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
A86830	The humble petition of the ministers of the Church of England desiring reformation of certain ceremonies and abuses of the Church with the answer of the vicechancelor, the doctors, both the proctours, and other the heads of houses, in the Vniversity of Oxford.; Answere of the vicechancelour, the doctors, both the proctors, and other the heads of houses in the Universitie of Oxford.	University of Oxford.	1641 (1641)	Wing H3562; Thomason E170_4; ESTC R9252	19,567	36

the revenues of those Churches have been embeazled by men of corrupt mindes Psal 83.11 which said in their hearts as it is in the Psalme Let us take to our selves the houses of God in possession so the remainder of that grounded learning which was bred up in former times is now through succession of time almost cleane worne out Nec bona tam sequitur quam bona prima fuit Insomuch that there is neither sufficient maintenance in those parts for any store of excellēt learned men nor yet many men brought up among them in this last reforming age worthy of that wonted honorable maintenance God knows we speak not this with a detracting Spirit but with grief of heart to see the ruines of the Ministery in particular and generaly of all profound learning in other reformed Churches As likewise to stirre up this whol nation to a thankfull acknowledgment of that singular blessing in this behalfe which God of his goodnes hath long and yet doth continue unto us of this Realm And withall to put to silence the malicious ingratitude of those evill men which looking upon us this Church through the colourd glasse of their prejudicate opinions can see nothing among us but defects and deformities and abuses and enormities and the like And therfore in their high discretion would have us reduced and made conformable to the calamities of other places Whereas in truth if we shall bring back the eyes of our minds from forrein parts and indifferently without either detraction or flattery take notice of the present state of this Church and Comon-wealth we shall easily discern that it were an incomparable happines for them if all that professe the truth as it is in Christ Jesus were in our condition We shall see how that our Church government is duly subordinate unto the supreme civill state and withall doth mightily support the same That our reverend Prelates men of singular worth not to be matched in any one kingdom though preferred unto highest roomes doe yet contain themselves within such bounds as preserves that estate from creeping to any Papal corruptions That our inferior Clergy by their godly and painfull labors in their vocation have been and are the most effectuall meanes to settle the tranquility of this land by inducing mens minds to Piety towards God Loyalty to their King and civill honesty among themselves That our people generally excepting some few malecontents of all sorts whom wee leave to the mercy of the Magistrate are inured unto Peace accustomed to subjection detest disloyalty and with all alacrity yeeld their obedience unto their Soveraign That the Colledges the Cathedrall-Churches Saravia de facrilegiis ca. 9. the Bishops and other Ministers of this land have yet remaining unto them yet after the many and great spoyles of this Church which notwithstanding never prospered with them that got them but were as rust to the rest of their silver and their gold or as a Canker that fretted out themselves their posterity or their possessions that yet there is remaining unto them more competent and sufficient maintenance more comfortable and honorable encouragements then there are to all other reformed Churches in Christendom That answerable therunto to stop that mouth of iniquity which is wont to traduce us for a dumbe unlearned Idoll Ministery there are at this day more learned men in this Land in this one kingdom 1 Cor. 9. 2 Cor. 13. then are to bee found among all the Ministers of the Religion in France Flanders Germany Poland Denmarke Geneva Scotland or to speake in a word all Europe besides Which yet may not justly be imputed to us for vanity the Apostle that knew how to be abased and to make himselfe of no reputation yet when the impeaching of his personall gifts was abused to the disgrace of his calling did without either arrogancy or folly give his Detractors plainly and roundly to understand that he was not inferior to the chief Apostles nay that hee labored more then they all and so by his own just defence cōmendation did free himself his worth and his vocation from their base and odious imputations In a like case we doubt not a truth may be averred of our selves even by our selves without any ostentation at all when it is so injuriously impeached trodden under foote to the high dishonor of God the disgrace of his Gospell and to the slander of this most Christian Comon-wealth Psal 47.10 Yea the rich mercies that God hath continued unto us these 45 yeeres ought to replenish our hearts with joy and that our lips should break forth with thankfulnes sing Non facit taliter omni natione neither have the Regions round about vs been made partakers of the like blessings Now the father of Mercies and God of all Consolation enlarge the wise and understanding heart of our thrice noble King noble in byrth noble in wisdom noble in all manner of good learning assist him ever with his holy Spirit the spirit of Councell of Sanctification and of Truth make him admirable in the swaying of this Scepter as was Salomon in all the world as long as he walked in the first way of his father David That so hee may long weare this mortall Crown in all abundance of piety peace and prosperity and hereafter obtaine that immortall Crown that Christ hath purchased for them which by continuance in well doing seeke glory and honor and immortality FINIS

