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	doctrine_n	gospel_n	1,819	5	6.3218	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41383	A discourse of Christianity laying open the abuses thereof in the anti-Christian lives and worship of many of its professors, especially the Romanists : and shewing the way to a holy life in the character of a true Christian / written originally in French by the famous Monsieur de Gombaud ; and now done into English by P Lorrain.	Gombauld, Jean Ogier de, d. 1666.; Lorrain, P. (Paul), d. 1719.	1693 (1693)	Wing G1023; ESTC R14522	47,226	176

up long since for Holy Things and Relicks to adorn the Oratories of an infinite Number of Virgins who would think they gave but a very ill proof of their good Education if they did not shew themselves more Superstitious than their Mothers XXXIX All these abuses are well enough known to many who for all that cannot hinder themselves either from condemning or from following them and whose Works give their Words the Lye For if any Weakness keep them back and they desire to be secret Disciples of JESUS CHRIST why don't they contribute to the relief of the poor Members of his Church Or if they cannot yet make any great shew of their zeal why at least do they not take care that their Idolatry may not appear at all But press them a little upon this Point and you will make the Venom gush out They presently fall into a passion grow very angry and use the Authority they have of imposing Silence and discover their Hypocrisy You are say they not above an hundred years standing You are Schismaticks Why did you leave the Church But the Fops should add You will not worship that which is lifted up at the Altar nor believe that a piece of Bread is made your God You will not prostrate your selves before the Likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above or on the Earth beneath and you are scandalized at the Submission of those People who run a whoring after Shrines and Images with Himns of Devotion and Praise You are so presumptuous as that you will needs receive the Sacrament whole and in both kinds according to CHRIST's Institution and are not contented with that share thereof which the Church has thought sufficient for you You will understand the Word which GOD directs to you the Prayers you put up and the whole Service you are bound to render to him In a word you will not submit your selves to the Authority of the Learned the Examples of Magistrates and Princes and will allow nothing to Tradition or Custom Certainly these Men must believe that Religion consists in the Succession of Persons and not in the Doctrine of the Gospel I can think no other of them but that they do not know Truth but by meer human reasoning and that they have no manner of Zeal either for this or that Party but follow that which they find the most convenient for them and have never minded the Word which rejects the Lukewarm and ranks the Fearful the Murtherers and Adulterers under the same Condemnation Here I am forced to confess my own weakness in accusing theirs and to own that sometimes I look upon them with pity at other times with anger and then again with indifference But I can hardly see without horror the Apostates from the Faith the most wicked of all Men the very express Images of him that is the Head of all Apostacy These are they who betray their own Brethren make a Trade of their Revolt scandalize a whole People and think more of growing rich than of saving their own Souls Do but give them the Bag and they will side with you as Judas did who like them was not sensible that his Sale of his Master was the purchase of his own despair As they never had a good will so they neglected to inform themselves when they made an outward Profession of the True Religion and they are no sooner turn'd but they immediately start up great Disputants grow troublesome with their Questions and subtle in maintaining their Change To which purpose they make use of all the reasons in the World though they know in their Conscience they have no other for it but the weakness of their Judgment the perverseness of their Nature and the difficulty of reconciling their Pride and Avarice with the Reproach and Poverty of JESUS CHRIST Besides the Promises of Great Persons and their gracious looks carry I do not know what Charms with them from which it is hard to defend ones self On these occasions mean and mercenary Minds surrender themselves in a manner without any resistance and their bastardly Spirits can hold out no longer when courted by those who used to command them and when their Masters turn their Flatterers In short the greatest part of Men seems to be born for Slavery neither is there any so hard but they will yield to nay and prefer it too before the Liberty of Christ so their Chains be but of Gold They are always ready to pay their Adoration to them that make them rich or confer Honours upon them and with the Heathen know no other Gods but their Benefactors CHAP. X. XL. AMong so many bewitched or sick Minds among so many wilful Blind and vile Slaves of this World I have been seeking for some in whom