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	visible_a	8,046	5	9.4741	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63474	An epistle of caution to Friends to take heed of that treacherous spirit that is entred into W.R. and his abettors (as appears in his malicious book, falsly called The Christian-Quaker, &c.) ... : with wholsome advice and counsel, by way of information, that the simple-minded may not be ensnared by the crafts and wiles of Satan through faith fallen antichristian instruments is W.R. and such as are encred into the same malicious spirit with him / C.T.	Taylor, Christopher, ca. 1615-1686.	1681 (1681)	Wing T262; ESTC R20258	17,842	24

Pray that if it be possible he and they all who unit with him in this work of Wickedness may find a place of Repentance for their case is miserable and Wo and Misery will be their portion forever except they Repent for the God of Heaven is angry with them and it will break forth upon them and they shall know that he is the Living God with his People that they may stand and be established by him forever and that neither W. R. nor his Adherents will be able to pull them down even such whom he hath so vilified and abused in his Book and especially that dear Servant of God G. F. whom he hath so basely bespattered in his Book and Printed and Published this to the World as I may say to put such a monstrous shape upon him as that the very worst of men may fall upon him Is this Love nay it is Wickedness and monstrous Iniquity and the burthen of W. R. and his Adherents which they must bear for these things will be too heavy for them and Truth will prevail over all and God will put his Beauty and Comliness still more and more upon such as dear G. F. and others who are faithful to the living God and a thorow Decission will come that in the end the Simple-hearted that fear the Lord in their Hearts may be undeceived of the false Coverings of W. R. and his Abettors and then they will be easily seen and discerned as they are in their Nature to the view of every Upright-hearted Friend that loves the Truth and so their rank will be found to be the same with R. S. J. Penniman R. R. and the rest afore-mentioned who went the same way and at last grew wicked in Printing and Publishing as W. R. hath now done And whereas some professing Truth have been offended with Mens and Womens Meetings as now established amongst us by the Power of God and the Practices of such Meetings calling them Innovations viz. That it is a bringing in of new things into the Church or altering the state of it c. Unto this I Answer That Government and Good Order is needful to be established in every Family much more in the Church of God that every Member of the true Church may know its Place and Service in the Body fitted thereunto by the Power of God then will it fall in naturally and in course that every Member will know its Office and whereunto it is called with the heavenly Call of Christ Jesus and these are they that take their Possessions in the Life Power and Wisdom of God and are fit to do service in the Church and of such Members is and ought to be the composition of Mens and Womens Meetings who reverence and fear the Living God and have a care of his Service and that all that profess Truth and that are turned to it may be preserved in it then such faithful Members and savoury sanctified Ones whether men or women when they meet together in their Meetings meet with the Lord in the midst of them and his pure Wisdom and Power to guide them in that they are called unto as they faithfully and truly wait upon him in such Meetings so the Work is the Lord 's they are about and those that are faithful unto God and Eye his Power and seek his Glory in the course of their Lives will not fail to do the same in these Meetings and as so then let the Wise in Heart judge Whether this be not the Way of God for the establishment of Gospel-Government in his Church that all may be kept sweet and savoury in his House to his Praise forever And how this can be called Innovation and Apostatizing into Forms is certainly Monstrous and great Ignorance where the Power of God is kept unto for no other Meetings we do affirm in Gods Presence we account right but as they are Constituted in the Power God and kept in it and this we affirm to have been the Primitive Christians Practice so long as they kept to the Power but when there is a going from the Power and that comes to be lost as to them then all Meetings are alike to such and so came in the Apostacy and Innovations after the Primitive pure Times and then the Key of knowledge came to be lost and Antichristian Formality to be set up and gradually many strange Ceremonies and superstitious Things to be observed and that was all wrong and the Order of God's Power and Truth was awanting in those times as to the true Church and the true Government of it because their Churches so called were said to be visible Churches consisting of Nations or Parishes c. But the true Church was invisible to the Carnal-minded Ones and such as did not fear the Lord nor worship him in Spirit and Truth though God had his Witnesses in the darkest times of Ignorance Popery and Superstition which had spread over all and Nations had drunk the Whores Cup of filthy Abominations yet some Witnesses were raised up by the Lord to bear witness against the Wickedness and Abomination of those times Now the true Church of God which is coming to appear out of her Wilderness state begins to flourish and to become as a Garden watered and pruned by the pure Power of God and for this end God in our D●y has raised up many Witnesses blessed be his Name forever and they are at work in his Garden the Heavenly Plantation of his own Hand and seek his Glory in all things And now the Heavenly Wisdom sees meet to give sorth again true Gospel-Order and Discipline as in the Church of Christ before the Apostacy entred and makes choice of such as are capable in this Work and Spiritual-minded and when they come together they can rejoyce in the enjoyment of God's presence with them and the Holy Order of the Gospel is committed to such whether Men or Women And whether in these Meetings or in other Meeting any thing be said or done thorow Infirmity or want of a good Understanding in some who may come to such Meetings that does not overthrow the constitution of any Meeting the Power of God hath set up and is the Authority of but the Endeavour is and ought to be that there may be a growth in the Truth in all these things by such as are faithful untill the House of God be established in its Glory and God's heavenly Wisdom and Power shine through all So the Foundation of good Meetings and good Order in the Church of God is truly laid amongst us by the Lord and it is he that lays those good things upon us which we do in our Men and Womens Meetings in relation to good Order in Marriages and many other necessary things which are done in such Meetings bring honour to God for the state of the Churches is enquired into that every true Necessity may be answered and if possible every disorderly thing may be separated

