Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	bear_v	heaven_n	zion_n	19	3	8.8581	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43841	Fasciculus literarium, or, Letters on several occasions I. Betwixt Mr. Baxter, and the author of the Perswasive to conformity, wherein many things are discussed, which are repeated in Mr. Baxters late plea for the nonconformists, II. A letter to an Oxford friend, concerning the indulgence Anno 1671/2, III. A letter from a minister in a country to a minister in London, IV. An epistle written in Latin to the Triers before the Kings most happy restauration / by John Hinckley ...	Hinckley, John, 1617?-1695.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1680 (1680)	Wing H2046; ESTC R20043	157,608	354

for what I said than meer hear-say 53. Here you repeat concerning the Oath of non-endavouring the Alteration of Government But as you say nothing but what hath been said before so I have nothing to say but what I have said already until something be produc'd de novo 54. Who it is that does most to drive people from the Parish Churches I am satisfied by experience and whether all Nonconformist Dissenters be such children of hell as you describe them Methinks you are like a waspish or cholerick Disputant who being impatient of contradiction and having spent his stock of reason falls to chiding and supplies the want of argument with the overflowing of the gall and 't is no wonder you begun to faulter and rage at the latter end of the day after so tedious a Journey I mean so long a discourse But when you are refreshed revolve with your self in your retirement and solitude 1. Whether we that now bear the heat of the day I might ask you according to your procedure whether you mean me do drive men from the Parish Churches 2. Whether I describe dissenters all of them to be the children of hell Reverende Pater in hisce duabus Quaestionibus expecto animi tui sententiam Take heed of that pernicious Luciferian Counsel Calumniari fortiter haerebit aliquid Let St. Paul rather instruct you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak the truth in love Away with these Heats let 's tear one the other in pieces no longer Can you blame me for saying such dissentions make Musick at Rome Let us shew our selves to each other like Joseph and his Brethren at their interview in Aegypt Though my Judgment leads me to be Pius Inimicus to the Non-conformity of the Non-conformists yet nothing shall make me uncharitable to their Persons 55. To write a just Defence of the Non-conformity which I own would take up more time than I have to spare unless I saw a probability of better effect than by putting it into your Hand as now you motion I will not say this is a Tergiversation for if there be any that comes near St. Johns Hyperbole of writing more Books than the World can contain you are the Man If you do but open the Flood-gates of your Lips out there gushes such a Torrent I allude still to St. John but 't is to the Dragon in the Revelation that is enough to overwhelm such a Pigmy as I am Your Foam is the more grievous because it is brackish I expect nothing from you but scorn and that you should pronounce your wonted Raca against me in a higher Key and a more Emphatical Accent You will have the Lions Motto Nemo me impune lacessit Yet I could wish that if your Writing be no sweeter it might be shorter and that you would contract your swelling thoughts and like the Oracle speak much in a little for I am weary in following you I hope you will no more tell me that I call upon you to blow against a flaming Oven and to do Impossibilities when I call'd for your Reasons of Non-conformity You tell me I know no such Book could be licens'd yet when I made the motion in assisting you in the Birth you utterly waved my Overture If you are under affliction I hope it will make you to judge as one that must be judged Sir I told you the very truth I was entering into the Furnace in my last and since that God has been pleas'd to drench and plunge me deeper both as to my Person and Family else you had receiv'd this Return much sooner Though I might have thought such an Intimation might have procur'd your forbearance and that you would not have come upon me when I was sore I thank you that you have any hope that I may improve my afflictions by sucking some Honey out of such a hard Rock and I can bless God that of very faithfulness he hath caused me be troubled I can kiss the Rod without any murmuring Sobs and adore him that has made me to smart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is God that beareth Rule in the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth therefore I praise honour and extoll him all whose Works are Truth and his Ways Judgment What Talents the same God hath bestowed on me I shall lay them out not to drive Men from the Congregation but to invite and wooe them more and more into the Church that they may come under the Net of the Gospel and the droppings of Heaven Herein I should rejoyce to have your Co-operation and the assisting Labours all little enough of all our dissenting Brethren Whilst I am an unworthy Labourer in the Lords Vineyard and Your Devoted Friend Jo. Hinckley Northfeild Octob. 