Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	father_n	holy_a	spirit_n	8,932	5	5.4539	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39305	A further discovery of that spirit of contention & division which hath appeared of late in George Keith, &c. being a reply to two late printed pieces of his, the one entituled A loving epistle, &c. the other, A seasonable information, &c. : wherein his cavils are answered, his falshood is laid open, and the guilt and blame of the breach and separation in America, and the reproach he hath brought upon truth and Friends by his late printed books, are fixed faster on him / written by way of epistle ... by Thomas Ellwood.	Ellwood, Thomas, 1639-1713.	1694 (1694)	Wing E623; ESTC R224514	71,867	130

A Further DISCOVERY Of that Spirit of Contention Division Which hath appeared of late in George Keith c. Being a REPLY to Two Late Printed Pieces of his the one Entituled A Loving Epistle c. the other A Seasonable Information c. Wherein his Cavils are Answered his Falshood is laid open and the Guilt and Blame of the Breach and Separation in America and of the Reproach he hath brought upon Truth and Friends by his late Printed Books are fixed faster on him Written by way of Epistle and Recommended as a further Warning to all Friends By THOMAS ELLWOOD Prov. 22. 10. Cast out the Scorner and Contention shall go out yea Strife and Reproach shall cease London Printed by T. Sowle at the Crooked-Billet in Holy-well-lane Shoreditch and near the Meeting-House in White-hart Court in Grace-Church-street 1694. A Further DISCOVERY Of that Spirit of Contention Division Which hath appeared of late in G. Keith c. Dear Friends WHO have received the Truth in the love of it and have kept your Habitation therein unto whom the Truth is exceeding precious and who desire the Prosperity thereof above all things Unto you is the Salutation of my endeared love in this blessed Truth in which the Fellowship of the Faithful stands In this it is I desire to know you to be known by you and to have Fellowship with you earnestly breathing to the God of Truth the Father of Spirits that he will be pleased to pour forth more abundantly of his good Spirit into all our Hearts and fill us with the blessed Fruits thereof that there may be no room for the Enemy to enter to break this holy Fellowship But that all who profess to believe in the Light may so walk therein that a clear sight they may have thereby and a true discerning between things that diffe●… and may be able to make a right Judgment what is of God and what is not that so the Design of that Spirit by whatsoever Instrumen●… it works which would break or disturb the Churches Peace and cast Reproach up●… the Heritage of God may be so discovered and laid open that all may see and shun it As this is the Exercise and Travel of my Spirit so it is the Service I have been of late and am at present engaged in For Friends It is not many Months since I saluted you with an Epistle wherein my Spirit was drawn fort●… ●…fly to Commemorate the gracious Dealings of the Lord with his People and as in a general way to remind you of the many Attempts the Enemy hath made by Force and Fraud to hinder the Work of God from going on So more particularly to Warn you to beware of that Spirit of Contention and Division which hath appeared of late in George Keith and some few others that join with him who have made a Breach and Separation from Friends in some parts of America In writing that Epistle I did not consult Flesh and Blood neither had I an Eye to my own ease and quiet as outwardly for I had no reason to expect rest from so restless a Man nor fair Treatment from one who in his late Writings and personal Debates hath so notoriously let loose his Pen and Tongue to an unbridled liberty of Railing and Reviling But I cleared my Conscience in discharging my Duty to God and to his Church and therein have that Peace which all his Abuses cannot disturb After that Epistle of mine had been sometime abroad G. K. published a Sheet of Paper which he called A loving Epistle to all the moderate judicious and impartial among the People called Quakers c. In that Sheet he charged me with Fifty Perversions Forgeries and false Accusations which he said he had noted in my Book but left his Proofs behind to come after in another Book which he then threatned should be published if my Book was not called in and disowned Some Weeks after the publishing of that Sheet he hath now sent forth his threatned Book pretended to be an Answer to that Epistle of mine and containing his Proofs such as they are of the Charge he had made publick so long before As soon as I had notice of the coming forth of his last which he calls A Seasonable Information c. I gave direction for the stopping what I had before written and sent to London in Answer to his other Sheet chusing rather to make but one work of it than to multiply Books as he does who notwithstanding his alledging that the Scripture says Of making many Books there is no end seems to have an Itch to writing and a Pride in Printing He begins his Epistle with a double or two fold Boast One of his Labours and Services in the Truth to which perhaps I may say something hereafter The other of the considerable Number of those that he says he has Experience are in true