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	life_n	way_n	6,604	5	5.4332	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56011	A general epistle to all the called and chosen of God with all such as make a profession of the blessed truth as it is in Jesus every where : wherein is comfort to the feeble-minded, support to the weak, and reproof to the unruly and disorderly walkers : with several who[l]som exhortations and admonitions, according to the conditions, states & growths of such as profess the truth of God, for the rooting out of that which is bad, and the stirring up of the pure mind in all, that God may be glorified over all / written in the movings of the spirit of life and love from God in me, who am resolved by the power of his might, with you that abide faithful, to follow the Lord fully, James Parke.	Parke, James, 1636-1696.	1676 (1676)	Wing P369; ESTC R40058	15,597	29

A General Epistle TO ALL THE CALLED AND Chosen of God With all such as make a Profession of the Blessed Truth as it is in Jesus every where Wherein is Comfort to the Feeble-minded Support to the Weak and Reproof to the Unruly and Disorderly WALKERS With several wholsom Exhortations and Admonitions according to the Conditions States Growth of such as profess the Truth of God for the rooting out of that which is Bad and the stirring up of the pure Mind in all that God may be glorified over all Written in the Movings of the Spirit of Life and Love from God in me who am resolved by the Power of his Might to you that abide faithful to follow the Lord fully JAMES PARKE Printed in the Year 1676. A GENERAL EPISTLE TO ALL THE Called Chosen of God Dear Friends Brethren and Sisters WHO are made Partakers of the Love Life and Power of God by turning to and believing in the Glorious Light of Christ Jesus the Only Begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth My Dear and Stedfast Love is to you all I am daily more and more effected with the Power of God manifested in you and the living Operation of it as it blessedly appears to turn every one of you from the Evil of your Wayes to God and his Glorious Living and Standing Way which blasts and stains and yet will more and more blast and stain all other Wayes and the seeming Glory of them that are dead and keep people in Death and from the Path of Life which leads to Life and preserves in the pure Life of Jesus the Son of God and brings out of the Unstableness Error Going Astray to have the Heart fixed upon the Lord God and to love and live in the Immortal Truth of God which was before Error Falshood Going Astray was You that are come to know this blessed Way of Truth O love it love it for evermore see that you err not by wandring or straying from it or turning aside into any By-path and so lose your first Love and fall from your first Stedfastness for the Way of Truth is a stedfast standing Way over all the false wayes who ever wander or perish from it it stands and remains the same forever and is the Path of the Just that shines and shall shine more and more unto the perfect Day over all the wayes of the Wicked and paths of the Unjust and all the envious Persecutors that tear after their Prey hurting and destroying one another in the false unprofitable Ways barren Mountains where long they have wandered from Christ Jesus the Way the Truth and the Life and so are alwayes kept from God and the Knowledge of his everlasting Way But Glory to God forever Dear Friends the Only True God you know and Christ Jesus whom he hath sent to lead to himself and to lead out of the World its Wayes Fashions Customs and the Wickedness that the World lieth in So look not back again in the least Degree to Egypt's Wayes the vain and unprofitable Wayes Words Manners Fashions Customs or Traditions of the Heathen that know not God but lie in their Wickedness adding Sin to Sin bringing up one Vain Way Fashion Custom and Tradition after another which pleaseth and taketh up the vain loose Mind that loves to be at ease in the Flesh and lives above the Cross of Christ such love best the broad way wherein though they have a little Ease for a few dayes but if they Repent not they will assuredly meet with Death and Destruction everlastingly as a Reward due to them for loving and walking in the broad way of Sin and hating and despising the Way of Life Therefore keep out of the World's wayes keep out of the way of the Ungodly which leads from keeping in the daily Cross into the lusts of the world fashions of the world words of the world the lusts of the flesh and pride of life these things you know are not of God our Father but they are of the world and kept up in the love and by the spirit of the world and the world passeth away its spirit is seen by you as you keep in the Light of Christ Jesus you are kept out of the world's spirit that lusts to Envy and after evil things This spirit keeps people walking after their ungodly Lusts one lusting after one Evil and another after another Evil Thing And by this spirit how is Sin committed with Greediness and Men and Womens Reins let loose to act all manner of Wickedness and to run into every Evil they lust after so that many seem without Bridle to stay them from any sensual Desire that by the spirit of the world ariseth in them Therefore Dear Friends you Children of God and of his Day be wise and sober alwayes having God's Fear before your Eyes Let none of you in the least adhere to the spirit of the world that draws back into the world and love of the things of the world again for such will have an Eye out towards worldly Delights Pleasures and be taken up