13. Mr. BAXTER'S Fourth Letter SIR WHen I had written an Answer to your last the Transcriber moved slow in his Work and it being somewhat long fourteen Sheets before he had finished it I heard from a double report of your own acquaintance that you purposed to print what you got from me At the first hearing I was not sorry for it But upon second thoughts these four Reasons put a stop to the mission of the Papers to you 1. I have written more plainly and smartly than I would have done if it had been for any ones use besides your own A secret conviction and reproof may be sharper than an open one 2. I am confident that you cannot get the whole licensed and I cannot easily think that you are willing Upon your encouragement a few sheets against Bagshaw since dead were printed without License and were surprized in the Press and if you should print mine by scraps and not entirely I should take it for a great injury and dishonesty 3. And I doubt it would be offensive to some and so might tend to my own disquiet for to make it so plain as that nothing but a high degree of Ignorance or Impudence can contradict it that the Parliament that raised Arms against the King were by profession Episcopal such as Heylin describes Abbot to be as against those whom they accused of Innovation and rais'd suspitions that they were reconciling us to Popery at the price of our loss of Propriety and Liberty I have been fain to name so many Men of whom some are yet living that I know not how they will take it to have their Military Acts recited after the Act of Oblivion and I believe those Clergy-men that have used this false Visor to put on the Non-conformists to make them odious that it was they only and not the Episcopal that began the English War will be very angry to have their fraud detected 4. But all these are small matters in comparison of the last Though God hath given us a King who is so firm to the Protestant Religion as to make a severe Law against all that shall cast out suspitions of his being inclin'd to Popery yet all Men are mortal and God knoweth into

mean while we that live in the Valleys are so far from envying your Happiness that we make it our own by exulting and triumphing in the same and praising God for your numerous and generous Progeny Though ours be as thin as Grapes after the Vintage As lean and meagre as Pharoah's Kine Many of your People are as the Sons of Anak of a transcendent growth and stature both for Parts and Piety your Assemblies as so many Synods How beautiful are thy Gates thy Tents O London when a Man enters into your orderly Congregations He stands as it were in the Porch and Suburbs of Heaven so that he must say God is among you of a Truth Your Faces look towards Zion and shine with the lustre thereof like Moses's in the Mount Your Reverence and Devotion declare That Heaven is your aim and that you are in good earnest in seeking the Countrey that is above It is true Gebal Ammon and Amaleck do what they can to weaken your hands and blast this your Success They grudge and gnash with their Teeth to see those so prosperous in their Ministery whom they traduce and undervalue and in their Prosperity set them with the Dogs of their Flock Therefore they set up Altars of their own and decoy your People into their Mountains Mountains did I say Nay into their African Corners and Vaults Yet thorow your Primitive diligence and dexterity your bow does still continue in strength And Maugre all their Contrivances and Blocks they lay in your way to divert you in your Evangelical race and hinder the erecting of Jerusalem's Walls your work goes on thorow the Power of the Almighty God of Jacob And theirs moulters and dwindles at least It does not thrive being set together with untemper'd Mortar Though they have this Advantage They drive down the Hill and woe the People to what both Naturally and by Instigation they are too much inclin'd and that is Disobedience to Authority and all that is called God This suits too well to that Gun-Powder that deprav'd Activity and Elastick Virtue which they bring into the world with them May you and all our Brethren go on with undaunted Courage notwithstanding their barking to keep your Flocks from ravenous Wolves and to save the Souls of your People from Schism Faction and Sedition here from Satan and Hell hereafter We cannot deny but there was much Zeal such as it was in that place formerly But this was as Fire in our Thatch or like the career of a blind Horse that has much Spirit but no eyes to guide him Now there is not only Zeal but according to knowledge Not only a partial Religion in observing the first Table but also conscionable Obedience to the second that Faith towards God may appear to be true and Genuine by works towards Men Love to God whom we have not seen by Love to our Brethren whom we have seen In the midst of our late Fears This very Consideration kept me from drooping and sinking What Shall men that have a Religious well-grounded fear of God bandy together against their lawful Governors Men that are so taught such Proficients in Christ's