Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	christian_n	evident_a	great_a	136	3	2.0711	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77503	A looking-glasse for good vvomen, held forth by way of counsell and advice to such of that sex and quality, as in the simplicity of their hearts, are led away to the imbracing or looking towards any of the dangerous errors of the times, specially that of the separation. / As it was lately presented to the Church of God at Great-Yarmouth, by John Brinsley. Octob. 9. 1645. Imprimatur Ja: Cranford.	Brinsley, John, 1600-1665.	1645 (1645)	Wing B4717; Thomason E305_23; ESTC R200330	44,390	54

most probable or else she had received it from her husband and that with such strong and clear evidence as that she was fully convinced of it as appeareth from the second and third verses of that Chapter Now Satan having to deal with her the first thing that he attempts is to kindle a jealousie in her breast concerning that word to render it suspitious to her as if either it were not true or at least not equall And is not this the way whereby Satan ordinarily prepareth the hearts of those whom he intendeth to deceive for the receiving of his suggestions and delusions First he shakes and unsettles them by bringing them to call in question received and knovvn truths such truths as they have by clear evidence been formerly convinced of A practise which this subtile Sophister never made more use of then in this age Sceptiscisme in Religion a dangerous evil wherein many Christians are turned meer Scepticks Questionists questioning every thing scarse building upon any thing How many truths of God clear and evident truths are by some in this age called into question and those some of them of very great and high concernment which former ages ever looked upon as undoubted and unquestionable Now what a subtile piece of Sophistry is this Hereby Satan first renders the truths of God and the wayes of God suspitious unto men drawes a jealousie upon them and so prepares their hearts for the drinking in of many dangerous and some damnable errors In the fear of God take we heed how we give entertainment to any such faithlesse doubtings and questionings Not but that Christians both may and ought to desire How Christians may que●tion received and known Truths and how not and indeavour a further settlement and establishment in known and received truths And to that end they may take notice not onely what can be said for them but what can be said against them that so they may not take things upon trust but may see with their owne eyes But to call any of them in question without some good and cleare at least probable evidence this as it is dangerous to our selves so is it injurious to the truth and dishonourable unto that God whose Truth it is Which of us but would account it so for our selves to have our names brought in question much more to have our persons brought to the barre meerly upon the groundlesse information of some jealous head without any evidence at all Take we heed therefore how we so deal with the truths or wayes of God Specially how we bring them to the Barre of mans judgement calling in question the equity of them Take heed of bringing Gods truths or wayes to mans barre Ezek. 18.25 the equity of Gods decrees precepts prohibitions dispensations providences So did some of the Iewes of old as the Prophet Ezekiel chargeth it upon them Ezek. 18. Ye say the way of the Lord is not equall And even so do some at this day make bold to weigh the mysteries of Heaven viz. the decrees and providences of God at the beame of their owne carnall reason questioning the equity of them which because they cannot see they will not beleeve the case of Arminians and Socinians A high and dangerous presumption which who so giveth way unto is in the direct way to be deceived So was our first Parent deceived at the first by hearkning unto Satan questioning the truth or equity of a Divine prohibition Hath God indeed said c. 2. In the second place the next step that Satan maketh is from questioning to opposing from a doubtfull interrogation 2. Confident opposition to a peremptory negation Having questioned Gods precept now he denies his threatning which he doth with a great deal of confidence Nequaquam morieminis Ye shall not surely dye Gen. 3.4 Applied to the times or surely ye shall not dye And is not this the method wherein Satan still proceeds with such as he seduceth and draweth into Errors First he brings them to question received truths then to oppose them and that not in a submissive and humble but in a confident and peremptory way A property very observable in many of the Sectaries of the times For a time they stand doubting and wavering and if partly resolved yet they carry their differences in judgement with some faire respective moderation but afterwards they grow so confident so peremptory so violent and that not onely in maintaining their own opinions and wayes but in opposing and affronting all others who are contrary minded as if they had received some immediate revelation from Heaven Now truly such confidence