Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	truth_n	word_n	write_v	2,541	5	5.4430	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39296	The account from Wickham (lately published by John Raunce and Charles Harris) examin'd and found false and warning thereof given to all such well-meaning persons among the people called Quakers, as through personal affection, want of consideration, or weakness of judgment have been betrayed, or may be in danger to be betrayed by them, or any other in the same dividing spirit with them, and led aside from the way of truth into a separation from the people of God, for whose recovery and preservation this is written / by Thomas Ellwood.	Ellwood, Thomas, 1639-1713.	1689 (1689)	Wing E611; ESTC R3890	22,353	20

Now these things are repeated that none may be so ignorant as to think we begun these Quarrels with our Neighbours and Friends Now the God of Heaven knows and they know in their own Consciences that in this they deal deceitfully For the plain and naked Truth is that these things appeared not in any of our Meetings in this Country not a Hat kept on in the time of their Prayer nor any open shew of dis-union with or dislke to their Testimony how much so ever some of us were then grieved and burdened by them until they had first joyned themselves to the chief Authors and Fomenters of Division and Separation in other parts abetting their Cause espousing their Quarrel and having made a Party for them amongst Friends in this Country brake forth into an open Opposition to the way and order of Truth and by their continual Strife and Contention had done their endeavours to break our Meetings to pieces and by their unruly and turbulent behaviour had given unquestionable proofs that they were departed from the Fellowship of the Gospel of Peace and of Friends were become Enemies to Truth And surely they had no reason to expect to be owned by Friends in their Preaching and Praying after they or their party had published Friends to the World to be Apostates Innovators Introducers of Popery and the like As for the Papers they mention advising Friends to make no Bargain with that Spirit and feed it with Iudgment c. Those Papers declare what Spirit that was that was not to be bargained with but fed with Judgment namely that which was gone out of Truth and had led into Division and Separation and if these men had not known themselves guilty and That they were joyned to that Spirit and to those that by that Spirit were led into Division and Separation in other parts what need it have troubled them to hear such Papers read amongst Friends for a warning and caution to Friends to beware that they were not entangled by that Spirit Why should these men have taken offence at the reading of such a Paper any more than any other Friend in the Meeting where it was read if they had not then been in the Strife Contention and work of Division and so felt a stroke reach them in the reading of these Papers that were designed as a Caution to all Their charging Friends pag. 2. with endeavouring to leaven the Minds of convinced People from House to House to increase then Party and to defame such as were not of it is so exact a description of their own Courses that I am perswaded there are few Families of Friends in this Country but can convict them of it And I dare appeal to many of you if ye have not found it so your selves Nay does not I. R. still continue to draw some Patients of his to come to speak with him at his separate Meeting-place that so he may engage them who else would not come there to help increase his number But their charging Friends with writing approving and printing Books against several whom they call antient Friends by Name wherein they say are several Falshoods and Scandals is so notoriously known and has been so openly and unanswerably proved to be the guilt of their own party that it argues an extream degree of hardness and impudence in them to mention it Let them produce if they can any one Book to justifie their Charge before W. R. writ his foul Invective against Friends under the Title of The Christian Quaker distinguished from the Apostate and Innovator in five Parts Which infamous piece if my Memory fail me not I have heard I. R. say remained some considerable time in his hand before it was printed so that he could not be ignorant of it Nay he was a Promoter and Spreader of it after it came abroad Judge ye now how great a piece of Deceit it is in them to blame Friends for that which their own party first went into and necessitated Friends to answer in Defence and Vindication of the Truth and themselves After the same manner they cry out of Envious Reflections pag. 2. Base Reflections and. Hellish Names pag. 3. When as besides what they utter by Word of Mouth in their Preaching and Discoursing what Reflection that is envious and base is not to be found in their printed Books and Pamphlets against Friends How full is that Book of W. Rogers and other Books writ since by him of abusive Language bitter Words and base Reflections What is there else in Bug's and Bullock's Writings And for envious Reflections and Hellish Names what Sheet of Paper ever contained more than those of Susan Aldridge in forming of which how great an hand these very men had is not unknown to some But if ye look no further than the Account they have now published there ye shall find they say When the Womens-Meetings were first set up many was so elevated with it that they ran like Gehazi c. Gehazi ye know was Servant to the Prophet that cured Naaman the Assyrian of his Leprosie and when the Prophet had refused to take a Reward from Naaman for the Cure Gehazi ran after him in the Prophet's Name with Lyes of his own inventing in his Mouth on purpose and to no other end but to get Money and Clothes of him 2 Kings 5. Now for these men to say of any Friends that they were so elevated with the Womens-Meeting that they run like Gehazi what baser Reflection could they have cast yet here ye fee they caft this base and envious Reflection upon many What more foul as well as false Slander could they have vented or invented Yet these men ye see in that very Paper wherein they have thus basely reflected on others are not ashamed to tax others with envious and base Reflections whose Injustice here'in I represent to your view and serious consideration that ye may weigh and duly consider what Spirit it is they were guided by in writing that Account That so ye may not give your selves up through an affectionate fondness to an implicit belief of what they say or write but may examine and try them by the true measuring-Line the Spirit of Truth which uncovers their Deceit They reject Truth 's order upon pretence pag. 2. that Several things proposed have not proved a Blessing to the Church in such things they were pretenended for viz. to keep things sweet and clean The truly-sensible Ones the faithful and honest-hearted know the contrary not-withstanding the pains these men have taken by their Oppositions to prevent the Blessing and make things unsavoury and unclean But I pray consider what hath their Disorder done how sweet and clean have things been kept amongst them So far has their Division and Separation been from being a Blessing to the Church that it hath proved a grievous Curse to many of them that have run into it And hath led some of them utterly to part from

