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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	doctrine_n	scripture_n	word_n	3,246	5	4.1696	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54228	A testimony to the truth of God, as held by the people, called, Quakers being a short vindication of them, from the abuses and misrepresentations often put upon them by envious apostates, and mercenary adversaries.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1699 (1699)	Wing P1380; ESTC R220497	18,332	56

Grace and Light for Light and that no Man can know God and Christ whom to know is Life Eternal and themselves in order to true Conviction and Conversion without Receiving and Obeying this Holy Light and being taught by the Divine Grace and that without it no Remission no Justification no Salvation as the Scripture plentifully testifies can be obtained And because we therefore press the Necessity of Peoples receiving the Inward and Spiritual Appearance of this Divine Word in order to a Right and beneficial Application of whatsoever he did for Man with respect to his Life Miracles Death Sufferings Resurrection Ascension and Mediation our Adversaries would have us to deny any Christ without us First As to his Divinity because they make us to confine him too within us Secondly As to his Humanity or Manhood because as he was the Son of Abraham David and Mary according to the Flesh he can't be in us and therefore we are Hereticks and Blasphemers Whereas we believe him according to Scripture to be the Son of Abraham David and Mary after the Flesh and also God over all blessed for ever So that he that is within us is also without us even the same that laid down his precious Life for us rise again from the Dead and ever liveth to make Intercession for us being the Blessed and alone Mediator betwixt God and Man and him by whom God will finally Judge the World both Quick and Dead All which we as sincerely and stedfastly believe as any other Society of People whatever may be Ignorantly or Maliciously Insinuated to the contrary either by our declared Enemies or mistaken Neighbours Deut. 15. 18. Mi● 5. 2. John 1. 1 2 3. Rev. 22. 16. III. Concerning the Holy Scriptures BEcause we Assert the Holy Spirit to be the first great and general Rule and Guide of true Christians as that by which God is Worshipped Sin Detected Conscience Convicted Duty Manifested Scripture Unfolded and Explained and consequently the Rule for Understanding the Scriptures themselves since by It they were at first given forth from hence our Adversaries are pleased to make us Blasphemers of the Holy Scriptures undervaluing their Authority preferring our own Books before them with more to that purpose Whereas we in Truth and Sincerity believe them to be of Divine Authority given by the Inspiration of God thro' Holy Men they speaking or writing them as they were moved by the Holy Ghost That they are a Declaration of those things most surely believed by the Primitive Christians and that as they contain the Mind and Will of God and are his Commands to us so they in that respect are his Declaratory Words and therefore are Obligatory on us and are Profitable for Doctrine Reproof Correction and Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect and throughly furnished to every good Work Nay after all so Unjust is the Charge and so Remote from our Belief concerning the Holy Scriptures that we both Love Honour and Prefer them before all Books in the World ever choosing to express our Belief of the Christian Faith and Doctrine in the Terms thereof and rejecting all Principles or Doctrines whatsoever that are Repugnant thereunto Nevertheless we are well persuaded that notwithstanding there is such an Excellency in the Holy Scriptures as we have above declared yet the unstable and unlearned in Christ's School too often Wrest them to their own Destruction And upon our Re 〈…〉 r Carnal Constructions of the 〈…〉 made Undervaluers of 〈…〉 But certain it is That as the Lord hath been pleased to give us the Experience of the fulfilling of them in Measure so it is altogether contrary to our Faith and Practice to put any manner of Slight or Contempt upon them much more of being guilty of what maliciously is suggested against us since no Society of Profest Christians in the World can have a more Reverend and Honourable Esteem for them than we have John 4. 24. and 16. 8. Rom. 1. 19. Luke 1. 1 2. Tim. 3. 16 17. 2 Pet. 3. 