Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	know_v	life_n	word_n	4,104	5	3.9680	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54908	The spirit of error, found and discovered, in the accounted pastors and teachers of the island Bermuda, in the VVest-Indies their principles and practice also tryed by the true spirit, and found to be contrary to the Scriptures of truth, and disproved by them, though pleaded for by the strongest arguments, the said teachers could bring forth : in an answer to some queries that were sent unto them, by us called Quakers : which answer was subscribed with all their names hereafter mentioned : their deceit unfolded for the peoples sake of the island / by ... Richard Pinder.	Pinder, Richard, d. 1695.	1660 (1660)	Wing P2264; ESTC R10836	20,271	25

as Pilate had who delivered the Innocent up into the hands of blood-thirsty-men such Nathaniel White as thy Brethren in New-England are whom thou so highly extolls and art a Pastor of their false Church which is of Mystery Babylons off-spring witness their drinking the Saints blood And though thou with thy two Brethren Brown and Burre tell of searching out the true sence of the Scripture by an Allegory of Faith yet we know so long as you live in headiness high-mindedness and love Pleasures more than God and accuse falsly as you many times did us who witnessed against your deceit we know so long as you are such that your minds are corrupt and that you are reprobate cancerning the Faith 2 Tim. 3.8 which was orce delivered to the Saints before Mystery Babylon 2 Tim. 3.4 your Churches Mother brought forth such Children as you are who live in Pleasure sporting your selves in the day-time as Nathaniel White 2 Pet 2.13 witness thy playing at Bowls and yet by New-Englands false Church and Gathered Congregations is accounted a Reverend Divine The Priests say That to say their Preaching is nothing else but the telling people of their own meanings of the Scriptures is an untruth and that we are never able to prove it Answ Are not you the very men that get your living by telling the people your meanings of the Scriptures for do you not deny the Light which Christ hath enlightned every one withall which should reveal the Mystery the Scripture speaks of which is God manifest in the flesh Do you not deny this and tell people Revelation is not to be looked for in these dayes And what do you say it is an untruth to say you give your own meanings of the Scriptures If an untruth how comes it to passe then that you three Priests are not all of one judgment for certainly if you were guided by that Spirit by which the Scriptures were given forth it would inform your Judgment and bring you into oneness of mind but you being enemies unto the Spirit by which the Saints were led you cannot agree in your meanings about the Scriptures though you are made friends and agree in this thing to joyn your strength together against the Truth as Pilate and Herod But formerly have you not been at difference among your selves and are you not so still even about that you call Church-Government and about those things you say are Institutions of Christ your sprinkling of Infants and giving people Bread and Wine which you call a Sacrament which indeed both it and your sprinkling of Infants are from the POPE and ware instituted by him but as for your not agreeing among your selves about these things I need say little and also for your joyning together against the Truth These things I may both leave to them of that Island who fear the Lord to judge of for they take notice of your unstableness and the day is now coming wherein it may be you may be further tryed But all will be that the deceit and rottenness of your hearts may appear unto all that desire truly to fear the Lord that they with speed may turn from following you in your pernicious wayes lest they be destroyed with you for the snare is before you The Priests say again They use the help of Faithful and Orthodox mens Labours whom God hath commanded them to remember and to follow their faith against which way they say we nor any other can except any thing justly Answ We can justly except against and have already excepted against both you and them you account Orthodox mens Labours for are not you of the generation of men who by their Opinions and by them they count Orthodox mens Opinions have set people on heaps like one to destroy another because they are not of the same Opinion with them And hath not this been the work since the Opinions of those you call Orthodox men were cryed up and since you the Merchants of Mystery Babylon told people they must follow the Faith of those you call Orthodox men whose faith you say you are commanded to follow But alas do not they differ in their Opinions as much as you that have not people by adhering to their works which you traded withall been driven into divers Opinions Sects and VVayes and then seek to destroy one another about them and by this are not you and your Brethren found to be they that have caused so much Blood to be shed among them that have the name of Christions