I might discover some Purity of Conscience and some Testimony of their Election and with whom I might joyn my self in that Spiritual Communion and Bond of Perfection that makes them to be inseparable from their Creator and Neighbours For what Comfort could I reap from those Favourers and Favourites of this World in whose Company a Man is oblig'd by I don't know what preposterous Good Manners ever to hold his Tongue about Religion and who either discourse not at all of Divine Matters or if they do it is in a meer human way What sweetness could I reap from their Friendship whose heart was not united to mine in what should be the chief end of our Hopes and Desires I wished I could discern the Children of Heaven from the Children of the Earth and the meeting with a Believer was to me as if I had seen the face of an Angel But amidst so many Men I have often laboured but in vain to find out one Man only though I was not so clear sighted as Elias 1 Kings 19.10 14 18. who did not see one single person in all Israel though indeed there were a great many My lot is fallen in an Age where Men are already degenerated from that former Simplicity and new Reformation and wherein those that bear the Name of Reformed with large steps pursue the same ways with those who have destroy'd the most flourishing Churches I saw among them the same Licentiousness in Words and Actions the same superfluity in their Dress and Habits and the same Luxury which heretofore scandaliz'd Julian the Emperor and confirmed him in his Apostacy Iniquity was so encreased that the Charity of many waxed cold Mat. 24.12 And by what appear'd outwardly I could not see any difference between the False Christians and those that were True XLI These I could no where better look for than in the most lawful Assemblies but I could not discern the Church in the Church it self She does not stand in need of those whose Devotion chiefly consists of Gestures and Wry-faces who never find a Sermon too long nor a Communion too frequent and to whom Religion would seem too cold if it had not something of the Zeal

in vain for us to think of working upon such as will not be cur'd of the good Opinion they have taken up of themselves who think they are so well endowed by Heaven that they excell all others in Common Sense that they have no Conceptions but what are the Dictates of Reason nor no impressions but what they have received from the Mouth of Truth If the Pagans did so strongly oppose the Gospel and the Knowledge of the TRUE GOD when preached to them who had no other Gods but such as Men had made what resistance may not we expect from them who assume to themselves GOD's own Authority who think they are in possession of all Right and Power both Divine and Humane who imagine that from henceforth to the end of the World all Might is given them in Heaven and on Earth and who under the Name of the Church make all manner of Errors to be applauded and put off their Cheats and Impostures without either fear or shame Princes who could at first have prevented those Abuses tolerated them through what irreligious Prudence I know not whether it was that they wanted Light to discern them or that the Cares of the World and of their Estates obliged them to dissemble their knowledge or whether they were in some sort forced to yield to the Decree of Heaven and could not but in vain oppose themselves against the fulfilling of what the Prophets had foretold Prophecies which having long since represented things to us just as now we see them render so many Doctors inexcusable who through fear or hope held their Peace and with a faithless and unaccountable Silence strengthned that which they might have weakned by a just Contradiction and Opposition Nay they have been observed to be the most industrious in the Defence of that Error which they could once have buried under an Eternal Condemnation CHAP. VIII XXXI THere is no Tyrant that makes himself to be better obey'd than Custom especially in Religion It is so much the more absolute by how much the more it influences and engages the Conscience and out of fear of doing amiss obliges them to continue that homage they have begun to pay to it Which plainly shews that notwithstanding the presumption that attends Men and the good Opinion they have of their own Wit they are for all that for the most part so weak by Nature that one would take their Soul not to be derived from Heaven but purely Animal and to have no other Form than that which Instruction has given it They are so much by ass'd by their Birth Education and Company that the first that possesses them carries them away and does not give them leave to believe any thing but what they have been once perswaded of Therefore I have as much as in me lies separated my self from my self that is to say from those impressions I had received in my Youth I have consider'd them as foreign and remote that so Truth might be the sole Object of my Faith and that Custom in me might exercise no Tyranny over my Reason Besides I always considered that none could say he really was a Man who suffer'd himself to be carried away with the Stream of