Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	let_v	lord_n	see_v	4,012	5	3.3773	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54023	An answer to that common objection against the Quakers, that they condemn all but themselves with a loving and faithful advertisement to the nation and powers thereof.	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1660 (1660)	Wing P1151; ESTC R18266	7,180	12

AN ANSVVER To that common OBJECTION against the QUAKERS That they condemn all but Themselves With a Loving and Faithful Advertisement to the Nation and Powers thereof OBJECTION IT is commonly Objected against us That we condemn all but our selves all the Protestant Churches Martyrs and Worthies formerly many of whom were valiant Champions against Rome and divers of them sealed their Testimony with their blood and all sorts of Christians and Professors at present who are not just of our stamp and way though otherwise never so zealous and upright-hearted towards God ANSWER The Protestant Churches as they are called in way of distinction from the Church of Rome the blessed Martyrs who suffered for the Testimony of a pure Conscience towards God and all the Worthies of the Lord in their several Generations who fought against that Scarlet Whore were accepted of God in their Testimony against Her and are not disowned by us but dearly owned and honoured therein And for agreeing with them in their testimony in several things as against deriving of a Ministry from Rome which Luther wrote against and Iohn Hus prophesied of another Ministry to arise and against maintaining the Gospel Ministry by Tythes or any other way of forced Maintenance which till Popery grew very strong and powerful was known to have been free and against swearing c. Walter Brute said the perfection of Christian men is not to swear at all because they are so commanded of Christ whose commandment must in no case be broken although that the City of Rome is contrary to this Doctrine of Christ Fox his Acts and Monuments Page 460 461. And see also Page 495. Thorp's testimony both about Tythes and Swearing For these very things and such like as for following of Christ in not receiving or giving that honour which is out of the faith and for testifying against the hypocrisies and corruptions of our age do we suffer in this our day even as they did in their day from the same Spirit that persecuted them which though it hath much changed its form and way of appearance yet still retaineth the same nature But all things were not discovered at once The times were then dark and the light small yet they being faithfull according to what was discovered were pretious in the Lords eyes and what through ignorance they erred in the Lord winked at and overlooked being pleased with that sincerity and simplicity of heart which he had stirred up in them towards himself But if they were now alive in these our daies and should depart from the sincerity which was then in them and oppose the Light of this age they would not then be accepted of the Lord but their former sincerity would be forgotten For the Light shineth more and more towards the perfect day and it is not the owning of the Light as it shone in the foregoing ages which will now commend any man to God but the knowing and subjecting to the Light of the present age Even as in these our dayes there was some years ago an honest zeal and true simplicity stirring in the Puritans especially among the Non-conformists of them which was of the Lord and was very dear to him And had the generations of this age abode there they would have been able to have followed the Lord in every further step and leading of his Spirit But departing from that into some form or other the true simplicity withered and another thing began to live in them and so they setled upon their lees magnifying the form they had chose to themselves till at length their hearts became hardned from the pure fear even to the contracting of a spirit of prophaneness insomuch as they could mock at the next remove and discovery of the Spirit as some new Light so by degrees have grown persecutors of that Spirit in its out-goings in the people of the Lord which they themselves had once some tast of while they were reproached for Puritans And the God of this world who at first tempted them aside into the form hath at length prevailed so far to blind them therewith that they can neither see what spirit they themselves are of nor what spirit it is they persecute Let therefore people consider the truth of the thing as it is before the Lord We do not cast dirt upon any in whom the truth of God hath stirred and appeared in any measure in former ages or in this our age but this we testifie against to wit the setting up of any form without the life and power for it is the erring spirit which still cryeth up the form to keep down the power by the form and so by the help of it to bewitch from the Spirit wherein is the life and not in the form This was the painted Jezabel of the Apostles age false teachers finely dressed up themselves with the form of godliness and then under this cover they could deny the power and make head against it 2 Tim. 3. 5. how easie is it for them who appear in the form of the doctrines of the Gospel in the form of zeal in the form of holiness to pass in a Nation for the true Church and then to asperse them for Heretickes who appearing in the power cannot but deny that form which is without the power This is the great Witch of this age even that spirit of zeal and devotion which is best clothed and decked with the form without the power which though men who judge of the things of God after the flesh justifie admire and much contend for in her several shapes and dresses some being for one some for another yet the Lord is searching after her and will find her out with his eternal flames which will make her manifest and all her lovers shall dread her burning and bed of torment Now as all along the Apostacy this bewitching spirit this spirit which bewitcheth from the power hath crept up under a form of Church worship and holiness so the other Spirit the pure Spirit of life the Spirit of true zeal and fear of the Lord hath still appeared more and more out of the forms Who were the best Preachers and most eminent Christians in the Puritan daies Were they not those who least minded the form then nay indeed who were most against the form and persecuted for their conscientious stumbling at it who were the greatest persecutors then but they who were most zealous for the form both of the government and worship of the Church of England And where is the persecuting spirit next to be looked for but in the forms which should next appear And where likewise is the appearance of the true spirit next to be looked for but in those whom the Lord should raise up to testifie against those forms and to be the succeeding sufferers for their testimony as the Puritans had been foregoing sufferers for their testimony Yet if there be any persons left among any of the forms which