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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
blood_n	build_v	glory_n	great_a	68	3	2.1269	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47197	The way cast up, and the stumbling-blocks removed from before the feet of those who are seeking the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward containing an answere to a postcript, printed at the end of Sam Rutherford's letters, third edition, by a nameless author, indeed not without cause, considering the many lyes and falshoods therein, against the people, called Quakers, which are here disproved, and refuted / by George Keith ...	Keith, George, 1639?-1716.; Rutherford, Samuel, 1600?-1661.	1677 (1677)	Wing K233; ESTC R19568	115,272	246

print before his death some years that God had forsaken their Nationall Church and was not like to return to her again and he answereth all the common reasons from Sciptur or the Covenant that seemed to prove that the Lord would return unto them and plainly sheweth the weakness and invalidity of them The book is in the hands of many which I have read and I had it from the mouth of an honest faithfull man that he heard Iohn Livingston say in prayer Lord since Dumbar thou hast spit in our face and since that never looked over thy shoulder to us again This is he whom the Author of the Postscript calls that great man of God and this prayer he had in a certain family in Aberdeen And this is that Church that was such an apostat and whom the Lord had so forsaken by the confession of their chief Seers and who indeed was never a true Gospell Church that we the people called Quakers have forsaken and we are resolved by Gods grace never to return unto her for the Lord hath said unto us let them come unto you but goe not ye unto them the Lord hath added divers who were among them and under that profession unto us and will add many more yea thousands in due time for the Lord hath a precious seed to gather out from among them And there are many among them I know who have true breathings after the Lord and these in due time the Lord will regard and bring them to his Zion which he has begun to build in great glory even in and among the people called in Scorne Quakers SECTION V. 1. What is said against the Presbyterian Church in general as national and as being so guilty of persecution and blood is not understood of all that goe under that name many among them being free of such crimes and of a more sober Spirit and principles 2. An Apology why I frequently use the word Presbyterian 3. Presbytery too good a name for them unless with this addition Pseudo-Presbytery that is Pr●sbytery falsely so called 4. The Presbyterian Church guilty of denying the true Christ who would exclud him out of the very Saints 5. The Presbyterian Church a foolish builder and guilty of very bad and Vnchristian Doctrins 6. The Presbyterian Church although she pretend to be more for a spritual way of preaching and worshiping then the Papal or Episcopal yet upon the matter she is not one jot more for the same then they are proved by divers Instances 7. Two Questions put to the Presbyterians 8. A list of the r●viling false acousations and railing speeches of the Author of the Postscript against the people called Quakers 9. Presbyterian teachers have not that credit now with many people as to make them believe whatever they say with an implicit faith as formerly they too much had 1. ANd as to what I have said in generall against the Presbyterian Church as Nationall and as being so guilty of persecution and blood I understand it not of all that goe under that name for I doe believe many among them are altogether free of having a hand in such things and are of a more sober Spirit and of more sober principles but I understand it of a great faction and party of them that did most prevail and carryed away many simple wel-meaning people along with them what by deceitfull perswasions and what by fears And I know many that were so carryed away are now come to see the evil of these practices and are resolved never to concurre in or countenance the like of them again But especially the Presbyterian Clergy and priesthood had the main hand and stroak in these disorders and all to uphold their kingdom and gratify their lust and ambition 2. And that I have so frequently used the word Presbyterian or may afterwards use it is onely for distinction's sake becaus I know not how otherwise to designe them yet I am farr from judging them to be true Presbyterians or that their Classicall judicatorys were true Presbyterys such as were in the primitive times And therefore Presbytery is too good a name to give them unless with this addition Pseudo-Presbyter● that is to say Presbytery falsly so called seing they have so positively denyed that which gives the very life and being either to any true Church or Presbytery viz the immediat Revelation and 〈◊〉 teachings and leadings of the Spirit of Christ in every member so that as of old there were who called themselvs Iewes and Apostles and were not so these Presbyterians call themselves true