Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A28165
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An epistle of tender love to friends in Ireland by your faithful friend and brother in the truth William Bingley.
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Bingley, William, 1651-1715.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing B2918; ESTC R30297
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4,694
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10
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AN EPISTLE OF Tender Love To Friends In IRELAND By your Faithful Friend and Brother in the Truth William Bingley In all their affliction he was afflicted and â—he Angel of his presence saved them in his â—ove and in his pity he redeemed them and he bare them and carried them all the days of old Isa 63. 9. Watch ye stand fast in the Faith quit you like Men be Strong 1 Cor. 16. 13. Cast not away therefore your Confidence which hath great recompence of reward For ye have need of Patience that after ye have done the Will of God ye might receive the Promise Heb. 10. 35 26. Printed and sold by T. S. at the Crooked-Billet in Holywell-Lane in Shoreditch 1692. An Epistle of Tender Love to Friends in Ireland Dear Friends and Brethren THe Tender Salutation of my unfeigned Love in the Lord Jesus Christ flows forth unto you yea in that Love and Life which our God hath shed abroad in our Hearts in which we have been Comforted in the Lord and one in another doth my Life reach unto you at this Time and my hearty Desires and Prayers are often put up unto the Lord on your behalf That you may be preserved stedfast in your holy Profession and sincere to God through all Opposition and Affliction to the end For I can Truly say the sence and Consideration of your great Exercises Sufferings and Hardships comes often weightily upon my Mind and Spirit and I cannot but Sympathize with you therein it being a day of Calamity and Distress upon that poor Nation and how soon it may fall upon us we know not but this is our Cry the Lord prepare us for it that we may have a Foundation Sufficient to stand upon in that Day And although 't is yout Lot outwardly to partake thereof with many others of such Cruelties as makes my Spirit Mourn to think that ever Men should be given up to do such Inhumane Acts as Strippings Burnings and Murthers c. Yet this is my Comfort and Sâ—tisfaction under all the bowings of my Spirit for you That God hath in his infinite Love and Mercy brought you to the Knowledge of himself and of his Son Jesus Christ whom to know is Life Eternal and hath made you Partakers of his living Power and Arm which is sufficient to bear up your Minds and Comfort your Souls and Spirits and to preserve you from Fainting or Sinking under the greatest of Tryals and to make every Bitter thing Sweet and hard things Easie to you for although he may try you with great Afflictions he will not leave you nor forsake you for he is God and changeth not but is the same yesterday to day and forever and his promise was to his People Israel of old on this wise though you go through the Fire the Flames shall not kindle upon you or through the Water the Floods shall not overwhelm you and no doubt but the same Arm will uphold his Israel in this our Day and he will be as a Sun and a Shield unto all those who are preserved faithful unto him and truly cast your Care upon him for he careth for you whose Expectations are to God alone for help and preservation and are kept under the conduct of his Holy Spirit and Power he will be your Strength and your Stay and will be a safe hideing Place for you in this Day of Trouble and Storm therefore let your dwelling be in the Name of the Lord which ever was and is a strong Tower for the Righteous to fly unto wherein they ever found Peace and Safety for therein our Souls are out of the reach of the Devil and his rage although he may be permitted to touch our Bodys and outward substances and although these Afflictions are your Portion and Lot for a season yet when the Everlasting God who knows all things and what is good for us better then we know our selves sees that it will be for his Glory and your Good can say to these proud Waves which at present seem as if they would quite overflow be still and they must obey his Voice for its the Lord alone that gives bounds thereto and saith Thus far shall you go and no further Therefore my dear Friends keep your Eyes and Minds to the Lords Power and let your Trust and Confidence be in him alone for he never faileth them that put their Trust in him but he alwayes hath been a present Helper in a time of need to those who have no dependency upon any other but upon his Eternal Arm and Power nor no Helper in the Earth but the Lord alone and be faithful to God and dwell in his Holy Spirit of Meekness and of Love towards all men even to the greatest of your Enemies for that is a true mark and token of being Disciples of Christ our Lord whose Precepts and Counsel was to his Followers Love your Enemies Pray for them that despitefully use you and Persecute you and do not let up a murmuring Spirit nor a Spirit of Revenge but dwell in the Meek Lambs Life and in the Word of Gods Patience for God hath promised to keep such in the hour of Tribulation and Temptation that will come upon the Earth to try them that dwell therein and let your Habitation be in the Heavenly Power of God for that is above and over all the powers of Darkness and will out last all the Cruelty and Barbarity of the Children of Darkness and will bring to the mark of the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus and to reap the rewards of Well Done and to Inherit the Crown of Eternal Glory if you faint not but hold out to the end therefore your safety is to be singly resigned up to the Will and Disposing of our God who can and will put a stop to their wicked and cruel proceedings when he in his Wisdom and Goodness sees meet And in the mean time keep your Minds and Spirits truly stayed upon him for he will keep those in perfect Peace whose minds are stayed upon him according to the Testimony of the Prophet of old And dear Friends as God in his infinite Mercy hath been pleased to give every one of us a measure of his Holy Spirit and Grace to profit with Oh! that every ones mind may be truly exercised therein and truly subjected to the Teachings and Government thereof for therein is Peace and true Joy known and increased to the Immortal Soul And as you in Dilligence are found waiting upon the Living God you will find your strength to be renewed in him and you thereby bourn up as on the Wings of an Eagle above all those things that would make you to faint in your Minds and to sit down short of that Inheritance of Eternal Life and Crown of Glory which God hath laid up in store for them that hold out to the end Oh! be watchful over your own Hearts and Spirits and over your Words and