at least such violence doth not become humble Christians Specially in points controversall betwixt them and their brethren and those neither of nor neer the foundation True were they fundamentalls principles of Religion now confidence and earnestnes do well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is St. Iudes word in the fourth verse of his Epistle Iude 4. That ye contend earnestly for the faith once given to the Saints But being onely matters of order such as most of the differences of the times are about now Christians though possibly they should be in the truth yet they may be ever earnest and confident 3. In the third place This grand deceiver from confident opposition he falls to an unjust and foule crimination 3. Vnjust and foule crimination charging Gods way with rigour and envy changing this way these proceedings of God both with rigour and envy With rigour as if God had dealt hardly with our first Parents in abridging them of their liberty not allowing them to eat of that tree as well as the rest So much is insinuated in that interrogation v. 1. Yea hath God indeed said ye shall not eat of every tree in the Garden Interrogatio criminantis or calumniantis As if he had said this a very hard thing that you should be so restrained so abridged of your liberty With envy as if God had envied the happinesse and perfection of man specially his perfection in knowledge So he chargeth it expresly v. 5. for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods And is not this the very direct course that Satan taketh in the deceiving of many simple well-meaning soules at this day Applied to the times viz. to prejudice them against that way of God which is intended to be set up in this Kingdom and that by casting the like foul criminations upon it that he may thereby render it not onely suspicious in their eyes A generation of serpents stirred up to blaspheme the Church and way of God in this kingdom Psa 140.2 but Odious To this end it is that he hath of late stirred up and set on work such a Generation of Serpents So I may well call them and that without any breach of Charity For sure I am as David saith of his Doeg

the good way Enquire we for this And is not this the way which the Kingdom is now seeking The old way now sought for in and by the Kingdom To which end the best course that can be thought of hath been taken It was the course which King Herod took and it was the wisest course that he could take when he would be rightly informed concerning Christ himself The best means used to finde it out Matth. 2.4 5. touching the place of his Nativity he gathereth the chief Priests and Scribes of the people together consulting with them about it Like course hath Authority in this Kingdom taken to finde out the Way of Christ They have to this purpose gathered together some many let it be spoken without Flattery and heard without Envy of the Chiefe Priests and Scribes of the people Scribes instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven such as in probability should be best acquainted with the Mysteries of that Kingdom Men of known Piety Integrity Ability And with them they have now for a long time consulted And what more likely course can be taken for the finding out of that way Now far be it from us Take heed of causlesse preiudices against the way of the Kingdom before it be known for any of us to entertain any causlesse Prejudice against that way before we know it much more by any inconsiderate preingagements by putting our selves into New wayes aforehand to render our selves incapable of it when God shall hold it forth unto us though with never such clear evidence of truth Nay rather as for these New wayes how sweet and pleasant and plausible soever they may seem to be yet it will be a great deal more wisdom to deal with them as Vintners do with their Wines which they let stand and settle before they pierce and use them Let not Affectation of Novelty of New wayes inordinatly transport any of us least thereby unawares we be brought to reject and renounce old Truth as some of late times have done Much lesse suffer we our selves to be carried on with a spirit of opposition Beware of a Spirit of Contradiction to swim against the stream of Authority so as to like any way the worse because Commended and Commanded or yet the better because prohibited and oppugned True indeed it is possible the way of God may be every where spoken against as the Jews tell Paul concerning his Sect. Acts 28.22 But it is not therefore the way of God because spoken against Much lesse is it ever the better to be liked because every where spoken against True indeed were it so that it were spoken against onely by wicked and ungodly men or by Time-serving superstitious Formalists this might be like a dark shadow to a beautifull Picture that maketh it the more Lightsome or a dark foyle to a fair Diamond which maketh it sparkle the more But when a way shall be oppugned by good men holy men learned and judicious men and that not by a few private spirits but by the generall consent of the Churches in this case certainly such opposition