Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
truth_n aaron_n bring_v power_n 12 3 4.0887 3 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A96686 Hypocrisie unmasked: by a true relation of the proceedings of the Governour and company of the Massachusets against Samuel Gorton (and his accomplices) a notorious disturber of the peace and quiet of the severall governments wherein he lived : with the grounds and reasons thereof, examined and allowed by their Generall Court holden at Boston in New-England in November last, 1646. Together with a particular answer to the manifold slanders, and abominable falshoods which are contained in a book written by the said Gorton, and entituled, Simplicities defence against seven-headed policy, &c. Discovering to the view of all whose eyes are open, his manifold blasphemies; as also the dangerous agreement which he and his accomplices made with ambitious and treacherous Indians, who at the same time were deeply engaged in a desperate conspiracy to cut off all the rest of the English in the other plantations. VVhereunto is added a briefe narration (occasioned by certain aspersions) of the true grounds or cause of the first planting of New-England; the president of their churches in the way and worship of God; their communion with the Reformed Churches; and their practise towards those that dissent from them in matters of religion and Church-government. / By Edw. Winslow. Published by authority. Winslow, Edward, 1595-1655.; Gorton, Samuel, 1592 or 3-1677.; Williams, Roger, 1604?-1683. 1647 (1647) Wing W3037; Thomason E409_23; ESTC R204435 90,941 117

There are 3 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

can you with all your libraries give the interpretation thereof but have lost it in the wilderness and accordingly have made the whole way and will of our Lord the ouldnesse of the letter both to your selves and to all that have an eare to lissen unto you Thence it is that the day of Lord is a day of Darkness and Gloominess unto you but of Joy and gladness unto us yea it lifts up our head onely and then is our salvation neere For wee know the worthies of David doubled about the bed of Solomon which expell all feare in the night handling the sword with sucess making the adversaries nothing but meat to feede upon so that the tyme of your feares is the time of our Courage and Conquest for when you feare errour schisme Rents and Confusions in Church and state then do wee know the Messenger of the Covenant the Lord whom wee seek is speeding his passage into his holy temple For who under the terrors of your spirit may abide his Coming hee being like a refiners fire and Fullers sope In that you invite us unto your Courts to fetch your equall ballanced justice upon this ground that you are becomne one with our adversaries and that both in what they have and what they are and wee know them to bee such as profess the day of the Lord an unhallowed thing Now if wee have our opponant to prefer his action against us and not only so but to bee our Counsell our Jurie and our Judg for so it must bee if you bee one with them as you affirm wee know before hand how our Cause will bee ended and see the scale of your equall Justice turned alreadie before wee have layd our Cause therein and cannot but admire to see you caried so contrarie to your owne received principles For you know not how to finde Christ as a Ruling and teaching Elder both in one person therfore he is not Complete amongst you by your owne law except in severall persons and you may thank tradition else you know no more how to finde both a king and a priest in him and yet in your way of making tender of your Justice unto us you know how to become one with our adversaries so as if wee deale with them wee deale with you and if wee have to doe with you wee have to doe with them also yea further wee know that the chiefe amongst you have professed wee are not worthy to live and that if some of us were amongst you wee should hardly see the place of our abode any more Now that they have brooded upon their law to take away life they must much more bring it up in taking away all means of life Witnes our prohibition that no powder should be sould unto us for our money and that in a time when you could not thinke your selves safe in all your owne self provision and worldly furniture except you disarmed a company of poor Indians whom Aaron your Leviticall Sacrificer hath made Naked as hee doth all those which triumph in a Calf though the most costly and beautifull that the Jewells and eare-rings of Learning either in Language or art can possibly bring forth your owne amazements upon meer Rumors may testifie the truth hereof so then wee are Judged by your law before our Cause bee hard or our selves brought forth under the liberties of it which thing is well pleasing unto us to have our Condition conformed unto Moses the man of God who was dead in Pharaohs account before he was brought forth and so it was with Christ our lord in the dayes of Herod also who is our life at which you strike and makes all things yea Death it self lively and advantagious unto us Wee cannot but wonder that you should read the Scripture and not finde them fulfilled in and amongst your selves when as they appeare so apparantly that he that runs may read them what think you of Herod when the Lord had delivered Peter out of prison