Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A45585
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An humble essay toward the settlement of peace and truth in the church, as a certain foundation of lasting union by Sir Edward Harley.
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Harley, Edward, Sir, 1624-1700.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing H777; ESTC R11056
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25,032
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42
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AN Humble Essay TOWARD The Settlement of Peace and Truth IN THE CHURCH As a Certain Foundation OF Lasting Union The Workman made it therefore it is not God Hos 8.6 Nec enim Fas est Cultorem Dei a Dei Cultore Violari Lactantius Lib. de Ira Dei cap. 14. LONDON Printed for N. Simmons at the West end of Pauls and T. Simmons in Ludgate-street 1681. AN Humble Essay Toward the settlement of Peace and Truth in the Church as a certain Foundation of lasting Union THE Dignity of Mankind above the sensual Brutes consists specially in the hope of Eternal Happiness the Direction and ground of which hope is Religion All Religions that ever were embraced pretended Authority from Divine Revelation and the Command of God the Truth and Certainty of Christian Religion hath alone this excellency to be a firm and evident ground of hope of Eternal Happiness For Christian Religion by undeniable proof is Authorized by the Command and Institution of God and in the Rules and Practice is both agreeable to the Simplicity Purity Righteousness of the Divine Majesty the Object and to the Rational Being of Man the Subject of Religion The universal Practice of all Ages and Countries acknowledgeth the necessity of Religion But Religion is not an Opinion Fansifully suggested or cunningly devised or powerfully Imposed all which can only erect a private or publick Superstition which is no more Religion then that Creature is a Man which in its odious resemblance is the reproach of Man and therefore the more contemptible Religion comes from a deeper root and higher cause It is connatural with every Rational Being upon which is indelibly Engraven the Fear Trust and Love of the Power Truth and Goodness of God The Blurring these Impressions cannot be attempted without essasing the Characters of Human Intelligence and sinking Man into the lowest form of Beasts Religion is the first born of Truth and as the Opposition to Truth is either from a downright Lie or a verisimilar Semblance so Religion is either affronted by Atheism or abused by Superstition An Atheist properly so called was hardly if ever found the sad Pretenders who have told their miserable Wishes that that there were no God have been the fewest in Number and the weakest in Argument of any sort of Fools ever appeared to disgrace Mankind There have been more Idiots and Franticks then ever there were Atheists and Bedlam it self without expecting a lucid Interval can afford as rational Discourses as Democritus and Epicurus with all their chance Medleys of Motes or Attems Atheistical Propositions are equally unworthy and destructive of Human Excellence The Glory of Man peculiar to him of all material Beings is that he is not only by unknown Instinct ledd to the end of his Being but he knows the reason of that End for which he was made and is capable to enjoy the felicity of that Knowledge We perceive by the Structure and Formation of those Beings with whom we converse what is their use and value The shape of the Laborious Ox and generous Horse prompt their service and end No less evident are the indications of Human composition That Man is made in the Image of God and that his ultimate End and Felicity is to glorifie and enjoy God for ever is no remote Notion or Speculation it is a truth touches every sence and when not clouded by malitious or stupid inadvertance draws conviction from every Member The profane contemners of Religion yet assert a use and proper End for everBeing and all its parts Permit then the Atheist the tryal by his beloved sence Let him tell for what End and Reason of all visible Beings Man only is formed to kneel upon his knees and support his Body erect to lift up his Hands to lift up his Eyes Was Nature wise in all other and foolish only in the construction of parts to these Postures without use No Nature which is nothing else then the will of the Almighty in the Order of the Creatures formed the Body to those Postures for that excellent End of Divine Worship The bended knees testifie humble Devotion to the great Creator from sence both of the Suplicants mean Original and infinite distance below the Heavenly Majesty The stretched out Hands evidence as the inability of the Petitioner to help himself so the earnest desires of Divine Assistance the up lifted Eyes signifie the hope and trust and engage the Love of Mind and Heart upon God Almighty who only can be our necessary and all-sufficent Good This is a truth so undeniable that should ten thousand Persons of so many different Nations and Languages fortuitously