Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	speak_v	time_n	word_n	4,755	5	4.0289	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95939	A vindication of certaine citizens that lately went to the leaguer, then before Oxford, or, Their answer to some prevaricating passages, inserted in an epistle, lately published by William Dell, minister of the Gospel. Occasioned, by their attesting his delivering of certain positions, in a sermon at the leaguer, here set down, they being thereunto called by the House of Lords. Published by authoritie.		1646 (1646)	Wing V472; Thomason E344_14; ESTC R200964	9,495	18

then delivered so something is added of like words indeed but of much different sence whereof we will not presume to passe any manner of censure or judgement for that is above us and now depending For the report hereof stayed not long within the Citie wals insomuch that within a few dayes following notice having bin taken of our late returne from the Leaguer we were with much wonderment on our part and without our foreknowledge privity or desire summoned to make our appearance on Munday the nine and twentieth of the same June in the Lords House of Parliament Whither being come we were there demanded by the right Honourable Lord the then Speaker Whether we were lately at the Leaguer and whether we heard you Preach there We answered we were there and there we heard you Expound the s●ven last verses of the 54. Chapter of Jsaiah Then was produced by one of the Clarks of that House a Paper which when he had read we found that it contained certaine passages of your Exposition which it seemes you have now forgotten and therefore have either omitted or minced them But being demanded whether we remembred them to passe from you or not we must speake the truth and did confesse that those or the like words in effect were then and there by you delivered Whereupon we were for that time dismissed and commanded to attend againe on Thursday following being the second of this July where having attended some time we were without calling in commanded to depart till further summons What was then and there read unto us as by you delivered in your Exposition if not in those very words yet to that effect doth here follow viz. There are no more of the Church of God in a Kingdome then there be such as have the spirit of God in that Kingdome Neither Old nor new Testament doe hold forth a whole Nation to be a Church Whatsoever a State an Assembly or Counsell shall say ought not to binde the Saints further then the judgement of those Saints shall lead them The Saints are those that are now stiled Anabaptists Famalists Antinomians Independents Sectaries and the like The power is in you the People keepe it part not with it The first Party that rose against you namely the Prophane ones of the Land are already fallen under you and now there is another party Formalists and carnall Gospelers rising up against you but I am confident they shall also fall under you They are willing to become Subjects to make the Saints slaves nay they are willing to become slaves themselves that they may tread upon the necks of the Saints Now that being thus by your selfe occasioned we have declared our consciences in setting forth the whole truth of our knowledge in these proceedings we doe in the presence of God protest against the very thought of all or any either old or new Designe to be acted by us notwithstanding your so much urging the same and harping thereupon But if instead of our acting those of riper and more diving judgements then we are can or shall out of your owne mouth collect a Designe now in hand on your part to them we shall leave both it and you Be not ashamed Sir to charge home descend from your mighty mouthing Generalls your pretended fierce furious contradicting blaspeming hellish speeches words not beseeming so mild a mouth as a Ministers ought to be to plaine particulars spare neither our persons words nor actions you have severall times met with us pointed at us Oh why would you not daigne to speak with us We are we hope of such a Generation as you are if you be as we hope you are notwithstanding the transcendency of your passion of that generation that feares God Suppose the worst that we had wronged you though should you say it we dare say your conscience would check your tongue Oh me thinks you should not recompence to us evill for evill Pro. 24.29 Rom. 12.17 nor thus in this vaine frothy wording way seek to avenge your selfe Rom. 12 19. Why should you be thus transported You know whose vengeance is and who hath said he will repay to him both you and we must stand and fall Why will you thus presumingly usurpe Gods Throne Pray remember what it is to judge Mat. 7.1 2. 