Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	damn_v	delusion_n	1,893	5	11.0930	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B10083	Tracts theological. I. Asceticks, or, the heroick piety and vertue of the ancient Christian anchorets and coenobites. II. The life of St. Antony out of the Greek of Sr. Athanasius. III. The antiquity and tradition of mystical divinity among the Gentiles. IV. Of the guidance of the spirit of God, upon a discourse of Sir Matthew Hale's concerning it. V. An invitation to the Quakers, to rectifie some errors, which through the scandals given they have fallen into.	Stephens, Edward, d. 1706.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Asceticks, or, the heroick piety and virtue of the ancient Christian anchorets and coenobites.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Life of St. Antony.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Antiquity, tradition, and succession of mystical divinity among the Gentiles.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Enthusiasmus divinus: the guidance of the spirit of God.; Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. Apology for, and an invitation to, the people call'd Quakers, to rectifie some errors, which through the scandals given they have fallen into.	1697 (1697)	Wing S5444E; Wing S5444E; ESTC R184630	221,170	486

great Modesty and Solidity h●● vindicated Mystical Divinity against the Quarrel ●● one who charged it to be Fanaticism His Charact● may be seen more at large in Mr. Wood's Oxford Actiquities FINIS POSTSCRIPT WHEREAS it is feared by some that what is in the fore-going Discourse related concerning Plotinus and Porphyrius who lived in Gospel-times and yet were not Christians but the latter a grand Adversary of the Christians and of Christianity may too much gratifie some call'd Quakers to their hurt who are great Magnifyers of the Gentile Dispensation I do declare that I should be glad to gratifie any People for their Good but not any to their Hurt And therefore to prevent any such misuse of what I have written for a good purpose which I have mentioned in the end of the Preface they must know 1. That as the Actions of Witches and their Familiars if the matter of fact be evident and undeniable are good Evidence against Atheists and Sadduceans and the Real Inspiration of any Spirit if proved is good Evidence against all such Anti-enthusiasts as deny the Reality of Inspiration and that there is any thing more in it than meerly the actings of Peoples Imaginations so the plain apert Declarations by these Men of the Mystick Divinity which was more occultly delivered by the Ancients is good Evidence of the Tradition and Succession of these Mysteries though they should be found to have erred in the Use and Application of it And for this purpose was that Collection made 2. That though Porphyry and Plotinus and some others of them might receive some Lights Powerful Attractions and Sensible Consolations c. from some considerable Spirit yet was not that the Spirit of Christ or any Good Ministering Spirit not such as that of Socrates under the Gentile Dispensation for Porphy● ridiculed it v. Soc. Hist l. 3. c. 23. but a Spirit of Antichrist and of Satan transformed as appears most manifestly in Porphyry who was a Renagado and Apostate from Christianity and that not upon any Grounds of Reason but upon Passion for some Reproof as Valesius understands it or some more severe Discipline he received from some Christians possibly for some abuse by Scoffing to which he was much addicted and thereupon became not only an Apostate but a spiteful Adversary and the more impudent through the Countenance of the Emperor Julian who was also an Apostate and such another Scoffer This might be abundantly shewed if it was needful here and may be upon some other occasion but this is sufficient for this And this may serve for another purpose in respect of the Quakers viz. to undeceive them and let them see plainly by what Spirit they have been deceived even this very Antichristian Porphyrian Spirit and no better The Spirit I doubt not is the very same or of the same kind only the Appearance is somewhat different more bare-faced then upon the Encouragement of an Apostate Emperor but more covert now in this being a Christian State But as that soon ceased so will this I am well satisfied to the Shame and Confusion of those who obstinately persist in their Errors but especially those who not only are deceived but presume to take upon them to be Ministers of Christ and deceive others when it shall appear that they are only Ministers of this Porphyrian Antichristian Spirit that is of Satan transformed as I nothing doubt but it will in due time and that ere long by undeniable Moral Evidence if not also by manifest Divine Vengeance upon some of the Obstinate which I have sincerely endeavoured to prevent and should still be glad to help them out if they would humble themselves and give Glory to God as their Case doth require otherwise they will certainly be called to account for neglected Divine Favours As for the Gentile Dispensation there is plainly a Fallacy concerning it put upon them by the Subtilty and Fraud of that Spirit which acts so sensibly amongst them For as the Israelites were chosen to be as it were of God's own Regiment and are therefore call'd his Peculiar people yet were they for their Sin delivered over to the Conduct of an Angel Exod. 33. so were other Nations committed to the Conduct of certain Angels probably of inferior Orders And as the Israelites after they were settled in