Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A92940
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A Serious warning and caution unto George Keith and to many others as also a relation of some expressions from George Keith, concerning his reasons which he then gave, for opposing and exposing the Quakers, when at his place at Turner's-hall : the intention of the publication of which, and more that is in this paper contain'd, is proposed for a publick and general good of all.
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1700
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Wing S2620; ESTC R43737
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6,600
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15
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worthy Apostle and Servant of the Lord Paul who lamented in his Day and Time to this effect That all were seeking after their own and not the things of the Lord who could not be content with a low Estate which the Lord doth bless having Food and Raiment to be therewith content and to follow the low and humble Example of our only and blessed Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who although was Heir of all Things in Heaven and in the Earth yet deny'd himself of all things taking off the World only a little sustenance and a little something for outward Covering viz. a Garment which we read of was without Seam without Rent and so is his Spiritual Garment witnessed and known to be at this Day to a little Remnant he alone is worthy of the Glory who is for ever blessed And where the Rents are and where the Envy and Bitterness of Spirit is and where the Runings out are from the Truth and blessed Spirit of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ let it be be amongst what People Name or Denomination soever such do not keep under the Spiritual and Seamless Garment of our Lord Jesus Christ notwithstanding they may not be a wanting of high Pretences and making in Words a great and specious Profession of him much like the Jews of old who counted themselves the Children of God and Abraham's Seed yet would needs have Christ the blessed Messiah to be a Blasphemer and what not speaking Despicably of him saying Is not this the Carpenter's Son whose Father and Mother we know and are not his Brethren hear with us Calling him a Deceiver and how that he did cast out Devils by Belzebub c. And such as before go into the Love of this present World and too much effects the Enjoyments thereof and such go into a Spirit of Prejudice and Envy and lets in a persecuting Spirit against their Brethren that cannot Worship after the same way and manner as they themselves are pleased to do which is too much like Cain's Spirit and Disposition And this envious Spirit of prejudice to my former too great and woful Loss and hurt to my great Unhappiness having entred into my poor Soul through my too much giving way unto my Soul's Enemy after I had a long time made profession with the People call'd Quakers to that Degree that I almost loathed the sight of any of the said People but the Merciful God who had visited and tendered my Heart in my early and young Days who had been many a time good unto me who continued to follow me in my Rebellious State and State of Apostacy from him justly brought upon me Outward and Worldly Disappointments and blasted my Endeavours as to Outward and Worldly Affairs yet providentially open'd a way still for an outward Subsistance Yet again I forgot the Lord who had shewed so much Mercy and Goodness unto me and the Enemy again stole away my Heart from following him by little and little so that I lived in much and great Excess too much to mention hear but the Lord still continued to follow me according to his wonted Mercy and long forbearance and in a remarkable way visited me with his Judgments It being now near Four Years since by laying his Afflicting Hand upon my Body by which my Body came to be afflicted with divers kinds of Indispositions and Weaknesses and that of a long continuance and also inwardly visited my Soul and Spirit with Judgment wherein my former Disobedient and Rebellious State was set before me as in a Glass the Lord having found me in this deplorable State and nothing but Eternity in a dreadful manner seemingly to appear in my view and that which greatly Exercised my distressed Mind was the unaccountable hardness of my Heart when if the World had been in my Power to have given I could gladly have parted with it to have had my hard Heart broken and tender'd by the good Spirit of the Lord and at that time to have witnessed lasting Peace to my poor never dying Soul So the Lord in great Mercy unto me having brought me every way very low in his time which was a time of great Love indeed he did not forget to shew his great Love and Mercy unto my greatly distressed poor Soul and brought my Heart and Spirit into much brokenness and tenderness for which I have abundant cause to be always thankful unto the Lord for ever to bless and praise his Honourable and Worthy Name so long as it may please the Lord to give me a Being in this Mortal Body The weighty solid and serious Consideration of which great and unaccountable Mercy great Favour and Love of Almighty God to me hath occasion'd a concern of Mind in me towards others that may have Apostatized from the Lord as I have done in slighting his tender and compassionate Visitations to warn others that may have declin'd in their Hearts from the Lord of Life and Glory as I to my former great Unhappiness have done And this former unhappy State and Condition of mine may also serve to be a warning unto all sorts of People of what Perswasion or Judgment soever that they do not provoke a merciful God as I have done For my belief is that the Lord is not a wanting to afford in some degree and measure a time of Visitation unto all so as to leave all without excuse of what Perswasion or Judgment soever when he shall