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	religion_n	true_a	7,548	5	5.1593	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48851	A sermon preached before the House of Lords, on November 5, 1680 by ... William Lord Bishop of St. Asaph.	Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.	1680 (1680)	Wing L2712; ESTC R20309	18,469	46

the Devil It holds we see in particular persons but it is much more visible in Societies And to this I come next that of Societies of men Christians of all other are most averse from ways of violence and blood especially from using any such ways upon the account of Religion And among Christian Churches where they differ among themselves if either of them use those ways upon the account of Religion they give a strong presumption against themselves that they are not truly Christians There is Reason for this because we know that Christ gave Love for the character by which his Disciples were to be known John 13. 35. By this shall all men know that you are my Disciples if you have love one to another And left men should unchristen others first that they may hate them and destroy them afterwards Christ enlarged his Precept of Love and extended it even to enemies and not only to ours but to the enemies of our Religion Matth. 5. 43 44. And to enable us to live according to this Precept he hath given us his Spirit whereof this is one of the Fruits For among the Fruits of the Spirit is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only the love of the Brethren but the love of strangers even of enemies as the Apostle shews 2 Pet. 1. 5. On the contrary Hatred is one of the works of the flesh and they that have not the Spirit of Christ to subdue it are said to be hateful and hating one another Tit. 3. 3. Especially to his Disciples Christ saith The world hates you John 15. 19. You particularly as being Christians And even among Christians He that saith he is in the light and hates his Brother his fellow Christian he is in darkness still saith the Apostle 1 Iohn 2. 9. He hath a great want of that light which belongeth to a Christian. To see the use of this Character let any one consider how the Christians were treated by the enemies of their Religion and then let him consider how they used their enemies when they were in power he shall find that darkness differs not more from light than the persecuting genius of those enemies from the calm gentle spirit of Christians I say when they were in power for there is the tryal 'T is not much to be heeded what men do when they are under Authority When the Jews had the power to wreak their malice upon Christians they both killed the Lord Iesus and his Apostles and all Christians where they durst for fear of the Romans they never ceased till wrath come upon them to the uttermost nor even then for their malice lasts still it burns inward and they are not able to keep it from breaking out sometimes as it did here very lately upon an occasion of which I shall say no more in this place The Heathens likewise shewed their malice against Christians in divers cruel bloody Persecutions in the very infancy of our Religion and when the Blood of Martyrs being the seed of the Church it grew up so wonderfully and was so vastly numerous that it seemed an endless work to destroy it yet there were those Heathen Princes that despaired not of it even then especially Diocletan and his Colleague who killed many thousands of Christians only upon the account of Religion When the Government changed as it did in few years after the last Persecution and when Christianity was come to be the Established Religion there was no Heathen put to death nor no Jew upon the account of Religion till Popery prevailed which was as bloody as Judaism or Heathenism This calm gentle temper of the Primitive Christians which so gloriously shined forth when they came to be in Power was that which lay hid in them all the times of Persecution Then they could not shew it but in their Profession and so indeed they always did as appears by Tertullian and others who used to fay and glory in it Christianus nullius hostis a Christian is no mans enemy a Christian can be no mans enemy do what you will to him injure him slander him strip and torture him kill all others of his Religion before his eyes and then let him loose and give him power place him in your circumstances he cannot revenge himself upon you What! that humane nature could bear such things without any resentment it was not credible their enemies could not believe this none could believe it that did not feel it in himself till they came to see it and then all men believed it and acknowledged it to be the singular excellency of the Christian Religion But as our holy Religion excels all others in this admirable temper so by this we may usually judge who they are that excel among Christian Churches when there happens any difference between them whether touching the Faith or the terms of Communion They that were the more fierce they generally had the worst Cause As when the difference was about the keeping of Easter it was chiefly between the Roman and the Asian Churches The Asians were content that every Church should keep it at what time they pleas'd so themselves might be allowed to keep it as they had always done for they held the precise time to be as truly it was an indifferent thing The Romans would not allow that they were for imposing on other Churches and for breaking Communion with them that would not receive their Impositions Which as it argued in them a proud and wrathful disposition so even by that it appeared they had the worst of the Cause In like manner in that heat between Cyprian and Stephen where neither of them was right in the Cause for as it commonly happens when men contend the Truth lay between them yet sure St. Cyprian was in the right in this in holding that this cause was not sufficient to break Communion between Churches And there Pope Stephen was in the wrong for he did break Communion about it he denied jus hospitii he would not receive a message he would not hear of an Accommodation I forbear to repeat the ill terms he gave St. Cyprian you may read them in the end of Firmilian's Epistle We all allow that Cyprian was truly a Saint 'T is well they own him such in the Roman Church But how they can make that Pope so too I do not understand for it is plain that to his death he would not allow that Saint to be a Christian. The great power of Error in moving mens Passions and enraging them against the Professors of Truth and the power of true Religion in composing mens Passions on the other hand both these did appear as soon as ever a Heresie came to have Publick Authority on its side It was the Arian Heresie that was newly broke forth before the Council of Nice and that Council was called to suppress it which they did by no other force but putting Arians out of their Bishopricks They