Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	everlasting_a	reap_v	sow_v	6,865	5	10.5221	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42679	A general epistle given forth in obedience to the God of peace. [part 1] for the preservation and increase of charity and unity amongst the professors of Christ Jesus, and the teachings of his divine light within / by ... William Gibson.	Gibson, William, 1629-1684.	1682 (1682)	Wing G684_pt1; ESTC R18589	75,922	183

in their own eyes Isai 5. 20 21. Christ said If the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness See Mat. 6. 22 23. See Luke 11. 34 35 36. See Joh. 12. 35. Observe it is No Proof that these good things are not their duty because they do not see them to be so for it is undeniable that it is the duty of all Men Women to believe in the one Eternal God but some were of old and now are so blinded by the God of this world their minds so darkned and they so hardened in the practice and love of sin that they did not nor do see or believe that there is a God as it 's written The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God And again Christ said to the great professing Jews High Priests Scribes Pharisees Hypocrites who were as the whited Walls Graves and painted Sepulchres but within were full of rottenness hypocrisie and deceit Ye neither know Me nor my Father ye neither know the Scriptures nor the Power of God Again it is the duty of every man and woman to believe in the true Light of Christ that lighteneth every man that cometh into the World but it 's known by lamentable Experience that even many of the Professors of Christianity are far from believing in it who on the contrary are Blaspheming against it Mocking and Scoffing at it persecuting and oppressing the Children of it and opposing the Testimony of it Now if these do say We do Not see or believe it to be our Duty to believe in and obey the Light it doth Not therefore follow that it is not their Duty and if they say We see believe it is our Duty to speak and write against the Light and to punish you who profess and obey it Their so saying will Not prove that these their Evil Works are their Duty to God and Christ no not at all but the Contrary But to come closer to the Professors of the Light within hear what Christ and the Prophet saith viz. This Peoples Heart is waxed gross and their Ears are dull of hearing and their Eyes they have closed lest at any Time they should see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and should understand with their Heart and should be converted and I should heal them See Math. 13. 14 15. Acts 28. 26 27. The Author to the Hebrews writ thus concerning Christ viz. And he became the Author of Eternal Salvation to all them that obey him called of God an high Priest after the Order of Melchisedeck of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered seeing Ye are Dull of hearing or as it is rendered in the Margin out of the Greek Hath no Experience for when for the Time ye ought to be Teachers Ye have Need that one teach you again which be the first Principles of the Word or Oracles of God See Heb. 5. 9 10 11 12. Again Christ speaking a Parable concerning the Kingdom of God saith For unto every one that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath and cast ye the unprofitable Servant into utter darkness c. See Math. 25. 29 30. Observe the sloathful Servant who had not improved his Lords Talent was and is to be cast into utter darkness his Talent being taken from him Such an one in Darkness may talk of Light as Job saith Death and Destruction saith We have heard of the fame of Wisdom such an one may talk of the Light who in his dark Works Denies it and opposeth it and contends against the Children of it in their pure Obedience to it and Such an one may say to the Children of the Light I do not see that to be my Duty which you practise I say how should he see who is shut up in utter darkness whose wilful disobedience has brought him to be like the deaf Adder which stoppeth his Ears which will not hear as it 's written Again Jesus said unto them Yet a little while is the Light with you walk while ye have the Light lest Darkness come upon you for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth while ye have the Light believe in the Light that you may be the Children of Light John 12. 35 36. Observe They who believe in the Light as Christ commands and obey it in its first and smallest Manifestations they in that Light Cannot oppose what the Light brings forth In others for though Some who are turned to the Light and have believed in it and in some measure obeyed it Do not see so Much or so Far into the things of God as some others who are more grown and Established and have received a greater Measure of Divine Wisdom yet Cannot these Weak or Young ones by the motion or teaching of the Light contradict oppose or contend against what the same Light brings forth in others of the Children of it fo● if this Could be then God whose gift to Man and Woman the Light is would thereby be the Author of Confusion and not of Peace in the Churches of the Saints as is observed before in this Epistle but God Is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace in all the Churches of the Saints as the Apostle hath writ which is observed before It is true as the Prophet writ O Lord in thy Light we shall see more Light c. The Path of the Just is as the shining Light which shines more more unto the perfect day It is certainly true that we find it harder in this Age to perswade some people to keep and walk in the Light than it was to turn them to it and some like Balaam having been opened by it to see the blessed end of the Righteous do still retain a Profession of it though they rebel against it and desire to die the death of the Righteous as Balaam did but refuseth to live that Self-denying Christian life which leads to that good End Christ saith Loe I come and my reward is with me to give unto every one according as his works shall be And the Apostle saith Such as every one sows such shall he reap he that sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap Corruption but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap Life everlasting If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the spirit mortifie the deeds of the body or flesh then shall ye live The Apostle Paul writ thus to the Children of the Light Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same thing Brethren be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample See

