Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	body_n	church_n	head_n	1,965	5	6.4381	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92007	The ancient bounds, or Liberty of conscience tenderly stated, modestly asserted, and mildly vindicated.	Rous, Francis, 1579-1659.	1645 (1645)	Wing R2011; Thomason E287_3; ESTC R200087	74,527	88

Enemies And what is that Why the sword of the Spirit the Word of God it is described Emblematically Rev. 19.21 by a sword coming out of his mouth If Antichrist the great enemy shall be consumed with this sure then it shall be effectuall against the lesser And the Apostle cryes up not onely the sufficiency but the mightinesse of this meanes The weapons of our warfare are not carnall 2 Cor. 10.4 but spirituall and mighty through God 't is through God indeed and through him they are so mighty that Christ will not be beholding to King or Magistrate for their power to convert men by though he may use them to coerce insolent enemies and shelter the profession of the truth as was noted before Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit The Spirit of Christ is the Churches neck mentioned Cant. 4.4 that knits Christ and the Church together as the neck doth the head and the body and see how 't is described there Thy neck is like the Tower of David builded for an Armoury whereon there bang a thousand Bucklers all Shields of mightie men Christ you see hath not left his Church without a Magazine an Armoury even his Word and Spirit which is quick and powerfull wherewithall Christ that mighty man defended himselfe against Satan and overthrew him like that sling of David wherewith he prevailed against the mighty Philistim and what cannot this sword doe backt by the Spirit in the hand of Christs Ministers and Members For the Efficacy of all Christs Institutions in his Church lies in the Spirit and not in the flesh As in preaching and Sacraments so in Discipline so in beating downe Errors 't is Christ doth all by his Spirit not by such instruments nor in such an order as to satisfie the wisdome of man specious likely probable to a fleshly eye such as the Magistrates compulsion may seeme to be but by poore despised things that so he may bring downe the pride of man and the glory of the flesh and may traine up his people in the noble exercise of faith and may feast himselfe with the glorious ascribings of might and power to him alone But in the way that most men goe in drawing men to Religion they leave but little to God which practise hath indeed a principle in our natures that shews it selfe in other things as well as this For how apt are we in the point of Justification to confederate with the Babel-builders and a desperate adventure doe we count it to cast our selves upon the free grace of God in Jesus Christ so likewise in this busines we count it presumption in stead of faith to relie upon God in the use of spirituall means without carnall weapons to bring men to the truth and therefore we devise wayes to keep men in that they shall not stirre But if this be not of God it will have the same successe that Babel had God will come down and confound this pride Jer. 17.5 For cursed be man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme and withdraweth his confidence from the Lord And this Arme stretched forth to an Heterogeneous act will wither and be shrivelled up a Reas 3. It is * Nō enim gladiis aut jaculis aut m●l●tari manu veritas praed catur sed suadedo cōsulēdo Quae auteni ibi suadendi libertas aut consulendi ratio ubi qui cōtradicit pro mercede aut exilium aut mortem reportat Athanas Epist ad solit vitā agentes contrary to the nature of Christs kingdome to have the ministery of these carnall meanes For 't is a sperituall kingdome 't is an invisible kingdome and the Apostle disclaimes as before all carnall weapons A mans inke may be tempered too thick with humane Elegancies to write the mysteries of the Gospel Christs kingdome is not of this world nor served by this world And as the manner of this world is contrary to him so he delights to walke contrary to the manner of this world who make their party as strong as they can but Christ hath chosen marke 't is upon choice not of necessity the weake things of the world even babes to shew forth his praise and strength His Spirit in the Ministry of his servants is that glorious Arme that he puts forth to conquer all the power of darknesse He * Psal 50.2 shines out of Sion the perfection of beauty not out of the Thrones of Princes as such and with his * Psal 43.3 light and his truth scatters the enemies of his truth Christs veine lyes in this in cloathing weak things with incredible strength and acting them on to glorious atchievements * Prov. 8. By me Kings raigne but shall it ever be said By Kings Christ raignes otherwise then as being nursing Fathers to his Church No but he rebukes Kings for his peoples sake and sayes Touch not mine anointed and doe my Prophets no harme He first