Unity with him To which at present I shall only say If that were true the more were the pity But as I am far from believing it to be true So I wish for his own sake as well as others he may be as much misstaken concerning the number of his Favourers as those few that do favour him are concerning his Sincerity His second page and part of his third is in a manner wholly filled with Railing at me He says I labour to take from him his Innocency and Christian Reputation and Testimony Of all which I think he brought but little if any into England What stock of each he carried with him into America he has I fear made Shipwrack of there He charges me with a sordid way of Sophist●…l Wrangling Perversions Forgeries and false Accusations to the number of Fifty and upwards This Charge he sent abroad in his Printed Epistle in general Terms without instancing the Particulars which he kept in reserve to furnish out another Book But was not this a sordid way of Sophistical Wrangling in him thus to Charge without making Proof How often and highly does he complain in several of his former Treatises of being charged in generals without producing particular Proofs In his Plea of the Innocent p. 8. He with others of his Party say Seeing their Accusations against G. K. lye much in bare generals we see no cause further to take notice of them but to shew that for want of particular matter against him they thus labour to defame him in bare generals a way says he common to all Sophisters and false Acc●…ers Did he not then take the way which he says is common to all Sophisters and false Accusers when he accused me in bare generals without producing the Particulars Did he not take the most deceitful way he could when he accused me in bare generals seeing himself says p. 17. of his Plea Nothing is more deceitful than bare generals It will not excuse him that he has now at length in another Treatise set forth the Particulars of his Charge that being but

Christ withn is held in common by him with them of all sorts of other Professions Besides seeing as G. K. says The true Doctrine of the Faith of Christ without teacheth Th●… the only true saving Faith of Christ'●… Death c. is wrought in Mens Hearts by Divine Illumination Revelation and Inspiration and is taught and begot by the Spirit in Mens Hearts There is the greater reason that the inward Appearance of Christ by his Light Grace and Spirit in the Heart should be the more frequently preached and Men directed and turned to that inward Teaching by the Spirit in their Hearts that by the Divine Illumination Revelation and Inspiration thereof the true Faith of Christ's death c. may be begot and wrought in their Hearts His 33d 34th 35th Charges relate all to one matter and seem to be divided and subdivided by him to make the greater shew The first he calls a Perversion of his modest Proposition about correcting some unsound Words in some Friends Books as if with purpose he would hunt for discover and expose if he can the nakedness of such as in comparison of himself may justly be reputed and called Fathers in the Truth This he thinks an uncharitable construction of his Words and that no good Christian that loves the Truth more than Men would judge the worse of him for correcting them tenderly and Christianly not as an Enemy but as a Friend and Brother But it may be guessed how tenderly and Christianly he would deal with the Dead by his harsh and unchristian dealing with the Living whom he has not dealt with us as a Friend and Brother but as an Enemy His comparing his correcting work to Sem's and Iaphet's going backwards to cover their Father's Nakedness gave me fit occasion to tell him he had mistook his point and taken up Ham's work instead of Sem's and Iaphet's For Sem and Iaphet covered the Nekedness which execrable Ham had discovered and exposed as G. K. would do In this he says I falsly accuse him but instead of proving I do so he turns off and says I reflect not only on him but on the late Christian Teachers and Writers who have corrected the Errors and unsound Expressions contained in the Books of them called the Greek and Latin Fathers In comparing the Books of Friends to the Books of them called The Greek and Latin Fathers he has not done as a Friend and Brother but as an Enemy in supposing Friends Books to have been written by no better guidance nor clearer sight than theirs who lived and writ in those dark times He is so idle as to charge me with perverting the Scripture Words in saying Blessed Sem and Japhet did therefore go backward that they might not see their Father's Nakedness And he makes this one of my 50 Perversions by which you may see how hard he was put to it to make his number up But instead of proving this a Perversion he says As if there were not a further matter and mystery in it Perhaps there might be but if there were he hath not shewed it nor my Perversion But he says If it had been only that they must not see their Father's nakedness they might have covered their Face and Eyes and gone forward and not see their Father's Nakedness But they took a more sure way in going backward and that which freed them from all suspicion of seeing or being willing to see their Father's Nakedness 36. He says I pervert his modest Proposition for every Proposition of his is modest with him and perhaps none but his That every one owned by us to be a Member of our Christian Society give some Declaration of their Faith This which he calls a modest Proposition I shewed from his own Words was an Imposition of a Verbal Confession of Faith without which none should be admitted into Church fellowship with him His Words are We are convinced and perswaded in our Consciences that God calleth us to separate from such Unbelievers and not to be yoked together in Church-fellowship and Discipline with any that we have not proof of by Confession of the Mouth c. Reas. of Sep. p. 22. 