1 Cor. 4.5 the Lord preserve us from any and you from further operation of that Spirit in whom no truth is Iohn 8 44. The whole City filled with lyes slanders O hyperbolicall and you poore simple man charged with things you knew not or rather that you will not remember but there are though not hundreds yet a competent number of credible witnesses and some of them of knowne worth and piety that when they shall be called to it will in discharge of their conscience and according to the Covenant which they have taken put you in mind of something which you would be loath to heare Ah Master Dell what del-usion is it that hath thus seized upon you What must meere necessity constraine this and the following Generations to be acquainted with your juglings Because you are afraid that your whole exposition if it look upon the Sunne will not endure the light thereof and searing least we being called thereunto will make a cleer discovery therefore you cry out these men resist the Spirit and act against Christ himselfe in the Word a strange conclusion We hint your drift you think perchance by your prejudice to cloud and eclipse us yet your expectation may be frustrate Truly Sir for our parts we must needs confesse that your discourse in print is plainer then your discourse in the Pulpit was yet both there and here we whom you esteeme children borne after the flesh and carnall Christians the Lord more and more spirituallize both you and us cannot be so blind but we must needs and doe acknowledge something of the spirit in it against which we abhorre to be at any enmity and are as seriously resolved as you are or can be notwithstanding your boisterous blustering and sesquipidalian verborsity to stand to and maintaine the Cause of Christ and the cleering up the brightnesse of his comming in the Ministery of the Gospell against the power and malice of the Devill and the world according to our Vocation so farre as possibly we may or can though with the losse of what is most deare and precious to us even to the laying downe of our lives themselves and this profession notwithstanding all the venome that you have or can spit against us we doe here jointly and severally we thank you for it for we take it as an accidentall curtesie make and hold forth not doubting but knowing assuredly that the spirit of Christ which we trust is in us and hope and pray that it may be in you is and will be predominant over that spirit that is in the world And now Sir where or what is that Victory that your verball vaunting boasts of

A VINDICATION Of certaine CITIZENS That lately went to the Leaguer then before OXFORD Or their Answer unto some prevaricating passages inserted in an Epistle lately published by William Dell Minister of the Gospel Occasioned by their attesting his delivering of certain Positions in a Sermon at the Leaguer here set down they being thereunto called by the House of LORDS PROV 20.6 Most men will proclaime every one his owne goodnesse but a faithfull man who can finde MATTH 5.13 Ye are the salt of the earth but if the salt hath lost his savour wherewith shall it be salted It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast forth and to be trodden under foot of men 7.15 Beware of false Prophets which come to you in sheepes cloathing but inwardly they are ravening Wolves Published by Authoritie LONDON Printed by Eliz. Purslow for Thomas Vere at the upper end of the Old-baily 1646. Mr. Dell having beautified the Frontespiece of his Book with these Scriptures namely Matth. 5.11 Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evill against you falsly for my sake vers 12. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Psal 69.9 The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon mee Beginneth his Epistle thus To the Reader HAving obtained this grace from God to be called into some friendship and familiarity with Jesus Christ so as to heare and receive from him something of the minde and bosome of the Father according to his free grace who hath mercie on whom hee will and having after many teares and temptations not unknowne to many yet in the body obtained this further grace to speake the Word of God with boldnesse I have also been counted worthy to be taken into some fellowship with Christ in his sufferings and to ondure the contraditions of sinners and oft-times to encounter the rage and madnesse of men yea and to fight with men after the manner of beasts altogether bruitish and furious And thus it hath fared with me often especially at two remarkable times The one at Lincolne upon occasion of two Sermons preached there upon Isai ● 7 The other time wherein I met with remarkable opposition was lately at Marston the head Quarter at the Leaguer before Oxford whither some comming out of the Citie of London in all probability out of some speciall designe seeing the old Malignity now acts in a new forme and is daily comming forth in a second and more plausible cunning and deceiving edition became exceeding angry and heady against the plaine and cleare truth of the Gospel delivered in this following Exposition wherein the whole truth and substance of what was then delivered is exactly set downe and nothing abated but rather some things farther pressed Jer. 36.32 adding as Jeremiah in the second roll many like words to the former Now some of these men seeing themselves and their new designe clearely discovered by the light of the Word and made altogether naked suddenly they grew fierce and furious contradicting and blaspheming yea some