Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	faith_n	religion_n	true_a	4,659	5	4.8297	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52706	A letter from a gentleman in the city to a gentleman in the country, about the odiousness of persecution wherein the rise and end of the penal laws for religion in this kingdom, are consider'd : occasioned by the late rigorous proceedings against sober dissenters, by certain angry justices in the country.	A. N.; Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1687 (1687)	Wing N3; Wing L1388A_CANCELLED; ESTC R9450	23,013	34

to admit the Charge of the Papists here to be a sufficient proof against the Protestants in so great a matter yet let us not deceive our selves so far as to suppose that in Popish Countries the Charge of Papists against Protestants would not be taken to be at the least as valid as the Charge of Protestants will be taken to be against Papists here Shall we go another way and say that in regard every Party takes it self to be the only good and true Christian and in regard we see every Party when in Power practising this thing and persecuting the other when in their Power for matters of meer Religion that therefore every Party agrees in this That it is Lawful for those who are the true Christians to Make and Execute Penal Laws against such as are Erroneous Christians and to Inflict Pains and Penalties upon them for matters of meer Religion that is for Errors held by them as Doctrines of Religion But neither will this be reasonable or convenient for this will also give Title to those who have the Actual Power and are in the possession of each respective Government in the Christian World to put to Death and destroy all within their respective Jurisdictions whom they judge to be Erroneous Christians And this will be also to Entitle the Civil Magistrate in every Christian Country to the absolute and uncontroulable right of judging between Truth and Error so as to have no appeal from his definitive Judgment and to entail against common Sense an Infallibility in the Civil Magistrate of every Country of determining in matters of Faith and Religion I say against common Sense for Christianity teacheth us that there can be but one true Faith and if this Power of judging should be allow'd to the Civil Magistrate there would be as many Faiths as there are Governments amongst Christians That would be true Faith in one Country and the denyal of it punishable with Death which in another Country would be an Error and a False Faith and the affirming of it punishable with Death It would also be to justify not only what the Papists in England but what both the Papists and Protestants in all other parts cast as a Charge upon our Nation That the only Rule of Faith in England is the Parliament of England that nothing is true Christian Doctrine in England nor any Translation or Sense or Interpretation of Scripture a true Translation or Sense or Interpretation of Scripture in England but what is judg'd so to be by the Parliament of England Whereas though in the Statute made 2 3 Edw. 6. c. 1 Entituled An Act for the Vniformity of Service and Administration of the Sacraments throughout the Realm It was affirm'd by that Parliament That the Book of Common-Prayer enjoyn'd by that Statute to be us'd was made by the Aid of the Holy Ghost Yet that very Book was by that very Parliament alter'd and amended as appears by Statute 5 Edw. 6. C. 1. And it hath received several Reformations and Amendments since and was in and by a Parliament in Q. Marys days judged to be Heretical As to my own Judgment in this particular Affair it leads me to another way of reasoning and discoursing I do and I think I am bound in Charity to believe that every Person and Party who professeth Christianity do at least intend to be what they profess and that they do all in their Hearts fully give consent unto all those common Doctrines of Christianity which as standing Principles of that pure Religion were never question'd or deny'd by any sort of Christians such as are those which I have before observ'd Of doing unto others as we would have others do unto us and of not doing Evil that Good may come of it and those others of Loving our Neighbours as our selves yea and of Loving our very Enemies and doing good to them that who hate us and use us despightfully All which when soberly consider'd without Passion or Humane Interest are expresly against all Persecutions for matters of meer Religion and do not only tye up Protestants from destroying of Protestants but even from Persecuting of any sort for any matters of meer Religion as those Commands Thou shalt do no Murther Thou shalt not Steal Thou shalt not commit Adultery and against and tye up all Christians from shedding of Blood Unlawfully and Malitiously and against Rapine and Vncleanness And such do also in their Hearts believe that whatever Counsel or work is of man will fall of it self and that what is of God will stand Maugre all the Persecutions and Oppositions of man and that there is none of them do intend to fight against God or would willingly be found so doing All this being taken by me in my own Thoughts to be most