and released him of those bonds and brought him from that thraldom which he had so Cruelly imposed upon him to gaine the favour of the Jewes and that by a power supereminent transcending the bounds of his authoritie and by a wisdom surpassing the Depth of his Counsell and policie to fynd out together with his souldiers and Champions he presently goes downe to Cesarea and Herod is angry with them of Tyrus Sidon thumoniachon a heavie Friend or hath a secret grudg or perturbation of mind manifested in an outreaching and circumventing policie to subdue them unto himself that he might Rule over them Finding himself fall short of power and policie to subject the word of God in the messinger of it to satisfy his owne lusts in his lordship over it he pursues with all egarnesse to make himself a god by Raigning over the bodies and estates of men yea though they be but such as Tyrus and Sidon can afford unto him to make subjects of and when they come unto him with one accord to make offer of themselves in yeelding to his affectionate and politicall project he sitting uppon the Judgment seate in his Royall apparell making his oration of what power he hath to protect them what wisdom and Counsell to minister Justice and righteousness unto them which office belongs only unto the Lord the people with a shout crying out the voice of god and not of man the truth and substance of which Cry is this is the ordinance of god and not of man immediately the angel of the Lord smites him and hee that ever acknowledged himself to bee a worme and no man upon the earth Consumes and eates up all his pomp and glory even as those whom you account the Shame and Contempt of the people shall thorow that angell of the Covenant waste and bring to nought all those Rhetoricall though earthly Orations that are made amongst you by your so Learned studious and experienced Clarkes take for illustration of your estate as above the speech of your alderman Oliver in case of committing Francis Hutchinson to prison one of your Church-members wondering that brother Winthrop would do it before the Church had dealt with him Brother saith hee why hee is thy god man Lend your eye yet farther to parallell your practise personated in Pylate and the people when Pylat offereth Jesus unto the people to be judged they profess they have such a law as puts no man to Death they are all for mercy and forgiveness when they are out of the Judgment hall but let Pylat enter in thither and then nothing but Crucifie him Crucifie him be their accusations and witnesses never so false even so in your dealings with men in way of your Jewish brotherhood your law is all for mercie to Redress reform and for preservation both of soule and bodie Do but enter into the Common hall and then as Pylat asked am I a Jew so do you Doe I sit or speake here as a
brother I tro not I am now in a higher sphere then that though they be acknowledged coheirs with Christ can ataine unto therfore if witness be brought in and Oath taken though never so untrue your consciences are purged by law and your power must have tribute payd unto it so far an mens Names to bee branded with infa●●ie estates depryving women and children of things necessarie and precious lives of men can extend themselves to contribute any thing thereunto so that the professed mercie and Clemencie of your law to exercise censures only for amendment of life and recoverie comes unto this issue as much as in you lies to send both soule and body downe unto hell for ever without redresse and all hope of recovery But your houre and the power of Darknesse is known what it is either to have mens persons in admiration because of advantage or else to seek all occasions against them to brand them with all manner of reproch and ignominie but for the truth taught daily in the Temple y●● know not how to streatch out your hand or exercise your ministry against it lest it become leprous and you take it back again with losse when it appeares dried and withered And wherefore reason yee amongst your selves saying wee exercise the power of your ministrations against none but such as are Delinquents whereby we cleer the innocent and establish peace in all our borders Wee demand what think you of those two witnesses prophecying in Sackcloth a thousand two hundreth and threescore Dayes those two olive trees and two candlestickes standing before the God of the earth are these guiltie and vile persons out of whose hands by the power of your ministries you are delivering and releasing the world then indeed are your wayes justifiable But if these bee the Just Chosen and peculiar friends of God yea such as without which his truth and Righteousnesse are not justified his wisdom and holinesse maintained and upheld in the world in point of salvation by Christ then are your wayes wicked and to bee abhorred for in your professed Course you are they by whom these are slaine and put to Death and all your glory is to keepe their Corpes unburied in your streetes and yet you know not what you are doing no more then you know what these witnesses are whom you are altogether ignorant of for your Libraries never saw them and you see not but by their eyes for these are two and never more nor yet lesse yea ever the same they are olive trees else no witnesses and also Candlesticks else both the former faile yea are not at all Wee must tell you what these are