Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A24004
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The Christians testimony against tythes in an account of the great spoil and rapine committed by the Bishop of Chester's tythe-farmer at Cartmell in Lancashire upon the people there called Quakers in the years 1677 and 1678 : acting first as an informer upon the Act against Conventicles for which his witnesses stand indicted for perjury, secondly by suits in inferiour courts (for tythes) contrary to law.
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Atkinson, Thomas.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing A1431A; ESTC R28313
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9,339
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16
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was come he said Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy loaden and ye shall find Rest for your Souls A blessed Invitation to all that can receive it this Eternal Rest which the Jews Resting Day was a Figure of remains a Rest for the People of God forever yet the Wise and the Learned and the Scribes and the Pharisees among the Jews they could not believe Christ Jesus when he was come but reviled him and set him at nought and restless they were till they had crucified and put him to death the Scriptures of Truth declare the same And Saul that great Persecutor for all the wisdom learning he had in the first nature thought he did God good Service when he got Letters from the Chief Priests and Rulers to persecute the Churches of the Saints Servants of God where-ever he found them such as feared God and worshipped him in Spirit and Truth till it pleased the Lord to smite him with his Righteous Judgments and bring down his Pride and Presumption and when he was blind and cast down then the Lord appeared to him and let him see the Evil he had done against the Lord and his harmless People and so from a persecuting Saul he became a converted Paul and a Minister not of the Letter but of the Spirit then all his Human Learning and Natural Wisdom was by him deny'd and set at nought as may be read at large in his first Epistle to the Corinthians in the beginning thereof for it s neither Natural Wisdom nor Natural Learning that can or ever did bring to the True Knowledge of God it must come in the Self-denyal and in the revealed Will of God For none knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him and as the wise and prudent of the World and the chief Priests and Rulers would not come to Christ for Life and Salvation but thought to have it in the outward Letter of the Scriptures as Christ then told them so the same dark spirit in people denyes the Teachings of Christ in spirit in this Age they will not come to the Light of Christ in themselves to be taught by that but set up Hireling Teachers without them which tell them They must continue in Sin for term of Life and so are alwayes confessing that they are miserable Sinners erring and going astray doing that they should not do and leaving that undone which they should do but all such shall know that it is not they that confess but they that forsake that shall find Mercy with the Lord so that if ever people will come to the Knowledge of God Christ they must first come to the Witness of God in themselves the Light of Christ in their own Consciences for as the Apostle saith when he came to be a Minister of the Spirit That which may be known of God is manifested in man for God has shewed it to him this same Apostle who had been the great Persecutor when he came to preach the Cross of Christ which is the Power of God it was to the Jews a Stumbling-block and to the Greeks Foolishness and for that Persecution was his Portion from the great Learned Men Priests and Rulers and the baser sort of men joyned with the Scriptures record the Truth thereof which I do refer all sober men to try if they do not find it to be so for then the change came from a Persecutor to be Persecuted Hated Whipped and Imprisoned and at last Death by the Romans And besides all this the Terrors and Judgments of the Lord as a just Reward for his Wickedness done against Christ and his Faithful Servants seized upon him that he was forced in the anguish of his spirit to cry out Oh Wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death c yet it pleased the Lord who is full of Mercy to all who truly repent and forsake the Evil of their doings to bring him through Judgments and to remit his Sins that he could in the integrity of his heart say He had obtained Victory through Christ Jesus that loved him 1 Cor. 15. and in other of his Epistles to the several Churches as may be read at large And so let none think strange that a Change be wrought and witnessed in this Life for it was the Apostle's Exhortation To workout your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling for it is God that worketh in you both to will to do of his own good Will and Pleasure For are not all Mankind by nature Children of Wrath we as well as others it is by Grace that we are redeemed saved not of our selves it is the Gift of God and this universal and free Grace hath appeared to all people upon the face of the whole Earth but all are not taught by this Grace and the Reason is in themselves because they deny it and so turn this Grace of God into Wantonness following the Lust of their own Hearts and here lies the whole World Priest and People Professors and Prophane sinning out their dayes for term of life their best Actions being Sin For the plowing of the wicked is sin and the prayers of the wicked are abomination to the Lord but it is not so with the Godly for this Grace which hath appeared to all men teached them the Saints to deny Vngodliness and Worldly Lusts and to live soberly in this present evil World This Grace was and is and forever will be the Saints Teacher and as many as are led and guided by this free Grace the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God and if Sons then Heirs and the Heir abides in his Fathers House forever Published to the World by THOMAS ATKINSON
