Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	seek_v	worship_v	worshipper_n	1,970	5	12.2546	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39570	The bishop busied beside the business, or, That eminent overseer, Dr. John Gauden, Bishop of Exeter, so eminently overseen as to wound his own cause well nigh to death with his own weapon in his late so super-eminently-applauded appearance for the [brace] liberty of tender consciences, legitimacy of solemn swearings, entituled, A discourse concerning publick oaths, and the lawfulness of swearing in judicial proceedings, in order to answer the scruples of the Quakers ... / by Samuel Fisher ...	Fisher, Samuel, 1605-1665.	1662 (1662)	Wing F1051; ESTC R37345	155,556	170

is the World and the Civil States and several Nations thereof which howbeit the Bishop takes Nations for Churches by whole-sale here as if the words Church and Nation were Synonima's yet qua Nations are not Churches to grow together with the Wheat until the harvest or end of the World and that with this Caveat least men in the midst of their Busslings and busie minds mistaking should under a pretence of plucking up the Tares root out the Wheat it self also which what Kingdom or People soever doth Bishop Gaudens Counsel and Caveat to the contrary notwithstanding who sayes he is not for such a ●…ame permission of Tares to be among the Wheat least that good seed of Religion which is sown by the Publick Ministry by which he means no other then their own and fenced by Legal Authority should be ●…hoaked had better busie it self wholly about other and meer secular matters of wrong and wicked Lewdness which reason wills they should be Totally taken up with in the exercise of their Civil Power those being the things which not onely properly but indeed alone appertain to them to be exercised in or take Congnizance of For if the Wheat which are indeed those true worshippers only who worship the Father of Spirits who is a Spirit and seeketh such onely to worship him in Spirit and in Truth in reference unto whom all other outside worshippers are as nothing for what is the Chaff to the wheat saith the Lord and which onely must go into the garner when all chaffy Formalists must in this day wherein the Lord is sifting out the house of Israel from among the Nations or several Sorts of Professions as Corn is sifted in a Sieve fall to the ground be driven away with the Wind and burnt up with the unquenchable Fire of that great day of the Lord which now burns as a Oven against all Flesh and fleshly Christianities if we say the foresaid true worshippers be of God then they cannot be withstood in a way of Safety to it self by any Nation Sith to withstand●… them is not onely to resist that People which are the Chariots and Horsmen thereof but also to be found fighters against God himself against whom and his People it is as impossible finally to prevail as it was for Egypt to prevail against Israel which when God arose to Redeem them from their bondage increased upon them so much the more by how much the more they were opressed and intended to be for ever suppressed by them God himself taking part with his own chosen against the other who hath said he will give Kingdoms for their ransome and Nations for their Life rather then his own Seed shall go unredeemed We say that this were the way to setle all in Peace to change all setled Lawes that are for Persecution into a Law for the Tolleration of all Religions much more of that one which though it be struck at both by and before all the rest will be found at last to be the onely true one which yet must unavoidably suffer Violence in some place or other while that Principle of Persecution hath place in Peoples hearts for as all Nations are not of one and the same but of many respectively so all men are not of one and the same Religion in any one Nation whereupon in case it happen that any Nation by Law Establish that Religion which is not Truth that Nation suppressing by outward Violence all Religions besides its own whether that be Heathenish Turkish Iewish Popish Prelatical Presby erian or any other must necessarily ex officio in point of duty Persecute and tread down the Truth it self for if the Civil Magistracy as such ought de jure to root out all Religions but that which it judges to be Righteous and convenient then even those that are heathen Magistrates who would be no more as to that capacity of Magistrates then now they are if they should turn Christians must root out quoad posse all that 's Christian and every Magistrate being a Magistrate as well as any one the notion of Christian adding nothing to mens Power as Civil Governors according to that rule of quatenus ipsum which includes de omni what ever belongs to any thing as so belongs also to every thing that is so not onely those Nations which happen to be of the true Religion must Persecute all those that are found in false ones but each Nation that is found in any false Religion must seek the utter ruine not only of all the rest but even of those also which are Established in the Truth But this is the way which the Bishop in no wise approves of for any Nation or at least for this to renounce the unsound Principle of forcing under Penalties all Dissenters to conformity in Religion unto it self because saith he it is not consistent with the Piety Prudence Honour or Safety of a Nation and Church when it judgeth its Constitutions to be Religious Righteous and Convenient