of them speaking the language of hell upon earth of which there are some witnesses as became men of such a generation Joh. 8.44 These men according to the operation of that spirit which workes mightily in the children of disobedience come and fill the whole Citie with lyes and slanders laying to my charge things that I knew not the falsehood and untruth whereof there are some hundreds and some of them of great and eminent worth and piety ready to witnesse Wherefore of meere necessity I was constrained to publish this Exposition as a witnesse to this present and the following generations of these mens resisting the Spirit and acting against Christ himselfe in the Word And though the discourse bee very plaine not savouring of any accuratonesse of Humane Wisdome and Learning yet they that are themselves spirituall will acknowledge something of the spirit in it and for that cause will rellish and love it though others will therefore bee at the greater enemitie against it But for my part I have set downe my resolution in the Lord in this Cause of Jesus Christ not to weigh all the power of Earth or Hell one feather but to put it to the utmost tryall whether the truth of the Gospel or the slanders and lyes of men shall prevaile whether the smoake of the bottomlesse pit that comes forth out of the mouth of these and many others shall be able to blot out or darken the Brightnesse of Christs comming in the Ministery of the Gospel Yea and whether the power and malice of the Divell and the world shall be stronger then the love and protection of Jesus Christ And I doubt not but the more the world acts in the spirit of the Divell the more will Christ enable us to act in his owne Spirit till all at last shall be forced to acknowledge that the spirit that is in us is stronger then the spirit that is in the world And what now have all these men obtained by all their malice and fury but a greater and more open discovery of the truth and to cause that that light of the Gospel that only shone in one Congregation should through the Printing of it have its beames scattered in many parts of the Kingdome And where over the truth comes the Children of the truth will entertaine it and aske no body leave And thus through the over-ruling power of Gods wisedome doe these men betray their owne and their follo●… Cause and overthrow their owne and their ends and whilst they thinke to oppresse the truth propagate it the more And thus shall truths enemies perish and the truth it selfe flourish Yea flourish through Slanders Oppositions Contradictions Blasphemies and all the Vilenesse and Villany in the world And all this considente in us arises hence Because Christ is not as a dead man but is risen and ascended and sits at the right hand of God and fills all things and doth all things in Heaven and in Earth in the world and in the Church among his friends and among his enemies till these be made his footstoole which is the very thing we are now in expectation of Now one thing more which I thinke fit to acquaint the world withall in this Epistle is this That 〈◊〉 of th●se thorny hearts durst after come to discourse with me or to looke me in the face but one among them that seemed of a better temper then the rest upon the urging of a godly Citizen then present did speake with me and the Question he asked of me was this Whether I thought that all Presbyterians were carnall Gospellers I told him I was farre from thinking any such thing for I knew some of them very godly Christians and did acknowledge the grace of God in them and that for mine owne part I did not allow any such distinction

of Christians as Presbyterians and Independents this being onely a distinction of mans making tending to the division of the Church and added That as in Christs Kingdome Neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature So in this same Kingdome of Christ Neither Presbytery availeth any thing nor Independency but a new creature and that the Kingdome of God stands not in Presbytery nor Independency but in righteousnesse and peace and joy in the holy Ghost and that if I saw any thing of God or Christ or the Spirit in any one I reckoned him as a Brother not taking any such opinion into consideration and that the unitie of Spirit and not of opinion is the bond of peace in Christs Kingdome The man then pretended to be satisfied and to rejoyce in his satisfaction but since as is related hath shewed his stomack againe But because he seemes to be a Christian The Lord lay it not to his charge Thus farre the Epistle relates to us our Vindication and Answer followeth To Master Dell. SIR HAving received and perused your Epistle directed to your Reader wee thinke our selves bound in dutie as well for the Vindication of our Innocency as the satisfaction of our fellow Citizens and others who have or shall read you to let your selfe and the world know that wee the persons against whom you are pleased to be so invective are such as by our fruits our lives and conversations desire to be knowne By Gods grace wee are what wee are wee desire not that our talkative tongues should applaud us before men but that our sincere soules should approve us to God To him the searcher of all hearts wee appeale 2 Chron. 