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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	good_a	life_n	write_v	3,155	5	5.4448	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50257	An answer to the switch for the snake A book so called. Discovering the weakness of the Switch, which the leading Quakers (of the second days meeting in London for government) have lately (as I am told,) given into the hands of each Parliament Man. Vice is nourished, and gets life by covering it, saith a heathen author; even so it is with errors in religion. Humbly shewing, that it is impossible, that the pens now in controversie, against us Quakers, should be put a stop to, before there's an order given forth, (from the second days meeting) for the reformation of our numerous preachers in the country. And also a book of retractions of all the errors in our Friends printed books, be published, with an appendix and postscript. By William Mather, a lover of (the well meaning persons, especially among) that people.	Mather, W. (William), fl. 1695.; J. W.	1700 (1700)	Wing M1284; ESTC R221796	17,005	18

a good End Almighty God which shewest to all Men that be in Error the Light of thy Truth to the Intent that they may return into the way of Righteousness c. Lord from whom all good things do come grant us thy humble Servants that by th● holy Inspiration we may think those things that be good c. Almighty God unto whom all Hearts be open all desires known and from whom no Secrets are hid cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the Inspiration of thy holy Spirit c. That it may please thee to bless and keep the Magistrates giving them Grace to execute Justice and to maintain Truth That it may please thee to give to all thy people increase of Grace to hear meekly thy Word and to receive it with pure Affection and to bring sorth the Fruits of the Spirit That it may please thee to bring into the way of Truth all such as have erred and are deceived That it may please thee to defend and provide for the Fatherless Children and Widows and all that be desolate and oppressed That it may please thee to forgive our Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers and to turn their Hearts Grant us O Lord to learn to love our Enemies by the Example of thy Martyr St. Stephen who prayed for his Persecutors c. Almighty God by whose Providence thy Servant John Baptist was wonderfully b●rn and sent to prepare the way of thy Son our Saviour by preaching Repentance make us so to follow his Doctrine and holy Life that we may truly repent according to his preaching and after his Example constantly speak the Truth boldly rebuke VICE and patiently suffer for the Truth c. Since it hath pleased God by his Grace to convince me That Baptism with Water and the Lords Supper are to continue in the Church until Christ's coming again in the same Body in which he ascended to Judge the World by which I was stirred in Spirit to search the holy Scriptures and therein came to understand and believe That the Holy Ghost was if I may so speak scattered or poured upon the Apostles Acts 2. 3. seeming to the Eye like Cloven Tongues or as flames of fire will so seem by the like figure I do believe Water was sprinkled or cast upon those 3000 young and old that were converted by Peter's Sermon and so baptized the same day and not plunged over Head and Ears in Water as some think ver 41. The same may be understood of the Jaylor and his Family who were converted and baptised with Water at mid-night Ch. 16.33 And also since it hath pleased God to further enlighten me thro consenting unto his Commands in H. Scripture I am enabled to make a full discovery how Satan has beguil'd such a number of our young Preachers which was by hearkening to those Ancient Preachers that made them believe there is but one ●ight in all Men. As First They mistaking that Text John 1.9 That was the true Light which enlighteneth every Man that cometh into the World From thence supposing That all Men were enlightned with a Light of Christ Jesus from their Mothers Wombs sufficient to Salvation as particularly G. Fox in p. 20. Gr. Myst saith Where there is Life in an Infant there is Light And in p. 42. disapproves his Adversary for saying That no Man by that Native Light inherent in him had power to believe c. And to the same purpose see p. 15. in W. Pen's Primitive Christianity 2. Thus it appears they own but one Light that we were born with This Light or Understanding tho it be called The Candle of the Lord Prov. 20.27 which reproves for some sins yet is but a dim Light to see spiritual things by but when it shall please