Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	good_a	holy_a	spirit_n	3,941	5	4.8416	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03500	A sermon of obedience especially vnto authoritie ecclesiasticall, wherein the principall controuersies of our church are handled, and many of their obiections which are refractorie to the gouernment established, answered, though briefly as time and place could permit: being preached at a visitation of the right worshipfull M.D. Hinton,in Couentry. By Fran: Holyoke.	Holyoake, Francis, 1567-1653.	1613 (1613)	STC 13623; ESTC S115476	21,457	38

but that every man should be left to his own liberty we should haue so many seuerall congregations so many diuers religions We see the varietie of opinions touching the gesture in receiuing the communiō though there be order set downe for the receiuing of it kneeling Some hold it vnlawfull to kneele and deeme that to receiue standing is the best way as here in this place Others condemne kneeling as Popish and idolatrous and hold standing as Iewish as the other Popish and therefore say that Christs example in this must bee vnto vs a lawe and rule from which wee may not varie hee received it sitting and therfore any other gesture vnlawful Thus wee see if in this and other things every man were left to his owne liberty what an endlesse worke there would be there would be cōcord in nothing but in diversities and disagreements The vse and ende of these rites as D. Zanchie saith are first that they may procure a reverence vnto the holy things and that by such helpes we may be stirred vp vnto godlines by a streight hand be led vnto Christ The second end That modesty gravity which in all other actions ought to bee regarded may herein chiefly appeare Afterwards he proveth that ecclesiastical traditions and constitutions are not meerely humane but divine good true holy and pleasing to God because they are ordināces of the church which is guided by the spirit of God which is truth For the particulers they are partly humane and partly divine divine because they are a part of that order and decorum that God hath commanded in generall leaving the particulers to the discretion of the church to bee framed according to the generall rule Now as there must of necessitie be a vniforme order in these things prescribed so also is it no lesse necessary to see vniformity in the observance of these orders For they are made to mainetaine and preserue vnity and therefore generally to be observed in those places where they are established And if any inferior governors in the church who are to see vniforme orders to be observed will see some observed and some others wilfully to be broken It were in my opinion much better for them to be meanes vnto superior autority that those orders which they thinke vnfit were altered then that this liberty of diversity shoulde be given which breeds so great scandals For I knowe by manifold experience the danger that this diversity of observing orders bringeth Some poore soules haue and doe stand amazed whilest they see in one parish one forme of praiers and administring the sacraments and another in the next parish They thinke these are divers religions and doubt what they may follow Herevpon it commeth to passe that some fall to Popery some to Atheisme some to other heresies schismes These inconveniences were wisely foreseene in the establishing of an act in Parlament for vniformity And if political lawes of heathen princes be to be observed for conscience sake so that they enioine not disobedience to God much more these that are for mainetenance of concord order and decencie in the worship of God Aug. epist 166. Hoc iubent imperatores quod iubet Christus quia cum bonum iubent per illos non iubet nisi Christus That which kings commande that Christ commandeth because when as they commande that which is good Christ commandeth by them Ob But many of our lawes ordinances and constitutions say some are vnlawful Therefore not to be observed Ans Bucer being written vnto by D. Cranmer then Archbishop of Canterbury and also by B. Hooper as appeareth in his booke de sacris vestibus Touching the lawfulnes of these matters which are now made question of by divers writeth his censure at large vpon our booke of cōmon praier liturgie and ceremonies Now he saith that when first he came into this land he made doubt whether he might ioine with our church as with a church of God things were so farre out of order but when hee looked more seriously into the matter he foūd that the fault was in the manners of the men and for want of the execution of the wholesome orders prescribed and not in the lawes and ordinances prescribed themselues after hee doubteth not to avouch that touching our lawes Bucer subscribeth to our book of commō prayer orders and discipline established he found not any thing that was not either directly or by necessary consequence drawne out of the word of God howsoever he wished that some things that troubled the consciences of some men were removed for their sakes that tooke offence which hee sheweth in particuler Peter Martyr in his Epistles seemeth to bee of the same iudgement Ob Others thinke that all or the most of our ceremonies are lawfull in themselues but the imposing a necessitie in observing of them destroieth Christian liberty Ans That is they were lawfull if they were not cōmaunded Indeed vpon this conceipt some do strongly and strangly hold that the king may not cōmande them to weare their ordinary apparell of this or that fashion much lesse any to be vsed in the Church for they must stande vpon Christian liberty A strange principle of obedience and like to breed loialty in the subiects towards their Prince I marvaile vnto what this humor woulde growe if it were followed Ob Againe some think they ought not to yeeld obedience to these orders of the church because they are not resolved but stand in doubt and whatsoever is not of faith but is done doubtingly is a sinne Ans It is much better to obey doubtingly then to disobey doubtingly but me thinkes they should reason thus Because I am enioined to doe such a thing if I obey not the authoritie of a Christian Magistrate I must needes sin vnlesse I can manifestly proue that that which is commāded is vnlawfull Ob There are others that grant them lawful but say they we cannot yeeld vnto them without offence and scandall of Many Christ paid tribute Mat. 17.27 which he was not boūd vnto seeing he was free yet neverthelesse hee did it for avoiding offence Now these men in seeking to shun offence of I know not whom they imagine will run headlong into the wilful offence of the church whole state and rashly breake the cōcord vnity of the Church This is to streine at a Gnat and swallow a Cammell S. Augustin writeth at large most divinely on this point Epist 118. ad Ianuarium Those things saith hee which we obserue not by written autority but by tradition which are observed throughout the whole world we must vnderstand that they are commanded and appointed by the Apostles themselues or els are decreed in lawfull councels whose authority in the Church is most wholesome and holy As that the passion resurrection and ascension of our Savior Christ the comming of the holy Ghost are celebrated solemnized yearely whatsoever such like is observed of the whole church generally