School shall these brandish that Sword to which they have no Right This would even have justified the worst of Times when those in your places pleaded Scripture and Conscience for Resistance Others made Harangues to the Representatives of the City in their Common Council to inflame them to an ungodly War against their Prince nor were there wanting such Orators among them that muster'd up all the sinews of their Eloquence and Rhetorick to sway and bow the great Council of the Land the same way You have better learn'd Christ and you have better taught your People It is the Physitian 's glory to check and chastise any predominant and luxuriant humour in the Body and to reduce it into an even and Moderate temper with the rest So it shews the Ministers Skill to allay the vehement Efforts of an irregular People in perswading them to this Sobriety to leave the Government of the World to the Providence of God and the disposal of Church and State to the Wisdom of the King We may be too Pragmatical and deprive our selves of present Injoyments by being too solicitous for the time to come I will Pray for the welfare of this and succeeding Ages May true Piety Peace and Plenty be ever within the Walls of this Church and State And may God raise up such Men to sit at the Stern of both that may be nursing Fathers indeed yet I will leave my Prayers at the feet of God and trust him with the success of them It has been the great Mercy of God in putting it into the heart of the Prince and the signal Prudence of the Right Reverend Bishops successively to place in and encourage Able and Regular Ministers in the chief City of the Land both to root up those dangerous and unpeaceable Doctrines which have been formerly settled there and cast a Malignant Influence upon the head of all our Tribes And also to plant such sound Catholick and Orthodox Truths whereby men may be guided into the ways of Peace and Holiness The fruit and benefit of such Preaching and Preachers has appear'd in hushing those Discontents that were amongst you In restraining and preventing the madness of the People and their Tumultuous Practices Faithful Ministers are not only Necessary to Conduct men to Heaven but also to establish Peace here below and to support the King's Throne The Sun it self may as well be spared out of the Firmament as these Luminaries out of the Church Had it not been for Faithful Preachers in the City and Countrey to stand in those Gaps that are trodden down by the Furioso's of our times we had been over-run e're this with Herds of feral and unruly Beasts Many there are that complain and find faults They declaim against Abuses and Exorbitancies especially in the Church not that they may be redress'd except they themselves may be the Reformers but that they may Disgrace and Wound the Civil State thorow the sides of the Ecclesiastick For if we would study how to be reveng'd of those that Dissent from us To Crucifie them and Countermine their Projects we cannot take a more Compendious way than to agree together in a vigorous pursuit of the fear of God and the Honour of the King to teach our People true Piety and Allegiance our Sores are their Repast and our Peace is their Torment May we always thus goad their Sides and rend their Caules by being good Men and Orthodox Preachers By maintaining God's Honour the King's Repose the Tranquillity of the Church and Kingdom promoting our own Salvation and our Peoples eternal Happiness It may be some Grief to you that some of your Flocks are cluck'd away and purloin'd from their own Shepherds Christ himself was troubled at the loss of one Apostle He also put an Accent of Sorrow upon these words to his Disciples

Head and Heart were then filled with better Meditations I mean against the Lords day approaching yet I could not but give you my sentiments of some Passages therein Though I shall not requite you much less be avenged of you for your length and sharpnes● A full Anatomy of such a Carcass may prove offensive It is natural I perceive to you to drench your self in the Waters of Mara and to sport in the Salt Sea if Sarcasines and Satyrs Magnus ab Infernis revocetur Tullius umbris non potes absolvi It is a small thing with you to tell me of Crimes and Guilt That I comply with Satans designs That I have a Diabolical Spirit unfit for the Sacred Ministry I talk malepertly A Levite started up That I write against the Non-conformists When I only court and beg their assistance in doing no worse than my self that they would not stand still idle in the Market-place whilst so many hundred thousand Souls as you say are perishing through ignorance and ungodliness That I traduce the Presbyterians though I never named them I think 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in any Writing or Sermon of mine As if I would have sin go uncontrolled and that I look on them as uncivil that presume to acquaint us with it Whereas I have procured your indignation only by a submissive and mannerly Request that you would give us the Reasons of your Non-conformity that we might see where the sin lies But you say You will leave us in our self-pleasing Crimes Then I must say you are but a treacherous Watch-man to suffer sin upon your Brother contrary to Levit. 