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	soul_n	spirit_n	3,987	5	5.1512	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54026	Concerning persecution: which is, the afflicting or punishing that which is good, under the pretence of its being evil. Which practice is contrary to the very nature of mankind (so far as it is drawn out of the corruption and depravation) which would be good and do good, and have good cherished, and evil suppressed, both in it self and others. ... Yet this unhappy error will always be committed in nations and governments, until the proper right and just liberty of men's consciences be discerned, acknowledged and allowed. Likewise, there are some answers given to that common objection, against affording conscience in its due liberty, because evil persons may pretend conscience to escape the just punishment of their evil deeds. With a brief account of that supposed stubbornes, which by man is objected against the people called Quakers. ... By Isaac Penington the younger.	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1661 (1661)	Wing P1156; ESTC R214723	23,798	32

being and inward state of the true Church and instead thereof set up an earthly Image agreeable to the earthly spirit in Nations but burthensom to that which is innocent pure and spiritual The Lord God suffered this to stand all it s allotted time and to have power to keep down the Visibility of His Truth and People but the Lord hath appointed a season to raise up his own Building again and to throw down this Image Now this I say to all men in the Fear and Dread of the Almighty Stand still and mark if all the power of man be able to keep down God's spiritual Building which he is raising up or to keep up any part of the earthly Image which He is throwing down The spirit of man in various wayes hath shewed what it judgeth best to have down and to have up and hath put forth its strength to accomplish its will and counsel Stand still a while and ye shall see that the Spirit of the Lord will also shew what He would have down and what He would have up and He will also put forth His strength to accomplish His Will and Counsel It is the Glory and Honour of the Lord to carry on His Work in the midst of all the Oppositions of man and against the full current of his strength and will This will make it to appear to be of God and cause the Glory of his Name to shine O that men could fear the Lord and bow before Him that He might be honoured in them and see good to honour them in the carrying on of His Work and so might not be forced through their hearkening to the dark spirit and because of their ignorance of and disobedience to the Light of his Spirit to get Himself a Name by overturning their strength and Councils and causing his Glory to shine over them We have been a poor oppressed People from the day that the Power of the Lord brake forth upon us and his Light sprang in us even until now And now we are brought lower than ever and are in greater danger to the eye of man than ever Yet our confidence is still in our God and this we are certain of that our Principle and Practices there-from shall stand and man shall not be able to prevail against it for God will preserve his People in his Life and Power and the heads of all that wait upon Him in his Fear shall be lift up above all the swellings of the Waters yea a song of Praise is already prepared in the hearts of God's Chosen against the day of his Deliverance We look not out but give up our backs to the smiter as if their stroaks were never to have an end and yet we wait on our God and hope in Him as if Deliverance were springing up every moment And Oh that God would smite the spirit of Enmity and Darkness in Men and Powers and then there would be Love Peace pursuing after God and Righteousness and no more persecuting and smiting of God's People for the Uprightness of their hearts and for their Obedience and Faithfulness to Him But be it known throughout all the Earth We are the Lord's and we must worship and serve Him He hath redeemed us even all of us in some measure who have known Unity with His living Truth in soul in body and spirit and they must all be His in the first place and cannot bow to man in the least against His Will or contrary to the Law of his pure Life and Leadings of his Spirit in the heart Here is our standing in the strength of our God whatever become of us And here we stand in love and good-will to mankind yea to these present Powers however they judge of us and have been praying for them and mourning over them while they have been smiting of us And when they have drawn the Hand of the Lord upon themselves if the Lord shall please to open their eyes to see what we have been towards them and how fain we would have had them set footing there where they might have stood firm and have been preserved they will bewail as much their dealings with us as what will befall themselves The Lord will manifest all things in his Time and give his Truth a passage in the Earth and his People a quiet habitation therein how black soever the face of things now appear as relating to them O how happy will the Day be when the Lord shall have wrought down the selfish spirit in man and shall have raised up His own Noble and Equal Principle Then shall Righteousness spring up and spread abroad throughout the Nations and the work of Righteousness shall be Peace and the effect of Righteousness Quietness and Assurance for ever THE END