come to Judgment And it is my belief that at that Day the Question will not be so much what People's Judgments and Religious Perswasions may have been but whether in their Lives and Conversations they have not lived in Rebellion against the good Spirit of the Lord so as in that Day be found Workers of Iniquity so as to incur that woful Sentence of Go you Cursed into utter Darkness c. And as before express'd having through the great goodness of the Lord in some measure obtain'd Forgiveness and Mercy and Favour at his Merciful Hand hath occasion'd a concern upon my Mind to go to visit this to be lamented Apostatized poor Man George Keith which accordingly I did about the Months call'd February or March last before he had given over Acting at his Stage at Turner's Hall and some Months before he tooks Orders upon him in the Church of England way it being upon my Mind to warn and caution him against that Spirit of Prejudice which I had a Sense of he was enter'd into And I can truly say I found Love in my Heart reaching towards him and amongst the Expressions which he made to me at the close of what past I holding him by the Hand being earnestly disswading of him from that undue proceedure of his He replyed What wouldst thou have me to do wouldst thou have me to go into the Street with my Wife and Family And this if need be I can Testifie to the Face of George Keith to be ineffect if not the very
express Words which came then from the Mouth of George Keith against whom I have nothing of Prejudice but Christian Tenderness Love and Good Will in my Heart And it would be well for him if he would whilst it is call'd to Day to turn unto the Lord with a sincere Heart in true Repentance and to put up sincere Cries and Breathings unto the Lord as I through the Goodness and Mercy of the Lord have been made to do to Cry unto him in much tenderness and brokenness of Heart for forgiveness and for Mercy and not to be ashamed to take Shame upon himself in sincere Repentance again to return unto the Lord. No Worldly Intrest moved me to this Concern neither am I nor have I been insighted hereunto by any Person or Quaker living The Lord is my Witness I have had a Concern to conceal my Concern of Mind from them until it be Publish'd unto the World And the Author of This in Sincerity hath Christian Love and Good Will and Christian respect to all Solid and Sincere-hearted People of the Church of England Perswasion and Way as also to all others that do not too much affect Worldly Interest that affects a Christ-like Self-denying State that desireth the Welfare and Happiness of all that can love Enemies that like Christ our Lord who came to do good unto all even unto the Rebellious that when his Persecutors were Crucifying of him to Death he cryed Father forgive them they know not what they do He did not cry for Fire to come down to destroy his Persecutors but submitted his Will unto his Father's Will which he came into the World to do to dye for Sinners for the Rebellious that thro' him and what he suffer'd for lost Man lost Man might be redeem'd unto God out of the fallen State So in the tender Love of Almighty God with which he is waiting to do the Sons of Men his Creation good withal I bid all to farewel Seeing no necessity for me to subscribe my Name to this Paper I having more than once signified it unto George Keith as likewise my place of Aboad and Calling c. A POSTSCRIPT Friendly Reader AS to the giving this our Adversary and the Adversaries of Truth what they insist upon relating to their Disingenious way of taking Scraps of their Quotations out of our Friend's Books as best suits with his and their Inveterate prejudiced Minds and that also in a bitter persecuting Spirit and Disposition against a peaceable People not only out of divers of our Friend's Writings that are yet living And if they have not already may as they find freedom give a more Sincere Sense than their Opposers have done of what may be objected and unfairly opposed and exposed by their unfair and partial Adversaries Sordid Biassed Disingenious Insinuations And whether it doth not look unfair in These our and the Adversaries of Truth to rake m the Embers of the Dead that are out of the Body divers of them Years since so not in a capacity to Vindicate what was then in their Time and Day upon their Hearts to Write for and on the behalf of that Way and Blessed Truth they in their Day and Time were made Professors and Possessors of on the account of which they underwent great Sufferings and greatly Suffered for Whom we have good Reason to believe are at Rest with the Lord. And whether this to be Pitied and Apostatized Man George Keith is not partial in a high Degree as to these his Quotations when as he himself in those many Years he was amongst the said People I have reason to believe was not without a considerable share in Writing for and vindicating that Truth which I believe he once sincerely and firmly believed that he hath not so much as made one Quotation out of his own Writings when among the said People and notwithstanding his publick owning to have been formerly with them Guilty both in Doctrine and Practice of Error and what is proposed and desired by the Author of this Paper is that the unbiassed and simple-hearted and unwary may not be hurt nor let in a Spirit of prejudice by any means work or endeavour by the endeavours of any poor Envious Bewildered and Darkned Apostate or Apostates who like Esau of old sells their Birth rights for a Mess of Pottage for a little present Worldly Enjoyments a little Worldy Gain c. In which I am assured they cannot have true and lasting Peace to their never-dying poor Souls but Horrour Anguish and Trouble of Mind Heart and Spirit For there is no Peace to the Wicked saith my God Which the Author of this Paper to his unexpressible Sorrow Grief and Anxiety of Spirit hath by woful Experience been acquainted withal Farewel Written in London in the Seventh Month 1700. FINIS