Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	scripture_n	spirit_n	try_v	2,382	5	8.8588	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34532	An account given of the principles & practices of several nonconformists wherein it appears that their religion is no other than what is profest in the Church of England in vindication of themselves and others of their perswasion, against the misrepresentation made of them, and in hearty desire of unity in the Church, and of peace and concord among all true Protestants, for the strengthening of their common interest, in this time of their common danger / written by Mr. John Corbet ...	Corbet, John, 1620-1680.	1682 (1682)	Wing C6251; ESTC R224970	23,021	37

enemies as they had been given out to be to Episcopacy or Liturgy but modestly to desire such alterations in either as without shaking Foundations might best allay the present distempers And he expressed himself in reference to those things wherein the learned men of either persuasion were agreed as followeth If upon these excellent foundations in submission to which there is such a harmony of affections any superstructure should be raised to the shaking of those Foundations and to the contracting or lessening of the blessed gift of Charity which is a vital part of Christian Religion we shall think our self very unfortunate and even suspect that we are defective in that administration of Government with which God hath intrusted us And he saith farther That he doth not think his reverence to the Church of England as it is Established by Law in the least degree diminished by condescentions not peremptorily to insist on some particulars of ceremony which howsoever introduced by the piety and devotion and order of former times may not be so agreable to the present but may lessen that piety and devotion for the improvement whereof they might happily be introduced and consequently may well be dispensed with This gracious healing declaration was received with the thanks of the House of Commons and with the applause of the people and it was to our special joy Had the moderation therein specified stood in force we have no cause to doubt but that Tranquillity and Concord in the Church would have ensued But the frustration thereof lay not on our parts It is our comfort that we have earnestly sought Peace and Unity though we have not so far prevailed as to gain so much as the abatement of one Ceremony but our Bonds have been made stronger and the terms of our Ministerial liberty much harder to us than they were in the former times of Prelacy 22. Some indeed say that to indulge us any abatement of injunctions even in things indifferent and mutable would cherish us in our ungovernable perswasions and the Church would yield up her authority to those Principles that would be an everlasting hinderance of her settlement These men speak as if our exclusion not our conformity were desired But against their uncharitable and unsober assertion we offer our Principles already here testified to the tryal and judgment of all impartial and unprejudiced minds and challenge our adversaries to gain say them or to prove that we falsly pretend unto them 23. The extravagant Pens of some Writers have made ridiculous and odious descriptions of us to expose us to the common scorn and hatred They would make the World believe that instead of the Precepts of the Gospell intelligibly set forth we make a Religion of Metaphors and Allegories and new phrases of thin airy notions frivolous and senseless nicities and fanatick whimsies This they fix promiscuously upon the Non-Conformists from passages collected out of some Writers that go under that name But suppose those passages as erroneous and frivolous as they would make them would any party in the VVorld or they themselves be so dealt with Should a collection of errors absurdities incongruities injudicious expressions and such like weaknesses be pick'd here and there out of the writings of this and the other Conformists and then be Intituled the Religion of the Conforming Clergy Let the Divinity of the Non-Conformists that is extant defend it self we are not carefull about this matter Indeed we cannot boast that none among us are injudicious yea or that any one among us doth never write or speak an incongruous word If our adversaries so boast of themselves and theirs let them take the glory of it we are not called to this boasting or to compare our selves with others It is too well known how great a part of the Clergy throughout Christendom as indeed of all other sorts of men are defective and imprudent in their expressions But by insisting on this kind of exceptions our adversaries have done us this right as in effect to tell the VVorld that the Non-Conformists are not deprived and silenced for Treason Rebellion Drunkenness Swearing Incontinences Rayling Insufficiency Idleness seldom Preaching Pluralities Non-Residence and such like immoralities Let not the progress of our just and necessary defence be taken for self exalting For we do not exclude others but only include our selves in that sobriety from which some would exclude us and we do this to shew that others ought to receive us seeing we accord in the greater things notwithstanding our lesser differences 24. We earnestly disavow and teach the people to beware of the conduct of pretended inspirations and we own God's publick Laws written in Scripture and Nature for our perpetual Rule The World knows that the rational evidence of Christian Religion and of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures hath been as much owned among us and as largely asserted by some of ours as by any of them that so speak as if they were the only Propugnators and Preachers thereof We take the Spirit 's grand Testimony to the truth of the Gospel not to stand in some inward unaccountable suggestion and perswasion but in an objective evidence propounded to the reason of Mankind though we likewise hold the Spirits internal teaching and the gift of illumination to be necessary to saving Faith We do not hunt after mysteries in words and phrases yet we would not make void or lessen the great mystery of Godliness and make no more of it than a Scheme of Moral Philosophy We approve not affected Language yet we would not have the things of the Spirit of God spoken in Scripture Language called Canting We make it our business to understand the things we affirm and to speak sense to our Hearers in the plainest words and in preaching to avoid vain janglings and impertinent curiosities useless speculations novelties and vain ostentation of wit and fancy and to insist on things essential or of great importance to Christian Piety and whereinsoever we have done weakly we desire to do better and refuse not to learn even from our adversaries 25. In man's Conversion to God we urge not the necessity of any thing that is unnecessary We stand not on certain modes methods and circumstances in which it may be brought about wherein the wisdom of God proceeds variously towards several persons according to the different circumstances of their condition As for instance we assert not a general necessity of this or that measure of humiliation much less of a dismal despairing horror as some have said of us we press conviction and humiliation no farther than to make a sinner restless till he come to Christ and find rest to his Soul in him And we take not conversion to be as some have slandered us an imbracing of our opinions or an adhering to our party but an internal principle of Faith Hope and Love expressed in a sober righteous and godly life If this be it which some mean when they

