Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	dead_a	life_n	live_v	7,322	5	6.0283	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40738	The worlds honour detected, and, for the unprofitableness thereof, rejected, and the honour which comes from God alone, asserted, and reduced to practice, or, Some reasons why the people of God called Quakers, do deny the accustomary honour and salutations of the world ... by a friend to truth, who is no respector or regarder of persons, called a Quaker, B.F.	Furly, Benjamin, 1636-1714.	1663 (1663)	Wing F2541; ESTC R8091	54,243	70

The Worlds Honour DETECTED And for the unprofitableness thereof REJECTED And the HONOUR which comes from GOD alone ASSERTED and reduced to practice OR Some REASONS why the People of God called Quakers do deny the accustomary Honour and Salutations of the World consisting in putting off the Hat Bowing Titling bidding Good-morrow Good-night c. upheld by them in a Respect of Persons contrary to the Royal Law of Liberty Iam. 2. Their several Pleas for the same impleaded and divers Objections answered By a Friend to Truth who is no respecter or regarder of persons called a Quaker B. F. Rom. 13.7 Give honour to whom honour is due Yea Honour all men 1 Pet. 2.17 Yet Honour is not seemly for a fool Prov. 26.1 How can ye believe that receive honour one of another and seek not the Honour which cometh FROM GOD ALONE Joh. 5.44 salute him not or say not to him God speed for he that saluteth him or saith so to him is partaker of his evil deeds 2. Joh. 11. London Printed for Robert Wilson 1663. To the READER FRIEND IN this Paper thou hast a faithful account why we do not use but testifie against the Customs of the World in their Salutations which yet we impose upon no mans understanding but singly bear the Testimony of the Lord as we have received it from him leaving the thing to be witnessed by the Light and Spirit of God alone in every man's Conscience to which every one must stand or fall and in which a man ought narrowly to weigh all his deeds and as he shall finde peace or reproof from the Lord after due inquest so let him do not out of fear to shun the Cross in any thing nor for affection or out of imitation to any without the sence and feeling of the Iudgment of the Lord and his leadings in both which there is danger and an absolute mistake of the way of Truth in which the Servants of the Lord are led and such are as far from the true Unity with the People of God as they that are conformable to the Worlds Customs in blindness of which I thought good to warn all men every where that they might come to the true ground or ground of Truth in themselves there to find and feel the Iudgements of the Lord against all evil by the Light made manifest in themselves and to receive of the Power of the Lord which leads out of the evil seen which Power is received in the giving up to and answering of the Convictions of the Light And that the whole World may know that our Unity stands not in an external conformity of the Hat Cap or any other outward thing or action but in that Light Life Power Spirit which the World knoweth not neither can receive in and by which we are all united unto one Spirit Soul Mind and Body of which Christ is the head even by the living virtue which proceedeth and descendeth from him to the enlivening of each member according to the measure which it is capable of where it is so that our Unity is not without but within nor with any outward practice though never so apparent to have been the practice of the Saints and holy men of old whether Patriarchs Prophets or Apostles and Disciples in the times of greatest purity further than it is now in this day and in that person that doth it found felt and known to proceed from that One only Antient and eternal Spirit and Life in which alone God hath alwayes been worshipped and honoured and not at all out of it at any time for he that is not in the Spirit is in the flesh and he that is in the flesh cannot please God and he that is not in the Life is in death and the dead cannot praise our God who is a living God and liveth for evermore He that reads let him try himself B. F. The Worlds Honour detected and for the unprofitableness thereof rejected and the Honour that comes from God alone asserted and reduced to practice c. THat there is an Honour from men to each other which also is to be shewed upon all occasions to all men in common yea and a special Honour from Inferior to Superior Relations according to the flesh as from Children to their Parents from Servants to their own Masters from Wives to their own Husbands from Subjects to their own Emperors Kings Princes Magistrates or Rulers and from the People of God to those whom the Lord hath placed as Watchmen over them yea and a double Honour to all those that rule well and are found doing the Work of the Lord faithfully is of it self so clear that it needs no proof being so clearly asserted in the holy Scriptures and denyed by no People that I have ever met with or heard of which sheweth it to be amongst the number of those things placed by God immediately from himself in his creature Man which of all demonstrations is the most firm and valid that any man can have because he hath a firm testimony thereof immediately in himself which being free from all possibility of being corrupted unless by himself and with his own consent I call the most firm and stable assurance that man can have far exceeding any writing or written testimony which being never so pure true and infallibly so in it self at its first giving forth may in process of time through malice of men or the weakness and negligence of Transcribers be falsifyed vitiated and corrupted or defective before it reacheth my hands and so consequently without my consent or guilt but so cannot this immediate inward living Testimony of the Spirit or Light of God in man be but here every man must have a hand in corrupting it for himself and turning this Grace of God which hath appeared to all men bringing Salvation into wantonness whereby they justly bring condemnation and darkness upon themselves Now what this true Honour is this is the Question among many and how it is given or shewn to men in general and how to each particular Relation This true Honour then it self I affirm and I hope with the consent of all intelligent men to be LOVE or a Principle of Love Universal Love placed by God near man in his heart and mouth and it is shewn or given to any man in particular and so in general by extending it self forth in the Actions of Love towards him as his condition and necessity requireth This with me is the only true foundation of all true and lasting Honour which cometh from God undeniably as that without which all honour so called is no honour but only in shew and not in deed for how can I honour him whom I love not or indeed love a man and not honour Him its impossible These two then are inseparable yea they are convertibles they are one this Love is Honour and this Honour is Love where the one is wanting the other cannot truly be where and

