Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A35026
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The naked truth, or, The true state of the primitive church by an humble moderator.
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Croft, Herbert, 1603-1691.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing C6970; ESTC R225557
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74,185
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74
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religion or reason is it not apparently wilfulness and faction I beseech you my Brethren take heed of thus dissembling with God and the world or take heed of giving your selves up to these delusions of a mistaken spirit Humility and Obedience are evident marks of the Spirit Learn of me saith Christ Math. 11. 29. for I am meek and lowly in Heart God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble Wherefore I I beseech you first put on the Lord Jesus with all humility that he may give you the grace of his holy Spirit to discern clear Truths from conceited fanciful errors Secondly I beseech you consider whether of the two it be not safer to erre in the way of Humility then to erre in the way of Pride which makes it doubly damnable void of all excuse I say this because you think or pretend to think our way erronious not that I have any such thought or doubt whereas the Humble Soul hath great excuse to plead and if Charity cover a multitude of Sins sure Humility will cover some a Soul clothed with Humility can't easily be displeasing to our humble Saviour but clothed with pride can scarce be acceptable but rather hateful like the proud Pharisee with all his enumerated Virtues and my Brethren 't is most evident your spirit savours somewhat of the Pharisee magnifying your own holiness and despising all others as Publicans and Sinners and refusing all communion with them whereas the Holy of Holies our Lord Jesus chose chiefly to converse with such really I can't but think your case very dangerous on this account only were there no more to accuse you of Thirdly I beseech you to consider the great mischief you bring upon this Church and Nation by your separation from the Church You pretend to be the great Zelots against Popery and yet give me leave to say Your indiscreet disobedient Zeal mainly brings it in your separation and many following divisions have caused many to abhor our Church and turn to Popery and doubtless you are to give an account to God for the ruine of those Souls for I can never yield that you have any reasonable and true conscientious cause of separation but meerly mistaken-reason and conscience which I much pity but no way approve and therefore I must lay the advance of Popery to your charge to your separation for I am sure 't is the main snare wherewith they catch unstable Souls perswading them our Church is not guided by the Spirit of Truth seeing it is confounded by the spirit of division it cannot be of God who is both Verity and Unity Now though it be well known to the Learned that their Church hath neither Verity nor Unity yet this is not discernable to weak Souls especially here in this Country where their Church is under a cloud and therefore their foul spots nothing so visible as abroad where it walks barefaced but are here by their Priests either with great confidence deny'd or with great cunning disguised Wherefore again I most earnestly and most humbly beseech you for Jesus sake put on our Lord Jesus in all humility and obedience submitting your selves to the Ordinances of those Superiours and Powers which God hath set over you and if out of meer humility and obedience you conform though you were guilty of some error therein I am confident there is none yet were it so my Soul for yours that guilt shall never be laid to your charge by our most Gracious Saviour and most mereiful Judge Christ Jesus our Lord to whom be all honour and glory for ever Amen FINIS
Blood-shed among Christians Brother Fighting against Brother and Murthering each other Can there be any thing more irrational than to endeavour to promote the truth of the Gospel contrary to the Laws of the Gospel to break an evident Commandment to establish a doubtful Truth I say doubtful to him on whom it is imposed though seeming clear to him that imposes it If it were fully express'd in Scripture-words there would need no new Expression no new Article if it be not fully exprest in Scripture but deduc'd from Scripture-Expressions then what one Man thinks clearly deduc'd another may think not so I mean not another ignorant and weak but as learned and as able VVhat more common than in Divinity and Philosophy Schools One crys this is a clear Demonstration another crys no such matter but flatly denies it Mens understandings are as various as their Speech or their Countenance otherwise it were impossible there should be so many understanding and moderate yea and conscientious Men also Papists Lutherans Calvinists all in such Opposition one against another all believing Scripture yet so differing in the deductions from Scripture Truly I think him very defective in Charity however he abound in Faith who