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	visible_a	8,046	5	9.4741	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78034	Vindiciæ veritatis: truth vindicated against calumny. In a briefe answer to Dr. Bastwicks two late books, entituled, Independency not Gods ordinance, with the second part, styled the postscript, &c. / By Henry Burton, one of his quondam-fellow-sufferers.	Burton, Henry, 1578-1648.	1645 (1645)	Wing B6177; Thomason E302_13; ESTC R200279	28,751	40

of admittance into Church-fellowship could stand with the deniall but necessarily implies a confession of Christs Kingly office in its highest degree Pag. 116. You tell us that our gathering of Churches hath no example in Scripture and as for Christs Disciples they were all sent to gather in the lost sheep of the house of Israel they went not to gather in converted amongst converted men c. Now wee cannot have a more pregnant and more warrantable example in all Scripture then this which you here alledge against us Christs Disciples gathered Christian Churches out of the Church of the Jews nor can you deny but the Jews were a Church when the Disciples gathered churches out of it Those Churches in Judea Gal. 1. 22. were gathered out of the Church of the Jewes and that Church of the Jewes generally believed that the Messias or Christ was to come And if they were a Church when many being converted were gathered out of it then much more Churches may be gathered out of Nations or Kingdomes of the world though for their generall profession of Christianity every such Nation or Kingdome be respectively called a church though the new Testament knowes no such church and then not of divine constitution as that of the Jews was even when churches Christian were gathered out of it And brother prove unto us that such as you call a Nationall Church is a church of divine institution shew us an example of a Nationall Church in all the new Testament otherwise you do but weave the Spiders web But wee say you gather converted men from among converted men and so pick out of others folds and flocks the best and fattest sheep This you do familiarly cast in our dish and yet it is never the fatter Now in this wee may justly demand of you to prove that those whom you call converted men from among whom wee gather churches be indeed so converted as they should be when as yet they come not up close to the rule of Reformation Gods Word as thereby to endeavour the setting up of Christ without waiting on men as without whom Gods Word is not a sufficient rule and as on whom wee must necessarily depend for the form and law of Reformation And yet wee deny not but many such may be godly though otherwise they are not as yet throughly convinced of this kingly government of Christ which we endeavour after nay let me go a little higher for as much as this is an undeniable yea and prime principle in Divinity that the Scripture is the only rule of faith and of worship and Church-government and this rule is no Monopoly to one man but that all and every man hath a power and priviledge to repair to this Law and Testimony to do all things according to this Word And seeing wee have all bound our selves by solemn Covenant to reform our selves and those under our charge according to the Word of God yea and every one to go before other in this Reformation tell mee now brother were it not a matter worth the while for our reverend and learned Assembly seriously to take it into debate whether the generall tying up of men to wait necessarily on the Synod for its finall resolution about Church-government be not an usurpation upon our Christian liberty and a diminution at least of the authority and sufficiency of Scripture and so consequently be not a trenching upon a fundamentall heresie as also an inhibition restraining every man in his place Ministers Masters c. from setting upon the work of Reformation and so necessitating a violation of our Covenant or a dangerous retarding of the work bringing in a sleepy carelesnesse upon mens spirits to inquire at Gods Oracle and so preparing a way for blind obedience I leave to the consideration of the wisest But in the interim to return to your Converts Do you hold all them to be converts from among whom churches are gathered Do you not allow of a difference to be put Are there not a number of both ignorant and scandalous that are not fit to come to the Lords Table See the Directory Or do you take the greatest number in England to be godly and truly converted Or are there not trow you many Parishes in England where perhaps but a few true converts are to be found And how few in comparison truly godly and faithfull Ministers are to be found for every Parish under who●e Pastorall charge two or three sheep may safely and comfortably feed among so many Goats yea perhaps Wolves Or do you make every parish to be a Church You may do well herein to deal plainly with us whether you would have so many inhabitants as are in every Parish to be so many communicants For so it seems you would have it For pag. 117. you say in the Churches of Corinth Galatia Colosse were many that walked disorderly taught false