Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	father_n	son_n	spirit_n	9,815	5	5.8235	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41549	The reformed bishop, or, XIX articles tendered by Philarchaiesa, well-wisher of the present government of the Church of Scotland, as it is settled by law, in order to the further establishment thereof.	Gordon, James, Pastor of Banchory-Devenick.	1679 (1679)	Wing G1279; ESTC R10195	112,676	318

Families to the full and not to live precariously But I fear that this Tympany in their Splenes shall at last produce an Atrophia in the Mystical Body unless a more skillful hand than that of an Empyrick do speedily apply Chalybeat Potions to their Hypochondria Vid. Can. Apost 14. 37. Item Concil General 1. Can. 15 16. Concil Sardicens Can. 8 9 10 11 14 15 20. Concil General 2. Can. 2 3. Concil General 4. Can. 5. the Canon Law having adopted that and the 10 Canon of that Councel against Plurality of Benefices Concil Antioch Can. 3. 11. Concil Carthaginens 3. Can. 37. Concil Aurelianens 2. Can. 13. Concil Carthaginens 5. Can. 5. Cujus haec sunt formalia verba Placuit ut nemini sit facultas relictâ principali Cathedrâ ad aliquam Ecclesiam in Di●eces● constitutam se conferre vel in repropria diutiùs quàm oportet Constitutum curam vel frequentationem propriae Cathedrae negligere But what would these Fathers have thought of those Bishops who reside not at all within their own Diocesses and see their Cathedral but once or twice a year at most Their Punishment we find in the 80 Canon of the sixth General Councel Si quis Episcopus vel eorum qui in Clero censentur vel Laicus nullam graviorem habeat necessitatem vel negotium difficile ut à sua Ecclesia absit frequentiùs sed in Civitate agens tribus diebus Dominicis unà non conveniat si Clericus est Deponatur si Laicus à Communione separetur Vid. Athanas. Apolog. ad Constantium Imp. Vid. Chrysost. lib. 2. de Sacerdot Prosp. Lib. 2. de Vita Contemplativa Greg. 1. lib. 8. Epist. 11. Et Secund. Part. Cura Pastor Bernard lib. 3. de Consideratione ad Eugenium Article X. Luk. 12. 14. Ioh. 18 36. 2 Tim. 2. 4. 4. 10. IF Non-Residency be a Crime in Ecclesiasticks their immersing themselves in Secular Affairs must needs be a piacular Transgression and Scandal of the first Magnitude For such demonstrate themselves to be the genuine Issue of Demas who first harkened to the Gospel and afterwards embraced this present World but with this Difference that Demas again devoted himself entirely to the Ministerial Function but these who leap out of their own Element as if they were Animalia Amphibia declare by their Polypragmatick● that they have a Complacency to live and die divided betwixt God and the World and for all the World resemble that infamous Pope Boniface the eighth who the one day appeared in the Habit of a Priest and the next in that of a Secular Person Yet with this Discrimination that some have adventured to do so when it was no year of Iubilee to the Church It cannot be denied but that it hath been alwayes reputed even in Pagan times too one of the Honourable Flogiums of an absolute S●cular Prince to be Mixta persona cum Sacerdote He being Cus●os utri●sque Tabulae and as Constantine the Great said of himself Episcopus extra Ecclesiam But I did never read that it was accounted an Encomium of a Church-man to be Mixta persona cum Saecularibus Sure the Primitive Church judged not so it being the great Care of these Times to free Ecclesiasticks from what might be either Scandalous or Burdensome to the● Calling Therefore by their Address to the Great Constantine they p●●rchased that Decree in their favours That the Orthodox Clergy should 〈◊〉 exempted from all Civil Offices or whats●●ver might hinder their attendance upon the Services of the Church His Son Constantius decreed That Bishops in many Cases should not be chargeable in the Se●ular Courts but be tried in an Assembly of Bishops Which Privilege was extended by Honorius to all the Clergy That they should be tryed before their own Bishops and by another Constitution That for the Veneration which is due to the Church All Ecclesiastical Causes should be decided with all possible speed The Scope of all which laudable Constitutions was to obviate the unnecessary avocation of Church-men from their own peculiar Employment But let those ●insey-woolsey M●dlers take example before they be made such Examples from the Tragical end of that famous Chronologue Funcius who commanded this instructive Epilaph composed by himself to be engraven upon his Tomb Disce m●o exemplo mandato munere sungi Et fuge ce● Pestem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Can. Apost 7. 80. Item Concil Chalcedonens Can. 3. Concil Carthaginens 1. Can. 6 8 9. Concil Carthaginens 3. Can. 15. Con●il Mil●vitan Can. 19. Concil Agathens Can. 7. The Reason which is generally given by these Canons why Ecclesiasticks ought not to immerse themselves in S●cular Affairs is that of the Apostle Nemo militans Deo implicat se negotiis Saecularibus Vid. H●eronym ad Nepotian De vita Cler. Neg●tiatorem Clericum quasi quandam pestem suge c. Cypr lib. 1. Epist. 9. Augustin 〈…〉 Quaest. Vet. Nov. Test. cap. 