Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A54267
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Some of the letters which were writ to George Fox, and others of the Quakers teachers are here presented to the rest of their fraternity ... / J.P.
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Pennyman, John, 1628-1706.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing P1416; ESTC R33367
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7,786
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10
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fine and fraudulent words of Infallibility and of thy own perfect State of which thou hast often boasted yet hast been as far from the Life and Power thereof as many whom thou hast condmn'd for Heathens and Infidels This is a certain and true Testimony which I am made to declare to thee at this time happy mightest thou be if thou couldst receive it but whilst thou art so highly exalted in thy self thou canst not but with the Uncircumcised must stumble fall at the Way and Work of the Lord which this day is hid from thee and all proud Flesh Call an Assembly of your Ministry together for they are all gone out of the way that leads to Purity and Holiness They run when they are not sent and therefore profit not the People at all But Wickedness Whoredoms Adulteries Pride Envy and Covetousness Cheating and Cozening breaks forth daily amongst you so that none turns from the evil of their ways but are rather strengthned therein by you that are their Teachers For which and other your Abominations the Lord's Controversy is both against Thee and Them and must certainly so continue till you come to Repentance and till you cease declaring in His Name in your Preachments when as you speak but the Divinations and Imaginations of your own deceived Hearts for his Word Away with your pretended Ministry away with your high Places and chiefest Seats in the Assemblies away with your long Prayers and long Preachings for they are an Abomination away with your Pride and Arrogance in sitting as Judges and Lords over your Brethrens Consciences in Matters of Worship away with your pretences to Infallibility Purity and Perfection whilst your Lives and Practices declare with an open face you are guilty of the contrary Away with your set form of Words of Thee and Thou calling it the pure Language away with this great Abomination Ye blind Guides Is any Language pure but what the Pure uses O ye blind and ignorant how can you escape the Condemnation of the Just and Righteous One who have set up Shadows instead of Substance and Form instead of Power who strain at Gnats swallow Camels even as your Fore-Fathers did so do ye What can be said or done for you that you might be preserved from that fatal doom which is to be pronounc'd upon all the workers of Iniquity viz Go ye Cursed c For my part I have not been wanting in declaring what the Lord required of me concerning you and how you have spurn'd scorn'd flighted and abused me for it you are not ignorant But my so speaking being not for any self or sinister Ends but in all faithfulness discharging my Conscience towards you and for the rectifying of the Evils and Miscarriages that were and are amongst you I have had my Reward and that peace and tranquillity of Mind hath bin and yet remaineth with me which no Man nor Men can give or take from me Now if this be true as most true it is then what will become of Thee and thy fellow Preachers who have set your selves in Battel warring and fighting against this despised Worm Have you not read That the Worm Jacob must thrash the Mountains read Isa 41.10 11 12 13 c. and as certainly as it is written so as certainly shall it come to pass If thou canst receive it thou mayst however it concerns Thee and you all to consider whether you are not those very Men that have trampled upon this Worm and whether you have not despised and rejected its Instructions If so then you are to consider whether you are not those Mountains that are to be thrashed and levelled by It yea or nay And if you be those Mountains as without doubt you are then what is written must be fulfilled upon you Wherefore hearken ye tall Cedars ye sturdy Oaks ye lofty Ones ye proud Flesh ye self exalted Ones ye Daubers ye Temporisers ye who say but do not you seeming Giants and great Goliahs What will you do whither will you go for help seeing the Lord even the God of Worm Jacob is departed from you A day of trouble anguish and disappointment is come and coming upon you which you can neither escape nor prevent You must reap the Fruit of your own doings for as you have sowed the Wind you must expect to reap the Whirlwind wherein is nothing but Confusion Darkness Blackness and Tempest And this is the Portion of all the Builders of Babel