Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	world_n	write_v	writing_n	115	3	8.2962	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A84758	Dæmonium meridianum. Satan at noon. Or, Antichristian blasphemies, anti-scripturall divelismes, anti-morall uncleanness, evidenced in the light of truth, and published by the hand of justice. Being, a sincere and impartiall relation of the proceedings of the commissioners of the county of Berks. Authorized by the ordinance for ejection, against John Pordage, late minister of Bradfield, in the same county. Published for the vindication of justice, and satisfaction of the conscientious, in the name, and by the order of the said commissioners and assistants. With some notes, and animadversions upon a book of the said John Pordage, initiuled, Innocency appearing, &c. / By Christopher Fowler, minister of the gospel at S. Maries in Reding.	Fowler, Christopher, 1610?-1678.	1655 (1655)	Wing F1692; Thomason E840_1; ESTC R207466	137,560	179

cleaving of the soul but the fiery deity burning up our lusts and corruptions in the center of the soul Two other passages of blasphemy there were uttered by the Dr that were forgotten by Mr Tickhill the Deponent but after finding his paper he doth remember them and doth assert them as upon oath The first is this That God in Christ and Christ in the saints is the unity in trinity and trinity in unity The second is this That Christ in his preparatory coming by his fiery deity quite consumes and destroyes all sin and corruption which consuming of sin is that doing away of transgression mentioned Dan. 9.24 If it be said Mr Tickhill is severe and rigid and so prejudice may barre the door against truth then Secondly we request that this testimony witnessed and signed with Mr Pendarvis his own hand may be considered These are to certifie whom it may concern that in a sermon at Ildesly Dr Pordage did deliver these following expressions First That Christ was a figure and but a figure Secondly That the Godhead was mingled with our flesh Thirdly That the imputative righteousnesse of Christ was but a saplesse righteousnesse Fourthly the graces and gifts of the spirit were but flesh Fifthly That Dr Pordage did falsely accuse Mr Tickhill of coming on purpose to oppose him neither of us h This work of providence as it were speaking thus as now we see it come to passe yonder is a blasphemer hear him and discover him thought of his being there I went and he with me to preach upon the desire of the people what limitation us'd by the Dr or whether any I do not well remember Ita testor Joh. Pendarvis Second Particular To the second as to his witnesses here we do unfeignedly professe we are even fain to force our selves under much unwillingnesse to this part of the animadversion not that we regard any revilings and censure so as to be troubled but because we are willing to live in peace But because the matter of these articles charged and proved is of so high a concernment that all that is dear and p●ecious to souls in heaven and earth is imbarqued in it and because the Dr pretends visions and those of such height and glory as he calls them that the like have not been heard or seen and because his friends do intimate that these Angelicall visions are in order to the pure preaching of the gospel to the Church which hath been in Apostacy many hundred years and because he layes such a weight upon his witnesses Lastly because he hath published them to the world and named them often in the text and margent we think it a duty incumbent upon us to write the truth promising to deliver nothing but the truth and purposing not to write all the truth we might merely for quietnesse sake and to prevent family disturbance Truly it seems somewhat observable that Dr Pordage who hath enjoyed such visions of glory as he saith hath such high discoveries pretends to such a pitch of sanctity and mortification even to perfection Having so much acquaintance in London and in the Countrey and being under so high a charge as Blasphemy Devillisme Vncleannesse and ignorance that notwithstanding all this he should bring no more or no other witnesses in his behalf then he hath done And were it not that we desire to be serviceable to the publick we might have spared this pains we have no itch to be in print for the very consideration what manner of persons the witnesses are hath given no small satisfaction of the Drs guilt to all Christians hereabouts that know him and them The first witnesse for the Dr is Richard Higgs we purpose not to mention the many ill-complexioned and hard speeches which this man hath uttered against the ministry and maintenance This language now a daies passeth amongst many rather for a prime character of a godly man as they stile it then for any fault many and we speak it sadly to see them so befooled have little else to shew for their religion but their being scurrilous against Vniversities Ministers Learning and maintenance Do we speak for our selves in this or for the truth the Lord knows and our consciences know and the day will discover it So that the gospel religion learning might thrive prosper we should desire to be silent though we sate in the dust and