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

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A84383	Pseudochristus: or, A true and faithful relation of the grand impostures, horrid blasphemies, abominable practises gross deceits; lately spread abroad and acted in the county of Southampton, by William Frankelin and Mary Gadbury, and their companions. The one most blasphemously professing and asserting himself to be the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God who dyed and was crucified at Jerusalem for the sins of the people of God. The other as wickedly professing and asserting her self to be the Spouse of Christ, called, the Lady Mary, the Queen, and Bride, and Lambs Wife. Together with the visions and revelations, to which they did pretend their ways of deceiving, with the names and actions of sundry persons deceived by them. As also their examinations and confessions before the justices of the peace, their imprisonment, and their tryal before the judg of assize, at the last assize holden at Winchester, March 7. 1649. Published for a publique benefit and warning to every one to take heed to himself, that he be not deceived by the errors and deceits of these present times. / By Humphry Ellis, minister of the word in the city of Winton.	Ellis, Humphrey, d. 1676.	1650 (1650)	Wing E579; Thomason E602_12; ESTC R206414	57,353	63

having left this certain light of the Sun of the Word the Ignes Fatui which they follow never leave them till they have plunged them into some pit or other Greater measure of light and spiritual enjoyment these men usually pretend for this but as the Apostle saith of the Gentiles Rom. 1. Pretending to be wise they became foolish so are these very carnal wherein they pretend to be spiritual and are so discovered to be by the light of the Word in their most spiritual notions by every spiritual Christian that so it may be truly said unto them and of them They have rejected the Word of the Lord and what Wisdom is in them If the consideration of these many sad Examples of Divine Justice upon the Contemners of the Word may not suffice to reclaim those that are already plunged in the guilt of this evil yet I hope they may serve to warn those who are yet free from this contagion especially all the people of God that they take heed how they fall into it and thereby into temptation and the snare of the Devil but rather let this of the Divine Authority Perfection Sufficiency of the Scriptures be as well as the first Principle for the Foundation of our Faith that is learned and received by us which the Apostle Peter directs us to 2 Pet. 1.20 Knowing this first of all That holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and therefore what they spake and is from them recorded in the Scriptures to be of Divine Authority I would put the Emphasis on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Knowing it first of all as if it were that Principle which is first to be received by us So let this Principle be constantly cleaved to that we receive nothing in matters of Faith and Religion but what we have from it For if once we fall from this we fall from all Look not then after new Revelations but hear what the Spirit speaks in the Scripture to the Churches And by this Word of Truth try all things Try the spirits whether they are of God for now are there many false spirits gone abroad into the world Surely they are but deceitful Merchants and such is the ware they bring unto us which they will not endure to be brought to this light to be tryed Cause we have to be very jealous That that silver is reprobate counterfeit drossie which they would obtrude upon us not suffering it to be tryed by this Touchstone To the Law and to the Testimony they who speak not according to this it is because there is no light in them And be as diligent to enquire after the sence as well as words of Scripture lest by the words contrary to the true sence we be deceived From what hath been held out in this Relation may divers receive some warning to themselves in other things besides what are now mentioned First To the persons themselves the Agents and Instruments in this great evil let them consider whence they have fallen and repent Consider the greatness of their sin by the fearful aggravations which it will admit For one to assert himself to be the Christ and others to declare him so to be are they not both guilty of the highest Treason that can be imaginable against the King of Heaven and while they endevor to perswade others to joyn with them in these their evil ways is it not to draw subjects from their allegiance to destroy their Faith and murther their Souls thereby Surely they have preached another Jesus another Gospel then what Paul preached let them therefore consider whether they come not under that Curse which is by him against such denounced Gal. 1.8 9. Cause they have enough with Peter to weep bitterly for this so great an evil and to look up to that Jesus whom they have pierced by whom alone they must be saved from the guilt of that Treason which against him they have committed Let them also take heed they return no more to this or the like folly lest their latter end be worse then their beginning And though I may be likely to incur some displeasure from