Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	leave_v	zeal_n	zealous_a	13	3	8.6489	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30538	A returne to the ministers of London by way of answer to their seasonable exhortations, (so called) directed to their congregations : with sober reproof sent unto them, because of their secret smitings against the despised people called Quakers, whom they have secretly reproached in their said exhortation ... / by E.B.	Burrough, Edward, 1634-1662.	1660 (1660)	Wing B6021; ESTC R22000	22,747	32

be troubled that any should speak to you or ask you a question or exhort you to repent if any out of good conscience query with you concerning your practise and Doctrine and if any exhort to good and cry against evil amongst you this you call interrupting of you in your Ministerial duty and to prison houses of Correction and to Whips and Stocks must such go which was never the Apostles practise never was any sent to prison for opposing of them and what if the Ministers of England be called Hirelings and false Prophets and greedy dumb dogs the practise of some of them doth prove it that they are so these things you must bear as coming deservedly and not unjustly upon you for the servants of the Lord in all Ages ever cried against deceivers and false Prophets and called them deceivers and greedy dumb dogs and Serpents and vipers and evil beasts and slow bellies these names and terms did Christ the Apostles and Prophets use unto such as are some of the Ministery of this Nation and not with revilings and reproachings but with the Spirit of Authority from God that reproves the wickedness of Prophets Teachers and people and tell me have not some of you sued men at the Law and cast them into prison in this City because they would not give you money and tythes and hire though such as have not heard you nor received you as Ministers not received any thing from you and such as you did never any work for have you sought wages from and caused them to be imprisoned that would not give you And tell me in good earnest can any less be said of such who thus walk but that they are insatiable hirelings and as bad as Baals Priests and even cheaters and greedy dumb dogs let the Witness in your own consciences answer and you shall have a reply Now I come to your third particular which is other causes and symptomes of Gods wrath hanging over your heads the frequent disappointment from time to time of all hopes of coming to any settlement in Government in the Nation occasioned by strange confusions which is a clear evidence that God hath in displeasure darkened our eyes and bid counsel from us say you Answ. It is very true that from time to time of late daies the Lord hath disappointed the purposes of men even concerning settling of Government and there hath been almost strange confusions in changes but to what can this be attributed Have not your fins been as great a cause of it as any others And have not you and your Generation been the Councellors in all these matters Was not some of you or your Brethren in Olivers daies and in Richards daies and in the Armies daies and in the Parliaments daies and are not you and your Brethren busie at this day in ordering a settlement of Government in this Nation But the Lord hath hitherto disappointed you and them that you have counselled and broken you into confusion and distraction and turned backwards even the proceedings of Rulers and Teachers and the spirit of deep sleep and of slumber is powred upon you all and the vision of these things is as a sealed book unto you even because of Gods displeasure against you and in that you say your eyes are darkned and counsel is hid from you in that you say true though to your own shame And what trust can be put in such Watchmen What confidence can be placed by your people in you when as you acknowledge that your eyes are darkned and counsel is hid from you the Scriptures mentioned by you doth prove there was darkness upon the Land but Isaiah doth not say nor David that counsel was hid from them or that their eyes were darkned neither did ever the Apostles say so but witnessed that the Lord was their light and in him their eyes were opened and counsel was revealed to them Secondly You say This sadly presages of unchurching the Nation or the departing of the glory of God from you Answ. By unchurching the Nation I suppose you mean making the Church no Church which if this can be done then the Gates of hell may prevail against the Church contrary to the words of Christ who said the Gates of Hell should not prevail but I must tell you the Nation of England as to the general part of it hath been long and yet is unchurched that is ungathered by the Eternal Spirit into the true fellowship in the Body of Christ for the night of Apostacy and Darkness hath been over the world since the Apostles daies and over this Nation in particular and your Churches hath been no true Churches nor the people under your Ministry truly joyned and united in true Church Order and under true Church Government though I do not say but that there are thousands of sincere people that loves the Lord yet