Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	false_a	know_v	true_a	4,114	5	4.5846	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60706	Sober advice to church-wardens in a letter to a church-warden in London, from his friend out o7the countrey, and may serve indifferently for constables, and others, who are required to make presentments for not going to their parish-churches, or communicating, &c.		1683 (1683)	Wing S4400; ESTC R41687	10,566	15

resort to their Parish Church or some other place having no lawful or reasonable Excuse to be absent upon every Sunday and Holyday Now I perswade my self that in ordinary there are but few People or Church wardens themselves that are not guilty of the Breach of this Statute most Holydays in the Year And the Church-wardens know it perfectly How is it then that they do not present them except that they either know or presume they have some lawful or reasonable Excuse to be absent and if they take upon them to judge of reasonable Excuses in this Case so as to excuse themselves from the Breach of their Oath why not in other Cases also and particularly in the case of Communion at Easter wherein they certainly know there may be the like Excuses And the same Argument will hold in the case of those that come not to Church c. in a Month contrary to the Tenour of this Statute who are punishable by the Forfeiture of 20 l. a Month by the Statute of 23 of Eliz. ch 1. made against Papists Fourthly This Statute of 1 Eliz. makes it not absolutely criminal Not to resort to their Parish or some other Church but not to endeavour themselves to resort c. Now a man may endeavour to resort c. tho' he do not perform being hindered by some lawful or reasonable Lett * Nay I am well assured that many who resort not to their Parish Church c. do endeavour themselves to resort more by far than those that do They read confer study and pray more for Satisfaction in the Lawfulness of it so that a Church-warden that presents a Man for not coming to his Parish Church for a Holyday or a Month without consulting with him whether he had any reasonable Excuse of being absent or whether he was not at some other Church or Chappel and without judging of reasonable Letts is injurious to his Neighbour beyond the Statute and if he may not judge of lawful and reasonable Excuses but must present a man notwithstanding he makes a false Presentment because he does not know whether it be true or no that a man did not endeavour to resort to Church It may be false and if it be true it 's more than he knows tho' upon Oath he pretends to know it so commits Perjury He swears neither in Truth nor Judgment nor Righteousness Jer. 4 2. And why may not a lawful or reasonable Lett come in a Mans way at Easter as well as at another time Which if it were so the Church-warden ought not to conclude him guilty of a wilful omission and therefore ought not to present him Fifthly In crimes there is the matter or fact and the manner or Circumstances of that fact the matter or fact is for the most part neither good nor evil but according to Circumstances which make it the one or the other So under the Law of Moses God commanded to rest on the Sabbath day but if a man had fallen into a Ditch on the Sabbath it was evil to rest and not Labour to lift him out for it was lawful to do so for an Ox or a Sheep so in our Law one may kill a Man and be Innocent when he does it in his own Necessary defence but if in malice he is guilty of Murder So to take a Mans Sword from him on the High-way is robbery if it be done with a Fellonious intent but to keep a Man from doing himself and others a mischief it is good and lawful In like manner he that will present a Man to a Court to be punisht as a prophane Offender as the Bishop of London speaks in his Order for not coming to Church and receiving the Sacrament at Easter ought first to be assur'd that he did it with a prophane Mind and had no lawful or reasonable Lett to excuse him Having now my Friend shewed you that your Presentment has the force of a Verdict and the refore you ought to hear what your Neighbour has to say for himself before you bring in the Verdict of your Presentment to the spiritual Judg for him to pass Sentence upon him Having also clearly proved as I suppose that you are to judge of lawful and reasonable Excuses and that you do it most frequently in other cases It remains now that I say something of lawful and reasonable Excuses The first Rule I shall lay down to discern them by shall be general even that general Rule of our Saviour Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so unto them If your Neighbour give as good Testimony of his Sincerity in the Christian Religion as you your self or at least no Cause to the contrary that which you would have to be judged a reasonable excuse in your own case that ought you to think in his case I describe your Neighbour here to be in Appearance an honest and true man because you are to believe what he says in his own Defence which if he were a man of ill Fame you could not reasonably do but if a man be of as good Credit as your self or you hear nothing against him I see not how you can avoid giving the same credit to him you would have another give to your self This is to be understood of such causes as admit not of outward Evidence besides a man 's own Testimony How otherwise do you love your Neighbour as your self which the Ap. James says is the Royal Law according to the Scriptures and Christian Charity is that which believeth all things hopeth all things to wit which he hath no good Grounds to disbelieve and doubt I prosume then that you and every Church-warden will judge that Sickness of the Party or any Relation whom he or she cannot in duty Wave without great danger or also journeying in forreinparts about a Mans necessary Occasions or in our own Countrey about sudden business that will not admit of delay are reasonable excuses for not presenting ones self and communicating at his Parish-Church at Easter and there may be many other excuses of the same Nature which I will not Trouble you to enumerate But from hence I assume If the manifest danger of ones Health or the very probable damage of a Mans worldly Estate Credit or Liberty be reasonable excuses to be admitted by the Church-warden how much more reasonable and to be allowed is that excuse of sinning against God by doing that which he cannot do in Faith or with a perswasion of its lawfulness when divine Authority says Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin For it were better for a Man to lose all his Estate his Credit his Liberty yea and his Life too then sin against God But he that judgeth any thing required of him to be sinful and doth it he certainly sins For he that in the Apostles time eat of those meats which were lawful to be eaten judging them to be forbidden or even doubting whether they were