which are incident to any one man also to avoid tyranny which becomes no Christian least of all Church men besides it will be a means to take away that odium and burden of affairs that may lye too heavy on one mans shoulders as he thought it did formerly on the Bishops here VVe judge the Episcopal or Pastoral Office to be a personal trust not to be discharged by delegation to others and especially that it cannot be deputed to them that are not Bishops or Pastors and that secular persons cannot administer that power which intrinsecally belongs to Spiritual Officers And we cannot justifie any Ecclesiastical Government in a stated bereaving of the Pastors of particular Churches of that power that is essential to their office and in a stated hindering of the effectual exercise of Church Discipline 8. We detest all manner of Sacriledge and we think we are as willing as any others that it should be noted and reproved and that one kind thereof the unjust alienation of Lands and Goods devoted to the Church's use for the support of Gods service we utterly condemn But there are those that think they can never enough inveigh against this kind yet fear not to commit the same sin in other instances which are not less abominable as the Sacriledge of Pluralists Non-residents and all negligent and insufficient Ministers who devour that which is Holy taking the Ministerial benefice and not performing the service And to alienate persons and gifts that have beensolemnly consecrated to God we take to be real Sacriledge 9. We are as willing as any others to take notice of the heinous sin of Schism But we earnestly desire many that cry out against Schismaticks more impartially to consider the nature of this sin and to hate it in its full extent We know the necessity and excellency of Christian Unity and Concord and the deformity and misery of division and earnestly pray that Christian Charity might be so conspicuous that all may know that we are Christ's Disciples by our loving one another We are for building the Church's Unity upon its only adequate Foundation which is Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever and in vain do any hope to build it upon a narrower Foundation We are against the devising of new Articles of Faith and new parts of Religion and the inforcing of Oaths and Subscriptions to the same We require subscription or ingagement to no more than the Holy Bible and if any swerve from the truth in wicked error or practice let them be tryed and judged by that unalterable Law which themselves have assented to And we think this the surest way to preserve the Christian Church in soundness of Doctrine integrity of Life and Holy Peace But if the setting forth of a publick confession of Faith or Articles of Religion be insisted on we allow it as a rule to Preachers who may be punishable if they preach contrary Doctrine though they be not inforced to subscribe to every Tittle Moreover we hold not our selves obliged to forsake a true Church as no Church for the corruptions and disorders found therein or to separate from its worship for the tolerable faults thereof while our personal profession of some error or practice of some evil is not required as the terms of our Communion How be it we are not so indifferent in this matter as to make no difference between Churches and Pastors The more pure and powerfull administration of God's Ordinances is to be preferred before that which is more faulty and less effectual And here again we acknowledge that in this preferrence due caution must be used VVe must not respect our own particular benefit before publick peace and order and the general good 10. VVe believe that the power of civil Magistrates is God's Ordinance necessary for the Government of the world that their whole authority is derived from him and subordinate to him the only universal and unlimited Sovereign Lord That God's Glory and the Eternal Salvation of men are higher and nobler ends of their authority than temporal prosperity and peace that all their decrees and executions should chiefly refer to these ends and that in their way they are charged with the Souls of men under their jurisdiction VVe acknowledge that Supreme Magistrates have a civil supremacy in all ecclesiastical matters and a political Episcopacy over the Pastors of the Church in their sacred administrations and may compell them to the performance of their duty and punish them for their negligence or mal-administration that they may call Synods and make Canons and warrantably thus reform the Church when it stands in need of Reformation Accordingly we acknowledge the Kings Supremacy in all causes and over all persons Civil and Ecclesiastical in these his Majesties Realms and Dominions Moreover we believe that the higher powers are not to be mere Executioners of the judgments of Ecclesiasticks but that they may and must be Judges thereof themselves in order to their own execution That their great and proper work about Religion is to incourage and inforce obedience to the Divine Laws and in subserviency thereunto to determine such things circa sacra as are requisite in general but in the particulars are left undetermined of God Likewise that by moderate penalties they may restrain persons of impious Principles as Atheists Infidels Hereticks from venting their wicked errors and from any open impious practice and that they may constrain men to use such means as God hath made Universally necessary to bring the ignorant to knowledge but not to profess either in word or deed what they believe not or to take that which God hath made the special priviledge of believers Lastly Their imperial Government in Religion should be mixed with a paternal clemency and tenderness according to the meekness of Christ whose Servants they are not only as Christians but as Magistrates 13. It is our Principle that Humane Laws bind the Conscience or to speak more properly the subjects in point of Conscience not by a primary obligation as the laws of God do but by a secundary and subordinate as from a power derived from God As it is an evident and important truth that Inferiors ought to obey their Superiors for Conscience sake so it is as evident and important that when Mens commands contradict the commands of God it is God and not man that must have the preeminence in our obedience VVith us it is no controversie whether the King or Conscience be the Supreme Governour It is the Magistrate only that enacts publike laws and hath the publike decisive judgment whether according to his Laws we are justifiable or condemnable As for Conscience it is no Governour at all but only a discerner of our duty and an internal witness for us or against us according to our practice and consequently it is concerned to know the will of God and whether the commands of men be consentaneous or contrary thereunto which men call