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
A91430	The copy of a letter written by Mr. Thomas Parker, pastor of the church of Newbury in New-England, to his sister, Mrs Elizabeth Avery, sometimes of Newbury in the county of Berks, touching sundry opinions by her professed and maintained. Novemb. 22. 1649. imprimatur John Downame.	Parker, Thomas, 1595-1677.	1649 (1649)	Wing P475; Thomason E584_3; ESTC R206220	9,411	20

The COPY of a LETTER Written by Mr. Thomas Parker Pastor of the Church of Newbury in NEW-ENGLAND TO His Sister Mrs Elizabeth Avery Sometimes of Newbury in the County of BERKS Touching sundry OPINIONS BY HER Professed and Maintained Novemb. 22. 1649. Imprimatur JOHN DOWNAME London Printed by John Field for Edmund Paxton at Pauls-Chain over against the Castle Tavern near the Doctors Commons 1650. The Epistle to the Reader BEsides this ensuing Letter I have also received other Letters to my dear Friend Mrs Avery which for sundry Reasons are not Printed from Mr. Cotton Mr. VVilson and Mr. Noyes all which bear the like aspect as this Letter doth in opposition to her Opinions herein Refuted That if so be the will of God she may be reduced to her former Faith and Profession from which she is so strangely turned away I forbear to acquaint the Reader with the transcendent worth of the Reverend Author of this Letter partly because I know it will be unacceptable to him and unnecessary in respect of them that have any knowledge of him and partly because I am unwilling to follow the Devils method in these days of Error who by raising an admiration of mens persons in the hearts of the simple disposeth them to a present compliance with their pernicious Doctrines Such flattery is below the gravity of a spirit established in the Faith of Christ whose Genius it is not to glory in Man forasmuch as whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas all is yours 1 Cor. 3.21,22 Benjamin Woodbridge To my very loving Sister Mrs Elizabeth Avery LOving Sister for yet you are my Sister according to the flesh and I am not yet without hope but that you are my Sister according to the Spirit for it is possible that God may bring you back again from your Heretical Opinions The Lord of his mercy grant That what I shall now write may be acceptable unto you and may be effectually prevalent for your seasonable reduction that you may not dye away in this lamentable Belief You will not come to Ordinances nor willingly joyn in private Prayer with your own Husband but onely to condescend to his infirmities for you say you are above Ordinances above the Word and Sacraments yea above the Blood of Christ himself living as a glorified Saint and taught immediately by the Spirit Who would have thought or dreamed that such expressions should have ever come out of the mouth of Sister Avery What will you make your self to be What higher then Moses and any of the Prophets above the holy Apostles and Primitive Saints which all were under Ordinances What higher then Christ himself who subjected himself to Ordinances while he was upon the Earth Acts 2. Did not Christ when he ascended up on high institute Ordinances for this end that by them his Saints and Churches and all of them without exception should be builded up until his second coming Eph. 4. Surely then if you will not be at Ordinances publique and private you forsake the way of Christ and withdraw your self from the way and means of Edification by him and Communion with him by the Spirit And what maner of Christian will you make your self to be For all the Saints and Churches from the Apostles until this time have constantly subjected themselves to the Ordinances of Christ as Histories do shew and the Prophesies in the Revelation What can you say to prove that Christ will bring forth Christians in this age differing from all that went before You go the very ready way to exclude your self from the sheepfold and from among the sheep of Christ when you do exclude your self from Ordinances and from the common way and path of all Saints yea and the glorious Church of New-Jerusalem to be raised up in the last time is said to be builded upon the Foundation of the twelve Apostles namely upon their Doctrine and in way of the holy Ordinances instituted by them You cannot possibly say That you are above the glorious Church of New-Jerusalem whose glory here is the height of grace upon the earth But it is marvellous that you are not afraid to say That you have more of the Spirit then the Apostles Be not offended that I tell you This is a horrible delusion of Satan and Luciferian pride Why do you not then dictate Oracles immediately from Heaven Why do you not infallibly Prophesie of the Times Why do you not work Miracles as they did Did any of the holy Martyrs ever say so or think and do as you The time was when you honored the memory of them and could humble your self to their imitation But that is above the rest That you are above the Blood of Christ Surely Satan the cunning hunter of souls doth labor to divide you from Christ and from his Blood that you should have no share at all in him when he moveth you to conceive and utter such things Saints are never above the Blood of Christ they are kept and maintained by his Blood even in their glorified estate as well as thereby promoted thereunto And if the Blood of Christ doth not keep you here on earth and wash you daily and further you on in the way of all Grace and in opposition to Sin and Satan you shall certainly never enjoy his presence and communion in the world to come To put the Blood of Christ out of the honor of employment and not to depend upon it is a fearful way to be utterly rejected Christ of his mercy preserve you dear Sister But I may say with Isaiah Stand and wonder they are drunken but not with wine Is any such language to be found in any corner of the Scripture or did any of the Apostles ever say they were above the Blood of Christ would they not have defied such a speech But unto all this you adde That Christ hath no humane body and that he shall not appear to the world any more in a visible maner that his second coming is his coming in his Saints whereby they are taken up into the nature of God and are as truly Christ as Christ himself and partake in the fulness of the Godhead no less then Christ yea that they are one with God their very Being is God Dreadful to think upon much more to speak or write or meditate upon Who hath bewitched you that you should fall into such Errors Hardly any in the world which have known you in former time would have thought or dreamed that you should ever have faln so deeply from your Faith If this be your New Light God preserve me and all good people from it But you will say I am in darkness and you in light and that I am no meet Judge The time was you would not so say But if you question it now how shall it be tryed Is not the Scripture to be our Rule To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to the word it is because

