Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A37678
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Ecclesia & reformatio a dialogue betwixt St. Paul's Church and Salters Hall.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing E132; ESTC R26091
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6,415
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38
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undon Their Souls beneath thy gilded Altars groan Stifl'd in Prisons robb'd of Liberty For Non-compliance to thy Foppery Which tho to Forms Divine thou mak'st pretence Have no alliance unto common Sense Thy mimick Postures and thy sensless Bows Thy gilded Organs and Theatrick Rows Of Fidlers Harpers Singing-men and Boys Praising of God in a confounded noise Can bawdy Ballads chant or sacred Hymn One day a Fidler next a Seraphim He whose polluted Breath but t'other day Charm'd the lewd Audience at a bawdy Play Sings with the same lewd Breath within thy Quire And tunes his Voice to David's sacred Lyre I peep'd within thy Gates the other day For Novelty may lead the best astray I view'd thy Altar and the gilded Wood Where in a Corner a strange Songster stood A Goldfinch he appear'd unto the Sight His sacred Vestments were of red and white But when he open'd his unhallow'd Throat He seem'd some croaking Raven by his Note Prodigious Scare-crow on his Perch was rear'd To warn the old and make the young afraid Lord how with gogle Eyes he wonders at Some mighty somthing is the Lord knows what Extends his Arms as Angels do their Wings Seems to mount upward as below he sings This this the Worship which thy Laws ordain Thus thus the Sacred Name is took in vain Thus Men their Reason and their Sense confound And chuse Religion by an empty Sound Me Sounds alike do please the croaking Frogs Thy Nest of Whistles or the Drove of Hogs I teach my Sons Humility and Love And all the Graces furnish'd from Above Not frothy Notions Philosophick Pride But Christ for ruin'd Sinners crucify'd How they unruly Passions should subdue Discharge the Old man and receive the New I bid 'em still for Sufferings prepare And be provided for the Christian War ' Gainst days of Persecution shall return And they as Saints of old for Faith may burn I bid 'em oft in Meditations be And tho thou hat'st my Children pray for thee St. Paul's My Sacred Rites have bin approv'd by all We Orthodox and holy Fathers call And learned Prelates above all the rest Lately deceas'd and number'd with the Blest Whose holy Lives have demonstration giv'n They were the Darlings of the Church and Heav'n 'T is want of Knowledg makes you thus dissent You should you should your Ignorance lament Your native Sowrness and Stupidity Two ill Companions for a Christian be While you no harmless Ceremonies grant You break the Windows to destroy the Paint Because you find irregular the Porch You are resolv'd to batter down the Church Thus some craz'd Mariner upon the Deep To drown the Rats dos madly sink his Ship You can no good by my Devotion feel Nor will before my sacred Altars kneel But for Preferment or a wealthy Place Interest usurps and baffles conquer'd Grace Your Sons assemble and with mine receive The Sacrament as I the same do give Nought of their former Faith dos then remain They ride the Horse but Interest guides the Rein. Salters-Hall On Fathers Councils Synods or Decrees I don't rely or guide my Faith by these Of human Race all our Fore-fathers were Oft left the Good and with the Bad did err When ere their Doctrins do a Doubt afford I bring it to the Touchstone of the Word I nere cou'd think the righteous God would give Power to one for others to believe Or that a Father had a right to be Judg for himself and his Posterity My Sons thou slander'st and call'st ignorant Thy Sons tho learn'd do all the Graces want My Sons too could their human Learning boast But that in things of God and Faith is lost Can'st thou the Spirit and the Fathers Love By Mathematick Demonstration prove Why God Religion in this Land should place And to so many Lands deny his Grace In human Learning we no Profit find For human things affect a human Mind The things of God a nobler heat require Our Souls are touch'd with a Celestial Fire Which tho we can't conceive we must admire The blessed Martyrs in the days of old My sacred Truths and Doctrins sound did hold Did the same Faith and the same Worship teach Alike they worship'd and alike did preach Their Learning was their Persecutors shame But 't was God's Spirit led 'em through the Flame Nature