doctrine and heresies and made Schismes yet the Apostles did not bid the Christians to separate themselves from the communion and assemblies of the Saints and from the Ordinances for these mens causes c. But you may know those churches though in part accidentally corrupt yet were essentially and in their originall constitution pure and holy churches and so were never your Parochiall churches they never had a right divine constitution but meerly humane and politicall And therefore all your argumentation a dispari falls to ground and beats it self into a meer spume But pag. 118. you plead such Ministers and Churches to be true where the truth of Christ is preached received and professed If you mean the whole truth of Christ it is well But do not you know that there are three speciall visible marks of a true visible Church The Gospel purely preached the Sacraments duly administred and Discipline rightly practised all which marks together the Church of England for ought I know is yet to seek For to speak nothing here of the materialls of a true particular visible Church as visible Saints nor of the form of it so many members united into one Church-body and fellowship according to the Gospel which you can handly shew us in any of your Parochiall Congregations I will only ask you What particular visible Church you are a member of you may choose what Parish you please in England Next I ask you What Discipline you have in that your church and whether a man complaining of you to your Congregation or to your Minister for wrongs done by you and for your scandalous walking he shall find so much Discipline there as to convent you before them and justly charging you for walking scandalously to the great offence and shame of the very name of Christian Religion you shall thereupon be brought under Ecclesiasticall censure so as to have the scandall removed and the offence satisfied Good now tell me what church either Parochiall or Classicall I should go unto For suppose I have a complaint against you for which I demand

satisfaction at the least so as by the means of your church-censure you may be brought to a contrite acknowledgement of the wrong you have done mee But if you cannot shew me such a church in any of your Parishes b●… is it that you affirm Christ to be set up as King in his Throne in mens hearts swayed and guided by the Scepter of his Word and Spirit in your Parochiall Congregations when as you cannot shew us I say in any one of those Congregations * the Name and Power of our Lord Jesus Christ to be so set up as authoritatively and judicially to deliver over to Satan {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or otherwise condignly to censure such a one as whose brother complains of to that Congregation for unsufferable wrongs and most base and barbarous usage unbeseeming a naturall Heathen much lesse a professed Christian And here I challenge our Brother for taking Christs Name in vain when in stead of finding Christ set upon his Throne in their congregations wee finde there no more but an Image such as Michal had made up in stead of King David or as those that in mockery made of Christ a Pageant-king stripping him and putting on him a scarlet robe and on his head a crown of thornes and in his hand a reed saluting him with Hail king of the Jewes with which title over his head they crucified him And therefore those passages which page 118 119. he quotes of his Brother though not named will stand good against their opposers The summe of which is this That all that depend upon men for Church-government and not upon Christ and his Word alone doe deny Christs Kingly government over Consciences and Churches that all that receive not Christs Kingly office in the full extent of it but after manifestation doe reject it are at the best converted but in part and so in a worse condition then those who though they believed yet they had not so much as heard there was a Holy Ghost but hearing they received him that such as refuse to be in Covenant with Christ or to make profession or confession thereof before men want their evidence of their being Gods people and so quantum in se as much as in them lyeth cut off their children from having interest in Baptisme the externall seale of the Covenant And therefore seeing such things are objected how doth it concerne both Ministers and people to looke to their evidences To omit his tedious tautologies all along being the bombast of the booke to pag. 124. there he saith When the Ministers of England teach this doctrine in their preachings and writings how can they be truly said to deny disclaime and preach against Christs Kingly government over mens consciences and Churches It were well if they did truly indeed preach it which few or none of them doe Or if they doe truly preach it why doe they not practise it and perswade the people to depend upon Christ for it and not upon men But pag. 126. the Ministers of England set up a Presbytery after Gods Word This you can never yet prove unto us untill wee may see it But the Independents themselves are Presbyterians say you and labour ●o set up a Presbytery of their own Thus here and all along you carry it with a torrent of words and that is all Wee set up that Presbytery which wee finde in Gods Word and none other Then pag. 127. you fall againe upon the strictnesse used in admission of members which say you the Apostles used not But wee know that all those who were admitted by them did first make confession of their faith and repentance as Mat. 3. 