Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	oath_n	righteousness_n	swear_v	3,481	5	8.8894	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05344	A speech, delivered at the visitation of Downe and Conner, held in Lisnegarvy the 26th. of September, 1638 Wherein, for the convincing of the non-conformists, there is a full confutation of the covenant lately sworne and subscribed by many in Scotland. Published by authority.	Leslie, Henry, 1580-1661.	1639 (1639)	STC 15496; ESTC S108505	22,572	42

Church unchangeable were to confound matters of Doctrine and matters of Discipline matters of Faith and matters of Order The rule therefore of Tertullian is infallible Regula fidei immobilis irrefragabilis Caetera disciplinae admittunt novitatem correctionis 5 If they had sworne as these men would have it to maintaine their discipline which they then used without alteration or addition like the Laws of the Medes and Persians Then had they ascribed unto themselves an absolute perfection more then ever did the Pharisees in Christs dayes or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after or the Popes of late since they established their own infallibility Surely the contrivers of the first Confession did manifest a great deal of more modesty in their Preface Protesting that if any man shall note in this our Confession any Article or Sentence repugnant to Gods holy Word and do admonish of the same in Writing we by Gods grace do promise unto him satisfaction from the mouth of God that is from his holy Scriptures or else reformation of that which he shall prove to be amisse And are these men become wiser then their Fathers to think that nothing which they did could be amended 6 That could not be the meaning of the first Oath to maintain their discipline in all points without alteration For they themselves during the days of the Presbytery did change many things and that as I beleeve without violation of their Oath Sometimes their Lay-elders had voyce in the Presbytery af●erwards the Ministers perceiving the inconvenience restrained them to their Parish-sessions Sometimes it was made altogether unlawfull to bury in Churches afterwards they did permit it And if I had the inspection of the Book of the Acts of the generall Assembly which I have not seen these four and twenty yeers I would make it appear that every Assembly did either alter or adde something in matters of discipline Finally How could they Swear to maintain that discipline in all points when there are many things in their new found discipline whereof they were not agreed nor are to this day as namely Whether Pastors and Doctors be one office or distinct And if distinct Whether Doctors have any voyce in government What is the Office of Deacons and whether they may give a voyce in the consistory with the rest Whether their ruling Eldermen be Ecclesisticall persons or Lay-men Whether their Office should be only annuall or during life Whether those Elders should have a voice in the election Ordination deprivation of ministers and in weilding of the keyes for Excommunication and Absolution By all which it is more then manifest that the meaning of these words in the former Oath We will continue in the obedience of the discipline of this Kirk is not that they would observe the same discipline then used in all particulars without alteration or addition for so their Oath must be contrary to their Confession of faith contrary to right reason to the practise of the Primitive Church to the opinion of all Divines yea contrary to their owne practice and indeed such an Oath as were both unlawfull and impossible to be observed And unlesse that Interpretation be allowed them that Oath makes nothing either against Episcopacy or the five Articles of Perth we must therefore finde out some other meaning of these words of the Covenant It is a rule in the civill Law Semper in dubijs benigniora sunt praeferendae And again Non sunt rejiciendae leges quae interpretatione aliquâ possunt convenire If any thing Fact writing or Law may in reasonable construction admit two interpretations the best and mildest is ever to be received But the words in the former Oath may admit a good interpretation namely they did sweare to continue in the discipline of that Kirk in regard of all substantials viz. for administration of the Sacraments and weilding of the Keyes for binding and loosing of sinners and that for the particular determination of person time place and outward forme of administration They would observe the discipline of that Kirk which should be from time to time lawfu●ly established And therefore it is as I observed before that they did not say The present discipline of this Kirk And by this Interpretation which is the only reasonable sense of these words that can be given they are all bound by their nationall Oath as they terme it to submit themselves to Episcopall government and the Articles of Perth which were lawfully established and are now a part of the Discipline of that Church Thus have I shewed that this late Oath is substantially different from the former in that now they doe not sweare with the King but against him It containes a bond of mutuall defence of one another It inables Subjects to take Armes without lawfull Authority and containes such an interpretation of the Old covenant as is manifestly false In all which respects the Oath is unlawfull But yet to convince them further of perjury I will shew unto you that they have not observed any of these conditions which God himselfe requireth in an Oath In the fourth of Ieremy and second verse Thou shalt sweare the Lord liveth in trueth in iudgement and in righteousnesse In trueth and therefore not falsly In judgement and therefore not rashly In righteousnesse and therefore not lewdly nor to a bad end We must sweare in trueth and not falsly for the Lord himselfe saith Yee shall not sweare by my name falsly Levit. 19.12 The onely true matter of an Oath is trueth but all the grounds of this last Oath are notoriously false as namely that the Negative Confession is the Nationall confession of the church of Scotland And I have shewed that to be otherwise That this Oath is the very same that King Iames and his Family did sweare And I have proved that not to be so That Episcopacie and the five Articles of Perth are innovations abjured in the former Oath and I have manifested that to be evidently false Finally That what they doe is to avert The danger of the true reformed religion of the Kings honor and of the publick peace of the Kingdome When as indeed they could not have taken a course more to indanger the true Religion wound the Kings honour and disturbe the publick peace So that in this late Oath there is no trueth Againe We must sweare in judgement that is out of a certain knowledge of the thing which we sweare We finde in the fifth of Leviticus that when a man did sweare that which was hid from him It was a sin for which a Trespasse-offering was to be offered And now they have sworn unto many things which are hid from them and whereof they could have no certaine knowledge for they could not know that the Negative Confession is the National Confession of that Church nor that this Oath is the same with that which the King did sweare nor that Episcopacy and the five Articles of Perths Assembly were

