Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	believe_v	know_v	word_n	4,525	5	4.2540	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54003	A just rebuke to one & twenty learned and reverend divines (so called) being an answer to an abusive epistle against the people call'd Quakers subscrib'd by : Thoman Manton, Thomas Jacomb, John Yates, John Sheffield, Anthony Palmer, Thomas Cole, Thomas Doelittel, Richard Baxter, William Cooper, George Griffith, Matthew Barker, John Singleton, Andrew Parsons, Richard Mayo, Thomas Gouge, William Jenkyn, Thomas Watson, Benjamin Needler, William Carslake, Stephen Ford, Samuel Smith / by William Penn.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1674 (1674)	Wing P1131; ESTC R208998	24,420	33

Bands cropt Lock● exceeding plain Apparel severe Aspects with many more Instances of Preciseness and Austerity as you call it were the Subjects frothy Minds play'd upon You do not think B. Jonson acted like a Christian-Man in his Comical Representation of Puritans yet your selves call'd Learned and Reverend Divines have shown as much Injustice though it may be one and Twenty more of you could not show so much Wit It is known to God with what Sincerity we are acted in Obedience to the Convictions of his own Spirit and that it is not Affected Singularity but Real Conscience that engageth us to those things you make the Subject of your Mo●kage and Contempt and God hath to reckon with you for the Liberty you give and your People take To indulge them in that Vnchristian Latitud● and fling Monkish Aust●rities upon us who through Fear of offending Almighty God by giving Way to a Worldly Appetite conscientiously live under s●me more then ordinary Restriction is to deal deceitf●lly with them and injuriously with us and God will judge for these Things The Truth of the Matter is you are Angry the People can live without you and rack your Wits to bring that Principle People and Way into Suspicion and Hatred whose self-Denyal judgeth you and yours your Interest in People stands in that which when the Everlasting God shall terribly shake all Things will fall and such as have vainly conceited themselves Christians upon your Character they will be found without their W●dding-Garment But the Truth is nothing is well with some Men that a Quaker doth if he be retired he is sullen if plain in his Apparel Cynical if careless about Salutation Proud his Industry must be Worldly-Mindedness his Mod●rate Vses of Imjoymens Penuriousn●ss his Hospitality Fl●sh-Pleasingness his being at a Word a Decoy for Custom and a New Way of Cheating if he refuse to answer any Questions relating to Religion eit●er he can give no Account of his Religion or he he holds some Error he is afraid to discover if he doth answer them either it is Nonsense or Equivocation In short his Virtues must be Vi●es but thi● is his Resolution if to be as he is be to be Vile he will be more Vile and I doubt not but God will plead our Cause against you and evidence to you and all Men that we have not pursued Cynical Singularities nor Affected undue Separation but with Holy Fear and Sincerity of Soul have been herein resign'd to the Good-Will of God as he hath made it known by the Light of his Son in our own Consciences and this I affirm that all those Endeavours many vigorously employ to vilifie an Inward Principle and disswade Persons from believing in it waiting upon it and being guided by it center in the rankest Atheism because the Sence and Influence upon the Mind is the most sensible express and constant Argument for God and his pure Religion which lost makes Way for Infidelity But as in Point of Doctrine so in Conversation you believe we are not all alike your Words are these One and Twenty Divines And yet some of them being Rich and grown into Estates in the World can and do live in as Flesh-pleasing Fulness Splendor and indulging to a sensual Life as others whom they have condemned W.P. I would willingly know these Persons who they are and where they live Did you love Truth and your own Credit ye would scarce be so lavishing of your Words You say We condemn all but our selves what is the Consequence but this if you speak true That there is not a Person in the World that is not a Profest Quaker who either hath more Ability to-live Flesh-pleasing or that actually doth indulge himself more to a Sensual Life then some Quakers can and do Which way to save your Credit I know not unless you make it appear that the Quakers are both as Rich as other Men and as indulgent to themselves in all sensual P●easures I perceive rather then the Quakers shall want Faults you will make some for them a Practice very unfit for One and Twenty Learned and Reverend Divines But to do you right you are kind in your Cruelty you provide against believing what you say by saying what is incredible of us I shall now consider your Recommendation of his Book One and Twenty Divines Wherein the Quakers Principles are more thorrowly investigated then in any Book which we have seen and we judge it for Matter Proof and Style to be especially useful for those who need or desire Information