or Babylonish Builders and though you may think that you have built the highest and raised the fairest Structure of any yet know and that for a truth that not one Stone thereof shall be left upon another and all your Buildings your Inventions Imaginations and Conceivings about your Forms your proud self-conceited Modes your Impositions your Prescriptions Laws and comely Orders as you in your fallen Wisdom call them must all be thrown down laid waste and become as a by-word or proverb of Reproach to the very Heathen and not only to them but also to those whom ye have defam'd and stigmatiz'd with the blackest of Names and for no other cause but only for their faithfulness in discharging a good Conscience towards their God towards You and towards all Men. These are faithful and true Sayings if thou canst receive them thou mayst however whether Thou and You receive them or no my Reward is with me in that I have thus far cleared my Conscience both concerning Thee and you all John Pennyman And tho I have not as yet printed and published the Book above-mention'd intituled The Quakers Vnmaskt c. which if it were would sufficiently manifest thee and thy Ministers to be the grossest the greatest Hypocrites Temporizers and Deluders of the People that has appeared in this our Age yet you are to know there may come a season when such horrible deceit and hypocrisy must come to light and wherein the Innocent amongst you may not suffer with you that are Guilty O George consider how treacherous thou wert in betraying thy Trust of that rich tho now poor Orphan Abiah Trott for I do assure thee thy Friend Richard Cannon told me thou wert a grand Instrument therein who to give him his due said He would have bin hang'd at his own door before he would have bin so guilty and so treacherous in his Trust as some of you that were intrusted had been Yea such treachery and baseness was acted amongst you in that Affair that the very Heathen whom you so much condemn would detest and abhor as doth J. P. These words are transferred from a Book lately printed intituled A Bright shining Light The Mountain-Stone hath broke Thy Toes Thy Vitals now must feel its Blows May skilful Archers every Hour Shoot Truth 's Arrows from their Tower Against thy persecuting Power They that read this Paper without a weighty Mind or in prejudice may judg the Author guilty of Envy and Enmity but he that knows what it is to deny himself to take up the Cross to his own Will and to be subjected as Peter once was John 21.18 to the leading and guidance of another will not so judg however touching mine own Innocency and Integrity therein I shall only add these words formerly written Jos 22.22 viz. The LORD GOD of Gods the LORD GOD of Gods He knoweth and Israel he shall know if it be in rebellion or in transgression against the LORD then let me not be saved this day Nay if the publishing thereof be not according to His Will who rewards every one according to their Works then let not my gray Hairs go down to the Grave in Peace J. P. What you hear in the Ear that preach ye on the House tops and fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both Soul and Body Mar. 10.27 28. LONDON Printed in the Year 1680.
the pulling down and dashing to pieces all Images and tho some of them might be set up by His appointment as the brazen Serpent was yet by reason of the Iniquity and Idolatry of the People they must be trampled under foot of the Upright and ground to Pouder and testified against by the Righteous whose Hearts and Souls will truly and greatly rejoice thereat when the Hypocrite the double-minded and all that love the esteem and praise of Men will be troubled These are true Sayings if thou hast an Ear to hear thou mayest hear I know you are full and think you are rich but it were better for you that you were poor low and hungry then were there some hopes you would have an Ear to hear what the Spirit saith which saith expresly in this our day That the Children of the LORD shall be taught of Him who shall not need yours nor no Man's teaching in that Worship which is Spiritual and which is only accepted of the Father in this Day and Hour To which Worship many of you that talk of it are as great Strangers and as far from the Life and Power thereof as the very Heathen or Publicans you so much condemn Reject not this Testimony for it is Truth and must stand Happy might it be for thee if thou couldst receive it however it is in love that I am made thus to write and to subscribe my self a Friend to thee and all Men without respect to Persons Parties or Sects J. P. A Letter to W. L. 15th Month called May 1680. Mr. Lollington SEveral of the Inclosed * A Bright shining Light c. being sent me I was willing to send you one of them they treating somewhat of those Matters mention'd in