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	lord_n	witness_n	2,447	5	7.5416	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30560	A vindication of the people of God, called Quakers ... being an ansvver to a book, dedicated to them, by one George Pressick of Dublin : in which book many lyes and calumnies are presented against the innocent people of God ... / by E.B.	Burrough, Edward, 1634-1662.	1660 (1660)	Wing B6053; ESTC R2304	18,015	26

A VINDICATION OF THE People of GOD CALLED QUAKERS DIRECTED Unto Roger Boyle Called Earl of Orrery Charles Coote Called Earl of Mountrath Theophilus Iones Called Sir Theophilus Iones BEING AN ANSVVER To a BOOK dedicated to Them by one George Pressick of Dublin In which Book many Lyes and Calumnies are presented against the Innocent People of God And this is for the clearing of the TRUTH that no Lye may rest upon it And for the Satisfaction of all Sober People in Ireland and elsewhere With a Word of Good ADVICE to the Chief Governours there By E. B. London Printed for Robert Wilson in Martins Le Grand A VINDICATION Of the People of God called QUAKERS THere is Irreconcileable Enmity between the two Seeds to wit the Seed of God and the Seed of the Serpent and these two are alwayes opposite and contrary one to the other in Nature Fruits and Effects and the Seed of the Serpent is alwayes persecuting the Seed of God in every Age and Generation and they in whom the Seed of the Serpent is living and ruling are alwayes projecting and contriving mischief and hatred against the People and Servants of the Lord in whom the Seed of God liveth and reigneth as it is written He that is born of the flesh persecutes him that is born after the Spirit Thus it hath been in all generations and thus it is at this day Great is the opposition that is made by many in Lyes and Slanders in Reviling and Reproaching in Imprisoning and Persecuting and in all manner of evil works and words against the innocent People of God called Quakers How have the hands of ungodly men been lifted up to smite that People by many kinds of abuses and how have their tongues been set on fire to reproach and revile and slander in all kind of evil-speaking and all this for Righteousness-sake and not for any evil-doing For who is the man and where is he that can justly charge Evil upon that People either in Doctrine Faith or Practice or in any thing relating to their Religion to God-wards or in relation to their Conversations and Walking towards men It is true we have not wanted Accusers to every Authority but such and such things have been falsly charged against us and that to every Power that hath been since we were a People under whom we have been a Suffering People even from all that ever have sitten in the Throne since the Lord raised us up to bear witness of his glorious Name and Truth in the world Now the present occasion of this my present work is Forasmuch as we now stand accused of great and heinous Crimes in the view of this whole Kingdom of Ireland and more particularly before you Three in a Book called A brief Relation of some Remarkable Passages of the Anabaptists in Germany c. published by one Geo. Pressick of Dublin and dedicated in a special manner to you that his Work may passe with the greater Credit and his Slanders and Calumnies be received for Undoubted Truths Now that the Innocency of the Upright may be cleared and that no lye may rest upon the Truth nor that you neither any others may receive Falshoods for Verities because of our silence therefore it is that the Lord hath put it into my heart to defend the Cause of God and his People by returning plain and sober Answer to the principal parts of his Book wherein we are concerned and falsly charged and for the end that the false Accuser may be reproved and his Calumnies returned into his own evil and malicious heart from whence they came and that You and all men may be truly informed and prevented if possible of being seduced into the belief of falshoods lest that your hearts and hands should be stirred up to Act or Do in your Authority against the People whom God hath blessed and from the ground and cause of Mis-informations and false Accusations without better testimony which would be a way to destroy your selves and to bring the guilt of the unjust Sufferings of the Lords People upon your own heads which would draw down the heavy Wrath of God upon you I cannot flatter you by feigned words of Guile nor give you flattering Titles but I judge you are Reasonable men in that degree as to hear and consider our Defence aswell as our Enemies Charge and I hope you are wise in that degree as to judge between Truth and a Lye and to distinguish one from the other and I suppose you are just in that measure as to receive what ye know to be Truth and to reject what ye know to be False being convinced in your own Consciences and as such I must place my Plea before you particularly and make my Defence to your Iudgment Seat even to the Witness of God in your Consciences I intend and mean And I shall omit to say much to the Accuser himself as supposing him a man more full of envious raging humour than of solid and wise judgment to receive either reproof or conviction for many such as he I have dealt withall in this case whom I have found men so filled with prejudice that neither