Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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B08395
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The weapons of the people called Quakers turn'd backward, by the shield of truth ; the fountain whereof is the rock and sure defence of that despised contemptible instrument / Elizabeth Atkinson.
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Atkinson, Elizabeth.
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1669
(1669)
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Wing A4129B; ESTC R215419
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6,536
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16
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through his crucified body though they may rejoyce before their Idol as the children of Israel did when they provoked the true God by attributing their deliverance to a piece of the Creation who would have a thought a people groaning so long for deliverance should when it came have been so blind to proclaim before an Idol Behold thy Gods O Israel that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt But though the Lord suffered their idolatrous provoking spirits to travel and multiply in the Wilderness to make known more of his power yet it was but a very small Remnant that were permitted to enter into the land of Promise wherefore you boasters that think you have more light than your Forefathers Yet know though your iniquity is more mysterious it is discovered to be as Great if not greater idolatry to worship the likeness of any thing in the Heavens above as in the Earth beneath For though God made Man in his own image or likeness yet he was a Creature and subject to change from his created purity as he did though he was created Good as all the rest of the Creation was Wherefore he was capable of Death and it is clear to the Eye of Faith though not to Reason that death came upon all as being the offspring generated from corrupted Adam and Eve our first Parents and the Resurrection from the Dead could be no way procured but by the Lord of Glory who abased himself and came in the form of a Servant though he were Lord of All And not for an Example only but to triumph over death that would have kept all under and then the reprobate had never been raised to Eternal Judgement nor the Elect to Everlasting Happiness But this was the promised Restoration which the Believers hoped for and trusted in being grafted thereinto by the Union of Faith But the Pharisees trample this precious Pearl under feet because their carnal spirits cannot understand the worth of it neither can you that are kicking and smiting against further light dispenced because it comes not out from amongst you but you shall find if you go on that you will surely fall though four hundred to one say to the contrary Wherefore it is not your collecting out of Scripture what light and knowledge the Saints injoyed by believing in Jesus that will do you any good seeing you have not believed in him even the man Christ Jesus that you also might have had the revelation and knowledge inspired into you of the Glory of God in the Face of Christ For these Saints that were thus enlightned gave all Honour and Glory to him that conquer'd Death the Alpha and Omega the first and the last who was dead and is alive and lives for evermore Neither would the Angel that had power to shew this Revelation endure to be worshipped for he said I am also a fellow servant and I know were you sensible how Christ lives in the hearts of Believers by Faith you would not thus blindly accuse me For I never denyed any light nor the Office of it appointed by God the Fountain and Original of all Lights who dispenceth it according to his own pleasure that he might have all the glory And though you hate me yet I must tell you the truth it is but your own spirits that you worship being lifted up by the inlightning of the law within you shewing you good and evil hence I know it is the spirit of the Serpent in you as it was in the Pharisees that directed them to reject the justification of Faith in the Blood of Christ and stick to the justification of the law by their own works Though I do certainly know that the Regenerated by Faith in Jesus do more singly perform the honest and true intents of the Law then the Pharisees with all their outward seeming holiness For the Believers are constrained by love which is the law of faith to act justly though they know their eternal Happiness and Recovery ariseth not from any thing performed by them but from Christ the Author of their faith by taking upon him unspotted flesh and when that deceived Remnant amongst you shall be inlightned with the knowledge of the whole truth Then they will see that you are not justified in your Principles by what I formerly wrote to you though you take it to your selves For you have not that light of faith in you to believe or understand how Christ is the Sacrifice once for all in his own person Neither are you in the state of Man in the first Creation though you have had some sense of convincements by the Law which is general to all men because all are included under sin being generated from fallen Parents who by defilement lost their first state by aspiring to be wise as Gods which pride when it was received caused them to feel the Effects of threatned wrath which was the entrance of Death and Mortality upon them and their posterity which was as surely fulfilled as all the words of the Lord are in their appointed time for the account of the Lord who is Eternity is not like unto mens who are blinded by the fall and the promise of resurrection to life was is and shall be as surely fulfilled to Believers as the resurrection to condemnation to unbelievers and in that day the Reprobate though he believe it not will be surprized with the second ever dying Death not having Faith or Belief in Christ the first Resurrection for though these substantial things are figured out to us in several dispensations yet it is only the Elect that have the faith and patience to wait for the accomplishment of them But the Reprobate continually setteth the Figure in the place of the Substance The Pharisees had not accused the Lord of Life for a Blasphemer Had they not trusted in the righteousness of the Law which was the greatest dispensation of light discovered by them in their dayes yet they knew not the Fountain when he manifested himself and openly declared himself so for had they known they would not have Crucified the Lord of Glory and taken his blood upon themselves I hope there is some that are yet amongst you who will see the truth of what I say and that I have not denyed Christ the Inlightner of the Saints but have only denyed your Imaginations built upon the enlightning of the law or light in you which is become darkness though you have given it the name of Lord and Saviour and are performing some of the Punctilioes of the letter which you do not rightly understand It is the giving high and honourable titles to your deceived imaginations that hath deceived the simple being lifted up in pride under a feigned shew of humility in outward habit But I am confident in what I affirm that it is your own spirit which you worship being lifted up by the inlightning of the law which is good and profitable to them that use it in its