But what a contrary conclusion is this not only to all Scripture Reason as is shewed above but also to all common Experience in this our Nation in which it hath been seen in the dayes both of Edward the sixth Elizabeth and Iames his times neither can it be denyed by the Bishops themselves unless they will deny themselves to be conscientious Dissenters from that Popery which stood here of old how much it was for the piety prudence honour and Safety of the Nation which did before generally judge those Popish constitutions it was then establisht in to be Religious Righteous and Convenient and yet upon further and more mature deliberation saw good ground for the sake of that small yet more enlightned Protestant Party that dissented to change the then and long before establisht Lawes concerning their Mass and many other matters as the Statutes themselves declare at large The Bishop therefore by this reasonless Reason both condemns that course of all the Protestant Princes of England that changed the Popish Laws before establisht for the sake of tender Protestant Dissenters as not savouring of piety prudence nor yet either safe honourable or convenient for the Nation but also secondly justifies the Pope himself and all Popish Princes in Persecuting such Protestants against him as are found within these Precincts and Dominions and in not changing their establisht Laws against the Truth for their sakes sith as the Bishops judge the English Constitutions so to be whereby they stand So other Nations judge their own Constitutions to be Religious Righteous and Convenient and thirdly makes a fence against the spreading of all sorts of Protestanism not that only which is so at large but of that which is Christianity so truly called Moreover where ever the alteration of any suppressive Lawes for the sake of a few Dissenters tends to the encrease of Love and Amity Peace and Unity which is a better thing than Uniformity in a Nation the preservation of

Removing of that Antichristian Yoak of Persecution for Conscience complain'd on and cried out against by the Bishops themselves as well as others when they felt the weight of it from off the necks of Christ's truest Disciples whom for as much as their Possessors slay them and hold themselves not guilty yea count and sell them all the day long as Sheep for the Slaughter and then say Blessed be the Lord for I am Rich yea their own Shepherds pitty them not Christ Jesus therefore the great Shepherd and Overseer of their Souls to whom they are now returned from whom they once ment astray after the other who fed them in the barren places of the Forrest and drove them from Mountain to Hill in their dark and gloomy Day will most assuredly feed and gather and destroy that Yoak from off their Necks and that heavy Burden from off their Shoulders by means of the Anointing And as to those Shepherds among whom the Poor of his Flock are as the Flock of the Slaughter I will eat the Flesh of the Fat saith the Lord and tear their Claws in Pieces yea I will destroy the Fat and the Strong and feed them with Judgement so that that which dieth let it die and that which is to be cut off let it be cut off yet those three S. S. Shepherds whose Soul hath abhorred me saith the Lord and my Soul loatheth them I will cut off in one Month They have been as a swift Dromadary traversing her way as a wild Ass used to the Wilderness snuffing up the Wind so that in her occasion none can reverss her yet in her month she shall be found They have dealt treacherously with the Lord they have begotten strange Children now shall a month destroy them with their Portions Ezek. 34. 16. Hos. 5. 7. Zach. 11. 8 9 16. Yea this we say in the Lord their Feet which stand on slipery places in the Dark shall slide in due time and the things that come upon them make haste and by how much the more in their Subtilty by giving goodly Words they deceive the hearts of the Simple and seek to seem more fair and favourable than in truth they are to implead all Persecution whatever even Doctrinally and yet practice it by so much the sooner will Wrath and Ruin be upon them suddenly from the Lord and so much the sorer and Sharper will the Stroak be when the Lord once shall arise to smite them with the Rod of his mouth and to rebuke with Equity for all the meek of the Earth Indeed it cannot be denied but many of their words are soft as Butter and smooth as Oyl yea Speciem Agninam pellem Ovinam pre se ferunt yet Intus in cute Mordent Even while they cry peace if men please them not so as to conform to whatever constitutions are according to their own coveteous Conceptions they bite with their teeth and prepare War against them by speaking out the proud things that are in their hearts proudly contemptuously and disdainfully against the Righteous thus under a shew of serving them secretly shooting at the sincere Servants of God so as we may say truly they are for a toleration in all cases excepting wherein they are against it and against all Persecution of tender Consciences those cases onely excepted wherein they are for it In a word they bait us with now a bit and then a bite kill us with a kind of cruell kindnesse cal d Christian Charity and as he of old who in more spite then Real pitty with a Complement commended Christ to Condemnation so do they at this day who under a feigned face of friendship in the persons of his People betray him into the hands of his open Adversaries with a Kisse But such Linsey Wolsey