Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	life_n	way_n	world_n	4,036	5	4.7603	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26754	Unity stated the only means to it assign'd and argu'd, together with the motives pressing it : in a sermon before the worshipful Company of Salters, Lond. in St. Swithin's Church, Sept. 1683 / by William Basset ...	Basset, William, 1644-1695.	1683 (1683)	Wing B1054; ESTC R14462	24,167	42

challenge 'T is a shrewd sign they suspect the goodness of their cause else we should certainly have had a melius inquirendum We may presume those Men are in crooked paths who will not bring 'em to the rule when required to do so Hence we will inquire Secondly Into their Plea from Conscience whereby they would justify themselves every one in his own way Which Conscience is made the greatest cheat and the veriest fool in the World For Men espouse such and such Opinions and ways of Life Whence they fly our Churches Writings and all other means of better Information till by Custom and the just Judgment of God who gives them up to strong Delusions that love not the Truth they think there can be nothing true and good but what is wrapt up in their own Tenents and Practices And because they have no mind to budg therefore they cry Conscience will not let ' em Which Conscience is mere Opinion Delusion Prejudice and Self-will Just such a Conscience as the greatest Hereticks and their most deluded Followers had to plead for their damnable Opinions And several Nations for their own Heathen Gods and Sacreds Such a Conscience as put the Jews upon Crucifying our Saviour and stoneing the Prophets and spur'd on late Zealots to the worst Rebellion Murther Theft and Sacriledg Such a Conscience as makes the Scotch Sectaries glory in their sufferings for their late Rebellion and Inhumane Butchery of the late Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews And put others amongst our selves upon acting the amazing Tragedy of 48 over again The greatest Villanies have ever been acted under the Pleas of Conscience And never hath the World seen worse times than where such Consciences have been most in fashion Look into the many Sects amongst us and you cannot find any two of 'em but what hold some things contradictory to each other Yet every Man in all parties pleads Conscience for what he doth Now because Conscience cannot make contradictories to be true therefore it is not Conscience that makes all parties differ from the Church and every one from one another or if Conscience must be in the case it is but an Erroneous one and that is to say the Errors and Delusions of Men that make all this bustle It is but the Ass under the Lyons Skin a Spirit of Delusion under the Pretexts of Conscience that hath made so many Opinions falsly called Religion amongst us Conscience can never condemn a Man without some warrant or rule e. g. It can never condemn any Man for Theft had it not this or some such rule viz. Thou shalt not steal whereby to do it Therefore in all the little parts of Religion and Government which are not ordain'd in Scripture and where there is no contradiction to those general rules of doing things decently in order and to edification false Notions and Opinion may disquiet the mind but Conscience cannot oppose because she hath no rule whereby to do it nor any Foundation to ground an Accusation on And consequently it is a Man's Prejudice and Delusion not his Conscience that draws back from Common Prayer the Sign of the Cross c. because these things not being forbid in Scripture Conscience cannot oppose and reject ' em At the rate these Men talk we must allow every Humor Prejudice Opinion Fancy and trick of Knavery to be Conscience the falshood of which sufficiently appears from the contradictions palpable Errors beastly Practices and Confusions of Religion and Government which such Consciences have already brought into the World and do farther expose us to But if it be really Conscience that makes all this stir Pray tell me how comes it to pass that Conscience should scruple some things which are no where forbid in Scripture and yet so readily close with many that are expresly forbid How can it be that Conscience should boggle at a Surplice and kneeling in the Sacrament of the Supper and yet make no Bones of Schisms and Seditions How is it reconcilable to my reason that Conscience should fly mixt Communions of which we have examples in Scripture and which themselves can no way avoid and also set Forms of Prayer for which the Scripture affords both example and Precept too And yet should sport and solace it self in speaking evil of the King resisting the Powers c. Till I am satisfyed in these points I must conclude it is no Conscience But Delusion in some and in others mere tricks and design It is certainly now time for 'em to consider that if the Evils which Divisions naturally produce should come upon us what an heavy aggravation it will be to their sufferings to consider that all this is the fruit of their own doings and the work of their own hands That their own Passions Mistakes and Self-will have pull'd all this upon their own heads What excuse can they make to God and Man what recompence to Posterity for the ruining a Church the whole protestant cause and interest by a Division which their best Writers condemn themselves cannot justify and are forced falsly to plead Conscience for as their last and only refuge If any thing shall ever perswade these Men to look toward Unity they must as a means thereto avoid all the hindrances of it Many are self-conceited and think none understand truth so well as themselves Others self-willed and resolved to yield in nothing And yet for such Men to wish for Unity is really to wish that the very Government would stoop and all Men yield to their own selves Nor is it some few only but the Majority in every party that is of this mind Which renders a satisfaction utterly impossible unless they could make the Government like Manna to suit it self to every pallat Therefore when S. Paul Eph. 4. 3. is pressing to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace he direct 'em to the fittest means to that end v. 2. walk with lowliness and meekness with long suffering and love Endeavouring to keep the Vnity of the Spirit All endeavours are like to prove unsuccessful without these Methods and Qualifications For it is a censorious hasty proud and ungovernable Spirit that leaves its rule and follows its own giddy motions which makes the greatest breaches both in Church and State Let Men lay aside all those humors which in the Judgment of any indifferent Man are inconsistent with any Government as standing stubbornly irreconcilable to any but their own placits and after all the complaints of Grievances Popery c. they will certainly say of this Church and Nation Happy are the people that are in such a case And indeed I did never yet know but that Men must part with something for the ends of Peace and Unity They must in something deny themselves restrain their passions and yield to a rule else they shall live their own punishments and at last be driven to what they would never go FINIS

