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	know_v	receive_v	2,838	5	4.8154	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80816	An epistle to Friends concerning the present and succeeding times being a faithful exhortation and warning to all Friends who profess the truth to beware of the manifold wiles of the enemy and to stand armed in the light of the Lord God of heaven and earth against his assaults, that so they may be ready to answer the call and requirings of the Lord : also, some thing signified of the mistery of the succeeding times, that all may be prepared and that the evil day may not overtake any at unawares, but such as turn away their ear from counsel / by Stephen Crisp.	Crisp, Stephen, 1628-1692.	1666 (1666)	Wing C6931; ESTC R202128	14,440	19

AN Epistle to Friends Concerning the PRESENT and SUCCEEDING TIMES BEING A faithful Exhortation and Warning to all Friends who profess the Truth to be ware of the manifold Wiles of the Enemy and to stand Armed in the Light of the Lord God of Heaven and Earth against his Assaults that so they may be ready to answer the Call and Requirings of the Lord. ALSO Some thing signified of the Misery of the Succeeding Times that all may be prepared and that the Evil Day may not overtake any at unawares but such as turn away their Ear from Counsel Let him that hath an Ear hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches By one who is a Traveller in the Way of Peace and hath good will towards all Men and more especially to the Houshold of Faith STEPHEN CRISP London Printed in the Year 1666. AN Epistle to Friends Concerning the PRESENT and SUCCEEDING TIMES Dear Friends YOU whom the Lord hath reached unto in this the day of his Love and hath made known the way of Truth and Righteousness unto you through the raising up of that holy living Witness of himself that long lay hid and buried in you and hath brought you to a secret feeling of something in you that is worth the minding and regarding and the Lord causing this to appear in the day of your seeking as a Light discovering Darkness and its power by which ye were formerly holden and giving you by his Spirit a sense and secret hope that in this Light the way of Deliverance was to obtained unto this hope made you not ashamed of the Light which before you hated but you came to own embrace it even while others still hated it and you for its sake yet your hearts being affected with the hope that did appear therein could not but so far joyn unto it as to make publick profession of it for its own sake and for no other ends or designes or interest at all but with resolution in that Light to wait for the Salvation of God Dear Friends it is you afore-mentioned that both now and for some days and weeks my heart hath been deeply exercised concerning even night and day and the aboundings of the Fathers love doth often overcome me and draws me forth now to say and write these things unto you for your admonition establishment and indeed it is you who did thus rightly own the way of Truth and knew your believing to be the gift and mercy of God to your souls that I do aim at for those that have taken up the profession of the precious Truth upon by respects and sinister ends and but for reasons propounded in their carnal minds though I do pitty them yet I have not much at this time to say to them but this The day shall declare them and their garment shall not hide them But you oh my friends who had fellowship with us in the deep travels of our beginnings and did come to Truth the same way and have known the power and virtue of it many times overcoming you in your inward man which hath made you cry out Lord evermore give us of this Bread and hath made you as a watred Garden Oh Friends how shall I express or signify unto you those longings those ardent desires and earnest breathings of my soul that you even you might abide to the end of all tryals and tribulation and adversities and might inherit that Crown of Immortality that is in Christ Jesus our Lord and might not by any meanes be bereft thereof this is singly my travel in Body and Spirit that you might be kept and preserved out of all the subtile snares of the wicked one which hunts for the soul even of those that have believed and therefore in dear and tender love I have a few things to write unto you for the clearing of my Conscience and discharging my duty in the sight of the Lord and the Lord give you all a tender and an understanding heart that both you and I may yet have cause daily to praise the Lord in the glorious Light of his Salvation which he hath manifested amongst us by the revealing his Son Christ Jesus to whom belongs Dominion Honour and Glory for ever Amen And first dear Friends it is in my heart to put you in remenbrance of that by which we were called and convinced which as a foundation Principle was laid in and among you and it being unchangable and unalterable in it self doth therefore admit of no alteration or change in those that are rightly kept to it It was a Light which arose in our hearts and shined forth from God the Father of Lights carrying in its appearance the nature and property of God both in its condemning evil which the Enemy had sown or planted in us and owning allowing and justifying every thing that was good and honest just and equal even those thoughts in our hearts which were of turning towards the Lord and seeking his righteousness these thoughts were justified and encouraged by the Light and all the contrary discovered and judged as they were brought to it to be tried Now this Light did our souls rejoyce in as they had good cause though it took away our former rejoycings our pleasures in vanities and iniquity died our glory in this world withered our friendship with the Sons of men decayed and we stood in the Light and saw all these things and were not sorry at it but waited daily to see these things more and more brought to pass neither was there a permitting our thoughts to go out how we might prevent those damages or repair these losses but the Cross of Christ was indeed our glorying or rejoycing and the hope that was before us did make us despise the pleasure treasures and honours friendship and delights of this world and in those dayes you grew into a feeling of the heavenly joy where the hundred-fold was witnessed in your bosoms and the zeal of the Lord was kindled by his own Spirit in you against whatsoever this Light of Jesus in the Conscience did witness against and the Lord beheld your integrity and blessed you and multiplied you and added to your strength and stature and then did the fruits of this glorious work abound among you in three more general and special effects by which effects or by their continuance among you let all now come to search and try themselves that so dear Friends those that have continued faithful in them all may persevere in like manner to the end and those who upon true search do find that they have failed and fallen short in all or any of them may make hast to repent and to turn to that which was the root of them all that they may not be found as fruitless and withered branches in the day that cometh lest they be cut off and utterly consumed and blotted out from among the living branches of the Vine for a day cometh that Truth will look into the

