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	know_v	true_a	1,829	5	4.7479	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94142	Tvvo letters: the one to subtile papist: the other to a zealous Presbyterian. In both which the authour conceives he hath said enough to keepe any man from the Roman Church, in the generall of religion, and from the Presbyterian congregation in the particular of the eucharist, or the Lords Supper: because St Paul saies, 1 Cor. 11. 16. Wee know no such custome, neither the Church of God. By T. Swadling, D.D.	Swadlin, Thomas, 1600-1670.	1653 (1653)	Wing S6230; Thomason E712_1; ESTC R207131	21,573	32

receive the Sacrament as a Seal of forgivenesse for that very sinne and you deny it him you adde more guilt to your self the guilt of Partiality to your guilt of Scrupulosity For it is enough to warne any sinner any saving a notorious and obstinate sinner of the danger of unworthy receiving Opponent But did not our Saviour give the Sacrament to Judas whom he calls a devill and therefore why may not Ministers give the Sacrament to those they know to be willfull sinners Indeed Luke 22.21 brings in our Saviour first celebrating that Ordinance and then speaking these words Behold the hand of him that betraies me is with me on the table and therefore I am enclined to believe that Christ did give it him but thence can nothing be concluded against my Judgmēt Respond It may be nothing against your Judgement but something against your practise you may For Christ knew Judas to be a willfull sinner and yet rejected him not but admitted him you onely suspect some men to be willfull sinners for you cannot know any man to be a wilful sinner without his own acknowledgement and yet you admit them not bu reject them and therefore something may be hence concluded against your practise and it may be something against your Judgement too if your Judgement be as you say Oppon For 1. Our Saviour was God and as he had Power to forgive sinners upon Earth it might well be an Act of Divine Justice upon Judas for his Hypocrisie to seale him up in his sinne and make him fully ripe for Hell when it can be cleared that it is the duty and work of a Gospel-Minister to punish sinne then I think we may give the Sacrament to willfull sinners but it may safely be thought that Christ did it by a Power that is above any our Commission is invested withall Respond Yes our Saviour was God is God and will be God blessed for ever and as the Sonne of Man not God onely he had Power to forgive sinners upon Earth so farre we agree and I wish you if you are one of his Ministers to use that key of Power he hath trusted you with as well to open as to shut But in your next passage we are not so well agreed you say it might be and I say it might not be an act of Divine Justice to seal up Judas in his sinne Melius est dubitare de occultis quam litigare de incertis Take heed of comming too near this fire it may else burne your beard It becomes not a Gospel-Minister to say Christ did make any man fully ripe for Hell It is safer and better becomes a Gospel-Minister to say with the Gospel-Apostle Iesus Christ came into the World to save sinners the chiese of sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 and yet it is the duty of a Gospel-Minister to punish sin Else the Apostle would never have given so many charges to the Gospel Bishops to rebuke to correct and in some cases sharply too and yet neither that Apostle nor any other Apostle nor Jesus Christ himself hath given Power to any Bishop or Presbyter to give the Sacrament to a willfull sinner on purpose to make him ripe for Hell That is a Power indeed above any our Commission is invested withall Opponent But secondly I can answer thus Christ in that his transaction set a president to the Ministers of the Gospel how they might carry themselves in that Administration free from guilt Such as joyne themselves to the society of his people that do outwardly professe Christ and his truth do those duties of Religion materially that true Protestants doe and nothing scandalous can be laid to their charge though they be rotten Hypocrites Yet it not being any mans work to search hearts wee must think nothing but good of them admit them and though they be as unworthy Receivers as ever Judas was we are clear their blood lies upon their own heads So that instance of Judas his admission to the Sacrament in my apprehension makes not at all against me but for me If you can give an instance that our Saviour or his Desciples gave it to any that had their soars running upon them and easily to be observed by every Eye let us hear it and I shall confesse it is for your turne Respond Confesse then For this your own instance makes altogether against you though in your apprehension it makes onely for you Christ at this time supplyed the Ministers place He admitted the Communicants and amongst the rest he admitted Judas Judas a covetous wretch an arrant Traytor though in shew a zealous Saint and a provident Almoner His soar running upon him his very Hypocrisie as apparent to Christ as that mans impiety is that fights against Power to defend it Iudas that joyned himself to the society of Christs people Iudas that outwardly professed Christ and his truth Judas that did these duties of Religion that true Presbyterians do and yet intrinsecally was a Devill and all this well known to Christ Yes and to two of his Apostles at least if not to all the rest Saint Peter and Saint John Saint Peter that prompted Saint John to ask and Saint John that upon Saint Peters motion asked Christ who it was that should betray him even him by your own concession did Christ admit to his Table without any more ado then telling him the danger of his unworthy comming thither whence may certainly be inferr'd we shall not incurre any guilt for admitting the like Communicants though we but do tell them the danger of unworthy receiving And your next instance is as much for your purpose Opponent Why it may be you will tell me of the Church of Corinth their drunkenesse and sinne sate downe at Table with them but let it be supposed that Paul had come in when they were going to 't many of them in that condition I desire to know if you can believe he would have thought a reproose or telling them the danger sufficient for my part I verily think he would have had his arme pull'd out of his shoulder-blade rather then have given it to any such a one though truly in Jesus Christ and therefore much lesse would he have administred it to them whose sins daily testified them to be voide of Faith and the worke of grace in them Respond At your suppositions again and at impossible suppositions at least very unlikely very like a man overcome with drink I understand not those words otherwise going to many of them in that condition should go to receive the Sacrament I dare say you never saw any man offer it And then you think what do you think that such a one is truly in Iesus Christ pretty still Animally and in semine he may Actually and in sensu he is not and thence you conclude Therefore much lesse would he have administred it to them whose sinnes dayly testified them to be void of Faith and the work of grace in them Marke Sir if

