Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	line_n	page_n	read_v	3,449	5	9.8327	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30138	Differences in judgment about vvater-baptism, no bar to communion, or, To communicate with saints, as saints, proved lawful in answer to a book written by the Baptists, and published by Mr. T.P. and Mr. W.K. entituled, Some serious reflections on that part of Mr. Bunyan's confession of faith, touching church-communion with unbaptized believers : wherein, their objections and arguments are answered, and the doctrine of communion still asserted and vindicated : here is also Mr. Henry's Jesse's judgment in the case, fully declaring the doctrine I have asserted / by John Bunyan.	Bunyan, John, 1628-1688.; Jessey, Henry, 1603-1663.	1673 (1673)	Wing B5509; ESTC R21419	60,966	126

so many Churches is concerned Answ. The reason why I came not amongst you was partly because I consulted mine own weakness and counted not my self being a dull-headed man able to engage so many of the chief of you as I was then informed intended to meet me I also feared in personal Disputes heats and bitter contentions might arise a thing my Spirit hath not pleasure in I feared also that both my self and words would be misrepresented and that not without cause for if they that Answer a Book will alter and scrue Arguments out of their place and make my Sentences stand in their own words not mine when I say my words are in a Book to be seen What would you have done had I in the least either in matter or manner though but seemingly miscarried among you As for the many Churches which you say are concerned as also the Glory of God I doubt not to say they are only your wordless Opinions that are concerned the Glory of God is vindicated We receive him that God hath received and that to the glory of God Rom. 15. 16. Quest. 4. Is it not the Spirit of Diotrephes of old in you who loved to have the preheminence that you are so bold to keep out all the Brethren that are not of your mind in this matter from having any entertainment in the Churches or Meetings to which you belong though you your self have not been denyed the like liberty among them that are contrary-minded to you Is this the way of your retaliation Or are you afraid lest the Truth should invade your quarters Answ. I can say I would not have the Spirit you talk of what I have of it God take it from me But what was the Spirit of Diotrephes Why not to receive the Brethren into the Church and to forbid them that would 3 John 9 10. This do not I I am for Communion with Saints because they are Saints I shut none of the Brethren out of the Churches nor forbid them that would receive them I say again shew me the man that is a visible Believer and that walketh with God and though he differ with me about Baptism the Doors of the Church stand open for him and all our Heaven-born Priviledges he shall be admitted to them But how came Diotrephes so lately into our parts Where was he in those dayes that our Brethren of the Baptized-way would neither receive into the Church nor pray with men as good as themselves because they were not baptized but would either like Quakers stand with their Hats on their heads or else withdraw till we had done As to our not suffering those you plead for to preach in our Assemblies the Reason is because we cannot yet prevail with them to repent of their Church-renting Principles As to the Retaliation mind the hand of God and remember Adonibezek Judg. 1. 7. Let the Truth come into our quarters and welcome but sowers of Discord because the Lord hates it we also our selves will avoid them Quest. 5. Is there no contempt cast upon the Brethren who desired your satisfaction that at the same time when you had opportunity to speak to them instead of that you committed the Letters to others by way of reflection upon them Answ. It is no contempt at all to consult men more wise and judicious than him that wrote or my self either But why not consult with others is Wisdom to die with you Or do you count all that your selves have no hand in done to your disparagement Quest. 6. Did not your presumption prompt you to provoke THEM to printing in your Letter to them when they desired to be found in no such practice lest the Enemies of Truth should take advantage by it Answ. What provoked you to Print will be best known at the Day of Judgment whether your fear of losing your wordless Opinion or my plain Answer to your Letter the words in my Letter are As for my Book never defer its Answer till you speak with me for I strive not for mastery but Truth Though you did not desire to write yet with us there was continual labour to rend us to pieces and to prevent that was my first Book written And let who will take advantage so the Truth of God and the edification of my Brother be promoted Quest. 