Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	body_n	church_n	head_n	7,573	5	6.7361	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57809	The Quakers refuge fixed upon the rock of ages, though the swelling waters dash never so violently to overturn it wherein is prov'd, that the narrative of Ralph James is an absolute lying-wonder, according to his own definition : and also, the great controversie between the people of God called Quakers, and others, about the holy spirit of God and the Scriptures, truly stated, and very briefly discoursed, as it is owned by the Quakers, and the truth cleared from the false suggestions and deceitful insinuatins of the anabaptists about the said controversie : in answer to a subtil pamphlet, lately published, intituled, The Quakers subterfuge or evasion overturned : also a few queries propounded unto Ralph James, and the author of the subterfuge &c. / by Robert Ruckhill ; to which is added another postscript in answer to some queries propounded in the said pamphlet, wherein many untruths are suggested ; but herein the truth is cleared, and the evasion and deceit of the Baptists made more fully manifest by John Whitehead.	Ruckhill, Robert.; Whitehead, John, 1630-1696.	1673 (1673)	Wing R2169; ESTC R21457	28,153	51

believe That I own no Body of Christ but the Church and what ever I say to the contrary he would have to be obscured or else he might have had the honesty to have printed this Answer to his Second and Third Queries with the Queries thmselves for it hath been in the Hands of him or his brethren above seven Years Wherefore I shall now appeal to God and spiritually minded men to judge Whether I who did do confess Christ's Glorious heavenly Body or he who cannot discern it but hold forth a Circumscript human Body of Flesh and Bones out of every believer whilst on Earth we are Worthy to be rendered as denyers of the Body of Christ and unfit to preach the Resurrection Ascension and Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ 4. Query Whether by the Words people of God thou meanest the Church of Christ in visible profession of the Gospel according to the patern of the Churches in the Apostles Dayes Answ by the words People of God I mean such as are in the new Covenant of Light in whose Heart God hath written his Laws and in whose inward Parts he hath put his Fear who know and believe Christ in them and do hear his Voice and follow him as their Head and Leader as did the true Churches in the Apostles Dayes but I do not believe every gathering of people that are got into an outward or visible Profession of the Scriptures and in Imitation have gotten into some outward things which the true Church in the Apostles Dayes practised are the People of God because I am sensible such as are Aliens in their minds from the Life of God which the Apostles and primitive Christians were in may get their Words and imitate them in Outward Forms and Practises whilst they deny the Power of Godliness which they lived in 5th Query Whether the People called Quakers are gathered constituted and governed in Church-Capacity according to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles Answ Yea for we are gathered in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ who is present with us as he promised to be alwayes to the end of the World and we are governed by him who is given to be the Head over all Things to the Church of which we are Members and have Elders ordained in every Country who take the Over-sight of the Flock of God not by Constraint but willngly and in the Power of the Lord Jesus receives True Believers and rejects Hereticks who have refused Admonition according to the Apostle's Doctrine who was an able Minister not of the Letter but of the Spirit And notwithstanding Christ's bidding the other Apostles before his Ascension Go Teach and Baptize all Nations said He was not sent to Baptize but to Preach the Gospel and how ye who are so much for Water-Baptism come to take your selves concerned to Baptize with Water by Virtue of that Commission given before Christ's Ascension ye may do well to manifest since the Apostle Paul did not so take himself concerned in it but according to that Commission which he received from the Lord who appeared unto him delivering him from the People and the Gentiles he laboured to open the blind Eyes and to turn them from Darkness to Light and from Satan's power to God Acts 16 17 18. as we do according to the Call and Precepts given us of the Lord who is also manifest in us by whom we are taught not to run because others were sent nor to act without Power from on High but to go as we are led and commanded by the Lord and act in the Motion of his Power whereby we have been made a Sweet Savour to God in them that believe and in them that perish though in one the Savour of Life unto Life and in the other the Savour of Death unto Death and God hath so blessed our Labour that many Thousands are brought to the Knowledge of the Son of God and to Unity in the Faith which gives Victory over the World wherein they are growing to a perfect Man and to the Measure Fulness and Stature of Christ Though we thank God we have Baptized none of them in Water but have instructed them to the blessed Appearing of the Lord. Jesus Christ who Baptized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire having his Fan in his Hand throughly to purge the Floor and those which have waited for the Appearing of the Lord and received him to be their Leader Way and Baptizer are baptized with one Spirit