Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	age_n	church_n	time_n	2,142	5	3.6322	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58836	Massachusetts, or, The first planters of New-England the end and manner of their coming thither, and abode there: in several epistles ...	Dudley, Thomas, 1576-1653.; Allin, John, 1596-1671.; Shepard, Thomas, 1605-1649.; Cotton, John, 1584-1652.; Massachusetts	1696 (1696)	Wing S2098; ESTC R10108	23,148	60

are ready to go Aboard therein for England Sir Richard Saltonstall Mr. Sharp Mr. Coddington and many others the most whereof purpose to return to us again if God will In the mean time we are left a People poor and contemptible yet such as Trust in God and are contented with our condition being well assured that he will not fail us nor forsake us I had almost forgotten to add this That the Wheat we received by this last Ship stands us in thirteen or fourteen shillings a strike and the Pease about eleven shillings a strike besides the Adventure which is worth three or four shillings a strike which is an higher price than I ever tasted Bread of before Thus Madam I have as I can told Your Honour all our matters knowing Your Wisdom can make good use thereof If I Live not to perform the like Office of my Duty hereafter likely it is some other will do it better Before the departure of the Ship which yet was Wind-bound there came unto us Sagamore Iohn and one of his Subjects requiring satisfaction for the Burning of two Wigwams by some of the English which Wiggwams were not Inhabited but stood in a place convenient for their shelter when upon occasion they should Travel that way By Examination we found that some English Fowlers having retired into that which belonged to the Subject and leaving a Fire therein carelesly which they had kindled to warm them were the cause of Burning thereof For that which was the Sagamores we could find no certain proof how it was Fired yet least he should think us not sedulous enough to find it out and so should depart discontentedly from us we gave both him and his Subject satisfaction for them both The like accident of Fire also befel Mr. Sharp and Mr. Colborn upon the seventeenth of this March both whose Houses which were as good and as well furnished as the most in the Plantation were in two hours space Burned to the ground together with much of their Houshold stuff Apparel and other things as also some Goods of others who Sojourned with them in their Houses God so pleasing to exercise us with Corrections of this kind as he hath done with others For the prevention whereof in our New Town intended this Summer to be Builded we have ordered that no man there shall Build his Chimney with Wood nor cover his House with Thatch which was readily assented unto for that divers other Houses have been Burned since our Arrival Upon the Eighteenth Day of March came one from Salem and told us that upon the Fifteenth thereof there Dyed Mrs. Skelton the Wife of the other Minister there She was a Godly and an helpful Woman she lived desired and dyed lamented and well deserves to be honourably remembred Upon the Twenty fifth of this March one of Watertown having lost a Call and about ten of the Clock at night hearing the Howling of some Wolves not far off raised many of his Neighbours out of their Beds that by Discharging their Muskets near about the place where he heard the Wolves he might so put the Wolves to flight and save his Calf The Wind serving fit to carry the Report of the Muskets to Roxbury three miles off at such a time the Inhabitants there took an Alarm Beat up their Drum Armed themselves and sent in Post to us to Boston to Raise us also So in the morning the Calf being found safe the Wolves affrighted and our danger past we went merrily to Breakfast I thought to have ended before but the stay of the Ship and my desire to inform Your Honour of all I can hath caused this Addition And every one having warning to prepare for the Ships departure to morrow I am now this Twenty-Eighth of March 163 〈◊〉 Sealing my Letters The PREFACE of the Reverend Mr. John Allin of Dedham and of Mr. Thomas Shepard of Cambridge in New-England before their Defence of the Answer made unto the Nine Questions IT was the Profession of the Lord Jesus before Pilate when he questioned with him about his Kingdom Iohn 18. 37. That for this cause he was born and came into the world to bear witness of the Truth Many Truths about the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ hath he imparted to us if therefore we be born into the world or sent into this Wilderness to bear witness to his Truth it is unto us reward sufficient that we should be Witnesses thereunto even to the Utmost parts of the Earth We confess we have been too slow in this Service of Christ not having to this day set forth an unanimous Confession of that Form of wholsome words which is Preached received and professed in these Churches of the Lord Jesus and which we are not unmindful of though our distances and other difficulties may delay the opportunity But this in the mean time we profess in general That so far as we know there is the same blessed Spirit of Truth breathing in the Ministry of the Country the same Faith embraced and professed in the Churches which is generally received as the Orthodox Doctrine of the Gospel in the best reformed Churches and particularly by our Godly Learned Brethren of England and Scotland And though Errors have sprung up among us and some are gone out from us that we fear were not of us yet we have born witness against them and by the blessing of God by the breath of Christ in the mouths of his Servants they have been blasted Neither do we understand that these Churches are accused of any Errors about the saving Truths of the Gospel and therefore we thought our selves not so much called of God to such a Confession at present as to clear up to the World those Truths we prosess about the Kingdom and Government of Christ in his Churches which is the great work of this age and of this nick of time And yet here also we fear that we have been too slack for though it be said We are the Volunteers such as cry up this way c. and so it seems we are apprehended to be one cause of these present differences yet if things be well weighed we may seem rather to be far behind in the duty that lies upon us Indeed some brief Answers sent over to some particular persons to satisfie Brethren what our practise is with some brief touch of our reasons rather than to discuss those points have been printed by some without our knowledge or assent upon what grounds they best know And some short Treatises by some Reverend Brethren have been published to declare their affectionate desires of the unanimous endeavours of all our dear Brethren for a general and holy Reformation But what hath been said or done that either may justly offend the minds of the godly provoke their spirits disunite their affections or hinder a godly Reformation Yea we have been too slow to clear our Doctrine and practise from the many objections harsh interpretations and