7. Whether your Principle and Practice is not equally against others as well as us viz Episcopal Presbyterians and Independents who are also of our side for our practice though they differ with us about the subject of Baptism Do you delight to have your hand against every man Answ. I own Water-baptism to be God's Ordinance but I make no Idol of it Where you call now the Episcopal to side with you and also the Presbyterian c. you will not find them easily perswaded to conclude with you against me They are against your manner of Dipping as well as the Subject of Water-baptism neither do you for all you flatter them agree together in all but the Subject Do you allow their Sprinkling Do you allow their signing with the Cross Why then have you so stoutly an hundred times over condemned these things as Antichristian I am not against every man though by your abusive language you would set every one against me but am for Union Concord and Communion with Saints as Saints and for that cause I wrote my Book To Conclude 1. In ALL I have said I put a difference between my Brethren of the Baptized-way I know some are more moderate than some 2. When I plead for the unbaptized I chiefly intend those that are not SO baptized as my Brethren judge right according to the first pattern 3. If any shall count my Papers worth the scribling against let him deal with mine Arguments and things immediately depending upon them and not conclude he hath confuted a Book when he hath only quarrelled at words 4. I have done when I have told you that I strive not for Mastery nor to shew my self singular but if it might be for Union and Communion among the godly And count me not as an enemy because I tell you the Truth 5. And now dissenting Brethren I commend you to God who can pardon your sin and give you more grace and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by Faith in Jesus Christ. Amen ERRATA Page 57 line 24 for in read above Page 58 line 17 leave out Answ. Page 79 line 12 leave out thereby Here followeth Mr. Henry Jessey's Judgment upon the same Argument Rom. 14. 1. Such as are weak in the Faith receive you c. WHereas some suppose the receiving there mentioned was but receiving into brotherly Affection such as were in Church-Fellowship but not a receiving of such as were weak into the Church For answer unto which consider That in the Text are two things to be enquired into First What weakness of Faith this is that must not hinder receiving Secondly By whom and to

be the Effects of Baptism saying to me None but your self could find an innocent Truth big with so many monstrous Absurdities pag. 42. I Answer This is but speaking wickedly for God or rather to justifie your wordless Practice I say not that Baptism hath any Absurdity in it though your abusing it hath them all and many more while you make it without warrant from the Word as the flaming Sword to keep the Brotherhood out of Communion because they after your manner cannot consent thereto And let no man be offended for that I suggest that Baptism may be abused to the breeding such monstrous Absurdities for greater Truths than that have been as much abused What say you to This is my Body To instance no more although I could instance many are not they the words of our Lord are not they part of the Scriptures of Truth and yet behold even with those words the Devil by abusing them made an Engine to let out the heart-blood of thousands Baptism also may be abused and is when more is laid upon it by us than is Commanded by God And that you do so is manifest by what I have said already and shall yet say to your Fourteen Arguments My last Argument you say is this The World may wonder at your carriage to those Unbaptized Persons in keeping them out of Communion Ans. You will yet set up your own words and then fight against them but my words are these What greater contempt can be thrown upon the Saints than for their Brethren to cut them off from or to debar them Church-Communion And now I add Is not this to deliver them to the Devil 1 Cor. 5. or to put them to shame before all that see your acts There is but one thing can hinder this and that is by-standers see that these your Brethren that you thus abuse are as holy men as our selves Do you more to the open Prophane yea to all Wizards and Witches in the Land For all you can do to them I speak now as to Church-acts is no other than debar them the Communion of Saints And now I say again The World may well wonder when they see you deny holy-men of God that liberty of the Communion of Saints which you Monopolize to your selves And though they do not understand the grounds of Profession or Communion yet they can both see and say these Holy-men of God in all visible acts of Holiness are not one inch behind you Yea I will put it to your selves If those many yea very many who thus severely but with how little ground is seen by men of God you deny Communion with are not of as good as holy as unblameable in life and as sound if not sounder in the Faith than many among our selves Here only they make the stop they cannot without Light be driven into Water-baptism I mean after our Notion of it but what if they were 't would be little sign to me that they were sincere with God To conclude this when you have proved that Water-baptism which you your self have said is not a Church-Ordinance p. 40. is Essential to Church-Communion and that the Church may by the Word of God bolt bar and for ever shut out those far better than our selves that have not according to our Notion been baptized with Water then 't will be time enough to talk of ground for so doing In the mean time I must take leave to tell you There is not in all the Bible one syllable for such a Practice wherefore your great cry about your Order is wordless and therefore faithless and is a meer Humane Invention I come now to your Fourteen Arguments and shall impartially consider them YOur first Argument to prove it lawful to reject the Unbaptized Saint is Because the great Commission of Christ Matth. 