concerning the Quakers and their Principl●s W.P. Had we no other Weapon this were enough to Wound your Cause incurably for first he hath laid down about 20 Principles in the Quakers Name 18 of which are not only None of theirs as so exprest but not so much as by Consequence That they are none of ours it is enough we say so unless our Faith is not to be taken at our Mouthes but at our Adversaries He that tells me I believe that which I do not believe is either Foolish or Dishonest and his Confutation is not of me but of himself That they are not our Principles by Consequence I have abundantly proved both in my Answer and Rejoynder However Matter Proof and Style you commend it for The Matter of it lyeth in the Proof of it What Proof and what Style I am willing to shew you and first as to Proof Who would not think it excellently performed that hath such an Epistle and so subscribed on Purpose to recommend it But that so many Men with such fine Titles may ●e guilty of great Mistake and Abuse I will produce you Ten Instances of Notorious Perversion any one of which were unworthy even of such poor Heathen as ye think us to be referring you to my Answer and Rejoynder for a more compleat Detection of his Miscarriages 1. John Faldo affirms That W. Smith had not one Exhortation to read the Scrip●ures nay that the main Design of the Book was to deny them and throw Dirt upon them yet J.F. cites him concerning the Scriptures thus Child Then the Scriptures are to be own'd and believed c Father Yes They are to be OWN'D and BELIEV'D and they that do not so are to be DENIED Observ. Can any thing be more inconsistent then your Reverend Author Is it this sort of Proof you commend Can you think this the Way to convert such Infidels as you deem us to be To this let me add another notable Passage in the same Discourse he faults with Dirting and Denying the Scripture Quest Of what Service are the Scriptures as they are given forth and recorded without Answ. MUCH EVERY WAY unto those that have receiv'd the same Spirit from whom they were given forth for unto such they are PROFITABLE and MAKE WISE unto Salvation and are unto them of Service for INSTRUCTION EDIFICATION and COMFORT Obs. Is there no Exhortation lodg'd in

them you must needs have offered great Violence to your Understandings in giving your Approbation which anon we shall so undeniably evidence as it would have been comparatively your Virtue to have recommended the Book without reading it or examining the Citations Besides the most of what he chargeth upon us to be our Principles are not so laid down by any one of us nor say we sayable by any of us upon our real Principles but are such Consequences as he through Ignorance or Malice hath indirectly drawn from our Words For Instance That there is no other Judgment Heaven or H●ll then what is within us in this Life Which is so far from being our Principle in Our Words that it is as inconsistent with the Truth of our Creed as Darkness is with Light Charge this upon him and he will tell you I doubt not That this is not the Quakers Faith in terminis but the Consequence of it but then it is to be observed that he must have the making of it I would fain know of you if you would be so treated with the Respect to the Articles of your own Creed Would you esteem it just in me to give my Consequence for your Principle supposing I thought it a true Consequence especially if you reject it For Example You are most if not all of you strict Calvinists in the Point of Election and Reprobation would you take it for a candid Representation of your Judgment that I should proclaim it to the World T. Manton T. Jac●mb c. believe That God is the Author of Sin That God's Secret Will crosseth his Revealed Will That no Man is oblieged by the Laws either of God or men That Men are not the Cause of their own Destruction That there are neither Rewards nor Punishments c. because perhaps I believe those Consequences to be deducible from the Calvinistical Principle I am perswaded you would look upon me as an Injurious Person in so doing yet this hath been the Practice of your Reverend Author J. Faldo and which is le●s to your Credit you have notwithstanding commended him in it which how well it suits with On● and Twenty Learned and Reverend Divines I leave to their Judgment who understand what Persons of such a Character ought to do and be But I hope you do not think this to be Imitating of God if you do your Case is desperate But ●ad your Carriage been less blamable in these Particulars it had not only been your Discretion but Duty to have enquired if ever any thing had been writ in Answer to this Discourse you recommend by any of that People that it was writ against if there had to have procured and perused it before you had so freely spent your peremptory Judgment against us You generally fling Infallibility at us though it be about Matters of highest Importance to Salvation as if it were a Capital Sin to be assured of what a Christian ought not to make a Doubt of and yet nothing below asscribing such an Infallibility to your Reverend Author can excuse you in not examining him by our