into that one Body which is his Church of which they are Living Members fitly joyned together by Christ who is their Head who gives them Life and sills them with the Virtue of his Love wherein they Edisie one another So Christ is the Door into the Sheep-sold whereat all that are accepted by him do enter And this way of gathering constituting and governing the Church is according to the Doctrine of Christ his Evangelists and Apostles as appeareth at large in their Writings And although thou in thy 6th Query sayst doubtless it is not because we are not gathered according to thy Apprehension of some particular Verses quoted by thee I must tell thee thou therein takest that granted which we never gave thee and therefore we need shew no Authority for the Abrogating that Order of Gathering Constituting and Governing the Church of Christ which was in the Apostles dayes since our Practice doth more establish it in the Substantial Part then yours who have visible Doors whereat to enter as your Water-Baptism instead of Christ's Baptism and other Ways whereat to climb up like Thieves and Robbers Joh. 1. which steal the Saints words and imitate their Practices as in all Ages False Prophets have imitated the True and False Worshippers have imitated the True Worshippers as ye do thinking because Christ said before his Ascension Go teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit therefore Thomas Grantham and Ralph James must go Teach and Baptize in Water though they have neither seen the Lord Jesus Christ nor heard him speak Nor will they believe in the holy Spirit as the principal Guide but have the Boldness to try its Doctrine or Teaching in these dayes by their own understanding of the Scriptures which ever leads men to speak Evil of and condemn those things which they cannot understand to be according to Scriptures though they be never so consonant to the Mind of the Spirit which they received which gave forth the Scriptures And therefore laying aside all vain Jangling we would perswade you and all men to learn of Christ Jesus the Second Man that is a Quickening Spirit by whom ye are reproved when ye do Evil that ye may know his Mind in your selves and do it and then ye may better understand it as declared by others Although thy Seventh Anti-Query is in part answered by what is before written yet I shall now manifest That Richard Anderson neither was conversant

that he would for advantage rather wilfully mistake our Principles then have a right Understanding of them And he hath further shewed his Dishonesty and Malice in that he would misinform others and prejudice them against the Truth it self by wresting my Words out of the Sence wherein they were spoken Wherefore that you may rightly understand this case I declare that the Words which were spoken by me were spoken in an Exclusive Sence and that upon the Occasion of T. G's Magnifying the Body of Christ equal with or above him for whom the Body was prepared whereupon I still say that the Christ or Son of God is not made up of that which is or was mortal and that nothing which was mortal was properly or strictly called Christ he neither understood my Words right nor would admit me to explain them till he had rashly condemned them as Heresie Which notwithstanding I still look upon the Words to be very true Words in that Sence that they were spoken in for I say still that the Body of Christ which was mortal excluding the Soul and Spirit was not nor could properly be called Christ or Man annointed because that the Immortal Soul and Spirit of man are the more Noble part of Man and therefore may Justly challenge the Prerogative to denominate for without Soul and Spirit a mortal Body neither is nor can truely be term'd Man no more can the mortal Body of Christ without the Soul Spirit and Life of Christ which is Immortal be term'd Christ which if you do but understand and mark well that although I said nothing which was mortal was called Christ but that Christ had once a mortal Body which dyed upon the Cross then may ye more easily judge whether it be possible forem or any other which Thomas Grantham hath a Mind to slander to escape the Scourge of his Tongue since he is so blindly rash upon no better Grounds to charge me both with grevious Heresie and denying the Body of Christ and that for no other Reason but because I distinguish betwixt Christ and the Body of Christ which was prepared for him to do his Fathers Will in Heb. 10. And the Eternal Word or Son of God which was glorified with the Father before the World began John 17. Who took upon him the Form of a Servant and in that prepared Body did his Fathers Will is more noble both in Glory and Dignity then either the Soul Spirit or Body of Man in as much as by and for him Man was made and by him only Redeemed and Restored Therefore may and ought he who was and is that true Light that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World Joh. 1.9 to be held forth and preached as the only Lord and Saviour of Man-kind and the Manhood which through Mercy to us was taken into Union with this Eternal Power and God-head should not be divided from nor cryed up in Opposition to the Eternal Word or Son of God as they who only know Christ after the Flesh are too subject to do And of them is he who in his 3d Query renders me unfit to preach the Resurrection Ascension and second Coming of Christ because I could not own that he hath such a Body as he had imagined but did testifie of and have shewed unto People that Eternal Life which was with the Father as the Apostles