Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	christian_a	faith_n	3,911	5	5.5853	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91323	The life of that incomparable man, Faustus Socinus Senensis, described by a Polonian knight. Whereunto is added an excellent discourse, which the same author would have had premised to the works of Socinus; together with a catalogue of those works.; Vita Fausti Socini Senensis. English	Przypkowski, Samuel, 1592-1670.; Biddle, John, 1615-1662.	1653 (1653)	Wing P4136; Thomason E1489_1; ESTC R203303	35,107	77

belief of the Heavenly Revelation as to a known starting-hole As if it had been long since granted that this were a Doctrine delivered by God and not the very Doctrine it self were then most called into question By this means whilest Uncertain Reason fetcheth unseasonable help from Suspected Revelation Suspected Revelation from Uncertain Reason neither of them is found to have any stability Last of all there are in the Scriptures so many and so clear testimonies of the contrary opinion that neither can those paradoxes consist with the safety of them nor the authority of Holy writ remain safe if they be called into question And therefore no Christian dares to make a scruple concerning either the certainty or sense of those testimonies only it is urged that they are maimed and defective and consequently have need of something added to them from abroad for the full knowledge of Divine things And indeed let us herein grant their request so that they abuse not this liberty of adding to undermine those things which they promised to supply But what if they produce such additions as quite overthrow the certainty and reason of those things to which they are added This certainly is not to be endured inasmuch as they had promised to supply our testimonies and not to abolish them But they fetch those supplements out of the Sacred Oracles by whose rule they would have their other testimonies tryed Truly we deny not that the Scripture is the most faithful interpreter of it self But first we must consider with what fidelity they draw that from some places of the Scripture which is repugnant to the open sense thereof elsewhere Next we must demand of them with what forehead they require that those places concerning whose meaning by reason of the open evidence they do in a manner agree with the Adversaryes should be explained by others concerning whose exposition there is the greatest controversie What perverse and preposterous order of knowledge is that to illustrate the light by darkness As if this were the way to perceive the most known things even to be blind in such as are unknown How great support therefore in the Divine Oracles those opinions have which are otherwise repugnant unto reason and how justly they implore the help of Faith is evident from those things which we have discoursed But to what purpose is all this if notwithstanding the greatest part of men are perswaded that it very much concerneth the Christian Religion that so incredible things be believed Neither is this the only point wherein the truth of so Divine Faith is traduced What should I here mention that sink of most filthy errors wherewith the most pure doctrine of the Gospel hath been over-flowed There was heretofore none so profane an opinion none so silly a dotage none so ridiculous a superstition which by the great injustice of men did not only find place therein but also esteem I omit the portentous opinions touching Transubstantiation touching the infinite Power of the Priests and the Pope and touching the worship of Images I omit the fables fetched out of the Academy touching Limbus and Purgatory I omit so many bug-bear-apparitions so many marts of absolutions and sales of sins so many strange rites and forren ceremonies and sundry other things which either the Greek also or the Latin Church only hath not blushed so long to propose for the main pillars of the Faith For whatsoever either abhorrent from all reason or repugnant to the Holy Scripture hath for so many ages been obtruded on the Generality of Christians all that hath redounded to the disgrace of our Religion and Faith since neither could the inbred light of our mind be extinguished by any means nor the authority of the Scripture be overthrown as long as our Faith remained safe But let that pass for the deplorable calamity of the world faln in barbarism now that the light of a happier age is risen and the world beginneth to come out of that thick darkness it is a great indignity that being now awakened and stirring it should again be pothered in the same or a worse fogge For whereunto tendeth the unavoidable condition of Divine Destination whereunto the most unjust necessity of Fate far more silly and barbarous then the dreams of the Ancients which doth not prescribe such a law of life as is equal and common unto all but a fixed decree concerning the inmutable state of every particular man which finally thinketh this only worthy of immense rewards or direful torments that men though they be never so willing are not able to resist the will of God Whereunto I say tendeth so cruel and sinister an opinion but to enwrap in fable darkeness the reason both of Gods Empire and Man's Obedience What also meaneth that peculiar opinion of some touching the pravity of good works or that other more common opinion touching our propriety and possession of anothers holiness Besides the darkning of our mind are we not averted from the study of true piety by the strange mixture of repugnant things if when we do never so well we are frighted with the conscience of our good deeds and when we live never so ill we have the confidence of anothers merit What should I commemorate the price properly paid for our free impunity and that it is enjoyned us by the law of a most equal severity to do impossibilities and that the will that is the freedome of man is servile All these opinions can no more be reconciled with a sincere endeavour to live piously then with themselves For who would with the loss of those things that are most dear to him seek to attain such a reward as he thinketh to be already purchased at anothers cost and without any pains of his who would press towards a place through rough and craggy wayes when in the mean time he is perswaded not only that he cannot get thither but also cannot so much as will to go I know I have touched those points of the Reformed Doctrine as they call it which like the ulcers of a most delicate part cannot be handled without an exquisite sense of pain Wherefore I will add no more for neither can those things be comprehended in a compendium of words whose number cannot easily be reckoned up in the mind Besides I know right well that some one having read those few words will fly-out and chase as if he were pricked on a sudden although I endeavour so to moderate my stile that none may justly take offence For the Christian world sleepeth quietly in his sins being bolstered up with those opinions so that if any one attempt to draw away the pillow from his delicate neck the inflamed faction of Divines falls presently a raging worse then a tyger robbed of her whelps and crying-out that Faith and Religion lye at stake when in the mean time onely the private credit of certain men or the publike allurement of sinning is brought into danger They

