Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A54109
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A brief answer to a false and foolish libel called The Quakers opinions for their sakes that writ it and read it / by W.P.
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Penn, William, 1644-1718.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing P1259; ESTC R26862
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17,388
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27
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give that Impression which we may justly suppose the lively Presence Mind and Voice of the Person that writ it might But the End of our Adversary plainly is this to make us undervalue the Truth of the Scripture and to debase the Authority of the Scripture with relation to its Verity as if what was said now by the Spirit of Truth in any godly Man were more true then that which was spoken by the same Spirit in former ages which is a gross suggestion The difference lying in these two things â—st Whether Christ's words spoken by his own Mouth were not of greater force vigour and authority to influence or quicken an Auditory then the same words written and now read 2dly Whether the words of Christ when spoken by his own Mouth were not of more Life and Authority then the Scriptures read by the Pharisees The first is true and much more the last let this Adversary then be ashamed of his Injustice Christ said of the words that he spoke The words that I speak they are Spirit and they are Life that is 〈◊〉 they proceeded from his gracious Lips and as they were uttered from that Divine Power Glory and Authority which dwelt in him To the eighth Quotation That Richard Stubbs a Quaker should say That the Christ born of the Virgin and that dyed at Jerusalem was a False Christ and an Antichrist I answer There was never any such man a Quaker that I know of nor did ever any owned by us utter so horrid a Blasphemy we detest allsuch Impiety besides the story I suppose came out of an idle Pamphlet printed about seven years since by a foolish Person in London to get Money a Fiction like to that of the Island of Pines c. But if true where 's the Witnesses shall the SAY-SO or Authority of an Enemy prevail what must any stuff serve to bedirt the Quakers no matter what nor from whom There is a Righteous God that will have the Judgment of these things To the nineth Passage cited out of G. F's Great Mystery pag. 206. viz. If there be any other Christ then he that is crucified within he is a False Christ I answer I have not the Book by me but I will stand by the Passage for either there is no such thing as a Christ within or if there be there must be two Christs or lastly it is the same Christ that suffered without which is also crucified by sin within Now I leave our Adversary to chuse which of these three he will accept of Is there no Christ within or is there two Christs one within and another without or is there but one Christ both without and within chuse him whether But I would tell our Adversary that a Christ was revealed in Paul and forming in the Hearts of the Galatians and was in the holy Antients the Hope of Glory and so he is in his People in this day blessed be the Name of the Lord. Yea 't was the Apostolical Exhortation Examine your selves whether ye be in the Faith prove your own selves know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates So that such as deny Christ within are out of the Apostolical Faith and Reprobates It was both Christ's Promise and Prayer for sayes he to his Disciples Let not your Hearts be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you I will come again Yet a little while and the World seeth me no more but ye see me Because I live ye shall live also At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you That Christ prayed for this Fellowship is as clear Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the World may believe that thou hast sent me and the Glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I IN THEM and they in me that they may be made perfect in one And that the World may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me O Righteous Father the World hath not known thee but I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me and I have declared unto them thy Name and will declare it that the Love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I IN THEM This is the Blessedness of the Righteous even in this World the true Disciples of Jesus that forsake all for his Name that take up his Cross daily to their vain Affections and Lusts and boldly confess him before all men by a Life of true Self denyal O that all people would receive him into their hearts that is into their Love Affection Behold he stands at the Door and knocks shut not thy Door upon him let him in entertain him in thy Soul that he may wash thee cleanse thee by his own spirit by his own water by his own blood that bear witness for him on Earth and these three are but one then shall the Love of God abound in thy Soul towards God and towards thy Neighbour this is Christianity indeed and the truth is 't is want of Christ being known more within people to purge their Hearts and purifie their Consciences that so much Vanity Ungodlines are to be found among Christians People can let the Devil be within them but they will not allow Christ to be within them But I would ask them and you How the strong Man of Sin must be bound that keeps the House the Heart and his Works destroyed if Christ the stronger then he have not entrance and sway in the Conscience for this know that from within proceed Evil Thoughts Murders Adulteries Fornication Thefts False Witness Blasphemies these and such like are the things which defile the Man Now who shall purge this Heart and with what Must not Christ do it he that baptizes with Fire and with the holy Ghost whose Fan is in his Hand and who will thorowly purge his Floor This was John's record that was sent of God for that End Now let those that call themselves Christians consider seriously and in the Fear of God if their Floors their Hearts be purged if the Dirt and Chaff be swept away if Christ's Baptism of Fire has burnt up their Vain Thoughts Lusts and Affections or not for by Fire will God plead with all flesh And let such consider if they have been yet baptiz'd with the holy Ghost that makes people alive to God and whether they live to God and meditate in his pure Law or rather if they be not carnally-minded which is Death let them see if Pride don't
