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	church_n	pillar_n	3,742	5	10.1590	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85394	Hagiomastix, or The scourge of the saints displayed in his colours of ignorance & blood: or, a vindication of some printed queries published some moneths since by authority, in way of answer to certaine anti-papers of syllogismes, entituled a Vindication of a printed paper, &c. ... / By John Goodwin, pastor of a Church of Christ in Colemanstreet.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1647 (1647)	Wing G1169; Thomason E374_1; ESTC R201334; ESTC R201335	139,798	168

alone with his owne words yet they exchange meanings with him For he doth not here speake of cutting off by the sword of the Magistrate which is by death but by the sword of the Church which is by excommunication Chrysostome with whom Calvin agrees in his notion conceives that the Apostle in his expression of cutting off alludes to circumcision which was made by abs●ission and wisheth that as they distracted the Church by preaching and urging the Doctrine of Circumcision or cutting off so themselves should be cut off Now that cutting off which was by circumcision was not to the death or destruction but to Sect. 62. the benefit of the circumcised Mr. Perkins calls the passage in hand an imprecation or curse pronounced by Paul upon the false Apostles and moveth this question upon it Whether we may not curse our enemies as Paul did To which he answers negatively No his reason For we have not the like spirit to discern the persons of men what they are and our zeale for Gods glory is mixed with many corrupt affections and therefore to be suspected So that his judgement is not onely that no argument can be drawne from this Scripture for the death or imprisonment of any teachers of errors or troublers of Churches in that kind but not so much as for any imprecation or wishing of evill against such Luthers interpretation of the place differs not much who expounds the Apostles malediction or imprecation as he calls it against the disturbers of the Church in the nature of an Anathema and makes this to be the sense of it that God would not guide or prosper either their Doctrine or their doings * Rectè igitur facit Paulus quod perturbatores ●llos maledicit pronunciat sententiam eos esse Anathema cun omnibus quae sunt docent faciunt quodque imprecatur eis ut ex●i●dantur ex bac vitâ precipue ex Ecclesia hoc est ne Deus gubernet fortunet Doctrinam omnes actiones eorum Luther ad Gal. 5. 12. Musculus understands the place cleerly of excommunication I would they were cut off saith he But from whence Even from the body of the Churches of Christ into which they had infinuated themselves as if they had been members of them whereas indeed they were pernicious pests They who are cut off are abalienated from all communion and fellowship therewith c. It is true he speaks afterwards of cutting off by the Christian Magistrate but his Text according to his own interpretation of it administers no ground at all unto him so to wish Nor indeed doth he wish any such cutting off as this but upon this ground or supposition that the Churches of Christ have no other meanes whereby to be rid of those unworthy teachers and Pastors whom he judgeth meet to be cut off which yet they ought to have yea and might have if they did not willingly suffer themselves to be deprived of it and then they should stand in no need at all of the strong hand of the Magistrate for such a purpose Whereas they adde that Christians in former ages submitted to Sect. 62. suffer with profession that if they had been Heretiques or Blasphemers they had deservedly suffered and for proofe hereof alledge that of the Apostle Paul when he was accused to have offended against the law of the Jews and the Temple If I be an offender or have committed any thing worthy of death I refuse not to dye Act. 25. 8. 11. they here also commit that iniquity by which they still build Sect. 63 their house of High Presbytery I mean they misuse the good Word of God For is there any thing in the passage they cite which so much as colours with that assertion which they argue from it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle i. e. if indeed I did or doe injustice or have committed any thing worthy of death I refuse not c. Doe any of the Heretiques or Sectaries now as these men are pleased to call all those who refuse eandem insanire insaniam with them refuse to suffer or die upon such tearmes as these Let them produce any one man of that generation which they so avile and tread under their feet like clay and mire or stones in the streets who ever refused to suffer for injustice proportionably to his offence or to dye having committed any thing worthy of death It may possibly be that some of them have pleaded their innocency when matters of injustice have been laid to their charge and others have declared their judgements in opposition to some who would make what they please or what pleaseth not them matters worthy of death But in both these they are so farre from going against that they follow the example of the Apostle Paul who denyed that he had done any injustice or committed things worthy of death as his malicious accusers had traduced and falsely charged him to have done O England when will thy Teachers cease to pervert the streight wayes and word of the Lord when shall it yet be Their Answer to their fifteenth Argument is somewhat