them for thus publishing their names and actions yet if there be in them any true sight and detestation of these wickednesses wrought in their hearts they will not be much displeased at the publishing of it for the warning of others by their example but be also provoked hereby to make as publique Declaration of their Repentance as publique notice hath been taken of the sin committed by them Many such there are who walk in that way of profession which amongst us bears the name of Anabaptism to whom also something might here be delivered by way of warning Of all the several ways and sects in the profession of Religion which men separating from the Reformed Churches have faln into since the time the Reformation began I know none so eminently blasted of God that either for the Congregations of them or particular persons have been given up unto and been guilty of such Errors and sinful Practices as those I now speak of not to instance in times past and the practices of those of this profession in Germany left on record by the testimony of those who deserve sufficient credit with us but only to have respect to our own times See we not their Congregations even in all places shattered and broken to pieces and that not by the hand of man by the persecution of any Enemies but by the immediate hand of God and by the divisions which have risen up amongst and within themselves that it is now a rare thing to find a Congregation of that profession some of them there may be yet holding together in London but in all the Countries hereabouts where Churches of them have been in several places erected and where but few years since there hath been much and zealous disputing for that way there is not now that I know of a Church of them to be seen but the members of them living in as scattered a divided way one from another as may be yea refusing to own that very way for which they before so zealously contested as the only way of God even ashamed of it as if but a carnal Administration Have not their Churches been the Nurseries and Seminaries of all these many Errors which have overspread the face of our Nation that from them have mostly proceeded and bin sent forth all these false teachers the Instruments of divulging of them Antitrinitarianism Arminianism Socinianism c. with many other gross Heresies how have they been professed in them where have the Scriptures been so much slighted and Revelations cryed up as among them and for Revelations how much have they pretended to them especially when their deceitful pretence of shaking fits was so much in fashion of late amongst them And so from this slighting the Word of God have faln into all manner of Errors whatsoever From them also

have proceeded those very Deceivers whose deceits and wickednesses I have here related William Franklin was sometime a zealous Professor of that way so was Edward Spradbury Mrs Woodward and many others of them yea it hath been observed amongst us that scarce any appeared to harken to these Deceivers to countenance them and incline to their deceits but such who had been this way engaged In a publique Dispute publiquely managed in the Church at Bazingstoke in this County in the beginning of November last by some godly Ministers of this County with whom I was then somewhat engaged in the same cause with them in behalf of Infant-Baptism I saw Edward Spradbury there appear and heard him speak in opposition to us Mrs Woodward also as I have been informed was there and privately spake to the encouraging of the parties who opposed us and yet both of them in very few weeks after were intangled in these deceits and harkened unto this Deceiver to the even denying and renouncing of Christ as hath been before related of them and became as zealous for a time against those who opposed this their counterfeit Christ as they had so lately been against Infant-Baptism I deny not but some there are of this way of Anabaptism whereof I speak that I look upon as godly persons who hold fast to the Scriptures and to many fundamental doctrinal Truths delivered in them but have they not cause in all these things to take notice of the hand of Gods Justice so prosecuting that way of theirs and to be very jealous whether that way be of God which hath been thus eminently in all times all along so blasted by God Yea and farther to consider whether there be not just ground to judg that their separating from all the Churches of Christ which are not of their opinion and disclaiming all fellowship with them as Antichristian which hath generally been the practise of those of their way their casting also of children out of their Churches by denying Baptism to them leaving all the generation of mankind in infancy in the world the Kingdom of the Devil not owning them to belong to the Kingdom of Heaven the Church but denying any thing of the free grace of God in Gospel-Ordinances to be held out unto them to the great undervaluing and eclipsing of that abundance of the grace of God now in the Gospel held out unto us Whether I say these be not the sins which God hath thus visited upon them in his thus blasting their way and giving up the most eminent Professors of it to these ways of delusion For surely God is jealous of the glory of his Grace and will not endure it to be