therewith then the sweet savoury words are lost so the sense of Life is lost also the Pleasures that such have had in the Truth they lose the lively sense of then is the Enemy let in as a Flood and the Spirit of God not felt to lift up a Standard against him so the Soul's Enemy prevails greatly against such to the losing of their first Love and Stedfastness they had to God and his Truth and People and when the first Love to God is left there is a Loss of Stedfastness in the Truth of God and the Work of the Day not well minded but the Mind after the World and the things thereof and that besets and clogs and so lieth so heavy upon the Conscience that it darkens hardens and if not laid aside in due time sears the Conscience that hath been good and tender Now them who are in that State can take up that which they once did lay down for Truth 's sake and in Obedience to its Requirings building again the things they destroyed and matter not whether they keep to the true Language or not but will speak it to faithful Friends and not to others and so use their Liberty as may be they call it as an Occasion to the Flesh in Corrupt Words and False Language contrary to Thee and Thou to a Particular which was the Language of all the Holy Men of God mentioned in the Scriptures and You to more then one or many but some can take up an Ease in speaking You to one but its fleshly and not spiritual it is of the Earth and is earthly and renders them to be at Ease in Sion and this is written in the Love of God That every one professing the Truth of God that have used such a Liberty may deny themselves of it and take up a daily Cross to it that so that Liberty

one another upon Reports before the Report be fully sought into and found out to be true then let Judgment go forth according to Gospel Order that Sin may not remain upon thy Brother nor thou to put a Stumbling-block in thy Brother's way to cause him to stumble by the reporting that which is false and judging him thereupon That Judgment passed upon False Reports will return back upon such as give it The Judgments of the Lord are true and there is no Unrighteousness in them he judges nothing but what is for Judgment and that which is for Judgment ought to be judged where ever it appears I would not have that spared in any particular which causeth Division in the Church of God for that weakens themselves and hurts others Tale-bearers work against the Truth and may weaken some Members in the Church but that Work communicates no Divine Strength to the Body nor any Member thereof for my own particular I never could well digest such since I had any Knowledge how to put a Difference betwixt Good and Evil. Therefore Dear Friends and Brethren I exhort you as a Brother in Love All to follow the things that make for Peace follow after Righteousness and feel the Righteous Judgments of God to take place upon all that which is contrary to God in every particular O live in Love be at Peace one with another Love thinks no Evil speaks no Evil carryes no Tales or Evil Reports it suffers long and hopeth all things and beareth all things and vaunteth not it self nor is easily puffed up God Almighty keep you all stedfast in the Love of God and one another You know Love is of God and that you ought to dwell in it O! dwell in Love then you dwell in God and cannot hurt one another nor can do nothing against the Truth but for it then there is not many Masters nor striving for Mastery nor many Minds but all in the one Mind of the Lord and he alone exalted and of one Heart in the one Spirit minding the same things and cleaving to and following whatsoever things are lovely honest and of good report then thou wilt be one with the Flock of God in all these things that tend so much to the Honour of God and keeping all sweet and savoury and wilt mind the Foot-steps of the Flock of God and follow the Lord fully And Dear Friends every where Keep up your Meetings in the Name and Power of the Lord God who hath owned us and been with us in all our Sufferings for his Name 's sake let none deny his Name nor bring a Reproach upon his Name by any Unfaithfulness in any part of your Testimony which you are called to bear for his Name and Truth O meet together as your former manner was although ye should meet with greater Tryals and Sufferings then formerly look not thereat but look at that Arm and Power of God which formerly saved and delivered us and is able to save to the uttermost from whatsoever the Devil and all his Agents can do against us For O how hath the Arm and Power of the Lord prevailed against the Power of the Devil and his working through many of his Instruments that have appeared against the Truth of God and our meeting together in the Name Power of the Lord And how have we witnessed Christ Jesus in us and amongst us greater then he that is in the World who as a strong man armed hath wrought in many Professors Prophane and Apostates against the glorious Truth of God and our meeting together in his Name which we have owned believed in and born witness unto above every Name and which we know every Knee must bow unto Therefore have many been angry with us and with great Madness and Enmity have endeavoured our Overthrow and Ruin and to hinder us from meeting together as our former manner hath been to wait upon God and to serve and worship him in Spirit and Truth as he requires of us for this have many been enraged against us and set themselves against Christ's Appearance in us and our worshipping of him in Spirit and Truth but many of their wicked Devices which they have devised against us hath God confounded