Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	apostle_n	church_n	time_n	4,784	5	3.9277	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A84892	VIII. problems propounded to the Cavaliers: for conviction of their consciences; with a discovery of certain plots and conspiracies. Declared by Captain Francis Freeman. With an answer thereunto returned by Colonell Francis Windham. And a reply to the said answer. These are printed by the originall papers, and published according to order of Parliament.	Freeman, Francis.; Windham, Francis.; England and Wales. Parliament.	1646 (1646)	Wing F2128; Thomason E343_6; ESTC R200943	20,583	25

the Pope should enjoy his Crown then the Parliament together with all his best Subjects should enjoy their Laws Liberties and Priviledges which doth evidently appeare by his entertaining so many Popish Rebels and Traytors and all to cut the throats of his poor Protestant Subjects but certainly he have had many a free pardon and indulgence for these things and those many Declarations Proclamations and Protestations for of all that ever was yet set forth in his Name there hath not been any performance at all in the least tittle if it be so that you can tell me of any one Proclamation or Declaration that hath been performed on his part then will I turn Cavaleer and joyne with you to fight against the Parliament and as for His Prerogative Royall so much talkt off certainly it was ever maintained by the Law and what would become of it if the Parliament should be destroyed besides the glory of a King is to governe His Kingdoms with his Subjects love and Mercurius Problematicus will tell you that the safest Armour for a King is his Subjects love and a good head-piece and if he had had such Armour he need not have set up his Standard nor put the Commission of Array in execution which was done contrary to Law unlesse it had been against a forraign Enemy for what necessity was there for the execution thereof when as the Parliament had made provision for the defence of the whole Kingdome against any forraign Enemy such was their provident care for the Kingdoms safety but that the Lord had a scourage for his People for their sinnes and made you Cavaliers to be the Executioners thereof but it was to bring them more neere unto himselfe and although you rob plunder and spoyle them of all their goods and good Name yet they will be but afflictions unto them and will take away their sinne for by this the Iniquity of Iacob shall bee purged Isai 27.9 and this is all the fruit of it nay sometimes the Lord sets wicked Kings to reign over his People c. But I hasten and this much I can assure you that the Parliament have alwayes stood faithfully for the Vindication of the Kings Honour Crown and Dignity for His Lawes Rights and Priviledges for the Liberty of the Subject and Priviledges of Parliament as much as ever any PARLIAMENT did since the Kingdome ever Being And whereas you scandalize them by the Name of Schismaticks Round-heads Rebels and Traytors I can assure you they are Religious Godly and Holy Patriarks placed there by God him else for the Vindication of his own Honour and Glory for they endeavour a Reformation which is the main cause of your inveterate hatred and malice against them You cannot endure such a curb for your sins and your old course of living which you so often accustomed your selves unto which makes all you Cavaliers to hate a Reformation you are so opposite to the Doctrine of Christ but commonly where God will have his Church there the Divel will have his Chappel and you Cavaliers are as Instruments and fellow-Labourers set on work by him against the Church and People of God and although there are Errours in the Church now as there hath bin in the Apostles times yet it is but errour in judgment opinion but we will agree in the Fundamentals it is somtimes necessary that there should be errours that the truth may the better appear in its lustre and glory shine the more cleerly in its purity besides if the Parl. and their Armies are Rebels and Traytors to the King as you say they are yet I am confident their Rebellion is lawfull as the case stands for if you do but look into the 2 of Kings 17.7 there you shal find that Hezekiah rebelled against the King of Ashur and served him not and yet he prospered in all things he took in hand he put down the brazen Serpent and destroyed their Idols this you may see cleerly in the text that it was for their Idolatry Then how can you look to prosper in your Armies where Idolatry is set up and so highly prised amongst you but the Lord seeth your doings and puts up all your iniquities in a Bag and although you may prosper and flourish for a while yet the Lord will suddenly cut you off for the very prayers and supplications of his servants will ascend up unto Heaven which will cause the Lord to make you destroy one another as he did the Children of Moab and Ammon 2 Chr. 20.23 certainly the Lord will be glorified in his own work and will deliver his People out of your hands so if you look into the 32. chap. of the same Book of Chron. there you shall find how Zenacharis King of Ashur came to war against Iudah Ierusalem and if you please to read the whole Chapter throughout it will be worth your pains there you shal find how Zenacharis blasphemed God saying What God is be that can deliver his people out of my hands and this is just the condition of you Cavaliers for you will blaspheme the Name of God are so over-sweld with pride that you think your selvs able to resist overcome even God himself and comparing foolish and vain Idols which were invented and made by Man to the living God as in the 19. vers of that chap. and in the 20. vers there you shall see how Hezekiah and the Prophet Isaiah prayed unto the Lord against these things and cryed unto Heaven and in the 21. vers there you shall finde the issue and successe they had by prayer the Lord heard their prayers for hee sent an Angel and destroyed all the valiant men and the Princes and the Captains of the Host of the King of Ashur and what became of the King of Ashur and his mighty great Army which contained in number one hundred fourscore and five thousand why surely they came to nothing for they destroyed one another and the King himself returned with shame to his own Land and as the text saith when he came to the house of his God they that came out of his own bowels slew him there with the sword intimating unto us how prevalent and effectua l the prayers of the faithfull are with God especially against such Tyrants for where a Tyrant an Idolator raigneth there can be no peace and quietnesse for the very plagues of God are alwayes among such people And thus you see how these Kingdomes are disquieted by Tyranny and Idolatry and what distractions distempers there are and have bin even among Kings and Princes and mighty men of this world and you your self have a share in the exercise of their cruelty in upholding Idolatry and Tyranny against the people of God and now by this time I have shewed unto you who you fight for and what dangers you are in both soule and body and now I come to shew you how to avoid escape these dangers