undervalued very tender of his Churches and of the little ones in them that he will not suffer those who so cenfure the one and so highly offend against the priviledges of the other to pass unpunished Oh that therefore these things might be so considered by these persons that the warning they have in them might be seriously layd to heart by them Many there are who profess to expect a personal coming of Christ to raign here upon the Earth and I deny not but some eminent in learning and godliness have held forth somewhat like thereunto but I well remember what a learned friend of mine said long since unto me when that opinion of Chiliasm was first cryed up amongst us viz. That it might be just with God for some Deceiver under that pretence to come among them and prevail for a time to the deceiving of such and that this opinion did hold out a ground and foundation for such a deceit I have now seen it somewhat truly verified for this opinion hath been the foundation of all these deceits I have here related to have been acted Mary Gadbury ●elieves Christ shall come in the flesh to raign here she asks of William Franklin whether it had been revealed to him he takes the advantage to deceive by it and saith I am the man and she as quickly believes him and through all this Relation these seem to be the things held out That as Christ should come to raign here on the Earth so William Franklin was he now come accordingly here to raign and set up his Kingdom nor think I that his deceits were or could be by any entertained unless this were first believed and expected by them I hope therefore that such an example as this is will make men wary how they entertain such an opinion which seems to give such an occasion to it But some there are who deservedly are called Seekers who if they judg not themselves to be above Gospel-Ordinances of Word and Sacraments and look upon them as carnal low Administrations yet please themselves to live without them censure all the Churches of Christ who walk in the practise of any of his Ordinances to be Antichristian deny that there is any true Ministry Churches Sacraments or any to be till some extraordinary person or persons be immediately sent of Christ as Apostles for the restoring of them Upon which ground themselves live without practise of any of these Ordinances or of any Church Society and condemn and censure those who walk in the practice of them whose opinion to recite is to refute and the evil of it cannot but be easily discerned and be also by all the people of God justly exploded that have had in their souls any true experience of the benefit and comfort God gives in to the Souls of his people who in an humble and conscionable manner walk in the practise of his Ordinances and attend upon them But let them also consider how easily they lay themselves open to such deceits how easie a thing it may be for them to be deceived by any Deceiver that taking the advantage of this expectation of theirs shall pretend himself to be such a one as is expected by them yea cause they have to take heed of it that God in judgment give them not up thereunto for this contempt and slighting of his Ordinances And may not this at last be warning to every one to be jealous of himself and his own standing That he who thinks he stand take heed lest he fall seeing such sad examples of the great and dangerous falls of these and such like persons Take we heed of an uncertainty in matters of Religion of being Scepticks in it affected with every novity and Athenian like hankering in our minds after it and beware of these whom we see possessed with such a spirit of giddiness in matters of Religion that they know not what to fix or settle upon See we the evil of error how it pollutes a man A corrupt judgment quickly causing a corrupt life so that those who cherish and entertain error quickly proceed to much impiety Of which these persons are also sufficient examples when once a person is entered into the path of error and is fallen from his ●●edfastness in the truth he knows not where to settle as appears in these persons running from one Error in Religion to another till they at length attained to that height of blasphemy that I think the like hath searce been heard of and usually the proceedings of men in their changes from one Error to another is still for the worst according to that of the Apostle Evil men and Deceivers wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived 2 Tim. 3.13 But prize we truth and the true knowledg of it labour we to attain it but labour we also as much to be setled in it that we be not carried about with every wind of doctrine but be rather able to contend for the faith against the gainsayers of it hold we fast the mystery of Faith in a good conscience lest turning aside from the one we make shipwrack of the other Surely Christs sheep know the voyce of Christ and can discern and distinguish it from the voyce of strangers The Lord make us of the number of these his sheep and give us the ointment of his Spirit that we may know all things at least that are necessary to be known being guided thereby into the way of truth we may be preserved from the deceits of the many Antichrists which are now abroad in the world Amen FINIS Imprimatur JOSEPH CARYL May 18. 1650.

