Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	devil_n	father_n	liar_n	1,960	5	10.7881	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44141	A correct copy of some letters written to J.M., a nonconformist teacher concerning the gift and forms of prayer by Matthew Hole ...	Hole, Matthew, 1639 or 40-1730.; J. M. (John Moore), 1641 or 2-1717.	1698 (1698)	Wing H2408; ESTC R19302	77,888	204

next Objection against the Injunction of publick Forms of Prayer is That it hath not only silenced many godly Ministers but hath set up and encouraged a lazy Ministry in their stead This is your beloved Topick upon which you delight to insist and upon all Occasions recur to For I find you Decking and Adorning your silenc'd Brethren with all the fine Feathers of able painful and godly Ministers whilst you set forth the regular Clergy in the blackest and most odious Shapes that your Talent of Variations can represent them Here you call it a Lazy Ministry as if it consisted of a Pack of idle Drones that will take no pains and are good for nothing At other times you stile it a lame Ministry that can't go without Crutches and sometimes a purblind Ministry that can't see without Spectacles 'T is much you had not added the other common Epithets of Ignorant Sottish and Scandalous Ministry which are the usual Complements you pass upon the conformable Clergy It seems Sir you are not so far silenced but you can open your Mouths in rude and railing Accusations For one of your silenced Brethren tells us That Forms of Prayer have let in such Ministers into the Church of whom all that have any concern for the Glory of God and the Church's Repute have cause to blush and be ashamed Now Sir If you had any Modesty left you could not but blush and be ashamed of such false and impudent Calumnies To tell you it s against the Rules of Civility and good Manners thus to call Names and asperse any would perhaps but little affect you who have been so little bred to them Or to say The Principles of Reason and Morality if hearkned unto would teach you better things will be as little regarded since you are arrived to higher Attainments than to be brought down to common Reason and dull Morality Let us hear then what the Holy Scriptures for which you pretend a great Veneration teach in this Matter and learn from thence how we are to order our Words and Actions towards each other and there we find many strict and severe Cautions against evil Speaking Lying and Slandering Titus 3.2 Speak evil of no Man saith the Apostle And Charity is so far from Speaking 1 Cor. 13.5 that it thinketh no evil Indeed there is scarce any Sin marked with a blacker Brand of Infamy than this of evil Speaking and Slandering our Brethren And according to the different Degrees and Stations of the Persons evil spoken of does the Guilt of this Sin increase to speak evil of the Ruler of the People Jude 3. is mounted up to Blasphemy and to speak evil of Dignities is part of the Character of those Persons whom God reserves for the Punishment of the last and great Day Now there are no Men of whose Reputation we ought to be more tender than of those that Minister about Holy Things For the Success of their Ministry depends much upon the Honour and Esteem they have in the World and to Vilifie and Defame them is to render their Persons useless and their Office contemptible Yea the Relation they bear to Christ as his Embassadours ought to secure them from Obloquy and procure to them the Veneration of Mankind For as the Honour so the Contempt too cast on them will redound to him that sent them And therefore the Apostle gives a strict Charge so to account of them 1 Cor. 4.1 as the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God And upon that account to think them worthy of double Honour 1 Tim. 5.17 And does not this very well consist think you with those black Calumnies and foul Aspersions which you are won't to load them withall You will do well Sir to consider whose Character it is to be the Accuser of the Brethren and whose Work you are doing whilst you thus lessen and revile the Ministers of Christ You know the Devil hath his Name from a Calumniator and they who delight in venting Lies and Slanders derive their Pedigree from him who was a Liar from the beginning and the Father of them But let us see what Colour of Truth there is in these vile Reflections Are the Clergy then unfound in their Principles No this is not much pretended What then are their Abilities too Slender and Insufficient for their Calling This they will scarce say neither I am sure they cannot say it with any Colour of Truth the Generality of those within the Church being Men of far greater Worth and Learning than they who have shut themselves out of it Is it their Lives then that have given this Offence Yes this is the main Point they insist upon For some say they are Scandalous and others Lazy But Sir is there any Church upon Earth that is without Blemish and without Spot Is it not the sole Priviledge of the Church Triumphant in Heaven to be Presented pure without Spot Ephes 5.27 or Wrinkle or any such thing Was there not a Judas among the Twelve Apostles and will there be no disorderly Brother among so many thousand Brethren Are all Saints think you that go to Conventicles No 't is obvious they are as great Sinners as any of the Galileans tho' they pretend such things Will not Tares spring up among the Wheat and continue so too there being no Separation to be made between them till the Harvest And therefore all Separation now upon pretence of greater Purity is rather a piece of the Vain-glory of a Pharisee than the Mark of a true Christian Besides Sir you must not be too credulous of evil Reports For some are vented out of Malice and others are spread upon Design And therefore the Apostle exhorts not to believe 1 Tim. 5.19 or take up an Accusation against an Elder without good Grounds and the Testimony of two or three Witnesses But if you know any for certain to be loose in their Lives and lazy in their Calling Why do you not take the Advice and Method of our Saviour to reclaim them which is privately to admonish them and tell them of their Faults and if that will not do to take one or two more and if that will not prevail you are to acquaint the Church where Christ hath appointed Rulers either to reform or remove them Math. 8.15.16 This is the direction that Christ gives in this Matter Not to whisper about in Corners or to take pleasure in publishing the Failings and Infirmities of other Men for this is to rejoyce in Iniquity 1 Cor. 4.13 whereas Charity casts a Veil and covereth a Multitude of Sins and will rather hide than disclose anothers Nakedness Yet after all you will be hard put to it to find out an abler or better Clergy for the number of them in any part of the Christian world than that which you so unhansomely asperse The word of God being no where more diligently and faithfully Preached The Sacraments more