〈…〉 ●mperf in Matth. quod 〈◊〉 tribuunt Chrysostomo Hom. 38. ad cap. 21. Matth. All which Homily speaks very pertinently to this purpose Cassiod in Ps. 70. Article XI WE have not yet done with the excentrick Orbs and Epicycles of the Episcopal Function which should be carefully evited as Distractions from their proper Employment and no less dangerous than the Syrenian Rock Therefore let me perswade all Office-bearers in the Church to be very shie in medling with State-matter and to hate cane angue pejus the abbetting of State-Factions and let them be ashamed to be found Parasites to any For all these Irregularities are abominable Stains in a Mitre It being an Observation of a very ancient Date that Church-men never made good Politicians the fatal ends of many of them in Britain being a sufficient Evidence thereof For when Ecclesiasticks abandon Christian Simplicity which is the great Ornament of all the Disciples of Holy Iesus but especially of Church-men and betake themselves to the infamous disingenuity of Pope Alexander the 6th and that Mali corvi malum ovum Caesar Borgia For as Guicciardin reports the Father never spake as he thought and the Son never thought as he spake it is but just with God who is Truth it self and abhors all deceitful men to cast them out of his Protection and not only to cause them tast even in this Life the bitter Fates of Tantalus Sisyphus Tityus Prometheus and the Belides but also to permit them to dye the Death of Slaves rather than of ingenuous Persons because they have divested themselves of the proper Ga●b of the Sons of the Church as a Pope said of a French Bishop taken armed with a Cask and Corslet Yet this Dehortation is not so to be understood as if it were absolutely unlawful for the Governours of the Church to be Assessors in any Secular Court For if a grand Case of Conscience be under debate there or if the Interest of the Church be highly concerned they may be lawfully

Spirit and should be reduc'd to such a Fixation that amounts to an immoveable Constancy in that which after mature deliberation hath once been well resolved upon in conformity to that Advice of Judicious Salust Antequam incipias Consulta ubi Consulueris maturè facto opus est But that Fixation must never come the length of a Caput Mortuum For as a faint-hearted Creature is easily frighted by the Audacious so an unconstant wavering Spirit is with no less facility imposed and wrought upon by the Crafty That Character of Socrates Semper eodem incedebat vul●u and that Prince's Motto Semper idem are decent Epithetes in a Church-man As the inflexible Justice of Aristides merited that Elogium That the Sun might be sooner diverted from its Course than that Noble Athenian from the Path of Iustice So the inviolable Resolution of Athanasius to adhere unto the Truth procured that deserved Encomium Sedem potiùs mutare voluit quàm Syllabam Yea less than a Syllable even the interposition of one Letter into the Churches Creed would have composed the Difference betwixt the Orthodox and Arrians and have procured eternal Peace to the Christian World all the Years of the Reign of the Emperours Constantius and Valens and that in all probability much more effectually than the Nine disparate Creeds Penned by the Arrians during the Reign of Constantius But they adhered closely to the Council of Nice and did choose rather to cast themselves upon the Providence of God than to consent to the least Alteration they perceiving that the substitution of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did not only pervert the Sence and enervate the Authority of that great Synod but that it did totally invalidate its Determination for Consubstantiality For the Orthodox considered that as Wisdom is alwaies justified of her own Children So that Wisdom which descends from above is first pure then peaceable And that Optabilius est Bellum pace impiâ à Deo distrahente But I greatly fear that there are too many in this Iron Age so flexible that they would Cause to renounce not only any Letter of the Alphabet but also all the Dutch Consonants and Selavonian Words yea both Α and Ω before they willingly abandoned their Seats they being Willows and not Oaks Which was given as the reason by an old Courtier why he stood but I suppose not uprightly in favour during all the Twenty four Years of Bloody War betwixt the Red Rose and the White such persons having a Versatile Ingenium as was said of Cato the Elder which can uti foro servire Scenae But a prudent Resolution with a Couragious Constancy in a Church-Governour will not fail to animate all the Presbyters within his Jurisdiction to exercise Church-Discipline impartially without any fear of finding their own subordinate Authority baffled in the matter of Appeals when Scandalous persons provoke from their Award to the Bishops Tribunal which is too frequently practis'd in this Age. But if in lieu of strengthening they perceive their Superiours palpably weakening their hands by conniving too long and indulging too much unto some Delinquents it will give occasion even to those who cannot but approve the form of Government to wish that they had never seen such Governours who regard not the Glory of God or the Good of his Church nor the Credit of their own