Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	scripture_n	speak_v	word_n	9,140	5	4.5911	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54223	The spirit of Alexander the copper-smith lately revived, now justly rebuk'd, or, An answer to a late pamphlet, intituled, The spirit of the hat, or the government of the Quakers in which the confederacy is broken, and the devil's champions defeated / by a true witness of the one way of God, W.P. ; to which are added the testimonies of those persons whose names are chiefly quoted by the author of that pamphlet.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1673 (1673)	Wing P1374; ESTC R21606	19,027	28

think our selves nor Principles much put to it to vindicate these Assertions 1. That we are a Religious Body 2. That we have as such a Power within our selves 3. That by the Power and Spirit of the Eternal God we have condemned as well as justified many Practices 4. That being in Holy Peace and Unity and that Singular Spirit of the Hat getting place with some and secret Rents Divisions and Animosities being like to ensue among us as among the first Christians we did with such other Carriages as were reputed unbecoming the Blessed Gospel condemn that of keeping the Hat on in time of publick Prayer to Almighty God to whom alone from a sensible Mind we perform that Holy and Due Reverence as introduced by a singular Conceited and Deceitful Spirit 5. That the Author of the Spirit of the Hat c. hath resisted many Loving Treaties Serious Invitations and abundance of Good and Wholesom Advice for his own Good and the Church's Peace and because he is not owned in that Practice which should we God's Spirit would disown us in so doing therefore as a Man enraged beyond all Bounds of not only Christianity but Manhood with Folly Madness and desperate Revenge has he endeavour'd our Ruin among Men. Now that here in he has not shown himself the Primitive Quaker and great Lamenter of our Apostacy as he pretendeth may be clearly seen in that he doth endeavour to render the Good as well as Bad among us suspected by those whom he confesseth cannot have that Discerning he hath and consequently their Lives and Ministry ineffectual Next to do it at this time of the Day What greater Demonstration of Implacableness can there be when so many are against us and that as Quakers in any sense yea for owning those Principles he himself asserts their hands are strengthned thereby Lamentation Murder Mercy Revenge our Recovery our utter Destruction and nothing below it must have been sought by that Discourse but it all retorts from our Impenetrable Armour upon himself and he will prove at last only to have discovered his own Nakedness by this Impious Attempt Whence if any thing appears it is this that because he is indeed gone back from what he was and we remain what we were the World that once persecuted him and still doth us count him now a very White Boy and I am perswaded let him but continue to write against us though a pretended Quaker I dare warrant they will reckon him a very Good Christian It is this Sort of Unruly Beast that the Professors who themselves would have cast him out an Hundred times maintain for an Ingenious Quaker though their bare Entertainment of him against us were Ground enough to suppose him either an Imposture or Renegade as indeed he is little better since first he pretends to be that in Religion which he is not And secondly that he is slipt from what he once was or at least pretended to be I will briefly observe the most weighty things of his Libel and which indeed comprehend the Whole and so close this Animad version First That G. Fox should say No Liberty out of the Power which he compares with the Papists thus No Liberty out of the Church What! Liberty to the Sectary No. What! Liberty to the Heretick No. And G. Fox says he thus What! Liberty to the Presbyter No. What! Liberty to the Independents and Baptists No Liberty is in the Truth Upon which he Comments at large But had this Man but one Grain of that great Stock of Righteousness he unjustly pretends to and seems to lament the Absence of among us he would never have dared to suffer this to be so Printed to the World The Truth of the Matter is this G. Fox having an Occasion to speak of Liberty of Conscience said He never liked the Word as commonly us'd for Conscience being an Inward and Spiritual Thing no mortal Man could bind or inthrale it He meddled not at all with the Outward Exercise of Conscience as to the Performance of Worship commonly called Liberty of Conscience wherefore he proceeded No Liberty out of the Power that is The Power of God Nor in reallity is there For all Consciences that are defiled or enslaved by Wicked Works they are not truly free the Power of God has not delivered such into the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God And since those Perswasions Deny Liberty from Sin on this side the Grave at least the immediate Light Power and Spirit of God to work it in the Soul he therefore said What! Liberty to the Presbyterians Independents Baptists c. No. That is What Spiritual Liberty and Freedom of Conscience No for then in vain are we become Quakers as the world calls us And why should they deny a State of Freedom In short He spoke and meant it of an Inward Liberty of Conscience from Sin which is call'd in Scripture Purging the Conscience from Dead Works and If the Truth make you Free c. and this Alexander the Copper-Smith that Vile and Peevish Apostate turns to an outward Exercise of Religious Worship as if G. F. would have had those Professors persecuted by the Civil Magistrate O Base and Wicked Perversion of an Innocent Man's true Words But for all this shall the Eternal Just God bring him to Judgment His next great Cavil is about his pulling off the HAT at Publick Prayer either upon Conviction or the Judgment of the Body wherein he tells us That not only some of us counsell'd or requir'd him to yield because the Body would have it saying That was yielding to the Power But his not so yielding but persisting is no Dissention but our Disowning any Person for that Cause is a Breach of the Great Gospel-Charter of Liberty Let him deny this to be the Strength of his Book if he can or dare and which is as soon blown away as the Chaff before the Wind. There is either such a Thing as a Christian Society sometimes call'd a Visible Body or Church or there is not If there be not all is at an end and why Contend we at all If there be then this Church either has Power or not If no Power then no Church If a Body Church or Society for the Word Church signifies no more borrowed from the Assemblies of the A●●enians then there must be a Power within it self to determine an Anointing to lead into all Truth Deny this and all falls of it self Well but this I suppose will be confessed to The Question then is this But how far may this Church in joyn the Consciences of Individuals any Performance supposing their Dis-like I answer It would be first enquired into Whether those things have been once generally own'd by such a Church or not secondly Or if it be about some super added Ceremony something over and above what each Member at first sate down contented with Now it is manifest that this very Perverse and Quarrelsom Man when he at

