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	lead_v	spirit_n	1,730	5	5.1942	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65910	Memorials of the English affairs, or, An historical account of what passed from the beginning of the reign of King Charles the First, to King Charles the Second his happy restauration containing the publick transactions, civil and military : together with the private consultations and secrets of the cabinet.	Whitlocke, Bulstrode, 1605-1675 or 6.; Anglesey, Arthur Annesley, Earl of, 1614-1686.	1682 (1682)	Wing W1986; ESTC R13122	1,537,120	725

in Me that this Cause and this Business is of God I would many years ago have run from it If it be of God he will bear it up If it be of Man it will tumble as every thing that hath been of man since the World began hath done And what are all our Histories and other Traditions of actions in former times but God manifesting himself that he hath shaken and tumbled down and tr●mpled upon every thing that he hath not planted and as this is so the all-wise God deal with it If this be of human Structure and invention and it be an old Plotting and Contrivance to bring things to this Issue and that they are not the births of Providence then they will tumble But if the Lord take pleasure in England and if he will do Us good he is able to bear us up Let the difficulties be whatsoever they will we shall in his Strength be able to encounter with them And I blefs God I have been inured to Difficulties and I never found God failing when I trusted in him I can laugh and sing in my heart when I speak of these things to you or elsewhere And though some may think it is an hard thing without Parliamentary Authority to raise mony upon this Notion yet I have another Argument to the good people of this Nation if they would be safe and have no better Principle whether they prefer the having of their Will though it be their Destruction rather than comply with things of necessity that will excuse me but I should wrong my native Country to suppose this For I look at the People of these Nations as the blessing of the Lord and they are a People blessed by God They have been so and they will be so by reason of that immortal seed which hath been and is among them those regenerated ones in the Land of several Judgments who are all the Flock of Christ and Lambs of Christ though perhaps under many unruly passions and troubles of Spirit whereby they give disquiet to themselves and others yet they are not so to God as to Us he is a God of other patience and he will own the least of truth in the hearts of his People and the people being the blessing of God they will not be so angry but they will prefer their safety to their passions and their real security to forms when necessity calls for supplies had they not well been acquainted with this Principle they had never seen this day of Gospel-Liberty But if any man shall object It is an easie thing to talk of necessities when men create necessities would not the Lord Protector make Himself great and his Family great doth not He make these necessities and then he will come upon the People with this Argument of necessity This were somthing hard indeed but I have not yet known what it is to make necessities whatsoever the Judgments or thoughts of men are And I say this not only to this Assembly but to the World that that man liveth not that can come to me and charge me that I have in these great Revolutions made necessities I challenge even all that fear God And as God hath said My glory I will not give unto another Let men take heed and be twice advised how they call his Revolutions the things of God and his working of things from one Period to another how I say they call them necessities of mens creation for by so doing they do vilifie and lessen the works of God and rob him of his Glory which he hath said he will not give unto another nor suffer to be taken from him We know what God did to Herod when he was applauded and did not acknowledg God And God knoweth what he will do with men when they shall call His Revolutions human Designs and so detract from his Glory when they have not been fore-cast but sudden Providences in things whereby Carnal and Worldly men are inraged and under and at which many I fear some good have murmured and repined because disappointed of their mistaken Fancies but still they have been the wise disposings of the Almighty though Instruments have had their passions and frailties and I think it is an Honour to God to acknowledg the necessities to have been of Gods imposing when truly they have been so as indeed they have when we take our sin in our actings to our selves and much more safe than judg things so contingent as if there were not a God that ruled the Earth We know the Lord hath poured this Nation from Vessel to Vessel till he poured it into your Lap when you came first together I am confident that it came so into your hands was not judged by you to be from Counterfeited or feigned necessity but by Divine Providence and Dispensation And this I speak with more earnestness because I speak for God and not for men I would have any man to come and tell of the transactions that have been and of those periods of time wherein God hath made these Revolutions and find where they can fix a feigned necessity I could recite particulars if either My strength would