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
A93958	Ad clerum. A sermon preached at a visitation holden at Grantham in the county and diocess of Lincolne, 8. Octob. 1641. By a late learned prelate. Now published by his own copy.	Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663.	1670 (1670)	Wing S580; ESTC R228093	21,750	45

too forward and faulty this way That they would in the fear of God review their own dictates and all partiality and self-seeking laid aside bestow a little paines to examine throughly the soundness of those principles from which they draw their conclusions whether they be the very true word of God indeed or but the fansies and devices of the wit of man I know how loathly men are induced to suspect themselves to be in an Errour and that it is with our brethren herein as with other men may sufficiently appeare in this that few of them will so much as bestow the reading of those books that might give them satisfaction But beloved better try your own work your selves and if it prove but hay or stubble burn it your selves by acknowledging your errour and retracting it that you may build better than let it lye on still till a sorer fire catch it Better for any of us all whether in respect of our errours or sins to prevent the Lords judging of us by timely judging our selves than to slack the time till his judgment overtake us The second use should be an Admonition to all my Brethren of the Ministery for the time to come and that in the Apostles words 1 Cor. 3. 10. Let every man take heed what he buildeth S t Paul himself was very careful this way not to deliver any thing to the people but what he had received from the Lord. The Prophets of the Lord still delivered their Messages with this Preface Haec dicit Dominus Yea that wretch Balaam though a false Prophet and covetous enough professed yet that if Balak would give him his house full of silver and gold he neither durst nor would goe beyond the word of the Lord to do less or more There is a great proneness in us all to idolize our own inventions Besides much Ignorance Hypocrisie and Partiality any of which may byas us awry Our Educations may lay such early anticipations upon our judgments or our teachers or the bookes we read or the society we converse withall may leave such impressions therein as may fill them with prejudice not easily to be removed The golden meane is a hard thing to hit upon almost in any thing without some warping toward one of the extremes either on the right hand or on the left and without a great deal of wisdome and care seldome shall we seek to shun one extreme and not run a little too farre towards the other if not quite into it In all which and sundry other respects we may soon fall into gross mistakes and errours if we do not take the more heed whilst we suspect no such thing by our selves but verily believe that all we do is out of pure zeale for Gods Glorie and the love of his truth We had need of all the piety and learning and discretion and paines and prayers we have and all little enough without Gods blessing too ey and our own greater care too to keep us from running into Errours and from teaching for doctrines the commandments of men The Third use should be for Admonition also to all the people of God that they be not hasty to believe every spirit but to try the Spirits especially when they see the spirits to disagree and clash one with another or find otherwise just cause of suspicion and that as the Beraeans did by the Scriptures Using withall all good subsidiary helps for the better understanding thereof especially those two as the principal the Rule of Right Reason and the known constant judgment and practice of the Universal Church That so they may fanne away the chaffe from the wheat and letting goe the refuse hold falt that which is good To this end every man should especially beware that he do not suffer himself to be carried away with names nor to have any mans person either in hatred or admiration but embrace what is consonant to truth and reason though Judas himself should preach it and reject what even an Angel from heaven should teach if he have no other reason to induce him to believe it than that he teacheth it 29. The Fourth Use should be for Exhortation to the learneder sort of my Brethren to shew their faithfulness duty and true hearty affection to God and his Truth and Church by mainteining the simplicity of the Christian Faith and asserting the doctrine of Christian Liberty against all corrupt mixtures of mens inventions and against all unlawful impositions of mens commandments in any kind whatsoever If other men be zealous to set up their own errors shall we be remiss to hold up Gods Truth God having deposited it with us and committed it to our special trust how shall we be able to answer it to God and the World if we suffer it to be stolen out of the hearts of our people by our silence or neglect Like enough you shall incurre blame and censure enough for so doing as if you sought but yourselves in it by seeking to please those that are in authority in hope to get preferment thereby But let none of these things discourage you if you shall not be able by the grace of God in some measure to despice the censures of rash and uncharitable men so long as you can approve your hearts and actions in the sight of God and to break through if need be far greater tryals and discouragements than these you are not worthy to be called the servants of Christ The last use should be an humble Supplication to those that have in their hands the ordering of the great affairs of Church and State That they would in their goodnesse and wisdomes make some speedy and effectual provision to represse the exorbitant licentiousnesse of these times in printing and preaching every man what he list to the great dishonour of God scandal of the Reformed Religion fomenting of Superstition and Errour and disturbance of the peace both of Church and Commonwealth Lest if way be still given thereunto those evill spirits that this late connivence hath raised grow so fiecre within a while that it will trouble all the power and wisdom of the Kingdom to conjure them handsomly down again But certainly since we find by late experience what wildnesse in some of the Lay-people what petulancy in some of the inferior Clergy what insolency in some both of the Laity and Clergy our Land is grown into since the reines of the Ecclesiastical Government have layn a litle slack we cannot but see what need we have to desire and pray that the Ecclesiastical Government and power may be timely setled in some such moderate and effectual way as that it may not be either too much abused by them that are to exercise it nor too much despised by those that must live under it In the mean time so long as things hang thus loose and unsetled I know not better how to represent unto you the present