Office nor the Reputation of their Clergy and that they are too like unto K. Saul given rather for a Curse than a Blessing unto the People of God All Laodicean Bishops and all who as the Satyr said blow hot and cold with one mouth being hateful in the sight of God and odious in the eyes of those who have a pure zeal for the Glory of God and the Good of his Church for Corruptio optimi est pessima Yet I doubt not but that this free Remonstrance though made by the most Conform of the Clergy shall verifie that of the Royal Prophet Tange montes fumigabunt which by some of the old Fathers is applied to these rancorous Vapors which barefac'd Truth exhales from some Mountains of worldly Dignity And from these little partial Policies which savour too rankly of a timorous sinful Compliance Judicious Spectators will take occasion to compare them unto Aesop's Dog who would neither do good nor let good be done and to the Crimaean Tartars who will not suffer the Polonians to manure a parcel of fertile ground interjacent betwixt them and that part of the Ancient Scythia Europaea neither will they be at the pains to cultivate it themselves I deny not but Pax cum hominibus Bellum cum vitiis is an Ancient Christian Maxim But sure I am Pax cum hominibus vitiis is an Antichristian Conjuncture But the impartial execution of Discipline hath also a Train of many other excellent Advantages following after it For all the Cardinal Vertues do evidently and eminently appear therein And it is an imitation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our Great Master as also the best Expedient to perswade all Ranks of people to comply with their Admonitions and to submit enirely and cheerfully to the Yoke of Discipline when they perceive their Rulers to be no Respecters of Persons and that their Justice is so far blind as not to put any difference in their Censures betwixt the Noble and the Ignoble the Rich and the Poor But if any Byass be perceived towards the Left Hand of Secular Interest unbyassed persons will be apt to resemble those Canons whereby they pretend to be regulated unto Spiders Webs as one compared Solon's Laws which catch the lesser Insects but the greater ones pass through them Scot-free It was certainly the Consideration of the unmalleable impartiality of a Prelat which prompted that Great Emperor Theodosius to say That he knew no Bishop but Ambrose There is but little fear in this byassed Age of the World of the violation of that Antique Precept Ye sh●ll not countenance a poor man in his Cause but the Reverse thereof is too frequently transgressed it being an old Complaint Dat veniam Corvis vexat Censura Columbas Another Advantage of the impartial Execution of Discipline is a great Conformity to the Method of the Primitive Church And sure if the prudent practice of many disused Penitentiary Canons were retrived into this Age it would resemble the Face and Garb of the Ancient Christian Church much more than it doth Me thinks it cannot but be a matter of great admiration unto any that is acquainted with the Primitive History to find even before the Roman Empire turn'd Christian such a Crowd of Penitents especially the Lapsi willingly offering themselves to undergo the severest Penances enjoined by those Ancient Canons which were so strict and diuturnal that many of them required many years appearance in Sackcloth and Ashes before they were accomplished the Church-Guides wanting the Brachium Saeculare to second their Discipline and many times

for he must needs be a Stranger to all Church-History who is altogether unacquainted with these ensuing Instances The first is of Maris Bishop of Chalcedon a blind Bishop yet he fought not Andabatarum more but boldly told the Emperour Iulian to his Face That he was glad the Almighty had bereav'd him of his Eyes that he might not see such a vile Apostate as he was Such was the Freedom of Spirit wherewith even an Arrian Bishop was endued in Behalf of the Christian Religion But the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of S. Basil a greater and much more Orthodox Bishop was so admirable in the Eyes of the Lieutenant of the Emperour Valens that this Heretical Servant told it as one of the greatest Wonders in the World unto his Arrian Master That there was no Threatening imaginable could deterr that Metropolitan of Cappadoc●a from the Path of Truth and Vertue St. Chrysostom his Freedom of Spirit in reprehending the Vanities of the Empress Eudoxia was so great that some supposed it had too much of the Satyr in it and that his wonderful Eloquence would have run in a smoother Channel if a little Gall Vinegar and Vitreol had not sometimes troubled the Stream But he deserved from all and in a right Sence too to be term'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a kneeless Bishop he being inflexible to all the Petitions of Ignorant and Scandalous Ecclesiasticks who lived within the Priphery of his Patriarchate Neither could all the Hopes or Fears wherewith the greatest Secular Persons in the World accosted him divert that Resolute Prelate from that which he judged just and Good and a part of his Episcopal Charge Though we might subjoyn many other Examples to this Purpose yet I shall