Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A96388
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The Christian doctrin [sic] and society of the people called Quakers; cleared from the reproach of the late division of a few in some part of America, as not being justly chargeable upon the body of the said people there or elsewhere.
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Whitehead, George, 1636?-1723.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing W1905; ESTC R233931
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11,485
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22
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adventure to assert that opinion either as divinely Revealed or opened or as necessary to be believed or received as an Article of Faith or that will undertake to demonstrate how many times or Intervals of life they themselves have liv'd on Earth and what transactions or remarkable passages or things good or bad they have done or passed thorough in those their supposed past Intervals of Life The CONCLUSION TO conclude as we are perswaded want of walking in the true Light and want of Christian Charity is the great cause of Divisions in profest Christian Societies of all sorts and of this difference among a few persons in America professing the same Light and Truth with us We are ashamed of and surprised at the bitter language and severe Consequences and Treatment in some of the Printed Books from one party and exposing the weaknesses and unwarrantable expressions of some of the other to the open Enemies of both and of Religion it self all which as also to make any publick Rent in a Religious society on personal offences or Private Occasions are greatly unbecoming our Christian Profession Charity or Society And we pray God rebuke and stop this troublesome Spirit of Enmity and Division whereever it is for it makes great Disturbance and Trouble in the Creation and where it enters in Church or State yet it 's ill work is no new thing 't was the same Spirit that infested and troubled the Primitive Christian Churches causing Divisions and Offences contrary to the Gospel of Peace at first receiv'd and whereby parties and Schisms were made and one to say I am of Paul another of Apollo another of Cephas which Carnality the Apostle reproved as knowing and testifying that Christ whom they all profest is not divided and if Christian Tenderness and Charity might Influence all parties we see no real cause for these few persons aforesaid to divide or separate outwardly especially about Doctrin seeing both profess one Light one Spirit one God and one Lord Jesus Christ and Faith in him and sincerely to believe the holy Scriptures and even the person charging the other in Print to own the Body of the People called Quakers and seems to approve of our antient faithful and generally approved Friends Writers or Publishers of our Doctrins and Principles and Preachers among us generally owned and approved by us as Men of sound Judgment and understanding and as owning the fundamental Articles of the Christian and Protestant Faith Thus far the Person charging in his serious Appeal p. 6. As also the same person further openly signified at the other Friends meeting that he and his Friends had unity with the most there as to the main As also withall faithful Friends every where excepting only some in their meeting that were unsound c. Reason Causes p. 26. and therefore if most on both sides have Unity as to the Main we may charitably suppose they do not differ in the Main or substance of Christian Faith or Doctrin before cited and sincerely owned and confessed by us if tenderly and duly considered by both sides as Men seeking Peace Love and Concor'd Wherefore the difference was very indiscreetly managed aggravated and exposed to separation Printing and Reproach seeing 't was not in the Main We wholly dislike of such rending and tearing such dividing and aggravating proceedings and bitter Treatment and have no Unity therewith But desire the Lord in Mercy to Repair Breaches and heal Backslidings among them and all esteemed Christian Professions and Societies and incline all to the Main to the True Light to the substance and Life of Christianity to true Love fervent Charity and Tender-heartedness and Forgiveness towards one another and to follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord. A POSTSCRIPT relating to the Doctrin of the Resurrection and Eternal Judgment AT the last trump of God and Voice of the Archangel the Dead shall be raised Incorruptible the Dead in Christ shall rise first 1 Cor. 15.52 1 Thes 4.16 compared with Mat. 24.31 Many are often alarum'd in Conscience here by the Word and Voice of God who stop their Pars and slight those Warnings but the great and final Alarum of the laft Trumpet they cannot stop their Ears against nor escape it will unavoidably seize upon and further awaken them finally to Judgment They that will not be alarum'd in their Consciences unto Repentance nor out of their Sins here must certainly be alarum'd to Judgment hereafter Whosoever do now wilfully shut their Eyes hate contem or shun the Light of Christ or his Appearance within shall at last be made to see and not be able to shun or hide themselves from his glorious and dreadful Appearance from Heaven with his mighty Angels as with Lightning and in flaming Fire to render Vengeance on all them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thes 7.8 Mat. 24.27 Luk. 17.24 Dan. 10.6 Job 37.3 And though many now evade and reject the Inward Convictions and Judgment of the Light and shut up the Records or Books thereof in their own Consciences they shall all be at last opened and every one judged of these things recorded therein according to their Works Rev. 20.12 13 14 15. Signed in behalf of our Christian Profession and People aforesaid George Whitehead Ambrose Rigg William Fallowfield James Parke Charles Marshall John Bowater John Vaughton William Bingley FINIS