and then the Enemy perswaded them all are dead to the Life but themselves and so they grow to have a tickling joy in what they do and say in obedience to that perverse and singular private Spirit and so grow up to speak evil of Dignities and are unruly and dare to speak against Heaven and them that dwell and inhabit in it whom God makes to shine as Starrs in the Firmament of his Power but alas for them my soul pitties them when I see how they sport themselves with their own deceivings but the day of the Lord is among his People which hath and doth make them and their spirit manifest and their fruits also hath made them manifest Another way that the Enemy seeks to break the Unity and dissolve the bond of Amity is by sowing a seed of jealousie and prejudice in the hearts of such in whom he can get an enterance that so they may cease from the true and unfeigned love and that upon a pretended reason because of this or that which is supposed or imagined in the evil part in themselves against others giving heed to evil thoughts and surmises which break forth many times in whisperings and tale-bearing which though the thing supposed to be evil were really so Yet this is not to be allowed or given way to among you but to use plainness one towards another and singl-heartedness and to shut out the evil one in this his subtile appearance also Oh dear Friends remember how the Lord hath dealt with you and deal you so one by another he hath not sought occasions against you but hath long born and suffered and exercised much patience and tenderness towards you yet plainly reproving the evil in you and not treasuring it up against you Oh Friends be ye like-minded one towards another that the Enemy of your peace and concord may be defeated and you preserved entire to one Head even to Christ Jesus and ye may be one and the Name of the Lord may be one among you and that which tends to the making cold your Love may be judged in all and so Brotherly-Love will continue with you to the end Another way which the Enemy works to scatter and to bring from this Unity is by leading some who have believed into some sin and iniquity which the Body that are in the Truth are constrained to appear in judgment against for the Truths sake and yet notwithstanding the party so sinning being above the Witness in themselves which would bring them to own the judgement of the Spirit of Christ in his Church they exalt themselves above the judgment and seek to gain to them such whom they can enter by their words and complaints to take part with them against the judgment and those that passed it Such were those whose words did eat the Apostle said as a Canker of whom the Believers in those dayes were to be aware for commonly such as have gone from the Power that should have kept them clean and upright they will also turn against the power in those that abide in it especially if they be drawn forth to reprove rebuke them but let all such know that 's not the way to be renewed and let all that take part with any that work iniquity know that they do but defile their own souls thereby and do but rend themselves from that Body which they cannot prosper out of And therefore dear Friends beware of joyning with that in your selves or in others which the Power goeth against let the pretences be what it will for that which doth evil will alwayes be aptest to sow evil complainings of others and such as are in the unsatisfied murmurings against judgement passed upon them are much to be feared for they thereby render themselves to be the more guilty and yet the further from repentance But dear Friends watch unto that which gives you a living feeling of the living Body which is the Church that in all things you may demean your selves as true Members of it serving one another in Love and submitting your selves one unto another for the Lords sake That in all plainness and singleness as becometh the Truth you may seek to preserve the Unity which the Enemy of Truth and Peace doth envy so shall ye continue to strengthen one anothers hands in every good work and this shall tend to the weakening of the hands of your Enemies who seek to divide you that they might rule over you Many other designs doth the wicked One try daily to break and divide more than can now be named or here inserted but they are all out of the Light and if you be in it you will see them and that will preserve you for it 's own and did make us one and will keep us to be of one heart and mind to the end if we abide in it 3. The third good effect which Truth did work in the beginning in them who did truly receive it was Zeal and Faithfulness to God in the bearing testimony to what was manifest though through great sufferings in which as Friends abide in the Root they do daily encrease in power to fulfill the same Testimony for the Mercy of the Lord doth engage them and his answer of peace in the midst of their trials doth arm them and encourage them and they do hold out to the end and for such the Lord hath alwayes made a way better than they could have made for themselves Yet the Enemy hath in this matter also been very busie hath prevailed with some under divers considerations or rather consultations which he hath propounded unto them But oh Friends be ye all watchful and take heed lest any of the testimonies of Truth be laid waste for that which leads to be weary of bearing witness to the Truth and to lay it waste the same will lay thee waste and bring thee into