Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A44789
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A general epistle to the dispersed and persecuted flock of Christ Jesus in the dominion of England and all parts and regions where this shall come who have believed in Christ the Light of the World and now suffers for his names sake / [by] F.H.
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Howgill, Francis, 1618-1669.
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1665
(1665)
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Wing H3161; ESTC R30345
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10,851
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16
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will live Godly in Christ must suffer Persecution for the World loves only the Children of it but alwaies hated the Children of God and them that were redeemed out of it and they bore witness against it and the workes thereof it 's no new thing or strange thing for it's that portion which all the Prophets and Holy Men of God were partakers of Christ and the Apostles and all true Believers in every Age and the nearer any came to be unto God in their life and practice the more they were hated and the more vilefied slandered and evil spoken of sometime by the Jewes sometime by the Heathen and now by the Apostatized Christians for the Nature is one through all Ages and diversities of Names in Profession doth not at all alter Man or Men at the heart the Jews who professed God in words and cryed up the Temple and Moses and the Law in words flew the Prophets and laid false things to their charge Jeremiah when he Prophesied against Jerusalem and spake to the Princes and Rulers when they were revolted from God in the dayes of Zedekiah and denounced evil against the City and People because of Transgression they put him in the Dungeon where his feet sticked in the Mire and said He was fallen away to the Caldeans and did he alienate the heart of the Jewes from them and their Law and despised their Government Christ was accounted a friend of Publicans and sinners and had a devil a Transgressor of Moses Law though he came to fulfill it and an enemy to Caesar and a blasphemer and what not Who said so the Elders the Doctors the Rabies and Rulers of the People and they crucified him as an evil doer though none could convince him of sin the Apostles of Christ as seditious men Ringleaders of Sects Authors of Vproars turners of the World upside down as disobedient enemies to peace as discontented men with the present Lawes and Customs then established and judged as not fit to live And therefore many suffered long for holding out their Testimony faithfully they had received and last of all suffered death not as Saints and Prophets but as evil doers at last some by the Jewes some by the Heathen The Primitive Christians of whom the World was not worthy of were falsly accused by the Romans Heathens and Pagans in the great Persecutions that arose were evil spoken of and falsly represented and rendred odious and as objects of hatred through the envy of the Devil because they opposed his Kingdom of Darkness Tertullian saith the Heathen commonly reputed the then Primitive Christians incestious men killers of Children enemies of all mankind enemies against the Gods against the Emperours against the Laws they made an 0utcry upon them It s not lawful they should live And when any Judgment did befall them Augustine saith it was become a Proverb Our Rain failes us because of these Christians And Eusebius saith the Religion of Christ was called the Heresie of Godless Christians Likewise after the name of Christ and Christian became in repute and esteem many Hypocrites and Formalists took on the Name when it was countenanced by the Kings and Princes of the Earth and then turned against them that were more in the life and power then they as the Bohemians and the Waldences and first Protestants in Germany how were they branded with heresie schisme as seditious factious enemies to the Lawes Church and State and to Princes and how was the hatred of the Pope and Emperour kindled against them and War raised upon them and many suffered death in their account as evil doers who persecuted them Likewise come nearer our own Age in the dayes of Queen Mary how were the best of Men and the best of Christians in that Age censured as Enemies to the Queens Laws and Government enemies to the Church seditious hereticks and such as was not fit to live and therefore many suffered in the cruel flames of fire and did undergo many great torments and sufferings and last of all cruel deaths many suffered and by them called Christians and yet slew him and persecuted him in his Members Last of all God hath brought us forth in our Age to bear witness unto him and unto that life power and light by which we are quickned and raised out of the grave of sin and death to live unto him and serving him in newness of life and to confess unto his holy name and power by which we are saved illuminated and directed and to worship him in spirit and truth according to the manifestation of his spirit to us and in us according to the Scriptures of Truth for the Lord God of Heaven and Earth Judge and all his holy Angels and all just men who are anointed with the holy Unction that knowes truth from error whether we hold any other thing either in Doctrine or practice but that which the Primitive Christians bare witness of and also the Scriptures bare witness unto and that