the Authority of sound Reason nor of the Word of God could convince them of their evil proceedings Therefore before you I shall state the particular Accusations and the Defence against them The way in which our Adversary hath proceeded in his Accusations is obscure and yet malicious enough and also in great ignorance for he tells you in his Epistle he hath gathered up out of several Authors the most remarkable passages both of the Doctrine and Practice of the Anabaptists so called in Germany 139 years ago and then he charges the same things upon the Anabaptists and Quakers as he scornfully calls them in these dayes and then he applauds you three in words of high stile for being instrumental to suppress their insolent tyrannical usurped Authority which they exercise over Gods People in this Nation to enslave us saith he to their insatiable lusts There are his own words in his Epistle Answ. In answer to all this divers things are very considerable which I desire to lay before you 1. Concerning the Anabaptists so called in Germany and their Doctrines and Practices with the several Transactions falling out in that time It is not my work now to plead their Cause nor yet can I justifie them in their proceedings if the relations given of them be true which are many and to me seems not in every thing credible because I find it were their Enemies who are our Authors who seldom give true relations of such whom they hate But be the Relations true or false it is not material in this case in hand for my occasion is not concerning a People so far off as in Germany and of so long time as above a hundred of years but I am to clear the Innocent who are now living from the present Accusations of an envious man though

them and it is your day of tryal what you will do ye have your hour to do good or evil and according to your works will the God of Heaven reward you 6. Consider the Innocency of this People they are Clear before the Lord and you of plotting or contriving or designing evil against You or this Government they seek not the hurt of any mans person nor do they intend evil towards the Government or Governours Who have found them agitating any such things Of all such things they are innocent and are peaceable Subjects under the Government and are perswaded in Conscience so to continue And as for their deportment in their Callings and Occasions and Tradings amongst men ask their Neighbours Do not they deal justly truly and equally in all their dealing and occasions Do not they speak the Truth to their Neighbours in all matters and are they not persons of upright and inoffensive lives and conversations Do they defraud their Neighbours or are they Drunkards or vain persons Let the very Witness of God in their Neighbours answer And if you should fall a persecuting this People and seek to destroy them concerning whom the Witness of God in mens Consciences giveth such an Evidence Wo wo will be unto you for you cannot hurt them but you act contrary to the Witness of God in your own hearts which will condemn you in the Day of Judgment So let this dwell upon your spirits and be aware what you do take good consideration lest you act out of Gods Counsel to your own overthrow 7. Consider what became of all the Persecutors of old Were not they Eminently destroyed by the hand of God who persecuted the Lords People What became of Pharoah and what became of Hammon and what became of Herod who persecuted the Lords Heritage Let this enter into your hearts to be Examples to you that you persecute not the Innocent lest God overturn you by the roots for as I have said the Cause of this People God regardeth and he will avenge himself in his season of all their Persecutors Have not your hands dipped in their unjust Afflictions that God may blesse you and spare them that you may be spared in the Day of Vengeance if you have no matter of evil against them in things between man and man nor in the affairs of your Government as contriving against it nor nothing but concerning the Worship of their God and the matters of their Conscience in Spiritual things Touch them not Persecute them not Afflict them not but be tender towards them as you will answer the same before the God of Heaven These are only Considerations of Warning to you and I commit the matter to the Lord and ye have time to do Good or Evil and accordingly will God reward you A Testimony concerning Government and Authority VVE are a People whom God hath raised up out of the Apostacy Darkness and Ignorance which all Christendom hath long been fallen into for since the dayes of the Apostles many have professed the Words of Christ and had a name of Churches and the shew of Religion and have professed the Scriptures but have wanted the same Spirit and Power of Godlinesse which the Apostles lived in the Life and Spirit of God hath been wanting amongst the false Christians and they have been persecuting one another about Religion and the Worship of God and imposing upon one anothers Consciences in Spiritual matters and Kings and Rulers have been setting up what kind of Worship and Religion and Church-Goverment as they pleased and they have imposed upon Kingdoms and made People subject to them to profess and conform to such a way of Worship and Religion some in the ignorance of their Consciences and some