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
A70625	A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall, November 5, 1667 by ... George Lords Bishop of Winton ...	Morley, George, 1597-1684.	1683 (1683)	Wing M2796; ESTC R12589	21,545	39

not or as if God were not the Author of Peace as St. Paul saith he is but the Author of Confusion which St. Paul says he is not But let God be true and every Man a lyar And God as St. Paul tells us in my Text is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace In which Words we are to consider 1. The Occasion 2. The Sense or Meaning 3. The Intention or Scope 4. The Use or Uses which by Way of Application we are to make of them First then as to the Occasion of these Words it is implied in the first of them in the Word For which being a Note of connexion must needs argue that the Words following have a relation to something spoken of before as the Occasion of them Now that which S. Paul had spoken of before and whereunto this Saying of his doth relate was the dangerous condition which those of that Church of Corinth were then in by reason of certain erroneous and seditious Doctrines which under the notion of Apostolical truths were cunningly infused into them and credulously entertain'd by them as appears by many Passages in this and the precedent Chapters especially the first where the Apostle tells them he had heard there were Divisions amongst them some saying they were of Paul others of Cephas and others of Christ and each of every sort exclusively to all the rest thereby excommunicating one another by appropriating Christ and his Apostles and the Apostolical Doctrine unto themselves as if all that did not believe in Christ just as they did were no Christians Besides some of them to gain Proselytes unto themselves and to increase and strengthen their own Party were content to dispence in point of Practise with those that were or would be of their Faction by permitting or at least by conniving at Incestuous Marriages Cap. 5. 2. as likewise with the departing of Wives from their Husbands and à fortiori with departing of Husbands from their Wives Cap. 7. 10. and of Servants from their Masters Vers. 20 and 21. of the same Cap. and by the same reason of Children from their Parents and of Subjects from their Soveraigns also Now certainly the Teaching of such Doctrines and the Allowing of such Practises as these must needs tend to the disturbance of the publick Peace and to the introducing of Disorder and Confusion not into Churches only but into States also Now this being then the State of Corinth whereunto it was brought by such as pretended to be Apostles or to be as infallible at least as the Apostles themselves were nay and were believed to be so by those whom they had seduced and who being seduced could not chuse but adhere to their seducers and to the Doctrines they were taught by them until they were convinced of the falshood of those Doctrines and consequently of the fallibility of their Teachers by some such argument as neither they nor their teachers themselves could disprove or deny therefore St. Paul to prove those Doctrines to be false he proves them to be inconsistent with Peace as evidently and undeniably appeared by the Divisions and Factions that were at that time in Corinth and which St. Paul ascribes to the aforesaid Doctrines as the natural necessary and unavoidable Effects of them And this being experimentally and apparently true it follows of necessity that either those Doctrines which caused those Factions and Divisions and Confusions were false and consequently that the Teachers of them were Seducers and false Apostles which was that whereof St. Paul was to convince the Corinthians or else that such Doctrines as are naturally and necessarily the cause of Contention and Confusion are true Doctrines which if either the Seducers were so Impudent as to affirm or the Seduced so Foolish as to believe they must needs affirm and believe likewise that such Doctrines notwithstanding their being the cause of Faction and Confusion must be from God or that God must be the Author of them because God is the Author of all Truth and consequently such Doctrines supposing them to be true must needs be supposed to come from God as the Author and if as the Author then as the Approver of them also But this Supposition is impossible to be True nay it is blasphemously False as being indeed a contradiction not only to the Word or revealed Will of God but even to Gods very Nature and Essence it self as St. Paul demonstratively proves by this Theological Principle or Aphorism in my Text when he tells us that God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace which being a Theological Principle as I said before needs no Proof it being self-evident to any one that believes there is a God and considers what God is and what is meant either by Confusion or by Peace and what it is to be the Author of the one or of the other And therefore having shewed you what was the Occasion of these Words I am now in the second place to give you the plain Sense and Meaning of them And here I do not intend to ingage my self in a Discourse either of Confusion or of Peace in the general Latitude or Extent of the Words and much less by way of Common-place to give you a Catalogue of all the blessed Effects of the one or of all the mischievous Consequences of the other but only to tell you First What is meant by the word Confusion and what is meant by the word Peace in the Text. Secondly To shew you how and in what sence God may be said to be the Author of the one and not the Author of the other First then by the word Confusion here in this place is meant the unsetling disordering and disturbing of any Society Civil or Ecclesiastical whether it be by force or fraud by Words or Actions and consequently by the word Peace as it is here opposed to the word Confusion is meant neither the Internal peace of Grace nor the Eternal peace of Glory though God be the Author and the Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of peace in both these notions also but only an External peace here in this World as it is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the well-ordering or happy Constitution of a Church or State And this is that which St. Paul in my Text means by Confusion and Peace when he saith that God is not the Author of the one and is the Author of the other But then Secondly If by Peace be meant Order and Settlement and by Confusion be meant Disorder and Disturbance in Churches and States how can God be said to be the Author of the one and not of the other seeing there be so many places of Scripture wherein the putting down as well as the setting up the overturning and overthrowing as well as the supporting and establishing the dissolution and desolation as well as the safety and preservation and consequently the Confusion as well as the