Negatives Touch not Tast not Handle not are called the Commandements of men Col. 2. 22. Which place I note the rather because the appellation here used and cited out of Esai 29. according to the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not found any where else in the whole Testament besides in the relation of this storie save in that one place onely By the analogy of which places in as much as there is mention made in them all as well of Doctrines as of Commandements and that in some of them with the Conjunction Copulative between them we are warranted to bring within the extent of this word according to the general intention and scope of our Saviour in this place Doctrinals as well as Morals that is to say as well those that prescribe unto our Judgments what we are bound to believe or not to believe in matter of Opinion as those that prescribe unto our Consciences what we are bound to do or not to do in matter of Practice Although the special occasion whereupon our Saviour fell into this discourse against the Pharisees and the special instance whereby he convinceth them do withall shew that the Morals do more principally properly and directly fall under his particular intention and scope therein In the full extent of the word then all those prescriptions are to be taken for the Commandements of men wherein any thing is by humane Authority either injoyned or forbidden to be believed or done especially to be done which God in his Holy Word hath not so enjoyned or forbidden Jonadab's command to the Rechabites that they should not drink Wine they nor their sons for ever and the Pharisees tradition here that none should eat with unwashen hands were both the commandements of men This is clear enough yea and good enough hitherto if there were no more in it but so For you must observe or else you quite mistake the Text and the whole drift of it that it is no part of our Saviours meaning absolutely and wholly to condemne all the Commandements of men For that were to cut the sinews of all Government and Order and to overturn Churches Kingdoms Corporations Families and all other both greater and lesser Societies of men none of all which can be upheld without some posttive Laws and Sanctions of mans devising We do not therefore find that either Jonadab was blamed for commanding the Rechabites not to drink wine or that they were blamed for observing his commandement therein But rather on the contrary that God well approved both of him and them yea and rewarded them for their obedience unto that command though it were a command but of mans devising and had no more than a bare humane Authority to warrant it And therefore those men are very wide that vouch this Text against the Ecclesiastical Constitutions or Ceremonies with such confidence as if they were able with this one Engine to take them all off at a blow not considering that it is not barely the Commandments of men either materially or formally taken that is to say neither the things commanded by men nor yet mens commanding of them but it is the teaching of such Commandments for Doctoines that our Saviour here condemneth the Pharisees for What that is therefore we are next to enquire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teaching for doctrines the commandments of men In the 29. of Esaie the substantives have a Conjunction copulative between them in the Septuagint and they are read in the very same manner and order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by St. Paul alluding thereunto in Col. 2. But in the Greek Text in all Copies extant both here and in Mark 7. where the same Historie is related they are put without the Conjunction by Apposition as the Grammarians call it The meaning is the same in both readings onely this latter way it appeareth better and it is in effect this Whosoever shall endeavour to impose upon the judgments of men in credendis or in point of faith any thing to be believed as a part of Gods holy truth or shall endeavour to impose upon the Consciences of men in agendis or in point of manners any thing to be observed as a part of Gods holy will which cannot be sufficiently evidenced so or so to be either by express testimonie of the written Word of God rightly understood and applied or by clear natural and necessary deduction therefrom according to the Laws of true Logical discourse is guilty more or lesse of that Superstition our Saviour here condemneth in the Pharisees of teaching for Doctrines the commandments of men And a fault it is of a large comprehension It taketh in all additions whatsoever that are made to that absolute and all sufficient Rule of Faith and Manners which God hath left unto his Church in his written Word In what kind soever they are whether in Opinion Worship Ordinance Injunction Prohibition Promise or otherwise From what cause soever they proceed whether from credulity ignorance education partiality hypocrisie misgoverned zeal time-serving or any other For what end soever they may be done whether those ends be in truth intended or but in shew pretended say it be the glory of God the reformation of abuses the preventing of mischiefs or inconveniences the avoiding of scandals the maintenance of Christian liberty the furtherance of piety or whatever else can be imagined If they have not a sufficient foundation in the sacred Text and yet shall be offered to be pressed upon our judgments or consciences in the name of God and as his Word they are to be held as chaffe fitter to be scattered before the wind or cast out to the dunghil than to be hoarded up in the Garners among the wheat alas what is the chaff to the wheat or as wood hay or stubble meeter to become fewel for the Oven or Hearth than to be coffered up in the treasurie among gold and silver and precious stones And he that bringeth any such doctrine with him let his piety or parts be otherwise what they can be should he in either of both or even in both match not onely the holy Apostles of Christ but the very blessed Angels in heaven yet should we rather defie him as a Traitor for setting Gods stamp upon his own Bullion than receive him as his faithful Embassadour and salute him with an Anathema sooner than bid him God speed Especially if the doctrine be apparently either false or ungrounded and yet positively and peremptorily delivered as if it were the undoubted word and will of God I may not now descend to particulars But thus much it will concern us all to know in the general That whosoever teacheth any thing either to be absolutely unlawful which God hath not forbidden in his word or to be absolutely necessary which God hath not required in his word he teacheth for doctrines the commandments of men and so far forth plaieth the