which we are perswaded in our Consciences by the unerring spirit of the Lord which doth give us assurance of his acceptation and peace in our hearts And how often have we declared our selves both by word and writing which is sufficiently manifest unto all who have not wilfully closed their eyes and stopped their eares against us that we are of no other faith hope or Religion but that which Christ and his Apostles and Primitive Christians were of which they did hold forth both in Doctrine and practice as in respect of Worship And how peaceably and humbly we have walked towards all men without seeking the hurt or detriment of any thou Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth knows and according to the innocency of our hearts do thou judge us and plead our Cause And further we have laboured that sin might be beat down and that all every where might have been turned from it unto the living God and that Righteousness might have been advanced and truth have taken place in all Mens hearts both in word and deed that Christ who is professed in words might have ruled in the hearts of all men that make mention of him that so Gods blessing might have been felt and known by all and the Souls of all saved from the snares of Sathan and out of that which the wrath of God and his Judgments comes upon and Lord God of Heaven and Earth thou knows how our Adversaries have sought occasion against us for no other cause but for the matter of worship of the living God and unto Gods righteous Judgment seat we dare appeal and do thou judge us and reward us according to our deserts if ever we have contrived the hurt of any man or men or have sought to violate any righteous Law of Man which stands to the well governing of a Nation or Country in the things that pertain to the World yet how have we been fasly represented slandered belyed misreported hated backbited persecuted and killed
of God they tell the Magistrates the Phanaticks and Quakers is the cause and so they fast for strife and to kindle debate and to stir up Persecution and they seem to cleave so close to the Magistrates that will force and exact gain for them and give them large pay they will cry them up as the higher power that all is to submit unto in all things under pain of condemnation and they will cry them up and dance and clap their hands and rejoyce as Israel did about the Calfe when they had forgotten God so the Lord is provoked more and more and they think by rooting out his people is possible will stay his Judgments it 's lamentable to see what blindness is over the hearts of the Seers of this Generation wâ—o câ—y peace peace and how People are given up to believe their lyes and to hardness of heart and never consider their own estate neither the afflictions of Joseph is remembred Another thing also hath been in my heart many weeks and a query hath been in my self and I know hath been on many spirits why in this common Calamity and in Gods Visitation of the City of London and many other places of this Nation that they that have suffered so greatly so long and so faithfully and have borne such a Testimony for the Lord why also they should be taken away among the Rest seeing the Lord was able to deliver and also command his Destroying Angel to pass over as it pleased him and spare and take away as he pleased and why it should not be wholly upon his enemies and upon them that called not upon his name in truth and righteousness I have had many sad thoughts of heart and have waited upon the Lord concerning these things with supplications and teaâ—s concerning his afflicted People and concerning his Name and Truth and this satisfaction I have received in my self and do communicate unto you First Of all it is said that Paul stayed and preached the Gospel at Ephesus two yeares so that not only them of Ephesus but all Asia heard the Word of God both Jewes and Greeks and many were gathered unto God and believed and the rest were hardened When I considered this that not only two years but twelve years that Citty of London hath heard the Word of the Living God declared and published plentifully in it and the everlasting Gospel of Christ in the demonstration of the Spirit and with power in so much that the sound went through and through and many believed and the rest were hardened having lost the day of their visitation but alass it was but a few considering the labour and travel and considering so many thousands who counted the things of God a sleight matter and for them that were worthy and did believe they were hated and despised and evilly entreated with the most and shut up in holes and miserable bonds and prisons and lingering torments which often time was the cause of their death whose lives God is requiring at the hands of that place and the Messengers of God was mocked abused and evilly entreated and shut up in bonds till death and wickedness did abound and peoples hearts grew hard in ease riches pride and vain glory till the wrath of God broke forth and cut down thousands in his displeasure and this was seen and foreseen full three whole years and upwards by some of the faithful servants of God who laid down their lives in bonds in that City and are gathered unto the Lord and also some who remain in the body unto this day and it was prophesied of and the City was warned thereof Rulers and People but the most made a mock of it till the just judgment of God seized upon it Secondly The Lord took away these faithfull men of God Edward Burrough Richard Hubberthorne and George Foxe