Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	keep_v	know_v	liar_n	2,027	5	11.5863	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40009	A guide to the blind pointed to, or, A true testimony to the light within wherein some men are reproved, others counselled and encouraged, but all (who are ignoranr [sic] of their true guide) directed to the path of life : with a friendly call to all notionists and high professors of religion, in what form soever, to come speedily down from their pinacles, lest they fall into temptation : also some queries to the persecuting ministers of the Church of England / vvritten for the truth sake by T.F.	Förster, Thomas.	1659 (1659)	Wing F1607; ESTC R37821	38,944	95

bore the ears as I may say of the hearers or bring to the Readers remembrance your multitude of Errors Heresies and false Doctrines nor trouble him with a view of all your ungodly practices at once I shall be sparing as hoping you may return from whence you are fallen and repent but shall hereafter if God will propound a few queries unto you whereby you may see your selves in some few particulars of your Doctrine and practice Friends Is preaching for hire and persecution of your Neighbour for conscience-sake to be miantained by Scripture Is throwing men into Gaols and stealing of their Goods to be maintained by the Scriptures Is your taking up the carnal Weapons to defend your Gospel with when your spirituall Weapons will not do to be maintained by Scripture Did Christs Ministers ever rebel against the Civil Magistrate and teach men so to do as many of you have done of late instead of being subject to the higher Powers For my own part I wonder not hereat as knowing that that spirit which at present guides you teacheth rebellion and disobedience as well to God as to man Furthermore You say you are Ministers of the Gospel and yet have perswaded people to believe that the Commandments of God cannot be kept Reader to thee who art of this perswasion with them be but moderate and let me ask thee this question For what end thinkest thou were the Commandments given by God Were they to be read onely or to be painted upon the Steeple-house Walls Will that please the Lord Or were they not given to be kept by his servants who enter into life Hath not the Lord said He will write them upon his peoples hearts never to be blotted out Or can any man be blessed that doth not keep them Tell me Doth any man require that of another which he knows he cannot perform and do And wilt thou make the Lord so hard a Master as to require obedience of man if it were not in his power to give it or that the Lord had not impowered him Friend even as the Serpent beguiled Eve so art thou by blind Guides He drew our first Parents into disobedience by going out to hearken to his subtilty and so left their innocency and thou being now in disobedience he would keep thee there by his evil instruments O take heed of the Serpents brood who say The Commandments of God cannot be kept for they are false prophets that so teach but assure thy self That if ever thou enter into life thou must keep the Commandments David could keep them under the Law and said That the Commandments of the Lord were not grievous My soul saith he hath kept thy Testimonies and I love them exceedingly And again saith he I have done thy Commandments And again he saith I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies Read Psal. 119 166 167 168. Now Friend consider the promise of the Lord concerning his people by the the mouth of his Prophet Zechariah That in the day of the Lord He that is feeble amongst them shall be as David and the house of David shall be as God Zech. 12.8 And as the keeping of the Commandments is the entrance into life so are they pronounced blessed that keep them Rev. 22.14 psal. 119.2 Prov. 8.32 And saith St. John Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandments 1 Joh. 2.3 But he that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him Ver. 4. And again Whatsoever we ask saith he we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things which are pleasing in his sight 1 John 4.22 and he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him Ver. 24. Such then as say that the commandments of God cannot be kept are hereby proved to be Lyars false prophets and deceivers Come out therefore from among them and be thou separate from such unclean men for the lyar shall not enter into the Kingdom nor any unclean or imperfect thing Friends I even tremble to think on your condition who break the Commandments of God and teach men so to do you are so far from the Way the Truth and the Life that unless you speedily repent and turn to the Lord you will have your portion with hypocrites where is weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth for evermore My direction then to you also before it be too late is To own the Light in your consciences and submit to its checks when you are reproved by it and know this That whilst it reproves you for your fins the day of Grace is not yet past nor hath the Lord given over striving with you but when you feel no checks of conscience when you do evil in thought word or deed then be assured your day is past and you are sealed up for destruction I say unto you therefore again Own the Light within you while you have it and take it for your Guide for you are gone a whoring from God and the Spirit of Truth and Holiness you know not O do not any longer abuse this Light this Lamb of God for you will one day find him to be the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah who when his Wrath shall be kindled against you you must be consumed for ever And now to you who say We are the Learned Ministers of England We have the Tongues We have the Originals and we have the many Languages and therefore we are best able to interpret the Scriptures To you I say this That the holy Scriptures are a sealed Book to all that are not taught of God by the Revelation of his spirit which you falsly and ignorantly say is ceased therefore it is that the unlearned Doctors and others the University-men of this age wrest them to their own destruction therefore it is that there are so many Errors Heresies Opinions Sects and divided Judgements amongst you and those who are called Christians Friends if you be ignorant of the true Original of all things to wit the infallible and unerring Spirit of God by which the holy Scriptures were wrote you want the key of true knowledge which should open them unto you and you with all your learning must stay without when the simple whom God teacheth and whom you despise can give you the true meaning and mind of God's Spirit shall enter in Oh! remember that the Jews had the Original Tongues before you and spoke them naturally and more then that they had amongst them the true Original himself even Christ Jesus the Alpha and Omega the first and the last and yet they crucified him and chose a Thief and a Robber before him I wish from my very soul it were not so with you chusing Hebrew Greek Latine and other Tongues before the naked and simple truth of God I say Christ Jesus was to the Jews a stumbling block and to the wise Greeks foolishness So is he this day to

