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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	authority_n	call_v	scripture_n	1,590	5	5.5725	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54196	Primitive Christianity revived in the faith and practice of the people called Quakers written, in testimony to the present dispensation of God, through them, to the world, that prejudices may be removed, the simple informed, the well-enclined encouraged, and the truth and its innocent Friends, rightly represented / by William Penn.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1696 (1696)	Wing P1342; ESTC R15209	43,826	145

cannot subsist without it Which made David break forth in his Expostulations with God Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whither shall I flee from thy Presence Psalm 139. 7 8 9 10. Implying it was every where though not every where nor at every time alike If I go to Heaven to Hell or beyond the Seas even there shall thy Hand lead me and thy Right Hand shall hold me That is there will this Divine Word this Light of Men this Spirit of God find me lead me help me and comfort me For it is with me where ever I am and where ever I go in one respect or other Prov. 6. 22. When thou goest it shall lead thee when thou sleepest it shall keep thee and when thou awakest it shall talk with thee And I can no more get rid of it if I would then of my self or my own Nature so present it is with me and so close it sticks unto me Isa 43. 2. When thou passest through the Waters I will be with thee and through the Rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the Fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the Flame kindle upon thee David knew it and therefore had a great value for it In thy Light shall we see Light or we shall be enlightned by thy Light Thou wilt Light my Candle the Lord my God will lighten my Darkness Again The Lord is my Light whom shall I fear It was his Armour against all Danger It took Fear away from him and he was undaunted because he was safe in the way of it Of the same blessed Word he says elsewhere It is a Lamp unto my Feet and a Lanthorn to my Paths In short a Light to him in his way to Blessedness § 3. Obj. But if the Jews had this Light it does not follow that the Gentiles had it also but by your Doctrine all have it Answ Yes and it is the Glory of this Doctrine which we profess that Gods Love is therein held forth to All. And besides the Texts cited in general and that are as Full and Positive as can be exprest the Apostle is very Particular in the second Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans That the Gentiles having not the Law did by Nature the things contained in the Law and were a Law unto themselves That is they had not an outward Law circumstanced as the Jews had but they had the Works of the Law written in their Hearts and therefore might well be a Law to themselves that had the Law in themselves And so had the Jews too but then they had greater outward helps to quicken their Obedience to it such as God afforded not unto any other Nation And therefore the Obedience of the Gentiles or Vncircumcision is said to be by Nature or Naturally because it was without those Additional External and extraordinary Ministries and Helps which the Jews had to provoke them to their Duty Which is so far from lessening the obedient Gentiles that it exalts them in the Apostles Judgment because though they had less Advantages then the Jews yet the Work of the Law written in their Hearts was made so much the more evident by the good Life they lived in the World He adds their Consciences bearing Witness or as it may be rendred witnessing with them and their Thoughts mean while accusing or else excusing one another in the Day when God shall judge the secrets of all Hearts by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel Which presents us with four things to our Point and worth our serious Reflection First That the Gentiles had the Law written in their Hearts Secondly That their Conscience was an allowed Witness or Evidence about Duty Thirdly That the Judgment made thereby shall be confirmed by the Apostles Gospel at the great Day and therefore Valid and Irreversible Fourthly That this could not be if the Light of this Conscience were not a Divine and Sufficient Light For Conscience truly speaking is no other then the Sence a Man hath or Judgement he maketh of his Duty to God according to the Vnderstanding God gives him of his Will And that no ill but a true and scriptural Use may be made of this Word Conscience I limit it to Duty and that to a Virtuous and Holy Life as the Apostle evidently doth about which we cannot miss or dispute read verse 7 8 and 9. It was to that therefore the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ desired to be made manifest for they dared to stand the Judgment of Conscience in reference to the Doctrine they preach'd and prest upon Men. The Beloved Disciple also makes it a Judge of Man's present and future State under the Term Heart For if our Heart condemn us God is greater then our Heart and knoweth all things Beloved if our Heart condemn us not then have we Confidence towards God Plain and strong Words And what were they about but whether we Love God in Deed and in Truth And how must that appear VVhy in keeping his Commandments which is living up to what we know And if any desire to satisfie themselves farther of the Divinity of the Gentiles let them read Plato Seneca Plutarch Epictetus Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and the like Gentile VVriters They will also find many of their sayings collected in the first Part of a Book called the Christian Quaker and compared with the Testimonies of Scripture not for their Authority but agreeableness In them they may discern many Excellent Truths and taste great Love and Devotion to Virtue A fruit that grows upon no Tree but that of Life in no Age or Nation Some of the most Eminent VVriters of the first Ages such as Justin Martyr Origen Clemens Alexandrinus c. bore them great Respect and thought it no lessening to the Reputation of Christianity that it was defended in many Gentile Authors as well as that they used and urged them to engage their Followers to the Faith as Paul did the Athenians with their own Poets CHAP. VII Sect. 1. An Objection Answer'd about the various Dispensations of God The Principle the same Sect. 2. God's Work of a Piece and Truth the same under divers Shapes Sect. 3. The Reason of the prevalency of Idolatry Sect. 4. The Quakers Testimony the best Antidote against it viz. walking by a Divine Principle in Man Sect. 5. It was God's End in all his Manifestations that Man might be God's Image and Delight § 1. Obj. BUt it may be said If it were one Principle why so many Modes and Shapes of Religion since the World began For the Patriarchal Mosaical and Christian have their great differences to say nothing of what has befallen the Christian since the Publication of it to the World Answ I know not properly they may be called divers Religions that assert the true God for the Object of Worship the Lord Jesus Christ for the only Saviour and the Light or Spirit of Christ for the