Actions that you keep in Innocency and in the Simplicity of the Truth and therein walk Inoffensively before all with whom you have to do or amongst whom your lot may be cast and then whatsoever Sufferings come upon you they will be without occasion given on your parts and therein you will have true Peace and Satisfaction whatever your hardships or exercises may be And dear Friends see that you keep your Hearts and Minds in an Holy Submission and Resignation to the Will of God in all things being truly contented with and Patient under your Troubles following the Example of Job that good Man of Old who said when Surrounded and Surprized with sudden 〈◊〉 Evil Tidings The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away Blessed be the Name of the Lord. And as thus you are kept by the Mighty Power of God through Faith Rooted and Grounded in Christ our Lord not looking out at your Afflictions but fixed and setled in him who is the Munition of Rocks where your Bread is sure and your Water failes not nothing will be too hard for you because the Lord your strength is with you and is become your Rook and Salvation and your exceeding great reward Then if you should loose all your outward Enjoyments you know him that is able to make it up again yea and if you should suffer Death it self as to your outward Man you know him that is your Life and this is a Life that Death and Hell cannot touch nor all the Cruelties of the Wicked deprive you of and herein you are the Lords whether in Life or in Death and will have the Evidence of Gods Spirit bearing witness with your Spirits that you are his â—hildren and that you have faithfully served â—od in your Day Thus having the blessed Evidence of Well Done and peace from God in your selves it will make up all your Sufferings and Losses and will be a Portion and an Inheritance beyond all the Treasures and Pleasures of this Transitory and fadeing World And dear Friends as God hath been pleased to open the fountain of Divine Love to you So wait to feel more and more the same Love shed abroad in your Hearts to keep your Minds and Spirits in a right frame in this trying Day that you may be kept open to God and truly open in his Love one to another and thereby you may be a strength and a comfort one to another helping to build up one another in the most Holy Faith that notwithstanding all the stormy Winds that may blow and Floods that may beat against you to Scatter and wash you away you being founded upon Christ the Living Rock may endure and stand immovable as Gods building to his Glory and your everlasting Joy And now dear Friends Let your Lives and Conversations amongst all men be in Meekness Patience Temperance and Holiness that therein you may be Exemplary to all and instrumental in the Hand of God to turn the Children of men from the darkness and all their dark and evil Works and Wayes which alwayes procure Wrath and Judgment from God To the Light of Christ in themselves which will shew them the evil of their Wayes and as it is beleived in and closed with will bring to true Repentance and Remission of Sins and to an Inheritance incorruptable that fadeth not away And be careful and tender of Gods Honour and the Reputation of the Blessed Truth and Breath to God and Supplicate him for one anothers good and preservation every way in this day of Great Affliction which though the Lord may suffer you outwardly to partake of yet he will behold his afflicted ones who have no helper in the Earth with an Eye of Love and Compassion and will as it was prophetically said of old lay the Foundations with Stones of fair Coulours and will Beautifie with his own Beauty and make to shine forth in that Comliness which he doth and will put upon his own Heritage and Off-spring Oh! Friends since these late Calamities have attended you in that poor Nation you have been often in my Mind and the many times of Refreshments which we in the Presence of God have enjoyed together to our mutual Joy and been as a well watered Garden with the pleasent Showers which have dropt from above upon us and yet fall upon the truly begotten of God and made us to rejoyce together in the Lord and in the Power of his Might and fresh in my Remembrance at this time and therein are the reaches of my Life and Spirit to you My Friends and Brethren This is it that Unites and Bundles up together in one and makes Members of that Living Body of which Christ our Lord is Head as we are preserved in this Membership we cannot but mourn and suffer with you being in a Spiritual sence as Flesh of our Flesh and Bone of our Bone And now my dear Friends the earnest Cry and Breathing of my Soul are to the Lord that you and I and all Gods Heritage may be preserved in a living Sence of the Goodness and Presence of God to the End and that he may more and more break the Bread of Life unto you and the Waters of a full Cup may be daily administred unto you to strengthen your Souls that so you may have cause to say and that with Joy that though your Tribulations in this World do abound yet your Consolation and Peace in our Lord Jesus Christ doth much more abound and thus being preserved in a Divine sence will sweeten your Exercises and also sweeten your Spirits under them and Sanctifie every state to you and all things will work together for your Good and to the Glory of God who hath been your Strength and preserver through all your Afflictions and will be as your Eyes are kept to him So into the Hands of our God as in to the Hands of a Faithful Creator do I recommend you and leave you with all his Flock and Heritage every where who am Your Loving Friend and Brother in the Truth Bowed in Spirit to the Lord for your Preservation to the End Written in London the 2d of the first Month 1690 1. William Bingley THE END