maliciously and injuriously they would have reputed a most heavy burden of humane Rites and Ceremonies The vanity of which their complaint comes now more particularly to be discussed Concerning the matters of their Complaint 1 Of the Church service 1 IN the Church service we are ready to maintain but they must object first and prove the contrary that the a Tert. de Cor. mil. cap. 3. Crosse in Baptisme b Aug. Ep. 23. Interrogatories ministred to Infants and c Hieron cont Luc. confirmation are most ancient justifiable and convenient Ceremonies and therefore to bee continued 2 That the Church of England nor the booke of Common prayer doth not prescribe that Baptisme should be administred by women Though we deny it not to be h Chytrae de Bap. in Lev. Sneph de Bap. Zuingl de Bap. Hicrbr in Comp. Theol. Baptisme if perchance de facto it be by them administred Fieri non debuit factum valuit 3 That the Cap and Surplice be not urged it is an absurd speech and implies confusion For so every man should be suffered in that behalfe to doe what him liketh Again do not their own words import that they may wel be used but they must not be urged why what is there in a Cap or in a Surplice that should i Buc. de revest pag 707 Pet. Mart. Ep. ad Hap. Aug. Ep. 154. Calvi in Ex. 23. offend any man of judgement 4 That Examination where need is should goe before the Communion who disliketh Or that it be ministred with a sermon But that it should not bee ministred without a sermon is absurd and hath bred in many a vain and false opinion as if not the word of Christs institution but rather the word of a Ministers exposition were a k T. Cl. 1. p. 158 necessary and an essentiall part of the Communion Besides he that readeth our Communion booke shall see that therein the whole manner end and use of that holy Institution is so excellently described as may be insteed of many Sermons Also that none should be admitted to that blessed Sacrament of what age state or condition so ever except they were first examined after the Consistorian fashion were insolent injurious and in many respects most in convenient 5 The terms of l Isay 66.21 Where the Geneva note doth shew that the Ministers of the new Testament are to be tearmed Priests Priests and Absolution the * Bucer in Censur cap. 20. Ring in Mariage and such other which they have heretofore traduced in their unlearned discourses are by divers of our learned Divines and shall be justified As contrariwise by the Petitioners they will never be evicted worthy to be abolished 6 Their desire to have the long-somnesse of service abridged doth well befit their great Devotion Who notwithstanding are wont to spend an houre sometimes or little lesse in extemporary inconsequent and senslesse prayers conceived rashly by themselves From hence their dislike of set and stinted formes of prayer it doth proceed that some of them omit some refuse to repeat some condemne the use of the Lords Prayer from hence hath Barrow and Greenewood taken their beginning and fetched the premisses of their pestilent and blasphemous Conclusions 7 Church m Iust Mart. in quaest ad Orth. q. 107. Aug Confes lib. 10. cap. 33. songs and Musique are much beholden to these men now in as much as they can bee content to disgest them so they be moderated to better edification The time was when wee have heard them speake in this point after another sort Meritricious Church Musicke Tossing of tennis bals and such like were their phrases of Gods divine service but thanked be God that his Majesties devout affection in this kind hath forced from them this moderation 8 That the Lords day be not prophaned hee is verie prophane that desireth not from his heart But what manner of lawgivers are they that lay downe their coustitutions in such Negatives in such Comparatives for who can divine what they would have when they desire that the Rest upon n Pet. Martyr Epist ad Hopperum Holy dayes be not so strictly urged Would they have men upon such dayes goe to plough and cart as some of their humor have caused their servants to do on the very feast of Christs Nativity Or do they mean that we should take to our selves such liberty therein as certain persons lately have done who being commanded by lawfull authority to celebrate the fifth of August with joy and thanksgiving for his Majesties most strange and wonderfull deliverance upon the said day did notwithstanding spend the same as we are credibly informed in fasting mourning and such like works of their obedience Nay these and the like experiments do cause us humbly and instantly to desire that both Sundays and Holydays may be religiously observed and the intollerable prophanation of them which is the rather brought in by these mens preachings and examples may be very severely punished 9 That there may bee an Vniformity of Doctrine prescribed That no Popish opinions may be any more taught or defended What imputations are these how prejudiciall How injurious Not only unto the Church governement but unto the Christian faith established in this Realme What advantage do these men in these shamelesse suggestions reach unto the Papists as if there were no o Wee refer to the Articles of Religion agreed upon established in Convocation Anno 1562. vniformity no consent of doctrine among us so ye except them As if there were some popish opinions taught defended in our Liturgy as they deem who are ready to make every thing p Zanch. conf cap. 24. de Eccl. Milet. Aph. 19. Poperie which they doe not fancie These are the weapons with which Bellarmine and that Brood are wont to wound or rather falsly to reproach our faith and profession Good had it beene that these men had never beene able to write rather then to write thus to the scandall of Gods Church and his sacred truth 10 Reverence done at the name of Iesus is no superstition but an outward signe of our inward subjection to his divine Majestie and an apparent token of our devotion Why doe they not likewise fin I fault with kneeling sighing weeping lifting up of eyes knocking of breasts holding up of hands unto heaven All which good men may use in Gods service with great piety though Hypocrites doe otherwise 11 They are grosly ignorant if they know it not or wilfully malicious and turbulent if knowing it to be lawfull they yet oppugne the reading of the Apocryphall Scriptures or Writings in the Church Non ad confirmationem fidei sed ad reformationem or institutionem morum as the Ancient q Hiero. Praef. in Pro. Cypr. in Symb. Pellic. praefan Apocr fathers speak and approve As also the Articles of convocation and the Prefaces before the Apocryphall books in the English Bibles doe directly shew adding that