anoints them and thereby teaches them all things and then sayes Touch not mine anointed Christ doth not use all meanes that he could use to establish his Kingdome and inlarge his Dominion He could have called for more Legions of Angels then he had units of Apostles to have rescued him So Christ could use the Ministery of the Civill Magistrate and make them his friends his champions but he hath not pleased so to doe Not many wise not many mighty are called and those that are he doth not use their might nor authority for any such purpose as to conquer but nurse for him by countenancing providing defending c. As the vine needs the pole to climb up by but yet grows up of it selfe Wee may bring an Argument à Majori If Pastours and Teachers reas 4 nay the Apostles themselves be not Lords of the peoples faith in a way humanely-authoritative to impose doctrine or practise upon them then much lesse Magistrates But the Apostle himselfe dares not assume that greatnesse Not that wee are Lords of your faith but helpers of your joy Ministers may be too magisteriall in their teaching and people may be too implicit in their faith and in their obedience to their doctrine as on the contrary the one may be too low the other too censorious It will be granted on all hands that if Religion be the Magistrates charge yet as it is not his onely so neither his first charge reas 5 for though it be the highest charge it follows not that it must be the proper charge of Magistracy But Magistracy immediately and directly respects the good of men their persons and outward being and Religion onely obliquely and Collaterally for such an end must be assign'd to Magistracy as doth competere omni hold among all and to levell Magistracy at an higher and further end then God hath or its own principle will carry is vaine Now this will presse after the other to be admitted likewise that the first charge must be first lookt

indeed brasse and copper Candlesticks that hold forth false lights but the sheep of Christ know the one from the other that they turne not aside to the flocks of Christs Companions by a divine effectuall instinct whereby Christs sheep know Christs voice and will not follow a stranger Joh. 10.5 1 Joh. 4.1 Now mark here the Church is the Pillar the Church is the Candlestick particular Churches as well as the Catholick not the Magistrate not the State If so the Holy Ghost would not have wronged them and detracted from them by contracting this glorious power and interest to the Church It is proper for Kings and Magistrates to aske and to aske of Christ as He but more sincerely in the Ministry of his Word in his Church administration What is truth and to watch at his gates and waite at the posts of his doores yea to sit at the feet of Christ there For therefore hath Christ given gifts to his Church Eph. 4.11 And what are those Why he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers He gave none Magistrates Sure if Magistracy had been one of those gifts now that the Apostle was reckoning he would not have been so injurious and deficient but to have put it in And what are these gifts for Why for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ If for these ends adaequately then where shall the Magistrate come in or what work is left for the Magistrate I meane in point of authoritative teaching or determining the truth But you may say This was onely for that time while there were no Christian Magistrates Nay read on Till wee all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ So that this provision was not temporary onely but for perpetuity therefore sufficient Christ is the Judge of Controversies reas 2 and the interpreter of holy Scripture this is a Characteristicall Tenet distinguishing us from the Papists that is Christ by his Word and Spirit in the true ministry of the Church not in the Popes sentence nor in the Commentaries of the Fathers or the Votes of Synods or the Interpretations of Nationall Assemblyes though much helpe may be had by them for what difference then were there between the Papists and us but that wee make many men a Pope and they one man Now to give the Magistrate this Cognizance of differences in Religion were to set up him after we have puld downe these as Judge of Controversies and Interpreter of Scripture This were also to commit unto the Magistrate the better part of the Ministry whose office it is to declare the whole Counsel of God reas 3 and to be the Boundsmen between truth and errour and therefore Christ writes unto the Angels of the Churches of Asia and by them communicates himselfe to the Churches Nay it is to give them a greater power and office then the Ministry who are onely to propose doctrines not to impose them and to waite with patience if they be opposed trying if God will give repentance 2 Tim. 2.25.4.2 2 Cor. 1.24 to the acknowledgement of the truth This I say is their utmost Commission to exhort instruct rebuke with all long-suffering