God to Lighten this Candle by the Influence of his Divine Grace and H. Scriptures then the Soul is Light in the Lord. 3. So that our young Preachers laying aside the Light of the H. Scriptures and Preaching only this common Light in Mankind must needs Preach false Doctrine and other confused stuff so that it has led too many of them to think the H. Scriptures are no help to make a Minister and has so exalted them that they think they have the same Degree of Immediate Revelation as the Apostles had see p. 213. Gr. Myst But they may wait long enough before they attain to that Degree of God's Spirit the Apostles had For those Discoveries the Apostles had were to confirm a belief in peoples hearts of the miraculous Birth Sufferings c. of our blessed Redeemer And Mortal Man whose heart is deceitful must no more expect that God will so far trust them with such a large measure of heavenly Treasure as he did the Apostles the Prophesie of Joel being fullfilled in them Yet God in mercy now gives to all the sincere believers in his only Son Jesus of Nazareth such a measure of his Divine Grace as will both deliver and preserve them from the evil of the World and bring them to eternal Life and Salvation Titus 2.11 4. We the hearers of such Preachers that have so long preached from their own Spirit without the H. Scriptures over whom Satan can get advantage to Transform Himself as an Angel of Light by which way he gets the Name of an Angel of Light we must needs I say by hearing such Preachers be enticed not to endure sound Doctrine But if I should write of the diverse Confusions this Spirit hath led us to this 40 Years past it would make a large Book and this I know by Experience that where this Spitit Rules they cannot with any Love read any of the Good Doctrines written in the Books of any Minister of the Church of England tho' it be Dr. Goodmans Penitent Pardon'd or Dr. Scots Christian Life Vol. 5th but for this my Book they will warn as many as they can not to read it for fear of Infection O Lord open their Eyes c. for thou knowest I have Love for them For one of them hath given this Good Councel to them all viz. The best way to recover the deceived is to discover the deceiver 5. Now to get clear out of Babylonish Confusion I do advise all amongst them that fear the Lord to whom this may come yea and all Dissenters so called to come and hear sound Doctrine from such as have studied or thorougly meditated in the H. Scriptures for too many dissenters want Christian Love to each other and it is apparent that some of their Preachers strive more to encrease the Number of their Hearers for outward gain than to excel one another in a Christian Life Now I appeal to every honest Impartial Reader whether the Preachers of the Church of England have not more Christian Charity to the Dissenters in General than they have to one another for too many of the Dissenters are for the straightening each others Liberties in many things while the Church of England grants

have made drunk by putting your bottle of Poyson to their Noses who have drunk deep and so are become one in Nature with you it had been better 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never been born it had been better for you that you had been strangled in your Mothers Wombs and still births had been presented to them than Living Children into their Arms. Oh! What shall I say concerning you Gods everlasting decree is sealed against you burnings burnings burnings with unqu●●●●able fire is your portion from the Lord God of Heaven and Earth Your Organs your Singing-Men and Boys with Surplice Tippits Sc●●●●● Long Garments and Girdles with your invented Prayer called Common with your Preaching and the best of your Sacrifices enters into the ears of the Eternal God Nay you are highly mistaken a pure God must have pure praise God praises God * Mark this well his praise and worship for ever and ever is from thee to thee now if you cannot read this let your Mouths forever be stopped Cease your Invented Instruments for Worship for an Evil Savour doth your Sacrifices send forth even a loathing to the Lord God of Heaven and Earth But the God which you Imagine let him be Worshipped according to your Imaginations and Inventions and think not to mock the Eternal God by your Devices the Jews knew him not who came in the Figure or Flesh Oh! I have seen Eternity I have seen Eternity and a dreadful day is VERY NEAR at hand to be revealed Oh! The overflowing scourge Oh! The Besome of Destruction Oh! The Plagues and Vengeance that is to be poured upon the Wicked in this Nation both Priest and People Howl Howl Hireling Priests