Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	day_n	lord_n	sabbath_n	1,964	5	9.6405	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81715	The captives returne, or, The testimonys of John Danks of Colchester, and Elizabeth Danks, his wife, to the mercy and goodness of God, in calling them back to his everlasting truth, after their ont-runnings [sic] and seperation from the same. : Also being warnings to those that still continue in enmity and seperation from the pretious truth and from the people of God, that they may returne while the Lord calls and while the day of their visitation continues. : With a short testimony to the truth by way of preface / written by John Furly, junior.	Danks, John, 1631 or 2-1697; Danks, Elizabeth.; Furly, John, 1618-1686.	1680 (1680)	Wing D210A; ESTC R171684	7,867	17

sometimes on the left and sometimes as it were going quite back again into the bondage of Corruptions to wit the open pollutions of the world out of which the Lord had redeemed me yet in all my backslidings the Lord would not leave me but followed me with his judgments and often filled my soule with terror and anguish but my will being got out into liberty would not be bridled but hardned my heart and went on in stifneckedness and rebellion against the Lord and would have none of his reproofs where upon in process of time the people of the Lord with whom I had walked and had union and comunion with disowned me and publickly declared against me which was such a heavy stroak that it struck me almost to death for severall dayes and nights together I was as once benummed in his sences or as one past feeling for I was neither sensible of joy nor Sorrow But when I recovered my self I considred their proceedings against me and judging them to be unjust I gatherd up all the strong proofs and arguments that I could get against them and away I went to the mens meetings to Vindicate my self and to prove them transgressors and so to acquit my self thus I went time after time from one meeting to another and from one particular friend to another and spake and wrote but all would not do no satisfaction could I have which increast my trouble and fild my heart with a multitude of thoughts and how to get ease I knew not In this turmoile of spirit I fell to writing and wrote that book signed Christodulus Eccleston which book I now disown and testify against and the spirit that gave it forth Let the matter contained in it be what it will as given forth by that Spirit that is out of the faith which workes by love which is the bond of peace and therefore in the faith which workes by Love it is judged and condemned to be good for nothing but for to stir up envy and discord and to beget prejudice and to nourish and strengthen the same And therefore I desire all friends and people who have any of them in their Custody or afterward shall come into their hands to make them null and void And when this book was made publick still I had no satisfaction but remained in great trouble and was tumbled and tossed up and down and sometimes ran into extravagancy amongst extravagant company and then judgment and terror would lay hold on me and shame would cover my face in so much that once above all the rest the terror and wrath of the almighty was so heavy upon me that I knew not what to do nor where to wind my self for no quietness nor rest I could have night nor day and death was often presented before me and what a wofull portion I should have if the Lord should take me off the earth in that Condition which made me Crye within my self Lord what shall I do And this was the answer Doe no evill Commit no sin And at that time I made a promise to God that I would take heed to my wayes and walk more Circumspectly before him so that this begat an awe in me so that I durst not run into such customs but was more watchfull over my wayes and here I had some peace and quietness of mind but still sorrow pursued me and I walked with a bowed down Spirit so that I was made very sensible of my great loss for I felt no such living refreshments and comforts issuing into my soule as formerly I had and I was also made sensible that this my loss came through my disobedience and my being seperated from the Lords people and my neglect in waiting upon God Then there arose longing desires in me that I might once more enjoy the privelidg that I once had to wit Union with the Lords people and to wayt upon God But then friends publick declaration against me appeared such a great block in my way that I could not step over it but I made a promise to God that if ever he would give me another opportunity to make up the breach between us I would in no case obstruct or hinder it and a beleif was begotten in me that God would work out my way for me so I waited in my longing desires and hope to see the fulfilling of my belief and in Gods due time he did give me another opportunity For according to his good