faint Sect. 63. and tender They speake here as if they cared not much whether they spake or no yet they take courage to say that the publique holding of some opinions may be so prejudiciall to the publique peace as may deserve imprisonment and yet not deserve excommunication c. But their strength is wholy spent with bringing forth the bare assertion that they have not left wherewith to cloath or guard it with any proofe And indeed a thousand such sayings may more easily be asserted then any one of them substantially proved I desire to know what opinions those are the publique holding whereof may be so prejudiciall to the publique peace as to deserve punishment and yet not be so prejudiciall either to the honour of God or to the proceedings of the Gospell or to the well being of that particular Church which ought to take cognizance of them as to deserve excommunication I feare that the publique peace is oftener Sect. 63. prejudiciall to the publique holding forth of many truths then the publique holding forth of any opinion whatsoever prejudiciall unto that Whereas they adde that the Apostle did not call them beloved Brethren that at Corinth denyed the resurrection but the rest of the Church that ●●ld the Truth except either they will say that they speake it by Revelation or else give some either Scripture or reason to prove it I trust they will give us leave to judge it Apocryphall and to number it amongst the transgressions of their pen. That which followes is yet of a more ignoble calculation for they say neither were there any such in the Church of Corinth or Christian Churches then that held opinions of farre worse consequence then very many or even then any of those errours which the Ordinance threatens with death But first why or in relation

thing more strange to suppose this then it is to suppose that all men are not Kings nor all Princes nor all Nobles nor all wise nor all rich with the like Surely these men through the abundance of their zeale will shortly vote it wickednesse blasphemie impudence Atheisme Devillisme an impiety calling for an Anathema a delivering up unto Satan c. for a man to suppose or intimate that light is not darknesse or that darknesse is not light that sweet is not bitter or that bitter is not sweet that a mans feet are not his hands or that his head is not his feet The most cleere and pregnant truth is that the intimation wherewith they charge the Querie now in Sanctuarie and this undeservedly too and against which they rise up in the might of their indignation is of no more demerit no more worthy censure then one of these yea and that the most innocent of them if any be suspected Deare English soules take heed of putting a Scepter into the hands of these men For they can be angry and become Lyons and call eares hornes when they please By the way before wee leave this point I desire by occasion of the ground lately mentioned as the common if not the generall Tenet of our best and most Orthodoxe Writers that it be taken into serious consideration whether or how farre it is meet to punish or censute poore miserable men for not holding or not asserting the Truth of those things which they cannot come without much labour and contention of mind yea not without some good degree of reason and understanding too to judge so much as probable nor at al to come to believe or know them CERTAINLY but onely by an immediate and supernaturall work of the Spirit of God Are men to be punished because God hath not imparted unto them his Spirit of Grace and supernaturall illumination Seventhly and lastly Neither is it true as hath been prov'd at Sect. 26. large that all the opinions threatned with death in the Ordinance are either contrary to the manifest word of God or overthrowing the foundations of Christian Religion Therefore no such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or properties in them as these can be any reason to prove that the makers of the Ordinance must needs CERTAINLY know them to be damnable Sect. 27. heresies For non entis nulla est efficacia nulla operati● That which is not cannot be a reason or cause of that which i● A mans person cannot be protected by a Castle in the aire By the way I suppose that by the manifest word of God the Answerers meane Texts or passages first of such Scriptures which are manifestly i. unquestionably and without all dispute the word of God And secondly which are capable of no other exposition sense or meaning but what as plainly and directly as in the very termes themselves exhibit and give out the opinion whether one or more asserted by them If they intend or meane any thing lesse then this by their manifest word of God they speake snares and ambiguities therefore in this sense I understand them and counter-argue with them thus First that all the Opinions sentenced with death in the Ordinance are not contrary to the manifest word of God is evident by what hath been already argued concerning this which is one of them viz. that God is not one in three Persons a Sec Sect. 19 20 21. This how untrue or erroneous soever in a sense it may be is not contrary to any manifest word of God Nor have the Syllogismers proved so much as one jot or title of this and yet I believe they have proved as much of it as ever they will doe or can doe So againe That Christ is not God coequall with the Father which is another of these Opinions neither is this contrary to any manifest word of God in the sense declared though