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	power_n	1,747	5	4.8740	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41383	A discourse of Christianity laying open the abuses thereof in the anti-Christian lives and worship of many of its professors, especially the Romanists : and shewing the way to a holy life in the character of a true Christian / written originally in French by the famous Monsieur de Gombaud ; and now done into English by P Lorrain.	Gombauld, Jean Ogier de, d. 1666.; Lorrain, P. (Paul), d. 1719.	1693 (1693)	Wing G1023; ESTC R14522	47,226	176

make known to us that they may rashly dive into those which for a time he would have hid from us Without too indiscreet a presumption and a Curiosity not only needless but pernicious I shall never disturb the publick Peace nor raise new Doubts either about the two Natures the two Wills or Substance of JESUS CHRIST and without a too great Love of my self I shall never pretend to be the COMFORTER with Montanus nor the SAVIOUR of Men with Menander I will live as a Believer with Believers and neither scandalize my Brethren by any private Opinion taken up of my own head nor by a general undervaluing of the Opinion of others XXVI So long as the Weakness of Men shall introduce into the Church no other Scruples save about the difference of Meat and have no other Ornaments but Pictures and not provoke God's Jealousie by Graven Images So long as there shall be only some superfluous Ceremonies which in the Judgment of many will pass sometimes for indifferent and at other times be thought necessary though indeed an Error that seems but small at first is commonly a step to a greater So long as its Purity shall be if not altogether such as it might be wish'd yet at least such as is tolerable I will not depart from its Communion But I must and will withdraw from any Assembly where I shall be forced to conform with the outward actions of Superstition and Idolatry and pay a Religious Honour and Worship not only to Saints and Angels who are Fellow-Servants with us but to Wood and Stone where the Sacraments are not entire and where the Commandments of God are made void by the Precepts of Men. Neither shall I think this is any Schism where there is so just a reason of Separating and an impossibility of doing otherwise For what else should be the meaning or use of these Words that command Believers to go without the Camp Heb. 13.13 and to come out of Babylon Rev. 18.4 which going out is not meant of the Spirit only but of the Body too seeing that both are equally to be consecrated to the Glory of the Creator And when we shall see the abomination of Desolation set in the Holy Place Dan. 9.27 must not we fly into the Mountains Mat. 24. Or if once Antichrist be seated in the Temple of God must he therefore be obey'd and what he pleaseth to injoyn be called the Commandments of the Church CHAP. VII XXVII WHen therefore I saw the universal Division of so many Sects which all of them had their Doctors and some of them their Prophets too I thought that upon this account the necessity of Prayer was very urgent that there was great occasion for us to humble our selves and consult not the uncertain Imaginations of Men but those infallible Rules which God himself has laid down And this I desired with so much the more care to do because the Word of God tells us that not only many Antichrists will arise in the Church and one above all the rest but also that in the time of the Apostles themselves the Mystery of Iniquity began already to put forward and consequently must be by this time grown to a great height notwithstanding their blindness who have no minds to see it and think they are safe enough whilst they can find some pretence or other for their wilful Ignorance I therefore suspected all Religions which are not purely Evangelical and Divine which are mixt with Human Inventions meddle with Questions too high and too difficult to be resolved and the Controversy whereof is too subtle and fine-spun I had also an ill Opinion of those that are brought in by the Sword and Tyranny which are so little assur'd of themselves that they are afraid of a Communication with others and to that end keep their Followers in a Brutish Ignorance In like manner I mistrusted all those that comport with the several interests of the World and put in for a share in its Government whatever pompous Title of the Church they may assume because they overthrow the Order of CHRIST's own Appointment and rashly change that into a Time of Glory which is appointed for the Patience of the Saints XXVIII Besides if we will believe universal Experience Every thing that is under the Government of Men is like them subject to Alteration Mutability and Corruption and soon or late follows the Way of their Inconstancy Children do not willingly continue in their Fathers or at least Ancestors Belief and Faith is not hereditary as the Title of a Family or an Estate is For the most part they have nothing left of it but an outward Profession to which they being no otherwise engaged but by Birth or Custom they easily abandon what their