Peace of Kingdoms Churches and States are in express terms ascribed unto God I answer that the disturbing and confounding of Kingdoms States and Churches may be considered either as they are mala Culpae or mala Poenae that is either as they are Sins or Punishments for Sin Now as they are mala Culpae or sins in themselves so they are not from God nor cannot be ascribed to God but to the inordinate or immoderate Passions of those Men who are either the Agents in them or the Contrivers Abetters and Fomenters of them according to that of the Apostle From whence come Wars from whence come fightings among you come they not from hence even from your Lusts Jam. 4. 1. And yet the same Disorders and Disturbances which as they are mala Culpae or Evils of sin must be ascribed unto Men may nay they must as they are mala Poenae or Punishments for sin be ascribed unto God as the vindicative effects of Divine Justice But by Confusion in my Text is meant only malum Culpae the Evil of sin in those that are the disturbers of Churches and States and therefore God cannot be said to be the Author of it The truth is that neither God nor Man can properly be said to be the Author of any thing which is not done either immediately by himself or mediately by his Command or at least either by his Advice and Direction or by his Consent and Approbation but this cannot be said of Confusion in Churches or States in reference unto God for neither is God the worker of it himself neither doth he command or advise or direct or allow of it Whereas he is not only the Author but the God of Peace and his Son is the Prince of Peace and his Spirit is the Spirit of Peace and his Gospel is the Gospel of Peace and his Way is the Way of Peace neither doth he command or teach any thing that is inconsistent with Peace in any Kind or any Degree whatsoever And thus having shewed you the Occasion and given you the Sence of these Words I am now in the third place to speak of the Apostles Scope or Intention in them which was as I conceive to leave upon Record for all Posterity a certain a constant and an infallible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Touchstone whereby upon tryal any man of an ordinary capacity might discover and discern many of those Doctrines to be false which the Apostle himself saw had been and foresaw would be preached in the Church of Christ and as a part of the Gospel of Christ in the name of Christ to the great Prejudice of Humane Society to the great Offence and Danger of Princes and Governours and to the great Scandal of Christianity it self namely such Doctrines as must be if they be believed and practised destructive of the publick Peace and Safety of Churches States and Princes For although as I said before in my first particular the Occasion of these Words was the Disorder Faction and Confusion which St. Paul saw with his own Eyes to be the Effects of such seditious Doctrines as were brought into the Church and City of Corinth by the seducers of those times yet his Scope and Intention in these Words was not only to rectifie the Disorder ond Confusion which he saw in that one Church and State for the present but likewise to prevent the same or the like or perhaps worse Disorders which he foresaw might be and would be in any Church or State nay in all Churches and States for the future if the like Doctrines I mean any Doctrines inconsistent with the publick Peace or tending to publick Confusion were any where else taught and believed to be from God And therefore the same Use which St. Paul then made of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Theological Principle in my Text may and ought to be made of it by us now if there be the same Occasion for it Because God is as much the Author of Peace and no more the Author of Confusion now than he was then And if he be not the Author of Confusion he cannot be the Author of any Doctrine or Doctrines tending to Confusion neither which is St. Paul's own Inference and not mine For indeed the very reason why St. Paul tells the Corinthians that God was not the Author of Confusion but of Peace was to convince them that many of those Doctrines which were brought in among them and pretended to be from God were not from God indeed because they were inconsistent with Peace or because they tended to Confusion which could not have been a convincing Argument to them then as to that particular if it were not always true in the general that no Doctrine tending to Confusion or to the making of disturbance either in Church or State can truly be said to be from God or that God is the Author of it But was not will you say the preaching of the Gospel the preaching of Christianity it self the Cause of great Commotions and Disturbances in the World and was it not in this respect that Christ himself saith that he came to send a Sword and not Peace and consequently it seems that either Christian Religion it self must be false or that some Doctrines that cause Disturbance and Confusion in the World may be true To this which is the only considerable Objection I can think of I answer that Christian Religion was indeed the Occasion but not the Cause of those Commotions and Disturbances which it did not make but meet with in the World when it was first published For those Commotions whatsoever they were did not proceed from mens believing and obeying but from their not believing or their not obeying the Doctrines of the Gospel And as for the Sword that Christ saith he came to send into the World it was a Sword of passive Persecution and not a Sword of active Invasion Resistance or Rebellion it was a Sword wherewith Christians were to be slain themselves and not a Sword with which they were to destroy others the Weapons of their Warfare being Spiritual to work upon the Soul and not Carnal to make any impression upon the Body the Gospel being not to be planted or propagated by force as the Turkish Alcoran was but by perswading of it and suffering for it nor otherwise to be defended by Subjects against their Soveraigns but by Prayers and Tears and laying down their lives in defence of it The truth is Christian Religion truly so called is so far from being a Cause of Commotion or Disturbance in Kingdoms and States that were there any Kingdom or State in the World where Christian Religion were truly taught and truly practised it would be impossible there should be any Dissention or Discord any open Rebellion or privy Conspiracy or any thing but Concord Unity and Peace in such a State or Kingdom because all the Articles of the Christian faith and all the Precepts