Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	call_v	word_n	1,705	5	3.8890	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91466	The fruits of a fast, appointed by the churches gathered against Christ and his kingdom, who go about to mock God with their outside-worship, and appointed fasts, and dayes of voluntary humiliation. Or, A declaration of the persecution of a messenger of the Lord, by a people who go under the name of Independants, in Essex, who have set themselves in the enmity of their spirits to oppose the truth of God, calling it a lye, and persecuting his messengers as deceivers, and wanderers, wherein their persecuting spirits is made manifest, and them to be in Cains generation, and stranges to the spirit of Christ, which vener persecuted, and so are noen of his, Rom.8:9. And also, of the unjust dealing of Judge Hills, ... And also, severall queries, that was sent ot the priests and magistrates, shich may be serviceable for them, or any other to answer, whom they do concern. / By ... James Parnell.	Parnell, James, 1637?-1656.	1655 (1655)	Wing P530; Thomason E854_14; ESTC R207483	31,427	32

have long expected this day to appear but the false Prophet begun to utter forth his lyes and Blasphemies against the truth and the Beast by whose power the false Prophet stands began to rage and persecute and the Ministers of Antichrist stood up for their Kingdome crying against truth striving to present it odious in the ears of the people but when J came to their faces they fled like hirelings and left their I lock behind so that the truth much prevailed notwithstanding their railing and raging so that they begun to appoint meetings purposely to set themselves against the truth to present it to the people as error and heresie so that if by any means they could by their evil incensing and leavening of the minds of the people turn away their mindes from hearkning to the truth and on the other side they had the earthly powers to uphold them and strengthen them against whomsoever should come to gainsay them and to lay their Law upon them so I hearing of a publick Meeting that was appointed by the Priests and Professors of these times to be at a Town called Great Coggashall upon the 12. day of the 5th month called Luly as was declared in publike by the Priest of the said Town to Fast and pray against the errors as they said of the people called Quakers and also their intent was to insnare me and to bring my body into Bonds if that I came amongst them for to defend the truth which afterward appeared and although I did see their intent towards me I was made willing not only to be bound but also to suffer for the pure eternal Truth which I am made a witness of so I being pressed in my spirit for to go amongst them and in obedience to the same I went and there was one Priest VVillis an independant Teacher who was set up in the seat of the Pharisee the chiefest place of the Assembly Mat. 23.6 these speaking a divination of his own Brain and not from the Mouth of the Lord and therefore knew not how to divide the Word aright but cryed against false Prophets and Deceivers and he himself one of them and when the Priest had done I spoke unto the people in vindication of the truth of God which the Priest had before reproached reviled and blasphemed but the Priests and the Rulers interrupted me and run into many words which bred much disorder and confusion and then another of the Priests got up into the Pulpet and they bid me put off my hat and stand with my hat off the time the Priests was praying which worship I denyed and therefore could not be conformable to it and so J said before J should be subject to their wills J would passe out of the meeting place and so J did and many people came out after me for I intended to declare the truth in the Town being I could not have liberty in the publick place and as I was passing on the way quietly towards my friends house he that is called Justice VVakering came rushing behind me amongst the people and suddenly smote me with his hand upon my back and said he arrested me in the name of the Lord Protector and so I turned me about and looked upon him but knew not that he was a Magistrate so I asked him where was his writ and hee said he had one but none he shewed me then they hurried me into a house and there some friends ingaged that I should be forth-coming when their worship was done and so I went unto my friends house and there spoke the word of the Lord unto the people that there came together and was also ready when their worship was done according to my friends ingagement and when I came before them there was four men called Justices and six or seven Priests yea there was nigh nine or ten Priests that day that was gathered together against the truth and when I was come before them he that is called Iustice VVakering came and plucked my hat off my head and threw it away then they fel to question me of many things to which I made answer and many frivolous questions they asked mee whereby to insnare me which was neither just nor honest for men of their profession to do so when they had satisfied their wills in examining of me they caused