depraved Nature neither incline them to know or love so that if they have begun with good and sound Doctrine a bad one is their Portion at last Thus we see that the purity of the Gospel wheresoever it hath been received has been seldom transmitted to the third Generation and the Apostles were yet alive when in the very Churches they had planted Error crept in insensibly into the room of Truth God threaten'd them already with the removal of their Candlestick giving them to understand that Faith was no more the peculiar Priviledge of any one Place Family or People and that the Church being become Universal could not be subjected to the Jurisdiction of one King only or the Administration of one single Priest 'T is in vain for Men to pretend to lay the Foundation of a permanent State or to find a Supreme Good here in this Life They are not able to bear Prosperity long and the surest way to undo them is to grant them their desires If our first Parents though in the State of Innocency could not among the Flowers and Fruits of a most pleasant and delightful Garden resist the suggestion of the Evil Spirit who to tempt them took no other Form than that of a Serpent nor offer'd any thing but an Apple how is it possible for those who are Sinners by Nature to withstand him especially when he transforms himself into an Angel of Light and offers them all the advantages their Hearts can desire It is indeed in a Paradise of Pleasures that the Devil for the most part tempts Men to precipitate them into Hell and on the other hand it is in a Hell of Sorrows and Afflictions that God trys them in order to raise them up to the Glory of Paradise Riches are so hurtful to those that possess them that like a heavy Burthen they hinder them from mounting up to Heaven And so incompatible are they with the Profession of the Gospel that even he to whom they all belong and who could use them without the least abuse did of his own accord become Poor that he might trace us the way of Eternal Salvation and by his Poverty we might be made Rich. Indeed all good Men do

to oppose the Truth VIII But since they will acknowledge no Wit paramount to their own perhaps 't is by their Care and Power that the Earth is counterpois'd by its own Weight and surrounded with so vast an Ocean without being drown'd in it Belike 't is by their Industry and Providence that so solid an Element is pierced in so many places by such a vast number of Canals springing with Waters that quench the thirst of all Living Creatures and constitute Rivers so abounding with Fish so Fertile and Conducive to Commerce through the whole World 'T is by their Order no doubt that the Sun rises at the set time to enlighten them when they are satisfied with Sleep and that the Seasons return to fill their Senses with all variety of Pleasures Now if in this they can't but own their Weakness what folly is it in them not to grant that there are Intellects more powerful and sublime than theirs employ'd in these wonderful Operations and that we must at last come up to and stop at some one that is Superiour to all others which being finite have a Beginning and consequently depend upon That which has none and is Infinite For otherwise proceeding from the smallest to the greatest Men would endlesly pass from one Cause to another and never find the First and Last which alone deserves the Name of DEITY O shame of Men that now a-days we must be at the pains to prove a GOD What greater affront can be put upon our Kind than to shew them that which is continually present to all their Senses Is not this to go about to teach the Art of Seeing to them whose Eyes are open and that of Reason to such as profess themselves to be Men Or shall we need to add to these Considerations their continual Repetitions who have undertaken so high but withal so reasonable a Defence Indeed if God were not how could the World exist Or must it be its own Workman and Workmanship or have had a being before it was How could both these stand and yet be but one and the same World Or if it were Eternal and Independent upon any Superiour Cause that admirable Oeconomy which cannot proceed but from an infinite Intellect and those stupendous Virtues which it severally Communicates to all its Parts would insome sort prove what many have fancied it to be a God For what the least appearance is there that its Beauty Order and Duration should be the effect of blind and heedless Chance or that we owe to her Conduct Prudence and Power so steady and well regulated a Succession of Times and Motions and that such is her Wisdom and Might as to make Causes so remote one from another to co-operate one and the self-same end After all their pains this would be still a God though under another Name and these Monstrous Blasphemers would still find in every place what their guilty Souls desire to meet no where For what is Fortune or Chance but an empty Name a Vain Idol that subsists only in our imagination and to which we through Error attribute all Events and the Effects of all Causes unknown to us to whom it appears greater or lesser according as we have more or less