Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A35841
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A general epistle to be read in the fear of God in and amongst the assemblies of his people by William Dewsbury.
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Dewsbury, William, 1621-1688.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing D1270; ESTC R1346
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4,247
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12
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A GENERAL EPISTLE TO BE READ IN THE Fear of God In and amongst the ASSEMBLIES OF HIS PEOPLE By William Dewsbury LONDON Printed for Benjamin Clark in George-Yard in Lombard-street Bookseller 1682. A GENERAL EPISTLE TO BE READ IN THE Fear of God In and Amongst the ASSEMLIES OF HIS PEOPLE My Dear Friends IN the Light of the Lord all Watch and Pray that you may receive Power through Faith in the Name of Christ to Reign over your own Thoughts and Wills then will you Delight in taking up the Daily Cross to the Mortifying of the Earthly Members That your Conversations may be as becometh the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ which will make you Manifest to the Witness of God in every Conscience that you are the Salt of the Earth that have kept your State and Habitation in God and doth retain the Sweet Savoury Spirit of Life which Seasons all your Words and Works and Ministers Grace to all with whom you have any concern to the Exalting Gods Blessed Truth over all that Watch for Evil which will cause their Eyes to fail and frustrate their Expectations for ever Amen And Dear Friends I Beseech you be Faithful upon all Accounts for the Service of the Blessed Truth of God to meet together in his Holy Fear that you may receive the Holy Inspiration of his Spirit to Exercise you in what Service God is pleased to call you unto whether in Prayer to God or in Exhortation to Build up one another in your most Holy Faith to raise up the the Life in all that every one that 's Overcome with the Powerful and Heavenly Motions cast their Mite into Gods Treasury and give him his own Advantage so will you feel the Encrease of his Government in you that are Faithful in the true Measure of Light and Life more and more he will give unto you to the Edifying of one another in love So will you become Epistles written in one anothers hearts with the Pure Spirit of the Living God which will bind you up in the Vnity of the Spirit and Bond of Peace and what Exercise soever is met withal whilst you are in the Mortal Body Pray to the Lord to keep you in the Life of his own Spirit that Patience may have its Perfect work that if you be Smitten on the one Cheek turn the other Cheek to the Smiter also and if you be Reviled Revile not again but in deep Humility and Patience Wait in the Pure Meek and Peaceable Spirit of our Lord Jesus who was made perfect through Sufferings So are his Dear and Chosen Iewels who bear his Name in Righteousness and have their Eye to the God of their Help and their Confidence in the Lord alone Oh ye Blessed of the Lord BE Glad in his Name who will not let any of you Suffer whose Confidence is in him alone any more than he will give Strength to Bear and will Sweeten the Cup of your Tribulation with his Blessed Presence which will cause your Hearts to Rejoyce and Sing in all your Tryals and will give you your Portion for ever with the Blessed Assembly that Iohn Spoke of in the seventh of the Revevelations A number that no man could number that had passed through the Great Tribulation and washed their Garments and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb Therefore are they before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Holy Temple and he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them and Feed them and lead them to the Living Fountains of waters where God will wipe away all Tears of Sorrow from their Eyes for ever And this is your Portion you Dear Children of the Living God who in true Love to him have waited upon him in the Light of Christ To be Buried with him in his Spiritual Baptism and made conformable to him in his Sufferings and Death Notwithstanding your Strict walking in Observations which must be done according to what the Lord manifests to you or else you perish Eternally without True Repentance And in the Deep sense of your Present Strait being made Conformable in Measure to our Lord and Saviour you Cry as he did upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me when he bare the Sins and Transgressions of his People Even so do you his Dear Children in your Measure passing through the Great Tribulations being made of the Number of the Slain of the Lord. Here is first a passing Through the Great Tribulation and to be made of the Number of the Slain of the Lord and being truly Humbled into his Blessed Will in the Deed Sense of the Poverty of Spirit there Wait upon the Lord until he Create you to a lively Hope and give you a Possession of his Blessed Life that is Hid with Christ in God and so marry you to himself in his own Righteousness which he gives you for to be your Wedding Garment And now this Love of God constrains you to walk in all Strict Observations that are Required of you to be done but no more to Lean upon them for Life but have now all your Obediences accepted of God through Faith in the Light Life and Name of Christ in whom you now are the Righteousness of God for ever in Giving up Freely to be Guided by his Spirit in Faithfulness to the end Oh you ever Blessed and Happy People Who doth Witness Fulfilled in you what is here Written Lift up your Heads and Rejoyce in the Lord and in the Almighty Power of his Humble Meek and Pure Spirit which makes Self of no Reputation but through your Obedience to Christ Jesus the