serve Me to speak or yours to hear if that you would revolve the great hand of God in his great Dispensations you would find that there is scare a man that fell off at any period of time when God had any work to do that can give God or his work at this day a good word It was say some the cunning of the Lord Protector I take it to my self it was the craft of such a man and his plot that hath brought it about And as they say in other Countries There are five or six cunning men in England that have skill they do all these things Oh what Blasphemy is this because men that are without God in the world and walk not with him and know not what it is to pray or believe and to receive returns from God and to be spoken unto by the Spirit of God who speaks without a written Word somtimes yet according to it God hath spoken heretofore in divers manners let him speak as he pleaseth Hath he not given us liberty nay is it not our duty to go to the Law and to the Testimonies and there we shall find that there have been impressions in extraordinary cases as well without the written Word as with it and therefore there is no difference in the thing thus asserted from truths generally received except we will exclude the Spirit without whose concurrence all other Teachings are ineffectual He doth speak to the Hearts and Consciences of men and leadeth them to his Law and Testimonies and there he speaks to them and so gives them double teachings according to that of Job God speaketh once yea twice and that of David God hath spoken once yea twice have I heard this Those men that live upon their Mumpsimus and Sumpsimus their Masses and Service-Books their dead

Common-wealth and there are enough besides me that can testifie it and I believe our Ingagements for this Common-wealth have been and are as deep as most mens and there never was more need of advice and solid hearty Counsel than the present State of our Affairs doth require Whitelock I suppose no man will mention his particular ingagement in this cause at the same time when your Excellencies ingagement is remembred yet to my capacity and in my station few men have ingaged further than I have done and that besides the goodness of your own nature and personal knowledge of me will keep you from any jealousie of my Faithfulness Cromwel I wish there were no more ground of Suspition of others than of you I can trust you with my life and the most secret matters relating to our business and to that end I have now desired a little private discourse with you and really My Lord there is very great cause for us to consider the dangerous condition we are all in and how to make good our station to improve the Mercies and Successes which God hath given us and not to be fooled out of them again nor to be broken in pieces by our particular jarrings and animosities one against another but to unite our Councels and hands and hearts to make good what we have so dearly bought with so much hazard blood and treasure and that the Lord having given us an entire Conquest over our Enemies we should not now hazard all again by our private Janglings and bring those Mischiefs upon our selves which our Enemies could never do Whitelock My Lord I look upon our present danger as greater than ever it was in the Field and as your Excellency truly observes our Proneness to destroy our Selves when our Enemies could not do it It is no strange thing for a gallant Army as yours is after full conquest of their Enemies to grow into Factions and Ambitious designs and it is a wonder to me that they are not in high Mutinies their Spirits being active and few thinking their services to be duely rewarded and the emulation of the Officers breaking out daily more and more in this time of their vacancy from their imployment besides the private Soldiers it may be feared will in this time of their Idleness grow into disorder and it is your excellent Conduct which under God hath kept them so long in discipline and free from Mutinies Cromwell I have used and shall use the utmost of my poor endeavours to keep them all in order and obedience Whitelock Your Excellency hath done it hitherto even to admiration Cromwell Truly God hath blest me in it exceedingly and I hope will do so still Your Lordship hath observed most truly the inclinations of the Officers of the Army to particular Factions and to murmurings that they are not rewarded according to their deserts that others who have adventured least have gained most and they have neither profit nor preferment nor place in government which others hold who have undergone no hardships nor hazards for the Common-wealth and herein they have too much of truth yet their insolency is very great and their influence upon the private Soldiers works them to the like discontents and murmurings Then as for the Members of Parliament the Army begins to have a strange distast against them and I wish there were not too much cause for it and really their pride and ambition and self-seeking ingrossing all places of honour and profit to themselves and their Friends and their daily breaking forth into new and violent parties and factions Their delays of Business and design to perpetuate themselves and to continue the power in their own hands their medling in private matters between party and party contrary to the institution of Parliaments and their injustice and partiality