natural most like my self plain and blunt not curious nor affected like my Garb not Rich and yet I hope not Slovenly For I am one of those that love my Pleasure and Humour so much as not to take over-much pains to please or displease any man alive However what Prudent Man would barter his Ease to purchase in Exchange the Reputation of a Writer not worth one farthing in this Scribling-Age For New Books are like New-Plays wherewith the Poets and Actors can scarce please One in Ten And though the Fops get there all the little Wit they have yet they will rail and disparage them but cannot notwithstanding for bear seeing them for their hearts I write as I speak right on and the Naked Truth and Home Truths purposely neglecting the wily circumspection of Flatterers and Dislemblers Fellows of no Soul And as I have writ this off-hand and what came next to hand and occur'd at present without pumping yet has not one word here slipt my Pen without its due weight and consiration nothing is here presented Crude and Immature but well-digested as a few of those things that my Head and Heart have long been full of though a late Occasion now gives them Birth no Abortion I hope For I am well assur'd that I have not only given Birth here to my own Conceptions but to the Conceptions also of almost the whole Nation whose Judgments are not blinden and brib'd by Interest And these last shall Be mine Enemies and they only But I hope also Psal 62.3 they shall be like a bowing Wall and a tottering Fence whilst I say and Pray the whose Psalm 62. I have no picque against any man in Particular no private Interest nor Revenge to gratifie but wish for my own private-Interest as well as for the publique-Weal That Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction were of force strength and vertue and not thus uncertain disorderly and precarious I have I confess in this Search and Inquiry Anatomiz'd and rip 't up to the Bottom some Secret parts yet I have also at the same time cast a vail over their Nakedness and hid their shame what I could I mean And in these Gentle Dissections if some think that I have gone too deep Let them consider that Old Vlcers and Fistula's are incurable except we search to the Bottom but in doing this also I hope I have retain'd the Property of a good Chirurgeon namely a Ladies Hand as well as a Lyons Heart And is there any but Babies and Boobies that will be frighted out of their Wits with a Scare-Crow or Magotte-Pye FINIS I Hereby allow and authorize Francis Smith Bookseller to Print my Book Entituled The Naked Truth the Second Part. Colchester November 2d 1680 Edmund Hiceringill