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	spirit_n	3,973	5	5.1707	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90062	The duty of such as would walke worthy of the Gospel: to endeavour union, not division nor toleration. Opened, in a sermon at Pauls, upon the Lords Day, Feb. 8. 1646. / By Matthevv Nevvcomen, preacher of the Gospel at Dedham in Essex.	Newcomen, Matthew, 1610?-1669.	1646 (1646)	Wing N909; Thomason E329_6; ESTC R200691	35,616	55

procal an Alba Iulia in Oppidos Tordo multes annos Ludimagistrum profess●● pueros in iriviae docuerat Philp. Camer in Oper. Succes cap. 39. otherwise undoubtedly it would be one certain and agreeing with it self See what desperate arguments against our Religion our divisions furnish our adversaries with Philippus Camerarus tells a story of one who had sometimes been a Christian and a School-master but afterwards turned Turke and was sent Embassadour to Stephen King of Poland Is liberè dicere solitus fuit c. who was wont to professe freely and openly That he was moved to renounce Christ by the notorious jarrings and enmities and discord of Christians differing in Religion and shewed a writing Valdè atrox amarulentum a sharpe and bitter writing composed by a certain Polonian the scope whereof was to prove that Mahomet was better then Luther Et hos inquit libros vestrarum discerdiarum heresium testes in Thraciam nunc asperto Musulmânis meis fidei vestrae unitatem certissimis rerum argumentis ostensuirat These Books saith he the witnesse of your discords and heresies will I now carry into Thrace with me and will shew to those of my Religion the vanity of your faith by most certain and reall arguments Such as are the Compassionate Sainaritan and the whole brood of him who calls himself Young Martin God grant that none of the scurrile Pamphlets of these times fall into such hands It hath been one of the greatest objections of the Papists against the Reformed Churches That the dissensions among themselves are evident signes of an hereticall spirit so Bellarmine Stapleton Becane c. Fitz-Sinnonde an Irish Jesuit hath writ a justum volumen about the differences of the Divines of Britain among themselves which he intitles Britanomachia It is true Quis tulerit gracchos c and Cl●dius accusat Maechos c. We could recriminate with ease and turne them to Flarius his Tractate De Sectis dissensionibus contradictionibus consusionibus Doctrinae Religionis Scriptorum Doctorum Pontisiciorum Or we could remit them to Pappus who hath enumerated 237 differences they have among them Or tell them of a Divine of Britaine that to requite the Jesuits Britanomachia hath reckoned up 300 differences among them at Rome and this might stop their mouths but can never justifie nor excuse our divisions If there be confusion and division in Babel must it be so in Bethel too God grant our divisions do not give advantage to some of that crue to write a second book De Britannomachia against us But if Religion should not suffer by our divisions abroad yet it suffers enough among our selves here at home For certainly there is nothing doth more expose Religion and the intended Covenanted Reformation to obloquie and scorne nothing that doth more confirme and harden people in their idolatry superstition malignity profanenesse atheisme then the wofull divisions that are among the godly party the party that all this while have cried up and called for Reformation Cum enim sine intermissione sic altercantes vident c. for when men see the endlesse contentions of those who all professe themselves to be for truth and for the glory of God that these cannot agree one saith This is truth another saith That is truth one saith This is the way of Christ another saith No it is the way of Antichrist Men of profane and carnall mindes take occasion from hence to call in question not only the things that are thus questioned but all other points of Religion and thinke that all that which we call Religion and divine truth is but a fancy and opinion One man thinks thus another thus but there is nothing certain This makes men of carnall and profane spirits thinke Religion not only a fancy but a frenzie If the Church saith the Apostle be come together into one place 1 Cor. 14.23 and all speak with tongues and there come in the unlearned and unbeleevers will they not say you are mad What will they say then when in the Church they shall hear severall and contrariant doctrines what a door doth this open to Epicurisme and Atheisme what fatall and destroying stumbling blocks doth this lay before the face of sinners and how many poor souls may hereby be turned aside for ever from seeking after God his wayes and truth the Lord only knows But O that this consideration might helpe us to bewail these differences and might be a means to heal them I have read of Basil and Eusebius between whom there was a great contest that when they heard how the Arians the common enemies of Christ and of his truth and Church began to make use of their difference to prejudice of the truth they presently laid their controversie asleep and both joyned against the common adversary We cannot be ignorant what advantage Papists and malignants make of our differences that it is a principall weapon whereby they fight against the cause and worke of Reformation a principall engine whereby they have drawn in and engaged many of the judicious multitude against us And shall we yet uphold and continue our differences shall we yet put weapons into our enemies hands wherewith to fight not only against us but against the Gospel and truth of Jesus Christ Secondly Consider how prejudiciall these differences must needs be to the godly party amongst us I mean the whole body of those that have adhered to the cause of God and of Religion managed by the Parliament for I can by no means permit that title of godly party to be impropriated ingrost monopolized as some would have it There are two things that in mine eye seem to threaten the godly party in this Kingdom the one is the rage the bloudy rage of the Antichristian faction against them the other is their emulations and contentions one against another and to me the later ever was a great deal more dreadfull then the former The rage of the enemies against them is extrinsecall and accidentall but their divisions are intrinsecall and intestine and men die more frequently from intrinsecall causes from diseases bred within then from such things as are extrinsecall and adventitious to them more Kingdoms and Common-wealths have been ruined by civil and intestine warres then by invasions and conquests And if God should be so good to us as not to suffer our rents to be our ruines yet I fear it may at least deprive us of seeing that which we professe we would all be so glad to see the peace of Zion the good of Hierusalem the Reformation of the Church Quam stulti essent duo volentes videre solem oriturum si contenderent inter se qua parte ori urus esset quomodo videri posset mota inter se controversim litigarint litigando se cederint caedendo oculos juos exringuerent ut illum ortum videre non possent Aug lib. cont Adium the Lord Jesus upon his throne Quam

