Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	church_n	part_n	true_a	3,915	5	5.1797	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62901	A word of information to them that need it briefly opening some most weighty passages of God dispensations among the sons of men, from the beginning, and insisting a little upon the state and condition of the nations, wherein they now stand, and particularly of England : for this end, that men may remember themselves, and turn unto the Lord, and seek to be delivered from the mysteries of iniquity, to walk with God in fellowship and communion : to which (as pertinent hereunto) is annexed, An addition concerning Lord-Bishops, and Common-prayer-book : with a tender admonition to those called priests, or ministers : and also, a loving exhortation to those that have separated from their superstitions / by W.T.	Tomlinson, William.	1660 (1660)	Wing T1854; ESTC R16928	33,341	46

Mark can she not wipe off since many have perished in Prisons even of late years through her Persecution But if any will contend against it and defend her to be out from the Mystery of Iniquity and in the Truth walking in the Truth as a True Church of Christ We are able to prove to the contrary through the strength of the Lord even from her Teachers from her Ordinances and from your Lives and Conversations all which demonstrate you to be gone astray from the truth as it was delivered by Christ and his Holy Apostles and are in the Fornication of the great Whore are yet drunk with the Wine thereof and shall also drink of the wine of her wrath if you repent not Your Teachers teach for hire as the False Prophets did of old against which the True Prophets cryed out for so doing Your Ordinances none of them will abide the measuring line of the Scriptures and so are but the outward Court left out for the Gentiles who tread the holy City under foot Your lives are carnal Your Conversations earthly in the Lusts of the Flesh in the Lusts of the Eyes in the pride of life yea Your Solemnest Meetings are full of that sin for which God drowned the old VVorld Gen. 6.11 even full of Uiolence witnesse the violence done to any that come in to speak a sober word of truth among you and to inform you of your condition Oh sink down into your selves and think Is such a Company the Spouse of the Lamb Christ Jesus Is this his Church his Body the Pillar and Ground of Truth were such things abound Take this VVord home to your hearts and consider it well namely that you are not got out of this Mystery of Iniquity till that from whence it grew be dissolved That you may understand this saying take notice that the Mystery of Iniquity grew from hence even from the Earth unsubdued in Mans heart which covering it self with a Profession of Truth outwardly formed that Profession or Religion to its own Lust or Liberty that the Earth might still be saved alive in Man and live and he enjoy his Lusts therein And here in this state stood Balaam and in his way did the first Hereticks run in the Apostles times loving the wages of Balaam for reward and in his steps do they walk to this day and those that are one with them in the root and ground though differing in outward appearance For to this day its the same The Earth standing in Man's heart and a Religion or Profession raised up over that forms a Mystery of Iniquity and begets an Antichrist It forms a Mystery of Iniquity or a myst to hide Iniquity with it raises a smoke out of the Pit of Mans heart to blind the eyes of men with and begets an Antichrist a Spirit of Persecution seeking to blast the True Spirit with Reproaches which is Blasphemy And so under the name of Hereticks and such like to slay them to rid them out of the way because they strike at the root in which they live by their holy Conversation and by their chaste Mind to the Wisdom of the Lord abhorring the smoak and myst of mens devisings which arises out of mans heart More particularly to deal with you and to set before you your own state or standing let us compare you a little with the Primitive Times and see whether you answer to the Church then or to the World which hated it and persecuted it The Church of Christ then suffered by the World being distinct from the World called out of it and therefore hated by them of the World Ye suffered joyfully the spoyling of your goods saith Paul to the Church Heb. 10.32 33 34. 1 Thess 2.14 15 16. 2 Thess 1.4 So then in that time there was the Haters and the Hated the Spoilers and the Spoiled the Abusers and the Abused the VVolves devouring and the Sheep devoured Now compare your Church with them Are you the Sufferers or those that put others to Suffering for Righteousness sake Did not the people of tender Conscience who could not worship God after the Traditions of men suffer under your Church both formerly when the Antichristian Lording Bishops ruled it and so fled some to New-England and others to other Places And sinc they were put down still you have been the same What haling pulling pushing abusing of people hath been in your Congregations and by them of your Congregations what beating in your Synagogues stoning in your Streets stocking whipping imprisoning persecuting spoyling of goods c And nowthat those Antichristian Prelates are coming in again you are still the same and the same measure hath been met withall from some of you already If any say Those that did so or do so are but the Rude Rabble and are not to