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	gospel_n	great_a	1,658	5	3.2008	3	false

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

narration almost exceeds belief The son of this Marianus was Alexander the elder the grandchild Marianus the yonger the Great-grandchildren Alexander and Laelius the one as we said the father the other the Unkle of our Faustus Both of them for greatness of wit and endowments of Learning exceeding famous but to whom that of the Poet may justly be applyed These to the earth the Fates will only show Causing them presently away to go For Alexander having a marvellous sharpness of wit together with a Divine memory and excellent Eloquence had scarce fulfilled the one and thirtieth yeer of his age but he was suddenly snatched away to the great grief of all Italy And Laelius having in a short race of life performed very great matters exceeded not the seven and thirtieth yeer of his age The memory of this man I judge worthy to be exceedingly admired by posterity who in so short a space as he lived not only smelt-out so many grievous errors which had privily crept into the Church but pulling them out of their very holes first shewed the way how to kill them He being by his Father Marianus put upon that study which was hereditary to his name thought that the knowledge of humane Laws was to be setched out of the very fountains of Gods Law To which purpose whilst he diligently turned-over the sacred volumes he without difficulty found that very many of those Doctrines of the Church which are commonly received are quite opposite to the Divine Testimonies And that so much the more easily because most of them are also repugnant to Reason and such principles as Nature it self hath implanted in us Inasmuch therefore as the height of his excellent wit and sharpness of his judgement was accompanyed with a singular probity of mind having detected the errors of the Church he did not as the greatest part do abuse them to the contempt of the Scripture and Religion but rather used the authority of the Scripture and of the Christian Religion to heal the diseases of the Church which could not be cured unless the errors were detected Wherefore in that study to which his sublime and pious mind was carryed with inflamed speed a great light not without the Divine Assistance suddenly brake out unto him especially because to fetch out the senses of the Scripture he brought with him the knowledge of the Oriental Tongues the Hebrew and Greek chiefly and also the Arabick Whether therefore it were for fear of danger as it is likely or that he might more exactly study purer Divinity and the Tongues he soon passed out of Italy into Switzerland and Germany He left his country very young not being above one and twenty yeeers old In the next four yeers having travelled over France Britanny Belgium all Germany and Poland he took up his dwelling at Zurich Whereupon although he were often drawn away with publicke and private affairs yet did he spend the chiefest part of his exile there being endeared to sundry Princes in all parts and favoured also by certain Kings There was not a noted Scholar in that time then which none ever abounded more with learned men but he had by his carriage won not onely his friendship but his samiliarity also Whereby it came to pass that the inbred goodness of his judgement was accompanyed with a singular prudence and sweetness of behaviour Which endowments are acknowledged in him as by very many other famous men so chiefly by Philip Melanchton in his commendatory Letters which he wrote to him as he was departing And indeed what correspondence was between him and the most renowned men of that age chiefly Calvin Melanchthon Bullinger Brentius Musculus Munster Zanchius Vergerius Castellio Beza Martyr Ochinus Coeleus and sundry others their frequent Letters unto him do testifie the coppies whereof in a great number have come to our hands He did not more desire to enjoy their friendship for the safe-guard of his fortune then to make use of the same to the benefit of the Church Wherefore he did by his questions much urge and exercise those redoubted Doctors of then-flourishing Divinty I have a Letter written with Calvins own hand wherein he openly professeth that he was put into choler by him and in stead of an answer sends him back a check and threatning It is not fit saith he that you should expect untill I answer those portentous questions which you object If you are disposed to fly through those aiery speculations I beseech you suffer me an bumble Disciple of Christ to meditate on such things as tend to the edification of my faith And indeed I will by my silence gain what I desire nam●ly that you be not henceforth troublesome to me Now that so gallant a wit as the Lord hath bestowed on you should not only be unprofitably taken-up with slight matters but also corrupted with pernicious figments is a very great grief What I not long since testified I again seriously warn you of that if you do not timously correct this itch of enquiring it is to be feared you will draw on your self great torments Should I under a shew of indulgence cherish such a vice as I know to be very hurtful I should be perfidious and cruel towards you Wherefore I had either you should be a little offended with my roughness then be drawn away with the sweet allurements of curiosity beyond all recovery The time will come I hope when you will rejoyce that you were so boisterously awakened Jan. 1. 