Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A39303
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An epistle to friedns [sic] by Thomas Ellwood.
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Ellwood, Thomas, 1639-1713.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing E619; ESTC R37790
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10,254
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11
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O let the Lot be cast let search be made by every one and let every one examine himself that this Achan with his Babylonish Garment may be found out and cast out for indeed he is a Troubler of Israel And all Friends who upon true search shall find your selves concerned in this particular I warn and exhort you all Return to that which at first convinced you to that keep close in that abide that therein ye may know as at the first not only a Bridle to the Tongue but a Curb to the roving mind a Restraint to the wandering desire For assuredly Friends if Truth be kept to none will need to learn of the World what to wear what to put on or how to shape and Fashion their Garments but Truth will teach all how best to answer the end of Clothing both for useful service and modest decency And the Cross of Christ will be a Yoke to the unruly will and a Restraint upon the wanton mind and will crucifie that nature that delights in Finery and in Bravery of Apparel in which the true adorning doth not stand but in the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even a meek and quiet Spirit 1 Pet. 3 4. And the Grace of God which hath appeared to all and which hath brought Salvation to many will not only teach to deny ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Titus 2.11 12. but will also lead them that obey it out of all Excess and out of all Superfluities and worldly vanities and will teach them to order their Conversation aright Therefore to this heavenly Grace be every mind turned and therein staid that thereby all who profess the Truth may be kept within the holy Limits of it that in the whole Conversation and Course of life in Eating in Drinking in putting on Apparel and in whatsoever else we do or take in hand all may be done to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 that our Moderation in all things may appear unto all men And let not any deceive and hurt themselves with a false Plea saying I will be left to my liberty I have Freedom to do go or wear so and so And Religion stands not in Clothes c. For that liberty which the worldly Spirit leads into is not indeed true liberty but is a false and feigned liberty which leads into true and real Bondage And though Religion stands not simply in Clothes yet true Religion stands in that which sets a bound and limit to the mind with respect to Clothes as well as to other things So that where there is a running out into Excess and vanity in Apparel that is a certain indication and token that the mind is got loose and hath cast off the Yoke and is broke away from its due Subjection to that divine Power in which the true Religion stands Great hath been the hurt which the Enemy hath done in this day by leading into a false Freedom and crying up a wrong Liberty for under this Pretence have crept in great Disorders some running out one way and some another some mixing in Marriages with the World's People and some going to the Priest to be married And many loose and unclean Spirits have shrowded themselves under this plausible Pretence of being left to their liberty unto whom Truth 's Order is irksom and uneasie and they kick against it and call it Imposition because it checks their licentious Liberty Therefore all who joyn with their Plea examine and try what Liberty it is ye claim and stand for for the true Liberty is not inconsistent with the Cross of Christ nor repugnant to his Yoke but agrees with it and is obtained through it and maintained by it And none whom the Son hath made free indeed will or can plead or make use of that Liberty in Opposition to any Means which the God of Order hath appointed or set up in his Church for the keeping out Confusion disorder and Loosness And hereby all may take a right Measure and may certainly know what kind of Liberty that is which some have so hotly contended for in Opposition to that necessary and commendable Order which God hath led his People into and which the Enemy in his Agents labours so hard to lead or drive them out of For the Enemy well knows that the tendency and service thereof is to detect and discover his secret workings and to bring his Deeds to Light and Judgment and therefore he strives with might and main to overturn it crying out through his Instruments Away with your Order Let every one be left to his Liberty By which seemingly fair and specious Plea not only the loose disorderly factious Spirits have been let up and encouraged to greater boldness and licentiousness but some simple and well meaning Friends also not seeing the design of Satan herein have been misled thereby and made use of by the Enemy and the more subtle of his Instruments to oppose the good Order of Truth Thus hath the Enemy wrought and sought to lay waste the work of the Lord. But the Lord magnified be his holy Name hath not been wanting to his People that in sincerity of Heart have diligently waited on him and trusted in him for he hath all along raised up some whose Eye he hath opened to see the Design and working of the Evil One and whose Spirits he hath engaged to stand up in a faithful Testimony against him contending for the way of Truth Which when they in whom the Enemy wrought perceived and found they could not run over the heads of Friends and carry things on as themselves pleased they set themselves in a heady willful Spirit to raise Disturbances in Meetings for business by encouraging and abetting such heady loose contentious and disorderly persons as would joyn with them thus hardning themselves and provoking the Lord to give them up to blindness and hardness of Heart till at length the Enemy prevailed so far upon them as to work them by degrees from Discontent to Prejudice then to Enmity and so at length in divers places to an open defection Apostacy and Separation Now although I know my dear Friends that ye who have kept your Habitation in the Light of the Lord and whose Eye is single therein have a clear sight and understanding that the Spirit which hath thus wrought and fought against the Truth is not nor can be of God but is of the Wicked One And although the Fruits it hath brought forth through the Agents and Instruments in and by which it hath wrought viz. making Disturbances in Meetings to the Breaking the Churches Peace Causing Divisions amongst Friends Publishing to the World most wicked Malicious railing and scandalous Books against Friends an effect of the greatest Enmity shutting and keeping Friends out of their common Meeting-houses in which they have a just Right and Property and not suffering them to meet therein