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	true_a	unity_n	1,613	5	9.0929	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13111	The looking-glasse of schisme wherein by a briefe and true narration of the execrable murders, done by Enoch ap Evan, a downe-right separatist, on the bodies of his mother and brother, with the cause mooving him thereunto, the disobedience of that sect, against royall majesty, and the lawes of our Church is plainly set forth. By Peter Studley, Master of Arts, and minister of Gods Word, in Shrevvsbury.	Studley, Peter, 1587 or 8-1648.	1634 (1634)	STC 23403; ESTC S117932	73,005	313

circumference of their own In-conformity But let them delude and flatter themselves in their Toyish Imaginations as long as they will and persist to affront Authoritie in the person of their Prince and the commaund of his Lawes It is my hope and confidence and I trust all good men concurre with me therein That as the Lord in mercy and holy love unto his Church among us hath given Pure Wisedome to his Anointed Vice-gerent to discover these obliquities and Impostures and also Royall courage to attempt the reformation and suppression thereof So he will also strengthen and uphold his Princely Arme in his proceedings therein till he have brought the same to a gratious and to a glorious perfection And then will this Church and Kingdome know both in the generall body therof and also more specially in these Non-conformists theselves both Ecclesiasticall and Secular when their eyes are opened to behold their owne errours That they have beene long deteyned and deluded in adoring vaine fantasies not worth the regarding And then they will also blesse and magnifie the LORD'S great mercies and returne the Tribute of thankfull and of loyal hearts to their gratious Sovereigne by whose pious care so laudable and glorious a work hath beene prospered and atchieved For though now errors in their soules do dimme darken and even blinde the eye of their Iudgements and not suffer them with the cleere light of sanctified Reason to behold this wholesome and profitable truth shine forth unto them Namely That Vnitie and Peace betweene the Prince and his People and with all the People mutually among themselves are the true and proper glory of Earthly Kingdomes typically figuring the celestial Vnity in blessednes and glory in the Triumphant Church of GOD And that Schisme Division of any people into variety of opinions and affections is the bane and subversion of the Tranquillity of a Church Nation resembling the confusions and perturbations of satans infernal regiment Then will they cleerely see to the infinite joy and comfort of their own soules that this disobedience to Royall Majesty and prudent lawes for things of indifferent nature is no more but a selfe-pleasing fantafie which every good man may verie well spare and yet remaine a faithfull sonne to GOD his Father a sound member of that particular Church wherein he was baptised and a loyall and obedient subject to the Majesty of that gratious Prince in whose Dition and Principality he first drew his native breath and being And if these men will but entertaine that one rule of our LORD and SAVIOUR IESUS CHRIST Matth. 11.28 Learne of me for I am meeke and lowly in heart and yee shall finde rest for your soule And by this rule wil strive to take downe the height of their owne elate and haughty spirits and humble themselves to submit to the wisedome of their King and State and to suspect their owne wisdomes as every wise man ought to doe surely then the things proposed unto them for obedience and the setling of uniformitie over the body of this Church and Kingdome will shortly be universally admitted and pleasingly entertained And when they have cast away that prejudicate and troublesome opinion which they have of the persons of the Bishops who for their wisdome piety gravity sincerity deserve all due respect of veneration to bee given unto them Then the blessed experience of the manifold commodities which accompany peace and unity will not onely prove an inward comfort to their soules but will also make them to bee greatly offended with themselves for their obstinate contumacie against their lawful Superiours when they shall cal to minde how long they have deprived themselves of so great a blessing as is Vnitie of Heart Minde and Iudgement by dividing themselves from the obedience of their spirituall Mother the Orthodox and pure Church of GOD in this Kingdome For in all humane matters and these of ceremonies are no other all sound knowledge and judgement is attained by experience which though it be said to be the Mistresse of fooles by shewing unto them and imprinting on their hearts their manifold errours yet she is no foolish mistresse but the best informer and reformer of our understandings and wills by which it pleaseth GOD to reduce from wandering His straying sheepe and gratiously confine them within His owne fold witnesse the wanton Prodigall who running riot from his father and from the true principles of knowledge in his owne soule never returned againe to GOD or to himselfe till sensible experience of his owne vanity had pinched him and made him as the Scriptures report 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 15.17 to come home to himselfe by the gratious view of his errors directed thereunto by the Spirit of God And these Non-conformists whether Church-men or Lay-men they are no other but Wanton and Prodigall fugitives and Run-awayes from their spirituall Father the LORD who requires of us and them 1 Pet. 2.14 To