Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A67472
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Love and truth in two modest and peaceable letters concerning the distempers of the present times / written from a quiet and conformable citizen of London to two busie and factious shop-keepers in Coventry.
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Walton, Izaak, 1593-1683.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing W673; ESTC R38020
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26,280
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37
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obtrude upon all Christians a belief that all those doubtful Books which the Church of England calls Apocryphal were certainly writ by Divine Inspiration and ought to be of equal Authority with those which we call Canonical Scripture and that the foundation for our faith and manners to God and man may and must be laid equally upon both But I think we agree with the Papists concerning all the Books of the New Testament that is that all were writ by Divine Inspiration But the Lutherans deny some part of the New Testament which both the Papists and we believe and grant to be writ by Divine Inspiration And now for my Application let me ask you seriously Are not you like this mistaking-man that durst trust a greater but not trust the Borrower with a lesser Sum of money You have trusted the Bishops and a select Clergy in a Convocation to tell you These you shall take to be Canonical Books of Scripture and no other Upon the truth of those and only those that they declare to be the holy Scripture you lay the foundation of your Faith and hope of Salvation You have trusted the Bishops that is the Church of England first their Learning and Wisdom to know and then their Integrity to tell you truly which is the blessed and holy Scripture With these great and necessary concerns of your Faith and Salvation you have trusted them and yet like the mistaking man you dare not trust them with what is of less concern Namely you do not believe them when they tell you how the Primitive Christians did worship and praise and pray to God And though you have trusted them to translate the Scriptures into English as being best learned in the Original Languages yet you dare not or do not trust them with the explanation of many words which have in the Original an ambiguous or doubtful meaning especially to us of the Laity who cannot know the Customs and Phrases of those Nations where our Saviour and his Disciples preached the glad tidings of our common Salvation Cosin I hope I have in this made some unforc'd and so useful Observations as an humble and good Christian will not gainsay And doubtless a soul truly humble will both think and say Almighty God hath appointed me to live in an Age in which Contention increases and Charity decays and it is certain that variety of Opinions and Controversies in Religion declare difficulty to know them truly but my comfort is That without Controversie there is so much Religion without Controversie as by the true practice of what is so I may save my Soul And therefore to make sure of that I will first become an humble Christian and conclude that I will in all doubtful things obey my Governours for sure they see a reason which I neither can or need to know why they command them I will be sure to be humble to fast and pray to be Charitable to visit and comfort dejected Families to love my Neighbours to pardon my Enemies and to do good to all Mankind as far as God shall enable me For I am sure these be Sacrifices which please Almighty God and will bring peace at last And I am sure that by using these graces these graces and my faith in Christs Merits for my Salvation will be more and more confirmed and by still using them more and more new graces will be still added and all be still more and more confirmed so confirmed as to bear witness with me and be my comfort when I must make my last and great account to the Searcher of all hearts Almighty God give me grace to practise what I have commended to your consideration for this and this only can and will make my life quiet and comfortable and my death happy And my dear Cosin as I wish my own so I wish yours may be September 12. 1679. Your Affectionate Kinsman R. W. THE END * The truth needs not be doubted by any that shall first know that Father Paul writ the History of the Council of Trent And then reads his Life as it is truly writ by his Disciple and Successour this Father Fulgentioâ—â— and now Printed before the said distory * Witness the late murther of the Scotch Bishop
Communion To which the Fathers reply was A man may live in an inficted City and not have the Plague My Judgment and publick Practice in Religion are both so well known here and at Rome and both to my danger and damage that I may continue in it with more safety than others And separation may be a sin in me who Judge the unity of the Church in which I was baptized and confirmed and the peace of the State in which I was born to be preforred before my private opinion interest or satisfaction and I think to commit a Schisin and separate from that Church would make me guilty of the sin of a Scandal justly given and therefore live in it and die in it I must though it be the impurest of Christian Churches But let him that now is not of it never be of that Church which is so far departed from the Primitive purity and now maintained only by splendour and the maxims and practice of polity If