Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	inward_a	spirit_n	worship_v	1,944	5	9.2934	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A11070	The diseases of the time, attended by their remedies. By Francis Rous	Rous, Francis, 1579-1659.	1622 (1622)	STC 21340; ESTC S107870	133,685	552

let the Obiector cease from this Language for here I haue brought him to the Damme of these Monsters This customary naturall vnnaturall Religion is the very Mother of them For Nature hauing receiued a Religion by custome this Religion like a Spirit possesseth it and driues it headlong like the Gadaren Swine into desperate actions Nature growes mad vpon a Religion knit by custome to her instinct and in her violence shee thinkes the Extremity of Deuotion to be the very Marke of Perfection Therfore shee goes furiously onward and ouerthrowes all that stands in her way thinking then shee pleaseth God best when she is most furious in his seruice and therefore sometimes she will do Massacres and Murders that shee may bee sure to haue serued him sufficiently So mad and brutish is this carnall Deuotion that it thinkes to please the Iudge of the World by those cruelties which a iust man doth lothe and detest And detestable as it is to good men so much more to true Religion which is the Doctrine of Goodnesse and hath beene before described to be peaceable and temperate Therefore farre bee it from any man to accuse true Religion of that which it selfe doth accuse But let this Brat bee brought to the true Dam of it and that shall be found to be the flesh but neuer the Spirit The Spirit maketh Sheepe and not Wolues 〈◊〉 hath armed many with Patience to suffer Tyranny but hath taught none to bee Tyrants Quem videris gaudentem sanguine Lupus est Whosoeuer delights in bloud for conscience sake is a Limbe of Antichrist the great Wolfe of of the Church the Flocke of Christ. But let vs hasten from this diseased Religion and seeke out a Remedy euen a Remedy for this Deuotion of Custome which Custome is an equall Nurse to all Religions A Nurse it is to all Religions a like Mother of most vnlike Children The vnity of the Mother cannot reconcile the Differences of the Children but like the Earth shee nourisheth all Herbes euen of contrary qualities But this while the Contention of these Children is most foolish for each striueth to be right heire when not one of them is lawfully begotten Therefore a first Remedy for these Bastard Religions is to know the Whoredome of their Mother and a second to know the true Father of true Religion The falshood of the Mother hath been already expressed but it must be known as well as told they must take notice of it as well as heare of it And let them take this for an assured signe of a Whorish Mother of Religion when they finde the same and no other Fountaine of Religion but that which will serue to beget a Religion contrary to that which is held If thou holdest thy Religion because thou art accustomed to it for carnall Reasons and by a common hand thou holdest not Religion truely yea though thou hold the true Religion But because Truth best reproueth Falshood and Rightnes Crookednesse I will set forth the true Father of true Religion that the Adulterous Mother may the better bee knowne and auoyded God is a Spirit and therefore the Religion that pleaseth God must be spirituall But man is carnall defiled by a carnall Generation and therefore can neyther know nor giue vnto God a spirituall Seruice Therefore is it need●ull that the supreme Spirit teach this carnall man a spirituall seruice which his Carnality cannot find out Yea farther it were 〈…〉 giue him a spirituall Vnderstanding to discerne and approue a spirituall Seruice being ●aught vnto him which fl●sh and bloud cannot doe So wee see there is need of a spirituall Doctrine and a spirituall Mind Man hath nothing in him to please God withall Hee is all Darknesse and Pollution therefore God must send from Heauen tha● which hee will haue man to send acceptably vnto Heauen Man that is now most contrary to God must be conformed to him before hee can receiue from God and returne to God a Seruice conformable vnto God So it remaynes that true Religion must bee a spirituall Doctrine taught by God vnto Man and the true meanes of receiuing a spiritual Doctrine is a spiritual Mind This is the right hand of Religion and Nature is the left and these right-handed Men are the only true receiuers of true Religion For a spirituall Minde meeting with a spiritual Religion by Vniformity grow to an Vnity they kisse imbrace and claspe one