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
and the World would cry out on them should they not have some ugly thing to lay to their Charge after having so unhandsomly treated them But these Aspersions have been wiped off over and over and it has been said If it be enough to Accuse who shall be Innocent The Charge also has been returned on the Accusers Heads to whom indeed it belongs For Tyrants and Oppressors blow the Coals and then make Wonders at and accuse the Flame They wonder men will not be Quiet and accuse them of Disturbance when They are their only Disturbers and occasion of all the Commotion by Oppressing them and Punishing them without a Cause They make multitudes of Penai Laws and by Consequence multitudes of Delinguents The fewer the Penal Laws are the more Quietness and Peace always there is in the World and those were happy Ages when Verba minantia fixo are legebantur Every man might go but to the Market Cross and read presently his Duty what he was to do and what to avoid The plain Truth is the multitudes of Penal Laws do but muster up and show the World how strong they are in Delinquents and when they see their Numbers they take Courage and presently Conspire animated by their being equally Obnoxious to throw off their Yoke and Government that hath made them all such Criminals and Subjected them to Punishment for things in their own nature Innocent and such Laws proves generally fatal to the Makers Further it hath been made to appear that 't is a most Unreasonable and Unjust Thing that a King should come to a Crown and not to have the Benefit and Service of all his Subjects indifferently That those Laws which qualifie one sort of men only for his Service are too Partial and Unjust and put it into the Power of those men to do with him what they please That 't is not fit nor safe for a Prince to have but one Staff to lean on or one Weapon to defend himself That 't is Unreasonable and Unjust that any one sort of men under what Denomination soever should engross all Honours and Preferments to themselves and have all the Favour of the Prince and only sit in the Sunshine and all the rest in the Shade whose Fidelity and Integrity to their Prince their Sufficiency and Ability in Business their Peaceable Temper and equal if not more probable Arguments for the truth of their Religion set them on equal ground and give them as large and just a Claim thereto as others That such Discriminating and Partial Laws do naturally tend to put the Kingdom in Confusion and as long as one Religion as they call it receives an Establishment and another doth not that has equal Pretentions to it there will never be Peace and Quiet in England Again It has been proved that Laws are Naturally Null and Void and grow into Desuetude and need no formality of a Repeal after the Reasons for which they were Enacted are taken away or when they bring so many Inconveniences which out-ballance their Advantages A Law for good Consideration is made That for the space of Ten Years none shall presume to Kill or Destroy such a sort of Wild Beasts but in the space of Five Years they grow so numerous and unruly that they come into the Neighbouring Towns and make great Havock and destroy the Inhabitants Will any man deny the men of the place the priviledge of killing them and charge them with a Breach of the Law No sure I Such Laws lose their Obligation and ought to lose their Denominations too and to be called something elst than Laws rather than Grievances or Nutsanâ—es which they really are and ought to do no Mischief under the specious Title of Laws His Majesty is charged with breach of Laws for taking such Nuisances away methinks they should rather thank him for such Low Condescention it being the Scavengers Office. If unruly Fire break out in our Buildings a Door is admitted to be broken open or a neighbouring House to be blown up and no injustice charged 'T is His Majesty's Case He pretends not to put the Fires out of men's Chimneys or to Cancel any wholsome or necessary Laws but to put a stop to the Outrage and Violence of those Fiery Cruel and Sanguinary Laws that have made such Havock amongst his People and if so much Power must not be allowed him he has not Power enough to Defend Himself or His People But this Opposition being made by Interested and Unreasonable Men is less to be taken notice of And I question not but will be over-ruled by Him who is not Partial as they â—â—e but consults the Good of the whole and will not let any one sort of men have Power to Oppress the rest But then again as to our Differences I am utterly against reconciling of them by such Methods which some men take and am indifferent whether they be reconciled or no so they may be made Harmless and Easie to the Publick And I do protest I cannot see so much Iniquity in them as some would perswade and hardly know how to call them Differences but observe more their Agreement than their Difference For all do mutually agree to Worship the same Eternal Ever-Living God and believe in his Ever-Blessed Son Jesus Christ The Differences I most observe are Men's Differences and mutual Animosities about Differences And I affirm the first Differences in the various modes of Worship are mostly Innocent but the second Differences are Criminal that is men's differing one with another and inflicting Punishments one upon another about them and breaking the Bonds of Charity hating and denying Communion one to another on the score of any way of Worship differing from theirs though altogether as Innocent And what I have said before is not with a Design to make all Men to be of one and the same Mind to have the same Thoughts and Apprehensions of things to agree and perform the same things after the same Manner and Method as some Men are over-fond of and lay out all their endeavours but to no purpose to bring to pass for this is neither possible nor necessary and therefore do rather incourage honest and sincere Differences than such forced and Hypocritical Agreements For what signifies a Congregation and Presence of Bodies when there is a dissent and absence of Minds 'T is the Unity of Minds makes the Agreement and though Company and Universality may seem fine and plausible things to men yet they cannot be pleasing in the sight of God if accompanied with Error or Hypocrisie which are generally the Concomitants of pack'd Agreements But we know that he is well-pleased with our sincerity and good intentions and will rather Pity than Punish our unwilling and unfortunate mistakes in our various and differing Methods and Instances of Respect unto him But my design is from the Impossibility of men's Agreement about the things they contend from the Innocency of their first Differences from the