Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	deed_n	light_n	manifest_a	2,272	5	9.7572	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37263	Truth and innocency vindicated against falshood & malice exprest in a late virulent pamphlet intituled, (A true account of a most horrid and dismal plague began at Rothwell, &c.) without printer's licenser's or author's name thereunto) : together with an account of the Kettering visitation / by R. Davis ... ; to which is added, Mr. Rob. Betson's answer to so much as concerns him in the said libel.	Davis, Richard, 1658-1714.; Betson, Robert. Answer to some part of that pamphlet called, A plain and just account of a plague being at Rothwell.	1692 (1692)	Wing D435; ESTC R10047	98,027	94

like the Merchant's Ship fetcheth its Goods from far even from Jesus at the Right-Hand of the Father We are apter to tabernacle within than to go out of Self for a Supply continually which is swimming against Wind and Tide going contrary to Sence and Humane Wisdom it is that that Flesh and Blood knoweth not Lastly Since Marks and Signs shine only in the Light of Faith and Faith shineth not but when it looketh directly to its Object the Grace that is in Christ Jesus then so to Examine our Faith when we cease to Act Faith is as if One should put out a Candle to see whether it burneth or not or to shut close the Doors and Windows to see whether the Room be light This I have preached at Willingham or to this effect though the Witnesses have made a woful Blunder about it Sanctification is no Evidence of Justification Faith and its Effects have a great share in Gospel-Holiness and sure they are Signs of Justification But such Holiness as they plead for is no Holiness and therefore no Evidence of Justification Animadversions on the foregoing Head IT is Remarkable Accusations under this Head tend to support these Two following Principles 1. That Divine Illumination is not of the Essence of Saving-Faith 2. To over-turn the Faith of Assurance or to set up one that 's not known in the Scripture and that can be of no use to Believers But I shall prove that Divine Illumination is of the Essence of Saving-Faith For 1st None can believe on what they know not None can see a need of Christ nor fly unto him but they whose Eyes have been opened by the Spirit to see the Beauty Excellency and Necessity of Christ Jesus Therefore Faith is not a blind Consent to the Will only 2dly As the Spirit does work in this Faith he is called the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of him that is Christ Eph. 1. 17. His Office is to open and enlighten the Eyes of the Understanding ver 18. As also to take the things of Christ and shew unto the Soul Joh. 16. 14. And to make known unto Believers the Mystery of his Will Eph. 1. 9. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he hath purchased to himself 3dly Faith it self is called a Revelation of Christ in the Soul Gal. 1. 15 16. But when it pleased God to separate me from my mother's womb and called me by his Grace ver 16. To reveal his Son in me is also called the Assurance of Understanding Col. 2. 2. That their hearts may be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ I might add more Reasons but I judge these sufficient But observe I do not make Faith to be only a Divine Natural Illumination or Understanding but also an Act of the Will divinely perswaded accepting of and leaning on Christ As to the Second thing I must confess the new coin'd Faith of Assurance I do not understand to wie That it is when a Christian can find such and such Marks in himself and these in sincerity then he may be assured of his Salvation and this without any mention made of looking to Christ or leaning on him in the very Act of Assurance But I find no Foot steps of such a Faith in the Scripture These are my Arguments against it Arg. 1. The Object of Saving-Faith is Christ once Crucified now at the Father's Right-Hand But this sort of Faith of Assurance sets up a Christ within a Quaker's Christ as the Object of Faith Arg. 2. If it be granted that this Faith of Assurance takes its Grounds and Denomination from as Reflect Act of Faith yet a Reflect Act of Faith is but a Repercussion upon the Conscience of that Light that shines in a direct Act of Faith so that there can be no true Marks and Signs without Faith in that moment exercis'd He that doth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought of God Joh. 3. 21. So then they that bid People try their Faith by looking within and not bidding them at that time look to Christ and that first put them in my Judgment upon an impossible Test Arg. 3. As there can be no real Marks and Signs without Faith exercis'd upon the Object so to put People upon examining the Sincerity of their supposed Marks and Signs is yet to make the Matter ten times more difficult and perplexing to the Soul Gospel-Sincerity I find in Scripture to be this viz. To mix nothing with Christ and his Righteousness in our Justification 〈◊〉 and to have right Principles Means Aims and Ends in carrying of Sanctification 1 Pet. 2. 