Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A35842
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A general epistle to Friends, from that ancient servant of Christ William Dewsebury
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Dewsbury, William, 1621-1688.
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1686
(1686)
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Wing D1270A; ESTC R216346
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4,798
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15
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A General EPITSLE TO FRIENDS From that Ancient Servant of Christ William Dewsebury MY Dear Friends and Brethren who are called forth of the World and Pluckt as Brands out of the Fire by the heavenly Power of God and hath Convinced you of his Everlasting Truth in the Light of Jesus Christ My dear Friends as you have received the Truth in some measure Watch and Pray and Believe in the Name of Christ that his Power you may feel in the Heavenly Inspiration of his Blessed Spirit to lay Judgment to the Line and Riteousness to the Plummet that all that is not Obedient to the Light of Christ may be kept down and buried in the Heavenly Baptism under the Sentence of Death as it was and is with all the Children of God who have received the Sentence of Death in our selves that we may have no confidence in our selves but alone trust in the Living God which will keep you all in the sweet seasoned savory Spirit of Life in all your Words Tradings and Dealings amongst the Children of men then will you be manifest and known to all People to be the Salt of the Earth who retains the savour of the Heavenly Life in the Blessed Truth in you that every one according to your measure may be felt upon all occasions continually streaming forth in the savory Spirit of Life to the Comfort of your own Families and the City of God who over all is Blessed forever And my dear Friends I desire all to be watchful that not any come short of what is required of them both Rulers of Families and Parents of Children while you have a day to be with them call your Families together to wait upon the Lord in the fear of his Name certainly the Lord will answer the end of your endeavours in causing the savoury Life to stream through you to season your Servants and Children that the Church of God may be in every particular Family and Habitation of his People Great is the concern upon my Spirit for the Children of all that profess the blessed Truth of God that all Parents may stand in their places to bring up their Children in the fear of the Lord while they are in their Minority and tender Years and under their tuishion not to be too indulgent to them in suffering the Spirit of the World ' to rule in them to have their one wills and to do those things which are not according to the Truth of God and to connive at their Children instead of reproving of them and crossing the Spirit of the World in them and causing them to be content with such things as is according to the Truth of our God and for want of this carefulness in Parents the Spirit of the World is strengthened in their Children when it should be keep down by the heavenly Authority and Power that the Lord hath given to their Parents to rule over them and not to let them have their own wills satisfied in any thing which is contrary to the Truth of God and all in his Wisdom so walk with such Moderation in all things as well as clothed in modest Apparel laying by all Superfluity that your good Examples may raise up the witness of God in your Children and for want of this care in some Parents and being too indulgent and full of lenity to their Children they grow Rude Stuborn Self-willed and Disobedient to their Parents while they are under their tuishion to the wounding of the Hearts of their Parents who neglected their duty as to the Government of their Children in their tender Years Therefore I desire and beseech you in this weighty concern that you slight not the oppertunity God gives you to be in all things a good Example to all that live with you both Children and Servants that by your godly Conversation and heavenly Exhortations you raise up the VVitness for God in your Children and Servants and in exercising the power God hath given to you to cross and keep down the evil nature while they live with you and when your Children grows up take them to Meetings and keep your Eyes over them that they behave themselves soberly according to your Exhortations then encourage them in wel-doing so will the Lord bless your sweet and heavenly Behaviour in your Families that Servants will bless God thatever it was their lots to come into your Families in that their Spirits was sweetly seasoned with the Truth by your heavenly Behaviour and Care over them c. and your Children will magnifie the Name of the Lord for your blessed Care and heavenly Instructions and godly Endeavors every way for their good in this World and their eternal happiness in the World to come which will Crown the hoary Heads of their Parents with Joy to see their blessed care and indeavours sanctified to their Children and to see their Off spring to be made the Off-spring and Children of God blessed be his Name forever who heareth the Prayers of his People who is exercised daily in the heavenly inspiration of his holy Spirit to call upon his holy Name not only for Enemies but for a blessing upon their Families and for all that love the Truth of our God these are the Families that are a sweet savour to the Lord that he guards with the Angels of his presence and will make them manifest and known to all People that they are his chosen Jewels whom he will preserve in the day when he will pour forth his Vengence upon the Heathen that know him not and upon all the Families that call not upon his Name And if any of these Children of these heavenly minded Parents when they are from under their tuishion for want of watchfulness grow into carelesness and turn their backs of the blessed Truth of God and trample all the care and good counsel of their Parents under their Feet to fatisfie their own wills in the Pride and Vanity of this evil World to the wounding of the Hearts of their careful and loving Parents who will be clear of their Blood when they shall reap the fruit of their doings except they Repent And all you young tender People with others that come among Friends through the education of your careful Parents Masters or Mistrisses you have been under I have a concern upon my Spirit to write to you that you do not rest in an outward profession of the Truth by what you have received by Education but all watch to the heart searching Light of Christ in you which will let you see you must be Regenerated and Born again and so be made real and faithful Friends by the heavenly inspiration of the powerful Spirit of God in you which if you be careful upon your watch you will see Judgment upon all in you that is not obedient to the Light of Christ in whose Light you will see more Light that vvill let you see your great necessity of the enjoyment of the Life vvhich