a Mittimus to be made and committed me to the Common Goal at Colchester and there was several of the chief Priests in Essex that was actors in this Persecution Priest VVillis who is a Teacher of an Independant company at Brantry and Priest Sammes a Teacher of an Independant company at Great Coggashal and Priest Sparrow a Teacher of an Independant company at Halstead and Priest Stellum a Teacher of an Independant company at T●●ling yet are all Parish Priests and are maintained by those that are not of their Church and those was the head actors in this persecution yea and Priest Stellum spoke to the Rulers in the publike place thereby to stir up their spirits to persecute and this was plotted amongst the Priests and their gathered Churches to appoint meetings Mat. 7.15 16. thereby to insnare the innocent and raise persecution against the truth yea and two of the men called Jusrices who was my chief persecutors are members of the Independant Church and thus the Churches garher themselves against Christ and his Kingdome and now the ravening wolves in sheeps clothing doth appear yea their fruits makes them manifest and those are they which calls themselves Iews and are not but the Synagogue of Satan and those are the builders which have and do reject the Corner-stone which is now become the head of the Corner and over their heads is set and woe unto them on whom it lights And after I was sent to prison there I was kept close and could not have my friends and acquaintance to come to see me with peace and freedome and so when I was there I writ an Answer to the Mittimus whereby I was falsly accused and imprisoned and sent to the men that committed me for to clear my conscience unto them lay their injustice cruelty before them leave them without excuse in the presence of the almighty so when the time came that I was to go to the Assize they put me on a chain amongst felons and Murderers and joyned me to one suspected for murder and thus I was numbred amongst transgressors that the Scripture might be fulfilled and thus six of us was hooked together upon a Chain so that we could not go into a bed for four of us remained upon the Chain day and night and thus I was led 18. miles through the Countrey for a gazing-stock unto the world but truth was preached in all this and prevailed on the hearts of the people so that I could rejoyce in all and triumph over mine enemies So when we was at the Assize Town which is called Chansford the Juge

him in newness of life that in me his workmanship might appear to the confounding of the heathen who know him not he by his power kept me and gave me strength to bear his Cross and despise the shame so that neither foul words nor faire words could cause me to deny what God by his grace had wrought in my heart but by his power he carryed me above the raging waves of the tempestuous sea so that I knew that he that was in me was greater than he that is in the world yea and out of my kinred and acquaintance I came and became a stranger to them that loved not the truth yea and presently I came to see the Priests of the world by their fruits and the fruits of their Ministry which was cursed from God and therefore profited not the people at all but when the Lord by his power had changed and converted my heart unto himself the Priests became mine enemies and said I was deluded whenas before when I lived in the vain conversation of the world they took no notice of me either to reprove me or instruct me but as they went on in a customary way for again and lucre speaking against sin in the generall but not reproving it in particular but was as deep in it in their lives as others and so what they preached down with their tongues they upheld in their lives and countenanced in their conversations and so from them I turned whom I saw had gotten a form but denyed the life and power and I sought for a people with whom I might have union and there was a people with whom I found union a few miles from the Town where I lived whom the Lord was a gathering out of the dark world to sit down together and wait upon his name but we was the objects and reproach of the countrey and was accounted as the off-scourings of the world but in all this we saw the Scriptures fulfilled and that we might thus suffer if we would live godly in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 3.12 and here was our confidence and strength which carryed us above our sufferings as knowing it greater riches to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season and about this time I was about 15 years of age afterwards I was called forth to visit some friends in the North part of England with whom I had union in spirit before I saw their faces and afterwards I returned back to my outward dwelling place and remained in my outward calling and the Lord all this time stil more and more perfecting and encreasing his work in my heart which by his power he had begun in me by his pure power bringing forth his truth in me and making known his wil unto me until by his power he opened my mouth to declare his truth in the world stil I continued in my outward calling and also in the work of the Lord as not