the Promised Land under the immediate Government of God v. Sam. 8.7 were often notwithstanding for their Backslidings and Transgressions delivered into the hands of their Enemies which was plainly a Representation of Spiritual matters so the other Nations though they were committed at first to the Regiment of Good Angels though of an inferior order yet when they came to yield to the Inspirations of Apostate Spirits which was a real though Spiritual Fornication and Defilement were left in theirPower to be abused and ridden and led Captive by them at their pleasure And those who continued under their Conduct to the last without Repentance are like to have their part with them hereafter And this is the Mystery of Iniquity whereby these People are imposed upon by the Subtilty of this Porphyrian Spirit For There is a twofold Gentile Dispensation or two parts of the Gentile Dispensation the one of Grace under the Good Angel which is God's Deputy the other of Judgment under the Apostate Spirit which is God's Executioner of Vengeance And this is it which St. Paul tells us concerning the Seduced by the Spirit of Antichrist that God should send them strong Delusions to believe a Lye because they received not the Love of the Truth that they all might be damned who believe not the Truth Now whatever become of the rest who have not the Favour of the Gospel communicated to them but yet desert not the Conduct of the Spirit by God set over them yet those who have the Gospel in all Simplicity offered to them and either through Pride and Conceitedness or through the Inspiration of any Spirit are drawn from it their Case is very dangerous for no Good Spirit would dare or would offer any such thing and then it must needs be some wicked Spirit in disguise how specious soever his appearance be which for some Spiritual Sin at least if not Carnal or Worldly in them or their Parents hath gotten Advantage of them And such are very officious to offer themselves and very subtile to deceive And their Neglect of the Offers of Grace is like to prove fatal to them But none are in greater danger than they who are so unhappy as to become the Agents and Ministers of such a Spirit whatever they may think of themselves at present This I hope may serve for this Occasion but having for divers Months past been endeavouring by private Conferences with and Letters to the Chief of their Ministers to set this People right in what they are out of the way I intend ere long if no less will serve by the Grace of God to discourse these matters more fully at some

they were Sinners above all that have succeeded them I tell you Nay but except ye Repent ye shall all likewise perish God is able to restore them again The Vineyard shall be taken from you and given to other Husband-men who shall render him their Fruits in their Seasons I Thought I had done here For though I know many have written very bitterly against Monks and Monkery I thought them not worth the looking into because I believed the Truth which I have asserted will stand as an impregnable Rock against all their Blasts Yet at last it coming into my mind that an excellent Person of great Learning Judgment Piety and Candor of this Church of England had written something to like purpose I thought fit to look into him and finding to my Sorrow for him but great Satisfaction in this Case how unworthy of himself and of how little weight it is which he hath said against them I intended to have spared his Name and to have passed it over with a short Note that it needed not nor deserved an Answer But considering that that is only the way of the World that we ought to sacrifice all Esteem of Men whether our selves or others to the Truth and to the Service of God and of Men too for their Admonition and that the Holy Scriptures spare not to record the Failings of Holy Men I resolved to do the like To be plain therefore that Excellent Person Mr. Joseph Meed having concluded the Apostacy of the latter times fore-told 1 Tim. 4.1 to be the Worship of Saints introduced into the Christian Church through the Hypocrisie of Lyars forbidding to Marry and commanding to abstain from Meats to make good his Interpretation of that first part of the Prediction and make it compleat concludes the latter part to be understood of Monks that they were the chief Advancers of Saints Worship And to prove this he produceth the Testimony of Chemnitius a known Adversary to them who lived about 1200 Years after the time he speaks of and Eunapius a known Enemy not only to them but to all Christians whom he calls wretched Catiffe and damned Dog And why so Why because he blasphemes the Saints and Servants of Christ who loved not their Lives unto Death the Dust of whose Feet he was not worthy to lick up Competent Witnesses indeed and a special Testimony this but he adds Yet may we make a shift to gather hence c. But without Shifts we may see plainly to what Shifts his unadvised and preposterous Zeal had reduced him thus to expose the Weakness of the Cause he had undertaken when all his Learning Diligence and Inquiry and all Antiquity could afford him no better Evidence and to expose himself to the same Censure he had deservedly given to his own Witness Had they been Monks and only Monks who had been guilty of this had it been fair to cast an Aspersion upon all and Was it fair within a dozen Lines after to print Bishops and Monks in different Characters while both were under the same Circumstances At this rate What Calumnies might not be raised against the People of God in all Ages the Israelites the Christians the very Apostles themselves and such as pretend most of all to Reformation The Devil hath always sowed his Tares and most industriously amongst the best But upon this Evidence there is no question but the Accused will be acquitted by all impartial Judges As to what St. Austin saith of some Hypocrites rambling about in the Habit of Monks it is very disingeniously not to say dishonestly alledged concerning Monks in general But St Austin's Mind concerning the Monks of his time is so plain in what follows that I need say no more of it in this place And for further answer to this Abuse of his Testimony they who please may peruse it in his own Words upon Ps 99. 