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	true_a	word_n	8,834	5	4.4618	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

first came among us and walkt with us that he was not in any such Practice As keeping on his Hat in time of Publick Prayer but believ'd and in some measure walked in the Way we profess conformable as we are and we hope for Conscience sake He dare not also say That he enjoy'd nor some Comfort from those Prayers that came through an Uncovered Head but acknowledgeth the contrary and at that time of Day all was well It was the Gospel the Truth the Way of God said he and others since of his Stamp they were Zealous also to promote it This now will be the Question Whether If any Person that had given those Signal Testimonies for a Way and People and so incorporated himself with them finding afterwards Fault with a Practice so Innocent so Reverent as keeping off the Hat in time of Publick Prayer to Almighty God should step out of that ●omely Order set up a New Mark and Standard whereby some should have their Heads covered others uncovered a most divided confused and unseemly Sight the Church in this Case may not Admonish andafter her due Admonition and the Parties tenacious resolute and captions Disputes for that unsutable Practice may not justly disown him as a Disputer about needless Questions and one that is gone out of the compleat Union of the Body and exercised by another Spirit Deny this and Farewel to all Christian Church Order and Discipline yea and Truth it self For it is an absolute Inlet to Ranterism and so to Atheism near whose Borders this Author dwells I say If the Scripture is to be credited this is sound Doctrine If the several Societies or Churches then gathered were not to pass Judgment till the Hereticks or Schismaticks were convinc'd of and acknowledg'd their Mistake they had never done it since upon such Conviction Acknowledgment they ceased to be such unless we should believe that notwithstanding they were convinced in their Consciences of their Errors or Dissentions they still persisted in the Belief of them which I will not affirm If then a Society or Church so anointed as aforesaid have that Power We do by Authority thereof as a Christian Society judge all Persons concern'd with the Spirit of this Author to be thus far led by a Delusive Turbulent Unchristian Spirit which if once given way to there is no Imagination so Sordid and Scandalous as it would not lead to and by this will we stand in the Day of the Lord when it will be proved no Popery but Gospel to do so with him and this Novice appear a Wretched Slanderer His Objection Were I among you could I Marry if an whole Nation since you deny it to Dissenters from you is Childish in every thing but the Malice of it If all the World but he were Believers he might ask the Apostle Paul that Question who said Be ye not unequally yoak'd together It is not the Fault of the Body that he dissents but his own Imaginations and Whimsies His Suggestion that we would then deny him a Burial because we should deny it him alwayes as one of us but especially our now Usurping his Property in a Burial Place is a down-right Forgery That our Friends require any Man to practise what they are not convinc'd of I utterly renounce in their Name and that as an Infamous Slander But that we will be well satisfied with any Member's Dispractice of an orderly Performance once cheerefully own'd is also true and most reasonable and orderly That we Exalt our selves is a Calumny of his making but we know our Places in the Body And for his saying Every Member is Equal it is false For though it belongs to the same Body yet not to the same Service some are in that sense more Honourable then others This shows an Aspiring Discontented Mind in him that where he can't be Superiour he would be Equal He saith that with sorrow hath he seen pulling down haling out and thrusting forth of our Meetings and that we went as far as our Power and wanted only more to punish But could we do so as he wickedly falsly suggests we should have been perhaps more formidable to our Insolent Envious Perverse Opposers who come not for Conscience sake or to seek Satisfaction which we shall never refuse but to Disturb introduce a Rabble beget Laughter or any thing that might disquiet our Assemblies and as much as in them lies render them Unprofitable to the People If we ever so us'd any Conscientious Inquirer or Opposer let us know them It is Baseness it self to suggest our Ill-using of People in general and none named perhaps we have refused and condemn'd the bawling Opposition of such Apostate Slanderers as our Adversary but we appeal to God's holy Witness in all Consciences if that has been or is our Practice which is insmuated against us much less that his Uncharitable Expression If he had Power equal to our Will we would punish should have any place the Suggestion of the common Adversary For his saying that the Ministers are Ravening Wolves that prey upon the Flock● and that if they commit a Fault they are not to be judged by the Laity but their Peers or Equals It is easie with him to Slander but hard to prove What one Minister ever made a Prey upon this Authors Person or Estate let him give us his Name If Preaching the Everlasting Gospel in season and out of Season Rising early and laying down late Suffering Travelling and Spending and being spent in Body and Estate Sacrificing the Joy Strength and Pleasure of their Youth to the Service of the Living Eternal God and the Salvation of Peoples Souls if all this makes them Ravenous Wolves of Pray then hath he rightly denominated them but if this be Love unfeign'd to God and Men then will that Righteous Judge certainly reckon with this Apostate for all his Slanders and Calumnies against his Faithful and Painful Messengers For not being judg'd by the Laity but their Peers as he wickedly distinguishes be it known to all That if any such Person have committed an Injury against any of those who are not exercised in the Ministry then as well those as the Ministry are proper Judges but in Cases that may more strictly concern the Exercise of his Gift it is most equal reasonable that such other faithful publick Labourers as may be gotten together with some of the more approved among us whom we can call Elders should be Judges in the Case But how Only as they are upon serious Waiting to receive Counsel and Wisdom from God directed of his Holy Spirit to speak act or determine Now what great Matter of Evil Apostacy Popery Tyranny Lordlings c. can there be in so orderly a Practice O this Libertine Ranting Spirit that therefore hateth us because we would have it Ruled Guided and Govern'd with the Curb of Truth and not under a Pretence of Gospel-Liberty run out into