Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	call_v	church_n	word_n	4,868	5	4.3217	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69047	A dialogue betwixt Cosmophilus and Theophilus anent the urging of new ceremonies upon the kirke of Scotland	Calderwood, David, 1575-1650, attributed name.; Murray, John, 1575?-1632, attributed name.	1620 (1620)	STC 4355; ESTC S114406	21,825	48

Cosm. in going awayward to Rome to meet them but who sees that they have any mind to meet you mid-way Ye think to draw them to you but ye have chosen the wrong cords their own ceremonies by the which they will draw you neerer to their Babel then ye shal do them to your Ierusalem And if they seem to draw neere to you by such means ye had need to beware of Iudas kiss that is treachery cruelty under the cloke of hypocrisie Cosm. Ye are too much afraid for so few honest innocent ceremonies the peaceable receving wherof wil make you quit of the cumber of any moe Theoph. It is not your word or vote will cleanse them they have been so oft convict condemned and to receive one ceremonie is to receive all For they are not loose bnt linked as in a chain so inseparably that draw one draw all It is but your policie to let some few that look most smoothly appeare to hide the rest which wil follow hard on Cosm. Let alone Theoph. trouble not your selfe your shallow wit cannot conceive the draught of so deep wisedome Theoph. It may wel be a deep wit but it seems to be no divine wisedom to trouble the peace of so vvell a constitute Kirk by intruding such idle ceremonies as if there were worth in them to countervaile the meanest point of that peace Surely even an approved politick wit would be loath to make such an interchange seeing any one of the least points of the peace of Christs Kirk is worth all your gracelesse and peacelesse ceremonies Cos. Now I desire to have your particular answer severally first for the authority of our Kirk Have not the conclusions of that late assembly holden at Perth credit to take away all scruples and to satisfie your conscience anent the receiving and practising of these formes Theoph. Certainly they have not Cosm. for it is Scripture and not Kirk-conclusions which settles and satisfies the conscience As for that Assembly the unlawfull constitution the violent and posted proceeding and the crafty closing of it wel enough known to all declares those conclusions to have been rather collusions and delusions Cosm. What meanes the man Doth the credit of that reverend Assembly weigh so light in the ballance of your braine Theoph. I am not speaking fantasie Cosm. but verity I wil put in bellance with that unlawful assembly which was so divided in judgement and consent all the former worthy and well constitute Assemblies for the space of moe then a Iubile of yeares consenting in one minde and mouth Then let a constant and conscientious hand hold it and ye shal sensibly perceive how light and little worth your one is in reducing these superstitious formes in respect of the weight and worth of all those in removing them Cosm. Wel Theoph. ye should not reason against the Acts of an Assembly nor set your selfe as a Iudge to censure them and your superiours Theoph. Ye see Cosm. it is not I but many godly and grave Assemblies reason against one pretended assembly and doe justly chalenge it of levity and perjurie for restoring those so deservedly forefalted Romish rites Farther ye know that how sever the Lords injunctiōs are to be receved without questioning yet the ordinances of the Kirk are presented to us not with the necessity of beleeving but with the liberty of judging For albeit the judgment of jurisdiction to censure belongs not to me yet I should have the judgement of discretion to satisfie my conscience by the warrant of the word in all poynts of obedience to my superiours Cosm. Say what you please Theoph. against that Assembly it wil stand and the decrees of it wil have place ay and while they be reduced Theoph. Stand as it wil Cosm. to the formalist it shal not stand in my conscience neither shal the decrees thereof have place in my practise neither should it or the decrees thereof stand to others seeing both it and they stand against all good order and the wholsome doctrine of the word The good people perceive this and therfore they skar and skunner with the iniquity and vanity of the conclusions therof Where before they did ever willingly subiect themselves to the constitutions of our ancient Assemblies because they evidently saw the equity and the utility of the conclusions and lawful manner of their proceedings Cos It seemes then Theoph. ye mind to play the schismatike and make a separation seeing ye● mean not to stand to the judgement of our Kirk Theoph. Your kirk Cosm. what doe you call your selves a kirk are ye comparing a kirk scarse cropen out of the cradle and a cripple halting kirk with a kirk so ancient so honorable and indued with such vvisedome and prudence by long and manifold experience which studied carefully to walke ever uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel As for schisme or separation it seems ye vvot not vvhat they meane For in the unitie both of judgement and practise we yet stand with the kirk wherein we were baptised and brought up and vvhereunto we gaue our right hand of fellowship and band of fidelitie which being broken by you ye may justlie bee called schismatikes both from this Kirk and from your selves also seeing ye have broken down the beautiful walles of our Ierusalem and have re-edified the cursed walles of Iericho Ye have built a Kirk to your self standing upon thritten rotten pillars but painted with ceremonial colours all of the workmanship of Rome Cosm. Now let me heare Theoph. what ye can say particularlie to the kings authoritie may he not lawfullie enjoyn these things Theo. Not Cosm. seeing beside that which hath been sayd alreadie they want the warrant of the word and ye know that the book of the law of God should lye ever open before his eyes to lead him in every point and appointment of any thing within the bounds of his authoritie that concerns the work of God and his holie vvorship Coms See ye not Theoph. the credit of his royall authoritie engaged to the advancement of these errands Theoph. I see it not Cos. for it was the credit and commendations of the good and godly Kings of Iuda to root out and remove Idolatry and all the monuments thereof from among Gods people and by the contrary a discredit and dispraise to those who either planted permitted or reduced them Cosm. But is he not a Prince wise learned and religious without a peere this day living upon the face of the earth who would bee loath to doe any thing but that which is lawful Theoph. I acknowledge he is and so was David a most worthy Prince and Prophet too yet he needed a Nathan both to draw him to repentance and to direct him in things concerning the house of God Cosm. There is not a minister Theoph. within his dominions yea joyn them all together that knoweth so well what belongs to the house of God as he doth Theoph. It may