and done away and the living innocent-hearted Ones may be encouraged in their Obedience and Faithfulness to God helped and assisted in their Sufferings and the Disobedient and Vnfaithful may be exhorted to Obedience and instructed in things relating to their Conditions that all Loose Liberty may be kept out of the Church of God and Youth or Young People whether Male or Female may not be encouraged to a Loose Liberty in any thing but may be truly subject to the Power of God and the Order of it in his Church that all may be kept pure and clean And what God hath joyned together let no man or men put assunder or divide in crying down Womens Meetings some rude ungodly-spirited Ones calling them an Idol and an Image and presenting Marriage before them they call Dancing about an Idol and such filthy and unsavoury stuff as that is is cast out from the unclean Spirit of foul and unsanctified minds and some say They deny Womens Meetings Root and Brauch and much more such Unsavouriness and Abusive Language proceeds from them who would be sticklers in the Church of God and would reign as Kings without their faithful Brethren to set up themselves in an abusive presumptuons proud scornful and disdainful Spirit And these are such as are Sticklers and Promoters of W. R's Printed Book aforementioned and some such are his Factors in selling them for him though J. S. their great Friend and Elder sayes He is not against Womens Meetings So see what confusion they are in Now faithful Womens Meetings are blessed of God and we are living Witnesses of God's heavenly presence with them and Wo-will be to those who endeavour to scatter them and pull down the Services which they are appointed unto better they had never been Born except they Repent and that which is their great Confirmation against all the Opposition of the wicked Spirited that rise up against them is the feeling of God's blessed heavenly Power and Presence in the midst of them which is a manifest sign of God's accepting of them in their coming together to wait upon him and present themselves before him to do that Work and Service in his Fear and Dread which they are appointed to do So let all slanderous Tongues forever be silent in calling such Meetings or the Services performed in them in the good Order of Truth and Gospel Power Innovations and Apostatizing from the Truth and a setting up empty Forms Images and Idols but God's Power in all Ages hath had its Form and Manner of Appearance and who shall limit it and say Thus far shall it bring forth and no farther Therefore I charge every one in the fear of God to take heed of kicking against the Pricks and turning against any thing the Power of God brings forth to be done and observed and that all be tender of the Services one of another which God may appoint unto that the Spirit of God may not be quenched in any or that either Men or Women be discouraged from going on in the Work of the Meetings in what the Lord may have for them to do but rather let us encourage them as much as in us lies that so without Interruption the heavenly Power of the living God may still have its Passage through Men and Women Male and Female Young or Old both in their Meetings and out of Meetings and let all take heed of a cross Cankered Spirit which through Prejudice is ready to carp at every thing that good and honest Friends do in their Meetings and pleased with little or nothing for they that are entred into that Spirit are become Fighters against God in a large Measure and Disturbers of the Church's Peace But some may object These things were not in the Beginning when Truth broke forth amongst us but are Innovations brought in since and are of a dangerous Consequence to the establishing and setting up Forms and bringing in the Apostacy I Answer What was in the beginning we very well know and far better than many do who talk so much of it We know the Power of God was in the Beginning and raised up many to Life who had been dead in Sins and Trespasses that was its first Works and the effects of it was Righteousness and so the Lord is raising and hath raised up a People that they may serve him and may be his in this Day wherein he is making up his Jewels and these blessed Jewels are not made up at once but through the divers Operations and Ministrations of his Power and before there was a People raised there was no occasion for Men and Womens Meetings but by degrees Truth encreased and many were raised and afterwards some can out into Scandalous and Disorderly Practices in Marrying and in Disorderly Living c. And also besides these things other true Necessities called for Men and Womens Meetings to be established gradually and settled as now is by the Power of God But some who in the beginning as was in the Apostles dayes may have known the breaking forth of the Power of God and divers Operations of it and in that day had good desires raised up to persevere in the way of his Judgments until Judgment should be brought forth to Victory and so begun in the Spirit and served God in what he called them unto as they were faithful yet notwithstanding this though Truth might be precious to such then and alwayes is to every one that keeps in it and wait to know the way of it in submitting their Will to the Will of God that his divine Wisdom and heavenly Spirit may still guide them and direct them yet notwithstanding we know some have stept out of the Simplicity of Gods Truth and have entred into their own Reasonings and dark Wisdom and bruitish Knowledge and so have stumbled at what God hath and now is bringing forth concerning our Men and Womens Meetings aforesaid and the like and the Services of such Meetings appointed by the Power of God and so seeing the Prosperity of such Meetings and Services they are entred into a fretting peevish-spiritedness against such things and so gradually hardning through setting up their own Reasons in their own Wills and leaning to their own Understandings have grown into such a Confidence either against such Meetings or some of the good Services of them that at last they have become so prejudiced that that which at first seemed to be but as a little Fault-finding or Jealousie in their Minds is gradually come to be grown into a Mountain of Opposition and for want of a perseverance and enduring to the end in that Spirit in which they begun well some have fallen and are falling from the Power of God and from the Sense of their Elders and Brethren in the Truth and have run out against them and some at last have Printed and Published as now W. R. hath done who could not abide sound Life and Doctrine And therefore I pray and beseech