Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	divine_a	faith_n	revelation_n	3,458	5	9.7228	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59215	Rex theologus the preachers guard and guide in his double duty of prayer and preaching : deduced from scripture, reason, and the best examples : in three parts ...	Seppens, Robert.	1664 (1664)	Wing S2560; ESTC R37366	44,281	75

upon or that in regard of the Auditory they preach unto it may séem requisi●e or expedient so to do That in such cases they do it with all modesty gravity and candor asserting the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England from the cavils and objections of such as are Adversari●s to either without bitterness railing féering or other unnecessary or unséemly provocation IV. That for the more edisying of the People in Faith and Godliness the aforesaid Abuses laid aside all Ministers and Preachers in their several respect be Cures shall not onely diligently apply them elves to Catechize the younger sort according as in the Book of Common Prayer is appointed but also shall in their ordinary Sermons insist chiefly upon Catechetical Doctrines wherein are contained all the necessary and undoubted Verities of Christian Religion declaring withall unto their Congregations what influences such Doctrines ought to have into their lives and conversations and stirring them up effectually as well by their Examples as their Doctrines to the practice of such Religious and Moral Duties as are the proper results of the said Doctrines as Self-denial Contempt of the World Humility Patience Méekness Temperance Iustice Mercy Obedience and the like and to a detestation and shunning of sin especially such sins as are so rise among us and common to the Age we live in such are those usually styled the Seven Deadly ones in short all kind of Debauchery Sensuality Rebellion Profaneness Atheism and the like And because these licentious times have corrupted Religion even in the very roots and foundations That where there is an Afternoons Exercise it be especially spent either in explaining some part of the Church-catechism or in preaching upon some such Text of Scripture as will properly and naturally lead to the handling of something contained in it or may conduce to the exposition of the Liturgy and Prayers of the Church as occasion shall be offered the onely cause they grew into contempt amongst the People being this That they were not understood That also the Minister as often as conveniently he can read the Prayers himself and when he cannot do so he procure or probide some fit person in Holy Orders who may do it with that gravity distinctness devotion and reverence as becomes so holy an action And whensoever by reason of his infirmity or the concurrence of other Offices the time may séem too short or he unable to perform the office of both Prayers and Sermon at length he rather shorten his Discourse or Sermon than omit any thing of the Prayers lest he incur the penalty of the Act for Vniformity requiring them to be read according as the Book directs V. And further Our Will and Pleasure is That all Ministers within their several Cures be enjoyned publickly to read over unto the People such Canons as are or shall be in force at least once and the Thirty nine Acticles twice every year to the end they may the better understand and be more throughly acquainted with the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England and not so easily drawn away from it as formerly they have béen VI. Since Preaching was not anciently the work of every Priest but was restrained to the choicest persons for gravity prudence and learning she Archbishops and Bishops of this Kingdom are to take great care whom they License to Preach and that all Grants and Licences of this kind heretofore made by any Chancellour Official Commissary or other Secular person who are presumed not to be so competent Iudges in matters of this nature be accounted void and null unless the same shall like wise be allowed by the Archbishop or the Bishop of the Diocese and that all Licences of Preachers hereafter to be made or granted by any Archbishop or Bishop shall be only during pleasure otherwise to be void to all intents and purposes as if the same had never béen made nor granted VII Lastly That for the better observing of the Lords-day too much neglected of late they shall as by often and serious admonitions and sharp reproofs endeavour to draw off people from such idle debauched and profane courses as dishonour God bring a scandal on Religion and contempt on the Laws and Authority Ecclestastical and Civil to shall they very earnestly persuade them to frequent Divine Service on the Lords-day and other Festivals appointed by the Church to be kept solemn And in case any person shall resort unto 〈◊〉 ●●●cern Ale-houses or use any unlawful Sports and Exercites on such days the Minister shall exhort those which are in Authority in their several Parishes and Congregations carefully to look after all such Offenders in any kind whatsoever together with all those that abet receive or entertain them that they may he procéeded against according to the Laws and quality of their Offences that all such Disorders may for the time to come be prevented Given at Our Court at Whitehall October the 14. in the 14. year of Our Reign 1662. By His Majesties Command ED. NICHOLAS ERRATA PAge 7. line 16. read great p. 10. l. penult r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 10. l. 26 27. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 12. l. 7. r. The Verb. p. 15. l. 16. r. jussi sunt p. 16. l. 11. r. fallible p. 21. l. 12. r. Sozomen and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 14. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 24. l. 4. r. Pammachium p. 30. l. 35. r. post illa p. 39. l. ult for question r. Answers p. 40. l. 7. r. maintaining it p. 43. l. 20. r. cannot p. 56. l. 6. r. honore Presbyteri THE INTRODUCTION AMongst the infinite methods and arts of Satan wherewith in all Ages he hath infested and troubled God's Church none hath proved more mischievous and destructive then the perversion and depravation of things good and holy whereby the old Serpent playing an After-game hath been so lucky and prosperous that even those things that in their original were designed as means for the planting and building up of Gods Church hath by this new artifice of the Divell proved powerfull weapons to supplant and pull it down That what Saint Paul saith of sin it took occasion by the commandment and slew him so the Devil hath taken occasion by things in their first appointment good to deceive and ruine men as desperately as he did by heathenisme it self It is an observation of St. Cyprian in his book de unitate ecelesiae That when the Devil saw his trade of Idolatry faile at the comming of Christ and the Seats and Temples of I dols were overthrown Excogitavit novam fraudem ut sub ipso Christiani nominis titulo fallat incautos haereses invenit schismata He devised a new trade of heresie and schisme that under the colour of Christianity he might deceive unwary souls and thereby subvert the truth and corrupt the faith This new imposture of the Divels hath been so operative and effectuall