being called far from my dwelling place and when I was betwixt 17. and 18. years of age I was moved in my spirit to go to a place about fifteen miles from my outward dwelling place southward amongst a people to whom the Lord was making known his truth not knowing when I went out of going farther than that place but when I was there I was moved of the Lord to come on to Cambridge and in obedience unto the Lord I came to see what he had to do for me not knowing one soot of the way but as I was directed neither knowing when I came there where to be received but had heard before of two of my friends that was there whipped caused by the Mayor that then was onely for declaring the truth as they past through the town against the deceipt thereof neither did I know but it might be my portion also when I came there but without conferring with flesh and blood I passed on my journey and he that called me forth went along with me and did direct me and when I came there I found these that was worthy that received me and also I found a friend whom the corrupt Rulers had put in prison for the same testimony which I also was sent to declare and before I had continued there the space of fourteen nights VVilliam Pickering the Mayor of Cambridge committed me to Prison for publishing two Papers the one against the corruption of the Magistrates and the other against the corruption of the Priests at the time of their commencement as they call it and there they kept me in Prison the space of two Sessions and tossed me from Prison to Dungeon and had nothing to lay against me whereby to prove the breach of any Law but when I came to the last Sessions they called a Jury to prove the Papers to be scandalous and seditious Papers and they was nigh two hours about them but could not prove it but came and said that they found nothing but that the Papers was mine which I had before owned in the open Court and there was my name to them to testifie the same and so they was crossed in their intentions and their plots came to nought then they committed me back to Prison again and after the space of three dayes they sent me away with a Passe under the name of a Rogue yet durst not give me the Law which belongs to Rogues but had me away with Clubs and Staves and I could not see the Pass until I was three miles out of the town where I lodged that night and the next day there came a Justice of peace from Cambridge who knowing me to be innocent of what was laid to my charge so he witnessed the Passe to be false and took it back to Cambridge and so I was set free And not long after I went to Cambridge again and went abroad preaching and declaring the truth freely in the Countries about and many I found that received the truth gladly but more enemies yet nevertheless Truth spread and conquered over its enemies there I continued labouring in the work of the Lord about the space of halfe a year in the Countries about Cambridge and from thence I was moved of the Lord to come into Essex where I heard of the people that was seeking the Lord and when I came there I found those that were worthy who received the truth gladly and there I continued freely declaring and preaching the truth from place to place sometimes in the Synagogues and was haled out by the Priests party that the Scripture might be fulfilled upon that Generation yet nevertheless I continued in constant preaching of the word to the consciences of the people freely and publickly in severall plains of the Countrey notwithstanding much opposition both of Priests people and professors and much did the truth prevail in the hearts of people to the glory of God the father of truth which did make glad the hearts of many who

was driven away which Christ comes to bring again and whether this is not to be witnessed and fulfilled in man yea or nay 55. What is the Paradise wherein man was placed and what was the Image of God wherein man was created 56. And how was man a living soul and whether all this is not to be restored unto man and fulfilled and witnessed unto man while he is upon the earth yea or nay 57. What is the Tree of Life and what is the Tree of Knowledge and whether upon it you do not feed and what is the flaming sword that is set to keep from the tree of life and whether it you ever passed 58. Whether the naturall man can try and discern false spirits by the Scripture and by what doth the spirituall man try and judge all things and whether by the same he did not try and discern spirits 59. And by what did the holy men of God that gave forth the Scripture try and discern spirits and whether yours be the same tryer of spirits as theirs was who say you must try the spirit by the Letter 60. Whether you are not conformed like unto the world so long as you follow their fashions and customes 61. Whether you are not partiall amongst your selves so long as you respect persons These things I do not ask as if I knew them not but for the satisfaction of the simple and the clearing of the truth and manifesting your deceit to the world by which you have deceived the world who are the deceivers of the world therefore answer by plain Scripture and your own experience or else let