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	church_n	know_v	4,058	5	4.1423	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54191	A perswasive to moderation to dissenting Christians in prudence and conscience humbly submitted to the King and his great council by one of the humblest and most dutiful of his dissenting subjects.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1685 (1685)	Wing P1337A; ESTC R28423	35,496	61

to the Publick yet the Government cannot allow it without Ruin to the Church England which it is obliged to maintain But I think this 〈◊〉 not affect the Question at all unless by maintaing the Church of England it is understood that he should force whole Parties to be of 〈◊〉 Communion or knock them on the Head Let us call to mind that the Religion that is true allows no man to do Wrong that Right may come of it And that nothing has lessen'd the Credit of any Religion more than declining to support it self by its own Charity and Piety and taking Sanctuary in the Arms rather than the Vnderstanding of men Violences are ill Pillars for Truth to rest upon The Church of England must be maintain'd Right but can't that be done without the Dissenter be destroyed In vain then did Christ command Peter to put up his Sword with this Rebuke He that kills with the Sword with the Sword shall be killed if his Followers are to draw it again He makes killing for Religion Murder and deserving Death Was he then in the right Not to call Legions to his assistance And are not his Followers of these times in the wrong to seek to uphold their Religion by any methods of Force The Church of England must be maintain'd therefore the Dissenters that almost hold the same Doctrine must be ruined A Consequence most unnatural as it is almost impossible For besides that the Drudgery would unbecome the civil Magistrate who is the Image of divine Justice and Clemency and that it would fasten the Character of a False Church upon one that destres to be esteemed a True one she puts the Government upon a Task that is hard to be performed Kings can no more make Brick without Straw than Slaves The Condition of our Affairs is much chang'd and the Circumstances our Government is under differ mightily from those of our Ancestors They had not the same dissents to deal with nor those Dissents the like Bodies of People to render them formidable and their Prosecution mischievous to the State Nor did this come of the Princes neglect or 〈◊〉 There are other Reasons to be assigned of which the opportunities Domestick Trouble gave to their Increase and Power and the Severities used to suppress them may go for none of the least So that it was as involuntary in the Prince as to the Church Anxious And under this necessity to tye the Magistrate to old measures is to be regardless of Time whose fresh Circumstances give Aim to the conduct of wise men in their present Actions Governments as well as Courts change their Fashions The same Clothes will not always serve And Politicks made Obsolete by new Accidents are as unsafe to follow as antiquated Dresses were ridiculous to ware Thus Sea-men know and teach us in their daily practice They humour the Winds though they will lie as near as they can and trim their Sails by their Compass And by patience under these constrained and uneven Courses it is they gain their Port at last This justifies the Governments change of Measures from the change of Things for res nolunt male Administrari And to be free it looks more then Partial to Elect and Reprobate too That the Church of England is prefer'd and has the Fat of the Earth the Authority of the Magistrate and the Power of the Sword in her Sons Hands which comprehends all the Honours Places Profits and Powers of the Kingdom must not be repined at Let her have it and keep it all and let none dare seek or accept an Office that is not of her But to ruin Dissenters to compleat her Happiness pardon the Allusion is Talvauism in the worst sence for this is that Horrendem Decretum reduc'd to Practice And to pursue that ill-natured Principle Men are civilly Damn'd for that they cannot help since Faith is not in Man's power though it sometimes exposes one to it It is a severe Dilemma that a man must either renounce that of which he makes Conscience in the sight of God or be civilly and Ecclesiastically Reprobated There was a time when the Church of England her self stood in need of Indulgence and made up a great part of the Non-conformists of this Kingdom and what she then wanted she pleaded for I mean a Toleration and that in a general Stile as divers of the Writings of her Doctors tell us Of which let it be enough but to mention that excellent Discourse of Dr. Taylor Bishop of Down entituled Liberty of Prophecy And that which makes Severity look the worse in the Members of the Church of England is the Modesty she professes about the truth of the things she believes For though perhaps it were indefencible in any Church to compel a man to that which she were infallibly assured to be true unless she superceeded his Ignorance by Conviction rather than Authority it must doubtless look rude to punish men into Conformity to that of the truth of which the Church her self pretends no certainty Not that I would less believe a Church so cautious then one more confident but I know not how to help thinking Persecution harsh when they ruin People for not believing that which they have not in themselves the power of believing and which she cannot give them and of which her self is not infallibly assured The Drift of this is Moderation which well becomes us poor Mortals That for every idle Word we speak must give an account at the Day of Judgment if our Saviour's Doctrine have any credit with us It would much mittigate the Severity if the dissent were Sullen or in Contempt But if men can't help or hinder their Belief they are rather Vnhappy than Guilty and more to be pitied than blamed However they are of the reasonable stock of the Country and though they were unworthy of Favour they may not be unfit to live 'T is Capital at Law to destroy Bastards and By-blows are lay'd to the Parish to keep They must maintain them at last And shall not these natural Sons at least be laid at the Door of the Kingdom Unhappy fate of Dissenters to be less heeded and more destitute then any Body If this should ever happen to be the effect of their own Folly with submission it can never be the consequence of the Government 's Engagements Election does not necessarily imply a Reprobation of the rest If God hath elected some to Salvation it will not follow of course that he hath absolutly rejected all the rest For tho' he was God of the Jews he was God of the Gentiles too and they were his People tho' the Jews were his peculiar People God respects not Persons says St. Peter the good of all Nations are accepted The Difference at last will not be of Opinion but Works Sheep or Goats all of all Judgments will be found and Come well done or Go ye Workers of Iniquity will conclude their Eternal State Let us be careful

