Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A38828
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An epistle of Margaret Everard to the people called Quakers and the ministry among them: more especially to such of them to whom she hath bee particularly known, and who are concerned for her, as if she were lost and fallen from truth. Shewing her dissatisfaction with the ignorance, error, and uncharitableness that too much abounds among them.
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Everard, Margaret.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing E3535; ESTC R219770
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6,413
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8
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Christ Crucisied in which all is included that is necessary to our Salvation and as we use our endeavours in Reading and Hearing and as those that speak by the help and assistance of the good Spirit of God and they that hear are gathered to the same in their own Hearts as they come to meditate in what they Read and Hear may come to have their Understandings opened at the time of Hearing or Reading for the Scripture saith Faith comes by Hearing and Hearing by the Word Preached But mark if there be not a seed of Faith in the Hearts of those that Hear it will not profit and it was the manner and is of Christ's Ministers to Preach Faith in Christ Crucified his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven being a Mediator and Advocate with the Father for us and Justification by his Blood or by the Blood of his Cross to wit that Blood which was shed on the Cross and let out of his blessed side with a Spear by the Souldier as it is written one of the Souldiers pierced his side and forthwith came there out Water and Blood and this brings to mind what I have further Read there are three which bare record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one and three which bare record on Earth the Water the Spirit and the Blood these three agree in one and are not to be divided though they are distinguished so I say the Apostles and Ministers Preached Christ and the Doctrine of Salvation by him and whoever brought any other Doctrine were to be denyed and the Christians were to separate from them and so I think they ought to do now Some there were that denyed the Lord that bought them and the great Doctrine of the Resurrection and so some do still and the Man Christ his coming to Judge the World at the last day of Judgment that great and notable day of the Lord as the Scriptures say And he shall gather all Nations together before him then shall our dead Bodies be raised as the Scripture saith He shall change our vile or low Bodys viz. The Bodys of the Saints and shall make them like unto his Glorious Body Then God will Judge the World by that Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given us assurance in that he hath raised him from the dead Pray Friends let us Read the Scriptures and the Lord give us an understanding and help us against the corruptions of our Nature and the defilements of Sin which we derived from our first Parents for as the Apostle said by Nature we are Children of VVrath and as David said I was born in Iniquity and in Sin did my Mother conceive me Oh! what cause have we to be humbled and lye at the feet of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ and say Lord help us and forgive us our trespasses and this we beg and ask not for our Holiness or any Works of Righteousness that we have done or can do though helped by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ's sake for although the Spirit of God is a Holy and undefiled Spirit and we have a manifestation of it yet such is the frailty of our Nature that we keep not to it at all times So I say it is not for any thing that we can do or do do as the Meritorious cause of our Salvation or acceptance with God but it is the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ and a Living Faith in what he did and suffered for us without us and what he is now doing for us in Heaven without us and what he will do for us at the last and great day as hath been said and that without us I say again it is not our good Works that is the Meritorious casue of our acceptance but God's free Love in his Son and our good Works are the effect of God's Love in Christ and Christ's Love in giving himself to dye for us and thereby hath purchased and procured these Holy Gifts and Graces of Faith Repentance and Obedience and he only is worthy of all Honour and Praise who with a Victorious Patience indured for poor Sinners the Cross and despised the shame and is sate down at the Right Hand of God and is there an ever-living High-Priest who is touched with a feeling of our Infirmities our blessed Mediator and Advocate Oh! how sad is it that any should make light or slight these great Truths as too many do and have done to my Knowledge and to my great grief and the grief of many to wit as I have heard some say What good can a Christ without do us Let us mind the Light within that is sufficient to our Salvation without any thing else and much more that I have omitted for brevity sake But I say this is lamentable that our Meetings are clog'd with such stuff nay I cannot yet see how it will be otherwise notwithstanding the fair pretences