Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	know_v	speak_v	word_n	9,131	5	4.2861	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31349	Catholicon, the expediency of an explicit stipulation betwixt the parochial ministers and their congregations, or, An essay to prove that the intervention of solemn mutual promises betwixt the parochial ministers and their people (faithfully to discharge their relative duties to one another) would be useful and expedient for these ends to promote in clergy-men regularity of life, and diligence in their ministerial function, to increase in the lay parishioners, Christian knowledge, sincere godliness, with a free and friendly conversation, to give a stop to separation, and reduct dissenters to the communion of the church without using secular compulsion, to secure the peace of the nation, to inlarge trade, and make provision for the poor, and that all may be effected without the least innovation, or alteration of the present legal establishment of the Church of England humbly tendred to the consideration of all English Protestants / by a parochial minister.	Parochial minister.	1674 (1674)	Wing C1498; ESTC R17127	21,417	32

our late troubles the main Contrivers of a War would be prophane and ambitious Politicians men of the Leviathan-faith or rather Infidelity who worship not God but Interest and are men of this world only and reckon nothing Sacred in Government but the prevalency of Power which Sacredness they know may be presently vacanted by the Prevalency of a greater opposite Power if they can work themselves up to it These are the men who use to contrive and begin troubles in all States and Kingdoms and to drive on their designes use the furious zeal of persons Don-Quixotted in Religion by raising in them fanciful fears and jealousies that their Diana is in danger However I am sure that none of the Church of England could imbark in a war against their Governour for the alteration of the Laws by force of Arms whithout renouncing their Principles And if Piety and Orderly Conversation with Loyalty and Conformity be happily promoted by this so probable means of the Parochial Stipulation I hope many upright persons amongst them of the Separation will come in and joyn with us And thereby I am sure they would silence the importunate calls of them who require publick testification of their Repentance for being ingaged in hostility formerly against their Soveraign and his Laws Their return to the Church of England and Conformity to the Established Worship was a sufficiently signal declaration of their return to Loyalty CAP. V. The Expediency of the Parochial Stipulation to make provision for the Poor and increase Trade amongst us NO rational person can think but that the infinitely wise and good God hath made distribution of the riches of this world the Mammon of unrighteousness or inequality to some men a greater to some a lesser portion for the exercise of his graces in all that from every outward state there may be a passage to the eternal habitations whilst the Brethren of high degree testifie their gratitude to God and their love to him and his Christ in his poor members by their bounty And the Brethren of low degree testifie their humility and submission to God and dependance upon him and so the abundance of the Charitable rich and indigency of the pious poor conspire into one excellent harmony of many thanksgivings from both of them unto the infinitely good God who filleth all with his plenty But though our Lord hath declared that it is more blessed to give than to receive and God hath promised repayment in good measure pressed down shaken together and running over to the chearful giver yet we find that the spring of most mens Charity runs very slow and narrow or else through mistake is derived into a wrong Channel Here therefore I offer as an expedient in this case the Parochial Covenant For every one of the combination would look upon himself as obliged not only by duty as Gods Steward of what he had received but by special relation also to contribute freely towards the relief of all the poor and indigent of the Society which himself is a member of yea and to the poor of other Christian Secieties as members with him of the Catholick Church of Christ if there be need and occasion be offered him And besides every member of the Society would imploy his brain as well as his purse for the service of the Brotherhood in contriving how all the honest members of the body might be set on work and learn as St. Paul adviseth to maintain good works for necessary uses So that herery every Parish would become a kind of Corporation wherein some useful manufacture or other would be set on foot And all the little Trades and Ingenuities of the Hollanders would be transplanted into this Island and improved as usually the inventions of other Nations are by the English to the great benefit of the Nation And whereas now to the detriment of the whole Kingdom the traffick of some of the most important Trades is in a manner ingrossed by Dissenters and it is a great temptation to men of Craf and Ingenuity to turn Sectaries whilst they see that pretence fo Scruples gets an opinion of their honesty and brings in custom then the Trade would become more diffused and a fit and equal share therein would be put into the hands of Conscientious