all flesh keep silence before the Lord and let guilt stop your mouths for Rayling reproaching and blaspheming the truth of God which is made manifest in these people whom you scornfully calls quakers who by you and your agents are persecuted but where do you find that the Church of God was ever persecutors or ever made use of carnall weapons to defend them J. P. Here followeth a Copy of a Letter that I was moved to write to Iudge Hills after the Assize A Few words unto thee that art set in the seat to do justice and to bear the sword of Justice in thy hand and hast turned the edg of it against the righteous and laid it upon the innocent and thy fair words wil not shelter nor cover thy deceitful actions but thy deceitful heart is made manifest and thy hypocrisie doth thee appear for thou hast hearkned unto the false Prophet Isai 5.10 and by his enticing words thou art deceived and so puts darkness for light and light for darkness evill for good and good for evil and so art liable to the wo from the Lord and hast persecuted Christ and set at liberty Barabas yea and I was numbred amongst transgressors yet could not have the liberty of transgressors as in many things might be nominated but in short I shall declare it first that mine accusers should stand in the place as judges over me and their accusations and false witnesses to be heard to the ful and also to whisper and buz in thy eares in secret what they would against me and also that thou that sate in the seat as a Judge to repeat over unto the Jury all that thou couldst gather by wrong interpretation and construction against me but nothing of my defence against my accusations but rather to drive out of their minds by thy evill incensing what I had before declared in my own defence but thou as it were passed the sentence upon me before the Jury went sorth but thou thoughtest thou hadst pannelled a Jury wherewith thou wast pleased to try me according to thine own mind and will for the Foreman was a drunkard and the rest swearers out of the Doctrine of Christ against all which I did object and denyed by them to be tryed but it was thy wil and pleasure so to do and when they come to bring in their evidence they had so much understanding that they charged me with nothing but the papers which I had before confessed to be mine and owned them but the Indictment they would not own to be truth against me though dishonestly both thou and the Clerk did draw words out of the Foreman of the Jury which the rest did not consent to and then in thy wil with thy fair and deceitful speeches thou imposed a fine upon me contrary to all law and equity but where equity is not it cannot be expected for oppression within oppression without and he that cannot witness the sword of justice set up in his heart knows not how to handle it without for he that rules not by the law of God in his heart rules in his own wil and is partial understands not the things of God but what pleaseth his wil that he cherisheth what crosseth his will that he would curb and the wil of man is opposite to the wil of God therefore the Cross of Christ is of use to them that know it but a stumbling block to the world but he that rules in his own wil is no minister of God he that respects persons is not fit to bear rule for God he that seeks himself is not fit to bear rule for God all which appeared and was openly manifest in thee in the open Court as in those things beforementioned and many other which are now out of mind but for the clearing of my conscience unto thee I was moved to write that thou might'st see what thou hast done and be left without excuse of ignorance in the presence of the Almighty for contrary to the Light of God in thy conscience thou hast acted by which thou stands accused in the presence of the Almighty and if thy conscience accuse thee God is greater but if thou hadst stood in the place where thou art set to judge of legal malters about natural and temporal things thou hadst had the less to account for but in medling to judge about spiritual matters is authority which the Scripture which thou calls thy rule doth not allow thee for the natural man receives not the things of God because they are spiritually discerned therefore in this the spiritual man judgeth thee and thy condemnation is great therefore lay these things to heart and put them not far from thee for to the light of God in thy conscience I do speak which eternally wil witness me and condemn thee in the presence of the Almighty who hast taken upon thee to judge and condemn those whom God hath justified therefore consider what advantageth it thee or what wil it advancage thee when thou comes to give an account before the Lord God of Heaven and Earth the Iudge of all the quick and the dead it thou hast now power to keep this body in prison until thou hast the life of the creature which I am freely made willing to give up rather then to deny the truth of my God and if I