I judge it contrary to the Truth Probatio incumbit affirmanti Let the assertors of it to be so prove their assertion but to say much and prove little is one of the principall pillars in their Schoole So againe that Christs death is not meritorious in the behalfe of believers is another of these Opinions I marvell what manifest word of God they will finde unto which this is contrary That the Scriptures are not the word of God is another taking the word Scriptures for all the bookes of the Old and New Testament divifim and conjunctim as they are now received and acknowledged amongst us which is the onely sense the Ordinance can reasonably meane if they can find me any manifest word of God whereunto this is contrary I will in recompence of such a favour abate them three absurdities and foure in the sequell of my examination of their Vindication Againe Sect. 27. Secondly neither are all the said Opinions sentenced in the Ordinance with death overthrowing the very foundations of Christian Religion Sect. 27. Taking the word Scriptures in the sense even now declared viz. for all and every the bookes of the Old and New Testament this Opinion that the Scriptures are not the word of God doth not overthrow the foundations of Christian Religion The book of the Revelation is Scripture or a parcell of the Scriptures yet was this booke for a long time together denyed to be the word of God by far the greater part of Christians in the world who yet remain'd unshaken in the foundations of their Religion Luther denyed the Epistle of James to be the word of God and yet was built as strongly upon the foundations of Christian Religion as these severe Taxe-Masters themselves no disparagement to their Faith Musculus himselfe so farre professeth himselfe to reverence the judgement of some of the Canonicalnesse of the latter Epistle of Peter the two latter Epistles of John the Epistle of Jude the Epistle to the Herbrewes and the Apocalyps yea and of some later writers also for he speakes in the plurall number who discanon the Epistle of Jude that he judgeth himselfe lesse tyed or bound up in his judgement by these Scriptures then by other a Inter libros Novi Testamenti sunt nonnulli d● quibus etiam veterum sententiae variant utpote Epistola posterior Petri duae posteriores Johannis Epistola Judae Epistola ad Hebraeos Apocalypsis Iohannis quae in Concilio Laodiceno cap. 39. ultimo inter Canonicas Scripturas non recitatur quibus etiam eam quae Iacobo inscribitur quidam reccen●iores connumerant M●● modestiae non est ut de his pronunciem sintneeorum sub quorum nominibus extant vel secus ludicia tamen veterum hoc efficiunt ut minùs simillis quam coeteris Scripturis astrictus l●cèt haud facilè quaevis damnanda cens●am quae in illis leguntur Musculus Loc. De sacris Scripturis It were easie to adde more instances of like nature And though for my selfe I can and doe without sc●uple subscribe to the

when there is any division of votes amongst them Fourthly and lastly if the Magistrate be bound in the case under consideration to cleave either to the one party or the other whether the lesser or the greater and to smite that with his sword as errour or Heresie which either of them adjudgeth for such he stands bound likewise to punish and smite with the sword that whole party of Ministers as erroneous and Hereticall whose judgement he rejecteth in the consultation though when he called them hereunto he looked upon them as godly orthodox and faithfull And if cases of this nature should frequently happen I meane wherein the civill Magistrate shall have occasion to advise with his godly Ministers for his information about errours and Heresies and these Ministers be divided in their judgements about them and the Magistrate be bound to punish errours and Heresies with the sword which that interpretation of the Scripture in hand now opposed by us imposeth upon him as a duty he should still toties quoties and from time to time be bound in conscience to destroy or molest one party of the godly Ministers under him and so ere long must needs make a sad desolation in his territories of such men Therefore Fourthly and lastly when the Apostle saith concerning the Magistrates that he is the Minister of God a Revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evill c. that indefinit expression him that doth evill is not to be taken or understood universally for whosoever doth evill after what manner or in what kinde soever but with limitation pro subjecta materia 1. for the doer of such or of that kinde of evill which appertaine● to the cognizance of the Magistrate and whereof ordinary Magistrates or Magistrates in generall as well Heathen as Christian are competent judges as all such evill is which is manifestly such and of a Politicall consideration as that which is contrary to the light and law of nature as Whoredome Adultery Murder Theft Injustice Sedition Treason c. that this is the true interpretation and meaning of this Scripture is further confirmed First by the like expressions of frequent occurrence in the Sect. 47. Scriptures viz. where indefinit yea and sometimes universall expressions are used to signifie not a simple or absolute but a relative Sect. 48. or restrained universalitie of things i. e. either a vniversality of such things which are particularly treated of in those places where these expressions are found or of such whose natures or conditions are reasonably capable of those things which either are attributed to them or injoyned concerning them in such expressions As for example God himself saith Exod. 12. 