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	spirit_n	3,951	5	5.4085	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75493	An apologetick for the sequestred clergie of the Church of England. Disclaiming and detesting the late unnatural, presumptuous, unparallel'd and antichristian proceedings, against the honor and life of the best of Kings, our most dear and dread sovereign Lord and King, St Charls the martyr. / Communicated in a letter to a religious and loial gentleman, his honored friend.		1649 (1649)	Wing A3537; Thomason E554_7; ESTC R205760	14,269	25

was this much to them who well remembred that it behoved them to follow the High-Priest of our Profession who was thus consecrated by sufferings They were 1 Stoned they were 2 Sawn asunder were 3 Tempted were 4 Slain with the Sword So was the Proto-martyr 1. St Stephan the Prophet 2. Isaiah the Patriarch 3. Job and 4. Zachariah the Priest the Father of the Baptist They wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins beeing destitute afflicted tormented Their glories were within their garments mean and suitable to their habitations For they wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and in caves of the earth Of whom the world was not worthie And wherefore this quo oculo For they had a respect unto the recompense of the reward that they might receiv a glorious Resurrection And are these the prizes of our Sufferings These were enough to sweeten bitterness it self to make them welcom Death to hug the Cross to embrace the Flames Indeed wee have not drunk so deep as they in the bitter Cup of Gall and Vineger Wee dare not saie Our Sufferings equal Theirs in the degrees or qualitie of torments They were more noble and exceeded us triumphing in their Chariots of Fire dallying with Lions and the cruel beasts less cruel then their persecuting Masters singing upon the Gridirons and Racks of exquisite and new-invented Tortures tiring the malice of inhumane Butchers with an undanted Christian resolution with a victorious Faith and Patience spitting defiance in the face of Crueltie pregnant with Heathen wit and arm'd with power These were the great excesses of those Worthies who knew no other Arms but these besides their Praiers and Tears to fight with and to conquer a world of Tyrants and of Infidels These things did those mightie men Did so wee said for sure they were not counted Sufferings which were thus courted and embraced by them Such were the Leaders in the glorious Armie of the Martyrs Nor have they wanted honorable followers in all the Ages of the Christian Church Who though they did not wade so deep in the Red Sea of Blood yet marched after in their Liveries of Stripes of Bonds and Persecutions the lesser marks of the Lord JESVS the Captain both of Suffering and Salvation The difference of whose glorious reward accidental perhaps but not substantial an Aureola to one to one a Crown will bee abundantly made up and reconciled in the blessed fellowship of Saints and Angels and the eternal fruition of Christ and God to the full completing of the greatest Hope and the assurance given by S. Paul That the light afflictions which are but for a moment shall work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Hyperbolical expression for an Hyperbolical reward a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glorie Indeed wee dare not compare our selvs to these nor make our selvs of their member who were the glorie of their times It will bee joie enough for us if wee can saie Sequimur Patres though wee bee forced to add non passibue aequit Shee did what shee could was to our comfort compead a good Plea by Christ and justified in Marie Magdalen Wee dare not nay wee need not plead the rigor and intensness of our Sufferings for bee they more or less by Sword or Fire by Death or by beeing but Undon Wee are accepted according to that which wee have not that which wee have not But if anie question the Justness of our Cause a righteous Cause if ever anie or doubt of the Intention and Preparation of our Souls Quocunque Dens to follow whither God shall pleas to call us Wee speak foolishly but wee speak it with S. Paul Whereinsoever anie dare bee bold wee dare bee hold also Are they Christians even so are wee Are they true Sons of the Church of England even so are wee Have they suffered for righteousness sake even so have wee Are they the Ministers of Christ wee speak as fools wee are more In Labers more abundant in stripes above measure in Prisons more froquent in deaths oft If wee must needs glorie wee will glorie in the things which concern our afflictions The Plunderings Sequestrations Imprisonment Banishment Death of thousands endured by us with so