hath power in its hand and is out of fear smiteth with the open fist of wickedness that which is an Enemy to and stands a Witness against its wickedness 6. The Ends of Persecution or what the Persecuting spirit aims at in its Persecuting and would fain attain thereby 1. The main end of Persecution is to bring the Children of Light who have left the Evil Darkness and Corruption of the World back to the World again That which they persecute them for is for leaving the World both in its principle and practices and for professing obedience and subjection to another Spirit That which they drive at in persecuting them is to force them back from under subjection to that Spirit which hath led them out of the World into subjection to the spirit of the World again There is a great fight between the Spirit of God and the spirit of the World in the two Seeds the Spirit of God striving to bring the spirit of the World under and the spirit of the World striving to bring the Spirit of God under This is well known in the heart where the new Birth is witnessed O what striving there is by the powers of Darkness with all manner of secret Temptations and forcible Oppositions so far as the Lord permits to bring the Heart which the Lord hath begun to redeem and in some measure set free from them under their power again And the same that stirs up the Darkness in the Heart against the Seed and Birth of Light there the same stirs up the Darkness in other men against it also The Lord knows what bitter fights we have had with the Enemy in our own Hearts before we could leave our principles paths and practices of Darkness how hard it hath been to us to deny the World and come out of it and yet when the Lord hath conquered and subjected the Darkness in our own hearts in any measure then we meet with a new fight abroad in the World the same Principle and Power in them fighting against us as did at first in our selves And as this was the aim and work of the Power of Darkness in our selves and still is so far as any of it is left in any of us to bring us back under the Darkness again even from the Light and Leadings of the Spirit and from single obedience thereto so it is the aim and endeavour of the same spirit in others And if they could but bring us back from our God into the World again they would be at peace with us as well as with other men and love and cherish us as they do the rest of the World 2. A second End of Persecution in the spirit that persecuteth is to keep the Children of Light from gaining further ground The Kingdom of God and his Truth is of a growing spreading nature It is like Leaven like Salt like the Light of the Morning it 's nature is to leaven to season to overspread and gather Mankind from the Evil from the Darkness from the Corruption from the Death and Destruction Now the spirit of the World and that spirit which ruleth the World is loth to lose ground and therefore hunts and seeks to destroy the Vessels wherein the Light appeareth and from whom it shineth sorth and to make them appear as odious as they may that they may keep all their own Territories and Dominions in a perfect detestation of them and distance from them Thus though the People of God have still been an innocent People and simple as to the subtilty and deceit of the Serpent and weak and foolish in compare with the wise and strong ones in the worldly nature and spirit yet they are still represented as most dangerous most subtile and pernicious as shrewd Deceivers Witches Jesuites c. yea any thing that is hateful and hated 3. A third End of Persecution is to afflict grieve vex disturb and torment those whose Principles and Practices are displeasing to them There is enmity in the nature and spirit of the World against the holy pure Spirit and Seed of God and if it cannot overcome and get its will one way in bringing back yet it will strive to have its will another way even in vexing and afflicting It is the pleasure of hatred or enmity to do any thing which may hurt that against which its hatred is Thus the evil spirit rejoyceth in iniquity in grieving and afflicting that which is good As the Spirit of Love delights in Love and in doing good even to those which persecute so the spirit of enmity delights in hatred and doing evil even in vexing and oppressing those which seek their good because they are not nor cannot be one with them in their dark principles and evil practices 7. The colour or pretence which men put upon their Persecutions of that which is good Persecution is so hateful and hath such a blackness of spirit in it that it cannot endure to appear in its own colour Where is the man that would appear to persecure that which is good in men or men because of their goodness Therefore all Persecutors though they still persecute that which is good and those which are good yet they still represent and charge them as evil that they might thereby hide the badness and unjustness of their Persecutions from their own eyes and from the eyes of others Thus the true Prophets of the Lord were alwayes misrepresented by their Persecutors even as false Prophets as Troublers of Israel as mad men as men not fit to be tolerated in the Kingdom or Commonwealth of Israel see Jer. 29. 