certainly true when ever I come to enquire How then can these things be How can all these Parties among which there are great numbers of Good Sober Judicious and Sincere persons offend against these common Principles of the common Faith of all Christians by making and Executing Penal Laws for matters of meer Religion Immediately adjoyning to this another Question which is And how can so many persons professing to be Christians take revenge by Blood usurp the Goods of their Neighours and commit the Sin of Vncleanness Yet all these were once done by that great and good King and Prophet who was a Man after God's own Heart That which to me Answers this latter Question seems clearly to solve the former That the Beast gets the better of the Man The Passions commit a force upon Reason And Humane Frailty being too weak brings the best of men sometimes though but for a time and careless men oftentimes to contradict their Faith by their Practice until by Afflictions they gain understanding and come to Repentance for the Saving of their Souls This to me seems so evident a Truth that until something more evident shall convince me of my being mistaken in this I should think it as great a Sin against Charity for me to charge it as a Principle of the Religion of any Party professing to be Christians That Persecution for meer Religion is Lawful because I see it practis'd by those who have Power amongst that Party as to charge the same Party to hold it as a Principle of their Religion that Murther Theft and Adultery are Lawful because great numbers of that Party are too often guilty of the practice of those Sins If this way of considering things be not found unreasonable but upon due reflection shall appear to be conformable to the true Principles of Christianity and the Holy Rules and Doctrines of Christ I hope those who are publick persons will forgive me when I wish they would lay it to their Hearts and think well whether it would not be of use to preserve this poor Nation from the further guilt of those additional Injustices and Cruelties which the contrary way of rash Judging must involve and

A LETTER FROM A GENTLEMAN in the CITY TO A GENTLEMAN in the COUNTRY ABOUT THE Odiousness of Persecution WHEREIN The Rise and End of the Penal Laws for Religion in this Kingdom are consider'd Occasioned by the late Rigorous Proceedings against Sober Dissenters by certain Angry Justices IN THE COUNTRY It is the Part of the Christian-Religion to Suffer and not to make People Suffer for Religion Tertul. Apol. Printed in the YEAR 1687. THE LETTER SIR THE News of a Persecution meerly for a matter of Religion at this time a day when the whole Nation appears professedly to dislike it and the giving countenance to Informers who are the Pest of every Nation and the common Enemies of Property to the Prejudice of Peaceable and Trading People makes your Friends who have had notice of your late Troubles suspect that there is something in your case more than ordinary Had this fallen out in some remote Country where no Informer had ever yet appeared we might have conceived that through Ignorance that sort of Devil might have been mistaken for an Angel of Light and that upon his bare Averrment some well-meaning Persons even against their own Experience might have been induced to mistake their Peaceable Neighbours for Dangerous Incendiaries and unworthy to enjoy their own proper Goods But to see that sort of Creature concerned a Country so near London and Westminster as not to be capable of knowing what Informers are how detestable their Trade how inconsiderable their Power how generally indigent and dissolute how mean their Skill how little they know more than to subborn Witnesses to commit Perjuries which are discovered to their Confusion is that which raised Wonder in some of your Friends to so great an height that they generally request from your own hand the true state of your Case in all its Circumstances to the end they may know whether there be any thing which can differ it from the common Cases of Persecution meerly for Religion from which the generality of the Country-Gentlemen of England and particularly those of the Country where you live do commonly profess to have as great an abhorrency as they have from Depopulating of Countries which is the Effect that such Persecutions must of necessity produce In the mean time do not I pray take me to be one who think it strange to hear of Troubles what hath been formerly may happen again without Astonishment and you are too well known to be thought to be surprized or afraid Well did that Person consider the Creature Man who distinguished him into two parts viz. the Man and the Beast But it were happy for Mankind if the Beast were less imperious and cruel In truth it is rare to find where the Man is allowed to have any power in Acting every thing seems too much to be governed by the Beast and by the Tyranny of its inordinate Passions and Senses And yet where shall one find a single Person in the World who calls himself a Christian or that Party of Men who desire to be esteemed Christians but he and they will readily grant that Principle Mat. 7. 