in those matters and the Scandalous Lives of some of the chief of them these things My Lord do give too much ground for people to open their mouthes against them and to dislike them Nor can they be kept within the bounds of Justice and Law or Reason they themselves being the supream Power of the Nation lyable to no account to any nor to be controuled or regulated by any other power there being none superior or coordinate with them So that unless there be some Authority and Power so full and so high as to restrain and keep things in better order and that may be a check to these exorbitancies it will be impossible in humane reason to prevent our ruine Whitelock I confess the danger we are in by these extravagancies and inordinate powers is more than I doubt is generally apprehended yet as to that part of it which concerns the Soldiery your Excellencies power and Commission is sufficient already to restrain and keep them in their due obedience and blessed be God you have done it hitherto and I doubt not but by your wisedome you will be able still to do it As to the Members of Parliament I confess the greatest difficulty lies there your Commission being from them and they being acknowledged the Supream Power of the Nation subject to no controls nor allowing any appeal from them Yet I am sure your Excellency will not look upon them as generally depraved too many of them are much to blame in those things you have mentioned and many unfit things have passed among them but I hope well of the Major part of them when great matters come to a decision Cromwell My Lord there is little hopes of a good settlement to be made by them really there is not but a great deal of fear that they will destroy again what the Lord hath done gratiously for them and us we all forget God and God will forget us and give us up to confusion and these men will help it on if they be suffered to proceed in their wayes some course must be thought on to curb and restrain them or we shall be ruined by them Whitelock We our selves have acknowledged them the Supream power and taken our Commissions and Authority in the highest concernments from them and how to restrain and curb them after this it will be hard to find out a way for it Cromwell What if a man should take upon him to be King Whitelock I think that remedy would be worse than the disease Cromwell Why do you think so Whitelock As to your own person the Title of King would be of no advantage because you have the full Kingly power in you already concerning the Militia as you are General As to the nomination of Civil Officers those whom you think fittest are seldom refused and although you have no negative Vote in the passing of Laws yet what you dislike will not easily be carried and the Taxes are already setled and in your Power to dispose the money raised And as to Forrain Affairs though the Ceremonial Application be made to the Parliament yet the expectation of good or bad Success in it is from

and carnal Worship no marvel if they be strangers to God and the works of God and to spiritual dispensations And because they say and belive thus must we do so too we in this Land have been otherwise instructed even by the Word and Works and Spirit of God To say that men bring forth these things when God doth them judg you if God will bear this I wish that every sober heart though he hath had temptations upon him of deserting this Cause of God yet may take heed how he provokes and falls into the hands of the living God by such Blasphemies as these according to the tenth of the Hebrews If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledg of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sin It was spoken to the Jews that having professed Christ apostatized from him what then nothing but a fearful falling into the hands of the Living God They that shall attribute to this or that person the contrivances and production of those mighty things God hath wrought in the midst of us and that they have not been the revolutions of Christ himself upon whose Shoulders the Government is layed they speak against God and they fall under his hand without a Mediator that is if we deny the Spirit of Jesus Christ the glory of all his works in the world by which he Rules Kingdoms and doth adminster and is the Rod of his strength we provoke the Mediator And he may say I 'le leave you to God I 'le not interceed for you let him tear you to pieces I 'le leave thee to fall into Gods hands thou deniest me my Soveraingty and Power committed to me I 'le not interceed nor mediate for thee thou fallest into the hands of the living God Therefore whatsoever you may judg men for and say This man is cunning and politick and subtile take heed again I say how you judg of his revolutions as the products of mens inventions I may be thought to press too much upon this Theme but I pray God it may stick upon your hearts and mine the worldly minded man knows nothing of this but is a stranger to it and because of this his Atheism and murmurings at Instruments yea repining at God himself and no wonder considering the Lord hath done such things amongst us as have not been known in the world these thousand Years and yet notwithstanding is not owned by us There is another necessity which you have put upon us and we have not fought I Appeal to God Angels and Men if I shall raise Money according to