Junior who had been much conversant there who were faithfull Watchmen and prevailed often with the Lord till they were shut up in Bonds for all their sore travel and labour amongst the Inhabitants thereof and that place being unworthy of them any more he delivered them and took them away to himself from the evil to come that they had seen and prophesied of that they might see none of that misery that is now come Thirdly They were gathered unto the Lord as a token and signe unto them that believed of many following after and of their dissolution Fourthly The Lord did fore-know and fore-see and also had determined evil against that City and that which is now come to pass and that this Generation notwithstanding all the entreaties woeings warnings and exhortations which they had and slighted and that they would proceed on to more mischief and persecution in presumption against God and his People and are yet determined and have said in their hearts though the bricks be fallen down we will build with hewn stone to fortifie themselves that their end might not faile which the Lord God will blast and confound and though Friends have borne their iniquity they shall at last bear it themselves and know the reward thereof and have none to help so the Lord hath taken away many in his love and mercy from the evil to come and hath freed them from further misery and hath Translated them out of the reach of all their Enemies Fifthly Seeing they have suffered long and faithfully in that place and elsewhere and hath borne a living Testimony many to the loss of their lives and to their ruinating in this World against the Abominations that did abound and their righteous souls was vexed as Lots was with the Sodomites the Lord hath considered and hath said it is enough your afflictions I will end and take you into my rest and peace out of the reach of the Oppressâ—r Sixthly For the frustrating of the purpose of them who decreed that unrighteous decree for banishment that it may not profit them neither answer their end and unrighteousness and the Lord the Lord hath cut them short of their purpose and will cut them short of their hope and in the end bring their councel to nought for that which is formed against the Lord shall not prosper Seventhly For the hardening the hearts of this Generation who have devised mischief from the Womb and have gone astray as soon as they were born after so many warnings and evident tokens of his hand against them and of his displeasure which hath been set at nought and yet are resolved to go on to root out the heritage of God I say that their hearts might be hardened and their eyes closed that they may not discern betwixt the end of the Righteous and the wicked nor see a difference in their states but as one dies so dies the other as to the outward appearance though you beloved know a difference both in life and death and I do believe many who have laid down the body and put off this Earthly Tabernacle have given great Testimony of Gods love unto them of his favour peace and acceptation in the in the latter end in this which I have said I am satisfied and therefore could not but signifie the same unâ—o you that we might not sorrow concerning them that die in the faith and sleep in Christ as them who are without hope for these rest from their labours and their faith works and life shall live and we have and enjoy their spirit and life so it is only personal absence of this Earthly Tabernacle that we want so in that all be comforted Last of all The wayes of the Lord are unsearchable but as he reveals them to them that fear him and whatever may be manifest to any other this I am certainly perswaded of that God will have honour and glory through all these things as it shall be in the end for the prosperity of the Gospel of truth and I am perswaded of this though the Lord should permit many to be destroyed outwardly of all they enjoy yet they are resolved to trust in him for ever And though the day be dark and gloomy and the Devil be let loose to try the faith of them that dwell upon the Earth and the wrath of the wicked be great yet the bond is set that they cannot pass and though we that yet remain alive to this day were all dissolved and rowled in the dust together which is the end of all flesh yet that life and power which we have believed in and that everlâ—sting truth which we have testified of and suffered for shall never be extinguished or rooted out but shall take up other persons and bodies from Generation to Generation while Sun and Moon endureth in this be all assured and comforted in the Lord and chearful in your sufferings and comfort and strengthen one another in the royal seed of God all live and dwell which cannot bow to the seed of the Bond-woman which hath the promise of life and Immortality and everlasting blessedness and all look unto the Lord over all and above all the rage and wrath of men and the afflictions of this present life and feel that which is without end The God of power be with you and comfort you in the midst of all your trials and preserve you that your faith fail not is the earnest desire of him whose heart is knit unto the Lord and all his suffering People in the Everlasting Covenant of life and peace Pray all unto the Lord without ceasing that you may be able to follow the Lord though through the valley of the shadow of death the peace of God fill all your hearts that you may rejoyce in the Lord and trust in him for ever Yours in Life or Death F. H. 16 th of the 8 th Moneth 1665. THE END