did 1 John 1.1 2. by and in which Life Mortality was swallowed up after Christ had finished what the Father gave him to do on Earth Then he who came down from Heaven to bring Man to God ascended into Heaven to his Father and our Father at whose right Hand having accomplisht his Work he sitteth down and is glorified with that Glory which he had with the Father before the World began in a Body sutable to his Spirit consisting of heavenly Flesh and Bone of which Body neither T.G. the Author of these Queries nor Natural Philosophers in their Wisdom do comprehend the Dimensions and therefore would limit him in some thing who ascended that he might fill all things Eph. 4.10 and is not contained in any Created Being so as to be absent from other created Beings Ep. 2.20 21 22 23. and much less is he absent from his faithful Disciples and Followers who whilst on Earth were and are made to sit together in Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus Eph. 2.5 6. And that Christ hath such a Coelestial Body as I have here described I never denyed neither at Spilsby Sleeford nor else-where as Thomas Grantham with whom I have publickly Disputed in those Places slanderously reports I did but I am perswaded that he cannot bring one of these several Hundreds of People that heard us which is not byassed to his Judgment or influenced by him that will say I denyed Christ to have now any Body besides his Church though I have several times denyed T. G's Assertion wherein he hath affirmed That Christ hath now a Body of Flesh and Bones circumscript or limited in that Heaven which is above and out of every Man on Earth And perceiving that he stood conceited in his Fleshly Apprehension and Knowledge wherein he had conceived the Lord of Glory to be like unto Corruptible Man I asked him Since be denyed Christ to be in and with Believers whilst upon Earth where that Body was he spoke on and how big or what a one it was To which he answered in his haste That it was such a one as his consisting of Flesh and Bones and in yonder Heaven which is above pointing towards the Clouds to which I replyed Nay thy Flesh is sinful and corruptible and Rotteness shall enter into thy Bones neither can thy Body come in the doors being shut nor appear in another Form as Christ did whereupon he mended his Words and did except Sin and Corruption but still stood in that which discerns not the Lords Body but would limit it to a particular Place and out of every Man on Earth shewing his Ignorance both of the Kingdom of God which is within and of Christ within who is not a Spirit without a Body as Believers do experience who were and are true Members of his Heavenly Body of his Flesh and of his Bones Ep. 5.30 and these do eat Christs Flesh and drink his Blood and dwell in Christ and Christ in them John 6. and the Spirit and Body of Christ is not divided but wheresoever the Spirit and Life of Christ is it is in the Body of Christ and they which believe have Eternal Life abiding in them whereby they are quickned and joyned to the Heavenly Body of Christ and also supplied with Nourishment in him who is the Head of the Body the Fulness of him that filleth all in all But notwithstanding I have freely declared that which was and is my faith concerning the Body of Christ I perceive that T. G. hath very uncharitably resolved because he cannot discern the Lord s Body of which we speak to

with us nor received our Doctrine nor acted by that Spirit which guides us as in that Query thou affirmest for if he had been conversant with us some of us at least should have known him but that we never did witness this Certificate from a Quarterly Meeting at Lincoln who certainly know all that are or have been of us From a General Meeting of the People of God call'd Quakers in the County of Lincoln the 26th Day of the 4th Moneth 1672. WHereas a Report is gone out of this County from Ralph James and other Persons which have alwayes had a Prejudice against the Truth and People of God call'd Quakers by which Report the Nation is Abused and those which are over-credulous made to believe a Lye viz. That Richard Anderson of Panton was a Quaker These are therefore to certifie that the said Richard Anderson did never frequent any of our Meetings nor did he ever joyn with us in Worship nor was he ever owned by us nor any of us so that they have not any just Ground to call him a Quaker And this Testimony we give forth to preserve the Simple-hearted from being prejudiced against Truth and from believing a Lye Given forth at a Quarterly Meeting held at Lincoln where some Friends from each Meeting in the County were present William Garland Abraham Morice William Everatt Joseph Richardson Augustin Smith John Winklep Samuel Hobman John Richardson Tho. Summers Rich. Baxter John Walcot Tho. Sowter John Mills Joseph Pope Thomas Wresle William Ashby William Hargate James Browne William Bowman Robert Browne Tho. Everatt Rich. Parnell Joseph Wilson And if Richard Anderson had received our Doctrine he had been Still and Quiet in the Light of God till his Heart had been cleansed from Ignorance Pride and Wickedness and that would have preserved him from that Shame and Dishonour which his own Folly and Madness and your Subtilty hath brought him to And if he had been led by the same Spirit that leads us it would not have let him use his Tongue to say The Lord saith when the Lord had not spoken to him but his own Imaginations in a groundless Imitation of the Scriptures which Imaginations he followed and therefore both the Spirit and Scriptures and we