Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A39063
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An Expedient for peace perswading an agreement amongst Christians &c.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing E3872; ESTC R25075
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27,763
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15
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Paul told the Romans This is the Word of Faith which we Preach That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe with thine Heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved as also St. John For every Spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God God dwelleth in him and he in God So that such a belief with sincere and hearty endeavours to please God according to the best Notices a man can get will secure a man his Salvation if it will not there is no Salvation to be had at all Now the best Notices we can get and only Rule to direct our Lives and Actions are the Books of the Old and New Testament wherein are transmitted the Transactions of Heaven with the Sons of Men and are of an inestimable value teaching all things fully that relate to God or Men as to the Nature and Worship of the one or the Duty and Salvation of the other Now that men can understand these Books is a thing without all controversie and only disputed by them whose interest it is they should not I mean men of ordinary and mean Capacities for if not to what end were they wrote Or why to them directed And why are all commanded to read and search them if they were not capable to understand them And how can such men who deny it be able to vindicate the Wisdom Goodness or Justice of Almighty God in delivering his Creatures a Rule to walk by and exact a due conformity thereto if they were not capable to understand it No certainly the Good God as he has condescended to give his Creatures a Rule so he has calculated this Rule to all their Capacities and so adapted the one for the other that they have the greatest reason in the World to Adore and Admire his Wisdom and Goodness for the same I will allow that some can better understand them than others and that they are not equally understood of all because of the difference of men's Capacities and Acquirements and because they should have a dependance and be beholding to one another which ministers to Charity but then nothing is more certain than that all men of the meanest Capacities may understand them sufficient and enough for Salvation if they come with a sincere affection of being instructed and of finding out Truth otherwise they would not answer the end for which they were designed Some things indeed the deepest Heads cannot reach and others the weakest Understandings can hardly possibly mistake and those too are all of the greatest importance If only one sort of men were able to understand them as some would have it we should have had notice from Heaven who those should be and how qualified and that in such plain Characters that it should not be possible we should mistake but there is no such thing And if any sort of men claim this Arcanum above others 't is an affront to the Understandings of all the rest and their Words ought not to be taken in their own Case And indeed 't is a thing too great to be trusted with any one sort of men Some indeed will only have Learned Men capable of understanding them but then if this should be what alamentable case the World would be in Truth would then 〈◊〉 a precarious thing and we should have no more of it than these Learned Men please and if they should be byassed corrupted or be dishonest what must the other three parts of the World do Must they lie at their Mercy and their Salvation depend on their Honesty No God forbid And blessed be his Name he has taken care men shall not lie liable to any such Impostures But if these men will needs be in the right above the rest and understand for them let them do their duty for them too for 't is not reasonable they should be charged with a duty that do not understand it But having found their own failings herein and that they are but men like others during not to be so confident as usual they betake themselves to shifts and to countenance their fallibility supply the defects of honesty and salve their imposition of their sence they set up a strange sort of Infallibility which indeed would put an end to all the Disputes and Differences in Chistondom were there any such thing But that which they have invented to put out the Flame serves only to increase it for where the Power of Infallibility is lodged Heaven has given us no notice which it would certainly have done had there been any such thing And 't is certain that those who pretend most to this Infallibility have been most deceived of all Indeed the Romanists for the most part have drove furiously and forced all their People to do the same thing and worship God the same way but this cannot be called an Agreement no more than Sheep are said to agree when they are drove up and Pounded all together by the Shepherd And there is greater Agreement amongst those though the foolish World think to the contrary who worship their Maker under the Administration of several Disciplines and Conduction of several Guides For Force and Violence may make a Congregation of Bodies but no Unity of Minds 'T is only a Hearty Intention Sincerity of Mind and Affections Simpleness and Identity of Address to the same Object which can be called Unity and Agreement and nothing else for other things though they may seem differences and disagreements to men yet really they are none at all for the Circumstances of Time and Place Publick or Private Day or Night the several Instances of Respects Methods and Way of Worship are all one and the same thing to God Almighty He only looks at the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Differences with men are not so with him if they agree in sincerity of Affections and integrity of Spirit that 's the Agreement he looks after 'T is true again That men understand the Scriptures differently and to different Senses but why this difference of Understanding should be Objected as a Crime I know not For 't is impossible it should be otherwise so long as there be such great variety of Humane Understandings and as long as they understand not differently and amiss on a bad end and design they cannot possibly be Criminal for no man is Obliged to understand better than he can Then again Many men may be totally Ignorant of many things in Scripture and yet be very Innocent and certainly if their Total Ignorance be no fault their understanding differently those things which they might have been Innocently ignorant of cannot make them guilty of a Crime if it should it would highly advance Ignorance and very much depress Understanding and Knowledge But further if they understand them differently which I contend for the most part they do in order to promote a Virtue encourage a Grace or
