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	spirit_n	world_n	6,961	5	5.3573	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54228	A testimony to the truth of God, as held by the people, called, Quakers being a short vindication of them, from the abuses and misrepresentations often put upon them by envious apostates, and mercenary adversaries.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1699 (1699)	Wing P1380; ESTC R220497	18,332	56

may be bound and his Goods spoiled his Works destroyed and Sin ended according to 1 John 3. 7. For which end says that Beloved Disciple Christ was manifested that all things may become New New Heavens and New Earth in which Righteousness dwells Thus thou wilt come to glorifie God in thy Body and in thy Spirit which are his and live to him and not to thy self Thy Love Joy Worship and Obedience thy Life Conversation and Practice thy Study Mediation and Devotion will be Spiritual For the Father and the Son will make their abode with thee and Christ will manifest himself to thee for the Secrets of the Lord are with them that fear him And an Holy Unction or Anointing have all those which leads them into all Truth and they need not the Teachings of Men They are better Taught being Instructed by the Divine Oracle no bare Hear-say or Traditional Christians but fresh and living Witnesses Those that have seen with their own Eyes and heard with their own Ears and have handled with their own Hands the Word of Life in the divers Operations of it to their Souls Salvation In this they Meet in this they Preach and in this they Pray and Praise Behold the New Covenant fulfilled the Church and Worship of Christ the Great Anointed of God and the Great Anointing of God in his Holy High Priesthood and Offices in his Church XVI Concerning the Resurrection BEcause from the Authority of Holy Scripture as well as right Reason we deny the Resurrection of the same gross and corruptible Body and are neither over Inquisitive nor Critical about what Bodies we shall have at the Resurrection leaving it to the Lord to give us such Bodies as he pleases and with that we are well pleased and satisfied and wish all others were so too From hence we are made not only Deniers of the Resurrection of any Body at all however Spiritual or Glorified but Eternal Rewards too Whereas if it were true as it is notoriously false we were indeed of all Men most Miserable But blessed be God it is so far from being true that we most stedfastly believe that as our Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the Dead by the Power of the Father and was the first Fruits of the Resurrection so every Man in his own Order shall arise they that have done well to the Resurrection of Eternal Life but they that have done Evil to Everlasting Condemnation And because we are a People whose Education hath not afforded us an Accuracy of Language some Passages may perhaps have been mis-express'd or improperly worded as for Instance One of us hath denied in his Book the Soul to be Finite by which he plainly meant Mortal or Final to die or have an end which Finis signifies from whence Finite comes our uncharitable Opposers have concluded we hold the Soul to be Infinite and consequently God Whereas the Words before and after as well as the Nature of the things shews plainly he only meant that it is Eternal and so not Finite that is not Terminable or that which shall come to an end And also because we have not declared our selves about Matters of Faith in the many and Critical Words that Man's Wisdom teacheth but in the Words which the Holy Ghost teacheth we have been esteemed either Ignorant or Equivocal and Unsound Whereas it is really Matter of Conscience to us to deliver our Belief in such Words as the Holy Spirit in Scripture teacheth and if we add more for Illustration it is from an Experience of the Work of the same Spirit in our selves which seems to us the truest way of Expounding Scripture in what concerns Saving Knowledge XVII Concerning Separation c. BEcause we are separated from the publick Communion and Worship it is too generally concluded that we deny the Doctrines received by the Church and consequently introduce a new Religion Whereas we differ least where we are thought to differ most For setting aside some School Terms we hold the Substance of those Doctrines believed by the Church of England as to God Christ Spirit Scripture Repentance Sanctification Remission of Sin Holy Living and the Resurrection of the Just and Unjust to Eternal Rewards and Punishments But that wherein we differ most is about Worship and Conversation and the Inward Qualification of the Soul by the Work of God's Spirit thereon in Pursuance of these good and generally Received Doctrines For 't is the Spirit of God only Convinces and Converts the Soul and makes those that were Dead in Trespasses and Sins and in the Lusts Pleasures and Fashions of this World alive to God that is Sensible of his Mind and Will and of their Duty to do them and brings to know God and his Attributes by the Power of them upon their own Souls and leads to Worship God rightly which is in his Spirit and in Truth with Hearts Sanctified by the Truth which is a living and acceptable Worship and stands in Power not Formality nor in the Traditions and Prescriptions of Men in Synods and Convocations but in the Holy Spirit First in shewing us our real Wants and then in helping our Infirmities with Sighs and Groans and sometimes Words to pray for a suitable supply for which we in our Meetings wait upon God to quicken and prepare us that we may worship him Acceptably and Profitably for they go together Now because we are satisfied that all Worship to God and Exhortations to Men as Praying Praising and Preaching and every other Religious Duty ought to be Spiritually Performed and finding so little of it among Professors of Christianity the Spirit of God