Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	contrary_a	course_n	great_a	79	3	2.0638	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17574	An epistle of a Christian brother exhorting an other to keepe himselfe vndefiled from the present corruptions brought in to the ministration of the Lords Supper.	Calderwood, David, 1575-1650.	1624 (1624)	STC 4357; ESTC S116316	12,873	30

not such throng in the narrow way of suffering as in the broad way of common profession when religion dwelt in the pleasant land of peace in Halcyone dayes like the Spouse of Christ commanding all and subject to none For you must thinke that many looke well in their owne climate that haue neither head nor health to crosse the line and many goe brauely with guilded swords about their owne doores who flye the campe and dare not face the Cannon To beleeue in Christ is a great gift not common to all but to suffer for his sake is a greater and given to few Perhaps it may be that many living by gesse and more ready upon their own respects to professe then carefull to be informed in a truth and no small number of silly spirits by giuing credit to others and misled in the by-paths of errour some unstable Camelion-like hypocrites inclined to be died with the colour of every occasionall profession when they shall see the world to frowne may take another way But pitie them spare them praise God for his favour to you and increase of faith and patience and let no gall and bitternes of speech scarcely becomming the witnesse of a truth make any of whatsoever sort lesse inclinable to returne to you and your way who by memorie of their former proceedings in a different course may be recalled to loue and honor both you and your way The Apostles traine may suffice you If Christ be on your side who can be against you You are debter to him that hath guided the steps of your soule all that is within you to praise him because in these contentions you haue done what you could in defense of the truth and haue kept it and never wronged any man in any matter so that if it be the pleasure of God you shall suffer it is because you dare not forsake a knowne truth whereby you haue received many rich comforts and looketh for to reape endlesse ioy esteeming it your dutie to cleaue to that which is called in question as well as to the rest which seem to be spared for your encouragement you haue a worthy cause to honor you sufficient reasons to defend you and the experience of your owne conscience to uphold you It is true that your large course is so cunningly covered that nothing is permitted to appeare at this time but a smal point the gesture of kneeling at the communion and receving out of the ministers hand with such as shall bee at table vpon the festivall day appointed Yet you must thinke of these particulars as of members of the grosse bodie of conformitie obscuring the frame of Reformation delivered vnto you by the Fathers who begat you in the Lord to bee kept in integritie for your owne use and for the instruction and comfort of your successors For you cannot deny but you haue seene your mother the kirk in her gayest dresse firmly setled vpon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles and strongly fortified with faire confessions her badges famous in the world and most meet for keeping vnity among her members in doctrine sacraments kirke-service discipline and in the holy ministrie and for abiuring of all poysonable superstition and damnable confusion And with no small joy haue you beheld her watchmen assembled in her sacred meetings for managing her affairs according to the will of her Lord and for that effect strongly fenced with liberties privileges the royal testimonies of his Maiesties loue for strengthening her jurisdiction and furtherance of all her causes How happy were these dayes when her painfull Shepheards were knit together in one minde and judgement with mutuall encouragements all feeding their flockes and pleasantly marching against all enemies without exception as an army with banners How bright were then the starres and how beautifull the candlestickes But now alas you are forced to behold bold mints to draw her off the old foundation to the sandy heapes of humane wisedome her renowned confessions of faith the strong barres of her vnitie aforenamed without just cause reproved and layd aside the doctrine distempered with the vnsavorie mixture of mans learning and presented to the people without relish of the Word and Spirit like an egge without salt to a man of a sound taste yea often with spleene so misapplied against Christians for furthering of mens particulars and worldly projects that hearing bringeth no lesse griefe then edification By new additions mutations both the sacraments are made vncouth and distastfull to many a poore Christian fearing to offend God by passing beyond the measure of their own faith if they should receiue any thing in the sacraments not delivered by the Lord. The necessarie discipline and necessarie vse of the same for purging preservation as behoveful for the kirk as physick for a mans body diseased weakned and almost rejected The holy ministry transformed rent and divided by a swelling humour