should pay one penny for the liberty of my body in this cause would be as much as if I paid the whole fine which thou hast unjustly laid upon me for therein I should own my self a Transgressor where I am not guilty and also a bought liberty is bondage to my spirit but my liberty under thy bonds is bondage to thee which liberty thou canst not rob me of with all that thou canst do for it is the free gift of God which none can take away though thou wilt not allow me in thy bonds to have the outward liberty that thou allows to Thieves and Murderers and Fornicators that is to have my friends and acquaintance to come to seeme wherein the very heathen wil condemn thee who when they had committed Paul to prison said Forbid none of his friends and acquaintance to come to fee him Acts 22.24 Therefore now read how thou exceeds the Heathen in persecution and injustice though I am a free-born subject in England therefore let the life of all the Christians condemn thee who never was persecutors And this of the Lord I was moved to write which is the VVord of the Lord unto thee whether thou wil hear or forbear in the peace of my conscience I do rest in the VVill of God Known to thee by the name Iames Parnel And now a few words unto you who call your selves gathered Churches who go under by the name of Independants in Essex you are gathered by the wil of man and are joyned by the wil of man and so stands in the will of man and are upheld by the wil of man by which you are begotten but stil alive in the worlds nature in the worlds customes fashions and traditions in the worlds fellowship words and waies and rudiments only differing from others in judgement opinion or profession wherein is your life in high notions and feigned apprehensions and false applications and glorious expressions and customary duties and vain Traditions which all appertains to the great Image which all the world worships by which they are deceived whose head is gold and brest of silver and thighs of brass and legs of Iron and feet part Iron and part clay and in the same nature ye are found with the world the day doth declare it and you to be the enemies and strangers to the light which is not of the world which is now come into the world testifying against the world and the deceit of the world the deceivers in the world and the profession of the world and this is the condemnation of the world Iob. 3.19 that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evill in which evil you are found despising and sett●ng at nought the Corner-stone and standing in the enmity of your spirits and joyning with the powers of the earth to persecute the life and power which now is manifest in the earth and is come to discover your empty shadows forms and fair shews of godliness but without life and power which you have set up in your imaginations and thereby are deceived and blinded and led in blindness so that you cannot see the light nor receive the substance now it is come and made manifest but stands up in your wills and wisdome to oppose the same and persecute it in the enmity of your spirits as if you hoped to kill the heir that the inheritance might be yours and therefore because you do despise this day of your visitation and reject slight the glad tydings which now are come to them that dwel upon the earth and revile and reproach persecute and slander the faithfull messengers of the Gospell rejoycing your hearts in their sufferings by you and amongst you therefore the Lord will rayse up a people out of the dust gather them from far to bear testimony unto his name and bear witness against you yea and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the kingdome of the Son and you and such as you shall be cast out into Tophit prepared of old for hypocrites and unbelievers therefore now read your portions ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts cars who do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost as did your fathers so do ye but the greater wil be your condemnation who go about to mock God with your wil-worship with your calling of Assemblies and Solemn Meetings with your appointed Fasts and dayes of voluntary Humiliation with your long Prayers and feigned duties all which is done out of the Light and so are your own works acted by selfe for selfe But who hath required these things at your hands it is all abomination to the Lord his soul loaths it for your sacrifices are as Cain's for your are found in Cain's nature envying and persecuting the righteous yea the witness lies slain in your streets therefore wo is unto you who go on in the way of Cain for upon you shal come all the righteous blood shed from righteous Abel until now and your professions stinks in the nostrils of the Lord for you have lift up your hands against him and his Annoynted opened your mouths in blasphemy and false reports against the truth yea you are blinde and stumble at the noon day you come neer the Lord with your lips but your hearts runs awhoring after other Lovers and you know not the only true God that dwels in Temples made without hands whose worship is in spirit and in truth but would limit the unlimited under your wils as if he were not a God of might but that you could controle him with the arm of flesh but be not deceived God is not mocked such as you sowe such shall you reap and your end shal be according to your works Gal. 6.7 for our God is a God