submit our selves to every ordinance of men for the LORD'S sake And fugitives also they are from their Politike Father the King by rejecting his Authority given him by GOD. And till some few gentle stripes with the Rod of Princely power prove unto them as the famine did to the Prodigall open their eyes and give them sensible impression and experience of their sullen Pride and Vanity they wil never returne soundly to their GOD to their Prince to themselves but they will riotize in selfe-opinions and deluded imaginations to the hazard and endangering of their owne soules by incurring the wrath of God And for mine owne part I am perswaded that if all the Non-conformed Ministers in this Church were divided into foure equal parts three of them have never read any controversies of our Church-discipline but perhaps some of the railing Libels of Master Cartwright and his companions a part by themselves which passe underhand from man to man amongst them without the learned Antidots of contrary writings to expell the maligne poison and infection therof But these men looke only upon the practise of the times and seeing that to incline to this faction is a faire way of thriving both in reputation of credit with this sort of people and also in meanes of livelihood by private and underhand Benevolences Gratuities Contributions they are thereby inticed on to these disloyall and factious courses which in multitudes of Lay-persons of severall rankes and degrees is growne to a great height of strength and power And yet neither their multitudes nor their power so great but that wise men may discover in them that they are not persons of any courage to hold out opposition against Authority to the incurring of danger either to their persons or to their estates which cowardize of Spirit in persons otherwise of so high insolent and daring spirits as they are plainly convinceth the truth of the over-ruling hand of GOD'S power in all mens hearts and also pleadeth and acteth in their owne

to goe to their beds after light suppers And although they have often read yet they have not learned the contentation of the holy Apostle k ●hil 4.12 I can be full and I can be hungrie For of all things in this world hunger and fasting least consorts with these mens dispositions who are present at and partakers of more good feasts and plentifull feedings than any kinde of men in this Land besides And how many of them I wonder can say with blessed Paul l Act. 20.33 I have coveted no mans gold nor silver nor apparell And further to the never dying memory of his hearts integrity m 2 Cor. 4.4 We have renounced the hidden things of dishonestie not Walking in craftinesse not handling the Word of GOD deceitfully but by manifestation of Truth commending our selves to everie mans conscience in the sight of GOD. And hee leaves not there but unto all people with whom hee had familiarly conversed and by plantation of Churches among them had begot their soules to GOD hee gives testimonie of the soundnesse of his owne heart free from the close vice of fraudulent adulation saying n 1 Thes 2.5 Neither at any time used wee flattering words as a cloake of covetousnesse GOD is witnesse And to set forth the true object of all his aimes and travels hee tels his spirituall sons o 2 Cor. 12.14 I seeke not yours but you In the practice of these rules I suppose and that without errour of judgement or breach of charity the conscience of the sincerest Non-conformed Minister in this Kingdome is not able to justifie himselfe nor to say from an upright and sound heart p 1 Cor. 4.4 I know nothing by my selfe And if the rich Gentry and other wealthy persons in this Kingdome will please to make proofe hereof let them restraine for a yeare their familiarities and bounties from this craving or having generation and thereby this matter will grow out to an experienced issue and then this new suspition will demonstrate it selfe either for an invented accusation or a true and reall affirmation 46 Yet touching the hearts and consciences of these men in their pleasing and profitabse courses I will not take upon me to judge or censure or so much as to deliver my opinion what I thinke but because it is the Royall Prerogative of God as to bee the Lord and Creator so also to bee the searcher and the censurer of their hearts I will leave them in his Divine hand of Soveraigne power to know them exactly and to judge them justly Onely this I will say on the behalfe of this Church and Kingdome so lightly esteemed of these men and their friends for piety or sincerity that this land blessed bee God therefore is plentifully stored with many Christian men no Nation of the Earth comparable for number or worth richly furnished with the knowledge of Gods will with Piety Vertue and the true feare of God and abundantly accomplished with all good and profitable literature not puft up with the wind of ambition not addicted to concurre with the streame and sway of the times as these men scornefully phrase it but ballased with pure conscience for the sound and true worship of God and with desire to consecrate themselves to his holy service and these doe not stumble at those Niceties which these Irregularians cast into the heads of lay people nor under any pretense of Idolatry or superstition in Ceremonies divide themselves from the unity of that gratious Church their Mother in whose wombe they were conceived borne and Baptized Whose persons worths and abilities being cast in equall ballance of comparison man for man with the adverse party I easily conjecture and I know the adversaries themselves will readily yeeld it will preponderate the levity of these singular and selfe pleasing separatists And though they will pleade for themselves that not learning and worth but Integrity of life is that rule wherby wee ought to judge of the gifts of saving grace in any kind of men according to those words of our Lord q Matth. 