of War is as much a Monster as the Leviathan that taught it For all Men were apprehensive of this Truth The Poet makes that a Degenerate and Iron Age such as was not from the beginning wherein there was not hospes ab hospite tutus One Friend and Neighbour safe by another The Prophets foretold that the Gospel Dispensation should bring Vnity Peace and everlasting Righteousness into the World That then Weapons of Death should be turn'd to Implements of Husbandry and Men should learn War no more That the Lyon should lie down with the Lamb and the Leopard eat Straw like the Ox That all evil Qualities should be transformed into better tempers and that nothing should hurt or destroy in all his Holy Mountain Jam redit Virgo redeunt Saturnia regna Now Justice and the Golden Ages of the World return again The Gospel it self was prefaced with On Earth Peace good will towards Men. It designs not only the Reconciling us to God but the Uniting us one to another It teaches Subjects to obey every Ordinance of Man to study to be quiet and to do every one his own business It teaches not to revenge our selves but to suffer in smaller matters rather than make a noise and disturbance in our just Vindications Mat. 5. 39. 40 41. It declares that those who live in Strife and Division are Carnal and walk as Men 1 Ep. Cor. 3. 3. And therefore such that have made but little if any advances in True Religion In Rom. 13. 13. we have Ryoting and Drunkenness Chambering and Wantonness Strife and Envying put all together as very fit Companions whence the Exhortation is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us walk honestly as in the day implying that the practice of such things is a walking dishonestly and is suited to none but times of Darkness Intemperance and Incontinence are made the Lusts of the Flesh which make Men like Beasts but Pride Sedition and Rebellion are the filthiness of the Spirit which make 'em like Devils Whence some have made it a question and scruple of conscience Whether Arms be at all Lawful for Christians And it hath been by many determin'd that none are but defensive only That is not of Subjects against Lawful Governours but of one Society or Nation when invaded against another Therefore those are new as well as false Lights Monstrous Saints Club Divines and Bloody Casuists that study and advise the perplexing all Humane affairs and the making a Society mad The overturning Crowns and Miters and the imbroyling a Nation in Massacres and Blood Having thus viewed our Subject we pass Secondly To the Duty we owe it and that is to dwell together in it Which Phrase speaks it the business and constant Companion of our Lives For we must dwell in Vnity To which end the Text presses it with many apt and cogent Arguments As 1. From our common Relation we are Brethren and therefore should live in Unity Brethren to dwell together in Vnity We are descended from the same common Parents agree in the same common Nature we are all parts of the same Society or Body Politick and therefore Members one of another From which Topick the Scripture often draws Arguments to this purpose as Acts 7. 26. Sirs ye are Brethren why do ye wrong one to another Implying that no reason can be given why they should not agree that stand thus related We have all but one Baptism but one Faith but one Hope and but one God We are all parts of the same Spiritual Building and make up the Body of Christ which is the Church We all live in hope and expectation of that common Inheritance as we are Heirs of God and Joynt Heirs with Christ Whence not only the Scripture but the first Christians called one another Brother and Sister Therefore our Relation as well as common Faith should oblige us to this Unity These were the things that made the Primitive Professors hold together as one intire Body distinct from the rest of the World Whence the Gentiles would often say as Tertul. relates See how these Christians love one another Now our Religion is the same its Rules and Precepts are no way altered Our Relation Dependance and all other reasons of Unity are the same too Therefore the Duty is as great and the Obligations as strong as ever And consequently that we do not love and unite as much as they is from the sole reason of Mens departure from the Holy Commands delivered to ' em Our breaches proceed from alterations not in our Religion but in the minds of Men. Our rule is still the same but we do not keep so well up to it Men have not more Light and Liberty now but stronger Passions and more stubborn Lusts that debauch 'em into parties and Seditions Where they have learn'd to reckon none Brethren but such who like Simeon and Levi are Brethren in Iniquity who link'd in the same Association are in their Anger for killing Men and in their selfwill for digging down our Wall viz. of Strength and Government While others poor Souls are the wicked of the Earth who have forfeited all into the hands of the Saints and are fit for nothing but to be taken and destroyed Or as the Association words it to be pursued to Destruction Therefore seeing Hell hath taught Men not only to enervate this Argument of Heaven but to turn it to the ends of Destruction instead of Edification I shall inquire what strength there is in the next Argument and that is Secondly The advantages of doing so it is good Behold how good it is Brethren to dwell together in Vnity For it is agreeable to our reasons and desirable from its own native worth and Beauty And therefore exacts Praises from every Tongue even from them whose private interests and humours lead 'em to destroy it Nor is it an unprofitable good like some mere Ornaments of the Universe which serve only to please the Eye and delight the Mind and give a pleasant Theme for the Orator and Historian to play upon Nor is it like the pure Positives under the Law which had no intrinsick or relative good in 'em but stood purely Instances of obedience For Unity brings Profit wherever it comes and derives a sweet Prosperity to all publick and private affairs of Men. It gives a free Commerce and Communication of every good thing from one part of a Society to another Like a due Circulation of the Blood it maintains every Member in health and Vigor and inables 'em to perform their distinct and proper Offices Whence a very sensible increase must necessarily arise to the whole Which made the Ancients to observe that by Concord small and inconsiderable things soon wax great and make a figure in the World For which cause the Founders of Cities and Nations have endeavoured to contrive such Laws that might satisfy the minds and give security to the Persons and properties of Men whence a lasting Unity