Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A40299
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To the ministers, teachers, and priests (so called and so stileing your selves) in Barbadoes by George Fox.
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Fox, George, 1624-1691.
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1672
(1672)
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Wing F1957; ESTC R36426
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49,015
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79
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you And did not the Apostle speak of a company that were Heady High-minded and Lovers of Pleasures more then Lovers of God Self-willed and Covetous that had got a Form of Godliness but denyed the Power thereof from whom he commandeth to turn away read your selves in 2 Tim. 3.3 4 5. And truly Friends I must needs say to you I never heard so much debauch'd Language and Hellish Lyes as has been cast unjustly and wickedly upon me since I came into this Island which grieves my Soul that ever such should be in Peoples Mouthes and that you Ministers should gladly be Entertainers if not the Fomenters and Preachers of them where-with you have filled and poysoned Peoples minds with wicked Lyes I say and false and filthy Slanders and so corrupted them O! how can ye be otherwise called then Teachers of Lyes and Lyars even such as love and make a Lye Rev. 22.15 and such as are given up to believe Lyes see their sad End in Rev. 21.27 And when you cannot with all your Lyes provoke and stir up the Magistrate to Persecution then you persecute us with your Tongues But I hope that many of the Magistrates will come to see you so as that you shall not get to ride on them and spur them on for if you should you would make them your Drudges just as the Priests of old spurred up Pilate when they got over him to Persecute and Crucifie our Lord and Saviour But consider it well the same spirit and nature is in you that would Crucifie Christ who is revealed now in his People For have there not been Sauls among you with their Packet of Letters to Persecute the People of God in this Island of late read but Priest Lessley's and some other Priests Petition which they sent or delivered to the Governour and Council here a Copy whereof is hereunto annexed And what hath he and others done this last Assembly convened 't is well known Were not the Chief Priests the Authors of Saul's Packet for had he not a Packet from them But now it seems you Chief Priests are grown more bold for you can go your selves with your Packets to this last Assembly I say O! is it not a Shame that you who call your selves Ministers of the Gospel should go to the Magistrate to perswade them to persecute Christians And do you think that the Magistrates have no other Work to do in this Island even to do Justly and to love Mercy and walk Humbly with God and to take Care of the Preservation and Right Governing of the people in Righteousness and in Holiness and that every man may be preserved in their respective Estates and to see that all do to others as they would have others do unto them and to see that the Island may be preserved in Peace and to take Care of that which is for the Good of this Island and Property of its Inhabitants As for Religion that belongeth to God for it came from God and Christ Jesus who is the Author of every mans Faith and sets up his Worship which is in the Spirit and in the Truth and is to rule in the Hearts of his People who receive that Religion from above that is pure and undefiled in God's Sight and so God and Christ must have a place in man to dwell in to wit the Heart that so he may have his Due his Worship and Honour from and by them But to return to your Slandâ—â—â— namely that I should hang ribbons upon peoples arms and that I brought a young Women from England to be nought with her And that I should lie with my Sister and such-like stinking and filthy Lyes have you and your Auditors reported of me which no sober man I am sure will give Credit to being full well known that I was never tainted or blamisht with any such Uncleanness So that with David I may say False Witnesses did rise up they laid to my Charge things that I knew not Psal 35.11 Certainly many of you are and have been naught your selves this way else you would have vertue in your mouthes rather then have such things as a modest Ear abhors yea such filthy stuff and wicked Lyes as these which came from the Devil who is the Father of them are your Parishes fill'd with For I would have you know that I abhor detest and scorn such things it being well known in England I say that I was never tainted with the least Unclean action nor thus taxed till I came here amongst you but what is in your own Hearts that you cast upon me so that ye fulfil Christs Words who foretold They should speak all manner of Evil against you falsly for my Name 's sake And indeed it is for Christ's sake that you do it So that we can be exceeding glad and rejoyce in Christ Jesus in that it is for his sake that we are thus evil spoken of But know this and be assured of it the time will come that he will appear for our glory and to your shame and confusion For We would have you to understand that we have an esteem of our Bodies for our Bodies the Lord hath honoured with his mercies and they are Vessels of his honour and Temples of Christ and of God and of the Holy Ghost and not for Adultery and Fornication Truly I could not but wonder and stand amazed to hear of such soul beastly and unmannerly and uncivil Language as I have heard since I came here What is this Gospel Teaching O but consider what the Scriptures speak concerning slanderous Tongues and of lying Lips and of such as have Venom under their Tongues and the Poyson of Asps What do you not believe that God will judge for these things and sweep away the Refuge of Lyes and take the Reproach from off his People Would you have the same Measure measured to you as you have done to me and the rest of us Surely you have not had so much as Common Civility or Humanity much less Christianity for if you had had either you would have come and spoken to me when I was in the Island and not have railed against me behind my back and incensed others against me Was this Humane or Christianly or Neighbourly done Judge ye But alas what shall I say I do very much fear that the Hand of the Lord God will suddenly come upon many of you with his swift Destruction The Lord did visit and that not very long since this Island with two sore Judgments the one of Fire the other of the Plague but alas what Repentance what Change have they wrought in you and upon you What saith the Prophet of the Lord in Isa 26.9 When thy Judgments are on the Earth the Inhabitants of the World will learn Righteousness But alas are you not rather worse then you were before and hardened more then you were before Pharoah-like as it is in the 10th verse Let Favour be shewn to the Wicked yet