48. that no uncircumcised person should eat of the passeover Yet this generall or universall expression is not to be extended unto women of the daughters of Abraham as if they were restrained hereby from eating the Passeover because they are persons uncircumcised the reason is because the note or universality NO in the prohibition NO uncircumcised person shall eat c. imports not an absolute but onely a relative universality viz. of all that kinde of uncircumcised persons which the verse speakes of which are males who also are the onely persons capable of circumcision So when the Apostle commanded the Thessalonians that if any would not worke he should not eat * 2 Thess 3. 10. his meaning was not to forbid nourishment or food to be given either to sicke or lunatique persons or to young children or to any person whatsoever uncapable of working but onely unto those who changed an ability of working into idlenesse and stubbornly refused to labour in a calling So in the Scripture in hand when he saith indefinitly that Rulers are not a terrour to good workes but to evill the word Rulers doth not signifie ALL Rulers whatsoever but onely such who rule according to the will of God for otherwise we know there are many Rulers who act contrary to this rule or assertion of the Apostle and are a Terrour not to evill workes but to good In like manner when the Apostle saith that the Magistrate is the Minister of God to execute wrath upon or against him that doth evill by him that doth evill it is no way necessary that he should mean every man without exception who doth that which is evill in one kind or other but onely every man that doth any such evill which is of a politicall cognizance and proper for a Magistrate as a Magistrate to punish Secondly if by him that doth evill in this Scripture were Sect. 48. meant every man without exception that doth any kinde of evill then should the Magistrate be the Minister of God and consequently be injoyned by him by way of duty to punish men for conceiving Sect. 49. evill thoughts for committing adultery in the heart for coveting that which is another mans without doing any thing outwardly which is evill or injurious to him c. For whosoever doth any of these things most certainely doth that which is evill but if we shall suppose that the Magistrate stands bound by his office to execute wrath upon such evill doers as these we had need make them Gods indeed and give them knowledge of the hearts of men or else we shall make them little better then devills by bringing the guilt of sin and of unfaithfulnesse in their places upon their heads without end Thirdly If God should require of the Magistrate to execute wrath upon spreaders of errors and heresies as evill doers he should be an hard Master indeed and think to gather where hee hath not strewed and to reap where he hath not sown * Mat. 25. 24. For doubtlesse he neither hath given nor doth give any sufficiency of means to discern between Heresie and sound Doctrine between Error and Truth at least in many points in Christian Religion to one Magistrate of an hundred I might I beleeve keep within the compasse of Truth and say of a thousand Especially if wee shall look upon those Magistrates which were then in being in the world when this Scripture was written and upon occasion of whose power to execute wrath upon him that doth evill this admonition was given by the Apostle unto the Romans it will clearely bee found that they generally were so farre from being able to judge what was Error and Heresie what Truth and Orthodox in Christian Religion that they judged this Religion it selfe to be the grand Error and Heresie of the world Fourthly That by him that doth evill in the clause under debate Sect. 49. the Apostle doth not mean spreaders of Errors or Heresies in Christian Religion but onely the actours of such impieties which were known to be such by the heathen Magistrates who then bare rule over them is evident from the context it self and the import of the same expression in the former part of the same verse which is this For he the Magistrate is the Minister

of God to thee for thy good But if thou shalt DOE THAT WHICH IS EVILL be afraid for hee beareth not the sword in vain By doing that which is evill in this passage cannot be meant the spreading of Errors or Heresies because they had not Sect. 50. so much reason of being afraid of the Magistrate here spoken of for spreading of these as for publishing or preaching the most Orthodox Truths of Christianity They might without any danger at all from the Magistrate here spoken of have published and taught that the Idols which the Romans worshipped were true Gods that the worship of Christians that Jesus Christ was a deceiver and not the Son of God with twenty such abominable errors and blasphemies more They had ten times more cause to bee afraid of the powers that now were for publishing the most Orthodox Truths as that there is but one God that the Gods of the Romans were either dumb Idols or speaking Devils that Jesus Christ is the naturall Son of God and onely Saviour of the world c. Therefore by that evill upon the doing of which they had cause to be afraid of the Roman powers or Magistracy the Apostle onely meanes such wicked acts or practices which they were apt to punish and take vengeance on as apprehending them prejudiciall or destructive to the peace safety or wellfare of their state and not any publishing or spreading of errors or heresies of the evill whereof they were wholly uncapable Fifthly That doing of evill against which the Magistrate here Sect. 50. spoken of is the Minister of God to execute wrath is opposed unto that subjection to the higher powers injoyned in the first verse and of the same consideration with the resisting of these powers so sharply reproved and threatned ver 2. From whence it clearly appeares that by it is onely meant the doing of such evill which was prohibited by the Roman Laws and Edicts * Quod bonum est facito hoc est legibus obtemperato Contrarium est si seceris malum id est legibus fueris inobediens a●t refractari●s Par. ad Rom. 13. 