Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	church_n	doctrine_n	mark_n	1,651	5	9.1086	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A14381	Edom and Babylon against Jerusalem, or, meditations on Psal. 137. 7 Occasioned by the most happy deliverance of our church and state (on November 5. 1605.) from the most bloody designe of the papists-gunpowder-treason. Being the summe of divers sermons, delivered by Thomas Vicars B.D. Pastour of Cockfield in South-sex. ...	Vicars, Thomas, d. 1638.	1633 (1633)	STC 24699; ESTC S102674	31,977	82

Christ be to be crucified The text saith expressely they were enemies before but they will joyne in this hand in hand they goe to the effecting of this cruell project Looke into Psal. 83. 〈◊〉 3. seq and you shall finde a full proofe of this They have taken crafty counsell against thy people and consulted against thy secret ones they have said Come and let us cut them off that they be no more a people nor that the name of Israel be no more in remembrance they have consul●ed toge●her in heart and have made a league against thee Marke what agreement here is among wicked men expressed by so many words of synonymall signification they have taken ●raf●y counsell they have consulted together they have said come and let us cut them off they have consulted in heart they have made a league then comes in the whole rout and bed-roll of these e●●mies in the next verse The Ta●erna●●●● of th● Ed●mites and the 〈◊〉 and marke that the Ed●mites march in the first ranke the Moabites and the Hagarens Gebal and Ammon c. And was it not even thus with our Edomites the Popish conspirators they bore a malignant and heavy grudge against our Church but God made the illwil'd cow to have short hornes they knew their power was not answerable to their purpose and therefore they goe craftily to work and consult in heart against us and make a league with our forreine adversaries Geball and Ammon and Amalecke to afford their helping hand to our overthrow For did not Garnet write a letter to the Pope of Rome to acquaint him with the treason to obtain his blessing and was not the leigier Iesuite in the low Countryes possessed with it to provide as many horse as much munition as those parts would gather and was not the Spaniard ready to helpe the English Catholikes at a call and to joyne with them to have laid this land desolate who protested hee loved the Papists of England as dea●ely as hee did his owne Castillians So that upon the point looke what aide either of men or munition the Pope or Spaine could have made their so dearely loved catholikes I had almost said subjects here in England should not have wanted to have disturbed the quiet of our Church and to have ruinated our Common-wealth The matter is plaine all these were ready to assemble themselves together like so many crowes to picke out the eyes of GODS faithfull servants If you desire any reasons of this conclusion why the wicked doe thus joyne together so unanimously in mischievous practices you may take notice briefly if you will of these three 1. Is because they are swayed with one head that is the divell and that makes them so joyntly conspire in evill For as Gods spirit worketh unity and unanimity in good things in the children of the church so there is the like contrary working by the divell in the children of disobedience Their nature is the same all dre●cht in iniqu●ty and similitude of nature breeds similitude of affection 3. They know well enough that if they should be divided they were not able to stand and therefore in meere policie they cling like burres and sticke together The use of this point is first for confutation of our adversaries the Papists in a matter of doctrine about the Church for they make consent and unity forsooth a note of the true Church of CHRIST To which I could say much but for this time I will say but one thing with Saint Augustine Vt est ecclesia Dei una si● est Diaboli una Babylon as there is unity in the Church of Christ so there is unity in the church of Antichrist and therefore I say that unity barely and absolutely considered without the truth of doctrine cannot be a right distinctive note and infallible mark of the Church For what greater agreement and consent is there than among theeves and robbers Come say they cast in thy lot among us wee will all have but one purse Pro. 1. 14. So likewise among the Turks Mahometans there is great consent and agreement insomuch that their sect and profession is by thē far and neere propagated and yet it will not hereupon follow that Mahometisme is the true Church No more will the Papists plea hold that because there is great unity and consent among them although I am able to shew the contrary yet suppose it were so I say their plea will not hold that they are the true church because of their unity if I may call it properly unity and not rather a conspiracy For as I remember that worthy learned Lady Ian● Gray wrote exceeding truely and discreetly to the same purpose Agreement among wicked men is not unity but conspiracie and thereupon alledgeth that excellent position of Cicero in his Booke of amity Ami●itia non est nisi inter bonos that there can be no true unity but among good men The second use then of this is for exhortation unto us beloved to joyne hearts and ●ands together for the upholding of the truth ●nd the effecting of good things that so wee may hold the unity of the spirit in the bond of 〈◊〉 as the Apostle counselleth If the ene●ies of the Church combine and conspire the 〈◊〉 of the Church as David saith Psal. 2. ●●venerunt adversus Dominum let us then ●ho are the Children of the Church concord 〈◊〉 conjoyne our selves for the good of it if ●he children of this world agree so well in 〈◊〉 it is a shame for us not to agree in good ●●ings Truely there can be but small com●●rt and contentment in the life of Christians without concord and unity remember what David saith in the Psalmes Ecce quam bo●●● for brethren to dwell together in unity ●●d remember what Silurus said to his sonnes upon his death bed Si ●rit is inseparabiles eritis insuperabiles The third and last use of this I will make is a word of instruction as the enemies of the Church are ready to conjoyne themselves so let us labour to disjoyne them This is good policie joyned with piety and godly prudencie even to labour I say as much as wee can to dissever and dissipate their councels and forces and to set the parties themselves at oddes and by the eares together if it be possible Mistake mee not I would not have Christians to be sowers of dissention but i● it may stand with the glory of God and the good of the Church it is lawfull to set the wicked at oddes one with another by lawful● meanes I am sure this is a stratageme i● worldly warre and I doubt not but it may be practised in christian warfare This piece of policy Saint Paul used as wee read A 〈◊〉 ●3 For standing in the councell and perce●ving that the one part were Pharisees and th● other Sadduces hee cryed out straight M●● and brethren I am a Pharisee the sonne of ●

