Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A37678
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Ecclesia & reformatio a dialogue betwixt St. Paul's Church and Salters Hall.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing E132; ESTC R26091
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6,415
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38
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Ecclesia Reformatio A DIALOGUE Betwixt St. Paul's Church AND Salters Hall LONDON Printed in the Year M DC XC VIII A DIALOGUE Betwixt St. PAUL's Church AND SALTER's HALL Salters Hall TELL me vast Fabrick where thou mean'st to grow What mighty top must sute thy bulk below Must thy vast Spire attempt the distant Skies As thy high Roof does o're the Houses rise Like some proud Mountain near a spacious Plain Thou dost the Flocks and little Hills disdain Thy Pageant Pomp and gilded Arches shine By holy Sanction and a Light divine Th' astonishd Crowd before thee do confess And all around the gawdy Idol bless Submissive People tremble at thy Nod And worship thee tho they profane their God Whilst those whom Reason better things has taught Are by constraint unto thy Altars brought Are forc'd to bow or impiously you break What your Faith calls the stiff and stubborn Neck You like some mighty Whale upon the Sea Make trembling Fishes your Commands obey Or else you execute pretended Power The Right divine is giv'n you to devour St. Paul's This mighty Orb by Holy Writ we 're taught From confus'd Attoms was to Order brought The Days and Years in regular State began And ever since in just Procession ran Nature exorbitant does often grow The Blood flows sometimes high ebbs often low But in Religion a Decorum 's us'd Its Rights are orderly and not confus'd The brainless Mob wild Passions do controul And Infant-Saints need Guardians to the Soul Spiritual Doctors don't the Patient please But sute the Medicines to the Disease If grown delirious Physick is refus'd Force for the Patient 's good must then be us'd Salters Hall If human Laws may force a human Mind One's fancy may another's Conscience bind And those who never own'd a God at all At least do blindly serve and bow to Baal Make Terms of their Communion wrong or right If all Religion must be made by Might We chuse a Doctor for our Body's Health And give him Fees according to our Wealth We try his Med'cines then approve his Skill But think no Law impowers him to kill The Heav'nly Quacks no Power can controul They have a Right Divine to kill the Soul Spiritual Physick we must take by force You drench the Soul as Farriers do a Horse Where Doctors thus Man's Reason do invade The Patient 's sober and the Doctor 's mad Had not the Mortal must such Toils endure Better be damn'd than undergo the Cure For where the Church such Recipes does bring Saving and Damning is the self same thing The Laws in Faith can no Direction give By Grace Divine and Reason we believe Tho we our Hopes in Reason do not place Yet Reason follows or is join'd with Grace The Spirit 's Work no humane Law controuls And Reason tells th' effect it has on Souls In vain the Soul with humane Laws you bind In sensless Shackles fetter up the Mind Which like th' eternal Thought is unconfin'd As if our Sense was only fit for Trade And Reason never for Religion made And must not of our Souls concern debate But blindly grope for an eternal State St. Paul's Reason may be on tumbling Surges tost Or not well govern'd in the Clouds be lost Reason in all things ought to have its due But still have proof to know your Reason's true 'T is plain how often Men do change their Mind Oft as the Tides or the unconstant Wind Continual Errors ' mongst the wise abound And not one Man infallible is found How oft the Judgment leads the Man aside And Reason wanders when it has no Guide I mark the way your Reason ought to go And the best Path to Heav'nly Mansions show By me directed you may overcome The crooked Serpent and the Whore of Rome I founded am upon the Rock Divine I am your Guide and the blest Scripture's mine The Holy Word my Charter and Delight And National States have recogniz'd my Right If stubborn Souls my Precepts cannot draw I must convert 'em by the force of Law The Body's Pleasure did the Soul oppress Made Mankind fall into Unhappiness The Body justly its Afflictions hath To save the Soul from an eternal Wrath. Think it not hard if I Chastisement give I scourge the Flesh to make the Conscience live Salters Hall I know our Reason may be in the dark And blunder oft and often miss the mark But the All-wise his Councils can unfold And give his Spirit as he did of old The mighty Truths of the Eternal Word No aids of humane Reason can afford The Light Divine is evermore conceal'd But by the God of Light himself reveal'd Whose Spirit reaches to the inward Parts He views the secret corners of our Hearts Were you my Guide I needs must go astray When only Jus Divinum leads the way How can you me a safe Instruction grant Who know not half the Mercies I do want What Stings of Conscience I within me feel Or Apprehensions of approaching Hell A Guide to Reason of a nobler Make Than what of humane Frailty does partake How can your Reason be a Guide to mine When both our Reason's equally divine Thro equal Clouds and daily Errors pass And differ only as improv'd by Grace The Scripture only is our Reason's Guide And all is Noise and Foolishness beside Lay by the Law and thy Foundation 's gone Thou art not built upon the Corner-stone By Humane Power thou art wondrous great But Civil Sanction proves a Human Cheat The Church of Christ to endless Ages blest Can of it self without a Law subsist When Foes invade her she has no Recourse To weak Auxili'ries of humane Force Our blessed Saviour has no Pow'r given To mortal Man to change the Laws of Heav'n Th' eternal Law do's ev'ry where suffice To rule the Church and to instruct the Wise If you to mend it do a Power own By the same Power you may pull it down 'T is highest Arrogance to think that you In making Forms our Saviour can outdo If only Law thy boasted Basis be The Pagan Temples are as good as thee The Law thy Prayers does impose on Man Imposes also the Turks Alcoran When back'd with Pow'r your Articles you give We do at best implicitly believe St. Paul's I do not the eternal Law infringe Nor do the Churches Constitution change My Laws were never necessary meant But left to Souls as things indifferent The Modes of Worship are no part of Faith I do believe but what the Scripture saith But by the Power above 't is left to me T' appoint what Modes there shall in Worship be My Rites are all conform unto the Word And heav'nly Comfort to the Soul afford I in my Choire transporting Raptures find Seraphick Strains and an exalted Mind These are the Blessings I impose on you For which Apostate I am deem'd your Foe Salters-Hall By things Indifferent I am betray'd For still I find 'em necessary made My Sons by these have often been