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	teach_v	6,712	5	6.4919	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34948	A serious expostulation with that party in Scotland, commonly known by the name of Whigs wherein is modestly and plainly laid open the inconsistency of their practices I. With the safety of humane society, II. With the nature of the Christian religion, III. Their two covenants are historically related, and prov'd to be no sufficient warrant for what they do, IV. Their new doctrine of a pretended forfeiture, is prov'd to be groundless.	Craufurd, James, 17th cent.	1682 (1682)	Wing C6865; ESTC R4965	39,666	64

Sign of the Spirit 's being weak in us than our not daring to trust it without a Guard In a word Religion has not throughly inflam'd those Souls which are not able to offer Sacrifice to God without borrowing strange Fire The Precepts of Christianity do not seem plainer in any one Thing than in that unlimited Submission which as Subjects we ow to our Prince and if our Duty to God may sometimes justify our Refusal to pay an active Obedience yet in no Case are private Persons at Liberty to resist but must bear patiently the sharpest Tryals until they can ease themselves in a lawful that is in a peaceable way If the Princes Edicts therefore should appear such as did infringe our dearest Priviledges and in our Judgment strike even at Religion it self we ought still to remember who we are and what we are concern'd for We must not presently shake off our Allegiance and imagine that this gives us Authority to disturb the Publick Peace or that there is no Rebellion where Religion is the Cause we fight for God doth not call us to put to our Hand after this irreverent manner to support the tottering Ark and the Sincerity of our Intentions or our Zeal for God's Glory and the Gospel will not excuse us in any indirect Courses God is jealous of his own Honour and can easily compass his Ends without requiring such things at our hands The Means he is pleased to recommend to us as fittest for this Purpose are our humble Addresses to our Soveraign whom in Conscience we dare not oppose our making known our just Grievances in a dutiful manner and laying modestly before him those Considerations which are most likely to remove his Prejudices and dispose him to entertain a better Opinion of Us and our Principles and when we have fought with these Arms which Heaven approves of we must back our Petitions with our Prayers to God that He who has the hearts of Kings always in his Hands will incline our Prince to grant our Requests and then if our Cause be truly good if it be God's as much as we are willing to believe it is then if we do not spoil it in the Management we need not in the least doubt of a most comfortable Issue But as Things are now order'd it will be hard to persuade the World that we are acted by an Evangelical Spirit where the Practices of many are so apparently contrary to the Gospel To have our hands still upon our Swords ready to draw as soon as the least Advantage is given us is a Posture ill befitting our Profession and is that which doth insensibly destroy but will never maintain Religion What we would have pass for pure Zeal others look upon as Rage and love of Revenge and condemn our fomenting Tumults and Insurrections against Authority as flowing either from a Diffidence of God's Providence or from a Distrust of his Promises or at best from our Impatience to wait his good time Look back upon the Contrivances of all Rebellions and you must reckon Craft Ambition and Hypocrisy have been always among the most innocent Instruments that are employ'd in hatching and carrying them on and yet these are so far from being Acts of Christianity that all Men who are concern'd to be thought strict in their Morals will be asham'd to own them What then shall we say to the Falsehood the Cruelty the Oppression and Injustice which are so eminently conspicuous in the History of our late unhappy Rebellion Certainly for Men to pretend amidst so gross Enormities that what they do is to promote God's Service and to fight his Battels is a Sin much beyond all the rest and brings so great a Scandal upon our holy Religion that we see by woful Experience how it has help'd to set up that Spirit of Atheism which now abounds among us The Arms with which true Religion delights to defend it self are of a quite different Nature as Justice and Integrity in Mens Dealings Innocence in their Lives Zeal without Hypocrisy in their holy Performances Willingness rather to receive the greatest than to do the least Injury Enmity against no Person much less against the Prince Constancy in suffering all manner of Inconveniences rather than to contract Guilt in removing them and lastly a sincere Abhorrence of offering to stain the Christian Religion by Shedding any Man's Blood in its maintenance while yet they are resolv'd by God's Grace patiently to sacrifice their own Lives rather than renounce it These and the like were the innocent Methods which under God prov'd instrumental in converting the Heathen World Christianity after a new kind of Warfare became Victorious by yielding planted 't is true it was and grew up in Blood yet in such as was not spilt in the open Fields but upon Scaffolds and in Amphitheaters and always without Resistance No other Arms than Prayers Tears and invincible Patience made it triumph over the Power of Heathen Rome Holy Leagues Bonds of mutual Defence Cabals and secret Practices were not known in those Ages Private Meetings indeed we read of which far from endangering the Peace of the Empire prov'd the best Seminaries to instruct Men in the Principles of Loyalty as well as Religion Nothing of Sedition was ever heard or taught in those pure tho Nocturnal Assemblies No man thought fit to meddle with Authority or arraign the Government there the time was much better spent even in Exercises of Devotion and in pious Meditations seldom was the Emperors Name there mentioned except in the Prayers that they daily offer'd up for his Safety even when the Church groaned under his Persecution and for the Truth of what is here alledged I dare appeal to the Doctrine and Practice of Christ and of the primitive Christians If we take an exact view of the great Copy Christ has set us either in his Words or in his Actions in what he taught or in what he suffered every Part doth breath that Peace which as a Legacy he did bequeath his Disciples John 14. v. 27. Those who are gently and peaceably dispos'd have no small Share in the Blessings he pronounced in the beginning of his most Divine Sermon Matth. 5. v. 7 9 10. and if we urge his own Words to the contrary that he came not to send Peace but a Sword Matth. 10. v. 34. these shew us rather what he foresaw would be the unhappy Effect than the real Design of his Coming which was chiefly to make Peace betwixt God and Man and to make Men be at Peace with one another in Order to this he commands us not to resist Evil Math. 5. v. 39. or the evil Person as the Learned here observe and if the Precept be general the Inference is strongest with Relation to our Prince who if he prove evil unjust or froward yet of all Persons is least to be resisted I might bring the most Material Passages of the Gospel in Confirmation of this necessary Truth But