the guide of every true Christian as it is written As many as are led by the Spirit are the Sons of God and no more and what we find not the Spirit of God leading us unto we can have no faith in and whatsoever is not of Faith the Scripture saith is six therefore we leave them 2. We have moreover found the Spirit of God limiting us in them and leading us out of them in which practices we also lived yet not without the Judgement of the Lord oft-times in our selves for them though we knew it not while we walked in the vanity of our minds after the Traditions of the world darkened thereby in our understandings and greatly strangers from the Life of God unto which life being now turned and come to receive the enlightnings thereof day by day in our Hearts we have chosen it for our Leader and it leadeth us out of all dead works of which sort these are therefore we forsake them and as it is required at our hands testifie against them 3. In this Light springing from the Life of God or the Word of God 1 Iohn shining in our Hearts we see the whole Mass of it to be a weak unprofitable thing not able to answer the end for which it is said to be practised viz. to shew Honour Respect and Love and so ought to cease especially when a better and more serviceable means is discovered which we being found in are altogether careless to answer the Will of any man or Custom of any Nation therein but do lay it a side and trample it under our feet as a thing of nought 4. We find it tending meerly and solely to strengthen feed and please the Spirit of Ambition in men and women by which they are led to destruction wherefore we cannot practise those things lest we should be found guilty thereof which so far as in us lies we desire and seek to prevent even of our enemies themselves 5. We find it the very same kind of Honour and Salutation which Christ so sharply reproved in the Scribes and Pharisees and strictly forbad to his Disciples and hath severely judged and broken down in us and therefore if we should be found in them we should return to build that which God hath thrown and is throwing with an everlasting destruction and so we should become more lovers and pleasers of men than of God 6. We find it even the whole Corps of it to be an Invention of man degenerate man springing from a corrupt vain mind in a false and groundless conceit to corrupt ends and is waxed more and more corrupt in the use thereof every day than other for which causes we can have no unity with them nor touch but avoid them as defiled and polluted which the Lord loatheth as much as ever he did any of his own Institutions when they became corrupted and defiled by the Sons of men as the Scriptures plainly declare but this custom of doffing the Hat especially as an Honour and Worship never had its rise from God but from men of corrupt minds as will very readily appear if we do but consider that no People or Nation but those called Christians since the Apostacy do practise it for neither the Iews who had their outward Law both in relation to the Worship of God respect to Magistrats never were commanded any such thing neither ever practised any such thing among themselves when they entred into their Synagogues nor yet do there nor before their Magistrates nor to one another but in these Countries where they follow the Custom of the Country Neither do the Turks observe it as an honour but look upon it as a shame or reproach or an odious thing Nor do we read that the Apostles or Primitive Chrstians ever practised any such thing to Magistrates or to each other Yea admit further which cannot be proved that the Apostles themselves had practised it among themselves to each other yea to all they met good and bad as now it s practised that cannot bind us now nor limit the Lord to it more than to other of his Institutions for several Reasons before mentioned But as for us we believe the Hat to be an Earthly thing not the Honour which is from Above but from Below made for covering the nakedness as well as the other cloaths and with which God nor man neither is nor can be truly worshipped more than by putting off the Shooe Glove Coat or any other Garment neither do we believe that its any part of the Worship of God nor renders the Worship any thing the more well-pleasing or acceptable to the Lord but is far below the Worship of God yea or Dignity of a man that is a man indeed and therefore all that are contending for the honour and worship of the Hat are contending for the honour which is below which the Saints and People of God never did and therefore this honour will into the dust If any now urge upon us the example or practice of any of the Holy men of God mentioned in Scripture for bowing because they bowed both to Angels and Men we say that bindeth us not now to do the same things we must take heed to another rule and guide in this day than their Actions As for example it s said of Abraham He bowed himself to the Earth before the three Men or Angels and also before the People of the Land Concerning Iacob it is said He bowed seven times to the Earth till he came past his Brother Esau and concerning David That he fell upon his face to the ground and bowed himself three times c. Object Now say people Will ye condemn these Holy Men of God or will ye be more holy than they Answ. Far be it from us to condemn those Worthies of the Lord the Lord hath justified them and who shall condemn them but to desire to be even more holier than they if it can be we hope will offend no true Christian nor be used as matter of accusation against us Yet if these or any other at any time did any thing without command or approbation from the Lord or against his Will we are not to take them for our example in such things I judge all will grant well then That they did bow c. is indeed written but that they had any command for it nor praised or approved in it where is that written search and tell us Abraham went to buy a Burial place of that strange people Iacob was afraid its plainly said and called Esau Lord though there was a promise that the Elder should serve the Younger yea he said in his fear that he beheld his face as if he had beheld the Face of God may we therefore speak such words to any wicked man consider it David was also in great Trouble and sore Affliction Now these things considered what might move them so to do or how far they were approved or not by the