is hid vvith Christ in God vvhich vvill cause you to pray vvithout ceasing that the Lord vvould enable you to loath and abhor the Pride Pompe Pleasures of this evil World and to give you assurance of Gods Love to your Souls and until you enjoy it in all places of your retirement you vvill pour forth your Supplications vvith Tears to the Lord as the blessed and heavenly Travellers and Companions did and doth vvho could not find the Kingdom of God in outward observations tho none more faithful in observing what is made known to them to be the will of God but the Kingdom of God not consisting in outward observations you in the Light press forward according to your Spiritual Hunger and Thirst in true poverty of Spirit weeping and seeking the Lord your God asking the way to Zion with your Faces thitherward that you may enjoy his Salvation for Walls and Bulworks Oh you blessed Children of the Lord lift up your Heads and stay your Minds upon the Lord patiently waiting upon him he will turn your Sorrows into everlasting rejoycing and seal you up with the holy Spirit of Promise in the marrige union with himself and will give you assurance of your eternal Salvation then you will certainly know the Kingdom of God to be within you and the anointing to teach you which will enable you to delight in taking up the Cross daily in true obedience to the Light of Christ all the days you have a beeing amongst the Children of Men then will you in the Name of the Lord trample upon the Pride Pompe Pleasures and Vanity of this evil World to the great comfort of your dear and careful Parents Masters and Mistrisses whose tuishion you were under in your minority and tender years and to all that walk in the pretious Truth of our God over all blessed forever Amen And all dear Friends and Brethren seeing the Lord who turneth the Hearts of men as Rivers of Water and in his loving kindness so ordereth those in Authority that the Prison Doors were opened once more in our day to injoy Peace and Quietness according to his blessed will Praises be to his holy Name for ever more I have a concern upon my Spirit that all Friends and Brethren have their Hearts affected as mine is to live in the sense of the Mercies of the Lord and every one for the time to come endeavour to prevent the Enemy in what he hath been a doing of late years to make dis-union amongst Friends and Brethren by publick opposition of some and others not patiently keeping in their places hath also separated the difference being so publick hath caused many a sorrowful Heart and given cause to the Enemies of God to rejoyce which hath been a greater Exercise and Trouble to me then all the sharp Persecutions and Imprisonments I have endured for the Word of God and Testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ c. Therefore in the Bowels of the Love of God I beseech and enterat you all who have been or is concerned in what is before written let the Love of God so abound that in it all labour for Peace and Unity in Christ the Prince of Peace who in love laid down his Life for us when we were Enemies and called many of his Children in our Age to give up their lives in the heat of the day weeks months and years to gather Enemies unto the knowledg of and union with God therefore wait for the heavenly Wisdom to bear one with another that if any who are Conscientious to God and Blameless in their Conversations have a concern upon their Spirit to declare in publick Assembly the Truth to edifie the people I beseech you in the love of God that not any through disaffection shew at least any publick opposition but rather speak to the party in private if there be any occasion for him to be spoken to so will the Enemy be prevented of casting a stumbling block in the way of tender spirited People that comes in love to be Comforted in the Meeting and in so doing it will cause Love and Unity to abound amongst Friends that in the Love of God all may be restored that hath been scattered and brought again into Unity to meet all together in the Everlasting Truth to feel the Healer of Breaches to reign who is the Restorer of the Desolate exalted in his Kingdom in all your Hearts to offer up a Peace-offering in passing by all offences that have caused Dis-union and to binde you all up in the Unity of the Spirit and Bonds of Everlasting Peace to meet all together who profess Gods Blessed Truth to Praise his Holy Name all as one and one as all while we are here in these mortal Bodies and forever when time here shall be no more even so be it with you all saith my Soul in the Name of the Lord to whom is my Prayers that all may be accomplished as above written until it be so with you I shall remain your exercised Brother in the Kingdom of Patience and Tribulation of our Lord Jesus Christ. William Dewsebury My dear Friends through the sharp Persecutions that was passed through in the heat of the day and many long Imprisonments being nineteen years a Prisoner in this Town of Warwick and four of them being kept close Prisoner it hath pleased God to suffer my Health to be Impaired that many times I am forc'd to rest two or three times in going to the Meeting in the Town not being of ability of Body to travil as in years past I â—o in the Love of God visit you with this Epistle desiring it may be carefully read in the Fear of the Lord in the Assemblies of his people that Peace and Eternal Unity may be amongst you in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen Given forth in the movings of the Peaceable Spirit and Word of Reconciliation in the Lord Iesus Christ to whom is my Prayers that all Convinced may wait to be made of the number of the Slain of the Lord and conformable to Christ in his Death that they may witness his quickening power to raise them up in the Resurection of Life to enter into the Gates of Sion to dwell in the City of new Jerusalem where Peace is within her Gates and Quietness amongst all that have their Habitation therein having Salvation for Walls and Bul-works and are the blessed of the Lord preserved by him to the Honour of his Name forever Amen Warwick the 4th of the 10th month 1686. W. D. THE END