Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	meaning_n	true_a	word_n	6,122	5	4.4275	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39296	The account from Wickham (lately published by John Raunce and Charles Harris) examin'd and found false and warning thereof given to all such well-meaning persons among the people called Quakers, as through personal affection, want of consideration, or weakness of judgment have been betrayed, or may be in danger to be betrayed by them, or any other in the same dividing spirit with them, and led aside from the way of truth into a separation from the people of God, for whose recovery and preservation this is written / by Thomas Ellwood.	Ellwood, Thomas, 1639-1713.	1689 (1689)	Wing E611; ESTC R3890	22,353	20

thither Judge you then of their Sincerity in making this Cavil And as to their other Cavil about Youths and Girls filling up our Meetings if thereby they mean that the Meetings consist of such ' its false If they mean not so but only that some young ones are sometimes there present 't is idle The Meetings it is well known consist of the most antient grave weighty Friends of either Sex in the Country And if any young people or old either that have been little amongst us at our other Meetings and whose deportment and behaviour hath not ansuered their Profession have stept in such have been taken out and desired to withdraw But if they except against all that are young in Years meerly because they are young their exception is to be excepted against as not according to Truth And I question whether they obseve their own methods in the separate Meetings they have set up But if they do not it is then without question that they urge these things not from a conscientious tenderness and with a sincere mind but as a ground of Contention and occasion of Quarrel So also they say they desired that our Meetings might consist of qualified chosen Friends from each particular Meeting But I pray now do their separate Meetings consist of such qualified chosen persons Ye that have been amongst them deal faithfully with your selves and if ye find them false in these particulars urging those things in pretence which they do not practice in reality suffer not your selves to be deceived by them As for our Meetings they do consist of qualified Friends from each particular Meeting such as are chosen by him who best knows their Qualifications God who qualifies them for the service he engages them in and enagages their Spirits in an holy Concern to undertake the work he qualifies them for But is it not strange that these men who seem ready to startle at the very Name of Form and cry out so fearfully against Imposition should on a sudden so far forget themselves as thus to contend for Form in choosing the Members of their Meeting and impose upon all others that should not be chosen and qualified as they think fit to absent themselves from those Meetings What Confusion do these Men run into Now having told us what they desired they go on to tell us what they have disliked as that when Persons have declared that they could not go to the Womens Meeting with their Marriage for Conscience sake several have declared to this effect That the authority of Iudgment concerning such Consciences belong'd to them and that they had power to judge Spirits and Consciences and that they had not only power to desire but to require Marriages before the Womens Meeting and that they could have no Vnity with neither stand Witness to any Marriage but what went first to a distinct Womans Meeting and that such ought not to proceed in Marriage but wait till the Cloud was over telling them it was not Conscience but Stubbornness and Wilfulness and would say They knew it by an inward Sence without any outward Demonstration Thus they fill your Ears with noise and endeavour to prejudice your minds with Reports of what they say others have said whose Sayings perhaps they may have mis-reported or perverted their meanings in giving their own Sence of others words for if ye observe it they do not say several have declared these very words which they have there set down but this in Effect which depends upon their Construction of the words spoken the true Sence of which too cannot be so clearly understood without knowing the Occasions and Circumstances of the Discourse Yet even as these Men have related them they will not sind upon a due Examination any great advantage accrue unto their Cause not will you I hope find cause of Offence from any of these fore-going Expressions As for the authority of judging concerning Conscience which I take to be the main thing here they carp at before it can be rightly understood with relation to be the present Case the occasion and intention of the Words must be considered A Couple that profess Truth lay their Intention of Marriage before a Meeting of Friends The intent of their doing this is not barely and only that their Intention may be made known but that the Friends of that Meeting if no just cause of Obstruction appear may own them joyn with them Act for them and stand by them in the carrying on and consummating of their Marriage Now if this Couple shall refuse to proceed in that Method for the accomplishing their Marriage which the Meeting uses on the like Occasions and shall pretend a Conscientious scruple for such Refusal hath not that Meeting Authority to inquire into the Grounds and Reasons of such a pretence and upon that Inquiry power also to judge of the Sincerity or Insincerity of such a Pretence or Plea of Conscience so far as concerns their own Satisfaction in order to their owning or not owning acting for or not acting for joyning with or not joyning with standing by or not standing by such Persons in their present Procceedings How else shall a Meeting be capable to act with Iudgment and Safety shall a Meeting of Friends be obliged to acquiesse and submit to every bare Plea of Conscience from others contrary to the firm Perswasion of their own Consciences and not be allowed a Liberty Ability Capacity Authority to Examine Try Judge a Plea of Conscience whether it be sincere or no especially in a Case wherein themselves are to be concerned Worse then would the Condition of a Meeting be than that of a single Person We have been told indeed by some of them when we have asked of the Parties refusing a reason of their refusing to let their Proceedings be lookt into by the Womens Meeting that we ought not to ask them such Questions but that when they have declared it to be matter of Conscience to them we ought to be satisfied with that Answer without inquiring further But this has not answered our Consciences nor our Understandings We believed that in a Case wherein they desired us to be concerned we might reasonably desire to be further satisfied th●● so Their excepting against any Friends saying if any did say they had power to judge Spirits shews how short they are of the state of the Spiritual Man who the Apostle testifies Iudges all things 1 Cor. 2. 15. Consider I intreat you wherefore was the Gift of Discerning Spirits given to the Church as we read it was 1 Cor. 12. 10. If it was not to be used in the Church And wherefore were the Saints exhorted 1 Iohn 4. 1. To try the Spirits whether they were of God or no if they have not received from God ability to Try and power upon Tryal to Iudge whether those Spirits are of God or not at least so far as relates to their own satisfaction in receiving or not receiving