Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	apostle_n	believe_v	doctrine_n	1,986	5	6.1175	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25667	The anti-Quaker, or, A compendious answer to a tedious pamphlet entituled, A treatise of oaths subscribed by a jury of 12 Quakers, whose names are prefixed to it, together with the fore-man of that jury ... William Penn : alledging several reasons why they ... refuse to swear, which are refuted, and the vanity of them demonstrated both by Scripture, reason, and authority of ancient and modern writers / by Misorcus, a professed adversary of vain swearing in common discourse and communication.	Misorcus.	1676 (1676)	Wing A3506; ESTC R165	32,510	58

and an help to Truth and to proof appointed by God and oftentimes very necessary we must restrain this command of Christ to wit Swear not at all to voluntary Oaths not required by them who have Authority vain frivolous and vicious Oaths seeing those things which are set down here have relation onely to such Be not righteous overmuch perverse Separatist for why shouldst thou destroy thy self i.e. as Tremelius upon the Text By thy pride and arrogancy run headlong into destruction Col 1.18 Eph. 4.15 by undergoing the penalties of the Laws here and endangering the salvation of thy soul hereafter Separation from the Church his mystical Body is a dividing from Christ the Head In the last place and for a close of all I do earnestly desire the Heads and Abettors of the Quaking party to afford me so much Charity as to believe that I had no other design in undertaking the Refutation of their Treatise put into my hands by a most religious knowing person but onely their Conviction and Conversion For when I had read what is the sixth of eleven things which they desire to be considered viz. Pag. 155 156 157. That their Refusal to Swear in all cases is a matter of Faith and whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin I pitied their mistake as to the former part of their Position and conceived it my duty with others of the Clergy to undeceive them poor mistaken souls by demonstrating that as it is usual with God to send men as the Apostle speaks strong delusions to believe a lye 2 Thes 10.11 because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved so They believe that to be true which is apparently false and that it is a sin to do what they though falsly believe ought not to be done i. e. To Swear by the Name of God although it may be for God's glory in the vindication of the Truth or to promote a Neighbours good My next design was which is every mans duty to prevent the Contagion which might spread amongst the poor people from their * 2 Tim. 2.17 Their word will eat as doth a Canker Gangreen-Opinion for whilst they profess Conscience for their disobedience alledg Scripture though misconstrued for their Conscience and colour all with an appearance of outward Sanctity in their lives not usually tainted with debauchery and drunnkeness it may be justly feared that the Populacy if not fortified by pregnant demonstrations of Truth against their spreading errours and Opinions will cry up their Piety they appearing for a great part of them morally Just and civilly Innocent as were some of the refined Heathens and by degrees joyn with them in their Confederacy against the Laws of the Kingdoms and the Churche's Constitutions there being sown in the hearts of the people the seeds of Rebellion Faction and Sedition which are oft-times sad effects of Conventicles or private Meetings called by alearned Greek Father from the sad experience he found of them Denns of Thieves or Robbers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiphan for that the Meeting-Masters steal the hearts of Subjects from their King and Governors of Wives from their Husbands and of these from their Wives of Children from their Parents of Servants from their Masters for there can be no true love or affection where there is a difference of Opinion and Practice whilst two or three of a Family go to Conventicles and the rest to open Churches to joyn with Gods Saints and Servants in the publick Service of God as it is enjoyned by the fourth Commandment He likewise terms them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Receptacles of evil Spirits such as filled and possessed the hearts of Judas and Simon Magus and may possess the hearts of many of the Leaders and Teachers in them For a Coronis or superpondium of all hath been writ in the defence of the Legality of a Judicial and in some cases of a private Oath I desire the Treatist once more to consider what he hath said Pag. 27. of his Treatise Take away lying and there remains no more ground for Swearing He should have said there will be no ground for Perjury For suppose a man never told a Lye yet if an Oath should be required of him by the Magistrate to vindicate his own or anothers suspected Honesty and Truth he would have a good ground for his Swearing in this Case he being commanded to do it so that the Treatist's Proposal is vain as it is likewise of a thing that is impossible 1 Cor. 11 19. For as there must be Heresies i. e. they cannot be hindred so