and brought to nought and this our Eyes have seen brought to pass to the Wo and Torment of many of the Adversaries of Truth and us the People of God who meet together in it Therefore Dear Friends be you all incouraged to meet together in the Fear of the Lord sitting down together in the Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus so as you have felt you will more and more feel his Name as precious Oyntment poured forth and he will anoint you with fresh Oyl and you will be made Partakers with him of his Joy and Gladness and let no Backwardness or Carelesness nor a sleight Esteem appear in any of you in meeting together For that Spirit that would cool thy Love to or any wayes lessen thy esteem of the Meetings of the Saints and People of God where they meet together in his Name and to do his Will this spirit is not of God but it is of this World and is for Condemnation wherever it appears So be you Stedfast alwayes abounding in the Work of the Lord that you may stir up the Gift of God in one another and edifie one another and help to build up one another in the most holy Faith and so ye will confound the dead Faiths and be Instruments in the Hand of the Lord to make void the Evil glorying of them who are in the dead and unholy Faichs that work not by Love nor do not stand in the Power of God but are made up by the wisdom of Man and stand therein all such will be manifest more and more and their works of Envy and Opposition to be for the Fire a Dreadful Consuming Fire is kindled to the utter consuming of the Dead Unholy Faiths that men have devised with the Fruits thereof and the living Faith that was first delivered to the Saints and the Fruits and Works of Righteousness wrought in God must come over all the Dead Faiths and Works of Unrighteousness of the Man of Sin the bad Worker that works in all the Children of Disobedience and the Beast with his many Heads and Horns and the False Prophet that stirs up the Beast with his Horns to push at the faithful Followers of the Lamb must be taken and given to the Burning Flame and the Lamb and his true Followers shall have the Victory over the Beast and over his Mark and the Number of his Names and the Lord that hath begun this great Work and carried it on blessedly and succesfully will compleat and finish it to his own Glory and Praise To whom be all Glory Honour and Praises for he is worthy for ever and evermore And my dear Brethren Si the state of Fathers and Mothers in Israel Keep up your Men and Women's Meetings that were set up in the Power and Wisdom of God to keep all that profess the Truth of God in the Savoury Life of it and in the Order of the Gospel and stand up for God and the wholsom Order of the Gospel against all that that would lay it waste and let in Vnfaithfulness and the Wor. ld's Disorderly Spirit that you all may be Helpers together in the Work of the Lord against that which causeth Divisions or which any ways would let or hinder the Prosperity of God's blessed Work which he hath begun in this Glorious Day of his Power that the Truth may rule and reign in every Heart and amongst us over that which is contrary so Peace shall be within our Walls and the Truth and Power of God will go over all that which opposeth and exalteth it self against the spreading of it These things lay as a Necessity upon me to put you in mind of and to stir up your pure Minds by way of Remembrance of them though you know them already that you all might be Doers of that which is good be justified of the Lord when be judgeth And I was constrained to be large in this Epistle because in the writing of it much of the Love of God I felt and my Heart much opened towards the whole Family and Flock of God every where and for their Concord Peace and Prosperity for which Cause I have travelled endeavouring every where where I have come to bring all to the Measure of the Stature of the Fulness of Christ and to a perfect man in him in whose precious Love I remain Your Dear Friend and Brother JAMES PARKE

may be seen to be Bondage to the god spirit of this world whereby the Unfaithful to the Truth of God are vailed and so keep not clear nor pure their Consciences towards God or men as to the Language of Truth and Faithfulness therein Certainly God's holy Spirit is grieved especially with those who have been long convinced of the pure Truth of God and yet give such way to the Enemy's Temptations as that thereby they are kept out of the Language of Truth so not being faithful in a little or the lesser things that God hath by his Spirit led his People into blessed them in how can such expect to be Rulers over much or see much of the Glory of God that he hath revealed in these latter dayes And Dear Brethren and Sisters seeing you are called with a holy Calling unto Liberty let none use it as an Occasion to the Flesh let not the Liberty you use be fleshly but spiritual then none will take liberty in Words or Actions contrary to the Truth and the Spirit that led you into it nor none will be Heady or High-minded for that is out of Truth and the Spirit of it and goes before a Fall and they are not near in Relation to God nor like unto Christ Jesus that are High-minded neither do they feel the Lord to dwell in them and with them although they may have Tastes of his Goodness and be sensible of his Power at some times Now it is the Heady and High-minded that will not submit to the Spirit 's Rule Order and Government in the Heart and so would set up something of Flesh something of Man and rob the Spirit and Power of God of what belongs thereunto and so all the bad Rule and Disorder in