having not that Rule and Guidance of them in their Lives and Worship as It ought to have and seeing them too generally satisfied with a Ministry and Worship of Man's making being not qualified nor led by God's Spirit thereunto we cannot find that Comfort and Edification our Souls crave and want under so cold a Ministry and Worship And for this cause and no presumptious Contempt or selfish Separation or worldly Interests are we and stand we at this day a separate People from the Publick Communion and in this we can comfortably Appeal and Recommend our selves to God the great and last Judge of the Acts and Deeds of the Sons of Men. Lastly BEcause at the time of our Friends first appearing in this Age there were a Sect of People newly sprang up and truly called Ranters that were the Reverss to the Quakers for they feared and quaked at nothing but made a mock at Fearing of God and at Sin and at Hell who pretended that Love made Fear needless and that nothing was Sin but to them that thought it so and that none should be Damned at last whose extravagant Practices exactly corresponded with their Evil Principles From hence some ignorantly and too many maliciously involved us and ours with them and many of their Exorbitances were thereby placed to our account tho' without the least Reason

A TESTIMONY TO THE Truth of God As held by the People called QUAKERS BEING A short Vindication of them from the Abuses and Misrepresentations often put upon them by Envious Apostates and Mercenary Adversaries Psal 56 5. Every day they wrest my words All their Thoughts are against me for Evil. The Second Impression London Printed and Sold by T. Sowle in White-Hart-Court in Gracious-Street 1699. READER OCcasion having been given us which we never sought we continue to improve it to the further Explanation and Defence of our so much abused Profession that if possible People may see at least the more Sober and Candid that we are not at that distance from Truth nor so Heterodox in our Principles as we have been by too many either rashly or interestedly Represented But that indeed we hold the Great Truths of Christianity according to the Holy Scriptures and that the Realities of Religion are the Mark we press after and to disabuse and awaken People from their false Hopes and carnal Securities under which they are too apt to Indulge themselves to their Irreparable Loss That by our setting Christian Doctrine in a true Light and reviving and pressing the Necessity of a better Practice They may see the Obligation they are under to redeem their precious Time they have lost by a more careful Employment of that which remains to a better purpose In this short Vindication of our mistaken Principles the Ingenuous Reader may easily discern how Ill we have been treated and what Hardships we have laboured under through the Prejudice of some and the Unreasonable Credulity of others and that we are a People in Earnest for Heaven and in that Way our Blessed Lord hath trod for Us to Glory A TESTIMONY TO THE Truth of God As held by the People called QUAKERS c. BY the Observation we are led to make from Fra. Bugg's late Book upon the Bishop of Norwich's giving him his Recommendatory Letter to the Clergy c. in his Diocess to Relieve by a Collection the Necessities of that Beggerly Apostate a Copy of which Letter the said F. B. hath Published in his said Book And also by the Observation we have made on the malicious Attempts of the Snake in the Grass in his First Second and Third Editions which is a disingenuous and unjust Collection from F. Bugg and some other Deserters of things for the most part long since answered as also lately by the Book Entituled An Antidote c. Though because his Second and Third Edition have some Additions to his first and that being new vamped for a better Market he may expect a Melius inquirendum after a while Yet should we follow the Example of this Rattle-Snake against the Church of which he pretends to be a Member but at present a suspended one we might in Retaliation not only exceed the Cobler of Gloucester but the Scotch Eloquence and that Master-Piece the Ground of the Contempt of the Clergy And Lastly By the Observation we have made on the Relation subscribed by some of the Norfolk-Clergy dated Octob. the 12th 1698. We cannot forbear thinking that as their Confederacy is deep so it aims at nothing less than the Ruine of us and our Posterity by rendring us Blasphemers and Enemies to the Government and to be treated as such The Norfolk-Relation from the Clergy aforesaid charges the said People with Blasphemy First Against God Secondly Against Jesus Christ Thirdly Against the Holy Scriptures with Contempt of Civil Magistracy and the Ordinances which Jesus Christ Instituted viz Baptism by Water and the Lord's Supper by Bread and Wine And Lastly That the Light within as taught by us leaves us without any certain Rule and exposes us to the Blasphemies aforesaid with many others Now because this Charge refers to Doctrine rather than Fact or particular Persons we think our selves concerned to say something in Vindication of our Profession and to wipe off the Dirt thereby intended to be cast upon us in giving our Reader a plain Account of our Principles from the Perversions of our Enemies But to manifest how Uncharitably and Unjustly the said Clergy-Men have Reflected upon the People called Quakers with respect to the said Charge we are contented the Reader goes no further than their own Printed Relation dated Nov. 12. 