Salvation with fear and trembling saying It is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure Now the Words which I have here brought out of Paul's Epistles with much more of the like nature that may be found in them which for brevity I here omit doth and will plainly shew that he did never intend in his writing against the shadowy works of the Law to exclude deny or make void the substantial good and living Works of God in Christ in his People under the Gospel dispensation so that he was of the same mind concerning Faith and Works with James Peter and John so here are four faithful and honourable Witnesses linked together in Testimony to the living Faith which God works in his People and the living Works and Fruits which accompany it Glory to the Lord God for the same and those Four faithful Witnesses to the living Faith its Fruits and Works as aforesaid are also faithful Witnesses against the dead Faith and dead Works of the Professors of Christianity in our Age who notwithstanding their high Notions and talk of Faith Election Redemption Salvation c. are yet dead in their Trespasses and in their Sins The Apostle John writ to the Saints saying This is the Victory over the World even your Faith And Christ saith If you have Faith as a grain of Mustard Seed if you shall say unto this Mountain be thou removed and to this Hill be thou cast into the Sea they shall obey you But they that are yet dead in their Trespasses and Sins pleading they must continue therein all their days upon Earth Their dead Faith hath not given them Victory over the World neither can it for as they are taught by the Serpent to believe that they must live in sin all their days according to this ungodly belief they submit themselves to him and he leads them into sin and they multiply their sin daily as they say and such are not in the strait and narrow way they talk of but in the broad way that leads to destruction Oh! that they would turn in their minds to the Light of Christ Jesus and believe in it and diligently seek a place of Repentance that they might find it and so return to God from Satan and their Sins which while they abide in subjection to holds them in a Separation from God from peace and rest with him and from Unity with his chosen whatsoever they do or may imagine or say to the contrary they will find this true at last Again these in their dead Faith and works of Sin have not known Gods wondrous and miraculous works yet wrought in them to throw down the Hills and Mountains of Sin and Wickedness which the Devil who abode not in the Truth in whom there is no Truth hath raised up in them to wit Pride self-Exaltation vain freshly earthly Glory c. for as the Apostle saith All that 's in the World the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of this World and this World passeth away and the Lusts thereof but he that doth the Will of God abideth for ever except a man be regenerate and born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God and the blind who doth never see it is never like to inherit it Now all you who do not only profess Christ as the before-mentioned Professors do but also profess his Spirit and Light within to be your Teacher which they do not who profess according to John Baptists Testimony and the Testimony of Daniel the Prophet that Christ the Lamb of God is the sent One of the Father and is come to take away the sins of the World to put an end to sin to finish transgression to bring in everlasting Righteousness all be retired in the spirit of your Minds to the Divine Light of Christ Jesus wherewith you are lighted and therein wait to receive and keep a right sense of your Conditions see how you have taken up your Cross and how you bear it and what the fruits and effects of your bearing of it are see that the hills and mountains of sin be overturned in you and the rough places made smooth in you and the Valley exalted in you for who have not known these wonderful works of God wrought in them they are yet short of the possession or sitting down in the Inheritance of the Kingdom of God and of his Christ which consists or stands in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost for through the Righteous and Fiery Judgments of God inwardly must sinful Man come before he can draw neer to God see his Kingdom or have a place in it this fiery Baptism they must come through wherewith Christ Jesus the power and wisdom of God Baptizeth all who believe in him and in his Divine Light patiently and constantly wait to be made new Creatures by him It is true what the Apostle hath writ If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature old things are done away and all things are become new and all things are of God for as he also saith They that are Christs have Crucified the flesh with the Affections and Lusts Again observe That if any person professing to be led and guided by the Divine Light of Christ within and that he or she believes the before-mentioned Testimonies concerning Christ viz. That he is come to put an end to sin and bring in everlasting Righteousness to enable his People to perfect Holiness in his Fear according to what God hath promised and his Servants have writ and spoken if such person or persons so professing continue in a loose and sinful Conversation whether they be called Quakers or by what other name soever their Sin is not less but much more grievous to Almighty God than the sins of the before-mentioned who have not yet come to be opened so far as to understand what the Light of Christ within is Therefore do not make profession to be taught and guided by it but those loose and sinful Professors of the Light of Christ within if they did ever really come to the Light they make profession of and in any measure obey it then were their hearts opened thereby to understand and know sin and the displeasure of God against it more than the before-mentioned and so the Judgment of God will fall more heavy on them if they repent not and come not to walk orderly as becomes the Gospel than upon others who have not known so much as they have known and therefore are not guilty of the sin of Rebellion so much as they are for Rebellion is as the sin of Witcheraft as 't is written And he that knows his Masters will and doth it not he shall be beaten with many stripes as 't is also written Again observe such loose Professors of the Light of Christ within may boast and talk of their Faith in God