articles of faith necessary to salvation I doubt if it were well examined many of those opinions that infest our times would fall under some part or other of this sentence But to speak a little to the Positive if there be a latitude and a liberty of judgement left it is first in such things as are not clearly and positively laid down in Scripture and therefore are not of the fundamentalls and essentialls of faith and worship for there is for these clear and undoubted light in Scripture Secondly It is in things that are of private and single practice and not of open converse or Church-fellowship and communion Those cases of eating or not eating discussed by the Apostle in his Epistles to the Romans and to the Corinthians in which the Apottle shews there might be a liberty or indulgence and Christians ought to bear one with another in holding or practising thus or otherwise They were points of Personall and Domestick practice Duas species proponit Apostolus in quibus vesci liceat Idolathytis saith Beza Beza in 1 Cor. 10 27. There were two cases in which it was lawfull to eat things offered to Idols one if a man bought them in the shambles and eat them privately in his own house ver 25. The other is in case he bid to a private feast by a heathen ver 27. But to doe this openly and professedly in the Idols Temple was a detestable thing And yet even in these things this liberty is not to be assumed at least not to be practised without much tendernesse and circumspection First Care must be had of keeping those opinions wherein we differ from others private to our selves not troubling and perplexing the consciences of others with them This is the injunction Rom. 14.22 Hast thou faith have it to thy self before God The faith there spoken of is a particular perswasion touching the free use of all Creatures and the liberty of all dayes And this faith this perswasion was according to the truth as is clear by the Apostles argumentation in that chapter yet faith the Apostle hast thou faith have it to thy self before God do not say Ego fidem habeo libertatis ergo debeo eam profiteri factis oftendere Parcus ad loc quicquid fit de alijs Do not say I am fully perswaded of my liberty and therefore I ought to professe it and hold it out in my practice whatever become of others It is the truth of God and I must hold it forth No saith the Apostle have it to thy self And if a man who hath a private opinion in re mediâ must keep it to himself though it be a truth much more must they whose opinions are false erroneous Certainly there is scarce any difference of judgement so small and in it self inconsiderable but the divulging and propagating of it may prove very dangerous and pernicious and in the event intolerable Suppose a man should be of this opinion that it is unlawfull to eat things strangled or blood If such a man keep his opinion to himself and make it a rule only to his own practice let him enjoy it till he can be otherwise informed and perswaded in his conscience But if he will now goe publish this opinion and intangle the consciences of others and seek to draw disciples after him and make a party and cause division and dissension amongst the people of God this is not to be tolerated Personae privatae saith a learned Divine diversum sentientes si quietè vivant c. Private persons of a differing judgement Personae privatae diversum sentientes si quiete vivant Sacris publicis utantur nec occultis machi nationtbus politiae aut Ecclesiae pacem turbare anima● veriantur spe conversionis pacis publicae causâ ●o●erand●e sunt Quod si vero idem er●ores suos publicè sparge●e●atios ad se allicere simpliciores ●allere pacem publican turbare incipiant coercendi sunt Geth●rd loc com loc de Magistratu if they live quietly frequent the publique Assemblies of worship and are not discerned to disturb the peace either of State or Church by any secret underminings are to be tolerated in hope of their conversion and for publike peace sake But if these men shall begin to spread their errours in publike to inveigle and draw others to them to beguile the simple and so to trouble the publike peace they are to be restrained saith he speaking of the duty of the Magistrate in this case So then that is the first caution If men have private opinions opinions of their own that they cannot be of the same judgement with the rest of their brethren Let them keep them private Let them be domestica judicia as Tertullian calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as another calls them let them keep home and not be seen abroad Hast thou faith have it to thy self before God A second condition to be observed in case of difference in judgement and opinion is that though we cannot be of the same minde and judgement with others yet we do not judge or despise those that differ in judgement from us Rom. 14.3 There was difference of judgement among the Saints in Rome some thought it was as lawfull to eat all kindes of flesh as it was to eat herbs and were ready to thinke them a company of weak simple people that would make scruple of it others thought it absolutely unlawfull to eat flesh and thought none would do it but profane men men of no conscience and therefore were resolved they would eat only herbs Now this is that the Apostle reproves forbibs Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth whatever our differences in judgement be we must take heed of despising and condemning one another A third condition is that even then we cannot be of one minde we yet labour to be of one heart though we do dissentire yet we must not discordare though we cannot attain unity of judgement yet we must maintain unity of affection which is the second part of that unitas cordis that union of heart which the Gospel requires This is it which is required of us Rom. 12.10 Be kindly affectioned one towards another in love So 1 Pet. 3.8 having said Be ye all of one minde he adds love as brethren q. d. if it should so happen that you cannot in all things be of one minde yet notwithstanding love as brethren 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle Ephes 4.15 which Beza in his first edition translates as the vulgar doth veritatem sectantes in charitate following the truth in love which I conceive both the notation of the word and the scope of the place if you consider the verse going before will bear And so the text imports that love must set bounds to all our inquiries after truth and we may not under pretence of seeking