some have made but instead of suppressing and stopping them they are rather tollerated and incouraged and have their Liberty to Preach and Pray in Meetings without hindrance but those that bring the Doctrine of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ and he to be the object of our Faith the Man Christ as in Heaven without us I say these cannot have the same Liberty but must be opposed and contradicted and yet at the same time these that thus oppose and contradict the Faith of Christ shall say they have it and had it before they came amongst Friends and yet wanted Peace and were in their Sins the which if they had had it the least grain of it to wit a living Faith it would cleanse them from their Envy and Malice and other Sins Oh! but the wicked have it not though they pretend to it yet they are without the evidence of it which is good Works for as the Apostle saith Faith without Works is dead I say again It is said that people should run into such extreams one fort laying all without and others laying all within Now I say we ought not to divide Christ or to exclude him from being within Men and Women and to be without also within as he is God for as God he is Omnipresent every where in all and over all but as he is both God and the glorified Man in our Nature he is now in Heaven without us in him the fullness dwells and out of his fulness as a rich Fountain do we all receive Grace and Glory and no good thing will be withheld from them that believe and Love and manifest their love to him by their obedience to him as he said If ye love me keep my Commandments The Lord help us and hasten that the chosen of God in Christ may be gathered and that those Sheep which are not yet gathered may be gathered Oh! surely saith the true Sheep and Church of Christ give us whole Christ not divided Oh! for we wanted him every way we wanted him to
dye for us to speak and satisfie Divine Justice and to rise again for our Justification And we wanted him inwardly to give us the Faith and Comfort of what he hath done and suffered for us outwardly and by his holy Spirit and Grace to renew and Sanctifie us throughout in Spirit Soul and Body who is our Justice and perfect Saviour and Sanctifier as he is both God and Man and with respect both to his outward and inward Coming And Friends least any should Imagine or say this is not her Inditing nor would she have put to Print without being put on or advised by some In answer I tell you it was my own Act without the perswasion of any and if it were needful I could produce sufficient Witnesses who have heard me say often I shall not be easie until I have written something that all that have any true love to me might understand how it is with me and the Reason of the disturbance which hath been But some may further object and say it looked bad and contrary to Friends Order and that I should have sent it at first to the Meeting at London that Friends might have given their approbation and might have Printed it by Friends Printer I readily confess according to such Order I should and it would have pleased me best but I could not perswade my self it should ever have been Printed To me it appears it would be cast out for I remember a paper sent to the Meeting from a Woman Friend living in Nottinghamshire or Darbyshire whose paper was rejected by them so would mine some may say thou might have tryed but I was not willing to give them trouble or my self the disappointment Well I have done it and am satisfied and hope it may satisfie some others for whose sake chiefly I did it And as for those or such as will not be satisfied I cannot help it it is no disappointment to me for I never did nor can propose to satisfie all nor can I tell who ever did Some that loves me say keep Meetings and speak or teach those things that is The Doctrine of Christ Crucified together with the Light within c. But I find it will not be endured except I could be a Hypocrite and jumble and confound things as some have done and yet do as I my self Ignorantly have done and sometimes to please others or rather for fear of open opposition but I pray God forgive me for Jesus Christ his sake and preserve me and all the sincere towards him for time to come for I am well assured the words of our blessed Lord Jesus are true and shall be fulfilled in the time appointed to wit Whoever is ashamed of me and of my Words of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in the Glory of his Father And Friends I have seen great hurt in openly opposing each other Oh! surely I have reason to say so I say some have been much offended and others have gone out of the way for the present but the Lord my God for his Son Jesus Christ his sake bring them again to himself that by a Living Faith in Christ they may obtain forgiveness and know the work of Regeneration and Sanctification in and by the Power and Spirit of Christ in their Hearts So with my dear Love to all that Love our Lord Jesus Christ in Truth and sincerely believe in him and manifest their Truth and Love to him by obedience to his Commands I say to all these I desire that Grace Mercy and Peace from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ may be multiplyed and abound in them Farewell The 10th of the Fourth Month 1699. Margaret Everard FINIS London Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1699.