else wee cannot declare how you kill them for it is not our intent to open unto you the house of the treasures the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oyntment nor the house of our armour because you take all as execrable and put all to a profane use that commeth from us but these two witnesses are the life and death of our Lord Jesus or in the true language of heaven also the strength and the weaknesse of Christ for hee was crucified through weaknesse but hee liveth by the power of God this is the word of the Lord in Zerubbabel Not by an army nor by power and so deprives him of all strength but by a spirit that the greatest mountaine or loftiest hill in the world cannot stand before but becomes a plaine which with facility and ease hee passeth upon thence it is that hee doth not onely lay the top or the head stone of all but also the lowest 〈◊〉 the foundation and then onely is the voice of shouting heard Grace grace in the house for ever and then doth the day of small things become the day of joy and triumph yea of parting the rich spoiles and prey of all the world for then hee that doth but turn and lift up his eyes he cannot looke besides that great flying book of the Curse that is gone forth over the whole earth Without these two witnesses jointly uttering themselves in every particular Scripture undertaken to bee divulged by any no evidence nor testimony of God is given or brought in at all but a meere refuge of lies for the soules of men to betake themselves unto without these two pipes of the olive trees emptying themselves into the bowle of the candlesticks no unction nor oyle at all is found in them and that being wanting the light of the Sanctuary is gone out so that the light appearing amongst you is onely the light of Balaam whose eye was open which you may read either Shethum or Sethum for that opening is nothing else but the shutting up of the holy things of God so that in seeing you see not but communicate onely in the light of that beast who puts the witnesses to death as Balaam did in the sight of that dumbe beast of his whose eyes were opened to see the angel before him so that while you thinke it is our wisdome to stoope unto you for light wee never come amongst you but see our selves in a regiment of grosse and palpable darknesse and discern you very plainly how you scrabble upon the wall to finde the doore of Lots house and cannot As also how you toil your selves to climbe up into the sheep-fold another yea so many other wayes and have no sight nor discerning of us the Door at all by the which whosoever entereth becomes a true seeder of the flock of God yea none entereth in thereat but the true Shepheard himself Most impious it is to put to death two such Noble witnesses that have power to shut heaven that it raine not in the dayes of their prophecying to turne the waters into bloud and to smite the earth with all manner of plagues as oft as they wil whom that spirit that is amongst you kills on this wise the life or power of the sonne of God as above which is infinite not admitting of circumsc●iption or containment for the heaven of heavens cannot containe him yet have you not dared to graspe and inviron that power in the heavens and therefore have resolved and concluded that hee onely rules upon the earth in these dayes by his Deputies Lievtenants and Vicegerents whereby you limit and so destroy the holy One of Israel for give him that in one time or place which afterwards or elsewhere you deny him and you make a nullity of him unto your selves and in so doing you kill that other witnesse namely the death or weaknesse of the Lord Jesus for you must have man to bee honourable learned wise experienced and of good report else they may not rule among you yea and these things are of man and by man as appeares in that they onely officiate so as man may disanull and take it away againe witnesse your change of officers constantly speaking for us herein thus have you slaine also the death or the weaknesse of Christ who
thus briefly shewed that the foundation of our New-England Plantations was not laid upon Schisme division or Separation but upon love peace and holinesse yea such love and mutuall care of the Church of Leyden for the spreading of the Gospel the welfare of each other and their posterities to succeeding generations as is seldome found on earth And having shewed also that the Primitive Churches are the onely pattern which the Churches of Christ in New-England have in their eye not following Luther Calvin Knoxe Ai●sworth Robinson Amies or any other further then they follow Christ and his Apostles I am earnestly requested to cleare up another grosse mistake which caused many and still doth to judge the harder of New-England and the Churches there because say they The Church of Plymouth which went first from Leyden were Schismaticks Brownists rigid Separatists c. having Mr. Robinson for their Pastor who made and to the last professed separation from other the Churches of Christ c. And the rest of the Churches in New-England holding communion with that Church are to bee reputed such as they are For answer to this aspersion First he that knew Mr. Robinson either by his Doctrine daily taught or hath read his Apology published not long before his death or knew the practise of that Church of Christ under his government or was acquainted with the wholsome