THE Christians Testimony AGAINST TYTHES In an Account of the great Spoil and Rapine committed by the Bishop of Chester's Tythe-Farmer at Cartmell in Lancashire upon the People there called Quakers in the years 1677 and 1678. ACTING First As an Informer upon the Act against Conventicles for which his Witnesses stand indicted for Perjury Secondly By Suits in Inferiour Courts for Tythes contrary to Law Prov. 1. My Son if they say Let us lurk privily for the Innocent without Cause we shall all find precious Substance we shall fill our Houses with Spoil My Son walk not thou in the Way with them Matth. 10.32 Whosoever shall confess me before Men him will I confess also before my Father which is in Heaven Printed in the Year 1678. Considerate Reader AS Persecution has been the Lot of Innocency in all Ages expect not less in this our Age but the like Treatment from its Adversaries We read not that the Jews outward had more Reverence for the Lord Jesus Christ and his Followers then had the Heathens It was the Jew inward that followed Christ when the Iew outward severely persecuted him and his Disciples Parallel to the Age we live in where the Outside or Legal Christian persecutes the Inward and Real Christian And great Care and Industry is taken by Professors with Prophane to secure their Immoralities whilst they extend their uttermost Endeavours against all Sobriety yea to Ruin their Neighbours whom they ought to Love breaking all Bonds of Law Equity and Reason in spoiling them without Mercy It s not unknown that men may live as Debauched and Prophanely as they will have Drunken Assemblies or Conventicles and no Informers to prosecute no Justice to make out Warrants for suppression thereof no Constables or other Officers to spoil them of their Goods these may live without Panishment to spend their Estates Luxuriously whilst their sober Neighbours for Worshipping of God shall be left without Herd in the Stall Bed to lie upon Conveniencies for Food or Life But we say for all this our God is gracious and ought to be feared and worshipped he gives and he take away blesied be his Name and it is in Mercy to his which endures forever And of their Adversaries Cruelty there will be an End in his due time and season whose Portion from the Lord will be bitter and miserable unless they be reconciled by true and timely Repentance which is the Desire of the Hearts of the Upright who truly love their Enemies and such who use them despightfully as was the Doctrine of our Lord and Master whilst here on Earth This small Tract is of the late Sufferings and Persecutions of the People of God called Quakers in the Parish of Cartmell in Lancashire partly for Tythes to the Bishop of Chester and upon the Act against Conventicles by Prosecution of the Bishop's Farmers of his Tythes there the Manner Nature and Kind of which particularly follows Farewel THE Christians Testimony AGAINST TYTHES THE Bishop of Chester claiming the Tythes of the Parish of Cartmell in the County of Lancaster as belonging to the gain of his Quarter lets the same as the Priests do the Cure of Souls to their Sub-Curates to farm unto one Thomas Preston the elder of Holker within the said Parish of Cartmell And there being several of the People of God call'd Quakers within that Parish who never had nor received ought of Spirituals from the said Bishop or his Farmer refus'd to put into their Mouthes so that for several years last past the Bishops Farmer has presented them in the King's Courts at Westminster and County Court whereby many suffered tedious Imprisonments spoil of their Goods and much waste by his Prosecutions Thomas Preston the younger of the same place renewing the Lease of the Bishop most generally commenced Suits for his Tythes in the Court Barron of Cartmell But in or about the 5th moneth called July 1677. the said Court proceeding in the Suits commenced there and pretending to hold Pleas and to determine Cases for Tythes the Defendents demur'd to the Jurisdiction of the said Court as being not capable by Law to hold Pleas or to determine any such Causes as in Truth by Law it is not nor can upon which T. Preston being stopt in his Suits brake out in great Rage and Wrath against the Defendents threatning their Ruin as after he attempted And for some time consulting what course he should take advised with John Armstrong the Parish Priest who confessed in discourse that he advised the said T. Preston to set up Informers against the said People upon the Act made for suppressing Conventicles and to get his Tythes out of the Goods which might be taken upon that Act and to put this in Execution Upon the 7th day of the 8th Moneth 1677. being the first day of the Week the said Tho. Preston sent two Informers viz. one George Rigg his Tythe gatherer a man of no good repute an Indictment for Perjury being since found and depending against him and one Edw. Stones his near Neighbour to an Assembly of the said People at Height in the said County there met together to wait upon God and Worship him in Spirit and Truth in a peaceable manner as their manner is and the Informers taking notice of the Persons there in a short time came also the said Thomas Preston on Horse-back and the said Assembly breaking up at their usual time and as they were peaceably departing Tho. Preston call'd out to the formost Where is that Rogue that Preacher I 'le take a course with him And where is that Tho. Atkinson that old Rogue of all Rogues This and such like was the Language he then used against an ancient grave Person of Seventy three Years of Age a Man of good Conversation esteemed and serviceable amongst his Neighbours to this very day When he had thus exprest himself he told them further That his business was to acquaint them That in case they would submit to the Jurisdiction of Cartmell Court as they had done formerly and let him recover his Tythes it should be well but if not he would Persecute them so that he would rout them out Root and Branch Foundation and Generation and would pull down their House over their Heads and trail them in Carts Thus with much more of such inhuman and insulting Expressions vented he in his fury to the whole Assembly then come out and passing from their Meeting place These propositions attended with such Threats and Menaceings had so small effect that he had no answer to his desire For they being satisfied in Conscience that they ought rather to obey God then Men. And knowing Jesus Christ to be come who ended that Priesthood that had Commission to take the Tythes of their Brethren the Jews which offered Sacrifices for the People and for that they had Tythes having no other portion allotted But Christ who is our Teacher our high Priest and Law-giver we cannot deny in maintaining a