37. He complains also and makes it his 37th Charge that I pervert his Words that he makes a verbal Confession the Door of admittance into our Society which he says is altogether false This depends upon the former and is proved by those Words of his which I gave for proof of that viz. We are convinced said he and perswaded in our Consciences that God calleth us to separate c. and not to be yoked together in Church-fellowship and Discipline with any that we have not proof of by Confession of the Mouth c. This is that I call Verbal Confession If he like not the Word Verbal let him take Oral or Confession of the Mouth which is all one From my observing out of R. Barclay's Book called the Anarchy p. 48. which G. K. had perversly quoted that R. B. doth not make a bare Profession verbal Confession or Declaration of Principles c. to be any Terms at all of Church-Communion G. K. taking it to himself charges a Perversion on me and says This is false I make them not the Terms at all when the Profession is but barely verbal But he hath no such guard in the Place before quoted where he says We are convinced c. that God calleth us to separate c. and not to be yoked in Church fellowship c. with any that we have not proof of by Confession of the Mouth that they are sound in the Faith So that he makes a Verbal Confession a proof of their being sound in the Faith and this makes a Verbal Confession yea a bare verbal Confession sufficient to yoke them as he phrases it together in Church-fellowship His 39th 40th and 41st Relate to his pretended Quotations out of R. Barclay's Book before mentioned and my Observations thereupon from which he picks several Quarrels one that from his saying as the express Doctrine of R. B. though it be not That some Principles and Doctrines and Points of Faith are necessary to be agreed upon c. and to be owned professed and declared by us to be as it were the Terms that draw us together and the Bond by which we become centred into one Body and Fellowship c. He says I pervert his Words to a wrong sense as if his Sense were That Men were to contrive and cut out their own Terms and before they entred into a Society or Fellowship should consider consult and conclude among themselves what Principles Doctrines and Practices they would have to be the Terms and Bond of their Society Though this was not spoken directly of him but with respect to the Quotation he feigned to give out of R. B. yet he did well enough to take it to himself for I verily think it to be his Sense and the Terms he propounded it in speak the same And

though he says he did not mean by agreeing a humane political Contrivance or Design but a Divine Agreement yet I make no question but he meant an Agreement of his own contriving and cutting out And I doubt not that he would call any such thing Divine that were of his Contriving He asks If I know not that Men may well agree together in one Faith by the Spirit 's inward working in their Hearts as well as they may agree together in one Prayer by the Spirit c I answer Yes I do But would he have some certain Form of Prayer agreed upon and set forth for all to be obliged to pray by at all times because Men may agree together in one Prayer by the Spirit That would be Common Prayer indeed It is one thing to propose certain Principles Doctrines and Points of Faith to be necessarily agreed upon and being so agreed upon a Confession thereof to be imposed to be owned professed and declared to be as it were terms of Communion and the Bond of Fellowship And it is another thing to be drawn together by the inward force and vertue of Truth through the Operation of the Divine Spirit in the Heart into an Agreement in the Belief of the same Principles Doctrines and Points of Faith and so also to agree substantially in making confession thereof when and wheresoever the honour of God requires it of us My Discovery that he has falsly quoted R. B. angers him extreamly and he rails at me for it like himself but that will not clear him He says I most fraudulently put a false gloss upon his Words about the Word agreed on and next that I deceive and abuse my Reader as if he G. K. did put the same Gloss upon R. B 's Words But all this is trifling both his Book and mine are in the Reader 's Hands and I dare trust it to the Impartial Reader 's Judgment He complains that I endeavour to make the Reader believe he wronged R. B. in citing some Words of his and that because he cited not so many of his Words as I cited after him This is a foul fallacy for G. K's Blame lies not in giving a Quotation out of R. B. too short but in giving a false Quotation for a true one or in forging a Quotation For neither in the Words he quoted nor in that Page nor in that Book nor