contrary to their Consciences and all this hath been in the Apostacy since the Apostles dayes while men have been fallen from the true Faith and many have been subject to their Rulers and Governours by force and for fear and not for Conscience-sake for Love Peace and Unity hath been wanting among Christians and Bitterness Frowardness and False-heartedness hath been amongst them but out of all this the Lord hath redeemed us into Peace and Comfort with God and one with another And as concerning our Principle about Magistracy and Government and obedience thereunto this I do declare 1. We do own and acknowledge Magistracy to be an Ordinance of God instituted of him for the punishing of evil-doers and for the praise of them that do well and we acknowledge all just subjection to Authority Magistracy and Government This is our Principle and hath ever been our Practice known through these Kingdoms that we are subject by doing or suffering to whatsoever Authority the Lord is pleased to set over us without Rebellion Sedition Plotting or making War against any Government or Governours 2. That Government and Authority which is justly according unto God in all its Statutes and Ordinances We are and do engage to be subject thereunto by full Obedience unto all the Commands and Injunctions of such Authority and Government whose Laws Ordinances and Commandments are grounded upon right Reason and Equity which leadeth to do to all men as we would be done unto and punisheth the contrary to such Government and Authority we are readily subject in all things and cases and we are for the Order and Assistance of such Government in all Righteousness 3. That Government which is contrary unto this which is in Injustice commanding requiring things contrary to the Law of God and imposing upon People in Matters and Cases contrary to right Reason and Equity whose Commands are different to the Will of God yet to such Government we acknowledge subjection by patient Suffering under all Penalties inflicted for disobedience to the Commands which we cannot perform by Obedience for Conscience sake And this is our Principle Though an Authority and Government were never so Unjust in it self and in its Exercise yet we may not Plot or Contrive or make turbulent Insurrections to redeem our selves from such Government and Authority but we must commit our Cause to the Lord in such case of suffering under any unjust Commands of men 4. As concerning Church and Ministry and the Exercise of Religion We believe and acknowledge that Christ hath a Church upon Earth and a lawful Ministry and we are not Enemies to Church and Ministry and Gospel-Ordinances as we are falsly reputed by men ignorant and slanderous but we only bear witness against the corruption and degeneration of the Church of Papists and Protestants so called wherein they are different and contrary to what the Churches of Christ were in the Apostles dayes they are different and contrary I Assert to what the Churches of Christ once were in Ministry in its call and maintenance in Ordinances and Worship in Discipline and Government in all these things there is difference to what these things were in the true Churches in the Apostles dayes And our Principle is for the Reforming of Ministry Church-Government Discipline and Worship and not to destroy them 5. As concerning Imposing of Faith and Doctrine Practices and Worship in Religion by the force of Lawes and Penalties in the ignorance of mens Consciences or contrary to their Consciences We do say This Practice never was in the Apostles dayes but is an Intrusion of Antichrist and we bear Testimony against it not to be of God but contrary to him And that outward Government and Authority in Kingdoms and Nations is to be exercised over the outward man in things between man and man and not over the inward man in things between God and Mans Conscience in Spiritual Matters and Worship and Duty to God-wards No King nor Ruler upon Earth hath Power given him of God to exercise such Authority over the Consciences of Men in the matters of Gods Kingdom And further Religion and Church-Government so set up and Established by force upon Pains and Penalties can but Reform a People into Hypocrisie and false Conformity and not into any real Performance of Religion or Duty to God And such Performance of Religion Church-Fellowship and Ordinances is not unto Eternal Life but to the making of men twofold more the Children of the Devil 6. We do believe That it is the Conviction and the Teaching of the Spirit of God that doth make men and People only truly Religious I● is ●hat only that perswades the Conscience from all Evil un●o that which is Good and true Religion and the Worship of God and Duty towards him is not truly learned by Traditions of Time Commandements of Men or Custom of Countries or the like but it is the Spirit of God and its Teachings in the Consciences of People that leadeth into all Tru●h according as Christ hath said So that the Way of forcing Religion and Duty to God upon People by force and outward Penalties this was never known among the Saints and Apostles of Christ These things are Presented to your Considerations The Lord give you a right Understanding of them and that you may walk in the Way of your own Peace with God and man Written in the 10th Month in IRELAND THE END