such a state as thou wilt want the Truth to bear witness for thee and though it be hard for flesh and blood which hath no kingdom but here to fall into the hands of unreasonable men yet it is a more fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God and therefore let all luke-warm-ones who are neither hot nor cold be now awakened and all that have gone backwards be warned to return to their First Love else the Lord will come against them and the day hastens that will divide such their portion among hypocrites except they repent But to touch at some of the Reasons or Arguments which he that abode not in the Truth himself useth to draw others into this kind of treacherous backsliding First He appears to some to perswade them That their former testimony was born more from an immitation of others than from a work of the power of God in themselves and that now they not finding the thing required of them they may leave of their testimonies or may do such things as they have denyed formerly this snare doth the

and many are partakers of the spirit of it and so many as do partake of it so many will be straitned and perplexed with it but they who are single to the Truth waiting daily to feel the Life and Virtue of it in their hearts these shall rejoyce in the middest of Adversity these shall not have their hearts moved with fear nor tossed with anguish because of evil tydings Psal 112.7 8. Because that which fixeth them remains with them These shall know their enterance with the Bridegroom and so be kept from sorrow though his coming be with a noise and when a midnight is come upon mans glory yet they being ready and prepared it will be well with them and having a true sence of the Power working in themselves they cannot but have Unity and Fellowship with the works of it in the Earth and will not at all murmur against what is nor wish nor will what is not to be these will be at rest till the Indignation passeth over and these having no Design to carry on nor no Party to promote in the Earth cannot possibly be defeated nor disappointed in their undertakings And when you see Divisions and Parties and Rendings in the Bowels of Nations and Rumors and Tempests in the Minds of People then take heed of being moved to this party or to that party or giving your strength to this or that or counselling this way or that way but stand single to the Truth of God in which neither War Rent nor Division is and take heed of that part in any of you which trusts and relies upon any sort of the Men of this World in the day of their Prosperity for the same part will bring you to suffer with them in the time of their Adversity which will not be long after for stability in that ground there will be none but when they shall say Come joyne with us in this or that remember you are joyned to the Lord by his pure Spirit to walk with him in Peace and in Righteousness and you feeling this this gathers out of all Buslings and Noises and Parties and Tumults and leads you to exalt the Standard of Truth and Righteousness in an innocent Conversation to see who will flow unto that and this shall be a refuge for many of the weary tossed and afflicted ones in those dayes and a Shelter for many whose day is not yet over So Dearly beloved Friends and Brethren who have believed and known the blessed appearance of the Truth let not your hearts be troubled at none of these things oh let not the things that are at present nor things that are yet to come move you from stedfastness but rather double your Diligence Zeal and Faithfulness to the Cause of God for they that know the Work wrought in themselves they shall rest in the day of trouble Yea though the Fig-tree fail Hab. 3.16 17. and the Vine brings not forth and the labour of the Olive-tree ceaseth and the Fields yeeld no meat and Sheep be cut off from the Fold and there be no Bullock in the Stall Yet then mayest thou rejoyce in the Lord and sing praises to the God of thy Salvation And how near these dayes are to this poor Nation few knows and therefore the Cry of the Lord is very loud unto its Inhabitants through his Servants and Messengers that they would prize their time while they have it lest they be overturned wasted and laid desolate before they are aware and before destruction come upon them and there be no remedy as it hath already done upon many Oh LONDON LONDON that thou and thy Rulers would have considered hearkened and heard in the Day of thy Warnings and Invitations and not have persisted in thy Rebellion till the Lord was moved against thee to cut off the Thousands and Multitudes from thy Streets and the pressing and throngings of People from thy Gates and then to destroy and ruine thy Streets also and lay desolate thy Gates when thou thoughtest to have replenished them again And Oh saith my Soul that thy Inhabitants would yet be warned and perswaded to Repent and Turn to the Lord by putting away every one the evil that is in their hearts against the Truth in your selves and against those that walk in it before a greater Desolation and Destruction overtake you Oh what shall I say to prevail with London and with its Inhabitants The Lord hath Called aloud he hath Roared out of Zion unto them but many of them have not hearkened at all nor considered at all Well Oh my Friends and thou oh my Soul return to your rest dwell in the Pavillion of the House of your God and my God and shelter your selves under the shadow of his Wings where ye shall be Witnesses of his Doings and see his STRANGE ACT brought to pass and shall not be hurt therewith nor dismayed Oh my Friends in the Bowels of dear and tender Love have I signified these things unto you that ye might stand Armed with the whole Armour of God Cloathed in Righteousness and your Feet shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace and freely given up in all things to the disposing of the Lord who will deliver us not by Might nor by Sword nor Spear but by his own eternal invisible Arm will he yet save us and deliver us and get himself a Name by preserving of us and we shall yet live to praise him who is worthy of Glory of Honour and Renown from the rising of the Sun to the setting of the same now and for ever Amen Amen saith my soul THE END Faults escaped the Press In page 3. line 15. for obtained read be attained Page 9. line 24. for preserve you for it 's own read preserve you for it 's one