in all the Books of R B. can G. K. find that which he has pretended to give as the express Doctrine and Testimony of R. B. in the 48th Page of R. B's Book called the Anarchy c. He struggles to get loose but cannot He says he cited as many of R. B's Words as were sufficient to prove that it is R. B's Doctrine and Testimony that Principles and Doctrines c. are as it were the Terms that have drawn us together c. But R. B. doth not say so of Principles and Doctrines indefinitely or of the Principles and Doctrines in general that we will agree upon to be such but of those Principles Doctrines and Practices into the belief of which we are gathered together without any Constraint or Worldly respect by the meer force of Truth upon our Understandings and its power and influence upon our Hearts Again G. K. says he did not say R. B. used the Word Agreed See his own Words in p. 8. of his Book called The causeless Ground of Surmises which are these That some Principles and Doctrines and Points of Faith are necessary to be agreed upon c. is the express Doctrine and Testimony of R. Barclay 's Book above mentioned pag. 48. Judge now how little this Man is to be trusted He calls it a gross Perversion in me for ins●…ating that in his Book Some Reasons and Causes pag. 16. He had cited R. B's Words But it was not says he his Words but his Doctrine that I mention in that place as to the substance of it but not as to that particular circumstance of answering to some plain Questions with Yea or nay Had not I discovered his Falshood in this he had gon off snug with his Quotation as a very fair Quotation taken out of R. B's Book But now he is put to his shifts and to shift it off he pretends now that he did not intend to give R. B's Words but his Doctrine and lest that cover should prove too short for him he falls from the Doctrine to the substance of the Doctrine Now let us repeat again the Quotation he gave and then let the Reader Judge of it It is in p. 16. of his Reason of the Separation where he proposes that we agree together to put Rob. Barclay 's Doctrine into Practice which says he is He does not say the substance of which is but which is to declare our Faith and Perswasion in certain Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Faith and Religion that by the same as well as by a good Life and Conversation it may be known who are qualified to be Members of our Church and that every one owned to be a Member of our Church declare his Faith and Perswasion in every one of these Fundamentals which is a Secondary Bond of our Union the Spirit being the Principal which may be easily done by answering to some plain questions with Yea or Nay Let any one now that reads these words Judge whether they were not designed to perswade the Reader that not only this was R. B.'s Doctrine but that these were the very words in which he had delivered it Whereas ye see now G. K. not only confesses they are not his words but dares not adventure to say they are plainly and directly his Doctrine but the substance of his Doctrine And yet even that I deny I say they are neither R. B.'s Words nor Doctrine nor the Substance of his Doctrine And had his Quotation lain in a tolerable compass to be recited I would have given it But he cites for it Sect. 4 p. 32 33. and Sect. 6. p. 48 49. to which I again refer and recommend every Reader that has or can proc●…re that Book of R. B.'s called The Anarchy of the Ranters c. That G. K.'s Deceit herein may be more generally known He says all my proof that it is not R. B. 's Doctrine is that I assure the Reader it is not But says he let the Reader compare my Citations at length in my Reason and Cause of Separation p. 24 25. and he shall find it is his Doctrine But besides my assuring the Reader it is not so and my Referring him for certainty to the Original Book I have now too other proofs to offer which though not positive and direct are strong Presumptives against G. K. One is that he hath not attempted to Prove that this is the Doctrine or Substance of the Doctrine of R. B. in that Book by producing now R. B.'s own words to manifest it And the other is that he doth not now refer his

in the same Spirit and mind in which he went out from Friends and made the Breach and Separation elsewhere his Meeting with you will be but a Burden to you and an aggravation of Condemnation to himself And with respect to his Preaching in Friends Meetings I said While he continues in that Evil Mind and Spirit of Contention Division and Discord wherein he hath of late appeared it must needs be a very great Exercise and Burden to you But I am not dissatisfied with his changing the Words from Will be and must needs be to is For I am fully satisfied it is so and ye my Friends whose suffering Lot it is to hear him I make no question find and feel it so Fourthly That he gave such Interruption and made so great disturbance at the First Publick Meeting he appeared in at London which was at the Bull and Mouth as the like hath scarce been known in any Meeting in that City Of this there were so many Witnesses present that he might with the like Modesty deny he was at that Meeting as that he made such a Disturbance there He asserts again his being in Unity thus As I am at present in Unity with Faithful Friends so I still declare my sincere Intention