And why do you three Priests not tell us where you have a Command from God to follow the Faith of them you call Orthodox men seeing you say you have But doth it not plainly appear by this that you are the men who have erred from the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Acts 15.9 and which the Saints lived in which gave them victory over the world and purified their hearts Eph 2.8 For is not this the Faith which you have received by tradition from those you account Orthodox men That people cannot be free from sin while here upon earth Now if this be the Faith of the Orthodox men which you say you are to follow then we can justly except both against them and you and your Faith for it is not the Faith of Gods Elect for they that were in it witnessed victory over the world through it and were saved from sin by it 1 Ioh 5.4 The Priests say It is a lye to say they do not exhort people to come to the knowledge of the Scriptures as the free gift of God for they say in their Doctrine they declare it as a gift of Grace given to some and not all we exhort them to beg it of God by Prayer and before we preach we pray with them and for them to God that he would bestow the right understanding of his Word upon them and us they say Answ That which gives a true understanding in the Scriptures which you call the Word is the gift of God which is his Grace which hath appeared unto all men Tit. 2.11 And you that deny and would exclude this Grace from having appeared unto all men are setting up your own Doctrines and Commandments received by Tradition and are crying them up and selling them to your hearers for money and though you both preach and pray with them before you preach yet have you not money for your Praying as well as your Preaching And though you exhort people to beg by prayer from God a right understanding of his Word yet have you not money for this Exhortation But Praises be unto the Lord who among His hath manifested his Word of Life to instruct which is nigh them Deut. 30.14 even in their mouths and in their hearts that they may hear it and obey it And such who know the Instructions of the Word which gives Life they deny your Instructions and Exhortations and Preaching and

all and all your Arguments and Comparisons seen to be of no value For consider your last Comparison Every man that is sick knoweth not the ground of his sickness and distemper but the Light which every man is enlightned withall shewes unto him his sin for which sake the Wrath of God cometh and abideth upon him that all may see your Comparison is made in the blindness of your hearts which is filled with the gross Darkness that you cannot compare Spiritual things with Spiritual 1 Cor. 2.14 neither indeed can you natural men who say people are left without excuse by a natural light discern the things of God for they alone are Spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2.14 The Priests say VVe discover much Ignorance when we desire to know what example they have out of the Scriptures for taking Forty Pounds Sallary and two shares of Land a year for preaching For they say Christ and his Apostles had a compleat Maintenance and their Salaries is no more And again the Priests say They are commanded to take pains and to bestow labour to attain ability to discharge their Callings and so have another reason to require Maintenance than they that were Immediately sent and officiated and furnished by the Spirit of God That they say they do not receive it as Alms or Charity from the peoples free-wil but as their due debt That they say they may not onely receive it when it is given to them but also may with a good conscience Sue for it when it is detained Answ As for Ignorance that is in abundance shewed forth in your selves and it doth betray you in that it leads you to utter forth your folly in pleading so for your own covetous ends but do you think that all people are as full of Ignorance and Blindness as your selves that they cannot see your greediness after the earthly things which under a pretence of preaching the Gospel you would hurd up to your selves Was there ever such a generation of Covetous Teachers as you are who under a pretence of preaching the Gospel would gather to your selves if it were in your power all the substance people should live upon And yet say you receive it not as Almes or Charity from the people Nay you say you may Sue for it with a good conscience But may not all see by this that you are the men whose consciences the hot Iron hath seared Oh what unsavouriness and greediness appears amongst you that have pretended to be Preachers of the Gospel of peace unto the people and now tell them If they detain your Salary and Wages you may go to Law with them for it Oh what Nathaniel VVhite Thou that hast been cryed up for a Pastor of a Congregation so long Will the people of Bermuda bring thee no longer their free-will-Offerings which thou once told them was their duty to do Will they not bring thee Gifts and Rewards as they use to do Must thou now go to Law for thy Maintenance Would it not have been thought a strange