basely do despise the light Why should we complain that we are again enslaved to the Pope when we by a shameful kind of vassalage perform homage to ignobler Masters If we list to become servants there is some choice in taking a more honourable master What then shall we invite all to take up the yoke again which they had heretofore thrown off their necks At no hand For though the new servitude be a grief and shame to us yet do we justly congratulate the expulsion of Idolatry together with the old Tyranny We also rejoyce that in many other things the feature of the Church is restored to her But above all we acknowledge it for a special gift of God that the due authority and reverence of the Holy Scripture is vindicated So that the foundations of a very excellent hope are already laid it remaineth that as we have expelled Idolatry so we restore charity which cannot be done but by the banishment not only of cruelty but also of all tyranny and iniquity And let us use the autority guidance of the Holy Scripture which we have asserted to chase away the relicks of darkness which have hitherto no less weakened the hope of salvation then disfigured the faith and beauty of our Religion Why do we linger any longer why do w● expect the sharper goads of God to prick us forward Certainly in this juncture of time there is something greater then the mouth of man that thunders out We are not now admonished of our duty by a humane voice but by the dreadful rebuke of the Divine Judgements God applyeth a sad but wholesome remedy to our sickness Too much felicity had corrupted us and we had openly loosed the reins to our lusts amidst the blandishments of prosperity Such of us as have not been carryed away with the force of sin or improbity to a cruel hatred of austere truth have yet by some love or fear of earthly things been detained in their pleasing errors with soft and gentle fetters The impiety of the former required punishment the weakness of the latter craved help And therefore Providence dispenseth unto both his proper remedy Such minds as are overwhelmed with vices pay for their hatred and contempt of the truth by being again involved in darkness But such hearts as are honest yet bound with a teather of earthly things are by the Divine Goodness set at liberty Certainly it had been better in the midst of prosperity to have embraced the offer of truth But the most merciful God did herein also take care for honest hearts in that he removed the allurements and encumbrances wherewith they were kept from the knowledge of truth Wherefore God doth now openly in the view of the world make tryal with what sincerity every one of us hath departed from the society of Antichrist If either the conspiracy of faction or love of parties or any other humane consideration whatsoever hath hitherto detained any in the warfare of Christ they may retire and betake themselves thither where there is an offer of greater present advantage But ye that have trusted the Captain of your faith with the pay of your deferred reward be not discouraged in so great a storm of adverse fortune This is the means whereby God exerciseth and tryeth them that are his Vertue and truth have in all ages been educated with these hardships and grown to maturity by these tryalls With these evils Christ himself and the Apostles as also the Martyrs and Confessors of the Primitive Church have conflicted Finally with these arms the world alwayes rageth against good men by these mines the Tyranny of Antichrist hath now many ages since crept-in with such practises as these a great part of those Fathers whom ye Idolize did drive-on furiously by these arts were those Councels which ye as yet adore upheld and maintained whilest in Synods controversies were decided with violent factions and autority and the decrees of Synods ratified by Imperial power with fines disgraces banishments and at length with blood it self and extreme punishments God would have you tast the equity and nature of such arts to the end ye might understand what ye ought to judge of that autority which grew and was established by the like means and practises Wherefore rejecting those prophane and justly-suspected prejudices of ages and autorities implore the only aid of the Sacred Oracles and under their patronage seek both the way of finding-out the truth and of defending it being found Only bring sincere minds and such as are desirous of the truth and since the whole truth may in a maner cost you no more charge and damage then hitherto a portion of it did be bold to receive it with both your arms whilest it is freely offered to you and without danger By this means it will come to pass that your hope and faith b●ing underset with better props will more readily erect it self to the true worship and obedience of God and abide more constantly in the same For facilitating of which work ye and all the Church are very much beholding to Socinus a man ennobled by his parentage vertue and the monuments of his wit and who when the heat of envy shall evaporate together with the ignorance of the age will be far more ennobled amongst Posterity The praises of which man it is better to pass-over in silence then meanly to prosecute Especially because they are in some measure attested and blazoned by his Life perfixed before this Discourse but abundantly by the issue of his sublime wit and the genius of his writings He was the man that stretched the sinnews of his most sharp judgement to remove from the Church of Christ whatsoever he deemed prejudicial either to the Glory of God or to the dignity of Religion or finally to the sincereness of piety So that the Reader shall in his writings find first most of those Engines taken away wherewith the hope of that happiness to which we aspire was together with the Honor of Almighty God undermined He shall find the dignity of our whole Religion maintained and its reputation vindicated and asserted from those absurd monstrous opinions which have a long time caused it most injuriously to be traduced among them that are without Finally he shall find all the impediments taken away wherewith men were letted not only from hoping-for but also entering on the inheritance of the Heavenly Patrimony and which they being weary of the piety enjoyned had procured to themselves For not only the study of universal sanctity was extinguished with fawning pernicious opinions but also licence given to manifest offences against the Law of God or the desire of them enflamed or also the necessity of them imposed These barricadoes being removed he shall finde the way to the utmost happiness of the largest wish fitted and prepared by the incredible bounty of God Which happiness for many thousand yeers before the coming of Christ mankind had still desired but was still