you doubt the truth of this relation I will give you unquestionable confirmation of it at our next meeting It has been longer than I intended and I beg your pardon and beg you also to consider with what inconsiderable zeal you and your Party rush into Schism and give just cause of Scandal by opposing Government and affronting that Church in which you were born and baptized and I hope confirmed by a Bishop I think the doing so requires your sad and serious consideration For if there be such sins as Schism and Scandal and if there were not they could not have names in Scripture then give me leave to tell you I cannot but wonder that you and the scruple-mongers of your Party should rush into them without any tenderness or scruple of Conscience And here let me tell you the Church of England which you oppose enjoyns nothing contrary to Gods Word and hath summed up in her Creeds and Catechism what is necessary for every Christian to know and to do And can you that are a Shop-keeper or private man think that you are fit to teach and judge the Church or the Church fit to teach and judge you Or can you think the safety or peace of the State or Church in which you live should depend upon the scruples and mistakes of a party of the Common People whose indiscreet and active zeal makes them like the restless Scribes and Pharisees Mat. 13. 15 who compass Sea and Land to get Parties to be of their opinions and by that means beget confusion in both No doubtless Common reason will not allow of this belief for a liberty to preach and persuade to your dangerous Principles would enflame the too hot and furious zeal of so many of your Party and beget so many more restless and dangerous contentions that there could be neither quiet or safety in a Nation but by keeping a standing Army which I know you detest and from the cause of which God deliver us I have told you often that Samuel says 1 Sam. 15. 23. Rebellion is like the sin of Witchcraft and I cannot tell you too often that Schism is too like that mysterious sin for when the fire of Schism and Rebellion is kindled no man knows where it will end Consider this and remember that St. Jude accounts them that make Sects to be fleshly and not to have the Spirit of God which too many of your Fraternity pretend to And now after so long seriousness give me liberty to be so pleasant as to tell you a Tale by which I intend not to provoke you but to explain my meaning There was a North-Country man that came young and poor to London to seek that which he call'd his fortune and it proved to be an Hostler in an Inn of good note in that City in which condition he continued some years and by diligence and frugality get and saved so much money that in time he became the Master of that Inn. And not long after his arrival to that happiness he sent for three of his Neeces one to serve him in his Kitchin and the other two did serve for some years in a like condition in other houses 'till mine Host their Unkle died who at his death left to each of them a hundred pound to buy each of them a North-Country Husband and also to each of them ten pound to buy new Cloaths and bear their charges into the North to see their Mother The three Sisters resolved to go together and the day being appointed two of them bought very fantastical Cloaths and as gaudy Ribbands intending thereby to be noted and admired but the third was of a more frugal humour yet aimed at admiration too and said she would save her money wear her old Cloaths and yet be noted and get reputation at a cheaper rate For she would hold some singular new fantastical opinion in Religion and thereby get admirers and as many as they should and it proved so And doubtless this is the Ambition of many Women Shop-keepers and other of the Common People of very mean parts who would not be admired or noted if they did not trouble themselves and others by holding some odd impertinent singular opinions And tell me freely do not you think that silence would become our Cosin Mrs. B than to talk so much and so boldly against those Clergy-men and others that bow at the Altar she says to the Altar and use other like reverence in Churches where she and her Party are so familiar with God as to use none And concerning which let me tell you my thoughts and then leave you to judge Almighty God in the Second Commandment says he would have none to bow down or worship a graven Image Intimating as I suppose a Jealousie lest that reverence or worship which belongs only to him be ascribed or given to an Idol or Image But that reverence and worship does belong to him and was always paid to him is to me manifest by what the Prophet David says Psal. 5. I will in thy fear worship towards thy holy Temple And again I will praise thy name and worship towards thy holy Temple And again Psal. 132. 138. O let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord These and many more might be urged out of the Old Testament And in the New you may see it is a duty to worship God First St. Paul says Heb. 13. 10. We have an Altar And you may note Rev. 22. 9. where the Angel that had shewed St. John a Vision forbad him to fall down to him but bad him fall down and worship God And again Chap. 14. 7. Worship him that made heaven and earth I omit more Testimonies which might be multiplied and shall tell you next that Churches are sacred and not to be used prophancely For you may note that our Saviour did with a divine indignation whip the money-changers out of the Temple for polluting it and said His house should be