Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A35698
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Some remarks recommended unto ecclesiasticks of all perswasions
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Denton, William, 1605-1691.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing D1068; ESTC R14
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74,373
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48
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that Christ was preached in season and out of season though out of envy and strife though not sincerely though but in pretence and not in truth were living now and here would condemn our Conventicles or would not rather be in the midst of them himself I appeal to God and your own Consciences if you your selves ought not to continue stedfast in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread from House to House and Prayers If Conventicles in our Days do endeavour to come as near as they can to continue stedfast in the Doctrine and Fellowship of the Apostles why should they be interrupted Were not Spiritual Men mad doting upon mediocrities of Grace they would never burlesque the purity and simplicity of the Gospel nor the most strict ways of Piety and by ungrounded prejudices mis-judge them as Shagreen to good Government According to my Divinity Preaching in season out of season though not sincerely though but in pretence though not in truth Crimes of which I hope our Conventicles are no ways guilty and to become all things to all men that by all means they may save some is but to do the Will of their Master but more especially when their assembling and associating in such Conventicles is only to redeem and improve precious time by endeavouring to make all moments of their life comfortable and beneficial to themselves and others sparing sufficient time to humble themselves and to keep a constant communion with their and our God Pope Pius the Fourth could say That he would humble himself to Heresie in regard what ever was done to gain Souls to Christ did become that See And shall Protestants Clergy and not Clergy be like the Saduces and be grieved at heart that the People be taught the right ways of the Lord Absit I hope the Church of England tho' there have been and still are scab'd Sheep among them is not yet so corrupted as to have that laid to her charge which Christ told the Scribes and Pharisees That in vain they worshipped God teaching for Doctrines Mens Commandments and of which St. Austin complained in the Church wherein he lived which was so corrupted that the Commandments of God are laid aside teaching for Doctrines Mens Commandments and those exacted with such Severity nay with Tyranny that they were more severely censured who transgressed them than those who transgressed the Laws of God It is certainly so in Rome I will I could say it had never been so in England It is absurd to cry The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord boasting of the Priviledges that the Gospel doth afford us and at the same time to prevaricate with God and the Redeemed of his own Blood to give them stones instead of bread and serpents instead of fish by such their destructive Doctrines and punish more for Non-conforming than for not Preaching and as by Excommunication to deny and abridge the excommunicate the participation of Sermons Sacraments Sabbaths c. all outward means of Grace and Repentance Did St. Paul and the Corinthians forbid him whom they had delivered to Satan to come to their Assemblies or partake of the Sacraments Did Christ ever forbid Publicans and Sinners to come unto him Did he not eat the Passover with Judas the greatest of Sinners When the Pharisees objected his eating and drinking with Sinners as a crime did not he tell him That they that are whole need not a Physician but they that are sick Matth. 9.11 12. Did he not converse daily with them Did he not cast out unclean Spirits nay Devils out of them And yet our excommunicates tho' but for Niff-Naffs must not approach the Temple of the Lord nor assemble in the Holy Congregations This hath been the practise of some Centuries of Years both of the Popish and Protestant Churches when in truth there 's no such thing in Holy Writ as it hath been and still is used in both Churches And that Excommunication that is mentioned in Scripture if any at all is in the body of the Church and not in the Officers thereof and which the Laity have as much Authority to exercise against the Clergy as the Clergy against the Laity it cannot be denied Is it recorded in any Scripture Old or New that the Church doors were to be shut against the vilest Sinners or Sacraments or Communion denied unto them and yet the use of Excommunication hath been and still is such in both Churches I should account it a marvellous happiness if any thing that I have written might so far prevail with our Clergy as seriously to take into their consideration their interessing and intermedling with Civil Affairs and Imployments and also Excommunication which bring so much odium and contempt upon them and lay to Heart how many hundreds of Years the Church hath been imposed upon and abused by them The abuse of which by the Roman Pontiffs hath been abominable even against Emperors Kings Princes and States that all Histories swell therewith and stinks in the Nostrils of God and Man But not so much abused by any Protestant Churches By Excommunication as now used they have done as much as in them lay to frustrate the whole design of the Gospel by debaring the Excommunicates the use and enjoyment of the outward means of Grace and Repentance What strange kind of Sacriledge is this that when Christ hath appointed Sabbaths Sermons Sacraments c. for the conversion of Sinners to him and for establishing and confirming them when converted our Priests out of self-Ends and Interests preach up another Doctrine viz. Excommunication which debars the benefit of them all and so by a new Gospel of their own do as much as in them lieth send People to the Devil instead of allowing them the means of Salvation How contrary how unlike were the Gospel-censures of old to this now in vogue they were for Edification not for Destruction as this knack or spell of Excommunication is Besides the Spiritual prejudices to the Salvation of Souls by Priests-craft it is extended also unto Temporals as that the Excommunicate cannot sue at Law for any Debts Land or for redress of injuries done unto him nor at his Death dispose of his Goods or Estate If this be Gospel I understand not Gospel-truths It 's a shame that Religion should be thus made use of and used so dirtily as to make it serve turns and Godliness to wait upon Gain Pride and Domination of Priests It would be a marvellous happiness to these Nations if the Church of England Men would yet be so wise and considerate in these evil and confounding times as to fettle among themselves the distracting Doubts of taking our New Oaths of Passive Obedience of Non-resistance of Allegiance of Praying for our KING For whilst they are of such different Opinions among themselves what would they have us sid Mortals the Laicks to do A separation if not worse must ensue and that of the highest nature and