6. Acts. 2. 37. Act. 19 18 19. Act. 8. 37. And the Apostles feared to receiv●Paul as their fellow-Apostle untill they had examined the truth thereof And pag. 130. you charge us with making schismes c. Surely we are commanded to separate our selves from all corruptions of the world and humane inventions as 2 Cor. 6. 16. Acts 2. 40. and this when a Christian Church began to be gathered out of that of the Jewes Pag. 138. you inveigh against new truths and new lights as you every where nauseously call them and say Where was it ever heard of either in the Christian or Pagan world that it was ever permitted to any Minister or Preacher to have all the Pulpits in any Nation to preach a diverse doctrine to that whi●h is set up by Authoritie and such as tends to make a faction and division amongst the people I doe most assuredly beleeve that there cannot the like precedent be produced So you No What say you of that precedent of the Apostles who in the Temple daily preached a diversed doctrine to that of the Pharisees So of John Baptist So of Christ And this in Judea which was a Parallel at least to a Nationall Christian Church onely that was originally founded upon divine institution but this not so And for the Pagan World what innumerable precedents are there of preaching the Gospel and constituting of Churches even throughout the Pagan world And all this divers to that which was set up by mans Authoritie whether Jewish or Paganish And as our Brother here so did the High Priests in their Counsells charge the Apostles saying * Yee have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine A new Doctrine a new Truth a new Light So Act. 24. 5. Tertullus with his Rhetoricke being feed by the High Priest and the Elders makes a declamation against Paul saying Wee have found this m●m●… pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the Jewes throughout the world and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarens And this word Nazarens signifies the sect of Saparatists of whom the Apostle is there maliciously marked as the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the ring-leader The like out-cry we have Act. 21. 28. Men of Israel helpe This is the man that teacheth all men every where against the people and the Law and this place c. Nor want wee a Pagan precedent Act. 19. 26 where Diana's silver-shrine-maker what a dust he raiseth in the whole Citie saying Yee see and heare that not alone at Ephesus but almost throughout all Asia this Paul hath perswaded and turned away much people saying that they be no Gods which be made with hands Thus you see Paul and the other Apostles and Evangelists found Pulpits every where both among the Jewes and Gentiles though they preached a divers doctrine to that set up by Authoritie And must Christ have no other doctrine or Church-government in the world then that which is set up by the worlds authoritie Surely this is a new light indeed if a light at all a new doctrine diverse to that which Christ hath set up by his divine authoritie But this doctrine say you tends to make a faction and division among the people And did Pauls and the Apostles doctrine escape the scourge of this whip

in your scoffing scurrilous malicious bitter biting yea bloody language in which faculty as facile princeps you do so tripudiate and glory But in your last Book which you style but how justly A just Defence c. you would seem to teach us another rule to walk by which it seems you had not then learned when you writ your Postscript We ought not say you per latus unius totam gentem perstringere you tel the Liev. Colonel that he should not have condemned the whole Councel for a few but should have singled them out and by name have aspersed them And why did not you then rather call me by my name as your brother Burton as our brother Prynne hath done then to hale me out by my great white basket-hilted beard as some hideous Monster or ridiculous spectacle to the world And whereas ibid. you adde that you have written nothing in your books against the Independents wherein you can be convinced of a lie For say you I write nothing in my books against the Independents but what upon my own knowledge I can affirm to be true yea depose it too Now to go no further then this one instance of your dealing with mee aliâs your brother in fathering upon mee such a damnable and diabolicall glosse being the spurious brat of your own brain What say you Do you know it of your own knowledge to be so that because I set that Scripture in the front of my book therefore my meaning was hereby to perswade the people and make them believe that they have good warrant and ground to fight against their Christian brethren for the maintenance of their own Whimsies They be your own words and