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	succession_n	1,709	5	10.1649	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50645	Some farther remarks on the late account given by Dr. Tenison of his conference with Mr. Pulton wherein the doctor's three exceptions against Edward Meredith are examined, several of his other misrepresentations laid open, motives of the said E.M's conversion shewed, and some other points relating to controversie occasionally treated : together with an appendix in which some passages of the doctor's book entutuled Mr. Pulton considered are re-considered ... : to all which is added a postscript in answer in answer to the pamphlet put forth by the school-master of Long-Acre.	Meredith, Edward, 1648-1689?	1688 (1688)	Wing M1783; ESTC R25023	114,110	184

gratias ago nunc pro peccatis Matris meae deprecor te c. St. Aug. lib. 9. Confess c. 13. Almighty God for his Mothers Good Deeds on the one hand and beseeches him to pardon such Sins as possibly she might have committed on the other And he is so Zealous in this Charitable Employment that he is not contented to offer up his own Prayers only for this purpose but begs of such as should read his Book of Confessions wherein he gives an Account of these things that they likewise would joyn Their Petitions to His * Ut quod illa à me poposcit extremum uberius ei praestetur in multorum orationibus Ibid. That so adds this Holy Bishop what my Mother made her last Request to me may the more plentifully be performed for her by the Prayers of Many Other parts of this Dedicatory Address might likewise be dissected and read upon but I fear that my Lecture is too tedious already Neither should it have been so long had I not been willing to shew my Reader what just cause I have to decline the perusal of the whole Book when a few Lines of Preface afford so much and so trivial work Wherefore I shall not stay to examin with what probability of Truth he asserts That the Souls of his Sheep are much dearer to him than their Fleeces when he seems to be so * See above p. 17. sequ loth that any farther Division should be made in the Fleeces tho' for a better Attendance on the Souls Neither will I ask him how he comes in the close of his Letter to call the English Protestant Church * I suppose not from Missions Apostolical as if it came down by perpetual Succession from the Apostles when every body knows that has not read his Ten thousand pounds worth of Books that it began in the last Age and brags of no other Succession than what it pretends to have received from that Church to which in Truth and even according to its own Profession it neither succeeds in Doctrin nor Discipline And lastly whereas the Doctor says That the Establish'd Church so far as he can understand the Temper of it which is somewhat difficult for him to do had rather suffer Injuries than do them I shall only say That if this be so I presume he will give us leave to hope that this Established Church will not look on the power of doing those Injuries as part of Her Establishment And so much for the Preface I come now to what concerns me in the Book I am told that Dr. Tenison in the 58th page of his new Book calls me a Manager in Conference And again page 96. he says That I am the very Sales-man at every Auction of Arguments What the Doctor means by this I cannot well tell nor I suppose He himself Possibly it was somewhat that came into his Head whil'st the Pen was in his Hand and down it went at all Adventures For this was the second Conference I was ever at in my Life excepting casual and unsought Rencounters and how unwillingly I came to this I have already given my Readers an Account It is true that I had like to have been at one or two more in Mr. G. 's Company had not the Ministers who were to be his Antagonists disappointed him twice or thrice But this was before Dr. St. had published his first Letter to Mr. G. and so given me to understand how great an Advantage Latitudinarian Wits have over one not only much less but also ty'd within the streight Rules of Sincerity It is true the Goodness of a Cause is of great Weight but the Disingenuity of an Adversary is a shrewd Counterpoise Now I say how my Being at these two Conferences and that accidentally too and forasmuch as concerns the latter very unwillingly could render me that Manager and Sales-man at Auctions of Arguments which the Doctor 's Nick-naming Faculty would make me I do not perceive But the Doctor has a Rule for this as well as for the rest which he has been pleased to bestow on me viz. Calumniare fortitèr aliquid adhaerebit and therefore I shall say no more of it And yet it is hard to find out why the Doctor turns that into a Calumny which fairly represented would be a Commendation For what could any man do better who had a Talent proper for it than employ his time in freeing Souls from Error an Employment for which our Blessed Lord came into the World and for which his Holy Apostles travelled through it But I forget that the Retrenchment of Missions was one of the most considerable parts of the Reformation However tho' I have not been at many of these Conferences yet I will not deny but that I imagin my self to have arrived to some competency of skill in them and for some proof of this and because I desire to be communicative in so precious a Talent I purpose to make my Readers partakers of it as a Reward of that Patience wherewith they have hitherto endured such tedious and immethodical Discourses promising my self that for the sake of this one Treasure only they will think the rest of their time well bestow'd Now forasmuch as the worse the Cause is the greater skill is required in the Management of it I will lay down some brief Rules whereby as I conceive an ill Cause may be managed in Conference to the best advantage and so as that the Defender of it especially if the Hearers be no wiser than some of Dr. Tenison's Parishioners may come off with great Applause First then let the Scene of your Conference be Brief Rules how an ill Cause may be manag'd to the best advantage lay'd amongst your own Friends and therefore if the Disputer be a Protestant and such he must be to stand in any need of these Instructions let it be in a Protestant Family Before the Conference and the arrival of your Antagonist endeavor to possess your Favorers with a prejudice against him prophesie something which you are sure will come to pass that when it doth so they may have the better Opinion of you For Example Tell them that you are come alone without so much as either Friend or Servant when you know that the whole House are your Friends and that none can be readier to serve you than they are And then lay a wager that your Antagonist brings some one with him because you think it imprudent and therefore unlikely that he should trust himself to the Reports of your Party without some Witness of his own But this as you shall word it must argue Confidence in You and Diffidence in Him. And when you shall see that he complies with what you thought Reasonable turn to your Company and say Did I not tell you that he would not come alone Be sure to begin the Conference with that which hath nothing to do with it Make many Exceptions at the