thing some years ago to have heard such a word from thee as to say thou mightst with a good conscience sue for Wages for preaching Is not the Proverb fulfilled upon thee art thou not turned with the Dog to the Vomit again and thy two Brethren Burre and Brown Where do any of you read that Esay Jeremy Ezekiel Micah or any of the Prophets or Peter or Paul or any of the Apostles told people that they might lawfully go to Law with them if they would not give them so many shares of Land or so much Salary by the year or so much Sugar Indico or Tobacco which many of your Brethren in this West-Indies preach for and go to Law with their Hearers for when they will not pay them it Yea and with them also which never heard them but witnesses against their deceit and covetousness and witnesses Christ the unchangeable Priest who gives them true knowledge who is the end of the first Priest-hood and the Law also by which Tythes was to be paid and so they who witness him sees you that are now speaking of going to Law with people for Maintenance to be a company of greedy Apostates who like Wolves would devour and go to Law with people when for conscience sake they cannot put into your mouths nor feed you with gifts and rewards as thou Nathaniel White hast been by these in Bermuda whom thou hast gathered into thy own Form to follow after thy own Traditions which thou call'st Church-Order and indeed is the Order of New-Englands Church after the Order of which thou wast made a Pastor and though thou hast not partook with them in shedding the Saints blood yet thy envy hath no less appeared than theirs witness thy praying in the hearing of George Rofe That God would open the Magistrates eyes that they might see how they had given leave to have the people seduced That your taking of pains which you three Priests tell of is through envy For you being not immediately called of God nor furnished by his Spirit as you confess you are not your preaching must needs be by your own Inventions through which you can never beget any to God though you can make them Proselytes and Favorites unto you that they will stand up with you in envy against the Truth and so long as they put into your mouths and feed you with gifts and rewards so long you will cry Peace peace but when not then you will prepare War like your Brethren whom Micah the true Prophet cryed against Mich. 3.5 And whereas you say The Prophets Christ and his Apostles had a sufficient Maintenance and your Salaries are no more I charge you all to shew where one of the true Prophets Christ and his Apostles had Forty Pounds Salary and Two shares of Land a year and so much weight of Tabacco as you have that it is but a perverting the Truth to take their words to plead for your own covetous ends And do you not think that they who fear the Lord on that Island takes notice of your covetousness and of thy unstableness Nathaniel White who once pretended a great zeal for holiness and is now turned to sporting and playing with them who when thou hadst a sincerity in thee was thy enemies but now thou being turned from it they can joyn with thee and thou with them in sporting and gaming but dost thou think that they who fear the Lord are not burthened to see such things And dost thou not think that they see such things not to be of God but of the wicked one Who ever rejected the Truth and its Reproofs as you three Priests have done but the Truth is over you which will encrease your torment And whereas you desire all men to take notice of the malice of your Adversaries for questioning you about your Salaries For you say they are paid not by them whom you preach unto but ariseth you say from the devotion

Praying also for they see that you do them all but for your own ends since you have set your selves against the Truth as you three Priests of Bermuda have done who were like a wild Bull in a Net witness your fretting and chafing in your Praying and Preaching when you could not get the Magistrates of that place to satisfie your envious minds to banish us off that Island who came to visit the remnant of Jacobs Seed that it might be gathered from off the tops of the barren Mountains where it long had been scattered into the Fold of Rest and at the fulfilling of this your rage like mad-men appeared The Priests say That they find to their great comfort that the Doctrine of holy Scriptures received by Faith hath power to purge their hearts from the Corruption of Sin and they say it 's often declared by them that they own no other Light of Christ making to see sin to their salvation but this Doctrine contained in the holy Scripture and planted into their hearts by his holy Spirit through hearing and reading of them Answ By this it appeareth that you are them that preach up another Faith than that which was preached to Abraham before the Scriptures were written Gal. 3.8 when Abraham saw the coming of the Just Ones and rejoyced Ioh. 8.58 And the Prophet saith He should sit as a Refiner and Purifier of Silver Mal. 3.3 And Iohn saith He shall throughly purge his floor Luke 3.17 And the Scriptures cannot contain