force People to observe dayes came not this Power and Wisdom first from the Pope and not from the Apostles nor from Christ Jesus if you have it from Christ Jesus and the Apostles let us see where it is convince us with Scripture And where I say do you find in Scriptures that Christ or his Apostles did ordain the day you call Christ-Mass and the rest of the dayes attending it which you call Holy-dayes But to say the Truth you may rather term them Unholy by reason of the Ungodly and Debaucht Heathenish Practice So that whereas you pretend to Honour the Lord Jesus in and by them you do no other indeed but dishonour him and do Persecute others that will not do as you do and so break the Command of God who saith Six dayes shalt thou labour c. and here your Command is that they must play more then Six Dayes Now tell me if you can how many hundred of years after Christ and the Apostles were these days first observed as Holy-dayes and set apart to be kept as you do now keep them O! the Whoredoms and Debauchery and Drunkenness the Excess Sensual Pleasures Carnal Delights Carding Diceing Dancing that these dayes are filled up with so that the Devil hath more Work done him in these dayes then in many other dayes before or after So let the Witness of God in your Consciences answer Yea or Nay and let all Sober People judge whether or no I speak not Truth when I say God is more dishonoured and his Name prophanened and taken in vain and blasphemed more in the twelve Holy Dayes so called then in three times the number of them let I say your Consciences and all sober people judge So here you may see how the Apostle judged them that did observe days But consider whether or no doth the Kingdom of God stand in Meats and Drinks and Washings and in Days Nay nay it stands only in Righteousness and in Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost which Kingdom all people are in the first place to seek after And then concerning your Fasts in Lent c. the Lord will say Who required these things at your Hands as it is in Isa 58.3 4. Wherefore have we fasted and thou seest or regardest not c. Behold saith the Lord in the day of your Fasts you find Pleasures and exact all your Labours ye fast for Strife and Debate and to smite with the Fist of Wickedness Ye shall not fast as ye do this day to make your Voices to be heard on high Is it such a Fast as I have chosen a Day for a man to Afflict his Soul Is it to bow down his Head like a Bull-Rush And wilt thou call this a Fast see the Contents of the Chapter above where it is reproved for Hypocrisie But is not this the Fast that I have chosen saith the Lord To loose the Bands of Wickedness to undo the heavy Burdens to let the Oppressed go free and that they break every Yoak Is it not to deal thy Bread to the Hungry c. Now whether your Fast be such yea or nay let your own Consciences judge And the Apostle commands us to pray every-where lifting up holy hands without Wrath or Doubting 1. Tim. 2.8 Now consider this are not your hands like those fists of Wickedness and are you not full of Wrath and Doubting or are your Hands Clean and Holy Let the Witness in your Consciences judge and see if those Actions and Practices be not found among you as was amongst them whom the Prophet speaks of here which is called Hypocrisie as was said before And did not Judas carry the bag who was a Thief who betray'd his Master And are not they for his Bag and Money to hold it by intayle even all who are the Betrayers of Christ now in this day where he is made manifest in his People I say do they not betray him now and seek to crucifie him in his members or his members for his sake And is it not the Son of Perdition spoken of 2 Thess 23. who exalts himself above all that is called God whom Christ will destroy with the breath of his mouth and the brightness of his coming Look into your selves and read this if you can But are not such now worse then Judas who carried the Bag for we never read that Judas persecuted any for not putting into his bag as too too many now a dayes do and have done who will not go without the bag And are not all such Transgressors of Christ's Command who bids them go without a bag or Scrip and Freely you have received Freely give How will such answer Christ think you at the day of Judgment when they are brought before his Throne and before him at his Judgment Seat who then will say unto them Depart you Cursed c. but to his Sheep on his right hand Come ye Blessed of my Father c. and so enter thou into the Joy of the Lord and the other into everlasting Punishment who have been persecuting others for Worshipping the living God in Spirit and in Truth which Worship Christ Jesus set up above 1600. years since as you may read in John 4.23 24. Now Friends to look into your Families and into your own Practices are not we to see that first you are to be approved before you do minister both you and your Families For are we not to try all things and to follow you no farther then you follow Christ And were not thâ—â—ereans accounted Noble in that they searcht the Scriptures to see whether or no that which the Apostle had delivered them were according to the Law and the Prophets And must we be more ignoble then they think you and now to try whether you are in the steps of the true Prophets and of Christ and of the Apostles or in the steps of those False Prophets they cryed out against must we not try here by the Scripture viz. by the Prophets words and by Christ's and his Apostles Words Then for the Trying you the Apostle saith in 1 Tim. 3.1 2 3 c. A Bishop must be Blameless the Husband of One Wife Vigilant Sober of Good behaviour given to Hospitality apt to teach not given to Wine no Striker not Greedy of filthy Lucre but Patient not a Brawler nor Covetous one that ruleth well his own House having his Children in subjection with all Cravity Now are you Blameless are you Sober of Good behaviour and are you given to Hospitality are you apt to teach 'T is Storied of one Parson Gray of this Island being at a Feast the custom was for the Cups to be often handed about one of Brandy the other of Sack but as for the Sack the Parson cared not much for it having had enough of that Liquor whereupon said the pretended Reverend Parson when he saw the Cup of Sack come about again which he cared not for Lord saith he If thou wilt let this Cup