there is no light in them Isa 8.20 And doth not all Scripture plainly affirm and the Churches and Martyrs and Witnesses of Truth all along affirm That Christ hath a true humane body He could not properly arise nor ascend but in his flesh and is he not for ever God revealed in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 and after his Glorification is he not called 1 Tim. 2.5 The man Christ Jesus and the Rev. 13.5,6 Tabernacle of God by reason of the flesh Rev. 13.5,6 and in whom the Godhead is said to dwell bodily for the same cause Col. 1. is he not said to have a life given him for ever and ever Isa 53.10 Psal 21.4 Rev. 1.18 And if he had not carried his real body into Heaven he would have left it in the Grave behinde he would not have eaten and drunken in it for to shew the reality of his body and that he was no spirit as the Disciples imagined he would not have offered his body to be handled the print of the nails to be felt for the proof of the truth and reality thereof And that he shall visibly appear again unto the world it appeareth Because the same body he carried up with the same he must return again to Judgement Psa 110.1 Acts 3. and therefore it is said Acts 17.31 He hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world by that MAN whom he hath ordained It is a sick and irksom labor to multiply places about a point so clear But what Scripture or Reason hath shewed you That his second coming is his coming in his Saints a mystical coming The plain words of Scripture are ever against you neither can they be applied otherwise then by making them a nose of wax This Jesus whom you have seen going into heaven shall so come as ye have seen Acts 1. I saw a white throne and one sate thereon Rev. 20.11 Behold he cometh with clouds Rev. 1. Matth. 24. 25. If you turn these things into Allegories nothing can be certain And would not Christ and his Apostles have told us so in some place or other if this coming were onely figurative adde That if this be figurative other things annexed are also figurative and nothing plain and this were to make a chaos and confusion of the Scriptures It grieveth me to spend time when matters are so evident Of like nature is that which you grosly hold that There is no Resurrection of the body Read 1 Cor. 15. Dan. 12.2 Rev. 20.12,13,14 It irketh me to write in such cases Whereas you say The Saints are Christ one with God their Being God What godly ear can hear such things without defiance and abomination If Saints are so if you are so then are you without sin as Christ Omnipotent Omniscient Infinite to be worshipped and adored as God and Christ is I will spit at this and say no more I understand also that you can determine of the holy Scriptures that much of them is written with a humane spirit can take or take not for Scripture or meaning of Scripture onely by the Rule of an apprehension and Revelation of the Spirit which you suppose your self to be guided by and to have more of then the Apostles had The same Spirit which told you that much of the Scripture was written with a humane Spirit may haply tell you at another time that all the Scripture is written with a humane Spirit that there is no certainty therein yield to one yield to all But we know that the Prophets and Apostles did all write as guided by the Spirit of God 2 Pet. 1. ult 2 Pet. 3. Joh. 17. Rev. 21. He that receiveth you receiveth me John 13. Now over and above all this there are other horrid things in your Book which I have not seen and Satan hath been let loose to shut you up and to imprison you in your monstrous Heresies by gates and bars and to fetter and chain you up that all means might be frustrate whereby we might have hope to bring you forth For if any thing from Scripture or Reason is brought against your Opinions which you cannot answer you can shift it off with this That you do not so apprehend thinking your apprehension to be infallible and above Reason or Scripture How came you by such an apprehension By what means came you to know that it is infallibly directed or may you not be praefident in thinking it to be so when it is not But surely no Saint or Martyr since the Apostles ever challenged to themselves such an apprehension for ought I finde And we are all commanded to regulate our apprehensions by the Scripture and not to judge the Scriptures by ungrounded apprehensions Thy word is a light unto my paths Psal 119. 2 Pet. 2. Mat. 4. for otherwise any Heretique may justifie himself by his apprehension and there would be no way to confute Error The Apostles themselves though infallibly directed yet would subject their Doctrine to the tryal of the Scripture as in the Bereans and prove it unto others by the Scripture Rom. 9. Gal. 4. Furthermore in these days we cannot tell That our apprehensions are guided by the Spirit but by the light of Scripture You will say It is so with you but how will you prove it to your self or others why may it not be the Spirit of Satan which you think to be the Spirit of God I dare be bold to say It is the Spirit of Satan and not of God that so directeth apprehensions as not under the direction of the Word Dear Sister with whom I have had sweet communion in the ways of God let us not now part at last divided in Faith Eternally divided Were you not in the Faith before you fell into these Opinions and did you not then write unto me that you had full Assurance Is all then lost and nothing that was before that you have changed your Faith and your Religion Is the Doctrine of your Reverend Father and of Dr. Twisse and the Doctrine of the holy Martyrs now at last discovered to be Error whom the Apocalyps doth expresly stile the Witnesses of Truth Whither will you run dear Sister from your Parents Friends Church Christ God and life Eternal Have you no more strength but at the first assault to yield the Bucklers and to give over your Faith so long professed at the first push If you had not Reason enough your self yet why did you not first enquire of those that might have holpen you I would rather a hundred times you had perished by the Sword then have thus faln dishonored God and your Profession and weakened the people of the Lord and shamed all your Friends and laid up treasures of Correction for your Posterity and put your self in a suspitious way at least of losing the heavenly Inheritance Let me tell you plainly I doubt there was some grievous sin at bottom as the Pride of Women or Spiritual Pride or something