12. All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets and that other Principle Rom. 3. 8. Let us not do Evil that Good may come to be Gospel-Principles and obliging to all Mankind There is not a Politician or States-man nor a Government any where that owns Christianity to be the true Religion but confesseth That in the Council of the Jews which was assembled in order to the Persecuting of the Apostles for matters of meer Religion Gamaliel advised prudently and according to the Principles of true Religion Acts 5. Let them alone for if this Counsel or this work be of Men it will come to nought but if it be of God we cannot overthrow it least happily we be found even to Fight against God. They will all confess readily when pressed with these charitable and peaceable Principles that the Spirit of Persecuting for meer Religion is a Spirit of Injustice as not doing to others as our selves would be done unto and a Spirit of Diffidence and Incredulity refusing to trust God and his Providence with the Defence and Justification of what is Professed to be of God And yet it is hard to find that single Person and much more to name tha● Community or Government amongst Christians now in being whose practice when they have opportunity and power are not contrary to their Principles And not only so but they will take upon them to justifie such practices to be consistent with nay even duties unto which they are obliged by that pure Religion which they take upon them to profess to the whole World. But to the end I may not be esteemed presumptuous or uncharitable in what I here assert and in regard it is impossible to produce evident proofs for what I say as touching single Persons let us a little examine the matter as to Parties and Governments taking this for granted that every particular Party calls it self a true Church or the true Church of Christ If what is here urged of differing Churches shall be proved true the presumption will stand very strong as to single Persons there being no single Person who would be esteemed a Christian but he is in communion or fellowship with some Church which he owns to be the true Church of Christ and by whose Judgment he is willing to be concluded as being a professed Member of it and as taking it for his Principle that every Member of the true Church of Christ ought to be of her Judgment because the Scripture says She is the Pillar and Ground of Truth And though some boggle at this yet nothing is truer than that every Christian Society daily practiseth it Now the better to prepare the way for this intended Tryal we will crave the Liberty first to consider Christianity in the World in general in its first Ages when it was under Persecution for meer matter of Religion and before it gained any civil Power and Dominion From them we shall know what the true Christianity did teach We will then consider Christianity in England when divided only into two distinct Parties viz. The Protestants and the Papists And in the last place We will consider Christianity in England when the Protestants were sub-divided into several Parties viz. The Episcopal or Church of England Protestants the Presbyterians the Independants the Anabaptists and the Quakers and when the Papists were become so small that they were upon the matter inconsiderable and I suppose from these differing times we may hope for a reasonable Information First then Suppose the question put to the Christians of the first and Primitive Times in those first and greatest Persecutions under which Christianity then suffered Is it lawful to Persecute and to make and Execute Laws for the Inflicting of Pains and Penalties upon quiet and peaceable People

that very Religion which those persons professed by whom those Laws were made yet true Religion and true reason of state always kept those persons from intending to have those Laws rigidly and severely Executed I will confirm this by one single Instance of the highest Nature and that not in the best of times The last Popish Priest that was put to Death in England for being a Priest of the Romish Church was put to Death in the time of Cromwel I suppose we are not to doubt of the Passionate heat which inflam'd those who were then in Authority against the Papists and Popery they look'd on the Papists as mortal Enemies to their Government and as fast Friends and devoted Servants to the Crown and Royal Family Notwithstanding which when the said Priest came upon his Tryal at the Sessions-house in the Old-Baily in London and upon his Arraignment Pleaded that he was not Guilty of Treason but acknowledg'd himself to be a Priest of the Roman Church It clearly appear'd that those who were his Judges did their utmost to preserve his Life and to prevent the Execution against him of those Laws upon which he stood Indicted For they did for many hours suspend the Recording of his Confession making it their endeavour to prevail with him to Plead not Gluilty to the Indictment They pressed him to this in the publick Court assuring him that if he would so Plead his Life should be safe and that they had no Evidence which could prove him to be a Priest And when the Old Man Aged about seventy two years would not be drawn