of all orders for the Wine-press of the wrath of God Almighty is EVEN NEAR to be trod into which you are to be cast for the Lord God hath spoken it and he will not repent a trebble portion a trebble portion of the Plagues of God Almighty you are to have above all others Thus far R. Crane ☞ Observe Christian Reader what Astonishing things are these which this man pretends came thro' him from God Almighty Oh Blasphemous to father all their Malice upon the Merciful God But we Poor Ignorant Quakers were made so blinde to believe because of their sufferings that such were true Prophets sent of God in this Age pretending they spoke from the mouth of the Lord need not study or meditate what to preach as Paul advised Timothy 1 Tim. 4.15 As if they were Conjurers that took a Text of Sctipture to begin a Sermon See p. 7. in G. Fox Sauls Errant And that they needed neither Scriptures nor Books as a means to help their Preachers and that they may be good Ministers without the help of the Scripture as the above named Joseph Clark pleaded with G. Keith in my house for they had all revealed in them that they were to preach and declare and by the same Spirit Young Boys and Girles Preach now and have a long time from the Imaginations of their Brains or what comes next to the Tongues end for if this Spirit was of God it would allow the Holy Scriptures to be sometimes read in their Religious Meetings because we are certain the Scriptures were given forth by God's Spirit Indeed their first Preachings won many of us to become good moral Heathens expecting Salvation only by obeying the Light within us And John Bunyan art thou finding fault saith G.F. because Men wear no Hatbands and eat and drink Bread and Water cast by their Pride G. Mist p. 211. And since have taken up Pride again when alas Salvation comes by a Saving Faith in Jesus of Nazareth as he died for our sins now at God's Right Hand making Intercession for sinners that all men might have a day to repent in for from him comes all the Grace that all men have to teach them to deny ungodliness Titus 2.11 This Erring Spirit taught us not to make Christ Jesus as he is in Heaven the object of our faith but hath taught us that Jesus of Nazareth appeared in the World for a short time called a Figure by R. C. as above and when he disappeared in the World is no more But know ye Neglecters of Meditating or Reading the Scriptures in your Meetings 1 Tim. 4.15 That all Men shall be Judged at the Last Day by that MAN Christ Jesus Acts 17.31 Object If some Quakers say That I highly commend the Prayers made by some of the Church of England and do not their Books want Retractions in some things as well as our Books Ans It 's true I do commend their Prayers and so doth Fr. Lee one of your Teachers in his Looking-Glass More thereof will follow And what in their Books is needful to be retracted they will not be so hardly brought to do it as you are nor cover them so long as you have done and as the Preaching Elders have done near me who now confess They knew there were Errors in our Friends Books before their Controversie with G. K. The more is their shame to cover Transgressions so long from us Hearers to keep in favour with those that cover Errors by Sophistry in their New Books Dr. Scott that excellent Pen-man did commit an Error in a book written in his younger years called The Christian Life 1st Vol. which I hope will be retracted viz. in p. 282 c. He seems to encourage Christians in their Warfare to Mirth Festivities and Raileries of Fancy c. which Christ condemns Mat. 12.36 But for his 5th Vol. of the Christian Life I know not many better books except the Bible And likewise it 's to be hoped now that God has given more Light the Church of England will by the help of the Inward and Spiritual Grace remove those Offences that have kept out so many Dissenters from coming in into them for if they do not come in as one into the Truth as it is in Jesus O then good God when will the Kingdoms of this World become our Lord Christs Luther and other our first Reformers from Popery had more Light from God than the Papists had or have B. Latimer Martyr had more Light from God a little before he dy'd than he had when he thought he could not be damned if he had been in a Friar's Coul Act. and Mon. p. 1325. So that I trust in God he will be pleased to illuminate many of the Church of England's Ministers that they will see very great need to win all people to come to them which no doubt will soon be accomplished after once their Lives and Conversation agree with their Doctrines For it is a worthy saying of a Son of that Church viz When we have used all the Arguments and the best Vindication of our selves and of our Church it is Holiness of Life is the best and most prevalent Apology Now follows the Ten approved Prayers the above-named Fr. Lee collected out of the Common Prayer I hope for