daily experience teacheth That Christianity it self the onely true and excellent religion is against her nature made a mother of a spurious off-spring contention war rebellion The Scripture that admirable Systeme of divine revelations is polluted by the prophane usage of every bold Dogmatizer Every institution of Christ is adulterated and turned to his dishonour The Publick service of God which if rightly performed would come before him as incense and as the Morning Sacrifice by vain repetitions extemporary boldnesse and tumultuary effusions of late became the Sacrifice of Fools the sacred Eucharist that is ordained as a bond or ligament to knit us together in unity is by Satans malice the golden apple of contention an occasion of wofull distraction amongst Christians and the fuell of endlesse and irreconcileable controversie The Love-feasts used in the Apostles times for the procreation and conservation of charity did soon degenerate into nurseries of riot and dissention The Publick Vigills upon the Evens of Festivals Tertul. lib. 2 ad ux Aug. ep 64. at first so advantagious to Christian piety and observed with so much zeal and devotion in time were changed into publike disorders It were endlesse to reckon up all the sacred rites of Christianity the Devil hath made use of to promote his own Kingdome and weaken Christs But amongst all those there is none more visibly and dangerously abused then the Ordinance as they call it of Preaching which at first was the organ in the hand of Christ and his Apostles for the conversion of the world but now by Satans malice and subtilty is become a great instrument for the disturbance of Christian Churches and Nations That it may be a question whether the excesse of Preaching in later times hath not done more hurt then the want of it heretofore T is certain in Morality that the vice in Excesse is sometimes as opposite to the middle virtue as the vice in Defect We have lived to see by sad experience that vitious and excessive Preaching hath been both opposite and fatall to the most excellent Church in Christendome and that diverse and sundry wayes First by abetting of Heresie Schisme Sacrilege Rebellion Rapine and all manner of villany Howsoever this bullion was digg'd out of a lower region yet it was minted stamped made authentical in the Pulpit Though those impes of the Devil had their conception elsewhere yet here they had their Birth Legitimation and Christendome From this quarter blew the wind that raised the rageing of the Sea and the madnesse of the people It was a saying of old that Athenas oratorum eloquentia perdidit I will not say that the eloquence of our Preachers destroyed us but their bawling their clamorous obstreperousnesse did For while these Demagogues had the peoples ears tyed to their tongues they conveyed all manner of poyson into their hearts They who remember the glory of the first Temple know how first it came to be Eclipsed and afterwards invelop'd in universall darknesse And they who live to see the building of the second Temple know what mighty opposition it finds from the fierce and warlike nation of the Pulpiteers Secondly by deletion and extinction of all the parts of Gods worship whereas Gods worship is the end of preaching and preaching is but medium cultus And the means is no further such then it serves unto the end The matter was so handled that preaching had engrossed and monopolized all the parts of Gods worship and was become the sole worship of God Cartwright and his disciplinarians were modest in respect of these Empiricks They allowed of no Sacraments without Sermons These made Sermons alone all-sufficient without Sacraments They held that the administration of the Sacraments without Sermons was damnable Sacrilege These by a more damnable Sacrilege destroyed the Sacraments themselves so that all the worship of God was turned to Preaching much the most part whereof hath been little better then vain babling Thirdly by eclypsing and disparaging of Gods word contained in the holy Scripture for not only Gods Worship was laid aside but the Bible it self was turned out of doors The reading of the Scripture which obtained in the Jewish and Christian Churches in all ages and was generally found to be of singular use and benefit was abandon'd and esteemed of no efficacy without some of their new descants upon it That as the Superstitious Rabbins proverbially said Plus est in verbis scribarum quam in verbis legis so they thought there was more efficacy in the words of men then in the words of God And thereupon imparted the peculiar glory of his word unto that which is not his word For Sermons are not the word of God but equivocally because the word of God is the subject and should be the rule whereby they are framed But forasmuch as in Sermons there is a mixture of Mans wit and invention sometimes a tincture of Errour and Malice For men to lay aside the immemorial and profitable custom of reading the holy Scripture and obtrude upon the people in the place of it their Sermons as the pure word of God is a sacrilegious diminution of its Authority If the Romanist be obnoxious to so much censure for ranking the Traditions of the Church in equipage with the word of God written what insolence is it in men to prefer their fancies and inventions not only before the Traditions of the Church but also the undoubted word of God it self Fourthly by the bringing in a new kind of Idolatry we are told of diverse kinds of Idolatry in the Roman Church worshipping of Images worshipping of Saints and Angels worshipping of the Host But now there is a new kind of Idolatry brought into the Reformed Church worshipping of Sermons No ignorant Papists idolize any Image or Saint departed more then some people do these Sermons They adore them they attribute an omnipotency to them in saving Souls ex opere operato they place their affiance in them They go on pilgrimage with as much devotion to worship this imagination as the Papists do to the Image of the Lady of Loretto They spare no cost nor charges in their oblations to these Idol shepheards though like the Idols of the Heathen they have eyes and see not As the people of Israel made a Calf in Horeb and then fell down and worshipped it so these misguided zelots set up Calves for their Teachers and then fall down and worship them Fifthly by the destruction of the Priesthood it self when once by this new and monstrous Divinity they had made us believe that Preaching was the sole and onely office of a Minister and observed that insolent Laicks pretending to inspiration could perform that well enough to peoples satisfaction They saw there was no need of Priests nor any provision for their maintenance and therefore laid about them to rid themselves of that chargeable order of Ecclesiasticks for which purpose first they attempted to cut off their persons by various injuries