call ye the bands of their fidelity Theoph. Their oath and their subscription to that confession of faith which two do bind us also which are professors Cosm. O but these bonds may be loosed Theoph. I confesse they may be violently broken but lawfully loosed they cannot be For an oath is the strongest bond that the tongue can make and subscription is the strongest bond that the hand can make If ye breake these bonds tell me what shall bind a man Cosm I tell you Theoph. our superiours King and Church may loose them Theoph. No Cosmophile that may they not For both consented yea and by their authority presented this confession and urged these bonds on all binding first themselves then others to hold fast their profession according to that confession during all the dayes of their life So the bands of the grave must bind al before we can be loosed frō these bonds Indeed Cosmophile there is harder and faster knots in them then ye consider of namely in the band of the oath Cosm. What be these I pray you Theophile Theoph. In that band there is a double and indissoluble knot The one the perswasion of the truth The other the promise for the truth In the former the takers of the oath solemnly professed their perswasion wrought in their hearts by Gods spirit through his word of the undoubted truth of that religion doctrine and discipline professed in the Kirke of Scotland at that time and after to be continued therein and by the contrary the detestation of all false religion Papistry and all the particular poynts thereof as they were then condemned by our kirk In the latter they solemnly promised to maintaine defend prof●sse and practise that true religion in all the poynts thereof and to abhorre and detest the contrary Cosm. It is true Theophile that band and the knots thereof holds fast upon the substantialll poynts of religion doctrine and discipline which a●e unchangeable but not so upon the changeable rites and ceremonies about them Theoph. Surely Cosmophile the matter of the oath and all the particulars thereof are like a holy Taber●acle so joyntly and soundly compacted and knit together that the loosing of one pin bring●th perrill to shake all loose So albeit some might seem to be indifferent in themselves severally and apart considered yet ye must not thinke it 〈◊〉 thing indifferent to single and pick out the small pinnes of it as yee account them at your pleasure lest all as is like this day fall downe about your eares Cosm. But will you consider Theophile that your formes and ceremonies for the which and ours against the which yee stand have not entred in that oath being but things indifferent Theoph. Yes but they have Cosmophile for in it ours in generall termes are included and yours excluded and abjured Farther this oath is relative and hath respect to the former confession bookes of discipline and acts of assemblies By the which particularly and expresly our formes were received ratified and passed under practise as agreeable to Christs ordinance and yours rejected and debarred out of our Kirk as Antichristian rites Cosm. That oath Theophile so farre as it concerned these outward and alterable formes or the like was but indefinite and conditionall that is such formes as it should please the Church for the time to appoynt continue or change according to that power and libertie she did professe herselfe in sundry acts of assemblies to have over such indifferent things Theoph. It was both determinate and absolute Cosmophile even in these formes and such was the mind of our Kirk at that time which as I sayd in the former answer received ours and rejected yours So that her Profession of her power in the change of things indifferent extends not to their formes which are so particularly and by name excepted and the great seale of that solemne promise set upon the continuance in reteining of the one and in outholding and withstanding of the other Cosm. I think Theophile that was an unadvised Oath in respect of these indifferent formes which should not be made the subject of an Oath seeing they are so subject to changes Theoph. I think Cosmophile ye are evill advised to condemne so wise and worthy a Kirk consisting both of preachers and professors of all estates in an errand of so great importance as if they had not known nor keeped these inseparable conditions of a lawfull oath which the Lord himselfe expressed Ierem. 4. 2. That an oath should bee in Truth and so not false in Iudgement or discrerion and so not rash In Justice and so not unrighteous or unequitable The first and last respect chiefly the matter of a lawfull oath and the mid the manner Now that this oath was given in truth and to the truth it is cleare because they swore their resolution and perswasion of the truth of these heades contained therein That it was given in judgement not rashly or unadvisedly as yee say it is cleare by the words of the confession where it is sayd that after long and due examination of their conscience being throughly resolved in the trueth by the word and Spirit of God they gave it That it was given in justice it is cleare because all the particulars they swore too were and are agreeable to GODS word serving for the edification of the Kirke and overthrow of the kingdome of Sathan and of his eldest sonne the Antichrist and that their formes which yee call indifferent were not such in the judgement of our Kirke when they appoynted the one and discharged the other is evident by the religious and grave reasons given for their so doing As that ours were according to Christs institution agreeable to the simplicitie of the Evangell profitable for the preservation of the purity of Gods holy worship and eschewing of the occasions and countenance of superstition and conformity with Rome but yours by the contrary Cosm. I see then Theophile yee are loath to grant these formes to be indifferent Theoph. That I am Cosm. and although I should yee would be little neerer your purpose For it is neither the unadvisednesse of the maner nor the the indifferencie of the matter of an oath will loose the band thereof once layd on as long as the indifferent matter is not turned to a sinfull use or abuse Although such cases might possibly hinder the making of it it is onely the unlawfulnesse looses all The oath which Iosua and the Princes of Israel gave to the Gibeonites Ios. 9. 14. 15. was unadvisedly made for they consulted not sayes the text with the mouth of the Lord yet it was advisedly keeped for the religious reverence to the great and glorious name of God If yee be able to prove that our formerly established formes are turned unlawfull unprofitable inequitable profane or superstitious goe to try your wits Your Bishops and Doctors publickly professed they would not they could not Cosm. Yea but for all that