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	faith_n	fundamental_a	1,746	5	10.1277	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45158	Cases of conscience practically resolved containing a decision of the principall cases of conscience of daily concernment and continual use amongst men : very necessary for their information and direction in these evil times / by Jos. Hall.	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.	1654 (1654)	Wing H371; ESTC R30721	128,918	464

by the Church to be believed are fundamentall A large ground-work of faith Doubtlesse the Church hath defined all things contained in the scripture to be believed and theirs which they call Catholick hath defined all those Traditionall points which they have added to the Creed upon the same necessity of salvation to be believed now if all these be the foundation which is the building what an imperfect fabrick doe they make of Christian Religion all foundation no walls no roofe Surely it cannot without too much absurdity be denied that there is great difference of Truthes some more important than others which could not be if all were alike fundamentall If there were not some speciall Truthes the beliefe whereof makes and distinguisheth a Christian the Authors of the Creede Apostolick besides the other Symboles received anciently by the Church were much deceived in their aime He therefore that believes the holy Scriptures which must be a principle presupposed to be inspired by God and as an abstract of the chiefe particulars thereof professeth to believe and embrace the Articles of the Christian faith to regulate his life by the law of Gods commandements and his devotion by the rule of Christ prescribed and lastly to acknowledge and receive the Sacraments expresly instituted by Christ doubtlesse this man is by profession a Christian and cannot be denyed to hold the foundation and whosoever shall wilfully impugne any of these comes within the verge of Heresie wilfully I say for meere error makes not an heretick if out of simplicity or grosse ignorance a man shall take upon him to maintaine a contradiction to a point of faith being ready to relent upon better light he may not be thus branded eviction and contumacy must improve his error to be hereticall The Church of Rome therefore hath beene too cruelly-liberall of her censures this way having bestow'd this livery upon many thousand Christians whom God hath owned for his Saints and upon some Churches more Orthodoxe than her selfe presuming upon a power which was never granted her from heaven to state new articles of faith and to excommunicate and barre all that shall dare to gainsay her oracles Whereas the great Doctor of the Gentiles hath told us from the spirit of God that there is but one Lord one faith one baptisme Ephes. 4. 5. and what faith is that S. Jude tells us Iude 3. The faith that was once delivered the Saints so that as well may they make more reiterations of Baptisme and multiplicities of Lords as more faiths than one some explications there may be of that one faith made by the Church upon occasion of new-sprung errours but such as must have their grounds from fore-written truths and such as may not extend to the condemnation of them whom God hath left free new articles of faith they may not be nor binde farther than God hath reached them Hereticks then they are and onely they that pertinaciously raze the foundation of the Christian faith what now must be done with them surely first if they cannot be reclaimed they must be avoided It is the charge of the beloved Disciple to the elect Lady 2 John v. 10. If any man come unto you and bring not that is by an ordinary Hebraisme opposes this doctrine receive him not into your houses neither bidde him God speede But the Apostle of the Gentiles goes yet higher sor writing to Titus the great Super-intendent of Crete his charge is Tit. 3. 10. A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject Now when wee compare the charge with the person we cannot but finde that this rejection is not a meer negative act of refraining company but a positive act of censure so as he who had power to admonish had also power to reject in an authoritative or judicatory way He sayes then Devita reject or avoid not as Erasmus too truly but bitterly scoffes the Romish practise De vita tolle This of killing the heretick as it was out of the power of a spirituall supervisor so was it no lesse farre from the thoughts of him that desired to come in the spirit of meekness Fagots were never ordained by the Apostle for arguments to confute Hereticks this bloudy Logick and Divinity was of a much later brood and is for a Dominick not a Paul to owne for certainely faith is of the same nature with love it cannot be compelled perswasions may move it not force These intellectuall sinnes must look for remedies of their owne kinde But if either they be as it is often accompanied with damnable blasphemies against God whether in his essence or attributes or the three incomprehensible persons in the all-glorious Deity or the blessed mediator betwixt God and man Jesus Christ in either of his natures or else shall be attended with the publique disturbances and dangerous distempers of the Kingdome or State wherein they are broached the Apostle's wish is but seasonable in both a spiritual and a bodily sense Gal. 5. 12. Would to God those were cut off that trouble you In the mean time for what concernes your selfe if you know any such as you love God and your soules keepe aloofe from them as from the pestilence Epiphanius well compares heresie to the biting of a mad dog which as it is deadly if not speedily remedied so it is withall dangerously infectious not the tooth onely but the very foame of that envenomed beast carries death in it you cannot be safe if you avoid it not CASE VI. Whether the lawes of men doe binde the Conscience and how far we are tyed to their obedience BOth these extreames of opinion concerning this point must needs bring much mischiefe upon Church and Kingdome Those that absolutely hold such a power in humane lawes make themselves slaves to men Those that deny any binding power in them run loose into all licentiousnesse Know then that there is a vast difference betwixt these two To bind the conscience in any act and to bind a man in conscience to do or omit an act Humane laws cannot do the first of them the latter they may and must doe To binde the conscience is to make it guilty of a sin in doing an act forbidden or omitting an act injoyned as in it selfe such or making that act in it selfe an acceptable service to God which is commanded by men Thus humane lawes cannot bind the conscience It is God onely 1 John 3. 21. who as he is greater than the Conscience so hath power to binde or loose it Esay 31. 22. It is he that is the onely Law giver to the Conscience Jam. 4. 12. Princes and Churches may make lawes for the outward man but they can no more binde the heart than they can make it In vain is that power which is not inabled with coertion now what coertion can any humane power claim of the heart which it can never attain to know the spirit of man therefore is subject onely to the father