over-running that somtime solid body and restraining the members thereof from their proper functions the kirke-service prayers and other exercises atled to a new mould and as farre from former edification as pitifully diseased with the daily fits of restlesse change the prerogatiue of the Lords day and due sanctification thereof miserably brought low by setting vp of other dayes of extraordinary respect to be observed with festivall solemnities the jurisdiction liberties and priviledges of the kirke her comfortable and awfull assemblies with the whole pretious substance so wounded and made pale for setting vp of some silly circumstances and that with great losse of concord and quietnesse among all the members of the kirke and no small gaine to superstition confusion and prophannesse And this is the cause moving you to like the first condition of the kirke and to refuse the novations introduced as they are prejudiciall in part or in whole to the religion and order formerlie established For this your judgement your speeches are racked and made to speake against the State and you are brought in the case of Ziterius when the Court was against him making the Emperour Nebuchadnezar And when this flame is kindled against you if you refuse to follow the droue in anie new practise for to defend your libertie by anie good ancient order or custome you are summarilie condemned of Brownish Separation singularitie Puritanisme and of blinde and fained zeale Yet not by all but by such as either hauing forgot or never knowne your prefession in her integritie take advantage by the advantageous name of Conformitie to please themselues and grieve them who cleaue to the forme of godlinesse whereunto you were delivered And even here we must bee patient and repent our own slacknes in following our dutie of good service toward God when so manie pains haue been taken to instruct and strengthen in a contrarie course hoping that although Constantine being at the first for the determination of the Councell of Nice wherunto the contrarie parties put their hands and afterward by oversight negligence to possesse the minds of them that were about him with careful remembrance of the truth he was by the continuall neernesse pains of them that were cōtrarie minded changed to an other course yet

into a sacrifice the cup simply removed from the people and the bread also by transubstantiation or some other way And so for curing that alledged rudenesse Christs sacrament was turned into mans imagination and so ceased to bee Christs sacrament and became mans Yee know the truth and if yee sinne willingly after that yee haue received and acknowledged it by forsaking all or any part thereof fundamentall substantiall or accidentall all being copulatiue not to be changed in the meanest circumstance but upon a necessarie occasion good warrants and to good ends you know the danger set down by the Apostle and what it is to make your owne conscience naked before God and by your example to giue offence to many Take heed to your selfe and draw neere to God that you may keepe your conscience pure against the great day For this purpose set before you the image of mans frailtie and the character of Christian constancie that yee may striue to be strengthned and stand by grace In that unhappy division of the Tribes of Israel Heresie rooted in Ieroboam and spreading it selfe over the people in all the ten tribes who were taught in the truth of God before their fall found no contradiction in all the ten tribes notwithstanding of their forme of religion and of the heavie judgements of God powred out upon that fowle defection but it continued in force and they without sense aboue three hundred yeares and an halfe The Arrian abhomination broched by the envy and stomack of a man prone to contradiction possessing the Emperours heart by subtile suggestion made Arrius personall quarrels to produce reall questions anent the Godhead of Christ a filthy blasphemy at the beginning resisted by pastors people and long detested but by processe of time by authority and by the subtiltie of few Arrian Apostates not onely the multitude of Bishops very few excepted some sooner some later some as leaders and some as common souldiers either yeelding through feare or brought vnder with penurie or by flatterie ensnared or else beguiled through simplicitie become subject to the current of time Yea Osius the ancientest Bishop of Christendome the most forward in defence of the Catholicke cause and on the contrarie part most feared by whose hand the Nicene creed was set downe and framed for the whole Christian world to subscribe unto yeelded in the end with the same hand to ratifie the Arrian confession leaving the catholick faith to be kept and defended against the force of the world Whether a fretting cancker enter in the head as in Ieroboam or in the foote as in Arrius it is dangerous for the bodie Beware thou that standest lest thou fall But you haue before you a faire table liuely expressing the amiable portraits of more valorous Worthies and better deserving in conflicts for religion Christ the righteous his Apostles the Hebrewes those valorous and worthy people defenders of the truth against