manifold Criminations cast upon the same wherein we fear our lothness to intermeddle in these Controversies for fear of making the breach wider amongst Brethren and our desire rather to attend what light we might receive from others in these points wherein we profess our selves seekers after the Truth have made us guilty of neglect in this our duty But now we see our selves pressed hereto by a necessity of justifying our wayes against the many aspersions cast upon them as well as against the reasons used against them For we perceive by the first Letters of our Brethren how the withdrawing of Christians from the Liturgy was imputed to us and by this Reply both in the Epistle and divers passages we cannot but see what apprehensions are raised of us yea many are apt to think that if we had said nothing yet our very act in forsaking the Churches of God in our dear native Country and the Cause of Christ there together with the practise of these Churches thought to be so different from the reformed Churches have been not only a great weakening to the hands of the Godly that have stood by the Cause of Christ but also have caused great disturbance to the Reformation in hand To which much might be said but that we should exceed the bounds of an Epistle Yet let us intreat all the Godly wise to consider and look back upon the season of this great Enterprise undertaken by us and the manner of our proceedings in it with the admirable workings of Gods Providence first and last about it and we think though we were silent they may easily satisfie themselves whether this was of God or men a sinful neglect of the Cause of Christ or a manifest attestation to the Truth by open profession against Corruptions of Worship in use and for the necessity of Reformation of the Church and that confirmed by no small degree of Sufferings for the same For was it not a time when Humane Worship and Inventions were grown to such an intolerable height that the Consciences of Gods Saints and Servants inlightened in the truth could no longer bear them was not the power of the tyranical Prelates so great that like a strong Current carried all down stream before it whatever was from the Law or otherwise set in their way Did not the hearts of men generally fail them Where was the people to be found that would cleave to their godly Ministers in their sufferings but rather thought it their discretion to provide for their own quiet and safety Yea when some freely in zeal of the Truth preached or professed against the corruptions of the times did not some take offence at it judge it rashness and to be against all rules of discretion who since are ready to censure us for deserting the Cause Many then thought it is an evil time the prudent shall hold their peace and might we not say This is not our resting place And what would men have us do in such a case Must we study some distinctions to salve our Consciences in complying with so manifold corruptions in Gods Worship or should we live without God's Ordinances because we could not partake in the corrupt administration thereof or content our selves to live without those Ordinances of Gods Worship and Communion of Saints which he called us unto and our Souls breathed after or should we forsake the publick Assemblies and joyn together in private separated Churches how unsufferable it would then have been the great offence that now is taken at it is a full evidence And if in Cities or some such great Towns that might have been done yet how was it possible for so many scattered Christians all over the Countrey It is true we might have suffered if we had sought it we might easily have found the way to have filled the Prisons and some had their share therein But whether we were called thereunto when a wide door was set open of liberty otherwise and our witness to the Truth through the malignant policy of those times could not be open before the world but rather smothered up in close prisons or some such wayes together with our selves we leave to be considered We cannot see but the rule of Christ to his Apostles and Saints and the practise of Gods Saints in all Ages may allow us this liberty as well as others to fly into the Wilderness from the face of the Dragon But if it had been so that the Godly Ministers and Christians that fled to New England were the most timoorus and saint hearted of all their Brethren that stayed behind and that those Sufferings were nothing in comparison of their Brethrens for why should any boast of sufferings yet who doth not know that the Spirit who gives various gifts and all to profit withal in such times doth single out every one to such work as he in wisdom intends to call them unto And whom the Lord will honour by suffering for his Cause by imprisonment c. he gives them spirits suitable thereto whom the Lord will reserve for other service or imploy in other places he inclines their hearts rather to fly giving them an heart suitable to such a condition It is a case of Conscience frequently put and oft resolved by holy Bradford Peter Martyr Philpot and others in Queen Maries bloody dayes viz. Whether it was lawful to flee out of the Land To which their an swer was that if God gave a spirit of courag and willingness to glorifie him by Sufferings they should stay but if they found not such a spirit they might lawfully sly yea they advised them thereunto Those Servants of Christ though full of the spirit of glory and of Christ to outface tho greatest persecuters in profession of the Truth unto the death yet did not complain of the cowardize of such as fled because they deserted them the Cause but rather advised divers so to do and rejoyced when God gave liberty to their brethren to escape with their lives to the places of liberty to serve the Lord according to his Word Neither were those faithful Saints and Servants of God useless and unprofitable in the Church of God that fled from the bloody Prelates The infinite and only wise God hath many works to do in the World and he doth by his singular Providence give gifts to his Servants and disposeth them to his Work as seemeth best to himself If the Lord will have some to bear witness by imprisonments dismembring c. we honour them therein if he will have others instrumental to promote Reformation in England we honour them and rejoyce in their holy endeavours praying for a blessing upon themselves and labours And what if God will have his Church and the Kingdom of Christ go up also in these remote parts of the World that his Name may be known to the Heathen or whatsoever other end he hath and to this end will send forth a company of weak hearted Christians which dare