Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A11070
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The diseases of the time, attended by their remedies. By Francis Rous
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Rous, Francis, 1579-1659.
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1622
(1622)
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STC 21340; ESTC S107870
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133,685
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552
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any thing come neer to the worshipper which hath beene knowne to haue drawn the worship aside from God to it selfe And accordingly God in his Iealousie was very carefull that no Image should bee seene in Horeb lest what had beene seene should haue been represented what had been represented should haue beene worshipped But these Men presuming beyond their Maker haue apprehended and condemned this his needlesse Iealousie abandoning all feare in their Horebs euen in the places where the Law is or should be published haue set vp many Images before their ignorant and vntaught people euen â—tumbling blockes before the blind And all the remedie or satisfaction we can haue from them is this that they teach the people a distinction whereby they need not bee Idolaters But to what purpose is this when this distinction is not so vniuersally taught as the Images are seen neyther as before so vniuersally vnderstood neyther if vnderstood so generally followed by reason of Mans corruption which not being limited heretofore by a Diuine Commandement will lesse be limited by a humane Distinction Therefore should these offences bee wholly taken away from the places of worship yea if they were as vsefull as the brazen Serpent it selfe which was the Image of Christ yea for their sakes must let them be taken down for whom they are most set vp euen for the Lay and ignorant people for to these are they intended to giue most instruction and to these being least capable of the distinction they bring most destruction And here as we passe let vs take notice of a great danger in that Mystery of Iniquitie For the Teachers and Masters of that Art pretend at first to make good Christians but they endeuour at last to make ill subiects so that except there be some stop in the Disciples which can hardly bee when the eare is open to all that which the Church teacheth and the Priests are the mouth of the Church it is very hard to stay themselues within the iust bonds of Religion and subiection For if the Popes temporall power ouer Princes be both taught beleeued as it commonly is the more zealous he is that beleeues it the more dangerous hee is to the State where hee liues And lamentable patternes hereof may bee seene since ingenuous and good disposition haue bin Instruments in most barbarous Treasons and particularly in the greatest of all Treasons Thus I haue somewhat delineated the portrature of the Romish Church whereby it may be knowne both what a small Church of God is among them and what a large Synagogue of Satan what Temple of God and what false god sits therein So may wee distinguish betweene the good and the euill not condemning the good for euill neyther louing the euill for the good For such is the crafâ— of the Romish Circumcellions and Proselite makers that they goe about to make men euill by that which is good by the best of their Religion bring men to the worst Accordingly they do very much fish for men to the first sort of Religion by the second and sometimes by the best degree of the second though among the vulgar where the third wil serue they saue the labour of the second Yea many good soules seeing such Holinesse in some of the Workes of that Church as before in the second and third of the second they haue of themselues conueyed themselues into the first and so while they desired to bee made fellow-members of the Saints by vnion they haue with the same become subiects of the Popes Monarchy and so warfared at once to Christ and Antichrist which cannot be but by great losse danger We therfore to whom God hath shewed the deceitfulnesse of these strong Delusions though louing the vertues truthes and persons of those which among them receiue a iustifying and sanctifying Religion yet let vs not for loue of them cast our selues into a yoke of Tyranny Errour and Ignorance neyther for Sions sake thrust our selues into Babylon but rather flye from it It hath pleased Christ the true Head of the Church to set vs free from the counterfeit head and the cruell burdens thereof both spirituall and temporall Let vs therefore stand fast in the libertie wherewith Christ hath freed vs and not returne willingly into the yoke of bondage Whatsoeuer vertue and whatsoeuer Holinesse is among them the same is heere open to vs and with a great aduantage of freedome from abundance of Errours Superstitions and Deceits Now who would be so foolish rather to seeke Corne among a heape of Chaffe then to take it winnowed and clensed And who would seeke Relgion among a heape of Errours when hee may haue one purged and winnowed by the Fanne of Christ euen the breath and Word of God And let this be taken for a certayne truth That if we goe but by a generall experience and without an inquiring of this particular case we may find that in one thousand and fiue hundred yeares any Church will gather rust and mosse and tares For certayne it is that in all that time the Husbandman doth sometimes sleepe and as certainly as the Husbandman sleepes so certainly doth the Enemie sow his Tares The Church of the Iewes before Christ if we giue Rome her owne asking was as very a Church and as infallible a Church as only a Church as the Church of Rome In Iury was God only knowne to them were only committed the Oracles and to them were the promises made yet we see what drosse and Tares grew vpon that Church euen in short returnes and if you will see it do but marke what scouring and clensing fell to the lot of the two good Kings Hezekiah and Iosiah and at last to our Sauiour Christ himselfe who was fayne to sweepe the Temple with a Whip and to smite the Doctors of the Temple euen the Scribes and Pharisies with the rod of his mouth Mat. 5. yet this while the Church of Rome is pure and spotlesse neyther in all these yeares since Christ is there any Errour in their Doctrine But the truth is that she is no other then the Church of Iudea yea of Laodicea She is blind miserable and naked but only shee saith and will haue it said That shee is rich and hath need of nothing She is not without faults but shee will bee without correction Hauing faults she will haue them to bee no faults that where there be no faults there may be no amendment Surely this is the top of the misery of that Church as it is to vs a chiefe Iustification of our departure from them that they haue left themselues no leaue or power of amendment For they haue sealed their errors first vnto them by a Councel the seale of the Popes infallibility being set thereto So are they bound eternally to the loue and defence of their Errours and must still erre that they may not seeme to haue erred But this carnall policie is likely to bee their
