Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A37480
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Compulsion of conscience condemned wherein is plainly demonstrated how inconsistent it is with Scripture, the fundamental laws of England, and common equity &c. / by Tho. De-Laune ...
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De Laune, Thomas, d. 1685.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing D890; ESTC R8872
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35,062
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47
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not be Imposed upon by wrong Translations But withal let me add which no Learned Man I am sure will blame me for if unbyass'd that we are to consider the Bounds of Phylosophy and Humane Literature These are to be exercised in the things that may be known by the Light of Natural Reason But when they Travel beyond that Road and must needs be defining things beyond their Sphear they become extravagant and Saucy This was the Judgment of that Excellent and Learned Lord Picus Earl of Mirandula in his Epistle to Aldus Manutius a sharp Schollar Accinge te ad Philosophiam sed hac Lege ut Meminer is nullam esse Philosophiam quae a Mysteriorum veritate nos abducat Philosophia veritatem quaerit Theologia Invenit Religio possidet That is Address your self so to the Study of Phylosophy that no Phylosophy should seduce you from the Truth of the Mysterys of Christian Religion Phylosophy seeks Truth Divinity finds it but Religion possesses it Every Thing is good and proper in its place as for Example Fire is useful in the Chimney but it is mischievous in the House-Top There that which before would Warm you or be Serviceable to Dress your Meat will Burn you and your Meat too unless you can quench it or Run away from it So Learning is good as an Hand-Maid Hagar-like But if it must needs be Mistress and Usurp-Authority in the Family if like Scoffing Ishmael Genesis 21. 9. Gallat 4. 30. It will Mock at the Spirit and the Simplicity of the Gospel let it be cast out For nothing Supream will endure to be Rival'd in his Authority Perogative especially in Divine matters is as tender as the Apple of ones Eye There is no Sober and Impartial Divine but will Grant that it is the work of Faith by the Aid of Divine Revelation to be Imployed in the Mysterys of Religion From which concession it is evident that when any Man undertakes to Teach us Divinity by the meer Guidance of Nature call it Natural Phylosophy University Learning or what you will but shews himself by such an attempt as absurd and Nonsensical as if the Eye should Incroach upon the Ear and would pretend to Distinguish the various gradations of Musical Notes or the quavers of a pleasant Instrument which it cannot so much Imitate as the dullest Brute can Imitate the warblings of the Nightingale If the Example and Practice of the Lord Jesus Christ be worth Imitating you will find that he made Choice of such as were Despised and Unlearned Why Because his Grace might so much the more be Magnyfied and that the Honour due to His Soveraign Converting Power might not be Attributed to any Humane Faculty of Rhetorical Perswasion He made Fishermen a Tent-maker and other Tradesmen Messengers of the Everlasting Gospel and as it were Embassadors extraordinary of Heaven They were not sent to Learn the Facultys of Aristotle Cicero or Aquinas No no His Holy Spirit was the only Schoolmaster He could with as much ease Imploy the whole University of Athens as those Poor Men but he did not and why such as are called by his Name should despise his Grace when appearing in Persons of that Quality he Chose is a meer disconcurrence with the Sanctions of this Ever-Blessed Law-Giver I do not represent these things to Introduce a promiscuous Liberty for all Persons to turn Preachers that are Christians but to Reason People if I could our of extreams For as on the one Hand I believe that meer Learning does not qualifie a Man to be a Preacher so on the other side I am satisfied that Grace without the gift of Vtterance and a sound Judgment accompanied with an Ability to Divide the word of Truth suitable to the necessity of the Hearers does not qualifie any Man for a Publick Preacher Of both these I take the Church to be Judge and am satisfied that without the Approbation of a Christian Assembly such as presume to take that Office upon them where such an Approbation may be had are none of Christs Messengers but their own Because we shall so have no order but confusion which must not be Introduced into the Church of Christ unless