26 27. And those which condemned their fore-fathers for persecuting the true Prophets in former dayes yet could also persecute the true Prophets in their own dayes Christ himself when he asked the Jews for which of his good works they stoned him They said Not for a good work or as a good man but for his doing evil for his blasphemy in that he being a man would make himself God Joh. 10 32 33. And the Pharisees did not represent him as a good man as an holy Teacher from God as indeed He was though his Doctrine and Conversation differed very much from theirs but as a Deceiver a Seducer of the People a mean man the son of Joseph the Carpenter one whom none of the wise Scribes owned but only such silly people as knew not the Law Joh. 7. 49. yea as a very bad man as one that was against the Worship and Ordinances of Moses against God's Temple and Priests in his Doctrine and Principles and a prophaner of God's holy Sabbath in his Practices yea more than this they represented Him as a man that had a Devil and when the mighty Power of God appeared in Him they said it was the power of the Devil and that He was able to do such great things beyond them through the help of Beelzebub the Prince of Devils Could the Jews think they did otherwise than

well in desiring such a man as this to be put to death might they not well prefer Barrabas before a man thus represented by their chief Priests and Teachers who knew and could expound the Law and were best able to judge as they might well think both what was the Truth and who were Deceivers 8. The Blessednesse of the Persecuted The Disciple of Christ who is persecuted for Conscience sake who suffers from men and their Laws for the uprightness of his heart towards and for his obedience unto Christ that man is precious in the eye of Christ and hath his blessing with Him yea the more men disesteem and hate him upon this account the greater is his blessedness Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of Evil against you falsly for my sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad Matth. 5. 11 12. He is blessed in several respects 1. That man is in that Spirit and in that way which God hath chosen and so he is in a happy state and condition at present He is in the path of Life in the way of Peace under the Leadings of God's Spirit The World loveth and cherisheth that which is its own that which is of it and walketh with it but is at enmity and war with that which is of God Therefore the World's Dislike Enmity and Persecution is an evidence of God's choice and of a Removal from it towards God It is an happy thing in the eye of man to be at unity with the World to have the love and friendship thereof to have all men speak well of one to be found doing that which is pleasing in the eye of the World and to be enjoying the pleasures and profits thereof but in the eye of God it is happy to be in unity with that which is contrary to the World and procureth its ill-will Love not the World neither the things that are in the World If any man love the World the love of the Father which begetteth out of the World is not in him But he that loseth the love of the World for the Principle of God and his subjection thereto is in that which the Father loveth and feeleth the Love of the Father opened in him and revealed to him and this is truly an happy state 2. The Recompence which God will give to them in the World to come who cleave to Him and his Truth for all the Persecutions which they endure in this World for his Truth 's sake is exceeding great Great is your Reward in Heaven Mat. 5. 14. Our light Affliction which is but for a moment but at most for the time of this world worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. 3. The Reward is great in this world also There is an hundred fold Recompence to be reaped in this life The Peace of God in the Conscience the Presence of God the Life of God the Vertue of God the Glory of the Spirit of God which accompanieth resteth with and abideth on the heart which is faithful and waiteth upon God for Patience Meekness Innocency and Strength to carry through the Sufferings may well be valued at above an hundred fold Income and Recompence for all the Hardships and Tribusations which are undergone for his Name-sake If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of Glory and of God resteth upon you 1 Pet. 4. 14. 