who are led thereby are clear from all the Evil he hath done and it lies at his and your Doors amongst whom he both before then and after walked for he had not any Demonstrable Character of being a Quaker as in Reproach they were first called nor may any be justly termed so but those that fear God and tremble at his Word who have believed in the True Light and live in God's Power being exercised in Obedience to his Law written in the Heart and in Self-denyal taking up the daily Cross to their own Wills and Wisdom and in Silence to that waits on God that they may worship in Spirit and walk after the Spirit of God by which they are Baptized into the Body of Christ which is his Church who receives them as living Members having the Savour of that Life which the Spirit has given them And no other way do we take Members into the Church but are constant in this as is visible to those that are conversant with us have the immortal Eye open'd But we shut not our Doors to hinder any from coming into our Congregations to observe our Order and hear our Testimony Yet as the Apostle said concerning a Jew I say concerning a Quaker He is not one that is one Outwardly in Shew only but he is one that is one Inwardly whose Baptism is that of the Spirit and whose Praise is not of Men but of God But that Richard Anderson was neither one Outwardly nor Inwardly is sufficiently made manifest by what hath been already said In a Postscript writ by this Author he seems to own the Light within but hath sufficiently shewed his Ignorance of that True Light which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World as also of its Power and Efficacy putting Darkness instead of Light and then tells of several things that are wholly beyond the Common Principle of Light Understanding or Judgment of Man which Light being of Man is indeed Darkness since the Fall and therefore the things of God belonging to Man's Eternal Peace are all so far beyond it that the Natural Man with his own Light Understanding or Judgment that he hath of himself as a Man perceives them not And therefore we diswade Men from following their own Spirit Understanding or Judgment and perswade them to receive and follow Christ Jesus that True Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World that he may give them an Understanding that is True and a Judgment that is Sound And beyond him that was and is the True Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the World there is nothing for by him was All Things made and whatsoever hath been known of God to Men he hath manifested or revealed it though at sundry Times and in divers Manners And though Men have the Scriptures which declare what was revealed to Men by that true Light and an Understanding or Judgment which is Natural yet thereby there is not any which truely know God or what he requires of them nor ever can they know him till they turn to that true Light which shines in their Hearts and is not of Man but of God who in his own Light or Son that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World manifests and reveals himself and his Will and Mind to Man being wholly sufficient and also present to teach man in this Age what belongs to their eternal Peace as he was in Ages past and also to give unto men positive Laws and Directions how they must Worship and Serve him being no more bound from altering or abolishing outward shaddowy things at first practised by some in the Church since the Coming of Chist then he was from altering Circumcision Sacrifices other Jewish Orders Observances which Moses some of the Prophets had said should continue sorever or throughout their Generations but may lay aside and draw his People from outward Observations or visible Signs and Shaddows of Things when he sees them Idolized or Abused or that the Substance of them is come as he did Circumcision Sacrifices and Pass-over And therefore this Author ought not to limit him to outward Ordinances and Shaddows from Christ's Coming to the End of the World no more then he was limited before Abraham's time or before the Coming of Christ nor ought he to accuse the Quakers as opposing themselves against things requir'd by the positive Laws because they cannot own his Water-Baptism Breaking of Bread in Imitation of the Apostles and primitive Christians no more then the professing Jews ought to have accus'd the Apostle Paul and his Fellow-Labourers in the Gospel for denying the positive Laws who by the Authority and Power of Christ in them cryed down their

also the Authority of the Holy Spirit as he speaketh in them And shew us also how it cometh to pass that Men mistake them notwithstanding And you must also prove That the Scriptures are indeed a Competent Judge of the Holy Spirit as he appeareth in his Servants And you must invalidate all whatsoever is here written and proved to the contrary And if you shall fail to do all this by clear Proofs and evident Demonstrations of Truth for Trifling and Impertinency will not serve your turn nor Lyes shall no longer be your Refuge then will your Vizards be taken off your Faces and your Refuge of Lyes will be swept away and in the sight of the Quakers whom you Despise and of the whole Nation you will appear to your great Shame and Contempt to be what indeed you are For they that dwell at Jerusalem and their Rulers because they knew him not nor yet the Voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath Day they have fulfilled them in condemning of him Acts 13.27 A few Queries to Ralph James and the Author of the Subterfuge