knowledge and if we could banish Ignorance out of the World Fortune would be fain to pack with her This therefore is the Deity of the Ignorant to whom the Wise pay no Vows nor make Offerings and I am astonish'd how they can think they have any reason that speak for it since according to their Scheme they must believe that it is to Chance they owe their Being and consequently can neither move act nor speak but by Chance Others there are who would seem to believe a God but are so solicitous and concern'd for his repose as to take from him the Care if not of the whole World at least of all Sublunary Beings fancying this would be too much trouble for him as if he stood in need of their Impious folly to ease him Is not this to deny him whilst they pretend to acknowledge him and rashly confine the Actions of a Power that in its Nature is infinite Is not this to frame to ones self a God that does not so much as perform the part of a Man and to attribute to him an Understanding depriv'd of Council a Will without Effect and a Bounty without Communicativeness and to say all in one Word a Being without being and less than that of the Elements which is next to Non-Entity IX For not to insist any more upon that Universal Relation and Concatenation of Causes and Actions which plainly demonstrate that things Superiour stand in need of the help of those that are Inferiour and that it necessarily depends upon the same Wisdom and Power both to make them and preserve them Let these Gigantick Wits stand forth and tell me Who is it that chastises Kings and People in his wrath that removes Scepters from one Hand into another that changes as it were in an instant the Face of States and Empires and that to shew it is HE that does it fails not of denouncing it a long time before by the Mouth of his Messengers Prophets and Ministers Who was it that did once punish the Sins of Men with so dreadful a Deluge own'd by all Nations and by whose Advice was it that one single Family was then sav'd Who is it that promised the like Flood should never happen any more and has so well kept his Promise What Intellect did foresee three or four thousand Years before the Event the Coming of the MESSIAS of whom also Prophets did speak in such a manner as one would think they had no less seen him than the Apostles From whom but God himself or some Angel sent by him could proceed those Predictions concerning the Posterity of Abraham the Throne of David and the Lamp that was to be preserved for him in his Family the dispersed and rejected Jews and the Converted Nations If they tell me there are Mathematicians Astrologers and Magicians that can predict future Events I will still ask them what Hand did write them in Heaven in such fair Characters as Men might read them And who has put the signs of these things in the Stars or rather the Virtues and Causes which the same Men cannot comprehend They that are not touched with these Considerations must needs be strangely possess'd with a blind Passion that diverts their Reason to somewhat else and makes them pass from Custom to Hardness and from Ignorance to Security And yet we see these Men very Wise and Prudent in Worldly Concerns Their Ignorance and Stupidity seem only to be about Divine Matters And I am much mistaken if most of them do not carry their Accusers and Judge in their own Bosom who sooner or later will force them to cry out as well as many others We have wearied our selves in the ways of Iniquity and are consumed in our own Wickedness

in vain for us to think of working upon such as will not be cur'd of the good Opinion they have taken up of themselves who think they are so well endowed by Heaven that they excell all others in Common Sense that they have no Conceptions but what are the Dictates of Reason nor no impressions but what they have received from the Mouth of Truth If the Pagans did so strongly oppose the Gospel and the Knowledge of the TRUE GOD when preached to them who had no other Gods but such as Men had made what resistance may not we expect from them who assume to themselves GOD's own Authority who think they are in possession of all Right and Power both Divine and Humane who imagine that from henceforth to the end of the World all Might is given them in Heaven and on Earth and who under the Name of the Church make all manner of Errors to be applauded and put off their Cheats and Impostures without either fear or shame Princes who could at first have prevented those Abuses tolerated them through what irreligious Prudence I know not whether it was that they wanted Light to discern them or that the Cares of the World and of their Estates obliged them to dissemble their knowledge or whether they were in some sort forced to yield to the Decree of Heaven and could not but in vain oppose themselves against the fulfilling of what the Prophets had foretold Prophecies which having long since represented things to us just as now we see them render so many Doctors inexcusable who through fear or hope held their Peace and with a faithless and unaccountable Silence strengthned that which they might have weakned