pleasure George Fox came to town who like a tender and loving father who amongst his Children is willing to accept the least submission from a wilfull Child tooke the stumbling block out of my way and made my way plaine so that I might goe and set down with the Lords people and wait upon God in which state I now am waiting upon God for the resurrection of my first Love Everlasting praises and thanks be unto his name forever who has once more plucked my feet out of the mire and set me in the right way wherein I should walk And now in the sence of the springings up of the love of God in my soule do I call unto all you males and females who have been convinced and have believed the truth as it is in Iesus and have been put to flight either in the winter season or on the sabbath day and have erred and gone astray from the way of the Lord and are wandering in the dark holes and corners and by-paths of strife and envy amongst the hills and mountaines of Imaginations crying out the glory and power of God is lost but that he will reveal and make it manifest in ages and generations to come The man Moses is lost and gone out of your sight and you have made you Gods of gold and of silver to go before you which can neither save nor deliver you but you are Lost up and down by the will of your old adversary the devill Come cast away your Idols of gold and of silver to the moules and to the batts for of a truth the glory and power of God is risen but in the dark holes and corners and by-paths of strife and discord you cannot see it therefore is my call unto you that you would stand still and be quiet and incline your hearts dilligently and see if you cannot hear the voice of him that Cryes behind this is the way and if you hear it tho it be never so small and low turn your faces towards it and follow it of a certain it will lead you home to your tents where you may set down in quietness and stilness and ceas from your toile and travell which you have while you are among the hills and mountaines of your Imaginations where there is nothing but barrenness and leanness of soule and so keeping at home in quietness and stilness you will feel and see the glorious powerfull arm of the Lord God reaching forth towards the judging and subduing your enemies under your feet and to strengthen and renew a right Spirit in you and so you will come to live in the sence of the Love of God springing again up in your soules and so your soules will come to be fed and nourished with bread from heaven Therefore come away be no longer straglers and lingrers behind but follow him who is the good shepheard who tho he has hundreds of sheep and looses but one he will go into the mountaines to seek him and if he find him he will lay him on his shoulders and bring him home and fold him among his lambes but if you will run on and will not stand still to hear his voice and follow him then will you dye and perish forever in your gain sayings Therefore as you tender the good and welfare of your Immortall soules be quiet and stand still and let the power of the Lord God work its effects in you and bring you home to himself that you may enjoy everlasting rest and peace with him which is the desire of my soule who am your friend JOHN DANKS. Written in the 4 Moneth 1680. FINIS

The Captives Returne OR The Testimonys of JOHN DANKS of Colchester and ELIZABETH DANKS his wife to the mercy and goodness of God in calling them back to his Everlasting truth after their out-runnings and seperation from the same Also Being warnings to those that still Continue in Enmity and seperation from the pretious truth and from the people of God that they may Returne while the Lord Calls and while the day of their visitation continues VVith a short testimony to the truth by way of Preface written by JOHN FURLY Junior Printed in the Year 1680. The PRAEFACE To the READER Friendly READER SInce the dawning and breaking forth of Gods glorious day and revelation of his blessed truth after a long night of darkness many have been the devices of the enemy of mankind through his subtile and divers workings to hinder the knowledg of the glory of it from the Sons of men and the adversaries of it have been of divers sorts But it being against the Truth they have been confounded in their work so that we have seen it fulfilled that no weapon formed against the truth hath prospered And tho some from among us by going from the power of truth which once reached to them have come to suffer loss and in that lost estate have accused us of falling away from what we first were and in the Spirit of enmity have rose up and wrot against us yet the Lord sometimes bath reached to such again and made them beare testimony to the truth against their own out-runnings that where they have been an occasion of stumbling by any thing acted or brought forth by them in that state of separation from God and his people they might as much as in them lyes remove