renders it at least very suspicious Let not any of us then like a way the better for this Much lesse because Lawfull and Christian Authority strikes in against it In this case Christians should be very wary and tender Rom. 13.1 2. least in opposing and resisting the Powers which are of God they also resist God in them I have done with the third Particular Take but one more 4. And that was the Womans Incogitancy or unadvisednesse in Parleying with the Serpent 4. The womans unadvisednesse in parlying with the Serpent in the absence of her husband and consenting to him without his privity entring dispute or conference with him about a received Truth and that not onely hearing of him but hearkning unto him nay yielding and consenting and ingaging her self by an Act of her own and all this without the privity of her husband whom God had set over her and who might have been able to have Resolved and Informed her better This saith Pareus this unadvisednesse or Rashnesse call it as we will was the beginning and first occasion of her downfall And surely so it hath been in many of her Daughters who have been deceived and seduced by the very same means Parum consultò se certanimi periculoso committit marito absente vel inconsulto Ista sive incogitantia sive temeritas principium fuit occasio sequentis lapsus Pareus in Gen. 3. ver 2. viz. through their own Adventrous Rashnesse in hearkning to subtile Deceivers and Dangerous Seducers these tearms when ever I use them let it not be conceived that I have the least thought of reflecting upon any of our Reverend and Godly Brethren of the Congregationall way whose persons I respect and honour but in reference to some others who by their smooth and subtile insinuations have drawn some of the weaker Sex into dangerous and destructive Errors and not only hearkning but yielding consenting ingaging themselves in their wayes and that without the consent or privity of their Husbands or without advising with any other who might have been more able to inform them This latter clause I cannot but take notice of and let you know that I do so The unwarrantablenesse of womens ingaging them selves in new waies without the privity or consent of their husbands Not but that I might also take just occasion to deal with the former viz. the unwarrantable rashnesse and presumption of some women in imbracing and ingaging themselves in new vvaies without the privity of their husbands and so of children without the consent of Parents to whom they are so far in duty bound as to take their advice specially if they be able to give it however to acquaint them with their intentions and the reasons of them desiring their consents But letting that passe now Peoples ingaging themselves in new waies without conferring with their Ministers which probably I may have occasion to touch upon again hereafter The latter I cannot but take notice of as being a matter which somewhat concerneth my self and my fellow-labourer in the Ministery here whom God in respect of our Ministeriall Office hath appointed to be as Counsellors to his people in things appertaining to himself So runs that old Statute They should seek the Law at the Priests mouth Mal. 2.7 Such is our Office and such use our people ought to make of it But how few are there that do it Herein let me appeal to the consciences of those that are gone aside into any of the Errors of the times how sew are there of them that ever addressed themselves to either of us to be resolved in their doubts and scruples of this kinde Some I will not deny but have done it who through the blessing of God have been at least stayed if not satisfied But how few Reply I know what will here presently be replied

Greek Critick did of the Bow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The name of it signified life but the work was death that are in name Light but in truth Darknesse 5. In the last place 5. A promise of some great good Holding forth new-light to the woman withall he maketh promise to her of some great good that should accrue to her from following his Counsell specially of a great increase of knowledge and of atchieving an excellent and transcendent honour and dignity A practise imitared by all Sectaries Your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods knovving good and evil And is it not even such ayre that the Heresiarchs the heads and prime leaders of all schismes and factions in the world have in all ages used to feed their Sectaries their Disciples with In case they will but hearken to their counsell and put themselves upon the vvayes whith they hold forth unto them they promise them some great good that shall accrue unto them In particular hereby they shall come to knovv that which they never yet did nor others do nor can do being out of that way Besides they shall hereby be translated to the highest forme of Christianity attaine to such honour and perfection as without this they are not capable of These things I do but touch being very willing to dismisse this second head of particulars taken from the quality of the instrument which Satan here maketh use of and the Arguments which he putteth into his mouth Passe we now to the third which I shall dispatch with all convenient brevity 3. The Object the Apple presented to the Woman which was being as willing to dismisse this Text and this subject as possibly some of you would have me In the third place then looke upon the Object the Apple it self which is here presented to the Woman And therein we shall take notice onely of three particulars You have them all together in the beginning of the sixth verse of that third of Genesis Gen. 3.6 1. She saw that it was good to eat 2. That it vvas beautifull pleasant to the eyes 3. That it vvas desirable to make one vvise Each appliable to our present purpose A word of each 1. 