laws of Eccles polit Tracts published long since wherein their vain fancies and illiterate objections are refuted at large If notwithstanding they will yet venture to write it will be answered If they will needs argue and dispute there are ready that will either satisfie them or by argument silence them And were it not in regard that we would not seem as undutifull in accepting as they have been in the offering of this Challenge it is the thing we would urge and instantly entreat that these matters might be debated between us in writing But in the mean time what motions are these for the reformers to make unto a most prudent Prince in his settled and peaceable government who for many years hath had triall in that his other kingdome of their pretended reformation and in this also hath seen the gracious effects under her Majesties late hapy Raign of that Church Discipline which they would ruinate and overthrow God hath appointed his Majesty unto this Kingdome It is true and we magnifie the goodnesse of God for it and congratulate his Highnes in the prosperous possession of it from the ground of our hearts But that God hath appointed him to this kingdome for such a purpose as they conceite what spirit of divination is in them that they should forespeake it Nay rather seeing almighty God hath ordained him as the great Physitian next and immediately under himselfe to take care of the body politique both of his Church and Common-wealth he will surely cure such diseases as these men are sick of For turbulent and discontented humors are like to breed very dangerous deseases in a civill State And not be perswaded as they fondly imagine by such suggestions as these to alter that state of the Church which is acceptable to God honorable to his Highnes comfortable to many thousand Ministers the Nurse of good learning admirable to strangers approved by our * The letters that Mr. Beza hath written to the Arch. bish of C. that now is Opposites envied of our enemies distastfull unto none but such as know neither how to rule nor how to obey The very names of punishments are unpleasant indeed but the things themselves are necessary sometimes and their effects good and profitable for preservation of the whol howsoever the induring of them may be grievous in the particular And he that will indifferently consider the true causes of the corrections here mentioned shall have just cause to approve the Justice * Conspiracy for pretended Reformation and commend the mildnes that hath bin used towards this sort of men As for that clause of Mens traditions it is too too odious and would imply Superstition or Popery to be in some of them But how vainly and how injuriously hath in some sort been heretofore declared That other of beeing prejudiciall to none but those that seek their own c. is as injurious to all the rest of the Min sters of this land Be we the men that are so addicted to our own quiet credite and commoditie in the world Where then be the the fruits of our covetousnes the effects of our ambition the marks of our idlenes We be the men that in the testimony of a good conscience for the repelling of such a malicious contumely and slanderous reproach may truly say We put not out our mony to usury we detest all filthy lucre we contain our selves within our Vocations we forsake not our holy callings we omit not to labour in our severall charges we sustaine the places of great labour travaile and expense we neglect not in publike in private in word in writing at home and abroad to put to silence and stop the mouth of the common Adversary which these men have enlarged against us and our most holy faith To conclude the thing they seeke is so prejudiciall both to the Civill state in generall and in particular to so many of the very best of the Ministery that if it should take effect but God of his mercy and the Kings most excellent Majesty in his Christian wisdome will not suffer it it would breed a strange alteration in the One and in the Other it would for the present not only impoverish us and our Universities but make both them and us and the whol Clergy very base and contemptible in the eies of our own people as also a by-word and scorne to our neighbour Nations And for succeeding ages it would cut off all hope of a learned Ministery and of that grounded learning which as yet is and heretofore hath been the glory and honour of this kingdome For manifestation of this point look upon the face of all the reformed Churches in the world and wheresoever the desire of these Petitioners doth take place be it duly considered first how well their proceedings do suit with the state of a Monarchy And then how poverty on the one side and lack of learning on the other doth creep upon the whole Clergy in those Dominions As to the first would it not beseem the supereminent authority and Regal person of a King to be himself confined within the limits of some particular parish then to subject his soveraigne power to the pure Apostolicall simplicity of an over-swaying and all-commanding Presbytery Would it not do him much good in a time of need that his people should be rooted and grounded in this truth viz. That his meeke and humble Clergy have power to bind their King in chaines and their Prince in lincks of iron that is in their learning to censure him to enjoyn him penance to excommunicate him yea in case they see cause to proceed against him as a tyrant We speake not here of other points as namely that all appeales in causes Ecclesiasticall and what doe they not make Ecclesiasticall must finally lie not unto the Prince but unto the Assembly Provinciall That they alow the supreme Magistrate not potestatem juris but only facti while they make him the maintainer of their proceedings but no commander in them These and the like are but petty abridgments of the Praerogative Royall while yet the King a T.C. l. 1. p. 180 submits his Scepter unto the Scepter of Christ and licks the dust of the Churches feete Neither may it be truely said that these are only Speculations There are some of high place yet alive and other some are dead that have felt the smart hereof in their own experience and have seen the worst of all this put in wofull execution As to the second Do we not see it at this day verified among them which hath been so often truly said and as often unadvisedly denied that honos alit artes and contrariwise where due reward of learning and liberal maintenance of the Ministery is fraudulently impaired or injuriously taken away b Ecclesias difcipl pag. 114. there Religion and learning com to decay There Atheisme and Barbarisme and confusion must needs ensue It is too aparent that as