the same by bearing witness against the fruits of that Spirit which then acted them while they stood up pretendedly for the truth in a Spirit that was out of it Now this having been the state of this person Iohn Dankes he found it as a necessity upon him to bear testimony against that book of his publisht under the name of Christodulus Ecclestone long since answered by VV. G. that if it hath or may come to the hands of any who may thereby have let in or may be strengthened in prejudice against the truth and the friends or it that have abode faithful to it the prejudice may as far as in him lyes be removed and this his testimony be as publik as his aforesaid book which is the reason of the printing of it and also that it might be a warning to others that either have or hereafter may run into the same Spirit of prejudice and enmity against the truth and those that live in it not to appear so openly and so rashly to accuse us of apostacy while themselves are the apostates For let such know assuredly that tho their pretences may be specious in their own eyes as his were they must come to judgment and it wil one day prove as a load too heavy for them to bear And now thou to whom this may come who hast had or still mayst have desires to be satisfied in our principles and dost incline to the path in when we walk its worthy thy consideration tender Reader how many wayes truths and our adversaries have appeared and that not onely through open but private enemies and how their Charges against us have been directly contrary one to the other One sort of them upbraiding us with holding doctrines not consistant with the Scriptures of truth while other of them being better informed of our principles say they are good but that we are not now the same in principle as at the beginning where as that is onely their ignorance of our principles then Others that have rose up against us from amongst us bearing testimony to our being the same in principle alledge that we are not so in life and conversation Thus I say it 's worthy the honest readers serious consideration how our opposers accusations have been divers as also how that those latter that have gone out from us being as the apostle said not truly of us doe yet generally bear testimony to the truth of our principles in particular to that divine Spirit Grace or Light of Christ Jesus that discovers sin and iniquity and the sufficiency of it so salvation to all that obey it And therefore my advice in these few lines to those that are inquiring after the Lord is Let not these Contradictions and aspersions that we have met with all either from without or from such as for a season have walked among us but through not keeping judgment to the Line have started a side like a broken bow deter thee in thy sincere desires after the Lord but incline thy mind to the divine principle of life in thy selfe which will cleanse thee from that which hath made thee destitute of Gods presence as thou keeps to it and removing that which hath hindred good things from thy soule will give thee a sence of the divine being and keep thee a clean and holy habitation for himself through thy pilgrimage in this Earthly tabernacle untill thou finish thy cours and thy race here be run and thou enter into thy rest and haven of Everlasting blessedness not heeding the occasions which through the wiles of the enemy either in thy self or from others without may be offered thee to return nor regarding those that may fall on the right hand or on the left for offences will come but woe to them by whom they come but blessed are they saith Christ Jesus who are not offended in me that this may be the portion of all whom the Lord hath or may yet visit by his power that is now going forth for the visiting of the nations is my soules desire who tho I have here reprehended that spirit that watches for advantages and there-from takes occasion to Cast stumbling blocks in the way of the simple am far from justifying those that give the occasion of stumbling but do advise all to walk as becomes the Gospell professed by them JOHN FURLY Junior Colchester this 6th Moneth 1680. The TESTIMONY OF ELIZABETH DANKS. c. A True and faithfull warning to all those who have had a Convincement of Gods truth upon their hearts and have received of his blessed refreshings to their soules in often meeting together with the people of the Lord. But the way that leadeth to the kingdome of heaven being a strait and narrow way Oh! there be many that cannot enter through it it is too straight and too narrow for them that rather chuse the broad way that leadeth to everlasting destruction for a little mirth merryment and vaine glory which will stand them in no stead when death seises upon them but will rise up in judgment against them for their disobedience unto the Lord. Therefore all yee who have backslidden from Gods Eternall truth which once yee were made partakers of in some measure Oh!