28. from which all Persons have their Authority for their Ministry if any Authority at all doth clearly direct the contrary By that Commission Ministers are first to Disciple and then to Baptize them so made Disciples and afterward to teach them to observe all that Christ Commanded them as to other Ordinances of Worship If Ministers have no other Authority to teach them other parts of Gospel-Worship before they believe and are baptized it may be strongly supposed they are not to admit them to other Ordinances before they have passed this first injoyned in the Commission Answ. 1. That the Ministers are to Disciple and Baptize is granted But that they are prohibited by the Commission Matth. 28. to Teach the Disciples other parts of Gospel-Worship that have not Light in Baptism remains for you to prove Shall I add This Position is so absurd and void of truth that none that have ever read the Love of Christ the Nature of Faith the End of the Gospel or of the Reason of Instituted Worship which is Edification with understanding should so much as once imagine But where are they here forbidden to teach them other Truths before they be baptized This Text as fairly denieth to the unbaptized Believer Heaven and Glory Nay our Author in the midst of all his flutter about this 28th of Matthew dare venture to gather no more therefrom but that it may be strongly supposed Behold therefore gentle Reader the ground on which these Brethren lay the stress of their separation from their Fellows is nothing else but a supposition without warrant skrewed out of this blessed Word of God Strongly Supposed but may it not be as strongly supposed that the Presence and Blessing of the Lord Jesus with his Ministers is laid upon the same ground also for thus he concludes the Text And lo I am with you alwayes even to the end of the World But would I say any man from these words conclude That Christ Jesus hath here promised his Presence only to them that after discipling baptize those that are so made and that they that do not baptize shall neither have his Presence nor his Blessing I say again Should any so conclude hence would not all Experience prove him void of Truth The words therefore must be left by you as you found them they favour not at all your groundless supposition To conclude these words have not laid Baptism in the way to debar the Saint from Fellowship of his Brethren no more than to hinder his inheritance in Life and Glory Mark reads it thus He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16. 16. letting Baptism which he mentioned in the promise fall when he came at the threatning God also doth thus with respect to his Worship in the Church he commands all and every whit of his will to be done but beareth with our coming short in this and that and another Duty But let 's go on Your second Argument is That the Order of Christ's Commission as well as the matter therein contained to be observed may easily be concluded from God's severity

what he that is weak in the Faith is to be received To the First What weakness of Faith this is that must not hinder receiving whether was it weakness in the Graces of Faith or in the Doctrine of Faith It 's conceived the First is included but the Second principally intended First That some of the Lord's People are weak in the Graces of Faith will be confessed by all and that the Lord would have his Lambs fed as well as his Sheep and his Children as well as grown Men and that he hath given the right to Gospel-priviledges not to degrees of Grace but to the Truth Him that is weak in the Faith receive you or UNTO you as some GOOD Translations read it Rom. 14. 1. Secondly It 's supposed this Command of receiving him that is weak in the Faith doth principally intend that is weak in the Doctrine of Faith and that not so much in the Doctrine of Justification as in Gospel-Institutions as doth appear by the second and sixth verses which shews that it was in matters of Practice wherein some were weak and at which others were offended notwithstanding the Glorious Lord who bears all his Israel upon his heart receives vers 3. and commandeth him that is weak in the Faith receive you or unto you Therefore here we are to enquire of the receiving in the Text By whom and to what he that is weak in the Faith should be received In which enquiry there are Two parts First By whom Secondly To what To the First The Text makes answer Him that is weak in the Faith receive you or unto you which must be the Church at Rome to whom the Epistle was writ as also to all beloved of God called to be Saints Rom. 1. 