Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	great_a	heaven_n	know_v	2,359	5	3.7515	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85415	Sion-Colledg visited. Or, Some briefe animadversions upon a pamphlet lately published, under the title of, A testimonie to the truth of Jesus Christ, and to our Solemne League and Covenant, &c. Subscribed (as is pretended) by the ministers of Christ within the province of London. Calculated more especially for the vindication of certaine passages cited out of the writings of J.G. in the said pamphlet, with the black brand of infamous and pernicious errors, and which the said ministers pretend (amongst other errors so called) more particularly to abhominate. Wherein the indirect and most un-Christian dealings of the said ministers, in charging & calling manifest and cleere truths, yea such as are consonant to their own principles, by the name of infamous and pernicious errours, are detected and laid open to the kingdome, and the whole world. / By the said John Goodwin, a servant of God and men, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1648 (1648)	Wing G1202; Thomason E425_2; ESTC R202233	27,686	36

errors of what opinions assertions Truths they please without any manner of conviction To cry out It is not meet that such or such opinions should live or be tolerated as if life and toleration were an heritage appropriate and belonging of right to their opinions only how inconsistent soever either with reason or with Truth is little better testimony to the Truth of Iesus Christ than that deportment of the Jewes was unto Moses when they cryed out with a loud voyce stopping their eares and ran upon Stephen with one accord to cast him out of the Citie and stone him Acts 7. 57. But I trust their meaning is not that they intend by their Booke as solemn and Sacred a testimonie to their League and Covenant as they doe to the Truth of Jesus Christ 1. To assert the worth excellency of it with as high an hand with as much zeale vigour and vehemency of spirit as they intend to the Great Truths of Jesus Christ though they make no difference in words between the one and the other For otherwise the solemne Covenant they speake of being onely matter of engagement not of assertion or opinion I know not what testimony it is capable of unlesse they will call a regular full and through observation of it a testimony unto it which is a testimony if testimony it be unpossible to be rendered unto it in this or in any other booke or writing whatsoever the best part of this testimony consisting in going before one another in a reall not verball reformation But what it is they meane or would have others to conceive they should meane by calling their piece a testimony unto our Solemne League and Covenant I solemnly and seriously professe is above the reach of my understanding or learning reasonably to imagine Have I not then reason to doubt whether any of those men of renowne and not rather some petty Scribe was the Compiler of it 3. Whereas to amplifie and enrich their Title they adde over and above the former expressions of a Testimony to the truth of Jesus Christ and And to our Solemne League and Covenant these words As also against the Errours Heresies and Blasphemies of these times the Toleration of them I submissively demand of them whether there be any thing more any further matter of consequence held forth in these words above what was contained in those first words A testimony to the Truth of Jesus Christ If so I desire to know where or in what part of the booke they give testimony unto the Truth of Jesus Christ and again where and in what other part of it they give testimony against Errours and Heresies I can finde no other Testimony given in it to the Truth of Jesus Christ but onely that which I confesse is very unproperly so called which stands in a citation of certaine passages or sayings out of other mens writings imperiously sentenced for Errours and Heresies as if the Chaire of Papall infallibility were of late translated from Rome to Sion-Colledge If not they shall doe honestly and well in the next Impression of the booke though it had been more honesty to have done it in the first to leave out of their Title the false flourish of A testimony to the Truth of Iesus Christ as also those words And to our solemne League and Covenant there being no such thing in all the booke as any testimony thereunto and content themselves onely with calling it A Testimony against Errors and Heresies onely mollifying it with this soft and Christian explication as we count and call Errors and Heresies For certainly there are in these papers that are so called Errors many and Heresies many which yet have nothing of the nature but onely the names of both So then these words in the Title As also against errors c. being so meerly and broadly tautologicall and empty are a ground of conjecture unto me that the men prenamed with their compeeres are wholly innocent from the offence committed in making the book 4. Whereas the Title is yet further extended by the addition of these words And the Toleration of them which is a meere non-ens a thing not in being I cannot conceive that the judgements or parts of the said persons should so farre faile them as to appeare in print and that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with a testimony in their pens against that of which God made the world I mean nothing or that which is not I might further adde nor is ever like to be For if a captious pen had the expression in hand it would finde no difficulty at all in carrying it into such a sense which would import a calumniating insinuation against the Parliament as if they were so inclinable to grant an universall Toleration of all Errors Heresies and Blasphemies that unlesse they were counterbalanced with the feare of displeasing these mens zeale burning so vehemently in opposition thereunto there were no other means under heaven to take them off from it yea it may not without some ground of probability be conceived that the Authours of these papers proclaime so loud their enmity against Toleration to make the friendship of all lukewarme and formall professors round about them being the great bulk of the Kingdome who know not what to doe what shift to make for a Religion if the State be not mercifull unto them in providing one or other for them But as farre as yet I have understood or doe for the present apprehend the Genius or temper of the Parliament in reference to an universall Toleration I have reason to judge them by many degrees further from it than to stand in need of the importune heat of these men to quench their inclinations to it 5. The Book it selfe being every whit as capable of bearing the Title of A testimony against Truth sound and orthodox opinions as against Errors and Heresies as hath already in part and will more fully appeare hereafter it is a peece of Incredibility to me that men of that note and interest of which the persons named with severall others of the same line are known to be should so prevanicate with their respective reputations as to prefix a single-coloured title before a parti-coloured book 6. Whereas all the Errors mustered together in the book are said in the title page to be collected out of their Authours own books alledged in the margine and yet in faire and full contradiction hereunto are said page 2. to be the very dregges and spawn of those old accursed Heresies which have been already condemned dead buried and rotten in their graves long agoe and are now by evill men and seducers raked out and revived by which this present generation however is fairly acquitted from being the authours of them Revivers being no Authours I cannot so farre undervalue the worth of the persons named as to judge them conscious of so grosse an oversight or consequently interessed in the composure of the