Christ as he died for our Sins and rose again for our Justification together with Christ's Inward and Spiritual Appearance and work of Grace in the Soul livingly to open the Mystery of his Death and perfectly to effect both our Reconciliation Sanctification and Justification and where-ever Christ qualifies and calls any to Preach and Demonstrate the Mystery of his Coming Death and Resurrection c. even among the Gentiles Christ ought accordingly to be both Preached Believed and Received Yet supposing there have been or are such Pious and Consciencious Gentiles in whom Christ was and is as the Seed or Principle of the Second or new Covenant the Light the Word of Faith as is granted and that such live uprightly and faithfully to that Light they have or to what is made known of God in them and who therefore in that State cannot perish but shall be saved as is also confessed and supposing these have not the outward Advantage of Preaching Scripture or thence the Knowledg of Christ's outward coming being outwardly crucified and risen from the Dead can such thus considered be justly excluded Christianity or the Covenant of Grace as to the vertue life and nature thereof or truly deemed no Christians or void of any Christian Faith in the Life and Power of the Son of God within or be only Sons of the first Covenant and Bond-woman like the litteral out-side Jews Or must all be excluded any true Knowledg or Faith of Christ within them unless they have the Knowledg of Christ as without them No sure for that would imply insufficiency in Christ and his Light as within them and to frustrate God's good End and Promise of Christ and his free and universal Love and Grace to Mankind in sending his Son We charitably believe the contrary that they must have some true Faith and Interest in Christ and his Mediation because of God's free Love in Christ to all Mankind and Christ's dying for all Men w and being given for a Light of the Gentiles and for Salvation to the Ends of the Earth x And because of their living up sincerely and faithfully to his Light in them their being Pious Conscientious accepted and saved as is granted we cannot reasonably think a sincere pious or godly Man wholly void of Christianity of what Nation soever he be because none can come to God or Godliness but by Christ y by his Light and Grace in them Yet grant if there be such pious sincere Men or Women as have not the Scripture or knowledg of Christ as outwardly crucified c. they are not perfect Christians in all Perfections as in all Knowledg and Understanding all Points of Doctrin outward Profession of Christ so that they are better than they profess or pretend to be they are more Jews inward and Christians inward than in outward Shew or Profession There are Christians sincere and perfect in Kind or Nature in Life and Substance though not in Knowledg and Understanding A Man or Woman having the Life and Fruits of true Christianity the Fruits of the Spirit of Christ in them that can talk little thereof or of Creeds Points or Articles of Faith yea many that cannot read Letters yet may be true Christians in Spirit and Life and some could die for Christ that could not dispute for him and even Infants that die in Innocency are not excluded the Grace of God or Salvation in and by Christ Jesus the Image and Nature of the Son of God being in some Measure in them and they under God's Care and special Providence See Matt. 18.2.10 w 2 Cor. 5.14 15. x Isa 49.6 Luke 2.32 Acts 13.47 y Joh. 14.6 And though we had the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament and a Belief of Christ crucified and risen c. we never truly knew the Mystery thereof until we were turned to the Light of his Grace and Spirit within us we knew not what it was to be reconciled by his Death and saved by his Life or what 't was to know the Felloship of his Sufferings the Power of his Resurrection or to be made conformable unto his Death we knew not until he opened our Eyes and turned our Minds from Darkness unto his own Divine Light and Life within us Notwithstanding we do so sincerely and greatly esteem and value the Holy Scriptures preaching and teaching of Faithful divinely Inspired Gifted and Qualified Persons and Ministers of Jesus Christ as being great outward Helps and instrumental in his Hand and by his Spirit for Conversion where God is pleased to afford those outward Helps and Means as that we neither do nor may oppose the sufficiency of the Light or Spirit of Christ within to such outward Helps or Means so as to reject disesteem or undervalue them for they all proceed from the same Light and Spirit and tend to turn Men's Minds thereunto and all center therein Nor can the Holy Scriptures or true Preaching without be justly set in opposition to the Light or Spirit of God or Christ within for his faithful Messengers are Ministers thereof being sent to turn People to the same Light and Spirit in them Acts 26.18 Rom. 13.2 2 Cor. 4.6 1 Pet. 2.9 1 Jo. 2.8 'T is certain That great is the Mystery of Godliness in itself in its own Being and Excellency namely that God should be and was manifest in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World and received up into Glory ☞ And 't is a great and precious Mystery of Godliness and Christianity also that Christ should be spiritually and effectually in men's Hearts to save and deliver them from Sin Satan and Bondage of Corruption Christ being thus revealed in true Believers and dwelling in their Hearts by Faith Christ within the Hope of Glory our Light and Life who of God is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 And therefore this Mystery of Godliness both as in its own Being and Glory and also as in Men in many hid and in some revealed hath been and must be Testified Preached and Believed where God is pleased to give Commission and prepare People's Hearts for the same and not in Man's Will Concerning the Resurrection of the Dead and the great Day of Judgment yet to come beyond the Grave or after Death and Christ's coming without us to Judg the Quick and the Dead as divers Questions are put in such Terms What the Holy Scriptures plainly declare and testifie in these Matters we have great reason to credit and not to question and have been always ready to imbrace with respect to Christ and his Apostle's own Testimony and Prophecies 1. For the Doctrin of the Resurrection If in this Life only we have Hope in Christ we are of all Men most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 We sincerely believe not only a Resurrection in Christ from the fallen sinful State here but a Rising and Ascending into Glory with him