9. The grievous misery of the Persecutors It is a miserable thing to be deceived about that which is good to put Good for evil Light for darkness Sweet for bitter and so under a mistake at least become a Persecutor of the good All good is of God and he that is against good is against God and it is a dreadful thing for the creature to set himself in battel against his Creator and to engage the Power and Wrath of the Omnipotent One against him though while the eye is shut it doth not appear to men either that they are against God or that their danger is so great thereby as indeed it is The Children of God are as the Apple of his Eye Who can touch them and He not be deeply sensible yea and they are most dear to God in that for which the World most persecutes them And therefore their danger and misery must needs be great which may further appear in these three respects 1. In respect of the weight of Wrath which their Persecutions of others here will bring upon themselves in the world to come Then every hard word with every thing they have done against any Lamb of Christ's shall come upon them There is a time of Judgment for all that is sowed in this world and then every one shall reap what he hath sowed And if he that hath not visited the sick and imprisoned for Christ's sake shall hear that sentence Go ye our sed c. what will his portion be who hath imprisoned them and caused their sickness Now is our time of trouble but the Lord hath prepared a day of rest for that Spirit which is troubled in this world by the spirit of this world and then shall the troublesom spirit which troubled the peaceable Spirit and would give it no rest in its following and obeying the Lord be troubled by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Thess 1. 6 7. And what shall the misery of that spirit be whom the Spirit of the Lord troubleth and filleth with anguish and torments in his Fire and with his Brimstone Oh that men would awaken and consider in time and not fell away their everlasting Inheritance for a mess of Vanity and transitory Lusts and Pleasures 2. The hand of God doth often overtake them in this world and the Lord doth many times curse their very Blessings to them insomuch as they cannot enjoy this world with that sweetness and content they might were it not for the rage and bitterness of their spirits against God's People and their provoking of God against them thereby How many of his own People did Pharoah lose and how did he break the strength and glory of his Kingdom by persecuting God's Israel of old How did Amalek cause his name to be rooted out from under Heaven How did the Nations and mighty Powers of the Earth fall upon this account one after another And in this Nation how many Powers have already fallen thereby Jerusalem is a burthensome stone it was so in the type it is much more so in the substance which lyes in the way of every earthly spirit and power which they know not how to build with neither can they rear up their own building because of it and therefore every Power strives to remove it out of their way but they know not the weight of it nor who it is that hath squared it nor how firm it is fixed upon the Rock The earthly spirit is never to enjoy any true or lasting Peace

being of God and His disposal of things then surely what is truly good in Persons or Nations is of Him and what is of Him His eye is upon He beholdeth the plants which He hath planted in the earth and the plants which the envious one hath planted and He cannot bless that Place that People those Powers that Government where His plants are crushed under a pretence of their not being His and where the evil hature and plants are cherished as if they were the good Therefore he that would not be an enemy to God an enemy to goodness an enemy to himself an enemy to mankind and a friend and promoter of evil let him wait on the Lord for the fear of his Name and Power to be written on his Heart and for a meek righteous frame of spirit c. that he may consider his steps and the reasonings of his mind and not mistake evil for good and good for evil and so persecute men for being and doing that which might it have its course and progress would make the world happy Object But will not this undermine Magistracy and interrupt its punishing of evil-doers if they should be thus tender and considerate For what man cannot pretend Conscience for what he does and if the Magistrate should hearken to every pretence of Conscience the Laws would soon be silent Government at a stand and every one do what they list bringing in all manner of licentiousness and disobedience to Authority under a pretence of Conscience Answ 1. Conscience is of God and tenderness and conscienciousness towards Him is necessary to the receiving of His pure fear and towards the springing up and growth of all good in the heart The Seed of good is tender and if it be not received into tender and well-prepared earth but into thorny stony or high-way ground it cannot grow And it cannot reasonably be supposed to be the intent of God in appointing Governments that ever their Laws or Authority should hurt that tenderness of Conscience wherein his seeds of good are sown 2. It is true The corrupt nature of man which is selfish and seeketh covers for evil may also seek this cover to hide iniquity under and may pretend Conscience when there is no matter of Conscience at all but self-will and self-ends at bottom 3. Notwithstanding this God would not have the true conscienciousness and tenderness in any of His crushed nor can it be done by any Person Authority or Law without provokeing God on the one hand or without injury to such who are so dealt with Viz. Who are punished by man for the exercise of that conscientiousness which is of God and which he requireth and is pleasing to Him 4. It were far better in it self safer for Governours more agreeable to equity and righteous Government and more pleasing to God