the Article in the Government which had power to call you hither and did and instead of seasonable providing for the Army you have laboured to overthrow the Government and the Army is now upon Free Quarter and you would never so much as let me hear a tittle from you concerning it where is the fault has it not been as if you had had a purpose to put this extremity upon us and the Nation I hope this was not in your minds I am not willing to judge so but this is the state unto which we are reduced By the Designs of some in the Army who are now in Custody it was Designed to get as many of them as could through discontent for want of money the Army being in a Barren Countrey near Thirty weeks behind in pay and upon other specious pretences to march for England out of Scotland and in discontent to seize their General there a faithful and honest man that so another might head the Army and all this opportunity taken from your delays whether will this be a thing of feigned necessity What could it signifie but that the Army are in discontent already and wee 'l make them live upon Stones wee 'l make them cast off their Governours and Discipline What can be said to this I list not to unsaddle my self and put the fault upon others backs Whether it hath been for the good of England whilest men have been talking of this thing or the other and pretending liberty and a many good words whether it hath been as it should have been I am confident you cannot think it has the Nation will not think so And if the worst should be made of things I know not what the Cornish-men or the Lincolnshire-men may think or other Counties but I belive they will all think they are not safe A temporary suspension of caring for the greatest Liberties and Priviledges if it were so which is denied would not have been of that Damage that the not providing against Free Quarter hath run the Nation upon And if it be my Liberty to walk abroad in the Fields or to take a Journey yet it is not my Wisdom to do so when my House is on Fire I have troubled you with a long Speech and I believe it may not have the same resentment with all that it hath with some but because that is unknow to me I shall leave it to God and Conclude with that that I think my self bound in my Duty to God and the People of these Nations to their safety and good in every respect I think it my Duty to tell you That it is not for the profit of these Nations nor for Common and Publick good for You to continue here any longer and therefore I do Declare unto you THAT I DO DISSOLVE THIS PARLIAMENT February 1654. Feb. The Protector who was usually positive in his own Judgment and Resolutions having Dissolved the Parliament because he found them not so pliable to his purposes as he expected this caused much discontent in the Parliament and others but he valued it not esteeming himself above those things And now he Sate close with his Council to frame some Ordinances whereby he might sweeten the generality of the People particularly by taking off some Burdens and inconveniencies as they held them in the proceedings of Law and in other matters He was also busie with his Council in the Examination of a Plot discovered wherein several of the Kings Party and some of the Levelling Party were Engaged against him and his Government whereof having formerly had some inkeling he affirmed that to have been a chief Motive to him for Dissolving the late Parliament Divers of the Kings Party who were in the Conspiracy were Apprehended and Committed to Prison and enough was proved against them 13 The Lord Mayor Aldermen Recorder and Sixty of the Common-Council of London by the Protectors Order came to him to White-hall where he acquainted them with the danger of the Conspiracy the Conspirators and what they had Discovered wished them to be careful to preserve the Peace of the City gave them a Commission for a Committee of Militia in London and to raise forces to be under the Command of their old faithful Major General Skippon The Conspiracy was generally laid to bring in the King and the Design so far took Effect that in several Counties small

the full and perfect state of your Revenue you will particularly understand from the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury and such other Persons as his Highness will appoint to inform you therein which cannot be expected at this time from me who have already held you too long and spent too much of your time and tired out your patience which you will have occasion enough to make use of to better purposes This only I shall add before I conclude That though I shall not I must not I dare not flatter Man in the presence of God and his presence is more than ordinary in such Assemblies as this yet you all know and the three Nations know and all the Nations round about us know that the Quiet Peace and Welfare of these Nations doth at present in great measure under God depend upon his Highness life And therefore with hearts and hands lifted up to Heaven let us pray for the continuance of it and of the Influences of God's gracious Spirit upon his Mind and Heart for the Weal and good Government of these Nations And Sir what ever you are or shall be what ever you have done or shall doe and what ever Abilities you are or shall be endowed with are not from nor for your self but from and for God and for the good of men and especially