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truth_n doctrine_n spirit_n word_n 4,112 5 4.1321 3 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A69047 A dialogue betwixt Cosmophilus and Theophilus anent the urging of new ceremonies upon the kirke of Scotland Calderwood, David, 1575-1650, attributed name.; Murray, John, 1575?-1632, attributed name. 1620 (1620) STC 4355; ESTC S114406 21,825 48

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call ye the bands of their fidelity Theoph. Their oath and their subscription to that confession of faith which two do bind us also which are professors Cosm. O but these bonds may be loosed Theoph. I confesse they may be violently broken but lawfully loosed they cannot be For an oath is the strongest bond that the tongue can make and subscription is the strongest bond that the hand can make If ye breake these bonds tell me what shall bind a man Cosm I tell you Theoph. our superiours King and Church may loose them Theoph. No Cosmophile that may they not For both consented yea and by their authority presented this confession and urged these bonds on all binding first themselves then others to hold fast their profession according to that confession during all the dayes of their life So the bands of the grave must bind al before we can be loosed frō these bonds Indeed Cosmophile there is harder and faster knots in them then ye consider of namely in the band of the oath Cosm. What be these I pray you Theophile Theoph. In that band there is a double and indissoluble knot The one the perswasion of the truth The other the promise for the truth In the former the takers of the oath solemnly professed their perswasion wrought in their hearts by Gods spirit through his word of the undoubted truth of that religion doctrine and discipline professed in the Kirke of Scotland at that time and after to be continued therein and by the contrary the detestation of all false religion Papistry and all the particular poynts thereof as they were then condemned by our kirk In the latter they solemnly promised to maintaine defend prof●sse and practise that true religion in all the poynts thereof and to abhorre and detest the contrary Cosm. It is true Theophile that band and the knots thereof holds fast upon the substantialll poynts of religion doctrine and discipline which a●e unchangeable but not so upon the changeable rites and ceremonies about them Theoph. Surely Cosmophile the matter of the oath and all the particulars thereof are like a holy Taber●acle so joyntly and soundly compacted and knit together that the loosing of one pin bring●th perrill to shake all loose So albeit some might seem to be indifferent in themselves severally and apart considered yet ye must not thinke it 〈◊〉 thing indifferent to single and pick out the small pinnes of it as yee account them at your pleasure lest all as is like this day fall downe about your eares Cosm. But will you consider Theophile that your formes and ceremonies for the which and ours against the which yee stand have not entred in that oath being but things indifferent Theoph. Yes but they have Cosmophile for in it ours in generall termes are included and yours excluded and abjured Farther this oath is relative and hath respect to the former confession bookes of discipline and acts of assemblies By the which particularly and expresly our formes were received ratified and passed under practise as agreeable to Christs ordinance and yours rejected and debarred out of our Kirk as Antichristian rites Cosm. That oath Theophile so farre as it concerned these outward and alterable formes or the like was but indefinite and conditionall that is such formes as it should please the Church for the time to appoynt continue or change according to that power and libertie she did professe herselfe in sundry acts of assemblies to have over such indifferent things Theoph. It was both determinate and absolute Cosmophile even in these formes and such was the mind of our Kirk at that time which as I sayd in the former answer received ours and rejected yours So that her Profession of her power in the change of things indifferent extends not to their formes which are so particularly and by name excepted and the great seale of that solemne promise set upon the continuance in reteining of the one and in outholding and withstanding of the other Cosm. I think Theophile that was an unadvised Oath in respect of these indifferent formes which should not be made the subject of an Oath seeing they are so subject to changes Theoph. I think Cosmophile ye are evill advised to condemne so wise and worthy a Kirk consisting both of preachers and professors of all estates in an errand of so great importance as if they had not known nor keeped these inseparable conditions of a lawfull oath which the Lord himselfe expressed Ierem. 4. 2. That an oath should bee in Truth and so not false in Iudgement or discrerion and so not rash In Justice and so not unrighteous or unequitable The first and last respect chiefly the matter of a lawfull oath and the mid the manner Now that this oath was given in truth and to the truth it is cleare because they swore their resolution and perswasion of the truth of these heades contained therein That it was given in judgement not rashly or unadvisedly as yee say it is cleare by the words of the confession where it is sayd that after long and due examination of their conscience being throughly resolved in the trueth by the word and Spirit of God they gave it That it was given in justice it is cleare because all the particulars they swore too were and are agreeable to GODS word serving for the edification of the Kirke and overthrow of the kingdome of Sathan and of his eldest sonne the Antichrist and that their formes which yee call indifferent were not such in the judgement of our Kirke when they appoynted the one and discharged the other is evident by the religious and grave reasons given for their so doing As that ours were according to Christs institution agreeable to the simplicitie of the Evangell profitable for the preservation of the purity of Gods holy worship and eschewing of the occasions and countenance of superstition and conformity with Rome but yours by the contrary Cosm. I see then Theophile yee are loath to grant these formes to be indifferent Theoph. That I am Cosm. and although I should yee would be little neerer your purpose For it is neither the unadvisednesse of the maner nor the the indifferencie of the matter of an oath will loose the band thereof once layd on as long as the indifferent matter is not turned to a sinfull use or abuse Although such cases might possibly hinder the making of it it is onely the unlawfulnesse looses all The oath which Iosua and the Princes of Israel gave to the Gibeonites Ios. 9. 14. 15. was unadvisedly made for they consulted not sayes the text with the mouth of the Lord yet it was advisedly keeped for the religious reverence to the great and glorious name of God If yee be able to prove that our formerly established formes are turned unlawfull unprofitable inequitable profane or superstitious goe to try your wits Your Bishops and Doctors publickly professed they would not they could not Cosm. Yea but for all that