webs as these will never become Garments wherewith to hide their inward Enmity against the Truth As for the last Part of the Doings of this Bishop with whom we have here to do wherein he is more Argumentative for that Solemn Swearing now us'd in Judicature what litle strength he is likely to appear in for it who himself sayes so much against it as Bishop Gauden does let the Reader Iudge by his own and other Authors sayings by him cited and here recited to that purpose Viz. Evangelica veritas non recipit Juramentum Hieron The Gospel verity doth not admit of an Oath Non Oportet ut vir qui Evangelice Vivit Juret Omnino Chrisost. It is not meet that a man who lives according to the Gospel should swear at all Rarus apud veteres jurandi usus in Judiciis sed crescen●…e perfidia Crevit Juris jurandi usus In the better and simpler ages of the World Oathes were seldom used in Judicatures but after that perfidy and lying increased the use of Oathes increased Bishop Gauden out of Polibius There was no need of an Oath among Primitive Christians it was security enough in all cases to say Christianus sum I am a Christian Bishop Gaud. p. 4. Christians truly such need no Oathes in publick or private Bishop Gaud. p. 23. Nor can credit be given any more then to a lyar to any man that swears never so solemnly and in Iudicature who is a common swearer and hath no Reverence of the Majesty of God Bishop Gaud. p. 17. Certainly the affairs of Christians both publick and private would be no lesse to their honour and ease if there were in no case any need or use of Oathes or swearing but onely such an Authentick veracity and just credulity on all sides as might well spare even the most true sincere and lawful Oathes keeping on all sides as great a distance from Lying as from false swearing Bish. Gaud. p. 22. Quis legit Haec c He that can read all this need not go further then Bishop Gauden to find matter wherewith to Answer Bishop Gauden concerning the unlawfulnesse at least the needlesnesse of any swearing To conclude then for I am in an Epistle only here and not in the Book it self as it 's an ill Bird as the Proverb speaks that bewrayes his own nest so it 's an ill Wind that blowes no body no profit and so though the whirl-wind of the Bishops Doctrine wherein he whiffles to and fro in and out and sometimes round about cannot well serve his own ill turn against the Truth testified to by the Quakers yet 't is one good turn at least that it doth very well serve the Quakers wherewith to serve the Truths good turn against himself SAM FISHER The First PART THere being a Book lately put forth Intituled A Discourse concerning publick Oaths and the Lawfulness of Swearing in Iudicial Proceedings by Doctor Gawden Bishop of Exeter Written as he saith to answer the Scruples of the Quakers we having seriously perused the said Book with an upright Heart and impartial Eye to the end that we might own what is good in it and refute or at least refuse what is

Evil not being espoused to any Opinion or Iudgment but what carries Demonstration of Truth with it unto and upon our Consciences it being our Principle to keep them alwayes void of offence towards God and towards Man do here profess in the sight of God and all men that notwithstanding what ever is therein written to the contrary our belief is that Christ's and the Apostles words Mat. 5. Iames 5. who say Swear not at all by Heaven nor by Earth nor any other Oath c. are still to be understood as formerly upon occasion we have declared and do now again declare in this our return and reply to the Book aforesaid not out of Obstinacy and Wilfulness but Duty and Conscience to God and his Truth which is dearer to us than all we have to loose for the sake of it for as we had no scruples in our selves before his Book came forth as the Bishop supposeth we had about Swearing in order to the resolution of which he pretends to write being sufficiently clear in our Iudgements against it So we have met with nothing in our serious perusal of this Bishops Book but what hath rather contributed to the strengthning of us in our former belief and perswasion than in the least either to the shaking of our Confidence or the convincing us of Error in this our Way and Practice of denying to Swear at all The Insufficiency of the Book aforesaid of the Matter therein contained to convi●…ce us or any that sincerely seek the truth in this particular appears to us and may appear unto any who are impartial both by the sundry Confusions and Contradictions that are to be found in it to it self in more points than one and also by the weakness of the Arguments thereof to evince the thing pretended to both of which we have here with as much brevity and plainness as might well be presented to publick view in such-wise as hereafter followeth I. Whereas the Bishop promises very many things in order as he supposes to the better understanding of these two T●…ts after his way of 〈◊〉 it may not be amis●… for us to take some notice and make some useful observations of sundry of those precedent passages both in his Book and his Epistle to it which for orders sake we shall consider of under those three general Heads into which he seem●… to have moulded all that matter of his Book which is ante●…dent to his Discourse concerning Swearing viz. First his Christian Charity to the Quakers Secondly his Pitty to the Quakers Thirdly his Commendations of the Quakers In each of which it 's not uneasie both to discern and