Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	darkness_n	glory_n	shine_v	2,497	5	9.0823	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54908	The spirit of error, found and discovered, in the accounted pastors and teachers of the island Bermuda, in the VVest-Indies their principles and practice also tryed by the true spirit, and found to be contrary to the Scriptures of truth, and disproved by them, though pleaded for by the strongest arguments, the said teachers could bring forth : in an answer to some queries that were sent unto them, by us called Quakers : which answer was subscribed with all their names hereafter mentioned : their deceit unfolded for the peoples sake of the island / by ... Richard Pinder.	Pinder, Richard, d. 1695.	1660 (1660)	Wing P2264; ESTC R10836	20,271	25

Praying also for they see that you do them all but for your own ends since you have set your selves against the Truth as you three Priests of Bermuda have done who were like a wild Bull in a Net witness your fretting and chafing in your Praying and Preaching when you could not get the Magistrates of that place to satisfie your envious minds to banish us off that Island who came to visit the remnant of Jacobs Seed that it might be gathered from off the tops of the barren Mountains where it long had been scattered into the Fold of Rest and at the fulfilling of this your rage like mad-men appeared The Priests say That they find to their great comfort that the Doctrine of holy Scriptures received by Faith hath power to purge their hearts from the Corruption of Sin and they say it 's often declared by them that they own no other Light of Christ making to see sin to their salvation but this Doctrine contained in the holy Scripture and planted into their hearts by his holy Spirit through hearing and reading of them Answ By this it appeareth that you are them that preach up another Faith than that which was preached to Abraham before the Scriptures were written Gal. 3.8 when Abraham saw the coming of the Just Ones and rejoyced Ioh. 8.58 And the Prophet saith He should sit as a Refiner and Purifier of Silver Mal. 3.3 And Iohn saith He shall throughly purge his floor Luke 3.17 And the Scriptures cannot contain him for he is ascended for above all heavens that he might fill all things Ephes 4.10 This is He the Scripture declares of who was the Author and Finisher of the Saints Faith in whom they believed and had remission of sins and received Life Everlasting according as the Scriptures say And the Spirit of Truth which led them into all Truth was the Saints Comforter and this led them to the fulfilling of what before was written And so they stumbled not at Christ the chief corner-stone as they did that cryed up the Prophets VVritings but were erred from the Spirit by which the Prophets were led and this is your condition who set your selves to scandalize and reproach the LIGHT which Christ hath enlightned every one withal and yet are crying up the Doctrine contained in the Scripture and say it hath power to purge your hearts from the corruption of sin when as alas you believe no such thing as people can be purged wholly from sin in this life And note that so long as sin remaineth it corrupts and so your deceit is seen who tell of being purged from corruption and not from the sin which doth corrupt And Praises be unto the Lord many are come into the Faith by which Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain Heb. 11.4 25. of whose stock all envious men are And the Faith of Abraham is witnessed by which he obeyed the voice of God before the Scriptures were written and faith which Moses was in is witnessed by which he denyed the pleasure of sin which you three Priests are yet found in and though you cry up the Doctrine contained in the Scriptures yet your deceit is seen and your Ignorance discovered who say You know no Light of Christ making to see sin to your salvation but the Doctrine contained in the Scriptures which before I shewed what it was taking a Verse of Scripture and Divining an hour by a Glass from it But all such Doctrine they that spoke forth the Scripture denied and preached Christ the Light and Lamb of God which had been slain from the foundation of the World and preached remission of sins through him who is the Power of God and the Righteousness of God who hath enlightned every one that cometh into the World that through him all might believe And this Light the Saints witnessed to shine in their hearts to give them the Light of the knowledge of the Glory of God And so this Light they preached which in all at first shined in Darkness and reproves for the sin that is brough forth by the Power of Darkness 2 Cor. 6.4 The Priests say That we to wit the Quakers take the Light of Christ for the knowledge of Christ as the Son of God and Saviour of the World Answer He that is the onely begotten Son of God and Saviour of the World hath enlightned every one that cometh into the VVorld and this is he that giveth the knowledge of the Father and this is life eternal to know the Father and him whom he hath sent