by a just Contradiction and Opposition Nay they have been observed to be the most industrious in the Defence of that Error which they could once have buried under an Eternal Condemnation CHAP. VIII XXXI THere is no Tyrant that makes himself to be better obey'd than Custom especially in Religion It is so much the more absolute by how much the more it influences and engages the Conscience and out of fear of doing amiss obliges them to continue that homage they have begun to pay to it Which plainly shews that notwithstanding the presumption that attends Men and the good Opinion they have of their own Wit they are for all that for the most part so weak by Nature that one would take their Soul not to be derived from Heaven but purely Animal and to have no other Form than that which Instruction has given it They are so much by ass'd by their Birth Education and Company that the first that possesses them carries them away and does not give them leave to believe any thing but what they have been once perswaded of Therefore I have as much as in me lies separated my self from my self that is to say from those impressions I had received in my Youth I have consider'd them as foreign and remote that so Truth might be the sole Object of my Faith and that Custom in me might exercise no Tyranny over my Reason Besides I always considered that none could say he really was a Man who suffer'd himself to be carried away with the Stream of the World who was not in some measure above the Councils that were given him and had so little courage as not to make use of his own Judgment but yielded it a Slave to Common Errors Yet as most Men approve nothing but what they have been us'd to and judge of every thing according as Custom has render'd it familiar to them so whenever they have contracted any ill habit the Remedy is extreamly difficult because the Faculties are seized and it must be a powerful Endeavour that can deliver them from it They grow up and are formed with certain Impressions which become so con-natural to them that they make up the chief part of their Reason They have been taught no other Science they understand no other Language and unless they be born again or have their Nature chang'd they cannot alter their Belief They do not perceive that instead of standing up for the Truth they undertake the Defence of the first Opinion they have receiv'd without examining whether it be as true as it is favourable and whether it be not grounded upon meer Prejudices specious Pretences Likelihoods Conjectures and Worldly Considerations They don't observe that all Sects pretend the same Advantages that all Heresies have their Followers who defend them with a like Zeal and have their Doctors who think themselves no ways inferior to others whether in Point of Judgment or Learning They do not perceive that they are smoothly carried away by the stream of Self-Love which perswades them that they are very different from others of their kind that they can penetrate things better and that they enjoy the Divine Light whilst others have scarcely that which is Humane According to their saying there is nothing so true nothing so easie to comprehend as that which they believe the Proof of it is clear and evident the Demonstration certain and infallible and he that does not understand it can understand nothing at all Reason is always on their side and Error and Obstinacy the portion of their Adversaries What Blind Fury what Madness what Presumption hinders them from perceiving that those they are so much astonish'd at look upon them with equal astonishment that they appear ridiculous to them they laugh at and that they for whom they make but a shew of pity are really and in good earnest moved with pity towards them Should not they considering the uncertainty of things and the miserable condition of Man's Mind have recourse to universal Maxims and stand firm to the Ordinances of the Supream Law-giver who expresly ferbids to depart therefrom and turn either to the Right or to the Left XXXII But so far are they prepossess'd with what the World offers to them and the Cares of this Life have so blinded their Judgment that they will not enquire about any Principle nor judge that neither Space of Time nor Priviledge of Places nor any manner of Considerations whatsoever can give any prescription against Truth Besides this they are perswaded of their Parents Faith by Domestick Examples by the Numbers and by Antiquity it self which may be attributed to an Error that has insensibly crept-in and by process of time taken encrease and at length grown to such a height and power that those Enemies who have ventur'd to oppose it have been bruis'd or crush'd by it It is a hard thing without doubt for a Man to pronounce a Sentence of Condemnation against his own Country and Prince against his Ancestors Parents and Friends and against his own Teachers But the case here is to rid and undeceive ones self of the Errors of all Human Imaginations to justifie the Truth against the false Testimonies of so many Enemies to cure the diseases of a Dying Life to seek one Sovereign Good and