and good men rather to suffer some by their craft and false covers to escape due punishment then to punish those who by the goodness innocency and righteousness which God hath planted in them are exempted from punishment Yea it were better and much safer to spare many evil men then to punish one good man For mercy and sparing even of offenders is natural to that which is good but severity and punishments are unnatural and but for necessities sake And as for that man who by his subtilty and deceit thus escapes man's hand he wil be no great gainer For God who is above all will be sure to meet with him Yea that Magistrate who spares some evil and evil-doers meerly upon this account lest he should hurt that which is good the Lord will help and bless whereas that Power and Government which wilfully errs herein the Lord may soon cut down And that which errs thus through mistake it being a grievous mistake to cut down the good in stead of the evil the Lord who loveth the good and hateth the evil may easily be provoked against 5. As Government came from God so the righteous execution of it depends upon God Every man needs God's help daily else he may easily erre in his course and Governments and Governours need God's help much more in the many intricacies and perplexities which they often meet with And God is nigh to them in their difficult cases who wait upon him for counsel and direction If the case be knotty yet if God give wisdom hath the Magistrate cause to complain And will not the Lord assist that Magistrate who in his fear waits on him and is not willing to spare the evil and afraid to hurt the good If there were not so much consulting with man's wisdom and policy nor such laying of designs and intents at first as spring from man and not from God but a naked upright waiting on him for instruction who can onely guide the spirit of man aright Governments would not prove so difficult nor the success therein so dangerous A brief Account of that stiffness resolvedness and supposed stubborness which by many is Objected against the People called Quakers Object That the People called Quakers are an innocent and industrious People that they aim at good and might be serviceable and profitable to the Nation in many respects this many believe concerning them and in their hearts wish that the Powers would let them alone and make a trial of them the which they might be the more enclined to do were it not for a certain stiffness which appears in them they being so gined to their Principles and Practices that they will not bend in the least nor so much as meet the Magistrate one jot in any favour he would shew unto them This is such a temper as no Magistrate or Governour can beat and therefore there is a necessity either of banishing or suppressing them out way or other Answ I freely confess that looking upon them with man's eye it may easily appear so to man who cannot see either whence that is or what that is which is wrought in their hearts by God And how can I blame others for judging thus of them when I my self should be liable so to judge if I did so look upon them But yet if I had patience to hear them and to consider the thing in the fear of God watching against that wisdom from which the knowledge of the things of God and the state of his People is hid I see also that there is some ground may appear unto man to let him see that this is not such a stiffness and stubborness of spirit as he judgeth but ariseth from and necessarily accompanieth a true tenderness and conscientiousness towards God which to make the more manifest to such as are willing fairly to consider the thing and know the truth thereof I shall thus demonstrate 1. Stubbornness or such a kind of stiffness and resolvedness ariseth from the strength and corruption of the natural will and earthly wisdom The wisdom which is from above is gentle easie to be entreated and the will which is

created by God is mild and flexible and easie to be led by the least child in the line of goodness And I can truly say this that I never in my whole course and conversation who have long been a Spectator and un-interested person both as relating to the civil state and the various professions of Religion till the power of Truth and presence of God appearing in this People drew my heart after them yea I cannot but say in the singleness of my heart I never met with a more mild gentle flexible-spirited People And he that can reach the ground of the thing cannot but see it to be thus For he that is daily exercised in denying his will and wisdom he on whose back the Lord lays the cross and crucifies him every day his self-will and self-wisdom with all the conceitedness and stiffness which ariseth therefrom must needs be much broken in him 2. In the tenderness and pliableness to good which God begets there is and cannot but be an unbendedness to evil Consider this O ye that are wise In the birth which God begets in the heart in the immortal Seed of life which God hath sown and causeth to spring up in his heritage there is a bowing to God at every appearance of good accompanied with a tenderness gentleness and good will to man But it cannot bow to that which is evil in any man upon the face of the earth Read then this Riddle with