Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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B21662
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A tender and Christian testimony to young people and others whom it may concern in this present day, who walk with us under the profession of the blessed truth.
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Elson, Mary, 1623 or 4-1707.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing E642
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4,742
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10
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A Tender and Christian TESTIMONY TO Young People And others whom it may concern in this present day Who walk with us under the Profession of the blessed Truth Printed in the Year 1685. A Testimony of LOVE in tender Advice and Counsel to a Young Men and others who profess the Truth Dear Friends WE whom God hath raised in the Morning of his Day to be a kind of first Fruits unto himself do in a living sense of the Truth and in a true respect to the Prosperity and Glory of it tenderly advise Young men and others who are of late Convincement that you use all dillgence and circumspection in your several places and callings in Conversation and Practice to answer that holy Principle which in words you do profess and especially to beware of a false Liberty which some take to themselves that Truth allows not of particularly that of Fashioning according to the course and custom of this World which creates a great offence unto many who are apt to conclude there is no stability amongst us more than in other Professions when they see how several conform to and let in Superfluity Curiosity and Costliness in Habit and Apparel which evidently bespeaks the vanity of such Minds and become not men really professing Godliness Whose adorning is and always was inward in the hidden man in the heart and blessed be God many are settled down into the sense of it not being subject to alter or change but daily denying themselves take up the Cross to all outward and perishing things and being stedfast in the Faith become examples of Righteousness Gravity Sincerity unto others some of whom through Carelesness and Negligence have cooled their Affections and Love to the Truth whereby they become weak and grow into a feeble state sometimes put on Gay Clothing with Sumptuous and Costly Array such as many of us for Truth 's sake have deny'd and put off which as it is a Stumbling-block to those that are without so an Exercise and Grief to us who are concern'd for the Lord whose Power and Spirit hath mightily wrought in us to subdue and bring under the carnal Mind with its Affections and Lusts which in the weighty and serious Life we exhort you to watch against and suffer not that which is unsavoury and corrupt to arise nor give place to it but by the Spirit resist every Appearance of Evil and dwell in the seasoning Power that ye may be as the Salt of the Earth and Lights to the World that they seeing your good Works and orderly Conversation may glorifie your Father who is in Heaven And Friends our further advice and counsel to you is that you keep inward with the Lord and out of the Hurries and Busles that are in the World which we ought not to be concerned in who are seeking for a heavenly Kingdom and Immortality and Glory far transcending the Splendor and Lustre of this World which Christ said his Kingdom was not of but consists in Righteousness and Peace in which peaceable Spirit of Righteousness we desire all may be found and not to be busied in matters relating to outward Government and Rule which belongs not to us but are for such on whom it pleaseth God them to bestow wherefore we caution all to be careful that no real occasion be given by Words or Actions for any to be esteemed as Busie-Bodies on that account but be ye fervent with the Lord and strong in the Power of his Might as good Souldiers of Christ to endure Hardships suffer not as evil-doers but for the Testimony of Faith and a good Conscience towards God and the Crown Immortal you shall receive which is laid up not only for us who are at present tribulated and afflicted for Righteousness sake but for all them that love the Appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ So to the Word of his Grace we commend you all for further Counsel and Direction and with the tender Salutation of our Love rest Devonshire-House Monethly-Meeting the 8th of the 5th Moneth 1685. Your Friends and Brethren in the precious Truth William Ingram William Crouch Richard Whitpane Gilbert Mace A tender and Christian Testimony to Young People and others whom it may concern in this present Day Friends WE having a weight on our Spirits and Godly care on our Minds and a holy Jealousie in respect to the Honour and Prosperity of the blessed Truth you and we walk under the Profession of find a necessity thus to remind you and to stir up one another to our Exercise in the Light of Christ Jesus which first convinced us of Sin and Evil shewing us that to be the Way and the Truth that leads out of all Defilements both of Flesh and Spirit into the Life of Holiness and Righteousness in the whole course of our Conversation so that to the World and all that are without our Lives may speak that the Grace that hath appeared to all we have received for by the effectual work of it we deny all Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts The Lust of the Eye the Lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life which are of the evil One. And by this that first convinced us this Principle of Light and Spirit of Grace we are led to live godly soberly and righteously in this present evil World in which the Temptations are Now Friends we looking back to the Purity we beheld in the first breaking forth of the Light of Christ among us 't is not less beautiful in it self but more to us through the clearer shinings of it in the Mystery of the Cross of Christ Jesus which is Foolishness to the World but to us that believe in it the Power of God for Salvation out of the pollutions of the World that enters through the Lusting Eye or Flesh or Pride of Life which our fervent Breathings are to God that we may be preserved from turning back into again looking to our first steps in Truth 's way Oh! the strength we were one to another through our Unity each watching for the others good as well as our own fearing to draw one another from the stay of our Minds did not forget the bridle to the Tongue through unprofitable talking whispering or evil speaking one of another behind the back but if any thing did lie upon one to inform exhort and reprove one another that we did in a holy awe as became them that walked in the Light to the particulars faced concerned Moreover consider the Comliness of that Plainness that at the first the Truth led us to by which we were distinguished from other Professors and People of the World who if we were then reproached for it it was for Truth 's sake which the upright minded to God valu'd above all the vain Glory of the World And with such do you consider that wear the gay-clothing which speaks not the weight and gravity of Truth the costly array and so much conform to the Fashions of the World yet