4 5. comp together Arg. 4. They that would examine their Faith whether it be sincere by Marks and Signs without Faith in the Exercise must have a Second Mark to know the First a Third to prove the Second and a Fourth to prove the Third and so ad infinitum Hence it is that poor Souls are quite be wilder'd to bring the Matter to a determinate issue so that despairing of making their Calling and Election sure they content themselves with lazy faint and languid Hopes which have no good bottom or else what is worst of all they embrace a Cloud instead of this Assurance I shall humbly offer my Judgment of Faith of Assurance as I find it in Scripture 1. I do not deny but that when we sensibly feel our inward Grace shining in the Light of Faith we may from thence together with the Evidence of Faith inferr the Certainty of our Believing as when we sensibly perceive our Love to Christ flowing from our Faith in him we may thence conclude we have the Faith of God's Elect and so of other Graces But perhaps this is but seldom the frame of a Believer's Spirit and yet he ought when he walks in the dark to hold fast his Confidence Therefore there must needs be that that is true Assurance though not so high and so sensible as this And 1st I find in Scripture it is a strong and constant reliance upon the Ability and Faithfulness of Christ as to the Grace promised This you have instanced in Abraham's Faith Rom. 4. 20 21. He stagger'd not at the promises of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God And in ver 21. And was fully perswaded that what he had promised he was also able to perform So also instanced in the Faith of Sarah Heb. 11. 11. Through faith also Sarah her self received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful that had promised So therefore in both these Instances you may see that this their Assurance was grounded upon the Ability and Faithfulness of the Promiser It is

Subversion of the Hearers Whether you do not rather gratify their sinful Lusts both by your Discourses and Pamphlet and form them up to Pride Malice Strife and Contention than to heavenly-mindedness spiritual conversation and an holy walk How should they follow your Faith when you are the greatest Opposers of the grace of Faith in the Nation And how dangerous it is for them to consider the end of your conversation which is Self and Sin and not Jesus Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13. 7 8. 3. Consider seriously Whether you have not exposed Religion as well by your former actings as by this Libel to the contempt and scorn of the common People Was it not the highest wickedness in you so to order the disposal of many of them as that they were put into the hands of Alehouse-keepers to vend away very cheap or give them gratis to their tipling Company to create them Sport upon their Ale-benches and so render our holy Profession to be the Mockery and Song of the Drunkards and also dispose of them to the poor harvest Folks to read under Hedges You have not only stumbled them from hearing of me but your selves also and every one that beareth the Name of a dissenting Minister You have not only made me odious but Religion our Profession and the dissenting Interest in general Their hatred and ignorance will neither know or make any difference 4. Search into your own hearts and consider by what Principles you have been carried forth in all your former opposition as well as this Libel Lee your Consciences answer truly in the presence of the awful Searcher of hearts as they are always open and naked before his eyes with whom you and I have to do And have they not been Self-gain Self preheminence Ambition Pride Malice and Revenge Is not your Cry like the old Cry of Demetrius and his Followers That your Craft is in danger to be spoilt and your Gain like to be lost Let the Apostle James if you are ashamed answer for your Consciences and for all Jam. 4. 1. From whence cometh wars and fightings amongst you come they not hence from your lusts that war in your members ver 2. Ye lust and have not ye kill and desire to have but cannot obtain ye fight and war yet ye have not because ye ask not ver 3. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your lusts ver 5. Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain the Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy ver 6. But he giveth more grace wherefore he saith God resisteth the proud but giveth grace unto the humble 5. Consider seriously what spirit you have acted in all along Was it in the Spirit of Christ or your own spirits Nay was it not in the very worse dregs of your own spirits Weigh this well Whether you have managed your selves in opposition to supposed Errors according to those Commands of the Lord 2 Tim. 2. 3. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they gender strife ver 24. And the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient ver 25. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventrire will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth Ah! Have not you rather carried it quite contrary even in your manifest fruits of the flesh such as variance emulations wrath strife envyings back-bitings whisperings swellings tumults c 2 Cor. 12. 10. Had your Cause been never so good yet your way of managing it has been enough to ruine it 6. Was it the honour and glory of Christ that you proposed at the end of such Actions or rather the advancement of some cursed Idols of Self Any unprejudic'd Man that reads your Libel can soon determine the Question Can you think this to be a likely way even in a spirit of bitterness and persecution to reclaim us from those Errors and Heresies that you assert we are fallen into Why did not you in prudence and good manners give way to the wiser learneder and graver heads at London to make the first tryal of their Skill And why must you with your printed Mint of Slander impertinently iuterrupt them and rudely anticipate their Essays and by a malevolent conjunction of so bad a Libel with their Ketterin Visitation cast such an Odium upon them and their Proceedings as cannot in haste be wiped away 7. Consider Whether it be not the greatest Uncharitableness to judge that the great Numbers converted by this erroneous Preaching as you call it are all under Delusions What is Conversion if this be not that those who were so grosly ignorant are so enlightned as to understand and speak so judiciously clearly and experimentally of the person and undertakings of the Lord Jesus and Justification by him alone of the beauty and excellency they saw by Faith in him his suitableness to their wants and the absolute necessity they have of him and his righteousness through a deep sight of their sin and misery and a supernatural discovery of him Is it not evident also that those who were formerly very wicked and profligate in their Lives and Conversations are now become religious serious and circumspect Yea those that are afflicted when they are themselves do adore the Doctrine of our Lord and Saviour and are most awful of God in Christ These many of them live in your Neighborhoods and no doubt many of them by their holy Lives and zealous Profession leave a Testimony in your Consciences for the work of God wrought upon their Souls If you approve not of their Conversion how came some of you to admit several of them into your Churches It seems their Conversion is good enough if they offer themselves to you Can you be then so censorious to judge them all acted by a Satanical Spirit and not converted If many of them are true Converts how dare you blast that Doctrine that God hath blest to reach them with the dreadful name of execrable Heresie It is an old and a true Maxim That the God of Truth never puts his Seal to a Lye We can say in great humility and self-abasing giving the sole honour to the excellency of the power that is of God that those despised Truths such poor Worms as we have deliver'd in the Name of the Lord and have been received amongst us have been sealed and attested to with Fire from Heaven I mean the Spirit of the Lord. 8. Consider this how grosly you abuse us to say we are against the Law of God No we constantly affirm The Law is good if a Man use it lawfully Nor are we against the preaching of it as it ought to be preached We always preach the Law of God demands of Sinners complete and infinite satisfaction and they that will satisfie the penalty of the Law in their own persons must go to Hell to do it

notice thereof but he not willing to part with them till he had a louder Call and since it was not in their power to thrust them from the Place they thought they had the liberty in common Equity to make such provision for their own Edifications as they judged most suitable and necessary Accusation 6. He hath declared it to be his Opinion that he is happy who is an Instrument in breaking all the Churches Answer I declared that this was the Judgment of that great Man of God Dr. Owen now in Glory That it would be best for the Interest of Christ if all the Dissenting Churches in England were broken and would gather anew of those that were thorough for Christ Without declaring my own Opinion as will be attested by Mr. Ellis Mrs. Ellis Mr. Watts Mr. Sendall that were then present But I know not but he may be prophetick in his Opinion if God giveth not Repentance Furthermore he hath affirmed That for two years all the Churches are gone a Whoring from Christ I did not remember this when I first saw it but since one present remembred me of it I think I spake something of it yet the same worthy Person assured me it is not rightly reported and indeed I think it was very unfriendly and unchristian like to trumpet to the World in an odious Libel and then publickly to witness what past by way of Lamentation in private Discourse However as to what is alledged I wish it were not too to true They must needs be of a deep Laodicean Spirit that do not observe very great Declensions and Forsakings of their first Love upon the best Churches of Christ in England and this in Scripture Phrase is going a Whoring from the Lord and must it be an Offence to use Scripture-Language I heartily wish that instead of raging against the Truth they would seriously consider it and consider their own Wages He being told how comfortably the Ministers had lived formerly together replied with heat It was the Gospel he Preached made all the Disturbance for which he brought Matth. 