Pre●●●●erys but are no more so then a dead image of a man is a true man And indeed who ever hath a true knowledge of either the Gospell or a true Gospell Church will see that with good reason and good ground we have forsaken the Presbyterian and Nationall Church and that not only becaus of her bad practices but also for her bad anti-Christian and unsound Doctrins in many things she denying the real in-being and reve●ation of Ies●● Christ in any of her Members or indeed in any men in those days 4. And although she falsly accuse us as denying the true Christ yet I hope to make it apparent that she and not we are the denyers of him who would exclud him out of the very Saints and altogether confine him to some particular place but this I intend to reserve till afterwards 5. Also she discovereth her self to be a very foolish builder who maketh her foundation so narrow and her building so wide for no less then the whole Nation she would take into her building yea all Nations if she could And yet the true and saving Power and Grace of Christ Iesus which ●elongs to the very foundation of the Church she ●ill onely have it extended but to a small number of ●er members and that the greatest part have neither ●eceived this Grace nor ever shall but are exclud●d inevitably from it without their own consent ●y Gods absolut decree that barreth them out from 〈◊〉 possibility of Salvation before they ever came 〈◊〉 the world Surely this is too narrow a foundaion for so wide a building and it is but a small ●avour to so many thousands of her members than ●hey are not so much as under any possibility of Salvation yea it seems they are rather the worse then the better for being her Church members seing to the boot they shall be more guilty of condemnation then the Heathen who never heard the Gospel outwardly preached and yet neve● a whit the more near unto Salvation These ar● sad tidings she preacheth to her Church members Again her most eminent Saints she leaveth the● still in the dirt and mire of sin for term of life and tells them they can never be free from sin i● this life but sin and can not but sin daily in though● word and deed Surely such un-Christian Doctrins with many more could be named an ground enough for any man whose

but onely a favourer of Bishops being then an Advocat becaus he would not bow to their wills was constrained to flee the Nation Not to mention the fineings and other oppressions that many endured on that account and the Papists also some of whom had almost their all swept away and many fled Besides some few scattered ones whom they called Sectarys they grievously persecuted and threatned as namely Iohn Garden of Tillifroskie a Baptist whom they imprisoned in Edinburgh for a long time and reduced to so great outward necessitys that no body durst wel minister to him what he wanted But was the Presbyterian National Church any more favourable to their lawfull Prince Did they not also extend their power to the utmost against him to compell him And what the sad effects were which this produced I am loath to mention so that none were spared but all Great and small must fall down and worship this beast as it was in the darkest times of Popery otherwise they knew what they were to expect And it would saden a mans heart to think to what perplexity many simple-hearted men were brought while things were carryed thus on the one hand the Kirk issued forth her acts that people should do so and so and on the other hand the Lawfull Magistrat issued forth acts to the contrary and so the body of the Nation was divided some following the one some the other untill they ceased not to make the three Nations a field of blood And all this happened by that persecuting and compelling spirit in the Presbyterian Church that is the very life of such a Church without which it can not subsist as such Next as to her Hypocrisy we need go no further then the various changes of the farr greatest number of her Church-members and especiaily her Teachers one while Episcopal again Presbyterian and to wheel round again Episcopal and these changes all falling within a short time even upon the self same persons they who were zealous for Episcopacy and cryed it up yesterday the next day zealous against it crying it as much down and then up again one while preaching against festivall days and set forms of Worship then for them then against them then lastly for them again All this bewrayes horrible and detestable Hypoorisy especially in the Teachers who pretend to preach the Word of GOD and the Truth of Christ. Whereas the Word of the Lord is One forever and the Truth is the same always and is not yea and nay And it is a thing as manifest as the light of the day that the Teachers even of the Presbyterian Church have been generally and for the most part Self-seeking worldly minded and covetous men who loved pleasures and riches more then God And this the M●gistrat did wel know and saw the best way to prevail with them was to bribe them with augmentations and benefices as they did in the year 1649 and at divers other times as they saw occasion And in the time of great