a true understanding The tender one cannot yeild the flexible one cannot bow but naturally standeth upright and strait towards God even in every thing it hath learned of him and which he requireth of it Thus in the Apostles days the Christians though meek though sweet though pliable to the Spirit of God and to all good yet could not bow to so much as an appearance of evil any where but shun and avoid it every where And if it were not for this kind of stiffness and unbendedness the Children of God could never be preserved in their departure out of the Worlds Spirit Wayes Worships and Practices but would soon be ensnared and drawn back again by the enticements and subtilties of the worldly nature either in themselves or others 3. A stiffness then I grant an unbendedness I grant but not of the earthly not of the self-wil nor according to the earthly but such as ariseth from Truth in the heart and from tenderness of Spirit towards God such as is begot in His fear preserved by his power and is necessary towards their preservation who are born of Him and called by Him out of the World And if those who are apt and liable to mis-judge of them did but see the sincere desire of their hearts not to offend man but to be subject to the utmost according to the will of God and knew what breathings there are in their hearts to God in relation to the Magistrate and when they appear before Him that they may be preserved in the pure fear and in righteousness and inoffensiveness and how they cannot but refuse to break any of God's commands because He is their Supream Lord and they dare not disobey Him to please man or avoid their own sufferings from man I say if men did see this surely they would not call it stubbornness and self-willedness but a pure subjection and denial of the self-will in God's fear joyned with an holy and humble boldness in His power 4. Let it be equally considered and it will soon be acknowledged That the least thing which God requires the Command being from so great a King upon whom the soul hath so great dependance from whom it hath so great hopes and to whom universal obedience is so due in it self and so profitable to the creature is exceeding weighty and it is impossible for the fear of Him and due tenderness towards His Commands to be preserved without a strict and close giving up the Will to Him and standing in His strength strong and unbended against all temptations provocations allurements and affrightments to the contrary and how easily may men call this stubborness and stiffness But this they receive from God as well as the law of obedience and power to obey and this which men call stubborness flows in upon them from him when they are in the sweetest and meekest frame of spirit most ready to deny themselves and to yield up their own wills to whatsoever is good and righteous and so of God 5. The same thing which is offended at this unbendedness and resolvedness which is wrought and preserved in them by the fear of God calling it by way of reproach stiffness and stubborness I say the very same thing will commend that resolution and stiffness which is taken up in man's wisdom and held in man's will Is it not good to weigh and consider things reasonably and then to chuse and hold fast to those Principles which appear most reasonable what man but will say it is And is it not good to obey and keep to that Light which is higher than Reason which comprehends Reason rectifying and preserving it making it profitable and serviceable to God which made it to the Vessel in which it is and to the rest of the Creation But Wisdom is justified of her Children He that knows not the Principle of the Eternal Light who is not born of it much less by unfeigned obedience and subjection formed into it he cannot justifie it in his Paths but he justifies the earthly wisdom and reason of man by it setting up appearances of Good instead of Good and would make all acknowledge and bow to them as Good whereas that which is indeed acquainted with the Good living in the Principle thereof cannot bow to the false Appearance but only to the Truth it self When man's spirit and wisdom is wearied out of all its paths and he broken with the misery which will certainly overtake him therein at last the Path of God will be welcome to him and that Principle which through the operation of God is able to rectifie him and make him happy There hath long been a Peace and Prosperity throughout the world in Unrighteousness but the season is at length come for the breaking thereof and now there is not to be such a setled false Peace in Unrighteousness any longer but Tribulation Anguish and Destruction is coming upon the selfish and unjust spirit and he that refuseth the Path of Righteousness must not know Peace but be overtaken with the over-flowing scourge and swept into and shut up in the pit which hath long been digging for the wicked Psal 94. 13. and mark this thing following ye that would not find your selves deceived of your souls hereafter nor of your outward Peace and Prosperity here for it deeply concerns both The Spirit of the Lord once raised up a spiritual building which the spirit of the Dragon overturned as to its outward state though the gates of Hell could not prevail against the