Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A41501
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A quære concerning the church-covenant practised in the separate congregations sent with a letter thereunto annexed, from J.G. to T.G., wherein is proved that there is much evill and manifold inconveniences in the exacting and urging such a covenant.
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Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.; T. G.
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1643
(1643)
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Wing G1195; ESTC R1173
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11,880
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16
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to be lamented that he by whom God hath reconciled the world to himselfe should be made a meanes of dividing this reconciled world between themselves The heavens I doubt not will accord us yet were it our greater comfort and glory if they might be prevented herein by the earth I verily beleeve it would strike a great stroake in compremising this contention if the great men and chiefe leaders on both sides could be perswaded but to take fast hold upon this free and noble resolution which yet I suppose we all intend to doe {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} rather to do sacrifice to the truth then to be in bondage to suppostions I know not how to open my mouth wide enough to shew you the inlargement of my heart unto you if wee saw the truth clearely with you you should not raigne alone wee would doubtlesse at once divide such a kingdome with you Many indeed of your partie are ready to say in effect that as it is heaven that separated you from us so it is the world that separates us from you But if you have the truth with you which indeed if you have at least in many of your beloved Maximes woe to my wits reason and understanding never poore man so strangely misused by such friends in this world it would never bee a debtor to such interpretors or agents for it As for the world if it be as little on that side the Sea as it is on this it will never be so much as a moate in your eye to hinder you from seeing any truth of God clearely But as little as it is with us we thinke it too great and too good to be sacrificed upon the service of an errour at any time Otherwise I doubt not but the Saints of God in England tread as light upon the earth as you doe in Holland and are as ready to buy the truth and give as good rates for it as the best Merchants among you but howsoever I knew that this left-handed spirit rules much in men of your way who not ontent to make our standing naught labour much to make us worse then our standings yet I make no question but your anointing teacheth you better and more Christian thoughts concerning us And if wee judged it any advantage to the truth and cause we maintaine against you wee durst view morall imputations with you and are confident that wee could assigne and suggest against you both as many and as likely indirect and fleshly grounds for your departure from us as you can against us for keeping our first standing and profession But the truth will never be made great by such demonstrations or arguments as these on either side sometimes the truth is there where a man for many reasons would thinke there were least hope to find it and againe many times faire overtures and many pleasing inducements will but deceive and disappoint men in this kind And as for that kind of truth which wee inquire after and toyle in the fire of contention to find out viz. spirituall and divine there is no substantiall and satisfying meanes for the discovery of it but by a holy humble and unpartiall consultation with the oracles of God yea if it be of that species or especiall kind of truth which is not spread like the Mannah upon the face of the Scriptures but lyeth low amongst the deepe things of God 1 Cor. 2 10. as it seemeth your truth in those questions depending betweene us in part doth now it is not sufficient simply to consult or aske as it were the Scriptures concerning them but they must be examined and re-examined againe and againe both solitary and in consort they must bee put home to it and urged and pressed close together before they will speake their mind plainely in this case or deliver out any of this treasure yea in many cases a man must be content to goe to one end of the Scripture to know what they meane in the other yea that which is much considerable and I feare wants that which belongs to it they may seeme to deliver many pleasing and plausible answers under the shadow whereof the judgements and consciences of men be much refreshed for a season so that they may be ready to shoute for joy and congratulate themselves with his acclamation that said {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} he had found he had found and yet none of these answers neither be the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the true direct and bottome meaning of them As Sampson gave Dalilah answer upon answer to her question or demand which pleased her for a time carrying a semblance of realitie and truth in them but still her experience discovered the insufficiency of them and then she rejected them and would not give over till shee had the true answer indeed Judg. 16. 7. 8. so doubtlesse the Scriptures may in many places to our apprehensions affirme many things and deliver out many notions of choyse approbation to us for a time the weakenesse and effects whereof notwithstanding farther time experience and a clearer light may discover yea there may from the same Scripture rise up many meanings and interpretations before us one after another that may bee in our eyes as Eliah Jesses eldest sonne was in Samuels when hee was sent to annoynt one of his sonnes for King surely so he looking on Eliab the Lords annointed is before him but he was yet a great way off from the Lords annointed there was Elihah Abinabad and Shannuah and more then as many more presented before him before David came in sight who was the Lords annointed indeed he was behind and a great way off in the field and must be sent for before he comes so the annointed sense and meaning of the Scriptures may yet bee farre off when we perswade our selves with the greatest confidence it is before us And as he said of benefits Multa perdenda sunt ut semel ponas bene A man must bestow many amisse that he may bestow one well so many times a man must cast away many interpretations of Scripture and those sometimes such as otherwise he would not wittingly part with that he may interpret at last as he ought to doe I make no question but you have had experience hereof in your selfe more then once for my part I confesse it hath beene a very frequent thing with me in the course of my studies and meditations to meet with both from the pens or mouthes of others and by mine owne conceptions also some interpretations which have much affected me upon the first greeting yea which for a time I have nourished in my bosome and have treasure of and yet afterward have apparently seene that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} my rejoycing was not good and by a strong hand of superior conviction have beene compelled to call that darkenesse and so to east it from me which sometimes I called