SOME REMARKS Recommended unto Ecclesiasticks OF ALL PERSWASIONS NOT to trouble you with Prefaces or Apologies it is certain That as in the Church of the Jews they were not all Israel that were of Israel Rom. 9.6 so in our Church they have not all been nor yet are all true Church of England-men who boast and pride themselves in monopolizing that Character to themselves And yet I hope I may with great Truth affirm That the Independant Protestant Church of England is the best constituted Church both for Doctrine and Discipline in the World and that there are both in our Hierarchie and in our Inferior Clergy many seven shining Stars many true Nathaniels indeed in whom is no guile John 1.47 and yet I fear in the same Church that as there hath been so there are still many seven deadly Sinners Linsey-wolsey Divines not much unlike those of Samaria who feared God yet served Idols or like those of Israel who swore by the Lord and Melcom Whoever will seriously and impartially consider and examine the Prints of Dr. Leighton Pryn Bastwick and Burton and compare them with the Prints of Harsenet Parker late Bishop of Oxon Montague Sybthorp Manwaring and others must conclude the Doctrines and Positions of these Men to be far more pernicious and destructive to whole Kingdoms than the other and better deserved their punishment than to be rewarded with Preferments as they were And then if we consider how Instrumental some Prelates of those times were in Punishing the one and Preferring the other contrary to all true Religion and to the genius and sense of the most Pious of the Nation thereby manifestly espousing their Cause to be their own whereby they became participes criminis by which misbehaviour of theirs they brought upon themselves contempt and the Nation abhorred them and would not be satisfied untill they had disenabled them by Act of Parliament 17 Car. And if we consider the Opinions that the late Bishop of Oxon. otherwise a pious worthy Prelate sacrificed to the Flames in July 1683 and the purport of the Address of the other University to his Majesty in September 1681. And also the Contents of very many Sermons preached on the Ninth of September 1683. Besides very many others rank of one and the same poysonous Leaven all squinting towards Arbitrary Power and as much as in them lies alluring and encouraging Kings to attempt the same by rendring them absolutely Absolute and unaccountable until Dooms-day in the Afternoon whereby they become only Nominal I had almost said Mungril Church-of-England-men but not true Israelites not true Nathaniels indeed These things considered how can I expect less than a whole host of Chemarims about my Ears But when I consider that according to the Doctrine of the Church of England the Word of God is the only Rule of Faith and Obedience and disapproves all implicite Faith blind Obedience and Infallibility and that we are not to imbibe Doctrines on trust and expect Salvation by a deputy Faith and Obedience And that St. Paul exhorts us that we be no more henceforth children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive Eph. 4.14 And the Scripture it self counts it nobleness of mind to examine the doctrines of our Teachers whether those things are so Act 17.11 And the Angel of the Church of Ephesus highly commended for that he had tried them which said they were Apostles and were not and found them lyers Revel 2.2 And St. Paul bids us prove all things and hold fast that which is good 1 Thess 5.21 Sure then after such Apostolical Precepts it is no crime to inquire whether they that boast of being Church-of-England-men are so in truth or no. I appeal to your selves Is it Fair nay is it Just nay Is it not Pride and Folly to assert Truth by arrogating to your selves the only freedom of Speech and stopping of Mouths and Pens and Press and burning Opinions of others equally gifted and furnished with the same means of knowledge with your selves and have like precious Souls to save as your selves and yet can let Popish Books and other vile Tenets be published and read as common as your own without Controul Fire or Faggot and connive at them but storm against Protestant Conventicles and can let Swearers Drunkards Whoremungers and Adulterers march openly and confidently in our Streets without so much as the Summons of an Apparitor or Excommunication Tacitus intending to write the Life of Agricola Incursurus tam saeva infest a virtutibus tempora did beg Pardon which otherwise he would not have done considering that Aurelius Rusticus for praising Paetus Thrasea calling him virum sanctum was put to Death by Nero virtutem ipsam exscindere concupiscens And also Herennius Senecio because he had written the Life of Helvidius Priscus another Cato or Brutus a Person of most free Speech in behalf of the Commonwealth for calling them most Holy and Upright Persons Besides severity was used against the Writers of Books charge being given to the Aediles and Triumviri capitales that the Works of those Noble Wits should solemnly be burnt in the Market-place supposing that with that Fire they could stop the Mouths of the People of Rome abolish the Liberty of the Senate and suppress the Knowledge of all Mankind Expelling withall the Professors of Wisdom and all good Learning and Arts lest any sparks of Honesty should remain Hence Sulpitia a Poetess of that time Nunc igitur qui res Romanas imperat inter Et studia sapiens hominum nomenque genusque Omnia abice foras atque urbe excedere jussit A very noble and pious Example taken from Heathenish Princes for Christians to imitate We naturally love nay long for forbidden Fruit and are most inquisitive after Books forbidden as being always jealous that some Truths lie dormant in such ready to fly in the Faces of those that forbid them and make wise Men conclude That Reason cannot stand on their side who will not suffer the Reasons of both Parties to be read and published Gospel Truths need no such Artifices Souls purely divine without mixtures and allay of little pittiful ends and interests do scorn the motion lest happily some Divine Truths may by such sinister devices be suppressed and stifled And others being of the contrary Opinion diametrically opposite one to the other and each differing no farther from the one than the other from them and neither Infallible what would you have us poor Laicks do death and damnation being pulpited against us by both Perswasions as one Opinion or the other happeneth to possess the Pulpit 1. I say That the differences among us are occasioned not as Christians but as Men. The Gospel is the Gospel of Peace Peace was the last Legacy that Christ left to his Church My peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you John 14.27 And his