11.25 I thanke thee ô Father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Yet if these words of our Lord shall bee applyed to the matter we have now in hand and made a generall and sacred Canon whereby to guide our iudgements in this point they will inferre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a paradox most unseasonable absurd and more then Bruitish it selfe to wit That the Lord in his Wisdome or Iustice hath made a perpetuall Divorce betweene learned knowledge and true Pietie and that unlearned ignorance is the ready way to the attainment of his saving graces both of the true knowledge of his will and of sanctification by his Spirit Which position so wild and desperate how farre it differs from that Popish Tenent that ignorance is the mother of devotion let the Learned judge But where there is an equall portion to say no more of Piety towards God of integrity towards all men in the hearts of Learned men as well as of the unlearned To exclude the Learned from the found Iugment of divine truth and to appropriate the same to men of meaner qualities and abilities is to invert the order of divine wisedome and providence then should the prophane and secular Learning of Moses who was Learned in all the wisedome of the Aegyptians Act. 7.22 and was mighty in words and deeds have beene a Barre and impeachment unto him from attaining the favour of GOD. Then should the learning of Paul Act. 22.3 who was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel a learned Doctor of the Law have prevented both his eternall election with GOD his designation to the Gospell Act. 9.15 and his Temporall vocation for plantation thereof Then should the learned knowledge and secular Arts of the holy Saints Fathers in the Primitive Church Iust in Martyr Basil the great Chrysostome Hierom Ambrose Augustine with the rest of their venerable contemporaries and successors have beene a hinderance and let to their true pietie wherewith the Church of GOD knowes right well their holy hearts were graciously and richly endowed But every vaine toy and flattering delusion wherewith this Sect of men are apt to please themselves and delight their friends must not passe for currant Truth in the approbation of GOD's true Saints and servants the Orthodoxe Church of CHRIST here on earth 47 Now for the reforming of these mens judgements and practice though many learned Treatises and laborious Volumes have been judiciously written from time to time which might convince their understandings of error and iustly check their consciences for their under-hand practises and Schismaticall courses yet that Godly Reformation vvhich was and is desired hath not so prosperously succeeded Because as farre as my poore understanding is able to conceive the chiefe thing was and is yet wanting which might have

ca●●le and the Neighbour-●ood there one of them Brother in law to Enoch by marriage with his eldest sister The other a man of very honest reputation in the place of his dwelling Mr. William Tanner were desired by Enochs father to come unto me and to crave the continuance of my charitable paines with his son and promised me that the old man should be thankfull unto me I answered them that as my owne charity was my first Inducement and motive to visit him so my dutie to GOD and the satisfaction of mine owne conscience was all my expected reward The brother in law of Enoch desired of me that the next morning he might attend me to the Gaole to conferre with him to counsell and to direct him The houre eight of the clocke being appointed we repaired thither and in the presence of nine persons of which one was strongly affected to Non-conformitie I entred conference or rather counsell with him and they all are able to testifie how free I was from any po●tike device of scruing my sel● into his bosome to doe the Paritans any disgrace which was the thing so greatly feared ● called for the Bible of the house and by many and urgent perswasions illustrates with pregnant examples I laboured to bring him to a sight and sense of his great wickednesse thereby to humble him and by repentance to prepare his soule for comforts 22 Having finished my exhortation to him which he seriously promised in the hearing of that company to imprint deepely in his remembrance for the careful practice therof I acquainted him with a common terme which passed for current and credible in all the Neighbour-hood about Bishops-castle where his murders were committed By cleare and forcible arguments as the Countrey affirmed convincing him of Lunacie and Distraction thereby to divert the facts from all thoughts of Church Ceremonies or any dislike thereof And the relation and clearing of these objections by evident refutation of them sure I am will give our Non-conformists a deepe disgust who labour to this day in all assemblies and occasions of conference to fasten madnesse on their brother Enoch But necessary truth conducing to GOD's glory and His Churches good must not be supprest to sooth and please selfe-willed Schismatikes The Arguments which were related unto mee by Mr. William Tanner were foure and here follow in their order 1 Enoch came into an Inne or Alehouse in Bishops-Castle and found there the Oast of