Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A65901
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A general epistle to be read amongst friends in all their meetings
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Whitehead, John, 1630-1696.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing W1978; ESTC R30198
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6,717
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11
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forth good Fruits must be hewn down and cast into the Fire But the long-Suffering and Patience of God leadeth to Repentance and hath been great towards many of you who have stood in a convinced state but have been negligent and careless not walking worthy of the Mercy of this day wherein the Lord hath not been awanting to you but hath visited you time after time looking that you should bring forth good Fruit and through the Intercession that hath been made for you he hath let you alone Year after Year and his Servants have laboured amongst you in the Lords Vineyard that ye might be Fruitful whilst the Rain hath descended upon you But Oh! how many are yet barren or like that Ground that doth not bring forth Herbs meet for the Dresser but Bryars and Thorns and other unsavoury Weeds which the Lord takes no Pleasure in and therefore I am sensible that Wrath is kindled against that Ground and those unnatural Branches that bring forth evil Fruits who sit and speak against their Brethren and slander their Mothers Children who because of his Long-suffering have thought the Lord delayed his coming and therefore have joyned with his Enemies and smitten their fellow-Servants labouring as much as in them lies to expose them and all their faithful Testimonies to the scorn and fury of this prophane and desperate Age for which cause a Day of Tryal is come and the Lord will manifest whom he hath chosen to feed his Lambs and watch over his Flock and they shall come near unto him and have the Light of his Countenance and in all their Troubles be comforted with the presence of the Lord whilst his Indignation smoketh against all that are treacherous and false-hearted who have not regarded the Glory of the Lord nor sought the Prosperity of Sion in what they have brought forth but have seen false Burthens and causes of Banishment to cause the unwary to stumble and turn the simple from the right way and their Reward shall be according to their works Therefore all dear Friends keep your Habitation in the Light and be Followers of that which is good that in you may arise and encrease the first Love and Faith by which you believed the Record that God gave of his Son in the Unity of whose Life and Light we were blessed and prospered into a People and the Lord hath delight in us and will preserve us as a Nursery of tender Plants from which shall spring a mighty People though the Nations are Angry and may seek to hinder the Work of the Lord who will distress them as in Antient time that they may be tryed that dwell upon the Earth Wherefore all tender hearted Friends take heed of looking out but abide in the Light where there is no occasion of stumbling for it judges down all evil Thoughts and surmizing one of another which gender to Strife and tends to break the Bonds of Love and Friendship one to another which are and of right ought to be kept inviolable amongst the Disciples of Christ that being the great Commandment he hath given to them and the principal Mark he hath set upon them through all Generations Therefore dear Brethren and Friends love the Lord withal your Hearts for that is a perfect Bond to keep you in Obedience to him and love one another as your own Souls that you may sympathize one with another in Afflictions and help comfort and support one another as the Lord hath helped and comforted you that it may be manifested by your Works that you have obtained like-precious Faith with the holy Antients who said not to those that were destitute and afflicted Be thou warmed and filled but did minister unto them of the Ability that God had given them that by works of Charity and Mercy their Faith might shine forth having Virtue added unto it which makes the true Faith to differ from the Opinions and Made-Faiths which will all fail and come to an end but the True Faith which stands in Gods Power shall have the Victory and those that possess it overcome the World Even so Amen LOrd God Everlasting keep all thy tender People in the Unity of the Faith that works by Love that we may be kept near unto thee and one to another that thy Delight may be in us and thy Presence with us now that our Adversaries rage and rore against us seek to lay waste thy Heritage and would shut the Mouthes of them that praise thee Wherefore arise O Lord and scatter thine Enemies that Wickedness may come to an End and Deliverance to thy People so shall the expectation of bloody and deceitful men be frustrate and their Mouthes shut that blaspheme thy Name whilst thou art pleased to let thy Glory shine in thy holy Tabernacle which thou hast pitched amongst us upon which Glory let there be a Defence for evermore that those which have trusted in thee may not be confounded but renew their strength in thy Power to the end of Days and Time that in Eternity thou maist be magnified over all forever From Lincoln-Castle this 21st of the 10th Moneth 1682. John Whitehead THE END