132. and Ep. 137. And the same may be said concerning Gregory of Towers v. Cassian Coll. 18. c. 16. He had unhappily concluded before that those Words of St. Paul are a Description of Monkery and when that Conceit was once fixed in his Mind it presently set all his Parts and all his Learning to work to prove it to others and gave easie admittance to all that might seem to favour it Hence it was that he imagins Abstaining from Meats may comprehend Renouncing of Possessions Nor could he otherwise have thought that the Monks did any more * It was Conc. Chalced. did that c. 15. to them not to all forbid Marriage than St. Paul himself did nay than our Saviour himself did Nor have set himself Disc 28. to derogate from that Obedience of the Recabites to the Institutions of their Progenitor which God himself had so highly approved and testified his Approbation of by so gracious a Promise Nor have imagined that the Law of Nazarism was ever imposed upon any much less that it is one of the things expressly named which the Apostles decreed at the Council of Jerusalem should not be imposed upon the Gentiles who believed in Christ or that Act. 21.25 did prove any Prohibition of that whereby the Apostles decreed the Gentiles should observe no such thing There is a great difference between a Prohibition of Impositions and a Prohibition of a free and voluntary Act. But how doth Prejudice blind Mens Minds That a Man of his Parts of his Learning of his Judgment Candor and Generosity in asserting the Truth in other matters should be so affected with a meer Imagination of his own as to maintain that to do such an Indignity to so glorious a part of the Christian Church which St. Gregory Nazianzen calls the most Choice and Wisest part of the Church and St. Hierom the Flower of the Church which produced so many Glorious Saints of so great Virtue and adorned with such various and illustrious Graces produced so many Bishops innumerable and amongst them the most illustrious Lights of the Church both for Virtue and Learning was so much respected not only by the People but by the best of the Christian Emperours and approved and favoured by the most Eminent Bishops of the Church and hath so many Testimonies of their Excellence by Persons of the greatest Credit and Reputation and deserved so well in many respects that such a Man for the sake of a Phansie of his own should set up a Chemnitius a prejudiced Adversary to them and Eunapius a Pagan Adversary to the Christians against such a Cloud of Witnesses and so wrest strain the Holy Scriptures and thereby so expose himself to just Censure is one of the most remarkable Instances of the Mischief of Prejudice that I can think of an Edifying instance to make all Men good Men learned Men and wise Men jealous of themselves and cautious that they do not impose upon themselves not to do God Service for he needs no such Shifts nor is at any time pleased with them OF THE ESSEANS OUT OF JOSEPHUS

from Experience and Custom Wherefore if the Devils do so they neither deserve Admiration nor Attention for What Advantage can it be to know such things before-hand if they be true for such Knowledge as this neither contributes to Vertue nor Good Manners No one is judg'd for what he does not know of this kind nor benefitted by having learnt it But every Man is judg'd by God and himself whether he has kept the Faith and observed his Commands To this we should give great Attendance Our Exercise and Contention should be not to fore-know but to walk well-pleasing in God's Sight And we ought to Pray not that we may fore-know nor to request this as the Reward of our Exercise but that our Lord may work with us towards our obtaining a Victory over the Devil But if we find our selves solicitous to fore-know indeed let us be pure in our Minds for I do believe that a Soul in every respect pure and brought to its primitive Frame may become so discerning as to see by the Revelation of our Lord both more and remoter Events too than Devils Just so the Soul of Elisha saw Gehazi 2 Kings 5.25 and the Hosts standing before him 6.17 18. When therefore they come in the Night and are willing to tell things or say We are good Angels believe them not for they lye Or if they praise your Exercise or call you Happy believe them not neither submit so far to them as to hear them But rather cross your selves and your Families and pray together and ye shall see them vanish for they are dastardly and dread the Sign of our Lord's Cross because by that our Saviour made them bare and publickly exposed them Col. 2.15 Moreover if they grow more and more Impudent and leap about wantonly in various Shapes don't be afraid or attend to them as good Spirits for by God's Assistance 't will be possible nay easie to distinguish between the Presence of a Good and a Bad Spirit For the Appearance of Holy Spirits is not with Disturbance and Disorder Matt. 12.19 for He will not strive nor cry