you will change the best of Governments into the worst of Anarchys Let every Man abide in the Calling whereunto he is called says the Evangelical unrepealable Statute It has been and will be till reform'd the Reproach of Christianity that Preachers have err'd on both Extreams some talk Nonsense some talk above common-Sense I have saies one of our Prelates seen some Learned Men call Children together and ask them a few Questions and then to begin a Profound Lecture shaped according to his own large Dimensions at whom Boys and Men gaze at as a prodigious Monster of Learning some saying as Festus to Paul Much Learning hath made him Mad. Sure he knows not where he is why he is not in a University School of Divinity but in an Assembly of weak and silly Youth who understand his English no more than Hebrew He adds If Men would mark the form and phrase of the Gospel and what kind of Matter and Language the Divine Oracle used in Preaching even to the Learned Scribes and Pharisees and read 1 Cor. 1. and the beginning of the second it would Inform them what Language that is that 's Cloathed in such Meretricious Attire c. Haec Ille The Scope and Intention of this Digression is to shew how this Sacred Office of Preaching is abused and of what Influence that Abuse is to scare people away who love to understand and profit by what they hear And so I shall conclude this Section in imitation of a late Ingenious Author tho' not in his very words That if there be not such a parcel of things as call themselves Preachers that Act thus then no body is concern'd in this Character but if there be the Abuse is worth looking after in order to Reformation if not Punishment of so great a Spiritual Grievance SECT V. Express Scripture against Compulsion of Conscience THese Excellent and Important Truths mentioned are not only built upon the firm Foundation of solid and unanswerable Reason but also upon the Infallible Authority of the Law and Word of God To convince you of which pray be pleased to consider the following Texts Hear what the Apostle Paul saies 2 Tim. 2. 24. mark that this Epistle is written to a Bishop And the Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all Men apt to Teach Patient or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bearing ver 25. In weakness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth ver 26. And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil who are taken Captive by him at his Will From this passage it is evident that the Apostle forbids all rigorous Courses even towards Infidels and that he expresly sets down the right
if they Preach not his Gospel 1 Cor. 9. 16. 3. Rewards and Promises are promised to Preachers Matth. 10. 41. and 25. 21. and 5. 19. James 5. 20. 4. God's Law allows Preaching in Houses Streets Fields c. Yea to great multitudes with promised Mercies to the owners so receiving them Act. 20. 20. and 28. 31. Luk 13. 26. Matth 3. 1. and 10. 40 41 42. 5. God's Law denounces wrath to such as abuse his Preachers and beat their fellow Servants 1 Thess 2. 16. Matth. 24. 48 49 50. 6. God's Law injoyns Men to Assemble together in order to his Worship Heb. 10. 25. and 3. 13. Act. 2. 42. Mal. 3. 14. 16. Yea Thousands at a time John 6. 10. Act. 44. and 2. 41. c. much more to the same purpose may be quoted Now I appeal to all sober Christians whether any Law that contradicts this Divine Law or by coercive means and riged penalties keeps Christians from these Duties ought not to be relaxt and forborn to be put in Execution because all humane Laws are to give place to the Law of God as our very National Laws assert and whether the Dissent of a peaceable Consciencious People from meer Ceremonies not enjoyned by the Statute Law of Heaven deserves so rigorous a Treatment as a great many have felt and still feel c. SECT VIII BEsides the Law of God and the Law of the Land which sweetly harmonize together when the latter is not stretched beyond its meaning by some whose Charity appearsonly in the Ruine of their poor honest Neighbours I would urge that great Magna Charta of Nature a Law so just and comprehensive that no Man can deny it unless at the same time he devests himself of Humanity and assumes the shape of a barbarous and more then bruitish Cruelty It is this in few words Do as you would be done unto This Golden Text Reverenc'd amongst the very Heathens whose Precept it was Quod tibi non vis alteri ne feceris might administer a Copious Theme but I shall be brief And content my self to ask two Questions of those Gentlemen that are so busie in putting these Penal Laws in Execution But still letme repeat