you may take the whimsies in to boot Now did I ever so perswade the people or make them believe so Nay I will put it to your own conscience as hoping you have so much left whether in your conscience you can so much as once imagine that your brother could ever have the least thought that way or the least word tending thereunto wherein I challenge that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the accuser of the brethren himself whose Scholar I wish not you to be As for that other passage of your said book pag. 39. to let passe many other as touching your Independent-Pastor it is as false as slie do you and your reverend brother try it when you will An Appendix WHerein is touched the main point of difference between the two Parties Classicall or Nationall and Congregationall Our brother Mr. William Pryn whose latter books Truth triumphing c. and A fresh Discovery c. I have meerly God is my record out of tendernesse to the present state of things forborn to answer hath sundry times in those books objected principally those words in my Vindication concerning Christs kingly office over the Churches and consciences of his people as in Truth triumphing pag. 112 113. and in his Fresh Discovery pag. 4. in these words Mr. Henry Burton in his Vindication of Churches commonly called Independent c. The Church is a spirituall kingdome whose only King is Christ and not man it is a spirituall Republique whose only Law-giver is Christ and not man A spirituall house whose only builder and governour is Christ A spirituall Corporation whose only head is Christ and not man No man or power on earth hath a kingly power over this kingdome no earthly Law-giver may give lawes for the government of this Republique no man can or ought to undertake the government of this communion of Saints no humane Power or Law may intermeddle to prescribe rules for the government or form of this spirituall House NOT COVNCELS NOT SENATES This is Christs royall Prerogative which is uncommunicable to ANY TO ALL THE POWERS ON EARTH He addes my words pag. 60 61. Wee challenge you to shew us any Parliament Councel Synod ever since the Apostles that could or can say thus It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us so to determine controversies of Religion to make and impose Canons to bind all men c. shew this to us at this time and wee will obey But if you cannot as you never can never let any man presse upon us that Scripture that Synod Acts 15. which hath no parallel in the whole world and so is no precedent or pattern for any Councels Synods Parliaments Thus our brother sees down the words here and there with capitalls as if so many capitall crimes But the worst of all is that he ranks them under the head of his first Section containing divers seditious scandalous libellous passages against the Authority and Jurisdiction of Parliaments Synods and temporall Magistrates in generall in Ecclesiasticall affaires in the late writings of severall Independent New-lights and Firebrands so runs the Title of the Section under which hee marshals those my words as if Christ could not be sole King Lord and Law-giver over his own spirituall Kingdome in the soules and assemblies of his Saints but this doctrine must needs be seditious scandalous and the writers thereof libellous against civill authority yea firebrands and what not How more equall was the Heathen Emperor Domitian though the Author of the second Persecution who though he laboured utterly to extirpate and extinguish all the naturall kindred of Christ because hee heard that Christ was a King fearing thereby the overthrow of his Empire yet understanding afterward by two of Christs neerest kinsmen brought before him being but poor men and who got their living by hard labour in husbandrie how that Christ was a King indeed but his Kingdome was not of this world but heavenly the Emperor hereupon as the Story saith {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ceased the Persecution against the Church by calling in his Imperiall Decree I wish our brother would more seriously consider not only of this famous example of an Heathen Emperour but also upon what sound reason it is grounded as namely upon such a distinct specificall difference between these two Kingdomes the celestiall and the terrestriall as that in no sort they may be confounded or compounded into one terrene kingdome unlesse you will set up a Papall power an Harmophrodite-government with Ecce duo gladii hîc Behold here two swords which the Pope caused to be carryed before him in solemn procession the two first dayes of his new erected Jubilee And for my challenge alledged by him it stands good still till hee can prove those words in the end of his Truth triumphing true where your words are we cannot but in Christian charity expect and believe that all the Assembly and Parliament resolve on may have inscribed on its front IT SEEMED GOOD TO THE HOLY GHOST AND VS And then again you must prove your reason good whereupon you inferre this conclusion namely because there be in the Parliament and Assembly at least some true Nathaniels and Stephens filled with the Holy Ghost