to discover him to be more Pretended then Real yea more Uncharitable Abusive Ironical and Condemnatory than either truly Charitable or Compassionate or Commendatory towards the Quakers Yea we cannot but see unless we will close our Eyes how a vein of Scorn Reproach Defamation and Contempt Persecution and Spoile ●…ns along throughout both his Epistle and all the fore-part of his Book notwithstanding the most faire and specious Pretences of it to Pitty Compassion Mercy Moderation Commiseration and Commendation and howbeit it guilds and plaisters it self over in many places with some seeming shewes of Love Bowels to and applauses of the Quakers and those tender termes of Lenity Facility Gentleness Humanity Cand●…r Christian Charity c. superficially sprinkled up and down here and there as a vail upon the face of it yet it goes no●… so disguised but that there are Eyes which through all those thin Tiffany Pretexts see clearly such a frowni●…g Face and course Complexion such a sour visage of Severity Rigor yea and Cruelty it self as in case of Immedicabile vulnus the Quakers non-conviction of that for truth which they have tried the truthlesness of already by a surer Touch-Stone than that of the Bishops Traditional talk or in ca●…e of Non-submission even against Conviction which himself confesseth would not be pleasing to God to the Bishops bare Conceptions upon a Text or two when once held forth to them by him so or so interpreted as to some un●…rring Cano●… por quem cuncta prius tendand a could heartily wish notwithstanding the 〈◊〉 voice of Iacob that the ●…ough hands of Esa●… might be laid on to no less than very Amputation and Abscision For first as to that point of Liberty of Conscience which in his Epistle and the first part of his Book also he treats much about though he would be thought to be in his Pitty and Christian Charity ●… pleader for it at least on the behalf of those Poor Silly Quakers as he 〈◊〉 terms them as if he were indeed some Compassionate Moderator of mens ●…rathful and hasty Spirits towards them Yet considering how like the Lizard which what ever good prints he makes with his Feet on the Sand when he runs dashes them all out again with his bushie Taile that comes behind this Charitable and Pittiful Bishop interlines his Pitty and Christian Charity with so much Unchristian Antichristian Cruelty so many Corrosives among his Cordialls flings so many Firebrands after his favourable Fomentations and seconds his lenitives with so many sharpe and supercillious lancings all he utters to the mollyfiing of mens Minds and Manners towards us amounts to as much as if he had said just nothing His Charity and his Pitty also for the expression of which and his paines therein though he expect it not as he sayes because of out Ingratitude yet he seems to himself to have deserved thanks was expressed as the Bishop himself intimates in that his Intercession for us to the House of Lords not obliged but unspoken to by the Quakers before the Exhibition of the Edict against us●… that it might be forborn till some course might be taken for our Information Secondly In this present course of putting forth this his Book in order to such an Information of the Quakers as aforesaid Which first way of the expression of his Charity is by himself testified to pag. 1 2 3. in these Words Bish. Finding lately in the most honourable House of Peers that a 〈◊〉 was likely to pass in order to punish with great Penalties those English Subjects who under the name of Quakers shall refuse to take as other legal Oaths so those which are usually required in Judicial Proceedings c. I was hereupon bold thus far to intercede with that honourable House in the behalfe of those poor People who are likely to fall under the Penalties of the Law that I craved so far a respite for some time as to the Execution of those Penalties upon any of them as Offenders until some such Rational and Religious Course were taken 〈◊〉 might best inform those men of the Lawfulness by God's aswel as Man's Law of imposing and taking such publick Oathes that so answering first their Scruples and fairely removing their Difficulties either they might be brought to a cheerful Obedience in that particular or else be

against his own and his Brethrens present Practice who before they have used all those rational and Religious means which they then used in Meekness of Wisdom to convince them of any Error or mistake have given their consent by Bill to the ruining of the Quakers and also before the passing of the said Bill have permitted their Apparitors and other Officers who have hunted Poor Innocents from place to place as it were on purpose to weary them out like Tormentors by summoning them to Courts far remote from each other and that onely for either not coming to the Publick Place of Worship or for not paying of Mortuaries Smoak-Pennies Peter-pence Easter Reckonings with other such like spiritual Impositions which seeing we find them not mentioned at all in the Scriptures nor practiced among Primitive Christians whether they are not meerly mens Traditions and Inventions yea and Relicks of the Church of Rome we desire to be informed by the Bishop in all plainness if he judges they are not Bish. Or secondly by rationall convincing them of their Error which is a work of time and dexterity not to be done on the suddain though very worthy to bear a part in the Discipline of the Church which should require of every one a Reason why they