the Caveat I have so often mentioned that I plead not the Cause of Seditious Meetings or such as contrive or design any evil against the State but only such as Dissent purely out of Conscience and manage their separation with Piety towards God and Loyalty to the King together with a Christian becoming Deportment towards their Neighbours 1. Whether they that is such as prosecute the Protestant Dissenters would be so dealt withal themselves viz. to be Imprison'd Fin'd Depriv'd of their Goods Banisht from their dearest Relations Wives Children c. forc'd from their Trades and Callings when they live by the Labour of their their hands or the faculties they were brought up to have their Families beg or starve and in a word utterly ruin'd as to this World and that meerly because they cannot Conform to what they are not convinc'd of to be of Divine Institution Or being Men of Conscience will not be led by any Implicite Faith If not methinks they should use the same tenderness to others or else they violate this Law made Sacred Matth. 7. 12. 2. Whether if it had been their Lot to live in a Country where Popery or Presbyterianism is the publick Religion would they look upon it to be just and fair dealing meerly for their Conscientious Dissent to be forc'd to a Hypocritical Compliance or be ruin'd in their Estates if not Lives SECT IX THe Grand Topick which the little mercenary Pasquillers use to justifie their Invectives against Dissenters is the late dismal Rebellion and the horrid Murther of His Majesties Royal Father c. This is a Subject which I would not touch upon but that I am forc'd by the dayly Clamours of these Pamphletters to speak a few words to it And 1. If I know my own Heart I can truly say That I do from my very Soul abhor and detest all Principles that tend to Rebellion or Disturbance of the publick or private Peace and all such wicked persons as Imbrue their hands in the Blood of any Man Woman or Child much more any such Traytors as practice against the Sacred Life or Person of the Lord 's Annointed for such persons are so far from deserving any favour or protection from the Government that they ought to be rooted from off the face of the Earth as the most execrable of Misereants And therefore let the Authors of our late Calamities and the unparallel'd Murther of that Great and most Excellent Prince be branded with everlasting Infamy for me 'T is not for Traytors but for my Innocent fellow-Christians that I beg the favour and pitty of such as are intrusted with the Execution of Penal Laws for Religion 2. How far the Papists did Influence those fatal Convulsions and whether the Nation ows not all its Calamity to their black and mystical Stratagems the judicious unbyass'd Reader will soon determine if he peruses Mr. Care 's History of the Plot reprinted 1681. from p. 42. to 71. I have not Room to transcribe it and therefore would advise any that doubts it to peruse it there Intire 't is worth his while 4. 'T is Diametrically opposite to Justice to punish the Innocent for the Crimes of the Guilty And admitting that a great many under the Vizard of Religion had a main hand in these lamentable and too too deplorable mischiefs before mentioned there is no equity in the World that their Villanies shall be chargeable upon and their punishment extend to such as were never concern'd in them The best Religion in the World cannot secure it self from Hypocrites that disguise themselves till they have an opportunity to serve some Devilish turn or other That Arch-Traytor and Informer Judus got in among the very Apostles and many false Brethren crept in among the Primitive Saints the Devil himself will sometimes come Masqueraded as an Angel of Light Why is the Christian Religion ever the worse for this No no Divine Truths are still such though the Sacred Profession of it is prophan'd and abus'd by such Hypocritical Wretches to their own Damnation What I aim at is this viz. that we are to examine the Principles of such as profess Christianity under any form declared in their publick Confessions of Faith and the Writings of such as are own'd and approv'd by them and if we find them pernicious to the Government or tending any waies to the disturbance of the publick peace such are without Dispute to be suppress'd and punisht as Enemies to the State But if their Principles be in all Articles of Religion suitable to the Word of God and in Fundamentals to the Establisht Religion it will unavoidably follow That the miscarriages or wickedness of some that creep in amongst them are not to be charged upon their Christian Profession which allows no such