Discourses before you conferr'd so kind ●n Epistle upon his Book I ask you if the like Practice would please you in your own Ca●e you have prov'd it doth in ours which makes not for your Honour Some of you are Writers your selves and thereby have ascended to no small Degree of Fame for some thing or other tell me honestly if you would think it a Piece of Justice in any Class of Men to recommend a Book most abusive of your Religion to the World for an Ingenious Essay an Exact Account of your Belief a Tract that in Matter Proof and Style your own Words merits the Notice of all such as desire an Information concerning your Principles of Religion whilst you both disown the Principles of Religion it calls yours and in Two large Answers have detected him of several hundred Miscarriages against your Persons and Principles I am perswaded you will provide better for your selves But if you must needs be so liberal me thinks your Recommendation had been better bestow'd upon his Vindication since his writing That proveth This wanted it and if it wanted it then it wants it still and yet it seems the Book Vindicated must be the Defence of the Vindication and all the Return I am like to have to my Rejoynder bating The Epistle of many L●arned Reverend and Worthy Divines in Praise of such a Book and ●uch an Author May none of you at least in this Temper be Inquisitors when I am to be examin'd for my Religion I shall now fall more closely to the Matter of your Epistle One and Twenty Divines The Quakers preach another Gospel and endeavour to seduce well-meaning Souls to whom they speak in unintelligible Words and from whom they hide the Poyson of their Antifundamental Doctrines W.P. Here is a great deal in a little and very sowerly said Were it as True as it is False the Day were yours You say We preach another Gospel You do but Say it and I thank God You can Do no more But doth it become One and Twenty Learned and Reverend Divines to give so general and black a Charge without making any the least Offer to Prove it Is not this to Calumniate rather then to ●onfute us If you say your Reverend Author John Faldo hath done it for you I must tell you that he is an Irreverent Abuser of God the Christian Religion and the Quakers and which is more to my Contentment whatever it be to his and yours Some and No Quakers too think I have prov'd him such And let me ask you If it be Another Gospel To own Remission and Eternal Salvation by the Son of God both as he appear'd above 1600 Years ago in the Flesh and as he reveals himself within in Power and Spirit What is the Gospel or Glad Tidings but Deliverance from Sin here and Wrath to come And what can effect this but the Powerful Grace of God that bringeth Salvation which is dispens'd by Him to all men who is full of Grace and Truth For the other part of your Accusation That we should Say one thing Mean another It is by Consequence to call us the worst sort of Knaves by how much a Deception in matters of Eternal Moment is more impious then any Cozennage about things of this Life and yet you would be thought Charitable Men and say We want it Is this the Way to supply us But I would willingly know of you By what Skill you arrive at the Knowledge of our Hearts Inspiration is one part of our Heresy if your Reverend Author is to be credited The Scripture can not be your Rule in the Point for that nowhere saith The Quakers Say one thing and Mean another and if you measure us by our Words you must grant that either you do not understand us or we mean very Good Things for you elsewhere say That our

be impertinently Tautological and say the same thing in four pages five times over to fix an Odium in the Minds of People against us What is this but to do what you condemn But the Truth is you have so well exprest the Matter for your selves that an unwary Reader would think you equally Enemies to Separation and Reviling those you separate from But of a●● men this Language is most infufferable from you who have transcended in the Guilt of those things you seem so heartily to censure You are made up of Presbyterians and Independents let me a little Expostulate with you Argumentum ad hominom I will begin with you who are called Presbyterians Are you not Separatists from the Church of England You know you are And pray what is the Ground of your Separation Is it Difference in the Essentials of Religion you know you say it to be only in some matters of Discipline for this you have divided your selves and smartly vindicated your Separation witness Galaspee in Scotland and Smectimnaeus in England Was it not a great Reason of the Wars that divided so many Famili●s shed so much Blood and exhausted so great a Treasure Did it not lay Episcopacy in the Dust and excite the Parliament in these very Terms Elijah opposed Idolatry and Oppression so do ye Down with Baal's Altars Down with Baal's Priests Do not I beseech you consent unto a Toleration of Baal's Worship in this Kingdom upon any Politick Consideration whatsoever Which is as much as to say Away with the Arch-Bishops Bishops the wh●le Ministry and Worship of the Church of England Again The Morthes of your Adversari●s are opened against you that so many D●linquents that is to say Royalists are in Prison and yet but very few of them brought to their Tryal Did he mean to relea●e them And saith another of your eminent Brethren be●ore the Commons Aug. 28. 