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	true_a	unity_n	1,613	5	9.0929	5	false

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

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

Fig-Tree for Fruit and Leaves will not defend it from the Curse and Blasting The three especial fruits that did spring forth from this blessed root and were and are to continue and increase in us and amongst us to the end are these 1. Purity manifested in a godly Conversation 2. Vnity manifested in dear and tender Love one towards another 3. Faithfulness manifested in bearing a constant and faithful Testimony to the things we had received and believed though it were unto great loss and sufferings And against all these do the wicked one appear to see if he can make you barren concerning them and that with divers wiles and subtilties that he may prevail on you and not be known to be the Enemy but might so overcome you as that you might both submit to him and then plead for him and his snares and wiles as being just right lawful prudent convenient c. But oh dear Friends let all be watchful and diligent to wait in the sence and true feeling of that Seed that never fell nor was beguiled and you will even the least of you see and comprehend his workings and transformings and be delivered from them 1. Purity and Holiness was a fruit in you which doth yet flourish in many blessed be the Lord who are as watchful and careful to approve themselves in obedience to the Light of Truth in their inward parts as ever finds as great a necessity both of trying judging with its judgment as ever these having thus waited have renewed their strength unto this very day and do mount up as upon the wings of the Eagle these are neither weary in running nor faint they in their walking But alas Friends even these do know with how great and manifold asfaults they have been assaulted and know and see with sorrow of heart how the assault hath prevailed upon some by working into the mind a secret Liberty and supposed enlargedness whereby a carelesness hath entered some and they having no keeper but the measure of Light revealed in their hearts and consciences so soon as they came to be perswaded to slight the reproofs of that they soon erred and this supposed Liberty entered that now after so many years strictness and circumspection they should not need now to stand so straitly to try things and words as at first because now a day of more Liberty was come and this Liberty secretly prevailed against that pure fear that once was placed in their hearts and against the very obedience of Truth inwardly in the subjection of the mind and then it became manifest outwardly the actions sometimes blame-worthy the words and speech again corrupted and run into the old channel of the World like them again and the single pure Language learned in the Light in the time of their poverty and simplicity almost lost and forgotten and so the work of God which he wrought in a manner laid waste and then when this Liberty is entred and made use of as aforesaid oftentimes a secret subtilty ariseth against the judgment of Truth either from within or from any outwardly that are grieved with this loose and careless kind of speaking or acting which subtilly leads to contend for it or against the judgment telling the Creature why these things are but small things and little things and what we must not strain at a Gnat and such like Oh my Friends beware of these evil suggestions of the wicked One how came they to be small and little things seeing they were great things with us in the beginning and how comes an offence of this nature to be light now seeing it was heavy in the beginning Oh let not the greatest Mercies of our God so fill us as to make us slight or forget the least obedience but rather let the continuance of his mercy the more quicken you up unto a zeal for his Name and Truth in all things to be found doing and speaking according to the Rule of Righteousness which ye learned in the Light in the day of your being low and little and then nothing will rise up and be exalted in the multitude of Gods mercies but that holy birth which lives in purity when it is at highest and so that life of Righteousness will shine forth more and more which glorifies God and seeks his honour Dear Friends that ye might be so kept unto the end is the breathing and travel of my soul and that where this neglect hath entred and this aforesaid corruption either in speech or action is to be found that ye would receive the Word of Exhortation in meekness and fear in which it is written unto you and may redeem the time for the dayes are and will be evil and none will hold the mystery of the Faith that saves from falling in the evil day but such as do keep the pure and undefiled Conscience which none can do but by persisting and continuing in the daily sanctification of the Spirit and belief and obedience of the the Truth A second Fruit that was brought forth from this good Root was Vnity and Love one towards another which blessed be the Lord is preciously preserved in and among many to this very day who are so sensible of the divers operations of Truth in them to be all by one Spirit that they are still kept of one heart and mind given up freely to serve the Lord in singlness of heart in their generation and are in this good work as strengtheners and encouragers of one another but notwithstanding the enemy hath been exceeding busie to lay waste and destroy this blessed effect also and that under divers pretences which the Lord still discovered by his own Light and Spirit in his People who have singly waited upon him but many have been his wiles sometimes fitting and preparing vessels to rise up in the fleshly and sensual wisdom to traduce bring in corrupt and evil doctrines to try who was not sound in the Faith that they may draw them aside into a heat and zeal for something which had not its root in the Truth and which they that abode in the Truth could not own but judge and condemn in the Name of the Lord which when such saw they took thereat occasion of striving to propagate and promote that which they saw withstood so having lost subjection to the Spirit of Truth in themselves which would have kept them in Unity in the Body and having also lost and laid by their subjection to them that were over them in the Lord they then grew stubborn and wilful and proceeded in more zeal for that which stood in opposition to the Truth than ever they did for the Truth it self and these sometimes have prevailed to the subverting whole housholds and have turned several from the Faith and simplicity that is in the Gospel who as well as those that subverted them have lost the fellowship of the Saints and the savour of Life either in themselves or others