True Light in whom you come to Witness the Lord to be One and his Name One and you that never had Power to Believe in his Name until he gave you Power to Believe you are One in the Lord for ever And here is the Ioyful and Eternal Vnity with the Father in the Son and one with another in the Love of Christ which bought us with his Blood which the Gates of Hell can never Prevail against And all you my Ancient Brethren and Sisters that have Obtained this Blessed Dominion and Everlasting Inheritance I Bless God for you whom I do Believe will take Care to Answer the Desire of my Soul as before-written For the Comfort of the Young and Tender Babes for whose Sake I had this Concern upon my Spirit to lay before them the True Passage into the Footsteps where the Tribulated Companions have Travelled that are Married to the Lord of Life and have upon them their Wedding Garment that they may not come Short that are upon their Travel towards the same Inheritance in Christ the True Light as before exprest And I Dearly beseech you whom God hath Sealed up with his Holy Spirit to your full Assurance of Gods Everlasting Love in Christ Iesus that you Watch over the Tender and Tribulated ones and in what possible can
be done to Strengthen their Faith that they may come into the Heavenly Vnity with the Father in the Son and Sit down with all them that have been made Conformable to Christ in his Suffering and Death that in the Heavenly Resurrection Blessed and Everlasting Peace they may Sing Halelujah and High Praises to the Lord their God over all the wrath that 's in the Children of men which will come to an end and vanish away like Smoak before you whom the Lord hath called in meekness and Patience to bear his Name in Righteousness in the Sweet Savoury Spirit of Iesus Christ over all Blessed for ever Amen In which the Lord keep you all with my Soul Faithful unto the end is the Breathings of the Spirit of your Brother and Companion in the Kingdom of Patience and Tribulation in the Lord Jesus Christ. William Dewsbury ANd further I have this to communicate to my Friends and Brethren that what hath come to pass these late years for want of Watchfulness to be Guided by the Spirit of the Lord Love hath been quenched in many that Offences hath entred and Separation followed which hath Deeply wounded my Spirit who have endeavoured to the utmost of my Power in the Love of God to prevent such Proceedings and so have I done in many years past in preventing Papers ready to be Printed from being Published that were of a tendency to quench the Love of one towards another And when Ieffery Bullocks Papers were published in Print which would appear to the Reader of a tendancy as to the Breach of Vnity which would cause the Enemies of God to Rejoyce it did so wound my Spirit that for many Weeks they that saw me did not expect that I would continue long in the Body But God in his Mercy Restored Strength in his Appointed time And when I did hear that some in the West did intend to Publish in Print some Friends Weaknesses I Bore my Testimony against such Proceedings and told one that did Favour what was intended That I would have my Hand Cut off before I would Exercise it in such Undertakings as the state of Friends was at that time And desired him To speak to W. R. that he would not proceed in Publishing any thing of that Nature for if he did it would be a prejudice to Truth and would produce very sad Consequences that would follow and my Spirit would be deeply wounded as it is this day through these Proceedings that voluntarily through want of Love casts away the Iudgment that is given to the people of the Saints of the most High God to keep all sweet and savoury amongst us into the Hands of the Enemies of God as an inlet for them to come into the midst of us to sit as Iudges and trample upon us So to Clear my Conscience of all False Reports Cast upon me as that I have Encouraged what is Brought forth as before written and to Satisfie all Friends in God I have Laboured according to the Ability God hath given me to Prevent the Publishing all things of that Nature as aforsaid and have Endeavoured with all concerned that I could meet with to have a care of watching for Evil lest they Provoke one another to Wrath and so Quench the Love But rather Look at the Good one in another and in the Love of God Minister to Preserve them forth of any Weakness they did see lay near to attend them that so the Pure Holy Spirit of Light Life and Love that first Gathered us into it self to be a People in God and in his Blessed Authority to reign over what was and is contrary to his Blessed Nature may again Restore where it is wanting in the Vniversality of its Blessed Power to make up the Breaches and to Restore the Desolate ones in causing every one that Professeth the Biessed Truth of God to love their Neighbour as themselves and so to do unto all as they would have others to do unto them that so all concerned in the Exercise in the Measure of the Grace of God in Christ that seeks the Peace of his People may Stand as Saviours upon mount Sion to the Honour of the Name of the Lord our God and the Eternal Comfort of all that Love not their Lives unto Death to serve the Lord and his Dear and Chosen People in the Meek Patient and Peaceable Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. In which the Lord keep you all with my Soul that in his Pure and Peaceable Dominion we all Reign and throw down our Crowns before his Throne and all Vnanimously Sing all Glory Honour Praises Thanksgiving and Dominion be given to him who is found worthy to sit upon his Throne in all our Consciences Christ Jesus the True Light and hope of our Glory even so be it withall that Professeth his Blessed Truth Saith my Soul in the Name of the Lord. From Warwick the 8th day of the 3d. Month 1682. W. D.