Scripture-light as well as we can may be called out of the rabble of open sinners to me nothing is clearer then that Christs end in the Institution of that Ordinance is either carelesly neglected or willfully perverted by us Respond Sir I shall observe the Apostles Canon and as much as lies in me live peaceable with all men Rom. 12. and therefore I joyn with you in the acknowledgement of so much truth as in the beginning of this Paragraph you have delivered I confess with you Christ did give this Sacrament to be a Seal to confirme and strengthen and I pray you to observe the same Apostles Canon and speak the truth Ephes 4.25 confessing with me Christ gave not this Sacrament as the Principall end thereof to distinguish and let us both observe that other Canon of the same Apostle Avoide foolish questions Titus 3.9 whereof this is one and cannot be made good without breach of peace to preserve which with you I do again confesse something is presupposed in the Receivers to be confirmed and strengthened viz. the Justifying and Sanctifying graces of God but now I must part with you for a while For I professe my self none of those all that know not many are partakers of those Justifying and Sanctifying graces No I am not nor is any modest man living within the number of that All no nor dare they for fear of comming under that lash With what Judgement yee judge ye shall be judged Mat. It is forbidden Knowledge this and I meddle not with it I will not gaze at this starre over my head least I fall into that ditch which is under my feet If you have commenced so high a degree of knowledge I shall not envie you but I shall pitty you that from such abundance of knowledge you know not how to make your Conclusion depend upon your Premises For though it be confest that Christ did give this Sacrament to be a Seal to confirm and strengthen Gods graces in us how doth it follow therereupon Therefore Justified and Sanctified Persons must be culled from the rabble of open finners what Scripture-light I pray have you to guide you in this opinion one light of Scripture gives a clean contrary conclusion and bids us let them both grow and grow together and grow together untill the harvest and though you are entred upon other mens labours the Harvest is not yet come If it were the Angels would yet save you that labour and I think you have little to do with their Office open sinners may be debarred a whole Parish may not be denied this Sacrament upon a specious impossibility of culling the Sanctified from the unsanctified of separating the sheep from the Goates Many Wolves there are in sheeps clothing many Devills in Samuels Mantle onely discernable to the eye of God And your starving the sheep for fear of feeding the Wolfe your choaking the Saint for fear of releiving the Hypocrite is a carelesse neglecting may be a willfull perverting of Christs end in the institution of this Ordinance because to remember Christs death and to confirm and strengthen the worthy receiver is the end of that institution Not to distinguish the worthy from the unworthy though to you nothing seems clearer Your first ground is groundless your second may have better footing I shall examine it as it lies Opponent My second ground is If I so administer it I do certainly make my selfe partaker of other mens sinnes concerning which Paul warnes Timothy and in him all Ministers especially 1 Tim. 5. That it is a great sin for ungodly persons to come and partake of that Ordinance I suppose will be granted me but such cannot bring that guilt upon themselves without my hand and help which if I knowingly hold forth unto them I cannot acquit my self of their sinne therefore it is not safe for me to do it Respond Nay certainly you contract a sinne upon your selfe in denying the Sacrament to all for some mens sake to the good because some are bad That it is a sin for ungodly persons to receive you have it granted but his not mine The ungodly man sinnes by receiving unworthily the Godly Ministers sinnes not in administring it lawfully and administer it lawfully he doth in giving it to all who may be presumed fit or after conference known able without exception of any but that ungodly man that is scandalous It hath been the opinion of Divines that it is a sinne for a man to refrain because he thinkes himself not fitly prepared To come not well prepared is an offence and to stay away is no lesse Staying in sinne and staying from the meanes of Grace are both sinfull and therefore to keep away to force away a man from the means when for ought I know he is prepared and doe what I can I cannot know the contrary is a sinne For I cannot know whether any man be a resolute sinner or a delighter in sinne and when I know not that I make not my self partaker of his sinnes though by the help of my hand he adds sinne to sinne because it was the desire of my heart by that action of my hand to take away all his sinnes Nor is that text of Saint Paul so I stile him by you aptly and to your purpose in hand alledged For it concerns not the Presbyter in administration of the Sacrament but it concernes the Bishop in ordination by the imposition of hands read the 22. verse of that Chapter the verse by you intended and you cannot by the Context give it any other exposition Or if any one will wrest this Scripture to this purpose the summe of it will be I must not preferre one before another I must do nothing by Partiality I must not administer the Sacrament suddenly to any man These things if I observe I partake not of other mens sinnes And therefore for all your second ground you may safely administer it Oppon M third and last ground is this I so administring it doe give testimonialls to men against the sufficient light of mine own Conscience which is not good for any man to do Respond Indeed it is not and therefore it is not good for you to deny this Pearl to any but a swine to deny this bread to any but a dogg and many in your Parish may be children and questionlesse are and will you deny the children bread for fear the doggs should eat the Crumms under the table No not for this but for feare you should give a testimoniall to man against the sufficient light of your owne Conscience Not so neither I rather think you give a testimoniall to your selfe against the sufficient light of your own conscience that you discharge not your duty your duty it is to give the Sacrament to all to all that are fit to receive so they are not scandalous and notorious so they are not to day though they were yesterday if to day they are unfeignedly sorry for what they