THE WEAPONS Of the PEOPLE called QUAKERS Turn'd backward by the Shield of Truth the Fountain whereof is the Rock and sure Defence of that Despised Contemptible Instrument ELIZABETH ATKINSON Being Confident and Sure that the Floods of Reproach cast out of their Mouth shall not Prevail Wherefore my Soul doth Magnifie the Lord and my Spirit Rejoyceth in God my Saviour Printed in the Year 1669. The Weapons of c. YE People who would be counted Israelites in the Spirit and call your the selves chosen of the Lord owning your selves a Body of Friends when any smooth things are spoken to you but rage when the pillows are torn from under your Arms. Though I shall not take notice of your Words or Writings so as to answer all your malicious Forgeries yet if ever you or any of you recover the use of your senses then take notice how the pride of your vain-glorious Spirits hath transported you beyond truth and sobriety so long professed by you You seem to ground your first Objection from my speaking in the plural Number which you say are general Terms And in great Rage you cry out Who but an impudent person c. To which I answer Pride hath blinded you Doth the word Those that practised honesty c. more include all that practised honesty then the word They or this people draw near to the Lord with their lips c. did include All that drew near unto the Lord with their lips Neither will your subtilty take effect wherein you would perswade people as if I by a loose Life had more knowledge or intimacy with your seeming holy Hypocrites then the chief of you which is known to be an apparent falshood for had I been as sensible of your gross Hypocrisie then as now I should have had as much familiarity then as I now have with you which is none at all but it is evidently known they had more acquaintance and approbation with your Ministers then ever they had with me And if I were disposed to particularize persons and their fruits since your pretending to walk by the light you call Christ in you I should not need to cloath you in any other then your own defiled habit to make you appear what you would not be thought to be I am sure a smaller piece of Paper would contain your Remaining Vertues For your corrupted body hath of late broken out with putrified sores in several parts not only in your mean Members of small account but in the chief and principle parts thereof who seemed to guide the rest And it may as truly be said to you as it was to the Israelites of old That from the sole of the foot to the head there is no soundness in it though not every part broken out with one and the same disease How often was the house of Israel reproved in General Terms yea and pleaded withall as if they were one single person as may be seen by Record Ezekiel the 16. Chap. and Numbers the 25. Chapter Neither was Jeremiah to be branded as an impudent person though he told them in general terms they were as fed horses Neighing after their Neighbours wife yet there was a Remnant for whose sake they were not made as Sodome and Gomorrah Neither do I doubt but that there is among you a Remnant that may obtain mercy to have the leaven of the Pharisees purged out by faith in that Jesus whom they are yet ignorant of and then they will no longer take part with you in reviling those that shew you some of the dirt that you have spotted your selves withall since you were lifted up in spiritual pride standing afar off as if the Garments of others would defile you and when those deceived people that now have an esteem of your spirit shall come to the knowledge of the truth they will find the greatest Number of you to be A Generation of Vipers And now as to your Query what I have against your Principles wherein you only pervert my words by your own serpentine spirits falsly saying that I have blasphemously accused the light and staggered like a drunken person but I know this judgment of yours proceedeth from the giddiness of your own heads that thinks others stagger when they stand upon firm ground Wherefore as to your Principles I have this to say that though you may repeat the Law every Meeting Day yet I know and testifie that you are yet Unbelievers and have not the knowledge of the true God and Saviour of them that believe Who promised in the Beginning to Bruise the Head of the Serpent and his promise the Saints believed which was imputed to them for Righteousness and when the fulness of time was come he faithfully performed his promise by taking our Nature upon him sin excepted who by suffering at the hands of unbelievers having passed through deaths Kingdome according to his promise raised up the Temple of his Body in three dayes and this spiritual Body both before and after his Ascension gave the Saints full Assurance of their own Resurrection and Salvation this light and knowledge you are not yet partakers of though you so much take the name of light in your mouths Neither can that light in every mans nature though you have fed so long upon it not being enlightned with the light of faith apprehend this Mystery of God being manifest in the flesh of Christ and laying down his life that he might quicken again and rise a spiritual Body which ascended into the highest Heavens but the pride of mans rational spirit is always aspiring to be a GOD though it was made to be a Subject wherefore it 's light is become darkness that it neither knows beginning nor ending of it's Misery until it 's Crown is laid down at the foot of Jesus by Resignation and becometh a child again indeed God made the Spirit of Reason yet it was not serpentine until it aspired which caused the Lord to withhold his flowing vertues and then it became dark and received a name sutable to its nature which being by the first mans disobedience defiled is notwithstanding bridled by the law or light placed in every mans nature by the bright shining and living Jehovah who afterward to accomplish the work of mans Redemption did manifest himself in the person and name of Jesus whom the Professors of the first Covenant would not believe in though he came to establish the Second upon better promises yet they accused him for the law-breaker The corrupted spirit of man is very zealous in making large profession of keeping the Law when for want of purifying faith in Christ it is quite-dark and ignorant of him the only Saviour and so makes idols of his handy-works which if used in its place would manifest and declare the wisdome and power of God the Fountain from whence the whole Creation did flow But there is none but the enlightned by Faith in Jesus can understand the mystery of Salvation