counsell he gave that part of the Church which went for New-England at their departure and afterward might easily resolve the doubt and take off the aspersion For his Doctrine I living three yeares under his Ministery before we began the worke of Plantation in New-England It was alwayes against separation from any the Churches of Christ professing and holding communion both with the French and Dutch Churches yea tendering it to the Scots also as I shall make appeare more particularly anon Ever holding forth how wary persons ought to bee in separating from a Church and that till Christ the Lord departed wholly from it man ought not to leave it onely to beare witnesse against the corruption that was in it But if any object he separated from the Church of England and wrote largely against it I acknowledge hee wrote largely against it but yet let me tell you hee allowed hearing the godly Ministers preach and pray in the publick Assemblies yea hee allowed private communion not onely with them but all that were faithfull in Christ Jesus in the Kingdome and elsewhere upon all occasions yea honored them for the power of godlinesse above all other the professors of Religion in the world nay I may truly say his spirit cleaved unto them being so well acquainted with the integrity of their hearts and care to walke blamelesse in their lives which was no small motive to him to perswade us to remove from Holland where wee might probably not onely continue English but have and maintain such sweet communion with the godly of that Nation as through Gods great mercy we enjoy this day 'T is true I confesse he was more rigid in his course and way at first then towards his latter end for his study was peace and union so far as might agree with faith and a good conscience and for schism and division there was nothing in the world more hatefull to him But for the government of the Church of England as it was in the Episcopall way the Liturgy and stinted prayers of the Church then yea the constitution of it as Nationall and so consequently the corrupt communion of the unworthy with the worthy receivers of the Lords Supper these things were never approved of him but witnessed against to his death and are by the Church over which he was to this day And if the Lord would be pleased to stir up the hearts of those in whom under him the power of Reformation lies to reform that abuse that a distinction might once be put between the precious and the vile particular Churches might be gathered by the powerfull preaching of the Word those onely admitted into communion whose hearts the Lord perswades to submit unto the Iron rod of the Gospel O how sweet then would the communion of the Churches be How thorow the Reformation How easie would the differences be reconciled between the Presbyterian and Independent way How would the God of peace which commandeth love and good agreement smile upon this Nation How would the subtle underminers of it be disappointed and the faithfull provoked to sing songs of praise and thanksgiving Nay how would the God of order be glorified in such orderly walking of the Saints And as they have fought together for the liberties of the Kingdome Ecclesiasticall and Civill so may they joyn together in the preservation of them which otherwise 't is to be feared will not long continue and in the praises of our God who hath been so good to his poore distressed ones whom he hath delivered and whom he will deliver out of all their troubles But I have made too great a digression and must return In the next place I should speak of Mr. Robinsons Apology wherein the maketh a briefe defence against many adversaries c. But because it is both in Latine and English of small price and easie to bee had I shall forbeare to write of it and onely refer the Reader to it for the differences between his congregation and other the Reformed Churches The next thing I would have the Reader take notice of is that however the church of Leyden differed in some particulars yet made no Schisme or separation from the Reformed Churches but held communion with them occasionally For we ever placed a large difference between those that grounded their practise upon the Word of God tho differing from us in the exposition or understanding of it and those that hated such Reformers and Reformation and went on in Antichristian opposition to it and persecution of it as the late Lord Bishops did who would not in deed and truth whatever their pretences were that Christ should rule over them But as they often stretched out their hands against the saints so God hath withered the Arm of their power thrown them down from their high lofty seats and slain the chiefe of their persons as well as the Hierarchy that he might become an example to all those that rise against God in his Sabbath in the preaching of his Word in his Saints in the purity of his Ordinances And I heartily desire that others may heare and feare withall As for the Dutch it was usuall for our Members that understood the language and lived in or occasionally came over to London to communicate with them as one John Jenny a Brewer long did his wife and family c. and without any offence to the Church So also for any that had occasion to travell into any other part of the Netherlands they daily did the like And our Pastor Mr. Robinson in the time when Arminianisme prevailed so much at the request