1552. Yours John Calvin Neither was the truth of his threatning either uncertain or contemptible For in the moneth of October the next yeer Servetus was burned at Geneva Nevertheless the gravity of Laelius and his incredible modesty in the greatest endowments of learning and wit together with his dexterity of carriage had so disarmed the anger of those that were in a chafe that they did not endure to hate the man although otherwise they could not brook his freedome Which thing may teach them whom over-much freedom of truth betrayeth into needless dangers that that very Truth which they maintain is more secured by the circumspect mildness of prudence then by unbridled zeal So that they who of their own accord meet dangers seem to make greater hast to their own praise then to the advancement of the publike good And certainly if there be any this is the place where the simplicity of the Dove is to be mingled with the subtilty of the Serpent unless we suspect the counsel of our Saviour condemning their unadvised rashness who oftentimes have very bad success in casting-down their pearles where they cannot be estimated according to their worth The truth is Laelius remained entire and inviolate amongst the capital enemies of his opinion Yet did he not suffer the sense of his judgement to perish within the closet of his conscience Wherefore to those whom he liked he feared not to entrust the things that had been discovered to him by God But

undertook to repell with his wit the incursion of divers Adversaryes who then infested those Churches And first of all he received the charge of Andreas Volanus by refelling his Paraenesis and upon the same occasion at the request of Niemojevius the seventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans was explained Afterwards it pleased him to assail Jacobus Palaeologus whose reputation and Authority did at that time cherish the relicks of pernicious errors in men otherwise well-minded Him being somewhat roughly handled not out of hatred but advice he alwayes excused A little after when Volanus had renewed the fight he was again encountred and withall an Answer made to the Positions of the College of Ponsa Whilest Socinus undergoeth so much fighting and hatred for the patronage of the truth amongst so many enemies there wanted not some Calumniators Stephanus was then King of Poland A Pickthank blows his ears with the report of a book written against the Magistrate adding that it would be a very dishonorable thing to suffer a wandring Italian exile to escape scotfree with so bold an enterprise He hinted at the book against Palaeologus Which though it required no other testimony of its innocency then the reading yet did he think good to decline the danger Whereupon he departed from Cracovia where he had now lived four yeers to a Noble man named Christophorus Morstinus Lord of Pawlicovia in which place he defended his innocency not so much by skulking as by the Privilege of Nobility in our Nation For that suburb-farm is a few miles distant from Cracovia It seemed a wiser course to cleer himself from the crimes laid to his charge rather out of that place then out of prison Nor was he entertained in that hospitable house for that nick of time onely but there cherished for above three yeers And to the end that the curtesie shewed to an exile and stranger might be more abundant a little while after the daughter of the family a noble Virgin was at his suit given him in marriage so that being of a stranger become a son-in-law he seemed to have established his security in those places by affinities and friendships Whilest he lived in the countrey he wrote many notable pieces and chiefly that against Eutropius constantly defending the fame and cause of that Church which had with most unjust prejudice condemned him and caused him though innocent continually to suffer many indignityes His daughter Agnes was born to him in the yeer of our Lord 1587 and forty eighth of his age of whom being after her fathers death marryed to Stanislaus Wiszowatius a Polonian Knight there are as yet remaining nephews and nieces In September the same yeer he lost his wife Elizabeth which sad and disastrous chance was followed with a grievour fit of bodily sickness so obstinate that for certain moneths it caused the use of his studyes to cease And that no kind of calamity might be wanting almost about the same time by the death of Franciscus the Grand Duke of Tuscany the revenues of his estate which he received yeerly out of Italy were quite taken away from him Indeed a little before by the bitterness of Accusers and threats of Popes his estate came into danger But by the strenuous endeavour of Isabella Medicea the Grand Dukes sister who was marryed to the aforesaid Paulus Jordanus Vrsinus whilest she lived and afterwards by