to remain in Unity with Faithful Friends But as he is not at present in Unity So his declared intention to remain in Unity is not sincere He says Neither I nor any of my Abettors can prove him guilty of making any Breach or Violation of true Unity with Faithful Friends Friends Ye who have his Books and mine before you are the proper Judges of that and to your Judgment I leave it But what heed can be given to the Words of a Man who speaks not plainly but with Equivocation In his Causeless Ground of Jealousies he tenderly intreated that none would apply or construe any Words therein as intended by him in way of Reflection blame or Charge against either the Body of Friends in general or any particular Meeting c. Yet in that Book reflected on blamed and charged the Yearly Meeting highly But he had an Equivocating Salvo to himself which was that he did not own that to be the Yearly Meeting or any Meeting at all duly and regularly Constituted Now he cryes he is in Unity with all Faithful Friends And how in his reserved sense can that be otherwise since he owns none for Faithful Friends but such as are in Unity with him He refers to the Innocency of his Life and Conversation for Proof of the sincerity of his Spirit and Heart But he will get little advantage that way It is not enough for a Man to be free from gross Immoralities and the common Debaucheries of the Age For that an Hypocrite will take care to be But he that will recommend the sincerity of his Heart and Spirit by his Conversation must have his Conversation blameless towards God as well as towards Man For there is a Conversation in the Church as well as in the World and he that orders his Conversation aright will be careful not to give Offence to the Church of God as well as not to the World What G. K's Conversation is in the World I ●…ddle not with But what his Conversation of ●…to Years hath been in the Church with res●…ct to his raising Contention and Strife sowing Discord causing Divisions and making an open Rent and Breach his unruly and turbulent Carriage and Behaviour Rayling a ●…and Reviling Friends at his pleasure is too notoriously manifest to need proof And therefore while his Tree brings forth such Evil Fruits he can have no Relief by urging That the Tree should be judged by its Fruits by which it is already judged and found to be of a corrupt Nature He suggests that I and some others who promote my Book seek to drive him forth from the Unity and Fellowship of Friends and from abiding in the Inheritance of the Lord Whereas it is certain and evident that he was gone from the Unity and Fellowship of Friends before my Book was Written or I had any thing to do with him And how little he regards the Inheritance of the Lord to abide in it may be gathered not only from his joyning himself to the Separate Meeting in Harp-Lane but his going to the Meetings of other Professions of almost all sorts He would shake off the blame of having made that disturbance which was at the Bull-Meeting in London presently after he came over by saying Many can and do bear him witness that he was not the Cause nor beginning of it This I leave to you Friends of London who were then present to judge of and to measure the Truth of what he says in other things by his falseness in this He adds It ought not to be reckoned a disturbance when Errors and false Doctrine is Preached in a publick Assembly in a Zealous Christian Spirit to reprove it when things are come to that pass especially that private Reproof is not regarded By this he suggests that Error and false Doctrine was Preached in that publick Assembly at the Bull and that by some whom he had reproved privately for the same before But of this he hath given no Proof nor Instance both which unless he do he is justly to be reputed a false Accuser and Slanderer But to balance the Disturbance made at the Bull he puts me in mind of a Disturbance which he says I made at Grace-Church-street Meeting in speaking against a Person whose Ministry he says was well owned by Hundreds some of which he says cryed out on me Shame Shame To which I say I remember well both the time and occasion of that Disturbance which was not made by me but by a sort of Unruly People that joyned with that unruly Person As for my part I did not in that Meeting interrupt that Person while he was speaking but waited long under a very great weight and Burden that his Preaching brought upon me until he had done before I spake a word And when I had cleared my Conscience in a short Testimony to the Meeting I sate down peaceably again and did not enter into any Debate or Strife with those unruly People of the Separation who by railing at me on his behalf made that Disturbance that was and whose abusive rudeness towards me made some cry out on them Shame Shame And surely if G. K. thinks as he seems here to do that neither I nor any other should call it a Disturbance in him to bear a publick Testimony against a Man that ought not he says to be owned to be a Minister of Christ He ought not to call it a disturbance in me to bear a publick Testimony against that Man that I then testified against who ought not to be owned to be a Minister of Christ not only because he hat divided himself from the Church of Christ by going into and keeping up an open Separation but for other matters