there will be as long as the world lasts lying or false-speaking with dissimulation amongst men Ergo by the Quakers own concession there will be a necessity of Swearing Thus I may retort and say the Anti-Jurist is as the Giant Goliah was wounded with his own weapon 1 Sam. 17.51 refuted by his own Argument But I shall not out of my tender pity and regard to his Soul and to the deluded Souls of his Disciples leave him gasping and bleeding under his wound but as I formerly praised him and them for their pretended awful reverence to Gods holy Name so as it becomes a merciful Soul-Physician as the good Samaritan did to the wounded Traveller Luke 10. I shall pour the oyl of my prayers into his wound beseeching God the Father of mercyes so to open his and the eye of their understandings as he did the eyes of Balaam and the door of their hearts as he did open Lydia's that they may laying aside all prejudice attend to those saving Truths which have been delivered in this Anti-Treatise Num. 21.31 Act. 16.14 and being convinced of their errors submit with a due and humble obedience according to the will of God to the wholsom Laws of the Realm and to the Churches laudable constitutions that so they and we may meet now together in love unity and concord and hereafter in the great Congregation of Heaven above into which none shall be admitted but only those who are the true and lively members of Christ their Head who are animated quickned and guided by his good Spirit the spirit of love and unity which rests not in the breast of a perverse malicious Schismatick and the spirit of Truth where with the soul of a proud obstinate Heretick who maintains and propagates opinions repugnant to the word of God is not enlightned From that Venom of Schism and this Pest of Heresie Lord preserve and defend thy Church And so sanctifie the Hearts and govern the Tongues of all profane Swearers that being aw'd by a trembling fear of those dreadful Judgments which have in all ages fallen upon such miscreants they may with thankful lips and by the holiness of their lives advance thy glory and publish thy praises O let thy mercy be glorified in their Conversion and not thy Justice magnified in their Confusion This I humbly beg in the behalf of them and all Dissenters from the Orthodox Professors of thy Truth and sound Religion for thy mercies sake and alone merits of thy beloved Son our Lord and only Saviour Christ Jesus Amen FINIS

Levit. 19.12 Thou shalt not Swear by my name falsly they hereby confounded two distinct Precepts For by the later in Leviticus is forbidden Perjury which is the confirmation of a Lye by an Oath by the former Precept in Exodus all vain inconsiderate and rash Oaths which men commonly use to confirm or ratifie the Truth in their private Negotiations Contracts Bargainings and Discourse From this false Gloss of the Scribes interpreting the Third Commandment as if only Perjury were forbid by it and this too only in the abuse of God's Sacred Name from this corrupt Spring issued these three perverse and depraved Doctrines which in our Saviour's time were setled in the minds and hearts of the deluded Jews First to Swear by the Creature and to forswear they affirmed to be no sin Secondly they counted it no breach of the Third Commmandment if they used in their ordinary discourse the Name of God so long as they did what they promised and affirmed what was true With the Scribes and Pharisees in this Second Opinion agree both Maldonat on Levit. 19. and Socinus with his followers Thirdly from this later impure Stream or Opinion issued another as corrupt and unsound it was this That whatsoever they had bound themselves to by an Oath in the Name of God they were obliged to do it were the thing never so unjust and bad Our blessed Saviour as it did become so wise a Teacher who came from God as Nicodemus witnessed of him Joh. 3.2 intending and endeavouring to root out of the peoples minds these Pharisaical Doctrines or Principles unsound in themselves and destructive of an holy Life or good Manners in his First Sermon Ad populum on the Mount gave them all as it were their deaths Wound stifled and choak'd them with one general Precept or Prohibition strengthened with Divine Authority the Authority of his own Person But I say unto you Swear not at all i.e. Swear not at all per ullam rem creatam Beza in L●c. Ex proximè sequentibus quas Christus damnat formulis liquet non ipsum ju●jurandum reprehendi by any thing created or which is the Workmanship of God for by so doing you will attract to your selves the guilt of Idolatrie by ascribing to the Creature that which is proper and essential to the Creatour i. e. omnisciency and omnipotency as if it knew our hearts and secret intentions and could punish us if we should be guilty of Perjury With the forenamed Beza in the Margine concurrs his Compatriot and no less Learned Calvin in his Comment on the Text whose assertion is this Particula omninò non ad jurandi Verbum refertur sed ad subject as Sacramentorum formulas i.e. The Particle At all is to be referred not to the words which go before Swear not but to that which follows Neither by Heaven nor by the Earth