meet if any of that Assembly though every one a stranger to all the rest kneel stretch out his hands and lift up his eyes all present would conclude that Person by these Gestures performed Adoration to God There is not any in his right Wits can immagine those Characters of Devotion either the effect of vain Fear or the Infinuations of Politick contrivance for every Rational Mind must be conscious of the same awful Reverence and intire Dependance therefore with most freedom Addresseth to the performance of Religions Worship when Human help can least succour and Human Fear can least awe It is then most absurd that the Innumerable sober Inhabitants of the World should be fooled and scoffed out of their present and future felicity by a few profane Attoms bred in the shallow confines of Wit and folly Well matter it self the Epicurian Idol hath conviction enough to baffle an Atheist but passing through this House of Clay if we converse with what is within that which prompts the Tongue and acts the Eye Hand and Foot that which thinks and rules it will appear there is a Conscience of Good and Evil of Justice and Injustice always Witnessing there is a God This is no precarious conceit every Man sometime or other feels within himself the powerful accusation or acquital of Conscience This is the Verdict in every Mans brest which waits upon the Tribunal of God For it is silly as well as profane to pretend Reverence to God only for the Excellence of his Beeing without the fear of his Justice The Justice of God is the security of the World without it Human Society cannot safely subsist Only the fear of God can rule the Heart and oblige Conscience without which there cannot be either Order or Relation Commerce or Propriety The whole World being continually liable to the assaults of Fraud or Violence untill true Religion give Security and Peace Superstition is indeed the Apologie of Irreligion by which back Door Atheism sneaks into the World For Superstition having cankered the Mind with unworthy conceptions of God Atheism presumes to enrage it self against the Notion of the Supreme Beeing it misconceives and would not Obey and Worship Superstition devests the Deity of true Majesty and perfection dares to give it self Laws of good and Evil of Holy and Profane and so
Church hath no power over Internal Actions Jesuites Morals Page 387. the evident Consequence of which Position overthrows the Foundations of Religion and Christian Piety but other Doctrine cannot be expected where Religion is only an Artificial Worship and the Church only a Politick Guild or Corporation As there is but one God from whom and to whom is derived and directed all true Worship though as St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 8.5.6 There be many called gods whether in Heaven or in Earth 2 Cor. 4.4 and there is the God of this World Gal. 4.26 so there is but one Church the Mother of us all â— Tim. 3.16 the Heavenly Jerusalem Which is the Piller and Ground of truth Joh. 17.17 the Word of God which only Sanctifies Religious Commands to Oblige Conscience Yet there be many Churches some Heavenly some Earthly For beside the Idolatrous Pollutions of some Churches which render them Synagogues of Satan There is also in some Churches a mixture of Civil Policy by which the Word Church becomes a Law Term and signifies a Body Politick endowed with certain Honours Priviledges and Revenues by the Munificence of Kings Such is the Gallican Church and such is Ecclesia Anglicana according to the Purport of several Statutes 26 H. 8. c. 1. in which respect it is a part of the Estates of the Realm 24 H. 8. c. 12. Lord Ch. Justice But all the Priviledges and Dignities given by the Crown to the Church Cook 5. report as it is a Political State in the Realm is in order to and for the sake of those Administrations necessary to its Being as a Member of the Catholick Church Article â—9 that is a Congregation of Believers in which the Word of God is purely Preached and the Sacraments in things necessarily required according to the Institution of Christ rightly Administred It must be therefore altogether Irrational and Unchristian to suborn an Authority in a Political Church to subvert the Essential Liberty of any Member of the Catholick Church If the Reverend Prelates of Christendom would govern their power according to this undeniable Rule of Christianity it would notably conduce even to their own security For if the Ceremonial Accidents in the Church were not necessarily imposed the dignified Accidents therein would be rendred more agreeable to all Christians and Mankind If Religion were cleared from Additional Superfluities which can no otherwise secure and adorn it then Clouds and Mists do the Sun the World might enjoy the desired felicity of our Lords Kingdom the Empire of Light and Love Prisons Fagots Gibbets would be no longer the miserable Propagators of Faith the Benign Influence of Princes would not be Intercepted from their Subjects the Obedience of Subjects would be Conscientious Religion no longer supposed an Awful trick would be embraced and obeyed in the