whatever become of us or ours or them we can in some measure be contented so that the purity and power of the gospel may dwell in the land This man is brought in by the Dr as his chief witnesse he quotes him often and doth preface his testimony that he is a pious prudent and a learned Christian and therefore to be heeded by the people and believed by the Commissioners Thus he deposeth that he heard the Dr preach at Bradfield upon and for the imputative righteousnesse of Christ and this he attested with much confidence but now observe these particulars Being demanded by the Commissioners very often and earnestly to declare what he conceived the Dr did mean by Christs righteousnesse he would at no hand although he was upon his oath reveal it We were suspicious at first that there might be some ugly speckled toad lying under a wholsome sage leaf some wretched familisticall blasphemy under wholsome expressions nothing more common these late years past have discovered this practise more then many former generations and therefore we pressed him over and over seeing he had been a seven years hearer at times and a man intelligent and one that penned the sermons that he would tell what he conceived the Dr did understand by Christs imputative righteousnesse but there was no prevailing with him he would not tell Being further asked what he himself meant by Christs imputative righteousnesse he would not tell nor answer either this was his weaknesse that he could not tell or else his wilfulnesse that he would not If the first how grosse is his ignorance and how unfit his testimony if the second what unconscionablenesse is this he being sworn to speak the truth But it seems to be his ignorance for Being now prompted by the Dr from whom he confesseth he had the * This practise of the Dr l●oks very ill favoured for this is not the first time that he hath done so with his witnesses paper before he came prescribing what he should speak to say the righteousness of Christ was his active and passive obedience he did tell the Commissioners what he meant but being further asked what he meant by Christs active obedience he answered Christs death upon the Crosse This pitifull answer makes us who know his former profession think that the fiery Deity and visions of Bradfield and a typicall Christ are like to make this man to forget if not to slight the knowledge of Jesus Christ in the scripture and now we have mentioned that blessed book denyed by many and wofully neglected by most the reader

more then the Pope himself The like entertainment found the reformation in England in Q. Eliz. time but by the care of the Magistrate this fire of hell did not flame very high nor last very long nor spread very faire now in these dayes the reformation prayed for being in some hopefull way of attainment what visions and revelations are pretended farre and wide even from Dan to Beersheba from Barwick to the mount Thirdly Observe this Dr in all his visions sees nothing at all there is a deep silence as to the everlasting Godhead and most precious bloud of our Lord Jesus his visions teach the way to the virgin essence and the life of perferction by way of conformity which way he saw fore-right and wisdome that eternall virgin invited him to follow her in the the way of circumcision resignation and the crosse and so on to the resurrection ascension glorification and fixation pag. 77. These good words as they are here signifie to us that know the man no more then a bladder upon a nut-shell Nay we have reason to believe that in his sense they are full of the wine of dragons and poison of asps making our Lord Christ but a type Fourthly Observe that he ascribes his height and abstractednesse and his pretended mortification and living with God unto his visions for so he tells you the good effect of this upon my self and family pag. 72. the effects and impressions left upon our spirits pag. 76. And now for the space of these four years ever since these we by the grace of God pag. 77. c. his holinesse is not wrought by the scriptures but by apparitoins So that now it must not be sanctifie them through thy truth but through visions now it must be no more believing in Christs name through the word but through the sight of the dark and light world Oh horrid who sees not but in these quaking dayes when there be so many hundred Quakers who deny the scriptures this Dr comes in with his visions and tells their glorious effects to do a kind office for the devil viz. to make the scriptures seem uselesse and by degrees rejected and at last denied We shall conclude this with that precious passage of Dr Reynolds in his first thes with a little addition Away with the Jews and their Cabala of Rabbins away with the Montanists and their new comforter away with the Trent Fathers and their traditions away with the Anabaptists and their revelations away with the Quakers and their actings away with Matthiz and all his trances away with the Statists and their guide reason away with John of Leyden with all his raptures and away with John of Bradfield with all his visions The scripture the word sufficeth us our salvation is Christ the way to salvation faith the guide of the way the scriptures