neither by Hierusalem nor by thy Head By this our Saviour gave a check to the Scribes first Doctrine viz. That to Swear by the Creature was no sin Secondly as this Prohibition Swear not at all excludes the Creatures be they the holy Evangelists Saints departed or Angels whom to invocate as in Prayer so in Swearing is held to be lawful by the Romanists as it was by the Manichees Epiphan l. 1. c. 19. so it includes and forbids all vain and superfluous Oaths in use then among the Jews and now too frequently used by Christians in their common and familiar Discourses That this was likewise our blessed Saviours meaning may be evidenced by that which follows by way of Precept after the Prohibition Vers 37. But let your communication be Yea Yea and Nay Nay i.e. In your common talk and discourse use only a bare Affirmation of what you know to be true and a simple Negation of what you are assured is false without interposing the dreadful and Sacred Name of God Let your communication be Yea Quod dicis verbo dic opere quod negas verbo noli confirmare facto Ugo Yea c. On which words Vgo thus Glosses Let not thy actions give thy words the Lye what thou hast affirmed or promised with thy tongue ratifie the same by thy action and what thou hast denied in thy words confirm not the same by thy deeds This Gloss is ingenious and might be embraced if Christ had said only Let your Yea be Yea c. but these words Let your communication being prefixed to the Yea Yea imply and require another and that more proper interpretation which may be this B●za Because men usually swear that what they affirm or deny may be fully credited or believed our blessed Lord therefore commands us rather to use a double Affirmation saying Yea Yea and a double Negation Nay Nay than rashly swear by Gods holy Name By which to swear and that in their familiar discourses the Jews in our Saviours time thought it as was said before lawful and so they had been taught by the Scribes in case the thing was true which they had sworn And forasmuch as they deemed it not to be Perjury or thought they were not perjured if they had Sworn only by the Creatures and broke their Oath misinterpreting that Text Exod. 20.7 Thou shalt not forswear thy self but shalt perform unto the Lord thine Oaths Our Saviour for these reasons and this was the scope only or intent of his Prohibition said unto them Swear not at all Swear not by the Creature to do this is superstitious and idolatrous Swear not rashly nor lightly this is prophane and blasphemous Swear not falsly this is to back a Lye with an Oath upon which follows the guilt of Perjury Lastly Swear not unjustly bind not your self by an Oath to do what is against the rule of Justice or Honesty by this you make an Oath to be Iniquitatis vinculum a bond of Iniquity which is rather to be broken with repentance and sorrow of heart for taking of it than kept Such was Herod's rash Oath to the wanton Daughter of Herodias Mark 6.23 to give unto her whatsoever she should ask Such was that of the Jews who bound themselves under a Curse saying That they would neither eat nor drink Act. 23.14 till they had killed Paul The Prohibition of Christ being thus explained for which I have the consent of the most and best Interpreters both modern and ancient whose names are so numerous that the Margine cannot contain them to that Explication I shall subjoyn many undeniable and weighty Reasons to evince and prove the falsity and absurdity of the Anabaptist's Tenet or Thesis which is grounded upon that general Prohibition That in any case whatsoever it is not lawful for a Christian to swear For the disproving and refuting of which dangerous Position and that I may reconcile Moses to Christ the Law to the Gospel Deut. 6.13 10 20. Isa 65.16 Ierem. 12.16 many Texts in Deuteronomy and in the Prophets which enjoyn us to

Swear by the Name of God to the prohibitive command of our Saviour let me premise this for an undeniable Maxime or Thesis That the Precepts of the Gospel are not repugnant Praecepta Evangelii non contrariantur praeceptis legis Aug. or contrary to the Commands of the Law This Position is defended and proved at large by S. Augustine in his Nineteenth Book against Faustus the Heretick Cap. 16. What the Law commands the Gospel does not forbid and what the one forbids the other does not allow but both meet together in a sweet consent and harmony of Truth and as it were kiss and embrace each other so that the Gospel in a manner bespeaks the Law in the words of that Parasitical Servant in the Comedie to his Master Quod ais aio quod negas nego what you command I commend what you condemn I disallow and there is no surer or better way of expounding the Law than by the Gospel and of the Gospel than by the Law according to that known saying of Irenaeus l. 4. c. 63. Secundùm Scripturas expositio legitima est sine periculo It is the safest course and method for the ending of Disputes to expound Scripture by Scripture one Text by another if there be a seeming difference in the former from the later Now I must put this Question to a dissenting Quaker to any one of the People so called Dost thou imagine or darest thou say that Moses