neither doth any one hear their Voice But a Good Spirit visits in such a sweet and delectable manner that Joy and Transport and Confidence presently cover the Soul that is visited For the Lord is with them who is our Joy and the Power of God the Father Besides too when they visit the Thoughts of the Soul are free from Consternation and Wavering For the Soul being enlightened by such a Vision views with Ease the Spirits that appear Furthermore it has a certain desire of Divine and future things seizing it and is willing to joyn with the Spirits and to go out with them And if those to whom they appear be afraid of the Vision they presently take away the Fear by Love as Gabriel did from Zachary Luke 1.13 As also the Angel which appeared to the Women at the Divine Tomb Matt. 28.5 A Testimony of this Truth too is that saying of the Shepherds in the Gospel Luke 12.10 Be ye not afraid for the Fear of Good Men is not a Fear of Pusillanimity but it proceeds from the Sense of the Advent of superiour Beings So much concerning the Nature of the Vision of Good Angels But the Incursion and Appearance of Evil Spirits is disturb'd with Noise and Clamour and Brawling like the Hurlyburly of untaught Boys or High-way-men whence proceeds Timidity of Soul Confusion and Ataxy of Thoughts Grief Hatred of Asceticks great Despondence Tediousness Remembrance of Relations and Fear of Death in short Lusting after Evil things Wearisomness of Vertue and Disorderliness of Morals Wherefore after you have been frighted with a Vision if your Fear be presently taken away and there succeed in the room of it a Joy unalterable and you find within your self Chearfulness and Confidence and Refreshment and Composedness of Thought and all the other things which I mentioned before as Manlyness and Love towards God take Courage and pray for Joy and Steddiness of Soul discovers the Holiness of the Spirit that is present Thus Abraham when he saw the Lord exulted John 8.56 And John when he heard a Voice from Mary Mother of God leap'd for Joy But if there be Confusion in those that appear and Noise from without and Wordly Phantasies and Threatnings of Death with the other Disorders above-mentioned then know that 't is the Sally of Wicked Spirits Let this be a Common Rule If the Soul be fearful there are Enemies in sight for they are Devils that don't take away that Fearfulness as the great Arch-Angel Gabriel did from Mary and Zachary and the Angel that appeared at the Tomb from the Women But Wicked Angels when they see Men afraid they encrease their Phantasies that they may dread them the more and so at last they assault them and jeer them and bid them fall down and worship Thus they deceiv'd the Gentiles By this Means they that were not Gods were falsly called Gods But our Lord has not suffered us to be deluded by the Devil whom he rebuked when he was exciting such Fancies in Him Luke 4.8 Get thee behind me Satan for 't is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve Let therefore the crafty one be more and more despised For what our Lord spake he spoke for our sake that the Devil hearing the same Words from us may be overturned by the Power of the Lord who so rebuked them then 19. But when we have cast out Devils we should not vaunt neither when we have cured Diseases should we be lifted up or admire one that casts out Devils or despise one that does not cast them out But let every one mind every one's Discipline and either imitate or emulate it or rectifie it For doing of Signs and Wonders is not our Business This belongs to our Saviour Hence Luke 10.20 He saith to his Disciples Rejoyce not because the Devils are subject unto you but because your Names are written in Heaven For our having our Names written in Heaven is a Testimony of our Vertue and regular Life But to cast out Devils is the pure Gift of our Saviour who gave it Whence we read Matt. 7.22 that to those who glorying not in their Vertue but in Signs said Lord have we not cast out Devils in thy Name and in thy Name done many Wonders Our Saviour said Truly I say unto you I know you not for the Lord knows not the ways of the Ungodly In short as I said before we should always pray for the Gift of discerning of Spirits that as 't is written 1 John 4.1 we may not believe every Spirit 20. I thought indeed now to have concluded and been silent of what concerned my self and to have contented my self with giving these Memento's But that ye may not think I speak these things idlely but do declare them from Experience and a Knowledge of the Truth therefore though I become as a

Whether it be one of the Ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation or One of those Seducing Spirits to whom in the latter times that some would give heed was in the times of the Apostles expressly said by the Spirit of God And great Reason there is to take this into very deep Consideration 1. Because of the many and weighty Cautions given by our Saviour and his Apostles and left upon record in the Sacred Scriptures for our warning in these latter times to beware of them and not to go out after them with Admonitions concerning their Subtilty their Energy or Power and their strong Delusions to deceive if it were possible the very Elect and that even Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of Light that is puts on the Appearance of an Angel of Light 2 Cor. 11.14 and lastly that we should try the Spirits 1 Jo. 4.1 2. Because if the Tryal be by Agreement or Disagreement with the Doctrine Institutions and Ordinances of Christ and his Apostles authorized by him they may seem