Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	deed_n	light_n	reprove_v	2,125	5	10.3012	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A72329	Gods love to mankind manifested, by dis-prooving his absolute decree for their damnation.	Hoard, Samuel, 1599-1658.	1633 (1633)	STC 13534.5; ESTC S104132	103,658	118

(h) Vives l. 4 page 4●9 Qui veritate suâ sidit nihil reformidat examen ingenii imo advocat quantum potest exacuit who is confident of the goodnesse of his Faith feareth no examination but rather as much as may be soliciteth and provoketh his Adversary to the Combat Truth whether it be in men or doctrines is best when it is uncovered it covets no corners though error doe but is willing to abide the tryall (i) Psal 139.23.24 Search me O Lord and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any way of wickednesse in me saith the Prophet David knowing his heart to be without guile And our Saviour telleth us (k) Ioh. 3.20 21. that every one that doth evill hateth the light and commeth not to it lest his deeds should be reproved but he that doth truth commeth to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God As St. Paul sayth of an Heretique Titus 3.11 he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Selfe-condemned so we may say of Heresie and untruth it condemneth it selfe and by nothing more than by refusing the touchstone He is to be thought an empty Scholler who is loth to be apposed and his gold to bee light and counterfeit who will not have it toucht and weighed and those opinions to be but errors which would so willingly walke in a mist and dwell in silence when it concerneth the peace of the Church so much to have them examined 3. Reason Infamy 3 The Jnfamy of it It is an opinion especially as it is defended the upper way odious to the Papists opening their foule mouthes against our Church and Religion abhorred mainteyned eyther way by all the Lutherans who for this very Tenet call us damned Calvinists thinke us unworthy to be above ground and in their writings protest that they will rather unite themselves to the Papists then to us And it is also distastfull to all the Greeke Churches which are very many Molin in his Anatomie speaking of the Supralapsarian Doctrine sayth (l) Molin Anat. Arm. c. 12. de Praed If it should be so that God hath reprobated men without the consideration of sinne or hath ordayned them to sinne yet it is the part of a wise man to conceale these things or not to know them rather then to utter them (m) Quia enunciata injiciunt scrupulos ausam praebēt adversatiis infamandi veram Religionem Because when they are taught and defended they fill mens heads with scruples and give occasion to the Adversaries of defaming the true Religion The same may as truly be sayd of the Sublapsarian way For as I have sayd they are in substance all one And Sir Edwyn Sandys is of the same minde too For in his most excellent Booke called a Survey of the State of Religion in the Westerne parts of the World Speaking of the deadly division betweene the Lutherans and Calvinists in Germany Sir Edwin Sandys pag. 172. he hath these words That though the Palsgrave and Landsgrave have with great judgment and wisdome to asslake those flames imposed silence in that part to the Ministers of their party hoping the charity and discretion of the other party would have done the like yet it falles out otherwise For both the Lutheran Preachers rayle as bitterly against them in their pulpits as ever and their Princes and people have them in as great detestation not forbearing to professe openly that they will returne to the Papacie rather then ever admit that Sacramentary and predestinary Pestilence For these two points are the ground of the quarrell and the latter more scandalous at this day then the former And in the same book pag. 194. and 198. speaking of men whom he commendeth for singular learning and piety whose iudgment he so sets down as that he declareth it to be his own he sayth that they think it were no blemish for the reformed Doctors to revise their doctrines and to abate the rigour of speculative opinions for so he is pleased to call them especially touching the eternall decrees of God wherein some of their chief authors have run into such an extreame to all Romish doctrine as to have exceedingly scandalized all other Churches withall yea and many of their own to rest very ill satisfied At the closing up of the conference at Mompelgart Coll. Momp pa. 566.567 Ofiand Hist Eccles pa. 1040. Cent. 16. when Frederick Barle of Wortenberg exhorted his Divines to acknowledge Beza and his company for brethren and to declare it by giving them their hand they utterly refused saying they would pray to God to open their eyes and would doe them any office of humanity and charity but they would not give them the right hand of brotherhood because they were proved to be guilty errorum teterrimorum of most pestilent errors among which they reckon'd for one Hemingius left his own side and joyned with us in the poynt of the Sacrament but he would come no nearer mainteyning alwayes a distance in this And as for the Grecians pag. 237. we learne also by Sir Edwin Sandys his relation that they doe mightily d●ssent from that doctrine touching the eternall counsels of God which Calvin as some conceive first fully revealed or rather introduced into the Christian world and since some of his friends and followers have seconded as thinking it very injurious to the goodnesse of God and directly and immediately opposit to his very nature Jn regard of which one of their Bishops hath written a Booke against it which hath been sent to Geneva and there received It is a morsell which the greatest part of Christian Churches cannot swallow and therefore I think it should not very easily without suspicion downe with us And to say one thing more by this infamy of it among Christians pag. 223. 224. it is very probable that among the too many scandals given to the Iewes by Christians among whom they dwell this doctrine is not one of the least rubs in the way of their conversion For they think it a bad opinion sayes the same iudicious and learned Gentleman Which some of great name have seemed to hold that God in his everlasting and absolute pleasure should affect the extreame miserie of any of his Creatures for the shewing of his justice and severity in tormenting them or that the calamity casting away and damnation of some should absolutely and necessarily redound more to his glory than the felicity of them all considering that his nature is meere goodnesse and happinesse and hath no affinity with rigour or misery This is my third reason Reason 4. Affinity to Fate The fourth It 's affinity with the olde exploded errors of the Stoicks and Manichees The opinion of the Stoickes was that all actions and events were unavoydable determined either by the revolutions of the Heavens and the qualities of such starres as raigned at mens births