be counted for our Church I Answer These things have been done among you and by them that are of you unrestrained If by the Rude Rabble then behold the Rude Rabble are the strongest part of your Church if they do such things and you cannot restrain them from that violence If you say Yea we could have hindered them if we would but we did not because we look upon those they abused as Seducers Answ Then see you consented to their violence and so made your selves Partakers with them as Saul did when he consented to them that stoned Stephen But say you They were Seducers they were Hereticks that were abused and our Ministers spake against them I Answer So did they stone Steven as a Seducer and all the violence done to them that feared the Lord was in such like thoughts of them they thought they were Seducers and their Ministers spake against them But where did ever the true Church use violence even to Seducers and Hereticks Consider that They suffered violence themselves but never used violence to others So see your selves now on what part you stand For whatever they be that you use violence to for conscience sake whether they be in the Truth or be Seducers yet your violence to them declares you not to be the true Church but to be the World where the persecution is found You are on the Persecuters part not on the Persecuted You are not they that the VVorld hates but you are they that do hate others for Conscience sake such as Paul said they Themselves were before Conversion hatefull and hating one another Titus 3.3 and so others suffer under you for Conscience sake even those against whom you cannot justly complain for any wrong done to you by them and so they suffer innocently as to you although they should be Seducers So see your selves now That your Church resembles not the Church of Christ in the Primitive time but You fully resemble the World that then abused the Saints and Servants of the Lord. And for your counting and calling them Hereticks and Seducers that suffer under You and your Ministers This makes the Sufferers more resemble the true

Church to be called and counted Seducers by a violent Generation for so were the Saints accounted in the Primitive times by a like Generation as you are And whereas some may say It s but the rude Rable that use violence I answer It s manifestly proved by their Actions that not only they but their Teachers also are guilty of the same violence partly by stirring up the Rude People and encouraging them thereunto and partly also by exercising it with their own hands as some of them have done and partly also by unjust proceedings through Covetousnesse and Desire of filthy Lucre mingled with a wrathfull raging implacable cruel unjust and unmercifull Spirit having spoiled Families making a prey of their Goods Judg in your selves Is this like the Saints in the Primitive Times or like the World Is this like the Sheep or like the Wolves that devour Again your principal men in many of your Congregations have had a deep hand in these Actions of Violence even your JUSTICES and other OFFICERS among you who have sometimes encouraged the Rude Rabble in their Violence against the Innocent and oftentimes even themselves buffetted and abused and whipped and stocked and thrust out from among them those that harmed them not yea often have sent them to Prison and there most cruelly entreated them during their pleasure and that without any just crime or breach of any of their Lawes many times even thus have they dealt to such as have wronged no man but only sought to informe you of your dangerous state in which you stand as enemies to God and his Truth and wayes wading in Superstitious Inventions which will not profit you For this thing have you thus abused them and you are all guilty from top to toe from highest to lowest who have consented in your hearts to the violence done So see your state where you stand See by your Antipathy to such as fear the Lord and by your Agreement with the world where you are You are yet even of the world though you be counted a Church You have the Name but not the Thing You have not the Spirit and Life of the Saints And so we have good reason to separate from you and to come out from amongst you as we are commanded by the Lord 2 Cor. 6.17 18. Revel 18.4 For your Comparison holds better with the Synagogues of the Jews than with the Churches of Christ and yet you fall short of them also In them there was Haling Pulling Beating Thrusting forth Abusing using Violence as you may read in the Acts of the Apostles And so here is your pattern even the Synagogues of the Jews where the Servants of the Lord were abused for holding forth the Truth But herein you excel those Synagogues in Wickedness and fall short of them in Moderation In that they gave liberty to men to speak among them and to reason and dispute among them as you may read Act. 13.14 15. and Act. 17.1 2. and in many other places in that Book Where you may read what liberty they gave unto the Apostles and Saints in those times though they came with a new Doctrine to them which overturned all their former state of a Church yet did they not abuse or molest them until they heard Doctrine delivered which they accounted dangerous and erroneous But you with open mouth and violence are ready to swallow men up before they can well speak a sentence out to be understood yea though you your selves cannot deny the truth of that which is spoken So that you fall