the light whereof directeth our steps the food nourisheth our souls the preservative keeps us from diseases the plaister cureth our wounds the sword killeth our enemies and the conduct brings us to eternall glory Animad 8. He tells the world thus we had an opening of the eternall world by a divine transportation into the glory of the majesty and we heard unutterable words and mysteries and we daily dy to our self ownments it is our desire to put some Queries to this Seraphick man to clear the truth First Dr pray tell us whom do you mean under these high visions and such a degree of perfection from the enjoyment of them for pitty do not design to cheat your reader at a distance who never heard of you but by your book Tell him who you mean by we and us if you will not then we must thus Father * These names th●y have given themselves in a mysticall sense and there is we believe some mystery of wickednesse in it Abraham formerly called John Pordage one Deborah formerly Mary the quondam wife of John two Mary Flavell the woman of them both three we know no more unlesse it be Eliezer the Steward of the family called Francis and Susan Day as for Rahab formerly Mary Pocock she denies it Mr Bromley did first scruple and then * If it had not been so he would quick●y have said it the country conceives his silence to be a concession deny his oath being demanded to testifie of Mrs Blagraves vision in her morning coat Mary Allen saith nothing John Bolt is a pitifull ignoramus fit to be the Drs servant and witnesse here is all the number that we know of they shall proceed no further their folly is made manifest blessed be God Secondly Why did you very often neglect your people upon the Lords Day somet●mes five or six weeks together did not you apparen●ly mind your own tithes more then their poor souls and when you were in the pulpit why did you use such uncouth canting unedifiing language one of the inhabitants deposed that you preached like John Tawney Thirdly Why did you when you thought you might safely do it speak so sleightly of the Lord Jesus nay have not you wickedly if not in some degree Satanically out of your Satanicall pride from your Satanicall visions reproached the bloud of the Lord Christ God blessed for ever are these the effect of your visions and your transporting into the eternall world Oh villany of all villainies Fourthly What mean you by saying p●g 35. that many from out-places were quickened by your ministry and strengthened do you mean your witnesses The Lord convert them or whom do you mean name one name but one of those many this is not only vain boasting but wicked that may be in a truth but this is in a ly The Lord be mercifull to that country Fifthly What mean you by suffering under your nose the child Hannah to call Mrs Flavell Aunt the child was not so wise as to know her own Father and you were not so honest as to let her know her own Mother Sixthly What did you mean to suffer Mrs Flavell to live in the practise of such known untruths as these for many years viz. that Hannah was not her child that she was the child of a dear friend of hers that she was entrusted by the mother to look to it and this against your knowledge have you a dispensation for this lewd practise Seventhly Nay Dr tell us what did you call the child did not you say Mrs Flavell was her Aunt you pretend poorly in your book a law suit as a reason why she concealed her name nine years together pray tell us why Widow Fruin should be so unsafe was dead Mr Fruin any more lyable to a law suit then dead Mr Flavell it smells above ground Pray tell us one thing you are best able to answer and we will put it to you in your own language sc were not you Mr Frewins figurative similitude Eighthly Why did you in such an unseemly manner for any man but in you very scandalous suffer nay entertain Mrs

our own folly in being so copious upon this subject but that we cannot chuse but stand amazed at the indiscretion of many professors especially in such a day of plentifull light who doe unawares plead for and give countenance to horrid Blasphemers because they walke under the notion and shew of holinesse and pretended mortification as if we had no Bibles to informe us that Wolves devouring wolves should come in Sheeps cloathing and false Prophets should carry their matters with so much speciousnesse that they should bid faire nay and should doe it too if it were possible namely deceive the very elect the Devill is never so much a Devill as when he is white he knowes full well that he can doe nothing to any purpose for his owne Kingdome but in that colour we desire to have a raised esteem of the least dram of true holiness we say that Rubies and all that can be named or imagined are not comparable to it we say as Luther that one single gratious worke is more worth than the whole world onely it is a trouble to our Soules to see people cheated into and hardned in damnable opinions by such shewes and pretences we believe there can be no reall holinesse without the sound and right knowledge of Jesus Christ we conclude this for these dayes with that of d Adversus Francisc p. 570. Calvines in his dayes they have mortification often in their mouths but their