the house and a Scrivenour drinking together Hee being desired to sit down with them carried a while in their company In this time of his sining and conference with them the Scrivenour is reported to draw ●ut of his pocket certaine coppy-books ruled with red Inke and written with his owne hand These Bookes he laid upon the table and Enoch taking one of them into his hand and looking intentively upon the red lines became as the report goeth much troubled in minde The Scrivenour not perceiving his perturbation drew also out of his pocket a Prospective-glasse thorow which our sight being directed it makes the object on which our eye is fixed much more large and extended than the naturall and proper magnitude thereof Vpon the sight of these red-ruled books and glasse Enoch is said to burst out into words of great terror and trouble in himselfe and to say This man is a Conjurer and hath sent to Bristow for a man to murder me This speech say our Puritans about Bishops-castle plainely convinceth Enoch to be crackt in the braine and apt for violent distempers by Lunacie This is the Argument Enoch which your neighbours make against you let me have your answer without any untruths shifts or evasions Enoch Sir these men whom you name can fully cleare me herein and to their report I referre my selfe yet for your satisfaction to whom I owe all dutie and respect I will assure you the cleare truth herein I viewed indeed one of the Scriveners bookes and I supposed and spake according to my thoughts that those lines were ruled with bloud for I had never seene nor heard of any red inke in all my life-time I think a wiser man than my selfe may commit a greater mistake and errour without any distemper or cracke in his understanding As for the Glasse or Bristoll or murdering of me GOD is my witnesse I never made any mention of them Neither did I terme the man a Conjurer nor had any imagination therof But it is the practice of the world when a man is in misery to load him with false accusations wherof since I came into this Prison I have had much experience by manifold slanders of whoredome and other vices invented against me 2 The second Argument is this Enoch a yeare before the death of his mother is reported to aske her this question upon a Sunday after they were returned from Clunne Church Mother did not you heare ● shrill and loud voice speak● unto mee this morning in the Church His mother is reported to reply unto him yes ● heard the Ministers voice speaking to thee and to me and to all the Congregation other voice I heard not nor thy selfe neither He is reported to aske her againe Did you not heare a voice call unto me by name and say Enoch prepare She● is said to answer him Hold thy peace thou foole I heard no such voice nor thou neither This is alleaged against you now answer for your selfe in truth and uprightnesse For weaknesse of braine is no cause of shame or reproch to your person Enoch They talke much of the Divell and my selfe but if they invent and devise such lyes against mee in matters whereof I am no way guiltie let the authours and contrivers thereof take heed lest that lying spirit hold not as much interest and take as strong possession of their soules as hee hath done in mine according to their opinion and conceit For certainly this report newly raised touching my questions with my mother is such a cunning lye tha● I cannot understand the ayme or search the depth of it For by these words Enoch prepare I conceive their meaning to be as though Satan had cast some thoughts into my heart touching the killing of my mother and brother a whole yeare before I committed those execrable facts But I have told you Sir and doe further assure you of the truth therein that my resolution to slay my brother was not fully ten dayes old before I brought it into execution And if my mother were now living who is temporally perished by my enraged heart and accursed hand she could and would cleare my reports and denial of any such questions moved unto her I assure you therefore on my faith and truth I never used any such words unto her nor never received any such idle thought into my owne heart as to imagine a voice to call to mee by name in the open Church in the time of Divine Service as people call it 3 The third Argument

of selfe pleasing purity in matters of religion for there is no man so devoid of reason but he will freely grant and confesse that it had beene a fairer answer for Enoch to have made to my Brethren of the Ministrie and to my selfe if truth might have justified it that under the violent invasion of some raigning and unresistable passion to which hee had beene formerly accustomed he committed these facts then to cast them upon prepensed cogitation deliberate malice resolved purpose watching opportunity for the execution thereof And all these to spring and arise from the inward boiling ●● wrath in his rancorous heart conceived onely in matters ●● Church-ceremonies And he● though I name facts in the Dual number I desire all Re●ders to know and to take ●●tice therof that the death of brother only was by recognition contrived in his hear● without any intention harme at all to the person his mother though filial lo●● and reverence naturally ●●● from him unto her was whe●●ly dried up and extinct in ●●● soule For I asked him th● question whether he intende the same death to his mother by contrivance plot wh●● he resolvedly purposed to the person of his brother He answered mee and I conceive he gave me the truth therein that all his wrath as farre as malice and rage were adjoyned thereto