10. Christ came not to bring Peace on Earth but a Sword That Passage is falsly father'd upon me That the Gospel I Preached made all the Disturbance The truth of the Matter is this That question being very often and I thought very uncandidly put unto me viz. What was the Reason there was more Disturbance since I came than formerly I made Answer only repeating these words Luke 12. 49. Any unbyass'd Person may see with half an Eye that they are guilty of Mistakes upon Mistakes for they say I named Mat. 10. 34. whereas the words I said were these I am come to send Fire on the Earth c. 'T is also evident what a captious Question it was and with an insnaring Design it was proposed as it hath since more plainly appeared by the Event This must needs in every impartial Judgment justifie me in keeping at a Distance from such Persons and if I be providentially cast into their Company to treat them with extreme Caution However as to the Answer then given it was not in a light and hasty Spirit for I have not seen cause to repent of it since Time the Parent of Truth may make it more and more Manifest Accusation 7. He said that Mr. Shepard was an Enemy to Christ and the Gospel Answ I must needs say I am sorry he has manifested such Enmity divers ways I need go at present no further than the Libel and the Concernment he appears to have in it other actings of his I could Instance in which were not so much against me for I have done him no harm but against the Gospel and Interest of the Lord Jesus That Mr. Medwell had done more Mischief in two Years than he could repair in all his Life I cannot deny but that I said I being provoked thereunto by one that came like them of old feigning himself to be a Just Man for to ensnare I was afterwards very much grieved for speaking these words in a Passion But as to the truth thereof I felt somewhat of it when I was Indicted at the Assizes for Preaching the Gospel but I shall forbear to produce instances to this purpose out of respect to Mr. Medwell but this is generally known That most of our Persecutors and Revilers Prophane as well as Professors take more Encouragement from Mr. Medwell's favouring the Opposition than others to act as they do Others he called Dry Sticks Scribes Pharisees Legalists Baals-Priests It is not proved that I called any so in particular and if I exclaimed against such Evil Persons in general why may not I against them as well as against Drunkards Swearers Whore-mongers Blasphemers and Sabbath-breakers It is past all doubt there have been in all Ages such sorts of evil Men. Africa was never more Fertile in Monsters than this present Age doth abound with such sorts of monstrous Creatures that John the Baptist our Blessed Lord and his Disciples so severely envied against If I have said so I say so let the Guilty in City and Country share it among themselves He said I care not for all the Elders in London they are most of them Arminians Amiraldists and Baxterians This I said in my Haste that the Ministers of London should not be my Judges being many of them Arminians Amiraldists and Baxterians which appeareth to be too true tho no truth ought to be spoken in Passion and in our own Spirits but is it not matter of Lamentation Pudet hoec opprobria dici Et dici potuisse non potuisse refelli That late Book come forth with the New Gospel ushered into the World with 16 Names with a Thrasonic Boast of greater numbers ready to join these sufficiently proved me to be no Lyer I wish the Author would have tarried to have took them all in that we might have known the strength of his Party but since we hear they have appear'd in great numbers indeed yet all that will not do Truth may be clamour'd against but can't be overturn'd by Multitudes But it is very remarkable that the Reverend Assembly send such an one to judge of a Church of Christ and of their Faith and Order at Kettering in great State and Pomp when he had newly declar'd himself in Print to be the Admired Head of the Neonomian Sect or in plain English the New-Law-men to wit a Law they had set up in Contradiction to God's Law having clearly abolisht that requiring imperfect sinful Obedience in stead of what is Perfect and Sinless Accusation 8. He with the Church at Rothwell send forth many Illitterate and Ignorant Preachers without Advising with Neighboring Ministers Answ So we do and so we will do in the Name of the Lord we think it very strange we should be compelled to advise with them who by their late Actions have declared themselves to be perverters of the Gospel and favourers of the Neonomian Party clucking under Mr. William's