burdens upon the Land of Cesses and Taxations that many honest familys were redacted to great straits by reason of these publick burdens yet the Presbyterian Preachers table was as full as ever his cup did overflow with outward abundance he must bear no part of the publick burden but the burdens of the people must be augmented to give him augmentations But alas This Presbyterian kingdom is now faln and great is the fall of it especially it falleth heavy upon such as the Author of the Postscript who want those golden days of gathering up their stipends and augmentations but are fain to be at their purchase or conform which some have so much sense of shame still remaining in them as suffereth them not to do yet they fume and rage and the honest harmeless people called Quakers must be the main butt and object of their wrath but such paper bullets and darts that contain nothing ●olid as this Postscript being full of horrid lyes and false accusations will make little execution against us but certainly return upon their heads with shame and loss 10. All this sheweth that the Presbyterian Church was not so glorious a Church as she did take her self to be And many in the Island and elsewhere on the one hand did judg the Congregational Churches farr beyond her And those called Baptists I mean the more sober kind of them beyond both yea the Lutheran Church and the Church of England at lest as to divers particulars in doctrin is really beyond her But what shall I say concerning the Waldenses who had all what the Presbyterian Church had that was commendable and divers other things● that they want and wherein they do not imitat them although they boast to be their successors For the Preachers of the Waldenses were Lay-men most of them and wrought with their hands as the Teachers of the primitive Church did and had no s●t stipends or salarys but preached freely yea Peter Wal●● the first a most famous Preacher of that People was a meer Lay-man and had not Philosophy but was a Merchant in the Town of Lyons in France whose labour the Lord did wonderfully bless and the labour of such honest plain simple men as he was SECTION IV. 1. That some good men have been in the Presbyterian Church proves not that she was a true Church 2. In the darkest times of Popery God raised up some good men and Prophets in the Popish Church yet the Popish Church no true Church of Christ. 3. Few Sects but have had some good men among them 4. The Presbyterians in our days shamefully are declined from the footsteps and spirit of th●se antient good men that were among them 5. The Presbyterian Church guilty of treacherous practices 6. Christians should not make warr against the Magistrat 7. Presbyterians sufferings not pure and cleanly 8. The Episcopal Church had its Sufferers and Martyrs also 9. The Presbyterian Church especially their Teachers have much blood-guiltiness upon them 10. If the house of God under the Law was not to be built by men of blood farr less under the Gospell 11. GOD will not honour the Presbyterian party to build his Zion or Gospell-Church in this Land 12. Yet he will make use of many among them after he hath ●●ashed them from such bloody Anti-christian and unsound principles and practices 13. Of this they were warned eleven years ago in my book called Help in time of need printed in the year 1665. 14. The Presbyterian Church of Scotland guilty of Apostasy and spirituall adultery proved fully out of S. R. his Epistles 15. S. R. his Faith uncertain and he doubtfull in his later days concerning the Covenant its being made an instrument of Reformation 16. Some other testimonys of Great Presbyterian Teachers that God had forsaken the Presbyterian Church of Scotland 1. But if the Author of the Posts●ript think to get a fame to the Presbyterian Church becaus of some noted men for piety that have

thousands of others 9. And in very truth the Presbyterian Church will never be able to purge her self of the iniquity of the killing of many thousands in the three Nations by the occasion of a most bloody warr raised up through the instigation of the Presbyterian Teachers I am fully perswaded of it that the Presbyterian Church hath as much blood-guiltiness lieing on her head unwashed off as any People called a Church that I know of in the world next unto the bloody Church of Rome And as she hath drunk the blood of many so blood hath been given her to drink and it is to be feared that more will be given to her as a just judgment from the hand of God except she repent and condemn that blood-thirsty spirit that hath too much led and influenced her And I am wel ass●red of it that a bloody Church is no●rue Church of Christ for the true Church of Christ is washed by the blood of Christ f●om all lust or desire to shed blood Sh● can suffer her blood to be shed for Christ but she is white and pure from the blood of others 10. The Lord would not have David to build his house becaus he had been a man of warr and had shed much bl●●d O! that the Presbyterians could read the spiritual signification of this If the house of God under the Law was not to be built by a man of blood