much Patience Meekness and Heroïck Courage Our Constancie and Perseverance in this fierie Trial still holding our Integritie and blessing God in the loss of all save Faith and a good Conscience are evidence enough to God and Man that wee cannot but detest such high impietie which striking so immediatly at the Sacred Person of the King God's Vicar upon Earth will mediately bee found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to strike at God Himself But becaus the foulest Fiend somtime put 's on the fairest Vizard and the Prince of Darkness hath been often known to transform himself into an Angel of Light the furious Donatists cried out of Persecution and in a frantick Zeal and mad Devotion ventured upon swords and flames pretending the Religion of a Holie Cause as here their younger Brethren did and do to warrant their unjustifiable Actions Groundless suspitions may bee rais'd of us our Innocencie may bee counted a Malefactor and our verie Sufferings may suffer But if Causa non Paena facit Martyrem bee a truth and ever taken so to bee by men of all Perswasions and Professions wee shall not doubt to own our Sufferings and justifie Our selvs and Them by the prescription of a Righteous Cause Indeed wee cannot see by their New Lights which seem to us more black then the Egyptian Darkness Their Revelations are Obscurities and their Apocalyps Apocrypha Wee dare not give our Faith to their Pretensions wee dare not trust their Spirit without Trial since wee have found it to the woful disturbance of Christendom run cross and contradictorie to the Holie Faith which was consigned to the Catholick Church in the undoubted Records and infallible volumes of the Sacred Scripture which upon better and more certain grounds then the Laws of the Medes and Persians have the highest privilege and honor as dictated by the Spirit of Truth to bee unalterable Wee know ndeed that God spake in them as for these men wee know not whence they are It is another Spirit they pretend It is another JESVS whom they Preach It is another GOD whom they Adore The Holie Spirit wee know JESUS wee know and GOD wee know But who are these If we may pass a judgment by their works and Christ will warrant us by His Ex fructibus You shall know them by their fruits They are not Sheep but Wolvs not Doves but Vultures not what they call themselvs the Meek the Saints They speak their Father and his works they do who was a Serpent is a roaring Lion who having managed the highest Treason against his supreme Lord and Sovereign the King of Heaven and Earth not onely engaged many of his fellow-subjects in that grand Rebellion but hath ever since made it his work to disturb all Kingdoms but

his own for there hee will endure nec priorem nec parem to set the world on fire to raise up Seditions and to shake the verie foundations of Government and Order But wee have not so learned Christ nor can the Principles of Christian Doctrine consist with such Unchristian Practises Wee spake openly to the world wee ever taught in the Temple whither the people alwaies resort and in secret have wee said nothing Ask not of us Ask them that heard us what wee have said unto them Behold they know not what wee said S. Job 18.20 21. First wee appeal to God and next to them who knew the manner of our Life and Doctrine if they would testifie that after that waie which they call Malignancie for so they mis-call the Doctrine and Practise of our Christian brethren so worship wee the God of our Fathers so have wee been taught as the truth is in JESUS to Fear GOD and the KING and not to meddle with them that are given to Change beeing assured by the Spirit of Truth who cannot lie That their destruction shall arise suddenly and who kneweth the ruin of them both Knowing therfore this Truth and terror of the Lord lest wee should incur the just reward of partaking in the sins of other men which wee have labored to prevent and hinder both by our Example and Discourses Wee do in the Name of God ad liberandas animas nostras to clear our souls of the Innocent blood of our Just and Righteous PRINCE Declare the late presumptuous Proceedings against his Life and Honor to bee Jesuitical and Antichristian contrarie to the Faith once delivered to the Saints and ever professed by the Catholick Church of Christ and in special by the Church of England Wee acknowledg and declare to all the world that the KING is solo Deo minor as in the old Divinitie of Tertullian That Sub or Co-ordination destroie the eternal Mishpat the righteous Law of God planted in Nature and consigned in the Holie Scriptures for the absolute independent and Supreme Dominon of God's Vicegerent the Sacred Majestie of His Anointed That Hee is not by