4. For no man can be said either to refuse subjection unto or to resist the powers under which he lives who lives in an orderly subjection and obedience unto all their Laws Now certain it is that neither the Roman Emperour or Senate in these dayes had enacted any law against the publishing of Errors or Heresies in Christian Religion Therefore the publishing of these could be no branch or part of that evill by the doing whereof the Roman powers should have been resisted in their Laws Sixtly and lastly That doing of evill against which the Magistrate is said to be the Minister of God to execute wrath ver 4. is directly opposed to that doing of good spoken of v. 3. unto which Sect. 51. there is a promise made of receiving praise from the Magistrate * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ma●●● oppouitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bono morali de quo ver 3. Idem Ibid. Doe that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the sam● Now certainly that doing of good for which the Apostle undertakes that they shall have praise from the Roman Magistrate was not the preaching or publishing of the great and orthodox truths of Christian Religion of the goodnesse of which service they were wholy insensible yea rather enemies unto it as hath been said therefore by that doing of evill which is opposite hereunto cannot be meant the spreading of Errors and Heresies but onely the perpetration of such morall impieties of the evill whereof to their state and well-fare they were fully sensible Thus we have sufficiently and by the clearest evidence of the Scriptures themselves vindicated the Scripture-passage in hand from that hand of violence which goeth about to force it upon a bloudy service yea and to draw the Magistrate by it into a dangerous ingagement far above his abilities and strength onely to promote the secular designes of Ecclesiasticall men O England England make much of thy Scriptures but take heed of the glosses of thy Teachers And when they shall say unto thee Lo here is our Presbytery and lo it is there beleeve them not for they shall shew great signes and wonders of zeale for Reformation and building as they call it the house of God and shall deceive many Neither of those two pi●lars neither the ancient law of God for putting false Prophets Idolaters and Blasphemers to death nor the Magistrates being the Minister of God to execute wrath upon him that doth evill were ever hewne by God to support that fabricke of Church-Government which these men labor in the very fire to build upon them And yet these are their Gods and these being taken from them they may lament with Micah and say what have we more * Jud. 18. 24. In their Answer to their ninth Argument they sit down qui●● Sect. 51. besides the cushion The major in this syllogisme is this They who inflict death upon men for maintaining a doctrine contrary to their interprecation of Scripture had need be as infallible at least as touching the sense of that Scripture as God himselfe or else they do what is not lawfull for them to do Their answer is This major is fals● because it is blasphem●●● It is blasphemo●● to assert ●r suppose that any man in any thing which he knowes never so certainly is as infallible as Sect. 51. God himselfe This Answer of these men is truly propheticall and if the people of England were but capable of the spirit that breaths in it they might cleerly foresee what they meane to doe with an Ordinance of Parliament to punish Errour Heresie and Blasphemy if they could procure it together with the managing and interpretation of it to be put in their hands whereof their hopes are pregnant if ever such an Ordinance shall be established viz. to accuse molest crush whom they please by making Errour Heresie Blasphemy of what saying or expressions of theirs they please though never so innocent and sound in the genuine and true import of them if there be but a word that is capable of wresting or abuse from their hand Was such an assertion especially such a supposition as this that a man in something which he knowes may be a● infallible a● God himselfe ever voted Blasphemy untill now nay was there ever any supposition or bare intimation whatsoever called Blasphemy untill now at least any such supposition or intimation which is onely collected from the words of another and not acknowledged or owned as a lawfull inference by the speaker himselfe But suppose the Syllogisme had not supposed but in terminis asserted that a man may in some particular of his knowledge ●e a● infallible as God himselfe by what law either of reason or Religion will this be evicted of Blasphemy Certain I am that there is no communication of any of the incommunicable