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	true_a	word_n	7,817	5	4.4125	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88868	Legenda lignea with an ansvver to Mr. Birchleys moderator. (Pleading for a toleration of popery.) And a character of some hopefull saints revolted to the church of Rome.	Lee, E., fl. 1652.	1652 (1652)	Wing L839; Thomason E1290_1; ESTC R208984	68,279	266

meeting there a certain Sorcerer false Prophet named Elymas who seeking to turn away Sergius Paulus from the Faith Act. 13.9 St. Paul filled with the holy Ghost set his eyes on him and said O full of all subtilty and all mischief thou child of the Devil and enemy of all righteousness wilt thou not cease to pervert the right waies of the Lord And now behold the hand of the Lord is upon thee and thou shalt be blind not seeing the Sun for a season and immediatly there fellon him a mist and darkness These instances demonstrat a spirituall Power of Truth to rectifie erroneous and to punish and to have coercion for evil and seared Consciences for such there are 1 Tim. 4.2 Some speaking Lyes in Hypoorisy having their Consciences seared with a hot Iron And the holy Scripture lets us all know that the Holy Ghost appeared in fiery Tongues as wel as in the shape of a Dove Acts 2.1 2. Mat. 3.16 to signify to all the world that as it presented innocency and such are the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 so in the shape of fiery Tongues it presented judgement and indignation to those who resisted the motions of that blessed Spirit This is told often in the holy Scriptures but twice more emphaticatically in the Epistle to the Hebrews and that with great terror For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted of the good word of God and of the Powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to renue them again unto Repentance seeing they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame Heb. 6.4 5 6. There is a second sting which is as equally sharp Let us hold fast the Profession of our faith without wavering and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works not forsaking the Assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching for if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins Heb. 10.26 27. but a certain fearfull looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversaries By this time it appears very evident that the unanswerable Texts of the holy Scripture so ill interpreted or so ill applyed doe not take away all Coercion in Religion because a Conscience may be erroneous and so ought to be rectifyed or very bad and seared and so ought to be coerc'd and punished yet these Proceedings are to be guarded with greatest spirituall care and cautions that the weak and erroneous Conscience may be directed and then comforted by the Word of God and the bad and seared Consciences refisting the good motions of Gods Spirit gathered by the conclusions of found reason and the right and true Applications of holy Scripture growing still more impenitent and hardened may be punished and that God may be glorified in his judgements where his truth and mercies have been despised CHAP. XV. IN the next succeeding Chapter the Author pleads against the constraint of Conscience pretending that all the godly and well affected of the Nation are of his Principle who is introducing Popery into the Countrey with his Arguments of kinness to a tender Conscience and to be more plausible and complacent with the Souldier he urgeth the Motto of the Armies viz. Liberty to all tender and oppressed Consciences by which device Mr. Birchley seems forward to shelter his Popish Arguments under their Banners and Ensigns But this spirituall abuse or rather chear is so palpable and visible that all ingenuous minds cannot but conclude such applications to be very odious and ridiculous as no way encouraging Popish aims or ends but rather an extirpation of Papall as well as Presbyterian Tyranny As for other arguments either from reason or Scripture they are not considerable the discourse of this Chapter being spun out with gross impertinent flattery or repetition of texts of Scripture as Rom. 14.15 formerly examined CHAP. XVI THe next tract is a discourse as it appears in the title of tender Consciences wherein the Author surely blushing for something said before seems to address himself to Excuses and Apologies confessing there that tenderness of Conscience is not an extravagant licentiousness for Blasphemy in Doctrine or Debauchery in manners This part is a large Negative description what tender Conscience is not then determining as the Doctor in the Chair he tels us It is a Proceeding bona fide without sinister Respects or dissimulation seeking before all things to know God and fearing above all things to offend him This description for it is not a Logical definition as neither having a proper Genus nor Differentia specifica is as large and wild in the Affirmative as the other part was in the Negative and thus M. Birchley after his great struglings telling us but confusedly what tender Conscience is not and not directly what it is Resolves for they are his own words Page 14. It is the only means God hath allowed our Nature to guide her Resolutions of judging of others in which result this Builder pulls down all the structure he had so artificially built up before for his positions were formerly out of misapplyed places of holy Scripture Iames 4.12 Rom. 14.4 Who art thou that judgest another c. And in this last clause the Sophister concludes God alloweth the nature of a tender Conscience to the Resolution of judging others and this Pill once swallowed other Physick is prepared in the signs of a tender Conscience which he reckons to be Regular lives no opinions of self-interest severity against corrupt nature steddiness of judgement constancy in their perswasions untill death dying not only in but for the faith suffering all things to be taken away patiently and for Christs sake These are indeed Evangelical Counsels and great perfections and well become all good Christians but when the Application of all these religious duties is more closely drawn to the Papists as it appears in Mr. Birchleys a Dialogue with his friend page 16. the secreted plots appear more plainly while it is insinuated to please some parties that tender Consciences have the power of judging others Mr. Birchley quickly determins that the Papists are the men of the Regular lives c. and in the end if his doctrin take place they must judge of all others which is the present tyranny of Popish usurpation where it rules and reigns As for the rest of the discourse of the tract of tender Consciences it is a tedious deviation to other matters as a complaint against the former Oaths of Supremacy and Allegeance or the present Oath of Abjuration in which murmuring dislike the Author fights most against himself pleading formerly for the Papists peaceableness and humbleness of submission