him for he is ascended for above all heavens that he might fill all things Ephes 4.10 This is He the Scripture declares of who was the Author and Finisher of the Saints Faith in whom they believed and had remission of sins and received Life Everlasting according as the Scriptures say And the Spirit of Truth which led them into all Truth was the Saints Comforter and this led them to the fulfilling of what before was written And so they stumbled not at Christ the chief corner-stone as they did that cryed up the Prophets VVritings but were erred from the Spirit by which the Prophets were led and this is your condition who set your selves to scandalize and reproach the LIGHT which Christ hath enlightned every one withal and yet are crying up the Doctrine contained in the Scripture and say it hath power to purge your hearts from the corruption of sin when as alas you believe no such thing as people can be purged wholly from sin in this life And note that so long as sin remaineth it corrupts and so your deceit is seen who tell of being purged from corruption and not from the sin which doth corrupt And Praises be unto the Lord many are come into the Faith by which Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain Heb. 11.4 25. of whose stock all envious men are And the Faith of Abraham is witnessed by which he obeyed the voice of God before the Scriptures were written and faith which Moses was in is witnessed by which he denyed the pleasure of sin which you three Priests are yet found in and though you cry up the Doctrine contained in the Scriptures yet your deceit is seen and your Ignorance discovered who say You know no Light of Christ making to see sin to your salvation but the Doctrine contained in the Scriptures which before I shewed what it was taking a Verse of Scripture and Divining an hour by a Glass from it But all such Doctrine they that spoke forth the Scripture denied and preached Christ the Light and Lamb of God which had been slain from the foundation of the World and preached remission of sins through him who is the Power of God and the Righteousness of God who hath enlightned every one that cometh into the World that through him all might believe And this Light the Saints witnessed to shine in their hearts to give them the Light of the knowledge of the Glory of God And so this Light they preached which in all at first shined in Darkness and reproves for the sin that is brough forth by the Power of Darkness 2 Cor. 6.4 The Priests say That we to wit the Quakers take the Light of Christ for the knowledge of Christ as the Son of God and Saviour of the World Answer He that is the onely begotten Son of God and Saviour of the World hath enlightned every one that cometh into the VVorld and this is he that giveth the knowledge of the Father and this is life eternal to know the Father and him whom he hath sent a Light into the VVorld Joh. 12.36 that they who believed in him should not abide in Darkness Now the Light which cometh from the onely begotten of the Father First sheweth unto people their own darkness to the end that with the Light they may be led out of it that where the Light is believed in and obeyed it manifesteth life which life Redeemeth and Reconcileth unto God as it is known And this is the true and saving knowledge of Christ which we the Quakers bear testimony unto for by his Life the Saints were saved and this Life none know Rom. 5.10 but who come and wait in the Light for the revealing of it that they are the Children which abide in the Darkness who do not believe in the Light which Christ hath enlightned every one that cometh into the World withall and can never come to the knowledge which saveth but are condemned already Iohn 3.18 The Priests say To reason from every one having so much light as leaveth them without excuse therefore they have a Light of Christ or saving Light they say its all alike as if one should prove every sick man hath knowledge to recover himself because he knoweth he is sick Answer Here would you not make it as though people were left without excuse by some other light than the Light of Christ Oye blind Leaders of the blind who are thus fallen into the Pit of darkness Doth not Christ who is the Light and saveth them that believe in him condemn the Unbelievers And would you have him to judge and condemn them for their sin and transgression and that he never enlightned them to let them see what sin and transgression was Oh how you erre in the things of God and in the judgement which is Eternal which is committed unto the Son who hath enlightned every man that cometh into the World And you that are telling of a Light by which people are left without excuse Iohn 9.22 and not from Christ you are they that are setting up another Judge than he and so would pervert the Truth and true judgment which was ever the work of him that is the father of Lyes who did not abide in the Truth whose waies the true Light now discovereth that though you who are filled with his subtilty go about never so many waies to pervert the Truth and true Judgement yet you are discovered in them