another and the gates of Hell cannot plucke them asunder The Spirit that gaue the Word seasons the Heart and the Heart meeting the Word borne of the same Spirit with it selfe ioynes it selfe to it in a brotherly Affection and Vnity Now this only true admittance of true Religion hath notable Priuiledges annexed to it which are both markes of Excellence Difference aboue and from other false meanes of receiuing Religion One excellent and necessary Prerogatiue is this That the spirituall Man hath God for his Teacher hee learnes the counsels of God of that Spirit which only knoweth Gods Counsell and only acknowledgeth it Hee holdeth diuine things by a Diuine hand and receiues them from the Deity it selfe Though his outward Man receiue Elements and Rudiments of Religion by Birth or Education yet his inward man receiueth them by Heauenly inspiration the same Spirit which mooued holy men to speake moouing holy men to heare and beleeue For in the Saints the Spirit of God is the last resort rest and Pillar of Truth and how can they but beleeue when a spirituall Mind plainly discerneth the Truth of spirituall things It hath also a second priuiledge of safetie and in that safety a third of rest and quietnesse For a Religion being once ●ruly discerned approued knit to the heart by the Spirit the Spirit which leades vs into the Truth doth stablish vs in the Truth by the same Light by which it shewes vs the Beauty of Verity it discouers the deformity of Errour yea it will ioyne hands with no Religion but that which is kinne to it Shew the Spirit the whole Millaners shop of Religions which Mountebanke Satan hath set to sale in the world none of them wil fit his hand though neuer so much flourished ouer with the imbrodery of humane wit and earthly Glory The Spirit which gaue the Word will acknowledge no other but the Word of the Spirit My Sheepe sayth Christ heare my voyce but a strangers voice they will not heare Iohn 10. And now what an admirable priuiledge of rest and quietnesse is hereunto annexed The carnall man if he escape the Restinesse gotten by Custome or imposed by Authority hee runneth like the dispossessed spirit through all places both wet and dry seeking rest for his Religion And how can hee finde rest since there is no true rest but in the Truth and that Truth being hidden from flesh and bloud all other Religions that appeare are but Errors and who can blame a man to run from an Error as soone as hee hath found it This

Creation Yet in Recreation both Decency and Sobriety must bee regarded Besides thy presence may restraine or reform sinne But indeed if there bee anvnreformable course of sin as blsphemy c. I know not well how to allow any patience of wickednesse neyther how the conuersation of the Sodomites can be at the same time vnto Lot both a recreation vnto his minde and a vexation to his soule Lastly please them by outward profiting them If almes hospitality a milde exaction of dues may winne them shew with Paul that thou seekest not theirs but them And now as concerning a generall displeasing farre be it from vs to make it eyther a vertue or a touchstone It is not to be prosecuted as a businesse nor taken for a marke Christ indeed makes generall pleasing an ill signe but generall displeasing hee makes not an infallible good signe for euen the wicked Iewes as Paul sayth are contrary to all men Yea to all men they are a reproch But the true and laudable displeasing must bee imposed not sought and imposed for duties absolutely necessary and performed in due manner It must be for the profession or practise of that Truth which to conceale will be to the losse of Gods glory or for the reproofe of those sinnes which the same glory cannot suffer to bee vnreprooued Yet must these things bee done with a hearty desire that they may please since it is a true Rule That it is a foolish kinde of Rhetoricke to alien his affections whose iudgement thou seekest to gaine And most That a Christian ought to seeke peace with all men and to doe all things in loue Vnauoydable and imposed persecution is the Crowne and reioycing of a Christian and he is neerest the twelue Thrones that is neerest the Apostles in necessary losses for Christs sake But let vs not snatch such glory out of Gods hands nor with the sonnes of Zebedee intrude our selues into the right and left hands of Christ for they only shall haue these seates to whom they are appointed of the Father If God call vs to Confession or Martyrdome let vs runne to it or at least run to him by Prayer that he will enable vs to run and that so