yours of the 3d Instant whereby you may partly perceive the Dispensation of God in our Day of which many are ignorant and who they are that do imbrace and are in unity with it and who they are that are the Resisters Opposers and Gainsayers of it so that I need not say much more of it at present but mind you of that of the Prophet Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his Counsellor hath taught Him Which saying might serve as a Caution to all that in their wisdoms would meddle with or seek to comprehend the way of the Highest It is not for Man to circumscribe or limit the Holy One but to be in continual subjection to his Leadings who may lead into or out of Gestures Postures c. as He pleaseth and who may say unto Him What dost thou So that I am not to heed any such thing farther than I find and feel His Presence with me in them for therein alone stands my true peace and satisfaction and not in any visible thing whatsoever This is Truth 's Testimony if you can receive it you may but withal I may tell you That the Vnregenerate and Vnsanctified know little of the Spirit 's Guidance notwithstanding their great talk of the same thereof It is only the lowly the meek the poor in Spirit that are the Inheritors and Possessors of that Blessing and Pearl of greatest price happy are they that have found or that yet shall find It Yea it is of that price and true value that the wise Merchant-man hath parted with all for its sake and counted nothing of this World to be compared to it or valuable in comparison of it But who will who can believe this Report The Eye that 's abroad cannot see it the lofty and exalted Mind cannot receive it the uncircumcised in Heart and Ears can neither receive nor comprehend it for as the Work of it is invisible so the Way of it is this day hid from all Flesh I had thoughts I might have had liberty to have answer'd more particularly to what you have writ but find it not safe to meddle much in such Matters and therefore may not at present my desire being that my Life harmless and blameless Conversation may preach and speak for me rather than my Words for who is there in this Age that have not got a multitude of fine words justifying and magnifying themselves and condemning all others which often put me in mind of that saying of Solomon Most Men will proclaim their own Glory but a faithful Man who can find And also that of Mr. Pen's speaking of Christ's telling us at the last Day It shall not be well Talkt or well Said but well Done good and faithful Servant Now that you and I may be of that number that can approve our selves in the very secret of our hearts before the All-seeing Eye is more to be desired than all outward Fellowships or any visible Gathering whatsoever for I am of his mind that said A thousand Reproaches I take up as a Crown on my Head and go on in the Name of the Lord with love to Truth and Peace and tho I am not so much in the observation of some outward Forms of Religion as formerly I have been and as some apprehend it their duty to be yet I desire to be more in the Truth and Power of Godliness and in Works of Righteousness Judgment and Mercy among Men And if this be Apostacy or down-right Complyance I shall be content to be accounted so and to be yet more vile than thus But this Cross is too great for the Man of Form to take up This Path is too narrow for the Double-minded or for those that seek the praise of Men to walk in Yet some there are that have chosen it before all the Riches Glory and Esteem of this World of which number I desire always to be found who am your real Friend J. P. A Letter to G. F. 27th month call'd May 1680. George Fox I Had thought that after the Book Intituled The Quakers Vnmaskt c. was sent you thou wouldst not dared to have appear'd as a Messenger or Minister of Christ as yesterday by thy words thou seemedst to be which tho I was not made publickly to oppose thee and to discover thy hypocrisy falseness and temporising of which thou art deeply guilty as is apparent in the said Book yet thou art to know that thine Iniquity is not at all hid nor thy Sin the less nor at all cover'd from the All-seeing Eye and tho thou hast many Proselytes and many Hypocrites to support and uphold thee yet know that for all this thou must come to Judgment and receive thy Reward for all thy Works of Wickedness and Deeds of Darkness and for thy Babylonish Worship which thou in thine own Inventions and Imaginations hast set up as the Spiritual Worship of the most High thou must certainly give an account not only for thine own Soul but also for the Souls of many simple and innocent Hearts who have been deceived betrayed and beguiled by thee This this thou art deeply to weigh and consider before thou goest on or proceedest deluding and deceiving the People with thy guilded