fellowship with it But many instances there are wherein onely upon a sober profession of their faith in Christ and entertainement of the Gospell men have beene received into Churches without the least noise or mention of any such Covenant Act. 2. 41. They that gladly received his word were Baptized and the same day there were added unto the Church about three thousand soules some of your judgements strongly conceite that they espy their Covenant in these words were added but surely if they were assisted by the same imagination they might as soone discover it in those words Gen. 1. In the beginning God made Heaven and Earth for to any reasonable and disingaged apprehension that word were added with the number of converts joyned with it onely expresseth the exceeding great worke of God in making so great an enlargement or addition to his Church in so short a time and doubtlesse a man must get a dispensation for his understanding to enable him to thinke or beleeve that within the compasse of halfe a day or little more at the most perhaps somewhat lesse for the former part of the day was well spent before Peter began his Sermon vers. 15. and how long he continued the Preaching is uncertain it seemes he was not very briefe vers. 40. three thousand persons should particularly and distinctly one after another in the same place and before the same persons being examined and tryed take a solemne Covenant repeating the Contents and words thereof doubtlesse the art and method of such dispatch is utterly lost and perished at this day either the Covenant they made was very briefe and but an act to yours or else the motion of their tongues in speaking was much swifter then our thoughts you must favour your selfe beyond al reason in both these suppositions or else suppose no longer your Covenant here Besides evident it is that these that were added to the Church were baptized before this is affirmed of them Now being baptized and that in an orderly and right way as you will not deny this did immediately qualifie them for Church fellowship according to your owne grounds and the truth it selfe therefore they needed not the mediation of a Covenant to make them capable hereof so that you see an impossibility of any Covenant to be emplyed here And if you be not relieved at this doore there is little hopes to find more charity in this kind at others Philip required no other Covenant or condition of the Eunuch to qualifie him for baptisme and thereby to give him entrance into the Church but onely to beleeve in the Lord Jesus with all his heart and to professe it to him Act. 8. 37. When Saul assayed to joyne himselfe with the Disciples at Hierusalem Act. 9. 26. the reason why they declined him for a time was not because they tendered a Covenant to him and he refused it but because they were all afraide of him and beleeved not that he was a Disciple implying that had they beleeved this concerning him that he had beene a Disciple a beleever they would have received him without any more adoe yea upon Barnabas his meere Testimony of him without any Covenant subscribed confession made or word spoken by himselfe he was received vers. 27. 28. So againe Act. 11. 24. there is mention made of many that were added or joyned to the Lord i. e. were immembred into the Church but no more words of any such Covenant as you urge then a deafe man may heare If you peruse the passages of the New Testament further you will espie many more Starres of the constellation neither can you here have recourse to those Covenants mentioned in the Old Testament Ezra 10. 3. Nehem. 9. 38. to patterne you withall for then you flee to a Sanctuary which your selfe have polluted by destroying all sympathy and agreement betweene a nationall Church and that which you call instituted or particular and besides to forsake the guidance of the Spirit of God under the New Testament to seeke to make out our thoughts by the old is to aske the twilight in the Evening whether it were light at noone day Moreover if desire of brevity for the present did not binde my hands it were easie to demonstrate unto you what a solemne disagreement there is many wayes betweene these Covenants and yours and particularly in that precise circumstance which must have relieved you 3. To me there is no imaginable use or necessity of this your Covenant because beleevers willing or agreeing to live together in the same body are bound by greater bonds a thousand fold then any Covenant they can make betweene themselves to performe mutually all and all manner of love service and Christian duties whatsoever Christ himselfe is the greatest of bands and of all manner of obligements or ingagements whatsoever both to knit and hold Christians together and to make them of one heart and of one Soule and to keepe them so by whom by Christ all the body being coupled and knit together by every joynt c. Ephes. 4. 16. And where the Scripture speakes of other bands with him and besides him yet all relating to him indearing and binding Christians together as close as ever their hearts and soules will packe or worke into one amongst them all your Covenant commeth not into any mention or remembrance There is one body one Spirit even as ye are called in one hope of your vocation There is one Lord one faith one baptisme one God and Father of all surely if they had beene joyned and joynted together by any such Covenant as you speake of and this Covenant beene of divine justification and of that high and Soveraigne consequence as to give them their very life being and subsistence as a Church or body the Apostle could not have so farre forgot himselfe as not to have inventoried it amongst its fellowes especially there being no place that I can readily call to mind more commodious throughout all his writings to have made a particular and an expresse mention hereof then here And for my part I freely and ingenuously and in the simplicity of my heart professe unto you that I neither know what further or greater duty or service of love in any kind I can desire or wish of those my brethren in Christ upon whom the providence of God together with my owne voluntary election either hath or hereafter shall cast me in Church-fellowship then what they stand bound by the common band of our mutuall interest in the same God in the same Lord in the same baptisme in the same faith in the same hope c. to exhibit tender and performe unto mee without the expresse of any such covenant made with or unto me nor yet can I conceive how possibly I should have any better richer or stronger assurance from them for the performance hereof unto me by the vertue or aide of any such covenant above what I have by the power of that grace and godlinesse