wee may obtayne But if God call not but wee runne without his call let vs know That that running makes Confessors and Martyrs of the Deuill CHAP. XIIII The Diseases of Representation which infect by the eye and eare IT was a cleere Truth which the Poet said That pierceth deeper into the heart which enters by the eye then that which enters by the eare Heereupon growes the excellence of representation which as it hath beene vsefull so it hath beene also in great vse and the vsefulnesse of it hath beene so eminent that men haue imployed the strength of their wits to turne Eares into Eyes euen to fasten on their imaginations the same character shape by hearing which hath bin beheld by seeing So that though the outward gates were diuers yet by that diuersity almost the same inward apprehension and knowledge eyther of persons or actions are receiued into our mindes Hence is it that the Poet Orator or Historian describes a person or a quality with such lif that though the Eare heare but words yet the Eye sees the things at least thinkes it sees them And by this liuely portrature of wit the matter is so euidently presented to the imagination and so stedily riuitted to the memory that it is our owne and pregnantly readie for vse vpon euery occasion But this vse hath bin likewise poysoned with abuse and that excellent Pensill of the Soule wit and conception which should haue paterned and fastned vertue to our affections in her truely amiable feature and haue stripped vice before our eyes into her natural vglinesse contrarily it hath giuen a painting of Pleasure vnto Vice and made it louely by the adornment of wit which of it selfe is most foule and abominable So in steed of being helpfull to the minde by a vigorious impression of vertue it hath beene made a stampe of the Deuill mightily to print vice into our soules by representing the Images of Death vnto Life Another kind of representation of the manuall Pensill hath also beene vsefull for the liuely expression of persons actions and stories In the Histories of Martyrs this hath conueyed their sufferings to the mindes of men with a mighty current that the dead similitude hath set life in the affections and that which moued not it selfe yet moued the beholder both to compassion and indignation But this kind also hath bin abused and that most grossely vnto spirituall corporall vncleannesse It hath been abused to Idolatry eyther while that which is worshipped is painted or that which is painted is worshipped To paint the God-head which only for it selfe is to bee worshipped is a dumbe blasphemy and a silent Lye It sayes God can bee represented by colours or that hee is visible to the Eye and so makes vs beleeue we see what indeed cannot be seene So to speake truth it shewes to vs what God is not and not what he is not a likenesse but an vnlikenesse of God and whereas they pretend it to bee Gods Picture it is meerly a Picture of not God A grosse fault it is also to worship that which is painted For though the body of Christ himselfe to be pictured and yet I neuer knew any sound proofes that hee hath a true Picture yet may not the Picture bee worshipped with the honour due to Christ. Though his Humanity may be worshipped yet that is for his vnion with the Deity euen a true reall and hipostaticall vnion But the vnion betweene the Image and the patterne is only Imaginary not reall or hypostaticall so that while we may well say wee worship Christ because he is God wee cannot say wee worship the Image because he is Christ. A farre more reall vnion there is betweene the Saints Christ euen the members and the head for Christ sayes The Father is in him and hee in them yea if Christs Prayer be heard we are one with him yet because it is not a personal and hypostaticall vnion with the God-head euen Peter himselfe forbids Cornelius to worship him Therefore farre be it that a bare likenesse should deserue worship when a reall and participating vnion doth not This Pensill of the hand hath bin also a Factor for vncleannesse while it presenteth incendiary spectacles to the eies of humane frailty Surely Concupiscence is a free horse and wanteth not sharpe spurs but a strong bitte it is readie of it selfe to carry away the soule and breake her necke by a high fall into a low place euen as low as Hell But these men least damnation should not be swift enough set wings on her armes and spurres on her sides that shee may flye away with the soule by an extreame and irreuocable celeritie Thus are they quite contrary to the Spirit of God for that sees and pitties