thinks all Papists or Lutherans or Calvinists malitiously or wilfully blind As for my part I think nothing can be more clearly deduc'd from Scripture nothing more fully express'd in Scripture nothing more sutable to Natural Reason than that no Man should be forc'd to believe for no Man can be forc'd to believe you may force a Man to say this or that but not to believe it First as to Reason If you bring a Man an evident Demonstration and he hath a Brain to understand your Demonstration he can't but assent to it If you hold a clear Printed Book with a clear Candle to a Man of clear Eyes and able to read he will certainly read but if the Print be not clear or the Candle or his Sight not clear or he not Learned to read can your force make him read And just so it is with our understanding which is the eye of our Soul and a demonstration being as a candle to give light if then your demonstration or deduction or his understanding be not clear or he not learned you may with a club dash out his brains but never cleer them He then that believes the Scripture can't but believe what you cleerly demonstrate from Scripture if he hath cleer brains if he hath not your force may puzle and pudle his brains more by the passion of anger and hatred make him abhor you and your arguments but never lovingly embrace you or them and thus you may hazard his Soul by hatred and your own Soul also by provoking him to it but never save his Soul by a true belief But perchance you will conclude he doth not believe the Scripture because he doth not believe your arguments from Scripture a strange conclusion but what then would you can you force him to believe the Scripture can you drive saith like a nail into his head or heart with a hammer nay 't is not in a mans own power to make himself believe any thing farther then his reason shews him much less divine things this is the peculiar work of Grace and if Faith be the gift of God your Argument cannot give it nor your Hammer force it Arguments may be good Inducements and if right will prevail with those to believe whom God hath ordained to Eternal Life but no other Preaching the Word is the means God himself hath appointed but as for force I can't find in the Gospel either commandment or countenance given for it If the Scripture command to speak the truth in love to instruct our Brother in the spirit of meekness if we are to pray and beseech him to receive the grace of God can any thing be more contrary to Scripture Rule then force and violence to what purpose then is force since it cannot make him believe the Gospel and if he doth believe the Gospel he will I am sure he cannot chuse but believe what you cleerly shew him is contained there supposing his brain to be clear and I am also sure if he believe what is cleerly contained he need not believe any thing else The Scripture is our Rule of Faith compleat and full the Scripture it self tells us so Iohn 20. 31. These things are written that you might believe and believing ye might have life and our Saviour tells us That in them we have Eternal Life Iohn 5. 39. and the 2d Tim. 3. 15. St. Paul tells us The Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Iesus all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works And I beseech all men further to consider what is said Deut. 12. 32. Thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it and likewise how they will avoid the Curse in the last of the Revelation if they add to the words there written and surely 't is the same Crime to add to any other Book of Scripture If it be answered They do not require us to believe it to be Scripture I reply They require men to believe it as Scripture with Divine Faith which is as bad they make their own words equal with Gods word or if they say they require not Divine Faith then I am sure it is no matter of Salvation whether I believe it or no humane Faith cannot save Thus you see how impertinent how irrational how impious it is to require a man to believe any thing more than is cleerly contained in Scripture and if it be cleerly contained there he that believes Scripture and sees it cleerly contained there can't but believe it if he do not see it cleerly contained there you can't force either his sight or his Faith Your force may make him blinder but never see cleerer may make him an Hypocrite no true Convert Again I desire all men soberly to consider Are not the prime and most necessary Principles of Faith the Trinity three Persons and one God the Incarnation of Jesus Christ the same person to be God and Man the Resurrection of the Dead that we shall rise with the same Body when one body may be eaten and converted into several bodies and such like Are they not things far above the highest reason and sharpest understanding that ever had Man yet we believe them because God who cannot lye hath declared them is it not then a strange thing for any man to take upon him to declare one tittle more of them then God hath declared seeing we understand not what is declared I mean we have no comprehensive knowledge of the matter declared but only a believing knowledge our Faith not our Reason reaches it the Apostles by the Scriptures teach us this not