be awakened be awakened unto righteousness Oh! hast hast with true repentance to meet the Lord before his wrath be kindled against you for your disobedience unto him whom yee have pierced time after time and day after day Oh! all yee who are still turning your backs upon the truth and returning as a dog to the vomit again Oh! be fore-warned what yee are going about to doe If yee forsake the Lord and his truth woe and misery will be your portion no peace will yee have wheresoever yee flee the judgments of the righteous God will pursue you These things can I declare unto them to be true for this was my Condition once after I for sooke the Lord and cast Truth behind my back as a thing of nought Oh! then I could have no peace no true rest could I have wheresoever I became The Lord pursued me night and day which even brake my heart and there was an earnest crye entred my heart The spirit of the Lord will not alwayes strive with man and woman Oh! then I began to Consider how often the Lord in his everlasting loving kindness had strove with me and I said in my heart surely this is the last striving the Lord will have with me Therefore if yee will hear his voice harden not your hearts but incline your ear hearken dilligently and be truly obedient to the Lord and your soules shall live and not dye Oh righteous God! Thy loving kindness hath been large unto me thy tender bowels of Love and Compassion were towards and over me in that long night of darkness where I wandred long as one weary and heavy laden and where to get rest I knew not untill the Lord God in his own due time visited me with a sore visitation of sickness in which he brought me even to the brink of the grave and to the Eye of reason not like to live Oh when death was set in order before me and my slighting of Gods truth which I once witnessed and lived in came over me Oh! then was my heart broken unto the Lord and these were my Cryes unto him Oh righteous God! if it be thy will mix thy judgments with mercy and spare me if it be thy will that I may live to thy glory and praise forever and evermore that this my so re visitation may work my everlasting salvation and tend to thy glory and everlasting praises forever and evermore Oh thou righteous god who in thy everlasting loving kindness hast plucked me as a brand out of the fire and hast set my face Sion wards againe Oh! living praises be unto thee thou righteous one O●… thy Love and tenderness there is no end I have great cause to declare it amongst you for I have received it in a large measure He hath brough● me unto a dying daily unto enmity and a living unto righteousness where I find a quiet habitation through true obedience unto the Lor● in whatsoever he maketh known unto me and herein have I peace with the Lord. Oh! all yee that are backslidden from Gods Eternall truth consider what yee are doing If yee goe on in rebellion and cast reproof behind your backs woe and misery will be your end i● yee repent not with speed Remember the spirit of the Lord will not alwayes strive with man and woman therefore if yee love and render the good of your own soules and your everlasting welfare with the Lord return return unto him whom yee have forsaken with your heart continually bowed before him Friends these things opened unto me in the time of my affliction that if he raised me again I should be faithfull in what he had made known unto me and now the Lord hath laid it upon me to hast it forth that all may be fore warned of their backsliding from the L●●d before the day of their Everlasting destruction overtake them for then it will be too late ELIZABETH DANKS. Written in the 6 Moneth 1680. The Testimony of JOHN DANKS. Here is a weary wanderer in the wilderness who by hearing the voice of him that Cryes behind this is the way walk in it is returned home into his tent where by still and quiet waiting upon his God the Lord has shewn and set in order before him the by-paths and mis-steps which he has troden ever since the day he returned his Captivity and brought him out of the house of bondage and set his face towards the Land of rest OH my friends I am constrained to declare of the great loving kindness and long-sufferance of the forbearance and patience of my God towards me ever since the day that I was convinced of the Eternall truth of God which he has manifested in this our age and generation who by his faithfull servant and messenger Iames Parnell turned my mind from darkness to Light which Light discoverd unto me the wofull state and condition that I was in as to God-wards which when I saw it I was filld with horror and anguish and the righteous God set up his just judgments in me which took such sure hold that I could neither drink nor eat nor talk nor sleep nor walk in quiet but all was for judgment that ever I did Sorrow compast me round in sorrow I layd down at night and in the morning I rose up in sorrow and this never ceased untill it had broke my will to pieces and subdued and brought under my evill affections and so brought me to wayt upon God in the measure of Light made manifest in me in the true silence of my spirit And thus the Lord by his judgments wrought a good reformation in me and redeemed me from my vaine conversation and then a secret hope of Eternall life was begotten in me and a love towards the Lord and his people sprang up in my heart with a great pitty towards those which were without which were strangers in their minds to God And when any of the servants of the Lord declared the truth of God Oh! what earnest desires would arise in me that some such might be reached and be brought to a sence of their Conditions and it was my joy to see the prosperity of the truth both within and without and thus the Lord by his judgments brought me near to himself tho once afar off and here my afflicted soule found some joy and comfort and here was some reconciliation with God Oh happy and blessed day Oh Lord let the remembrance thereof never more depart from me till the day of my death But through disobedience I soon lost my condition For my evill inclinations sprang up again and I being careless and from off my watch my will broke out and my old adversary the devill soon catched hold on me and led me into by-paths and into dark holes and Corners of the earth and upon the hills and mountaines of imagination untill I was bewildred and I went I knew not whither stumbling and falling sometimes on the right hand and