anie Law of God or Man accomptable to his Subjects no not in the supposed case of male-administration satis erit ut Deum exspectet ultorem was thought by the old Christians a sufficient thunder-bolt to keep Him in good order That Hee hath no Superior upon Earth to exercise Jurisdiction over Him That Against Thee onely have I sinned could not bee truly said by King David upon any other consideration but His unquestionable Exemption from all Humane Judicatories That Hee is a King by Him alone by whom Hee is a man without all Papal or Popular dependence And that the Cursing of the King but in our Thought much more the slandering and reviling with our Tongue much more the Deposition and Dethroning but above all the Taking of His Life is a Crime of deepest stain and the highest breach of all the Laws of God and Men. These SIR are no new receiv'd opinions of Yesterdaie or of this later Age They antedate the Aera of Christianitie and are contemporarie with Nature and it were easie work to fill whole volumes with the glorious Names of our Fathers who lived and died in the promulgation and mantenance of this Faith which now suffering under the odious Name of Malignancie Court-Divinitie and flattering of Princes was the chief quarrel of the world against us to the dishereson of us in our temporal fortunes and which was far more grievous to the eternal ruin of those pretious souls for vvhich Christ died vvhom by the stopping of our mouths and the perverting of the Truth by the mouths of Ababs Prophets substituted unduly and intruded against all Law and Conscience into our Cures it laie not in the power of our Christian Charitie to save from the deep ingagement of the wrath of God upon them here nor which is worse the entailing of an eternal curse upon their Memorie and without Repentance upon their Souls And now SIR what need of farther witnesses of our Integritie and Innocence what Reason can object or laie on us the imputation of so great a guilt what could wee hope might possily prevail when the engagement of our Fortunes Lives and Souls the best and dearest pledges wee could stake could not procure that credit unto us or mercie to themselvs as to divert them from those horrid waies which know no end but Hell and desperation And with these onely wee could very well have satisfied our selvs in point of Conscience and have offered them to God for His acceptance But more wee have to saie by waie of Plea which like pack-thred and paper wee shall cast into the bargain And that upon this double consideration 1. Of the seeming Improbabilitie of the Attempting an Action of so extravagant a nature 2. Of the Impossibilitie of good Success in case wee had appeared 1. For the first what wise and honest man could rationally imagin that such unnatural unheard of Thoughts could probably possess the hearts of anie who had not first cast off Humanitie and Reason not to speak of Conscience and Religion What Hazael would not startle at the motion of so horrid so unparallel'd impietie and utter his detestation of it in his language Am I a Dog Wee presumed the Actors in that fatal Tragedie would not bee so injurious to themselvs as to take that for a fault in Us Our Dis-beleeving of so prodigious an Intention the Beleeving of which to have been deliberated by anie who had respect to Conscience or Honor was conceiv'd by us too great a breach of Christian Charitie which wee our selvs though present on the Stage were loth to suffer to be so far invaded notwithstanding all that terrible pomp and such extravagant Preparations Wee hoped better things from them who had assumed the Name of Reforming-Christians and of Saints Nor durst wee while wee labored to bee innocent by questioning or prejudging their innocence endanger ours But indeed beside our Charitie which if S. Paul bee right Thinketh no evil which cannot bee it self if but suspitious had wee not Reason too Can Christians bee induced to believ that Oaths and Vows and Protestations could bee no stronger ties upon the Saints then Cords or Wit hs were in the hand of Sampson Or els that Regicide a crying sin would bee a just satisfaction to an incensed God for all our former faults and villanies Or that the breaking of the Fift the Crown Command could make atonement for the breach of Nine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Sorcerie how hast thou broke forth to the supplanting of Christianitie and Reason Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft wee often heard before wee see it now 2. But the second the Impossibilitie of good success in ease wee had appeared vvhich vvas strongly confirmed to us whether wee reflected on 1 Our selvs 2 The Managers of the Design or 3 Others both of