THE DISEASES OF THE TIME Attended by their Remedies By FRANCIS ROVS LONDON Printed by William Stansby for Iohn Parker and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the three Pigeons 1622. TO THE RIGHT Worthy and my truely honorable Friend Sir Beniamin Rudyerd Knight SIR I Doubt not but diuers doe direct the Dedications of their Heauenly Labours according to earthly respects But incongruous and vntunable Dedications haue euer been harsh to my Iudgement and it hath grieued mee much when I haue seen a heauenly pâ—arle offred to the hand but trodden on by the foot of an earthy and sensuall Patron To auoyd this Incongruity I thought it best â—o dedicate a Worke that concernes the prosperity of the Church of Christ Iesus to a louer of the same Iesus of the same Church and the same Prosperity For such a one beares the face and presence of Iehosaphat which being seene incourageth a Prophet to speake and not seene dotâ— make him speechleâ—se And surely I doe but testifie the Truth when I say that by ancient and inward knowledge I haue beene assured of your loue vnâ—o Sion and your wâ—l-wishâ—â—g to the prosperity of Ierusalem And euen from this Root of Heauenly Loue doe I beleeue that our particular Friendship hath suckâ— most part of its nourishment which I thinke the rather because it hath beene hitherto durable whereas worldly Friendships do vsually alter with worldly Changes Wherefore as to a louer of Gods House I present vnto you these parcels of Purple and blue Silk which I haue consecrated toward the reparation of the Tabernacle And I desire that when you receiue these words from mee I may receiue Prayers from you that God will daily adde to the Beauty of his Church and that hee will prosper these and the like Workes that indeuour to increase it Neyther shall your Prayers be altogether vnrequited for I will offer vp my hearty desâ—res for your inward and outward Aduancement and that as you grow outwardly in the World you may grow inwardly in Christ Iesus For growth in Christ is the growth of a holy happinesse that shall flourish for euer But growth out of Christ is the growth of Fuell euen of an euer-burning but a neuer-dying Miserie Yours in the best that is in Christian affection Francis Rous. A Light in the Porch for him that enters I Confesse the World is very tedious in the Multiplicity of his corruptions and it would make a worke of the like tediousnesse if all the particulars of the one should become the contents of the other But I haue by diuers winnowings abated the Heap desiring to set some shape if not on the Matter for Vice cannot bee made handsome yet on the manner of handling it Ordinary Vices which haue ordinary if iust Cures I mostly omit leaue the World to practise on themselues that which they know already Other euils there are which for their insolent growth scorne to bee slaine by a Pen but like the Princes of Midian they call for Gideon himselfe euen the power of the Magistrate to fall on them These being generally referred to their proper cure yet if some bee touched for I haue heard of a Gyant slayne by a Sling and a stone they are incountred with the kindly Weapons of this Warfare euen Spirituall and not Carnall Another sort of Euils like the Plague by comming abroad infect farther become Documents of Vice and not Reproofes And I wish there were not another sort of Diseases like the same Sicknesse which taking the Ayre in a Worke of reproofe may strike backe to the heart of the same Worke and make it to dye like Ieremies Roll if it meete with that kind of humour which vseth to cast away all if any one thing differ from it In such a Case Addition may bring forth Substraction and a little more in the writing may cause a great deale lesse in the reading Lastly there are other Vices which heretofore in some Meditations I haue discouered for which the labour of Repetition may be saued But what sayth the Man of Exception Are not these the Times of Light and Purity and therefore how can there be many faults where there is so much Light Surely I willingly and thankfully acknowledge the purity of our Doctrine and am assured that in many it hath brought forth the purity of Heart and Life But I say euen because the Light is so cleere therefore doth sinne the more appeare and appearing is the more to be blamed For the more light the more Direction and the more Direction the more shame and sharper reproofe belongs to the strayer Againe the more light the more manifestation and the more manifestation the more sinnes appeare yea sinnes appeare the more sinfull So in some sense Light may be said to increase sinnes but that is not in their number but in the knowledge of the numberer Therefore must our Light discouer those to be 〈◊〉 which ancient Ignorance accounted to be none and the Manhood of a Christian mâ—â— tâ—e vp to that height of Vertuâ— which his child-hood could not reach vnto yea perchance did think it vnpossible or vncomely Againe where the Deuill hath lost much there hee labours much for the recouery of his losses and the Husbandmen not being stil awake prosperitie often inticing to seâ—urity the Enemy finds times to sow his tares so that the good dayes of Iosiah had matter of reproofe for the Prophet Zephaniah and the flourishing Church of Thyatira was taxed for a mixture of the Seruants of Iezabel Lastly it is an obseruation of secular Policie That all States with time gather rust and therfore by often reuiews they are to bee reduced to the first grounds of Vertue and Iustice which setled their Foundations This is no lesse true in the Church and if any doubt of it let the Church of Ephesus resolue him There was no long time betweene the planting of that Church and the receiuing of the Reuelation Of their first Estate Saint Paul a Master-workman in that Plantation testifieth that their Faith in Christ and Loue to the Saints made him incessantly to giue thankes to God for them And of their second Estate at the time of the Reuelation Christ restifieth that this Church was fallen from her first Loue and her first Workes Therefore the Church and euery member of the Church out of the experience of humane frailty by contiunall turnes should suspect and examine themselues to see what the Flesh hath gotten vpon the Spirit and so with Ephesus remembring from whence they are fallen returne and amend and doe the first Workes Thus it appeares that there is matter of reproofe euen in the purest Churches and if where there is matter there reproofe should bee denyed this were to encourage Diseases and to forbid Physicke Surely there is at this day a libertie yea a necessitie of reproouing and it dyed not wholly when Iohn Baptist dyed but the House of God