oppress'd by Nature quits the Field Without divine assistance soon dos yield My Sons too many and alas too weak Do at thy Altars their Preferments seek Where Int'rest rules the weaker Graces fall And men corrupted bow the Knee to Baal Side with the World for Profit and Estate But these my Sons are illegitimate Creep to my Altars ' mongst the numerous Throng Not well instructed to continue long But if God's Word and Sacrament divine Be thus abus'd the fault is wholly thine I blame my Sons who with thy Laws do close But more I blame thee dost those Laws impose Laws which the Rights of Nature do infringe Corrupt the Faith and Ordinances change Thus alter'd thus directed are at best Only a secular and human Test To ruin Faith you Votaries decoy For thus to alter's wholly to destroy While you in Pow'r your vast Dominion place You do the worth of Sacraments debase The ill effects of a corrupted Grace Thy Sons by Profits are grown wondrous great Why are my Sons excluded from the State Thy Sons grow proud while mine you thus debar For Pride and Power still consistent are My Sons are all excluded from the Court And must not serve a Monarch they support A King they love a Settlement they own And did their best to bring him to the Throne For him they always most devoutly pray That Heav'n would bless and still direct his way I teach my Infants his just Praise to sing For him my Lute and trembling Harp I string And all my Sons are loyal to the King Thy Sons are disobedient to the Laws And traiterously embark in a bad Cause Would all our Rights and Liberties betray Set up the Slave and take the Man away Some of thy Sons ingloriously contriv'd To take that Life away by which they liv'd With murderous Hands that sacred King to seize Which sav'd our sinking Nations in distress Their villanous Acts and their detested Fame Our City Gates do all around proclaim St. Paul's How ill pronounc'd is sacred Loyaltie By thy inhuman murderous Brood and Thee What mighty Mischiefs heretofore you 've don Murder'd the Father and depos'd the Son You loyal prove only to gain by Stealth That hideous ill shap'd thing a Commonwealth Which better with your Discipline might sute More rigid far than mine and absolute My Sons were ever from Rebellion free Much fam'd for their unspotted Loyalty I the best Guardian to a Monarch's Throne All my rebellious Children do disown Thy Sons uneasy do promote our Wars Bred up to Factions and intestine Jars Ill natur'd insolent corrupt and bad Morose perverse and mischievously mad Turbulent proud impatient in distress Their
Ecclesia Reformatio A DIALOGUE Betwixt St. Paul's Church AND Salters Hall LONDON Printed in the Year M DC XC VIII A DIALOGUE Betwixt St. PAUL's Church AND SALTER's HALL Salters Hall TELL me vast Fabrick where thou mean'st to grow What mighty top must sute thy bulk below Must thy vast Spire attempt the distant Skies As thy high Roof does o're the Houses rise Like some proud Mountain near a spacious Plain Thou dost the Flocks and little Hills disdain Thy Pageant Pomp and gilded Arches shine By holy Sanction and a Light divine Th' astonishd Crowd before thee do confess And all around the gawdy Idol bless Submissive People tremble at thy Nod And worship thee tho they profane their God Whilst those whom Reason better things has taught Are by constraint unto thy Altars brought Are forc'd to bow or impiously you break What your Faith calls the stiff and stubborn Neck You like some mighty Whale upon the Sea Make trembling Fishes your Commands obey Or else you execute pretended Power The Right divine is giv'n you to devour St. Paul's This mighty Orb by Holy Writ we 're taught From confus'd Attoms was to Order brought The Days and Years in regular State began And ever since in just Procession ran Nature exorbitant does often grow The Blood flows sometimes high ebbs often low But in Religion a Decorum 's us'd Its Rights are orderly and not confus'd The brainless Mob wild Passions do controul And Infant-Saints need Guardians to the Soul Spiritual Doctors don't the Patient please But sute the Medicines to the Disease If grown delirious Physick is refus'd Force for the Patient 's good must then be us'd Salters Hall If human Laws may force a human Mind One's fancy may another's Conscience bind And those who never own'd a God at all At least do blindly serve and bow to Baal Make Terms of their Communion wrong or right If all Religion must be made by Might We chuse a Doctor for our Body's Health And give him Fees according to our Wealth We try his Med'cines then approve his Skill