far short of the Jews Synagogues in moderation and sobriety even short of those whom you your selves count Persecuters of the true Church How should you then be the true Church Your Violence breaks out before you understand wherefore so did not theirs So you are worse than they And this is your state and condition So see your selves herein and see your Ministers what they are that encourage you herein The Old World which was destroyed by water and Sodom and Gomorrah which were destroyed by fire are revived in your Streets and Assemblies yea in your solemn Assemblies in the point of Violence which was a principal thing topping up all their wickedness for which they were destroyed The Old World was full of Violence Gen. 6.11 and so was Sodom unto strangers And so are your Streets and Synagogues and therefore spiritually you are more like Sodom and Egypt where our Lord is crucified than to the Church of Christ Therefore take not your selves any longer to be that you are not nor blaspheme the Name of Christ any longer by calling your selves his Church while you live in such wickedness but rather fear his Indigation lest that or some like judgment come upon you which came upon those who lived in Violence as you do The Church of Christ is pure And whoever gets the name and yet lives in impurity shall be kept out from entring into the New Jerusalem which is now coming down from God out of Heaven not seen with outward eyes nor known to carnal hearts nor entred into by the unclean and yet her gates stand open day and night But to keep lower to your capacity In the Primitive times the Church was patient under their sufferings 2 Thess 1.4 Are you so Or are not they rather found such who suffer by you Do not ye cast out hard speeches with your Violence against them that are found in the like patient suffering with the Saints in the Primitive times So see and judge impartially Is it you that resemble the Church of Christ or is it those that you rage against that resembles it Again Is not your Church made up of such persons as fear not God ungodly men and women Sweaters Drunkards Cursed speakers Revilers of those that are good Proud and haughty and high-minded Persons glorying in Apparrel and gay clothing other than what the Apostles of our Lord approved of conceited persons yet dark and ignorant in the things of God men that take pleasure in Wantonness and Vanity and Pastimes as they call them who count foolish talking and jesting an ornament to their speech and grace to their behaviour being past feeling in themselves of the things that displease God and quench the Spirit men that savour not the things of God nor have any pleasure and delight in Holiness and Righteousness to whom it 's a burden even to hear of things spiritual that belong to the Kingdom of God out of whose communication spiritual things are banished so that it 's uncouth and distastful to them to confer of the things of the Kingdom of God before them and especially when they are feeding themselves without fear upon the good creatures of God Others are carnally minded worldly minded having their spirits eaten up with the Thoughts of the world and Cares of the world and Love of the world and Honour of the world and Lusts of the world Covetous persons who dare lie one to another

for their advantage and over-reach one another for the greediness of gain Promise-breakers who will promise to one another and frequently fail one another in their Promises so that you dare hardly trust one another Is not your Church now made up of these and such like persons guilty of these and such like wickednesses Pick out all that are such in your thoughts and see how many will be left behind If any be they are called out by the Lord who saith Come out of her my People lest you partake of her sins and so partake of her plagues To be superstitious though never so much in the traditions of men it will not keep off the wrath of God from such workers of Iniquity And you have nothing else that 's peculiar to your selves in your Church-state to be zealous of as hath been manifested in another Writtng called A Reproof to your Priests or Ministers c. Now consider in the fear of God as if you were to give account of your judgment in that thing before him and before his holy Angels Are such as these think you such I say as are reckoned up such as your Church is made up of Are such I say the Church of Christ Are these the Church in God the Father sanctified by his Spirit Are these the body of Christ Are these the pillar and ground of Truth For the true Church of Christ is all these If such persons as you consist of be the Church then tell me who are the World Oh how apparent it is what you are and yet have you Teachers heaped up to your selves after your own lusts answerable thereunto who sew pillows under your elbows and bear up your name for CHRISTIANS in this State If any one oppose the things here written I shall more closely come to him with these QVAERIES following which I require him to answer in himself clearly without dawbing lest he stop his own way and the way of others from returning and looking after the Kingdom of God Quaery 1. Whether there be such a thing as a Cup of Fornication over-spreading the Nations since the dayes of Christ wherewith the Nations are made drunk according to Revel 19.2 Chap. 18.23 Quaer 2. Whether there be such a thing as a great Whore that sitteth upon many Waters that is Peoples Multitudes