remaining among you and the day of the Lord is appearing which will confound the Whore the false Church which hath been set up in this Nation and through the world and Assemblies which hath had the name of the Churches of Christ will be found to be otherwise in the judgement of the Lord and all the false Ordinances Practises and Ministers must be thrown down that the glory of the Lord may again appear Further you seem to charge your selves with leaving your first love and former zeal for the truth and worship of God but the present coldness and indifferency in the things of God together with your barrenness and unanswerable walking to the Gospel of Christ c. say you Answ. Though to your own shame yet I do believe this is truly acknowledged that you have lost your first love and zeal which once was in you in the daies when you were persecuted under the Bishops you were full of love and zeal for the truth and worship of God according as it was made manifest and then you were sufferers your selves but now you are causers of others to suffer and there is indeed much coldness and dryness and barrenness amongst you and your people I do truly desire you may repent you thereof that if so be the Lord may heal you and your walking indeed is unanswerable to the Gospel of Christ to wit your taking of tythes and so much by the year for preaching and suing people at the Law that will not give you wages though you do no work for them these with many other things which you practise is an unanswerable walking to the Gospel of Christ and seeing you have confessed your sius in some measure repent and sin no more that your iniquities may be blotted out Again you complain of the prevalency of Atheisme and doting upon error endless separations common ignorance unbelief prophaneness the prejudice against wholesome doctrine and all order of discipline in the Church and many other confusions are upon us say you Answ. Alas So it is but where is the blame Oh you Watchmen Should not you

and learn the fear of the Lord Oh that every one of them would consider and turn from their iniquities and become followers of Iesus Christ then should the glory of the Lord be revealed unto them and peace and truth and righteousnesse should be unto them and their Families and their City if they would come into Covenant with God and he taught of him and be exercised by his Law in their hearts then should the countenance of the Lord be upon them and then should they discern between truth and error between the Ministers of Christ and Deceivers Oh! there is a pity for many poor people which are zealous in their way of Religion without knowledge and they think they do God good service while yet their consciences are not exercised by the Spirit of the Lord but a false spirit that rules and leads and many holds the truth in unrighteousnesse and they know not but they do well Oh that such would consider and not be hasty in any thing to performe or professe Religion in their degenerate estate but that they would come to know the Regeneration and the renewing of their minds by the Holy Spirit and that the Immortal Birth might be born in them even the Birth of the Spirit which is Heir of God Oh that that might live and rule in them then should they be Heirs of God and Citizens of the New Ierusalem And oh ye people of London lay it to heart you must be born again or else you can never enter into Gods Kingdome you must be changed in nature and must be crucified to this world that you may live unto God this must you come unto or else you have no part nor portion in eternal life all your duties and performances in your forms of Religion they cannot save you nor justifie you all your preaching praying singing and all your duties whatsoever they are all nothing till you come to know changing and renewing inwardly and do witness the Seed of God raised up in you and the head of the Serpent bruised in you by the Seed of the Woman this must you come to witnesse that your souls may live Oh that you would consider be not so zealous against that which you may call Heresie and Schism for while you erre in judgement you may soon speak evil of truth and persecute it under the name of error many have wofully fallen into that snare and brought sorrow upon themselves thereby The wise Iewes even the chief Priests Scribes and Pharisees they were confident in their way as you can be and yet they erred in judgement and would not receive Christ but persecuted him under the very name of a Deceiver and thus it is possible for many to do in this age What though you have Christs words and the Apostles words yet if you have not the Spirit of Christ that was in the Apostles you know nothing rightly of the Scriptures neither can you understand them nor have Salvation by them for you must know Christ in you your hope of glory else you are reprobates and shut out of the Kingdome of God And search the Scriptures and see if they do not witnesse this Do not they say Christ is in you except you be Reprobates and do not they say The Law of God is written in the heart and the Spirit of God is put in the inward part And do not they say That Christ hath lightened