1. Good to eat pleasant and nourishing It was good to eat pleasant and delectable to the palate and withall usefull for nourishment Such she apprehended it to be and such no question in truth it was Not but that there might be and most probably were some other Trees in the Garden equalizing it in both these respects As for instance The tree of life which how ever it was so called as Augustine determines it well not effectivè but significative not in regard of any such operation or vertue that it had to give life or preserve life to Eternity but in regard that it was a Sacrament a Signe and Seal of life and immortallity to man upon his obedience Yet in all probability as Mercer conceives of it the fruit thereof was both most delectable and nutritive most pleasant to the palate and nourishing to the body But yet such properties there were also in the Tree of knovvledge and happily the Woman apprehended more then there was And these inticed the Woman the rather to taste of it Applied to the times And truly such are the arguments that do much prevaile with many of those who are drawne aside to the imbracing of nevv vvayes specially that of the Separation They apprehend a great deal of sweetnesse a great deal of goodnesse in that way Much svveetnesse in the Communion of Saints Much goodnesse both in the Persons that go that way and in the means which there may be had for Spirituall edification No sweetnesse in the way of separation but may be injoyed without it and soul-nourishment And we will not deny but it may be so But withall may there not be as much both sweetnesse and goodnesse in another tree as in this forbidden one May not both these be found in some other way as viz. in that one way which the Church is now holding forth in this Kingdom As for that sweetnesse in the Communion of Saints which is indeed a true sweetnesse that cannot but relish well to a gracious palate What letteth but that it may be injoyed as well in this way as in any other Let but any judicious Christian give me a reason for it and I shall be silent In the mean time know we that if it be not so it is the fault of the Persons not of the way For the Persons I shall not in any wise detract from their reall goodnesse in this I shall desire to have and use as much charity as some of them want But if we may take the boldnesse to move the question where did they get that goodnesse Was it not in the Church of God and under the Ministery in this Kingdome I presume there are few very few that are now adopted into any of these new wayes incorporated into any of these new bodies but they will do the Church of England this right as to acknowledge it their Mother and some of the Ministers of this Church their Fathers in Christ by whom they were begotten unto God And if so seeing this wombe bar them why may not these breasts give them suck You will not allow it that Mothers which are able should put forth their children to nurse What would you think of those children that should put forth themselves why may they not expect sufficient nourishment from those meanes from which at the first they had their spirituall subsistance Obj. But there is more full and more liberall means and maintenance in that way Ans Pretence of better means no sufficient warrant for seperation Should this be supposed yet cannot this be conceived to be a sufficient warrant for any presently to forsake and renounce that Church where God by his Providence and Ordinance hath cast them No more then it would be for sheepe or other cattle to break their fence because there is better feeding in the next pasture But as for the means which through the goodnesse of God may be in the Church amongst us injoyed let me say this of them and I will speake it with confidence that such is this pasturage that if the sheepe of Christ will but take their feed here is enough not onely to keep them life-ward but to feed them fat Such are ●h●se means as if Christians be not wanting to themselves in the use of them here is sufficient not onely to maintaine the life of grace in them but to make them rich in grace But I hasten 2. The second thing which inticed the Woman in the fruit which she saw 2. The beautifull outside of the Apple was the faire and beautifull outside of it she saw that it was pleasant to the eyes And surely is not this one thing that dayly inticeth and carrieth away many to the imbracing of new-wayes