forbear for the reason above frequently express'd Yet we cannot balk in Silence the well-known Instance of that most worthy Prelate of Millan who repell'd for the space of eight Moneths that good Emperour Theodosius the Great from the Holy Eucharist that blessed Sacrament being frequently celebrated in the Western Churches at that time and that for his temerarious and cruel Sentence in the mattter of Thessalonica But whether the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that great Bishop or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that great Emperour were most admirable I shall not determine but shall shut up this Historical Account with that Resolute Answer which this couragious Prelate gave to Valentinian the second Emperour of the West who being instigated by his Mother an Arrian to give the Principal Church at Millan to those Hereticks did meet with this unexpected Repulse from S. Ambrose in the Porch of his Cathedral Non prodam Lupis gregem mihi commissam hic occide si lubet In which Expression his holy Boldness in Conjunction with a due Submission to superiour Powers affords new matter of Admiration Now in regard that this little Cento of History hath wasted more Paper than at first I imagin'd it should do we shall therefore add no more Authorities to this Article Article XVII Mat. 23. 6 7 8. c. Act. 21. 20. Rom. 12. 10. 2 Cor. 3. 5. 2 Pet. 3. 15. WHatever Bombast Epithets others give unto them Let all Bishops when they Converse and salute one another viva voce or by writing use no other Compellation than that of Brethren which is most consonant unto the Primitive Pattern all Christians then living as Brethren and denominating one another under that notion of Fraternity which word was much used in the Infancy of the Church and from it the Pagans also took occasion to traduce our Religion But none used it more than the Ministers of the Gospel whether Bishops or Presbyters it being as Baronius that great Annalist hath well observed the most usual Compellation of all Bishops among themselves where there was a parity of Age or no great disproportion But when any of the Order who had stepped in upon a decrepit old age called by the Latines Aetas Capularis and Silicernium did converse with one of the same Order much younger than himself he usually called him Son and vice versâ the younger termed the elder Father though none of them were so young but that fourty Winters at least had snowed upon their Heads yea very few Presbyters were Ordained in these Times of Persecution whose Pulse had not beaten twice twenty years To which if some late Criticks had well adverted they would have made Use of a better Argument to repudiate the pretended Areopagite as there want not some solid reasons to do the feat than his impertinency in calling Timothy Son at the Close of his Book Of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy though say they the said Timothy was equal to him if not his Superiour in Piety Doctrine and Authority both being Bishops of famous Churches and Ephesus where Timothy Govern'd rather a Mother-Church than Athens and that it was the General Custom of the Primitive Church for Bishops to call one another Brethren But this is a meer Fallacy à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter For in respect of Age he might have called him Son though in many other things he had been his Superiour seeing we find more than a thousand years after that time when Christian Simplicity and Humility were much rarer in the World that Ioseph Patriarch of Constantinople flatly refused the Emperour thereof whose almost desperate Affairs in that Conjuncture required as great Complyance with the Latin Church as Conscience could possibly permit to prostitute himself to the Bishop of Rome by giving him the usual Adorations of the occidental Church at that time and plainly told him that if Eugenius the 4th by whose Influence the Councel of Florence was celebrated which was first assembled at Ferrara were a man much elder than himself he would call him Father if but of equal years he would term him Brother if much younger he would style him Son without the ●east mention of his pretended Title of Holiness And this was all the Compellation and Obeysance could be obtained from that peremptory Patriarch It were also desireable That all our Bishops took Place among themselves according to their Age excepting the Metropolitan or Primate who is constant Praeses of that Sacred Colledge and who usually in the Primitive Church was eminent above the rest not only in all laudible Qualifications but also in respect of Age. For in doing so they would not only imitate the Sons of that great Patriarch Iacob but they would shew themselves humbly obsequious to many ancient Canons which appoint the Precedency of Bishops among themselves to be at least conform to the Aera of their present Dignity of which we shall give an account at the end of this Article it being a most indecent Spectacle and that which in the City of Sparta would have appear'd a very ridiculous Pageantry to see a Reverend old man treading upon the Heels of one who might have been his Grand-child and yet of that same Order with himself But whether young