1644. Ye cannot Preach nor Pray them down directly and immediately Well That which the Word cannot do the Sword shall To render which saying authentick the Apostle is brought in two lines after I could set out this part of your Story to the Life but at this time shall forbear nor do I delight in this but since I must needs mention Your Separation how can I do it without telling who it was you separated from And can I do it more candidly then in your own Words I wish there had been no need for it Only from hence you may observe your sort of Dislike of Separation and how notably Presbyterians revile even Men that are one with them in the Essentials of Religion Behold a short Instance of your Carriage to the Church of England you separated from Let us now take a short view of your Treatment of those that dissented from you You shewed the Independents the way first to separate upon Conscience and then to plead Conscience for Separation and how reasonable it was that Conscience should be Tolerated Are you constant to your selves Do you give what you will take No such matter But let us hear you Matters of Religion says Dr Corn Burges in his Sermon before the House of Commons Novemb. 5. 1641. ly a Bleeding all Government and Discipline of the Church is laid in her Grave and all putredinous Vermin of bold Schismaticks glory in her Ashes making her Fall their own Rising to mount our Pulpits That the Independents are concern'd under the term Schismaticks Dr Cawdrey bestows an whole Book upon it which is Entituled INDEPENDENCY a great Schism yet some of these great Schismaticks are some of the One and Twenty Reverend Worthy Divines I find another of your Brethren Octob. 22. 1644. that tells us of Parliamentary Heresies saying You are the Anabaptists and you are the Antinomians these are your Errors if they spread by your Connivance Was not this spoaken like a Man of Charity one that disdain'd not the Communion of other Christians that are not altogether of his Mind A Virtue commended by you in your Epistle Another eminent Person of your Way before the Parliament Sept. 12. 1644. We are grown beyond Arminianism Brownism Anabaptism we are come to the down-right Libertinism that every man is to be left to the Liberty of his own Religion An Opinion most pernicious and destructive saith he And another of your Brethren in his great Zeal before the House of Commons 1644. styles them Bastard Imps of the Whore of Babylon Though you know that many of you plead a Romish Succession for your Ministry and consequently that you ministerially descend of what you call the Whore think on 't as you will But all this is exceeded by a zealous Presbyterian who in his Book called The Gangraen c. Part 1. p. 91. querieth thus Shall the Presbyterians Orthodox Godly Ministers be so cold as to let Anabaptism Brownism Antinomianism Libertinism Independency come in upon us and keep in a whole skin when Arch-Bishops Bishops c. hazarded the loss of their Preferments to withstand the Toleration of Popery Where not only Anabaptists and Independents are rendred unworthy of a Toleration by this great Presbyterian but their Perswasion rendred more intolerable then Popery I would ask G. Griffith M. Barker R. Mayo M. Palmer T. Cole who help to make up the One and Twenty Learned and Reverend Divines if this Man was a Wasp or a Bee one that had more of Sting or Honey Well what 's his Resolution Let 's therefore saith he fill all Presses and cause all Pulpits to ring and so possess Parliament City and whole Kingdom against the Evil of Schism and a Toleration that we may no more hear of a Toleration nor of separated Churches being hateful Names in the Church of God AMEN ' AMEN All I shall say of the Man is this he was hearty in his Work and what he did he did with all his Might Another of them runs so high that he impeacheth Gamaliel for a loose Naturalist a Time-serving Polititian a second Achitophel and only because he was for Toleration when you know the rest of the Jewish Counsel were for Persecution If you will not believe me peruse I. Words Sermon before the Commons 1645. How agrees this with your present Desires of Indulgence and Thanks for it Let me say there is the same Exception against you upon this Doctrine as any other sort of Dissenters But as ill as this man thought of Worthy Prudent Gamaliel his Counsel hath been strong and sea●onable even in Presbyterian Apologies But lest you should reject these Evidences of your rank Severity to others though for minute Differences as being but the Opinion of 3 or 4 men I will conclude with the Judgment of the Presbyterian Ministers in the City of London presented in a Letter to the Assembly of Divines sitting at West minster 1645. INDEPENDENCY is a Schism they draw seduce our Members from our Congregations a Toleration of it will be follow'd with inevitable Mischiefs They erect