Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	great_a	spirit_n	word_n	3,910	5	3.9744	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25712	An Appeal to all Protestant kings, princes, and states, concerning the apparent danger of the Protestant religion, and the great decay of its interest in Europe with a most awakening account of the unjust and cruel methods for the destruction thereof, that are practiced in several countries.		1700 (1700)	Wing A3567; ESTC R8897	21,558	40

AN APPEAL TO ALL Protestant Kings Princes and States Concerning the Apparent Danger of the Protestant Religion And the Great Decay of its Interest in EUROPE With a most Awakening Account of the Unjust and Cruel Methods for the Destruction thereof that are Practised in several Countries LONDON Printed for Brabazon Alymer at the Three Pigeons over-against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1700. AN APPEAL TO ALL Protestant Kings Princes and States c. NExt to the Blessing of Christianity it self we have reason to Thank God for the Reformation upon many Accounts Hereby the Holy Scriptures were restored to us which for many Ages were kept from the Laity or lockt up in an unknown Tongue Hereby was our Holy Religion restored to its Native Purity all those gross Corruptions having been purged from it with which the Church of Rome had so defiled it that it became in Abundance of Instances a quite different Religion from that which the Apostles Preached and for which they suffered Martyrdom and in too many even a perfectly Contrary Religion And hereby Consequently our hopes of Heaven are confirmed and better grounded We are hereby put into a much better and surer way of Pleasing God and of Saving our Souls And are not these Unvaluable Blessings In short it was the Reformation that restored to us true Christianity and after our Blessed Sviour's Mind and free us from a Religion which was devised merely to serve the Secular Interests of the Bishop and Church of Rome Nay we may Urge farther that all good and useful Learning Reviv'd and now Flourisheth under it And we may say also that it hath greatly benefited the World by establishing Men in their just Rights those which they were born to and which God and Nature most manifestly designed for them by discountenancing Arbitrary Power and Tyranny Nothing hath been more observed than that where the Reformation is embraced the Government hath kept more within its due bounds as where Popery prevails Arbitrary Power doth most bear sway And no Wonder for if Moral Men can dispose Arbitrarily of Heaven it self much more allowable is it that they should Absolutely dispose of the things of this Life And before the Reformation the Church of Rome had so abused the World that whatsoever she defined was a Law to all Christians though never so contrary to Scripture or Reason And she being sensible of the Power she had got had no Mercy or Moderation in the exercise thereof but Abrogated Old Doctrines and Practices taught and enjoyned by the Apostles and their Successors and made and established new ones as she pleased and found it her Interest to do And Mankind were so captivated in their Understandings that she could Coin no Doctrine so Absurd or Extravagant but the People were as ready to swallow it Witness the Enormous Doctrines of Indulgences for Sins as they were then Preached and Transubstantiation And though it pleased God even in the darkest times to preserve some few as in the days of Ahab who did not submit to the Romish Churches Monstrous Doctrines did not bow the knee to Baal but were pure as to most of them as Primate Vsher has most Learnedly shewed that so there might be a visible Church or Nmber of Christians together free from such Errours which hath been a great satisfaction to those who think such a visibility necessary to the Being of a True Church and to the fulfilling of our Blessed Saviour's Promises concerning it yet most part of the Western World was greatly tainted and corrupted with Her Errours And instead of growing better she grew every day worse and worse New Doctrines were Coined and worse Practices built upon them and little left but outward Pomp and Splendour exorbitant Riches and Authority which our Saviour disclaimed and no Account was made of that inward Purity Humility and Meekness of Spirit which he commended to his Disciples to follow him in But it pleased God in his good Time to raise up Martin Luther and other Reformers to oppose the great Corruptions of the Romish Church not by Humane Power not by Fire and Faggot or any other such Means as she useth but by dint of Argument and the force of Truth by the Sword of the Spirit the Word of God and by those very means by which Christianity it self prevailed against Heathenism And in little more than Forty Years a Reformation was Established in Four Kingdoms viz. England Scotland Sweden and Denmark and in many Dukedoms Principalities and Free Cities in Germany so that about Two Thirds of that large and populous Country were become Reformed And the Reformation had got also great footing in other Countries where the Government was still Popish as in France Poland Hungary and Benemia c. But as it was with Christianity in general that for the first Four or Five Centuries it did spread farther than it hath done in above a Thousand Years since Nay it has lost much of that ground which it had in that time gotten viz. in Persia ARabia Africa and in all the Turks Dominions just so fares it with the Reformation The wonderful Progress it made at first is now stopped and it plainly goes backward Which we cannot but ascribe to the just judgment of God on the gross Carelesness and Unthankfulness of Protestants they being so far from sufficiently valuing so mighty a Blessing as neither to take care to propagate it to others norsincerely to practise it themselves And next it is to be ascribed to the Cunning and Unjust and Cruel Methods of our Romish Adversaries for the Ruining of the Protestant Religion and Interest every where Some of their Methods we call Cunning in which it is to be wished that the Protestant Princes and States would imitate them as their Uniting intirely for the support of their Religion However they disagree on Secular accounts they agree against all Protestants of all denominations Those Popish Princes who are Mortal Enemies to each other perfectly agree in supporting Popery and running down the Reformation So the Emperour and French King during the late long and bloody War have as it were laid their Heads together and taken the same Measures to establish Popery and destroy the Reformation in their Dominions and every where else Whereas the Protestant Princes if they at all think of their Religion generally only mind that part which themselves are concerned in without regarding what becomes of others as hath been too sadly experimented But they use not onely cunning Methods but even the most Cruel and Unjust imaginable And Protestants read of them in the News Papers and from time to time hear of them but how few lay them to heart or so much as Remember in their Prayers the deplorable Condition of other Churches When they understand the Ruin of the Protestant Religion and Interest in some Places by Cruel Persecution Falsehood and Breach of Faith or the decay thereof in other places by Undermining Arts and diligent Applications they