a Light into the VVorld Joh. 12.36 that they who believed in him should not abide in Darkness Now the Light which cometh from the onely begotten of the Father First sheweth unto people their own darkness to the end that with the Light they may be led out of it that where the Light is believed in and obeyed it manifesteth life which life Redeemeth and Reconcileth unto God as it is known And this is the true and saving knowledge of Christ which we the Quakers bear testimony unto for by his Life the Saints were saved and this Life none know Rom. 5.10 but who come and wait in the Light for the revealing of it that they are the Children which abide in the Darkness who do not believe in the Light which Christ hath enlightned every one that cometh into the World withall and can never come to the knowledge which saveth but are condemned already Iohn 3.18 The Priests say To reason from every one having so much light as leaveth them without excuse therefore they have a Light of Christ or saving Light they say its all alike as if one should prove every sick man hath knowledge to recover himself because he knoweth he is sick Answer Here would you not make it as though people were left without excuse by some other light than the Light of Christ Oye blind Leaders of the blind who are thus fallen into the Pit of darkness Doth not Christ who is the Light and saveth them that believe in him condemn the Unbelievers And would you have him to judge and condemn them for their sin and transgression and that he never enlightned them to let them see what sin and transgression was Oh how you erre in the things of God and in the judgement which is Eternal which is committed unto the Son who hath enlightned every man that cometh into the World And you that are telling of a Light by which people are left without excuse Iohn 9.22 and not from Christ you are they that are setting up another Judge than he and so would pervert the Truth and true judgment which was ever the work of him that is the father of Lyes who did not abide in the Truth whose waies the true Light now discovereth that though you who are filled with his subtilty go about never so many waies to pervert the Truth and true Judgement yet you are discovered in them

The SPIRIT of ERROR Found and Discovered In the accounted Pastors and Teachers of the Island Bermuda in the VVest-Indies Their Principles and Practice also tryed by the True Spirit and found to be contrary to the Scriptures of Truth and disproved by them though pleaded for by the strongest Arguments the said Teachers could bring forth In an Answer to some Queries that were sent unto them by us called Quakers Which Answer was subscribed with all their Names hereafter mentioned Their deceit unfolded for the Peoples sake of the Island By a Servant of the Truth which searches out all iniquity though it work in a Mystery called RICHARD PINDER The Wicked is snared by the transgression of his Lips but the Just shall come out of trouble Prov. 12.13 THe Day of Glory hath appeared the everlasting Gospel is now Preached unto them that dwel upon the earth to the calling all forth off that great and long night of Darkness which hath lain over every Nation Kinred Tongue and People where the Beast and false Prophet hath Reigned and Mysterie Babylon the Mother of Harlots deceived that they upon whom she hath sitten have been as unstable as the Waters and as changeable as the Windes that a Rock or Place to rest upon they have not known but tossed and hurried to to and fro they have been and deceived on every hand through her Inchantments that have filled the whole Earth with spoil and violence through her changeable Waies and Garments which she hath been decked withall since she began to drink the Saints Blood and since she Mysterie Babylon the false Church made all Nations drunk with the Wine of her Fornications which hath made them Reel and Stagger to and fro that they have all lost the way and turned into the by-paths wherein they are groaping like blind men without any glimmering of Light and run and clash one against another and fall on heaps and then burst out like the Waters thinking to swallow all up and then another Wave meets them and here arises Heat and Rage one against another and here People rend and tear one another about the Scriptures and cry it up to be their Rule and Guide to lead them to knowledge but have all lost the Key which should open the Door of true Knowledge and which should open the Scriptures unto them and this Key they hate which is the Light which Christ hath enlightened every one withall and so it is but just on the Lords behalf to give every one of them up to follow the Imaginations of their own hearts being that they hate his Reproof and cast his Law behind their backs And being that they are grown so proud and haughty that they despise waiting for his Counsel that every one doth the thing which seemeth good in his own eyes and there the Lord and his Reproofs are not regarded but rejected neither is his Law there waited for Where man hath chosen his own way in which man seeks to exalt