the World who was not in some measure above the Councils that were given him and had so little courage as not to make use of his own Judgment but yielded it a Slave to Common Errors Yet as most Men approve nothing but what they have been us'd to and judge of every thing according as Custom has render'd it familiar to them so whenever they have contracted any ill habit the Remedy is extreamly difficult because the Faculties are seized and it must be a powerful Endeavour that can deliver them from it They grow up and are formed with certain Impressions which become so con-natural to them that they make up the chief part of their Reason They have been taught no other Science they understand no other Language and unless they be born again or have their Nature chang'd they cannot alter their Belief They do not perceive that instead of standing up for the Truth they undertake the Defence of the first Opinion they have receiv'd without examining whether it be as true as it is favourable and whether it be not grounded upon meer Prejudices specious Pretences Likelihoods Conjectures and Worldly Considerations They don't observe that all Sects pretend the same Advantages that all Heresies have their Followers who defend them with a like Zeal and have their Doctors who think themselves no ways inferior to others whether in Point of Judgment or Learning They do not perceive that they are smoothly carried away by the stream of Self-Love which perswades them that they are very different from others of their kind that they can penetrate things better and that they enjoy the Divine Light whilst others have scarcely that which is Humane According to their saying there is nothing so true nothing so easie to comprehend as that which they believe the Proof of it is clear and evident the Demonstration certain and infallible and he that does not understand it can understand nothing at all Reason is always on their side and Error and Obstinacy the portion of their Adversaries What Blind Fury what Madness what Presumption hinders them from perceiving that those they are so much astonish'd at look upon them with equal astonishment that they appear ridiculous to them they laugh at and that they for whom they make but a shew of pity are really and in good earnest moved with pity towards them Should not they considering the uncertainty of things and the miserable condition of Man's Mind have recourse to universal Maxims and stand firm to the Ordinances of the Supream Law-giver who expresly ferbids to depart therefrom and turn either to the Right or to the Left XXXII But so far are they prepossess'd with what the World offers to them and the Cares of this Life have so blinded their Judgment that they will not enquire about any Principle nor judge that neither Space of Time nor Priviledge of Places nor any manner of Considerations whatsoever can give any prescription against Truth Besides this they are perswaded of their Parents Faith by Domestick Examples by the Numbers and by Antiquity it self which may be attributed to an Error that has insensibly crept-in and by process of time taken encrease and at length grown to such a height and power that those Enemies who have ventur'd to oppose it have been bruis'd or crush'd by it It is a hard thing without doubt for a Man to pronounce a Sentence of Condemnation against his own Country and Prince against his Ancestors Parents and Friends and against his own Teachers But the case here is to rid and undeceive ones self of the Errors of all Human Imaginations to justifie the Truth against the false Testimonies of so many Enemies to cure the diseases of a Dying Life to seek one Sovereign Good and

Felicity and to assent to his Word who says That whosoever loves Father or Mother or any thing else more than him is not worthy of him But for all this they are resolved to follow the Examples of so many Honest Men they alledge not considering that the Turks can at least say as much that the Pagans could say yet more and they had rather keep to those ill chosen Principles than examine the best Doctrine that can be proposed to them Besides they are as it were listed and made Slaves to live and dye under the Tyranny of certain Leaders who pretend they cannot err and say that they have the Spirit of God assisting in their Consistories and directing them in all their Decisions that they are the Commissioners of a Sovereign Court and over and above this know how to reconcile Religion with the Advantages and Pleasures of this World This is a thing they easily suffer themselves to be perswaded of as being more agreeable to their humour and subservient to their Designs They gladly lend an ear to Calumny take delight to see them convinc'd of Error who speak for the Truth which indeed they suspect and dare not so much as cast an Eye towards it lest being taken with its transcendent Beauty they should be oblig'd to follow it and undergo some just severities and hardships which their wilful Humours could never yield to They are willingly ignorant of those Maxims they have no mind to practice as finding some kind of quiet in this Ignorance and are