to have apostatized and gone off or at least fallen short of them in matters of great Moment and special concern those before mentioned and therefore to be Seduced by some Spirit of Error For I doubt not but the Devil himself hath that Malice and Envy against the Man Christ Jesus by whom he hath been Conquered and Vanquished and against the Solemn Memorial of that Victory that could he but keep people from engaging in that Holy Covenant with Him by Baptism and from the Solemnity of that Memorial he would be willing himself to lead them into all other Truth upon that condition rather than fail Yet notwithstanding since they are a Sober People have received retained and do act upon one of the chief Principles of Christianity and have divers commendable things in them and what Errors they have fallen into have been occasioned by the Scandals and Offences given by those of the Church who will have a sad account to answer for it I do hope in the Mercy and Goodness of God that if it be a good Spirit which hath the Conduct of them he shall lead and dispose those who are Sincere amongst them to the acknowledgment of the Truth in those things whereto they have not yet attained and if it be otherwise he shall be forced to resign the Conduct of them to a more powerful and better Guide and that we shall see such a Society of Compleat Christians come out of this despised People as are at this time hardly to be found in any part of the World that I know of These are my Thoughts and Hopes concerning this People in general at present And Hopes I say grounded upon the Mercy of God and Power of God which no Good Being would oppose nor no Evil Power can stand before And in His Name I come unto you knowing assuredly that neither I nor any Humane Ability is able to prevail against the Power that is amongst you notwithstanding the Certainty of the Truths that I have mentioned already and shall endeavour by the Grace and Assistance of God Almighty through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ more fully to explain unto you in due time But as I said if it be a good Power it will favour me and assist me in it and rejoyce in it too and if it be an Evil Power Commissioned it must cease and submit to that Victorious and All-Conquering Name Its Enchantments must be dissolved and its Sophistry and Falacies detected I therefore as an Ambassador of Christ in the Spirit and Meekness of Christ beseech you Be ye reconciled to the Truths of God and receive them with that Reverence and Gratitude that is meet without Cavelling or regard to any Temporal concern I do not invite you to return to the Abuses and Corruptions which you have forsaken but to those Truths and to the due use of those Holy things against which you have been Scandalized by those Abuses and Corruptions Nor do I invite you to dissolve your Society or to leave off your Meetings and drown your selves in a promiscuous Multitude No you have in part born a good Testimony and I would have you do so still But I invite you only to make your Testimony more Compleat Illustrious and Irrefragable by bearing your Testimony to the whole Truth and not any longer a Testimony like the Feet of Daniel's Image partly strong and partly weak by a mixture of Truth with Falshood for that cannot stand long together but to strengthen the things that remain and set in order the things that are wanting that ye may stand for otherwise ye will certainly be Broken to Pieces I invite you but to what I am doing my self with a small Company of Poor people that is bearing a Testimony for God and manifestly under his Conduct But it is neglected by them to whom it hath been offered for a sufficient Time and in a sufficient Manner considering their Learning and pretence to Knowledge And now it is offered to you a despised People that God may humble the Proud and High-minded and confound the Wisdom of the Wise by mean and despicable things in the sight of Men. Be Wise and neglect not the Opportunity and you who were last in the Worlds account shall be first What ever you do you will find there is solid Truth in the Proposal and I wish you may receive it to the Honour and Glory of God and your own Comfort and Salvation and you will then find me to have been Your Sincere and Cordial Friend E. S. 31 Aug. 1696. After this there were other Letters and Papers sent which may be taken notice of hereafter as there may be occasion but the last contained certain Questions which I think fit now to propose to the Consideration of all who are sincere and do desire not to deceive themselves nor be deceived in a matter of so great Importance as the Will and Service of God and the Salvation of their own Souls If any notwithstanding will presume to go on in any false or Erroneous Ways they must answer for it and their Blood if they miscarry must be upon their own Heads For the Design and Vse of these Questions is to examin the case What Spirit they are of the Spirit of Christ or the Spirit of Antichrist the Spirit of Truth or some subtile Spirit of Delusion Whether they be Christians indeed or counterfeit Christians that is Antichristians Whether Hypocritical Professors in Words but Renagadoes in Deeds refusing the Solemnities of his Covenant and Worship and the Orders of his Church or such sincere Christians as are ready to follow the Guidance of his Spirit out of their own Wills and out of their own Wisdom and Imaginations and Errors and Mistakes into all Truth and Whether they be in the Way of Salvation or of Delusion and Perdition The Times of this Ignorance God winked at but now commandeth