abjured in the former Oath For I have evidently proved all these to be false Besides in the Catalogue of errors renounced there are many things wich common people cannot understand as namely I would gladly know how many amongst that multitude who have sworn this late Covenant doe know what is Opus operatum abjured in the Oath It is wisely provided in the civill Law that none should be admitted to sweare who are not of some reasonable understanding and therfore no Idiots nor mad men nor children are admitted to be witnesses But in this last Oath they have sworn many thousands who have not so much knowledge of an Oath of Religion or of the confession of Faith as a child of seven yeere old And therefore they doe not sweare in Iudicio Lastly as we must sweare in trueth and in judgement so also in righteousnesse As the matter of our Oath must be true and our knowledge of it certaine So we must sweare unto a good and lawfull end For to make the name of God a bond to doe evill is a sinne out of measure sinfull But the end of this last Oath is most unlawfull even to arme Subjects against their Prince and pull downe Orders established by Lawes wherby they make that which should be Sacramentum pietatis to be Vinculum iniquitatis These Oaths vve call Juramenta latronum such as theeves and robbers take to be true one to another For they doe not only joyne hand in hand as Solomon tells us but doe even also by Oath bind themselves to doe mischiefe Prov. 11.2 Nehem. 6.18 Tobiah the greatest hinderer of the Temple had many in Judah his sworne men Further as they have not sworne neither in trueth in judgement nor in righteousnesse So there are many who have sworne this Oath who before did receive the Oath of the Kings Supremacie and of Canonicall obedience and conformity to the Articles of Perth So that here is Oath against Oath Belike these men doe challenge a Papall power to dispence with Oathes All these things being considered I have discovered as much perjurie in their Oath as can be committed in a promissorie Oath And then wee know that the rule in Divinity is Paenitenda promissio non per●icienda praesumptio And surely since this is a swearing age with them they may doe well to sweare once more that they will never sweare so againe When David had made a rash Oath to destroy Nabal in cold blood he did choose rather to breake his Oath then to keepe it And I think there is no Divine who will not say that Herod had better broken his rash oath then cut off Iohn Baptists head And yet I must tell you it is not altogether so haynous a crime to take a head from a Prophet as to pull a Crowne from a Kings head And now have I taken from them all pretence of Religion which is not sit to make a cloake for such knavery by shewing that the Negative confession is not the Nationall Confession of the Church of Scotland and that this Oath is not the same which was sworne An. 81. but an Oath in many respects altogether unlawfull And finally that Episcopall government and the Articles of Perth are not abjured in the Negative Confession I will now guesse what are the true causes that set them on work not using light conjectures but building upon more then probable grounds 1. That which sets the Clergie on work is Selfe-love De civit Dei Lib. 14. cap. 28. which as S. Austin sayes did build the Citie of the devill It is pride singularity ambition and the desire of popular applause They cannot endure to be subject to a Bishop esteeming themselves men of greater gifts and perfections then those who are appointed to be their Bishops and so They perish in the gaine-saying of Core You know that Core's sinne was disobedience he would not be subject unto Aaron appointed his Superiour by God nor to Moses either who swayed the Scepter So they by their good will will not be subject either to Bishop or King This pride hath beene the occasion of many heresies in the Church as will evidently appeare unto those who read the Histories of Arius coveting the Bishoprick of Alexandria of Donatus labouring to have beene Bishop of Carthage of Novatus desiring a Bishoprick in Italy and of Aerius contending with Eustathius for a Bishoprick in Pontus These men affecting these honorable places and receiving their severall foyles when through ambition they could not get the places they sought for in the Church they laboured to gaine honour another way in their severall Synagogues So I could tell you of a man who is now a ring-leader of the faction in Edenburgh and hath publickly preached the King to be a Papist and when his Majestie desired them to renounce their Covenant promising them all reasonable satisfaction in other things he in a Sermon compared his Majestie unto an Italian who promised mercy to his vanquished enemie upon a condition that he would renounce Christ which when the Caitiff had done presently stabb'd him to the heart saying I hope now I have killed you both soule and body Yet this man within these two yeeres was an earnest suter for the Bishoprick of Argyle M. Henry Rollocke and was recommended for it by many of the Bishops of that Kingdome but missing thereof the same humor which possessed Arius Donatus and the rest doth now also work in him 2 That which sets the Lay-men on work is covetousnesse amongst whom not a few would gladly prey upon the Bishopricks as their Fathers did upon the Abbeyes This was observed by M. Cartwright and the Author of the Ecclesiasticall discipline of their Lay-followers in England And I must needs think that they of Scotland as they are of the same religion so they are of the same mind Whilest they heare us speak against Bishops and Cathedrall Churches Discip Eccles saith the Author of the Ecclesiasticall discipline it tickleth their eares looking for the like prey they had before of Monasteries Yea they have in their hearts devoured already the Churches inheritance They care not for Religion so they may get the spoile They could be content to crucifie Christ so they might have his garments Our age is full of spoiling Souldiers and of wicked Dyonisians who will rob Christ of his golden coat as neither fit for him in Winter nor Summer They are Cormorants and seek to fill the bottomlesse sacks of their greedy appetites They doe yawne after a prey and would thereby to their perpetuall shame purchase to themselves a field of blood 3 I may more then probably conjecture that they have another ayme even such as was Ieroboams ayme When he had drawne away the ten Tribes from the house of David he said in his heart If the people goe up to Ierusalem to worship their heart will returne againe unto their Lord Rehoboam And therefore he erected two golden Calves and said