every man that comes into the world with the true light And do not they say that the Apostle exhorts people to hearken to the Word of God in their hearts and to be followers of the Spirit of God that was in their hearts And do not the Scriptures say That it was the light that shined in the heart that gave the knowledge of God unto the Saints Search the Scriptures and see whether these things be so and must not men be born again of the immortal seed Oh consider and let not these doctrines seem new unto you neither reject them though they come unto you in weak appearance not with words of mens wisdome but in simplicity and in sincerity and in the Power of God And search the Scriptures whether these things be so were not they false Prophets that preached for hire and divined for money and sought for their gain from their quarter Were not such deceivers in the true Prophets time and them that preached for filthy lucre and for money and for gifts and rewards were not such false Brethren and false Apostles Search the Scriptures whether these things be so for the day of tryal is now come wherein all must be searched and that Religion and Worship and Ministry which is not according to the Scriptures which was given forth by the Spirit of God let that Religion Worship Church and Ministry be utterly condemned of the Lord and all his people and let such Ministers as cannot prove their call their maintenance and practises to be according to the Scriptures let such Ministers be confounded and silenced for ever and come to try this matter when you will For whereas you cry out against us as if we were deniers of Scriptures as if we were enemies to Church and godly Ministry and Religion and as if we were Deceivers Hereticks Papists c. But I say unto you these things have you never yet justly proved against us but rather accused us behind our backs to make us odious among people and though for divers years together we have been publike yet when did ever any of you Ministers seek by lawful means to convert us or shew us our errors if we were as you say of us oh it had been your time to have sought our conversion and not to have persecuted to have sent to prisons houses of correction and by such weapons of an outward force and cruelty have you dealt with us and not in meeknesse and by the Spirit of the Lord as Ministers of Christ ought to do but hath cried to the Magistrates to defend you and your Church and worship being unable as it were by the Authority of Gods Spirit to defend your selves Therefore I say unto you now lay down your carnal weapons and come out in in the spirit of meeknesse and come out in the Authority of Gods Spirit if you have it convince us thereby if we be in an evil way as you say let us hear your soundest arguments by the Spirit of God and according to the Scriptures to prove those things which you say of us prove it by evident arguments that we deny Scriptures and that we are Hereticks and that we are Papists I challenge you all in the Name of the Lord even all your Ministers of London let us hear your sound reasons openly in the spirit of meeknesse and do not back-bite nor slander in the dark neither let us be bawled against by your rude members as often we have been even in the spirit of wickednesse but come out you Ministers we are willing to be tryed according to the Scriptures and by the Spirit of God in our Religion and in every part of it and if you be the same then come forth in the spirit of meeknesse like Ministers of Christ and lay down your carnal weapons and let us have fair dealing openly that truth may be manifested publikely and errour may be discovered and let us not envy one anothers persons seek to destroy one anothers lives but let us seek to destroy the evil in one another that men might be saved and this would be a Christian-like way we would hear what you have to charge against our Religion by sound arguments in meeknesse that we may answer it and then we will charge something upon your Ministry Church Religion and Worship and we will prove what we say against you according to the Scriptures and we will not impose our Religion upon you by the force of outward Powers and outward Lawes neither would we have you force your Religion Ministry and Church upon us by such means but we will leave the effect of all things to the Spirit of God and come out when you will in such a way as this and this would satisfie thousands and let meeknesse and the fear of God be amongst you and this is the way to exalt Religion and we would think it a happinesse more then otherwise to be joyned in sober debate and dispute against you that you and we in your Religion Church and Ministry and in ours also might be tryed according to the Scriptures that all may be satisfied who are doubtful and may hear your principles and our principles discussed in the presence of the people who may judge by the light and witnesse in their own consciences for to that in all we do appeal and in such a proceeding come forth when you will lay down your carnal weapons and take the weapons of the Spirit and come to the tryal for the day of the Lord is approaching upon all the world THE END