Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A64259
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Baxter's book entitul'd The cure of church-divisions answer'd & confuted and he prov'd to be a physitian of no value who hath manifested his folly and weakness in undertaking a work which he hath so little understanding in / by Thomas Taylor.
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Taylor, Thomas, 1618-1682.
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1671
(1671)
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Wing T579; ESTC R26282
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49,732
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64
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a thing that will do no good because it is a vain Command and maketh men spend that time in vain and yet be the Subject's duty to do it Answ. This is just such Doctrine as Paul's Enemies taught who said Men might do evil that good might come of it whose Condemnation was just So to avoid Sufferings from men he would have us to obey Unlawfull Commands which will do no good but rather a great Evil to wit make People spend pretious Time in vain Away with such Antichristian stuff amongst the Heathen for all true Christians abhor it in their Hearts as the Lord the good Shepheard hath commanded them And now R. Baxter to that part of thy feigned Prayer Pag. 252. where in words thou seemest to desire That God would stir up some faithful Friend to tell thee with convincing Evidence where it is that thou hast miscarried that contrition may prepare thee for the Peace of Remission Here the Lord hath contrary to thy will and desire stirred up one in faithfulness and love to thy Soul and the Souls of the poor deluded People whom thou hast deceived to tell thee plainly of thy faults and grievous miscarriages as by what is convincingly in these Lines set down doth appear and might be more abundantly if all the miscarrages in this Book onely to let pass all thy other were answered unto in particular but these in this Answer of mine being as it were least of what the rest are may satisfie at present And Oh that the Righteous Judgments of God may come upon thy Heart and the Hearts of all them who are in the same false fleshly confidence with thy self whose very Prayers are not without sin that you may never have peace day nor night until you humble your selves before the Lord and repent of all your hard Speeches and evil Deeds that you have spoken and done against him and his Servants for his Truth 's sake that if it be possible you may be saved from the wrath that will certainly come upon you if you Repent not for that old wicked Paper full of Lyes as I made manifest before thee and some of thy Company in thy Study to thy shame at Kidderminster which thou writst in the pride of thy Heart against us in Oliver's dayes when thou wast lifted up Entituled Reasons to perswade why no reasonable Man can be a Quaker amongst the rest of that kind which thou art not humbled for to this day as I perceive by this Book do all stand upon Record before the Lord the Righteous Judge against thee for in those thy doings and all of that kind against the manifest and manifold Appearances of Christ in his People of every degree thou hast plainly declared thy self to be of Rabshekaie's spirit who raised against the Living God and his dispised Israel and of that spirit that Jannes and Jambres who withstood Moses in his work under God of calling Israel out of Egypt and as the Lord pleaded the Cause of his People in those dayes so will he as he hath for ever plead our Innocent Cause against thee and all his Enemies for of a truth the Lord God blessed for ever hath raised us up to be his Servants Sons and Daughters to bear his Name in Righteousness before the Children of men in a pure holy Witness against all the false Ways and Worships of false man so be it and so it will be as hard for thee and all to kick against the Pricks as it was in persecuting Saul Acts 9. read and consider lest the day pass over you as it did from the unbelieving Jewes who would not receive God come and manifest in flesh in those days to whom Christ said Ye will not come to me that ye might have Life but they would seek it in the killing Letter and as it were by the works of the Law until midnight darkness and utter Desolation came upon them For Oh how the Earth is filled with Violence because of such Doctrines and Teachings as this Baxter and such men brings forth for behold how the Field of his Followers and Admirers are all over-grown with Briers and Thorns and noysom Weeds as the proper Fruit of their accursed Doctrines as this Baxter himself sets down in his 48th Direction Pag. 236. of his Book in these words that is to say Oh Friends how bad are we our selves What pride is in our Hearts What Ignorance in our Minds So wanting are we even in the lowest Grace Humility that we have scarce enough to make us take patiently as now we are giving out upon others So selfish as dishonoureth our Profession with the brand of contradictedness and partiallity So weak that our Duties are lyable to greater censures then we can bear And our inward Graces weaker then our outward Duties This must needs be so in the Duties of the graceless Minister thou pleads for of such ungoverned thoughts that Confusion and Tumult instead of Order and fruitfull Improvement are the daily temper and imployment of our Immaginations This must needs be so in you that live in such opposition to the Life of God manifest in his Children at this day So passionate impatient and corrupt that we are a trouble to our selves and others This must needs proceed from such a corrupt Fountain and a dishonour to the Gospel it is so and a hinderance to the conversion of those whom our holy examplary lives should win to God So strange to Heaven as if we had never well believed it that is so and therefore the Sheep of Christ deny your voyce you who are such Strangers to him And to say all in one so empty of love to our dear Redeemer and to the God of love that our Hearts lie vacant to entertain the love of worldly Vanities ye Hypocrites what have you to do to name Christ who are thus unbelieving and unredeemed and to fly back from the serious thoughts of God which should be our daily work and pleasure and fly from the face of Death as if we should be the worst when neerest to our God Oh Hypocrites how can you for shame call God yours when you are thus beyond measure bad when Scripture saith He that saith he knows God and keeps not his Commandments is a Lyar and the Truth is not in him see 1 Joh. 2.4 and repent lest ye all perish together Priests and People for the Lord is arisen to Judgment and none can stand before him which hath unclean and filthy Garments as you are covered with whom Baxter here puts on to be Teachers of others and yet remain your selves with him under such woful sins and condemnation as is here spoken of But surely if you did believe and feel inwardly that it were so bad with you as here in words is signified you could not go away so lightly with your burdens as you seem to do but it would stop your mouthes and cause all your Pride and Glory to cease For consider but the
