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	faith_n	matter_n	4,045	5	5.7347	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85419	Thirty queries, modestly propounded in order to a discovery of the truth, and mind of God, in that question, or case of conscience; whether the civil magistrate stands bound by way of duty to interpose his power or authority in matters of religion, or worship of God. By John Goodvvin, minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1653 (1653)	Wing G1208; Thomason E689_4; ESTC R206926	10,649	16

being for the most part if not generally Idolaters themselves XV Whether is then a Sword put into the hand of the Civil Magistrate for the punishment of false Teachers by this passage in Zechary And it shall come to pass that when any shall yet prophecy then his Father and Mother that begat him shall say unto him Thou shalt not live for thou speakest lyes in the Name of the Lord and his Father and his Mother that begat him shal thrust him through when he prophecyeth d considering that many worthy Expositors as well ancient as modern understand the words in a figurative sence yea and Mr Deodate who lived where High Presbytery had her Throne as likewise our English Divines though desirous to enthrone the same Government also amongst them yet in their joynt labor of Annotations upon the Bible plead for the same Interpretation This with much more for the opening the mind of the Holy Ghost in the said passage of Scripture is to be seen in a small Discourse written upon this account only published some years since under the Title of a Postscript or Appendix being an Explication of Zech. 13. 3. XVI Whether was it not the sence of Christian Antiquity even after Constantine's days That the Civil Magistrate as such had no right of umpirage in matters of Christian Religion And whether doth not this sufficiently appear by these and such like passages of Ambrose in his thirteenth Epistle written to the then Emperor Valentinian When did you hear most gracious Emperor that Laicks i. e. persons in no Ecclesiastical or Church Office did ever censure or sentence any Bishop or Pastor of a Church in matters of Faith or Christian Religion And again Your Father through the goodness of God having lived to maturity of years said that it did not belong to him to give judgment between Bishops meaning as before in causâ fidei in a case of Faith or Christian Belief So also The Law of God hath taught us what we are to follow or believe the Laws of men cannot teach us this They may extort from persons timorous a change of their former profession but they cannot inspire them with an inward belief of what they outwardly profess e Now i● the sence of Antiquity was That the Supreme Magistrate though Christian was not to umpire between Bishops or Pastors of Churches in matters of Faith evident it is that they were of the same mind touching his incompetency to judg between other persons also in like cases and consequently that matters of Faith did not at all appertain to his cognizance as a Magistrate For the reason why they conceived that it did not belong to the Emperor to judg between Bishops in cases of Faith could not be any consideration of the particular qualitie rank or function of these persons but onely the nature and qualitie of those things being spiritual about which they were at variance amongst them elves This plainly appears by the expresse specification in the words cited of those cases wherein the Emperour as they conceived had no right of decision between the persons mentioned as viz. in matters of Faith which clearly supposeth that in other cases viz. such which are of a Civil nature and cognizance they had the right and power we speak of however the Church of Rome hath since apostatized from this truth with many others and imbraced a lie in stead of it Of like impott with the former is that passage of Tertullian where he saith That it is palpably unreasonable that men who are free should be forced against their wills to sacrifice when as it is the willingnesse of the mind that is required in all Divine Services yea it may well be judged ridiculous that one man should be compelled by another to honour the Gods when as he stands bound at his peril to render these propitious unto him of his own accord a c. XVII Whether the Lord Christ hath not expressly charged all men without exception not to call any man Father upon the Earth in these words and call no man your Father upon the Earth for one is your Father which is in Heaven c And whether do not they sin with an high hand against this charge who shall receive or consent unto any Doctrine or submit unto any practice in or about the Worship of God upon the account only of such or such a mans or of such or such mens judgement or authority and without any satisfactory ground within themselves that such whether doctrine or practise is agreeable to the Word of God XVIII Whether are any two four or six persons suppose all of them godly learned and competently yea let it be if you please excellently quilified for the Ministry of the Go●●el competent Judges of the gifts parts and Ministerial abilities of many thousands of their Brethren Or is it Christian or meet to make or set up Nebuchadnezzars in the Church of Christ persons I mean who shall Ecclesiastically slay whom they will and whom they will keep alive set up whom they will and whom they will put down Or in case it shall be judged expedient for the affairs of the Gospel that any such number of Persons be invested with such a prodigiousness of power who are competent Judges of the meetnesse or worthinesse of Persons to be intrusted herewith especially where there are so many thousands as this Nation through the abundant blessing of God upon it affordeth of very excellent abilities and endowments amongst whom it is next to an impossibility for men to single out any two four or six Persons to whose worth and abilities all the rest shall by any Law of God or of equity and reason it self stand bound to stoop or do homage Or is it not a Solecism in reason and conscience that greater parts learning and worth should be compelled to go on foot whilst those which are meaner and more servile are made to ride on Horses XIX Whether in case any two four or six persons shall be advanced to that Power and Interest now mentioned are not they like to be the men who wear soft raiment and live in Kings Houses I mean whose applications have been to the greatnesse of this World who by ignoble artifices and compliances have infinuated themselves into the familiarity and friendship of the anointed Cherubs of the Earth and such who being ascended on High are able to give gifts unto men And whether are such persons as these who cannot Charity her self being Judg but be judged great lovers of this present World meet to be intrusted with that High Umpitage specified in the affairs of Jesus Christ XX Whether hath not God in his Word directed prescribed and injoyned all methods waies and means any waies necessary at least so judged by him for the propagation of the Gospel in the world If so is not any additional course or device of men in order hereunto I mean any such course which is