them all Liberty of Conscience yea and most Christianly invites them to come into Communion with them for a Reformation of manners and to help them to rebuke Vices boldly and help each other in their Christian Warfare which to do would be the Joy of Christendom stop the mouths of Atheists yea and it would be to the Honour and Glory of Him whom we call our Lord and Master from whom we take the Name Christian He who Dyed Rose and Ascended to win us to Love him and one another How doth the Church of England entreat you to be Reconciled to come and Worship God together to hear the foundest Doctrine Preached to pay nothing therefore but what our Kings and Parliament Established by Law before we were born and their Condescending Love to us is so much that they will not impose any thing upon us against Good Conscience and that if you do not think good to be with them at their Fasts or Feasts c. you may stay at home at such times they most Christianly concluding thus viz. God direct you and us all To his Grace I Commend you and the Inffuences of his Blessed Spirit to shew you what great things it is to do in your Power for him and his Church and give you a Heart to do them that it be not laid to your Charge Ob. But if some Pharisaical Quaker should object saying This man would have us meet with such sinners as from 7. to 70 Cry Lord have Mercy upon us miserable sinners when he knows he cannot say that he ever heard us this 40 Years Pray in our Meetings to God for Pardon of sin but has often heard us thank God for his presence in Meettings Answer The more are you like to the Pharisees who was not for Meeting Eating or Drinking with sinners they thought themselves so Holy but our Blessed Saviour chose rather to meet with them than the most Zealous Pharisee Then drew near unto him all the Publicans and sinners for to hear him and the Scribes and Pharisees Murmured saying This Man receiveth sinners c. Mat. 9.10 11 Ob. But if you further object That such poor and insufficient Ministers are placed in many Churches so called tho' they mean the People to be the Church which rather drive Men than give them Tollerable Encouragement to attend their Ministry on hopes of Improvement Answer The same may be objected against the greatest number of the Preaching Quakers being much more insufficient The Bishops cannot hinder their Institution in many places but some are sensible of the great easiness of some in their Admission into Orders by Symony c. which the Laws are very strict against when known Therefore until things be so amended that none shall be admitted to Preach whose Lives and Conversation becomes not Christianity You have Liberty to hear what Minister you please tho' not of your Parish that there may be no separation wholly Oh! Let our Prayers be as Davids viz. to understand our Errours Psa 19.20 The Testimony of J. W. an Eminent Quaker in Bedfordshire having perused the Switch for the Snake which he put into my hand December 9. 1699. not doubting but that J. R. another Eminent Quaker there is of the same mind viz. Books of Controversie about Religion written by the Dictates of selfish Wisdom that lead to Envy and Evading Quibbles of which England now too much abounds are or as little benefit for the Promotion of True Religion and building up that Holy Faith in Peoples Hearts 〈◊〉 works by Love as the confounding of Languages helpt forward the Building of Babels Tower as may be seen in Gen. 11. Upon which I have seen this following Observation made viz. Bring me quoth he a Trowel Quickly quick One brings him up a Hammer hew this Brick Another bids and th●● they cleave a Tree Make fast this Rope and then they let it flee One calls for Planks another Morter lacks They bring the first a ●●●ne the last an Ax One would have 〈◊〉 and him a spade they give Another askes a 〈◊〉 and gets a Sive Thus Crosly Crost they p●●●e and rail in vain What one hath made another spoils again This makes them leave their work and like mad fools Scatter their stuff and tumble down their tools Even so O Lord if it stands with thy blessed will hasten the day of scattering all envious stuff of Contention that the Instruments thereof may cast down their Tools and the People that fear thee and desire to live at Peace may say as thy Holy Prophet Isaiah in his 46. Chap. 1 2. ver saith and hear thy voice as in the third and fourth verses thereof J. W. FINIS