Government got up and is kept up in the World Flesh would rule and have the Preeminence inwardly and outwardly and who are High-minded they love to have the Preeminence they love Lordship and Superiority above their Fellow Servants and will smite them that are of lower degree whom they ought to cherish and condescend unto Now saith the Apostle I would have no man to think of himself otherwayes then what is meet but every one to think lowly of himself to abase and humble himself as did our Lord and Master-Christ Jesus A lively Pattern for all to look at to be so minded and to follow his Steps in his Humiliation and enduring the Cross patiently despising all the Shame and Reproach he met with whilst in a visible Body of Flesh in the world Friends he hath left us an Example that we all might follow his steps and mark his steps that never stept into any Evil nor was Guile found in his Mouth there will be no Headiness then there will be no giving way to the Lusts of the world the lusts of the Flesh nor the Pride of Life but all that with the Light Spirit of Grace will be seen and judg'd to be out of the Steps of Christ that we are required to follow so the things come to be pursued and followed which make for Peace in the particular and in the general so all high Thoughts and Vain Conceits will be judged down and shut out with the Power of the Living God and all Excess and Unnecessary Things used by any that profess the Truth either in Meats Drinks or Apparel will be denyed and come out of and there will be no fashioning themselves like the World nor getting into their Fantastick Garbs and foolish vain Fashions as they are brought in but all will be kept to modest and plain Attire such as becomes the Truth of God and was in times p●st for some are greatly to be blamed who make a Profession of Truth who let their Eye after every Fashion almost as soon as it appears Women appearing in Attire immodest and unbecoming the plain Truth of our God both in City and Country and I write this that they may be asham'd that are guilty in this matter without any Reflection upon them that are clear and innocent as I know a Remnant are both in City and Country Glory to the Lord God forever who hath made his Power known and subjected the Minds of a Remnant so to it that their Communication and Conversation is honest before God and amongst men and is as becomes the Gospel and as those that follow the Steps of Christ Jesus who dwell in the Power of God You are the Lord's Jewels my dear Friends and Brethren O you are the purified It 's you that are made Holy Vessels fit for God and his Heavenly Treasure and that retain the Heavenly Treasure in your Earthen Vessels it 's you that come to walk with God in white for you are worthy when some walk after their Ungodly Lusts and after the Course of the World whose God is their Belly who glory in their Shame and mind Earthly Things Therefore as any Root of Pride High mindedness Self conceits or Bitterness would spring up in any let the Ax be laid to it or whatever Evil Root thou mayst find yet standing in thee or which would again spring up in thee dally not with it give it up to the Sword and spare it not and so seel the Wicked bowed before the Just in thy own particular not only the wicked Branches of the evil Tree but the Root also then will thy cumbering Thoughts be gone then thou wilt not be overcome with Surfeiting Drunkenness or Cares of this World but wilt be sensible aware of the Day of the Lord and wilt do the Works of the Day and not of the Night or Darkness as the Apostle saith Ye are not in Darkness as others that that Day would overtake you at unawares for you are all the Children of Light and of the Day and how unbecoming is it for such to be overtaken with a VVork of Darkness or to walk in Darkness for none are overtaken in VVorks of Darkness but by walking in Darkness and being subject to the dark Power of the Prince of Darkness then Pride is not seen to be Pride but called Decency Civility good Breeding and good Manners then Passion is not seen to be Passion but accounted Fervency of Zeal to God and Darkness thus covering and overpowering the Creature such can keep evil Company more then doth them good yet say they cannot avoid it my Business Affairs and Interest lies in keeping all Sorts of Company and if I do not my Imployment and outward Calling is at Stake O you that know the Power of the Lord every where be subject to that let that good Power rule in you to the over powering and throwing down the Power of the man of Sin then by no enticement of any man high or low which thou mayst have Occasion with in Dealing or otherwise wilt thou be drawn into that that offends God or hurts thy own Soul Hadst thou not better come to hurt or loss in thy Trade or outward Business then to