although in the sheding of the blood of the Lords enemies he was allowed shall the house of God under the Gospel be built by men of blood And who have shed so much of the blood of their very Brethren of the same profession both as Christians and as Protestants onely differing from them as to some small circumstances and worldly matters Surely Nay 11. And if there were no more this one consideration might be enough to peswad any man that believes the Scripture testimony and hath the least ●rue understanding of the nature of a Gospel Church that God will never honour the Presbyteri●n party to build his Zion or Gospel Church in ●his Land nay from the Lord God I have seen and do see her rejected from having any part or portion in this honourable work 12. Although I do believe the L'ord will make use of many among that people but it will be after he has washed them and purged from them the spirit of blood and of much other filthyness by his Spirit of iudgment a●d of burning that he will make them as stones of his building But I know it from the Lord God by his Spirit in me and from the same I declare it that the Presbyterian Church as such and as holding such bloody and Anti-Christian and otherwayes unsound principles and doctrines shall never be honoured of the Lord to build his true Zion in this Land it is the Word of the Lord God in my heart and the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it and sealed it again and again in me and their labouring to doe such a thing shall be but as men labouring in the fire and like unto them who essayed again to build Ier●cho 13. And this I warned them of from the Lord about eleven years agoe in my book called Hel● in time of Need printed in the year 1655 whic● was a year before their insurrection in the West Yet I most assuredly know that the Lord will buil● unto himself a glorious Church in this Land and therein I aggree with S. R. What he writs in divers Epistles as Ep. 7. part 1. a dry wind upo● Scotland but neither to fan nor cleanse but out of all question when the Lord hath cut down his forrest the after-growth of Lebanon shall flourish they shall plant vines in our mountains and a cloud shall yet fill the Temple Again Ep. 55. part 1. there shall be a fair green young garden for Christ in this Land c. Again Ep. 70. I believe our Lord once again shall water with his dew the withered hill of mount Zion in Scotland and come down and make a new marriage again as he did long since he addes Remember our Covenant See also Ep. 34. and 2 part Ep. 56 and 57. and part 3 Ep. 13. 14. But what means the matter These words of S. R. hold forth a great back sliding and apostasy of the Presbyterian Church according to this great Seer S. R. Otherwise what nee●d of a new marriage but let us hear him express his mind more distinctly concerning this so highly commended Presbyterian Church part I Ep. 34. he saith We wo wo be to apostat Scotland there is wrath and a cup of the red wine of the wrath of God Almighty in the Lords hand that they shall drink and spue and fall aud not rise again and part 1. Ep. 43. But this Nation hath forsaken the fountain of living Waters And part 1. Ep. 54. This is a black day a day of clouds and darkness for the roof-tree of my Lord Iesus his fair temple is faln and Christ's back is towards Scotland and part 1. Ep 1. yet more distinctly My heart is 〈◊〉 indeed for my mother Church that hath played the barlot with many lovers her husband hath a mind to sell her for her horrible transgressions and heavy will the hand of the Lord he upon this back-sliding Nation All this and much more might be cited out of his Epistles do prove that S. R. had no such thoughts of the Presbyterian Ch●rch which he calleth his mother Church in the time he wrot those Epistles which was at Aberdeen the best time he ever knew and had great nearness unto the Lord. 15. And whatever faith S. R. had of the Lord his appearing again to reforme the Land by the Covenant yet we find that in his later days his faith was very wavering and uncertain touching the Covenant its being made an instrument of reformation for thus he writs Ep. 70. part 2. I believe he comes quickly who will remove our darkness and will shine gloriously in the Isle of Britan as a crowned King either in a formally sworn Covenant or in his own glorious way which I leave to the determination of his infinit Wisdom and Goodness It seemeth he had some other way in his view as possible if not probable which God would take to reforme the Church then the Covenant that instrument of so much blood Hower this is certain his faith was very uncertain about the matter now in his dyeing days and he speaks not at all as any true Prophet of the Lord in this matter Albeit the Presbyterians generally are still so blind and darke that they positively judg that the covenant will be a main thing that God will make use of to reforme the Land and that both Covenant and Presbytery will up again where as S. R. is unclear in the matter 16. And I could tell them of one of themselves whom they judge no lesse then a martyr for the cause that published his mind in