A General Epistle TO BE Read amongst Friends in all their MEETINGS Dearly beloved Friends Brethren and Sisters I Being a Prisoner for the Word of God and Testimony of Christ Jesus having not any other way to manifest that Care Love which is in my heart for you to you it s come upon me to write this Epistle to stir you up by way of Remembrance to call to mind the days that past wherein the Lord in great Mercy did visit us when we walked as other Gentiles in the vanity of our Minds which being alienated from the Life of God we had not Ability to overcome those Lusts whereby we were inticed into Evil to the wounding of our own Souls and darkening of our own Understandings until it pleased the Lord to visit us with the springing forth of the blessed Day of the Son of Righteousness whose holy Light shined in our Hearts and Consciences which discovered unto us our lost Estate and undone Condition whilst we lived without God in the World in which Light the quickening Power of Christ Jesus was manifest in our selves which brought us to an inward sence of our own weakness and corruption under which we were truly bowed down and broken in the Righteous Judgments of God which brought great Humility and Tenderness of Heart and Conscience in us through the appearance of his Grace by which we were exercised in his holy Law which he writ in our hearts and put his fear in our inward parts whereby we departed from Evil and received ability to do good through the Obedience of the Spirit of Christ Jesus who washed and sanctified us with his precious Blood that we might be fitted for his use and service after he had so mercifully visited illuminated and accepted us Oh! the Love which God shed abroad in our hearts when he had enlarged us to run the way of his Precepts is more than can be expressed which Love constrained us to seek his Glory and the good of his seattered People with the hazard of our Lives Liberties and whatever else was near and dear unto us in this World we gave it all up through that Love which was the bond of our Friendship with God and one with another wherein also we were edified and became an Habitation of God whose Tabernacle is with us And however he hath suffered us to be smitten with the Rod of men Loving-kindness and Mercy he hath not taken from us though our Exercises have been many and the Perils and Tribulations which we have gone through have been of divers kinds and those with false Brethren none of the least for no sooner did we begin to appear in that Testimony which we had received from God but we had many Adversaries besides the Imitators that from amongst our selves did arise uttering perverse things which gave occasion to Professors and People who bent their Tongues like Bows against us in Reproach cruel Mocking Reviling Slanders Stoning and Buffiting all which the meek Spirit and Life of Christ Jesus manifested in us did shine through and overcome even as the Wind bloweth where it listeth and disperseth Fogs and Mists of Darkness that arise out of the Earth insomuch that the Priests who were Ringleaders in those things were fain to call to the Magistrates for help who imployed their Power to crush us by Imprisonment Whipping and other wrongful Vexations as Finings Spoiling us of our Goods and the like And when that Generation of professing Priests saw they prevailed nothing they struck hands with the Church of England which they had exploded to suppress us Yet through all these things Truth hath prevailed and God hath glorified his own Name in which he gathered us and hath blessed and prospered us into a People And now let the Watch-men of the Church of England beware lest they strike hands with the Papists to help to root us from being a Posterity in the Earth lest they also be swallowed up of their Helpers for agian God will glorifie his own Name and preserve his People in the sight of his Enemies that he may be admired in them that fear him and trust in his Name And now being sensible how that Generation which did see the Wonders of the Lord and were upheld by his mighty Power is passing away and many of them gone before us to their Everlasting Inheritance with Christ Jesus in his Kingdom and another Generation that have heard more but seen and experienced less both of the Wiles of Satan and operation of God's Power that discovers and breaks his Snares are entring who are the Off-spring of the Elders who through Faith and Patience have obtained a good Report besides many others who have come into the Vineyard at other hours of the day who must all be tryed and proved as virtuous men have been in all Ages that have obtained like-precious Faith And my hearts Desire and Prayer unto God is that we all may be found unto the Praise and Glory of God who hath called us out of Darkness into his marvellous Light that every one may be counted worthy of Eternal Life and be made up amongst the Lords Jewels and gathered into his Treasure And for this cause bear with me in a Word of Exhortation Warning and Advice which in the Love of God I send amongst you from the movings of the Spirit of Christ Jesus that quickens us and knits us together as Members of his Body in which we both suffer and rejoyce one with another having a sence and feeling of one anothers Conditions And first I write unto you Fathers and Antients amongst the Flock and Family of God who have known the Lords great work in the beginning and the manner of his carrying it on both in your selves and others blessed are you of the Lord who keep your Habitation in him and do humbly walk with him daily enduring the Cross of Christ Jesus and Contradictions of Sinners against your selves knowing that the Servant is not greater than his Lord and that we only can be preserved increase and grow as Trees that bear good Fruit and wither not by the same Principle of Life which first quickened us unto God and therein let us abide for evermore and be exercised towards God in all your Assemblies wherein the Oversight and Care of the Flock of God comes upon you who mark the end of our Conversation And therefore that we may be kept holy and blameless in the Love of God and in the Meekness Patience and Humility of Christ Jesus to be good Examples to them that follow after us is the earnest desire and travail of my Soul And you that are Young Men in the flower of your Strength because the Word of God abides in you whereby you have in a good measure overcome the Wicked One Oh! my dear Brethren watch and be sober modest and lowly minded fearing the Lord always lest ye be again entangled with any Yoke of Bondage or Pollutions of the World