to the moderation and patience of a Christian man yea and contrary to Christs command Mat. 5. 44. where he bids us Love your enemies blesse them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that persecute you If we must pray for our enemies why doe the Saints pray against them if wee must doe them good why do the Saints wish them evil if wee must blesse them why doe the Saints so eagerly curse them if wee must love them why doe the Saints expresse such an extreame and deadly hatred against them I answer it is true the imprecations used by the Saints in Scripture against wicked men are very grievous and fearefull but wee are not to thinke notwithstanding that either they transgressed herein against the rule of charity or sinned against the precep● of Christ Iesus For first in all these imprecations they doe not so much respect themselves and their owne preservation as the glory of God and the conservation thereof the quarrel that they have with these men is not private but publike neither doe they curse them because they are their enemies but because they are Gods enemies and the enemies of GODS Church Secondly in all these imprecations the Saints of GOD are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as take delight in other mens destruction and rejoyce themselves in seeing evill befall other men for they doe not wish these judgements to befall upon their enemies out of any spite or spleene or thirsty desire of revenge but because they understand by this meanes the glory of GODS Iustice is to be made manifest before the faces of the children of men God will have his glory even of sinners either in their salvation if they turne unto him or in their confusion if they continue obstinate In the salvation of sinners the mercy of GOD carries away the glory 〈◊〉 the confusion of sinners the glory reflects upon Gods justice It is true GOD delighteth not in the death of any sinner neither will hee have any of his Saints to take delight in the destruction of any wicked man but God desireth the glory of his justice to be manifest and the Saints of God may desire that the glory of GODS justice may be made manifest though it be by the death and destruction of wretched and unrepentant sinners Thirdly in all these imprecations wee are not to thinke that the Saints of God were carried away with the fire and fury of some preposterous zeale but led and directed by the discerning prudence of a propheticall spirit did curse and devove not every enemy but those whom they knew GOD had set a marke upon as upon Caine and utterly rejected from the society and company of his Elect Children Lastly wee must know as Saint Augustine hath observed that these imprecations are not onely prayers but prophecies being indeed prophetical denuntiations of those fearefull judgements which should certainly overtake and overthrow all the enemies of God and his Church without repentance and therefore in all these imprecations as the affection is not at all distempered so neither is there any violation of patience any branch of charity any neglect of the precept of Christ. Now for the second branch of the question what is lawfull for us to doe in this case whether wee may imitate the Saints in this I doubt not but that we may if we admit these limitations and take a few distinctions along with ush 1. Wee must diligently distinguish betwixt the cause and the person that maintains the cause As touching the cause if it be an evill cause wee may condemne it and lawfully pray against it whatsoever the persons be that maintain it It is cleere by the example of David who prayed against the wicked counsell of Achitophel 2. Sam. 15. 31. And by the example of the blessed Apostles who prayed against the plots and practices of Herod and Pilate and the Pharisees to stop the current of the Gospell Acts 4. 29. As touching the persons of our enemies wee are to note this distinction Some are private enemies some are publike If they bee private enemies onely we must distinguish betwixt their nature and their sinne Their sinne we may pray against Yea I will pray yet against their wickednesse but their nature we must not wish evill unto it wee may love the man and hate his sinne and howsoever it is a man a sinner that I hate and pray against yet it is not qu● homo as he is a man but qua peccator as he is a sinner For here Saint Augustines rule is good Omnis peccator in quantum peccator non es● diligendus no sinnefull person as hee is sinnefull is to be loved of us De Doctrin Christian. lib. 1. cap. 27. The sinne even of our private enemy wee may hate and pray against but for his nature the man himselfe we must be so farre from hating him that we must love him and we must be so farre from wishing him evill that we must bee ready to doe him all the good we can as our Saviour commanded in his Sermon upon the Mount Mat. 5. 44. and the blessed Apostle injoyneth Rom. 12. 14. 20. These are our private enemies But if our enemies be publike that is if they be not onely our enemies but the enemies of God and his Church the enemies of the truth of God and of the Religion in the Church then wee may curse them in the name of the Lord and pray against them according to the example of the Saints of God but yet I pray you here take this Proviso Those publike enemies of GOD and the Church are of two sorts either they be incorrigible and incurable or they be curable and such whereof ther● may be some good hope of amendment where there is hope of repentance and amendment we must not pray against such but for such wee must beg of God their conversion as we see Christ prayed for his enemies upon the Crosse Father forgive them Luke 23. 34. and the Protomartyr Saint Stephen prayed for his enemies at the last gaspe Lord lay not this si● to their charge Acts 7. 60. And so doth the Prophet David in divers Psalmes in one hee saith Fill their faces with shame O Lord that they may seeke thy name he prayes that God would let them come to a sight of their sinne and be ashamed thereat and so be driven to seeke unto God for mercy and in another 〈◊〉 he saith Let their Iudges be everthrowne in stony places that they may heare my words for they are sweet hee prayes that God would send some fatherly chastisement and correction upon the chiefest of his enemies that by the consideration of Gods Ro● displing of them they may be made to hearken unto Gods Word obediently and to relish it well in their palates All this must be done where there is any hope but where there is no hope left of amendment when they are become obstinate