the Scriptures they instead of owning and coming to Christ did more then the prophane frown upon him hate him and set themselves against him and without any Cause refused to come unto him despising and rejecting him of whom they might have had Life and Salvation and when thou meets with any Sufferings for the Name and Testimony of Christ wait low in God's pure Fear seriously consider Christ Jesus suffered inwardly outwardly for thee he was a man of Sorrows acquainted with Griefs for thee that knew no Sin that thou might'st be made the Righteousness of God in him Is that known as the good Effect of Christ's Sufferings for thee in all thy Hardships Tryals and Sufferings thou meetest with for his Testimony in this prefant World that thou art made the Righteousness of God in Christ Jesus thou art awakned in his Likeness now then thou shines forth as a Son of God or as a sixed Star in the Firmament of his everlasting Power giving Light unto others Hath the Awakening Power of God thus awakned thee to Righteousness and true Holiness O then happy art thou then thou art not like the men of this World thou bearest not the earthly Image but art an Heir of the World to come and bearest the Image of the Heavenly and hast a certain Evidence of that Birth which is immortal born and art come to be a man of God now thou art made strong through the Power of his Might and hast passed the Child's State of Weakness and Infirmity and going on to Perfection and thou art come to him in whom is the Fulness of the Godhead bodily and art coming to a compleat State a perfect man in Christ Jesus here is the Mark Dear Friends which God by his Light at our first Convincement set before us to press after and to attain unto and not to come short of it God never set it before any for that End never to attain to it on this Side the Grave as the vain talkers of it do imagine and talk promising themselves Peace whilest they see not nor know not this Mark for the Prize of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus nor how to press towards it or through believing to attain unto it for they are so far from believing attaining to Perfection or to a perfect man in Christ Jesus in whom the Fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily that you know they long have pleaded for and still plead for Sin and Imperfection and the carrying about of a Body of Sin with them whilest they live and that heavy Load and Burden of Sin with its Body renders all such unprepared and unfitted to run the Race set before them hereupon many settle on their Lees and are so settled that they seem regardless and ignorant of that which would unsettle them from their Lees of Iniquity and shake the Body of Sin they carry about with them make them put it off and cast it from them as that which hinders them from coming to the Truth to receive it in the Love thereof and therefore Professors prophane in many Places seem so much to be given over to strong Delusions to believe a Lye and the false Prophets prophesie Lyes in the Name of the Lord keeping People in Death and in the Broad Way that leads to Death and keeps them in Death from the Life of the Son of God from the Image of God and from a pure and perfect State in Christ Jesus which God hath brought you into and made you Partakers of Glory Everlasting Glory and Dominion be given unto him forever and evermore who rides on conquering and to conquer This you Children of the Day are Witnesses of this your Eyes have seen O you have handled the Word of Life you have hid it in your Hearts how sweet hath it been to you since you came to know and obey it you have valued it as a Pearl of great Price you faithful Followers of the Lamb you have so prized and valued the Word of God Christ Jesus appearing and working in you that you have been made willing by his pure Power to sell and part with all for him and to deny your selves and take up and keep in a daily Cross that you might follow him whithersoever he goes And Dear Friends who are called of God out of Egypt and Babylon to follow the Lord in his Leadings let nothing hinder your going forward in following the Lord let nothing which you may meet with in your Travail in your Heavenly Journey hinder you or weary you let no Perils dismay you of what kind soever neither let any of you saint when Trials yea great and fiery Trials happen to you look not to that which would discomfort you in your Travail whatever it be or from whomsoever it comes that which would discourage or discomfort you look over it all to the Rock Christ Jesus look unto him who saved and delivered you and was your only Helper in the time of your greatest Distress and Need that had Compassion on you and heard your Cry when you cried to him and no Eye pitied you I beseech you all dear Friends look unto him and see th●t you look not out nor go not out from the Way of Truth because of any Hardships Tryals or deep Exercile that you may meet with in the Way for then a Vail comes over the pure and the Face of the Covering spreads it self over such again and such suffer Loss in their Conditions therefore whatsoever Hordships Exercise Trials or Suffering any of you may meet with in the Way love and delight in the Way of God be not offended at the Way of Truth because of the Tribulations that do attend it and them that walk in it to the Kingdom of God but consider that through many Tribulations the Kingdom of God is entred and come into it s not entred by Ease in the Flesh and shunning all manner of Fiery Tryals and great Tribulations as the Careless and Disobedient Children would have it You have read or heard of the Patience of Job in all his Afflictions and Sufferings how Patience did possess his Soul that notwithstanding all the Evil Intreatments of his Friends and the many Assaults the Devil made at him yet Job sinned not nor charged God with Folly My Dear Friends and Brethren we have need of the same Patience in our heavenly Journey where we meet with many Jeopardies and Perils and the Devil as ready to assault tempt and winnow us as ever he was so we have need to keep in the Faith and Patience and to wait upon the Lord that he may strengthen us that he may help us for in vain is the Help of Man or Arm of Flesh that will fail all that look at it for Help but the Lord will never fail us that eye him believe and trust in him he hath been and is a Shield unto us he hath not left us when we have met with