Folly and Vanity of their Contention all aiming at and designing the same things viz. The Salvation of their own Souls and the Glory of God to perswade men to calm quiet and soften their Minds and to convince them of the Unreasonableness of their Mutual Severities and Impositions and to dispose them to Mutual Compliances and Charity Also I would discountenance as much as possible the foolish and vain Attemps of those Men who with all the Art and Industry imaginable do endeavour to make the World all of One Mind are impatient of any Contradiction and Dâ—ssent 'T is strange that the Experience of so many Ages should not School them into a better Understanding let them quote the Age wherein they all agreed Has there not been Father against Father Council against Council a continuation of Changes and Innovations And have we not transmitted to us a Black List of Heresies and Schisms as men call them And 't is possible they may quote an Universal Force and Tyranny but never an Universal Agreement But why should I go on These are things past Contradiction c. And what hopes is there now to make Men all of One Mind more than formerly Have we not Their Difficulties and our Own too to contend with And to say true we have nothing handed down certain and not subject to dispute but the Good Being weadore and his only begotten Son in whom we believe These things indeed are Universally Credited amongst us and not disputed by any But all other things do and may challenge a Dispute since they have passed through so many differing Hands and served so many different Interests and Parties Indeed some Records I reckon more Authentick than others I mean those that teach and instruct us in the ways of Peace and Holy-Living but in general all lie more or less liable to exception For they have been managed by men of various and differing Understandings Passions Humours Constitutions and Interests And have we not the same sort of men And is not the World governed by the same Methods and Politicks as formerly We see every party quote Scripture and Fathers and Councils one against another But to what purpose For none of them at this time of the day after the Revolution of so many years are competent or sufficient to decide our Differences Every Age brings up Men of Prudence and Discretion enough to govern themselves and what the Fathers did is not to be drawn down for a President for these Time They lived in Ages wherein their Civil Customs were different from ours and their Civil Customs may as well be imposed on us as their Ecclesiastical their Civil Customs did influence their Ecclesiastical and so doth ours and that increases the difficulty Besides they were but Men and so are We They were Good Men indeed and lived Holy Lives and were Ornaments to their respective Generations and as such we ought to respect them But there is too much reverence paid to Antiquity by some and they are apt to draw very weak Conclusions and say Such a Father said such a thing Ergo 't is true and think this way of Arguing is Good and Authentick never considering the Truth and Reasonableness of the Thing so much as the Authority of the Man. But further passing over the Iniquity of the Times and the Corruptions which they may have undergone and supposing them to be all truly transmitted to us yet they will signifie very little at best since every Disputer and Party is to manage them They will speak any thing we would have them to speak and are Weapons in the Hands of every one that pleases to take them And nothing is more common than to hear all Sides and Parties say They have Reason Scriptures Fathers and Councils on their Side but this signifies nothing at all because they must not be Judges in their own Case Indeed they signifie as to particular men for instruction and direction in Holy Living and give Excellent Councel and Advice and minister to Holiness and Piety but will decide few of our Controversies since Parties must manage them 'T is certain that Law Scripture Argument and Reason signifies little amongst Disputers each Party calling that Law which doth serve their Turns that Scripture which doth seem to countenance their Opinion and that Reason and good Argument which favours and tends to promote their Design and not what really are so And this misery will still be continued in the World as long as we have several Interests to manage several Parties and so few if any indifferent and impartial Judges amongst us and all things will suffer Aggravation or Extenuation be great or little good or bad according as they quadrate with mens Opinions Prejudices or Interests But supposing men to be Impartial Diligent and Honest yet 't is impossible they should not differ in their Sentiments since their Understandings are so various And some understand more some less than is meant some Figuratively some Literally some Relatively others Collectively Distributively Privitively Positively Affirmatively Negatively and a hundred other ways to the wearying and wearing out of all the Adverbs Witness all those numerous and large Comments and Explications on Law and Gospel both by Ancient and Modern Expositors most differing one from the other though on the same Texts according to the Capacities differing Acquirements Educations Prejudices or Prior Notions of the Managers all which add to the Difficulties of Mens Agreement Then again Affection being founded in Likeness the various Authors find Abetters according as they find Readers of the same Humour and Constitutions One loves such a Book and such a Man and saith What he writes is certainly the Truth and Right and why Not that it really is so but because he writes something suitable to his Genius and Complexion The Sanguine loves the Chearful and Encouraging the Melancholy the most Doleful and Tragical Exposition and most call that which pleases them the Truth But further Let them tell me what good they have done by such their Endeavours of Uniting Men as they call it Have they no raised more Devils than they can lay Has not one Book begot another and one Dispute another And so like is Truth to Falshood and one thing to another and there be so many Plausibilities and Probabilities the Wisest and most Considering Man may be deceived and so by Consequence this Humour of Disputing propagated to the end of the World which instead of Curing and Healing Differences doth but enlarge the Breaches and increase them by raising Mens Passions and destroying Charity As to publick Disputes 't was hardly ever known but they that had most Power and the largest Interest always went away with the Victory And as for private I scarce ever knew two Persons engaged in a Dispute but that both came off worse though both got the better The love of Victory on one hand and the shame of being overcome on the other their Passion and