was levelly and solely directed to the person of his brother without any reference at that time to his mother for had shee not come into the roome when the rage was upon him he had not gone forth to seeke for her But the unhappily rushing hastily upon him before his fury was rebated his distemper allayed and his affections better composed with the eye of reason to look into what hee had done hee strucke at her and slew her as is formerly related 24 Vpon the fifteenth day of Iuly I had occasion to rid● from Shrewsbury to Eccleshall to see the most Reverend Father in GOD the Lord Bisho● of our Diocesse newly place● in government over us and to make my selfe knowne un●● his Lordship And at that time the infamous rumours of these accursed and loud-crying murders were quicke and fresh in all mens mouths His Lordship askt me thereof in the presence of an eminent Knight of our County Sir Richard Newport whether such a murdere● were now in our Gaole and whether I had seene him and conferred with him To whom I related what passages in these matters were the knowne unto me And being further required by his Lordship to lay down in writing under mine owne hand and subscription of my name the truth of such particulars as I had received from the Prisoner his owne mouth I truly and faithfully performed the same and left in writing with his Lordship according to his appointment 25 After my returne from this most Reverend Father the next time that I vifited Enoch I found that some persons affected to Non-conformity had beene tampering with him and had very politikely brought him from his former confessions to mee of the onely cause moving him to these murders perswading him that it would be infinitely to his own discredit and to the reproch of the professours of the Gospel wh●● truly affected religion if such a bloudy crime could truely be charged upon him in reference to his dislike of Church ceremonies The inconstant heart o● this light fellow more sensible of personall infamie than of the feare of GOD by confirmation● of truth began to shift shrink away from his former reports And yet for all their perswasions and workings therein such was the over-ruling hand of GOD's power and providence over him that still he persisted in affirming that never any cause of variance fell betweene him and his brother in all their life-time but only difference in opinion touching the Gesture at the Communion yet he began to wave the matter and to qualifie the rigour and acrimony of his former termes not yeelding that hee slew his brother onely because of his kneeling And with this answer being a senselesse mitigation of his former true report and containing in it Contradictionem in adjecto as Logitians speake a contradiction in the report it selfe hee greatly pleased both his blinded selfe and deluded perswaders And herein they who are commonly called Puritanes much insulted and gloried in this subtile peece of their owne dishonest policie that they had foiled Mr. Studley the knowne Antipuritane of the County But now to check this master-peece of their subtill art by making sensible and palpable the errour and absurdity contained therein I will propose to their second thoughts and more p●●dent considerations these ●●●● friendly and familiar Arg●ments By the light and conviction whereof undoubtedly they will become sensible o● their owne foolish errour a●● let goe their hold 26 First the Apostle ha● told us of Enoch's elder brother called Cain in these word● l 1 Iohn 3.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cain was 〈◊〉 that wicked one and slew 〈◊〉 brother And wherefore sle●● hee him Because his own workes were evill and his brothers good Here the conj●ction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is causall as the lea●ned know and referres us to the sole and totall cause and not in part assignes the cause why Cain slew his brother Because Abel was a righteous man and the LORD approved his sacrifice and Cain a wicked man and the LORD rejected his sacrifice therefore and onely therefore the wicked man slew the righteous And if they please to examine deliberately every small circumstance of this matter recorded in the fourth of Genesis they shal find that Cains d jection of countenance and his inward wrath towards his brother arose from this cause and Only this cause that the LORD approved of the faithfull sacrifice of Abel and contemned his owne hypocriticall offring So that if any man shall pretend another cause over and besides this which moved and inflamed Cains wrath to the murder of his brother Abel he shall thereby wilfully deceive his owne soule although the word Only be not found in the whole contexture of that historical Narration A better conclusion therefore naturally flowing from the words of the Apostle because expresly contained in the words is this As Cain murdring of his brother was from the instinct of the Divell in his wicked heart onely because the LORD approved his sacrifice So the murthering of Iohn ap Evan by Enoch his elder brother proceeded from the same satanical instinct and impression of rage into his wicked heart only because he kneeled at the sacred Communion And this is all that politike se●● hath got by denying this word Onely in the cause of this late murder And then by true consequence it may be justly concluded that Satan hath instigated a Non-conformist to as unnaturall and bloudy a fact as ever was committed 27 My second Argument is this Enoch ap Evan slayes his brother either for this cause onely that Iohn would kneele at the Communion or for some