and Loyal Conformists whose integrity by this publick Test of a whole Parish owning them as members would be with good advantage represented to those they should deal with And hereby also the Bishops and the Parochial Ministry under them would have the advantage to ingage the Contribution of their richer Parishioners for the education of Youths of pregnant and hopeful parts at School and afterwards at the Universities whose friends are not able to give them that breeding as also for disposing of other poor Children to honest Trades And both the Ministers and the People combined would be ingaged to look after every one of their Members That they did bring up their Children in the fear and nurture of the Lord and in some honest Calling and that themselves walked before their Children as examples of Christian Conversation Which without all peradvanture would be the most effectual course that ever yet was taken to cure England of that lowsie disease which at present it is infested with I mean a numerous Company of vagrant sturdy beggars who throng so thick at the doors of the good Yeomen of the Nation that they are certainly the greatest oppression which the Housholders in the North and Northwest parts of the Nation do groan under For I am confident to assert as knowing that I speak the words of truth and soberness that many Housekeepers in those parts do expend twice as much yearly in alms to those Vagrants if that dole be worthy to be called alms as they pay in all sort of ordinary Taxes and Layes and Duties to the King to the Church and to the Poor of their own Parish Nay it is not to be doubted but that that which his Majesties subjects give to sturdy Vagrants yearly would Build and Rigg and furnish out at least ten gallant Ships of War in any one year or rather would build sufficient Workhouses and provide sufficient Stock to set all our poor on work in some manufactures about those commodities that are of English growth and may be exported to the great advantage of the Nation But when once Parishioners are thus embodied by their Covenant they will easily be convinced that they have fitter Objects for their Charity amongst themselves and other Christian Societies than such slaves of lust and idleness as our Vagrants are and by degrees that mistaken Charity of Relieving such will grow out of fashion being swallowed up by that true and warrantable Charity to the poor members of their own and other Christian Congregations And hereby the Erraticks would be forced to become fixed in their abode and to endeavour to live like men if not like Christians also Object But this design in some

Church that is with all that profess the faith of Christ crucified And that I will hold constant communion with the Church of England that is with all those Christian Subjects of the Kings most excellent Majesty who are united in the profession of those articles of Doctrine and in the exercise of those Forms of publick worship and in submission to that Ecclesiastical discipline that are agreeable to the Scriptures and owned by the Laws of this Realm And I will generally and ordinarily assemble with the rest of the Parishioners of N. aforesaid at the Parish Church there for the celebration of all parts of the established publick worship by Mr. N. N. Rector or Vicar there and that I will own the said Mr. N. N. as my immediate Guide in spiritual things under the inspection of the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of the Diocess And that I will attend upon the Preaching of the Word and Catechising and Administration of the Sacraments by the said Mr. N. N. and submit to his admonitions and give him all due honour for his work sake And that I will readily and chearfully do my duty as a fellow member of the same body to all the Parishioners of the said Parish of N. in labouring to build them up in the most holy Faith and in provoking them to love and to good works and in communicating to those of them that shall need relief according to that estate which God hath or shall bless me with And that I will mark those who cause divisions and avoid them And that if I shall happen to remove my dwelling out of the Parish of N. aforesaid I will desire and receive a Certificate from the Minister and Parishioners here to the Minister and Parishioners of the Parish to which I shall remove That I have lived in communion with them and with the Church of England and I shall likewise desire Letters of Commendation from the Minister and Parishioners of this Parish to the Minister and People of the Parish to which I shall remove requesting them that they will receive me with those of my family that are qualified for it to Communion with them in Holy Worship And I shall be ready to testifie by like solemn promise my readiness to joyn in Communion with that Minister and Parochial Congregation to whom I shall remove as I did before with the Minister and People of this Parish of N. Witness My Hand These or the like solemn promises do not as far as I am able to apprehend so much as shake one Pin in the present Fabrick of either Church or State Nor in the Stipulation is there any thing promised by either the Ministers or the People but what I judge they are obliged already to do and execure by the general precepts of the Gospel or the Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions of this Realm or Christian Prudence though they should never make and subscribe such explicit promises as these are I am sure that Ministers oblige themselves expresly to all this at their Ordination before the Bishop and Presbyters and Congregation then assembled And I easily grant that it is only matter of expedience and prudence as Ecclesiastical affairs now stand in England that this mutual covenanting should be so express and solemn for the Minister and Peoples doing their mutual duties to one another as Offices of Relations implies in both a Conscience that they are under an Obligation to one another which may not improperly be called an implicit Covenanting And therefore if any man shall rise up against these Papers I request him to remember That the Controversie betwixt us is likely to be only this whether what he shall offer be in the ballance of Christian prudence of more probability to promote those great ends of piety and peace c. than this which I propose And if any can offer better Expedients or shall evince that mine deserve not to be esteemed such I resolve to be no Heretick in Politicks or Prudentials desiring in uprightness to be conformed to St. Paul's profession to do all things for the truth and nothing against it In the mean time I will labour to shew how useful this Order would be to the ends proposed CAP. II. The usefulness of the Parochial Stipulation to promote regularity of life in the Ministers and their People with Brotherly Love and good Neighbourhood IT is plain to every mans observation that all the perswasives of men to any undertaking whether by representing the attempt as necessary or beneficial or honourable or under any other respects have no longer force than they are kept present and fixed in the mind and imagination of the Undertaker So that when once those arguments are slipt out of the thoughts the attempt goes on very dully because promoted only by the habitual impression yet remaining upon the Phancy The Solemnity therefore of this promise would six upon Ministers such a lasting and warm sense of their duty and so frequently renew their thoughts of it as would not probably permit them easily to grow remiss and inadvertent For indeed the promise made to many and before many witnesses would be apt to awaken in Ministers a remembrance of their duty upon the very sight of any of those to whom and before whom they made their ingagement But why should I trouble my Reader with a more large proof of that which I think no man can deny who is but Master of so much judgement and phancy as to present to his own imagination as it were in different Scenes One Person hasting and posting to his Living as to a Preferment only and another Person gravely and considerately entring upon his imployment with such solemn Application to the People as this we speak of Letting them know he comes amongst them with a desire and purpose through Gods assistance to serve to the Glory of God and their edification in the truth as it is in Jesus Christ Which of these two in any mans judgement is likeliest to pursue the work of his Office with the more vigorous diligence Besides this very solemnity of entrance would give the Minister such an esteem with the people as would highly advantage his future discharges For when themselves had thus by Covenant received him they would look upon him with all affectionate respects as their Guide yea they would entertain him as an Angel of God Whereas now the People till they have trial of us keep at a distance and are shy and jealous of us and if after some time they find that we are not proud and contentious or strict in looking after our dues many of them are not much further solicitous intimating therein that in the present state of Parishes the care of many Parishioners is rather to have a well-humour'd and quiet Neighbour than an able and faithful Minister And there is no question to be made but that the like Postnate Solemnity would strengthen the sense of duty in us who

measure now manifested to be like to produce such a general benefit may be objected against as impracticable by reason of the weakness of the present Ministry of the Church of England few of which are equal as to parts and prudence for the management of such a work as this is Answ My answer is very short and peremptory if I only say then let them be deprived of their places and more able Persons put in their rooms But I rather answer that notwithstanding the slanderous insinuations of some prophane Droles and other malignants I am confident to assert That there are not many of the Clergy of England and indeed it is not fit there should be any who are not able from the Scriptures of the New and Old Testament to prove unto the People their misery both of guilt and impotency in their lapsed state And that God hath sealed a New Covenant in the blood of Christ wherein he hath promised through the propitiation of that blood to forgive and blot out the sins of the penitent believer and to give grace and power to resist corruption on those that are sincere and humble and smother not or stifle their convictions and to increase Grace from Christs fulness to the sincere and diligent and to secure by his Grace the humble and the watchful that they shall not fall away and that finally he will give to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for