Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A38828
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An epistle of Margaret Everard to the people called Quakers and the ministry among them: more especially to such of them to whom she hath bee particularly known, and who are concerned for her, as if she were lost and fallen from truth. Shewing her dissatisfaction with the ignorance, error, and uncharitableness that too much abounds among them.
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Everard, Margaret.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing E3535; ESTC R219770
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6,413
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8
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AN EPISTLE OF MARGARET EVERARD TO The People called QVAKERS AND The Ministry among them More especially to such of them to whom she hath been particularly known and who are concerned for her as if she were lost and fallen from Truth Shewing her dissatisfaction with the Ignorance Error and Uncharitableness that too much abounds among them TO all who are heartily concerned for me fearing I am lost or fallen from Truth I know no reason for such fear you might have taken the freedom to have visited me one way or other and let me have known your reasons Well because I believe some do love me and desire to know how it is with me I now tell you and that to the Honour and Praise of my good God It is as well and better with me than ever it was and the Lord's Presence and Power is with me Publick and private loving Friends I had rather not have writ but left it to time and to the Lord who will plead my Innocent Cause Now to the best of my remembrance few have been so kind to come and see me but have taken things upon report and have rather passed Sentence and reported again But all is little to me the more they have done the more the Lord is to me Nay and I can say I rather rejoyce not that they are so unfair as to Judge from a bare report but that the Lord is pleased to accept of me as a Sufferer for my Lord Jesus Christ's sake And now my Friends I think to tell you how I have proceeded or what I did that was the cause of this disturbance First I was not satisfied concerning the state of things as we are a people I have been dissatisfied for some Years about the Ministry and the shortness of my own Understanding and the Gross Errors in our Friends Books and I cryed to the Lord many times in secret but durst not pretend to find much fault only sometimes a little to my Husband about the Ministers but I knew my self was to blame as well as others but was not full clear in my Understanding Neither was I fit to stand a storm as I did believe it would be and as I have found it to be and may yet find more Such was the great dissatisfaction I met with that I was much backward to speak in Meetings and have so been for some Years last past for some reasons I could give but one was I had some small Glimps of some matters of Doctrine which I for my part had never spoke of nor ever heard any of our Friends speak of as I remember but did not speak at any time for the reasons aforesaid nor could I have strength until my good God gave me strength then I began in a great deal of fear I did stammer a little sometimes and so I do still as the Lord pleaseth but no sooner did I so do but many rose up against me and my Testimony it being new Doctrine to them some said I was gone from my former Innocency and simplicity others said I Preached Priests and George Keith's Doctrine but the Doctrine of neither George Keith nor any other Man's Doctrine but Christ's though I love and esteem George Keith for his faithful Testimony to the Doctrine of Christ some said they could find in their hearts to oppose me others said they could or would pull me down some could not stay to hear and said it is pitiful stuff by what I said you may Judge what Doctrine I did Preach first some said What Good can a Christ without do us Let us mind the Light within that is enough for us and not to trouble our selves with a Christ without and denying the Resurrection And calling the Preaching of it Wisdom and a feeding upon the Tree of Knowledge and Scripture notions and did tell us in Meetings our Friends did not mind Scripture notions at first But to be short as the matter will bear I have been and am a great sufferer I count for Truth And Friends I would have us consider what is the reason our Hearts are so Ignorant Oh truly I may justly take a part and say the Leaders of the People have caused them to err Oh! I have often thought I could bring them no farther than I was come my self O Friends we have been in a great extream and in as great as many others for they Preach Christ without but if they believe him within they have been short of Preaching him within or directing the minds of the people to the Divine Light of Christ by which they might have been lead to look with the eye of their Souls to Christ without and in his Light to see the great Love of God in his Son and what God did by him for poor Mankind and what he is now a doing in Heaven without us for us and what he is still to do for us at the great and last day of Judgment I say the People and the Teachers or very many of them have been and are short in this weighty matter and have taken up a Rest short of true Faith in Christ as he was sent to dye for us I do declare a bare Historical Faith of these things is not sufficient Oh! no no it is a Living Faith wrought in the Heart by the Spirit and Power of God It is God's Gift and what our blessed Lord Jesus Christ did purchase by his Death and Sufferings and shedding of his most precious Blood and blessed be his pure Eternal Holy Name he is the dispencer of it and of all other blessed Gifts and Graces I say they come through him to us and for his sake and although it is said all Men have not Faith yet those ought to have it who are teachers of others For I do declare those who Preach it and direct to a Living Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ so as to beget any Soul into it ought to have Faith in some degree themselves and they that have it not ought to use all means whereby they may attain to it because it is impossible to please God without it as the Holy Scripture declareth And I say it is not enough to believe in God as he is the great Creator and Upholder of all things but we must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as he taught himself ye believe in God belieae also in me Here I understand they did believe in God and consequently in his Light in their Hearts which was in order that they might 〈◊〉 in him also As I said before it is a heart-belief wrought by the Spirit of God as it is written with the Heart man believes unto Righteousness and with the Mouth Confession is made unto Salvation And as I said so I say still we ought to use all means possible that God hath ordained to believe so one great and necessary means is Reading the Holy Scriptures and hearing the Doctrine of this great Mystery Preached to wit of Faith in