of Judgement and Justice wil avenge the cause of the innocent upon you his adversaries yea and though your Teachers do cry peace peace unto you because you put into their mouths and so daubs you up with untempred morter that you cannot see your wound and so heals you slightly yet you shal know that our God is a God of Truth and his word shal stand for ever and their sorcery shal appear and their witchcraft shal be laid open and the cup of fornication wherewith they have made drunk and deluded the Nations shal be taken from them and the cup of the wrath of the Almighty given them to drink their reward and then shal you behold the Harlot with whom you have committed fornication who now lies in your bosomes bewitching you with a golden cup with whom you have defiled your garments then to be cast into the bottomless pit where you shal all be tormented together who now partake of her pleasures and thus shal you fal amongst them that fal in the day that I visit you saith the Lord. And all you my dear friends you scattered and despised ones in and about the County

of Essex whom the Lord by his powerful word is now gathering out of darkness into his marvellous light out of the Kingdome of this World into the Kingdome of his dear Son whom he is seperating unto himself to walk before him in holiness that you might know him and he might know you in the light of his countenance whose faces he hath turned to words Sion to seek after a Land of Rest unto your wearied Souls which hath been tossed to and fro from mountain to hil in this cloudy and dark day seeking rest but finding none but now is the day of beauty broken forth nigh you even in you yea glad tidings is come unto your wearied souls by which a pure love is begotten in you to the everlasting truth which hath been freely declared amongst you by the messengers of the most high who hath reached the witness for God in your consciences which doth seal the same upon your hearts which your teacher is and unto it you hearken and are abedient in which light all stand stil behold the work which the Lord hath begun amongst you and you shal have no cause of discouragement though the sea do rise and the raging waves do swel as if they would swallow all up yet it is limited by the unlimited it shal but foam out its own shame And as I had a time to preach the truth amongst you to the convincement of many so also now I have a time to seal the same with patient suffering in the bonds of the Gospel that you may see that it is no other but what we are made able and willing to seal with patient suffering yea with our blood if we be called to it as many of us hath done in this Nation though it be called a Land of Liberty but it is for Iniquity but truth and equity are strangers in it therefore are persecuted but you that are found worthy to receive these strangers happy are you though the raging Sodomites compass you about for to cause you to cast out these strangers that they may work their wils upon them yet be faithful and fear them not but cast out your darlings before them stand in the faith of the God of truth equity and you shal see the Sodomites struck with blindness that they shal not be able to prevail against you but when they are weary with striving they shal be made to sit down in sorrow so shal it be fulfill d which of old was prophesied that no weapon formed against the faithful shal prosper but woe unto them that lift up their heel against them therefore I charge you all in the name of the God of truth be faithful valiant bold for the truth received and as you have received it so walk in it that you may profess no more in word but what in life you seal that the light may be preached forth in your lives shine forth in your conversations to the glory of the father of lights and the confounding of the heathen who profess God in words but in life denies him be willing that self shal suffer for the truth and not the truth for self for the truth was ever sealed with persecution since Cains generation had a being upon the earth and so own the Cross and despise the shame and give up your selves to suffer for the truth received all you that would follow the Lamb to the Land of rest and through many trials you wil wax strong and bold and confident in your God for God is not known what a God he is until the time of tryal and all keep your meetings in the name and fear of the Lord God waiting for his power in the obedience to his Light which in your consciences doth reprove you when you do amiss that in it you may wait and watch over the foes that are of your own house that you may know the warfare begun in your hearts against your spiritual enemies and so the God of Power manifest himself amongst you by his mighty power bringing down all that in you which opposes him would not that he should reign over it and exalt his own seed in your hearts establish you in righteousness that his image you may bear and he shal be your God and you shal be his people And so in the unchangeable Truth I rest in unity with all the faithful in the glorious liberty of the Sons of God though in outward bonds for your sakes Known to all that can read me in spirit I.P. FINIS