honour and glory and immortality eternal life I doubt not also but that they are able from the Scriptures to prove the contrary threatnings namely That they who resist Gods Spirit in its motions and convictions sinning against their light are in danger to be given over to a reprobate sense and to be estranged wholly from the life of God through a blinded mind and hardned heart and that the Impenitent and Unbelievers continuing such shall perish in their sins and that he who useth not his talents is like to lose them and that he who trusts to an old age repentance or a death-bed change is in danger to be cut off in his sins for combring the ground And that there is unsupportable and everlasting indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish certainly to come on all those who obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness and die in a state of impenitency and unbelief I do not question also but that most of the English Clergy are furnished with ability to prove the equity beauty and real pleasure and benefit of all the holy precepts of the Gospel and obedience to them not only from the direct testimony and assertion of the Scriptures but also by rational appeals to the light and experience of those of their Auditors who have not lost that dignoscitive power of their souls whereby their spiritual sense discerns betwixt good and evil which power whoever hath lost is not far from the condition of the damned spirits for he also is reserved in the chains of darkness to the judgement of the great day if God do not in a miracle of mercy break through that darkness wherein the resolved sinner hath shut up himself Such duties are these to love God with all our heart and to delight our selves in the manifestation of his glory by Jesus Christ and to love our Neighbour as our selves to forgive injuries to compassionate and help them who are miserable either by reason of sin or outward affliction to delight in those who are holy upon earth and to mortifie and crucifie worldly and carnal lusts and chearfully to bear the Cross when we suffer for righteousness sake I doubt not also but they can from Scripture and from the like rational applications and appeals prove the real danger unseemliness and unprofitableness of every sin with the real damage that sinners suffer by sin especially in their souls being thereby estranged from the life of God and more indisposed than before the perpetration of it to the reverence love and delight and confidence in God which is the life and happiness of all rational spirits I doubt not I say but most Ministers can prove this also to the conviction of them who will ponder and consider the sad influences of their own sins and have not sinned away the ability of tasting the good word of God and the powers of the world to come I do not know that I have set down either in the promises precepts or threatnings any but what is necessary to be known by all who live under the means of grace even by Lay-men And if a Parochial Minister hath a competent knowledge of these truths and can make them out to the conviction and instruction of honest plain men who desire to know what they must do to be saved and if withal the Teacher himself be of an holy humble and sober conversation he is not to be judged unfit for the Ministry because he hath not studied the Mathematicks or Modern Politicks or cannot humour his Discourses to the pleasing of their Gusto who go to the Theater with greater devotion than they do to the Church and prefer a modern and modish Play stuft with that they call wit namely interlardings of prophaness and scurrility far before a serious and seasonable but plane Sermon Object If it be objected further that every Minister that is able to Preach and instruct plain men is not able to manage the guidance of a Parochial Congregation wherein may be persons of great learning and parts and quality the Nobility Gentry Lawyers and Physicians of the Nation and can any imagine that these will subject themselves by explicit Promise to the oversight of the Parochial Clergy many of which want both experience and prudence to rule their own Houses well how shall they then take care of the House of God Answ I Answer that supposing those Persons of great abilities and qualities to be Christians and Protestants they will think it agreeable to Scripture and reason to put themselves into the society of those Christians amongst whom they do cohabit for the celebration of publick worship administred by some person set apart to that office according to the Order of the Gospel If then they own themselves for members of the Church of England in their particular Parish Assemblies their quality and abilities do not exempt them from owning the Parish Minister as their immediate Pastor But on the contrary their better abilities oblige them to give so much more assistance and incouragement to him in his work And so the Minister who was not equal to the guidance of a Parish in the single strength of his own prudence will by the advice and countenance of such helps in Government be rendred more able and successful in his work And an humble and modest Minister cannot want help sufficient from God to make his work prosperous if he be sincere in aiming at Gods Glory and the good of his people And if through pride and self-willedness any balk the advice of