But think no Law impowers him to kill The Heav'nly Quacks no Power can controul They have a Right Divine to kill the Soul Spiritual Physick we must take by force You drench the Soul as Farriers do a Horse Where Doctors thus Man's Reason do invade The Patient 's sober and the Doctor 's mad Had not the Mortal must such Toils endure Better be damn'd than undergo the Cure For where the Church such Recipes does bring Saving and Damning is the self same thing The Laws in Faith can no Direction give By Grace Divine and Reason we believe Tho we our Hopes in Reason do not place Yet Reason follows or is join'd with Grace The Spirit 's Work no humane Law controuls And Reason tells th' effect it has on Souls In vain the Soul with humane Laws you bind In sensless Shackles fetter up the Mind Which like th' eternal Thought is unconfin'd As if our Sense was only fit for Trade And Reason never for Religion made And must not of our Souls concern debate But blindly grope for an eternal State St. Paul's Reason may be on tumbling Surges tost Or not well govern'd in the Clouds be lost Reason in all things ought to have its due But still have proof to know your Reason's true 'T is plain how often Men do change their Mind Oft as the Tides or the unconstant Wind Continual Errors ' mongst the wise abound And not one Man infallible is found How oft the Judgment leads the Man aside And Reason wanders when it has no Guide I mark the way your Reason ought to go And the best Path to Heav'nly Mansions show By me directed you may overcome The crooked Serpent and the Whore of Rome I founded am upon the Rock Divine I am your Guide and the blest Scripture's mine The Holy Word my Charter and Delight And National States have recogniz'd my Right If stubborn Souls my Precepts cannot draw I must convert 'em by the force of Law The Body's Pleasure did the Soul oppress Made Mankind fall into Unhappiness The Body justly its Afflictions hath To save the Soul from an eternal Wrath. Think it not hard if I Chastisement give I scourge the Flesh to make the Conscience live Salters Hall I know our Reason may be in the dark And blunder oft and often miss the mark But the All-wise his Councils can unfold And give his Spirit as he did of old The mighty Truths of the Eternal Word No aids of humane Reason can afford The Light Divine is evermore conceal'd But by the God of Light himself reveal'd Whose Spirit reaches to the inward Parts He views the secret corners of our Hearts Were you my Guide I needs must go astray When only Jus Divinum leads the way How can you me a safe Instruction grant Who know not half the Mercies I do want What Stings of Conscience I within me feel Or Apprehensions of approaching Hell A Guide to Reason of a nobler Make Than what of humane Frailty does partake How can your Reason be a Guide to mine When both our Reason's equally divine Thro equal Clouds and daily Errors pass And differ only as improv'd by Grace The Scripture only is our Reason's Guide And all is Noise and Foolishness beside Lay by the Law and thy Foundation 's gone Thou art not built upon the Corner-stone By Humane Power thou art wondrous great But Civil Sanction proves a Human Cheat The Church of Christ to endless Ages blest Can of it self without a Law subsist When Foes invade her she has no Recourse To weak Auxili'ries of humane Force Our blessed Saviour has no Pow'r given To mortal Man to change the Laws of Heav'n Th' eternal Law do's ev'ry where suffice To rule the Church and to instruct the Wise If you to mend it do a Power own By the same Power you may pull it down 'T is highest Arrogance to think that you In making Forms our Saviour can outdo If only Law thy boasted Basis be The Pagan Temples are as good as thee The Law thy Prayers does impose on Man Imposes also the Turks Alcoran When back'd with Pow'r your Articles you give We do at best implicitly believe St. Paul's I do not the eternal Law infringe Nor do the Churches Constitution change My Laws were never necessary meant But left to Souls as things indifferent The Modes of Worship are no part of Faith I do believe but what the Scripture saith But by the Power above 't is left to me T' appoint what Modes there shall in Worship be My Rites are all conform unto the Word And heav'nly Comfort to the Soul afford I in my Choire transporting Raptures find Seraphick Strains and an exalted Mind These are the Blessings I impose on you For which Apostate I am deem'd your Foe Salters-Hall By things Indifferent I am betray'd For still I find 'em necessary made My Sons by these have often been