mortification is this viz. they have no sense of good or evill Animad 11. As to the Phrase and Language used by the Doctor as for example The fiery Deity burning in the center of the Soule the Godhead mingling it selfe with our flesh the divine union the divine transportation into the glory of the Majesty p. 76. the essentiall essence of love fixation in the love of the holy Ghost divine tincturation eyes fixed upon the being of love the pure life of virginity with many more We desire the Reader to observe that this hath been the guise of Blasphemers and Familists old and new Valentinus in his * Mens in●●●●●b●lis magn●●●●e in b l●bilibus ●●nominatorum supersalestium Epiph l. 1. Tom. 2. Hae● 3● Epistle begins high with swelling unintelligible words thus The unabolishable mind to the in magnitude unabolishable of unnameable supercelestiall secrets I will make mention to you with a fardell of nonsensicall stuffe of his males and females and his triginta saecula This Blasphemer was as errant too at Allegorizing as our Doctor he proves his thirty Ages or Worlds most clearly by the Parable of the Labourers sent into the Vineyard thus Some were sent at the first houre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These they called wonderfull ineffable Mysteri●s some at the third some about the sixt hour others at the ninth some at the eleventh houre Now compute 1. 3 6. 9. 11. and these houres put together make thirty and this among his Sect was as cleare as the Sun to prove his triginta saecula Just as R. Higgs one of the Doctors Disciples and Witnesses when one told him he could not beleeve Abrahams family in that Text to be his Family in him viz. his will and affections Oh said Higgs to him It is cleare as the day so that Pontius Pilate must condemne Christ in us and the Jews put him to death in us all very cleare This Allegorizing and Quakerisme bids faire to drive the Scriptures out of the world the very hopes whereof will make the damned Fiends keep Holy-day in Hell when men thus abuse the Scripture and bewitch the simple It calls to our mind a saying of an Ancient Whosoever speaks the Scriptures in another sense than he that wrote it that man * Austin de Doct. Chr. lib. 1. cap. 37. speaks a lie though he speak the Scripture And againe for this frothy language of Seducers What * Idem de Doct. Chr lib. 4 c x. profit saith he is there in the sublimity of words which are not understandable by the hearers when there is no other cause of speaking if they understand not what we speak for whose sake we speak that they may understand He that teacheth should avoid all words that doe not teach Quintinistae peregrina c. the † Velut cerculatores errones ex Bohemia Cornicantur Quintinists use a strange and uncouth language with which they doe so chough it that there is no more perspicuity in their words than in the chanting of birds and this they doe a malitiously to circumvent novices ●●●●in adv 〈◊〉 cap. 7. 〈◊〉 516. for they reveale not the mysteries of their abominations which lay under the covert of their swollen language but to their own who are bound to them by Oath of Secresie under these they lay hid like theeves in a thicket their novices stand amazed at the sublimity of their words which Peter and Jude compare to bubbles and froth See more So H. Nicholas thus H. b Rutherfords Survey Antichrist cap. 9. pag. 56. Nicholai through the holy spirit of the love of Jesus raised by the highest God from the dead anointed by the holy Ghost in the old age of the holy understanding of Jesus Christ illuminated with the spirit of heavenly truth the true light of perfect being godded with God or the spirit of his love c John Knewstubb in his confutation of H. N. This form of writing is an evident note of a seducing spirit There are Quakers at Bodenham who suffer extreme tortures of body visible to the reporter and many others very often so extreme that if God did not limit the Devill their inwards would burst out trembling and quaking in their agonies as though their flesh would part from their bones and ligatures they call these d The Quakers blazing star by Edmund Skippe teacher at Bodenham pag. 22. agonies the fiery triall and they say it is the power of the Holy Ghost burning up and destroying their corruptions purifying them as gold tryed by the fire seven times They tell you how much joy and pleasure they have mixed with their torment that they could wish to be in it even for ever and ever This they call the drinking of the Cup the undergoing the wrath and curse of God as Christ did most blasphemously and say they must be brought to suffer as Christ did untill there is nothing left them but the pure seed of God Thus reckoning as far as I can determine saith he by their words that upon this account they must be e Just like the Doctor not by the saplesse righteousnesse of another but the fiery deity burning in the center of the soul justified before the Lord. This testimony is unquestionable because of an eye-witnesse and eare-witnesse Like to be seduced into this way by Sathan but delivered out of it by the Lord Christ The Quakers at Reding had the same language of Christ suffering death from the eternall Love and the holy Ghost