the favour of Franciscus the Grand Duke it came to pass that during his life Socinus received the yeerly income of his estate For indeed his old deserts were still so fresh in memory that those Princes though long since forsaken and oftentimes rejected did yet in a most difficult matter gratifie the letters and prayers of a condemned and exiled person Yea letters full of curtesie were sent unto him and he bidden to be of good chear for the future as long as they lived so that in setting forth books he suffered not his name to appear But those Princes were then taken away by a destiny disastrous to Socinus And that all things might seem to have conspired to the perplexity of the man being a widower sick and stripped of all his fortunes he was molested with the very times of our Commonwealth which were then exceeding turbulent because divers did contend who should be the King of Poland so that the adversaryes thereupon took greater license to themselves Socinus was now returned to Cracovia and sought solace in the midst of so many evils from the employment which God had imposed on him to purge the Church of such errors as were then rife in her Wherefore although he had been formerly accustomed to frequent Ecclesiastical Assemblies yet in the yeer 1588 in the Synod of Breste which is a Town on the borders of Lituania he disputed with greater earnestness and fruit then before touching the death and Sacrifice of Christ touching our Justification touching the Corrupted Nature of Man and finally with the Davidians and Budneists touching the Invocation of Jesus Christ This was the yeer wherein the care and charge of the Church at Luclavicia was committed to Petrus Sto●nius son to Petrus Statoriu● of Tho●●ville whose family having heretofore been naturalised into the Nobili-of our Nation hath even at this day some men surviving who have been invested with great Honors in our countrey He being no less sharp in judgement then ready in speech being once admitted into the friendship of Socinus yielded willingly to his Opinion A little before also he had privately drawn many of the chief ones into his Opinion and there was daily an accession made of such men as complyed with them Nevertheless certain men of very great authority still stood off as Niemojevius and Czechovicius together with the greatest part of the ancient Ministers The report is that Securinius was the first that adventured openly to maintain the Tenets of Socinus to which he had assented Not long after others followed Which party was exceedingly strengthened by the accession of the three Lubjenecii Andreas Stanislaus and Christophorus who being brethren of noble descent and born to very great hopes and brought up partly in the Kings Court partly in the society of the greatest Peers were by a sacred instinct transported from the midst of the allurements of this life to the care of Religion These men as they had by a most enflamed zeal trodden under foot all the impediments of piety so with an equal candor and greatness of mind they subscribed to the known Truth And now others of the pastors came-in a vye to the party especially the juniors who were less retarded with the prejudice of inveterate opinion and authority and that by reason of an accident very notable for the newness thereof which gave a memorable proof how great the force of the Truth is Amidst a great jarring of Opinions this was a laudable agreement of that Church that those men contended only with arguments and not with hatred And though they detested one anothers

what with so many letters what with so many private and publike disputations what with so many informations of them who were in all places the Interpreters of his mind what with so many long journeys most of them from the utmost border of Silesia to the midst of Lituania what with the loss of health fame and fortunes what finally with the hazard of his life That very thing which had been the only solace to sustain him in the midst of so great labours and perils did he continually inculcate to the whole Church as the only remedy to lead a holy life namely a continual hope of Immortality which he thought was to be carefully and delicately cherished So that when a certain old man shewed a tomb built for himself in token of piety saying that he did perpetually meditate on death Socinus replyed that he would do more rightly if he did meditate on the reason of the Resurrection Certainly his prudence shined-forth in all the parts of his life but chiefly in his judgment of spiritual things and was as it were a certain fruit of his humility and his modesty a vertue so inbred and peculiar to his nature that in other vertues he may seem to have vyed with others in this with himself He never despised any man never attempted any thing but with advice and circumspection In his very studyes also he was so far from all self-confidence that he never assayed to write any thing but what had been concocted with long and mature meditation And this may easily be discerned in his works How often did he go very gingerly through those rough wayes which others would have securely trodden So that no man seemeth