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	know_v	scripture_n	6,716	5	6.3200	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37543	The Jury-man charged, or, A letter to a citizen of London wherein is shewed the true meaning of the statute entituled, An act to prevent and suppress seditious conventicles ...	H. E.	1664 (1664)	Wing E10; ESTC R23241	12,624	15

of any exercise of Religion which words of pretence and colour are to no purpose and might have been spared if to be present at a Religious Meeting be sufficient to make a man guilty So that really according to the best understanding I have they do wickedly abuse the King and Parliament that adjudge men guilty upon any other score Again It is usual both for Quakers and others to visit one another and being together they take occasion to do some Act of Religion and perhaps are found therein and apprehended What did they therefore come together under colour of Religion because they are Religious Are both those that profess to meet for Religion and those that profess it not but somewhat else equally guilty Such a Witness must be of wonderful discerning But suppose we that our Judges will perswade the silly Witnesses that if they were found Praying or Exhorting one another that then the pretence of Religion is evident for I will not imagin so much wickedness in any of our Judges as in Br. to adjudge men guilty that say nor do any thing But 2dly our Witness must know that this exercise of Religion was in other manner then is allowed by the Lyturgy or practice of the Church of England and how shall he know that Can any man tell what the Lyturgie allows except he hath read it all and every part or heard it read and truly there is little less than the whole Bible contained in the Litturgy if you consider the Epistles Gospels and Chapters that are there appointed to be read So that the result will be Whether this exercise of Religion be allowed in the Bible or Lyturgy or Practice of the Church of England and then it will be necessary that our Deponent have read or known understood and remembred all and every part of the holy Scriptures all and every part of the Litturgy all and every part of the Practice of the Church of England concerning Religion whether it be written or not written He must also be able to compare this exercise of Religion in the accused Assembly with the Scriptures Litturgy and Practice of the Church of England He must also be able to determine all Controversies in Religion to know on which side the Truth lies between the party accused and the Exercise of Religion allowed by the Scriptures Lyturgy or Practice of the Church of England and if perhaps the Lyturgy and Practice of the Church of England do thwart and contradict the Scriptures or one another or themselves concerning this point of Religion in question so that they do in some places allow it and in other places disallow it our Witness must be able to determine certainly upon his Oath That this exercise of Religion is not allowed by the Lyturgy or Practice of the Church of England and then eris mihi magnus Apollo But you will say perhaps That it is determined by the Church of England already what only exercise of Religion is allowed and by consequence all other are disallowed So that the Witness needs only to tell In what manner they exercised Religion and the Judges will tell the Jury That the Lyturgy and Practice of the Church of England doth allow it and then it will be clear between the Witness and the Judges to the Jury-man's conscience that the Prisoner is guilty according to the Indictment But will this satisfie you Sir Can you take a passionate and teasty Judge's word as your infallible Director in so many most difficult Controversies as must in this case be decided Will you pin your Faith upon the Judges sleeve in matters of Religion of which perhaps he knows no more then he can find in the Statute-Book when you have rejected the Church of Rome with all her pretences of Infallibility from being Determiness in this matter where I pray hath the Church of England determined all Acts of Religion that are to be performed by five or more persons Doth she not tell us the Scriptures are the Word of God Doth she not commend it as a perfect Rule of Faith and Manners Doth she not translate it into our Mother Tongue and charge us to reade it diligiently And must we not obey what we judge we find there The Papists are in far better case than we that are not permitted to read the Scriptures if when we have read them we must be punished for understanding and obeying them the best we can O wittily done Robbin Everard that didst choose rather to go to Rome than return to the Church of England perhaps thou thought'st she was hastning thither and thou wouldst go before to get a good quarter as fearing thou shouldst scarce get any entertainment when so great an Army came But to return Doth the Church of England allow only one manner of exercise of Religion that is reading the Lyturgy Why then do ye Preachers usually make Prayers before and after your Sermons that are not in the Lyturgy Doth not the Church of England allow what the Scriptures command but the divine Author to the Hebrews commands Christians Heb. 10.24 25. To consider one another to provoke one another to Love and to Good Works and not to forsake the assembling themselves together as the manner of some is For how should they provoke one another to Love and Good-Works if they should not Assemble but you will say They must assemble among their Neighbors at Church but there is only one permitted to exhort the rest if any other should speak there to exhort one another he should presently be haled to prison and perhaps lose his life among the Rabble The same Author commands us to exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin What wil not the Church of England allow us to endeavour to prevent the deceitfulness of sin and hadness of heart Surely the Lyturgy in the Letany hath one clause against hardness of heart must we pray against it and not labour against it How absurd is that Or what doth not the Church of England allow a man to reade the Scriptures or the Lyturgy in his own Family if there be five persons besides his Family And is not reading the Scriptures an exercise of Religion Doth not the Church of England allow five persons besides the Family to meet together to consult of relieving a poor Widow or Fatherless and to exhort and stir up one another to this work by mutual Conference or continued Speeches and Orations out of the Scriptures and to pray for one another that they may keep themselves unspotted from the Adulteries Fornications Prophane Swearings Oppressions Cruelties Malice Envie Revenge Covenant-Breaking Persecution of Good men and all manner of Debaucherys of the times But the Apostle James saith Pure Religion and undefiled is this to visit the Fatherless and Widdows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world Who will dare to take his Oath the Church of