change and alter the very letter and phrase of the Text as he doth likewise the sense and application The words pretended for Master Birchleys purpose are taken out of Rom. 2. vers 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightly rendered in the second Person and so the translation hath it behold Thou art called a Jew and restest in the Law and makest thy boast of God and knowest his will and approvest the things that are more excellent Thence Master Birchley passeth with an c. and skippeth farther augmenting his error at the 20 verse changing there the singular number to the plural the second Person to the first which is not Grammatical and Tu to Nos saying We therefore who teach another teach we not our selves These are very bold Corrections and savor of no ingenuous and humble spirit but rather of prophane Arrogancy as though the holy Scriptures were indeed Nasus cereus a very Nose of wax which the Pope and Mr. Birchley could turn to any form they pleas●d Secondly the sense and application is most erroneous and disorderly placed For if Master Birchley intend by the Nos We the Commissioners for Sequestrations rest in the Law approve the things that are most excellent c. This is nothing but gross and odious flattery And if by the Nos in the second quotation Mr. Birchley intend the Commissioners Mr. Birchley approves himself a peremptory Moderator his application is very sharp and without the rules of good manners or charity for he concludeth them no better than Iews who rob and steal but it may be rather conjectured by any sober and judicious Reader that Mr. Bi●chley applyed the first quota●ion with Reflexion on himself and his Roman party concluding Pharisaically that he and they rested in the Law and approved the things that were more excellent And that those who were not or his opinion and releeved not him and his compar●ners were as hard hearted as Iews and rob'd and stole The last words of the Title are Video meliora proboque Deter●ora sequor which as they are the words of an excellent Poet expressing the passion of a frantick Queen so are they as rashly applyed if to any other than Mr. Birchley himself who hath scattered such desperate Popish poyson into the Countreys more soundly reformed from the errors and superstitions of Rome The Title of Mr. Birchleys Moderator being thus past over the inside of this miscellaneous and monstrous building is to be viewed which is likely to prove as slight and treacherous as untrue and dangerous CHAP. XII THe Introduction or Preface to the Moderator is a discourse which perswadeth much to Christian charity to which purpose our Saviours words are quoted Iohn 13.15 By this shall all men kn●w that you are my disciples if you love one another And that of St. Paul to the Galathians chap. 5. All the Law is fulfilled in one word thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thyself These Advertisements are very heavenly Meditations and the practice of this Duty of Charity well becomes all professing Christianity And it is a fad sight to see so much effusion of blood and other sinfull mischiefs for differences in Christian Religion But the Quarrel in this Case is very antient the two first Brothers in the World went peaceably to the Altar but there Cain grew first in wrath and his Countenance fell Gen. 4.5 And after these Conceptions of rage and malice he acted his cruelty on his innocent Brother Abel at a second meeting Cain talked with Abel his Brother and it came to p●ss that when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him Thus Jeroboam was inflamed in an instant against the old Prophet who cryed against the Altar in Bethel And it came to pass when King Ieroboam heard the saying of the man of God which had cryed against the Altar in Bethel that he put forth his hand from the Altar saying ●●y hold on him ● Kings 13.4 Ieroboam laid his ground-work and hopes for the Crown of Israel on the quarrell and differences in Relig●on 1 Kings 12.28 Whe●eupon the King took Counsell and made two Calves of Gold and said it is much for you to go up to Hierusalem behold thy Gods O Israel The antient Wars of the Heathens were commenced and undertaken as well pro Aris as Focis their Gods as their Goods And as for the Gospel though it bring bonum nuntium glad tydings of Salvation and that the causes and proceedings of Cain and Ieroboam were most horrid and unjust yet Christ is pleas'd to tell us That he came not to bring Peace but a Sword Mat. 10.34 35. And the History of the four Evangelists relates to us that Christ never spake so wrathfully nor strook so sharply as in his zeal for Religion Mat. 21.12 Mark 11.15 Luke 19.45 Iohn 2.15 And when he had made a whip of small cords he drove them all out of the Temple counselling them not to make his Fathers house a house of merchandise nor the house of prayer a ●en of Thieves And though St. Paul be quoted Gal. 5. as a high perswader to Charity yet if his Epistles be well examin'd they generally discover his great zeal and ardor in order to the promotion and preservation of all the Circumstances of Christian Religion founded by Christ and preached to the world by his Apostle● Saint Luke tels the Church that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contention betwixt Saint Paul and Barnabas was so sharp that they parted asunder Acts 15. 39. And though St. Paul pleaded so much for charity 1 Cor. 13. yet he accounted his duty to God above all Relations to his Brethren and the zeal and love of Gods honor and service above any thing else and in this holy Affection the Apostle St. Paul was bold when St. Peter was come to Antioch to withstand him to his face because he was to be blamed and seeing other Iews dissembling likewise insomuch as Barnabas was carried away with dissimulation he rebuked not only the Disciples and converted Iews but St. Peter and St. Barnabas because they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel Gal. 2.11.13.14 These truths thus cleared Mr. Birchley must not think it any breach of charity nor disagreeing from the word of God if there be coercion used to draw and gain the erroneous to come to the truth and the superstitious to the true Religion To which if men out of wilful obstinacy or self-opinion will not be perswaded their submission to the Power and Lawes where they live and a quiet posses●ing of their souls in Patience best becomes their Christian dutyes according to the primitive rules and practice of the best Christians who first spread their Religion by perswading and suffering and when Kings and Emperors and superior Governors came to be converted Ecclesiasticall Lawes and Rules were made and exercised the Temporall still supporting the Spirituall juri●dictions and proceedings CHAP. XIII 1 MR.