great Agent and Means of Man's Conversion and Eternal Felicity any more than Infancy Youth and Manhood make three Men instead of three growths or periods of Time of one and the same Man But passing that the many Modes or Ways of Gods appearing to Men arise as hath been said from the divers States of Men in all which it seems to have been his main design to prevent Idolatry and Vice by directing their Minds to the true Object of Worship and pressing Virtue and Holiness So that though mediately he spoke to the Patriarchs mostly by Angels in the fashion of Men and by them to their Families over and above the Illumination in themselves so the Prophets for the most Part by the Revelation of the Holy Ghost in them and by them to the Jews And since the Gospel Dispensation by his Son both Externally by his coming in the Flesh and Internally by his spiritual Appearance in the Soul as he is the great Light of the World Yet all its flowings mediately through others has still been from the same Principle co-operating with the Manifestation of it immediately in Man 's own Particular § 2. This is of great weight for our Information and Incouragement that God's Work in reference to Man is all of a Piece and in it self lies in a narrow Compass and that his Eye has ever been upon the same thing in all his Dispensations viz. to make Men truly Good by planting his Holy Awe and Fear in their Hearts Though he has condescended for the hardness and darkness of Men's Hearts to approach and spell out his Holy Mind to them by low and carnal ways as they may appear to our more Enlightned Understandings Suffering Truth to put on divers sorts of Garments the better to reach to the low State of Men to engage them from false Gods and ill Lives seeing them sunk so much below their nobler Part and what he made them that like brute Beasts they knew not their own Strength and Excellency § 3. And if we do but well consider the Reason of the Prevalency of Idolatry upon the Earlier and Darker Times of the World of which the Scripture is very particular we shall find that it ariseth from this that it is more Sensual and therefore calculated to please the Sences of Men being more Outward or Visible or more in their own Power to perform then one more spiritual in its Object For as their gods were the Workmanship of Mens Hands they could not prefer them that being the Argument which did most of all gaul their Worshippers and what of all things for that reason they were most willing to forget But their Incidency to Idolatry and the Advantages it had upon the true Religion with them plainly came from this that it was more outward and sensual They could see the Object of their Devotion and had it in their Power to Address it when they would It was more fashionable too as well as better accommodated to their Dark and too Brutal State And therefore it was that God by many Afflictions and greater Deliverances brought forth a People to endear himself to them that they might remember the Hand that saved them and Worship him and him only in order to root up Idolatry and plant the Knowledge and fear of him in their Minds for an Example to other Nations VVhoever reads Deuteronomy which is a summary of the other four Books of Moses will find the frequent and earnest Care and concern of that good Man for Israel about this very Point and how often that People slipt and laps'd notwithstanding God's Love Care and Patience over them into the Idolatrous Customs of the Nations about them Divers other Scriptures inform us also especially those of the Prophets Isaiah 44. and 45. Psalms 37. and 115. and Jer. 10. where the Holy Ghost Confutes and Rebukes the People and mocks their Idols with a sort of Holy Disdain § 4. Now that which is farthest from Idolatry and the best Antidote against it is the Principle we have laid down and the more Peoples Minds are turned and brought to it and that they resolve their Faith VVorship and Obedience into the Holy Illuminations and Power of it the nearer they grow to the end of their Creation and consequently to their Creator They are more spiritually qualified and become better fitted to VVorship God as he is VVho as we are told by our Lord Jesus Christ Is a Spirit and will be Worshipped in Spirit and in Truth and that they are such sort of Worshippers which God seeketh to worship him in this Gospel Day The hour cometh saith he and now is That is some now do so but more shall A plain Assertion in present and a Promise and Prophesie of the encrease of such VVorshippers in future VVhich shows a Change intended from a Ceremonial VVorship and State of the Church of God to a Spiritual One. Thus the Text But the time cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall Worship the Father in the Spirit and in the Truth VVhich is as much as to say when the VVorship of God shall be more Inward than Outward and so more suitable to the Nature of God and the nobler Part of Man his Inside or his inward and better Man For so those blessed VVords import in Spirit and in Truth In the Spirit that is through the Power of the Spirit In the Truth that is in Realities not in Shadows Ceremonies or Formalities but in Sincerity with and in Life being divinely prepared and animated which brings Man not only to offer up Right VVorship but also into Intimate Communion and Fellowship with God who is a Spirit § 5. And if it be duly weighed it will appear that God in all his Manifestations of himself hath still come nearer and nearer to the Insides of Men that he might reach to their Understandings and open their Hearts and give them a plainer and nearer Acquaintance with himself in Spirit And then it is that Man must seek and find the Knowledge of God for his Eternal Happiness Indeed all things that are made show forth the Power and Wisdom of God and his Goodness too to Mankind and therefore many Men urge the Creation to silence Atheistical Objections But though all those things show a God yet Man does it above all the Rest He is the precious Stone of the Ring and the most glorious Jewel of the Globe to whose reasonable Use Service and Satisfaction the whole seems to be made and dedicated But God's Delight by whom Man was made we are told by the Holy Ghost is in the habitable Parts of the Earth with the Sons of Men Prov. 8. 31. And with those that are contrite in Spirit Isa 66. 1. And why is Man his Delight but because Man only of all his Works was his Likeness This is the intimate Relation of Man to God Somewhat nearer than ordinary for of all other Beings Man only