16. IV. Concerning Magistracy BEcause we have not actively complied with divers Statutes which have been made to force an Uniformity to what we had no Faith in but the Testimony of our Conscience against and because for Conscience sake we could not give those Marks of Honour and Respect which were and are the usual Practice of those that seek Honour one of another and not that Honour which comes from God only but Measure and Weigh Honour and Respect in a false Ballance and deceitful Measure on which neither Magistrate Ruler nor People can depend We say because we could not for Conscience sake give Flattering Titles c. We have been render'd as Despisers and Contemners of Magistracy Whereas our Principles often repeated upon the many Revolutions that have happened do evidently manifest the contrary as well as our Peaceable Behaviour from the beginning under all the various Forms of Government hath been an undeniable Plea in our Favour when those that also have Professed the same Principles of Non-Resistance and Passive-Obedience have Quitted their Principles and yet Quarrel with us upon a Supposition that we will in time write after their Copy which as nothing is more contrary to our Principles Faith and Doctrine so nothing can be more contrary to our constant Practice For we not only really believe Magistracy to be an Ordinance of God but esteem it an Extraordinary Blessing where it is a Praise to them that do well and a Terror to Evil-doers Which that it may be so in this our Native Land is the fervent Desire of our Souls that the Blessing and Peace of God may be continued thereupon Job 32. 21. John 5. 44. Acts 5. 29. 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. V. Concerning Baptism BEcause we do not find in any place in the four Evangelists that Jesus Christ Instituted Baptism by Water to come in the room of Circumcision or to be the Baptism proper to His Kingdom which stands in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost we are therefore render'd as Contemners of Christ's Baptism Whereas the Baptism of Jesus Christ of which he was Lord and Administrator according to the nature of his Office and Kingdom is even by John the Baptist declared to be that of Fire not Water and of the Holy Ghost of which Water-Baptism was but the Forerunner and is by them that now Practice it called but the Outward and Visible Sign of the Inward and Spiritual Grace and therefore not the Grace it self which Grace as the Apostle saith is sufficient for us and which we Believe Profess and Experience to be come by Jesus Christ who is the Substance of all Signs and Shadows to true Believers he being no more a Jew or Christian that is one outwardly by the cutting or washing of the Flesh But he is a Jew and Christian who is one inwardly and Circumcision and Baptism is of the Heart in the Spirit and not in the

may be bound and his Goods spoiled his Works destroyed and Sin ended according to 1 John 3. 7. For which end says that Beloved Disciple Christ was manifested that all things may become New New Heavens and New Earth in which Righteousness dwells Thus thou wilt come to glorifie God in thy Body and in thy Spirit which are his and live to him and not to thy self Thy Love Joy Worship and Obedience thy Life Conversation and Practice thy Study Mediation and Devotion will be Spiritual For the Father and the Son will make their abode with thee and Christ will manifest himself to thee for the Secrets of the Lord are with them that fear him And an Holy Unction or Anointing have all those which leads them into all Truth and they need not the Teachings of Men They are better Taught being Instructed by the Divine Oracle no bare Hear-say or Traditional Christians but fresh and living Witnesses Those that have seen with their own Eyes and heard with their own Ears and have handled with their own Hands the Word of Life in the divers Operations of it to their Souls Salvation In this they Meet in this they Preach and in this they Pray and Praise Behold the New Covenant fulfilled the Church and Worship of Christ the Great Anointed of God and the Great Anointing of God in his Holy High Priesthood and Offices in his Church XVI Concerning the Resurrection BEcause from the Authority of Holy Scripture as well as right Reason we deny the Resurrection of the same gross and corruptible Body and are neither over Inquisitive nor Critical about what Bodies we shall have at the Resurrection leaving it to the Lord to give us such Bodies as he pleases and with that we are well pleased and satisfied and wish all others were so too From hence we are made not only Deniers of the Resurrection of any Body at all however Spiritual or Glorified but Eternal Rewards too Whereas if it were true as it is notoriously false we were indeed of all Men most Miserable But blessed be God it is so far from being true that we most stedfastly believe that as our Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the Dead by the Power of the Father and was the first Fruits of the Resurrection so every Man in his own Order shall arise they that have done well to the Resurrection of Eternal Life but they that have done Evil to Everlasting Condemnation And because we are a People whose Education hath not afforded us an Accuracy of Language some Passages may perhaps have been mis-express'd or improperly worded as for Instance One of us hath denied in his Book the Soul to be Finite by which he plainly meant Mortal or Final to die or have an end which Finis signifies from whence Finite comes our uncharitable Opposers have concluded we hold the Soul to be Infinite and consequently God Whereas the Words before and after as well as the Nature of the things shews plainly he only meant that it is Eternal and so not Finite that is not Terminable or that which shall come to an end And also because we have not declared our selves about Matters of Faith in the many and Critical Words that Man's Wisdom teacheth but in the Words which the Holy Ghost teacheth we have been esteemed either Ignorant or Equivocal and Unsound Whereas it is really Matter of Conscience to us to deliver our Belief in such Words as the Holy Spirit in Scripture teacheth and if we add more for Illustration it is from an Experience of the Work of the same Spirit in our selves which seems to us the truest way of Expounding Scripture in what concerns Saving Knowledge XVII Concerning Separation c. BEcause we are separated from the publick Communion and Worship it is too generally concluded that we deny the Doctrines received by the Church and consequently introduce a new Religion Whereas we differ least where we are thought to differ most For setting aside some School Terms we hold the Substance of those Doctrines believed by the Church of England as to God Christ Spirit Scripture Repentance Sanctification Remission of Sin Holy Living and the Resurrection of the Just and Unjust to Eternal Rewards and Punishments But that wherein we differ most is about Worship and Conversation and the Inward Qualification of the Soul by the Work of God's Spirit thereon in Pursuance of these good and generally Received Doctrines For 't is the Spirit of God only Convinces and Converts the Soul and makes those that were Dead in Trespasses and Sins and in the Lusts Pleasures and Fashions of this World alive to God that is Sensible of his Mind and Will and of their Duty to do them and brings to know God and his Attributes by the Power of them upon their own Souls and leads to Worship God rightly which is in his Spirit and in Truth with Hearts Sanctified by the Truth which is a living and acceptable Worship and stands in Power not Formality nor in the Traditions and Prescriptions of Men in Synods and Convocations but in the Holy Spirit First in shewing us our real Wants and then in helping our Infirmities with Sighs and Groans and sometimes Words to pray for a suitable supply for which we in our Meetings wait upon God to quicken and prepare us that we may worship him Acceptably and Profitably for they go together Now because we are satisfied that all Worship to God and Exhortations to Men as Praying Praising and Preaching and every other Religious Duty ought to be Spiritually Performed and finding so little of it among Professors of Christianity the Spirit of God having not that Rule and Guidance of them in their Lives and Worship as It ought to have and seeing them too generally satisfied with a Ministry and Worship of Man's making being not qualified nor led by God's Spirit thereunto we cannot find that Comfort and Edification our Souls crave and want under so cold a Ministry and Worship And for this cause and no presumptious Contempt or selfish Separation or worldly Interests are we and stand we at this day a separate People from the Publick Communion and in this we can comfortably Appeal and Recommend our selves to God the great and last Judge of the Acts and Deeds of the Sons of Men. Lastly BEcause at the time of our Friends first appearing in this Age there were a Sect of People newly sprang up and truly called Ranters that were the Reverss to the Quakers for they feared and quaked at nothing but made a mock at Fearing of God and at Sin and at Hell who pretended that Love made Fear needless and that nothing was Sin but to them that thought it so and that none should be Damned at last whose extravagant Practices exactly corresponded with their Evil Principles From hence some ignorantly and too many maliciously involved us and ours with them and many of their Exorbitances were thereby placed to our account tho' without the least Reason