before the Iustices wherein he had affirmed Franklin to be the Son of God was read he acknowledged he had said so but that he did find it otherwise now being asked whether he were one of the destroying Angels as he had before affirmed himself to be he answered that he was not and now acknowledged that he was Harry Dixon of Stockbridg and not such a person Spradbury also being asked whether Franklin were the Messiah acknowledged that he did sometimes say so but would not now affirm him to be so At length both of these received the same sentence that Will Franklin and Mr Woodward before them had viz. To be committed to Gaol and there to lie till they put in good security for their good behaviour and accordingly Mr Woodward Spradbury Dixon are presently seized on by the Gaoler and taken by him into his custody And thus you have the Tryals and Censures of these several persons These three last Mr Woodward Spradbury and Dixon being acquainted in the Country lay not long in prison but the same day wherein they were committed offered such security which would be bound for them and which was accepted and were accordingly the same day released Mary Gadbury was according to order taken to Bridewell and received correction there again according to the order of the house where also she continued till the Quarter Sessions holden here the week after Easter at which time petitioning with tears to the Iustices for her liberty acknowledging also publiquely her errors and wickedness she was discharged by them and the week after the last week on Munday April 22. 1650. she went from this City of Winchester towards London in the Wagon which weekly travelleth between these places But William Franklin not so acquainted in the Country and his crime so great that there is none but would be ashamed to be bound for him lies in prison yet is there at this present not being yet able to find such sufficient security that may be accepted and how much longer he may continue there is to me altogether unknown Thus have I now presented my Reader with a true faithful impartial Relation of the doings and sufferings of these Blasphemers in respect of the things done rather then of what they suffered indeed a tragical story I shall now conclude the Relation it self with presenting to my Reader a brief Synopsis of it in the names of the Actors in it with the parts acted by them therein which were William Franklin Blasphemously making himself to be The Christ the Messias the Saviour of the world crucified for the sins of the people Mary Gadbury as blasphemously called and calling her self The Spouse of Christ the Bride the Lambs Wife the Lady the Queen the Mother of Christ that bears him the woman clothed with the Sun who travels in birth for the bringing forth of those spiritually that were seduced by them Goody Waterman The Kings daughter all glorious within Mr William Woodward a Minister their Proselyte who professed he saw his glory and rejoyced to see it Mrs Woodward his wife The Elect Lady John Noyce John the Baptist whose office was to declare the coming of this counterfeit Christ into the world Edward Spradbury One of the two Witnesses and an healing Angel Henry Dixon One of the destroying Angels whose office it was to be sent forth to curse and destroy the Earth William Holmes junior Another destroying Angel sent forth also to curse and destroy the Earth Divers other persons also there were engaged in this wicked business of whom not having such clear and particular Information I have not inserted their names in this Relation And having thus concluded the Relation it self let me desire of every one to whom it shall come and who shall be the Reader of it to consider seriously with himself whether he hath ever known read or heard of the like abominations to be acted in the World How great must this wickedness needs be for men professing the Name and Gospel of Christ and so eminent in the profession of it as some of these sometimes were not onely to depart from Christ and renounce him for how could these things have been acted by these persons without a manifest denying of Christ renouncing the Faith and reckoning to be even a fable whatsoever the Scripture hath recorded concerning him but also to proclaim and set up another in his stead to be the Christ and to ascribe to such a person whatsoever is due and proper to Christ and for such an one to assert himself to be the Christ and all of them to assume so wickedly such Titles and Offices to themselves in the service of him Surely what Sleidan hath reported in the tenth Book of his Commentaries concerning the blasphemous Opinions speeches and practices of John of Leiden and the Munsterian Anabaptists is nothing in comparison of the things I have here related concerning these persons David George Tho Muncer William Hacket came very short in their Blasphemies and Wickednesses to what hath thus been by these acted And had they not together with their blasphemous Opinions faln into such wicked practices as might deservedly bring them under the censure of the Magistrate and were so timous●y taken notice of and a stop put to their wickedness by them what the sad effects of these their ways might have been is easie to be imagined We have heard of many strange and blasphemous Opinions vented abroad in these times of ours but surely never any came to such an high degree of blasphemy that ever I could hear of as these persons have done In all which there is surely much to be learned by us great use may be made of this Relation for our Instructions and such remarkable passages as are here represented ought not to pass us without some serious consideration of them and of the use and benefit we are to receive from them First Here may we learn by experience the Truth of Christ and of his Word the Scriptures for how are we fore-warned by them O that we might all be thereby also fore-armed that there shall come false Christs and that they shall come with signs and lying wonders that many shall be deceived by them That men shall creep in cunningly who shall privily bring in damnable Heresies denying the Lord that bought them All which we may see even to the letter verifled in this Relation So that these persons thus eminently fulfilling the Scripture notwithstanding their impugning of it give us ground thereby to be setled in our faith concerning the divine Authority of it Here is the patience and long-suffering of God to be admired who notwithstanding he be so jealous of his glory that he will not give it to another nor communicate to any other besides that Authority which he hath given to the Son whom he hath exalted and anointed to be both Lord and Christ should yet exercise such forbearance towards persons so extreamly guilty in ●●●se their actions of