and doctrine not as Lords of mens faith but helpers of their joy and whensoever they flash and lay about them it is to be onely with the sword of the Spirit If the determining of Religion and differences therein reas 4 belong to the Magistrate quatenus a Magistrate then to all Magistrates or to the Magistracy of every Countrey then to the great Turke and Pagan Kings and Governours But how uncapable of such an interest they are who are aliens from the true God and his Common-wealth of Israel I need not say The consequence is good for Quatenus ad omne are termes adaequate and convertible That which belongs to a man as a man belongs to every man If you say therefore that it belongs not to the Magistrate quatenus a Magistrate but quatenus a Christian Magistrate so make it a flower that Christianity sticks in his Crowne I answer that Christianity being altogether accidentall and extrinsecall to a Magistrate adds nothing of power over others in Religion to him more then to another man but onely personall priviledge For Christianity is the same in all and why should one man by vertue of his Christianity for 't is denyed to be by vertue of his Magistracy have power over judgements and consciences in matters of Religion more then another that hath equall and perhaps more Christianity But the Word of God adds nothing of that nature to a Christian Magistrate and let that suffice for it adds nothing in the same kinde viz. of Civill power therefore it much lesse adds any thing of another kinde as namely Ecclesiasticall power For the same subjection and degree of subjection is required of servants and subjects to Masters and Governours without distinction of good and bad Christian and Pagan nay though they be cruell and froward 1 Pet. 2.18 By Christianity Christ hath setled no advantage of power on the head of the Magistrate though thereby he commend the yoke to the subject with an advantage of sweetnes 1 Tim. 6.1 For the proportion is the same and 't is a found Argument from a Master to a Magistrate that if a beleeving Master have no inlargement of power over his servant by beleeving then neither hath a beleeving Prince over his Subjects and if not in Civill things then much lesse in Religion But wee see plainly the Apostle neither accumulates authority on a beleeving Master nor duties on the servant of such a Master but makes it a greater motive to obey the authority they had before Let them not despise them because they are Brethren but obey them rather Therefore to conclude this Reason Christianity makes Magistrates members of the Church not Masters of the Assemblies It charges them to look to their own opinions but not to determine and impose upon other men And this I shall demonstrate in the fift place reas 5 from the maine scope of the Magistrates work as 't is laid downe in Scripture The object or matter about which Magistracy is conversant which they punish or reward is not faith but facts not doctrines but deeds and those not any deeds that differ but evill deeds Thus Rom. 13.3 Where the Apostle handles this point For Rulers are not a terror to good workes but to the evill c. if thou doe that which is evill he doth not say if thou be of an heterodox opinion be afraid for he is the Minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evill Where doing evill is thrice mentioned and no other termes used that should bring a mans judgement or opinion in Religion under

evill spoken of if every errour be snapt up presently which if it prevent not errours from starting yet will prevent the scandall of the truth by them Are not errours as well as afflictions part of Christs discipline whereby he nurtures his Church then let this discipline have its perfect worke till it may be cured by its proper remedy the sword of the Spirit You may as well say there shall be no sins in the Church as no errours Is not the practise of compulsion in the particular we speake of reas 15 at once to frustrate all those exhortations of the Apostles * Eph. 4.2 Phil. 3.16 To forbear one another in love to walke whereunto wee have attained by the same rule quietly waiting till God reveale what is behind and cleare what is in controversie Is it not to goe contrary ex diamentro to those arbitraments of the Apostle * Rom. 14.13 Not to judge one another then sure much lesse to prosecute one another in meats and drinks or concerning a holy day as considering that * Ibid. ver 6. he that eateth eateth to the Lord and giveth God thanks and he that for beareth goes according to his conscience too and if right in the maine may be acceptable to God also In policy 't is the worst way in the world reas 16 and will prove the least successfull to extirpate errours by force For this multiplies them rather even as the Bishops tyrannies did drive men to extremities and we may thanke their strict urging Conformity and Uniformity as the instrumentall cause and meanes of those extremities of absolute Separation and