loath to receive a Law how just soever it be that may force their Liberty For the truth is that Afflictions make up a great part of the Profession of the Gospel is enough to deter Worldly Men from it They had rather yield to the swift Stream that carries them along than to row against it They had rather be drousing in a sweet Sleep full of pleasant Dreams than hear their troublesome Voice who awake them only to afflict them O brutish stupidity O visible Obstinacy What must then Vices and Errors that are grown Publick lose their Name and acquire that of Virtue and Wisdom and must Custom have so much Power over Men as to hinder them from being reasonable Creatures But who doubts but that those who are by the Scripture said to be Drunk are so far depriv'd of their Senses and Judgment as to take Falshood for Truth and not to perceive what their Eyes see Who doubts but that they are like those People who had so used themselves to Poison that at last it served them instead of Food XXXIII In the mean time they have reduced all Religion to Human Traditions and Superstitions Neither Reason nor Understanding are once call'd in to give their Verdict in the case and I do not know by what Error or how it is come to pass that most Men who are curious of all other Sciences do not so much as inquire into that which is the most necessary They with the Barbarians have no other Knowledge of GOD but such as is obscure idle empty fruitless and dead and had they been born among the Turks they would have been of the same Belief with them having nothing but an Acquired Faith that depends only upon Tradition which never saved any Man This Faith they have in common both with the Devils and wicked Men who as well as they confess that God is Almighty that he has created the World and sent his Son the whole Mystery of whose Birth Life and Death they believe and yet must not pretend to have any share in his Kingdom and Glory It is a thing that deserves both our Pity and our Horror to see the indiscreet zeal of a People who pray they know not what who feed themselves with Shews and suffer themselves to be led away by such Teachers as make them thirst more after their Neighbour's Blood than his Salvation A People imposed upon and deluded with vain Things who fancy God is better pleased in one Place than in another and who go to seek among Strangers what they might as well find in the midst of themselves An ignorant and unthinking People that without considering what they do under the Gospel revive Judaism in direct opposition to the Word which saith That the hour is come when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth What can Places or Pilgrimages conduce to this Or all those Religious Services which are valued only for their Number not for their Quality and the performance whereof is imposed neither out of Piety nor Faith but as certain Tasks they put upon themselves and certain Numbers which they attribute some Virtue to and do affect much after the same manner as Magicians do Devotions full of Superstition Scruples and Jealousies as of Men that are afraid to know the Truth and to whom the Light is hurtful who conceive nothing of the true Religion but what is told them by the very Enemies of it who can entertain nothing better for it than hatred and calumny always representing it in the most hideous shape they can imagine Indeed it is an easie matter to perswade them any thing who have already been perswaded to that blind Obedience to which they give their consent with as much Unmanliness and Senselessness as if they should say I will be stupid I will be sensible of nothing For if once they say they will follow the Church they contradict themselves and own that they will follow what they know Now how many things must a Man know to be able to discern the false Church from the true To what purpose is Blind Obedience in them whom God has endu'd with Reason and after that given them his Ordinances with an express Command to Parents to teach their Children the same and to all to search the Scriptures which alone plainly shew the Way to the Kingdom of Heaven But how should those instruct others who are so ill instructed themselves who for a just Punishment for worshipping things inanimate are struck with such a prodigious hardness that to ask them for Advice or Answers would be the same as to consult Marble XXXIV Ye Blind don't you perceive that you lose your Senses only by applying your selves too much to things insensible Don't you see that Reason it self makes you inferior to the Object of your Adoration and that your wicked inclinations have made you less then the Work of your own hands O ye Fools leave Puppets and Babies for Children they are ridiculous for an Age that can exert Reason Ye are no less guilty than the Atheists for with them you annihilate the Deity when you fix the form thereof to any Matter whatsoever and when you represent Him who is a Spirit by a piece of Wood or Stone notwithstanding that he has said with so much jealousie To what will ye liken me Thus you rashly make him that has made you and through an unaccountable insolence and ingratitude