to have distrusted anothers wit as he did his own Which as we have said was then the reward and now the token of his singular modesty But especially his faith did much shine-forth amongst other praises None in the memory of men was better furnished with all helps whereby we ascend to fame and wealth and the highest pitch of this life nature fortune and finally industry had emulously accumulated nobility of stock splendor of friendships grace of Princes liberal means health wit eloquence learning and a natural reach capable of the greatest matters Obedience to the call of God and the pledge of truth entrusted to him cost him the loss of so great priviledges It was a small matter to have forsaken so many pledges of the greatest hope had he not also as a sacrifice devoted to the publike hatred wittingly and willingly exposed himself to infinite miseryes want hazards enmityes universal contempt reproches contumelyes to an execrable memory of his name in all places Nor indeed looked he for anyother reward at present or shortly after His wishes reached beyond the bounds of his life yea beyond the race of the present age and his hope was so truly erected towards heaven that it rested on no prop of earthly solace I detract not from the praises due to the merits of other men each of them hath his proper honor Yet will I by their good leave say that some famous men have perhaps made an attempt at so sublime a proof of faith but I cannot tell whether any one hath reached it For the greatest part wanted not helps whereby their vertue was soon relieved so that they were not long God's creditors The magnanimity of Luther and others was quickly entertained with the applause and affections of Princes and peoples How many others otherwise poor and obscure were by the maintenance of God's cause advanced to riches and power whom nevertheless this vicissitude doth not exclude from the praise of faith if that which was the cause of their advancement did grow up to maturity together with them But they cannot easily be admitted into this number who even with the great detriment of their estates espouse the cause of God whether truly such or pretended being now in a flourishing condition and come to maturity For they have what to hope-for on the earth even without respect to heaven and in the expectation of such present rewards you cannot alwayes easily discern whether they repose greater confidence in God then in their own industry But Laelius and Faustus men of so great judgement and so great knowledge and experience of the age wherein they lived what solace could they promise themselves in the earth whilest they lived yea in the next ensuing age for so many labours and dangers having professed such tenets as were set-off with no pomp of authority no engagement of parties no connivency at a more dissolute life yea no other blandishment whatsoever but were rather distastful and odious unto all by reason of their austerity Certainly I can here espy no crevice of earthly hope which may detract a whit from the praise of a most noble faith which how great soever it was being excluded out of all the earth was mounted up to heaven and there conversed with the clemency of God alone Ignatius also that I may omit others in the memory of our fathers contemned his countrey kindred wealth honors and other allurements and also underwent many labours and dangers of his own accord having professed a zeal to Gods glory and the warfare of faith I slight not the greatness of mind which shewed it self in him or some like to him For neither did they hasten unto glory through such a way as was altogether pleasant Nevertheless I do not yet here behold that difficult proof of a more noble faith which we seek for I assume not so much to my self nor is it at present very material as to pronounce sentence concerning the purpose of any ones mind which will at length be performed by an infallible Judge Wherefore I regard not what Ignatius had in his mind since for the present business it is sufficient what he might have T is true he saw the Popes affaires in some provinces afflicted but could not be ignorant that in most or at least in the more powerful ones and consequently in his countrey and where he intended to fix his abode they were well established and flourishing Who would affirm that the immense rewards which that Church presently repayeth to her defenders were unknown to Ignatius Certainly the spur of glory is very sharp in generous minds Wheresoever an illustrious field of glory is opened not only pleasures and riches become sordid in comparison thereof but very life it self is vilifyed And therefore even Martyrdomes are easily undergone for a prosperous and rich Church without a more noble proof of religious faith nor consequently can they deserve more admiration then those brave Lads of Canna and Trebia who were born for the Punick times or if you like not the common souldiery then Codrus who feared not to dye for his countrey Indeed whosoever hath sought after Eternity of name in the Church of Rome did wisely chuse a race for his glory For the Roman Commonwealth heretofore although she grew great by