wine save onely at Gods Table or a man that findes himselfe apt to be miscarryed by his appetite confines himselfe by his vow to one dish or to one meale for the day or a man that findes himself given to the pleasure of gaming to the losse of his time and the weakning of his estate curbes himselfe by his vow never to play for money or a man that findes his prayers weak and his flesh rebellious vowes to tame his unruly desires and to stir up his duller devotions by fasting And as the matter of your vow must be carefully regarded so also your intentions in vowing for if you vow to doe good to an ill end your thanke is lost and danger of judgement incurred as if you vow to give almes for vaine-glory or ostentation or if God shall prosper your usurious or monopolizing project you will build an hospitall your vow is like to be so accepted as the story tells us the prayers were of that bold Curtizan who coming to the shrine of S. Thomas of Canterbury as that traitour was stiled devoutly beg'd that through the intercession of that Saint she might be graced with so winning a beauty that might allure her paramours to a gainfull courting of so pleasing a Mistresse when suddainly as my author tells me she was stricken blinde and certainely so it might well be for if a supposed Saint were invoked it was God that was highly provoked by the sinfull petition of a shamelesse harlot and it was most just for him to revenge it and so we may well expect it shall be with whosoever shall dare to make use of his sacred name to their owne wicked or unwarrantable purposes Since therefore our vowes must be for their matter as Casuists well determine De meliore bono and for intentions holy and directed onely to good it plainly appeares that many idle purposes promises resolutions are wont to passe with men for vows which have no just claime to that holy title One sayes he vowes never to be friends with such a one that hath highly abused him another that he will never come under the roofe of such an unkinde neighbour one that he will drinke so many healths to his honoured friend another that he will not give the wall or the way to any passenger one that he will never weare suit but of such a colour another that he will never cut his haire till such an event These and such like may be foolish unjust ridiculous selfe engagements but vowes they are not neither therefore do bind the conscience otherwise than as Sampsons cords and withes which he may break as a thred of tow Iudg. 16. 9. 12. But as for true vowes certainly they are so binding that you shall sin hainously in not performing them It is not better than dishonesty to fail in what we have promised to men but to disappoint God in our vowes is no lesse than sacriledge That of Solomons is weighty Eccles. 5. 4 5 6. When thou vowest a vow unto God deferre not to pay it for he hath no pleasure in fooles pay that which thou hast vowed Better it is that thou shouldst not vow than that thou shouldst vow and not pay it Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin neither say before the Angel that it was an errour wherefore should God be angry at thy vow and destroy the worke of thine hands If therefore a lawfull and just vow have passed your lips you may not be false to God and your selfe in not keeping it But if it shall so fall out that there proves to be some maine inconvenience or impossibility in the fulfilling of this your solemne promise unto God whether through the extreme prejudice of your health and life or the over-swaying difficulty of the times what is to be done surely as under the law Numb 30. 3 4 5. it was left in the power of the parent to over-rule the vow of the childe so I doubt not but under the Gospel it is left in the power of your spirituall fathers to order or dispense with the performance of those vowes which you would but cannot well fulfill neither was it spoken in vaine nor in matter of sins onely which our Saviour in way of authorization said to his Apostles and their successours Whatsoever ye shall binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Mat. 18. 18 In this case therefore I should advise you to make your addresse to your spirituall pastor and freely to lay open your condition before him and humbly to submit your selfe to his fatherly directions in that course which shall be found best and sasest for your soule Think it not safe in a businesse of so high nature to relye upon your owne judgment and to carve out your own satisfaction but regard carefully what God hath said of old The priests lippes should keep knowledge and they should seeke the law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts Mal. 2. 7. CASE V. Whom may we justly hold an Heretick and what is to be done in the case of Heresie THere is no one point wherein the Church of God hath suffered more than in the mis-understanding of this question How many thousand innocents have in these latter ages of the Church perished in this unhappy quarrell yea how many famous Churches have beene most unjustly thunder-struck with direfull censures of Excommunication down to the pit of hell upon pretence of this crime which have bin lesse guilty than their Anathematizers And even amongst our selves how apt we are to brand one another with this hatefull mark where there is no true merit of such a reproach It much imports us therefore to know who may be deservedly thus stigmatized by us I have elsewhere somewhat largely insisted on this theme whither I might spare some lines to referre you But in short thus To let passe the originall sense and divers acceptions of the word An heresie is no other than an obstinate errour against the foundation All truths are precious but some withall necessary All errours are faulty but some damnable the naynousnesse of the error is according to the worth of the truth impugned There are Theologicall verities fit for us to know and believe there are Articles of Christian faith needfull to be known and believed There are truths of meet and decent superstructure without which the fabrick may stand there are truths of the foundation so essentiall as that without them it cannot stand It is a maime to the house if but a tile be pulled off from the roofe but if the foundation be razed the building is overthrown this is the endeavour and act of heresie But now the next question will be what doctrines they are which must be accounted to be of the Foundation Our countrey-man Fisher the Jesuite and his Associates wil tell you roundly that all those things which are defined