Priests or Clergy-men gravely met together in the Name and Authority of their sacred Unction to stigmatize what opinions they pleased for Errors and Heresies and so to render them uncleane and not lawfull to be received or beleeved by their blinde Proselites But the Day-spring from on high hath now blessed be God visited this nation and men have put away those childish things from them to beleeve as the Church i. as the Clergy beleeveth to call Error whatsoever 52. Church-men though in conjunction with threescore Church-livings or more shall baptize by the name of Error to build their Faith and soul-provisions for eternity upon the sandy and slippery foundations of the judgements or affections rather of such men who have put the stumbling-block of their iniquity I mean this present world and self-interests before their faces These things considered evident it is that the Architects of the building called A Testimony to the truth of Jesus Christ c. have not laid so much as one stone aright in all this pile for their purpose of extirpating Errors or Heresies Therefore as to this point they have done nothing at all in pursuance of their Covenant but several things as hath been shewed to the violation of it The Covenant bindes them to endeavour the extirpation of Errors and Heresies and they have endeavoured or at least directly acted towards the establishment and further rooting of them Secondly neither have they pursued their Covenant according to the plain and true Grammaticall sense of it in pleading as they doe for Presbyteriall government For first it is the Assertion and Confession of that great Hyperaspistes of this government Mr. Edwards that the Covenant of the Kingdomes doth not tye us to the government of the Church of Scotland a If not so hardly then to Presbyteriall Government And secondly whether he had confessed it or no the truth it selfe hereof had been never the further out of the way For certain it is that there is not so much as any one syllable word clause or sentence in it by which according to the plain and true Grammaticall sense it engageth any man to the contending for or endeavouring of Presbytery Presbyterian Government is but Apochrypha in respect of the Covenant And though with Magisteriall confidence enough they conclude but without premisses pag. 24. that Presbyteriall government truly so called by Presbyteries and Synods is that Government which is most agreeable to the minde of Jesus Christ revealed in the Scripture yet as if their consciences had not taken the expression well at their hands by that time they come to page 34. they abate of their former reckoning halfe in halfe For here speaking of the Government they had declared for which say they we CONCEIVE to be most agreeable to Scripture But upon these termes they that should declare for the Independent government conceiving it to be most agreeable to the Scripture should pursue their engagement by the Covenant every whit as much as they Therefore in whatsoever they say or plead in their Testimony for Presbyterial government they do nothing at all in any pursuance of their Covenant according to the plain and true Grammaticall sense of it but only in pursuance of such an interpretation or sense of it which lying most commodious for their honour profit and ease hath by the mediation of their affections prepared it selfe a way into their judgements and hath there obtained the preheminence above all others it being very incident to men to suppose as the Apostle expresseth it gain godlinesse a i. in all matters of question and dispute to judge that most agreeable to the minde of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures which is best consisting with worldly ends So that howsoever they flourish in the front of their book as if they meant to give such an high and honorable Testimony to their Solemne league and Covenant and again in the reere as if they had accordingly avouched that Covenant which they have sworn to God b in this piece yet the cleare truth is that their flourish is all their fight they have not struck so much as one stroke with their pen in any legitimate or direct prosecution of their engagement by it And though it had been no great work of super-erogation in case they had done ten times more than now they have of such a tendency and import especially upon such a goodly frontispiece of pretence being also numerous enough if not many to spare and of super-abounding abilities for such a worke yet had they not violated this their Covenant and that ten times over yea and this in the most notorious and shamelesse manner in stead of keeping it they had consulted much better both for their credits and consciences than now they have done The truth is they have made more breaches upon their Covenant in this little piece than can readily be brought to account or ranged into form For how often doe they dissemble and prevaricate with their professions And again after all their shamelesse and most notorious prevarications and unconscionable dealings how doe they in the close wipe their mouthes with you know who professing that all that they had done was in the integrity of their hearts to discharge their dutie conscientiously in appearing for God his Truth and cause of Religion p. 34. But 1o Was it in the integrity of your hearis to discharge your duty conscientiously that you charge him with errors against the divine authority of the Scriptures as you doe page 5. who you cannot but know hath bent himselfe with the uttermost of his endeavoure for the vindication of their Divine Authority yea and who you have reason to judge hath laboured in this argument as much if not more and this with as much faithfulnesse as any of you all How did not your hearts smite yo in drawing up this bloody charge against him lest that very book of his which you had in your hands when you did it and which you cite in your margine should rise up in judgment against you in the great day considering that your consciences could not but tell you that he had dealt faithfully throughly and sincerely in pleading the cause of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures therein Is this your reall Reformation to cry out Midnight when the Sunne shines in his might upon your faces 2. Was it to discharge your duty conscientiously that you cite some of my words barely suppressing craftily my sence and explication of them being neer at hand as you do twice for failing in your wickednesse pag. 5. of your booke Or doe I not plainly cleerly and distinctly enough declare unto the world in my Treatise concerning the Divine Authority of the Scriptures in what sence I hold the Scriptures whether Translations or Originalls to be the word of God and consequently the foundation of Christian Religion and in what not Let the 13th and 15th pages of my said Treatise be look'd upon