Thirty Queries Modestly propounded in order to a Discovery of the Truth and Mind of GOD in that Question or Case of Conscience Whether the Civil Magistrate stands bound by way of Duty to interpose his Power or Authority in matters of Religion or Worship of God By JOHN GOODVVIN Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ The servants said unto him Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up But he said Nay lest while ye gather up the tares ye root up also the Wheat with them Let both grow together until the Harvest c. Matth. 13. 28 29 30. Man who hath made me a Judg or Divider over you Luke 12. 14. Let them alone they be blind leaders of the blind Matth. 15. 14. Dei lex nos docuit quid sequamur humanae leges hoc docere non possunt Extorquere solent timidis commutationem fidem inspirare non possunt Ambros. Epist. 13. LONDON Printed by J. M. for Henry Cripps and Lodowick Lloyd 1653. Some Queries concerning the Duty of the Civil Magistrate in and about his publique Interposure in matters of Faith the Worship of God and the promoting Christian Religion I. WHether any thing be incumbent by way of Duty upon the Civil Magistrate being Christian simply in respect of his Office or place of Magistracy because of his being Christian which would not have been matter of Duty to him in cafe he had been Pagan and not Christian Or whether the Office and Work of the Civil Magistrate as such be not entire within it self and consisting within its own appropriate bounds and limits so that nothing more accrues unto him by way of Duty in his Office by his being Christian nor is any thing which is matter of Duty unto him as a Magistrate diminished or taken off from him by his being or turning Pagan And if so whether doth God require of a Pagan Magistrate that according to his present Judgment and Conscience he should interpose and umpire with his Authority in matters of Christian Belief or in things appertaining to the Worship of God II. Whether doth it appertain to the Civil Magistrate as such to provide by Civil penalties as by disgracing fining imprisonment death c. for the observation of any other Law in his Territories but of the Law of Nature only and of this so far only as either it clearly dictateth or prescribeth the doing of such things which have a rational connexion with the welfare honor and prosperity of that community of men which is under his inspection and government or as it with like clearness restraineth the doing of such other things which are in the eye of Reason contrary hereunto considering that matters of a more spiritual nature and such which relate either by way of sympathy or opposition only to an holy and humble walking with God and not properly or directly to the Civil Interest are of another cognisance and committed by God to the care and faithfulness of Ecclesiastical Magistrates in conjunction with the Common Councel of such Christian Churches which are under their inspection respectively III. Whether is the consent of the generality of the inhabitants of many Nations in one and the same principle especially relating to the maintenance and upholding of their respective Idolatries and Superstitions any competent or sufficient proof that this principle is agreeable to the light or Law of Nature or safe for Christians to practise and walk by considering that the Devil the God of this world laboreth in the very fire to corrupt the Judgments to blind the Understandings to pollute the Consciences of Men in matters appertaining to the Worship of God and hath so sadly prevailed over the world herein as we generally know he hath done Or whether is that principle of Mahometanism according unto which the men of this Superstition judg it lawful to put a Christian or any other person to death who shall in any of their Territories call Mahomet Accursed wherein probably many other Idolatrous Nations accord with them in reference to their respective Gods so called a sufficient ground for Christians to put a Mahometan to death for calling Christ Accursed in their Dominions Or in case a Christian State should thus practise would it not be a snare of confirmation and obduration upon the Mahometan in his way IV. Whether our Saviours intent in the Parable of the tares where the housholder forbiddeth his servants to GATHER up the tares lest whilest they gathered up these they PLUCKED UP the Wheat also b was not to prohibit such Magistrates who are Christian and Orthodox the exercising of any degree of severity against Blasphemers Seducers Heretiques erroneous persons c. simply as such for this reason lest by such an example they occasion or be accessary unto the exercising of much greater severity by Idolatrous and Heretical Magistrates upon Christians and godly persons that are Orthodox and sound in their Judgment And whether is not this sence of the said passage argued and asserted from the Context it self and by other Arguments against all reasonable contradiction in a Discourse not many years since published entituled Hagiomastix c. pag. 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 25. as also in another Discourse printed not long after and with relation to it entituled a Postscript or Appendix p. 14 15. V. Whether is that right of power to interpose in matters of Religion as in punishing Idolaters Seducers false Prophets c. which seems to have been given to the Civil Magistrate amongst the Jews under the Mosaical Dispensation any reasonable or competent ground on which to judg that Civil Magistrates now under the Gospel and amongst the Gentiles ought to assume yea or lawfully may assume the like power Or are there not many reasons and these pregnant and undeniable to prove the contrary extant in the Discourse mentioned entituled Hagiomostix pag. 43 44 45 46 47 c. VI Whether the Lord Christ himself did not strictly charge his Disciples themselves as well as others not to accept of the title of Rabbi or Masters from men in these words But be not ye called Rabbi c and again Neither be ye called Masters And whether they do not much more then accept of these titles even compell men to give them unto them who under civil Mulcts and Penalties shall exercise a Magisterial Jurisdiction over the judgements and consciences of men in matters appertaining to God requiring of them either to beleeve such or such doctrines or to submit to such or such practices whilst their judgments and consciences remain unsatisfied and unconvinced of the truth of the one and lawfulnesse of the other VII Whether may the Civill Magistrate who derives and receives his power of Magistracie from the people lawfully exercise by vertue of his office any other kind of power or any further degree of power then may lawfully be delegated unto him and intrusted with him by this people yea or may he lawfully exercise any