and the Prophets borrowed not their Light of Revelation or Doctrine from Christ the everlasting Sun of Righteousness who likewise being the Eternal Word of God Mal. 4.2 spake to them by his Spirit and dictated to them what we find in their Writings as Rules of our Faith and Manners I presume thou wilt not say it and unless thou wilt assert that they were not true Stars but only slimie Meleors coloured with shews and pretences of Truth and that their Doctrine is false unless thou assert this which is an horrid and hainous crime even blasphemy but to think and I know thou wilt not then thou must set thy Seal to this undeniable Truth that in some cases it is not unlawful or sinful to use an Oath according to that of the Prophet Jeremiah in his Exhortation to revolted Israel Thou shalt swear Ierem. 4. ● The Lord liveth in Truth in Judgement and in Righteousness i. e. When thou makest or takest an Oath Iudicio caret juramentum incautum veritate juramentum mendax Iustitia juramentum iniquum illicitum Aquin. thou shalt swear by the Eternal Lord of Life who is a discerner of the mind and heart to whom are clearly known the inward motions of it who will likewise severely punish us if we be false in our sayings and unjust in our doings This profession we make when we invocate him in taking of an Oath being called to it by the Magistrate and hereby God's name is sanctified it being an extraordinary part of God's worship but with this proviso That the three forenamed Cautions or Circumstances mentioned before by the Prophet do attend it They that thus Swear by Gods Name shall be commended Psal 63.12 i.e. They that swear in weighty matters when they are urged to it either for the confirmation of the Truth or to maintain their suspected Innocency and oblige themselves by an Oath before a Magistrate to do that which is righteous just honest and good such men sin not neither offend against our Saviour's or S. James his Prohibition Swear not chap. 5.12 by which is condemned and forbid only rash and inconsiderate false and dishonest Swearing approved not of by the Laws of men and condemned by the Word of God by which the contrary is commended Isa 65.16 He that Sweareth in the earth shall Swear by the God of Truth To my former Position and Question proposed to a Scrupulous Quaker or rather Anabaptist I shall add another Quaere which I desire him to consider it is this Whether Christ's Assertion and Testimony of Himself be not true Matth. 5.17 I came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it I cannot expect if I should talk with him but that he would say in his proper Language Yea. This being granted as he dares not deny it then I would reply and tell him That if Christ came not to destroy the Law then he forbade not what the Law commands and if he came to fulfil it then he must acknowledge that Christ did that for which he came into the World for his coming was not in vain or fruitless and that He in whom dwelleth the fulness of tine Godhead Gal. 2.9 i.e. who is perfect God and man in one person and in whom there is a fulness of Wisdom and all heavenly Grace fulfilled the Law two manner of ways Aquin. 12.101 Q. 2. Art opere ore by his Works and Words or Divine Doctrine First by his Works or Deeds in that to leave us an Example of a meek heart and sound obedience he submitted himself to the Ceremonial Law being circumcis'd the Eighth day c. So likewise to satisfie the rigour of God's Justice he fully performed the Moral by his Active obedience doing what the Lord required of us to be done thereby to bring us to Heaven and by his Passive suffering for our Sins to redeem us from the pains and torments of Hell Verum legis sensum exptimendo Secondly he fulfilled the Law by his heavenly Doctrine this he did by explaining the full scope the intent or meaning of the Law as in those two Cases of Murder and Adultery Praecepta legis ordinando ut tutiùs observaretur quod lex vetuer at Aquin Matth. 5.21 27. and by prescribing Rules for the better observing of the Laws Affirmative and Negative commands Thus because the Law forbids all kinds of Perjury Thou shalt not Swear by my Name falsly Lev. 6.5 that this Prohibition might be the better kept and observed and men secured from the danger of so great a sin in regard that men accustomed to Swearing account Perjury but a light and frivolous thing Christ therefore in his Sermon upon the Mount gave to his Auditors or Disciples a safe and wholsom admonition Swear not at all i.e. never nisi in causâ necessitatis as the Learned Zanchy upon that Text except in cases of Necessity Vbi gloria Domini vindicanda … t fratris aedifcatio promovenda when and where the glory of God is to be vindicated by a bold defence of the Truth opposed and when our neighbours welfare may thereby be promoted and either our own credit or reputation preserved St. Chrysostome himself who was a rigid enemy to Swearing i.e. to vain and idle Oaths in mutual and private Conference and in whose mistaken and wrested Sayings the Pen-man of the Treatise against Oaths does much * The Author has stuff'd two and twenty Pages in his Treatise with Citations out of that most Eloquent Father which