differ from and forsake the establisht Religion Answ. We appeal to the Bishop himself where ever there hath been as yet any such rational proceedings of the Bishops with us in order to the convincing us of Error with such time and dexterity as he speakes of Yea rather have they not run upon us on the suddain without using any of there own prescribed remedies without exercising that which he calls a part of the Discipline of the Church without requiring as they say they ought to do of every one a reason why we differ from them in Religion Although we have been alwayes ready to render not only to them but to every one that asketh us a reason of our Faith and Practice but that the Deficiency hath been ever on their part witness the Bishops own words Pag. 7. where he saith of himself at least who hath had as much to do with the Quakers as any one of them all hath had I never conversed with any of their Persons and pag. 4. With the Quakers I have so little Correspondency that I have not any acquaintance not knowing any of that way by face or name or so much as one hours conversation But the Bishop who hath a Plaister ready at hand to apply to every wound that he gives himself unawares by his unwary conflicts with the Quakers hath one Pittiful Put-off for this oversight also for saith he in the same place of the Quakers Bish. They are a Generation of People so Supercilious or so shie that they are scarce Sociable or accessible speaking much in their Conventicles behind mens backs but seldom arguing any thing in presence of those that are best able to answer or satisfie them Answ. To which we reply that it is very well known that they are a People not so Supercilious or so shie as he would make them for Shieness Superciliousness Unsociableness Unaccessibleness is the usual Deportment of the Bishops themselves towards the Quakers whom while they seem to themselves to be some sons of Anak they look upon as Grashoppers with disdain whose Greatness will scarce stoop to entertain any conference with the Poor silly Quakers as he terms them in order to their Conviction of the Errors they deem them to be in although the Holy Men and Ancient Fathers of the Church above named as this Bishop himself testifies of them did not at any time so despise the meanest of any Christians outward Condition or the Fatuity of their Opinions as not to set a great value on their Souls for whom Christ dyed Neither do the Quakers seek Corners to speak in behind mens backs as he falsely charges them with the doing of in their Conventicles which are places open to all comers but appear as publickly as possibly they can in their Testimony to the Truth of which they are not ashamed neither do they refuse to argue any thing but rather offer often to argue every thing in presence of those even the Bishops themselves who judge themselves best able to answer or satisfie them who are indeed so wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight as to take upon them to impose things to be believed and done on seventy-times seven men that are able were the Bishops as willing to condescend by word of mouth to render their reasons for them to render a sufficient reason to the contrary By the Bishops own prescription then of this second Remedy as well as of the first Sith in this second which he commends he is found defective while he Condemns the first which alone he is found active in he stands altogether Condemned by himself not onely in what he Condemns but in what he ●…wes Bish. Or thirdly by changing the Established Lawes for their sake which is not for the Piety Prudence Honour and safety of a Nation and Church when it judgeth its Constitutions to be Religious Righteous and convenient Answ. This were an effectuall way to end and mend all indeed to change the Lawes Established which are for the Establishing of Persecution for the sake of the Persecuted sufferers that dissent out of Tenderness of Conscience and to Establish in their stead such as allow a Liberty to all Religions while they keep Righteousness and Peace amongst each other in outward matters whether Ethnicks Turks Iewes Papists or Protestants of what Form or Profession soever The Civil Power interposing between them all to no other end then the bare preserving of the Civil Peace and of equity innocency honesty and truth in their dealings each with other in meer externall affaires Yea doubless no Nation will ever stand firm in the time that is now to come till their Foundation be that Love that allowes to all men the same Liberty of their Consciences which each man desires to enjoy himself till all People be permitted to walk in the Name of his God and the Lords own People to walk in the Name of the Lord their God without any molestation or prohibition for Conscience being that truly tender part in which those onely excepted by the Bishop himself which being wholly resolved into suffering Principles cannot make resistance all others though never so Conformable through fear for a timè being trod upon will turn again and when they can relieve themselves from the heavy hands of their Oppressors And besides all those mischievous and ill consequences of War which ariseth mostly about Religion 't is the express command of Christ which what Nation soever violates will first or last dearly rue their violation of it Mat. 13. that the Tares viz. false worshippers should stand and be let alone though not in the Garden or true Church yet at least in the Field which