of God's people amongst men To which ends that you may lay forth your self and them and improve all the Opportunities and employ all the Power which God hath put into your hands is the Hope is the Prayer of all good men And in so doing you shall have Comfort you shall have Honour and we shall have Safety and we shall have Happiness that happiness to see Truth and Peace Justice and Mercy kiss each other and Christ set upon his Throne in these Lands not in that litteral and carnal way which hath so much intoxicated the Brains and Minds of many in these our days but in Spirit and in Truth and more conformable to that which Christ himself hath pronounced That his kingdom is not of this world And yet must all the Kingdoms of the World be subservient to that World which is to come to that Kingdom which is above Whereupon having our eyes fixt let us bend our course that way with our faces thitherward discharging every one his duty in his place diligently and faithfully and finishing the work which God hath appointed us to doe in this life that in the life to come we may hear that sweet and blessed voice directed unto us Come good and faithfull servants enter into your masters joy 21. The House of Lords appointed a Committee for Privileges and a Committee for Petitions and sent to the House of Commons for a Day of Humiliation to be appointed The Messengers were two of the Judges who all sate Assistants as formerly in the House of Lords 25. Upon a Letter from the Protector to the Speaker of the House of Commons they met his Highness in the Banquetting-house and he exhorted them to unity and to the observance of their own Rules in the Petition and Advice and gave them a state of the publick accounts and good counsel 27. Both Houses kept a Day of Humiliation within their own Walls 28. The House of Lords sent a Message to the House of Commons three days past by Judge Windham and Baron Hill the House of Commons put off the Answer to that Message Sir Arthur Hasilrigge and some others not allowing the House of Lords and fomenting by their dissatisfied Spirits a difference betwixt the two Houses This day they again put off their Answer to the Message which caused distaste in the other House and Protector and was contrary to what themselves had at their last Meeting assented unto 30. The House of Lords taking into consideration the state of Affairs relating to foreign Princes and states and particularly to Sweden Whitelocke gave them a full account of his Negotiation in Sweden and of the Interest of this Nation in relation to Sweden with which account the House seemed greatly satisfied The House of Commons again put off their Answer to the Lords February 1657. 2. The Debate of the Answer of the House of Commons to the Message of the Lords House was again adjourned 3. The House of Lords sent another Message by two Judges to the House of Commons who told them they would send an Answer by Messengers of their own And then the House of Commons as formerly took in Debate what Appellation they should give to the other House many were against the calling of them the House of Lords some were against the having of such another House perhaps because they were not thought fit to be Members of it and others were against it upon other fancies and upon a Spirit of contradiction and some spake reproachfully in the House of Commons of the other House All these Passages tended to their own destruction which was not difficult to foresee The Protector looked upon himself as aimed at by them though with a side-wind and testimonies of their envy towards him and he was the more incensed because at this time the Fifth Monarchy-men began again their Enterprizes to overthrow him and his Government by force whereof there were clear discoveries he therefore took a resolution suddenly to dissolve this Parliament He was disswaded from it and told the danger of frequent dissolving of Parliaments the streights it would bring him into for money which he could not raise without the highest discontent except it were given by them that a little time would cool these heats and bring the Parliament into a better temper but some fierce men and flatterers to comply with him advised the dissolving of them 4. The Protector came to the House of Lords in the Morning and caused the Usher of the Black Rod to go to the House of Commons and acquaint them that his Highness was in the Lords House and there expected them Thereupon the Speaker and the whole House came to the Lords House where his Highness made a Speech to them declaring several urgent and weighty Reasons making it necessary for him in order to the publick peace and safety to proceed to an immediate dissolution of this Parliament And accordingly his Highness dissolved the Parliament Some were troubled at this others rejoyced at the troubles and were suspected to be Assisters of the new Designs of Insurrection Divers were imprisoned upon the new Plot and the Protector and his Council were busie in the Examinations concerning it And Thurlo did them good service Major General Harrison was deep in it 12. Divers seditious Books taken of the Conspirators News of the King of Sweden's success in Liefland against the Poles and that by the Frost he marched his Troops of Horse over the Ice cross an Arm of the Sea and got by that means into the Isle of Fuenen which he gained that he