which shall be by way of exhortation and admonition let me now exhort and entreat you in the fear of the Lord to repentance and humiliation humble your self before the Lord in dust and ashes come out from among those cursed Crue of Infidels whose tongues speakes nothing but blasphemy so long as thou continue there with them thou cannot but participate of their filthy abominations and transgression for if you do but conive and wink at other mens sins you are as guilty of the same sinne without reproof as if you your selves had personally committed it therefore if you will avoid sin and escape the danger therof then you must shun the occasion of it and consequently shake off such wicked company David said depart from me ye wicked I will keep the Commandements of my God intimating thereby that he could not set himselfe to the performance of any holy duty as hee ought so long as such wicked company were about him yea it hath been a grief to the godly to have bin in the company of ungodly persons as Let living in Sodome when he saw their filth and abominations it vexed his righteous soule and this was it that made David bemone himself and his estate and condition when he was constrained to live among the uncircumcised people Woe is me that I remain in Mesech and to dwell in the Tents of Kedar my soule hath long dwelt among those that be enemies to Peace Now you see how careful these god●y men were to shun and avoid the lewd oompany of the wicked and if you will imitate them in goodnesse you must carefully labour to live in the practice of holinesse and avoid the company of such Idolatrous Papists and Atheists as are amongst you Sir I have wrote to you somwhat largely and the truth of it is far more largely then I intended but yet I hope it will not be labour in vain but that it may please God to make me an Istrument of your conversion if you will but carefully diligently seriously read over this poor weak piece and weigh every particuler according to its severall weight and conscionably practice it in your li●e and conversation walking in newnesse of life and obedience to the Gospel of Christ with earnest and fervent prayers to the Almighty God of heaven to create a new heart and renew a right spirit within you and if we humble our selves and turn from our wicked wayes then the Lord will be mercifull to us and will heal our Land 2 Chron 7.14 and if otherwise that we do not humble our selves it will prove to be misery upon miseries and we shal● heap up wrath against the day of wrath and so the Lord of his mercy direct your heart and divert his Judgments from Us and give us patience to undergo these afflictions and then the Lord in his due time will accomplish his own ends and send us a happy and blessed peace by a blessed Reformation Now I would intreat you in the name of the Lord and for your own soules healths sake that you will take this my counsell and admonitions to shake of your wicked company or if it be possible to reduce them to the obedience of the Parliament but if there be any thing herein expressed whereof you make any scruple or doubt of the truth of it I shall bee ready to give you more full and ample satisfaction if you please to appoint the time and place God willing I will give you a meeting or any Cavalier whatsoever there to use liberty of Conscience and freedom of Spirit to dispute the point without any manner of wrong or violence each to other and that there may be nothing but reality intended betwixt us let there be sufficient engagements to each and I shall for ever remain SIR Yours to command FRANCIS FREEMAN For Mr. Francis Freeman in Dunster these Three in Print Sir I Have perused your Manuscript and would willingly have thoroughly weighed as you drsire your as you well call them poor weeak endevours but truly they prov'd weightlesse and however you please to stile them more powerfull then ordinary even converting me from my selfe sometimes to Democritus then to Heraclitus and from him again to the former making me smile pity and again laugh at your ignorance impudency and folly even in one and the same minute I had thought to have concealed your shame in part and not have hazarded the becoming equally ridiculous with you in going about to blaze what your selfe have more then sufficiently already done I would willingly have kept silence and not answered a word but finding by late speeches over the walls that you take occasion thereby to think wickedly that I am even such a one as your self and that your frivolons what shall I call them are unanswerable and also hearkning to the wise mans advice who wills to answere a fool sometimes according to his folly lest he be over wise in his own conceit I have forc'd my selfe now though unwillingly to return answer unto some of your particulars to all were endlesse but beleeve me where to begin what first to say or what order to observe in answering so disorderly a peece I well know not so great is your confusion so immethodicall your proceeding that I should bewray a great deal of indiscretion should I endevour to tract you but jacta est alea we must on some way or other At all adventure then wee 'l undertake your first you call it a Probleme you are well read in Aristotle it seems learn'd you nothing else thence but this specious appellation Surely this needed no Oedipus the meerest Davus in our Castle had been able enough to have shap'd you a ready answer thereunto however thanks to your charity it seemes you will help if not prevent us therein for you answer in our names a Gentleman and a Souldier and we must take these two termes forsooth on your bankrupt credit for convertible and so naturally or rather supernaturally joyn'd together that it were impiety to sever them as though all Souldiers were Gentlemen and all Gentlemen Souldiers risum teneatis amici A quaint device to Gentilize your Pedlar Dishmaker and the like and to make the young Squire a Martialist But Lord how this fine military youth must be qualified what precise rules he must follow he must and he must he must not and he must again any thing I warrant you but fight for his King but whence learnt you this out of Alian the young Artillery man or your new Edenburgian trow Fie on 't are you not ashamed to dally thus and confound things so foolishly together speaking of a meere Souldier simply considered as such must we presently conceive him metamorphosed become a spiritual one Was Hector Alexander Caesar or any of the Othoman race ever so and yet they were Gentlemen they were Souldiers if we may confide in their Heraldry were they acquainted with did they observe these rules But why