Poor and Hospitality to their Neighbours recommends them to the first favour they have to bestow That Fort is unsafe where a part of the Garrison consists of disguised Enemies for when they take their turns at the Watch the danger is hardly evitable It would then certainly be for the safety of the Fort that such Friends in Masquerade were industrously kept out instead of being whipt in And it was something of this I remember that was made an Argument for the Declaration of Indulgence in the Preamble to wat the greater Safety of the Government from Open and Publick then private dissenting Meetings of worship as indeed the rest bear the like resemblance For these were the Topicks quieting the People encouraging Strangers to come and live among us and Trade by it and lastly preventing the Danger that might arise to the Government by private Meetings Of greater reason then from private men not less discontented but more concealed and secured by the great Drake of Church Conformity It is this will make a Comprehension of the next Dissenters to the Church dangerous tho' it were practicable of which side soever it be For in an Age the present Government shall feel the Art and Industry of the comprehended So that a Toleration is in reason of State to be prefer'd And if the Reasons of the Declaration were ever good they are so still because the Emergencies of State that made them so remain and our Neighbours are not less powerful to improve them to our detriment But it will be now said Though the Government should find its account in what has been last alledged this were the way to overthrow the Church and encourage Dissenters to continue in their Errors Which is that second main Objection I proposed at first to answer in its proper place and that I think this is I humbly say if it prove the Interest of the three considerable Church-Interests in this Kingdom a Relaxation at least can hardly fail us The three Church Interests are That of the Church of England That of the Roman-Catholick-Dissenter and That of the Protestant-Dissenter That the Church of England ought in Conscience and Prudence to consent to the Ease desired I pray first that it be considered how great a reflection it will be upon her Honour that from a Persecuted she should turn a Persecuting Church An overthrow none of her Enemies have been able to give to her many excellent Apologies Nor will it be excused by her saying She is in the Right which her Persecutors were not since this is a confidence not wanting in any of them or her Dissenters and the truth is it is but the begging of a Question that will by no means be granted No body ought to know more then Church-men that Conscience cannot be forced That Offerings against Conscience are as odious to God as uneasie to them that make them That God loves a free Sacrifice That Christ forbad Fire though from Heaven it self to punish Dissenters and commanded that the Tares should grow with the Wheat till the Harvest In sine that we should love Enemies themselves And to exclude worldly strife for Religion That his Kingdom is not of this World This was the Doctrine of the Blessed Saviour of the World Saint Paul persues the same course Is glad Christ is Preached be it of Envy the worst ground for Dissent that can be It was he that ask't that hard but just Question Who art thou that judgest another mans Servant To his own Lord he standeth or falleth He allows the Church a Warfare and Weapons to perform it but they are not Carnal but Spiritual Therefore it was so advised that every man in matters of Religion should be fully perswaded in his own mind and if any were short or mistaken God would in his time Inform them better He tells us of Schismaticks and Hereticks too and their punishment which is to the point in hand He directs to a first and second Admonition and if that prevail not reject them That is refuse them Church Fellowship disown their Relation and deny them Communion But in all this there is not a Word of Fines or Imprisonments nor is it an excuse to any Church that the civil Magistrate executes the severity while they are Members of her Communion that make and execute the Laws But if the Church could gain her Point I mean Conformity unless she could gain consent too 't were but Constraint at last A Rape upon the Mind which may encrease her Number not her Devotion On the contrary the rest of her Sons are in danger by their Hypocrisie The most close but watchful and Revengeful thing in the World Besides the Scandal can hardly be removed To over-value Coyn and Rate Brass to Silver Beggers any Country and to own them for Sons she never begat debases and destroyes any Church 'T were better to indulge forreign Coyn of intrinsick Value and let it pass for its Weight 'T is not Number but Quality Two or three sincere Christians that form an Evangelical Church and tho' the Church were less more Charity on the one hand and Piety on the other with exact Church-censure and less civil Coertion would give her credit with Conscience in all Sects without which their Accession it self would be no benefit but disgrace and hazard to her Constitution And to speak prudently in this Affair 't is the Interest of the Church of England not to suffer the Extinction of Dissenters that she may have a Counter Ballance to the Roman Catholicks who though few in Number are great in Quality and greater in their forreign Friendships and Assistance On the other hand it is her Interest to Indulge the Roman-Catholick that by his Accession She may at all times have the Ballance in her own hand against the Protestant Dissenter leaning to either as she finds her Doctrine undermined by the one or her Discipline by the other or lastly her civil Interest endangered from either of them And it is certainly the Interest of both those Extreams of Dissent that She rather than either of them should hold the Scale For as the Protestant-Dissenter cannot hope for any Tenderness exclusive of Roman Catholicks but almost the same Reasons may be advanced against him so on the other hand it would look imprudent as well as unjust in the Roman Catholicks to solicite any Indulgence exclusive of Protestant Dissenters For besides that this keeps up the Animosity which it is their Interest to bury The consequence will be to take the advantage of Time to snatch it from one another when an united Request for Liberty once granted will oblige both Parties in all times for Example sake to have it equally preserved Thus are all Church-Interests of Conformists and Dissenters rendered consistent and safe in their civil Interest one with the other But it will last of all doubtless be objected That though a Toleration were never so desirable in it self and in its consequence beneficial