absolute perfection and simplicity of Divine truth and Goodness For therein only may we find a certain Foundation for lasting Union among Christians Force and Violence may under pretence of extirpating Heresie or exacting Uniform Decency and Order determine in a Common Calamity and Destruction by such Course Princes may be deprived of their People and People forced from their Dwellings into Graves or Goals or Wildernesses But that is Desolation not Peace 'T is not Union but Depopulation No Tacit. vâ—t Agrie Vbi solitudinem faciunt Pacem Apellant the way to find and stablish Peace is only in the way of Gospel Truth which gives Glory to God in the Highest Peace on Earth Good Will toward Men and among Men From which only can be hoped a certain Foundation of lasting Union among our selves For suppose a present Submisson and Compliance unto the Humane Rites and Ceremonies enjoyned as Conditions of Church Communion yet there can be no Certainty such Union shall be lasting because the Terms are Arbitrarily alterable and may with one breath vanish and disappear to make make room possible for shaddows of another Mode but no less troublesome Hath not this been within fresh Memorie misery and almost our ruine But if we consider what is our Defence against the Common Enemie we may find what may be our Cement among our selves Dr. Stillingfleet's Rat. Acct. Page 53. Learned Dr. Stillingfleet in his Rational Account of the Grounds of the Protesant Religion hath excellently demonstrated That the Union of the Catholick Church depends upon the Agreement of it in making the Foundation of its Being to be the Grounds of its Communion For the Unity being intended to preserve the Being there can be no reason given why the Bonds of Union should extend beyond the Foundation of its Being which is the Owning things necessary to the Salvation of All. From whence it necessarily follows that whatsoever Church imposeth the belief of other things as necessary to Salvation which were not so Antecedently necessary to the Being of the Catholick Church doth as much as in it lies break the Unity of it And those Churches who do desire to preserve its Unity are bound thereby not to have Communion with it so long as it doth so These things premised saith he we shall thereby find what the necessary Conditions of Ecclesiastical Communion are and consequently where the proper cause of Schism Lies in transgressing those Bounds and what Foundations may be laid for the Peace of the Christian World Upon these Grounds was the Church of England Reformed from the Idolatrous Superstition of Popery defends it self against their assaults and thereby can only be preserved For the Church which is the House of the Living God can receive no Edification but what is Homogeneal with the Foundation Eph. 2.20 the Doctrine of the Apostles 1 Cor. 3.10 11. Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner Stone The Sum of all is briefly comprised in the Words of a late Learned and Pious Divine in the Church of England Mr. George Lawson's Coment upon the Hebr. c. 9. N. 5. Printed 1662. viz. He that will not serve a God is a profane Atheist He that serves any but the true God is an Idolater he that serves the true God after his own Fansies and the Inventions of Man is a Superstitious Fool. He that Inventeth Rites and Ceremonies and Modes of serving God and imposeth them on others is a presumptuous Wretch for as God alone doth know what kind of Worship and Service is fittest to be performed unto Him so He only hath Power to Impose it These two Books are lately Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Three Cocks at the West end of S. Paul's and Thomas Simmons at the Princes Arms in Ludgate-street 1681. CHurch-History of the Government of Bishops and their Councils Abbreviated Including the chief part of the Government of Christian Princes and Popes and a true Account of the most troubling Controversies and Heresies till the Reformation Written for the Use especially of them I. Who are ignorant or misinformed of the state of the Antient Churches II. Who can not read many and great Volumes III. Who think that the Universal Church must have one visible Soveraign Personal or Collective Pope or General Councils IV. Who would know whether Patriarchs Diocesans and their Councils have been or must be the cure of Heresies and Schisms V. Who would know the truth about the great Heresies which have divided the Christian World especially the Donatists Novatians Arrians Macedonians Nestorians Eutychians Monethelites c. By Richard Baxter a hater of false History in 4o. A Treatise of Episcopacy confuting by Scripture Reason and the Churches Testimony that sort of Diocesan Churches Prelacy and Government which casteth out the Primitive Church-Species Episcopacy Ministry and Discipline and confoundeth the Christian World by Corruption Usurpation Schism and Persecution Meditated in the Year 1640. when the Et coetera Oath was imposed Written 1671. and cast by Published 1681 by the importunity of our Superiours who demand the Reasons of our Nonconformity By Richard Baxter in 4o. FINIS