28.9 for he knowes and his discerning Spirit testifies to and with our spirits that we are every one of us free from all those your virulent expressions which causeth our spirits to be perplexed and our very soules to grieve not for our owne sakes whom you have endeavoured to shoot and stab with the sharpe Arrow and direfull dart of your siery tongue But for your own sake that you whom wee esteemed to be principled from Heaven and so some of us reported of you should discover your rotten principles Ephesi 4.31 by your bitternesse wrath ang●● calmour evill speaking and malice whereas your speech ought to be alwayes with grace Col. 4.6 seasoned with salt Could it be imagined that a man of your pretence could possibly thus miscarry Where is that divine strength that should have conquered your peevish passion What! professe so much grace and demonstrate so much unsubdued nature Before you did thorowly resolve to belch out so many Bedlam blasts why did you not remember your owne honour Surely that though Gods glory would not might have deterred you from your rayling rage Sir You must give us leave to trace your Tract that so wee may fully answer every piece of your patcht Epistle that shall concerne us for one jot further wee will not step No wee have already appealed to God And now wee will appeal to the world whether or no wee be such as your terme us mad-men furious brutish beasts Phrases that your carnall Christian surely scornes to breath forth The providence of God disposing of our thoughts to visite the Leaguer lately before Oxford the rather for that it was credibly reported in London that Oxford would certainly be surrendred on Saturday the sixth of June last And having never beene at nor seene a Leaguer hoping likewise that this would be the last Leaguer that wee should have occasion to see in England by Gods assistance setting forth from our dwellings in London on Friday the fifth of June in the afternoone wee came to the Leaguer the day following without the least thought of any manner of designe O censorious Sir You saw not our hearts our hearts to whom the very name malignitie much more the thing come it whether in your first or second edition if under that notion of malignitie t is odious t is abominable T is publiquely knowne that wee have layed out our selves and ours for the publique On the Lords day the seaventh of that June in the morning we desiring so much as we could at such a distance from home and in such a place to spend that day to Gods glory and our owne good hearing that there would be no Sermon at Wheatly where we Inn'd we repaired to the Leaguer and inquired at the Head-quarters who was to Preach before his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax and where the Sermon would be and were informed that your selfe were to exercise at the meeting-place at Marston learning at length that by Meeting-place was meant the Church thither we repaired where we saw and heard from you Master Dell a great deale of other Matter then the Presse hath met withall and till then most of us never saw nor heard of you Yet were we so farre from anger or headinesse by you charged upon us against the plaine and cleere truth of the Gospell which you then delivered in your Exposition that we commended you for all that we found to be commendable in you As we did doe and will say say you what you will that you did deliver some very good matter But yet since we are necessitated and since as it now appeares to us wise men are not alwayes so wise as they should or might be therefore you will have us promulge our thoughts to the world we must declare we were not satisfied with all that then you did deliver But pray let us tell you you doe ill to conclude that because we spoake not with you therefore we durst not come to you to discourse with you or looke you in the face for all of us had not the opportunity to come unto you and indeed after our rehearing from you by a Gentleman of our Company who did speake with you as you have acknowledged though wee could have gained time we had but little desire the reason whereof we hereafter give you in this our Answer On the Munday morning the eighth of June we tooke our journey homewards and by Gods blessing returned that night well and safe to our dwellings leaving behinde us at the Leaguer some of our Company * C. F. which we had just cause to suspect because you put us in minde of Designes went thither to carry on a Designe as appeared by deserting of us by maintaining the rumour of the SCOTS comming against the Army by discountenancing some of our godly Preachers in London and such other passages Having bin a few dayes at home a rumour came to our eares of a seditious Sermon lately Preached in the Leaguer and the peoples voyce pitcht upon this your mentioned Exposition to be that Leagver Sermon which so tended to sedition The whole truth and substance whereof notwithstanding your affirmation to our knowledge is not exactly set downe in the Printed Copy For as very much is abated which you