1698. not doubting but by that very Relation and the Letters therewith Printed he will meet with intire Satisfaction with respect to the Reasonableness and Justness of the Quakers Proceedings in that Affair and how ready they were to come to the Test and to bring the pretended Charge upon the Stage and to Purge themselves from the Guilt of the same Provided they might be accommodated with what the Common Law allows Malefactors viz. a Copy of their Indictment but this could not be obtained And tho' the said Clergy have thought fit to Print the Charge in General without any Proof we think our selves obliged to Vindicate our Profession by freely declaring as now we do without any Mental Reservation our sincere Belief of the very things they most unjustly Charge us with denying I. Concerning GOD. BEcause we declare that God is a God nigh at Hand and that he is according to his Promise become the Teacher of his People by his Spirit in these latter Days and that True Believers are the Temples for him to Walk and Dwell in as the Apostle Teacheth and Experiencing something of the Accomplishment of this Great and Glorious Truth amongst us and having therefore pressed People earnestly to the Knowledge and Injoyment thereof as the Blessing and Glory of the latter Days We have been Ignorantly or Maliciously Represented and Treated as Hereticks and Blasphemers as if we owned no God in Heaven above the Stars and confined the Holy One of Israel to our Beings Whereas we believe him to be the Eternal Incomprehensible Almighty All wise and Omnipresent God Creator and Upholder of all things and that he fills Heaven and Earth and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him yet he saith by the Prophet Isaiah To that Man will I have regard that is poor and of a contrite spirit and which trembles at my word So that for professing that which is the very Marrow of the Christian Religion viz. Emanuel God with us we are represented Blasphemers against that God with whom we leave our innocent and suffering Cause Isaiah 7. 14. 40. 28. 48. 17. 66. 1 2. 2 Cor. 6. 16. Rev. 21. 3. II. Concerning Jesus Christ BEcause we believe that the Word which was made Flesh and dwelt amongst Men and was and is the only Begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased and whom we ought to hear in all things who tasted Death for every Man and Died for Sin that we might Die to Sin is the Great Light of the World and full of Grace and Truth and that he lighteth every Man that cometh into the World and giveth them Grace for

Truth or Justice And because some that were convinced of God's Truth afterwards dishonoured their Profession thro' their Unfaithfulness to it and that some out of weakness perhaps may have improperly worded what they intended to say the whole Body of our Friends have been made Criminal and the Religion or Principles we profess have been condemned and represented to the World as Heresie and Blasphemy an Usage so unjust that doutless according to Lex Tallionis our Adversaries would think it intolerable to be so treated by us But as we desire not to render Evil for Evil our Great Bishop having taught us another Lesson and better Practices so we desire God Almighty to forgive our Causless Enemies for his Son's sake as we most freely and heartily forgive them Believing some may be zealously affected for their Educational Form of Religion and as zealous against us for our Separation and we are the more inclined to judge so because many of us were once in the same way and had such thoughts of those that were gone before us But it hath pleas'd the Father of Mercies to do by many of us as he did by Saul that Zealous though Mistaken Persecutor of the sincere Followers of Jesus Christ Acts 9. 3 4 5 6. For as we heard an unusual Inward but Powerful Voice so we also had a more inward clear and distinguishing Sight by the Illumination of that Light which was more than Natural and shined into our dark and sinful Hearts 2 Cor. 4. 6 7. Letting us see them as they really were in God's sight which naturally affected us with deep Sorrow and true Humiliation making us willing to be any thing he would have us be provided we might have some sense of his Love and Favour towards us And blessed be his Holy and Excellent Name we can without Vanity say generally speaking We were not disobedient to that Heavenly Vision Acts 26. 19. we had of Him our Selves the World and that Profession of Religion where we had our Education And since by that sight God gave us we saw he was Pure and Holy and that without Holiness none ever could or can see him to their Joy and that we were unfit to approach his holy Altar yea the whole World lay in Wickedness and that Profession of Religion where we had our Education was so far from having the Power of Godliness that for the most part it wanted the right Form from such therefore we had a Divine Authority to turn away 2 Tim. 3. 5. Which we did not in a vaunting Mind but with great Sorrow wanting to know where the Great Shepherd of the Sheep sed his Flock Can. 1. 7. For we desired to be not of those that turned aside from the Footsteps of the Flocks of the Companions Nor was it Affectation to Popularity Singularity or Novelty that induc'd us to a Separation but a fervent desire to know the Lord and the Work of his Translating Power upon our Souls being in earnest for Heaven tho' for it we lost all our Earthly Enjoyments Heb. 11. 14 15 16. In this solitary and seeking State it pleased the Lord to meet with us and gather us into Families or Religious Societies according to Psalm 58. 6. And tho' it hath been a dear Separation to us considering it cost us the loss at least of all things and the great Sufferings and Afflictions that have attended us in this despised Way which Men have call'd Heresie yet the Lord hath blessed us in it with the Enjoyment of his Blessed Presence to our unspeakable Joy and Comfort To conclude as it hath pleased the Lord to bless us in the way we have hitherto been helpt to walk in with that great Blessing which ushered in the Birth of our blessed Lord into the World viz. Glory to God Peace on Earth and good Will to Men So we earnestly desire the same upon all our Neighbours For though we may not be all of one Mind in some Doctrinal Parts of Religion we must