Nations and Tongues according to Revel 17.1 15. Quaer 3. Whether she hath not prevailed to corrupt the Earth with her Fornication according to Revel 19.2 even to give to all Nations to drink of the Wine of the Wrath of her Fornication Chap. 14.8 and 18.3 and so to make them drunk therewith Revel 17.2 Yea and prevailed over the Kings of the Earth also to make them drink of the same Cup Revel 17.2 Chap. 18.3 Quaer 4. Whether this great Whore shall not be judged from the Lord and burnt with fire according to Revel 18.8 Quaer 5. Whether shall not they that partake of her sins partake of her plagues according to Rev. 18.4 Quaer 6. Whether cannot this Whore be known to the Servants of the Lord seeing the Book of the Revelations which declares her was written for this end to shew unto his Servants things which were to come to passe Revel 4.1 Ch. 1.1 Quaer 7. Whether it doth not highly concern us all to be able to know her and the Cup of her Fornications that so vve may avoid her plagues by coming out of her More particularly thus Whether it doth not highly concern us all to know What this Whore is What her golden Cup of Fornication is and by what means she reacheth it forth unto the Inhabiters of the Earth to make all Nations drunk therevvith that so vve may take heed of it and seek to be cleared from it If these QVAERIES be yeilded unto then in the next place for discovering a little further what this Whore and her Fornication is it is Quaeried 1. Whether she be not called WHORE for departing from the Bed of Christ to another husband More plainly thus for departing from being chaste to the Counsels of Christ and from lying down in his Wisdom to let in the Wisdom of the flesh and submit to the Inventions of man instead of Christs Counsels Whether her Whoredom doth not lye herein principally according as the Israelites formerly were charged with Whoredom for the like Ezek. 6.9 2. And whether this be not the golden Cup of her Fornication wherewith she hath overcome the Nations and made them drunk namely A Pack of mens Inventions and Traditions gallantly composed to the fleshly mind and decently ordered together and imposed and upheld with great reverence as to outward appearance and as all Idols have been upheld with a like reverent Solemnity so that therewith she hath taken the minds of the Inhabiters of the Earth so generally and the Kings of the Earth also and hath subjected them to those Inventions and overcome their minds to fall under them as under the Counsels and Ordinances of the Lord and with that conceit hath made them drunk so that they being intoxicated with that conceit like drunken men will hear no reason against them though evident from the Scriptures but even like Drunkards fight and quarrel and are ready to buffet and kill and slay them that shall not submit to the same Inventions with them and call them and count them Ordinances of God as they do Let any one that opposes this shew what the general Cup of Fornication is since the dayes of Christ if this be not it and let him shew how his Cup will answer the things spoken of in the Revelation concerning it Let him shew another Cup so general wherewith the Nations have been made drunk according to what is said Revel 14.8 and 17.2 and 18.3 23. and 19.2 3. If the Cup of Fornication be thus understood then it is Quaeried Whether the means by which she reacheth forth this Cup to the Inhabiters of the Earth so generally be not by their National Ministries Whether any other way is found large enough and adaequate to the work namely to effect a general Fornication to mens Inventions and to subject the minds of men so generally to own Inventions and Traditions of men for Ordinances of God and to keep them resting under that Fornication but Ministries that may go over them all 4. Whether the Nations be willing to lye down under and submit to or have layen down under and submitted to the Deceivings of any Ministries but them they own and pay Wages to If they be deceived as the Scripture witnesses they are Rev. 18.23 Then is it not from their own Ministries seeing they will not receive Truths nor Deceits neither from any other but fight against them Now thou who hast read these things and thereby receivest any light into thine understanding take heed henceforth of reviling the Servants of the Lord who in his fear follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes leading them out of the Mystery of Inniquity

all those called PRIESTS or MINISTERS O Ye that are called Priests or Ministers who preach to the people for hire and keep them in a Forme without the Power Is it possible that a Word of experience shewed me in the spirit being kept low with the Lord and in his fear may reach any of you I could willingly tell it you for my heart pitties you as you are men and I should rejoyce in your Salvation as well as of others But I see you stand in greatest danger of all men both by reason you have strengthened your selves in your holds by seeming Arguments and Interpretations of Scripture and Opinions of Men And also because Truth strikes directly at your Diana by which you subsist and have your livelihood as you call it Therefore it s hard for you to lend an ear to hear the Voice that calls out or to open your eye to let in a glimpse of that light that discovers it For if such a thought or motion do but offer it self I know Satan followes it immediately with this at the heels What then will become of