Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A53406
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Comfort in affliction, or, Advice to Protestant dissenters in times of persecution together with remarks on the just judgments of God upon this city and land, since the prohibition of the Gospel, by mulcts and penalties / by J.O.
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J. O.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing O4; ESTC R32241
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16,661
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19
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to the Murderers Awaken therefore O. Protestants and English Men out of your deep and dangerous Security and stand upon your feet like Men Ye dead men live again and I will humbly and faithfully advise you as I am able out of very love in a few things 1. My First Advice is that you believe none of their pretended fairness and kindness to you seeing their hearts are wholly against you and their hatred to you is immortal even the hatred of the Devil in the Hearts of Men which is a certain fire of Hell which goes not out by Day or by Night But know for certain when they promise fair they are not to perform any thing but the quite contrary when they seem to kiss you they intend to kill you when they suffer you to be quite 't is that they may bring the greater Trouble upon you when they retreat from the exercise of their fierceness 't is that they return upon you with the greater Fury when you shall less think af it for their whole Trade is Deceit and Violence Though Satan transform himself into an Angel of Light yet still is he is the Prince of Darkness and these his Followers are exactly like him both to deceive and to destroy they will change their Colours like Proteus to deceive you but they will never change their cruel Minds but they that will be deceived let them be deceived 2. My Second Advice is that none either Plot or Attempt any thing against the present Power but that all stand still in their Place and Calling like Wisemen with their Eies in their Head quietly waiting for the Salvation of God For no Mans Hands can help him in this Matter but our strength is to sit still We can no more change Kingdoms and Governments in the World than we can alter the Course of the Sun or Moon in the Heavens but it is the Great God that must do these great things It is the most High God that reigns in the Kingdom of Men and gives them to whomsoever he will And when his time is come the set and full time and the most High shall utter his Voice his instruments shall be at his foot ready to do his work even to execute the Vengeance written and all his mighty Providences shall concur to bring about the Council of his Will Wherefore remember that Mans rashness carrys ruin in it but Patience perfects both Gods Works and Mans. In Patience possess your Souls Wherefore all that we would do if we might be heard by those that are instructed to help at this needful Time is only to desire for the Glory of God and the Nations good and their own these three things 1. That the dear and precious Gospel of our Lord and Saviour may be permitted publiquely to be Preached again in the Purity and Power of it and that the faithful Teachers may be restored to their Ministry throughout the whole Nation For when Jesus Christ who hath all Power in Heaven and Earth given into his hands hath commanded his Ministers to go and teach in all Nations How can you Worldly Powers who have but a little Power in this Nation answer it to him when you forbid that to be done which he hath so solemnly commanded He that hath all Power in Heaven and Earth hath commanded his Ministers to teach his Gospel and dare you who have but a little power on Earth and none at all in Heaven forbid them If you do not repent of and amend this our Evils it had been better for you that you had never been born 2. Our second desire is That all Popish Commanders may be Disbanded and put out of all Office and Trust in a Protestant Nation and that all Papists through England may be disarmed seeing they are not armed for us but against us 3. That all French and Outlandish Men may be banished for they are but Moths in our English Garment to fret it by degrees all to pieces as they have fretted a great deal of it already And what English-man or Protestant is there that will not join with us in these necessary Desires which if they be not granted farewel all Good Days from England for our time And now to conclude all I shall only leave two or three Sovereign Antidotes with my dear Country-Men to preserve them from the noysome Contagion and Plague of Popery 1. Consider with Trembling that none are given up to this Damnable Delusion but those whose Names are not Written in the Lambs Books of Life as the Spirit of God affirms Rev. 13.8 saying And all that dwell upon Earth shall worship him i.e. the Beast or Antichrist of Rome whose Names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World And what Person would carry such a Worm in his Conscience continually for the whole World and all the Kingdoms and Glory of it as to know and certainly to understand that his Name is not written in the Book of Life nor can ever be put in for all the Writings in that Book are from Eternity and no new thing can be inserted in it And therefore let Men say what they will they are none of Gods Elect who close in with this False and Heretical Religion after the Gospel hath been Preached to them and they have been instructed in it For to depart from the known Truth to known Error is not a Sin of Ignorance but of Malice and this is the Sin unto Death for which there is no Remission Wherefore let every one that would attain to any comfortable Assurance that his Name is Written in the Book of Life flee from Popery 2. They that Apostatise to this False Religion are as surely to be Damn'd