the Arrian heresie and terrours of Valence and Vrsatius the great patrons of that impurity Memorable Athanasius whose motto is his high honor Athanasius against the world and the world against Athanasius and old Eleazar who being desired by his old acquaintance to deliver himselfe from death by eating of flesh which was lawfull for him to vse and make as if hee did eate the flesh taken from the sacrifice commanded by the king answered that it becommeth not our age in any wise to dissemble whereby many young persons might thinke that Eleazar being fourescore yeare old and ten were now gone to a strange religion Seeing yee are compassed with such a cloud of witnesses cast away the turmoyling of the world and every thing that presseth downe and run with patience the race that is set before you looking unto Iesus the author and finisher of your faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse and despised the shame and is set at the right hand of the Throne of God If you would be to your wearied brethren the comfort of their miseries and the guide of their difficulties if yee would liue and dye a warriour against Sathan and an enemy against sinne and unchangeable servant to your owne master and if in this world yee would haue peace and in the world to come everlasting joy take heed to your conscience for it is Gods Officer for the purpose put into you to keepe you in awe You may dye your conscience cannot dye The light of it may be shadowed because it is not God but not quite put out because it is of God Howsoever many be afraied for their fame and few for their conscience yet suffer not yourselfe in your whole life to slippe the breadth of your naile from your good conscience It is a diet booke wherein the sinnes of everie day are written and for that cause to the wicked a mother of feare but the children of God though the world should never credit them require no better witnesse Augustine esteemeth not what Secundinus thinketh of him so long as his conscience accuseth him not before God Jt is the secretarie of a mans heart a sealed booke close now but to bee opened wide upon the great day It is the treasure of the libertie of our spirits which should be vnto us as farre aboue the libertie of the body and things belonging thereunto as the soule is aboue that dust which must goe to the dust If you would haue this libertie of your spirit yee must not stand for a name among men but you must striue to store vp in your conscience the true testimonies of your sincere loue to your owne religion and to your fellow brethren for your conscience shall bee for you if you doe well and as you shal stand dissemble or revolt without partialitie it will beare witnesse The reformation of our religion was builded by difficulties and maintained by patience and paines If our loue of ease and of worldlie goods and if our feare of temporall losses shall destroy it it had been better for us that we had never sought glory by that faire profession then by a foule revolt to staine not onely our owne name and conscience but by our hypocrisie to endanger the people of God My deare brother watch yee stand fast in the faith quit you like a man The sonne of God sitteth at the right hand af the Father and all power is given vnto him hee appoynteth and moderateth all our wrastlings hee giveth victorie and will come shortly and his reward with him As you haue happily begunne so goe on your whole course that nothing may bee observed in you other then such as becommeth a wise man to doe and a righteous man to suffer Goe on happily and loue your owne religion If by his grace hee shall strengthen you to proue a pattern of constancy at this time he shall make you an heire of glory for ever Feare not put your selfe and all that yee haue in the hands of the Lord yee shall never loose ought at his hand he shall liberally returne to you your gifts with advantage Bee stedfast in the Lord and let God and man see that yee honour him and your enemies shall see and you shall finde that great things shall be done to the man whom the King of Kings will honour To him that overcommeth will Christ grant to sit with him in his throne Now vnto him that is able to keepe you that yee fall not and to present you faultlesse before the presence of his glory with joy that is to God onely wise our Saviour bee glorie and majestie and dominion and power both now and for ever Amen The present difficulties dangers Resolution to suffer required Impediments arising from other mens persons removed Impediments arising from the qualitie of the cause removed The cause in the end wil be iustified howsoever for the present it bee maligned The cause is grounded upon sufficient reasons Rules for right administration of the Lords supper the present differences an impediment to communicate here The first difference The second difference The third difference Consent in heart and articles of religion required in communicants The ground of the alledged differences evill No part of the truth is to be forsaken The falles of backsliders to be set before the eyes of the sufferer The constancy of others t● be set before the eyes of th● sufferer A good conscience to be regarded in time of triall