Anabaptisme which many honest and tender hearts thinking they could never run far enough from the Bishops did run into as the Antinomians likewise have stumbled at our churlish exacting Preachers of the Law Isa 32.6 Who made empty the sonle of the hungry and caused the drinke of the thirsty to faile And who knows but if force were removed and a league made and free trading of truth set on foot and liberty given to try all things straying Brethren on the right hand might be reduced for as much as we know that as sin takes occasion by the Commandement so do errours by proscription and to forbid them is to sowe them and no readier way to make men fond of them then to restraine them by force for Nitimur in vetitum we love to be prying into a closed Arke and the price of any thing is inhaunced when 't is made dainty of and so ex contrariis contraria sequuntur Our first Parents were easily induced by the Devill to beleeve there was more in that forbidden tree then in all the trees of the Garden and men are not so wise as not to deliver themselves of such a sophistry unto this day a Reas 17. The Apostle requires us 1 Thes 5. To prove all things that is as I conceive not to gather all things whatsoever before us as all the creatures were gathered together before Adam to forme and state a judgement of them for this were a worke worthy of Solomon but the Apostle meanes that before we take up any thing in our beliefe or practise we first bring it to the barre and ballance and put it into the scales of an impartiall dijudication and this is the dignity as well as the duty of a spirituall man that he judges all things and is not concluded by the former judgement of any and this liberty is as worthy the vindication as * O homines ad servitutē nati What monster is this for a man to desire to have all things free his body his members his goods and not his spirit which neverthelesse is onely borne unto liberty A man wil willingly make benefit of what soever is in the world that comes from the East or the West for the good and service nonrishment health ornament of his body and accommodate it all unto his use but not for the culture benefit inriching of his spirit giving his body the liberty of the fields holding his spirit in close prisō Charron of Wisdome p. 261. any in these exonerating times this liberty of judging And 't is established upon very good reason for it makes much to the advantage of truth both to the getting and holding of it for What lightly comes lightly goes as we say The Bereans for searching into Pauls doctrine and examining it by the Word are recorded by an Epithet unusuall for the Holy Ghost to give to men They were more noble it s said Now this liberty of trying and judging is in vaine if there be not a liberty of profession and to hinder this were a most tyrannicall usurpation over that connection which God hath made between the act of the understanding and the will whereby Voluntas sequitur dictamen intellectus and to put asunder what God hath joyned together and indeed to violate the Law of God and Nature A man cannot will contrary to the precedent act of judgement he wills weakly without an act of judgement preceding To force a man to a profession or practise which he wills not nay which he nills is to offer unto God a sacrifice of violence on the part of the compulsor and an unreasonable service on the part of the compelled and therefore necessarily unacceptable God would have every man fully perswaded in his owne minde reas 18 Rom. 14.15 even about dayes and meates and nothing imposed upon a doubting conscience because it is great nor nothing received with a sleight credulity because it is small but would have us * Rom. 14.18 serve him in every thing we take up to beleeve or practise and not to be the servants of men in any thing that hath relation to Religion And this brings in another Argument reas 19 * Rom. 14.4 Who art thou says the Apostle that judgest another mans servant Man in a naturall or politick consideration is the servant of men of his Prince and the Republique But man in a religious consideration is onely the servant of God and he stands or falls to his owne Master He is the servant of men to their edification by holding forth his light and conscience before them but he receives neither his law nor his judgement from man God accepts perhaps whom man rejects The day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire 1 Cor. 3.13 A place worthy most serious consideration in relation to the present Question for there the Apostle speaks in a case very fit parallell to what may be existent among us There may be among us building hay and stubble upon the true and precious foundation Christ Jesus Well what must man pull it downe by force No that were to take it out of Gods hand who will do it better then we can Who hath appointed a day to make manifest every mans worke Consider likewise reas 20 what a misrepresenting of Christ the King of the Church