7. And as to them so unto all Churches and Saints Beloved and called throughout the World Note That Epistles are as well to direct how Churches are to carry things toward Saints without as to Saints within and also toward all men so as to give no offence to Jew or Gentile nor to the Church of God 1 Cor. 10. 32. The second part of the Enquiry is to what he that is weak in the Faith is to be received whether only unto mutual affection as some affirm as if he were in Church-Fellowship before that were weak in the Faith or whether the Text doth as well if not rather intend the receiving such as were and are weak in the Faith Not only unto mutual affection if in the Church but unto Church-fellowship also if they were out For clearing of which consider To whom the Epistle was written Rom. 1. 7. Not only to the Church there but unto all that were beloved of God and called to be Saints in all Ages And as at Rome it is like there then were and in other places now are Saint weak in the Faith both in and out of Church-Fellowship And it is probable there then were and elsewhere now are those that will cast such out of their mutual affection And if they will cast such out of their mutual affection that are within do doubt they will keep out of their Church-Fellowship those that are without Arg. 1. Whereas the Lord's care extends to all his and if it were a good Argument in the third verse for them to receive those within because God hath received them it would be as good an Argument to receive in those without for God hath received them also unless it could be proved that all that were and are weak in the Faith were and are in Church-Fellowship which is not likely For if they would cast such out of their Affection that are within they would upon the same account keep them out of Church-fellowship that were without Therefore as it is a Duty to receive those within unto mutual Affection SO it is no less a duty by the Text to receive such weak ones as are without into Church-Fellowship Arg. 2. Is urged from the words themselves which are Receive him that is weak in the Faith wherein the Lord puts NO limitation in this Text or in any other and who is he then that can restrain it unless he will limit the Holy One of Israel and how would such an interpretation foolishly charge the Lord as if he took care ONLY of those within but not LIKE care of those without whereas he commandeth them to receive them and useth this Motive he had received them and he receiveth those that are weak in the Faith if without as well as those within From the Example to wit That God had received them whereas had he been of the Church they would have been perswaded of that before the Motive was urged For no true Church of Christ's would take in or keep in any whom they judged the Lord had not received but those weak ones were such as they questioned whether the Lord had received them else the Text had not been an answer sufficient for their receiving them There might have been objected They hold up Jewish observations of Meats and Dayes which by the Death of Christ were abolished and so did deny some of the Effects of his Death yet the Lord who was principally wronged could pass this by and commandeth others ro receive them also And if it be a good Argument to receive such as are weak in any thing whom the Lord hath received Then there can be no good Argument to reject for any thing for which the Lord will not reject them For else the Command in the first verse and his Example in the third verse were insufficient without some other Arguments unto the Church beside his Command and Example Some Object Chap. 15. 7. Receive you one another as Christ hath received us unto the Glory of God and from thence supposing they were all in Church-fellowship before whereas the Text saith not so For if you consider the 8th and 9th verses you may see he speaks unto Jews and Gentiles in general that if the Jews had the receiving they should receive Gentiles and if the Gentiles had the receiving they should receive Jewes For had they not been on both sides commanded The Jewes might have said to the Gentiles you are commanded to receive us but we are not commanded to receive you and if the weak had the receiving they should receive the strong and if the strong had the receiving they should not keep out the weak and the Text is reinforced with the Example of the Sons receiving us unto the Glory of God that as he receiveth Jewes and poor Gentiles weak and strong in Church-fellowship or out of Church-fellowship So should they to the Glory of God And as the Lord Jesus received some though they held some things more than were Commanded and some things less than were Commanded and as those that were weak and in Church-fellowship so those that were weak and out of Church-fellowship and that not only into mutual Affection but unto Fellowship with himself and so