joyning or not joyning or not joyning with them If any Friend being sensible that a Couple was clouded and muddled in their minds as some have been in our Meeting by the Oppositions and Gain-sayings of these Men and their Party and thereby made uncapable at present of seeing what the Lord required of them should advise them not hastily to proceed in Marriage but wait till the Cloud was over what hurt was there in that to any If it were said to some that their Refusal proceeded not from Conscience but from stubbornness and willfulness What then was that impossible to be true Or impossible to be known or being true and being known was it unfit to be spoken If any knew it by an inward sence they had the better ground to speak it on And though it is not probable any Friends exprest themselves as these Men have set it down viz. by an inward sence without any outward Demonstration yet I do not believe that to be impossible And if these Men hold otherwise ye would do well to put them to speak plainly that you and all may see how far they are degenerated However this is certain that in those controverted Cases which came before the Meeting in this Country during this Disturbances that these Men made there whatever inward sence any Friends had of the Stubbornness wilfulness and insincere Pleas of Conscience made by any whom they abbetted the Lord never suffered us to want Outward Demonstration thereof also sufficient to confirm that inward sence and convict the Opposers They proceed in discovering their Dislike saying Also we have not liked to send Men from the Country to the Yearly-Meeting to sign Papers against Ministers of the Gospel for Non-Conformity For my part I never knew any sent for that purpose nor any Papers signed at the yearly-Meeting against any Ministers of the Gospel for Non-Conformity These are but false Insinuations by which they endeavour to fill your minds with prejudice against Friends that thereby they may bind you the faster to themselves But the Lord I hope will break their Bands of Iniquity and open your Understandings to see and discern between Truth and Falshood that ye may reject the one and cleave to the other Therefore take not their Stories upon trust but examine and try them Here ye see they suggest as if Friends of the Country were sent to the Yearly-Meeting to sign Papers against Ministers of the Gospel for Non-Conformity This is false Those Friends that go from the Countries to the Yearly-Meeting go as in the general Love of God so on the general Service of Truth to communicate the general state and condition of Friends in the several Counties they go from and to consider and advise together in the openings of Life and heavenly Counsel from God how to be servicable one to another and to the whole body in procuring Liberty Ease Relief to those Members that are in Sufferings by Persecution or Labour under Necessities and Wants whether in this Nation or any other And to be Instrumentally helpful to open the way as the Lord opens their Hearts and Understandings thereunto that Truth may have a free and open passage to be propogated and spread in other Nations either by Books or Preaching as the Lord shall stir up the Spirits of his Servants thereunto whereby the Body edefies it self in Love. But these Meetings I know this sort of Opposers have long disliked and reproached nor are they in reality for any settled Meetings for Business either Monthly Quarterly or Yearly but such as themselves may direct and govern Now as for what they suggest of signing Papers against Ministers of the Gospel for Non-Conformity as I know of none such ever signed there so there having been but one Paper that I remember signed at the Yearly-Meeting against any that pretended to be Ministers I suppose in this Cavil they aim at that That was a Testimony signed in the year 1677. against I. S. and I. W. who were gone from the Vnity of Friends into a Separate Spirit and had countenanced an open Separation in the North long before And having been charged by Friends in the North with many things contrary to the Testimony of Truth after many Meetings had between Friends and them thereupon a Meeting was at length by joynt consent of both Parties appointed to be held at Draw-Well in York-shire in the 2 d. Month 1676. which Meeting lasted four days and thereupon a full hearing of the Charge against them and their Defence they were found faulty in the most material things laid to their Charge as by the Narrative of the Proceedings of that Meeting signed by above twenty Friends that were present doth appear And after a deep Travel of Spirit for them that they might be brought to a sence of their Guilt they seemed at length in some degree bowed and produced a Paper in order to give Satisfaction to Friends containing a Condemnaiion of themselves and of that Spirit by which they had been mis-led But quickly after being blaimed as was said by some of their own Party and encouraged to persist in their former Opposition they denyed their own Paper of Condemnation using Falshoods and Equivocations to avoid the force of it as with relation to I. S. I my self from a personal Conferrence which I had with him at I. R's House do certainly know and their great Agent W. R. who not only was one of that Meeting at Draw-Well but was said to have assisted them in drawing up that Paper of Condemnation for them did afterwards expresly say It was but a Rattle to please Children which evidenced the Naughtiness of their hearts and the insincerity of their dealings who afterwards concerning their work of Opposition Division and Separation they were tenderly admonished thereof in an Epistle from several Friends at London in the 3 d. Month 1676. But they rejecting the tender Love of Friends towards them and hardening themselves against the good advice in that Epistle given them went on in their dividing Work I. S. Travelling the Countries and spreading the Division and Separation further Whereupon Friends felt a necessity upon their Spirits at the Yearly-Meeting 1677. above a year after to give forth a publick Testimony against them and against that dividing Spirit they were then led by That all Friends might be warned of them that no more might be deceived by them and that the Meeting might be clear in the sight of God who had laid that concern weightily upon it For your sakes it is O ye beguiled ones whom my Soul both pitties and seeks that I have given this short but plain account of this matter that ye may have a right understanding of things and not to be mis-led by mis-reports and mis-representations of matters to the hardening of you against the Work of the Lord and the hurting of your own Souls They express their Dislike also of Contentious Books sent as they say on the Countries