Overturned c. by them to be Answered in Truth and Plainness I. WHether is our Lord Jesus Christ whom the Scriptures testifie to be the Light and Salvation of God to the Ends of the Earth the only true Way of Life on high to avoid from Hell beneath yea or nay If yea then whether to affirm Water-Baptism to be the Way of Life on high to avoid from Hell beneath be not abominable Idolatry at least if not Blasphemy II. Supposing Water-Baptism were the Appointment of God as other things of like signification in former Dispensations have been yet if the Ministers thereof should Idolatrously intrude it into the Place and Office of Christ our Saviour that is affirm it to be the Way of Life to avoid from Hell beneath whether such Idolatrous intrusion be not as signal a Pollution of the said Ordinance of Water-baptism as the like Abuse of the Ordinances of God Isa 1. did pollute and render them abominable unto the Lord If yea then whether it be not high time for all and every Man concerned therein to arise and depart thence as not being their Rest it being so filthily polluted III. Seeing the Latin Verb baptizo is synonimous with the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to dip or plunge whether T. R. his calling your Water Baptism dipping in Water or your calling it the Way of Life on high to avoid from Hell beneath be the greater Abuse of the Way of the Lord and therein of God himself Answer plainly IV. Seeing it appears by the Scriptures that the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ wrought their Miracles Acts. 3.6 and cured Diseases by the Name of Jesus of Nazareth then Whether the Sons of Sceva their pretending to do the like Miracles by the same Name doth prove them to speak the very Language and Spirit of the Apostles yea or nay If nay as most certainly nay then with what Reason or Conscience canst thou affirm that R. Anderson in exhorting R. James to turn to the Light within spake the very Language and Spirit of the Quakers this Query is to the Author of the Subterfuge c. that he may clear himself from Deceit if he can V. Whether the Testimony which that Pythoness gave unto the Persons and Doctrine of the Apostle Paul and Sylas is not given as fully Acts 16. and at as high a Rate as any Testimony ye can pretend R. Anderson gave to the Persons or Doctrine of the Quakers And whether in such Testimony she appeared as a Proselite of the Christian Faith and as a Prophetess of the Christians yea or nay if nay then shew unto the Quakers and the whole Nation if you can why R. Anderson his testifying for the Persons and Way of the Quakers as ye pretend he did but prove it not should prove him a Quaker or appearing as one of their Prophets he being by your own Confession at that Time possessed with a Spirit of Delusion as she was then with a Spirit of Divination VI. Seeing R. James avers in his Narrative That R. Anderson pronounced him a Leper from the Crown of the Head to the Sole of the Foot and that the same Judgment as he said was fallen upon one of his Children Whether you are not very deceitfull and unworthy Persons thus to abuse the Quakers and the whole Nation with a Counterfeit and ●orged Story of such a horrid Leprosie sith in exchange thereof you are now at last glad to accept of a Simple Sore And if ye think to avoid the Horror of your Guilt and Shame with this Evasion He said so he said so charging the poor Man your own Member with a Lye Then Whither doth not this evidence to the whole Nation your implacable Envy and Malice against an Innocent People that durst with so great Confidence attempt to asperse and slander them only upon the false and single say so of such a Person as even your selves then judged to be a false Prophet and possessed with a Spirit of Delusion And if your inveterate Envy and Malice herein be manifest to the Nation as doubtless it is then let the Nation and the whole World judge whether R. James be not infected with a more dangerous Leprosie then ever Mirjam was and like to continue so without Repentance until his Dying Day VII It being evident to the Nation that R. Anderson was no Quaker his Child not leprous his Wife and Family not so diseased as you pretended nor your Church such Workers of Miracles as you boasted but your whole pretence a meer malicious Juggle and Imposture which yet you pretend to be an Eminent Hand of God! Such a Witness of God little less then a Miracle tending to the Honour of God Exaltation of his Wayes and Appointments Establishments of his People Decision of the great Controversie Strength to the weak Hands and feeble Knees of his poor People c. and then to conclude thus And the Lord was mercifully pleased to hear our poor Prayers for them and to restore them c. with such like seeming devout Words wherewith your Letters and Narrative are repleat All this considered it s queried whether the Quakers and the whole Nation may not without the least Breach of Charity safely conclude that ye Anabaptists and Independents who have been either Actors Contrivers Asserters of or Witnesses to this Mischievous piece of Pageantry are the most notorious Dissemblers with God and the World and the very'st Hypocrites that ever our Lord Jesus Christ pronounced Wo against Quit your selves if you can VIII Whether they that make no Conscience to be Jugglers Lyars Hypocrites proud Boasters and the like or they that discover detect and affirm them to be such are the great Offenders IX Whether they that call and are call'd Rabbi Rabbi do not break that express Command of Christ Mat. 23.8 10. yea or nay If