as if they were in Hell already This is a hard saying but a True One as it is evident in that of Paul 2. Thess 2. where speaking of Antichrist that Wicked One whose coming is after the working of Satan with all Power and Signs and Lying Wonders and with all deceiveableness of Unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved He adds And for this cause God shall send them strong Delusions that they should believe a Lye that they All may be Damn'd that believe not the Truth but have pleasure in Unrighteousness This sort of People God gives them up to believe a Lye the Grand Lye of Popery for this whole Religion is nothing else but one continued Lye from the beginning to the end of it to the intent that they should all Perish and be Damn'd This is the Word of God against all wilful Papists and it cannot be made void John also testifies Rev. 14.9 that an Angel Proclaimed with a loud voice saying If any Man Worship the Beast and his Image and receive his Mark in his Forehead or in his hand the same shall drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God which is
poured out without mixture into the Cup of his Indignation and he shall be tormented with Fire and Brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and the Smoak of their Torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest Day nor Night which Worship the Beast and his Image and whosoever receiveth the Mark of his Name In which Scripture you may see with open face the sad end of all the Popish Generation which is to be tormented for ever and ever Wherefore out of very Malice they have been are and will be our Tormentors here when they get opportunity because the Devil is to be their Tormentor in Hell for ever Wherefore who ever would avoid the Torments of Hell let him fly from Popery 3. Lastly Antichrist is now in his Old Age and draws near his End yea is drawing his last breath He is very shortly to be utterly destroyed with the Spirit of Christs Mouth and the Brightness of his coming And what Wise-Man yea what Man of common reason would join himself to Antichrist for one hour yea for one quarter or minute of his hour If Men might have reigned with him many years and have enjoyed his Delicacies for a long Season then might it have been a strong inducement to a carnal heart who seeks his Portion only in this life to have closed in with him but now to do it when his Destruction draws near what extream Folly and Madness must it needs be Who would venture a Board that Ship which is just a sinking or become a Subject in that Kingdom which is just ready to be rooted up and confident I am through God that after Antichrist and his Brood of Serpents have play'd a few more of their old cruel Pranks anew in England both He and They will become so utterly odious to All that their Name shall be no more remembred among us but with highest Contempt and Indignation and that for ever And let the Lord say Amen and all his People AND now O Lord to whom should we look our Eies are only unto thee And we beseech thee to look down from Heaven the Habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory upon us and upon our present Sad and almost Desperate Condition and stretch forth thy Holy Arm to maintain Thine Own Good Cause which thine Enemies scorn and deride and laugh at among themselves and to help afflicted Righteousness and thine own poor People who are brought very low so that their belly cleaveth even to the dust Indeed Vain is the Help of Man and our Enemies say There is no help for us in God But yet we know there is help in thee and that thy help is never in vain For thou canst do the greatest Things by the smallest Means yea thou canst do the greatest Things without all Means For thou spakest and the World was made thou didst command and it stood fast Therefore our Eies are unto thee O Lord and we do believe that thou canst do all things and can so do them that none can resist thee Is any thing too hard for the Lord shall we call thy Power in Question who didst prepare a safe passage for thy People through the mighty Waters and didst cause them to walk on dry ground through the depths of the Sea Take therefore thy great Power and come and Reign in the midst of these thy greatest Enemies till thou make them All thy Footstool and till thou hast put down all Rule Authority and Power which lifts up its Head and stretcheth forth its Arm against thee O Lord and thy Holy and Blessed Gospel and thine Anointed Oh cause Iniquity to stop its Mouth and Wickedness to hide its face again Let Violence no more be heard in our Land nor Wasting and Destruction within our Borders let the cause of the Fatherless and of the Widows be justly judged Let thy Prisoners be loosed and thine oppressed be eased let them be helped who have no helper Make way with thy strong Arm for thy own Labourers to continue to come to thy Harvest-Work for thy Harvest we trust is very great in England And therefore O Thou into whose hands all Things are delivered of the Father and all Power in Heaven and Earth is given and who by this Greatest and Highest Authority of Thine hast commanded thy Ministers to go and teach all Nations after thou didst send them Oh do thou make way for them to teach this Unworthy Nation before the Coming of the Son of Man that through their ministring thy Word thy Church may awake and rouze up it self and put off its filthy Raiment and may be restored to the Brightness of its first rising when it was full of faith and love and all Graces and Gifts of the Holy Ghost without any mixture of Antichristian Errors that all thy People may strive together for the Faith of the Gospel and not quarrel any longer about empty Forms but may with One Mind and with One Mouth confess the Truth as it is in Jesus and then shall all Kings bow down before thee and all Nations that serve Thee they shall sing forth the Honour of thy Name and make thy Praise Glorious Amen FINIS