falsified the Book for there is that quoted which is not there The words are these as given by our Adversary in the Name of G. F. and R. H. We do deny the Scriptures to be the word of God and also to be a Standing Rule and that it is dangerous for ignorant People to read them see Fox and Hubberthorn in Truth 's Defence pag. 101. I answer All these words We do deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God and also to be a standing Rule are not to be found there they are added which is a great piece of injustice for the last part which lies as if we would deny that ignorant people should read the Scriptures hear the words themselves Query The Priest asks Whether the Scripture being carnal and the Letter killing as you Quakers say we may read them without Danger To this G. Fox and R. Hubberthorn answer The Letter which killeth is dangerous for thou takest it her to war with against the Saints with thy carnal Mind and Expositions Again thus Here you read with DaÌ„nger who speak of them and speak a Lye and its dangerous to read that and make a Trade of that which the Prophets Christ and the Apostles spoke forth freely and you wrest the Scriptures to your Destruction and to you 't is dangerous to read c. Now let all people of Cander yea common Sense judge if this sort of reading and using the Scripture be not dangerous thus the Pharisees and Iews used the Scripture against Christ But does this give ground to our Adversary to say We hold it dangerous for ignorant people to read the Scripture because we say that a Covetous Persecuting or Malicious End or Use of Scripture is dangerous O the perversion that is made of the words and sense of this passage the Lord forgive him or them that deal thus with us Hear what the same page says But I say Blessed is he that doth read and doth understand This I have else where observed more at large To the fourth Passage viz. That J. N. in answer to the Iews says It is the Devil that contends for the Scriptures to be the Word of God I can say the less because I have not the Book out of which it is pretended to be quoted But certain it is that the Devil that loves not the very Form of Godliness but to exalt it against the Power and shelter himself for a Saint has more then once on the same score pleaded for the scripture against Christ and the letter against the spirit not that he loveth the Scripture or that the Scripture opposeth either Christ or the Spirit but that he hath subtilly used the very Scripture as little as he loves it both to tempt and oppose even Christ himself This is plain in his tempting Christ in Scripture-Language and in the Persecutions of the Iews both against Christ and his Disciples for which they urged Scripture they relyed upon them for Life eternal and not upon Christ him they set at nought then as much as the false Christians sleight his Light now And it was Christ's Complaint then In them you think said he to have eternal Life but you will not come unto me that you may have Life Thus the outward Iew set up the scripture against Christ in the flesh and thus the outward Christian sets up the scripture against Christ in the spirit or in his spiritual appearance in the soul insomuch that a man runs the hazard of being proclamed a Blasphemer that speaks but of Christ within yet it is express Scripture and of being stigmatized for an Heretick that calls Christ only that Word of God to whom only that Name is given in the Evangelical Writings though at the same time a man confess the holy Scriptures to be given forth by Divine Inspiration and that they are the Words of God That the Word is his Name John will be our Warrant in the beginning of his History and that his Name is called the Word of God Iohn also affirms in his Revelation I will end with this that Luke the Evangelist in his Dedication of his History to his excellent Theophilus now part of the sacred Scripture calls it A Declaration of those things that were most surely believed among them and not the Word of God We take him for our Pattern when he is confuted it will be time enough for us to confess our Mistake To the fifth Quotation viz. that G. Fox says The Soul is part of God of his Being without Beginning and Infinite Gr. Mystery p. 68 9â— 29. I answer briefly That G. F. speaks of the Divine Soul or Life of Man that comes from God by which Man liveth to God so Augustine calls it anima animae the Soul of the Soul or Life of man's Soul so Rabbi Nunchmanni and Hiskuni in the Comment of Paulus Fagius take it saying it s of the Being of God his own Breath This is without Beginning respecting God and Infinite or without End respecting Man Where is the Heresie of this To the sixth Quotation out of the Works of G F. junior viz. We own the Scriptures as a true Declaration of the Saints Conditions I answer The Allegation is frivolous on the side of our Adversary for he doth not deny what G. F. asserts nor does G. F. deny but that there are many Scriptures which are Promissary Threatning and Prophetick does our owning the Scriptures to be an account of the Experiences of the Saints of God of old time exclude any farther Character or say that they are no more What! have people lost their senses or must any thing serve to blemish Quakers What Injustice is here For shame do as you would be done by To the seventh Passage alledged out of Geo. Whitehead's Apology pag. 49. viz. That what is spoken from the Spirit of Truth in any is of as great Authority as the Scriptures yea and greater I answer in G. W's own words which are these That which was spoken from the Spirit of Truth in any is of as great Authority as the Scriptures or Chapters are and greater as proceeding immediately from that Spirit as Christ's words were of greater Authority when he spoke then the Pharisees reading the Letter and they and their speaking we deny thiâ— â—ays he was my Answer Now I appeal to the just Witness of God in every Conscience if this Adversary was not very disingenuous to take no notice of this Distinction for in short two things are in our Friend's words first That what comes from the same Spirit of Truth is of the same Authority and who denies that no body that is in his senses Next That what is spoken by the immediate Motion Life and Power of the Spirit is of more Authority that is Force and Efficacy to move quicken enliven or operate upon the Hearers then the bare reading of a Chapter in the Scripture especially by such as the Pharisees were as a Letter cannot