Prophaneness but where Men like the Pharisees have a Shew of Religion and their Fury hath eaten out their Moderation insomuch as that they are become Envious and Persecuting such we say are worse then Publicans as saith the Scripture Whoremongers and Adulterers shall enter the Kingdom of God before them But neither is this the Case in hand for he is far less excusable who having walked with Upright People deserts them then those Non-Conformists that were never of them Non-conformity may be Ignorance but Apostacy is wilfull distorting and erring from the Faith Worship and Discipline of the True Church and as a Christian turn'd Turk is observ'd to be most Cruel to the Profession so none so great Enemies to the Poor Quakers as those who have been reputed of them The worst Enemies are those of a Man 's own House 'T was Judas the Disciple that betray'd his Lord and none we hear of did Paul more wrong then Alexander the Copper-Smith Lastly His Judging their Recantations that deny'd their former Acts of Dissention and gave Testimony against them to have been done in an hour of Temptation is a Lye in it self and in him high Incharity and at most but a Begging of the Question I Challenge him to prove it If he can't he is a Belyer of God's Convictions upon the Soul Their profest Sincerity and Brokenness of Heart and Contrition of Spirit had been enough to have Melted any thing but an Adamantine Alexander the Apostate who not only was Bad but we never heard that he proved Good again the Doom I fear of this Perverter of the Right Way of the Lord who will certainly reward him according to his Works But because I design not to be long nor yet to give an Account to the World of our Church-Procedure nor are we oblieged to it for every nameless Accuser let this suffice to show the Baseness and Revenge both of the Author and his Publisher and their great Inconsistency with the Designs of each other and his with sound Reason Scripture and Himself God will Raise the Horn of his Salvation above all their Opposition he will Prosper his Truth Bless his People and Dissipate every Mist that Ignorance Rags or Malice of Ungodly Men may for a time cloud the Beauty of the one or call in question the Unspotted Reputation of the other by and He shall have the Glory whose it is forever I am a Servant to the Truth and them that Love it William Penn. Innocency further Cleared And the Spirit of Alexander the Copper-smith Further Detected Or The Full and Plain Testimonies of those very Persons whose Names are quoted by the Author of the Spirit of the HAT in favour of it which doubtless give the greatest Credit to that Malicious Piece in the Minds of People given forth against the Wicked and Pernicious Design of him that writ it and for the Clearing of God's Truth and People WHereas the Author of the Spirit of the HAT insinuates That our Ministry is guilty of Uncleanness Whoredoms and such like Beastly Practices under a feigned Commendation of us under-written as Prosecutors of such Persons that they may be brought to Judgment We do declare in the Fear of the Everlasting God That though we abhor with our whole Souls such Unrighteous Practices and if such things were we should we hope clear our Consciences for God and his Living Truth and People Yet we do declare in the Uprightness of our Hearts that we know of no such nor can acknowledge any such to be either of our Ministry or our Body much less those who are Eminent among us as hath been Wickedly Suggested by the Author of The Spirit of the Hat whom we have found Painful and Faithful to God his Truth and People Therefore to say we were hindered from bringing them to Judgment whom we never went about to charge neither can we is a Wicked Envious and Palse Suggestion of the Adversaries of the Truth and this in God's Fear we testifie to the World John Bolton Samuel Newton AS for that part of the Bemoaning Letter so called which doth more particularly concern me I observe this That the Author under the specious Shew of Pity and Compassion to the Oppressed doth traduce me as well as others First In setting me in Opposition against John Bolton Next In Insinuating as if I had been so Hipocritical as for Peace sake to Judge that in Publick which I Justified in Private As to the first I say There may be between two of one Judgment through a Mis-understanding of each others Words and Intentions a seeming Opposition and yet really none and so was the Case between J. B. and my self For the Intent of my words and that which answered my Judgment was That it would not recommend any to us to judge a Thing for Evil unless they believed it was so but that every one should be left to God's Witness in their Consciences to Condemn what that condemns and to Justifie what that justifies and not to condemn or justifie barely upon the Motion or Judgment of others which is true and will stand to our Justification against this Slanderer who would introduce That the Tyranny of our Elders is such as to impose upon the Weak and Simple that which they cannot believe But I being mis-apprehended there was an Occasion to call for the Judgment of the Meeting for if my words had extended so far as that nothing was to be accounted an Evil unless the Guilty Party saw it to be so which is the Principle of the Ranters and not of the People of God called Quakers the Zeal of the Lord might well rise against it where it was supposed to be for that would excuse all Scared Consciences who commit Sin with Greediness and drink up Iniquity as an Ox drinks Water But when my Words were repeated and explained and the Intent of my Mind seen and understood J. B. was satisfied and all others as far as I know So it appears that I had no Occasion neither did Condemn that in Publick which I Justified in Private and the False Accusation is cast off and returned upon the Author And herein I must commend the Care of J. B. that he would not have any thing of a Wrong Judgment remain with a Brother And this I have further to add that though latet anguis in herba yet the Snake is seen in the Grass and that this twining Serpent hath no place in my Heart but is forever judged by me as coming from the Bottomless Pit and thither must return and God's Truth is over all Justified and shall spread over the whole Earth to his Glory who has began the Work and will finish it in his Time and these Mists and Fogs that do arise from the Pit cannot darken the Son of Righteousness who is appeared in the Hearts of a Remnant and whose Glory shines and will shine over all to the fulfilling of that which was prophesied of him in Times