to deny himself to be a Priest taking it to be a denying of his Religion and that the Court was compell'd to give Judgment against him the Magistrate who gave the Sentence was so drown'd in Tears upon that sad occasion that it was long before he could pronounce the Sentence which the Law compell'd as he profess'd to give Now I ask can it be presum'd that in those severe times against Popery those who then sate upon the Seat of Justice would or durst have proceeded thus in a publick out and made it their business so openly so avowedly to have sav'd the Life of a Priest of that Party if they had not well consider'd that the Makers of those Laws and even Cromwel who had then taken upon him the Government of these Nations did not in Truth intend a rigid and severe Execution of those Laws which were for Inflicting Pains and Penalties for matter of meer Religion But I think I need give no further Instances for the proof of this my Opinion Whosoever shall reflect upon the present Genius of our whole Nation and consider in what detestation all men have the Execution of Persecuting Laws of matters of meer Religion how publickly Informers are Abhorr'd and Discountenanced when they labour to Persecute any upon any such Law will easily see that the whole Nation in general is Convinc'd that those Laws were never any of them made with intention to have them rigidly Executed I have been told and it seems to be grounded upon Reason that it is a Principle of our Laws That even an Act of Parliament which is against the Law of God or against Reason is void in it self If this be true as methinks it ought to be I think we are very near the time wherein all our present Laws of this Nature by which any are subject to be in any measure Persecuted for matters of meer Religion will be Repealed by the general Voice of the whole Nation and that when the particular Persons of which the great Body of this Nation is compos'd shall have considered something more deliberately than their Passions have yet permitted all to do that every Law of this Nature is against the Liberty and Property of the Subjects of England Unjust and Cruel in punishing men for not proceeding against their Consciences Expresly against the very Principles and Rules of the Gospel of Christ and Principles of that true Religion which every one of us pretends to own Destructive to the Trade and Well-being of our Nation by Oppressing and driving away the most Industrious Working Hands of our Nation and Depopulating and thereby Impoverishing our Country which is capable of imploying three times the number of People which we now have Contradictory to the Rule of Justice grounded upon common Reason as well as Religion which requires That no man should do unto another what he would not have done unto himself And consequently void in it self by the Rule of the Laws of our Country There will not be found a Magistrate nay a common Subject in England who will not as positively renounce the putting in execution or being accessary to the executing of any Law of this Nature as he will renounce the becoming guilty of those detestable Sins of Murder or Theft But until Men are a little further convinc'd of these Truths you Sir ought not to be angry with but rather pity those Magistrates from whose Hands you have lately suffer'd for a Matter meerly of Religion Peradventure they did not fully consider that the Matter with which you were charged was a thing of meer Religion but took your Meeting in an Assembly meerly for the Worship of God to be an unlawful Assembly because prohibited by a present Law as the poor Magistrates in the Apostles times took their Meetings in their Assemblies meerly for the Worship of God to be unlawful Assemblies and Breaches of the Peace because they were prohibited by their Laws Or perhaps their fear that they should themselves be subject to a Forfeiture in case they should have deny'd their Warrant to the Informer made them fall under that Humane Frailty for securing of themselves However it was I suppose you have no just Ground to believe the thing to be any effect of Malice against you or your Friends and if it be not then the same Magistrates now their fear is over may yet be instrumental to do you and themselves Right It is Odds but upon a strict Reflection upon what the Informer hath sworn the Devil may have prevailed with him to swear something which may be proved untrue for Informers are not squeamish in swearing for their own profit as it hath appear'd in London and Middlesex and one point of Perjury proved will invalidate all his Testimony and reverse all that is done At which I am very confident no Man besides the Informer will be displeased And this is in plain Truth the great Reason why your Friends here desire to know all the Circumstances of your Case the certifying of which may be an Advantage to your self and your Friends there and will be particularly very welcome unto Sir Your Old True Friend And Humble Servant A. N. Postscript I Have here-omitted many of those great Arguments both which others have used and which may yet be advanced from the Nature of this Subject partly because there are so many Discourses extant and