when Balaam once saw that the Lord had fully determined blesse Jsrael Numb 24.1 and that all his Sorceries could not effect the co●trary he presently gave over and set no more Enchantment And reason teacheth every man to doe the like If any m● were fully possest with a perswasion that his temporall esta● were determined in Heaven and that hee should be wort● just so much neyther more nor lesse he would conclude i● his thoughts that his care and paines could nothing prof● him nor his idlenesse impoverish him and so would quickly be perswaded to take his ease And were it evident tha● every common-wealth had terminum magnitudinis a condition appoynted for it which could not be altered and a fatal● period which could nor be avoyded then would the King call no Parliaments use no privie Counsellors make no lawes and Ordinances for the preventing of a Kingdomes ruine o● the procuring of its prosperity and continuance For it would be to little purpose as once a famous privie Counsellor told our late Queene Elizabeth but would follow the Poet● counsell Manilius Solvite mortales animos curisque levate Tot que super vacuis animum deplete querelis Fata regunt orbem certâ stant omnia lege From these three premisses layed together it followeth directly that the doctrine of an absolute decree which determineth mens ends precisely is no friend at all to a godly life For if events absolutely decreed be unavoydable if mens actions about unavoydable ends be unprofitable if in unprofitable imployments men will have no hand willingly whosoever they be that beleeve and consider this will have nothing to do with the practice of godlinesse For their ends being absolutely pitched and therefore unavoydable they will conclude that their labour in religion will be unprofitable and so will not labour in it at all That which hath been sayd may be yet confirmed by two Witnesses The one of them is Mr. Calvin who in his Institutions hath these words (f) Instit l. 3. c. 23. §. 14. Si quis ita plebem compellet Si non creditis ideo fit quia jam divinitus exitio praedestinati estis is non modò ignaviam fovet sed etiam indulget malitiae Jf any man sayth he should speake thus to the people If there be any among you that beleeve not it is because ye are ordained to destruction this man would not onely cherish slothfulnesse but wickednesse also Which is as much to say me thinks as this If a man should set forth the doctrine of Reprobation in its colours and explaine it to people in a cleare and lively fashion he would hereby open a doore to liberty and prophanenesse The other witnesse is a man of another stamp the miserable Landgrave of Thuring of whom it is recorded by Heisterbachius that being by his friends admonished of his vitious conversation and dangerous condition he made them this answer (g) Heist l. 1. de memor hist c. 27. pa. 38. Si praedestinatus sum nulla peccata proterunt mihi regnum coelorum auferre Si praescitus nulla opera mihi illud valebunt conferre Jf I be elected no sinnes can bereave me of Heaven if I be reprobated no good deeds can helpe me to Heaven I conclude therefore that by this opinion which is taught for one of Gods principall truths Religion eyther is or may be made a very great looser which is my fourth generall Reason against it But there are three things which are usually answered to vindicate this opinion from this crimination First that many of them which beleeve and defend this doctrine are holy and good men and therefore of it selfe it openeth no way for liberty of life but through the wickednesse of men who use to pervert the sweetest and surest truths of Scripture to their own damnation The like defence to this did the Epicures of old make in favour of their sensuall and Swinish doctrine which was that happinesse consisted in pleasure They sayd that many of their Sect were honest men and so much Tully granteth to be true but with exception still against their doctrine (h) Cic. l. 2. de finibus bon mal pag 117. Ac mihi quidem videtur quòd ipse vir bonus fuit multi Epicurei fuerunt hodiè sunt in amicitiis fideles in omni vitâ constantes graves nec voluptate sed officio consilia moderantes I take sayth he Epicurus himselfe to be an honest man yea and many Epicures have been and are faithfull in friendship square and constant men in all conditions of life ordering themselves and their lives not by pleasure by duty But sayth he (i) Hoc videtur ma●s honestatis minor voluptatis this proceeded not from the principles of their opinion but from their own vertuous inclination and the force of honesty by their so doing appeared to be more prevailing in them then the force of pleasure which they pleaded for A little after he hath other words to the same purpose (k) Atque ut caeteri existimantur dicere mel●ùs quàm facere sic hi mihi videntur meliùs facere quàm dicere As other mens doctrines are esteemed to be better then their deeds so these mens deeds seeme to me to be better then their doctrines Like to this answer of Tully to the defenders of Epicurisme will I shape mine It cannot I confesse be denyed that many of this opinion are godly men but it is no thanks to their opinion that they are so the true and naturall genius of which is to beget sloth to drowne men in security and to countenance carnall liberty but to something else eyther to Gods providence who will not suffer this doctrine for his own glories sake and the good of men to have any great stroke in their lives or to mens incogitancy who think not of reducing it ad praxim to practice and drawing conclusions out of it but rest in the naked speculation of it as they do of many others or lastly to some good practicall conclusions which they meet with in the word of God and apply to their lives as they do not the former deductions such as these are for example Be ye holy as I am holy Without Holinesse no man shall see God Jf ye consent and obey ye shall eate the good things of the land Godlinesse hath the promises of this life and of the life to come c. And hence we may learne to measure this opinion not by the lives of some few of the men that hold it but by the sequels which the logick even of simple men if they should apply their braines to consider it would fetch out of it No man that hath throughly suckt it in and understandeth the force of it but will eyther quite relinquish it or live according to the naturall importment of it that is licentiously Secondly it is sayd that albeit this doctrine teach That men