19. 17. If you will not help us out of the Ditch into which we are fall'n It is one of Gods greatest Judgments when he does not reprove chide afflict See Hosea 4. 14. Are you one then that account it your duty to deal plainly with offending Preachers though you will not own the Name of a Diocesan Bishop yet you fansie your self sitting in his Chair and yet you will leave them in their self-pleasing Crimes Let the Righteous smite me it shall be a kindness Let him reprove me it shall be an excellent Oyl which shall not break my head Psal 141. 5. This dealing of yours will do little towards promoting my Repentance It may exercise my patience I will herein write after the Copies of St. Austin Melancton Calvin c. who in their greatest heats and provocations retain'd their calmness sweetness and serenity of Spirit towards those that did bitterly oppose them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Diogenes told Antisthenes in Laertius Michael the Arch-Angel and my grand Master have trodden this Path be-before me Sir you reckon up 1800 Ministers that are silenc'd Though I utterly dislike the term Silenc'd for to me 't is apparent they are silent actively and through their own fault until it appear to the contrary and then the sin is yet more hainous by how much it is the more voluntary But if you are a true Accountant if this be not a false Muster and you mistaken in your Arithmetick How many of these have little more learning than your English Books have taught them As great Strangers to the Writers of the first Centuries as they have been to the Universities How many of these were nested in other Mens Habitations whilst the right owners were exposed to wind weather and starving double the number of 1800. This Retalliation may cause them to say As I have done so God hath requited me Judges 1. 7. yet I have some ground to think the number is not so great since I hear that many come in and more remove into more remote Parts and conform there If it be true that Dr. Connaught has re-assum'd his Ministry I think his Example whose Piety and Learning is so considerable may be very attractive However 't is no strange thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Methinks that Men who are so willing to preach in Wales and the poorest Congregations without a farthing upon Catechetical Points neither medling with Bishops Liturgy or Ceremonies as you say should be willing to take things in order thereunto in their most favourable and candid sense Give me leave to give you two Cautions 1. Take heed how you undertake for any considerable part of those 1800. that they shall preach on those terms For then you trans-element them their Tongues do not only itch but their very Nods and Whispers tend that way 2. Take heed you do not impede so good a Work by maintaining Conformity to be an avowed and deliberate sin absolutely and simply so A sin as it were by Covenant So that a Blessing is not to be expected on their Ministry so inhumane and hainous you dare scarcely name it What will we say if you should lay open the sin of Conformity in your Reasons Such a Lyon in the way is enough to affright many Such a Flaming Sword may keep Labourers out of the Vineyard out of the Paradise of the Church I have sadder apprehensions yet As the Papists do unchurch us and by consequence damn us so you are like to arrive to the same uncharitableness For if we live and die in avowed and deliberate sin what Wages are we like inevitably to receive You infer from my words or rather drag from them by an odd Climax of Ergo's that there are some Persons deserve hanging But I can with more ease and better Logick gather from what you say that we must be damned I am glad you own my Quotation out of your Book of Rest At first you made me afraid when you said You never wrote or thought of any such Passage Yet this is but like the jumping of a Deer after a Mortal Shot or the playing and sprunting of a Fish when it is strucken with an Hook You make me amends afterward by saying you have retracted and expunged it in your later Editions And truly I do much rejoyce at your reiterated Ingenuity in this kind For as it is said The best thing is not to be born the next cito mori So a Palinodia is next to the publishing of sound Truths But though this Retractation was before the Act of Oblivion as you say yet I fear the War was done and execution over If you be so rash in obtruding your immature Notions upon the World before you have lick'd them and strain'd out their Crudities and ill Humours in the Press first by several Editions you will discourage Men from buying your Books when they first come forth This Overture has given you occasion Renovare dolorem by minding me of the saddest Tragedy of my whole Life The utter undoing of Mr. H. P. though you well know he was undone before I could lament this in Tears of Blood yet as my Conscience does not upbraid me of negligence herein so that good Lady I hope will do me the Justice that I gave her notice of what I fear'd and suspected a fortnight before the Catastrophe And if