himself and to get a name in the Earth that what man doth in that state he hath a self-end in it whether it be in matters seemingly to bring something to the glory of God or in others yet he hath his own end in it and this is the estate where man is Cursed and all things unto him for his sake and there man is separated from the true and living God and so turned into his own Inventions invents a way to serve and worship him by whom he was made thinking thereby to please him and procure his love Whenas alas he daily rejects his love by turning into his own waies and here the Lords hand is turned against man because of his iniquity which daily aboundeth and is daily brought forth where man hath chosen his own way and turned from the way of God which is but one Now the waies which man hath invented are many and which he hath sought out for himself since he was turned forth of the acceptance with God by reason of his chusing to walk in his own waies And there standeth the craft and subtilty of man in the degenerate state degenerated through the subtilty and craft of him that hath led from the Truth that he cannot savour the things of God his Judgement and Discerning being taken away and in that he is become leavened up into such a temper and frame as he is altogether an Enemy to Truth and Righteousness In this state man calls Truth Error and Error Truth and calls and accounts his own way the way of Righteousness and so puts the Lords VVay and his Judgements afar off and seeketh to do those things which is pleasing in his own eyes and by this perverteth true Judgement and seeketh to be Judge himself over the things which God hath made and there man is not at all willing that God should rule over the work of his own hands but would rule and be Lord and King himself and so goeth on in craft and subtilty as that Power worketh and moveth in him which is at enmity against God for its Kingdom and Exaltation standeth in craft and subtilty and there its strength lyeth by which it is upholden opposing the Lord and his Work and setting its own up in those who are guided by it and so it hath many Instruments which in subtilty and craft under a pretence of Godliness will stand up for it in opposition to the way by which God worketh to manifest his love among the sons of men to reconcile them unto himself again which is onely known through his own Son which in his love he gave a Light into the world that whosoever should believe in him should not abide in Darkness by which people are separated from God but should have the Light of Life And this is He by which God maketh himself known unto the sons of men that through transgression have been destitute of his knowledge and this Word of Reconciliation being now Preached even the Gospel of his onely begotten Son in whom the Father is well pleased and in which man is accepted with him again I say This Gospel being now Preached unto every Nation Kinred Tongue and People over whom the Beast and false Prophet have reigned and Mysterie Babylon and Mother of Harlots bewitched Also now the Power of the enmity standeth up on every Instrument whom it hath fitted to blaspheme reproach the Gospel of Light and glad Tidings which we the despised people commonly called Quakers bear testimony unto though for it we are Hated and Despised and spoken against in every place by them that have pretended to be Preachers of the Gospel of Peace and glad Tidings but are now in this the day of Glory found to be Preachers for the glory of man and for filthy Lucre are now found to be of Mysterie Babylons Merchants which have long deceived the Nations and taken their money for that which is not Bread which now when the day of Glory hath

appeared and their Merchandize spoiled begin to lament and mourn and because in a day misery is come upon them in which they gnaw their Tongues for pain and blaspheme against the Lord and his Tabernacle which now is witnessed to be with men whose day hath appeared to make their abominations manifest and to the discovering of the secrets of their hearts that their Blasphemy against the Lord and his Tabernacle they utter forth because of their sorrow that is come upon them For though they cry to the Mountains and Hils to cover them yet they cannot defend them for a consumption is determined against them entred into their own bowels that Behold when they look for Day Night then cometh upon them and when they look for safety from the Hils and Mountains even sudden destruction cometh upon them that Blackness of Darkness compasseth them about and the deeper they dive to hide their counsel from the Lord the greater will their misery be and the sooner will their measure of iniquity be filled up that the Lord with the Beesom of his wrath may sweep them away For do we read in all the Scriptures that the false Prophets in any generation uttered forth such folly and Ignorance as the false Prophets in this generation do And though you three of Bermuda lay long hid that the envy which was in your hearts against the heritage of God did not so much appear as it did in some of your Brethren