us Oh that there were faith in you to trust God for your outward being and supply and a contented heart to live at Gods allowance Then would the Teachings of Truth more easily enter and finde place And verily trust him and let your eye be open to see the light which would shine into your own Consciences if your unbelief did not stop it and if your loving this present evil world and the deeds of darknesse did not keep you back from coming to it For he that loves truth comes to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God Trust God I say for your outward subsistence and he will not forsake you utterly and let the light arise in your consciences concerning your wayes and seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousnesse thereof and you have the words of Christ for it which is above the word of any King who is Truth it self and cannot lye that all these things shall be added unto you I have found his word true by experience everlasting praises to his name And Oh how could I rejoyce to see your hearts brought down out of your formall wayes into the Obedience and power of Truth That you might not stand as a stop in the strait way hindring your own and others return unto God in the way of his Covenant My heart envies you not I speak in the presence of the Lord but in a tender Compassion to you I speak thus plainly and familiarly to you longing even for your Salvation also that if it be possible you might be delivered out of that deep pit in which you are faln For I have seen your horrid darknesse in which you stand God in mercy shewed it unto me and kept me out of it And I saw plainly that if I had entred into your livings as they are called I had entred into it But blessed be his name that kept me and allured me into the wildernesse there to feel his love and made me to sit down weeping in remembrance of ZION which I saw to be farr off and troden under foot by the Gentiles which had got into the outward Court and were there glorying in their Ordinances and crying out upon others as Seducers and Deluders and Hereticks while the HOLY CITY was troden under foot among themselves But the Lord hath shewed me upon whom the strong delusions are sent and for what Cause It is upon the disobedient who have pleasure in unrighteousnesse and for that cause because they love that and chuse unrighteousnesse to live in rather than the fear of God Therefore doth the Lord send them strong delusions even to believe a lye Come down to become as little Children and you will see the same also And I tell you plainly untill you do come down to become as little Children you cannot see God you cannot see the Kingdome of God you cannot judge righteously of the things of the Kingdome of God For how should you judge right of things that you cannot see Therefore humble your selves under the mighty hand of God and fear him who will make all bow before him and stoop to his will one way or other And stand not upon your Learning or Parts or any such thing For such things are of light account in the sight of God but come down to the place where God feeds his Babes even a low place it is a place of poverty of Spirit a place of mourning a place of hungring and thirsting And I tell you till you come thither you shall never feel any thing of the presence of God to your everlasting comfort And if you misse this what good will your Learning with all your vaunting do you Will it not all vanish away with vexation when an evill conscience arises and torment there enters and abides tormenting you in the presence of God and his holy Angels because you have neglected the one thing needfull even to walk with him in his fear in his pure light and so in a good conscience kept clear in the sight of God For without this the blood of Christ cleanseth you not from your sins Mind that lest you daub up your selves with untempered mortar I say the Blood of Christ cleanseth you not in the way of an evil Conscience in walking contrary to the Light of Christ But saith John If we walk in the Light as God is in the Light then have we fellowship and the blood cleanses But walking contrary to the Light there is made shipwrack of a good Conscience and the Conscience condemns and God is greater than the Conscience to condemn Consider it deeply for it is writ in Love and Faithfulnesse to your souls by one that yearns after your good and not after your destruction AN EXHORTATION to Those that have seperated Themselves from the SUPERSTITIONS of the PRIESTS YOU that have turned your backs of AEGYPT spiritually so called and have suffered hard Speeches and Reproaches and Injuries of Wicked Men in coming out of their grosser Abominations and Superstitions There is a tender respect in my heart towards you who have done this in obedience to a Principle of God in your hearts And my Desire for you is That You may not lose your Reward by looking back again to AEGYPT or by turning aside to this present evill World or to any of the hurtfull Lusts therein or by taking up your Habitation short of the Land of Rest But that you may be preserved in that tender Principle that led you forth that therein you may go forward and not backward But now do not think that you are come to the end of your journey because You have stepped out of Egypt Remember the many Journeys and Removes the Israelites had after they came out of Egypt before they arrived at the good Land of Promise and faint not but gird up the loyns of your