Baxter's Book Entitul'd The Cure of Church-Divisions ANSWER'D CONFUTED And he prov'd to be a Physitian of NO VALUE Who hath manifested his Folly and Weakness in undertaking a Work which he hath so little Understanding in By Thomas Taylor For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to Covetousness c. They have Heal'd also the Hurt of the Daughter of my People with sweet words saying Peace Peace when there is no Peace Jer. 6.13 14. But ye are Forgers of Lyes ye are all Physitians of no Value Job 13.4 Printed in the Year 1671. Baxter's Book Entitul'd The Cure of Church-Divisions ANSWER'D CONFUTED RICHARD BAXTER a man who through a shew of Learning and Religion had gotten in Oliver Crumwel's dayes a great esteem in the minds of the ignorantly Zealous Professors of Religion in this Nation and especially in the parts of Worcester-shire about Kidderminster where he then resided hath since the change of the Times and coming in of the Old Common-prayer-Book again much manifested his Nakedness Confusion and Unsoundness to every Eye that in any measure is open to see the difference of Truth and Error in the ground of it as by his works appear and that it is so amongst other things that Book of his falsly call'd The Cure of Church-Divisions which I have now under-hand to answer doth plainly manifest For instead of curing Divisions he hath shew'd himself to be a Physitian of no value so instead of curing hath struck at under a Judas Kiss of Unity Concord the very Life and Foundation of all true Christian Unity and Amity to wit The Free and Perfect Teachings and Gifts and Work of the Spirit of Truth the Spirit of the Father and Son in his believing Members whereby they cry in a spotless Mind Abba Father and freely and powerfully declare the Glory of his Kingdom to the Children of Men and instead thereof would bring in and establish that Soul-deceiving and Church-dividing doctrine of Humane Learning and Humane Helps as absolutely necessary to the procuring and engaging as it were the Holy unlimited God to give unto the Creature his holy Spirit and the Knowledge of the Mysteries of his Eternal Will and Kingdom for the same as in Answer to an Objection in the 6th page of his Book in his first Direction so call'd is to be seen The Objection against his carnal Reasonings for Old Men's knowledge is in pag. 5. where he saith I know those that I have to do with will say That Divinity is not learn't by Labour and Men's-teaching as other Sciences and Arts are but by Teaching I add yea and most free Gift of the Spirit of God and therefore the Youngest may have as much of it as the Eldest And to this R. B. there thus answers Answ. There is some Truth saith he and some Falshood and much Confusion in this Objection Reply But O the Darkness ye◠rather Enmity that is in Baxter's heart against the free Teaching of God's Spirit that he would find any thing against so plain and manifest Truth as is in this Objection But what will not Flesh do that is lifted up with Conceits of his own wisdom to keep up its Honour before the people rather then the Pure Undoubted Truth of the Gospel and Self-abasing Spirit of Truth should Raign and have the Preheminence But let us hear how this R.B. proves that that there is either 〈◊〉 or Confusion in the Objection It is true saith he that the saving Knowledge of Divinity must be taught by the Spirit of God but it is false that Labour and Humane Teaching are not the Means which must be us'd by them who will have the Teaching of the Spirit But to this I say That a Child of Light in the least Measure doth easily see the Falshood of that spirit by which this R.B. is acted in this his answer For the wind of the Spirit bloweth where it listeth and thou hear'st the sound thereof thou natural Man but neither knows whence it comes nor whither it goes so is every one that 's born of God And without this Birth all thy knowledge is damning not saving John 3.7 8. c. And Job 32.7 8. I said dayes should Speak and multitude of years should Teach Wisdom but there is a Spirit in man and the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth them Understanding And saith God It shall come to pass in the last dayes that I will pour out my Spirit upon all Flesh and they shall all know me from the least to the greatest yea and Young-men shall see Visions and Servants and Hand-maids shall Prophesie and ye have receiv'd an Unction from the Holy One and ye know all things saith the Apostle John and ye need not that any man teach you This is the Day of the Lord wherein these things are fulfill'd prais'd be God And the new Covenant aboundantly witness'd in the Children of Light whom this wicked Book of Baxter's strikes at but his Wickedness turns upon his own Pate and his own Inquities shall slay him For he by his carnal Wisdom would darken Knowledge and shut the Kingdom of Heaven against men as his Predecessors of old the Pharisees mention'd Mat. 23. did But the Lord hath open'd a Door to the Believing Souls this Day which all the powers of Darkness shall never be able to shut Glory to his Name forever But what is that Labour and Humane Means that People must use for getting the Spirit of God or saving Knowledge of Divinity as he calls it Is it tumbling over a Ruck of Books stuffed with art and Humane Wisdom or Learning from below as this R.B. hath long done to the darkning of his Heart from the Knowledge of God and Way of his Spirit so that he knows nothing of it after all his long lost labour but what he knows naturally as a bruit Beast and that 's plain for it sanctifies him not as by his confessing That his best Duties even his Prayers are not without sin and affirming that no man prayes without sin as in his Book is to be seen page 195 and in his Preface And so the Prayer of Faith and Preaching by the Spirit he is ignorant of yea Preaching by the Spirit is become a Mock and a Derision to him and his Brethren at this day but Paul and all the Ministers of Christ Magnifie the Free Grace and Infinite Gift of the Spirit of God according to that 2 Cor. 3. Saying Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think a good Thought but our Ability is of God who hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter kills but the Spirit gives Life And that which the Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor hath entred into the Heart of man or Humane Heart to conceive hath God reveal'd to us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the Deep Things of