yet the Lord hath sought you out that the deceit of your hearts might be made manifest and laid open and that was the end for which I was moved to send my Queries unto you and not that I wanted satisfaction as to my own particular in the things whereof I Queried but that your Belief and Judgement might be brought forth For as many may know you are the least of many hundreds of the men of Darkness which have uttered forth their folly and ignorance in passing their judgements upon us whom God hath made as a terrour unto all the wicked and upon the Gospel of Light which we bear testimony unto which hath enlightned every one that cometh into the World about which Light the most of my Queries unto you was which were sent unto you subscribed with my own name and with George Rofé who also hath given his testimony against you both by his Word and Writing And I having now received an Answer to my Queries I may here set down some of your principal Arguments laid down therein with my Reply unto them that both may be sent into the World that all who fear the Lord may judge thereof The Priests say in answer to the first Querie That there may be a light in man reproving and convincing of sin and yet not sufficient to lead unto life For they say Such a light was in Judas And they say There is a Natural Light in man which Reproveth sinne Answer The Light which convinceth the World of sin is the Spirit of Truth and Christ said It should lead them into all Truth Joh. 16.8 So for you three Priests to say that the Light which convinceth of sin is not sufficient to lead unto Life you might as well say Christ spoke not truth when he said That the Spirit which reproveth the World of sin should lead into all Truth And Judas he turned from the Truth when he betrayed the Innocent into the hands of sinners And when he took money of such envious men as you are for so doing in whom a persecuting spirit soon appeared as you may remember your seeking to the Magistrates to have us banished who witnessed against all deceit and deeds of Darknesse and against your natural Light and against your Preaching by your Natural Learning which the Light that convinceth of sin discovereth to be contrary to what the Apostles Preached who received their Gospel not of man neither was taught it by man Gal. 1.1 but by the Revelation of Christ who hath enlightned every one that cometh into the World that through him all might believe and receive life But his Light condemns all such Unbelievers as you are The Priests say in their Answer to another Querie That the Light which discovereth corruption is from Christ but not given to all men Answer The Light which discovereth corruption is One in all John 3. the same to him that believeth as it is in him that believeth not For Christ whose Light convinceth of sin is He that is to judge all Nations of men that be upon the face of the whole earth Yea all you Unbelievers are to be judged by him and according to the Light which he hath enlightned you withal will Judgement be given and you receive reward according to your deeds So it is good for you all now while you have time to give regard to the Light which convinceth of sin and discovereth the corruptions of your own hearts and it will let you see that such as say all are not enlightned with a measure of it are Deceivers and speak contrary to the Scriptures in so saying As you may read 1 John v. 9. The Priests say again That light may be in a man two wayes First they say By proceeding from In-bred Principles brought into the World with him as water is in a Well where it springeth Secondly They say Light may be in a man by infusion or instruction by him that wanted it as water is put into a Well Answer Where do you read that any of the true Prophets Christ or his Apostles told people of light being in them two waies This is but a piece of Sophistry to blind people withall to tell them of light being in them two waies And see how in this you are contrary to the Scriptures For did not the Lord say He would give a Light to the Gentiles which should be his salvation unto the ends of the earth Isa 49. And doth not Simeon say of Christ That he was given a Light to lighten the Gentiles Luke 2.32 And did not Christ himself say I am the Light of the World John 8.12 And did not he say It was the Condemnation that Light was come into the World and men loved Darkness rather than Light because their deeds were evil John 3.19 And did not John say He enlightneth every one that cometh into the World John 1.9 And did not the Apostle say That the light which shined in their hearts gave them the Light of the Knowledge of the glory of God in the face ●f Chr●st Jesus 2 Cor. 4.6 So you that are speaking of two Lights are them that darkens Counsel by uttering words without knowledge who tell of an In-bred light which is as water springing in a VVell and of light infused which is as water put into a VVell That you three Priests may read your selves by your own comparison who tell people of light being infused into them by hearing you tell your meanings of the Scriptures and their