Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
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A57306
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A premonition to the bishops and priests of England &c. with twenty reasons why the people of God in scorn called Quakers do refuse to hear them.
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Rigge, Ambrose, 1635?-1705.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing R1488; ESTC R17045
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10,145
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16
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of their Friends and loving Neighbours Oh! the Cry of these things is loud was this ever Christ or the Apostles way and manner towards them who opposed them did not Christ command his to bless their very Persecutors And did not the Apostle forbid the Saints to Curse Rom. 12.14 And did not the Apostle James say that out of one Mouth should not come blessing and curssing James 3.10 And was ever any forbidden to buy or sell or have Society amongst men but only by the Power of the Beast spoken of by John Revelation 13.16 17. who made War with the Lamb and the Saints now let the wise Judge who is your example in your Court-proceedings whether Christ or Antichrist according to your professed Rule viz. the Scriptures And if you prevail upon any who through Fear of your Whip do outwardly conform to your Worship contrary to the Perswasions of their own Hearts do not you thereby make them Hypocrites and twofold more the Children of the Devil then before God hath turned the Hearts of many from you and hath commanded them to offer a Sacrifice to him out of the Borders of Egypt even in the Wilderness which is towards the Red Sea in the Way to the Land of Canaan and your Pursuit of them here will be to your own overthrow as it was Pharaoh's Oh consider what you are a doing by your Courts and Proceedings is it not to draw them into Egypt again whom God by the Cords of his infinite Love hath drawn into the Land of Goshen where they enjoy and possess Light in their Dwellings and have forever turned their Backs of Egypt's Land having set their Faces Zion-ward and are come to the Father's House i e. The true Light where they have Bread enough yea of the living Bread which is come down from Heaven by which they are nourished up to Eternal Life so that your Husk they utterly refuse which you sell at a costly Rate with which no weary Soul can ever be nor never was satisfied Therefore touch them not I charge you by the God of Heaven nor offend the least among them for they are near and dear unto the Lord and he tenders them as the Apple of his Eye and no Weapon formed against them shall ever prosper are you still so blind as not to consider your ill Success in this Undertaking this many Years methinks you should have as much Wisdom as Gamaliel had to say Let them alone if they be of God they will stand if not he will overthrow them lest hapily you be found Fighters against God Acts 5.34 35 36 37 38 39. And you should consider the Parable of the Wheat and Tares how that the Lord of the Houshold of Faith would not suffer his Servants to pluck up the Tares but commanded that they should grow among the Wheat to the End of the world though he declared them to be the Children of the wicked one Mat. 13.18 to the 44th verse He was not of your Mind to root them out from the Earth though he infallibly knew them to be sown by the Enemy which you do not pretend unto and therefore cannot discern between the Children of God and the Chidren of the Devil but call Good Evil and Evil Good and put Light for Darkness and Darkness for Light as your Fore-Fathers did in the Dayes of old But if you fall upon that Rock you have so long stembled at you will be broken but upon whomsoever it falls it will grind him to Powder Therefore dread the Majesty of the great God of Heaven at whose Rebuke all the Mountains of the Earth tremble and are moved and howl all ye idle Vine-dressers whose Vineyards are overgrown with Weeds the Lord of the Vineyard is come to look for Fruit and behold there is little among you but bitter four and ill-tasted Fruits your Vine is the Vine of Sodom and your Grapes the Grapes of Gomorrah and the Lord of the Vineyard will cast you out as unprofitable Servants and idle Shepherds unless you weed out all the Bryars and Thorns and then which of you can escape for the best among you who are guilty of Persecution are as a Bryar and sharper then a Thorn-Hedge from which no pleasant Grapes can be expected so that by your Fruits you are known and not by your Words Mat. 7.2 3. for you have got the good Words the fair Speeches by which you deceive the Hearts of the simple and if Covetousness be Idolatry which none questions then who are greater Idolaters then your selves of whose covetous Practices the whole Nation is full having a Cloud of Witnesses in every parish And how can you call your selves spiritual Persons when you so much resist the Spirit of Truth and contemn those who own and witness it to be their Guide and Leader into all Truth for none can truly be spiritual Persons but who by the spirit of Truth are made so for all men naturally are carnal sold under Sin and none can judge for God but they who are led by his Spirit Now if you were led by the Spirit of God you would let People alone to be perswaded by it in things relating to another world whose Fruits have no bad Aspect on the affairs of this and especially they who desire nothing more then to live a quiet and peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty but by oppressing such you not only seek the Destruction of their Souls but of their Bodies also and if such be not ravening wolves there was never any in the world And as your Fore Fathers did so do ye begin at the wrong End instead of being a Terror to Evil doers you make your selves such to them that do well and let Drunkards Lyars Swearers Whoremongers and Adulterers go free which God will judge and because of these and many mroe Abominations the Land now mourns and there is but a small Remnant that fighs and mourns for all the Abominations that are committed therein but the great Number lives wantonly upon the Earth and kill the just one and cruifie afresh the Lord of Glory putting him to open Shame and give Occasion to the Adulterers of Forreign Nations to blaspheme the Name of the God of Israel which he will require at your Hands And why do you suffer Forreign and other Cheats to come in and set up Stage-playes in open Streets of Cities and Towns whereby the Name of God is dreadfully blasphemed youth and old ge wofully corrupted and debauched Oh! what will you do or where will you appear when God ariseth to take Vengeance for these things My Soul is even bowed down at the Consideration of these things and often mourns in secret for the Abomination of Desolation which now stands where it ought not therefore let him that reads understand And Nation is now appearing against Nation Kingdom against Kingdom Famins Pestilences terrible Earth quakes in divers places yea many Signs in Heaven and Wonders