instigated the corrupt Magistrate by the Rage Envy and Malice of this persecuti●g spirit in you both to stock beat mock and most cruelly whip and imprison until death the free-born people of the Na●●on because they could not for conscience sake sat is fie your Lusts and greedy appetites with that Popish Maintenance by Tythes or otherwise because they have spoken to you as they were moved of the Lord in your places of idolatry and false Worship 7 Whether are you not the greatest Opposers of Authority and Disturbers of the publike peace that are in the Nation obstructing the setling of the Common-wealth and Reeping it from being a free Nation when as you take up Arms and carnal Weapons to fight against the civil Magistrate whom in all just things you ought to obey and preach subjection unto 8. Whether is it not the height of ingratitude pride and rebellion in you to kick against your Governors and Feeders and set them at naught who are your supporters in your Trades for filthy lucre Oh ye seed of Evil-doers when will you you see your wickedness against the Lord your true Husband from whom you have gone a whoring and entertained strange Lovers and return to him by true repentance for your many great and crying sins 9. Whether is your Gospel free and without charge as the true Ministers of Christs was and still is or do you no buy it and your abilities to preach at Schools Colledges Universities of Arts Sciences and humane Learning 10. Whether is the incorruptible seed of God in all men yea or nay And 11. Whether is that seed of God in Man sufficient to guide man to his true rest Or is there any thing besides that which can lead man into the path of life and enable him to walk therein 12 With what did the Lord say he would search Jerusalem and where was it 13. Whether is not the Spirit of God in man the Candle of the Lord with which he Will search all men and whether if once it he put out or removed the soul be not left in eternall darknesse 14. Whether if man obey not the Light or Candle of the Lord in him which shews him the evil of his way and judgeth him for a vain thought when nothing else can it will not be his condemnation for ever 15. Whether do you know the word of life in the heart and quickning Spirit within from the dead letter without 16. Whether of these two viz. the writings of the holy men of God and their experiences of God declared unto others or the Spirit it self by which those writings were penned is mans true Guide and infallible Rule to walk by 17. Whether is the quickning and powerful Spirit of God in man by which he became a living soul subjected to a dead letter Or is that which was from Eternity of lesse esteem because it is in man then the thing which hath proceeded from it and in comparison thereof is but as yesterday Oh blush and be ashamed ye Builders of Babel c. that you have refused the Corner stone and Well of life and hewn unto your selves empty cisterns that will hold no water I mean your University-Learning and have prefe red a dead letter before the living word of God 18. Whether do you in deed and in truth own the holy Scriptures If so how comes it to passe that you preach so contrary thereto saying Revelation is ceased And that the Saints cannot be free from sin here That perfection is not attainable in this life And that the Commandments of God cannot be kept And that no man now hath the infallible spirit Can any one of these be proved by Scripture if so make it appear if not stop your mouths and forbear to take the holy name of God into your polluted lips till you have learned the truth as it is in Jesus 19. Whether can man by all his Learning open the holy Scriptures yea or no or can he by all his study pains or humane industry get the true knowledge of God in Jesus Christ 20. Whether is the Knowledge of the whole body of your Divinity sufficient to empower man to conquer the least sin or subdue the smallest corruption in him 21. Whether is the learning of the two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge on whose legs you yet stand necessary for the begetting encreasing or perfecting in the truth the true Disciples of Iesus Christ if not whether are they now employed to a right use 22. What have you to say why the said Universities and all the Colledges therein should not be converted to pious and charitable uses as Hospitals Alms-houses and places to set the poor at work in when as instead of being Universities of Piety they have been places of contention pride idleness ignorance and idolatry 23. Whether are not the two Universities Cages of unclean Birds and of foul and hatefull Spirits when as those who proceed from thence are so infections as to hold forth a necessity of living in pollution whilest they live saying it cannot be otherwise 24. Whether instead of seeking the Kingdome of heaven within you and teaching men so to do Yot do not seek and teach it to be sought without And whether you be not searching into the fallible sayings of old authors and sweeping your University-Libraries and Temples made with hands to find the lost groat which lies hid in your own houses or earthly Tabernacles 25. Whether are not false Teachers the Cause of so many Errors Heresies Sects and divided judgements as are in the Nation and whether it is like to be otherwise whilest false Doctrine is so frequently preached and the Fomenters thereof upheld by a Law 26. Whether do you not take upon you to be Heads of Colledges Churches Congregations and Assemblies and so make many heads and many Masters when as Christ Iesus saith his Spouse or Church is but one and he is the Head thereof 27. Whether do you not as much as in you lies divide the body of Christ by your many Sects and select Societies when as the Saints though many Members are but one body united in Christ 28. Whether in truth and singlenesse of heart can any of you say That the fruits you are known by are love joy peace meekness long sufferance gentlenesse self-denial faith patience temperance moderation and the like or are not your fruits contrary to all these and the root of the first Adam still growing in you 29. Whether have you been born again of the incorruptible seed and are you entred into the Kingdome of heaven where none comes but such as are dead to this world and the friendship thereof or are you not still shut out as unbelievers c 30. Whether are you not those that shut up the Kingdome of heaven against men and neither go in your selves nor suffer others And whether insted of preaching the Gospel and glad tidings of salvation you deny it not and preach down that